More pictures, seriously?

Here are a few photos of playing after supper tonight. Caroline would NOT be still! But her new found mobility has her grinning from ear to ear! And Catherine was just too busy in a very elaborate world of pretend to glance in my general direction too often. I know there are not equal numbers of pictures. I promise, I love both of my children the same. I have to seize and share the moment when serious Caroline smiles.

This is gratuitous mom posting. Forgive me if you aren't interested in photos of us hanging out in the driveway.

This, people, is her "grandpa" face. Note the mustache.

Kiddie Carnival

Last night we got to enjoy a little summer gem here in North Alabama. Each summer in Athens, the Lions club hosts a Kiddie Carnival. The rides and equipment have to be at least fifty years old (I'm not exaggerating; I think I read that it was built in the 50's) but it all still hums and runs just fine! Many of our friends have childhood memories of enjoying it and maybe it will be here one day for our grandkids too.

It's hard to believe that a ride safe enough and tame enough for a fifteen month old exists, but really, this carnival is the perfect size for toddlers and pre-schoolers. Catherine thought it was a ton of fun! Caroline - well, she didn't cry. She was actually completely expressionless on the rides. But I like to think she was enjoying herself. :)

It was crazy busy last night. I think Rocket City Mom posted it as her number one weekend pick. And with all the rainy weather we've had, lots of people were ready to get out of the house with their kids. The parking lot was packed and it took about fifteen minutes to find a spot. Don't worry, Catherine made up a "We need a place to park" song that made the time fly by.

For $6, we got an hour of rides and entertainment for both girls, a funnel cake for us all to share, and the wonderful character building opportunity that standing in line presents. Can't beat that!

There were a few moments of hopes being dashed . . . "No, Catherine I'm sorry, there aren't any baby cats here for you to pet." And, "Mom, this doesn't taste like cake. Is this really cake?" And then there was getting home at 9:00 and Caroline screaming her head off in the car because she was just. too. tired. But overall, it was a great outing with the babies. I think we'll be back again before summer's over. But maybe we'll try to go on a Thursday!

Milestones!

Our girls have been doing some serious development lately.

Both of our girls have been proficient crawlers and neither of them seemed to be in much of a hurry to toddle around on two feet. Catherine started walking at 14.5 months and Caroline took her first real steps on Saturday, the day after her 15-month mark. She looked surprised and delighted. Especially for our super serious baby, this amount of pleasant emotion was unusual. (We get plenty of the other types of visible emotion, but that's another matter . . .)

Here is a video of Caro taking a few steps in Catherine's room tonight. Just before this video, she climbed all the way up our straight staircase completely on her own. (I was there, just in case of a fall.) I'm in so much trouble!

It's getting so hard to put them to bed; they just love playing together (especially at bedtime . . . coincidence?) and getting each other super wound up around 7:30 every night. This seems to be a summer phenomenon. Nothing is sweeter than watching them play together nicely! And of course, they always play nicely, are never jealous or selfish with toys, never utter "Mine!" or deliberately pick on each other. Yes, I am so glad I don't have kids who do that. (You do hear the sarcasm!)

Catherine is also hitting all kinds of developmental milestones as well. She hasn't ever been very advanced in the gross motor skill department, but she is now happy and quite capable of climbing, jumping quite well, and swinging from the furniture. She started a 2 year olds gymnastics class last week and really loved it. I think it will be great for her and it burns off a ton of energy! And she does have a ton of energy.

Catherine has been very interested in letters and sounds for a long time. I don't remember when she first recognized all the letters, but it has to have been at least six months ago. (This is why I'm blogging now, so I'll remember later!) She's known all their sounds and been able to recognize beginning sounds of most words for maybe three months. Putting multiple sounds together has been a good deal harder for her, naturally, but we've really been working on sounding out simple words. She has a LONG way to go (I am not saying she is reading yet, by any stretch of the imagination) but she did sound out the word "bat" completely on her own last week, with no help or context from me. Wow! Her father and I might need to take advantage of spelling in front of her while we can, because we won't be able to do it for too long, I'd bet. She is already very good at using context to figure out what we're spelling. Sigh. Outsmarted by a two-year-old on a regular basis...

