Rowan's First Storytime

Kaylee has naturally memorized several books at this point...and if she hasn't memorized it, she has no problem making up a story based on her perception of the pictures she sees; so she is more than happy to read to Rowan now.Of course, its easy to forget her pint-sized audience when she really gets into the story.
"Can you believe this service?" Rowan asked me.
That reminded Kaylee of her task...and she got back to reading the story to her sister. When Rowan reminded her that she'd like to see the pictures too...
Kaylee gave her a very close up look!
And thus ended Rowan's first storytime!

pictures with the new camera...2009 so far!

OK...so we have our new camera now and we really really like it. It takes great pictures...and, more importantly than that (yes, I actually do mean that) it takes pictures faster! Kaylee and Ro both move fast...I can't be waiting 20 seconds between shots!
Anyway...first I wanted The Uncles to know that I actually got the Jasmine plant they sent us to flower, which I consider an accomplishment especially this far north.
Here's a closer shot...just to prove there were some flowers...our camera might be better but that doesn't mean I magically become a photographer. I have some books on photography that we borrowed from an enthusiast...so maybe if I can read some of them, I'll get better and know not to back light my shots.

Anyway...working in reverse order. Last night we had the Levys over for dinner. Kaylee and Emily (or as Kaylee now says: "Enemy" hey, at least its got 3 syllables now!) got right down to business and played pretty well together.

Sharing still doesn't exactly come naturally to Kaylee...especially at her own home. Although when we take her to someone else's house she expects her host/ess to share!

After a silly little squabble we sat the girls down..."OK girls what happened?" we asked.

"She did it."

What with a new camera to play with...it was lots of fun to try to capture some cute shots of the girls together. Here Daddy actually managed to get both of their attention away from Caillou.

Kaylee asked for brief moment to touch up her hair during this photo shoot. We've been calling her our feral child...since her hair is always wild and crazy...especially after nap. I don't like putting elastics in it anymore because its been causing her hair to bend and break...

Kaylee requests to hold Rowan on a daily if not hourly basis. She's very good about the rules though...she always sits on the recliner or the couch and either uses boppy or has Mommy or Daddy help her support her little sister.

I am not sure how much Rowan cares for the situation...but, she's a pretty good sport about it usually.

Here's a shot our old camera never would have caught...again with the back lighting, but this time it doesn't wash my subject out, and I think its really cute.

Rowan's smile makes me feel better no matter how tired or cranky I am...how could it not?

Rowan was really not digging her swing, so I had Daddy take her jumper out of the basement so I could clean it off and he could set it up. The idea was...we'll be the jumper where the swing was and put the swing in attic storage since she doesn't like it anyway. Well we just moved it to the side while we were setting the jumper up. And I just sat her in it while setting it up to have my hands free...and wouldn't you know? It was the first time she enjoyed her swing in 2 months....and since we're talking about a 4 month old...that's a large percentage of her life.

I took a lot of pictures of Kaylee when she was in the changing table as a baby...so I figured I better take some of Ro as well. Her eyes say: "Knock it off Mommy!"

I like this picture because of the sunlight patterns on Ro's head...so I thought I'd share it.

Oh, yeah remember that jumper I said we set up...here's Rowan's debut use of it.

She seemed to like it well enough. Lots of things to look at and touch...and since she hasn't quite figured out how to jump around in it yet...Kaylee has been taking the bouncing action upon herself to do.

"Mommy," says Rowan, "I do not want to play with this toy while Kaylee is around!" But do I ever listen? No.

And just a few more random shots to round out my post here. Daddy really likes Kaylee's expression here.

And Mommy really likes her expression here.

And well, we both love the love these 2 already seem to have for each other.

Rowan can never take her eyes of Kaylee (as long as Kaylee is in range.)

And Kaylee loves to shower "Rowan Sister" with kisses. What more could parents ask for?

Until next time.

The Holidays

Ok...so we woke up Christmas morning to...nothing! Well at 4 months and 2 years and 4 months, this household doesn't quite get the whole Santa concept yet. So Daddy and Mommy relished perhaps one of the last Christmas mornings for quite some time when we'll be able to sleep past 7am!
Now, Rowan might not understand that Santa came to house in the middle of the night and left her some presents, but she sure does know how to look cute in her "My First Christmas PJs".
The picture of Holiday Serenity:)

Here's a pretty cute picture of both of our girls on Christmas morning, Kaylee has now started posing with her sister and asking me to get the camera. Am I Mommy-Whipped or what?

