Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend was a good one consisting of lots of fun family time. Saturday greeted us with amazing weather - 70 and sunny - so we headed out to the Milly City Farmer's Market opening weekend to enjoy the scenery and fresh air. We listened to a Cajun band, enjoyed some fresh coffee, Addison got to plant 2 flowers and eat an "elephant ear" pastry, pet baby lambs and chicks and make balloon animals with a crazy looking clown. We ran into DJ's old boss and his wife from Time Management which is always a nice surprise. They live in a loft right across from the Guthrie Theater, the site of the Mill City Farmer's Market in the old flower mill district, and are there every weekend. After perusing the market we wandered over to Spoon River for a little lunch on the patio, sun shining and music floating through the air. What a day!

That night DJ and I planned a delicious meal of wasabi salmon, caramelized pineapple, ginger and jalapeno salsa, cucumbers with a miso glaze and an edamame, artichoke heart and asparagus salad, all of which I prepped while the girls were napping, and that DJ fired up after we fed them an early dinner. Our meal turned out more delicious than we could have imagined (a keeper for sure), and even better, we actually got to sit down and enjoy it while the girls played nicely together. We capped off the evening by watching "The Fighter" after the girls went to bed and were hoping for a good night's sleep...but that didn't happen. See, Isla suddenly came down with the sniffles and was up ALL night crying and stuffed up. I'm pretty sure neither DJ nor I (nor Isla for that matter) got more than 45 minutes of consecutive sleep the entire night. But we cranked up the coffee in the morning and kept going. What other choice do you have when your darling 1 year old is up at 5:45am saying "Hiiiii!" with no sign of falling back asleep?

My morning got exponentially better when Addison made her way upstairs with a big white piece of paper in her hand exclaiming "Happy Mudder's Day! I made you a card." DJ told her it was Mother's Day when he was downstairs getting her snack going in the morning, but no one said anything about a card. She did that all on her own! It was filled with her colorful scribbles and I loved it. I ran off to my personal training session at the gym and we had grand plans of going to the park for a picnic later, but it turned gloomy and rainy so those plans were foiled. Instead, we read books, played games, had lunch and then hit Target for some grocery shopping at Addison's request. DJ had wanted me to have a spa day which is very sweet, but totally unnecessary due to the fact that I'll be in Palm Spring in a matter of weeks for a whole spa weekend! This may not sound like the most eventful Mother's Day, but it's truly all I needed. DJ and I are pretty exhausted, but we had a great weekend of family time together. The best Mother's Day by far!

"You're my best mudder" she tells me :)

Petting zoo - she looks possessed in this shot!

Beautiful girl!

The view out to the Guthrie

Yummy pastry treat!

Planting a flower

The best Mother's Day ever! DJ told her it was Mother's Day when he got her up in the morning, but Addison came upstairs on her own with a "card' she had colored for me, totally unprompted by anyone! So sweet.

Isla's Favorite Words

Isla's vocabulary is picking up steam fast! It seems like each day she's saying something new or attempting to repeat what we say. Her favorite and most clearly spoken words are Dada, No, Uh-Oh, and my personal favorite, "Hiiiiiii", said in the cutest high-pitch tone whenever anyone walks into the room. We forgot how FUN it is at this age to literally almost watch their minds absorb new things. Isla has also perfected her bye-bye wave, pointing at objects to show what she wants (and she KNOWS what she wants) and is eating absolutely everything we are - peanut butter, eggs, asparagus, couscous, salmon, broccoli...you name it, she eats it. Addison and Isla continue to interact more and more, with one of their favorite games being chase. Addison still has a bit of a hard time with the sharing concept, but it's definitely getting better. It's entertaining to catch glimpses of what it might be like in the future when they can truly play with each other.

Addison is growing up so quickly as she approaches 3, it's amazing when I think of how young 2 seems in comparison. She's a little person now! We were driving in the car to the gym the other day (she likes going with me to play in the Kid's Club area) and I said "Addison, I love you." She said "I love you too mommy. You're my BEST mudder", which is how she pronounces "mother". HA! The cutest thing ever. She also has a new bedtime request which has become a running joke. Every night when we put her to bed she says "I want my teddy bear. He's big. He's purple. He's as tall as you mommy. He's out there. Now go find him." And we always say, "Yup, we'll go get him, goodnight." And that's that..she knows we're not coming back. And there is no such teddy bear, she just likes to pretend there is.

We're not sure what we'll do on mother's day, but as long as we can be together, it will be a day well spent. DJ and I are planning to put the girls to bed a little early on Saturday night and enjoy a nice leisurely kid-free dinner. Got the menu planned and everything! We're hoping for good weather this weekend so we can pull out our patio furniture and enjoy. Summer can't come soon enough!

Daddy's girls

Erica and Alex (born a day after Isla) came over last weekend and Alex's foot is as big as Addison's!

I wish I got a good picture of it, but Isla was literally attacking Alex she was so excited. Then Addison was jumping around wildly and poor Alex looked like he was in shock. Not used to so much action from 2 crazy girls!

This is Isla's favorite time to say "dada" - talking to DJ in the shower every morning!

A little game of catch

The tupperware lid scoot

A few words

Happy Easter!

Let me start by apologizing for the reverse chronological order these photos appear in. Start at the bottom and scroll up :).

