I guess that was it for February

After my honeymoon with our new camera, life got the better of me and I am back to only remembering my camera on occasion. Of course, it doesn't help that the blasted thing is so big now that taking it with me is certainly not as simple as throwing it in my purse anymore...
But, here are the things that I apparently did think were photo-worthy!
Our little monkey princess doesn't always nap...and I am ok with that as long as she observes "quiet time" in her room giving both her and Mommy time to decompress...well sometime last week "quiet time" was not exactly that. Kaylee was quite happy to give us a tour of the damages though.
Is it just me or does it look like this is the result of a tornado rather than a rampant toddler?
The poor Rose-Petal Cottage! Don't worry though, we were able to salvage most of the wreckage and Kaylee has not repeated her whirl-wind of terror since. (Excuse me, I have to go find some wood to knock on.)
Bampa came for a visit last weekend. He brought with him a gorgeous hand made, perfect for our needs train table (which I apparently didn't think was photo-worthy, I'll get right on that!)
Its perfect and after Bampa and Daddy did some manly type chores, Bampa made sure to spend some time with his beautiful grand-daughters. Kaylee loves to color, and whether Bampa is only pretending or not...she loved it!
Here's an "awwwwww" moment for you...a quick noozle for the sisters.
Rowan is officially an expert sitter-upper, although Kaylee doesn't mind trying to derail that promotion by knocking her on her back occasionally. However, she is also enjoying Ro's new-found independence as it means Kaylee is able to play with her on her level a lot more often.
I finally managed to get both of the girl's attention at once...albeit not the best expressions on either of their faces, but hey, at least they are both looking.
The afore-mentioned professional sitter-upper!
And while she is able to sit up on her own now, sometimes Mommy has need to protect herself from marauding canines and territorial toddlers who might do her harm...so we're lucky that she still loves her Bumbo Seat. Here Rowan managed to give Mommy a quick smile even though all she really wanted to do was...
get back to her book. "Its a real page-turner Mommy," she told me.
Unfortunately for her, she has not yet mastered that whole page-turning concept, so she had to settle for a really close look at the page Mommy stuck her on.
And to round out yet another mish-mosh post...here's two more really cute ones of Ro!
You absolutely cannot beat that little smile!
That's all folks.

Happy Valentines Day

So today, we headed off the Discovery Stop for a morning of play. Kaylee wasted no time on this relatively quiet morning seeing what toys she could get into. She and Daddy had lots of fun in the indoor jungle-gym/play maze.
Meanwhile Mommy and Ro headed to the Infant/Toddler "Stop" to avoid the bustle of the slightly older kids.

Now Rowan sure likes her own exersaucer...and she sure liked theirs too! Lucky us.

Slightly over-exposed...and yet it still shows how much fun she seemed to be having.

Both girls were sporting their Valentine's Day outfits...but Kaylee didn't really care what she was wearing as long as we let her climb and jump around.

Snack break---again back-lit so slightly over-exposed, but I still like this shot.

Kaylee really likes the train table...little does she know she's going to be getting her very own really soon!

Eventually Kaylee and Daddy joined us in the Infant/Toddler area...check us all out in the reflection!

And Daddy took the camera and got a few pictures of Mommy and Ro...this one is goof of Mommy.

And this one is good of Rowan...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Keep in mind...I just put up 4 posts today...so scroll down to see all the new pics you haven't seen yet.

Ben & Danielle come to visit

Now that I know Ben visits the blog on occassion I figured I'd make one of his pictures the first of this post. Last weekend our friends Ben and Danielle paid us a little visit.
Naturally we didn't remember to take pictures until it was time for them to go home...but we grabbed a few good ones anyway. You can tell Ben is great with kids, and that ours have a special little place for him.

Danielle was a big hit too. Kaylee loved playing games with her favorite pretend "Auntie."

And even though Danielle protested having her picture taken, with a co-star like Kaylee, she couldn't refuse.

We tried to get Kaylee to take a picture with both of our friends, but by that time she was tired of the camera and not feeling as cooperative.

And if you think Kaylee wasn't in the mood anymore...check out Ro's opinion of the extended photo-shoot.

These pictures have nothing to do with Ben and Danielle...but I wanted to include them.

Great Uncles Chuck and Buddy sent Kaylee a magnet block set for Christmas which she loves.

Of late, she has decided that she likes color-coordinating her creations...

And she likes to make her 'towers' as big as she can...

which apparently is about as big as she is.

She is super smart. How many two year olds do you know that can identify trapezoids, hexagons and octogons (and yes she knows the difference between those last 2!) Not only that, but the upper case alphabet is old hat, and the lower case alphabet is on its way to being mastered as well. She impressed the librarian at story hour this week, by spelling out the "Wet Floor" sign. I better brush up my skills, because I have a feeling I will be working on reading with her in a year or so.

OK, enough braggin...

Big-Sister / Little Sister

A while back, some family friends got our monkeys corresponding shirts, and well, why not let Kaylee and Rowan advertise their big sister and little sister status for a photo shoot. "So, Kaylee, how big are you?"
"So big!"
"Mom, enough with the camera already, yeesh!" Rowan complained with her eyes.
"Get used to it kiddo," said her big sister, "Cause you ain't seen nothin' yet."
Oh look, they shared a moment at my expense (and the sad thing is, I made it all up!)

Here's my 3 favorite people.

After we were done bonding on the sofa, Rowan decided a little exersaucer action was in order. She does love it after all.

Kaylee wanted to know if it was her turn yet.

"No way!" Rowan smirked. (For those of you that don' t know...that's funny because Kaylee's favorite thing to say is 'no way' not just 'no' but 'no way.')

"Fine then!" Kaylee retaliated by trying to shove Rowan's binky up her nose.

But eventually Kaylee decided that the exersaucer was small potatoes and best left to babies...so she decided to play in her tunnel.

The tunnel had grown exponentially more fun now that Kaylee rolls around it...

And I do mean that literally. She practices her gymnastics 'tada-roll' using the tunnel as a guide.
So there you have the big sister and little sister of our home!

All About Rowan

So this will be post all about Monkey #2 (as Monkey #1 has had several of those...
Rowan really really really (seriously) likes her baby cereal, but it was time to introduce some fruits and veggies; first on the list was carrots.

She really really really (seriously) did not like carrots! You have to keep introducing new foods to babies, we know. And you have to wait 4 days in between to make sure there are no allergies, but she really didn't like them! But now we're on to applesauce, which is much much better!
Rowan really enjoys time in her exersaucer. She is generally a baby that likes to be held, and doesn't care much for her swing or her bouncy seat or her jumper, but she will usually give me a few minutes to eat lunch and/or breakfast if I put her in the exersaucer.

"Why wouldn't I like this thing Mommy," she asks, "So many good things to check on and smack around!"

Oh, and by the way, our little over-achieving 5-month old is officially sitting up by herself these days (and rolling over quite proficiently to avoid any Tummy Time we might try to give her.)

We all know how Kaylee has her little friend Emily...well, here's Emily's little brother Oliver, slated to be Rowan's little friend as they are less than 1 month apart.

We went over to Emily and Oliver's new house and let both pairs have some time to play. Look at that gorgeous hair on Oliver? Can you believe there only 3 1/2 weeks apart? He's a big boy and that full head of hair makes him look even older. But they both had fun smiling and gurgling at each other.

"Staring contest, starting now!"

And to round out our Rowan only post...here's Ro and her favorite Daddy!

And that's our beautiful little baby-girl!