Out to Breakfast

Please note: this is the 3rd post I am putting up today, to catch myself up...so be sure to scroll down and see all the new pics.
This morning, we decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at Maryann's. And boy oh boy did our girls get a lot of attention. I think the entire waitstaff stopped by to see Ro...and were very impressed with her big sister too!
Daddy took a few really good pics of Mommy and Ro (hurray perhaps Mommy will be able to put herself in Ro's scrapbook after all!)

Kaylee was taking whipped cream off of Daddy's hot chocolate...so our waitress was very nice and brought her a small paper cup filled with whipped cream...

Which Kaylee really appreciated (as did Mommy and Daddy as it probably provided us with enough distraction time to keep Kaylee occupied until her meal came--that and it meant Daddy could have his own whipped cream.)

Kaylee made short work of her serving, but had a lot of fun along the way.

Mommy tried to return the favor and tried to take a good pic of Daddy and Kaylee...but eh, not so much this time. There are plenty of Kaylee & Daddy pictures around though, so I think we're ok.

Kaylee had a Mickey Mouse Pancake for breakfast...and she actually ate the whole thing! She really is getting to be a big girl.

Of course...she hasn't quite mastered the whole 'fork' concept yet.

Still, a Mickey Mouse pancake taste goods no matter what utensils you use to eat it!

And that brings everyone up to date.

See you in December.

Thanksgiving

On Thursday, we packed up the girls, gave the dogs marrow bones in attempt to alleviate our guilt and headed over to Westford to celebrate Thanksgiving with Daddy's extended family.
Or as Grammy sings: "Over the river and through the woods to a distant cousin's house we go." But in comparison to the 4 people at Grammy and Grampy's house...the 52 people in Westford was quite a big to-do.
Kaylee had fun getting to know some of her cousins. She had fun playing with 4 year-old cousin Stuart (who has a brother, Graham, exactly Kaylee's age--but he was clinging to his Mommy's leg most of the day.)
They did a very good job sharing toys with minimal difficulties and reminders.

Mommy asked resident family expert, Auntie Abbie to take a few pictures of her and Rowan (notice the beautiful dress Ro is sporting, provided by her Great Uncles.)

Here's a close-up of the star of the show, but too bad the dress is a little obscured.

Here's a funny little smile when Ro was waking up from a brief nap in her car carrier.

Auntie Abbie wasted no time sharing some quality time with her youngest niece (don't be fooled, plenty of time was spent with her oldest niece too!)

Here's Daddy with Kaylee when she found the age-appropriate toy stash!

And more of Ro's entourage.

Abbie was gracious enough to take a few family photos as well, and a few came out really well!

This one too. We had a great time at Thanksgiving. It was nice to see Auntie Abbie and Josh, and Bampa and Ba and all of the 'distant cousins' too. Its always fun when there is someone new to talk to around every corner of the house.

Kaylee made it the whole day without a nap too, so we were very impressed. (And yes, she's back on napping schedule Thank God.) She didn't eat much of the Thanksgiving day meal though as she had filled up on crackers and cheese and barbeque potato chips! You know, traditional pilgrim food.

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was Happy!

"Particularly Cute"

In a particularly cute outfit, Kaylee hat a particularly good hair day and was being particularly cute. Here are the highlights:
A better shot of said 'particularly cute hairdo.'

But make sure you're paying attention to faces she's making in the mirror too. This one is happy.

I am not sure what kind of face she's making here but it sure is cute.

And on another day, our equally 'particularly cute' other daughter was wearing a particularly cute outfit, so I had to take a picture of that too!

Close up! Look at that 'particularly cute' face.

Last Sunday we spent some time at our friend's, the Hoch's, home.

Kaylee seems to have a thing for the younger men in her life: here she is catching up with Bailey's little brother Sam and showering him with a smooch.

Then Bailey said: 'hey, leave my little brother alone...and lets go do some climbing on furniture which we would probably not normally get away with.

And so climb all up and over the futon they did!

