The Last of January

OK, I just did a lot of posting in the last 24 hours...a total of 5 new posts that was just too much content to lump into one...so make sure you scroll down to see all the pictures of the 2 cutest girls on the planet.
Now that Rowan has gotten used to the idea of swallowing her rice cereal...she really likes it. She's all smiles during dinner these days.

And lucky her...she gets to start baby Oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow...I hope she likes it.

Yesterday was a busy day for Kaylee...our friend Jordyn had her 3rd birthday party so we headed over for the big bash.

Kaylee had a good time and got to meet some of Jordyn's friends that she didn't know before. Its a good thing she's not shy:)

And then her supposed nap, our friends Sam and Bailey came over. As per usual, Kaylee turned her flirt on with little Sam who is going to turn one next month!

All 3 kiddos had a good time playing...and although Rowan was too little to get thrown into the mix just yet...she sure watched with great gusto.

I am sure she and Sam will have lots of fun in a few more months when she is mobile and such...they will be in the same grade after all.

And that about brings us up to speed...next post will be officially in February when I download another 8,000 pictures from our camera!

Soccer Mom

Yup, its official...I'm a soccer mom. Except that I drive a relatively economic car, a sedan no less...so maybe I'm not, but I am.
Here's Kaylee sitting on her soccer ball supposedly paying attention to Coach Matt.
Usually she's actually not really into soccer...but maybe since I had the camera out she decided to be a ham and run around and actually play!

This is my favorite picture I took the whole time. She kept tracing the big Z on the field...and I just liked how this came out with the soccer ball on the outside.

Of course, any event is fun when we get to play with our buddy, Henry...who became a big brother that very night!! Congrats to the whole family on the birth of little Harrison Leo!

As you can see sometimes Kaylee actually did something with a soccer ball too...like chase it around the field.

And kick it.

But her favorite soccer accessory seems to be the net so we're thinking she's going to be the goalie.

However, she's not too bad at 'handling' the ball down the field when she thinks no one is watching.

Again, me futzing with camera settings, but I liked it even though it came out blurry...it shows she can actually move quickly when she wants too.

Only 2 more weeks of soccer...it would figure that she finally would get into it now that we're almost done!

Real Food

On Sunday, when we got back from VT, we decided that we were going to try to fill Ro's belly a little more at night so that maybe she'd sleep a little later...so we started her on her first solids. Baby Rice Cereal....mmmmm.....mmmmm.....good!
Ro wasn't thrilled with the experience itself, but she seemed to like the taste...the few times we got any of it past her tongue.

But she sure liked her new toy...the spoon!

It was a very proficient eye-gouger.

But she managed to find her mouth occasionally too!

Fun stuff, and it has helped the night-time sleeping...just not that much. Oh well, we're going to introduce Oatmeal along with breakfast starting tomorrow! Help! She's growing too fast.

a mish-mosh post

Is there anything more peaceful than a sleeping baby?
How about a sleeping toddler?

Yeah yeah, enough of the boring crap...onto stuff when the eyes are open. Rowan really likes to feel snuggled, she likes to either be held or be in something that mimics being held, like on the floor in her boppy pillow.

Although apparently she had had enough with the camera after a while...

She likes Bumbo chair too...as long as she can see Mommy, Kaylee or Daddy.

I like both of the girls' expressions in this one. Rowan is desperately trying to escape from her bumbo chair and I am not really sure what Kaylee is thinking...but she sure does mischievous well.

"Oh all right already Mom, I'll pose for a picture!" I feel the sarcasm of the statement is evident in the photo.

Auntie Jacqueline came over last week and Kaylee had a blast with her...they read and played and ran around the house...what more can a 2-year-old ask for.

This is what Kaylee's hair looks like after her nap...

And while I was futzing with the camera settings here...I just would like the outfit to be noted, I don't always let Kaylee run around looking like she was raised by wolves.

The conversation that passed in the look between these 2 here scares me for the future. I think they are going to double-team their poor Mommy some day in the not-so-distant future.

Way way back now our friend Sophie and her parents came over for dinner and I finally off-loaded the pictures and de-red-eyed them, so there were a few cute ones to share.

Please don't mind the snot-fountain pouring from Kaylee's nose...just don't enlarge the picture too much and it shouldn't bother anyone (but me.) Anyone know how to edit snot out of a picture using Photo Shop 6.0?

Awwwww, such cute friends.

I Love Gymnastics

We took our new camera to gymnastics 2 weeks ago Monday and snapped some shots of our now veteran gymnast. She looks forward to gymnastics (which she calls nastics) every week. Her confidence has grown a lot and I am really glad we started.
They use official apparatuses occasionally and Kaylee really likes swinging from the uneven parallel bars...with our without assistance. She is also becoming relatively proficient at ta-da rolls (or in Mommy's time: somersaults).

Although when given the option she always will take Miss Kara's help so she can go straight down the wedge, as when she attempts them herself she always ends up at least partially sideways.

They do exercises during each class. Kaylee really likes the bicycle peddling...which she makes Mommy and Daddy do at home now too.

Remember that confidence I was telling you about? She is getting really good at climbing up the ladder on her feet and hands, which use to make Mommy forget to breathe...but she's so good at it now that even Mommy is breathing easier.

They are learning what the teachers call "hand-jumps" which will at some point way down the line become hand-stands. Here's Miss Vickie (called Miss Mickey by our little monkey-girl) helping Kaylee do her very first one.

Every 3rd week or so, they have some sort of blow-up device for the kids to negotiate, navigate and just plain old have fun on. Kaylee really liked the slide on this one.

She's even really starting to have fun jumping into the block pit. (She used to sit on the side and sort of bum-hop herself into the pit...but now, she just goes for it.)

The nice soft landing makes it easy:)

They usually start off their class in the block pit. At Kaylee's age they are allowed to crawl through it...but as they progress in age, size and skill they have to to use only use hands and feet (no knees etc) and then eventually no-hands! Yikes, I doubt I could even do that.

Daddy really liked the pvc piping balance beam in between the parallel bars...and so did Kaylee, unfortunately it didn't provide for a good angle to get a picture of her face while using it.

And at the end of the class they all line up and do some clapping while they get their participation stamps...I thought this picture captured Kaylee's basic attitude about the whole experience.

up in VT

OK, I seriously just downloaded 300 pictures from our camera...which means I have about 300 pictures to go through and de-red-eye etc. However, its been a while since I've updated so I figure I'd toss a little teaser out here until I have a little more time to photoshop.
This past weekend we packed way too much stuff into our sedan and headed north to see Bampa! As you can see Ro was pleased with the reunion.Kaylee was happy to see her paternal grandfather as well. She lost no time in issuing orders such as: "Bampa get back here," when he dared leave a game with her to use the toilet.
She really liked all the coloring supplies he had for her...and the fact that he sat and colored with her...well that was just icing.
"Hey now Bampa, get your own coloring book, you only bought me like 20, I don't think we have to share!"
And while there was some Bampa-Kaylee bonding going on...there was some Daddy-Rowan bonding happening in the living room.
As you can see...Kaylee made herself right at home...got herself really comfortable.
And back on the home front...Mommy decided to let Kaylee try watercolors today after nap.
She really really loved it. Normally she is only interested in any one thing for about 20 minutes at a max...but she seriously painted for a little over an hour! That literally shatters all previous Kaylee-attention-span records. I wonder if this is a repeatable experiment...
Regardless I now have some new refrigerator art, so I am happy!
I promise I'll try to get some more pictures up soon...but that ought to hold you.