Beatrice, 30 months

This update is almost two weeks late but I'm a little behind since we've been visiting your 'Meatball and PawPaw' in Missouri.

It's hard to believe you're already 2 1/2.  You've become such a little lady.  You love to carry purses and backpacks and will take as many as I'll allow when we leave the house.  Currently your Dora backpack and a clear and green striped tote bag are your favorites.  And you fill them with all of the necessities, coloring book, crayons, sunglasses, and cell phone.

The other thing you love as much, if not more, than your purses are your babies.  There's Super baby, New baby,  Baby doll, Dora, Dora doll, and Ballerina.  Every night you tuck them in under special blankie and at least one will go with us on outings.

You also seem to be going through a dress phase.  Every morning when asked what you want to wear you respond, 'a cute dress with bloomies'.  If only I would've known this at the beginning of the summer I wouldn't have stocked up on tanks and t-shirts!  Size wise you can wear a 2T but it's usually a little big.  In shorts and skirts (when I can talk you into them) you're an 18 months.

Food wise you continue to be picky but you will at least try everything on your plate.  Fruit is a huge favorite, which is good, as is 'yogurt juice' (kefir) right now.  You've also surprised me by loving, and requesting frequently, tofu.

You continue to be a great sleeper, still taking one nap in the afternoon (for about 2 hours) and sleeping most nights until 7am.

Most of all you are such a funny and engaging little girl.  You love to make your little brother laugh, you love to read, you've found a new obsession in Max & Ruby, and you love to pretend play.  We've spent the past 3 weeks in Missouri and you've had such fun that I'm going to hate it when we have to leave.  But preschool starts next month and I can't wait to see what that brings!

Heather

Charlie, 8 months

Time is flying by right now.  It feels like I just posted about what Charlie's doing at 7 months and here his 8 month birthday has just passed.

Charlie is still the happiest baby.  Nothing makes him laugh like his big sister and he can't get enough of peek-a-boo.  Usually we play after his nightly bath and he uses his towel to cover his eyes until I ask "where's Charlie?".

He hasn't started crawling on all fours yet but army crawls everywhere.  And there's nothing he isn't into right now.  It's like he's been scoping out the house for months and now he's on a mission to grab and see everything.

And in true boy fashion he gravitates towards the normal suspects.  He absolutely loves balls and banging anything that makes noise.

He now has four teeth (two top and two bottom) and is still eating really well, as well as really messy.  We've taken to feeding him only in a diaper (classy, i know) because he gets food everywhere.  This past week he decided to blow raspberries every time I would place a spoonful of food into his mouth.

Thankfully his sleeping habits are back to normal.  No more 45 minute crying sessions at bedtime.  I'm hoping that was just connected to teething.  But it does seem we have an early riser.  He usually goes to bed around 8pm and pretty much always wakes up at 5am.  He will nurse and go back to sleep but at that point we're usually awake.

We're also taking trip number 2 in a few days and this time I'll be flying alone with both Bea and Charlie.  Fingers crossed all goes well!!

Heather

What We Wore Wednesday

Jumpsuit:  Target

Sandals:  Old Navy

Heather 

Ice Ice Baby

It's been awhile since we've done any "art projects" (Bea calls anything creative an art project) in our backyard.  It's been so hot most afternoons that we've been staying inside.  However, today felt relatively nice, considering the highs of 100+ this weekend, so we spent the afternoon outside.

This was a pretty simple one.  Last night I made blue, green, and yellow ice cubes using food coloring and an ice cube tray.  This afternoon we put them all in a disposable roasting pan.  I gave Bea a cup with water and an empty cup.  She spent the majority of the time pouring water and ice cubes back and forth and Charlie spent most of the time grabbing the cubes and splashing in the water.  I was actually surprised how much he participated, although I'm not sure why considering how much he loves being a part of whatever Bea does.

After about an hour of playing we went inside and Bea and I had some jello (not the best snack, but I tried to make jello cubes for this and it did not turn out well so we had a ton leftover).

I'm definitely going to do this again.  Maybe next time I'll freeze some bigger blocks of ice and use a bigger container.

Heather

Morning/Afternoon

Our Morning

Our Afternoon

Our time in California has flown by and since it's coming to an end we're trying to pack in as much as we can.  This morning we went to the playground and met Aunt Shannon's friend Annie and her daughter, Leila.  Then after a lunch of In-n-Out burger Bea and Charlie went down for a nap, with Grey on baby duty (thank you Charlie!!!!  After several days of not napping you FINALLY went down without a fight!!!!) and we headed to a local winery, Concannon, to check out their new wine bar, Underdog.

Sadly we only have one more day before heading back to a very hot New Jersey.

Heather  

Charlie, 7 months

Charlie turned 7 months old on the 12th and what a busy month it's been!  It seems like he's changed so much in the last two months.  Going from only being able to sit for a few seconds to army crawling everywhere, much to the dismay of Bea.  With his new found mobility he's also found that his sister's toys (which were previously out of reach) are just as fun, if not more, than his.  I feel like this is just the beginning of us hearing "No Charlie!  Charlie has my x, y, z..." oh well, it's to be expected.

This is literally the happiest baby I've ever seen.  He will laugh like crazy when you tickle him, when Bea dances for him, when you make funny faces or dance, pretty much anytime.  And he's such a cuddle baby.  He loves nothing more than to nap next to mommy and daddy.

We started solid foods a little earlier with Charlie so he's already had quite the variety of foods.  So far the only dislike has been green beans (and it was only once).  He loves cherries, strawberries, avocado, and yogurt and we're adding new foods everyday.

He also took his first cross country flight last week.  He's at that awkward flying age where all he wants to do is be on the floor moving around so it wasn't the most relaxing flight but all in all it went well.