And really, are 2-year-olds ever happier than when they are climbing on furniture? I think not!

Now that 'K' and 'B' (as I call our rhyming friends) are getting the concept of a camera, we are able to get them to pose for a picture...sometimes. Not great...but a few months ago, this wouldn't have happened at all, so we'll take it.

And on Monday, Kaylee was back at gymnastics. She's doing wonderfully and has a lot of fun. Here she is bouncing on the trampoline.

And here's our tumbler-in-training. Did you know that a somersault is as simple as one...

two...

three!

Then, I think it was Wednesday morning, Kaylee woke up just when I was feeding Rowan. I called to her to let her know that I would be there shortly and she was very agreeable as usual.

And when I finally did get to her about 10 minutes later. She had decided to dress herself.

I think we have quite a fashion designer on our hands.

And here's another example of Kaylee starting to get the idea of smiling for the camera, in her fabulous hat no less!

And that's the pictures I have so far. I'll try to get some from Thanksgiving up as soon as possible.

playgroups and cuteness and visits, oh my!

Last Tuesday, playgroup was at Sophie's house and the girls (as Henry was not there that day) had a lot of fun. Here are Kaylee and Sophie drawing on a chalkboard...I would say it was brave to have art supplies out all the time, but apparently not all toddlers think chalk and crayons are fine cuisine like mine does.Of course, Emily was in on the action too...who doesn't like to draw after all.

Em and Kaylee took a quick learning break, to see what they could learn on Sophie's laptop.

They had a great time, 3 peas in a pod.

And much group art was produced. We are enjoying it while it lasts since soon enough they will be arguing over new pieces of 'clean' paper and who gets to use the green crayon first.

Back at the homestead, Rowan is slowly warming to the swing. She still definitely does not like it like Kaylee used to (and still does, I cannot tell you how many times I have to pull my 33lb toddler out of the 20lb max baby swing!)

I had another photo session trying to capture some of Rowan's elusive smiles...

As you can see, I did pretty well this time.

We think she has the sweetest little smile we've ever seen...

And even when she's not smiling she still has the cutest baby contest wrapped up pretty tight.

On that front, the last 2 nights Rowan has really slept like a champ. From about 11 to 6...not bad eh? However, she's been putting us through hell from about 8 to 10. Screaming and just inconsolable...part of us thinks that's why she's sleeping so well afterwards...
I guess that's just her witching hour...I just hope she grows out of it soon. Kaylee's witching hour was longer...I just don't remember it being so intense.
Anyway...last week we had our new friend Jordyn over. Jordyn has a little sister, Alexis who is exactly 1 week older than Rowan, so we have 2 age appropriate playmates in one family, how lucky are we! In the 2for1 category we now have: Bailey and Sam, Emily and Oliver, Henry and TBA and now Jordyn and Lexi.

The girls had a great time playing, but we ran for the camera when they started dancing on the bench.

I have no idea what was so funny...but something was.

Here we have Daddy with his girls. I am telling you nothing makes a Mommy happier than this.

Kaylee is still doing really well with her little sister. An occasional bear hug that threatens to squeeze the life out of Rowan is our biggest fear. That and the fact that Kaylee really seems to want to pick Rowan up...but so far, so good.

Then, on Sunday, Bampa came over. We had a really nice visit and Bampa even helped Daddy with a couple of 'honey-do' list items that required a strong extra hand. But the best part was the bit of bonding the girls got to do with him.

And the fact that Mommy actually remembered to gather photographic evidence of the visit...well that's just gravy.

And one final heart-warming shot. Although, I should probably insist that Daddy start taking some pictures of the girls with Mommy...or my scrapbook will be incredibly lopsided.

In other news, today will be a slow day. Kaylee had a really tough night last night. She didn't finally fall asleep until 10pm and was up at 6am. She has a pretty high fever, so we're going to hunker down under a blanket and watch a lot of television. That's what you do when you're sick right?
Other than that, things are good though. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving next week.
And that, as they say, is that.