A Jaunt to the Zoo

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful here. So, Bob and I decided to take the girls to the Cleveland Zoo. Miss Katy, Mike's girlfriend, was so sweet and got us a family membership for x-mas. We decided to try to hit it when it opened so that we could get some time in before Anna's nap.

Boy, did we hit it perfectly. The morning hours make way for almost all of the animals being out and feeding. We got to see a lot of animals before we decided to head to the Rainforest for lunch. The Cleveland Zoo has 164 outdoor acres and 2 indoor acres - the Rainforest. It is a REALLY nice zoo. Bob and I were very impressed with it and happy to have a membership. The girls seemed to like it as well. I took a lot of pictures, more than I normally do. After lunch, we tried to find the gorilla's, but Anna became a little on the cranky side, so we decided to head home. Both girls must have had fun because they fell asleep on the way home. Yesterday was a great day!!


Bob & Anna gazing at the animals


Celie relaxing in the stroller.


One of the 3 elephants outside. They are working on a new home/site for them.

Pretty Flamingos - not to be confused with the Killer Flamingos - a good local MI band.

Boy, do I know how to capture animals interacting or what? I am glad that I didn't have to explain to the girls what was REALLY going on.


The sloth bear. This was Bob's favorite animal. Why? I have no idea.


Mr. Polar Bear enjoying a stick. 2 camels hanging out.

A Lick Deer. Bob and I thought they looked like a cross between a donkey and a deer.
One of 7 seals in their environment.

Giggles & Fun

Artistic Anna

Anna has definitely taken an interest in drawing. She is more content than Celie to sit and draw for more than 5 minutes at a time. She will usually draw for about 20 or so. Celie is bored after 5 minutes. I think this is great. I think Anna will be my partner in crime when it comes to making "things."

However, Anna has grown beyond just her drawing capabilities as of late. She seems bored by the images in coloring books and tends to be more attracted to a blank canvas. Her preferred medium is plain paper and, well, our new hardwood floors. We are trying to break her of it, even though I know that experimentation is everything.

An Anna creation.This was the beginning. We thought it was kind of funny - so of course I had to take a picture. Well, now, she hides crayons (because we limit her access now) and pulls them out when our back is turned and goes to the corner and colors on the floor. Thank goodness for Mr. Clean pads and washable crayons.

She DOES like chocolate

There was a time when we didn't know if Anna was really our daughter. She wouldn't eat anything with chocolate in it. How could that be?

Well, she must have come around because she definitely likes it. I am not sure that she likes it as much as Celie, but maybe she will grow into it.

Anna is enjoying a miniature chocolate bar that the Easter Bunny brought in her basket.

Easter Lily

Who knew that the Easter Lily dripped like this? It has been wonderful to have live plants in the house again. I haven't wanted to buy any until a lot of our renovations have been done. Now, I can.

Chilly Hunt

Easter is supposed to be a time of spring frolics, frilly easter dresses, sprouting flowers, and easter egg hunts.

Well, old man winter definitely has had his fun with Easter this year. The night before our neighborhood easter egg hunt, he decided to dump 6" of the COLD fluffy white stuff. However, as the organizer of the hunt said, "Snow never stops a true Clevelander." And the hunt went on.

So, we bundled up the girls and walked down to the park to participate in the hunt. I must say, they did a great job despite the snow. There was the Easter Bunny with a side kick, doughnuts & coffee and a small fire going in the portable fire pit. Instead of a traditional egg hunt, each child was able to pick an egg from a basket for their age group. One egg out of the lot contained a surprise - the winner won a gift certificate to Toys R Us. Celie didn't win, but was o.k. with that. She was more interested in playing on the slide and on the swings with the other kids. Anna, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the Easter Bunny or the whole event.

Bob and I were able to meet a few of our neighbors that we haven't met, so it was a great time - though a little on the cold side.

Celie shaking hands with the Easter Bunny.

Anna and Bob with the Easter Bunny.

Kitchen Done - well almost

Today was the last day for the kitchen renovation. We are done, well, almost. I still have some painting to do - but it is done enough to be working away and I even have cabinet space to spare - not much though.

Here are some pictures of the new kitchen. I will also update once all of the painting is done. There is paint from the counter to the upper cabinets, but it is kind of hard to see. The color is called - Irish cream. YUMMO!!

The House that Mom Built

I asked our contractors if we could have one of the boxes from the cabinets so that I could make a house for the girls. I made a roof with skylights, a door with a window, 2 windows - 1 with a window flower box and a mailbox. Here are some pictures of the girls playing with their house.

