Cincinnati Children's Museum

About a month before we moved to Cincinnati Jon gave Isobel a picture book of the city. She spent a lot of time looking at the pictures, excited about the idea of moving. She even took the book to pre-school with her on her last day and showed all of her friends where she would be living. One of the pictures that has always captured her attention is that of Union Terminal. The building itself is beautiful. It was built in 1933 and is still considered an Art Deco Masterpiece. The intricate detail on the outside of the building is rivaled only by the murals and marble found on the inside of the building.

The first train pulled into the station on March 31, 1933 and the last departed on October 28, 1972. At the height of use the station saw up to 34,000 passengers daily. However by 1962, only 24 trains were passing through the terminal on a daily basis. In August of 1975 the City of Cincinnati purchased Union Terminal for $2.00 (the 15 Acre grounds were purchased for an additional $1,000,000.00). A mall operated in the terminal from 1980 - 1985, at its peak there were 54 tenants and 7,800 - 8,000 customers daily. On November 10, 1990 the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, Cincinnati History Museum, Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and the Robert D. Linder Family OMNIMAX Theater opened. A year later, on November 2, 1991, the two museums opened their first exhibits. On July 29, 1991 the Amtrak Cardinal pulled into the station marking the return of Passenger train service to the terminal. Today the train runs from Chicago to Cincinnati to DC.

In 1995 the Cincinnati Historical Society and the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History merged to become Cincinnati Museum Center. Three years later, in October of 1998, the Cinergy Children’s Museum opened.



On Saturday, September 27th, we pulled up to the breathtaking building for the first time. Isobel was awed to see the building from her book. She had no idea that the most exciting part of the building was inside. The Cinergy Children's Museum is amazing. All of the kids had a fantastic time. When the day was over and the kids were exhausted we made our way back up to the information desk and became members of the museum. Sunday we made our way back to Museum Center and explored the Natural History Museum. Even after spending two days there, we can't wait to return.

Gangsta Pre-School

Eli has a new hat... he loves hats.

I swear I did not pose Eli for this picture... it is all him.

Tooth Number Two

Last night Isobel lost her second tooth. We had just finished watching the Kit Kittredge movie on pay per view and bed time had already come and gone. She was fast approaching the point of exhausted self pity and more than ready to visit Lily White's party. She turned to look at me and I noticed that her tooth was sitting sideways across the gaping hole in her gums. This tooth was a fighter; it was hanging on to that last sliver of gum with a golden grip. As ready for sleep as this child was, I just couldn't put her to bed with that tooth. I knew there was no way it would make it through the night and I did not want to deal with the messy tooth fairy situation if the tooth disappeared in the middle of the night.

We spent the next 15 - 20 minutes taking turns wiggling her tooth (which was super gross). Finally, 28 minutes after bed time Isobel pulled the tooth from her mouth. She had won!

We rushed to bed and made sure to leave the tooth under her bed for the magical gift exchange. As it turns out, the Tooth Fairy was successful yet again. Isobel was very excited this morning when she awoke to her very own copy of Meet Kit. She cannot wait to start reading about the life of Kit Kittredge and her best friend "Goofy" Ruthie.

Missing Children Monday

I can not in good conscious continue the Missing Children Monday posts. I had no idea the number of hits that my blog would get with just a few posts. One post has actually caused almost 300 unique hits in only one month. Each day more and more people visit my blog to read about the few missing children I have written about.

I absolutely hope they will continue to look up information on these children and continue to look for them. However, I have a lot of pictures on my blog of my beautiful children and enough personal information to figure out where we live. I just can not risk the safety of my children, as small a risk as it may be.

I have removed most of the posts pertaining to Missing Children Monday. However, I have left the post concerning missing minorities and the media. I want to make sure the links available in that post remains available.

Please visit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children often. You never know, one day you may have the information necessary to save a child.

So sad...

Isobel has a super cute jean skirt with pleats all the way around which requires me to actually use an iron. I hate to iron! In fact, the skirt has been sitting, paperclips in place, for about 3 weeks just waiting for me to take out the iron. With the weather getting cooler, I have decided that tomorrow is a perfect day for a jean skirt, which means I had to get out the iron.

So, I take the ironing board out and Eli comes running in...

"We are playing iron beads?" he asks.

"No." I answer a bit confused by the question.

"Why is the iron bead board out?"

OMG!!! My children have only seen the ironing board when we play with the melting beads...

That is so very sad.

Emmy

Isobel is obedient, Eli is defiant and Emmy is fearless. I think the latter is the worse of the three. She is not afraid of anything... which terrifies me.

She sings constantly, without using words (as she doesn't talk yet). She dances, climbs, laughs and imitates everyone for a laugh. She loves her brother and sister in the most amazing, pure way. It is prodigious to watch and I am so thankful for my little suprise. Sometimes the best things in life are the unplanned ones.

Here are some great pictures of her from this weekend that I wanted to share. I hope they make you smile...

Have you seen my kids...

They are so crazy cute!

All grown up...

Today, while at school, Isobel lost her first tooth. Although this is a very happy occasion, it makes me very sad. The final hold of babydom has been released and she is now, officially, growing up. It is funny how the dread and sadness in my world is excitment and happiness in hers. She got off the bus with a huge smile pointing at her mouth.

"Mommy, I lost my tooth." she exclaimed.

"You did? Where is it?"

"In my backpack in a red treasure chess."

That's right, kids. The school nurse put my daughters tooth in a little red treasure chess with the words TOOTH SAVER across the top. Seriously, if you are five, how cool is that?!?!?

Here she is... sans tooth.

Here is the super cool treasure chess...

Here is the treasure...