Please Touch Museum

While Josh was taking his Exam on Saturday, Liam and I found ourselves in Philly with about 8 hours to kill. A friend of mine used to live in Philly, and recommended the Please Touch Museum. When she said it, I knew that I had seen it on Jon & Kate Plus 8, and it looked like a fun place! So Liam and I spent some time there, so he could have fun instead of tagging along with us the whole time! The museum is Amazing! We got there when they first opened, and there weren't many kids there for the first two hours or so. Later it started getting packed, but we had almost made it through the whole thing anyway, and he was ready for a nap, so we finished it up and went back to the hotel.

His favorite part was the cars- they have a whole "transportation station" where he could get on a real bus and "drive" it (no engine in the bus!) and they had cars they could get in and push all of the buttons. I couldn't get a good picture of him in the cars, because he was too excited! But here are some others:

This is one of those giant Walking Pianos like in the movie BIG. Liam didn't get it at first, but once he figured out that it was him making the noise, he loved it and crawled back and forth!

This was another favorite activity, but it didn't last too long, because it was getting crowded by the time we made it here. It's a mini supermarket, and the kids can push their carts around and "buy" things. There is plastic food and little cash registers, and when you're done you put it all back. Liam really liked pushing the cart, but only bought a plum and a can of Clam Chowder. Actually, he didn't go through the checkout, so he technically shoplifted it, but we put it back :)

I'm pretty sure he could have sat here playing this piano for hours.

Philadelphia

Josh signed up to take the Physical Exam portion of his Boards almost 6 months ago. The plan was for him to fly to Philadelphia (the only place in the country that the exam is offered) and to come back the same weekend. Then we looked into plane tickets, and it's not cheap to fly to Philly, even though it's only an 8 hour drive. So we changed our plans, and he was going to drive. Two days before we left, the question arose "Hey, if we're already paying for gas and hotels, why not make it a mini-vacation?"

We left Thursday afternoon and drove back Sunday. We saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, The Rocky Statue (and the steps that he ran up at the Art Museum), ate Cheesesteak, and went to museums. Liam also took his first swim in the hotel pool (and loved it!). It was a nice mini-vacation (as long as Josh passed his test- we'll find out in 8-10 weeks!).

By the way, we used the name your own price feature on Priceline again, and only paid $40/night each night we were there for suite-style rooms- with full kitchen, even a dishwasher! I highly recommend that website!

Here is Liam after he ran up the Rocky Steps.

Two Mr. Bears!

I recently read an article by a dad who's daughter lost her favorite blanket. You know, the one that she carried everywhere and that she just could NOT sleep without. This dad was desperate to find the same blanket, so he called the manufacturer only to find that that particular blanket had been discontinued over a year ago. So he went online and couldn't find any until he checked ebay. He ended up paying over $135 to get the new blanket. His advice: Figure out which toy your kid will be attached to and buy a backup ASAP, before they are $135.

Apparently, it's pretty common practice on ebay to rip off desperate parents. When I looked up Liam's Mr. Bear, I found them listed for over $40, and this one isn't even a common one! There were baby blankets at over $200 with BIDS on them!! Vowing never to pay over $15 for a backup, I kept my eyes open (if Mr. bear was lost in the meantime, Liam would have to learn to sleep without him!) Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I spotted one with a buy it now of $4.99 plus shipping. Apparently this seller didn't know what a gem she had! I snagged it and he arrived in the mail less than a week later- just in time for me to surgically repair a hole in original Mr. Bear's right arm. Whew.

Here is Liam with both Mr. Bears. He was pretty sure he was in heaven. And yes, they ARE the same bear...can you tell which one he's been snuggling with for over a year?

Liam is Walking

This video was taken about 3 weeks ago, which it turns out is an eternity in toddler-learning-to-walk time, because he's much better than this now. But here are some of his early steps!

Laundry Soap

My mom's group at church recently had a day where we learned to make our own laundry soap. You make it one five-gallon bucket at a time, so it lasts a while, it's a great stain remover, it's gentle enough to be used on Liam's clothes, it smells good, and best of all, it saves money! It ends up costing about $2.70/ bucket by the time you divide out all of the materials. Each bucket provides approximately 184 washes. Here is the recipe:

1 Bar Fels Naptha Soap, Grated (if you live in where there are Meijer's you can get it there!)

1 1/2 cups of 20 Mule Team Borax

1 1/2 cups of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda

Put 12 cups of hot water into a large pot. Add all of the above ingredients and melt on Medium High heat, stirring often with a wire wisk or slotted spoon until mixture is completely dissolved and boils up, but not over. Put 8 cups of hot tap water into the bottom of a clean 5 gallon bucket. Pour soapy mixture into bucket and stir briskly. Add two gallons plus 12 cups of hot water and stir briskly again. Put the lid on tightly and let sit for 24 hours.

Your soap will "gel" and turn into a big lump of jelly-like stuff. After 24 hours, you need to get in and break up the gell and make it into a liquid. Use your hands, get your kids involved, however you want to do it...it takes a while to get the lumps out, and you probably won't get them all.

Funnel the mix into old laundry soap bottles, and shake before using, to finish getting out the lumps. Use 1/2 cup full per load of laundry. This soap doesn't bubble up when you add it to the water...don't worry- it's working!

Here is Liam making his own soap while I was making mine.

Childproof!

Liam has been able to open the doors in our apartment since before he could walk. They are the handle kind, so he doesn't have to be able to twist the knob, he just pulls the handle down, pushes all of his weight into the door, usually falls down, but doesn't care, because he's into whichever room he was trying to get into. This had not been a problem until about a month ago when he also figured out how to lift up the toilet lid and I caught him doing this:
We now have childproof locks to prevent him from entering any room unsupervised! Gross.