sisterly cuteness

stomp rockets!

here's a little vacation fun from the beach trip. isa got a big kick out of doing stomp rockets with pop pop! pretty impressive how high they go too, being that a tiny 3 year old is the one doing the stomping! sylvi enjoyed the show as well and made sure to give good applause in the background :)

playing catch up

that title pretty much sums up our weekend-- catching up on sleep, catching up on work, on life, on house stuff, etc. so that's the reason for the sparse blogging. but with another busy week in the works, i am sure there will be lots of blog fun to be had! today is sylvi's ten month birthday (woo!) and her well baby visit, so there will be more on that later. for those of you who are wondering, we seem to be mostly on the mend from the sickness we had last week. still stuffy and running on low energy, but the worst seems to be over with for now. although isa, who never got that sick, has some two year molars that are giving her fits. ouch.

this just in:

sylvi has had a major growth spurt! she had a doctor's appointment this morning due to this nasty cold and a lingering fever-- consensus is that it just appears to be an especially rough virus and that we just have to ride it out. no sign of infection at this point, which is great.

but! the measurements! this girl has grown quite a bit in a couple months. she is now in the 75th percentile for height (28.5in) and the 20th for weight (18lbs). i thought she was starting to look rather long and lean again and it appears to be the case. i have also been saying that i thought she had a big ole noggin. and she does. it's in the 75th percentile as well.

two short people with small heads have a tall baby with a big noggin? who woulda thunk it?

sylvi says:

happy first day of Fall everyone! what did you find on this first Fall morning?

we woke up to a chilly 27F this morning and snow in the foothills.

guess that means whatever is left of the garden (after the deer got to it) is going to bed for the winter, huh?

Wright Brothers National Memorial

isa went on a fun field trip with daddy, pop pop, aunt sandy, and aunt linda while we were at the beach. they hit up the Wright Brothers Memorial near Kitty Hawk one afternoon. here are some pictures from the adventure...

home is where the...

... cute naked baby is? yes, i suppose so. we made it back safe and sound after a very long two days of travel. the way back was a bit more of an adventure-- isa was dealing with some stomach woes (toddler with stomach trouble on a packed airplane? no good.) and i was dealing with some cold/sinus nastiness that started a few days before we left the Outer Banks. those things, combined with a baby who was also getting sick and a whole lot of travel, was enough to make even the most hearty of travelers ready to throw in the towel. but we finally made it and we're glad to be home and mostly on the mend and settling back into a routine. isa was happy to start back to preschool this morning and to play with her best buddy this afternoon. sylvi is not feeling so great but is still pretty darn happy, as usual. now let's hope that the rest of the week goes smoothly as we get caught up and enjoy the fabulous Fall weather we came home to! and maybe, just maybe get a little sleep while we're at it.

back we go...

we're leaving the beach tomorrow-- after a week of fun, sun, sand, swimming, kites, rockets, food, beer, and some more swimming...

see you on the flip side, also known as monday. or somewhere around there.

currituck sound

one of the cool things about the outer banks is that you have both the atlantic ocean and currituck sound on both sides. where we are, there are only a few miles between the two-- it's a very narrow strip of land! we've enjoyed checking out the sound just as much as the ocean. there is a beautiful boardwalk, where we've gone to see the sunset, strolled around after a date night dinner, and gone crabbing in the early morning. here are some pictures from our trip to see the sunset. enjoy!

obx beach shots (day three)

here are some fun shots from this morning's beach session! as you can see, everyone really enjoyed themselves and came home very tired!

the outer banks (day two)

here are some photos of the new digs. not too shabby eh? this place is awesome for a large group... we have eight adults and two kiddos (unfortunately a few other folks couldn't come) and plenty of room to stretch out and sleep after much time in the sun. you can see why isa is so excited too-- we actually haven't managed to get any pictures of her yet, because she is a blur of activity! we're working on that that though. in the meantime, here are some others!

we made it

we are here! sylvi is napping, i am drinking coffee (in a hammock, no less) with a quiet house and a good breeze. isa is on the beach with everyone else and thoroughly enjoying every minute so far. she has a pool, hot tub, big swingset, tons of sand, and a half dozen adoring relatives all within reach, so as you could imagine-- she is happy as a clam! and then of course there is the beach too! sylvi is enjoying herself as well and has decided that she just might crawl (as in actual crawl, minus the belly/bum scooting) afterall. good thing the house came equipped with several baby gates!

the travel went really smoothly, though we are all pretty tired today. the girls did really, really well and there was nary a cry nor fuss from them all day, even after getting up at 5am and not arriving here until after 5pm. that's the scoop for now. more soon...

beach bound!

we're headed out tomorrow morning for a week on the Outer Banks-- woohoo! we'll try to upload some pictures during the week, but don't be surprised if there's little blogging. we'll be pretty busy getting buried in the sand and lounging around the pool :)

A is for Avocado

and avocado is sylvi's new favorite food! i'd say that sylvi is just now really getting interested in solids. she loves sitting down and eating with the rest of us and playing with the new table foods (and sometimes eating it as well!) provides good entertainment too.

the stats...

