Great Day for Lily and Mommy

Tuesday we started with a stroller ride to the park and playing on the swings and slide, then later after second breakfast, we went to the Children's Museum. Top pic is Lily in the Habitot room, playing Peekaboo with me. It's very cool, this area is decorated like a winter scene, and then the corner is full-length windows. There's a bumper rail for kids to hang on to while they look out at the people and cars below, and a post near the corner just big enough for a toddler to walk around but not an adult. So she liked walking around that a lot, and looking out the window at the bustling world below.

The scene below the window is a main intersection in downtown St. Paul and it made me think of Richard Scarry's books, how he had Busytown and all these little animals with jobs like postman and milkman and florist and such. I can't wait 'til we can read those to her. I have several from my childhood, but she's not good with the paper pages yet--they get bent or ripped. So we'll wait a little longer and make do with board books.

The second pic down is Lily playing with another little girl in the sand area (it's more of a sculpture than a box, so I can't call it a sandbox) up on the newest part of the Museum, an outdoor artpark on the roof. The sand is so soft and squishy, I took her shoes off so she could feel it between her toes. Not like the dirty gritty stuff at the public park.

Last picture is Lily playing with a cute toy I got her that day while she was sleeping--after the Children's Museum, we went to the downtown St. Paul library and played there with some other kids and checked out more books, and when I got her back to the car she fell right asleep. So I drove over to Unique Thrift on Rice and Larpenteur. It's one of the best thrift stores in the cities, and I found a couple blouses for myself for under 5 dollars, then found several toys for Lily. This one is an elephant with wheels that actually turn (he can go roll pretty far, too) and each wheel is a rattle. So she can sit and shake it to make noise, or push it around like a car. She likes it very much and I spent 60 cents to get it. That's right, 60 cents. I am so proud. Don't worry, I cleaned it thoroughly before I gave it to her. It cleaned up very nice. I also found a Mother Goose See and Say, a Fisher Price "radio" that plays 6 songs, a little hand "vacuum" that is like the old corn popper toy but smaller and less noisy, and a spinny light thing. All these toys were under a dollar each. God, I love thrift stores, and recycling toys. I feel like I'm rescuing the Velveteen Rabbit from the trash.

Okay, I have to go to bed now, I was going to make this short because I have a headache, but I just had to share what a fun day I had with my baby girl.