10 months and life to go...

Hooray for Mommy -- I've been having trouble posting videos to Blogger for a while now, but I finally figured out how to post them on YouTube and then insert the clips here! After Hannah went to bed last night, Lucy sat on my lap in front of the computer screen and we spent some quality time watching videos of her "when I was a baby." Which made me realize how very few videos of Hannah I have... which is leading me to promise our blog followers that I'll try to do much better. 

This one is of 10-month-old (!) Hannah exhibiting some of her new skills -- mainly crawling like a champ and talking up a storm. "Sister" is also now pulling up on the furniture, feeding herself Cheerios and other finger foods, learning to use a sippy cup, giving high fives and waving bye-bye, and saying "mama", "dada", and "dog". She loves to swing and to bop along to music, but her most favorite thing is to laugh at/with Lucy. This little monkey is into everything and she delights my soul with her sweet smile on a daily basis. I cannot believe my baby is so close to being 1!

Tiny bubbles make me me feel happy, make me feel fine

Bubbles, Mommy, BUBBLES!


Lucy's favorite present from the Easter bunny this year by far is this plastic bubble blower. She's asked to "play bubbles" outside every single day this week as soon as we get home. She alternates between running through the bubbles and instructing us to catch them, and then squeals with delight over the abundance of soapy circles in the driveway. It's lovely to behold the sheer simplicity that brings such unbridled joy to the preschool set.  :)

Wordless Wednesday: Easter egg hunt edition

Southland in the spring time

Work has been crazy banana pants lately and the weather (outside of my windowless office) has been beautiful, which means that I've been experiencing a bit of the ol' cabin fever lately. So I recently convinced the mister to gather up the troops and take a little Saturday road trip down to New Orleans to spend some quality time wandering around outside. We got a late start, but had enough time to take in an afternoon at City Park. It was perfect -- inexpensive, covered by the shade of fabulous old oak trees, and full of local characters.  :)

We started off by meeting up with some old friends and exploring the playground in Storybook Village,

Noah Rogers = CUTIE PIE

the Three Little Pigs



Hannah in Wonderland

 

"And the cow (and Lucy) jumped over the moon..."

then headed over to check out some of the Carousel Park amusement rides, 

Andrew & Lucy cruising down the giant "Fun Slide"

 

Satisfied customers



The last antique wooden carousel in Louisiana ~ gorgeous!

  

The princess practicing her royal wave  



Late afternoon sunlight filtering through Spanish moss

We went home tired, full, and happy, which is what New Orleans is all about right?

What good is a blog without...

an obligatory baby-making-a-mess-in-the-highchair picture?

Squash casserole ~ finger licking good!

P.S. All appearances to the contrary, I promise that I am this child's biological mother and that I did in fact carry her inside my womb for almost 41 weeks.

No more monkeys jumping on the bed

Lucy has recently discovered the serious joy involved in making her sibling laugh. I was cleaning house and moving them from room to room with me on a recent Saturday when she decided it would be hilarious to make Hannah "bounce" on her bed while I changed the sheets. Turns out she was right -- the more enthusiastically Lucy jumped, the more little sister squealed with delight.

Lucy may break one of Hannah's limbs by the time she turns one, but... I should be grateful that she wants them to play together. Right?

On a side note, check out this recent survey of 2100+ families by a British parenting website: http://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/kate-parentingcom/study-two-daughter-families-are-happiest. Their results show that families with two daughters are the happiest of all family types due to the following reasons ~ two sisters tend to fight less, make less noise (ha!), play well together, help out more around the house, etc. They also found that families with four daughters were the least happy. DUH. All that estrogen under one roof can lead to nothing good!

Not sure this research is all that valid (I know many very happy families that don't fit this mold), but it's certainly an interesting topic of discussion. Also interesting -- why is it that I personally know only ONE other family with just two daughters. Is this your experience as well?

Flashback Friday

While doing Lucy's hair this morning, it just felt like a pig-tail kind of a day to me. 

33 months

And when I decided to do a Flashback Friday to show how much she has grown over the last year, guess what I found in the photo file on the computer named "April 1, 2010"? The first time she wore pigtails to school!

Easter egg hunt, 21 months

And just to prove how far we've come, in the hair department and otherwise, I present this little gem from April 2009:

With Uncle Mike, 9 months

Sweet girl, please slow down! No matter how big you get, you'll always be my baby.