Easter & The Golden Egg

A belated happy easter to all the family that we did not celebrate with...which is almost everyone.  It was a pretty small party this year - just the four of us, my cousin Caroline, and her roommate Missy.  The ladies only have two weeks of school left and decided to come out to the burbs for a night so they could celebrate easter with us the next day.  Was nice having some extra bodies around even though it was pretty low key.

I had planned a busy morning for us - church and then a reservation for a big brunch.  Probably didn't plan so well because I didn't think to go to church earlier than normal which resulted in us standing in the back.  Sawyer and Mark walked around in the back a bit while I held Isla.  At some point we switched and Isla fell asleep and Sawyer insisted on my holding her.  All I kept thinking through church was I wonder if this will give me some buff looking arms, which is probably not the message they meant for me to leave with.

Brunch was pretty super - the biggest downfall was that the kiddos weren't super cooperative so I didn't get to eat quite as much as I might have liked.  In hindsight that's probably a good thing...  I had originally thought Isla would sleep through the whole thing but she was uncharacteristically fussy.  I realized why about halfway through the meal when I smelled something, and saw that she had pooped through her pretty outfit - hence no pics of Isla in a pretty easter outfit. 

Sawyer on the other hand was dressed up and seemed to enjoy her very first buffet.  She went to town eating an entire plateful of food, including giving two thumbs up to cannolis and chocolate covered strawberries.  I have to say - I smiled with delight that she loved the cannoli - we have so many good meals together ahead of us.  When we got home she posed for a few pictures...

One sweet...

One goofy...

As it turns out, in all the excitement of the morning, Sawyer totally forgot about the easter bunny coming.  This was kind of a good thing - while I had hidden her basket, we were always intending to hide eggs during her nap.  After a very good nap (you can always tell how well Sawyer slept by how curly her hair is when she wakes up), she came downstairs telling everyone that the easter bunny came!  She didn't totally grasp the idea of looking for the basket - and essentially had to be led to it - but was so excited when she saw it.  She broke into her pez pretty much immediately.

After a quick candy break, it was time to head outside to find the eggs Mark had hidden.  We walked outside, and this is what we saw...

That's right, a squirrel captured the golden egg.  We knew we had some crazy squirrels around here, but I wasn't anticipating them to steal the eggs.  The squirrel crawled down from the fence and dropped the egg, at which point we noticed it had eaten through the plastic and got all the M&M's out.  Amazing.  So while Mark and I were laughing at this strange twist of fate, Sawyer burst into tears, huge elephant tears.  She wanted her golden egg back.  Not only that, she was now terrified that the squirrel was going to get her and wasn't sure about the rest of the egg hunt.  When we finally did convince her to look for eggs, she wouldn't go into the yard to get them  She would spot eggs and point them out to Mark, insisting that he then go get them for her.  We think her fear of the squirrels subsided because she did walk around a bit.  She then proceeded to eat the M&M's out of almost every single egg she received. 

2.5 Years Old

This post is dedicated to my big girl.  She is not my baby people - just ask her.  I was thinking the other day about how everyone says the Terrible 2's, and I'm not sure if I'm just glass half full lately, but I don't think 2 has been too bad for us.  Certainly Sawyer has her days, needs to turn off the tears and whining sometimes, but overall she's a happy girl who makes us laugh quite a bit.  Maybe it's terrible because there's just always an expectation that we have to be doing something.

Don't have a lot of pictures this week, but Sawyer looked very cute in this sweater she got from her cousin Alexa, and on this particular day decided she had to read all the newspaper circulars on the counter for a good half hour.  She insisted on reading every page and wouldn't get off the counter till she was done.  She would point out various stuff - screaming when she saw an M&M, or other random food item she likes.

So to give a little flavor to some of the funny things that Sawyer says/does, and so I don't forget all of them:

• Sawyer says "Hiiiiiii Isla" within an inch of her face, every time she sees her.  She kisses her hand and hugs her numerous times a day, and usually at least twice before bed.
• Sawyer's favorite color is yellow.  Again, just ask her.  Everytime she sees anything yellow she will tell us "I love yellow".
• Sawyer loves to dance.  Walking into our house she often comes in and goes right to the ipod speakers to put music on.  Her dance moves are still in development - typically jumping up and down - but every now and then she busts out with something new that makes us laugh.
• Lately when she goes to bed, she tells me "I need to take a good nap so that you won't call the Easter Bunny.  Because the Easter Bunny is coming to our house, and we're going to look for eggs, and they'll have M&M's inside, and we're going to get an Easter Basket, and then....what else are we going to do?"
• I've started talking to Sawyer about our upcoming trip to Buffalo, and in the car the other day she said, "Dad, we're going to Buffalo. Mommy's going, and Isla's going, and Sawyer's going - you wanna come Dad? We're going to see Luke and Aidan. Aunt Jennifer will be there and Uncle Mark will be there - we're going to see everyone!"
• Sawyer plays games on the iphone all the time now - there's a few shapes games and I love to hear her say parallelogram, hexagon, and trapezoid.  It just sounds funny coming out of her mouth.  The game gives four pictures and you select the shape that's said.  Sawyer is good at the game but has started to select every single picture that is not the right shape.  She looks at me out of the corner of her eye, which usually makes me smile because I know how smart you have to be to select every wrong answer before the right one.
• Sawyer can spell her first word - her name!  I think it's almost like a song to her because she says "SAW....YER!"  She recognizes it by sight, and spells it from memory or pointing to the letters.

