Love the bow gracing Baby Miss's fuzzy, stand-straight-up locks? It is compliments of the Girl who carefully positioned it just so...
We had friends over for dinner tonight. They have two kids and Baby Miss was quite content to lie on the floor and watch all the kids running around. Then I noticed how hard she was trying to keep her heavy little eyelids open. Needless to say, she eventually lost the battle despite all the activity and noise.
Oh, this one. When she is sweet she is very sweet but when she is naughty she is very naughty. Terrible twos, maybe. Trying to be as independent as her older sister, much more likely. She is in a scaredy-cat stage of sorts. She still mentions 'Santa Closets' at least once a day and is looking for reassurance that he won't show up unexpectedly on our doorstep any time in the near future. She follows up with, "Santa Closets taking long nap in his castle." Alright, sounds good to me. She also still insists on singing Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer every night before bed. Besides Santa Claus, Little Sister is frightened of every costumed character. About a month ago we were watching the noon news and they were showing a dragon for the Chinese New Year parade and she flipped - ran up to the tv turned it off while screaming, "No dragon!" and then proceeded to beg to go up to bed. When she isn't busy keeping her eye out for people in costumes or wearing hoods (hoods elicit the same reaction) she loves to wear dresses (flat-out refuses to wear pants) but doesn't like to wear tights. Loves to create with Play-Dough and play Squinkies. She does not care for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but adores green beans. Has a mouthful of teeth (finally!) which all decided to come in at once. Still refers to herself as 'you' and whenever she wants to show me something she says, "Show me somepin, show me somepin!" On the potty-training front, oh wait, there is no potty-training front, just Lil Sis telling us when we need to change her diaper and sweetly chirping, "No ganks," when we ask her if she wants to sit on the potty. Her favorite exclamation right now is, "Holy mokes!" Oh how we love this Lil Girl!
Today is the second consecutive day that the Girl has been home from school because of snow from our so-called "winter storm" and the term should be used loosely. While pretty, this minimal amount of snow is wreaking havoc on my warm weather plans. Come June when the sun beckons, the grass is green and the flowers are sprouting we'll be making up school days lost to trace amounts of snow. Can you tell that I'm miffed? Maybe it's because we lived in Denver for 5 years. There, this amount of snow is laughable and a snow day because of it would've been unthinkable. There, snow had to be knee deep before anyone even noticed it much less got serious about i
t.
Lil Sister played in a diaper box. It was a rocket (or was it a racket?).
And Baby Miss, well she just sat around looking cute. As usual. As for me, I accidently shattered a 13x9 Pyrex baking dish that was on the stove top when I turned the wrong burner on this morning to make oatmeal. Then I baked homeade granola which oddly enough, tasted like burnt popcorn and was subsequently dumped in the garbage atop the hundreds of shards of glass.
We went home (that is to my parents' house - and the house that I grew up in) this past weekend. The whole fam was there. We took some pics. Love Lil Sister's expression. As for the Girl, that's her new thing - to raise her shoulders up and put her chin down when posing for a photo. She was doing it in every single picture. When my Mom asked her why she responded, "Because it makes my smile look cuter!"
Meet Frankenbaby. What happens when a zippered-hoodie-wearing Momma nurses a hungry baby? Hungry baby is
satisfied but left with zipper tracks across her forhead and under her eye. It is a fairly common occurence as Momma likes to wear zip-up hoodies and Baby likes to eat. But don't worry, her tiny tootsies are left unscathed and are as cute as ever!
Three months already?! Gasp!!! Where does the time go? At three months, this lil gal is as sweet as can be and still as happy as
ever. She continues to be a champion sleeper (went to bed at 9:00 last night and didn't wake to eat until 6:15 this morning). Every morning, without exception, when she first wakes up and I peek into the cradle she melts my heart into a big ol' puddle with eyes that light up and a wide grin that stretches across her little cheeks. That is simply the best way to start my day! She still hates tummy-time but when she is sitting in her papasan chair she has started leaning forward and trying to maintain a more upright position. When lying on her playmat she reaches up to grasp the toys and whenever the pacifier is in her mouth, nine times out of ten, she's got the fingers of one hand tightly curled around her BinkLink. She's becoming quite vocal and yesterday afternoon she giggled for the first time. It was magical, there's nothing like the tiny giggle of a baby.
