Old Friends, Uncle Chris, and Monkeys

Not much to report :)  We had an amazingly fun and relaxing weekend with Uncle Chris, saw some old friends (my old Bible Study leader and her daughters...I actually babysat the one who is now TWELVE years old! :)), and went to the Rainforest at the Cleveland Zoo.  My favorite conversation of the weekend?  Let me set the scene:

Before leaving for the Rainforest, we told Maya that it was a part of the Zoo.  She said that it wasn't, and there was no convincing her that it was.  Uncle Chris actually "bet" her $5 that it was at the Zoo (a bet which she took, with her fake money).  A couple hours later, we were sitting in the cafe at the Rainforest,  eating our yummy lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Maya, looking out the window: Mommy, that looks like the Zoo!

Me: I know!  It *is* the zoo.  Remember how we told you that the Rainforest was a part of the zoo?

Michael: Ya, Maya, looks like you were wrong.

(Chris and I voiced our agreement with Michael)

Maya: No, YOU guys were wrong.  We're not at the zoo.

And that was the end of it.  The girl is stubborn like her mama :)

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True to form, Charlotte DID NOT want to go outside to meet friends at the playground.  Fortunately she slept almost the entire time, only waking to give us dirty looks before closing her eyes again.

For some reason Maya felt the need to do a Tarzan-type yell every time she went down the slide :)

Anna and Rebecca

Uncle Chris

Charlotte's very favorite toy.  It is supposed to be in the bathtub or the water table, but ends up randomly around the house.  In this picture, it is apparently taking over the train table city a la King Kong

 

If your pants are on fire, being a liar becomes less important.

  

Charlotte's favorite animal was the tamarin (super adorable tiny monkey-like animal).  The pictures I got of the tamarins are blurry, though, so instead I will post this one of a monkey with a baby swing (holy cuteness) and pretend that was her favorite :)

This monkey was big.  And not so cute.  And really big.

When did my baby grow up???  She was running all over the place, wandering around without needing us to be right there, babbling up a storm...time really does fly!

Night all!

Spring!!!

I'ma pretend it's spring.  The snow is almost melted and we've gone outside to play 2 days in a row (yay!).  Charlotte basically hates life when I tell her that we're going outside, while Maya thinks it is the best.thing.ever. and will run around and be Little Miss Helpful trying to get Charlotte excited.  I finally got Charlotte to stop crying (who cries at being outside when it is WARM?????) by putting her in the swing.  It was a slight improvement, but only lasted a few minutes.  Finally she had had enough and I put her inside, where she watched from the back door while Maya and I played.  At least she wasn't crying!

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The other day, Maya wanted to take a picture of Michael, Charlotte and I.  She got us all arranged and started snapping away.  After each picture she would look at her camera and say something like, "Oh, that one's cute.  I'm going to put it on my blog." lol :)

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And now, of course, pictures.  You will notice Charlotte's sour expression in the swing contrasted with Maya's "I'm so excited the joy is just bursting out of me" expression, as well as the general lack of pictures of Charlotte.  Maybe tomorrow I can convince her that being outside is a fun time!

 

So wish this one was in focus!  Maya was jumping around dancing to "Tik Tok"

 

Mish-Mash

Ever since our household was sick, I've been having a tough time getting back into the swing of things.  Not to say that I normally have it all together (far from it! :)) but this week has been especially hard.  I blame the extra cold temperatures for my lack of motivation to even pick up my camera (I KNOW!).  But, yesterday some friends and I got together at a friend's house and had a mom's night in, and it was spectacular.  I love those nights when we are all laughing so hard that we lose track of time, and I think it gave me just the boost I needed (ok, that and the large amount of vitamin D my midwife has me taking! :)).  I actually folded laundry this morning, and I won't embarrass myself by saying how long it's been...but let's just say the girls were tasked many times this week to go get their clothes off of mommy and daddy's bed instead of out of their closet!  Michael and I even forewent "family nap" today (which has really become a Saturday tradition!) so that we could put the kiddos to bed a little early and watch a movie without Charlotte trying to run back and forth on the couch/climb onto the kitchen table (no joke), and without Maya asking us every 5 minutes what is happening and why such-and-such character said what they said and what will happen next and why that person is wearing shoes (yes, that is a common question around here).  Bonus of kids sleeping while we watch a movie?  It doesn't have to be a cartoon (woohoo!).  I mean, I love me some cartoons...but sometimes I just need something with a little more substance and a little less princess :P

And now for your viewing pleasure, here are some random pictures from this week!

My friend Linda's son, Ian.  She brought him to book club last weekend and I got to hold him for a bit.  He is too cute!

Penny came to visit and babysit last weekend (we had an awesome double date with Sierra and Walter) ~ Michael took this picture, and apparently there were some very interesting birds outside that they were looking at?  I mostly am posting this picture to show Charlotte standing on her art table, her new fav hangout. Also to show off Penny's hair, which Maya helped her style :)

Maya's preschool class exchanged valentines on Thursday.  Yes, it was very adorable.

Charlotte practicing "downward dog"...

...and "cat" pose

The only way I can get her to sortof smile is to as her to show me her teeth, lol :)

Maya chose this face all on her own :)

Mom's night fondue spread!  Yum!

"Little" Isaac really wanted to get his hands on that chocolate-covered marshmallow!

"Big" Isaac with his winnings...I'm not saying he stole the toys from the other Isaac...but let's just say they were both playing, then there was some crying from the other party, and this was the result ;)

"Om"

He sat like this for a good 5 minutes.  I think he was too sleepy to realize that his hands were still up!

SO cuddly!

The girlies helped me make some pancakes and home fries this morning while Michael was at his Bible Study.

"Pay! Pay!"

Michael was super excited at his genius idea to cut the girlies's pancakes with cookie cutters. 

Maya was happy with the result :)