I'm sure there's more but these are what popped into my head...they may just be funny to me. 

Such Pretty Girls

So our friend Jon is an amazing photographer.  He first took some pictures of Sawyer around her first birthday for us when we all went to the pumpkin patch.  Recently he, Aimee, Reese and Sammy all came over to play and and while they were here he broke out the camera again.  Though I'd share on here since not all the fam is on Facebook.   

You may remember that Jon and Aimee let Sawyer stay at their house the night Isla was born.  Though Sawyer hasn't spent a ton of time with them, she talks about them all the time.  She remembers staying at their house and playing, and eating Booty.  Every now and then she'll bust out with "Hey Dude", and then giggles and says "Mom, Jon says 'Hey Dude' to me".  Today we were talking about our Easter Egg hunt and the Easter bunny and apparently her and Reese are going to find the eggs together because Reese is her friend.

Enjoy!

Time to Play

This weekend we hit up a playzone in Indiana to meet up with Uncle Ted and cousin Charlie.  Huge high fives to Ted for finding it because it was perfect.  We got there right around opening and pretty much had the run of the place.  Isla didn't get in on too much of the action, and the little she did see, wasn't all that fun for her.  There was a room for Infants but she really just preferred to watch what was going on around her.

Sawyer and Charlie did make the most of their time and ran from room to room. The water room was a pretty big pleaser, though you'd never really know it from Sawyer's face. 

Actually, it would appear all the pictures we have of her show off quite a serious face.  Our little artist is serious about her work. 

Probably safe to say the favorite room was the giant ball pit and climbing/slide area.  Sawyer spent most of her time with the balls, Charlie preferred to climb to the top of the structure and take the two story slide on down.  The boy is fearless, and while Sawyer often gave chase, she usually chickened out and would yell for someone to go down the slide with her, or would walk herself back down to the smaller slide.  We did have a little boy and his grandparents who made friends with the kiddies.  Mark and I couldn't stop laughing because they heard us say Sawyer's name, and then started talking to her, but it was quite clear they thought she was a boy.  Believe me I know this is our fault - gender confusing name, and she wasn't dressed in head to toe pink.  I took her picture so you could see - I thought that the wide leg sweats, flower shoes, and somewhat longer hair would set her off as a girl, but that was not the case.  She had no idea, but they must have called her a boy 30 times.

Now she felt like posing...

 And then being silly...

Mark bought Sawyer some new books this week because she's obsessed with Curious George and Berenstein Bears and so we've basically been reading all weekend.  At least once this weekend I wanted to call it quits on reading, but how do you tell your kid that you're sick of reading her books - probably the wrong thing to discourage.  Oh well.  We've tried to get her to "read" to us, but she refuses saying she doesn't know how to read.  So Mark and I are told to "talk about it".  I'm going to keep working on that - she has an amazing memory so I know she has got all the stories down.  On the back of each Berenstein Bear book there's pictures of the 20+ books.  Each time we read, we have to look at those and she recites all the titles for us (also telling us which she wants).

In fact, she's been such a great little girl lately.  Our biggest struggle tends to be bed time.  She's a wily one and is always asking for one more hug, water, milk, medicine, open the door, put on my covers...you get the picture.  But other than that she's been great at playing, and was out playing soccer and using chalk again today.  She's also got quite the personality - quick story, she was playing with her kitchen and asked Mark if he wanted a sandwich.  He didn't respond so she kept asking over and over.  When he did finally respond that he'd love a sandwich, she said "Ok, wait a minute, be patient" like he was inconveniencing her.  In other news, she's also started to put Mark in time out.  The latest was at dinner on Saturday night.  We were out at a restaurant, and she made him move to a different table and sit in time out, telling him that he couldn't get up until the timer went off.  Mark plays along which probably fuels the fire, but it is so funny every time she does it that we can't stop laughing and don't have the heart to say no.  She has even sometimes grabbed his cheeks and said, "say you're sorry, ok - now give me a hug and a kiss".

