Summer! Finally!

WOW!! What a long, drawn out Spring we've had here in the PNW... What is it, July, and now we're finally getting some sunshine and warm weather? I was beginning to think that we were never going to get a few days to get a tan. Well, it's here and now it's surprisingly hard to get the kids outside. How strange. Lauren is a devote Dora the Explorer fan, and I swear that kid could do nothing all day but sit in front of that TV and watch her friends Dora and Boots save the day over and over...

I pulled the sprinkler out this morning for the first time to play with Lauren, and she was definitely NOT interested in it. In fact, I think she was a little scared of it. I set the video camera up and tried to show her how to jump through it a few times, and even held her while I went through it, and no sir, she did not like it. Sad. Oh well, at least I caught my Mom Failure on video...

Now, we're back inside watching a Dora (One Dora!) and then we'll try to head back outside. On the plus side, Lauren is still in her swim suit, sans diaper and has yet to have an accident. Maybe the start of potty training? I keep asking her if she needs to use the potty and she says, "no!" I have the feeling we're in for a few accidents before we're through with the training.

Evelyn is already almost 5 months old! How the heck does that happen? She's started trying solid food, rice cereal, and doesn't really like it all that much. We'll keep trying, but I don't think she's quite there yet. It's like she doesn't really know what to do with it, once it's in her mouth. She's a happy one though. Sleeps through the night, once she's down (usually around 9:30) and sleeps until 7 or 8 am! She sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night, but is able to get herself back to sleep without us having to rock her. Which means we let her cry until she falls back to sleep, usually about 2-3 minutes. She's starting to get pretty good at bringing toys to her mouth and pushing the buttons on her excersaucer to make sounds happen. We have a little Johnny Jump Up (actually, her's is pink and called a "Jenny Jump Up") and she's getting used to hanging out in it and has even started jumping. She usually spins herself around and gets her arms stuck at her sides, inside the bucket part. It's pretty cute, because when she has her arms stuck inside, and starts jumping, she really looks like she's Riverdancing... We need to video tape her and dub in some Irish clog dancing music...

Mother's Day!!

My girls

How lucky am I to be included in this exclusive club... I look at my two beautiful, happy, sweet girls and am so thankful to share life with them. I think about their future, what they will be, how they will soar and hope they are lucky enough to one day become mothers as well...

My Mother's Day gift

Times, They've Changed...

Well...

My initial intent with this blog was to dutifully journal each milestone as they occurred in our lives as we raised our daughter. FAIL! I don't know what I was thinking. Was I still living in my "pre baby" fantasy? The one where I still think I can do everything and have as much free time as I did before we had a child? Yep. Oh well... At least I kept up with Lauren's baby book, or made it up after the fact.

Lauren on our Newport trip in February

Needless to say, she's now TWO years old, and we welcomed her little sister, Evelyn Maya in March. I know what they say about hindsight and how clearly you can see what you had at the time, but wow! If only I realized then how much easier it was with one child... nap time, shopping, car trips, Little Gym... too bad I didn't take more time to appreciate not being out-numbered. All this being said, it's wonderful to have to beautiful, healthy, happy girls! While it does take more patience, planning, patience, organization and patience, it's so much more gratifying when at the end of the day you can look back and say, "I survived the day and did it well!" Or relatively well... or just survived.

Evelyn at 6 weeks

Evelyn is just about two months old, and is behaving (and looking!) a lot like Lauren did. She's eating well, sleeping long stretches at night, and is just a peaceful, happy baby. She smiles a lot, maybe more than Lauren did, and is getting better at holding her head up. She spends time on her play mat, and like her sister, doesn't like tummy time very well. She is gaining leg strength when we hold her upright to "stand," and she's huge! We weighed her at Lauren's recent appointment and found that at 6 weeks, Evelyn was 13 pounds. Looking through Lauren's baby book, she weighed 12 pounds at 8 weeks. Oh man, we're in for a couple of big girls, but I think Lauren might have a challenger for her "Big Sister" role...

Two year old Lauren is turning into a little girl! She's running, playing, forward rolling, talking and is learning new skills by the minute. Her newest trick is putting on her own socks. She's really proud of herself and will show anyone this skill over and over. She parrots words almost all of the time, so we have to be additionally careful of what we say in her earshot. And that's another thing, the kid has incredible hearing. She'll hear an airplane seconds before any of us do, and she'll point to the sky and say, "Airpwane!" Lawnmowers, cars, motorcycles, trucks and other sound producing things are included in her running commentary. It's impressive. She also likes to make observations ad nauseam. We'll be sitting at the table having breakfast and as I'm finishing my OJ, I'll hear, "Mama all done juice!" If I stretch my arms above my head, she'll say, "Mama strech!" She'll even comment on her own actions. After catching a balloon or ball, she'll say, "Good catch!" Though, usually it sounds like, "dood catchhhh!" She's doing a really great job practicing her ever-expanding vocabulary. It's almost like she loves hearing herself say these things... She uses 3-4 or 5 word sentences and can really get her point across. We were lucky enough to stumble onto some sign language dvd's and her signing ability has taken off. It works out well, because if she's trying to say a word we don't understand, she can usually do the sign and we'll figure it out. It's great! Thank you Signing Time!

Lauren's other big thing right now is to, "see" everything... Dad's empty cereal bowl, whatever I'm mixing while cooking, the product of her poopy diaper, she wants to see it all. Another parenting lesson: I didn't realize that some of the most mundane things can be huge learning experiences to growing minds...

Dad and his girls

Life continues to be challenging and wonderful, and I will try to take more time to comment on how ours changes.