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March already? I don’t know where the time goes. It was fun to get a little bit of snow, though! Enough to make everything pretty, anyway.

We had a productive week… thanks in part to the upcoming appraisal of our house! We figured we should tidy up the playroom and the garage, anyway, so it felt good to accomplish that.

We also had lots of “dance parties” where CareBear would put on a “twirly” dress and teach all of us her dance moves. LiliBee loves dancing with her big sister and especially loves doing “ring around the rosie”. I think it’s the falling down part LiliBee likes best.

CareBear is going to be three years old this week. She’s very excited about having balloons, but I can’t get her to agree about her age. She insists that she’s either three months old or a ‘big kid’ whenever we talk about it. She loves to argue… and it’s very hard to win an argument with a three year old without resorting to “because I said so”.

We’ll be doing some visiting this week, so that should be fun. I’m not looking forward to the start of daylight savings time, though. I’m still working on getting our schedules back on track after all of the sneezing and coughing of last month!

 

We had a terrible week! Ok, not terrible, but we were all sick with a cold and that took up most of our week (and caused a serious lack of updates on this blog!). I spent several days with a stuffy head… which meant that I couldn’t hear, smell or think. That’s not a good combination with two toddlers in the house! We’ve pretty much all recovered by now, Chris was the last one to come down with it so he’s still a bit stuffy.

Chris and I spent our afternoon of anniversary “freedom” exploring the wonders of the banking world instead of seeing a movie. We got a lot done, but it wasn’t quite as fun as it could have been. Hopefully, we’ll make it to a movie eventually. We did get our yummy Thai take-out, though!

LiliBee had her 15 month checkup on Friday… otherwise known as, “will she ever get to face forward in the car?”. (Answer: Not yet.) She is a very healthy toddler who’s also very tiny. She’s almost up to 19 lbs now, though, so she’s getting there! (It amazes me that she’s wearing the clothes at 15 months that CareBear wore when she was 9 months old.) She won over the doctor, though, by running up to him with a big smile when he walked through the door. And then she scared him by climbing to the top of the exam table and standing up near the edge! That’s my girl.

CareBear spent the week being a little baby. She apparently decided that it was a good gig and announced that we should call her “Baby CareBear”. She then told us what babies can and can’t do as well as what they can and can’t eat. Luckily, being a baby isn’t fun for very long and she generally forgets that she’s supposed to be helpless. I was particularly amused when Chris told her that babies can’t run and that they crawled everywhere… we could hear her run all over the house, until she’d get to the doorway of the room we were in where she’d drop down and crawl to us. 

I hope everyone is well!

This update is going to be short and sweet (“like you” Chris would say, he’s silly that way). I sliced my finger along with the cauliflower this afternoon while attempting to make dinner and typing without it is slow and annoying… and there are way more typos than usual.

This week was pretty good. We’re dealing with a relapse of our January cold and even I’ve got stuffy nose this time around. We did manage to have a fun Valentine’s day. Nothing too out of the ordinary, though, “Tinkerbell” and popcorn all around. Between that and the candy valentine hearts she got from Grams, CareBear was pretty impressed with Valentine’s day this year. LiliBee was less than thrilled since CareBear got to have something that she didn’t.

Chris and I are going to get yummy takeout this week to celebrate the anniversary of our first date (it’s the one we use on the “off” years when there isn’t a leap day) and we might even get away to a movie or something.

I hope everyone has a good week!

 

I had a realization this week… CareBear is going to be 3 in less than a month! I can’t believe she’s already that old. This month will also mark 5 years since Chris and I got married. It’s amazing how many things have changed in such a short period of time.

We had a fun week! It was Chris’ first Wednesday off (he’s working four 10 hour shifts a week now), so we headed to the Y for family swimming to celebrate. Chris also got to do some laps while the girls and I played in the toddler pool. CareBear showed off her kicking skills in the bigger pool and LiliBee did her best to imitate her.

That’s a constant theme around here… Lilia imitating CareBear. It’s led LiliBee to do a lot more climbing and other daring feats than CareBear did at her age. She’s a lot more sneaky about it, too. It’s a dangerous combination! CareBear decided this morning that LiliBee was a kitty. She’s been calling her “Little Bee Kitty Cat” all day. LiliBee seems to be ok with that.

We had our regular toddler gym class on Saturday and it was the first time, I think, that we all participated in circle time at the same time! CareBear spent most of the class under the parachute while LiliBee practiced going up and down the slide. It’s a handy way to get rid of a bunch of toddler energy.

Other than that, we’re just waiting for the weather to warm up!

Happy Groundhog’s Day!

I hear that Punxsutawny Phil saw his shadow, which would give us a few more weeks of winter… 

We started out this week with a bit of winter weather and almost an inch of snow on the ground. It doesn’t sound like much, but it was enough to entertain the kids and the dogs for most of the morning. LiliBee actually enjoyed it more this time as she had a pretty difficult time walking around in the deeper snow.

By the end of the week, it was practically spring-like! We took advantage of an almost sunny afternoon by taking a trip to the park. We did some walking and some playing at the playground. Unfortunately, LiliBee fell asleep during the walking and missed out on the playing. CareBear, on the other hand, declared herself a “big kid” and went down the big slides before swinging all by herself on the swings. She almost got herself moving, too! 

We’ve ended this week with our annual January cold. It’s a little late this year, but LiliBee started with a runny nose a few days ago and now CareBear has a cough. I hope it doesn’t last too long!

Chris is starting his new work schedule this week… he’ll be working later than he was, so we’re all going to have to adjust our schedules. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly!

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the new year… not too long now before it’ll be February and then it’s not a new year anymore! My resolutions (organizing my pictures as I upload them and posting a picture a day on the website) are still going strong. Four weeks in and I haven’t missed a day yet.

