Busy Babies!

tub time!

go fish!

cooking up something good!

My children are just growing up so much! It's hard to believe that we're closing in on 3 and 1...GASP!!!

Leo continues to be happy and smiley all day and to everyone! Most people comment on what a happy baby he is and that makes me happy too! He is crawling around very well and of course, doing what all babies do...trying to do headers off the bed and down the stairs! Luckily we're all very watchful and he has not suffered any injuries as of yet! I tried teaching him the backwards down the stair method the other day and he wasn't interested. I think in a couple more weeks, he'll probably be more receptive...I hope. Sophia was about 9 months when she started traversing the stairs on her own, so I'm ready for that. He is moving at his own pace, though. I know that I shouldn't compare the two of them, but really it's hard not to. At this point Sophia only ate finger foods, drank regularly from a sippy and regular cup and was gearing up for doing the stairs. Leo is just simply not interested. He is much better at picking up the finger foods than he was a week ago, but it is only limited to puffs, cheerios, crackers and peas. He sort of can do blueberries, but it gets ugly. He's happy to eat it, but just not that "into" it. He is still happily eating his purees, which is fine I guess, it's just that I'm ready to be done making them! He is also disinterested in the sippy cup which stresses me out! I know it's silly, and he probably just needs to get used to it, but even after we put formula in it the other day, he only drank about 2 ounces. After about 30 minutes of sort of, kind of, not really drinking it, I poured the rest into the bottle and he sucked it down. Ugh. He's still young, I get it, but I just get nervous that he won't do these things. In other areas, he loves to hear Sophia and me sing, he loves to be played with and he LOVES balls! He likes to roll them and play "catch" with us and he also loves to swing. Oh, and yes, he also is in love with Walter. Poor Walt. Leo will crawl across the room to pet him, slobber on him, pull his fur, etc. Walter is pretty good about it, but I get nervous. I try and limit their contact, especially when Leo is in a pulling mood! Today Leo also creeped down the couch to get to the remote. What is it about that remote that kids love so much?! I don't get it, but it worked. He did it very carefully but did scooch those little feet to get his prize. After that he dropped a toy and couldn't figure out how to bend down to get it and wiped out. There were tears and he was done walking. :(

Sophia is still our very silly girl! She loves her family and is becoming so much more aware of everything all the time! It is becoming more difficult on her when Charlie leaves for work in the mornings or if he's out late. She misses her daddy and wants to see him so badly! She LOVES to go to work with him, but due to the nature of his job, it just can't be a reality most of the time. Sometimes when his people have to work overtime on Saturdays, he will take her with him to bring donuts and bagels to the crew (which I still don't think is allowed, but it makes her so happy!) and she loves it! Charlie even made her her very own security badge and it is adorable. Some days she'll play going to work and she'll put it on, make me pack her a snack and off she'll go. She usually says things like "I have a lot to do today!" and my favorite..."I have to go and make some money!" LOL! She is really into pretend play in general right now and I find it hilarious. I don't know where she gets most of the stuff she says! Yesterday she held a dance class for me in the bedroom and after she taught me each move I had to repeat it and she would clap for me. Too cute. At the end I told her she was a very good teacher and she responded with, "Mom, I'm the coach." Oh. In the swimming pool she is becoming increasingly more brave! She now tries to swim underwater. Mostly it's a disaster, but she does hold her breath and attempt to propel her body, but that hasn't happened just yet. At the park, her new favorite activity is to slide down the fire pole. She has the hang of it for the most part and after another few days of practice she'll be doing it on her own I'm sure! Recently I have been teaching her how to play cards. So far we've done Crazy 8s and Go fish. She's at about the level I expected, but she enjoys playing a game and I think in a few months she'll really have the hang of it. Her favorite TV show is still Barney by far but she also really enjoys Kai Lan and Max and Ruby. She is a great big sister, and although there are surges of jealousy sometimes (they mostly appear when she's tired and wants to be cuddled), she is thrilled with the addition to the family.

Our summer is already busy and each day new things get added to the calendar. I thought that I'd take a minute to update our kiddos before I ran out of time! ;) Look for more pictures to be posted on our exciting adventures! I'm a little slower at blogging than before, but I'm still getting it done!

In this video Leo really shows off his crawling skills! He was a bit fussy because he was crawling towards me and I kept walking away in order to get better footage! He then quickly realizes that there is something more alluring than Mommy...