Sitting

For the past week or so, Erin has been sitting by herself fairly reliably.  I mean, don't go running off to pee or anything and leave her in the middle of the floor, because she is 100% likely to choose that very moment to fall over backwards and then lie, shrieking, in a puddle of her own tears.  Not that that happened.  Or anything.  But if you stay within arms reach and catch her every ten seconds or so (or, you know, just accidentally push her over on to her face...) she can sit on her own for minutes at a time.  Fun stuff!

It turned from winter to summer here, basically overnight.  No worries.  It's not going to stay summer.  Spring and rain and cold mornings will return on Saturday, when John has to take both kids with him to soccer at 9:30 AM.  But we are taking advantage of summer while it lasts.  Dexter's favorite thing to do is to swing on our swing set next to Erin.  Erin likes it, too.  Although it makes her sleepy.  Very, very sleepy.

Swinging

Dexter giggles when I make silly baby noises at him.  Erin giggles when Dexter giggles.

Swing = sleepy thumb sucking

Cute Hokie

Unassisted sitter.  Looking skeptically at at her brother.  Who, I think, had just finished peeing on the tree.

Still watching her big brother.  Who is now pulling up his pants.

Buddy is kind of like Jaws, except he just licks baby faces instead of, you know, biting off an arm or something.

Poor Erin.  She just wants so badly to reach out and touch her brother.  And he is so careful to sit just out of reach...

Easter Morning

I know, I know.  I am late late late with this post.  And I have other stuff to post, too, from our fun visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house over the weekend.  But first?  Easter morning.  Nonna and Grandpa were at our house visiting.  We had a pretty low-key Easter.  Dex found almost all of his eighty seven billion eggs.  And he is still eating his Easter candy.  Actually, mostly I am eating his Easter candy...

Easter baskets, with a nice note from the Easter Bunny

Found an egg!

Dex stumbled upon his basket while egg searching.  Here he is reading his Easter Bunny note

He HAD an empty basket to use to collect eggs.  But somehow this was the method of choice.

Erin was fairly well entertained with her basket

Easter Bunny brought her some cool stuff

Apparently Easter Bunny likes dirty babies

I didn't say Erin was entertained by the stuff IN her basket.  She was mostly just entertained by her BASKET

Happy Easter!

Thanks for Easter, Grandma!

Dear Grandma,

Thanks for my Easter basket!  I enjoyed eating it.  Hope you had a nice birthday and Easter weekend!

Love,
Erin

Awesome paper, Grandma.  Yummy!

I also thoroughly enjoyed this doll

Her dress was especially tasty

I ate some spoons for Easter dinner - my first time in a high chair

I was very very excited to sit next to my big brother after dinner for a picture

He was not as excited, but I continue to try to win him over with my drool

I also helped him play the train traffic game on his computer thingy.  I am awesome at it.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Haaaaaa-ppppppppppyyyyyyyyyy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Grandmaaaaaaa...  Happy Birthday to you!

It's my mom's birthday today.  Dex didn't get a chance to call her for her birthday - he was a busy kid today, going to Tractor Supply to see chicks and ducks, and then going to the park to ride his bike and play for a while.  And I was gone for a while, at a competitive trail ride.  So - happy birthday, Mom!

Grandma and Grandpa came down last weekend to celebrate Grandma's birthday, and also so the boys could go to a model train show in Wilmington.  The Easter Bunny also come to John's work, so we also went there for a couple hours in the morning.  Awesome bunny this year - he was kind and patient and good to both kids.

Here's some pictures from last weekend:

Dex was a little skeptical of the Easter Bunny

Erin?  Not so much.

She was kind of fascinated by Mr. Bunny.

Dex was a bit better the second time around, with his sister.  Erin?  Still fascinated.

Fortunately the bunny didn't mind a little molestation from the baby.

Sunday morning brunch at the Mendenhall Inn.  The harp player brought Dexter on to his lap so he could play a bit.  So cool.  Dex said that when he is a grown-up, he wants to be a harp player.  :-)

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

New Ride

After four (or maybe more, I can't remember) long weeks of (im)patiently waiting, John got a call today that our new car was here and ready for pick-up.  And so pick up, he did.  Here's our new ride!

It's a fresh, shiny, new, made just for us 2013 Subaru Outback

And the instant it gets a scratch on it, John's gonna cry.  And also shoot me, because it will undoubtedly be me who scratches it.

