Michael and I celebrated a relatively low-key Easter weekend with the girls. We spent a lot of time outside, Lily spent a lot of time eating candy, and Emma spent a lot of time soaking every bib she could get her mouth on. Lily was in particularly fine form with her comedy this weekend, and Emma was particularly desperate for attention, so seemed to ramp up her own cuteness to compete. I took a ton of pictures over the last week, so I’m going to try to just dump some without wasting TOO much time with explanation…and this time I mean it!
Sunday – April 1st
Last Sunday was April Fool’s day, and without any preparation, I managed to pull off a few pranks – switching Lily’s milk for chocolate milk, serving “peas” made of green tootsie rolls, serving “juice” made of jello, and writing on toilet paper (a kitty, of course) that I floated in the potty. Lily was mildly amused, so I hope next year I get a bigger reaction (and apparently I really need to step up my game if I want big laughs!).
For some reason, the pictures I took on that day have nothing to do with that story. You’re welcome.
We realized we need to snap one classic “cry” face for Emma. I didn’t want Michael to do that when Lily was a baby, but now I am glad I have that picture.
Emma (4/1/12, 4 months):
Lily (7/2/09, ~4 months):
Poor girls.
Lily got this bee at the zoo a year or two ago. She was allowed to pick out any toy in the store. Stuffed animals, purses, whatever. She picked this bee. The tag was so faded, the cashier almost couldn’t read it. The cashier said that the bee had been at the store for YEARS (I think she said since they had opened), and no one had ever bought it. I’m glad Lily finally gave it a good home. It does like to fly around our house and attack people yelling, “STING!” so then again I can see why people wouldn’t want it.
Trying out Lily’s “gangster” hat:
Monday – April 2nd
On Mondays, Lily goes to gymnastics class. We started going in January of 2011, and Lily has come a long way! Their annual “awards ceremony” is in May, and hopefully Michael can come then and video a bit of her class for you guys. This past Monday, I let Lily watch some college gymnastics I had DVR’d for her, and she flipped out! She loved it, especially the floor exercises. I have some video that I need to upload, but it was so cute. Every time they would do a tumbling pass, she’d run across the room and end with a somersault. As you can see, I had to add a painter’s tape “balance beam” to our floor so she could do her routines along with the gymnasts. It was ADORABLE. I don’t have the heart to tell her that she’ll be taller than most serious gymnasts by the time she’s 6, but she’s really enjoying it for now. Because we had watched gymnastics on TV right before class, she was more inspired and tried harder in class than usual. She finally did the balance beam without holding my hands (which she has been ABLE to do for a while, but hasn’t felt confident enough to let go). This isn’t a great picture, but it’s the only one I took from our den gymnastics sessions (the rest were videos).
Oh, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but Lily is only one generation removed from being coached by Bela and Martha Karolyi…sort of. The owner of the gym where Lily goes was a member of the 1976 Romanian Olympic Gymnastic Team, and was coached by the Karolyis before they emigrated. Lily’s regular coach is “Miss Betty,” but ONE time “Miss Cristina” coached Lily’s class, so technically she has been trained by an olympian, right?
Anyway, our other Monday activity was dying Easter eggs. Fun, fun!
Tuesday – April 3rd
I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but both girls were born on a Tuesday. That’s because I had OB/GYN appointments on Mondays with both girls, and both times the doctor said, “hey, do you want to have a baby tomorrow?” and I said “SIGN ME UP!” So, as I did with Lily when she was a baby, I try to take a picture of Emma every Tuesday for this first year.
As a bonus, I then snap a picture of both girls together. The solo pictures of Emma are often not very good because the lighting in my house is terrible (and I refuse to use direct flash), and the pictures of both girls are often even worse between 1) the poor lighting contributing to a slow shutter speed and low f-stop (i.e. blurriness), 2) Lily’s fake “let-me-go-back-to-playing-please-mommy” smile, and 3) Emma’s “I-have-been-here-too-long-and-am-going-to-collapse-on-myself” posture. I also don’t think I picked the best setting for the picture because most of the pictures have Lily’s feet or shoes sticking right towards the camera. Oh well – I will keep taking them anyway!
