"I have baby teeth now. When I grow up I'll have beaver teeth"

 The title of this post is what she was telling me yesterday as I was walking up the steps to get her up from her nap.  My response was "not on mama's watch" and then I explained adult teeth as best I could to a 26 month old. 

The above picture is one from this past Easter.

 Last week Audrey helping John put up a towel rack in an apartment.  Here she is holding the drill hole guide.  She kept repeating "this is going to look good" which I thought was pretty funny.

We constantly praise her for being a good helper which I believe makes her happy.

Potting up the cucuram and calla lillies in the pots we recently painted.

 The pots in the garden.

 Followed by ice cream trip to UDF after dinner that day.

  Thursday John went with us to the Zoo.  In the above picture they are looking at the wisteria growing on a trellis at the entrance.

 Audrey remembered that giraffes have purple tongues from our previous visit.

 Both pictures, above and below are off center, but still interesting to me.

  Checking out the manatee tank which is still one of her favorites.

 The baby camel born just this week.

 The crowd around the camel exhibit.  It got a lot of local press and drew quite the crowd.

 Lunch at Mechlenburg's after Zoo visit.

 The outfit I'm hoping she will wear for the Derby Day party at church this Sunday.  Even the kids have a hat competition this year.

Saturday morning Audrey and i went to a Madcap Puppet / Peanut Butter and Jam puppet show and orchestra music.  PB&J had a piano, cello and violin trio playing Brahms pieces to Madcap puppet "Frog Prince" show.

Afterwards meeting the players.  Below is a puppy puppet.

 And the frog.

Saturday night John and I went out for dinner.  It had been a really long time and Miss A threw a fit but not for more than 15 minutes.  We went to Vine Street intending on going to A Tavola but the line was out the door.  We ended up eating at the bar at Taste of Belgium.  We had no idea this part of OTR was doing so well.  And so happy to see it happening. 

This picture is really awful but I was somewhat intimidated to take pictures.  But in a typical Cincinnati story the couple who was seated next to us while they waited for their table was the cabinet contractor who built our kitchen booth.  Also interesting is that Roy, this contractor, lived within blocks of the owner of this restaurant in Belgium and they never met until they moved to Cincinnati.    

 After dinner we went to the View in Walnut Hills to hear Parker sing.

 Miss A eating a chocolate croissant from Taste of Belgium on the booth that Roy built before church Sunday morning.

 Playing in the church nursery.

 Sunday afternoon the 3 of us walked up to art museum.

 Nick Cave's exhibit was leaving the next day.

 Showing Baba the "secret" stairwell from the 2nd floor to the 1st that we learned from one of the Culture Kids docents.

 In this picture she is handing me a half eaten chocolate granola bar.

 Wearing baba's hat he wears on inspections.  He traveled to PA this last week.

 Not a great picture but the only one I have captured so far when she is telling me "I'll be right back" mimicking the way I say it to her. 

Goofing after breakfast this past Wednesday.  We have become so leisurely in the morning it is almost hard for us to get out the door by 10AM. We barely made it to Mr. Eric's class that morning.

 

 

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.