Opening Day...

Today was Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds. This town is CRAZY for opening day and hosts a parade and several other festivities. Tickets for this first game of the season sell out in a flash. Unfortunately, the Gustin family was not among the lucky 45,000 or so who got to see the Reds this afternoon. No matter, as we had baseball inspired fun of our own with Iyla.

Iyla is ready for her first baseball season with her own baseball and mitt (Thanks Dad and Honey!). We look forward to taking her to her first baseball game later this summer!!
Go Reds! (and GO INDIANS!!)

A first... of sorts...

Well, it was bound to happen. It was. With the way the kid walks around like a swaggering, drunken soldier....

.

And now it has... Iyla got her first 'black eye'. No kidding.

How did this happen?!?! Iyla was running around at her grandparent's house and fell right onto the corner of the fireplace. Needless to say who won that battle...

And without further ado, her is Iyla and her first (and hopefully the last) 'shiner':

Here's to quick healing!!

A trip to the Newport Aquarium

As we had mentioned on Friday, the Gustin family had plans to visit the Newport Aquarium this weekend. Our family's newest walker did us proud and showed off her new skill around the aquarium. Here are some pictures from our
visit:

Michael and Iyla dug for fossils near the otter exhibit. Not really sure what one had to do with the other but, Iyla seemed to enjoy digging around in the sand.

Iyla watches a turtle swim by

WOW!! Can you believe how BIG these fish are?!?!

Look at the sharks!

Here is what we saw swimming towards us. Pretty scary!

Getting measured

Iyla in the 'shark' weigh station

In addition, to seeing all the amazing sharks, Iyla got to TOUCH one!! Yep, they have a nice touch pool which allows guests to feel some of the smaller, gentler varieties of sharks.

Iyla enjoyed her day at the aquarium very much and even got a stuffed shark of her own to take home.

Here are Iyla and Mommy with the new shark outside of the aquarium:

And here is our happy camper on our way home:

I think this outing has been a success!!

PARTY TIME- TGIF!!

YAY!! Today is Friday!! This has been a very busy week for the Gustin family. Yesterday we had a great time celebrating Michael's birthday and now its the weekend!! YAY!!!

We are looking forward to a trip to the Newport Aquarium to see what Iyla calls, FSH'S!! Yep-- that's right-- no I in the word at all just a whole LOT of consonants-- mainly F's S's, and H's!! I can't wait to see what she thinks of the sharks-- she can even touch a few of them!! They also have birds that Iyla can feed. Somehow I just KNOW I am going to get pooped on (AGAIN) by one of those feathered creatures! Oh well.... we will still have a good time!!

Also wanted to send a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Iyla's Grandpa Marty!! Hope you enjoy your day!!

Hold the Pickles, Hold the Lettuce.....

Iyla is really enjoying being the proud owner of a kitchen. She loves to play in there and try her hand at preparing food, etc.

Now as far as her actual restaurant/serving skills, they leave something to be desired...


For instance, Iyla will pour coffee (after telling you its HOT) directly into your hands after she has made you wait about 10 minutes for it!! You can ask her for ketchup a dozen times and what do you get?! A confused look and a MAYBE a bottle of mustard or a can of peas!!
If you insist on eating soup or whatnot with utensils.. hope you can find your own-- they are probably somewhere on the floor! Iyla LOVES to dump the entire silverware drawer in her kitchen on her floor. Nice. Which brings me to my next point, Iyla LOVES to TRASH her kitchen making it hard for her even to get to her favorite appliance-- the stove. She also likes to 'eat' as she cooks so she oftentimes asks for milk of her own or munches on a yummy hotdog. A big no-no in the restaurant industry-- you can't EAT while you're cooking!

So, if one would review the place, they would state the wait at 'Chez Iyla' to be long and the service to be sub-par based on poor order accuracy. They may even go so far to say the place really is a dump (or in shambles) with food and cookware EVERYWHERE!!

Regardless, I find the place charming and unique and I would happily recommend a visit to 'Chez Iyla' for any of our readers.

PS: I hear there is a special on hotdogs this week-- two for one!!

Every girl's favorite accessory--- none other than a BYE-BYE of course!

Remember back to this post? That particular post described Iyla's ever-growing vocabulary. Now, I mentioned that Bye-Bye had more meaning than the usual one, goodbye. Here is the 'rest of the story'...

Iyla uses the term 'Bye-Bye' to describe what is more commonly refered to as a purse. In fact, she likes to sling her (or anyone else's bag, purse, or basket she can find) 'Bye-Bye' over her shoulder and then waves to her audience with BOTH hands-- repeating the term Bye Bye. Bye Bye. Bye Bye.

Of course this practice makes PERFECT sense (when you are one)... a lady needs to carry a 'Bye-Bye' (handbag) to go Bye Bye (leave the house). It is also VERY amusing from a pictoral standpoint as well:

Now, as far as Iyla going through Mommy's 'Bye-Bye'-- we'll save that topic for another post!!

Crayons-- Fun for coloring but tasty too?

During a recent dinner out, Iyla was presented with a children's menu. Along with the menu came four crayons. Perfect. Innocent enough right? Kids, crayons, what could go wrong?






Nothing. Look at Iyla as he handles her crayons-- perfect again-- could any parent want more?!?





Now look at THIS child-- who should remain NAMELESS (ignore that placemat for clues).





(notice the missing tip!)



Are crayons safe for her?! NO-- they are NOT!! She ate a blue one at Chili's and now a green one-- I seriously hope all this wax is not harmful! Here is a little hint to all future WAIT staff... if you see THIS child coming and you want ANY kind of gratuity... do NOT give her crayons!

Easter has landed!! The Bunny was HERE!!

The bunny was VERY good to Iyla this year!! She was treated to THREE Easter baskets filled with TONS of candy, toys, and even a hat and purse!! Iyla also had a small Easter Egg hunt to enjoy. Here are some pictures from the day: Iyla looks at her coloring book from the basket from Michael and I.

Candy in the morning??! Easter is FUN!

Look what I found IN the egg!!

ANOTHER chocolate egg?! Does it EVER stop?!

I found some more eggs!!

Emma-- you have to check THIS out... MORE CANDY!!

Coloring Easter Eggs?!?

Coloring the Easter eggs- a wonderful Easter tradition one which we wanted Iyla to take part. But honestly, to start with a bunch of eggs,

and to stain their shells with some SERIOUSLY ridiculous food coloring that NEVER will come off ANYTHING it touches (including my fingers-- I am starting to like my blue index finger) did not sound like something that would turn out successfully.

So, what to do... thumb our nose at the traditional Easter Egg Embelishing-- No Way, not this family.

Instead, we came up with an activity for Iyla:

Success!! Whoever created stickers is our new hero!!

Egg Hunt- Take Two

Saturday was the day of the Easter Egg Hunt at the facility where I work. Iyla had the PERFECT opportunity to hone her egg hunting 'skills' as there were VERY few children and TONS of eggs to be found.
In fact, this was the LONGEST egg hunt I have ever seen. Normally, the eggs are snapped up by the child-vultures in under 5 minutes. Not this case with this hunt-- we were out there about 15 minutes!! Well, needless to say Iyla walked away with PLENTY of eggs and is the proud owner of bubbles and a bubble wand.