Summer is here!

The kids and I had a great time outside the other day. It was perfect weather for playing in the pool. I may or may not have gone overboard with the sunscreen.

Madeline loved dumping water in and out of things.

Sophia was keeping an eye on her sister from a nice, shady spot in the yard.

We were outside for a long time, so I grabbed Sophia's favorite play spot and put it in the shade for her. As usual, she loved it. That is, until she started getting splashed on by her sister. I guess I put it a little too close to the pool.

Then it was snack time.

"Mom, seriously. More pictures?"

"Oh, okay."

4 Months Old!

Sophia is 4 months old and is doing better than ever. She is getting bigger and bigger, as you can see. She is getting better at holding her head up too, but with such a big noggin' it's still kinda wobbly. She definitely knows her Momma and cries when strangers hold her. She loves her sister and watches her every move when she is close by.

This picture cracks me up!

Big sister Madeline showing Sophia some love.

Lots of counting

Madeline has recently learned how to count, or at least recite the correct numbers in sequential order. She loves to do it and does it ALL THE TIME. We also encourge her a bit because it's so darn cute. In this video, she counts Mommy's Mother's Day flowers and apples from her current favorite book, "The Giving Tree." Listen to how she says nine and ten in Spanish. Where she gets "beat box" from diez, we'll never know.

Sleeping in strange places

Andy and I went to bed the other night and this is what we found. Madeline had gotten up and then fallen asleep in Sophia's activity mat. Silly girl.

Mother's Day with my girls

Jenna's Graduation

Jenna graduated from the University of Cincinnati Law School last weekend. It was a great ceremony and I'm glad we were able to go see her walk across the stage.

For the hooding, she was allowed to have her fiance do the honors. It meant a lot to her and it was neat to see. Although both Andy and I were too absorbed with taking photos to actually see it happening. I had Jenna's camera and he had ours. Boy, video is so much easier. That was tough capturing "the moment" as it was happening.

Afterwards we all went out to Montgomery Inn to celebrate.

And Madeline was there to keep us all entertained, of course. Sophia didn't make it. After much screaming from all the travelling, she conked out at home so we left her to rest peacefully with Davit.

I think Madeline liked that we all had bibs on just like her.

Cake from Servatti's.......oh man, it was so good! Randy must have had one too many drinks by this point in the evening.

He decided to wear the cake toppings.

Now Jenna is off to get married and then study for the Bar. We wish you the best of luck!

Touch-A-Truck

I took the girls to a Touch-A-Truck event on one of my days home with them last week. They had all kinds of trucks there (dumptruck, boat, school bus, firetruck, snow plow, zamboni and more). I thought it was pretty neat, but Madeline wasn't too interested.

She really liked the pinwheel one of the vendors gave her though.

After walking around a bit, we ended up at the playground.

But then we saw this girl dressed up as a woodpecker. Madeline LOVED this! She wouldn't leave. We stood there for a good 5 minutes while other kids came and went.

As enamored as she was though, this was as close as she would get. To see how excited she was over this made the trip totally worth it.

Head, fingy, ears

"Head, fin-gy, ears"......that's Madeline's version of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." It cracks us up when she sings it! Her first version was "head, fin-gy, toes" but then changed toes to ears for some reason. She is a silly girl.

And now when something outrageous happens, she says, "Oh goodness!" Like when she sees the mess she makes in the living room. She must have picked that up from a teacher at daycare because we don't say that. Although, now I'm picking it up from her.

Sophia is ready for the beach!

Today was beach day at daycare and Sophia looks the part.

Three Months Old

Our little sweet pea is 3 months old today! The second time around, it really goes fast. I can't believe she is this old already. She is smiling and cooing now and her favorite thing is her activity mat. She will lay on that forever and kick, squirm and coo.

Jenna's Bridal Shower

Jenna's (Andy's sister) bridal shower was last weekend and it was a lot of fun! Here she is with her Mom, otherwise known as Nana around here.

Elle, her cousin, is one of her bridesmaids. How pretty are these two?

Madeline was acting incredibly shy when we first got there. Let's hope she isn't like this at the wedding considering she is the flower girl.

This was the first time Andy's extended family got to meet Sophia. So needless to say, I didn't even see Sophia the first hour we were at the shower.

Alexis was there too. Look at that face!

Madeline finally warmed up and let go of me long enough for Nana to read her a book.

Sophia liked hanging out with Alexis......

....and Great Grandma.

After the socializing, we got to eat some of this yummy cake and then it was time to open gifts.

By this time Madeline was PLENTY warmed up.

She helped Jenna open some gifts.

And showed Sophia some of the cards she got.

It was a beautiful shower. I can't wait for her wedding. Jenna is going to make a beautiful bride.

This n' That

I don't know how, but Madeline just keeps getting cuter. She will drop a crayon from the table and when one of us picks it up for her, she says in the most adorable voice, "Thank you Mommy!"

She will yell, "Ready Daddy!" when she wants him to watch her do something.

She can count to 10 all by herself when she really thinks about it. When she is being silly, she skips the numbers 4 and 5.

The other day she was playing with our tennis racket and Andy asked for it back. She handed it to Andy, he said thank you and she responded, "Your welcome Daddy!" Her voice just makes you want to eat her up.

Maybe all these stories are so cute to us because they are juxtaposed by her enormous toddler tantrums that turn her into a devil child. The other day she got upset because Miles went outside before she did. She screams in the car when we have the windows down because she doesn't like the wind in her face. Her sunglasses cause her much emotional strife because she likes to wear them, but can't get them on right.

Then there is our sweet pea Sophia. She found her hands the other day. It was so cute watching her concentrate on looking at her hand thinking, "Hmm, what is this?".

Sophia is our chill baby. She is so calm all the time. Only cries when she is hungry or tired. She goes to bed when Madeline does and wakes up with her too. I love her to pieces.

Cooking

This is Madeline's idea of helping me cook.