Hide-n-Seek Amidst Beautiful Nothing

"If the Beastie Boys Were to Collaborate with Mr. Rogers"

From Elmo to Lord Stanley in 17 Short Hours

This morning Alexis woke up a wee bit too early (thanks again for that, Mr. I Can't Remember to Keep the Bathroom Door Closed So I Don't Set Off the Fire Alarm), so I had to crank on the Sesame Street as a survival tool. I have a few episodes saved to the DVR and randomly picked one. The right one. I had no clue, but that episode of Sesame Street ended with an Elmo's World all about penguins.



It was a sign.

Gaddum, I love that stupid furry red annoyance. Penguins!

Welcome home, Lord Stanley.

Wooooohoooooooo! Penguins!

Game 7

Game 7 will be the death of me.

That is all.

LET'S GO PENS!!!!!!!




(Video is from last year, back when Alexis still said "Pen-ins" and when "Gary" wasn't a bad word around here.)

Regurgitated: Kinda Sappy, but I Want to Remember It All

In honor of the Pens reaching the Stanley Cup Finals (and the fact that I'm too lazy to write something right now), here's a little repost from December 2008. It pretty much explains why the Pens REALLY need to bring Lord Stanley back home to Pittsburgh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been quite some time now since Alexis made up her mind that she wanted Santa to make the appropriate arrangements for her to attend a Penguins game. Forget the toys, the clothes, the books, all she wanted for Christmas was Pens tickets. Well, Santa is magical and all, but he doesn't have the power to alter the Pens schedule, so he had to work a little of his mojo and make things happen for the kid a wee bit before Christmas. In fact, with a thud and a clank, he somehow maneuvered through Alexis' bedroom window yesterday and left a little something under her tree.



We quickly ushered the surprised little Pens freak to the floor and urged her to open her present. (And, yes, Santa did manage to use the fugliest blue Dora paper anyone has ever seen.)



To be honest, I was a little worried that giving a kid paper for Christmas (albeit ridiculously expensive paper) was going to go over about as well as a couple of neck ties do with Mr. Husband.



Yet, she seemed to know instantly what the pieces of paper represented. Maybe that's because Santa and Sidney Crosby were allegedly in her room the night before and told her she was going to a game. I'm not even kidding, that was her story all morning long. Before she knew about the tickets. Or that there was a game.

She was excited about those pieces of paper.



She was nearly as excited about the new baby blue jersey Santa snuck in as she was those tickets.



She clutched those tickets in her chubby little hands and held them tight for hours after Santa dropped by. It was next to impossible to wrestle them from her, but she was more than willing to show them to anyone who asked.



When finally it came time to leave for the game, Alexis donned her new blue jersey and insisted on pairing it with a jean skirt and the stuffed Penguin she got at a game last year. She clutched that Penguin tight all through the game.



She grinned with glee every time she spotted Sidney Crosby on the ice, who was kind enough to wear his blue jersey so he would perfectly match Alexis.



Alexis' excitement all through the game was the kind of thing you wish you could toss in a bottle, seal up tight, and set on a shelf to cherish for years to come. It was the sort of warm fuzzy night that makes parenting a kid (who today yelled for over an hour, with shrieks that were drenched in misery, because she wanted some waffles but then refused to eat them) all worth while.

Better than worth while.

Perfect.

There's no feeling better than the one you get when you realize you have made your kid very, very happy.



Alexis had a fun little moment with her good bud Iceburgh, who was kind enough to come stand near us for a while. Alexis waved to him, smiled at him, and blew him kisses then promptly buried her face and cried fear-filled tears when he tried to shake her hand. Iceburgh is a classy mascot, though, and gave her a little distance before blowing her a kiss goodbye and heading to another part of the arena.



The Pens lost the game in Epic Fail style.



But a little two-year old didn't care about the final score because Santa made her dream come true.

Oh, I Went There . . .

. . . because the Penguins are going to the Stanley Cup Finals! Woooohoooooo!

I'll Let Her Say What I'm Thinking

LET'S GO PENS!

Maintaining That Balance Between Girlie Girl and Tomboy

Hopelessly Devoted

If you had told me back in October that the Penguins would make the playoffs, I would have said, "Well, duh."

If you had told me back in November that the Penguins would make the playoffs, I would have said, "ROCK ON!"

If you had told me back in December that the Penguins would make the playoffs, I would have said, "We'll see about that."

If you had told me back in January that the Penguins would make the playoffs, I would have said, "I don't know about that."

If you had told me back in February that the Penguins would make the playoffs, I would have said, "It's not nice to screw with me like that."

If you had told me back in March that the Penguins would make the playoffs, I would have said, "You've been smoking something."

If you had told me early in April that the Penguins would make the playoffs, I would have said, "SHUT UP! DON'T JINX IT!"

