Down on the Farm

Katie, Michael, and Traci met some of our Moms' Group friends/kiddos for a 2nd birthday celebration at a nearby working farm/education center. All of the little ones loved climbing on the tractors and seeing the farm animals. Katie especially adored looking at the horses (one of which was named Michael!!) and feeding the cows (one stalk of hay at a time, poor cows). Thanks go out to Kelly, Charlie, and Maisie for hosting and providing yummy cupcakes!

Oh, and of course, Michael enjoyed the visit as well. Although he was pretty much stuck in his stroller the whole time (wouldn't want him wandering into some manure!), we did let him crawl around in the grass for a bit. That is where he joined up with his girlfriend Colleen (17-months-old). These two already adore each other, and she never passes up the chance to stroke his red hair.

Toothless, No More!

Guess who cut his first tooth today? The little guy finally joined the ranks of the carnivores....although, he has managed to eat everything just fine without teeth. Thank goodness he finally cut through because Mr. Cranky Pants had been a handful the last couple of days. He has already displayed more teething discomfort with this one tooth than Katie did for her entire teething experience. But, thanks to Traci's cousin, we now have an explanation for Michael's rancor. She sent us an article on the lower pain thresholds of redheads to be published in the Journal of the American Dental Association: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/the-pain-of-being-a-redhead/. If this research holds true, it would explain a lot about Traci's life. And it does not bode well for our teething future with Michael!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Don't you love when your kids are so dirty from outside play that you just have to bring them straight to the bathtub, clothing and all? This picture doesn't do justice to how absolutely filthy Michael got at the playground this afternoon. (A lot of his filth got rubbed off on my shirt as I carried him, unfortunately.) He and his sister were rolling in, crawling through, throwing, and eating as much dirt as they could. Katie, the "demure" one, was throwing so much dirt into the air that I literally had to comb out the tangled sticks and leaves from her hair during the bath. I can't even begin to describe the water post-bath.... Oh well, they were in kid heaven anyway.

Grandmas are the Best!

Katie, Michael, and Traci would like to send a big THANK YOU out to Connor's Grandma B! We met up with our buds Mo, Connor (3-years-old), Madeline (4-months-old) and Grandma B at the mall today for some indoor play. We got a special surprise at lunchtime when Grandma B decided to treat all of us (!) to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. All of the kids managed to behave for the majority of the sit-down lunch, and the adults even got to talk a bit...which is a rarity these days. We sincerely appreciate Grandma B's generosity and loved our meals. THANKS!

Sunday Night Crazies

How do I even explain this photo? Let's see...Mike and Katie were crazy dancing fools. Mike was spinning, Katie was trying to spin while falling down...and Michael? I guess he was just attacking the paparazzi. Just another Sunday night at our house.

Movie Night!

Earlier this summer we started a family tradition which has quickly become one of Katie's favorites: Movie Night! She gets to stay up late in her pajamas, eat/drink a little treat, and watch a Katie-appropriate movie. So far, she has thoroughly enjoyed "Sleeping Beauty" and "Tinkerbell." (Of course, we had to fast-forward through all of the potentially scary parts, but that's life with a 3-year-old.) She even gets to dance with Mommy and Daddy through all of the movie's credits. She loves this tradition so much that she asks for it every night, but, alas, she gets it about once a month. We just don't know what is going to happen when Michael is old enough for movie night...let's hope that the kids learn to compromise on their choices if their interests diverge!

On the Cusp

Look who turns 10-months-old today!!! The theme of Michael's life right now is definitely "ON THE CUSP." He seems to be just around the corner from so many things, both good and bad. First, our little toothless wonder has at least three teeth that are literally showing their whites right under his poor gums. We're going to miss his gummy smile, but we're excited for the teething to slow down as well. Speaking of teeth, Michael's also just about finished with the baby food experience. Unless you present him with one of his favorites (squash, sweet potatoes), he pretty much spurns jarred foods. He wants to eat BY HIMSELF in all instances, which, in all honesty, is fine by us. He's still in that glorious baby stage where they'll eat most everything you put in front of them (unlike extremely picky 3-year-olds...ahem). He's also on the cusp of moving from bottle to cup. Although he still adores his bottle, he now gets all of his mid-day feedings from the sippy cup. We just figured we would get the whole weaning process over sooner rather than later. Finally, as you can see from this picture, he is ALWAYS on the cusp of getting into trouble. He can now get upright on his knees and reach many of Katie's toys. He's not quite pulling up to a standing position, but he's starting to contemplate it. And, he may never choose to walk because he can crawl just about as fast as we can all run. The things this boy gets into before you can blink an eye....the toilet paper rolls, the dirt in the cracks of our sliding glass doors, the garbage cans, the playground wood chips, etc., etc.

We Did Go to the Beach, Right?

Sorry for the gap in postings, but we just returned from a heckuva trip to Rehoboth Beach, DE!! We went for a long weekend, and we didn't know what we had in store for us since a.) Katie hates ocean waves, b.) Michael still needs a lot of sleep, and c.) the heat index was probably in the triple digits. Well, after a few adjustments at the beginning, we had such a fantastic trip....Katie still asks to go back every few hours. Since Katie was still pretty scared of the ocean, we bided our time in other ways, namely eating, swimming at the hotel pool, and....spending time at Katie's favorite place on earth, FUNLAND!! (Funland was basically a kiddie carnival on the boardwalk, where we literally spent hours watching Katie go from ride-to-ride, having the time of her life.) Yes, we finally did spend some substantial time at the beach, but that was beside the point. It was pretty awesome to see both of our kids so happy. We are still putting together our photo album from the trip, so stay tuned....

