Storytime and new car seat tray

Tuesday afternoon getting Miss A up from her nap.  I often bring her sippy cup with me when I get her up as she likes hanging in her bed and I can pick up her room.

 Tuesday I found that she had taken Nick Cave Soundsuit magnet to bed with her.

 She is so compliant in posing with Nick Cave.

Her love for his art is still somewhat a mystery to us.

 In the picture above she is signing and saying "I'm fine."

 Playing and singing her piano.

  Then getting out Yahtzee.

  Which we played for a little while until we decided to paint our nails.  Miss A was so patient about getting her nails done and waiting for the polish to dry.

Ta-da!

 Wednesday at Miss Kelly's Movers and Shakers library class.  Audrey rarely gets off my lap during this class but she did about 3 times this day.

 We also met an interesting family (right hand corner).  The little girl in the pink shirt was born in South Korea 2 days before Audrey.  These are not her parents (who are both doctors working full time) rather her care takers.  She just came to the US 6 months ago and not speaking English yet.

 Miss A drawing on her new car seat tray.

  Her art (on top of some ABC's I wrote earlier).  I included this because as she was drawing she mentioned foster mama and baba.  Aaah.

Flu, meetings, painting garden pots & apartment maintenance

Monday morning Miss A was sick for the 2nd time since we came home from China.

 She had the stomach flu.  So we skipped music class, watched TV and hung out in bed most of the morning.  But she was back to herself after her nap.

 These "ga ga" (duck) pj's are ones we bought in China.  A little short but not really too tight.  We had many changes of pj's that morning.

 Tuesday we walked up to Bow Tie in the morning.

Miss A is so fascinated to see how the piano makes sound. 

We had to cancel our closings Monday afternoon so we closed the next day.  Afterwards we went shopping at Nordstrom's Rack for new shoes for Audrey.  Which ended up being clothes purchases too.  Fortunately we diverted her attention away from the rounder rack of tutu's.

 John pointed out the Nick Cave soundsuit magnets on this car.  Audrey said "I have never seen on a car."

 As if an hour long re-fi was not boring enough for her we took her to an hour long presentation at the Pump house that night.  This building is in the park next to our house next to the conservatory.  It was built in 1894 by Samuel Hannaford.  It has been vacated for since the late 80's  and now 2 developers are proposing to re-developing it as a micro-brewery.  It was an interesting presentation and Audrey was just great. 

The picture below is of the 911 systems (from the 70's ?) left behind upstairs.  According to the The Bicentennial Guide to Cincinnati this building was repuurposed in 1939 as the central radio communications center for the city's safety department.  

In the picture below John and Audrey are looking at the architectural plans.  The presenting developer said the current plan would cost an estimated $2M and they would be eligible for $500,000 in credits because it is on the National Registry of Historic buildings.  This building is 7,000 square feet has an old roof (approx. 80 years old) and lots of asbestos.  I think he said it would cost $250,000 just to remove all the asbestos. 

The developer also said best case scenario they would be operational a year from December.  Sounds like there is a lot of bureacracy with the city right now.

 Wednesday at the park.

 

 "surprise face" when asked to perform and below pensive Miss A.

 Ready to go out to the garden to paint pots.

When it warms up again we will decorate with hearts, butterfly, etc designs.

       "Ta-da" the pots are drying.

Random panda cuteness on the "couch" (A's word) in the kitchen.

Breakfast by Baba.

Thursday we needed to take care of some things in one of the apartments up the street.

One of the tenants has moved out and I told Audrey we would have to re-paint this room.  She repeated what I said.  I have a painter who will do this but when she is old enough I plan on teaching her how this skill.

This is the door that leads to the roof deck that we added in 2004 re-model of this apartment.

View of the Ohio River from the roof deck.

View of the Pump House from the roof deck.

I also told Audrey that after current tenants (2 out of 3 are staying another year) move out I plan on taking out this wall and carpeting the entire floor except the tiled kitchen and bathroom.  Then I told her when she grows up she can pull up the carpet and put hardwood flooring down.  She listened to me and answered simply "Yes".  I wonder if she understood anything I said but I still thought it was cute.

 The apartment kitchen.

 Afterwards we walked up to the bank and then to Bow Tie to say Hi to Baba where we stayed to have lunch with him.

Saturday after we attended a neighborhood open house party Audrey and I walked up to Immaculata to visit with Paula Maureen and Dixie.  PM and Dixie (whom Audrey calls "Ducksie") were preparing food for a Christening lunch for 50 people the next day.

 Miss A watching Paula Maureen peel potatoes.

 

Listening to Ducksie

 The 3 of them.

 Cute.

 The etsy hats I ordered last week arrived today.

 The "Go Reds" hat is her favorite it seems.

 But the white hat is pretty cute too.

Easter pictures, Reds Opening Day and spring bloom

 Miss A on her way into music class Monday morning this week.  2 days later in Miss Kelly's Movers and Shakers class she walked into the class room announcing "I am a rock star".

 Tuesday I took her to the mall to get Easter pictures.  The wool beret was her choice. Based on the mall posters (kid with live bunnies) I was expecting a different kind of setting than last year (see picture below). Sadly it was the same creepy bunny and since I didn't want that picture I walked down to....

Glamour Shots where they have live bunnies.  They also asked me to stop taking pictures right after I shot this one.  Anyhow they don't expect you to take photos without an appointment or need them in 3 days but they also were able to accommodate.    The pictures are much nicer however I wasn't given a disc to upload for this blog.

 Playing with Pottery Barn's kitchen.  We still have not purchased a play kitchen, nor will we be buying the $350 one.

 Or this half off $125 red sink.

 Even though they are pretty cute.

 That afternoon we watched Baba mow the lawn.

 It is a city lawn so it doesn't take that long.

 Miss A decided to play with her Easter basket once I pulled it off her bookcase for Sunday's hunt.

 At Rahn's Nursery this week.

 Thursday afternoon Audrey napped too late for us to attend the Reds Opening Day parade.  So we walked up to Immaculata to watch for the flyover plane before the game started.

 In this picture John is explaining the map sculpture to Miss A.  You can also see the purple flags on the fence in the background set up for the Good Friday "praying the steps" for the following day.

 The flyover plane which we thought was not nearly as exciting as the fighter planes.  Our friend Tom said it was the plane bringing in Joey Votto's money.  Votto just signed a 10 year $225 M contract.  He also lives in our neighborhood.

 

 Afterwards we went to Crowleys to watch a couple of innings.

 Miss A cheering when the crowd did.

 She also scored some caramel corn from one of the patrons.

 We met up with Paula Maureen and went to Bow Tie where we watched the rest of the game. Interestingly this was the first time we opened the doors on this piano which allows you to see how the piano sound is made.  So cool.  Audrey kept mentioning it was like a harp.

 Friday afternoon we took a walk around the neighborhood.  This is a picture of Good Friday Catholics praying the steps at Immaculata.

 We also walked up to Celestial to see their Easter display.

 Afterwards we hung out in our garden.  We saw "Mao Mao" (neighbors cat) on their deck and both of us kept saying his name that he finally climbed the fence and came over to be petted.  This reminded me of Lucy.