Easter started off with a big bang - literally. DJ and I were relaxing in the living room early Easter morning, before Addison made her way upstairs, and with Isla sleeping peacfully in our bed (we brought her in when she woke up at 6 in the morning, and she was still sleeping at 7). Or so we thought she was sleeping. She must have woken up and wanted to party, because all of a sudden we heard a huge bang and a scream. Sure enough she had crawled off the side of the bed and fell right onto the hardwood floor. We FREAKED out and imediately scooped her up, tears pouring down her chubby cheeks. Poor, poor Isla, we felt just AWFUL. She's just so mobile now, we'll never be leaving her "asleep" in our bed ever again. I won't go into detal about the amount of guilt, sadness and pain we felt for the little pumpkin, but I'm sure you can imagine.

No sooner had Isla recovered from the fall (with a big bruise on her forehead), sitting in the living room playing with a plastic egg, than Addison came tearing around the corner, tipping Isla over in her wake. Whaaaaaa!!! Another tumble and bump to the head. More tears, more sadness. THEN, Addison was playing in her leather toychest at the foot of our bed when Isla crawled around the corner and grabbed onto the side to pull herself up. Addison chose this very same moment to CLOSE the lid of the chest so she could climb onto our bed, slamming Isla's fingers in the process. All this before 10am. Could this morning get any worse? I almost called child protective services on us! We literally said to ourselves "OK, we need to re-set and start this day over again." And things got much better from there on out.

I should mention that in the midst of all this, we did manage to have a fun little Easter egg/Easter basket hunt around our house which Addison was thrilled about, and Ba and Nana came over with Easter baskets of their own. Pile all this on top of the Easter goodies that Grandma and the Grandpa's sent, and these girls had lots of very special treats. We headed to the Martin's for brunch where Isla slept for most of the afternoon (can you blame her? This also explains why there are no pictures of her from today) and Addison ran around having a blast. Another Easter egg hunt, lots of toys and games, and gorgeous weather to boot. All in all a great day, despite the rocky start!

Hunting for eggs at Carly and Cassie's

Got one!

All the girlies - the whole family - all girls

Running down to the play equipment in Carly and Cassie's yard

Notice how Addison gives Cassie the slightest shove down the slide because she was taking a little too long. That's my girl!

"Follow me" she's saying to Cassie

Nana with her Easter bunnies

Hunting for eggs at our house in the morning

Easter loot

Isla found an egg too! She also ate 2 jelly beans.

The night before we made homemade pizzas! Whole wheat pitas make a great crust. Even Isla had her own, with tomatoes and cheese.

Coloring eggs - Addison did great!

High-fiving the Easter Bunny - she was obsessed with him

Isla's tricks

A Few Cute Moments Caught on Film

I haven't been extremely diligent about updating the blog lately, so family in CA - sorry about that! We've been so busy with life in general and the weekends just seem to slip away. It is mid-April, but yes, it is still winter here. This is the worst of the worst that I can remember in 6 years. In fact, we're supposed to get 6 inches of snow over the next couple of days. Ridiculous! We're starved for warmth and sunshine and playing outside, so we're holding our breaths that this may be the last of it and by May we'll be in the clear. We're looking forward to a fun-filled Easter with Guy, Heather, Carly, Cassie and all the usual suspects at the Martin's Easter brunch. I'm planning on dolling the girls up in matching dresses, so wish me luck that they actually stay in them!

Addison was so proud here that she ate her veggies - snow peas, snap peas and red and green bell peppers. She ate 3 shrimp too! Dinner is a battle every night. Fun! Addison would live on yogurt and fruit if we let her. Isla on the other hand can shovel it in like nobody's business! Bring on the broccoli!

Big strong girl pulling herself up A lovely rendition of some song from Dora the Explorer

I know what you're thinking - wow, that blue robe is HOT! Don't mind me, this was in the morning as we were getting ready. One of my favorite parts of the morning is how excited Isla gets when she knows she's about to get her vitamin D drops. See, that's what you have to give kids when you live in the icy tundra of 7 months of winter since they don't see the light of day. Me? Bitter? Nooooooo!

Little Pied Piper!

Isla's on the move!

Isla's creeping and crawling and scooting and squirming all over the place these days! She's more adventurous than Addison was at this age in terms of pulling up on and climing into things. She's becoming even more vocal and imitates most sounds that we throw her way. This age is so much fun!!!

The Scoot

Creepy Crawler

She said "nana" a couple of times here when I was feeding her bits of banana during lunch, asking her if she wanted the "nana". If you listen close enough you can kind of hear it...I didn't catch the best one on camera.

Potty Time!

We're very excited this week because Addison has turned the corner in her potty training efforts and level of interest. All of a sudden she just WANTED to sit on the potty vs. being "scared" of it, so we took the opportunity and ran with it. We got some pull-ups to use during the day instead of diapers, she's got a potty chart that she puts a star on each time she goes, a bag of "prizes" to choose from after she finishes her business and is all around pretty proud of herself. She's also been ding a great job on the potty at Brenda's and Ba and Nana's to. We're on the right track! It I would have never imagined I'd get so excited each time someone said to me "Mommy, I have to go potty." :)

DJ's beauty salon

Playing cards

"Cleaning" with all her jewels

Bathtime Buddies

"I'm stuck under my crib!"

The scoot - she's so close to crawling!