Here's another requested shot near the tree.

Then, Kaylee wasted no time ripping open both hers and Ro's presents. Ro is too little to open her own things afterall. Enjoy it while it lasts kid...you've got 1 more year of that max.

Then, we got all gussied up and headed down to Grammy and Grampy's house. Here's the girls on the couch with Daddy and Great-Grandma Chip; or as Kaylee calls her, just plain ol' "Chip."

She wanted Great-Grandma to play the piano with her so she said, "Chip, come on now, play piano!"

Here is Kaylee reading Great-Grandma's Christmas gift from her...a picture book starring her and her little sister.

Here's Ro with her Grampy.

And Kaylee, in her pretty holiday dress.

And Rowan in her Christmas finery.

The Saturday before Christmas we gussied the girls us and took them down to Connecticut to see Daddy's family.

Here's the oldest and the youngest of our branch of the Daddy's Clan (and actually it might be the oldest and youngest of the more extended branch too, I don't think there are any babies on that side younger than Ro, and Ba is certainly the patriarch.)

Auntie Abbie made sure to snag some Ro time...not the best picture of Abbie for which I apologize but we now have a better camera so future pictures should be better.

Here is Bampa using Kaylee's head as a good luck charm...I wonder if he was making a last ditch wish to Santa?

Then it was time for Bampa to color with 2 of his favorite girls.

And that was how we celebrated Christmas this year.

Kaylee also learned how to say "Happy Hannukah" which came out more like "Happy Kana." We also taught her about a menorah and lighting candles. She asked on several occasions to light the "nora" and once it was lit and she waited through the prayer she made sure to sing "Happy Birthday" all 8 nights! But since Mommy was generally busy doing the lighting and saying the prayer, I didn't actually manage any pictures...oh well, next year.

Happy Holidays all and Happy New Year. Look for new pics in the new year taken by our newer and better camera...hurray!

The Icestorm and the Blackout

OK---the first few pictures have nothing to do with the title of the post, but I didn't feel like doing 2 posts...so I am lumping everything together.
Today we got dressed up and went to see Santa. I love this Santa, he's been at our local mall for all 3 of Kaylee's Christmases and I hope he stays until my kids refuse to have their picture taken, because he's the real deal.

Kaylee told him she wanted a wagon and said "Berry Misnus! Ho Ho Ho!" Santa loved it. Rowan, as you can see, was just along for the ride.

I took these pictures over a week ago, but haven't had time to post them...again the explanation will come in a few more pictures. But aren't these 2 sisters pretty darn cute?

Kaylee really does love Rowan...she's been a great big sister.

And hey would you look at this smile I caught on camera?

Alright...now for some explanations. Last Thursday night at 9pm, we lost our power in the midst of an ice storm. No big deal...we thought we'd have it back by morning, and so we went to bed early...Daddy in our room and Mommy in Rowan's room since without a monitor, I wanted to be able to hear her quickly and easily when she got hungry. At around midnight or so, I heard a really big thump in Kaylee's room and then she started screaming. Of course, I ran to her...she had fallen out of bed. I assumed she had woken up and become disoriented without a night-light. So Daddy camped out in Kaylee's room for the rest of the night. Well, it was more than just the dark that had poor Kaylee screaming. We're not exactly sure what happened, I think she hit her night table on her way to the ground. Daddy thinks the water cup may have hit her full on in the eye. Whatever, happened...she sure has a nice shiner now.

We headed down to Grammy and Grampy's on Friday morning around 10:30 since we still had no power and no idea when it was coming back.

And I took some shots of the damage the storm caused to our property. This is our swing set, covered by ice-laden trees.

A closer shot of the same thing.

Here's some trees bent all the way to the ground.

And then one, that couldn't take the weight and snapped.

We have a lot of downed trees and now that the snow has fallen and we're going to be getting more tomorrow, I doubt we'll be able to clear much until spring.

And we finally got power back on Tuesday night! Can you believe it, 5 days without power and there are still plenty of folks in our area whose power has not yet been restored. The storm packed quite a punch and now we have to hunker down and prepare for tomorrow's onslaught!

We are all very happy to be home and thankful for a patient Grammy and Grampy who let our family stay with them until our power came back.