Little Daredevil

The zoo has a great little playground area with a play gym just big enough to make a three year old's Mom a little nervous. Carys is a little monkey on these things and despite the height of the ladders, she was climbing up everywhere. Luckily on this visit, Poppy was with us to serve as a "safety" in case she slipped. And she actually didn't have any trouble at all.

Favorite Activity-Walking

A while back I promised pics of Helen walking. Here she is in her early days. Now that she knows I'm willing to do this, she wants to walk all the time. I wish I had more time with her to take her around. She's really excited to walk around and every few steps she'll stop and look up at me with a great big grin. I wish I could get that on camera but I'm holding both of her hands. Sounds like a job for Poppy...

Best Friends

Carys has a best friend named Dani. They met at daycare and it was a match made in heaven for us all. Dani's parents are lawyers and Dani has a baby sister too. We get along great and the best part is that Dani and Carys really do get a long well for a couple of three year olds!

Caterpillar

One of my favorite things about having a garden and a three year old is watching them discover new life forms. Actually, Poppy and I discovered this caterpillar and kept him for Carys. She loved playing with him he actually escaped alive which is more than I can say for any ants that cross Carys's path.

Standing Alone!

Helen surprised me one day by standing by herself outside. Of course, I did not have the camera and she does not do it inside. So Poppy was ready the next time we were outside and caught this great action of her standing. Now, she's cruising and really loves me to walk her around. More pics of that later.

Dance Class

It's hard to believe but Carys expressed an interest in dance classes when she was two years old. The instructor has recently announced a larger program so Carys will be able to take classes year round if she wants. Carys loves this class and frankly, I don't know what kid wouldn't. I just can't wait for Helen to tell me what she's interested in, I'm so curious. Poppy took these great pictures during class.

Zoo

We LOVE the zoo. We are members and since it's so close it's a no brainer to take the girls there on a nice day. It's open 365 and every year I say that I want to go when it's snowing to see it in that environment but I always chicken out. This is a really neat part of the zoo, they have special kids activities and it costs a bit extra so it usually keeps out most visitors. It has a great family restroom and even a nursing room, a new mom's best friend:) Plus it's a place where I can let Helen crawl around uninhibited except by other little kids running over her.

Spring Smiles

It surprises me every year how affected we are by the winter. Wintertime is a bit depressing, just trying to get warm and the lack of sunlight is physically depressing. However, we always come through it and when spring comes, it literally lifts our spririt. This year it was interesting to see that Carys was going through the same thing. We were working on the front yard and she was running up and down the sidewalk yelling "Summertime, Summertime". Well, not quite but it sure does feel great!

Grass

We've had some warm days to go out and enjoy the yard. Helen is experiencing grass for the first time ever. She doesn't like it. She's holding her leg up so it does not fall in the scratchy grass. Now I lay a blanket out and she crawls around it and picks aat the grass from her soft oasis.

Baby Play

Carys enjoys pulling on Helen and Helen enjoys the physical contact with her sister. Carys is surprisingly gentle with Helen and this interaction did not end up with crying babies. Actually, I sort of broke up the fun by trying to take pictures. They were playing and giggling for about 10 minutes before I showed up and ruined the fun:)

Spring has Sprung

Little Helen is enjoying the first sunlight she's seen in a LONG time. Actually we all were. We were able to do a little gardening this week-end along with a little earthworm farming (Carys's favorite:)

Dancing Princess

Carys had a big day today. She went to her first dance class this morning. She really enjoyed the play format of the class and listened to the teacher. It's a contemporary dance class with imporvisation of movement. The teacher is very good with kids and she actually taught Carys two and a half years ago at the YMCA, gym class. Carys could not even walk then. I had a big goofy smile on my face while observing the class. It was so enjoyable to watch her interact with the teacher and other toddlers. She did a great job. She's a little less outgoing than I imagined but I think after a few classes, she'll be ready to show off her improvising movement to the whole class. One great thing is that even though I was there, she was not clingy and did not even start looking at me until the class was almost over. These are pics at home b/c I did not know if I would be able to take some at class. I will probably bring the camera next time and turn off the flash.

Shedd Aquarium

Saturday we went to the Shedd Aquarium, the world's largest indoor aquarium. We had a busy time seeing all the fish of the world.