Next to Emma is a doll I bought when Lily was just a baby. It was from a store that does monogramming, and the store was having a huge going out of business sale. The jacket on the doll was embroidered “Emma,” and I got it for a couple of dollars since it was the sample doll that had been personalized for display. I never gave it to Lily for some reason – I had thought I would because I figured we could just call the doll “Emma,” but still I held on to it. I have always loved that name, so I guess it was just meant to be.
Wednesday – April 4th
If I haven’t gushed before about how awesome my friends are, then let me briefly catch up on that and say that Lily and I (and now Emma) are so incredibly lucky to have found some amazing mommies to have a playgroup with. These ladies are the best, and the kids have been friends since they were less than a year old – incredible! There are 6 families total, so Lily has 5 friends in the group her age. Then, each family has a second round of kids (from about 16 months down to Emma at 4 months), and now one mom has started round 3 with her now 1-month-old!
We have had other mommies in the group who have had to move away (*sniff, sniff*), but in our current group, it’s kind of strange that we ended up with 5 girls and 1 boy in round one, and 5 boys and 1 girl (Emma) in round two. I don’t think we’re up for a third round ourselves, but I’m glad that Seri did go for it, because her third was a girl - at least Emma will have some support in reining in all these boys!
We have playdates every Wednesday, some of the kids take gymnastics together on Mondays, and some of the kids are in school together on Fridays. Even the mommies get our own time together at our monthly Moms’ night out. LOVE these ladies and their families!
Last Wednesday, Sara (Emery and Camden’s mom) hosted our annual Easter party. I am posting tons of pictures from that party so the other mommies can grab any pics they want (e-mail me if you want larger files). I was trying out a different lens, so my pictures aren’t that great (I am so used to my wide angle lens), but oh well. The kids had so much fun – playtime; craft time; snack time; and, of course, an Easter egg hunt!
Emma, as usual, was SO patient.
Landon – the lone boy among the preschoolers:
Logan – Ana P.’s little brother
Blaine – Landon’s little brother
Ana B. and mom, Courtney
Kristi (Katelyn and Levi’s mom) with Levi
Sweet Katelyn
Emery wasn’t into getting her picture taken – too much to do!
Ana P. – always photogenic!
Cute little Tate – Ana B.’s little brother
Sara and Camden
Oh my gosh – these girls actually have a mommy? Photographic evidence!
Later that night, Lily finished decorating the Easter eggs. This mostly consisted of piling on the glitter glue, that slid off the cold eggs and looked pretty gross. She loved it.
Thursday – April 5th
We stayed home on Thursday and spent some time in the yard prepping for mulch delivery on Saturday. Cutting back plants, playing in the water table, cleaning out the fish pond, etc. Mimi and Papa sent us some delicious sourdough bread and candy for Easter. The bread was shaped like bunnies and it was AWESOME. Behold the grilled cheese bunny sandwich.
After dinner, we opened the doors to let in some fresh air, and Lily insisted on getting blankets and huddling behind the curtain for half an hour. She kept saying she was trying to get warm…by huddling by an open window when it’s cold outside. Strange child…
Friday – April 6th
No pictures from Friday – we mostly played and worked outside.
Saturday – April 7th
After our mulch was delivered and installed, we spent most of the day outside moving stuff back into place in the yard.
Emma enjoyed the fresh air.
Lily enjoyed an Easter egg lunch.
Emma had her first ride in the swing and couldn’t have looked more underwhelmed and precarious.
That night, we tried to catch some more Emma smiles.
An action shot of the her bubble-blowing action (and part of why everything she wears is always wet).
Of all the lovies she has, she has gravitated most to a Rudolph one that Michael’s aunt gave her for Christmas.
Two pictures of me in a week? Woah.
Even more of a “woah.” I actually remembered to get you a picture of the back of her head! I will say that her hair is filling in the bald patch faster than I had thought. It was almost smooth it was so bald, but hair is now growing back already. Some of her new hair is lighter, so I’ll be interested to see how it ends up since her original hair was so dark that it looked black.
Sunday – April 9th
Well, look at the time! I need to wrap this up for now, but I will try again tomorrow to get to EASTER pictures since that’s what the title of this post promised. Oops! Somehow I got sidetracked…I know you are shocked…
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