signs of summer

sandbox, crocs, shovels, sunhats, and toys strewed all over the yard. yep, summer is here!

stats, shots, and... wow, i'm glad it's friday.

well, we can mark that one off the list-- taking two tired children to the doctor, all by myself, and getting them both shots. check! leaving without a tear being shed or a tantrum being thrown. check!

sylvi has her six month well baby visit this morning, which is always slightly exciting. she was a trooper and didn't complain a bit (even when they looked in her ears, which she doesn't care for). for the record, she is 15lbs even and 25in long. she's still gracing the 20th percentile or thereabouts and got a clean bill of health. she also got a vaccination, which went swimmingly! not a tear was shed.

isa also came along, as she needed a shot as well. i have to be honest here, i was a little worried about what that might be like. first off, she was having to share my attention with sylvi, which could always backfire in a stressful situation. isa has previously not been a fan of doctor's offices, so you just never know how she will react. but we talked about the fact that they were both getting shots (after we were already in the door-- lest she make a scene or something) and the comradery of it all seemed to help. when the nurse walked in, syringes in hand, she asked isa whether she'd like her shot in her arm or in her leg. without a second's hesitation isa replied, "In my leg!" while pulling up her skirt and hiking her leg up on the chair! i kid you not. it was one of the cutest (and bravest) things i have ever seen her do. as the nurse uncapped the syringe and prepared to stick her, isa said, "alright! here we go!" and that was that. not a flinch or a wimper, or even turning her head away. for her bravery, she got a special band-aid and a blues clues sticker, both of which made her very, very proud. she insisted on walking out through the waiting room showing off the little band-aid on her thigh.

silly monkies

isa and charlotte are very excited about the new swingset at charlotte's house! they can carry on with their silly acrobatics all morning long, no need to even go to the park! speaking of acrobatics, isa's most recent playground stunt is to launch herself out of the swings (while laying on her stomach) and flip over onto her back-- think super woman doing a dive roll out of the swing. i see some future career options there.

HAPPY SIX MONTHS SYLVI!

rooster is officially SIX months old today! way to grow sylvi! see post below for more details...

sylvi at six months

ok, so we're a few days early, since sylvi doesn't officially turn six months until the 28th, but we thought it was time for an update anyway. believe or not, roo is almost a half year old! unbelievable! so what's she like? here are some fun facts:

-she's a total monkey. she grabs anything within reach (including hair, ouch!) with her hands and her feet. you can see this in the pictures on the playmat... she uses all four limbs to play.

-isa is still her favorite person for laughs! all it takes it the sound of isa giggling to get sylvi to start chuckling herself. it's cute beyond words.

-sylvi loves the idea of solid food. i say "idea" because she's still working on the swallowing part, but she is very serious about chomping and chewing. if you are eating something yourself, she stares at your mouth and chomps away, drooling all the while. she is quite serious and focused.

-her dark hair is almost gone! as you can probably tell, alot of her thick, dark hair from birth has fallen out. what has stuck around has gotten really blond. and the new hair coming in is almost white. her eyes keep getting lighter as well and are a very beautiful shade of light gray-blue.

HAPPY SIX MONTHS ROO ROO, WE LOVE YOU!

dinner with latane and emily

being that we live so far away from family, isa and sylvi are lucky enough to have lots of "honorary" aunts and uncles! "aunt em and uncle lat" are on that list, and last night we got to have dinner with them out at the shoutis' place (emily's folks). as you could imagine, isa was in hog heaven... there were plants to be watered, birds to be watched, dogs to play with, and horses to visit. not to mention two favorite grown ups to play with! she even got to sit on the back of Molly the Mule (the camera battery was dead by this point, sorry!). it was the perfect way to spend a saturday evening and we had two exhausted little girls to attest to that!

it's really beautiful out in the foothills and we thoroughly enjoyed it. it's also quite green here now (by wyoming standards atleast) and just the right temperature for hanging out-- not hot, not cold, no bugs. we even got to see a stormy sunset over the Winds as we drove back into town.

sloppy saturday

say cheese.

what, do i have something on my face?

look! i can eat apple sauce too.

do you mind? i'm eating.

naturista

since it started warming up a few months ago, we've been heading outside every afternoon. depending on the day, we either play in the yard or go for a walk. if it's a walking day, we usually hit up the nature trail. this is a favorite for isa (and normally charlotte too!) as they can run and play and explore as much as their little hearts desire. as you can see, she has no problem enjoying the freedom to run and roam.

first food!

it's hard to believe that baby sylvi is ready for solids! but so it is... the little roo is starting her first foods. given her tummy troubles, we decided to wait until six months to give them a try (we did the same thing with isa). her reflux has gotten better, as has her sensitivity to alot of the vegetables i have reintroduced to my own diet. dairy? not so much! that one is still on the no-go list, but i am happy to report that i can eat alot more greenery (well cooked) than i used to.

so given all of that, we started with pears, which are the most gentle and least allergenic of fruits. she tolerated pears well from the beginning of the elimination diet, so it seemed like a safe bet. so far, so good. but how did she like the taste, you might be asking? well, the jury is still out on that one! from the look on her face at times, you'd think we were feeding the poor kid lemons! she wasn't quite sure what to do with the texture and taste, but did manage to get down a few bites before becoming disinterested.

as you can see from the pictures, isa came home towards the end of the feeding and decided that she needed to help too. this also meant that she wanted to eat the jar herself and stated, "yummy mommy. this pear sauce is good!" here's a slideshow with some classic sylvi funny faces to mark the occasion...

check!