Isa had her three year Well Child Visit yesterday and passed with flying colors. it's been a while since she was weighed and measured, so i was curious to see how big she'd gotten! She weighs 31lbs and is 36 inches tall. we actually saw a new pediatrician yesterday and were very pleased with the visit. isa's had some doctor anxiety in the past but the new doc was great with her (he's also the father of one of her buddies, which helped!) and we brought along her little doctor kit so that she could play doctor while we waited. good work goose!

First Day of Preschool

it's been a whirlwind of a week around here-- we are all adjusting to the newness and also getting ready to head to the beach next week! Isa started preschool on Tuesday and LOVES it! there wasn't a second's hesitation on her part the first morning and she ran into the classroom and didn't look back. i actually had to work to get her to say goodbye to me! while it's hard to get many concrete details out of her, she has told us about her favorite thing to do (play on the playground outside) and what she eats at snacktime and of course the artwork that she's done. she comes home utterly exhausted at 11am so she must be enjoying herself! the school welcomes parent involvement and loves to have parents helping in class and/or observing, so we will make a point of doing some of both when we get back from traveling. in the meantime, some first day of school cuteness...

willow's birthday party

we spent the afternoon at willow's house for her third birthday party! unfortunately both darran and stacy's cameras broke recently so they asked if we would take some pictures of the birthday girl and her buddies. it was alot of fun having a good excuse to snap away... and that we did. there were ALOT of good photos of all the kiddos! for the sake of time and bandwidth, i only included pics of my own two here. enjoy!

savoring summer

nothing like ice cream with your buddies on these last few days of summer!

HOLIDAY WEEKEND SALE!

the HOLIDAY WEEKEND SALE is on in the shop-- there are lots of great deals, including many new dresses (those rarely go on sale, folks!). go check it out!

Felting with toddlers!

we are signed up for another season of art classes! luckily the day and time work well with naps and preschool and general two-kid craziness, and will serve as a nice afternoon activity on those particularly long days! the first class was a special one, as it was outside at Willow's house instead of at the Art Center. the kids learned how to felt wool! isa really loved this class because it involved playing in soapy water and being outside and going home with a really cool handmade ball! some kids (or moms?) made nests, others made little pouches, too. for her part, sylvi hung out with her friend Alice on the blanket and watched all the big kids running in circles. though i think the days of her being content to sit and watch are coming to an end. after a few minutes she was doing everything she could to make her way to the action!

isa's big girl haircut

sitting up straight like a big girl.

very serious business.

perfectly pink nails.

checking herself out in the mirror.

well, suffice it to say that this "real" haircut went much better than the last one! isa took the whole thing very seriously, and while she did admit that it was "a little scary" afterwards, she was a champ! as promised, she got her finger nails painted and everything. the haircut itself was more of a trim, so there isn't really a new hairstyle to show off or anything, just a very proud three year old with shiny new nail polish!

a baby baby

they say that some kids just gravitate towards baby dolls and others just don't. sylvi is definitely a part of that first group-- the girl just loves babies! these pictures were taken this morning after she got up from her nap. she was happy as a clam to lay on the floor and snuggle her baby for a long while. she talked to it, kissed it, poked it's little eyes and chewed on it's foot. i see more dolls in our future.

on an unrelated note, isa and mommy have a fun date this afternoon! we are going to attempt (again) to get her a real haircut. i have a good feeling about it this time as isa is very excited about going to the "beauty salon" with mommy and getting her hair cut and nails painted. yes, that's my bribery. we have special light pink nail polish for the event! every time we talk about it and i tell her that i will paint her toenails while she sits (still and patient) in the chair, she puts both hands in the air and shouts, "And these too mommy! My fingernails too!" here's hoping it goes well! stay tuned for pictures...

a group effort and new wheels...

sylvi wants nothing more than to stand up and start walking! so we got her a little push walker wagon that she can play and practice on. it came in the mail today and after a half hour of trying to put it together myself (with bad directions, a cranky baby and a meddling toddler), i decided we'd just wait for daddy! at that point it became a group effort, as you can see in the pictures. sylvi LOVES it and is very serious about practicing her skills. now if we can just figure out how to keep isa away from it long enough for her to do so!