Heart & Soul

This is Callie

This is her big brother Ben and one of his most
prized posessions: his real keyboard from Uncle Ron.

Ben is such an awesome big brother to Callie.
He lets her play it whenever she wants.

They dance and bop to the music, laugh and play. Magic. Pure magic:)

Museum Trip #578

Ok, not really. But, we go there so often. so it feels like we've been eleventy-billion times. Lord knows I have that many pictures! Amazingly, they never get bored or jaded by the museum like I do. And Callie's seeing it through brand-new eyes, which helps renew some of my enthusiasm. While on our spring break, a trip to the good 'ol museum was a must.

Self-styled, as usual:)

Painting their own faces was only "meh?" for Ben.

Milly loved it, no surprises there!

Callie was veeeeery bored sitting in her stroller.

So, we took a little trip to the baby section.
Bigger siblings aren't allowed in there, so Callie rarely gets to stay long.

It's filled with baby-sized exhibits, crawling activities and other babies. Fun!

This faux-fish display was her fave because it allowed her to utilize her new-found skill of standing. She is OBSESSED with standing. It's pretty cute to see, but not so easy to facilitate as often as she desire because she needs a spotter the whole time. She will work herself into quite the baby-tantrum if you don't allow her to stand when she wants to!

Already bored, I guess;)

9 Months Old!

Ok. This is starting to get ridiculous! Where are these little time-bandits storing those stolen days and weeks? I can't even think about her impending 1st birthday without hyperventilating. The girl has officially spent more time out in the world than in my belly. She is growing like a weed in every way possible. She laughs at jokes, waves hello, claps her hands. She's an old pro at sitting, and she can even get into the sitting position from laying down! And, I'm not-quite happy to announce that she is fully mobile, now that she's learned the army crawl. Regular crawling, pulling up to stand and cruising aren't far behind, I'm afraid:( She's also eating anything and everything I put before her. She is a self-feeder now and loving the independence and culinary delight that comes with eating table foods.

Try as I might, this little lady is hell-bent on growing, being and doing. Before this realization sends me into a full-blown panic attack, I'm trying to focus on the fun stuff. Planning the social event of the century(aka Callie's 1st Birthday!), perusing the infant girl sections at our favorite stores(infant/toddler girl clothing is WAAAAY cuter than little baby clothes!) and remembering just how cute toddlers can be. She's such a delight right now. I can't wait to see how her personality develops as she grows. Speaking of growing, her 9 months stats:

Weight: 16lbs 5 oz
Height: 28 inches

Channeling Chris Farley:)
She makes lots of silly faces now while taking her picture!

This looks like I just captured her with her eyes closed, but this is the face she makes the most when you point a camera at her! She partially closes her eyes and smiles. So sultry, Callie!

Play Day With Vanessa(and Katie!)

My friend Vanessa met up with the girlies and me after dropping Ben at school today. We took a nice long walk, played at the park for a bit, and met Katie at our place for lunch. I almost never get to see my friends(especially not during the work-week!) so this was a really special treat for me today:) Thanks, Vanessa and Katie!



Oddly enough, Callie LOVES the swing.
She laughed and squealed and kicked her happy-feet the whole time.
So different than her brother and sister!

The only kind of pushing I encourage:)

Vanessa, helping Callie ride the teeter-totter with Emmie

Katie and Callie

Easter!

Our Easter started at 5 am, thanks to a couple of early birds wanting to get up & at 'em. As it was still dark outside, they were relegated to their beds until a more reasonable hour. Amazingly, this worked until about 7 am. Once Callie was awake and fed, we went looking for their baskets. They were very amused by all my wrong-turns and so excited to find them hidden under the kitchen sink:) They made short work of tearing into them and loved all the treats the Rabbit gave them. Princess Cinderella-Emily, as she prefers to be called, decided basket-opening was a formal affair and deserved to be treated as such. For this portion of the day, she donned her lovely blue ballgown.

Stained pj's were just fine for Ben and Callie, though;) Ben was thrilled with a mini-kite and pre-filled eggs decorated with Spongebob and Toy Story characters. He also loved his bubbles and Joker bad-guy for his Batcave set.

Funny-Bunny seemed to love her 1st Easter, too. She liked the basket more than the contents, but that's just how babies roll. She fared well in the clothing and accessories dept. and got a baby-version of candy in her Elmo tote.

She wasn't too sure the new sun hat was really "her", though.

Lip balm is always a huge hit!

Showing off her pouty pucker:)

Later on, Mimi came over for brunch and the egg hunt. It was c-c-c-c-cold outside and threatening to rain, but thankfully Ben and Emily are already pros at hunting eggs. It also helps that the Easter Bunny just lazily and haphazardly throws all the eggs on the grass with no effort made to actually hide them;) Just like last year, Ben was the big winner while Emily was much choosier while picking eggs.

The Egg-Hunting portion required yet another dress-change. This one has a full, ballet-style tulle skirt and is 2 sizes too small, but the poor dear can't bear to part with it. Thankfully, it still sort-of fits. She's a slave to fashion, so she will squeeze herself into that thing no matter what it takes! She wore it over the dress I picked for the day, which you'll see later.

Speaking of squeezing into clothes, Ben wore the same shirt as last Easter, as it was the only nice-ish shirt he could still fit into. Sigh...why do they have to grow so fast?

Callie and Daddy watched from the window. It was far to cold and windy for such a sweet little flower. Callie seemed chilly, too;)


The rest of the afternoon was taken up by lazy naps and indoor-play. Oh, and lots of egg-counting and candy eating! We spilled/blew bubbles and watched The Chippettes for the squillionth time, too

We hope your Easter was happy, too!

Hazel and Gus

We met up with Hazel and Baby Gus this weekend at a near-by park. It was so fun to see how much she has changed in the last six months. Baby Gus is a charmer and he totally stole all our hearts. Big sister, Hazel has turned into this kid. No baby left at all. She's still not a big chatter-box, but she's still as cute as can be. Here are some photos from our play date!

Callie and Ben, lovin' on each other

My sweet little Callie-Cakes loved sitting on the grass
and watching the bigger kids play

Be still my heart! The cutest baby boy who doesn't share my DNA;)

Callie and Gus are just two days apart in age. They're the same height, but Gussy has a good 5 lbs on Callie-Girl:) He's just as cuddly as he looks!

"Uh-uh-uh, Gus. MY turn!"

"Oh no he didn't"

Pretty girl:) Already needs another hair-trim.

Ben, Hazel and Emmie. Where did these babies go???Vintage Emmie and Hazel

Ben and Hazel=Friends Forever. They picked up right where they left off. Hazel seemed a little perplexed by Emily. Emily talks so much more and screams so much less than she did when we used to see Hazel daily;)

Sadly, Hazel seems to have forgotten ME:( I got lots of shy, humoring smiles when I talked to her. I guess that's what I get for letting six months pass between play dates!