You turn your back for a minute...

Juliet pulls up on everything these days. Since we know that this means trouble ahead (!) we haven't been encouraging this behavior. We've had this activity table out for a few months without the legs. Every now and again Peter would ask if I thought he should put the legs on. But we kept holding off. The other night we were in the kitchen making dinner while Claudia was entertaining Juliet in the dining room. We didn't hear any unusual noises and then when Peter looked around the corner he asked me "Did you put the legs on the activity table?" Claudia had retrieved the legs from their closet, apparently flipped over the table top, snapped the legs on, flipped it back over, and when I looked around the corner, Juliet was standing and playing with it. I said to Peter "Oh great, the next thing we know she'll be buying beer for her little sister!".

Trick or treat!!

This year the theme was Peanuts. Peter was Charlie Brown, I was Lucy, Claudia was Snoopy, Juliet was Woodstock. We won the family theme at a friend's halloween party. Peter won the good sport award for wearing the Charlie Brown "head" all night. My costume was a bit generic, but I think people figured it out with me standing next to Charlie Brown. A lot of people thought Claudia and Juliet were just a dog and a chicken, but Claudia was quick to point out who they were. So while not perfect, I absolutely enjoy making our costumes. Peter's mom made the sleeper for Juliet, so that was a big help; I just added the fringe and tail. Everything else we had or was bought then embellished by me. I paper mache'd the Charlie Brown head, added ears and painted it. If I had to do that again, I would have done a better job. The 3 biggest people in the family got hit with a virus this week, so it's a good thing the costumes were done last weekend. Claudia and I are feeling better, and Peter is slowing getting there.
Anyway, for your enjoyment, here are some shots of all of us. The good thing about my costume is that I can add sparkly red shoes and be Dorothy, or a blonde wig and be Alice, or a cow and be a milkmaid. heehee. (By the way, I made the dress to fit without a pattern, just took measurements here and there and then sewed - I'm kinda proud of myself for that :-) )
Here's the whole crew. Claudia's trying to show off her spot and tail. They each had a stuffed counterpart to carry, but they didn't make it in the photo.
And some shots of Claudia being Snoopy - showing off her tail and spot & growling like a mad dog)


Here's Snoopy and Woodstock together. This was right before they both fell backwards.
And here's a shot of their backs.
And finally, here's a shot of Juliet with one of her cheeseball-scrunch-nosed smiles. (I'm quite certain Juliet managed to get her right foot out of the sleeper leg. That's why it looks a little bizarre!)

momomomomomomom

Today Juliet is 9 months old (holy cow!). We went in for her checkup and the one thing on the list of milestones that she wasn't yet doing was saying "mamamama" or "dadadada". When I was asked I thought, "huh, no I guess she hasn't done that yet." After the dr and nurse left the room and I was getting us all packed up Juliet started saying "momomomomom". So she must have overheard. :-) She continued to do it in the car afterward, before conking out. She didn't do it again tonight, but she did make her first very distinct sign for "more" at dinner time. We're working on a few other signs, but that's one of the more important ones!

Kickers and Crawlers!

Claudia started soccer last weekend; Juliet started crawling last weekend.
Claudia's team is the Wizards. When she was describing the final shout of "Go Wizards!", she was saying Go Buzzards! Here's a clip of Peter and her trying to get the ball from each other. Incidentally, Claudia is also playing keep away with Peter's hat! Right now they're learning the basics but soon they'll be playing games. GOOOOOOOO Buzzards!

And here's our little creeper; this was last week, so since this video, Juliet is much faster and more unpredictable! This morning Peter and Claudia were calling her Speedracer.
(Notice the 4 year old behavior in the background! :-)).


At this point, Juliet is crawling and dragging her left leg a little. Apparently this is what Peter did too. So now from her shin to her knee, she has rug burn. Even with wearing pants most of the time. And oh brother, she's already starting to look up and attempting to pull up every now and again. Yikes!

My three loves

What are the chances that all three of them would actually look at the camera and smile? I should go buy a lottery ticket! This was right after school today, hanging out before dinnertime. Too cute!

Claudia has started pre-K, and is enjoying that. It's amazing that they are now the big kids at school. She starts soccer this Saturday so hopefully I'll post some video of that. That should be fun. Her friend Ollie has also signed up, so it will be a hoot to see the two of them. They are both good kickers and runners.

Juliet is scooting her way around. You can't leave her anywhere alone. She's not yet crawling, but she can move herself around. Over the weekend she pushed herself up from her belly to sitting. That was exciting. We're expecting her to crawl any minute. I'll try to post some video of that as well.

My little beauties

Here's the picture of my 2 little beauties that I caught right after the syncing of the brains (see below). :-)

Teeth, messy food, Curious George & Syncing brains

I've got a few weeks' worth to catch up on!

