It's Friday, and someone stole our beautiful weather!

Aidan quotes of the day:  "Mama look, two go down and three go up."  (showing me how to make "3" with his fingers)

"If Daisy was a kid like me, she could ride my bike."

There is a light on in there!

Funny story about Isabella. 

We have a basket of cars for Aidan.  It's full of matchbox, hot wheels, lego cars, all kinds of cars.  It also keeps Isabella occupied if I need to do something.  She likes to empty it out.  So we went out to Babies R Us and the "fish store" tonight.  When we got home, I put Isabella next to the basket so we could get her jammies and Aidan's jammies.  She immediately grabbed one of the "ambulance trucks" and put it in her right hand.  Then she started taking other cars out and setting them aside.  She found a different red car, picked it up, put it back down.  Picked it up again, looked at the ambulance in her right hand and then back to the red car and then set the red car aside.  I jokingly said to Mark, "she's looking for the other ambulance" because we have two.  I saw the other ambulance sitting on the floor and threw it in the basket so she could find it.  She picked out another car, set it aside.  Picked out another car, set it aside.  Grabbed the other ambulance, looked in her right hand, looked back to her left hand and then got the biggest grin on her face and squealed.  She WAS looking for the other one!!  She was so happy she found both of them, it was so adorable!

Hail?!

Hail?!  Really?!  We just had shorts on yesterday!  Come on!  On a positive note, Aidan wasn't afraid of the storm today and seemed actually excited because it was "snowing".  I brought in a bowl of hail to let him play in it.  It was mostly pea sized hail with a few marble sized pieces in the mix as well.

Shorts!

So excited that it's not only warm enough, but it's hot, and it's shorts wearing day!

Our lilac continues to bloom in this beautiful weather.

Cleaning out the closet

I finally found time to clean out Isabella's closet.  It still had clothes in there that she wore when she just came home from the hospital.  It was kind of sad to put them away.  She had some cute clothes!  She still has cute clothes waiting for her to wear on the bottom and has some things she can still wear.  Oddly enough, she can still wear some clothes she was wearing when we brought her home from her surgery in October.  

Sienna time!

Uggh - it feels like driving a minivan!  I sit much higher and the dash is humongous!  Backup camera is tiny, not impressed.  Size is great.  Color choices are much better and it doesn't look like a hearse!  I'd like the inside of the Honda with the outside of the Sienna, in red please.  :)

Let the Test Driving begin!

Today we decided to test drive some minivans.  We headed over to Honda to check out the Odyssey.  Aidan would like every car we looked at.  He is insistent on red being his favorite and asks us "What favorite color you want to have?"  He'll also ask us, "What's your favorite color?"  According to Aidan his favorite color is red, Daisy's favorite color is brown, and "Miserabella's" favorite color is pink.

The Odyssey drove like my car.  It was nice and easy to drive, the backup camera was pretty sweet.  Aidan's first comment when he was in and in his carseat was, "I love this car!  I can see everything!"  We took it home to see how it fits in the garage and then put a video in for Aidan to see how it looked and see how that works.  I think he liked it!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We all wore green today and had a great time playing outside.  Charlie came over and the boys rode bikes on the bike road, played in the basement and the backyard.  Temperatures hit 70 degrees today!

Isabella also tried pieces of strawberries today.  She did great with them, even though she made a sour looking face with each one she put in her mouth.  She ended up eating about half a strawberry.

First buds on the lilac bush!

Baptism pictures

While taking baptism portraits for a client I realized I didn't have any nice pictures of the kids' baptism outfits.  So here they are:



9 months old

Isabella is nine months old today.  She's crawling, clapping, waving, rolling a ball, and recognizes her name.  She's pulling herself up to her knees on anything she can find but can't quite make it to her feet yet.  She does love standing and even stood yesterday without holding onto anything for about 4-5 seconds a few times.  She's eating crackers, yogurt melts, goldfish and any baby food we can make her.  This last week she finally slept through the night and is doing great!  Last night she want to sleep at 10 pm and woke up at 9:15 am this morning!  Finally!

Isabella her two bottom front teeth.  She is babbling some and said "Mama" for three days and has since stopped.  She was saying "Dadada" but has also stopped. 

Today was a lot of fun with the kids.  Well, when they were happy.  Isabella was chasing Aidan around and they were crawling all over the place.  We even caught some video of them "playing" before Aidan saw us.  Too fun!

Having a little fun today

Now that she's crawling, this is the only way to contain her:

A walk to the bridge

Today was a beautiful day to take a walk to the bridge.  It was nice and sunny so the boy had to have his hat on.  He loves watching the water underneath the bridge.  As we were leaving, we heard the train, and stopped to watch it go by as well.

