Pretty Pictures of Smart Girls

Thought I'd show off some pics of my pretty girls. First, our youngest daughter, who's currently 21 weeks gestation, shows off her profile in this artistic black and white portrait (that sounds better than "blurry ultrasound image"). I can just tell from here that she's a thoughtful, courageous, bright little lady. And I'm sure she can't wait to prove me right. ;-)

And next for our oldest daughter, who is now 27 months... I already know Rachael is an inquisitive, precious little explorer. She is learning manners now--she says "Tank you, momma, TANK you" when I bring her dinner or help her open her Mr. Potato Head box. She's able to better evaluate the needs of those around her--she knows that our kitty cats need GENTLE petting, not pounding, and if kitty runs away, that means kitty's afraid. She's gathering an appreciation for opposites ("Light on! Light off! Opa door! Close door!"). She now sleeps in a 'big girl' bed in her 'big girl' room, graciously vacating her nursery so we can re-stage it for an infant. It'll be interesting to see how she adjusts to her little sister in May--I'm sure it'll take some time, but she'll be great.

What an awesome job this is, raising little girls! Can't wait to see what they do next. :)

Halloween

Happy many-weeks-after-Halloween! Rachael was a bumblebee this year--pretty cute! She was pretty sick of her costume by the time Halloween rolled around, though. She wore it to downtown Royal Oak's trick-or-treating event one weekend, then wore it most of the day at daycare the day of Halloween....so by the time we were heading out to trick-or-treat around our neighborhood, she was DONE with Halloween. That's cool. I got my $12.50's worth out of her super-fine Target costume. ;-)

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Here are some more pics:

"Momma, his HEAD comes off!!"

Sitting with her Jack-o-lantern (groovy carving, Dave....)

And, for a little perspective, a pic from Rachael's first Halloween (2006). Awww....

Our little Bumblebee today!

Fall Is Here!

Yay, it's fall! I'd been dreading fall a bit, mainly because I had a couple of long-ish road trips for work, but now that they are over, I'm settling into enjoying my favorite season.

We went last weekend to find Halloween pumpkins. Rachael loved riding around in the wagon at the pumpkin place! Here are some pics from our trip:






Happy fall! :-)

Getting Ready for Winter...

It's strange to be thinking about winter when it's still warm enough for shorts and t-shirts, but today we went out shopping for Rachael's winter coat and snow pants. Last year I waited until Rach actually NEEDED such things (end of October-ish), and I ended up buying from the pile of rubble that was the winter coat selection. So I was a bit more proactive this year.

Anyhoo, this is the coat we ended up getting--we have the matching snow pants too. Cool, eh? I wish I could get away with wearing a shiny pink coat. ;-) If you're looking for little kid outerwear, Gap had a lot of cool stuff to pick from, and their prices were in line with Carter's and other common outerwear haunts. Gymboree only had coats available online last I checked (not in stores for a few more weeks, they said), but the few they had online were insanely expensive. If you are insane, be sure to purchase your toddler's winter coat from Gymboree online. Heh.

If this hadn't been at a brunch buffet, this would be disgusting

We went to brunch last weekend at Fox Hills, home of the best brunch on the planet. It's a rare treat...my friend Kim and I both happened to have won brunch passes earlier in the summer, so the five of us (Kim and Mike, Dave, Rach and me) headed to Plymouth for a morning of gluttony. That is when David appeared at our table with a piece of cake and a strip of bacon. Only at brunch would it ever seem OK to have cake and bacon on the same plate...and even at brunch...it's a stretch. ;-)

I applaud your creative menu, sweetie! Good thing this isn't anything close to our usual meals!

Zoos and Tutus

Busy day today! Rach and I went to the zoo this morning with our friends Kristin, Gabby, and Sophia. We had a great time--Rachael enjoyed the reptiles the most, mainly because she could get right next to the glass and see the animals an inch away from her face. The poor turtles are probably scarred for life after seeing Rachael's nose pressed against the glass like that. Beyond that, her favorite part was running around the zoo's playground...oh, and eating lunch. :-) Here's a pic of her, zoo-ready (thanks, Jim, for the sunglasses!):

I admit, I was looking forward to Rachael sleeping for hours when we got home. After all that running around in the sun, I was expecting a 2.5 hour nap from her. I was wrong. So wrong... After refusing to sleep (and ignoring my pleas), Rachael got up, cranky and over-tired, demanding entertainment. And of course she wasn't interested in puzzles, blocks, outside....UGH. Desperate, I ended up having her try on the tutu I'd picked up at the Gymboree outlet.

Hee hee....she dug it! Her tired eyes lit up as she started twirling around in the filmy tulle. A girl should never need a reason to throw on a tutu, even if it's paired up with a dirty shirt, right?

And *any* tutu is set off perfectly by mom's (gigantic) brown sandels:

So glad I took today off work! Zoos and tutus are way better than conference calls. :-)

What Child Labor Laws?

As I have been whining about on Facebook, we spent our last two weekend moving mulch. The yard looks nice now that the mulching is done, but in the end we had 11 yards of mulch that had to be moved from the heap on our driveway to the various mulch-happy places in our yard. If it weren't so flippin' expensive to have a service do this, I swear I'd hire it out.
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In lieu of hiring labor, we turned to our nearly-two year old! Ha. She was intrigued by our mulch mountain and found the process of shoveling mulch into a wheelbarrow just hilarious. She even pulled on her daddy's work gloves so she could truly play the role of laborer. Our neighbors got a kick out of watching us put our kid to work. ;-) Perhaps we get her a kid-sized shovel for her birthday next month?

Getting a ride back to Mount Mulchmore....