New Words of the Day

Peter:  "Why?"  (i'd been wondering when it would start...)

Lily:  "Jump, jump" (repeated after her brother said it)

First Dip

We just got back from our first outting to the pool!  It was so much fun!  Loved it.  It went much smoother than I would have guessed.  There was only one other mom and little boy so we nearly had the baby pool to ourselves (and so there wasn't that first time awkward feeling of 'there are a ton of people here who are in the know and I'm clueless').  Peter had a blast.  Lily loved sitting with me, sitting on the side and babbling, and even enjoyed her dips in.  I'm pretty excited to think that is how we'll spend a lot of our summer.  Afterwards, we did an errand and I ran thru the drive thru at Chick-fil-A (the boy was asleep so I snuck it in!).  So fun!

Week Long Play Date

Melissa and her girls were here this week.  We had lots of fun outtings.

Tues we went to Trader Joes, "Chicken-a-Lay", and Target.... our entourage with the babies in the baskets of the carts.  Peter is racing his cars on the cart.  :)

On Wed, we went to Story Time and a park. 

Peter found a piece of wood-chip mulch that he told me was his key.... I was impressed with his creativity.  He carried it around to use on all the different "vehicles" on the play ground.

I asked him to show me his key for these pics...  He was quite proud.  :)

Lily rode on the horsie...

Then Peter took Lily for a drive on one of the cars...

(I LOVE these pics!  There were so many cute bro & sis pics from this week....)

reaching for her big bro :)

playing on the "whoo whoo" with Annika

Peter and Annika loved playing together. The window was their favorite place. Annika is really a climber and was the ring leader in the window play. Peter came up with lots of new things to say this week. He kept suprising us with what came out of his mouth (in a good way). He had his toy school bus and kept saying to Annika "You like my bus?! Say yes." and "Ann-ka, say my name." Annika was quite entertained by him and gave him some great laughs. Isn't that a boy's dream?... for people to think he's funny (...at least in our house!)

Thursday, we had a picnic lunch at the park.

The oldest 2 girls went for rides on the swings, oh the sight!

Lily loved it!  Melissa pointed out that I frequently told Lily "Oh, I love you, girl!" or "I just want to squeeze you!"  Can you blame me?!  Look at that face!

Peter told Mike this week "Look look cool, Daddy!" b/c he was wearing his glasses.

Peter told me one day this week "Eat you, Mommy"... I think b/c I often tell him that I want to eat his neck... ???  He is really starting to pick up on things!

I told Peter he could eat the rest of the "puffs" if he fed them to Lily too.

It was the sweetest sight.  Dirty face and all. 

And it gave me time to work on dinner.

Oh, I love these two!!

On Thursday, Andrew arrived and we all had a yummy dinner and eve of talking.

Caitlyn slept thru thru the night for the first time here (9-5)... it must be the "love of sleep" in the air at the P's house... at least I like to think so :)

On Friday, we went to Maymont.  This was the cool dude who joined us!

It was the first time I'd been all the way down to the bears.

Thankfully, I had this little helper.

readin' up on the eagle ;)

He was sleepy for the hike back up.... eye rubbing. 

...but he did share a little "courtesy smile".  Check out Lily's sweet summer bare feet & legs!

It was a fun week... crazy at times (full of poopy diapers, dirty laundry and dishes, hungry children, tired moms) but nice to have the company of a friend.   We all enjoyed nice long naps on Friday afternoon.  It helped give me a birds eye view of all that really does happen with their little minds and bodies in the first few years.  There were such differences in 4 children that are a 2 1/2 year span... all so close together but SO different in their abilities.  I felt like it helped me to see all the progress Peter has made with talking, communication, obedience, discipline, parenting in a year's time.  I know its all normal stuff to happen a year but it was nice to be able to clearly see that progress, instead of just feeling "in the thick of it" day in and day out. 

I am overwhelmed at the sweetness that lives in my house & resides under my care!

Refreshed & Sun Burnt

Wow, we had such a nice, nice weekend away.  It is for sure one of my favorite weekends in recent memory(maybe one of my favorite all-times)!  I didn't take any pics but I have lots of mental ones.  It was so relaxing and a GREAT vacation (and really a vacation) with 6 of my favorite friends... Coxes, Gravitts, Browns.  We all fit perfectly in the river house.  It was the perfect balance of group, social time and reading, down time.  The girls went walking every morning and some twice a day.  We sat on the dock (a lot!) without needing to come in at the end of naptime. I read lots of magazines and 1/2 of a book (Bringing Up Girls), which is impressive for me and was really enjoyable.  (I haven't read Bringing Up Boys so need to get it.)   We ate late low key breakfasts and amazing grilled dinners (mostly prepared by Brian and Joe)... and great margaritas and desserts, of course.  I loved, loved being with these 3 couples for a long weekend.

AND I felt like my kids were loved SO well and also so enjoyed their weekend away.  Well, at least Peter did, Lily was a little more puzzled by the bottle she was supposed to drink from all weekend.  My mom sent them back with new clothes, new toys, smiles on their faces, clean laundry.  We met for dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Peter was glad to see us (unlike last May when it took him 24 hrs to be glad to see me) & gave us such a sweet hugs.  Lily was a little more hesitant.  She wanted to be with my Mom more than me but was fine after we left and she couldn't see my Mom.  It was pretty sweet though and I was glad she and my Mom enjoyed their time together.  I was SO excited to see them, which is always a great thing (and honestly, not always the case- esp early in the morning). 

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for one of our favorite weekends!! 

More Adventures at Maw & Paw's

More Pictures from last weekend...

Mom had a sprinkler for Peter.  He was a little hesitant at first & had Maw go with him but got into it and was asking to "get wet" whenever he went outside.  I hadn't taken his swim suit along... ;)

loving on Copper...

It wouldn't be a weekend at Paw's house without a snake.

Grace came to love on the kids.  :)

We had a fun baby shower for Cha-Cha's sweet baby.  It was so good to hang out with these girls!  How fun to have gotten to celebrate the arrival of each of our first babes together. 

There is about to be more SWEETNESS at the Dennis house again.  Peter and Lily will be spending a long weekend there so that Mike and I can head to the river for the much anticipated, first ever Child Free Small Group River Weekend.  Yay!  I am sure I will have a blast once I get there but the thought of leaving behind my Lily Bug makes me oh so sad.  I can't imagine not being able to squeeze her sweetness anytime I want. 

Oh, she is saying "uh oh", "hi", and "dat" (for cat), along with all of her other precious, precious babbles.  And she can officially crawl.  She's like her mama and doesn't bother with it much unless there is something she really wants to get.

Beautiful Day

We spent a couple days in L'ville.  I took a few pics of Lily in the field.

Oh, here comes Paw and Peter on the tractor! (They are at the back end of the path.)

Hello there!

I really wanted to take some pics of (only) Peter on the "path" too so I had Mom and Dad walk him out there...

And this was the best one I got...  I'd really have loved a great pic of the two of them but that was impossible.  And the sky was such a pretty blue, I wish I'd gotten the sky in more of the pics.  Next time...

Peter enjoyed lots of rides on the "yi-yo".

Mom and Lily on the hammock...

Blowing Out Candles

Mike came up with the creative idea to put some birthday candles in a ramakin.  He melted the bottoms to stick them in it. It looks like a little mini bday cake.  Peter loves blowing the candles of the "cake" out (and he doesn't seem too disappointed that the doesn't actually get cake).

Only one more!

Way to go, buddy!!!