First Ice Cream Cone

May was a good month...it brought us lots of good things...most of which I can't remeber because I'm so behind on my blog.

Needless to say it brought Harper's first ice cream cone. Sure, she's had a little cone of ice cream at someone's house before but when we've gone out for ice cream in the past we've always gotten her a dish with a cone stuck out of the ice cream. Mostly because the portions are far more generous and harder to manage.

This trip was different. We walked to the ice cream place down the street from Pat and Steph's house. Harper ordered chocolate with rainbow sprinkles. She was so excited. We helped a little to keep the drips under control but this girl ate every last bite including the cone. I think it took her and Pat an extra 15 minutes to get back to his house because eating ice cream and walking is a challenge for the most seasoned ice cream cone eaters.

Just When You Thought Their Daddy Couldn't Get Any Cooler...

He marches in the Memorial Day parade...

These are some proud little ladies!

Thumbs Up Daddy! We love you!

There's Something Special About Tradition

This is the story of a beautiful doll house. It used to be mine. My dad made it, he painted it with a blue roof and blue shutters on each window. My mom crocheted rugs and teeny tiny curtains for each room. My grandfather made handmade doll furniture like a hutch with tiny little knobs and opening doors and drawers.

It lived in my parents attic for the last 20ish years. It recently came back down, got a fresh coat of paint, a couple new pieces of furniture and some very special new doll people. And most of all it has two tiny new owners. One of which won't be allowed to play with it for quite a while, at least until we can be sure she won't put the miniture little cups and saucers in her mouth.
Harper's excitement when she saw the dollhouse for the first time was priceless. She loves it and was totally ready for it. It's awesome to see such an important part of my history live on.

It turns around so we can protect Paisley from the tiny pieces. It's beautiful from the front. I'll get a picture and add it.

First Haircut

Our girl got her first haircut. It was a very big deal. She had beautiful wavy baby curls but the ends were getting a little unmanageable and very long. So, I made her an appointment with Schavon and she and I went on a special Mommy Harper adventure. She asked me if Paisley was coming and didn't hide her shy grin when I said "nope...just you and me"
She was soooo excited to go and enjoyed waiting in the animal print salon chairs in the waiting room. Then as soon as she got in the chair she went stone faced. Not sad, not scared, just serious. She followed every instruction "chin down" "look this way" and was such a good little lady! I was so proud of her.



Before pics...shy posing with me

Beginning of the haircut



First cut...Schavon was very kind to me and accommodating when I wanted to catch every single strand she cut.

 

Getting a blow dry

After!!!

She finally smiled when they gave her a lollipop and agreed when she wanted two...how could they not...she was soooo good.

Certificate of the big day! Something for the baby book!

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!