Natural Beauty

The Hipsters

This morning all the cool kids in town met up at a hip coffee/music club to see the hottest act in the Metro DC area, Rocknoceros (http://rocknoceros.com). No kidding, this children's act has groupies, t-shirt sales, their own local TV show, the whole nine yards. And we were lucky enough to catch them live! Here are our little musical hipsters:

Front row (L to R):
Allie-Girl - coming in to town all the way from sunny Miami, she spent the entire concert cooly spanning the crowd for fellow LeBron James fans
DJ Sammy-Slam - King of the Moshpits, he didn't stop jumping the entire performance
Crazy PJ Mac - Dance King of the Day, turning spins and cutting the rug

Back row (L to R):
Lady Katie - Calm, cool, and collected, planting herself in a throne and nodding her head to the music
Jackie-O - Still fresh to the music scene, she chose to enjoy the jams close to her mama
Wavy Maeve-y (slightly hidden behind Patrick) - Got so into the music that she was crawling around for a bit
Rory the Jock - Ireland's favorite future footballer deftly jammed to the groove with his best buds

Not pictured:
Col-leenie-leenie - Definitely the best female dancer of the bunch, she was busting a move all over the joint
The Big O - Never saw him without a smile on his face, must have loved the beats
DJ Mikey-Mike - Got so inspired by the music, he just had to pop a paci and crawl on the grimy club floor

Will Wonders Never Cease?

Shhhhhh! What is this strange new species we have spotted in the living-room-toy jungle? Oh my gosh...it is none other than Preschooler-us Nap-us!!! Ladies and gentlemen, we can't tell you how rare a sighting this is. We may never see it again in our lifetimes!

Co-Pilots

 

Slow weekend and week around here...the calm after the 4th holiday and before the crazy beach weekend coming up! Anyhow, plenty of time to catch up on laundry and, of course, basket aviation. Dug out and old photo of Katie just after her 1st birthday. She looks so lonely. Isn't everything more fun with a partner-in-crime?

Tuckered

Ever since Katie dropped her nap earlier this year, it has made for some looooooong days for all of us. Just take a look at this picture, which was taken at about 7:30 this evening. Katie is still wide-awake, getting to watch one of her favorite shows on TV. Meanwhile, Daddy is just about ready to pass out next to her. Believe me when we tell you the WE MISS THOSE NAPS!!

A Little Late...

As promised, we've finally put up a photo album from our recent Fourth of July Pennsylvania trip. Aside from a few sleep issues (where at one point all FOUR of us were asleep in a double bed), we all had a great time. In fact, Katie said that she didn't want to come home with us! We got to visit with Papa, Grammy, aunts, uncles, cousins, and some of Mommy's friends from home. Michael even got to meet his new best bud from California, Kai (11 months)! Thanks to all who welcomed us with the warmest hospitality. We especially loved Julian & Nico's homemade chocolate cake, Kai's swimming pool, and Grandma Mo's box of toys. We are all counting down the days until we return in Thanksgiving. Maybe the kids will learn to sleep a little better by then!

Puzzle Master

This post is dedicated to our Canadian buddy, Ellie S. Ever since Katie watched your AMAZING video where you literally put together a jigsaw puzzle in about 3 minutes, she has wanted to do it, too. Now, she can proudly put together her beloved Snow White puzzle in approximately 5 minutes. Here's what's funny about it....she has basically memorized exactly how to put the puzzle pieces together in her own particular order. If you ask her to try any of her other puzzles on her own, she responds with an adamant "NOOO!" Or, if you ask her to tackle the puzzle in a different way (i.e. start with edges and corners), she looks at you like you are crazy. Well, at least she's knows how to do THIS puzzle in HER way very, very well.

Copy Kat

Whenever you put a couple of siblings together, it's probably obvious that the younger one would emulate the older in all kinds of activities. But, who knew how much the roles would be reversed? Not only does Katie pull out her "dolly bottle" whenever Michael is eating from his, but she also has to have whatever toy he is interested in, try any food that is on his tray, and pretty much just copy anything that is garnering him some attention. As if she doesn't get enough herself. She's already gotten a few time-outs this week for shoving Michael. Can't wait until they wage their all-out battles.... For some reason, we think she is going to lose her upper-hand pretty quickly.

PS - We are still sorting through all of our great images from our Fourth of July weekend. More on that later this week!!

Pool Party!

They say that the last days and hours before a much-anticipated holiday are the longest... Thank God that our good friends Angela, Lyla (3 years-old), and Anamarie (almost 2) opened their house to a bunch of us kids and mommies for a big pool party today! Even though the kids only lasted for a short time in the pool on a relatively cool day (only 80 degrees today....brrrr in Northern Virginia!), they had lots of fun playing on the family playground, wreaking havoc in their play room, and munching on a yummy lunch. Aside from a few potty accidents and sharing/hitting incidents, the party went off without a hitch. Thanks so much, Angela! Now onto our road trip to PA tomorrow!!!