Easter 2011

Ralph got a new phone and it takes much much better pictures than my cell phone. But you know, as a photographer, I should have a real camera on me at all times. Mommy fail. His new phone takes pictures nearly as well as any digital point and shoot. And then it goes a step further and emails the pics. Win-win. Anyway... here are a few pictures from this year's Easter celebration with the kids.


Alex had a full selection of Easter dresses to choose from, while poor Jake had a pieced together "Uh, these pants are clean...and, umm, this shirt still kinda fits" Easter outfit. I have to get better with that. But Alex is still at the age where most of her clothes are gifts from family (she got lots of pretty dresses for her birthday), and Jake, being a boy much less concerned with fashion just gets new clothes when too much of his socks are showing under his ever-shrinking pant legs. But he is still as handsome as ever to me :)



And a few from last year, as a comparison. What a difference a year makes!





And a bonus photo of Ru "playing" Twister. Front Paws on Green!

Ice Cream (I Scream?)

This picture is a hilarious snapshot of our lives currently. Alex, spoon clutched in one hand, screaming defiantly, empty ice cream cone dripping on the ground, pants growing short in the legs, bib a constant necessity due to teething drool. Jake, posing politely for the camera, ice cream cone protectively gripped in opposite hand, a look of exhaustion on his face due to his sister's antics. I'm just along for the ride, having fun capturing it all :)

SO PROUD!

Yesterday was a VERY big day in our house!

After six long months of cruising around with one hand on walls and furniture to steady herself, Alex decided last night was the night she was going to start to walk. And, just like that, she walked lap after lap around our house. Clear across our kitchen in 29 steps. The entire length of our living room. And up and down the hallway. Previously, at least a month ago, she took two steps toward me. Since then she has made it maybe one or two steps before giving up and landing on her butt and simply crawling. When people would ask if she was walking, my answer was always, "She is perfectly CAPABLE of walking, she just hasn't decided to pursue it yet." Do I know my daughter or what?

I have a video that Ralph took of her walking last night, but the house is such a disaster area in the video that I can't bring myself to post it.*

ALSO, yesterday, my big five year old boy was writing out thank you notes to his friends that came to his birthday party. Jake wrote the names of each of his classmates all by himself! Jake's classmates have names such as Lizzie, Sophia, Yelena, McKinley, Ava, Gianluca, Adelia, Cody, Isabella, and Jack, so I realized we had probably written most of the letters of the alphabet already! We looked for the letters that we had missed (F, P, Q, R, T, W, and X) and Jake wrote them too!


I was smiling ear to ear with pride last night. I am so, so proud of my favorite son and my favorite daughter!! :)


*You know what your house looks like after your kids and your dog have torn it apart all day and you are too busy chasing them to pick up all the crap that they insist upon throwing on the floor? And then your husband works late and you are ready to tear your hair out since it's been 13 hours since you have spoken to another adult? And it's time for dinner but you haven't made anything yet? And now it's getting close to bedtime and you have to figure out how to feed them/clean them/change them before you can even think about getting around to cleaning up the living room? And you have a bunch of emails to return and work to do because the new babysitter you hired stole money from you and then had the nerve to quit? No? Oh well, that's what it looked like in our house when Ralph took the video. At least when I tried to take video (13 secs then the batteries died), I was innovative enough to position baby so that she would walk in an area where the background was clean. (Photography is all an illusion anyway.) Ralph on the other hand took a walking tour down tornado alley. Or, should that be "Tornado Ali"? I crack myself up.

Alex eating oatmeal

Alex has been very eager to feed herself lately. She is a fantastic eater and will gobble anything you put in front of her. Both Alex and Jake are pretty good about eating healthy breakfast foods, and we've been on an oatmeal kick lately. I made too much for myself this morning, and Alex was eager to finish my bowl for me. It was a lazy sunday, so after a bunch of clean spoonfuls from me, I decided to let her have the bowl and spoon all to herself, not caring too much if she made a mess because we didn't really have any place to go today anyway. I think she liked it:


We went directly into the bathtub once she had her fill. Ruthie volunteered to clean up most of the mess left on the tray of the highchair.