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!

Silly girls

This is the week we were supposed to be on vacation in Palm Springs. Due to the unpredictable nature of jury duty and the fact that tickets spiked to a level that we would have had to spend nearly 2 grand to get there, we decided not to go. Turns out jury duty ended on time and life is back to normal. We're bummed we're not , but enjoying California family and the warm sun, but life is good nonetheless....despite the fact that we're being hit with yet another snowstorm. Will this winter ever end?

Addison started her swim and dance classes last week. Dance went really well, swimming not so much. I guess things were fine until it was time to leave and she wasn't able to take the YMCA's pool toys with her. There was a major meltdown that continued on in the shower room after class ended. Judith isnt giving up though and we're expecting it will get better over the weeks. I'm hoping Judith can get some pictures at dance class - can't wait to see Addison in her tutu! Addison continues to get more and more chatty - girl doesn't know a stranger! EVERYWHERE we go she talks to anyone who will listen. She literally says, as we're getting out of the car, "Mama, I going to talk to ALL the people. Five people." This is what she says - 5 people. Then when someone walks by it's "Hi. I'm Addison. I'm 2 and 1/2. This is mama and this is daddy. Say hi to mama. This is baby sister Isla. She's a good girl. Where are you going? What's your name? Nice shirt" (or hair, or bag, or whatever is the most obvious thing about a person). I can almost say it along with her it's so predictable. People laugh, they coo, they chat her up. We like that she's not one of those shy, quiet little kids, but we'll have to teach her the concept of stranger danger pretty soon.

Isla is almost crawling, she's so close! She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth, she scoots around on the floor and can roll almost anywhere. She's also trying to pull herself up on anything and everything, and she's geting pretty good at standing holding on to things. I'm thinking that within 2 weeks she'll be an official crawler. She had her 9 month appointment on Friday and all is well. She's 18 pounds 4 oz and 26 3/4 inches tall. Basically that translates to short and chubby! Her head is huge of course - in the 90th percentile. Addison had almost the exact same stats at this age except she was an inch taller. Hmmm...I wonder who Isla is going to take after in the height department. She LOVES her food and is starting to eat a lot of fun things. Tonight I gave her a puree of roasted eggplant, sweet peppers, garlic, scallions and lemon juice off of my plate and she loved it! She's got the pincer grasp down and loves to feed herself little veggie puffs and pieces of tofu. I'll have to get this on video, but if the food isn't being spooned into her mouth fast enough she literally starts shrieking.

After a bath

Smiley bear

Give me puffs!

Daddy Gorilla

The most effective way to get through to Addison is to talk to her like you're someone else, an animal usually. Her favorite is to pretend (and DJ obliges) that DJ is a gorilla named Daddy Gorilla. I know....it's weird! But hilarious.


Trying to crawl in her crib

Just when the weather warmed up for a week and gave us a hint of "spring", a huge storm moved in this morning and covered everything in white again! Ahhh, February and March, the months that can't make up their minds as to whether they want to be winter or spring. As you might guess, winter always seems to win out.

It's been a strange couple of weeks for me, weeks that have made me realize how very lucky I am and how good we have it. I've been in jury duty on a murder (that's right, I said MURDER!) trial in Minneapolis and have seen the worst of the worst connected to this case file through the courtroom and give their testimonies. MAN! There's some crazy stuff happening out there right in our backyards basically. I feel so grateful for the "normal" upbringing I had and the stability we are able to provide to our kids. On the bright side, I have met some cool people and am learning a ton about the jury system, a system which was formerly shrouded in a veil of mystery. I also have a new-found appreciation for both prosecution and defense attorneys!

Addison starts both swim and dance lessons in a couple of weeks and we're really looking forward to seeing how that goes. Nana is actually taking one for the team and will be "escorting" Addison to both classes since they happen on mornings during the week. Addison is typically kind of hesitant to try new things, so Nana may have her work cut out for her. BUT, Judith (Nana) has the patience of a SAINT, so if anyone can handle this it's her. Thanks in advance Nana, you (oh, and Addison too) will do great!

Isla is starting to do cute little things such as clap her hands, wave "bye bye" and shake her head back and forth as if to say "no." She still hasn't popped a tooth, nor has she figured out how to crawl, but I'm actually OK with that. She sits so nicely for long stretches of time and plays with toys on her own...I'm not ready to give that up yet.

Family...just a reminder that the big 4-0 is coming up for DJ on Feb 25th! Be sure to shoot him an email (danabarat@yahoo.com) or give him a call to say Happy Birthday on Friday!!!! We have a kid-free weekend next weekend with some fun things planned to celebrate. What we are most looking forward to though is sleeping in past 6:30am!!! Wow, won't even know what to do with ourselves. :)

Me and my girls

Playing dress up with Ba - what a sport!

Story time

Taking a walk in the freshly falling snow this afternoon

Addison "reading" to Isla

The head shake

First finger food!



I had no idea she could count in Spanish! She busted it out in the shower this morning, so I made her repeat it here.

Isla Montage

Here are a few pictures and video clips that are mostly of Isla. She's 8 1/2 months at this point, an age that I absolutely love! She's wanting to crawl, but not quite there yet. She loves to hear her voice and is constantly making funny sounds and noises. Compared to Addison at this age, Isla is a lovey-dovey snuggle bug who will lie in bed with us and fall asleep in 3.5 seconds. Addison had NO patience for any of that and always wanted her space. It's fun to notice the emerging differences in the two of them, but despite the differences, they adore each other...most of the time.

Dinnertime meltdown

They both sit in our bed on the weekday mornings while we get ready for work. Addison's newest thing is bringing every book from Isla's room and "reading" to her. She likes to control what Isla plays with, when she plays with it, and for how long she plays. THAT won't last too long - Isla will be fighting back soon, I'm sure.

Like here - she'd like to slug Addison with the Dora bat!

Obsessed with barns and farm animals

clap clap!

REEEEACH!