Tagalong to Grant's Farm

I love this picture because "New Baby" (boy do we have creative names for babies in our house) is 1) wearing a onesie that Nicholas wore in his first few weeks of life and 2) seems quite interested in touring Grant's Farm!

Saturday Morning at the Zoo

It all started out so well. We were out the door before 8 (that has to be a first for a Saturday morning) and off to breakfast. We were at the zoo by 9am when it opened. From 9-10am, even the Children's Zoo and the carousel are free, so we hit those things first.

Charlotte's only requirement of the visit was a stop at the goat yard.

Nicholas observed from up high.

Nicholas just wanted to take a train ride around the zoo.

A quick drink before we headed off to buy tickets for the Sea Lion show.

Then it happened. Charlotte ran in front of Tom as he was carrying Nicholas. Tom tripped over her, but recovered. Charlotte went down hard. There aren't pictures, but trust me, there was blood all over her face. Her lip was split open about a centimeter and was really swollen. Lots and lots of screaming, as you can imagine.

Off to visit the Children's Hospital station, conveniently located about 100 yards from the fall

The nurses who helped us were so nice. I learned that they don't even stitch lips and it would heal in about 3 days. Luckily once they cleaned up all the blood, there weren't any other injuries.

No longer in the mood for sea lions, we headed home.

But the story doesn't end there. When she was going down for nap I finally got a good look inside her mouth. Although the nurses checked for loose teeth at the zoo, they missed one. Her right front tooth is a little wobbly. I panicked, envisioning several years of a toothless grin before her adult teeth come in. I called our pediatrician and found out 1) there's nothing I can do about it and 2) there's a 90% chance it will reattach. We should know in the next few weeks. So stay tuned!

Battle of the Wills

I'm a stubborn, stubborn person. I'm being paid back for this by being given a stubborn, stubborn daughter. As this is the second episode just this week, I thought I'd document it for posterity:

Charlotte woke up from her nap and we came downstairs. Although the weather was yucky, the kids wanted to play in the garage (sounds sad, but they have fun riding bikes, doing chalk, kicking the soccer ball around etc). Nicholas was out the door in two seconds, and all Charlotte needed was to put on her shoes. I told her I would help her if she would go get them by the back door. Whining ensued. Then the screaming started. And lasted for over 20 minutes. "But I want YOU to get them". Keep in mind that we were in the kitchen, about 6 feet from her shoes. But we both dug our heels in and we were in a stand off. At one point, she was standing over her shoes, leaning over them crying "But I can't REACH them!" I was laughing so hard at that point because it was just such a hilarious image. She's leaning over, her fingers two inches from her shoes: "But I can't REACH them!" She did finally give in, we got shoes on and went out. But it does concern me that we're in these battles at 2. How am I going to be dealing with this at 15??? Yikes!

The First of Many

Pedicures, that is.

Charlotte was in hot pink-toenail heaven.

Bye Bye, (Mrs.) Love

Nicholas' summer break from music class started today. This year he moved up to the 'Young Child' level, which was a bit more structured and included weekly homework. They focused on learning to read music (learning one note at a time...he's up to 5 notes: c,d,a,f,g), and playing the glockenspiel. Next year (his last year in this program) they will continue working on reading music, and learning to play the 2-string dulcimer and the recorder. We love our music program, especially our dear teacher, Mrs. Love. She's practically family as we've seen her once or twice a week for almost 4 years!

Bring on the Bubbles

Finally we had some nice weather so we could break out the bubbles.

Happy Mother's Day!

Nothing like a relatively stress-free day that begins with sleeping in, and ends with dinner out...

...and cake!

Hope all you mothers had a wonderful day and felt how special you are! I'm so happy to be part of that group.