Lilliput Play Homes Town Center

On Monday, we were still in Pittsburgh and we wanted to get out of the house and do something fun with Brady.  While it was decently warm outside, it wasn't quite warm enough for us to want to spend the whole day outside, especially with Izzie.  I googled some indoor activities (beyond the obvious museums downtown) and my search brought up this place called Lilliput Play Homes Town Center.  Lilliput Homes makes these really expensive play homes, but at some storefront locations, have play areas for kids on weekdays.  We decided to check it out.

It was really cute and had all these pretend play situations for kids.  Above is the beauty parlor and all of them had cute proprietor names to go with the theme of the house.  You can see this one is Anita Makeover.

Brady loves all emergency vehicles, so he was over the moon when he saw the play fire engine.

Donning the fireproof jacket and hat.  The tiny firehouse also had a firehose.

Brady was one of only three kids there that day (all boys).  He's never been shy and soon was calling to them, "Come on guys!" 

I thought it was cool that the trolley had a slide inside. 

Bring in fruit from the stand just outside the market. 

Inside the ice cream parlor. 

Izzie B got into the action as well.  She's waiting for Brady to bring her ice cream. 

Reporting for work ;) 

Looks like Izzie is partial to mint chocolate chip.

We drag her just about everywhere, but she's a good sport about it. 

Brady had just gotten his hair cut a few days prior, so the beauty parlor held a particular interest for him.  He's seen above curling Izzie's hair.

The blow dryer. 

Time to wet it down. 

Next, he wanted his hair done and Nana was more than happy to join in.  Although the houses were plenty tall inside, the doorways were another matter.  I think we both smacked our heads a few times. 

 Brady really wanted the makeup and when Nana told him that's what it was, he replied, "No, it's paint!"

He truly adores his baby sister and insisted that she get into the car with him. 

He's making noises like an engine trying to turn over.  It was hilarious! 

Stamping mail at the post office.  Nana asked a few times where her letter was.  She's still waiting lol.

Izzie B's First Visit to the Burgh!

This past Sunday, Brady was supposed to start his six week soccer class and we were very excited for him to try a new activity.  We got an email on Friday morning that the township had closed all fields due to the fact that it had rained every day for two weeks straight.  I was bummed and knew that Brady would be as well, since we spent the few days prior running around to different stores to find him the right sized soccer ball.  Immediately, I thought of an idea.  I texted Andy and asked what he thought if we took a surprise trip home to Pittsburgh for the weekend.  We had been waiting to go until we had a baptism class scheduled, but had no idea when that would happen, so our back up was to go home no later than Mother's Day weekend.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity, since Brady would have soccer every Sunday and we didn't want him to miss out.

I packed during the day and Andy made it home by 4:30PM.  We packed both kids up and were on the road by 5PM.  I was very apprehensive about taking a trip home with a baby so young as we'd never done it before.  We had gone to Myrtle Beach when Brady was four months old and we expected to stop a lot.  He was also four months old when we drove to Michigan the first time and we had to stop three times to feed him.  I only imagined how horrible it would be with an even younger baby.  Izzie was a champ.  We only had to stop once to feed her.

We didn't tell my mom we were coming and the plan was to surprise her.  Well, that definitely backfired.  We quietly got out of our car and made Brady knock on the door.  When she didn't answer we began to rang the bell (we knew she was home as her car was in the driveway and the light in the family room was on).  After about six or seven rings it became obvious that she wasn't answering on purpose.  We had scared her half to death and she was ready to call the police until Brady yelled for her to let us in.  She was happy to see us when she realized we weren't trying to break into her house.  She was amazed at how big Izzie had gotten in only the three short weeks since she'd left our house.

Saturday morning, we got Brady's hair cut and set up lunch with my brother and his girlfriend, Lauren, as they hadn't gotten a chance to see Izzie yet.  We ate at Don Pablos and hung out at my mom's house afterwards.  Brady loves their dog, Kiro, and they'd brought him along. 

We were joking about my youngest brother, Chris, and how we'd conned him into getting into our aunt's dog's cage when he was Brady's age or younger.  It was a much smaller cage and he couldn't turn around once we'd locked the door.  Brady overheard and got right into Kiro's cage.

He LOVES playing with Kiro.  He's a pro at stealing his toys.

Alex holding his first niece. 

The change in routine and location took an effect on both kids.  Brady got carsick and was very irritable the first 24 hours and Izzie only wanted to sleep and eat.  It was very out of character for her to just pass out on the boppy and sleep for hours, eat, then fall right back to sleep.  I was concerned that she wouldn't sleep through the night, but she still did.

Sunday we set up to go to my Mimi's house.  We haven't been home since Christmas, so no one had seen Izzie yet (other than my parents).  It was such a different experience from when Brady was born, as almost everyone saw him the first weekend, and everyone else saw him by the time he was two weeks old.  This was a bittersweet moment, as we lost my PopPop not long after the holidays.  He was so excited to meet his first great-granddaughter as he loved his girls (three daughters and four granddaughters) more than anything in the world.

We hadn't anticipated staying at Mimi's so long, so Brady was beyond tired and we let him fall asleep in the car.  My dad had been in NYC visiting my Oma and had gotten home right before us.  Brady was ecstatic to see his Dubby and refused to leave him when we told him he had to finish his nap.  He fell asleep on my dad and didn't wake up when he got moved onto the pillow.

Looking at the weather forecast, it was supposed to be cold both Saturday and Sunday, so I packed warm clothes for the kids.  Andy works from home Mondays, so we decided to stay and he worked at my parents' house while my mom and I went out with the kids.  It got much warmer on Monday and it was fortunate that Nana's are famous for spoiling grandkids and my mom had a little sleeveless dress (seen above) on hand for Izzie to wear.  Poor Brady was stuck in long sleeves though.  We had a great weekend and look forward to going back for Memorial Day, when Andy's stepbrother graduates from high school.

Fun with Hats

While pregnant with Izzie B, somewhere along the way I fell completely in love with all things owl.  If I saw something owl, I just had to have it.  One of the things I got for her before she was born was a crocheted owl hat.  I got the smallest size, figuring she'd wear it in the early months while it was still cold.  We've been dressing and changing her downstairs since she sleeps in our room and we kept using the same newborn hat when we went out, so the owl hat got forgotten in a bin in her room.  I was in there to get something and suddenly remembered it.  It's still plenty cool enough for her to wear hats outside, so it certainly wasn't a waste to remember it so late.  I decided to take some pics of her wearing it inside the house because it's just too darn cute not to remember her wearing.
 

I love propping her up for pictures in Brady's arm chair.

While pregnant, I was involved in a secret mommy gift exchange with other moms due in March.  It worked like a secret Santa exchange, except that you mailed a gift each month until the end of the pregnancy.  The sock monkey hat she's wearing is one of the many amazing gifts my mommy sent to me.  You can tell she's not so happy about being posed and photographed.  This hat is a bit bigger and looks like it will still fit in the fall when the weather gets cold yet again.

The next day, she was calmer, so I tried putting the sock monkey hat on again.  She was much more cooperative.  You can really tell how big the hat is in this picture.

In between hats.  I love how pensive she looks.

Back in the owl hat :)

She was being so pleasant that I decided to take a few pictures of her minus the hats.  She's starting to smile more, and I was trying to catch it on camera with no success.  I'll keep trying though.

There are so many times where I look at her and almost see Brady at the same age.  Most of the time I see it when she's on my shoulder and I'm trying to get her to burp.  These few pictures I took were the closest I've been able to catch on camera.  Izzie is exactly five weeks old above, whereas Brady was around seven weeks old.