8 Months

Charlotte Marie is 8 months old. At daycare she is transitioning into the "older baby" room, no more nursery! She is getting so good at grabbing things and moving herself around to pick up toys. She is not yet crawling, although she has gotten on all four a couple of times. Things have been pretty easy--the only challenge is constant diaper rash. Man--this girl has a sensitive bottom. She is clapping her hands and waving bye-bye and loves to hear herself talk with all kinds of fun noises! She continues to get a kick out of big sister and is a good sport at all of the "love" her sister shows her! Charlotte has been a sleepy baby the last few weeks and we LOVE sleepy babies. She goes to bed at 8 p.m. and sleeps until 6:30 a.m. When she's home she'll take a long morning and afternoon nap. I think she's making up for the lack of sleep at daycare--like Evy she does not nap well with all the commotion at school. Charlotte continues to be a "chubby bubby" weighing in at 22 pounds! The sleeper in this picture is a 12 month size, but 18 month clothing seems to be fitting better these days!

Overrated

Potty training is totally overrated. Road trips are a lot easier when your kids can just "go" in a diaper. Evy's emergency potties always occur in the middle of no where as she's crying "the potty is coming out of my tummy right now."

Lil' Swimmer

Charlotte's first time at the pool. At first she held her legs up trying to avoid touching the water but she warmed up to it pretty quickly.

How Big is Charlotte?

Parent's Day Off

Scott and I spent the weekend in Chicago. We've been to the suburbs several times in recent years, but it's been at least four years since we've spent time on Michigan Avenue drinking, eating, and shopping (in no particular order) like adults. We were due! And we made it count!

We rolled into the city around 3:30 on Friday and had our "first dinner" at The Purple Pig. Then we shopped. We shopped so efficiently that the credit card company assumed our cards had been stolen and locked our account. One call to the fraud department and we were back in business. I was laughing and Scott was shaking his head at this point. We decided to take a break from shopping and had a "second dinner" at Grand Lux Cafe. We slept in until 8 the next morning and enjoyed coffee while it was still hot then took the 10 a.m. Chicago River Architecture Tour.


Pizza is one of my favorite foods so it was no big deal to wait 30 minutes in line and another 45 minutes for my Gino's pizza to cook. Plus, we weren't in a hurry and weren't juggling kids!


Some of our friends from the burbs joined us for dinner at Texas de Brazil. Such fun to catch up with great friends!



We had a great time. Thanks to Grandma Joan and Papa Jake for managing the girls while we were off playing. When can we do it again??

Evy Loves Jeans?

For the past three years I have not been able to get Evy to wear jeans. If she sees me pull them out she starts crying. Therefore, I've given up. I don't even buy jeans anymore. You can imagine my surprise when Evy informed me yesterday morning that she wanted to wear jeans. I said, "Honey, you don't like jeans. Why do you want to wear them today?" Evy replied, "I didn't like them when I was a baby. But I'm a big girl and I love them." So, I got out the 2T pair of jeans that are two inches too short for her and went along with it. I'm guessing she has been influenced by someone at daycare. But this explains why I simply cannot keep up with "toddler schizophrenia"!

Easter

I made this very easy Easter Bunny cake. Find the recipe here.


Scott's sister hosted a delicious brunch! Evy loved playing with her cousins.


1st Attempt: Evy not looking


2nd Attempt: Evy and Charlie not looking


3rd Attempt: Evy not looking

Dying (or coloring) Eggs

Emily to Evy: "I'm going to take some pictures of you dying."

Evy: "Dying? What?"

Scott to Emily: "Maybe you should say coloring instead of dying."

Don't worry, no one was harmed during the making of these eggs.

The King

Evy named her male lion "The King." Yes, I just said male lion. Evy calls female lions lionesses. It would be way too easy and boring just to call them all lions. Anyway...The King sleeps in this same place every night because it is his job to watch for monsters and pirates while Evy sleeps.

The Girl Who Cried Ear Infection

Yesterday, after nap, Evy complained that her ear hurt. In her dramatic fashion, she asked for an ice pack. I figured she slept on it wrong. Fast forward to dinner time. I was restating the rule that Evy must feed herself (as opposed to us feeding her because she dinks around the entire mealtime). She burst in to tears at that moment saying her ear hurt. I assumed she was diverting attention from her scolding by saying something hurts. She was pretty convincing so we scheduled an appointment with our pediatrician for that night. She then started crying that her ear DID NOT hurt and she didn't want to go to the doctor. We didn't really want to drive 30 minutes one-way to the evening clinic to spend 45 minutes sitting in the waiting room so we canceled the doctor's appointment. Fast forward to midnight. Evy woke up crying with ear pain. After an 8:30 appointment this morning it was confirmed that she, in fact, has an ear infection.

On The Bunny Trail

Our 3rd annual trip to the Easter egg hunt at Papa Jake's and Grandma Joan's.


Charlie playing with the "Cookie Counter" circa 1985.


Hot dogs over the fire! Followed by smores over the fire. Yum Yum! Evy doesn't like her smore in a sandwich. She likes the marshmallow roasted but eats it separate from the chocolate, hold the graham cracker.


No smore for this baby. She was happy as usual and made a new friend on this trip--Winnie the Pooh.


Pancakes and sausage for breakfast. Eating off the same plate that mommy did in the 80s!


Evy won't go near Herky, Santa or the Chick-Fil-A cow but she loves the Easter Bunny!


Lots of pink in this photo!


Go, Evy!


Take a look at the eggs in the bottom of her basket. At first she was only picking up the pink eggs until I told her she should get all colors. Silly girl.