Sweet Moments

I L-O-V-E these sweet moments.


In the quiet of the morning.


When the Girl can be found playing with her Baby Sister.


Even going so far as to share her favorite ponies.

4th of July!

The Girl and Miss A stomping on Pop-Its.
Mother Nature treated us to a spectacular show before the fireworks.
Miss A checking out the Girl's "ear muffs" (ear plugs). They were so hilarious, at one point they both had their ear muffs in and the Girl was trying to get Miss A's attention and kept calling her name. Eventually Miss A realized that the Girl was talking to her and she responded with, "What, I can't hear you!"


Here are the Girl and Miss A waiting oh so patiently.

Baby Sister enjoying herself.

And rolling all over the place. We could barely keep her on the blanket.

Our Lil' Sparkler with a sparkler.

Enjoying the show, complete with juice boxes and popcorn.

Bathing Beauty

We had this ducky tub for the Girl when she was a wee one, and since Baby Sister has all but outgrown her infant tub, we unearthed it from the

garage. Like her Big Sister before her, she LOVED it!!!!!! And was as happy as a duck, er...clam.

River Fun

On Friday we headed out on what Miss A's Mom fondly refers to as another "adventure." We were headed to a river she often visited in her youth but hadn't been to for several years, and so her memory was somewhat clouded as to the location of the pathways and the best 'spot' which she had frequented in her teen years.

After some direction from the park ranger, we found a pathway and came across a small stretch of sand next to a stagnant area of the river. Baby Sister was quick to plant her little foot in the sand.

Next it was her fingers.

The weather was sunny and hot so the Girl and Miss A's Mom wasted no time getting into the water and cooling off with some splashing.

As the sandy spit was not the 'spot' of Miss A's Mom's memory, we got back onto the trail and ventured further down where we came across this rocky beach which was along a part of the river that was flowing gently. This stretch was much more familiar to Miss A's Mom.

Surprisingly, the water was not as cold as we would've thought and the girls plopped right down.

We had a wonderful afternoon and the time passed quickly. It was dinnertime before we knew it and so we were looking for a quicker route back to the parking area. Miss A's Mom ventured ahead in search of a more direct path while the girls lagged behind.

But, we ended up back-tracking to the original path and then explored some smaller paths branching off from that. Those smaller paths proved to be more adventurous than we could get with small children as we ran into scratchy plants, large fallen logs and swarms of biting flies. So eventually we hightailed it back to the main path.

Here is Miss A's Mom pumping her fist in victory as we neared the opening to the stinky field (which we'd been trying to avoid) and we learned that sometimes it is best to stay on the beaten path as we probably spent more time looking for an alternate, quicker route. Although if we hadn't diverted we would've missed out on quite a few laughs.

Another Baby Sister

The Girl's friend O and his parents welcomed their very own Baby Sister into the world last Tuesday. We went to visit her the day after she came home from the hospital and as you can see, O adores her!!

While the Moms were inside oooohhh-ing and aaww-ing over sweet little Miss I, the other kids were outside testing out O's new sprinkler. Miss I was 8 pounds 3 ounces at birth and when we saw her last Thursday she'd just been in to see the doctor for a check-up and weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces. She seemed amazingly tiny, delicate and fragile and it was hard for me to imagine that Baby Sister had once ever been that small...but she was!! At birth she weighed 6 pounds 6 ounces and got down to 5-12 at one point. After seeing Miss I, I still had trouble believing how small Baby Sister had once been. Oh, they do grow sooooo fast - too fast!!

Pigpen(s)

Today we headed out to a local berry farm for some strawberry pickin' with Miss A and her Mom. Here are the Girls heading out with their containers.

Miss A is proudly showcasing her pick and getting confirmation from her Mom that it is indeed a good berry.

In search of the perfect berry - red, shiny and plump.

Hmmm, this one looks red and shiny...not so plump though.

Even Baby Sister got in on the act,

although she was grabbing them out of the basket and squishing them between her fingers before I caught her.

Taking a quick break...

...before getting back to the picking. But then somehow, the picking turned into this...

...the Girl and Miss A covering themselves in dirt.

And then covering each other in dirt. There were clouds of dirt swirling around them reminiscent of Pigpen in Charlie Brown.

Now what?!

Cheese!!

Puffs!

Yesterday Baby Sister had her first encounter with the snacking staple of all pincer-grasping babies everywhere...Puffs!! For those unfamiliar with "all things baby," Puffs are a part of the Gerber Baby 'Graduates' line of food. They are like Cheerios but are star-shaped and dissolve rapidly. They come in a vast array of flavor combinations including, Strawberry-Apple, Apple-Cinnamon, Banana, Cherry, Peach, Sweet Potato and Sweet Corn. Baby Sister has the grasping part down pat (as can be seen in the picture) but the transfer from the fingers to the mouth is another story. Which is almost laughable considering that she shoves all of her fingers into her mouth after nearly every single bite of food. So we helped pop them into her mouth and at first she started sticking her tongue out and wagging it back and forth in an attempt to get the Puff off of her tongue, but after a few tries we realized that she wasn't trying to dislodge the Puff but rather to chew it.

Swim Lessons

Last week the Girl took swim lessons at our local YMCA with Miss A. The lessons were every morning for half an hour. These were her first lessons that weren't parent/child and I wasn't sure what her reaction would be. The night before her first class I informed her that I wouldn't be getting in the pool with her and she immediately protested, "But I don't want to sink!" I explained to her that she

would never be in the pool by herself and that she would sit on the edge until it was her turn and then the teacher would help her. She seemed ok

with that reasoning and the next morning she took a seat at the edge of the pool and waited quietly for her turn in the water. She did a

great job but at the end of the week when I asked her if she wanted to sign up for more lessons she told me, "No," because she didn't like it when Jessica (the instructor) dunked her under and she got water up her nose.