What We've Been Up To

It seems like forever since I've posted. Summer time is just so busy. Who am I kidding - anytime is busy when you have two kids! Despite battling more than our share of illness this summer we have kept pretty active. Here is our latest:

Messy Monday
no, I have not forgotten about our messy Mondays. We did miss one due to the flu but we have had fun embracing our day of mess - for the most part. I say for the most part because E always has her own ideas of what she wants to do. Messy play is generally one of her favorite things but every once in a while she throws me a curve ball and resists wholeheartedly. Like a couple weeks ago when I set up a dance painting party - sounds fun right? Don't let her smile fool you. She did not enjoy this. lol. She did one footprint and that was it - "I'm done"! I try not to force activities on her, but I have to admit I was a little thrown off that she didn't like this one and got a bit frustrated that I set everything up for about 2.5 seconds of entertainment. I quickly got over it though. You win some and you loose some.

 

 I saved our paper (waste not, want not ) for the next week when we tried flyswatter painting. She was much more receptive to this activity- maybe something to do with her strange obsession with flies (thanks papa!)

Fourth of July
Nana and Papa came over for a cook out. E helped Nana make homemade whipped cream for our strawberry shortcake - yum!

Look at that devilish grin - busted!

  

 My patriotic little family

Two and a Half

Someone turned 2 1/2 last week! We celebrated by wearing a fancy "half birthday dress" and eating out at E's favorite joint, Red Robin. I think she was more excited about her half birthday than she was about  her actual birthday last year. I tried to get a quick photo shoot in before dinner but she was far too wound up. 

These are how most of the photos turned out - she was all over the place!

She insisted that Kitty Kitty be in on the action.

 I did manage to get a couple halfway decent pictures

 so soft!

 My attempt at sibling pics - lol. I have yet to get a great photo of these two together. Any tips for photographing a squirmy toddler and floppy baby together? I may have to call in a professional for this one. 

Puzzles

E is puzzle obsessed at the moment. I had been looking for some beginner jigsaw puzzles for awhile and found these 4-in-1 Melissa and Doug puzzles on clearance at TJ Max the other day - score! I wasn't sure if E would quite be ready for them but she most definitely is. She does these all day long, most of the time by herself or with very little assistance. She will even mix the pieces from all four puzzles together and correctly sort them out as she puts them together. She's my little genius baby, or genius big girl, as I'm sure she would correct me.

Little Helper

E loves to help take care of her sister. Anytime M gets a bottle she takes over. I love watching her be a little mommy not to mention the added bonus of having my hands free for a second!

Little Mermaid

E LOVES to swim! The baby pool is fun, but she actually prefers the big pool, to no surprise. Bigger is always better, especially when you are two!

Fancy Footwork

As if this kiddo wasn't already hard enough to keep up with, E has recently gained confidence in her gross motor abilities and is ready to tackle the trickier equipment at the park. She climbs up jungle gyms, scales rock walls, and attempts to do monkey bars. I hold my breath in fear as I stand by ready to catch at a moments notice. 

Babywise

I have been going a little crazy with our lack of a schedule lately and decided it was time to start getting little M on more of a routine. I'm not necisarily following the Babywise method to a T but I like the Eat, Play, Sleep routine that it follows so we are starting there. Day 1 we tried napping in the crib for the first time. 

It was super sweet to finally see her sleeping in her nursery but it was definitely a no go. She wouldn't sleep longer than 15 minutes. She is an excellent night time sleeper so on day 2 I decided to try doing everything the same for naps as we do at bedtime - aka swaddle and in bassinet - (don't ask me why I didn't think of that before). 

She has done WONDERFUL! She is taking nice long, uninterrupted naps and has pretty much fallen into a nice schedule on her own. I don't want to get too ahead of myself. After all,we are still just getting started, but already it is so much easier! 

 I think that about sums it up. You're a saint if you made it through all of that! Hopefully I can stay caught up for a little while.  Stay tuned!