Daddy's Home!

I love the girls' faces when Daddy comes home!

 

Teaching them to love Chick-fil-A tea at an early age. It's the important things in life...

"Sharing" comes and goes, but Bella's getting better at it!

Look at those cheeks! And those lips! And that little nose!

Upside-down baby!!!

 

Kisses!

 

Oh, okay, and more kisses...

 

I didn't get pictures of Bella, because she moves too fast, but as soon as Steve's car gets to the driveway, she squeals, runs towards him, yells, "STOP!", and gets in the passenger side to help him "drive" up to the garage.

 

We love us some Daddy around here!



Forts And Sisters

One of my favorites memories of "sister play" growing up is forts. Mel and I had so much fun building them inside or outside, with blankets, chairs, and trees.

 

Bella is just starting to build her own, or at least try to, so yesterday, I lent a hand and made a very basic fort out of her blanket and chair. Evelyn was playing in Bella's room, too, and of course, if big sister does something, little sister wants to do it, too!

 

I used a thumb tack to hang Bella's blanket from the window. It wasn't very big, but at least they both fit inside!

They caught me peeking at them.

 

"Mama, I need to 'bee-lax' because I'm sleepy from building my ship."

Weaning Evelyn

Weaning Evelyn has been much less traumatic than I imagined. Bella was on formula, and weaning her to solids was an easy, step-by-step process. I just switched out bottles for "meals" and it worked pretty well. I had no idea what to expect for Evelyn, and I was worried it would be a hard transition for one of us.

 

At 10 months, she was still nursing 3 times a day, but losing interest quickly. During the day, she would only nurse for about 2 minutes and then get distracted, so I took the hint and substituted solid foods for "lunch" and snack times. It worked out really well this way, because I didn't have to worry where I was or if I was able to stop and nurse. 

 

She's not completely weaned yet, and I'm so glad. I can definitely see that when she doesn't nurse at all anymore, it will be something that I miss. She uses a cup and eats solids just fine, and she doesn't take a bottle at all. We still nurse every morning; most people have told me that the nighttime feeding was the last one they gave up, but for Evelyn and I, our special time is in the morning. Steve has left for work, Bella is usually in my bed watching PBS, and I can bring Evelyn into bed with me for a few minutes of snuggling.

 

Sometimes I nurse her in the middle of the day, too. In those situations, it's just a comfort thing, but I like it. Since I'm at home, I have the freedom to calm her in this way; I'm not sure if others would do it like this, but it's what works for us and has ended up being a special thing, too. 

 

We'll see how it goes from here. She's 13 months old, so I imagine she'll slowly taper off on her own, just like she's done up to this point. For now, I love having our time in the morning, and I'm enjoying it for as long as it'll last!

Aquarium Visit For Memorial Day

Since we've been traveling a lot lately, we wanted to spend the long weekend relaxing together as a family. Steve and I knew Bella would love the Georgia Aquarium, so we planned to take the girls on Monday. We had so much fun!

 

 

The tickets for the aquarium included the new exhibit called Dolphin Tales; Bella was pretty pumped to see dolphins! It was incredible! Part Broadway-part Sea World; there was music, special effects, and lots of dolphins flipping and spinning in the air!

 

This little human makes such great expressions! This face was after she got to touch the sea urchins!

Daddy and Bella in front of the coral reef.

About to see the penguins!

Bella wanted to look at and touch everything! She could have stayed for hours if we'd let her!

Jellyfish! I like it when she squeals, "Just like on Nemo!!!" 

We somehow managed to walk into one of the rooms and be completely alone. Bella got to run back and forth, following all of the little fish darting around.

Bella and Evelyn in front of the huge wall of water. I didn't get many pictures of Evelyn since she was in the stroller, but we tried to get her close to the exhibits, and she would point her finger and follow the fish that swam close to her. It's fun to see her figuring things out and learning how to do more.

 

The whale sharks in the big tank. Bella kept switching the name and calling them "shark whales".

 

It was a great family outing! We splurged and stopped at the Café for lunch. It was a little rough pulling Bella out of there to finally head home, but we survived!



Airboats And Babies Don't Mix

We ended up leaving Florida on Wednesday instead of Saturday, because Steve's bank assignment finished early, but our final adventure was an airboat tour that travels on Myakka Lake and lets you look at alligators and wildlife.

