Free things to do with a Toddler....

 With spring officially here (THANK GOD!)

I have found myself looking for Free and Fun things to do a toddler outside.

Collin is now in constant motion and loves to be outside.  

Here are a couple wins that I have found.....

Fountain at Fairfax Corner

We walked up two weeks ago just to go for a family walk and much to our surprise the fountains were already on.  We walked over and just let Collin watch- I was sure he was going to be scared.

But nope- he wanted out of his strolled and ran in to the fountains.

(Yeap Clothes and all- because if I had planned this and put him in his bathing suit then by toddler rule he would have wanted nothing to do with it.)

We have now been up twice and can see this as a fun summer activity especially on days I am home and it is less crowded.

Another win was our trip to Frying Pan Park Farm with my parents.

One day I needed to get out of the house so Joe could work on his paper and take Collin with me,

I remember going here when I was little and thought Collin would love to run around and look at the animals.  

At first he was a little unsure of the place but he loved the turkeys and anything that was a bird.

 But I think his favorite was riding the tractors...

obviously not real ones.  

We went on the earlier side which was a good idea since as we were leaving it was getting more crowded.  Next time I would pack a lunch as they had a pretty awesome picnic area.  

Any other suggestions on free activities???

Happy Easter

This weekend turned out to be a relaxing, fun weekend.

On Saturday we headed to Van Dyke Park in Fairfax, VA.

Our daycare provider had recommended this park to us and the weather was awesome so we decided to try it out.

Little did I know that Fairfax Park and Rec was having a free Easter Egg hunt with activities and balloons.  Collin had a blast...

He loved the balloons!!!

And took a three hour nap after!!!

That night Joe's sister came over for a early dinner.  

We were exhausted from all the fun we had. 

Sunday morning we woke up to see the Easter Bunny did come to visit.  

 Collin received play fruit, a book, and bubbles.

Then we got ready to head off to the grandparents for the days.

We shot a couple of photos in front of our house before leaving.

Oh how I love this photo!!!

Over at my parents we did a Easter Egg Hunt and just hung out....

Collin had a ball finding Easter Eggs.

We squeezed in a couple more family photos....

We had a wonderful dinner and then headed home.

Perfect weekend!!

Fun at 2:30 am!!!

Our week has been an interesting one for sure!!

Collin had a fever of 100.2 on Sunday- did not think much of it.

On Monday he had 103.1 fever- I called the doctors office and they said exactly what I expected them to say- give tylenol and as long as he is eating, and happy then just watch.

So Monday, I was home with him and he acted completely normal.

On Tuesday morning at 2:30 Collin woke up screaming. 

This is pretty uncommon since he sleeps amazing.

When I went in to pick him up he was burning up.

I took his temp and it was 105.7.

OMG!!!

Now I am not the type of Mom to panic but this made me nervous.

We called the answering service for our doctor and they advised us to go to the ER because the fever was so high.  

Also gave him tylenol, took all his clothes off, and put a wet cloth on him.

So we headed to FairOaks at 3:30 in the morning.  

We checked in and with in the 10 minutes we were in a private room.  

Collin was such a champ, he was just sleeping in my arms.

We waited about 1 hour to see the doctor but our nurse was awesome!

The ended up getting a Chest X-Ray, urine, RSV/FLU swab.

They requested blood cultures but we declined them until the other results came back as this would involve an IV- this was at the recommendation of our awesome nurse.  

And in the end I am so happy because we ended up not doing the blood cultures as Sepsis is very unlikely.  

 It took about another 2 hours for all the results to get back. 

Thankfully I had my bag packed with yogi snacks and things to occupy our child.

Notice how happy he is even with a fever!!!

Then the results came back- Viral Bronchitis with left Pneumonia.  

YIKES!!!

I mean we made it over a year without 1 sick visit and with 1 major cold,

so when you get sick boy you are going to do a good job at it.

We were lucky because he had no respiratory issues, which I am grateful for.

So home on Amoxillicin we were discharged almost 4 hours after we entered

VERY VERY TIRED BUT GLAD WE WENT.  

It is now Wednesday night and the fever has been trending down.

He woke up this morning and it was just 100.2.

We had our follow up appointment with our doctor today and got signed off that he is doing so much better. 

All and all I can not really complain- other than being a little fussy,

Collin has been the best sick kid every- especially when he just wanted me to read to him for an hour while were rocked together.  

1 Year Celebration

I am not a crazy party planner,

I do not see the point in throwing elaborate kids birthdays especially when they will not remember it.

So when it came time for Collin's birthday,

I created a theme with stuff I already had.

Since Collin's birth, I have referred to him as my "Little Man,"

and every month we took a picture of him with ties that said the month on them.

(A friend had gifted this to me and it was so cute!)

So enter the "My Little Man"  Theme. 

All I really had to do was order some food and balloons from Wegmans,

make up a little activity,

ask my friend to make the cupcakes,

used yellow decorations and plates that I had left over,

order a cute tie for him to wear on the day, 

and that was our party.

Easy and fun!!

1st Birthday

I had previously blogger what we did on Collin's 1st Birthday during the day but thought I would share some pictures from the rest of the day. 

In the morning when he woke up he went down stairs to find a Elmo Balloon and a couple family presents waiting for him.

 He loved the balloon!!

We opened a couple family presents prior to breakfast!

We got him a Water Table which I think will be a good investment for the summer!!

Then we spent the day at the Smithsonian seeing the Dinosaurs

and celebrated at night with a birthday cupcake.  

 He was so excited!!!

 And like his mother- HE LOVES Chocolate.

Was a pretty relaxing and laid back day which was perfect for us!!!

Trip to see the Dinosaurs

For Collin's 1st Birthday,

Joe and I decided to take the day off and do something fun as a family.

With both of us working weird hours we often do not get spend a typical day together like some families do, so it was a special treat for us all.

We decided that we wanted to take Collin to do something,

and after some research we realized that the Smithsonian would be closing the Dinosaur exhibit in the end of April for 5 years- Perfect.

Joe and both have found memories of going to see the Dinosaurs so it seemed perfect.  

We headed down on the metro around 11:30 after 1st nap.

We had a moment of panic when Joe could not find parking at the metro but found a secret place that the employees told us about.

The metro was pretty empty so Collin was able to run around.  

It took us between parking and riding the metro about 1 hour to get there.

This was because it took us 20 minutes to find parking.  

We were lucky in the sense that it was empty- going on a Thursday was a great idea.

At first Collin just was overwhelmed and just wanted to look and point at everything.  

But after a couple minutes he wanted to run around and point at everything.

He had a blast.

We did end up taking our small stroller which I was glad we had on the metro and walking to the museum- other than that he walked most of the time.  

This was the most perfect activity to do as Collin loved to touch all the interactive displays they had.  

The metro cost up about $10 total and $5 for parking (kids ride free until 4 years old).  

We spent about 2 hours there and headed back around 2:30 

and got home just in time for second nap!  

Perfect birthday activity for our little man!