Some of the highlights:
Juliet sprung her first tooth a few weeks ago, and is now working on the 2nd (both on the bottom). We've started solids for her. That's such a misnomer since they're not solid at all. So far I've been mashing or pureeing bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes, peaches and pears. I'm ready to move on to broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, but according to my book I need to wait another month or two. I've forgotten how messy mushed food can be and how it can get in ears and between fingers, and every where in between!

Juliet started daycare as I am about to go back to work (sigh). We are both adjusting better now. On her first day of school she painted. They strip the babies down to their diapers and just let them roll around and play in it. When I went to pick her up she had a lot of blue paint on her face and in her hair!
I had the opportunity to go on Claudia's field trip to the Discovery Museum sans Juliet. For the other field trips Juliet and I would meet Claudia. It was nice to have that one on one time with her. Right now Curious George is visiting. I was amazed I got her to stop long enough to take a photo!

I'm always trying to get that "perfect" photo of the two girls. Not that I've gotten there, but along they way I do think I have some really good ones of them that they can look back at laugh about. Here's one where my first thought was it looks like they are syncing up their brains. Oh dear, Peter and I are going to be in trouble...!

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Juliet!

I can't believe that Juliet is already 6 months old. We celebrated with half a birthday cake, and a hat. We did the same thing for Claudia when she was 6 months old. I've included Claudia's picture from then as well.
This is Juliet:
This is Claudia:
It might be hard to see the similarities here since they have different facial expressions, but as I'm going thru and scrapbooking Claudia's first year (yes I'm 4 years behind), sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm looking at Claudia and not Juliet. And seeing older baby pictures of Claudia makes me feel like I'm fast forwarding to Juliet. It's weird.

Like mother, like daughter

Fishing is one of the fun activities at the lake. Peter is not a big fan (he'd rather take a book and watch the sunset) but he went out with his Dad and Claudia to see what Claudia could catch - a pretty good sized rock bass for the lake. She reeled it in herself on her Diego fishing pole. They were using grub worms for bait and she befriended one of them - carried it into the cabin asking Gralu for a jar to keep it in - and named it "80" because there were 80 grub worms. She carried it back and forth between the cabins everyday. She was okay with leaving it with Gralu and Grandpa for the rest of the summer, but only after I told her repeatedly that we wouldn't be able to take 80 onto the plane back to San Jose.
On my first fishing outing for this visit, I got lucky and brought in 4 large mouth bass. Peter's dad caught 3. Here I am holding one of the two stringers. I didn't catch all 5 of these; just 3 and one of my other ones is on the other stringer. But look at the size of the big one! That was mine!
I kept saying he looked like a shark. Boy did he make we work at getting him in the boat! Coming back to the cabin that night was bittersweet. Everyone else (except Gralu and Claudia, Juliet and her cousins) went to see a movie. So there were no fellow fisherpeople there to see them in person and ooh and ah. :-)

The Flower Girl, sans flowers

Claudia was a flower girl in her cousin Ben's wedding in Des Moines. Apparently putting on a pretty dress and smiling do not go hand in hand for her. The wedding photographer had to try to get 6 flower girls to smile at the same time. I'm quite certain he failed. I couldn't even get a good photo of Claudia. She just wanted to run and around and had no time to pose (nicely) for me. This photo was taken after the wedding. I'm not sure who had her bouquet of flowers at this point. Juliet and I had to leave the ceremony twice - once for a blowout (!) and we snuck back in and then cuz she was babbling too loud.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Today, at 4 1/2 months Juliet rolled from her back to her stomach. It was a big day. I looked it up in Claudia's book and Claudia rolled over at the exact same time. It will be interesting to see the comparisons as they grow up. Luckily I wrote most of the key stuff down for Claudia, as I have virtually no memory!
Claudia hopped onto the play mat to get into the picture. And as with nearly everything else, Claudia will have to share her blog with Juliet.
Here are my two sweet peas:

Swaddle me

I took this over a month ago and forgot about it. After I swaddled Juliet and was about to put her to bed Claudia brought out her little baby and showed me how she swaddled her baby. For a couple weeks she slept with this baby and took it everywhere saying that she had a baby just like I had a baby. I'm not sure where the baby is now. hmmm.....

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

or your laundry basket...

Claudia hopped into one of our laundry baskets and said it was a raft and she had to stay out of the water because of the sharks. Then she came back with her Snoopy golf clubs and slid them into the handle openings, and voila she was rowing her raft ashore. Her Auntie Kel was here, so Kel got some exercise by pushing the raft all around the house.

Here's a pic of Kel with both girls. It's still very hard to get Claudia to look at the camera AND smile. Juliet doesn't seem to have that problem so far! It was a good visit with Kel. Eating, shopping, movies - what could be better?!

"Should I call you Kelly?"

Recently, and inexplicably, Claudia has started calling me Mama, rather than Mom or Mommy. I realized that it bugged me, maybe mostly because it comes out like a 2 year old would say it rather than a 4 year old. Well, today while we were out in the playhouse she said "Mama...". I said "why are you calling me Mama?" She paused and then asked "Should I call you Kelly?" After letting out quite a big laugh I told her Mom or Mommy would be just fine. Now she's back to calling me Mommy, but there is a strong emphasis on the last syllable. Mom- EE. Kids are so literal!

