On Tuesday, Cristiana and I were able to meet up w/some of of her friends at the famous splash pad. It was great to see some of the moms that I haven't seen in a while, especially Stacey with her new little addition, Tyler. Cristiana enjoyed hanging out with her pals and taking turns with Grace on sitting in Blake's stroller. Though Cristiana has gotten tall enough that she was able to climb into the stroller on her, Grace still insisted on helping her in (it was really cute). Cristiana also loved meeting little Tyler, she was able to touch him and admire him. She was so surprisingly gently with him and just loved having him around. After her pals left, Cristiana finally enjoyed running around in the water, I guess she wanted to hang out with her friends first. Love that splash pad!
Since it's been really hot, Cristiana has been enjoying her outdoor water activities quite often these days. I will put out both her little froggy pool as well as her Elmo splash mat, but she tends to run in the backyard more than anything. I decided to go ahead and buy an inflatable family sized pool so we could all play in it and mostly because Cristiana doesn't stay in her froggy pool for more than a 1 min. at a time, and she seemed to really enjoy it a lot more since we could sit in it and play with her. Mom and dad had a good time as well.
On Tuesday, Cristiana met up with some of her pals at the Inflatable Fun Factory (it's like Monkey Joe's, just a bit smaller, which actually made it a bit easier to control her). Cristiana really seemed to have a great time. When we first went to Monkey Joe's, Cristiana spent most of her time just walking around, now that she's just a few months older, she really seemed to enjoy all the inflatables. Her favorite thing to do was climb the stairs of the big slides, she did slide down a few times on her own (she got to the slide before me and just turned around and slid on her stomach like she normally does on regular slides) but after some trips on the slide, she no longer wanted to slide down which presented a problem since she kept climbing up the stairs. It was nice to get out and hang out, since Cristiana was "quarantined" due to a high fever she had since Wednesday and had finally gone away on Saturday.
It's been a while since we've been bike riding, it's just been too hot, especially for Cristiana. The other day, the weather actually cooled down a bit and we decided to head out. Before, Cristiana hated wearing her helmet, it was always a fight. This time around, putting on her helmet was easy peasy! I have to say that she seems to actually like wearing her helmet now, it's like a different kind of hat for her. She also seemed to get a bit more out of the ride than before (I think it use to be a bit of sensory overload for her but now she's pointing at the things and naming what she knows). I'm sure as she gets older, she'll enjoy it even more.
Don't forget to pause the music @ the bottom of the blog before playing the video!
Friday was Cow Appreciation Day At Chick-Fil-A...dress up like a cow and receive a free meal. Of course the Crespo Family took advantage of FREE food and lucky for us they had cut-outs and masks to print out on their web-site, since none of us own a cow costume. Cristiana wore her cow mask like a trooper, at home she would not let me put it on her, but once we arrived @ Chick-fil-a she didn't even try to take it off.
Cristiana discovered our swimming goggles the other day and she LOVES wearing them and running around the house. We think it's hilarious and she kind of looks like a crazy looking super hero.Super Hero Cristiana to the rescue!
On the 4th of July the Crespo family headed to Lake Eola again this year. We enjoyed having hot dogs, fruit, and yummy kettle corn by the lake. Cristiana really enjoyed the ducks, so much so that she wanted to jump into the lake w/them. She also loved all the dogs that passed by. She loves her dog Rusty back home, but because she's almost 13 now she doesn't interact very much with her, so Cristiana gets a kick out of the dogs that are very friendly towards her. We didn't stay for fireworks this year either, but maybe next year. Hopefully it won't be as hot during the day as well.
Here's a picture of Cristiana last year on the 4th @ Lake Eola.
Jaime's job took us to Deerfield beach this time for 3 days, which meant a road trip for us. Cristiana did pretty good for the trip down, even though she only took a power nap in the car (about 10min). We stayed at a HoJo across the street from the beach, which made for a really nice view from the balcony. Unfortunately the weather was not in our favor and it rained most of the time we were there but I did take Cristiana to the beach and the pool as much as the weather allowed. Cristiana really enjoyed chasing the birds as usual, walking the pier, digging in the sand, and she even discovered shelling at this beach. She really enjoyed picking up shells and even decided to keep a few which we later gave to dad since he never got to enjoy the beach during our trip. Her sleeping was actually better this trip than in Chicago and she even slept in a Peapod travel bed (Thanks Monica and Amelia for lending it to us) which was very different from a crib (inflatable mattress in a small tent-like structure). Because we did not zip up the "tent", we had to angle it towards our bed so she would not run a muck on her own while we were sleeping. Our trip back home was a bit rough for all of us, especially Cristiana (i.e. having to pull-over on the turnpike to clean a blow-out diaper.) None the less, we had a great time, even though daddy didn't get to use his swim trunks at all while we were there due to work and weather. Hopefully the weather will be on our side the next time we head to the beach.
Make sure to pause music @ the bottom of the Blog before watching the video.