He's Gone

I received word today that Charles died yesterday morning in the loving arms of his wife, Deborah. My heart aches for her & his two daughters Julia & Cayce. I used to babysit Cayce. They are having a memorial service this Sunday for him. I tried to figure out a way that I could go, but I just can't. However, they are going to have a Memorial Iron Pour and show of his sculpture in October in Tallahassee. I think I will try to make that. I think I might have to go buy some Hamms and have one in honor of Charles.

I am amazed

There are often days when I wonder if I am getting through to Cecilia. Does she really pay attention to things? Does she listen to what I say or does she pay attention to what I do?

Yup. she does.

She came up to me and said "Celie hungry." So, we went downstairs to get her a banana. Once upstairs, I started peeling it for her. I ran back downstairs for a minute - well, I thought for a minute - it must have been 5. Celie came down - empty handed. I asked her where was the banana as I had visions of mushed banana in the carpet in my bedroom with the peel in many pieces all over the upstairs. Her answer - "In my tummy," Good answer, I guess. So, I escorted her upstairs dreading what I might find. I found the door to "my" room (my craftroom/picnic area during our renovations) open. I went inside to find that she had opened the door and placed the banana peel in the trash can in my room. WOW!! She does pay attention.

Now, if I could just get her to stop dumping the goldfish all over the living room floor.

Kitchen Updates

I thought that I would post some before and midway pictures from our recent remodeling. The floors are coming out absolutely beautifully - at least we think so. They have all the coats on the dining room and will come back and put the final on the rest once the kitchen is in.

I think once you see the before, you will understand why we had to renovate the kitchen.

Looking from the foyer to the kitchen & hearth room area. Notice that lovely hood, the tile and the carpeting, oh yeah, don't forget the wallpaper either.


Same look but with our Ash hardwood floors and no more hood or wallpaper.

This is looking into the dining room from the stairs landing area. There were 3 sliding glass doors in the dining room that we replaced. That is a new chandelier too.

This is the view of the back wall - kitchen and hearth room area. Isn't it lovely?


Same view today. We replaced the one slider in the kitchen with a window to make way for more cabinets. Hardwood throughout.

Here is a picture of kitchen. This was all that we had. What you see is what the entire kitchen was. Oh, I am sorry, there was an 18" wide base cabinet of drawers to the right of the dishwasher. But that is it for counterspace and cabinets in the kitchen.


This is my kitchen as of today. I have a microwave and an electric skillet. Our refrigerator is in the living room. I have a sink so I can still do dishes - but that will be gone on Monday when they start installing the cabinets. I guess we will have to eat out then. Darn.


This is looking from the back wall to the foyer. The space between the kitchen and the fireplace we are calling the hearth room. They called it a family room, but it is too long and skinny for that. Notice the green paint? That is the same green as our Chelsea house - that used to be a lovely textured vinyl wallpaper. What are the two holes to the left of the fireplace? The one on the same side as the fireplace was an indoor grill (that didn't work). The other hole on the side was discovered when we removed the wet bar, it was the piping for the indoor grill exhaust and grease catch. Nice huh?


I can't wait to post updated pictures of the space as soon as everything is done. That will be around Easter, hopefully.

Hope you like what we have done.

Bears - 2 different views

Again, this a Celie's "people" thing. Celie had organized her bears so that they were taking a bath in her toy kitchen sink.

Anna didn't think they should be that way. She reorganized them like this:

Positioning Elmo

I know that I have posted before about how Celie will arrange her "people" in different positions and areas of the house. Well, here are some Elmo shots that I couldn't resist.

Elmos as Kilroy. Elmo & Cookie Driving Elmo's

Celie's ready for School

OK, I am a sucker for a sale and anything Disney - so they were having some super duper sales and I got a Princess backpack for Celie - justification - way on sale & she is starting preschool in the fall and will need one. I also got her a princess jean jacket - justification - way on sale too & she can hand it down to Anna.

When I unpacked them, Celie decided that she wanted the backpack on - she was watching Dora the Explorer and wanted to be like her. Then when she saw the jacket, she had to have that on too. I had to take a picture of her. She sat watching TV with her jacket and backpack on for quite a while. I am glad she likes them.

We live in a Treehouse

Because our house sits on a ravined lot, we are lucky to have mature trees surround the house. This feature allows for us to feel like we live in a treehouse, some times. Especially today with all of the snow we have gotten. We can barely see the neighbors in the back.

Here is the snowy view from our hearth room.


Here is the snowy view from Anna's room/balcony.

