Aliante Nature Discovery Park

     In our exploration of parks in Las Vegas, we happened upon another cool park worth visiting if you ever happen to be in Las Vegas. Aliante Nature Discovery Park is in North Las Vegas. It has a pond and waterfall with a lot of different kinds of ducks and geese. We forgot to take bread to feed them this time so we just walked around and looked at all of them.

Throughout the play area they had a couple different little dinosaurs and eggs. These made cute little pictures and Kierstin loved exploring them. They also had a "sandbox" but it was not sand, more like little bitty rocks. Kierstin wasn't really impressed with that. She wasn't sure what to do. She just sat there and looked at it. She would touch it and then pull her hand up like saying"that felt weird." 

Isn't she so adorable?!

     

Of course her favorite part was the swing. 

This is the awesome looking play tower. Kierstin, of course, isn't old enough to play in this but it looks really cool. 

We had a great time at this park and plan on going back before we leave. It is a great place to take your children. They will have a blast.

Family Workouts

     In an effort to become healthier, I have forced Nathan to workout with me a few times. I need the motivation of someone else working out with me. Kierstin joined in on the fun!

This is Kierstin helping Daddy do situps! 

Kierstin and Daddy doing squats.

Here is Kierstin holding Daddy up during the wall sits. 

     Kierstin also did some pushups with Daddy and rode his back for a few but the pics didn't turn out for those. 

     Hopefully Kierstin will help us keep up an active lifestyle and adopt it herself as well. She has been doing some exercises of her own. She can now go from laying down to sitting on her own. She has not mastered crawling yet but she can crawl 3-4 steps before she lays down on her tummy. 

     Any suggestions on baby "exercises"? 

Shark Reef Aquarium

     For my birthday, I wanted to do something with all of us that we have not been able to do since we have gotten here to Las Vegas. We Went to the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay. It cost $36 for both Nathan and I. Kierstin had a great time looking at all the different kinds of fish and sharks and, of course, all the other people. I told her some of the highlights about the animals.

This is Kierstin at the sting ray petting area. She did not pet any because she could not reach them but this one stopped right under her and stayed there for a while before swimming off. 

Kierstin liked the jelly fish. She was growling at it. She really likes to growl now. I think these may have been her favorite. 

We got her a stuffed sting ray at the gift shop. We (I) named him "Pokey" because he has pokadots. She likes it a lot. 

     I definitely recommend going to the Shark Reef Aquarium. They also had piranhas. It would have been really cool if they would have been feeding them while we were there. FYI they feed them in the morning but they do not have a specific time....I asked. 

Baby Activities

     In an effort to stimulate Kierstin a little more, I looked online at some infant activities. Most of them don't really cost anything because you usually have the things laying around, but because we are moving around so much we don't really have some stuff that most people have in their home. So I just had to work with what we got. 

     I gave her an extra long bath where I named parts of her body as I washed it. We have Munchkin Ten Squirtin' Sea Buddies ($9.99 at Target). I got them as a shower gift. We also have various rubber duckies (one of my baby showers was rubber duckie themed). Every time she picked up a toy I told her the color and what it was called. At the end of her bath as I was putting them away, I picked up each one and told her what color it was and what color. She had a blast! And worked on her hand-eye coordination while chasing the toys around the bath tub. 

     After her nap, I wanted to let her explore some things that she normally wouldn't so I put some pots and a plastic container in the floor with a spoon. I let her explore everything first to see what she would do which was mostly just chew on the spoon. After a few minutes, Nathan went over and tapped on a couple of the pots and then she started to tap on the pots and the floor with the spoon and her hands. 

     With this activity, we worked on hand-eye coordination, motor skills, grip strength and learned some different sounds. This kept her attention for about half an hour. I am looking for more things to do with her and will post what I do and how well it went. Please leave any suggestions in comments.

     In another note, she still isn't crawling yet but Kierstin now has a fourth tooth! And she has started growling. Super cute! I love my little girl!

Sunset Park

     To anyone visiting Las Vegas, I would recommend you go to Sunset Park. It was not like any park I have been to in Alabama. It had 3 different play areas, a lake with tons of ducks, multiple walking/running trails, beach volleyball courts, multiple open areas for frisbee or whatever you want, a dog park, and some softball fields. Kierstin had never been to a park before so I was eager to take her somewhere where I could put her in a swing.

     She loved the swing, as you can tell. She was so content. Nathan and I loved pushing her in the swing. If we stopped she would kick her little legs. It was adorable.

     Next up was the slide. These things produce a lot of static. I'm just going to say that. Kierstin and I were shocking each other left and right and both our hair was standing straight up. Kierstin liked the slide alright, but I'm not sure she was quite ready for it yet. We will try again soon. 

     After the swing and the slide, we decided to check out the ducks. I took some bread with us. There were a lot of ducks and geese. Kierstin loved it. I think we will definitely be going back. I want to see all the walking trails. I can't wait for it to get a little warmer. You can take boats out on the lake....I wonder if you can rent some and take out there.