Tiny dancer

Of the many "firsts" that Anna has had in her life, today was one of my favorites--her first ballet class! I loved ballet when I was her age, and have just been so excited for her to start because she loves to dance around the house so much. And, as much as I enjoyed it, I think she definitely enjoyed it even more! She really had a blast. Above, she's showing us some of her new "moves" at home after her class. (She unfortunately had ditched the cute skirt and shoes by this point...hoping for more photo ops next week when she's all decked out in the full garb.)

Here are all the little girls listening to their teacher, Ms. Lisa, before class started. This was Anna's first "activity" to do without me (first one that's not "Mommy and me"), and she can't see that I'm watching her dance because they have one-way glass in the room, so I wasn't sure how it would go. But, it went great! She came running out after the "tap" portion of the class (to change shoes--but I didn't realize that at the time), and I was thinking it might take some coersion to get her to go back in. But she just said "Hurry Mommy, I need to change out of my tap shoes and into my ballet shoes and get back in there so they don't start without me!" So cute.

Admittedly one of the best parts of ballet are the adorable outfits. Above, she's getting fitted for her first pair of ballet shoes (and tap shoes...not pictured here). Her little 7B's are just too cute...

Floatin'

We had a nice, relaxing weekend at home, enjoying having NO plans or commitments all weekend! We took advantage of the time to do some serious hanging out in the pool. Its about the only outdoor activity that's doable these days with this insane Houston heat.

Kate had been a little lukewarm (no pun intended!) on the idea of swimming because the water had been somewhat chilly, but our recent few weeks of crazily hot weather have gotten up the pool temp up to a nice bathwater temperature. She was quite the happy camper this weekend floating in the pool and playing with her sister.

A hard day's work

Anna was a bit sad to see Daddy go to work on Wednesday (wouldn't it be more fun if he stayed home and played with us? I couldn't agree more!), so we decided to go pay him a visit at his office on Wednesday afternoon. Not only was Anna elated to see Daddy and his "beautiful" (according to her) office, but she took full advantage of his giant whiteboard canvas for her artwork. As you can see, Kate was equally riveted by the experience.

She also enjoyed doing a little computing at Daddy's desk. Let's just hope she didn't send any controversial emails to the Center Director...

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy, from your two little angels! We love you so much and are so happy that you're our daddy! You're the best daddy two girls could ask for, and we appreciate everything you do for us (well, maybe not quite yet, but we certainly will someday!)...

Anna the Builder

When Bucko and Grammie were here a few weekends ago, Bucko and Anna spent a little time putting together the picnic table they had gotten for her last year (sorry Anna for the delay in getting this put together! Its been a bit of a crazy year...). Anna has gotten very into playing with tools recently, and her screwdriver skills are actually pretty darn good. She was quite the little apprentice to her Bucko...

Chatty

One of Kate's favorite things to do these days is to lay on our knees and "talk" to us. While her vocabulary is admittedly limited, its amazing how much she wants to engage in "conversation". She waits til your done talking, and then makes an attempt to imitate whatever sounds you just made. So sweet! We definitely think she's going to be a social one...

Let's talk about it...

I've decided that I'm pretty much "done" with Anna throwing fits (disclaimer: 1) Anna is overall pretty good about not throwing tons of fits...I just want them to go away altogether if possible, and 2) me deciding this is in no way indicative that the fits have gone away). So, I've been trying to encourage her to talk to me about what her "issues" are instead of melting into a boneless pile of toddler whenever I tell her "no". While the fits certainly haven't disappeared, they're getting much better, so I think its working at least a bit. What I usually tell her is "Let's not throw a fit...let's talk about it."

Well, one of the first days after her swing set was built, we were playing outside right before dinner and she requested to have her pillow, blanket, and monkey to lay with in her "clubhouse". I thought it was a silly request so said "no", and she promptly said, "Mommy, let's talk about it." Hmmm...a dose of my own medicine? While I cracked up that this was her response, I had to concede that this was indeed what I wanted her to do instead of throwing a fit. So, we talked about it. And, as you can see, she did indeed get her requested items for clubhouse snuggling. I'm a sucker.

Tummy time, modified

Much like her sister, Kate is not a huge fan of tummy time. We think its because both girls have struggled with reflux, but who knows for sure? Anyway, Kate's becoming a bigger fan of it (or, let's be honest, just tolerating it a little better) now that we're doing it on the Boppy. Still not her favorite activity, but she's at least humoring us by doing it for a few minutes each day...