Last night was the annual Daddy Daughter Dance put on by the local Parks and Recreation program. It was the Girl's 3rd year going and Little Sister's 2nd time. It doesn't sound like they did a whole lot of dancing with their Daddy, more like chasing friends around the dance floor and asking the DJ to play Lady Gaga's 'Pokerface.' Regardless, it did sound like a whole lot of fun. Oh to be a fly on the wall.
Today after school we high-tailed it to a playland up north. This place has it all - ball pits, slides, kiddie zipline and...
a climbing wall. The Girl is a natural. I loved watching her move swiftly up the wall, pausing only briefly to contemplate her next move - which hold to grab, where to place her foot. Watching her brought back fond memories. Back in our college days, J and I would frequent the climbing wall on campus regularly. Somewhere, I even have my own harness and chalk bag. Of all the things that
there were to do, the Girl kept coming back to the climbing wall. She'd try different routes and made it to the top on all three walls.
Not to be outdone, Lil Sis even gave it a shot.
Baby Miss was perched front and center taking it all in.
She also enjoyed a few trips down the slide. Even big kids get to play.
Miss A and her Mom in a race to the bottom. Love how their expressions are nearly identical.
One...
two...
three lovelies. All in a row. It was also a lovely day for a walk. Couldn't have asked for much better of a day in mid-February. The bright, warm rays of the sun took the chill out of the air. Making an afternoon walk a must. We traipsed all around the adjacent neighborhoods. We heard ducks quacking and saw a rather large tiger-striped cat rolling around in a driveway, obviously basking in the sun. We spotted all kinds of other creatures too - a family of raccoons, several frogs, a deer and even a couple of bears. {All of which were of the stone, decorative lawn ornament variety!}
My favorite thing to see though was this, Baby Miss's sweet, tiny fingers curled around her bink link.
I never tire of my view from above.
We spent another afternoon in the park. The further we get into winter and thus the closer spring comes, we start feeling the call of the outdoors. Today the sun beckoned us but by the time lunches were eaten and the baby was fed, it's warm rays had all but disappeared. But once the park has been mentioned, it is a promise that cannot be reneged on.
And so we went. Glad that we did. We only stayed for an hour, the cold prevented us from staying any longer, but it was worth it. There was a bit of this and a bit of that, hanging from bars, climbing, slipping down slides and for Little Sister, lots and lots of racing around.
This morning Lil Sister got put into time-out. I realize that putting her in bed for a time-out may not be the best message to send but it is the only place where she stays put because she can't get out...not any more! A few minutes in to the time-out she started calling for me, which is nothing new, so when I went to get her I was amused to see this. She was clinging to the top rail. It was really only a matter of time and I'm actually surprised that she hadn't tried climbing out sooner. Guess it's time for a 'big girl' bed. I predict that getting her a bed will coincide with earlier wake-ups for me.
Aunt B was in town today with a friend who just so happens to have a little girl who is 6 months younger than the Girl. In fact, it was
our little friend's 5th birthday and they specifically came to town to go to 'Build-a-Bear' and the Hello Kitty store. We met up with them and went
bowling. Unfortunately Little Sister and J spent the entire time out in the car as Little Sister wanted nothing to do with the bowling alley. Not sure if it was the noise, the black lights, the ball return. Whatever it was, she was freaked out which doesn't seem to take much these days (more about that in a future post). It was Miss L's first time bowling and she seemed to like it. The Girls were having so much fun together that
they ended up coming back to our house for an impromptu sleepover.
And what would a birthday be without a little cake and ice cream?!
"Momma, I very mad."
Oh those eyes! They get me. So dark, so blue. For now anyway. Soon enough they'll change and be just like Daddy's.
What do I heart? I seriously heart tiny tinted tootsies! {The Girl asked me to paint her nails this afternoon and I just couldn't resist polishing Baby Miss's toenails as well. Of course we used our all natural, non-toxic, no fumes polish.}
The sun was out today and so we jumped at the opportunity to meet Miss A and her Mom at the park.
It seemed deceptively warm when we were just walking from the house to the car. But once at the park I quickly realized how cold it really was. The Girls didn't seem to care, or even notice for that matter. They were just so happy to be there. In fact as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Little Sister started shrieking, "I'm so excited! I'm so excited!" Her excitement was so cute and infectious.