I often wonder if Isla is going to have as quirky a personality as her sister. She's a good little baby and always so happy. Lately she has really started to find her voice and spends a lot of time talking to us. This weekend we also broke out the exersaucer and Isla has been loving it. She is the nosiest little girl and so this is right up her alley because she moves from toy to toy. Her play was only interrupted today by the TV, which she also likes to keep an eye on.  She tried bananas this weekend and we got another thumbs up.  It even made rice cereal tolerable for her, which was nice.  So far, she's in line with Sawyer - hates the veggies, love the fruits.  Speaking of which - you didn't think Sawyer would let Isla have a toy all for herself did you? 

And now we're back to Sunday night, and it seems once again the weekend has flown by far too fast.  Overall it was a really nice weekend.  While the laundry remains unfolded, and the groceries haven't been bought, we had some fun, relaxed, and I was even able to make plans with friends for brunch earlier today.  

Springtime

Apologize for the delay in posting, but we had some technical difficulties accessing the internet.  The weeks themselves haven't tended to be super exciting due to work issues.  I have had several work deadlines that have kept me tied up and needing to go into the office more than usual, but we've lucked out that Mark has had some relatively slow weeks, and were able to balance all the kid duties.

Far more exciting was last weekend.  It truly felt like springtime was finally here.  We had an 85 degree day, with windows open, plenty of time outside, and summer clothes!  One of the additional added perks of having a house was realized - we were able to keep the windows open and not deal with loud street or train noise.  While the weather has dropped back down to cold temperatures, I still think about last weekend and smile.  At one point, the four of us all took a nap with the windows open and breeze flowing.  We also took a few strolls around the neighborhood.  Amazing the number of people that have emerged - our neighborhood is full of kids!  As we walked around we met several new neighbors and are looking forward to spending more time with them this summer.  There were lots of comments about getting together to grill out and share some beers, have a block party, etc.  Mental note - stock up on beer and burgers.  Oddly enough, Mark learned that our one neighbor graduated from Michigan State the same year as him, lived in the same apartment complex, and shared several of the same friends with him and met another neighbor who is a former colleague of his.  Small world. 

As for the girls, they seemed pretty excited by the weather as well.  Our little Isla Monkey is growing so big and loved being able to be outside looking around.  I also think she appreciated the nice warm breeze, as opposed to the bone chilling ones she's used to.  Isla is rolling around - I often lay her on the floor and she goes from back to front/front to back.  She is incredibly curious and nosy so this allows her to swing around and look at everything.  Isla is still not sleeping through the night (sigh) but she's getting better.  Lately she's been up only once a night to eat but girl is just not the sleeper that her sister was.  I can't wait till we have a night where both girls sleep through the night - I can only imagine how wonderful I'll feel waking up.

Doesn't she have a great smile?  Isla has a great laugh too - we don't hear it a ton, but every now and then I'll be able to get it out of her.  Sawyer is really the only one who consistently gets it...and really for no reason at all.  Isla looks at her and belly laughs like she's the funniest person on earth.  Sawyer continues to take care of her sister - when she cries in the car Sawyer says, "Don't cry Isla, I'm right here.  I'll sing to you."  She then busts out into either Twinkle Twinkle or the ABC's.  We started Isla on some rice cereal in the last two weeks and it's safe to say she doesn't like it.  She also gave a huge thumbs down to peas.  She has made herself throw up three times while eating because she gets herself so worked up about it.  Another dramatic child - check.  And since I have no backbone, I let her try peaches next.  Guess what - thumbs up.  We've got to stay on peaches another few days, but I think we'll do sweet potatoes or squash next to try and make sure all hope is not lost on vegetables. 

 As for this little munchie, she's our funny girl.  She loves to dance around to music, can find the music on Mark's phone and put it on, and now sings parts of the Rebecca Black "Friday" song and Justin Bieber "Baby" song.  Thank you Miss Stephanie for introducing her to those - we had to download them she was asking for them so much.  Sawyer has been loving her time outside.  On Sunday when it was so nice she literally ran around the block.  She was over a half a block away when she realized Mark and I had stopped to talk to some neighbors.  She also spent a lot of time on the back deck watching our neighbor, Sara, who was on her trampoline with some friends.  Mark and I were inside but heard her yell "Hi Sara" about 30+ times (no exaggeration).  Everytime she did it we would laugh but Sara would say hi back.  Sara likes to climb the fence between our two yards and just watch Sawyer, so yesterday while Sawyer was playing with a football Sara just sat and watched, and at one point they just both sat and stared at each other. 

Our little princess played dress up this weekend too...

Found her Feet!

