Who left me to eat yogurt by myself?

This is what we get.... Usually we're there to supervise and make sure that what doesn't make it into her mouth gets wiped away or scooped back up. We were both busy doing stuff around the house. She showed us...

It's as if she's saying "I'm a mess! Hurray for me!"

I took Claudia to see Toy Story 3 on Friday. She liked it though some parts were pretty intense for her. She would ask me "what's going to happen next?" She'll like it better the next time she see's it since she knows what's coming. Later that night she watched Toy Story 2 with her Toy Story friends. I'm not sure I can explain the pirate hat though.

The flower girl

This summer, Claudia is a flower girl in her cousin Rachael's wedding. Rachael sent a dress and wanted pix to see how it looked on Miss Bean. Too cute, I have to say.

And not to be out done in the cuteness category, here's Juliet being a cheeze ball for the camera. Look at all those choppers!

Randoms

Some random pictures, I wanted to share...

A friend at work had a 3rd wheel and infant helmet, so we're all set for ridin' around town. Peter has both girls, while I bring up the rear. The girls love it. Peter says it's a pretty good workout for him. I'm just glad that we can all ride together. I can't wait for the day we can all hike a decent distance together!

Claudia was painting and Juliet came in and grabbed one of the paint brushes with paint on it. She and I wrestled; I won. I love this look on her face! It's sort of like "Really? Did you really just wrestle that out of my hand AND paint my nose in the process?"

Actually, maybe she won, since it looks like she still has it in her hand. But I got the last laugh! :-)

Claudia has been taking a dance class each week at preK. They had a performance last week to Rockin' Robin. I'll get it up here soon. It's too large a file, unless I go with youtube. It was pretty cute to watch. She is a prancer and dancer but sometimes if she realizes she's being watched she gets really shy - even with us, at home. But she did great. All the girls were really cute.

'Cuz if you can't squeeze the stuffin' out of your sister, who can you squeeze the stuffin' out of?

Here's Claudia improvising her scuba gear. She typically has a bendy straw that she slips thru one side of her goggles. This time, as we were getting ready for a hike, she used her camelback. What a nut!

And finally, I snapped a few pictures of Juliet the other morning. Even though she has her eyes closed, she's got the scrunched nose. She still scrunches her nose!

Silent movie

I tried to video Juliet saying "agua" but I've now learned that if my memory stick is nearly full, it just doesn't record the audio. I'll try to capture it again. Anyway, it was really funny at the time, but without any sound it's still pretty funny. I stopped recording a little too soon; Juliet continued to try to pinch Claudia's nose while Claudia cracked up and tried to defend herself.


That is a big scrape on Juliet's head. She's still a little top heavy and she tripped outside at school.

Tight squeeze!

Claudia loves to tackle or wrestle or pick up Juliet. Luckily Juliet seems to like it most of the time. We still call Julilet "Trouble", and she is still pretty rotten about getting into things or doing things we don't want her to do. Tonight, I got her out of the tub and walked back toward their room, but she didn't follow me. After getting out pjs I headed back that way and heard her as she started whining. She was naked and had crawled up onto her activity table. It doesn't have a flat surface so I'm sure it was not comfortable for her. She was on all fours, and couldn't figure out how to get down. Poor thing! I would have taken her picture if not for the naked part. I did wait long enough to get Peter so he could see where she was. TROUBLE!

I want candy!

For Claudia's 5th birthday, we threw her a big party with 19 of her closest friends. Last summer at my parents' house she saw a picture in a magazine of a Candyland cake. She asked if I could make that for her, so the theme was set. I had 9 months to think about it and spent about 4 weeks seriously planning and shopping for it. Gina flew in a few days before the party and stayed a week. She helped a lot with the planning and decorating. We put together a candy-related playlist that was pretty fun - Good ship lollipop, I want candy, Brown Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, the Candyman, Sugartown were some of the songs.

Here's the cake. I had Safeway bake it, ice it and airbrush the green. Gina, Claudia and I decorated it. It was pretty fun, probably took us an hour and half from start to finish, which also included me working on my letter piping skills. Though it appears I could practice more on that.

We got lots and lots of compliments on the cake. And it was pretty tasty too! Chocolate with banana filling and white with strawberry filling.