Little fish

Anna started swim lessons last week, and is absolutely loving them! She's always had a decent level of comfort with the water because of us having a pool in our backyard, but her more timid nature has kept her from getting too adventurous on her own in the pool. But, she loves her new swim coach, Ms. Erica, and has really been blossoming during these first few lessons. She can retrieve things off the steps with her face under the water, get in and out of the pool by herself, float on her back, and do the basic motions that will eventually result in swimming. We are probably going to do lessons for at least a few more weeks and hope that she's doing at least some basic swimming by the end of them!

Here she is with her face in the water doing her "big arms" and kicking...gaining confidence!

She's doing great floating on her back and keeping a toy on her tummy. Ms. Erica has so many good tricks to make learning to swim fun!

Cousins

We ventured to Tomball to Grammie and Bucko's house for Memorial Day this year, and Kate got to meet her cousins, Sydney and Natalie (as well as Aunt Kel and Uncle Roger). We had a great time! We went blackberry picking with the older girls (sans Kate), and had a lot of bonding time around the house in Tomball as well. While Kate was a little young to partake in the normal Tomball festivities of riding the Jeep, bike-riding, swimming, and playing outside, we know these four girls will have years and years of fun times (and trouble!) ahead of them...

First dip

We gave up waiting for the pool water to get warm enough and just decided that Kate's first swim should be in a slightly warmed hot tub. She was a big fan! Warm water, bubbles, and spending some time with her sister Anna? She was a happy baby...

Butterflies

During the month of April, Anna and her classmates were studying butterflies. They had a wonderful conclusion to their month of studies by taking a field trip to the Butterfly Exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science.

Its amazing some of the things that Anna is learning in school this year and what neat things her teachers do with them. They have a butterfly garden just outside their classroom, and they've taken some caterpillars from it and brought them into the room to watch them turn into butterflies. Anna also informed me (and her swim teacher) the other day that she needed to take the ladybug out of the pool and put her in the flower bed with the flowers so that she could eat the nectar. Her swim teacher and I just looked at each other like "What? Well...I guess she's right..."

Its so neat to see how much fun Anna has playing with her little friends! Here, she's dancing with Claire, her newest "BFF".

We actually managed to get all 13 kiddos in one shot...a pretty big accomplishment for a gaggle of 2-3 year olds!

A big thanks to Anna's teachers for providing so many amazing experiences this year!!

Fun times with Nana

We're getting caught up on posting some older photos to the blog that I've been meaning to post for a while. Having two kids is definitely hindering my blogging time! :-)

Nana came for a great visit at the beginning of May to meet Kate and spend some time with big sister Anna. We had great weather, and the pool was just starting to get warm enough to swim (note: was only warm enough for Clevelander Nana...we Houstonians thought it was still way too cold! Guess we haven't spent enough time swimming in Lake Erie...), so we enjoyed a lot of time outside. While Anna still thought the "big pool" was too cold, she did enjoy swimming in the hot tub with Nana...

We laughed when we saw how this picture turned out. With the clock in the background, it sort of looks like one of those shots where someone holds up a newspaper to show that they still have a hostage alive. "I have your baby, and its 2pm on May 4th." Maybe we need more sleep...

Just a swingin'...

One of the benefits of our new bigger yard (and one of our big reasons for wanting to get a larger yard in the first place) is that Anna finally has a place to "play" besides just the pool! We've been shopping for swingsets for a while, and finally found one that was not-too-big, not-too-small, and seemed like it would be lots of fun for Anna (and one day for Kate!).

Anna has just totally fallen in love with it! She loves the swings, the glider, the slide, the sandbox...everything! And, its been so nice to be able to let her go outside and play without having to try to tote Kate with us all the way to the park. What a blessing this swingset has been with a new little one around! And, I know both girls will have many years of fun ahead of them on this set...

Weekend with Grammie and Gramps

We were lucky enough to have Grammie and Gramps (aka Bucko) come stay with us for a long weekend this past weekend. It was wonderful to get to hang out with them, and they gave us a much needed break and some time to relax and recuperate. Anna and Kate were of course ecstatic to have the time with their grandparents too. Grammie and Bucko--we can't thank you enough for your visit!

Grammie and Anna had lots of snuggle time over the weekend...

One last swing on the swing that Bucko built for Anna. Anna has a new swingset now (pics to come soon), so Bucko took apart this swing to give us more space in the yard for teeball, croquet, etc. this summer...

An offering to the nap gods...

Miss Kate has apparently been taking advice from her sister Anna and has decided that naps are really a waste of time and being awake ALL day is way more fun! This is an offering to the nap gods as a plea to please help her nap!! See, she used to sleep...she did!

I actually shouldn't complain in the least. She is sleeping at night (still waking up to eat, but that's ok), and she's actually taking a nap right now which is allowing me to post this update! Her napping has just gotten quite "inconsistent". Oh well...I guess she is only 7 weeks old...maybe we should give her a break...