I seem to be having trouble managing my time these days.  Work is taking up more than it's fair share as I struggle to get some things done for a few deadlines I have, and I find the rest gets gobbled up so quickly with all of life's random tasks.  It's as if I blinked and Isla is 4 months old, and Sawyer is now 2 1/2.  In fact, took both girls to the doctor this past week for their 4 month/2.5 yr check-ups.  While we didn't exactly get a clean bill of health for either; I left with prescriptions to fill for both of them, they are doing well.  Sawyer is up to 30.5 lbs and just shy of 35 inches.  Isla was 14.6 lbs and 24 1/2 inches, interestingly (perhaps only to me) she is almost exactly the same size as Sawyer was...4 oz lighter and 1/4 inch shorter.  For some reason I feel Isla is daintier though.  I think Sawyer's cheeks made her seem bigger when she was younger - Isla has some chubby cheeks too, but perhaps they are 4 oz smaller?

Anyway, so I had originally scheduled the doctor's appointment on Saturday so Mark could come too.  Didn't end up as planned because he travelled to Albany for the day to attend a memorial service for his uncle.  We were glad he was able to go, but there were more than a few times that day when I thought that Mark needs to watch both kids HIMSELF for more than 2-3 hours to really appreciate it.  After getting the kids up a bit early so we could take him to the airport, making the roundtrip to Midway and back, we had about 30 minutes before the doctor's appointment so I took them to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast.  Not many people actually sit and stay at the one by us, so we were an attraction as people came in and out...and much to Sawyer's delight, she got a few free mini donuts from the guy at the counter who just liked to talk to the girls.

When all was said and done and finally home, it was clear that getting the girls up early had made them a bit cranky.  It was either that, or Sawyer figured out they outnumbered me and decided to do everything in her power to make the day difficult.  She's a smart kid, so the jury's still out on that one. The thing is she alternates between being really funny and cute, and then just driving you crazy.  At one point I found her drinking orange juice out of the carton on the floor with the fridge door open.  She told me she was done and would put it away, but then said "oops - Mom I spilled.  Don't worry I'll clean it up."  And she tried - she got every one of my kitchen towels to clean it.  When we played Candy Land that day Sawyer would say "Good job Mom!" and clap her hands together everytime I picked a card up.  I have no idea why.  At the end of the day we hopped on Skype with my parents and Sawyer demonstrated her singing and dancing.  She insisted on showing off her two favorites, which go like this:

• "Sawyer, Sawyer, Jump up and Down...Sawyer, Sawyer, Jump up and Down...Turn around and sit back down."  They do this one in daycare, and at home we do it for the four of us.  We each have to get up and dance when it's our turn.
•  "Sawyer is a circus clown, circus clown, circus clown...Sawyer is a circus clown, she can do a stage trick" - at which point she does a somersault

I often wonder if she will someday be a cheerleader the way she sings and claps these out so frequently.  Quite the ham-bone...

Mark's 24 hours away came and went, and he returned to what turned into a pretty amazing day here in Chicago.  The temps got up to about 75 degrees and I'm pretty sure everyone in our neighborhood was outside at one point or another.  After some naps we too hit up the playground.  Mark and Sawyer went in the stroller, and Isla and I trailed with her in the baby bjorn.  Isla was so funny as we walked there - I faced her out so she could check everything out, and she kept leaning her head back and looking at the sky, almost like she was just breathing the air in saying thank you god for warmer weather.  Isla and Sawyer both spent some time in the swings.  Isla is still a little unsure of whether she likes it sitting there staring emotionless, and Sawyer just keeps up a steady chatter the whole time she swings.  At one point as I was chasing Sawyer around she saw another little girl head for the ladder up to the slides.  Sawyer did not like that, and went up, pushed in front of her, and said "No - this is my playground".  That's right - turns out I have the little playground bully.  A few glances from the other parents and I totally felt like a bad parent.  She held her ground on the stairs until I told her she was going to have to sit on the side if she wasn't nice.   

In other news, we got the green light to start Isla on food.  This pediatrician gave us a whole plan of when to introduce what, which is far more structured than what I had with Sawyer.  This included how long to stay on just cereal, to start certain vegetables first, and then move to fruit.  I'm not sure how well I'll stick to the plan as I do hate the structure, but since I've forgotten how we introduced everything to Sawyer I figure it can't hurt. My main memory is Sawyer crying when she ate veggies and loving when we gave her fruit...so I guess starting veggies first can't hurt.  Then again, Sawyer is a pretty darn good eater so maybe I did something right.  She still eats basically every kind of fruit with the exception of kiwi, and does eat a good amount of veggies, though brussel sprouts were a fail at dinner the other night.  She loves chicken and steak, eats fish like it's going out of style, appreciates good shaved pieces of parmesan-reggiano cheese, loves kalamata olives, and has taken a liking to soppressata sausage as of late.

Isla has not yet found the enjoyment in eating - this was her reaction to her first spoon of cereal.  Utter confusion and disbelief...

Quickly followed by crying, at which point she ended up out of her chair and on Dad's lap for some love...still a little wide-eyed and shaken by the whole experience.