No naps

Since our vacation in January, the girls no longer nap on the weekends. We miss it. We had sort of decided that this would a good shift to make, so I will admit that we were part of the reason for the schedule change. Our strategy hinged on the assumption that skipping the nap would mean they slept longer at night, preferrably on the morning side. That didn't happen. Our miscalculation (just one of many). Now they, especially Grace, are just crabbier in the afternoons usually hitting the wall around 3:30.

Here, Derek convinced Grace to lie down with him and watch Snow White. Her eyes are just little slits, but she never did fall asleep.

Isn't she cute though?

Little Chef

Grace really does not like her picture taken, so I try to spare her. She looked so cute cooking in the outfit that Derek put tgoether for her this morning that I couldn't resist. Charlotte got Ratatoille for her birthday and we have been watching it (frequently) ever since.

The hat is made from Charlotte's old white eyelet crib bumper. Derek made two of them awhile ago. Grace loves hats.

Some pictures I didn't take

Charlotte came with us to the sonogram and enjoyed watching the baby moving around on the screen. She is very happy to being getting a baby brother. I think she was always thinking boy. Derek was coaching her a little on name ideas and she decided Nemo would be a good name for him. We added it to the (fairly long) list of possibilities.

The profile, and you can see his hands and at least one leg in there.



Transverse. His spine and ribcage.



The money shot. The tech was just a little too excited about getting us a good shot of the business end.

Long Overdue

We took these 8 month pictures of Lauren back in December. With the busy season and then the holidays and then vacation and everything else (excuse, excuse, excuse) I am just now finishing editing them. Thank you, Patty, for your patience. Isn't she cute?

4 years

Charlotte was sooo excited about her birthday today. This is really our first birthday ever where we had all the build up and the excited anticipation. It has truly been a blast.

She consented to 4 year old pictures this morning, wearing the shirt Grandma found for her. Then she went off to daycare with her cupcakes and favors she picked out from the Dollar Store. She was telling me that she will get to wear a crown and that Miss Kathy will pick her first to get a cupcake and she will pick a chocolate one with the purple balloon on top. I mentioned that maybe Miss Kathy might not pick her first and that would be okay, too, and she gave me the dirtiest, most dismissive, most "you totally don't know what you're talking about mom" look ever. Derek and I laughed.

Here she is in all her four year old glory.








edited to add: Charlotte's first birthday picture. This made me laugh this morning.

Snow Day

This morning, after wind gusts overnight up to 60 mph, Derek took the kids to daycare only to find they didn't have power when he got there. So he brought them home. Charlotte was so excited about her first snow day. As it turned out, Doodlebugs called about 45 minutes later and had reopened, but I didn't have the heart to make Charlotte go back in. Grace was happy to go, so it is just me and Charlotte hanging out today.

She consented to a few pictures, many of which I got out of focus. I liked these, though. Her hair looks curly here but it is really mostly straight these days. We washed it last night and she went to bed with it a little wet. She wants to grow it longer, so right now it is kind of a floppy mess.

some from Naples

Grace playing with the water out of Grandma's pool. Both girls liked scooping out the water and dumping it all over. Neither are that keen on swimming (although to be fair it was really too cold those days to try to convince them). No face shots because Grace really, really does not like to be photographed. Sigh.







Charlotte practicing writing. She wrote "Charlotte" across the top and is writing "Grace" underneath it.




One of my favorites. Gracie brushing her teeth before bed.



A nice shot of Charlotte and Uncle Pat.



Everybody on the morning we left.

Sea World

We went to Sea World Tuesday and Wednesday with Ron and Laura. We all really enjoyed it. It is a great place to visit with kids of any age. Here are a few pictures, all taken with Derek's new camera.

The underwater dolphin viewing was really cool.






Derek took this and I really like it. I don't have many pictures of me with the kids, and this one really struck me. Plus, I love his lens flare.



That string she is holding is the neck strap from Derek's camera. She calls it her elephant and it has a truck and a tail (and I got hollered at once for talking to the wrong end). He talks (constantly) by making elephant noises and then Charlotte tells us all what he said. She carried him around for most of the week and they talked and played all through all the parks. You sort of sometimes got the sense that we could have saved two grand and just let her stay home with a piece of string and she would have been just as happy.

Grace saying hi to the Penguin at Sea World. As she would say "I hi him!"