June Guests

Summertime always brings visits from my mom. Since she is a teacher, her summers are full of leisurely days by the pool, thumb twiddling, and relacing all her shoelaces. Okay, as a former teacher, I can say her summer is full of a few days of much-needed recovery, preparation for next year, and professional development. And maybe those few things around the house that kinda slide when you're working 60 hour weeks.

Just the same, she always manages to squeeze in a little grandbaby time. My dad joined her for their visit last week and I think it was the first time I've spent Father's Day with my dad since high school. We needn't talk about just how long ago that was. Here are a few pictures.

Daddy with his girls on Father's Day. Yes,

Fun was had by all! Thanks for coming all this way to see us. I mean, our kids.

Those summer nah-ights!

Here I can here you saying, "tell me more!"

Okay, what I have to tell isn't juicy. It might not even be interesting unless you are related to us. But who can resist a Grease reference?

I love summer nights. Being slightly cold-natured, there's something about the warm, humid air without the glaring sun that just fits me. We've been having some gorgeous evenings around here.

We enjoyed a beautiful picnic by the water in our neighborhood last night.

Caroline has food in her mouth. She keeps food in her mouth for-ev-er. Seriously. Half the time, we have to take some out when it's time to brush her teeth at night.

Yes, we fed our family Sonic. Don't judge. It was delicious, I'm not going to lie.

I love our beautiful neighborhood! It may be full of senior citizen-types and houses circa 1985, but the scenery can't be beaten!

Then tonight we enjoyed a playing in the sprinkler and bubbles before supper time. Catherine hadn't really ever played in the sprinkler before and she had a blast. Caroline wasn't too fond of it but . And I don't know where her other shoe is.

Favorite toy is the packaging the bubbles came in?

Check out these curls!

More garden time and a wren in the house.

Okay, first I have to share with all of you how we spent our Saturday night.

Russell walked out the front door and this little friend flew in. My facebook friends might remember that this happened to us another time about a year ago. Forty-five minutes later, we escorted him out the upstairs window. Russell has mad skills with a broom. The ruckus woke up Caroline. Though I'm wasn't happy about that, the little birdie didn't poop anywhere in the house. And that's more than I can say for last time. Does this happen to other people?

On to today. We had so much fun last week, we jumped at the chance to go back to the Botanical Gardens with friends. I promise my next post will be about something else.

Just seeing him get in this position hurts my knees.

Isaac wasn't into looking at the camera. But he was into putting the colander on his head.

Catherine and Isaac checking out the koi pond.

Isaac liked to press the button and Daniel and Catherine were delighted to "take a shower."

The butterfly house was open! Daniel was terribly amused by blowing on the butterflies on the milkweed and making them flutter around.

Not bad without any knowledge of macro or equipment?

And this is just cute.

Morning at the Botanical Gardens

A morning of rain was in the forecast. Which means a morning of fussy was in my forecast. Much to my delight, this morning I woke up and the good people at the Weather Channel had decided the front wouldn't be here til this afternoon. That made for a perfect opportunity for a quick outing to the Botanical Gardens. Cloudy so we didn't have to worry much about sunburn, cool enough, but not too cold to get a little wet at the end. All in all, a perfect day for it!

We were joined by our friends Daniel and Andrew (who are the girls' ages, almost exactly). What fun!

 

Giant Garden, Little Me exhibit

The fun really started when Mrs. Svitlana discovered this black button that made the dandelion blow bubbles.

This was unposed. They just decided to sit down together. Sweet kids.

You can "count" on Daniel. Sorry - corny.

Catherine's already kissing frogs . . . watch out, Daddy!

Andrew running. All the pictures of Andrew look just like this. Thankful for a high shutter speed. He's a moving target!

Caro wants to do what the big kids are doing!

Happy girls make for a happy momma! 

An aside - Blogger's picture placement bewilders me. Oh well, here they are, even if not perfectly arranged!