Picture You

Annabelle has decided that the fire hydrant in front of our house makes a fantastic camera. She asked me to stand there so that she could "picture me."

Here, she is taking a picture of me, while I take a picture of her... "You picture me, and I'll picture you." It all makes perfect sense!

Potty Training?

I was in the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher, when all of a sudden I heard this little voice say, "Mommy, oh no, I'm stuck." I knew Jack was in the living room playing with his trains, so my first thought was that he had dropped a train, or car, in between the couch cushions, which is usually the case when he complains about things being "stuck", so I wasn't in any rush to go and investigate his complaint. A few seconds later, I hear again, "Mommy, help, I'm stuck." This time, I realize that his voice is not, in fact, coming from the living room, but the bathroom... And yes indeed, was he ever stuck!

Sidewalk Paint

It seemed like a good idea at the store,

it even seemed like a good idea when we first got home and started painting.

Then Jack painted Annabelle's head, and leg, and shoe,

and then had the brilliant idea...

To paint Mommy's car.

Then sidewalk paint didn't seem like such a good idea any more.

Delicious AND Nutritious

I left Jack at the breakfast table for a minute while I went to assist Annabelle on the potty, when I returned I discovered that he had made a little addition to his breakfast:

peanut butter and jelly on a bagel, blueberries, and a battery... guaranteed to jump start any morning.

Little Girl, Big Bed

Annabelle's crib was one of those convertible-bed for life- type of things, which went from a crib, to a toddler bed, and then on to a full size bed. We never bothered with the toddler bed stage because Annabelle was always too lazy to climb out of her crib, so figured, eh, why give her an easy opportunity. Besides, she always claimed to love her crib and had no interest in moving into a bigger bed, so it seemed silly to turn it into a toddler bed when we would have had to put a side rail up anyway.

While we were away, at The Cape, she spent the week sleeping in a "big girl" bed, and really loved it. She shared a room with Jack (who was in a cage, I mean pack-n-play) and, although she did get out of her bed on more than one occasion to go over and chat to him, or pick up his teddy bear or something; she never once left their room. Not once.

The first night we were home, I took her up to her room to put her to bed, she took one look at her crib and burst into tears... The next day, we made a family outing to purchase a new mattress. It arrived about four days later. A few days after that, lazy Daddy got around to converting the old crib into the super deluxe monkey seen here:

Annabelle is very, very pleased with her new "big girl" bed.

Cape Week

We spent last week on Cape Cod with some friend's of ours who flew in from New Orleans for the occasion. They brought along their kids, who are 12 and 14, which was great for us because they completely entertained Annabelle and Jack (who loved annoying "the big kids"), AND they also babysat!

We had great weather, spent most days at the beach, and most evenings doing kiddie activities like trampolines, bumper boats, and go-carts... Annabelle loved the trampolines so much we actually went back like 4 times! We also rented bicycles one day and rode part of the Rail Trail- it was the first time that Annabelle and Jack got to ride in a bike trailer, which they were not very happy about at first, but really enjoyed once Daddy got a peddlin'. Another day we went up to Provincetown for the day.

On the way back to Beantown we stopped off in Plymouth and checked out Plimouth Plantation and The Mayflower II. For the most part, I think our kids were a bit too young for the plantation, but they did really enjoy chasing the chickens!

It's no secret that Jack loves water, he was completely in his element at the beach. Each day Nick built a big sand castle and "off roading" track so that Jack could run his cars in the sand. He had such a blast knocking down Daddy's sand castles!

Girl Genius

A few weeks ago Nick and I were driving in the car with the kids and for some reason we were trying to teach Annabelle our home phone number. She was not getting it all. She kept jumbling it all up and laughing, as she does, so we just gave up and didn't give it another thought.

Yesterday, in the car again, out of the blue she came out with: "If I ever get lost I have to tell someone to call my Mommy at ***-***-****." She said our exact phone number!! In complete disbelief, we of course asked her to repeat herself, which she did- over and over and over again, but she was correct EVERY time!!!

Now if I could only get my little genius to remember not to omit 14 and 15 when counting to 20...

Mini Football Madness

She dribbles,

She shoots,
She scores!

Where Did My Baby Go?

I took these pictures of Jack the other day, as I was looking at them it occurred to me that he no longer looks like a baby. Maybe it's the hair cut, or the fact that he is losing his baby chub, or maybe it's the way he is dressed. Or a combination of all of the above.

Maybe.

Because he couldn't possibly be growing up this fast.

Could he?

Perhaps I should try letting his hair grow, fattening him up a bit, and dressing him in animal print clothing...

Strawberry Picking

Annabelle picks her first strawberry

Watching Swans with Daddy

Upset because we wouldn't let him "swim" in the pond

Everyone needs a little strawberry ice cream

Mmmmmmmmmm.

First Movie Theater Visit

The Monkeys made their first visit to the cinema yesterday, to see Shrek the Third. I was a little bit nervous about taking them because they can barely sit still for five minutes, let alone two hours but, in general, they both did really well.

Annabelle was very, very excited... more so about my nephews coming with us than seeing the film but I'm sure she didn't really understand what was about to happen. Once we arrived at the cinema her eyes widened and the excitement level elevated through the roof, especially when she saw the snack kiosk. I got her a bag of popcorn and then barely heard a peep out of her until the movie was over. She sat in the row across from me, in between my nephews, so if there was any chitter-chatter they got the brunt of it.

