the garage now has a faux-wood floor

Thanks to lots of hard work today by Jim (and some by me too), the garage now has a faux-wood floor. It's looking more and more like a real room. Once the floor was down, Jessica tried to help out with clean up (one of her favorite activities).

Jim's garage room is painted

Jim's garage room is now painted. On to the floor tomorrow and then cabinets. Hopefully, it will be complete in the next few weeks.

Jessica helps in the garden

Jessica likes to help in the garden. Today she helped water flowers.

Jessica declares cupcakes a success

Jessica helped taste test a trial run of cupcakes today. Who am I kidding? I just wanted an excuse to make cupcakes. Anyways, she's a girl after my own heart. She dug right into the frosting first. Eventually, the cake did get eaten too. I'm assuming by the empty plate (gone in 60 seconds practically) that the cupcakes were a success. Now, I just hope that I didn't spoil her dinner appetite too much.

thank you Mimi for the neigh-neigh

(From Jessica) Thank you Mimi for the play horse. It is much better than the rake I was riding around the yard.

Jessica checks out her new potty

Nothing gross here I promise. We picked up Jessica a new potty today, so she could get used to it over the next few months. We're definitely not ready for potty training yet as she seems to think that it is a place to hold her toys amongst other things.

almost done with the laundry room

We are almost done with the laundry room. All that is left is the countertops. The cabinets are in, the doors are hung. It's starting to get back to normal (in that room at least). On to the room in the garage next.

Jessica likes hats

All of a sudden, Jessica likes to play with hats and wear them around the house. Of course, when we actually want her to wear a hat, there is no way she will do that.

Jessica and her friends from school

One of the parents took some photos of the kids at school. These are Jessica's school friends, who she talks about constantly at home -- Elliott, Hannah, Malika, and Idan.

another trip to the airplane museum

We went back to the airplane museum again. Jessica just loves the airplanes so much and it is an easy way to spend a few hours out of the house during noisy construction. This time Jessica and her friend Isabella (Lella as Jessica calls her) had fun being copilots together.

more construction progress

Jim has made more construction progress this weekend. The laundry room is trimmed and painted. Plus, cabinets are installed and the sink is in. We're almost in the home stretch (at least for that room). Jessica got in the action this weekend by checking out the progress and playing in the cabinets.

where did she learn this?

This weekend, Jessica ran around the yard riding her rake as a horse. Jim and I both looked at each other and wondered where she learned that. Neither of us had taught her.

Jessica gardens -- on the brick pathway

All of a sudden, Jessica is into gardening tools. She has a mini rake and broom and cleans the front of the house. She also likes my shovel and rake and attempts to use them on our brick pathway.

Jessica loves her new Duplos

Jessica loves the new duplos her Mimi bought her. She likes to stack them and stick them on the mat. She has very clear ideas on what should be done with them. If you do anything she doesn't like, she goes No, No, No.

Jessica enjoys her shopping cart

Jessica recently got a shopping cart and she loves running around the house with it.

Jessica decorates her first cookies

Tonight, Jessica helped me decorate some cookies. She quickly realized that eating cookies is much better than decorating and I was left to do the decorating on my own.

Jessica goes to see Thomas the Tank Engine Musical

This weekend we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine musical. I was surprised that Jessica sat and watched the whole thing. See was really into it.

Goodbye garage -- hello extra room

Jim and his dad made lots of progress this past week. The garage now has a new room off the laundry room and a small garage area by the garage door. It's not finished yet, but the walls are up and we're on our way.

Jessica goes to the airplane museum

It has been raining a lot the last few weeks and I've been looking for new places to take Jessica. The local airplane museum is a great resource for those rainy days. It is mostly indoors and there are lots of airplanes and helicopters to look at / play with. They also have a coloring center and can watch planes land at the local airport (from indoors or outdoors) Here are some photos of Jessica while she was there. She really liked driving the plane and was quite mad when her turn was up.

Jessica has fun at the local zoo and children's museum

Jessica doesn't like the construction noise, so we're spending lots of time visiting local sites. The following two weekends, we've been to the local zoo and museum. She had fun looking at the animals (although was scared by some of their noises) and really liked playing in the museum.