If you had told Alexis at any time that the Penguins would make the playoffs, she would have said, "Let's go, Pens!"

She has no concept of winning or losing, and her devotion has remained steady all through her short life. Her answer is always, "Let's go, Pens!"

So, LET'S GO, PENS!

Beauty

This morning was much like any other Saturday--the first few hours were spent with Alexis gleefully watching Playhouse Disney. It was more than a little jarring to flip the channel and find that five Pittsburgh police officers had been shot in the line of duty. As Mr. Husband and I sat with heavy hearts watching the events unfold, Alexis was oblivious to the severity of the situation. When the news that three of the officers had died came over the airwaves, Alexis was singing Happy Birthday to one of her dolls.

Sometimes being a parent means living in two very different universes at one time. It's . . . uncomfortable.

As more details came to surface and the story of the shooter began to become a little clearer (and more disturbing), Mr. Husband and I decided it was time to go. Anywhere. We had to go find some of the beautiful in our city, so that we could forget a little of the ugly that started our day.

We wound up at the Zoo, which is certainly not my first thought when it comes to defining "beautiful" in Pittsburgh, but the Martian named Alexis really wanted to go there.

So, a few photos of Beautiful, as our hearts go out to those involved in today's tragedy.

This Would Be the New Header, but I'm Afraid I'll Jinx Us into a Snow Storm

Tons more photos from the Phipps Conservatory are here, including some stunning ones of a particular short person's reminder that you should never fight with a toybox.

You Know Your Kid is a Pittsburgher When . . .

. . . She insists on putting french fries in her salad.

One Highlight from a Very Long Day

Burgh Perfect Staycation Step #6: Venture Out

Pittsburgh rocks. No doubt about it. There is more than enough to do here and we could have stayed busy without ever leaving the city during the staycation. However, we did venture beyond for exactly one day. One of our stops was Ohiopyle. While we didn't have nearly enough time to play there, we did manage to let Alexis hit yet another "beach." She loved it.

Burgh Perfect Staycation Step #5: Go Look at Dead Stuff

During the Staycation, our mission has been to do things we've never done before. On that list was to visit a few of the Carnegie Museums, and we decided to knock out the one with all the dead stuff: The Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Before we saw the dead stuff, we gazed upon many many many rocks.






You just know that somebody saw me taking this photograph and was screaming through the security camera for me to get my kid's grubby hands off the glass. So, so sorry. (Not really.)



Then we moved on to the dinosaurs. Well, the adults moved on to the dinosaurs. The Toddler discovered TVs that changed the screen when she touched them. So she touched them a lot. A LOT.








I'm pretty sure these two would totally be making out, if only they weren't, you know, dead.



Do big horns mean . . . never mind.



These are all insects that are common to Pennsylvania and I'm pretty sure our cat Coal has eaten each and every one of these things at some point or another.



Thank ye gods of gross insects that THESE aren't the local insects because I'm positive that the giant disgusting beetle is bigger than Coal Kitty.




Someone who works at the museum has a morbid fascination with all things gross. This photo is of a hunter getting chewed to bits after killing something or other.



And this one is of the Toddler staring at one of the violently dead things, thereby ensuring a lifetime of nightmares. Thanks, Museum Workers!



This was easily Alexis' favorite display because you can't really see the plexiglass until you are right up on it and Alexis really enjoyed running into it a time or ten.








LIE ALERT! Whoever typed up "Rock Dove" and hung it above this stuffed thing was a GIANT liar. That is a rat with wings, also commonly referred to as a pigeon. Calling it a dove is like calling a Bulldog a butterfly. A BIG FAT STUPID LIE.



This little house had an animatronic lady in it who sang and told stories. Alexis developed a weird sort of crush on her and kept trying to help her find her baby and feed them all corn.



Seriously. She's trying to find corn for the baby here.



The people at this museum have issues. Serious issues. We got yelled at for Alexis being on Mr. Husband's shoulders and we got yelled at because she tried to touch the polar bear. HELLO! Children can't touch that which they can't reach. Shoulders=Good. Things at Toddler reach level=Not good.





In the itty bitty teeny tiny kids area, all things reachable are touchable, so Alexis did get to touch a bear without getting my head chewed off. Of course, she thought the fake grass was more interesting.



My favorite part was the architecture room, except for the whole thing where there were 4,285 signs saying "Do Not Touch." Does anyone realize how hard it is for me the Toddler not to touch things that are that enormous and right at her hand level?




This was a VERY cool display--it's a wishing wall. Each of the hundreds of brightly-colored ribbons has a wish printed on it. The wishes come from visitors who request whatever, the museum prints it up, and then you can walk up and pull a wish out of the wall. Alexis picked one that said, "I wish I had the freedom to choose my own religion." For what it's worth, she should have picked a different one. Alexis absolutely has that freedom.