Jack wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. When we first walked into the theater there was a very loud preview showing on the screen, which must have frightened him because he clung to me and would not let go. He started to relax a bit once the scary preview was over and by the time Shrek had started he was sitting calmly on my lap. He sat on my lap quietly, eating popcorn, for a good hour before he started getting fidgety. There was another little girl, who was about Jack's age, in the row behind us who kept getting up to say hello. Before long the two of them were running up and down the center aisle together, at one point, Jack stopped and did a little dance while announcing to the entire audience, (at full volume) "I'M DANCING!" It was then that I knew Jack had seen enough of Shrek. So Jack was removed, he and I spent the final 15 minutes of the film wandering around the lobby.

Current Favorite

Annabelle's new favorite song is Bohemian Like You, by The Dandy Warhols. Have a listen. Then repeat play about 40 times... It'll be like a car ride with Annabelle.

The Dandy Warhols ...

Two Year Check Up

Jack finally had his two year check up, (only 2 and a half months late).

He completely freaked out in the Doctor's office so we were unable to get accurate measurements but, they estimated that his height is about 35 inches and weight about 30.5 lbs., putting him in the 50-75Th percentile. He was too upset to do any of the visual tests, although he did manage to identify an apple before his meltdown, and when Dr. P asked him where his hair was, he quizzically responded with a, "on my head". The highlight of the visit though was when Jack, dressed only in a diaper, grabbed his shoes and legged it down the hall yelling, "time to go home!!!"

Um, you forgot your pants Jack.

"My Five"

The girls at the gym daycare taught Jack how to give a "high five" today. He is too funny, he calls it "my five".

Little Clown

Annabelle is a strawberry fanatic. When Nick heard that there was a strawberry festival a few towns away, naturally, we just had to take her. Imagine a whole festival devoted to strawberries! For someone as small and as mad as Annabelle, that would be a dream come true.

The entire way there all she talked about was how she was going to eat all the strawberries and bring home a big basket full. She was so excited! But when we got there she sadly asked the burning question... Where are all the strawberries? We walked up and down the rows of tents looking for the strawberries; we saw pottery, we saw jewelry, we saw some nice crafty handbags, and some framed artwork. There were plants, and balloons, and all sorts of knickknacks... But there were no strawberries. We kept looking.

Finally, on our second go around, we noticed a group of people standing in a line in front of a frail old woman, who was seated under a tent behind a huge cash box. She was taking their money and handing them tickets. Then we saw the sign... STRAWBERRY, could it be? Actual strawberries? But why is there a need for tickets? Are they housing the world's largest strawberry in there, we wondered? We read further... STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE.

Strawberry shortcake? All these people are waiting in line for strawberry shortcake? Maybe the strawberry shortcake lady knows where the real strawberries are, we thought. So we waited in the line. When we reached the old woman and inquired as to where all the strawberries were hiding, we found out that this was it; the highlight of the festival. People waited all year for this strawberry shortcake. Turns out, the only strawberries we would be seeing at the "strawberry" festival were in the form of shortcake. How disappointing for the small one, so we thought...

We got her a bowl of strawberry shortcake and a few balloons and she was as grateful as if we had let her loose in a strawberry field on an empty stomach!

Happy Days Are Here Again

And all is right with the world; Jack's favorite car has been found!!!

The sneaky little bugger was hiding behind the stove... Silly me for not looking there sooner. He probably would have stayed there for all eternity too, had Jack not lodged a different car in between the stove and the wall, requiring me to move the stove out to retrieve.

Today, Jack is a happy, happy boy.

Oh No, Chiiiiiiiick!

Jack is completely distraught because his little die cast Chick Hicks, from the movie Cars, is missing. He's been carrying that thing around with him for weeks, even taking it to bed with him. Twice I've been woken in the middle of the night by Jack crying because Chick had fallen from his crib!

I can't even recall how many times I have torn the house apart looking for that stupid car over the past few weeks, somehow it has always managed to turn up... Not today though, it seems.
Jack has been standing at the bottom of the stairs all morning, moaning, "Chiiiick" because he thinks Chick is in his crib. We've searched his room 3 times, the car is not there. Jack keeps insisting, "Chick fall down" (from his crib) but, unless Chick has fallen through the floorboards, he is not in Jack's room.

I've actually been looking for a new Chick Hicks car for a while now because the one Jack just misplaced had lost a wheel, but I can't seem to find it anywhere... I suppose I could always order it from Amazon.com and pay $26.75 + shipping, but that just seems insane, considering I got the first one at Target for $3!!

Little Floater

The Water Boy

Jack and Annabelle were quietly playing with the sand/water table yesterday, I thought it would be a great opportunity to snap a picture of them together. I ran inside to grab my camera, when I returned I found Jack in the water... Of course, I was not surprised at all.

Feeling Better

And who wouldn't be, with a brand new Disney Princess scooter to cheer them up! Thanks Nana.

Annabelle is just about back to normal... She is still on antibiotics and has a slight cough, but other than that she has resumed her normal activities, which include persistent badgering and whining.