How long do you think these seats are going to stay clean?  But I did an oh-so-scientific Facebook poll, and I was assured that tan leather is a far better choice than black leather.

John quadrupled the number of miles on it by driving it home.  Send it back.  It's too old now.

I dunno why he stays...

Conversation we had this evening...

Me:  Know what would be awesome?
John:  No.  What?
Me:  Ben and Jerry's
John:  Yeah, it would.  Do we have any?
Me:  Nope
John:  Would you like me to go get some?
Me:  Yep

And the boy, bless his heart, DOES.

And on his way out the door he asks...

John:  Does your car need gas?
Me:  I quite honestly have NO idea.  I'm fairly sure the "low gas" light was not on.  But I, personally, have not put gas in the car in a very long time.
John:  How about I just take your car to get ice cream, and I put gas in it.
Me:  Cool.

Somewhere, weaved in this ice cream discussion, I brought up the fact that the dog had puked on the carpet upstairs this afternoon.  And the only thing I could find to clean it was Simple Green.  Which doesn't do a remarkable job in removing dog vomit stains from carpet.  To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure what Simple Green actually does well, at all.  But that's beside the point.  After I told John about the stains, and asked if we had any Resolve, because I couldn't find it, he proceeded to bring out, and place before me:

1)  A bottle of Woolite Pet Stain Remover
2)  A bottle of Resolve carpet cleaner
3)  A bottle of some miracle stain remover stuff that I have seen remove red wine stains from a white carpet, with my very own big brown eyes
4)  A huge gallon jug of Nature's Miracle pet odor and stain remover
5)  An aerosol can of some kind of carpet stain remover
6)  An aerosol can of some kind of upholstery cleaner

I cleaned the carpet.  Actually, now I am doing a pet stain removal comparison, with Woolite pet stain remover and the miracle stain remover stuff whose name I cannot recall.

But, seriously.  I dunno why he stays.

It must be because I am cute.  And make cute babies...

Spring? Here, Spring!

Today is the first day of spring break.  Which means that Dex is here all week.  Which means that we all might go crazy by the end of the week.  I was hoping that the weather would be nice and we'd be able to go outside.  Ride bikes.  Walk the dog.  Go to the playground.  Maybe go to Longwood, see if there's any flowers.

Ummmm.  Yeah.  We're definitely not doing that.  At least, not today.  For one, we are all sick.  So my plan is to firmly implant my butt cheeks to the couch and not move them.  And for two...  Please to be observing the weather, on our first day of spring break:

So, yeah.  We're gonna just stay inside today.  Maybe I'll get out the water table and put some snow in it and let Dex play with the snow inside.

A couple weeks ago we had a little flirt with spring.  And spring is, I think, trying to come.  Mom saw some forsythia at the Dansko outlet the other day.  The neighbor's daffodils are up and trying to get ready to bloom.  Today the weather channel has 2 warnings for us.  One is a high pollen alert.  The other is a winter weather advisory.

Here's some pictures from our flirt with spring.  This was the same weekend that Dexter's pants fell off

Yay!  It's nice outside and we're on the couch playing with an IPad!

It was a nice day to walk the dogs.  Dex took Buddy, but he really wanted to walk Scout.  Which, no.  Scout weighs more than you do, kiddo.

So he helped Daddy walk Scout, instead

The next day we got Dexter's green bike with pedals off the wall.  We've had it for a while, but Dex hadn't quite grown in to it yet.  I think he has now.

John missed the above "Dexter riding his bike all by himself" and then spent 20 minutes pushing Dex all around the yard and the driveway.

We have since this day taken the pedals off this bike, so he can get used to gliding and steering with it (it's bigger and weighs more than his Strider).  I think his pedals can go back on soon.

Erin came out to watch the bike riding.

Cute spectator

Scout watched, too.  He was mostly just hoping someone would throw the ball, throw the ball, throw the ball.

Erin can't throw the ball.  Eat the ball?  Sure.  Drool on the ball?  Yep.  Throw the ball?  Not so much.

Dex helped Erin do her very first swinging.  Dexter loved it.  I'm not sure Erin was quite so delighted.

YAY!  They threw the ball!!!

Hi Daddy!

Here's the sick baby this morning.  She can't breathe through her nose, but she's still fairly chipper.  Dexter is in a pretty good mood, too.  Me?  I kinda want to take a nap on the couch.