Old Friends and New Friends

A friend of mine from college, Sarah, and her family were passing through town last week and we had the chance to meet up! She has two boys, Islwyn (4) and Amund (16? months), so it was a perfect play date and a chance for Sophia to show off one of her favorite places, Deanna Rose.

Sarah was the boy magnet...all three of them just honed in on her!

Islwyn and Sophia enjoyed the goats...of course!

You can see Leo wasn't too into pictures today...it was hard to get him to look at the camera!

Brian's Turkey Coop is in memory of my friend Julie's brother so we were excited to see it's new look this summer!

Amund and Leo do some catching up in the shade! You can tell by their pink cheeks that it was a hot one that day!

It was fun to catch up and a little bit weird to think college was so long ago and now we both have kids! We remembered some fun times and enjoyed catching up ourselves! Hopefully we'll be able to do it again!

When Did It Happen?

I'm not sure when it happened, but I used to enjoy reading quality novels and watching good movies. Now my life revolves around crappy reality television (okay, and some good reality television!;) romantic comedies, and books written by Tori Spelling. The other night Charlie and I just wanted to kick back, make some popcorn and watch a flick. After surveying the movies a few times and deciding (for the 15th time) that we both really wanted to see Crazy Heart, we settled on something far less stimulating...Date Night. We just can't seem to force ourselves to watch anything that isn't mindless. I've always enjoyed a nice action flick and I am certainly no stranger to romantic comedies, but I also used to watch Oscar winners, read Pulitzer Prize winners, and every new season of The Bachelor I have vowed to be my last, but well, you see how well that's worked! Is it just the stresses of real life with kids and a house that are too much and I have to find solace in other people's misery? There are days I miss my old brain, but for now, you'll have to excuse me...I need to make sure Bachelor Pad is set up to record on the DVR.

Dog For Sale

A picture says a thousand words...

...yup, that sounds about right. I probably threw about a thousand muffled expletives Walter's direction tonight. I came downstairs after taking Sophia to the bathroom and this is what I find in the kitchen. Well, no, actually he was laying across the table and didn't even flinch when I yelled at him. He finally decided to get up and then when I caused a ruckus he tried to get down and couldn't. Leo was freaking out, Sophia was yelling "Walter Anastas (yes, that is her middle name, not his) get down right now, and I managed to lift him off the table after he tipped it over and pretty much everything went flying. Honestly, this dog is so naughty. Today is a day when I think my life would be easier without him. Harrumph.

P-Day

Sigh.

Monday was Panty Day in our house. Yes, that's right, friends, the potty training has begun. I've been putting it off for a while now for various reasons. Foremost, probably because I'm lazy, and then maybe because we're so active and I really just didn't want to give up my freedom of leaving the house to run errands, play, explore, and work out. I know it won't be forever, but I don't like being caged! ;) We went cold turkey on the diapers because she absolutely wouldn't sit on the potty while wearing diapers, so we ditched them and so far it's gone pretty well. Monday we went through 4 pairs of panties, which honestly, I didn't think was too bad, considering. Yesterday she only had 1 accident the whole day...sadly Leo was the victim in that accident. She peed on her brother. Yup, tried to step over him and ended up just drenching him. Poor little guy, good thing he didn't really understand what was happening. Today just started out on the wrong foot when Leo woke up with (and still has) a fever. They are both a bit out of sorts today and it's hard to keep up with 2 extremely needy kiddos, but only one accident, not involving her brother, today for Sophia so that's good news. Hopefully we can keep it that way. I will resort to bribery and the like if necessary but I sort of feel that she's past that. She is pretty aware of her body and it's functions and she just needs to step up to being a Big Girl and get it done. And, hopefully it will be done sooner rather than later! Wishful thinking? Maybe, but a mom can dream!

Photo Shoot Rejects

Thanks for that, Mom...it is possibly the most boring thing I'll do all week. Oh wait...you mean it's sister's turn now?!

gee, I wonder why this one didn't make the cut?

It's that time of year again....birthday time! Woo Hoo! I needed to get some pictures of the kids for their invites so I could get them designed, ordered and ready to mail. We have no princess dresses at our house, so we trekked over to Jodie's to raid Emma and Isabelle's stash of dress-up attire! Leo had a great time exploring the yard and playing with every ball we threw at him. He also enjoyed watching Sophia play on the tire swing. Charlie and I are getting Sophia a full-on Disney Princess dress for her birthday, so at least she'll have one--it's all she's been asking for for about 3 months, literally. We haven't settled on which one although there is a nice Belle one at the store that I've been eyeing.

Cheese! (grilled cheese that is!)

Making the same thing for lunch rocks my world. It is oh so nice that Leo is now eating finger foods regularly. I will admit that I had a minor anxiety attack when he didn't catch on as quickly as Sophia and was still eating baby food on our Wisconsin trip, but now he's feeding himself in full force. The only problem with this scenario is the freezer full of purees that I spent time, money, and precious freezer space on! Booo! Actually, I did add some of the puree to store bought tomato sauce for dinner last night, and Charlie and I agreed that we think it made it better! Of course Sophia had no idea and my plan worked perfectly! I'm going to have to try more of those tricks before it spoils, but I have of a ton of it.

Leo is also drinking his formula from a sippy cup all day long. He still gets his bottle at night, but honestly, I think we could take that away too and he wouldn't bat an eye. It took him a while to catch on to this concept as well, but one day he just did it and the rest is history. I think it's going to be much easier (fingers crossed) than I originally anticipated to wean him from formula and onto milk. We are going to try regular cow's milk (as opposed to soy) and see how he does. He eats cheese regularly, and a little yogurt, but that's about it in terms of dairy, so I still have my reservations. Worst case scenario, we put him on soy milk. I'm not too worried, especially since he'll already be used to the taste! I will probably start mixing in the milk to his formula in the next 2-3 weeks, so we'll see how it goes.

It's nice to sit down for family dinner and eat as a family. It's nice that Leo can now be a bit more flexible with his schedule and go longer between feedings. It's nice that some of those tiny baby habits are behind us and we can move on to bigger things....like walking! ;) Part of me will absolutely miss those baby days but for the most part, I look forward to the growing up!

Indoor Fun

Julie and Francesca

Sophia and Luca exploring their firefighter side

driving the big rig

It has been sooooo hot here this last week that we've been trying to keep ourselves busy indoors during the heat of the day. We hit the Great Mall last week and it was great times (all up until we lost Belinda that is, but luckily that's behind us!) Inside the mall are a few play areas and it's usually pretty dead so the kids have plenty of room to run around. Plus they have a fire museum with a vintage truck the kids can climb on and that is always a good time.

I also tried to find theme clothing for the kids upcoming parties, but my go-to place, Carter's, failed to deliver this time. :( Actually I found a few super cute things, but they were all long sleeved and I'm just not sure it's going to be that cool in another month! (hard to believe it's only a month away, but that's another story!) I did buy the shirt for Leo that I really liked, figuring he had another week into September and maybe, just maybe he could wear it on his birthday, but I'm not holding my breath and I am holding onto the receipt!