Clifford and First Solid Food!

Time has gotten away from me this month! I can't believe April is almost gone - here are some photos from the past few weeks!

While Daddy was working, (a common theme from the past month since he is trying day and night to finish grad school!) Mama and the girls visited the children's museum to see a display of our favorite big furry red dog. That's right folks, Clifford in person...or in "dog" I suppose...needless to say, we were so excited we had a hard time posing for this picture someone offered to take!

Here he is!

Loading dog bones onto the conveyor belt to keep Clifford's bowl full - except it was much more fun to stand in the bowl and put the bones on the conveyor belt going down...:-)


Isabel loved watching these newly-hatched baby chicks run around - she stood there and giggled and "talked" to them. Oh, and that sign that says "pls. don't bang or tap on the window" - I figured the chicks wouldn't mind a baby "tapping"...sometimes excitement overcomes us and we bang but I didn't have the heart to stop her!



Abbie's friend , En, turned 3 yesterday and we were invited to a birthday party at her house! Isabel tagged along...there were 10 kids aged 3 and under. It turns out that a birthday party for a 3-year old is pretty much mass chaos - but so much fun! The girls were so tired they both slept the entire way home in the car!


My two Froggies - Abbie was delighted when we unearthed these outgrown froggy jammies of hers for Izzie (Abbie only outgrew them last fall). Whenever one girl wears them, Abbie insists they both wear them - I learned that I must always have BOTH pairs clean or we face major two-year old disappointment, which is something that causes even the stout of heart to tremble!


Daddy mowing the lawn for the first time with our new electric lawn mower, a housewarming gift from Nana and Papa. It was fun, the whole family watched him mow the whole lawn...only took about 20 minutes...see? There are perks about a small-but-good yard :-)

FIRST FOOD!!! Although breastmilk can be a complete food for the first year of life if the baby is gaining well (Isabel seems to be fine in that department!), we decided since she has five teeth (maybe a sign that she is ready for food?) and is almost 8.5 months that we would give her some food on her tray and let her play. Since she's 8.5 months old, we can skip the baby food because the intestines are more mature at this age (according to our pediatrician, and this is what we did for Abbie). I will pretty much just let her play until she's 12 months...then maybe worry about how much she's getting, unless she wants help spooning it in. She seemed to enjoy the applesauce, or enjoyed smearing, either way...we peeled a pear and gave her the whole pear to chew on last night - slippery little sucker, but she sure enjoyed it!

She was licking the tray! I put a bit on a spoon and tried to give it to her but she much preferred this method of ingestion! we'll work on table manners next month!

Drinking from the bowl also worked...again, much preferred over the more dainty method of spooning...good thing we do this at dinner time so she can go straight to a bath afterward!

Little drummer girl



Abbie loves looking out the bay window and them reporting on what she sees...rabbits, squirrels, robins...the neighbors :-)



yum, yum!

Earthquake?!!

Thanks to Rosanna for pointing it out, otherwise I would've attributed it to overtired hallucinations after feeding Isabel at 4:30am last night! I heard strange noises and creaking so I woke Alex up and asked what it was - because of course he would be able to explain it, right? Abbie and Izzie both started fussing too.....I was thinking, "Mice?? Big HUGE mice in the attic trapdoor right next to my side of the bed? No, the home inspector would've tipped us off to that." The only explanation I was left with as I got everyone settled again was that our house was haunted. Although I thought, "Since it's only 28 years old isn't it too young to be haunted?" I sure wasn't going to go poking around at 4:30am to check!
Turns out we had a magnitude 5.2 earthquake in central Illinois last night. Nice to have an explanation for the disturbance, however random and unexpected!

Loving the sights out of the bay window...which is always decorated nicely with a smear of handprints :-)

Jammie and storytime...do we look tired?!!!


In other news: We are box-less!! Well, inside at least. We cheated a bit and put everything we don't know what to do with in the garage...but the garage is another project for another day. For now we're enjoying a clutter-free, semi-organized living space again!

Isabel is 8 months old!! She's got five teeth and is a "moving maniac!" A bundle of energy who chuckles mischievously as I pull her away from the stairs for the 20th time in 10 minutes and puts everything and anything in the mouth! She's a joy....


Abbie seems to be adjusting well to the new living arrangements...she loves playing outside in the yard and really enjoys being able to go back and forth from yard to house so easily. She still adamantly insists on wearing our swimsuit most days...I might just have to resign myself and instead of buying spring clothes just get a few more swimsuits.


A shot of the backyard - small but sweet.

Data read error - bad sector

It appears there is a "missing sector" in our digital blog life due to a memory overflow called only "movingallourjunk.exe". Regardless, it seems we've got the bug mostly resolved (read: quarantined [garage]) so I've been able to access the old (mid-March) vacation data. The contents are below.

Abbie in standard uniform pictured here with master bubble blower.

Our second born conteplating the notion of an entire universe within each grain of sand.

Chillin.

You'd think in our technological age they would have figured out how to make bubble straws that don't require this much exertion.

Trouble. Capital T. Yeah they look innocent here ... don't be deceived.

Grandpa has things under control by the pool .... wait aren't you one short?

Ah... there he is, resting peacefully with my slightly sleep deprived sister.

Don't you wish this was your life? Note: I think Katie has a cocktail hidden behind the shower curtain here.

Now you see the deviousness in their eyes...

Enough said.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We're already looking forward to March 2009!

Alex (and family)

Oh - My - Goodness.

Well. We now have internet. And another phone! Wow, who could've thought you'd miss the internet so much. I descended into a world filled with boxes and more boxes and couldn't find my way out for anything - no internet made that even more difficult! We were so lucky to have my parents around to help with the move, as well as Uncle Dan...without them things would've really been....interesting (read We've been scrubbing everything like crazy - we had to get rid of other people's dirt to make room for our own! Glad to say we are finally scrubbed to a shine here and can start putting things away...the girls have been troopers.

Isabel is cruising and can crawl up an entire set of stairs (approx.15!!) This is wonderful - she is so proud. But her NOT being a blob for the move has been difficult as we are constantly having to rescue her from certain peril! I usually spend all day trying to keep everyone safe in the chaos and then Alex and I work like crazy after the girls are in bed...it's been wonderful and challenging all at the same time. Overall thus far we love the house and look forward to soon being able to function normally! I did find the extra camera batteries finally, so was able to snap a few shots - more to come soon as live will (hopefully!) return to normal soon!
Katie

A box of older toys that resurrected itself was fun once again!



The living situation - but they are flexible...the boxes have been great fun to dig around in!