For the love of smoothies.

This Baby loves a good smoothie. Well, any smoothie actually. Just the sight of a sippy cup with a straw in it is enough to send her into a squealing frenzy as was the case yesterday when J brought some empty smoothie cups in from the car. Cause in addition to drinking smoothies at home, we like to take them on the road. She got so worked up that of course I had to pull out the blender and whip one up immediately.

We like ours with a 6 ounce carton of Tillamook Vanilla Bean yogurt, lots of frozen fruit from Costco's Spectrum blend (which includes peaches, white peaches, strawberries, pineapple, blueberries and honeydew), a banana, some crushed ice, a splash of milk and coconut. Yum!! Baby Sister has been hooked since her first one at 13 months. She was quick to figure out how to use a straw and hasn't looked

back since. Here she is back in her shaggier days. I love the little pursed lips and the puffed out cheeks.

And this was her first ever smoothie consumption. It's a bit confusing, that transition from sippy cup to straw. The tip and tilt combo doesn't quite have the same effect.

It didn't take long for her to get it all figured out though. Yes, the smoothies are in popular demand these days.

Recipe for fun

Ingredients and instructions from a library book.

Four eager little hands and some teamwork.

A little mixing here....

....a little mixing there.

A hug break.

A helpful Baby Sister.

M&M's

A smile, or two.

A cookie sheet covered in dough.

Watchful eyes.

And one ginormous cookie.

Viola!! A recipe for fun.

Golden Years...or Months

I l.o.v.e. this age!

At 16 months baby sister is climbing on table tops, pointing at sleeping babies while raising her index finger to her mouth and "shhh"ing, hanging from the refrigerator door handles or banging on the pantry door exclaiming, "Uh, uh." when she is hungry, fond of snuggling in blankies,

and wanting to wear this hat. Whenever it falls off her head she tries to put it back on and then holds it out to me until I replace it on her sweet little head.

As for the Girl, just a week and a half away from being 4 1/2 she is most definitely sassy. The major behavioral issues that had plagued us for much of the month have significantly improved in the past week or so. Tonight as I was sitting on her bed while she was snuggled up and slumbering her way toward the REM cycle I had to laugh at the lyrics from the Hannah Montana song playing softly on her cd player, Don't walk away when I'm talking to you. This ain't no time for your bad attitude. Don't give me that face... Ha, our theme song for the month of January!! Man was I majorly identifying with those three little lines. I am ever so glad that I am working on myself, the way I parent and how I discipline. I'd like to think that it has partially contributed to the Girl's recent change in attitude. I love seeing her smile!

Hysterics

We found ourselves at the zoo this morning under the expectation of better weather. Not that it was terrible but we had thought that the sun was going to make an appearance and that it would be a tad bit warmer. But the unexpected ended up working in our favor as evidenced by our front row parking spot. First stop, the indoor play area (the Girl's favorite) where we were met by the sound of maracas shaken by many exuberant little hands of which Baby Sister was eager to join. I was certain that Baby Sister would love and be much more engaged on this trip than our previous visits as it's been exactly 4 months since our last trip which was on her 1st birthday. She is so much more vocal now and the sight of a dog or cat, whether in person, on the tv or in the pages of a book, is enough to elicit shrieks of delight from her followed by excited exclamations of, "Keety" or "Hoof." I was wrong.

We were on a mission to find the elephants when we happened across this fellow contentedly pecking at the ground and preening with his tail

feathers down. Then with a "whoosh" he treated us to an impressive display. Baby Sister immediately started wailing. So we quickly continued on our way and before long Baby Sister was back to her jovial self and pointing to distant animals with Baby UB by her side.
This was before the elephants, which brought her to tears again.

Baby UB enjoyed her first trip to the zoo.

We also discovered a part of the zoo that amazingly enough we'd never seen before. Even after a year and a half of membership

and countless trips. It was a big hit with the Girl who enjoyed trying her hand at being a turtle.

And then there was this. Just the site of Panda Miniature Cows was enough to send Baby Sister into hysterics.

The mini cows were just too much for Baby Sister, she never recovered and so we concluded that it was probably time to 'call it a day.'

Guaranteed to make you laugh.

"Mom, what are these, why oh why did you put them on my head and how do I get them off?"

Aspirations

On the drive home from preschool today the Girl was telling me all about the police officer that came to visit her class and his motorcycle that all the kids trekked out to the parking lot to see. When I asked if she got to sit on it she informed me that she stood in the "no" line, meaning that she did not want a chance to climb onto the seat. Afterwards her teachers asked each child what they wanted to be when they grew up. The Girl told them that she wanted to be "part of the Nutcracker." In other words, a ballerina (of course this is in addition to being a Mom that will let her kids eat dessert for dinner, waste band-aids, draw on the walls, etc.). I love that she is already thinking about all the possibilities that her future holds and that she believes she can do/be anything. I hope that she never loses that childlike perspective, the one in which she dreams big and is not jaded by nay-sayers. I for one, will never tell her that she can't do something (unless of course that something is eating dessert for dinner). Anything is possible, if only she believes in herself and knows that we believe in her too.