check the appraisal off the list. woohoo! i don't think this house has ever been so clean. we should take photos of it for later proof! now the waiting begins! we should hear something by the end of the week or after the weekend. then more waiting for the turning of bureaucratic wheels and what not. but after all the work of the last few weeks (months!), waiting sounds fine for now.

more regularly scheduled blogging (including two cute children) will return shortly. thanks for your patience.

china doll

she's in

... isa got into preschool next year! four mornings a week, and we won't even have to take out a second mortgage to pay for it (harhar)! and it's one that we actually like and were rooting for. in a town with so few options, this is a BIG relief people. ok, all together now, collective sigh... and exhale.

good morning sunshine

here is a little morning goodness from rooster and daddy. this is a daily routine for the two of them... they talk and play and stare at each other, while mommy puts the pillow over her head and tries to pretend that it's not actually time to wake up! but this morning there was no denying it, i was up too, and so i thought i should get out the camera. it's hard to resist a sleepy little morning baby in her (er, my) favorite pajamas! ah, saturday sweetness.

dirt farmer

warm weather, lots of outside house work, and a good helping of dirt make for a very happy toddler. until she has to come in for the night, of course. for those wondering about just how prissy the Goose is... well, she's just as happy digging for worms and filling up her toy backhoe as she is prancing around in beads and tutus!

it's going to be a busy weekend around here, so don't be surprised if the blog is quiet-- we'll be back in full force (with lots of sylvi posts too!!!) next week!

speaking of buddies...

... here are two little peas in a pod. or giraffes in a pod? no, that doesn't really sound right. anyway, what's better than having a super cute giraffe dress? having a matching one with your best friend!

buddies

here are some cute pictures, courtesy of rene, of isa and her buddies. these kiddos get to spend alot of time together during the week and we are very lucky to have rene watching over them. i, for one, think she deserves a medal or maybe even sainthood for her amazing toddler herding/rearing/teaching skills :)

butterfly fairy princess?

whose kid is this anyway?

house work, schmouse work...

the home improvement madness continues! the new front door is going in as we speak, which will be a big one to check off the list. we also have some landscaping on the docket for this weekend: cleaning out the flower beds (all those plants from last summer are coming up! maybe my thumb isn't so black after all!), getting the front yard prepped for a new bed with some birch trees, and so on. after that? maybe we'll finally finish the (boring and tedious) trim work.

as usual, isa and sylvi are being troopers with the whole process. isa is content as long as she can "help" and play with the bubble level and whatever else she comes across in the tool box. this including taking everything out and organizing it on the floor. for her part, sylvi is content to sit back and watch. or nap, assuming there isn't too much hammering going on. isa is also excited about her room being painted blue! although i am not entirely sure if she gets it-- i have been showing her lots of cool pictures of kid's rooms and she gets really excited. but when i ask her what she likes most about these rooms, she always answers, "toys! i like those toys!"

oh, and for those who have asked recently, we are not moving anytime soon. all of this madness is to get ready for a refinancing appraisal on the 18th, not necessarily to put the house on the market ;)

anatomy of a roll...

feet up, big grin.

eyes on the prize, reach out with bottom arm.

roll chubby legs over, turn head and torso follows.

pick up your head and start cooing with satisfaction.

sitting pretty

sylvi came home from vacation with some new skills! more photo evidence to come...

flashback!

flashback friday! isa rode on daddy's back while he cut the grass yesterday and we noticed that she's gotten alot bigger since she first took a ride in the backpack! she was about sylvi's age in the top photo (5 1/2 months).

vacation wrap up*

nothing like a blogging in the wee hours of the morning, getting ready to head home. of course, as luck would have it, sylvi has been up since midnight with some sort of something that is bothering her. *sigh* the little booger is not happy, nor are her parents happy at the thought of traveling 18hrs home with a possibly sick (or atleast very tired) baby either. for the record, it's 4:54am beach time.

the rest of the beach vacay went really well. isa got alot of time in the pool, which was the definite favorite destination for everyone. not that sand isn't fun too, but after the novelty wears off, the pool is just easier. and she wasn't complaining. she used water wings for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of getting around the pool on her own. i know there are nay-sayers, but for a kid who 'swims' as well as isa, water wings are more of a tool than a crutch. not to mention a whole lotta fun too. as usual, she was going full-throttle-- hucking herself off the side, going under and touching her feet on the bottom of the pool, throwing her head back underwater (this looked really bizarre, but she said she was being a sea lion, so we didn't argue).

last night we went out to a japanese steak house on a whim. normally dining out (whim or no whim) with isa is a crapshoot, but she had a nice nap yesterday and a good swim, so we thought we'd go for it. plus we figured the entertainment factor of the chef would be a hit. and it was! we all had a blast and the food was fantastic. isa ate her weight in fried rice, miso, and steak, while sylvi soaked it all in and cat napped a little too. we even got compliments on how well-behaved they were, which is always nice to hear from perfect strangers. maybe we just got lucky, but they don't know that right? ;)

ahhh, vacation. that pretty much sums up the rest of the beach week. while we are not looking forward to the long way home, or the return to the grind, it will be nice to get back to 'normal'. the kiddos have been troopers, sickness and all, but will probably be happy to be in their own beds and back with their buddies. all in all it was a fabulous vacation. many thanks to nanny, queen, and nana for making it so great. next time, however, isa demands that she get to see her papa bubba! or that he atleast comes to visit asap!

*the mommy takes full responsibility for an typos. it's early and she is pre-coffee, thank you very much.

humidity

it makes the makes the curls even cuter. on another note, we have decided (upon nanny's suggestion) that sylvi looks like a kewpie doll. don't you agree?