Last day of preschool for this year

Remember what Isabel looked like on her first day of school last September? Looking back now, she looks like such a tiny baby in these photos to me!

Well, look how much she has grown up in the past 8 months! This is a photo of Isabel and her teacher, Miss Debbie, from the half-day Christian preschool program that she attends one day a week. As you know, Isabel is actually now in school every day, instead of cared for in our home, but it has been important to Luke and I to keep her in this faith-based program one day a week instead of having her in her regular school every day. She will continue in this program next year along with her best friend, Camille. The girls' two little brothers, Josiah and Levi, will likely follow the year after that. The two girls will also be attending a program this summer one day a week at Miss Debbie's house, which they are very much looking forward to! Thank you, staff and teachers of the Children's Praise 'N Rainbows program. It has been a great year!

Girls AND boys just wanna have fun!

Today we had a playdate at our house with three mommies who all have two-year-old daughters and pretty new sons! Susan came over with Kyla and Isaac, and Jenna came over with Levi (Camille was spending some time with her grandma, so she missed the playdate this time around!)

After chatting inside for awhile where the girls played nicely with baby dolls, Isabel and Kyla were wanting to go outside (note that Isabel was the child who repeatedly vocalized this request, so she must have been designated the spokesgirl for the group!) So, we headed out to the absolutely beautiful day, where the girls played on the climber and ran around the backyard, and we seized the opportunity to take some cute photos of the three boys, who we soon saw are all about the same size despite their different ages!

Isabel Noelle, 2 years 5 months

Kyla Carrie, 2 years

Josiah David, 3 1/2 months, born 1/29/10, weighing 4lbs 9oz at birth

Isaac Steven, 6 1/2 weeks, born 4/2/10, weighing 5lbs 10oz at birth

Levi Thomas, 2 weeks, born 5/2/10, weighing 8lbs 8oz at birth

The boys...

And the mommies...

I am so proud to be a mommy of two wonderful children!

First haircut

All week, I have been talking to Isabel about her first haircut. The plan was to go to the hair salon after swimming today, and if she seemed OK with it, to get her hair cut. If she was totally freaked out, we were going to just watch another little girl or boy get their hair cut, then talk about it for another week or so and then go back. When we got there, she was in good spirits, and they had an appointment available, so I decided to just go for it! She chose a book, and up into the big red chair she went. Serious, but not crying :)

Luckily, they were playing her favorite show, Dora the Explorer, on the TV right in front of her! She sat quite still and attentively while the stylist wet down and began trimming her hair.

As I had suspected, as soon as the hair dryer came out, she got scared, but all she did was ask for lovey, and once she had it, her fingers went into her mouth, and still no crying! My brave girl!

All dry! Now she got to choose a lollipop, just as Mommy had promised her. She chose, of course, a pink one (well, pink wrapper anyway), and got right down to unwrapping it.

Thanks, Mommy!

Back view of the new 'do! Much more even than the ragged look she was wearing before! So pretty!

Static electricity

What can you do about static electricity?

Grin and bear it!

Children's Museum

Floating boats down the ramp

Trying hard to blow a HUGE bubble!

Camille climbing in the play area

Running down the ramp to the next fun thing!

Camille sitting like a bird in the nest!

Isabel "floating" on a lily pad!

Choosing books to look at in the quiet book nook

Last Tuesday, I went with Isabel and Josiah to the Children's Museum with my close friend Jenna and her daughter Camille (Isabel's best friend!) Many of you know that Jenna nannied for Isabel full-time for nearly a year-and-a-half, and so Isabel has had many fun experiences at the Children's Museum, but I had never been there with her before! The girls had a blast in the water area floating boats down the ramp and at the bubble table in particular. Jenna was kind enough to feed Josiah while we were there, and then he slept in his stroller when we went to the toddler play area, so I was mostly busy behind the camera trying to capture both girls in one frame (quite the task with two energetic two-year-olds!). I had semi success as you can see from the photos above! Not with both of them looking at the camera, but hey, you gotta take what you can get! If I get a good double stroller and Josiah continues to be a good napper in the stroller, maybe I will endeavor to take both kids there on my own one of these days before maternity leave is over! It was fun and there was a lot that could be seen that we didn't even get to see this time!

Swimmin' pool!

Luke turned on the outside water yesterday and just for fun, filled up the baby pool (he added a few buckets of hot water from inside and let it warm in the sun while Isabel was napping). We figured if it was too cold, she would just get out! The minute we told her there was a pool outside, she was clamoring to go in it. She kept saying "Swimsuit!" and "Swimmin' pool!" So, we decked her out in suit and sunblock, and in she went! Never once did she indicate she was cold (though we thought the air temp was a bit chilly, especially after she got herself all wet!) and she had a blast filling her pool with all her outside plastic toys one at a time. I envision many more spring and summer days by the "poolside" in our future!

Josiah's Dedication