We're also having a sleeping set back, unfortunately.  Up until a few weeks ago Charlie would nap 2+ hours every afternoon, the same time as Bea, which meant that I had 2+ hours to do things around the house (or catch up on shows).  For some reason he's refusing to nap unless I'm lying beside him and going to bed at night has turned into a 45 minute ordeal of crying, rocking more, crying, etc.  I'm hoping that this is related to teething (so far we have 2 bottom teeth and I can see a top tooth coming in) because I felt so lucky to have such a good sleeper!

I can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Heather

The Oakland Zoo

Yesterday morning we took our much anticipated trip to the Oakland Zoo.  Back in March we went to Turtleback Zoo near us in South Orange and Bea had a wonderful time.  So Bea's grandmother (Gray, as Bea calls her) planned a day to check out the Oakland Zoo while we're in California.

We decided to rent Bea one of the "special" zoo strollers so she could easily get in and out and see the animals.

We managed to see almost everything:  bunnies, alligators, macaws, giraffes, lemurs, tortoises, we really tried to fit in as much as possible in the few hours we had.

The children's area had a few playground pieces and Bea loved this slide.

This sign had me a bit confused though

What I'm wondering is where the half hog exhibit is.....

After lunch and a train ride we picked up a few new friends to remember the day and headed home.

This was about 5 minutes after leaving the zoo.

Heather

Charlie's New Best Friend

Charlie has found a new best friend since arriving in California and her name is Rosie.  He absolutely loves watching her through the sliding glass doors and is in heaven when she is allowed inside.

Heather

A New House

We arrived in California yesterday and this was waiting for Bea.....her very own playhouse!  And if you're wondering, behind the garage door is a tricycle.  After all, what good would a new house be without a new ride?

Bea's grandparents assembled it from boxes used to ship organs and her aunt Shannon and Shannon's friend Annie painted it.  Bea absolutely loves it and was constantly asking (when we would come inside) to go outside and "play with my new house".

Heather

California Bound

Heather

Bea's Art Corner

Every once in awhile Bea will do or say something and I'm reminded just how much she pays attention to everything we do and say.  Monday night after dinner she wanted us to come into her playroom and color.  She gave us both pieces of paper and crayons and then sat with us at the table and worked on her own coloring.

After a few minutes, when T and I had stopped coloring she grabbed one of our pictures and said she wanted to hang it up and then took it over to her "kitchen" and put it up on the wall.

I do this with everything she paints (or draws, etc) so of course she wanted to do it with our pictures.

As you can tell, we're quite the artistic group.

Heather

New Friends

How adorable are these little guys?  They're Anamalz and I ordered them for Charlie's room (eventually they'll move to the playroom for him).  I found these three as a group on Zulily for a huge discount and I'm hoping this will be a start of a growing collection for him.

Heather  

Chillin with a snack

On one of our morning walks to Starbucks.  Bea loves the Peeled apple snacks they carry.

Recent Finds

A few weekends ago our little town of South Orange had a city wide "garage sale".  There was nothing specific I was on the hunt for, but I love going to garage sales, thrift stores, flea markets, etc.  We only ended up going to a handful of homes but that's because I hit my spending limit early on.

Here are a few of our finds.

Cute Melissa & Doug abacus.  Not really sure if I'll put this in Charlie's room for a more decorative piece or leave it out in the playroom for the time being.

A huge group of Dr. Seuss books.  They were $1 each and this isn't even everything we picked up, Bea has several in her room.

Melissa & Doug ice cream set.  Bea wasn't even that into this when we were at the sale but I thought she might be soon.  It's an understatement to say that she plays with this multiple times a day.

Box of Mr., Mrs., and kiddo potato heads plus TONS of parts.

Two vintage Sesame Street books.  I love these!

And finally the "catch of the day".....

A Thomas the Train figure 8 train set and a basketful of trains as well as additional tracks, a train wash, a crane, and risers.

I had been considering a train set for Bea but wasn't really sure where to begin.  Then we came across all of this for, get ready, $40.  I knew this was a deal, but wasn't sure how much of one until last week when we were in Toys R Us and I saw that just one of these trains could run anywhere from $16-22.  I'm not even exaggerating when I say we easily have 30 of them.  The only thing we don't have is a bridge for the figure 8 set.  That's what eBay is for, right?

I think we ended up spending around $70 for all of this.  All in all, a great garage sale day!

Heather  

Father & Son

Even though Charlie is sick with his first real cold and fever, he slept until 6am this morning.  The difference in a 5am wake up call and a 6am wake up call feels like hours for me so I was so happy we all "slept in" this morning.

Fingers crossed he's well soon!

Heather

Quietly Working

I absolutely love this picture.  Travis actually took it a few weeks ago while Bea was diligently working on coloring.  So sweet!

A Tuesday that feels like a Monday

Even after a long holiday weekend today definitely felt like a Monday.  We were invited to a play group this morning but both Bea and Charlie have a little cough and runny nose so I didn't want them to pass it along to anyone else.  Instead we walked down to our little town center, grabbed a Starbucks, and indulged in Bea's favorite thing there, sitting on the bench.

And, since it was so hot Bea decided to bring along her own ice cream.

In addition to "looking for people we know" she also loves to smell/look at/throw the flowers.

After nap time it was still a million degrees outside so I decided to keep them in for the afternoon.

Isn't this the picture of hot and sweaty!

So, Bea worked on a sprinkle/marker concoction and Charlie enjoyed the new jumparoo loaned to us.

Now it's storming so hopefully this humidity will be a thing of the past tomorrow.  I can't take upper 80's and humid at the end of May!

Heather