She loves learning

Yesterday we headed to the Library for Toddler Time class, & to check out a few new books. She seems overly excited with the book selection we came home with: Curious George, two more Laura Numeroff books ( If you take a mouse to school/If you give a mouse a cookie), Dora & Diego help the Dinosauer Level 1, & Pooh's Christmas sled ride-Level 1.
At bedtime, she picks 1 big 1 for us to read, & then wants to try to read one to us (usally will attempt a few pages.) She's doing really well.
(I'll post a clip here soon)

She has a placemat where she can try to trace letters, but she's not tracing on the placemat. She's taking a piece of paper & trying to copy after looking at them. Her favorite letters that she can write now are: i, t, l, r, o. I'll have to have her write her name & some other letters & save it for her scrapbook &/or post on here.

Working on sitting up by his big boy self!!

BASEBALL

Ok, I had to post both of these. This is classic. Ok, so Sean & B decided to play baseball in the house. He pitched the ball to her 3x's before I got the camera out, & made contact all 3 times!!!! I caught #4 on video (posted). Then she visited la la land & missed #'s 5-12. #12 is also posted!! Baseball luvin dad is getting a litle frustrated......& the real games haven't even started yet!! :-)

Soon enough kiddos

They each want to play together sooo badly.
She invited him into her room to play stuffed animals this morning

First foods

Dylan is apparently all boy when it comes to eating. He did well sleeping thru the night for almost 2 weeks, & then I heard the yelps of FEED ME SEYMORE!!! Here is first photo with solids, not to keen on the oatmeal! In fact, prefers his toes most days! So far he's also had rice, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, applesauce, banannas & peas, the last two of which seem to be his favorites. With both Mere & Mimi having backyard gardens, & the number of vegies/fruit now consumed in this house, I've actually begun to puree some of his food! Always thought that was something my friend Kelly would have done.
I'm pretty sure his belly is plenty full when he goes to bed, it's now those oragel moments & a little bit of a stuffy head waking him now. Hopefully his first tooth will pop soon enough for him & stuffiness will go away. Nights can be the worst for him lately.

PIZZA PARTY!

Our first one. Well deserved for great behavior during travel times!!

Lovin his funny face!

Nagshead NC- Nana Boutelle 90th Birthday

WOW! What a great time. A 12 hour car ride wasn't too rough either way. Mimi hooked us up with a DVD player & a "magic box" of new toys. The weather in NC was the hottest they had seen since the 1950's, with heat index of 103, but that didn't stop us from playing hard! We went to the beach 1 day with just about everyone. Brooklyn had fun packing sand around a sand castle with her cousin, Lauren. She wasn't a huge fan of the water given it was fairly cold & a wave knocked her on her tush! Flat out told us she preferred the pool! lol. Dylan also noted the cool water trying to do a little dance as I let the water rush over his feet & he sunk deeper into the sand! If you know me, I wasn't about to get in! Sean on the other hand headed out with Mark on the boogie boards.
We hung out poolside quite a bit & Aunt Brianna helped her learn a special dive & how to jump in by herself! Other highlights included B chasing Brinkley around the house, played catch phrase, enjoyed a super hot hot tub, Nana's dinner party @ Lone Cafe, & D's new crab swimsuit/towel & B's butterfly jar & beach toys from Gma/gpa Boutelle, & just good fun with family!

This is my new fave pic. It's 6:30am, all snuggled in bed.

our Dora fanatic finally stopped saying backkack!

backpack, backpack

Silly Willy Nilly Ol Bear

Aunt Mere is a huge Pooh fan, & called a month early to schedule a date with her god daughter for her first trip to the movies to see Winnie the Pooh! We had a facebook countdown, Sean made fresh popcorn that morning, & Mimi made both of them matching Pooh outfits!!
We headed out for a 11:10am show, but whoops!, it didn't start until 1pm. You'd think they were excited to get their choice seats, but Esquire posted the wrong times! So, we created our own (Poobear) adventures. Dylan & I turned the car around to pick them up & we headed over to Kohls & got D a stuffed Pooh & Brooklyn a Piglet, & had a picnic lunch outside of Krogers, before heading back to the movies.
Sean & I thought for sure she'd talk all during the movie, but sounds like she was more of a quite watcher after all!
After the movie, we headed to Ohio to watch Aydan play ball. Dylan happily bounced on Mimi's knees & had a great time watching the action. We all cheered "Gooooooo ACE!" every chance we could, & a little blonde with pigtails was super happy to give him a big hug & kiss, tell him 'good game,' & help him walk off the field.

A pool can wear a kid out!

We had quite the pool day yesterday! Dylan was in the pool for a little under an hour, fell asleep on my shoulder, & then slept for the next 3 in the quite, dark 'grandkids' room @ Mimi/Grampers. We tried working with Brooklyn on her dog paddle, but she still sinks! She had a blast, off the diving board, ring around the rosey, & playing with her dolphin buckets. We all started drying off to go in for lunch & she was petting Buddy the cat. All of a sudden I hear "OUCH! BAAAAD Kitty, we do NOT hit. I spank your but. OUCHHHH!!!!" Yup, if you pat or spank the kitty, you will get scratched- lesson learned. Also confirmed that cat allergy- her arm hived quickly from where she was scratched up to her elbow, but a good wash & back in the pool helped. She passed out on the way home around 6 & slept thru the night- except for the one cry when I thought she was going to wake & want dinner, nope, she just wanted her Julie Kremer blanket! lol.

In the news: NASA's last mission

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space shuttle Atlantis soared into the heavens and the history books Friday (July 8), kicking off the last-ever mission of NASA's storied shuttle program.

Despite a bleak forecast of thunderstorms and clouds, the shuttle beat the weather in a stunning midday launch, sailing into the sky on one final voyage. The coutndown toward liftoff took a dramatic pause at T minus 31 seconds while ground crews verified that a vent arm at the top of the shuttle was fully retracted. NASA was quickly able to push on toward liftoff.

Atlantis blasted off just after 11:26 a.m. EDT (1526 GMT) from Launch Pad 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, thrilling huge throngs of spectators who had descended on Florida's Space Coast to see the swan song of an American icon. NASA estimated that between 750,000 and 1 million people turned out to watch history unfold before their eyes.

THe kids & I took a break from playing little people to watch liftoff. Brooklyn, who told me she doesn't know how to count down, said she would count up from 1-10. She did, then jumped yelling BLASTOFF. Who knows where she's heard that one before! :-)

Happy 4th of July!

A little different from our usual 4th of July celebrations, this year we (just) watched fireworks set off from the Barrows; usually Sean is one of the ones lighting the wick. A great display & certainly some new ones we've never seen before. Brooklyn spent most of the afternoon/evening swimming with family & friends & I was surprised she stayed awake for the fireworks. Dylan was awake for the first few, hands shaking with excited as he searched the sky for the next one. Eventually he fell asleep & stayed that way, even with 3 inch shells going off just above him. (yes peeps, I covered his ears.) Mimi had made a dessert for her to try with cooked milk; her first trial with her ever so slight milk allergy now. She took a bite or two, but then wanted to head back out & swim.

Gotta love "just because" days...

Sean brought home flowers for both his girls today, beautiful red roses & a bouquet for Brooklyn too!!