This week was mostly fun. We started our toddler gym class again and LiliBee is excited to be able to participate. Now that she’s a better walker, she can almost keep up with the other kids when it comes to chasing the balls around or jumping on the trampoline. CareBear even convinced her to climb into the big foam pit. CareBear is an expert at the obstacle course now and even participated in circle time for a few minutes (she’s never been too interested in sitting still for long).

Chris had his second swimming class and, despite his predictions, has not actually drowned yet. He’s doing really well, actually, and I’m glad that he’s learning before the girls do!

LiliBee decided that one molar wasn’t worth the discomfort, so she’s getting the other three too. Poor kid is pretty uncomfortable sometimes, but all four have broken through now so I’m hoping it gets better soon. She’s only really cranky about it when she’s tired, but her poor fingers get a lot of chewing. 

CareBear spent another week inside her “tent” in the living room. She likes to have her snacks in there and even invites LiliBee or the cat to join her. I complain sometimes about not being able to walk through the room (between the “tent” and the “playground”, sometimes I have to take a shortcut over the couch to get to my computer), but it’s too much fun watching them play to stop her.

We got some good stuff done this weekend… Chris put in the shower in our master bathroom so I was able to have a shower in my own bathroom for the first time in over a year! It’s practically a functional bathroom now. We also spent some time reorganizing the kitchen. It’s nice to feel productive.

 

Another quiet week. Chris had an extra couple of days off (one of the better parts of working for the state is the holidays!) so we were able to get some errands and organizing done. Now if only I could find the time to ditch all of the clutter, we’d be in pretty good shape!

LiliBee is now officially 14 months old… she walks, runs, climbs, yells, waves… she’s not a baby anymore. She’s getting her first molar, so that’s been a lot of no fun. It’s messing up her sleep and making her chew on her clothing.

She’s thinking about starting to talk, though. She’s been focusing so much on learning to do everything CareBear can do that it hasn’t been a priority (and CareBear does enough talking for everyone). Still, she’s working on a few words that aren’t “mama!” now and that’s a nice change. And Grams taught her to blow kisses, which is beyond cute.

CareBear has become an expert pedal-er. She still has trouble getting going in the mud or gravel due to the lack of traction on the wheels, but she’s getting pretty good at going once she gets started. Steering is a bit more challenging… I hadn’t noticed that none of her riding toys to this point let the kids actually steer (I suppose it’s supposed to be “safer” or something) but I keep having to remind her that she has the freedom to decide where to go.

This week should be a bit more exciting as our toddler gym class (finally) starts up again. CareBear is looking forward to all of the running around and LiliBee will actually be able to participate in the obstacle course now that she’s a fairly stable walker. We also get to start planning our annual Seaside vacation (and Ham Radio pilgrimage), which is always lots of fun.

I hope everyone was able to stay dry this week. We had quite a bit of water hanging around at the end of the driveway, but nothing too bad. I’m always happy that we live on a hill when the flooding starts.

We’re still in our post-holiday lull around here. I’m kind of enjoying not having much going on, but I’ll be glad when the toddler gym classes start up again… CareBear needs an outlet for her excess energy!

LiliBee is finally getting the teeth she’s been working on for the last month or so. They’re coming in on the top, which means that she’ll have 6 upper teeth and only 2 lower teeth… that seems unbalanced to me (not to mention uncomfortable) so I’m hoping that the bottom teeth aren’t far behind.

We took a walk around the neighborhood the other day to check out the puddles and wildlife. CareBear made friends with a kitty down the road and learned how to pedal the “bike” that the neighbors loaned us (though she can’t quite get enough force behind it yet since there isn’t much traction to the wheels). She came up with all kinds of adventures that we were on, which was a lot of fun.

My New Year’s resolution is going well enough that Chris decided to do a Project 365 himself… he’s going to (theoretically) take a picture of himself every day this year, along with whoever happens to be around at the time. It should be fun to see how much he changes over the year (check it out). He’s even blogging!

 

Happy New Year!

It’s 2009. That’s crazy. I have no idea where 2008 went.

We had a very quiet New Year. The kids slept while Chris and I watched the fireworks at the Space Needle on TV. We’re such party animals. Lucy had a rough night with the fireworks going off around midnight (actually, they lasted over an hour and a half around here) and again on New Year’s day. They just scare the “big dog” right out of her.

This whole week was pretty mellow, making for a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Chris worked so much at the beginning of the week that he had enough hours to take a long weekend. We didn’t even have to do any classes or shopping or errands!

CareBear was thrilled to wake up to more snow on Friday. She got all bundled up and headed out with Chris and the puppies to explore the backyard. It’s so much more interesting out there when there’s snow on the ground! She wanted to find some bugs to catch, but I convinced her that they’d all be sleeping during the winter. 

LiliBee learned to jump this week. She watched CareBear jump around their couch cushion playground and decided that it was time for her to try. It’s scary to watch, but she actually gets some air under her feet now instead of just flopping from cushion to cushion. LiliBee gets really mad when CareBear does something that she’s not big enough to do yet. They’re going to be partners in crime before too long.

I made a resolution this year to get my photos under control… you may have noticed that I take a lot of pictures. My goal is to figure out how to use the computer software to tag and organize the pictures so I can find them more easily. Also, I need to be more critical and delete the pictures that are out of focus or otherwise unfortunate. They’re just all so cute! In what seems counter-intuitive, I’ve also decided to participate in something called “project 365”. The idea behind it is that you take (and post) a picture a day. By the end of the year, you have a visual snapshot of your year. Watch for that to start up soon on our website (www.dragonbard.com).

The kids are having a tea party in their room right now… for which they apparently had to be naked. It’s going to be a fun evening!