 

The only airboats we've seen recently were the ones on the TV show, Swamp People, and those are 2-person boats that seem to fly across the water! I knew our boats would be a little bigger, but I still expected them to be fast! Steve and I figured that, even if the girls got a little restless, the speed and sounds would distract them.

 

Ummm. Not quite what we expected. The boat sat about 50 people and only went a top speed of 6 MPH. Yep, 6. It was a hot, humid Florida morning, Evelyn hadn't had a nap yet, and you weren't allowed to walk around on the boat once the tour started. About ten minutes into the HOUR-LONG TOUR, Evelyn had decided that she'd had enough. It was like being stuck on a plane with a crying baby - you're miserable, the baby is miserable, you know that everyone around you is miserable, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it.

 

The tour itself would have been fine if we hadn't had a hot, cranky baby with us. Except for a quick sidenote...what is it about Park Rangers that they seem to take themselves WAY too seriously? Our tour boat driver, "Captain Bob", narrated the entire tour and was definitely a little annoyed that Evelyn was struggling to cooperate. It's not like she screamed the entire time, but she definitely had her moments. I wanted to look at him and say, "Sir, relax. The alligators on this side of the lake are the exact same as the ones on the other side of the lake."

 

Our ride. Luckily, Bella's too young to be annoyed by things like humidity, and she loved it!

Captain Bob's spot

 

Waiting to get on...

Keeping cool with tea and iced coffee. Bella decided she liked Papa's coffee drinks this week!

On the front row and ready to roll! Look at those faces, so happy and naïve! 

 

 

The alligators got up close and personal!  

 

 

Despite less than ideal conditions for kids, it really was a beautiful day! We got some great pictures of all of the wonderful creation around us!

Aaaand this was the moment when I was just praying that the boat would accidentally run aground so that we could magically end the tour early!

It's a good thing the little human loves alligators, because she got to see a ton of them!

Pink ibises. We learned that these are the only birds that are natural to Florida. 

As soon as we got Evelyn into her seat, she crashed. She was so limp that Mimi took pity on her and held her head up.

 



 

In Bella's mind, the only way to top alligators and water is with fries and Coke! I think mom and dad might try and go on the tour again without crying babies so they actually get to enjoy it and focus on the nature around them. Good luck!



Evelyn's Words

With everything going on with the girls' birthdays and now being down in Florida, I've forgotten to post some updates on Evelyn's milestones that I want to remember...

She's saying words! Not many, but it's really cute! 

(I tend to be freakishly biased about the cuteness of my own children.)

Evelyn can say "mama" and "daddy", but my most favorite word is "hi". Whenever I would go into her room to get her after naps or first thing in the morning, I would smile and say, "Hii-iiiii".

Now she says it in this adorable little cooing sort of a way; she sounds like a little bird. We love it!

And speaking of being biased about the cuteness level of your own children, Evelyn is rocking a serious mullet and a fantastic uni-brow right now. Steve and I are discussing how badly it would scar her little psyche if we waxed it. We're pretty confident that we could do it quickly and practically pain-free, but my mother was slightly horrified at our talk, so...

I keep trying to make a ponytail out of her mullet, but I think it makes her look like Paul Revere, and I always want to yell out, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" 

(If you had been raised in my family, you'd be laughing hysterically right now.)

Still no standing by herself or taking steps...

Evelyn's about a week shy of being 13 months old, and Bella didn't walk until she was 14 months, so we'll see. I was expecting Evelyn to walk a little earlier just so she could keep up with Bella, but I guess she figured she has a pretty sweet deal going with us carrying her everywhere.

That's all for now!

We Have Water Babies!

My mom and dad filled in their pool recently, but luckily, the house next door has one! The owners don't live there - they rent it out and mom and dad have the freedom to use the pool whenever they want. It's a good deal!

We've spent a lot of time over there with the girls and they are loving it! Bella has gotten much more brave and is constantly asking, "Mama, teach me how to swim!" We're going to sign her up for swim lessons when we get home, so I'm glad she's excited about it.

Even Evelyn likes the water! She is great at floating in the little raft that I bought for Bella this year, and loves it when Steve tosses her up and down in the water!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We tried to soak up as much playtime as we could this weekend while Steve was home! He left early this morning to go back to Tampa, but his job may finish early, so we may be heading back to Georgia on Wednesday or Thursday. The girls and I are going to stuff as much beach and pool time in as we can these next few days!