Helen Update

Helen is growing like a weed. She's now wearing 12-18 month clothes (she can still fit her 6-12 month clothes but just right). She's pulling up everywhere and has started to cruise a little. She and Carys were actually wrestling on the floor the other day and giggling. She's eating more table food and actually is sleeping through the night from 8:30PM to roughly 3:30AM. That's a BIG step for her and I'm most grateful.

Here she was just settling in for a snack of ribbon from big sisters gifts. It's not her favorite though. Her favorite snack lately is paper!

Dress Up Girl

Carys got lots of dress-up clothes and shoes from Mommy and Ya Ya. She was so cute when she opened some of them, she actually gasped. I wish I had a microphone and of course none of us had the camera ready. She still enjoys these and I'm sure there will come a time when a little princess wants to accompany me to the target for my weekly shopping.

Craft Table

I'm not really an entertainer so I thought this craft table would be great. It was for about 20 minutes. I was happy to see that the community center had a childs kitchen set for them to play with and some play mats. The mats were a hit too and they insisted on doing 3 year old stunts so the parents were forced to pay attention. Luckily they did come back to the craft table after some time and the party was only two hours long, whew!

Happy Birthday Carys!

Carys had a birthday party with friends on Saturday. They had a blast. She did get a fever during her party but she's holding up well here. Sorry for the long break. We'll have more birthday party pics tomorrow.



Special thanks to all friends and family who helped throw this party together in the final minutes (final 9 minutes to be exact) and who helped clean up. You know who you are (David, Nicole, Poppy, Mom, Tamra and everyone else). Thanks for helping Carys have a great party!

Behind Bars

Helen is happy that Poppy has come into her room to "release" her.

Foam Stickers

Carys has always loved stickers. You know they have been a primary source of entertainment for at least a year or year and a half. But we discovered new foam stickers thanks to Dani's Mom. They had their first playdate and they did sticker crafts with these foam stickers. They come in buckets with themes. We got a few buckets for craft time at home. Carys really loves them.

Hanging out with Poppy

Very rarely Poppy gets to sit on the couch with Helen while I finish getting Carys ready in the morning before work. It's truly a moment I hope they will repeat often and enjoy every second of it. From the looks of it, they are well on their way.

Morning Breakfast

Breakfast time during the week is tricky. Sometimes we have eggs, sometimes a yogurt and lately most times are cereal. Carys loves the yogurt cheerios. She gets a breakfast at daycare but we really want to be sure she's off on the right foot. Most days we will encourage her to have eggs for protein if she's up early enough.

Helen, being the baby, is happy with the rice cereal they serve at daycare.

We are now addicted to coffee. Ten years and two kids later, we actually use our coffee pot more for ourselves than our guests.

Chatting with Pinky

Carys loves to talk, sing songs and use her imagination (more on that later). Lately Pinky has been willing to hear her out. He doesn't always stay for the entire story but he finds her amusing and interesting most times.

Teddy Bears

Helen got a couple of bears for Christmas and she's not really attached to any of them. However, I would like her to have some comfort when she wakes up at night so one of these is in her crib with her. I'm not actively trying to attach her to the bear but I do hope she can find something to help soothe herself back to sleep since she's not sleeping through the night yet and I'm about to go psycho from lack of sleep. I've even been crazy enough to push Poppy out of the bed to take care of the babies if I've been up too long in an evening. That speaks volumes.

Cinnamon Rolls

Carys is learning to the benefits of baking things that require frosting. She gets to lick the spoon. When Helen realizes this benefit, I guess we'll need two spoons or two pans of cinnamon rolls. Darn.

Be My Valentine

So today started the tradition of giving valentines for Carys. Of course, I bought her valentine cards but forgot to get the list of kids from the daycare so we brought cupcakes instead. Carys came home with another candy haul. Not that I mind giving her candy but it would be nice to come up with a cheap valentine treat other than candy. Like maybe cupcakes:)

Seriously, like stickers or valentine crayons or little coloring books or something besides sweets. Hmmm.

Yummy

Sometimes you just need to chew on some cardboard. Don't worry she did not eat this. We took it away when both ends were nice and moist. Helen does have other toys but there's an allure from the cardboard tubes for babies.

Feelin' Fine

I know ya'll probably thought I had quit the blog. But thanks to you guys who still checked in. We had a lot of sickness around this house and that made Momma very tired and eventually the last to get sick. We've taken our antibiotics and are back on track to feelin' fine!

Resemblance

Hmmm. Do I see some resemblance? Possibly in the right eye.