Sometimes they're cute

Okay, I'll admit it, sometimes my kids are pretty darn cute. Most of the time I don't want to give them away. Yesterday was one of those days. Katie and I had our first Mommy & Me swim class. She LOVES the water!! It was so funny. All the other kids were pretty mellow but Katie was yelling and splashing and laughing the whole time. It was great. She was so darn cute in her bathing suit too. Next week Dan has the day off so I'm going to make him come and be the paparazzi.

After class it was such a warm, beautiful day that I got to put her in my favorite sundress.

Then we decided to go for a bike ride/walk. I think it may have been a little hot for it but we still had fun. Owen was definitely worn out.

Of course, I could spend all day exhausting him and it still wouldn't help at bedtime. He hates to go to sleep. Lately he's had this thing about his bed. The other night he wanted to fall asleep in our bed, even though we were downstairs, and of course we said no. Well, when we finally went up to bed who do we find sound asleep in our bed? It was pretty funny and pretty cute. Last night though was even cuter. He insisted that it was too dark in his room so when we went upstairs for bed we found him asleep on the floor in the hallway. I should have taken a picture but I didn't. Next time, I promise... maybe that'll be tonight.

Gross eating

Such a busy week coming! I found a really cute pattern for a superhero cape so I can make some for Owen's birthday party, but I need to get on that... 6 days and counting! Here's a cute/gross video of Katie discovering the pleasures of graham crackers.

Now I have to rush off to bring Owen to school. Vacation week is over, Hallelluah!!!

Just some visuals

I'm feeling pretty sick right now so I'm going to just post some pictures/videos for you to enjoy and I'll be back when my energy comes back. Dan using Dad's chainsaw to cut up a dead tree Owen and Katie at the beach Owen's outfit on the way home... undies and Dad's sweatshirt Owen and Dan kayaking Here's a quick video. Dan was trying to dip Katie's feet in the water while avoiding getting his sneakers wet. Owen is in the background running away from the water, although if we let him he would've jumped all the way in.

Adventures with Owen

Owen and I have been spending a lot of time together lately. Mostly we've been doing a lot of letterboxing. It's really really fun and I highly recommend it. Anyway, we came down to my parents today and are spending the night while they're at a wedding in Connecticut. So today, while Katie was supposed to be napping, Owen and I went off to Willow Brook to find a letterbox. Unfortunately, the box wasn't there, but we still had lots of fun. It's amazing how much he talks. I probably shouldn't be surprised anymore by it, but it can be so exhausting! He has questions about everything he sees and I'm amazed at the questions he comes up with. He found a leaf and I didn't know what it was, so we brought one home and looked it up. It was an American Holly. I'm pretty impressed with myself that we were able to look it up and make a whole learning experience out of it. I'll have to get an Audubon Society book of trees and plants to bring with us next time.

There isn't too much else to add. Dan had yesterday and today off from work. It's been nice having him home. Other than that we're just getting ready for the birthdays coming up. Mine and Owen's in the next few weeks, then Dan's and Katie's next month. It's an expensive time of year. Sorry no pictures today because I'm on my dad's computer. I'll try to blog in the next few days though and give you something fun to look at.

Quality time with Daddy

Owenisms

Owen is just so much fun to talk to lately. Okay, I should qualify that. Most of the time he's fun to talk to. He has definitely hit the stage where he knows everything and you know nothing. Anyway, the other day he was watching a Spiderman show and called me in to ask who one of the characters was...

Owen: "Mommy, is that the Green Lantern?"
Me: "I think it is... wait, no, actually I think that's a bad guy, but I don't know his name."
Owen: "Yeah, that is a bad guy. Don't worry, I know Spiderman will destroy him"

Destroy him??? Since when does he talk about bad guys being destroyed? Maybe I'm indulging this superhero obsession a little too much.

Yesterday he was upstairs painting and after a while he came downstairs and said, "Mommy alot of people at my school have colored nails so I thought I would color mine too!"

