a crazy walking child!

Yesterday Nora decided she's ready to walk! She's been crawling and cruising and taking more little juants between furniture for so long and driving us crazy not really trying to walk. Smarty Pants has just been happy just getting around on her own! These last two days she's barely taken a break. It's exciting to see my stubborn little thing growing up!

?????????

I knew that the never-ending questions were coming and she's always asked questions but it's like a switch flipped in that Avery. She has not stopped asking questions since last week. She's even asking silly questions that she absolutely knows the answers too. Every little thing, what's that mom? to the porch off her room. What mom, what did you say? to the little curse that just slipped...like I'm really gonna repeat that one. That child is never quiet, at least so long as no one else is around!

And that's another thing, she tucks herself into me and can't even look at people, nevermind have a conversation. It's strange. I hope it doesn't last much longer because she's missing out on a lot. Strange.....

Cumberland Fair

I have always loved the fair. I'm not sure if it's because the Deerfield fair fell almost on my birthday and so it became a special event every year. I have gone a few times since I was a kid but it had lost something. I found it again this weekend! Going to the fair with 2 amazed little kids is the BEST!

Avery was bored to death sitting in the car and wasn't looking too excited while we waited in traffic to get in. Then we parked in a big field and she was still like, why did you make me drive all this way. Then we walked up to the gate and you could see a couple rides spinning up high and she just couldn't even figure out what to ask!

Nora, however, was harder to impress. She played it cool until she saw the bunnies! Both of them spent the next 3 HOURS in awe of all the animals! We mooed and neighed and oinked our way around the fair. It was fantastic!

The girls were EXHAUSTED on their way out. I didn't think Nora was going to make it awake to the car. But the crazies were so excited they never slept the whole hour drive home! I think sharing these things with them is the greatest feeling!

another strange weekend

Saturday was raining. We decided to get some of those boring errands taken care of. Nora didn't sleep well and so we were off to a rough start. We wound up getting nothing accomplished, grouchy, tired, and with rumbly tummies. We went home early so everyone could rest and oh, the kids who couldn't keep their eyes open didn't stop talking. blah blah blah

Sunday though, what a great day. We went for a hike. The weather was perfect. We had a picnic. We played at the playground. We went over to the outlets and wound up with icecream cones. Nora slept in the car and we spent only 20 mins in the grocery store (we'll see how excited we are about that later in the week!). The girls had cereal for dinner (fantastic! I think we'll add this to our regular week!). And after they went to bed I almost got to have dinner alone with my husband! (Nora needed one more tuck-in.) It was really just a great day.

anyone know anything about landscape architecture? it's just my latest interest. i'm trying to get real info without spending tons on books

i'm not sure what i was thinking

so, not to compare children, but Avery painted her first picture just before her first birthday. I thought that moment was scary...how do you clean up that much paint? And Jackson gave his grandma one of his paintings for her birthday. So, it was raining this morning and I was trying to keep them busy inside. I thought, this is a great time to take out that paint.

I got them each an ugly shirt that we didn't care about painting. I got everything out while Nora begged to play with the rice table. (I had decided we were painting!) And it was time to create! I blobbed some paint on a paper plate. Nora dove right in, not afraid to get dirty. I was excited. Her little purple finger went right into her mouth. Damn. Not a good start. You can't blame her, we were sitting at the table! So I told her and we tried again. I got out more and more paint because Avery just needs some of every color! I think Nora tried a little of each color. It wasn't really that bad I suppose but it hurt my stomach just watching it.

Nora did wind up with a beautiful painting. And Avery made a lovely gray!

Then it was clean-up time. While Nora was tasting, Avery was rubbing her hands through the paint and it was actually dripping off her. I had Nora in the bathroom, leaning over the sink washing her hands and crying and Avery at the table repeating "i'm all done, momma, clean me up". I actually had to check the paint to be SURE that it was nontoxic the way Nora was crying. Clean-up lasted about 30 minutes. We have lost 2 shirts and one pair of sweatpants to the paint pile! Whew, that was tough. It was sort of fun but man, it was A LOT of work! They batter have enjoyed it!!!!

cute little kid moment

Avery's dancing around in her tutu singing and spinning to her own music. Marc's getting ready to leave for work. Avery says "but Dad, you can't take my tutu to the office with you". I like that picture, Marc walking into the office wearing a tutu.

great weekend!

I got to spend money! I spent time both with and WITHOUT the kids! The weather was FANTASTIC! I stacked wood (which makes me and the grass underneath the huge pile happy)! My dad cut a hole in my wall! It just doesn't get much better! (I'm 'remodeling' my bathroom and that darn plug was in the way of my plans, therefore, Electrician Dad made it all better! Thanks again Dad!)