New Life

In less than 2 weeks we welcomed two new lives into our little circle. On April 30th Dana gave birth to a daughter Tyley Eva.

This new little lady weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and was noted as being 19 inches long however at her 3 day appointment she was 21 inches long so we're thinking she might have been a little longer at birth. Needless to say she's beautiful and looks like the rest of her little family.

Will and I met her at the hospital but they aren't allowing kids to visit so I scheduled a playdate for Harper to get to meet her. I also got to see Alex & Kyler in action and she's a very lucky little girl. Both kiddos were so excited about her and showed so much love. Alex is especially fond of babies and played with Paisley for the last 30 minutes of our visit driving his remote control car just close enough to get her to chase it and giggle. It was very adorable.

The three big kids in our clan shared their first bath and Paisley and Tyley took their first synchronized nap.

Dana and I also realized we are now grossly out numbered. Yikes.

In other news yesterday (May 15th)  Leah celebrated her 30th birthday while Mary gave birth to her son Shaun Douglas. he was nearly 2 weeks late and weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19 1/4 inches. I have a date to meet him on Friday. I can't wait to hold a little baby again. Dana and I were joking that we hadn't held a baby that small since Harper was born.

There's nothing like new babies and the life altering entrance they make into the world. Welcome Shaun & Tyley...you're gonna love it out here!

That Girl

Look at this girl!

Our baby is getting so big. She's had a HUGE month developmentally. Paisley now crawls, pulls up on things, cut her bottom two front teeth, makes mama sounds in addition to her dada sounds and she's eating like a champ! Whew...I'm exhausted just thinking about all of that.

She's had rice cereal, avacado, yogurt, bananas, carrots and teething biscuts and rice rusks. She hasn't met a food she doesn't like....except maybe rice cereal. I remember feeding Harper rice cereal for months. No wonder it took her a long time to get into food.
When Paisley sees the baby feeder or rice rusk package in my hand she litterally bounces up and down and kicks her legs with excitement. It's awesome.

Paisley is so happy and good natured. She is an absolute joy to be around.

And then there's that girl...

She takes my breath away at least once a day. She amazes me with the ideas she comes up with, the words she puts together to explain something, the games and make believe she dreams up, the manners she uses and the love she gives.  But, I'm not going to lie...3 is tough. It's tough for her and it's definitely tough for us. We are constantly debating, bargaining and sometimes yelling over all the things she wants to do by herself. She is already exercising her will and showing the first signs of a mini attitude. We try our best to be patient and let her explore her abilities and test her power but there will always be a few things she cannot do herself and they typically present a life threatening danger to her life or the life of her sister. Needless to say we're getting through this stage of her development with the good and the bad.

She's a good girl and I'm so thankful because I'm very sure she could be harder to handle than she is. I'm thankful for this because I know getting through 3 will make me a better mother in the long run.

Here are  a few of our favorite photos this month:

beautiful baby

sisters - 7 months and 3 years

Grandparents

When I was growing up all of my grandparents lived in Illinois. My mom's dad died long before I was born and my Dad's dad died when I was very young. I have a few blurry memories of him, some of which I think may have been orchestrated from pictures I've seen of him. So I grew up never knowing my grandfathers well and visiting with my Grandma and Nonie for a few weeks out of the year. Looking back I wouldn't trade that concentration of visits for anything and I have very fond memories. But I can't help but think how lucky my girls are. They have 2 grandfathers, 2 grandmothers and 2 great-grandmothers all within a 1 hour drive. Wow...talk about speical!

Easter Bonanza

I fondly remember last Easter when it was so warm that Harper stripped down and had a naked easter egg hunt. Although this Easter didn't bring us scorching temperatures it did bring a lot of extra celebration.

To get us in the Easter mood Lebanon hosts their Easter egg hunt a full two weekends before Easter. This early event gives us an excuse to get together with all our friends and start the excitement for the Easter bunny.

I think the most exciting thing about Easter this year for Harper was that was that we had a sleepover at the Houston's house on Easter eve. Emily is very high on Harper's list of amazing people and she was absolutely thrilled to be spending the night at her house. She even convinced us that she would sleep nicely on an air mattress on the floor of Emily's room. That didn't work out so well for any of us but she still had a blast. The next morning the girls searched for the eggs the Easter bunny had hidden and poured over their Easter baskets together. It was perfect.

Playing with Harper's new magnatab

Don't worry P, next year you'll be right in the thick of things!

Beautiful Cousins!

Following our Easter celebration at the Houstons we went to Brattleboro to have an Easter egg hunt at Nonie & Papa's. To make this even more special Nancy & David were visiting on their way to Maine.  Harper is at a great age to enjoy the company of visitors and I think they really enjoyed her.

More fun with the magnatab

This Easter was a huge exciting success and we all had a lot of fun.

Dear Crayola,

Thank you. At 8:30 pm, on a school night, when my baby is teething and won't go to sleep, i am so thankful you make washable markers. So washable in fact that a wet washcloth does the trick and I don't have to run a full bath. Thank you.

Love, Katharine (Mom to one very proud marker covered 3-year-old.)