Anna's Room - Revisited

While I had the camera out this morning, I took some pics of Anna's room. I couldn't remember if I have posted pictures of Anna's fairies that are in her room. So, here they are - 2 fairies that adorn her bedroom walls. (in the process of renovating and her getting bigger, we will be moving her into the bigger bedroom. Not sure if the fairies will make it on her walls or not. I have not decided.)

Mardi Gras

Bob and I were invited to a Mardi Gras Party at the beginning of this month. The party invite said that Masks and/or hats were mandatory. Dressing up was definitely encouraged. Since it was our first attendance at a neighborhood party, we decided to go rather tame. Bob wore his OSU baseball cap and I decided that I would paint a mask on my face.

Cecilia and Anna were not quite sure what to think of me with my face painted, but all was o.k. because Grandma O was here to play with them and take their mind off of mom being weird.
Bob and I met a lot of our neighbors and had a great time. Thank you Mrs. O for watching the girls and letting us have a night out. It was a lot of fun!!

Autograph Quilt

During our trip to Walt Disney World, I didn't think that the girls would appreciate signatures in an autograph book. So, I bought some heavy weight white fabric and markers. I had the characters sign the cloth - some of the characters I was able to find iron on appliques, so they were able to sign next to their name.

Once we were home, I went to Joann's and bought some fabric to back the quilt. I found some great Mickey Mouse fabric, but they didn't have enough for the big quilt. So, I chose Tinkerbell. Celie likes to wrap herself up in the quilt and say, "By the order of the Princess," a line from Aladdin.

Below, the full quilt.

Details of Cinderella and other Princess' signatures.

Celie's going to School

We got her official paperwork back in the mail this week. She will be going to Preschool in the fall starting on September 3rd.

She will be attending Horizon's Preschool in Brecksville. It is located downtown in the Methodist Church - though there is no affiliation with the church. She will be going on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9:05 am to 11:35 am.

She has to be fully potty trained by then, so we have a lot of work to do, but are slowly getting into the groove.

There were a lot of Preschools to consider for Celie. Horizon's came highly recommended from someone that Bob works with and lives in our neighborhood. We also looked into the Co-op and St. Michaels. We ended up with Horizon's as our first choice because it was the only one that was 3 days. I think that it will be really good for Celie to be engaged so much during the week. Both Bob and I can see what happens to her when she is bored and doesn't get much activity - both physically and mentally. I am also looking forward to having a little bit of alone time with Anna. I think it will be good for all of the Ostroski girls.

Potty Training

We are now working on trying to potty train Celie. I sort of think that we are getting a late start. However, I have heard that this isn't something that you want to rush into. Plus, with her surgeries, Anna's birth, and moving, it really hasn't been good timing to try to "train" her.

I have read and heard many different ways to potty train. I am going to be doing some more investigation on it as well, but this is what we are trying right now.

I bought Celie some big girl underpants - Cinderella, Ariel, Happy Feet & Dora the Explorer kind. In the morning, we change out of pull ups and into underwear. Every 20 minutes or so, I ask if she has to potty. She usually says, "Noooooo!" Then she will come up to me and sayin, "Mommy, what happened? I'm a mess," as pee is running down her little legs. We have had many accidents, but I always tell her it is o.k. and take her to the potty and wipe her clean, we wash our hands, and then I give her the choice of whether or not she wants underwear or diapers/pants on kind (What she calls pull ups). We are trying to abide by her wishes.

When she wears her pullups, she does tell us when she has gone to the bathroom. At night, we put the pullups on her. We will see how it goes.

Today, we started the day with Ariel underwear. I kept asking her if she had to go pee, she kept saying no. By 12:30pm I was getting concerned that she hadn't gone yet. Then she came up to me and said, "Mama, Mama, pants on kind!!" She took off Ariel undies, that were clean and dry. We put on the pullups. 2 minutes later - "Mama, I stinky." Yup, she pooped. I cleaned her up and gave her the choice - she chose pullups. I think she may have had another stinky because she was running around saying, "uh oh, uh oh," However, I haven't been able to catch her yet. I better try again. Wish us luck.

What A Tease

Currently the weather is 55.3 degrees outside. A little on the gray damp side from the pouring rain we received last night.

The girls and I just returned from a walk around the "big" loop around our neighborhood. It was wonderful to hear the birds chirping and not having to wear a jacket (the girls had theirs on). The smell of sweetness is in the air. A light breeze swirled around us. Spring is coming soon, you can almost taste it. However, we are supposed to be in the 20's by the weekend. I guess there isn't much difference in the weather between SE Michigan and NE Ohio. Just when you think the weather is getting better, it changes on you.

What a tease!

Is Being Nice too Hard?