Gymnastics!

We love gymnastics!  At our house, Fridays are a big day because it's the day we go see Ms. Heather and have gymnastics.  Aidan did amazing today.  As always, he followed directions, waited his turn and participated.  For the very first time in almost two years of gymnastics class - Aidan jumped into the pit on his own.  No holding hands, no freak out, no sitting down and sliding in,  he just jumped on in.  He has come a LONG way!  I'm so proud of him!

Here are the kids after gymnastics class.  Of course today was made more difficult because I can no longer just set Isabella down and help Aidan.  She crawls away!

Yes, that is some BRIGHT purple floor! 

Look at her go!

Well I should have written that letter to her sooner.  Honestly, within an hour of posting my letter to Isabella, the little girl crawled across the floor.  She was hesitant the whole night but today she's back at it.  Guess I can't leave her playing and go do dishes or anything anymore. 

A letter to Isabella

Dear Isabella,

When will you crawl forward?  I understand you're getting everything you need by crawling backwards, sitting up, turning and crawling backwards, but it would be more convenient for you if you crawled forward.  The last two days you've taken two crawls forward and each time we think "ooo, here you go", and you immediately look terrified of what you've done and crawl backwards again. 

Will you do everything backwards?  Your big brother has been talking about being scared to drive the car backwards.  Is he afraid of your driving some day?

On another note, I won't tell your big brother you're stealing his drink cup and drinking out of it right now.

Lastly, I sincerely apologize that I just opened the back door and yelled your name out into the back yard.  I do know the difference between you and your dog, it's just sometimes, I get your names backwards.  Sorry!

Love,
Mama

Standing

Isabella loves to stand.  She stands at her music table, her crawl and cruise jungle, the outside of the exersaucer, and her new favorite: the back door.  She really gets excited to watch Daisy play outside but is also happy just looking outside, excited to get out and explore the world some day.

Aidan quotes of the day:  "Baby sister the sun is out, you could wake up."
"No no no baby sister that's my air aft carrier.  You want this car?  Here you go."
"Dada, I want to play with matches."  (This is how Aidan decided to request playing Memory tonight!)

Chocolate dinosaurs and fossils!

I found these amazing dinosaur fossil ice cube trays and then a chocolate mold.  I can't wait for Aidan's dinosaur birthday party this year.  Aidan has requested a green and brown T-Rex with a volcano.  My plan is to make a volcano cake and at the base of it, to have one of these dinosaur fossils looking like it's being unearthed.

Since it's been raining, I decided to have fun with Aidan inside today.  We bought the supplies to try our dinosaur chocolates and they turned out amazing!  He loved eating the chocolates and so did Mark and I.  This birthday party is coming together!

Rain

Uggh, it's raining today.  As soon as Aidan noticed, his first words, "oh no, my road!"  Sadly, our wonderful bike road has disappeared.  However, I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun making a new road as soon as it dries out again!

Aidan quote of the day:  (We were driving in the car and he had dropped one of his matchbox cars that he was playing with and wanted us to get it for him)

Aidan:  "Mom-mom you want to get my car?"

Me:  "Aidan, I'm driving.  I can't get it right now."

Aidan:  "Now you can use one hand."

Maps

Aidan is in love with maps.  This is his beloved map.  He's quickly learning all of the "green" colored states.  He really likes green and his first favorites that he picks every time are Kansas and Maine.  He wants to play hockey in Maine but move to Kansas for the bumpy roads.  He's learning the states names, but clearly he hasn't learned how flat Kansas is. 

While Aidan was busy learning about Texas and Alaska today, Isabella was learning to eat Goldfish.  She loves them and was very interested in how exactly to get them to her mouth.  She figured it out quickly and gobbled them all up.  Unfortunately, they have dairy in them, so they'll have to be a limited treat.

Outside at last!!!

We spent hours outside today.  I made a road on our driveway for Aidan to ride his bike, we played on the slide and playset in the backyard, played out front when Isabella was awake with bubbles, the car, the lawnmower, and bikes again AND we took an hour long walk in the stroller!  It was a great day, and I'm exhausted!  So are both kids - hooray!

All Smiles

Isabella has been sick the last few days but she's still full of smiles!  She really is enjoying standing to play a lot more.  She can almost get there on her own but if you put her there she'll stay for a long time.  She is no longer a fan of being on the inside of the exersaucer but would rather stand on the outside or stand to play at this jungle center.