Thursday, February 28, 2013

A VERY cold and gloomy day...

So we surely enjoyed playing with our new airplane for our first birthday. Tripp loves his new airplane as much as Juliette loved her pink tricycle. He is amazingly agile on it and get it to run up and down the hallway. 

Here he comes cruising down the hall...


 Beep, beep... backing up...


Wow this is surely fun... I think I'll play with the propellor!



Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Friday, February 22, 2013

Someone turned 1 today!!

A super happy birthday to the best baby boy ever! We started the morning with the traditional morning wake up and happy birthday on video. Tripp was SO happy to see us and thought that our singing voices were pretty hilarious too!



We laugh about Trippy - unlike his Sissy he is not quite walking, not quite talking and positively for sure has not needed his first hair cut. He has reminded me that he is a boy and he will do everything on his own time. He is the sweetest little guy and is even standing by himself but just not taken the first step. He talks a mile a minute in his own little language. He laughs at his Sissy who is always trying to show him funny things that he can do!




We had a "Mickey Mouse" themed birthday party - Trippy loves Mickey!





Ready for my PARTY!


Juliette and Grace were having a party all their own....


Trippy and Grandpa


Singing the birthday tunes....




Sweet Ul'Nanny brought Juliette an unbirthday present - just what she has wanted her very own bow and arrow! Doh is showing her how to shoot it.


Another sweet present from Ul'Nanny - how fitting Tripp's first tool set



Mommy even got to spend the afternoon with one of her best childhood friends!


Such a HAPPY day!! Getting all the cake in the world and eating it too!


Happy birthday to the sweetest baby boy a Mommy could ever hope for.... now just stay one for a LONG LONG time!



Sunday, February 17, 2013

What's wrong with this picture?


The "Big Girl" is in the play pen and the "Baby" is trying to play catch outside of the play pen


Juliette can make this little guy laugh all day... she is tickling him and he is just giggling away... the only way he will stay in this play pen for even one minute is if his Sissy is in there with him!


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Love is hand writing Valentine's cards...

Juliette told me as she was writing individual Valentine's day cards to all of her classmates, "Mommy, I must love everyone to write their names and my names." Yes Juliette that was a real labor of love... and you did it all by yourself!






This is a special Valentine's day card for Luke who Juliette would like to marry "Since Daddy is already married to you Mommy."


Notice Luke even scored the special heart - not many others in her class got this heart drawn on the card...


"Oh brother... this Valentine's stuff is for the birds..." Tripp did not care to even watch Juliette work on the cards... all the pink was getting to him!


Monday, February 11, 2013

Super Assistants...

One LOVES to bake...


and the other one loves to sample and clean up...




Thursday, February 7, 2013

The look of pure excitement and appreciation!

This is the reaction when Tessa comes to the house with a special delivery! Of course I think anyone who received anything this beautiful would react the same way! A new outfit for the Valentine's Day week of celebrations coming up. Juliette could not be any more excited!


Tessa's here!!


Thank you Tessa! Everything you make has such love attached with it! AND not to mention how beautiful it is too!






Chomping teeth and determined to walk...

Yesterday I was downstairs and I could hear banging in Tripp's room. I was sure that he was simply rocking the crib back and forth as he likes to do. I went to look on the baby monitor and could not believe - it was like a beaver in the crib. All the noise that he was making was from gnawing on the wood of the crib! He is definitely teething and a new lower tooth popped out yesterday. There must be such relief from chewing on everything in site..

Tripp has found that Juliette's tricycle brings joy to him in several ways - he pushes it to walk around the kitchen and the rubber on it must be OH so yummy! Once again as the 2nd child, he is quite used to pink around the house and is quite comfortable in his boyhood despite the pink around.

Determined to make his way around the house with the help of the pink tricycle or not...



Wow! Check out the rubber... perfect to chew!!


The other walker that does the walking trick too...


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Honest Answers

Me, "Juliette what is your favorite part of ballet?"