I have been making phone calls today trying to figure out the proper documentation we need to plate/register our vehicles in OH and get our driver's license. They do not make it easy. However, in trying to find all of the information via the web and not being totally satisfied that I was finding all of the information, I thought that I would make a few calls and maybe that would be helpful.

In the state of OH, you first have to transfer the title from your vehicle from your previous state to OH. However, before doing that, you have to possess the title, get an inspection on the vehicle on any vehicle older than a 2005 and get a VIN# verification. The inspection is done in one location. The VIN# verification is done in another location and then taking all of this to the Clerk's office is, yes, you guessed it, in another location. (How fun is this going to be with 2 small children?) Besides the old title, the inspection, and the VIN# verification, you also need to bring your ID and $$. Once the title has been transferred, you then take that documentation to the Deputy Registrar's office - yes - another location to get OH License Plates for your vehicle. That is just to get License Plates.

So, in trying to find out this information, I called the Clerks office twice. Each time I spoke with someone different. However, each time at the end of the conversation, I thanked the women for their time and was about to say good bye when the phone went dead. What happened to your welcome? Or even a Good Bye? I am sure that they get a lot of irritated people frustrated about a system they can do nothing about. Believe me, I know. I used to work at Parking Services in College and I know what it is like to work at a job where just about everyone hates you. However, I was never mean to people. I always presented them with the facts and was always polite and responded to thank yous by saying your welcome - have a nice day.

Hopefully, getting our licenses won't be too terrible. We do have to show proper identification and take a test. Once we have passed the test, we then take the results to the License Bureau - yes, potentially two different locations, however, there is one location where you can do the majority of this stuff - but not the title stuff because their hours only have a short window in which they overlap the others.

So, hopefully, we will be law abiding citizen's by the end of this weekend. And hopefully, our girls will not have to be subjected to us running them around and dealing with lines, frustration and such. Well, at least I have to be abiding before my B-day rolls around.

Just remember, you will always get farther by saying please & Thank you.

More pics

Here are some more pics from the trip. I could post many, but thought just a couple more wouldn't be too terrible.

Bob, Celie , and Anna "engaging" with the Incredibles. (This is one of our favorite movies). Celie asked where Dash, Violet & Baby Jack Jack were.


Celie, Aunt Sue, Uncle Tom and I at the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom. The Pooh, Piglet & Eeyore behind us are flower topiaries. This is where we had our Pooh Character meal.


Celie with Donald and Daisy Duck at Disney's Hollywood Studios (a.k.a. MGM Studios - it just went under a name change).

In Awe

I received a CD of wonderful photos that Aunt Sue & Uncle Tom took while we were on vacation. Here is one of all of us, minus Uncle Tom, in awe of Cinderella's Castle.

It seems so long ago

It seems like it has been ages since we went on our vacation. I can't believe that it only has been a week.

I know there are many more people in the world that have endured hardships - many of them much more difficult than ours - relocation, moving anxiety, surgery on your children, etc. But our vacation was the first time in about 2 1/2 years where we weren't worrying about a thing. We were just enjoying. It was great. And now, we are back to the real world. Though most of our worrying is gone as we are settling into our new home and community, it would be nice just to be, again. If even for a few days.

Cheese Again.

Aunt Sue sent a small package of things to us and inside was an Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) costume dress. As soon as Celie saw the dress, she started taking off her clothes to put the new dress on. After she had the dress on, I got the camera to take her picture.

I told her, "Say Cheeeese."
She would say "Cheeeese," but look away from the camera.
"Say, Cheese, again," I told Celie.
"Cheese again," said Celie.

At least I got the pictures.

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

Yesterday afternoon we got a call from a neighbor asking if we wanted to meet her and her 2 children at the Rec center. I said "Sure." So, I packed up the girls and we headed to the Brecksville Community Center.

On Friday mornings, the Community Center's Field House Gym is open to those 6 and under and their parents. It is free if you are a member of the Rec center or $2 if you are a Brecksville Resident.

So, the girls and I paid our $2 for Celie and went in. They had gym mats, bouncy balls, Bouncy Horses, small b-ball hoops and tent like tunnels. The girls had a blast running around. Anna, particularly loved just being able to walk and walk and walk. However, thanks to Uncle Tom teaching her to climb stairs, Anna spent a lot of the time trying to get up the Gym stairs. So, I had to divert her attention.

Celie loved racing the other kids on the bouncy horse.


We spent about 1.5 hours there. Afterwards, we came home and ate lunch. Both girls took a big 'ole nap which left mom with some unusual a lone time to work on projects. We will be going to the gym whenever possible.