Luckily I managed to explain to him, in a very convincing way, why he had to wash it off. I won't lie, I was tempted to let him keep it on so I could show his teachers.

He just seems to constantly surprise me lately. He's becoming such a big boy and I'm not sure I like it. He hardly ever plays with my hair anymore, one of my favorite habits of his, and when he gets hurt he rarely wants me to hug him. I know, poor me.

Yesterday he drew with chalk on the driveway. Here are his drawings of Batman (inside the big circle) and a bat (inside the smaller circle on the left).


Then he went inside and got his coloring pages so he could find a picture of Robin to copy.

So creative, right??

Anyway, for those of you who haven't yet seen these pictures from Easter, here's a treat.
This is a great picture of all of us. I couldn't get Katie to keep her hands down.

In this picture of Katie and Owen, Owen is growling. We tried to get him to smile but he insisted that something smelled. None of us listened to him but it turned out he was right. Katie was poopy. That's probably why her smile is so big!

Rowdy House

Katie and Owen truly love each other and seem to have a great time together. Now, I'm sure that will change somewhat when she gets a little older and can talk and steal all of his toys, but for now they get along perfectly! The noise level, however, is a whole other issue...

Walking in the woods and digging through the dirt

We had our first letterboxing adventure today. If you want to learn more about letterboxing you should check out the Letterboxing North America site, www.letterboxing.org. It was really really fun. Since it was our first time we decided to look near home. Luckily, there are two letterboxes hidden at a park up the street from us. We decided to go after those two, then Owen and I went to find a third at Mary Goodnow's grave.

Here we are at the first letterbox spot.


These are the stamps we put in their journal.


Here we are at the second letterbox spot.


Dan and Katie in an "action shot"


Owen clearing the path for other hikers. He likes to do this but this is the first time he encountered sap.


He spent the rest of the walk holding his hands like this because they had sap on them.


The hiding spot for the third letterbox. There were tons of bugs and we scared a snake away.


Overall it was a really fun time. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an adventure/challenge. I'm definitely looking forward to doing it again!

Cat in the Hat, Sock in the Mouth

Katie spent about 15 minutes like this today...





**pay no attention to the giant bud bottle in the background... it's a bank and it came with Dan when we got married. :)

Dancing Fools

You would think they'd get tired at some point... they don't.

My adorable geniuses

Seriously, they are the cutest. And maybe they aren't geniuses but they're pretty darn smart. I forgot how much fun it is to watch a baby explore and learn. Even as Owen grows older it amazes me how much he can figure out with that brain of his. I recently gave in and bought some babyproofing stuff. Katie has spent the last few days trying to figure it out.





She hasn't completely given up on the cabinets, but she has discovered the lazy susan cabinet which isn't childproofed, so we still have some issues there. Now it looks like we might have to get something to keep Owen out of the cabinets, the usual childproofing stuff doesn't work for him. :)



Owen came home from school yesterday with this picture he had made. It's a picture of Flash and has his name and age (4) on it as well. I was just so impressed with the picture that I had to document it and show it off to all of you.


This was the scene in the living room the other morning. Owen was trying to watch Martha Speaks, our favorite new show on PBS. Seriously, it's a really good show. Anyway, Katie was trying so hard to get his attention. Finally she gave up and started watching herself.



I mean, really, how much cuter can you get?

The Crawl

Here's video documentation of Katie's version of crawling. She used to do this sometimes and crawl sometimes but now she does this exclusively. It's murder on the right pant leg. In this video she has a toy in her hand/mouth but if her hands are free she can really move!
This next video is showing her walking a little more. She's still unsteady (although not as unsteady as the camera) but she's doing better every day.

In Honor of Grammy

I know I've promised you so much lately and I have no excuse for not posting more often. It just hasn't been at the forefront of my mind lately. Anyway, Katie and Grammy spent quality time together the other day and this is what came out of it.


We've also been working on walking lately. She got her first walking shoes yesterday and we practiced outside today. More on that later.