We stayed up late the night before making m&m bean bags for a bean bag toss game that we never ended up playing. But they made for good paper weights for the path and the kids played with them during the party, and the kids got to take one home with them. I found some miniature gumball machines, swirly suckers and thought I would throw in a toothbrush so the parents weren't completely mad at me for all the sugar!

Here's a shot of the path:

We played a game on the path. I was pretty amazed how patient the kids were. I didn't really think it thru, so the kids pretty much moved as a clump. But they seemed to have fun.

Juliet was being supervised by Peter's mom & dad. She sat here and colored for more than an hour. I think she liked sitting with the "big kid's" at the table. She's so serious!

And here's the whole fam damily, exhausted after a fun day. Now I need to start planning for Juliet's big 5th, in 4 more years!

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny showed up on the foggy Sunday morning. He left a note letting us know that the low eggs were Juliet's and the high eggs were Claudia's. Juliet spent most of the time with the first 2 eggs she found. They had coins in them so they were fun for her to shake. Claudia collected the rest for her, and later asked if there was anything else since all the eggs were filled with coins. She hasn't learned the value of a dollar, I guess.

Hell on wheels (and heels)

Last fall, Claudia hadn't shown much of an interest in taking the training wheels off. Then over the winter it was too cold and wet for many opportunities to give it a try. A couple weekends ago she asked if we could take the training wheels off, so we did. Apparently she's been riding a 2-wheeler at school, because she hopped right on and started cruising down the driveway.

And Juliet had to get in on the action. She's walking really well now, though in this video she's still a little bit wobbly. She's a climber too, so there's really no place she can't get to. You can't turn your back!

Hang on, little tomato!

The cool and wet California winter is finally behind us. We've been spending a lot of time in the backyard. Here are the 2 little monkeys swinging. The longer they were swinging the more Juliet started to slide off Claudia's lap. This was the last picture I could take before having to rescue Juliet!

Juliet is a full-fledged walker, almost a runner. Claudia is looking forward to her big 5 next month! Boy time flies!

This is the way we wash our clothes...

Juliet was trying to climb in the laundry basket so I plopped her in and Claudia hopped in behind her. They were watching their clothes in the washer. Claudia said, "See, our clothes go round and around. Hey! There's your sock! Hey! There's my underwear!"

All Juliet needs is the laundry basket, a bowl and a spoon and she can be entertained for a long time. And since she's in the basket, you can turn your back for a few seconds. At least until she tips it over and crawls out.

J-walking

I didn't realize I had the camera flipped when I was videoing Juliet walking. Oh, and something's wrong with the mic on our camera. ... She really just started taking multiple steps a couple days ago so she's still a little wobbly. I'll post another video soon so you're not cranking your neck!

"I'm gonna be a cowgirl."

Claudia (pointing at our wedding photo): Mommy do you remember that day; the day you guys got married?

Me: Yes, I do.

Claudia: I don't want to be married when I grow up.

Me: You don't? Why not?

Claudia: Cuz I'm gonna be a cowgirl.

Then she did a cute little lasso dance.

Right now I'm listening to Claudia and my mom look at an atlas with landmarks and animals all around the world. As they flipped to Europe she said "This is the Ei-ful-ful tower in Paris, France." She's been pronouncing it that way for about 6 months and I'm finally getting it down. She was picking out all of her favorite animals and one of them is the scarlet macaw, but she says "scawlah macaw". That's one of my favorites!

Happy Birthday, Juliet!

We celebrated Juliet's 1st birthday tonight. Mom & Dad made it here just in time. We let Juliet make a mess eating spaghetti. Her making a mess is not unusual, just this time we let her go crazy. I had a cake made with Woodstock, but her cake was a yellow cupcake that we let her tear into. Here's a few money shots:

Here's one with Claudia laughing at Juliet squishing the cake. Claudia was happy to celebrate her 1st anniversary as a big sister.

Trouble, trouble, trouble

I'll add pix from Christmas & the snow soon....

Tonight I asked Claudia to watch Juliet in one part of the living room while I was in the other part, but busy. All the little pieces were out of the way, so I thought it was safe. The lego instructions were out and Juliet went straight for those and started crumpling and tearing. Claudia gave out a big sigh and said "Juliet, you're just trouble. Your first name is trouble, your 2nd name is trouble and your last name is trouble." Claudia is quite a sport when Juliet gets into her stuff (though she of course sometimes gets mad), and I assured her we could just tape the instructions back together. But we agree; Juliet is just trouble! ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our little turkeys....

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.