Feisty

Don't be fooled by that angelic face. Beneath the sweet grin and seemingly gentle demeanor is a feisty little tiger. One that has become quite adept at pulling hair (not her own, either) as a means to communicate her disapproval. As was the case tonight when the Girl climbed into my lap for a snuggle. Baby Sister was not having it. At all. She crawled (Yes, that's right, I wrote crawled. Not a single step in sight since we arrived home from our weekend at my parents'. She's back to pushing her shopping cart all over the house.) over, sat on her knees, reached up, grabbed a handful of the Girl's hair and started tugging mercilessly, all the while screaming. And we thought the Girl had the market on feisty, looks like Baby Sister will be giving her a run for her money in that department.

Whee!

The only thing greater than the expression on her face is that hair!

Look who's....

walking!! Baby Sister had her own gift for Papa yesterday. She took her first unassisted steps. Naturally, she took two steps on her own that my Mom witnessed while the Girl and I were out visiting friends. But she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing and when she realized that she had nothing to hold onto she dropped down to her knees. But then, later on that night she came walking down the hall into my parents' family room in plain view of all of us - the Girl, J, myself, my parents and my sister. And man did she put on a show, not one or two steps, but the entire length of the hall. At least 12 steps, before she plopped down. Then she stood herself right back up and headed for the kitchen. Just like she'd been walking all her life. (This video is from later in the night, after that first amazing saunter down the hallway.)

Happy Birthday Papa!!

Yesterday was Papa's (my Dad's) 60th birthday. In anticipation of the big event, the Girl made him a Play-doh birthday cake on Monday.

Yesterday she helped Gramma make the real thing. Here is the cupcake that she decorated especially for Papa and added 6 candles.

Happy 60th Birthday Papa, we LOVE you!!

Sister Love

Yes, it's true.

Despite the occasional hair pulling (on Baby Sister's part) and the not sharing (on the Girl's part)....

these Girls....

love one another tremendously!!

Another 1st

Here she is, one of the 'Big Girls.' Today Baby Sister got to ride, for the 1st time, facing forward in the carseat. I think she
liked it, although she was so busy gulping the smoothie (Have I mentioned that she is a HUGE smoothie fan?! I've been meaning to post about it for months now.) that Miss A's Mom made for her that it's questionable whether or not she even noticed that she was indeed facing forward until after her cup was empty.

Whoa!!

It was one of those moments. An "Aha!" moment. Tonight as Baby Sister was playing in the tub I snapped some pictures and as I was looking back through them I saw this one and it took my breath away. What happened to my Baby?! Maybe I didn't see it until now because Baby Sister is constantly in motion but the camera captured this moment and froze it in time. In this picture I see not a baby, but a toddler, a

little girl. She looks so darn big!! Gulp. And it was not so long ago that this one was the age of Baby Sister. Look at her now! Full of sass and headed to kindergarten in the fall. Sigh.

How, how, how does this happen so quickly?!

Impromptu

A spur-of-the-moment trip to the park, coincidentally ended up being an impromptu playdate as the Girl made a new friend. Isabella and the Girl got along smashingly well. But then how could they not with so much seemingly in common - their age, the uncombed hair (Yes it's true, eventhough we hadn't gone anywhere all morning and didn't leave for the park until 2:00, I still managed to make it out the door without combing the Girl's hair. I did however, get her teeth brushed.), their penchant for layering mismatched articles of clothing. They chased one another across the bridge, climbed up slides and exchanged conversation.
The Girl was sad to see her new friend leave but Isabella was quickly replaced by not one, nor two but three of the Girl's friends from preschool. They all arrived at the park one after the other. It was such a beautiful day that we apparently all had the same idea. Here is the Girl playing with 'D' from her class.

Baby Sister decided that crawling around on beauty bark is highly overrated and so she sat watching all the action.

We arrived home to find this. It hadn't happened while we were at the park, I just hadn't noticed it while backing out of the garage but

upon pulling into the driveway there it was, plain as day. A huge limb that had snapped of of the enormous tree in our front yard during the previous night's windstorm. Unfortunately, it did a little damage, puncturing a hole through the roofing and sheathing underneath.

Summer Accessories

Seems that we are pining away for summer (at least spring, or maybe just a tropical getaway) in this household as illustrated by the way that my Girls were accessorizing today. These sweet tootsies belong to none other than Baby Sister (of course!!). Unfortunately, I have a feeling that these cute little flip-flops once belonging to the Girl will not fit any more by the time it is warm enough for her to

actually wear them outside of the climate controlled atmosphere of our home. And the Girl is serving up some delicious cupcakes while sporting new swim goggles. So new that she hasn't gotten around to taking off the protective plastic cling covering the lenses. She just got them today. J needed some for the swimming that he will be doing as part of his training for a triathalon and of course she begged for her own pair. She wore them practically all afternoon and informed me that whenever I cut up onions (as I was doing as part of my meal preparation for dinner) that she would wear them so that she didn't cry. Smart cookie!!