Look what she's up to.

Ava's Mom and I swap babysitting days and we decided to extend the day for more play time for the girls and more free time for the moms. So last week, Ava came over from 11-4. Today Lucy goes to Ava's house. These two are definitely expecting more complex play but just adding another kid already creates some more complexity. Every time one closed the lid, the other opened it again. We aren't quite ready for sharing so it was interesting. Even with two pots, they had to play with the same one.

While the girls were napping, I set up a couple activities that they could explore in the afternoon. This one had unexpected benefits. I originally taped contact paper to the floor upside down for the sensory experience but once I put the corn meal and oatmeal on it, I discovered that it contained those two products pretty well. They scraped with their hands and utensils and walked on it with their feet. This was a pretty popular activity.
My tomatoes are finally getting ripe. We've tried raw tomatoes with Lucy a couple times and she has spit them out with a nice dramatic gag. However, she helped me pick them off the bush yesterday and quickly began to munch. This is actually her second tomato as the first one she shared with Murphy.

Daddy snapped this yesterday. She's looking so different!!! This was after she walked up and down the block twice with me and again with Dad. We put her behind her walker. The first trip she was just thrilled to be wandering free of our hands. The second pass she had to touch the concrete every 20 feet to see if it felt the same. She also had to test the various plants along the way. It was extra fun because there are some fabulous aromatics on our street. She kept sniffing her fingers after the lavender and rosemary. On the third trip with Daddy, she felt the need to try out everyone's steps. She is mastering steps at the playground and since we don't have any at our house, she is looking for them whereever she can find them. Daddy kept trying to entice her away but she just kept patting her chest which is her sign for "please".