Last Day of School

This week was the last day of what I called pre-pre school (also known as Mommy's Morning Out, which in our case is Daddy's Morning Out). I was initially a little unsure about sending her because she was so young, but it turned out to be great. She LOVED to go, and learned so much. They went outside every day, did LOTS of art (as I could tell by how many pieces that came home with her), sang songs, did Ring Around the Posey, and the Hokey Pokey. It was so cute to see all the 1-2 year olds playing in the Toddler room. She will be going again in the fall and will be in the 2 year old class. I hope her best friend "Lily" will be there too. Until then, we'll have to come up with some activities to fill that three hour morning block!

Bath

The dual bath is a regular occurrence at our house (anything to save time at our house with two small ones, an energetic (ie spastic) dog,  a full time job, a dissertation to be done, an ebay business, marathon training, summer vacation planning, bassoon gigging and so much more!).  This was the very first one a few weeks ago but I'm just getting around to getting some of my photos off my iPhone!

Violet SEVEN months!

Violet is seven months today! She is doing this thing recently I call "jazz hands". The second picture is a perfect representation of her right now. She tries to scoot on her belly this month towards toys. She can't quite get her knees up, but I think she might be an early crawler. This month also marked the first time she officially slept thru the night! At 6.5 months. She still isn't consistent with that, it's about every other night, but hey, I'll take it. She loves baby food, but still don't try to force a bottle on her if she is not hungry. Most of the time when she's cranky it's because she is tired. Her favorite place to be is on mom (or dad's) hip. She has ZERO teeth!

Sister pic outtakes

I have been trying to get a good photo of the two girls together since Violet is at such a great picture taking stage. My attempts didn't turn out so well, so I decided to hire a professional. They turned out great! So, like my husband says sometimes you just have to pay retail :-).
Here are my outtakes: Despite a lot of smarties, Harlow was definitely the difficult one, although Violet's distraction by the grass (and eating it) didn't help either.

First attempt, I think Violet's headband is distracting. I was trying to get them in their coordinating Vans shoes, but the grass was a problem!

 Second attempt was a little later so the lighting was better. But Harlow wouldn't give up her baby. I of course couldn't get them smiling at the same time, but I do think their faces are hilarious!

Crazy

Two year old's can drive you crazy, but in the BEST possible way! Like when Harlow insists on eating macaroni and cheese with the "baby spoon" or when she wants to dress herself, but can't really do it and will not except any help. "Do it" she says which translates to "I can do it myself and if you try and help me I will cry and whine and might even hit you." Also, are the times she doesn't touch her dinner and then come 7:30 (bedtime) she looks at me with the sweet face and says "hunnreee....Har-row hunnreee". At least she makes up for it in cuteness, silliness,  and sweet kisses where she grabs the back of your head.  Here she is getting into her daddy's stuff:

Life with a two year old is never dull!

Summer List

Here is what I do when mark is at a gig on a Saturday night and the kids are in bed... My attempt at chalkboard art. This is the last week of work for mark before the summer (bassooning and college professing is slow over the summer) so we've been looking forward to having a little more free time to do things like this! Please excuse the poor quality iPhone pic and the fact that I didn't even clear out all those boxes of food we don't have space for. #reallifewithtwosmallchildren

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