Juliette, "Menchies" (which is the frozen yogurt shop that we often stop at afterwards)

Monday, February 4, 2013

What is a 4 1/2 year old up to...

Juliette is having a great year! She is just about 4 1/2 years old. She continues to really enjoy half day 4k each day. I pick her up on my way home from school and sometimes she begs to go to "after school." If she could only understand that she is one of the lucky ones to get to go home, but at this age children are so social, she really thinks she would rather stay and play. Her favorite things to play at school are "catch the boys".... hmm did I mention that she is a handful? Luke is her favorite to catch and then Sean. Sometimes the "fairy powers" of the girls can help them catch the boys faster. Her fairy name today was "Caroline"

We are going through a transition leaving naps. Today after a long fun weekend though I have insisted that she take a nap. After much whining and fussing, she falls asleep instantly and has been asleep for 2 1/2 hours. She will take up in such a good mood with such a great rest. Typically on most days though she can rally through the day and fights a nap. She is done by 7:30 and ready for the bed without a good nap.

Juliette plays very well with friends. She really does a nice job sharing and realizes the benefit of sharing with others. She gets to play with at least one little friend for a play-date at least once each weekend. She really enjoys that and comes home with wonderful stories. If the friends are younger than her, she can be a bit bossy. If they are even a month older, she will follow suit and go along with most anything.

She is in NO way a morning person. Unlike her Mama, getting her up in the morning for school is NO fun! She pulls the blankets over her head, pretends she can't move, somehow she can not see with lights on, if she moves her hair might fall out, pink blankie will cry if she leaves AND if she gets out of the bed, BIG DOG may run away while she is gone.... these are all of the excuses I hear on a daily basis! I can sing, bark like a dog, dance like a ballerina AND only sometimes does that work for a happy wakeup call.

Her imagination is WILD! Her animals and pink blankie are still her favorite.  Juliette could play with her horses (Starla, Sunstar and Stella) all day. Her American girl Danette loves to ride her pony too.


Juliette has been working hard in the art department. She was so excited to bring these two most recent art projects home. When she got in the car I got the seven minute presentation on how to make the piggie's tail...  "You see Mommy you wrap the "Straw" around the marker and that's how you do it! See how round her tail is..."



her "Hello Kitty" purse filled with lipsticks


This is the typical scene in her "play area" which includes all of her horses ready for a pony show at a moment's notice




She loves her unicorn "Caroline" but for some reason is slightly obsessed that she has an "eye fake"... meaning "fake eye"...  don't all of her animals? I guess she only realizes it on her...


her "play boots" to run around outside in 


Her "Good Morning God" and "Good Night God" sign that she made at school. She changes this each day when she wakes up and goes to sleep


She LOVES to bake


AND... load her very own very special "treat stand" with her YUMMY treats!


AND mostly she loves being a BIG SISTER to the best little brother in the world!

Happy BELATED 11 months old

Mama gets some credit for taking the pictures on the right date but posting them a little late. Each month the pictures get a little bit more hilarious and in trying to get a good shot, a little bit longer. As you will be able to see below, Tripp is BUSY! HE is into everything! There are so many things that he is into different from Juliette. One of his favorite little games is to pull dirt and leaves out of plants that are on the floor. You can walk down the hall and see potted dirt laying around. He continues to pull up and walk around tables and push things while standing constantly. He is looking close to walking but has not done so yet. Also he is still  babbling like crazy. The only remote word that we can make out is "dog" and that has really only been a mumble here and there!


So we began and got the "Oh fun... look what Mommy just put on me! Let's see how fast I can grab it!





NEXT step... distraction... 

"Where did the super fun sticker go?"


I am thinking I am way too fast for you Mommy... Off goes the sticker!


Now we're talking... this is fun! Let's play crumble up the sticker!


A Successful game!


So Mommy resorts to the only way to get my age in there...


SO long 11 months!