Our Sunday Best

When I first learned I was going to have a little girl, I started paying more attention to how little girls dressed. I quickly decided that I would be happy if my girl(s) were to wear smocked dresses until the day they graduate from high school. Since that may not happen, I take advantage of putting these two in smocked dresses every Sunday possible. This morning, Amity wore her birthday dress from GG and KK and Vivien wore her dress from Uncle Bill and Aunt Rita. Amity wasn't really excited about a photo session but Vivien didn't mind.

Looking up at her daddy!

Of course, every smocked dress needs some bloomers for added modesty and overall cuteness. These were a gift from the Browns.

And these were a gift from Mrs. Patsy. I think they are 12 months but they still fit!

There's nothing like gradually disrobing after church and lunch in preparation for a Sunday nap!

Maybe we should have worn these to accessorize the dress this morning!

Gorilla Therapy

Amity's fear of gorillas continues! She woke us up screaming at 5:00 this morning and chose to go back to bed in Vivien's naptime pack and play in our room. This is a snippet of our morning therapy session:

And guess what her daddy is considering for his Halloween costume?

Little Buddies

For all of his hair that I sweep up and his barking we endure...


Paco has been a good buddy for our little girls!

I think he enjoys having someone who is close to his size!

Back to School

Dennis left for his first day back with kids this morning. He didn't really wear this Yoda backpack but he considered it. Yoda was our gift to Eli for his third birthday but it now "freaks him out" so Yoda is residing at our house for the time being.

I decided to try doing a letter of the week this school year with Amity on our days at home. I found a whole bunch of fun activites to download at http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/ We started today with the letter A and have been singing "Apple Annie" all day long. Vivien really likes it!

Amity loves any opportunity to use "gloob" and she really liked pasting these apples on the apple tree.

She also did a great job of coloring an apple tree page so I was feeling super-confident and had the great idea to pull out the scissors. I soon decided that we are not ready for scissors yet!

We did have fun making an alligator A. Apparently, this alligator is going to need some braces! :)

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!