Locks of Love

It finally came time to cut Claudia's hair. Except for the routine maintenance of her bangs, Claudia had only had a trim once before. We donated 10 inches to Locks of Love. Claudia understands that some other little girl or boy will get her hair, but she wants to know the name (I told her Suzy) and she was telling me that they were going to have to glue the extra hair onto Suzy's hair.
Here's the before; she had blonde streaks from the sun. MANY people have asked over the years if I highlight her hair. It's just the California sun!

Here's some during; we were at Eileen's (our neighbor who has a salon off the garage) and she was watching Madagascar 2.


And the after; holding her blondilocks.
Cutting her hair was not as traumatic as I had anticipated. She is so stinkin' cute with her long hair, but then it's quite a lot to deal with every morning and every night and all the times in between. She gets food, toothpaste, anything stuck in her long hair. I also got mine cut earlier that day, thinking that might help Claudia in case she didn't want to part with her hair (not because I get food, toothpaste, anything stuck in my hair). Afterward she told me that she liked her hair and that she didn't want it to grow anymore. And she still looks so stinkin' cute, but now she looks older. Maybe 6 instead of 4. :)

Happy Waffle Day!

Earlier in the week Peter had asked what I wanted for breakfast on Mother's Day. I said waffles. So all week long Peter was talking about waffles and mother's day. On Saturday Peter asked Claudia, "Do you know what tomorrow is?" and she said "Waffle Day!" :-)
I got my waffles, we picked up lunch at Panera and had a picnic at the Rose Garden where Claudia and Peter worked on their soccer and t-ball skills. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Then back home where we all 4 took naps. That hasn't happened before! Then we did a little gardengin and then dinner outside on the patio. I couldn't have asked for a better Waffle Day!

Taking every opportunity...

I try to take every opportunity to get pictures of Claudia and Juliet together. Earlier this week we put them in their big sister/little sister shirts in order to take a picture but the stars weren't aligning when we were hoping. Then Claudia asked to hold Juliet and I started snapping pictures.

This one cracks me up because I think they have the same facial expression:

Here's another cute one; they're just not looking at the camera.
little monkeys....!

After 4 months of having visitors, yesterday when I reminded Claudia that Peter's folks were leaving she said "who's coming next?" :-) It's their Auntie Kel, but not till the first weekend in June. We're all on our own for a while!

With a dog and a s'more, look who turned 4!

To celebrate Claudia's 4th birthday, we went camping for the weekend at Big Sur. To my surprise, Claudia chose camping over Disneyland (even after enjoying a trip to DL over Christmastime). Juliet was with us Friday night, but Peter's folks were visiting and they came down Saturday and then took Juliet back with them Saturday night. She had done pretty well on Friday night, but I didn't sleep so well worried that she might break out into crying in the middle of the night.
Our first night we had dogs and s'mores and both mornings Peter cooked sausage and eggs for breakfast, though Claudia chose to have leftover baked beans for breakfast (ewww!). Peter's mom brought us stew for lunch. We enjoyed the views of the coast from Hwy 1, the weather was nice; no fog. And then the 3 of us had dinner out not far from the campground.
There was a play structure nearby which was nice so that Claudia could burn off some energy. I had bought her some kids garden tools at the One Spot (love the One Spot!) and that kept her entertained for some time. She helped water some of the surrounding trees with her new watering pail. And then there was this big log on one side of our campsite that she loved to walk along. She could do that for hours if we let her. Funny the things that keep kids entertained.

The lows were in the 40s so we bundled up for the night. Here's Juliet all bundled up. Snug as a bug!

I pulled together a low-budget Backyardigans decor the week before but we still had some decorating and wrapping to do. By the time we got to the gifts it was almost 9pm! And I totally forgot to light the candles so once the gifts were open we lit the candles and sang again. It's gotta be the lack of sleep.

"Can you sing a little louder, please?"

Photo shoot!

I've been wanting to get more pictures of Claudia & Juliet together but timing was not on my side. That, and trying to get a three year old to agree to sit still for pictures isn't easy. So over the weekend when Claudia asked if she could hold Juliet, I took the opportunity to snap a bunch of pictures. Here are just a couple of the 20 or so that I took. It's also not easy trying to get a good picture of both of them.


This is one of my favorites, as I hadn't noticed right away that Claudia was holding onto Juliet's foot. :-)

This was totally voluntary. Claudia loves to give Juliet kisses. We'll see how long that lasts!








My parents got in on the photo shoot too. They've been visiting since before Christmas and are heading back to Kansas in a week. It's been great having them here.

Go fly a kite!

My Dad took Claudia to the park around the corner to fly the Winnie the Pooh and Tigger kite she picked out. She liked to hold the kite but she also liked to be out trying to catch the tail.