So big!

Vivien finally got to go to her 6 month appointment with Dr. Moore (almost a month late)!
Her stats were:Weight - 18.2 pounds (75th percentile)Height - 27.5 inches (80th percentile)Head - 17.75 (90th percentile)

One of the best pieces of parenting advice that Dr. Moore gave us was to do "pack and play time" or independent play time with our girls. It gives me a few minutes to do anything I need to get done or spend time with just one child plus it seems to help them learn to play by themselves. Amity still plays in her pack and play about 45 minutes every morning. She picks out three toys and three books and listens to music while she plays. Since she is potty training, I leave her door open so she can let me know if she needs to go to the restroom. Today, I kept poking my head in to see if she needed to go and she kept saying, "No, Mommy! I still playing!"

We just started Vivien's pnp time a couple of weeks ago. After she eats breakfast, she plays for about 15-20 minutes in her pack and play.

I think her favorite thing about pnp time is looking at the mirror behind the door but she also seems to enjoy the music (currently listening to Seeds!).

After a little "Vivien time", she is read to hang out with big sister and mommy!

Share and HAIR Alike

As we were getting ready to leave for the doctor's office on Thursday morning, I put a bow in Amity's hair. After it had fallen out several times, I told her to go get a different one from her drawer. In the meantime, I left Vivien sitting on the floor in their room while I ran to the kitchen. On my way back, Amity came out wearing this Target dollar bin headband.

I told her it was very pretty but it didn't really match her shorts (green and blue). She said, "Vivien wear red." As I made my way down the hall, I said, "You are right...Vivien is wearing red polka dots today," and then I turned the corner and saw this:

Vivien was indeed "wearing red". In the course of 30 seconds, Amity had discovered one of her old baby headbands in her bow drawer, decided it was high time that Vivien begin to accessorize, AND arranged it perfectly on her little sister's head.

Of course, shortly after, she decided it would look better on her head!

The Science of Snarfing

Previous One-Child Hypothesis: ALL children despise the snarfer!

Revised Two-Child Hypothesis: Some children are happy to be snarfed many times throughout the day and actually laugh during the process!

Method: Allow the happy snarfee to hold the hand of the less-happy snarfee. However, this method was eventually abandoned because I had to adapt pin-down and restrain method to accomplish any snarfing.

Conclusion: If one child gets the summer sniffles, the whole family will soon have the summer sniffles. At least someone in the family will enjoy the snarfing!

One Year Ago...

A year ago this coming week, we found out we were expecting our second little girl.

We never expected for her to be so much fun AND to have so many funny faces and noises!

A "Budding" Artist

The other night, Amity was sitting at her table coloring while Dennis and I were talking on the couch. She started telling us that she was writing our names. Then, she said, "Look at my leaf!" And, surprisingly, it really did look like a leaf!

My Shadow

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes goes so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close behind me, he's a coward you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Port-a-Potty

This scene was brought to you by my newest favorite piece of kid gear... the POTETTE PLUS!

My blood pressure was lowered significantly on our weekend beef-run road trip to GG & KK's once we discovered that we could pull over to the side of the road, unbuckle Amity from her seat, and let her sit on this little potty in the middle of the van ALL without anyone getting out on the very busy highway. This SO beats squatting in the grass between the two passenger side doors! Amity had several successful sits on this potty. As you can see, even Paco was impressed! Now I'm off to order more of those bags...they are worth every penny!