My beautiful morning

Yesterday morning at about 6:45, I heard Kai talking to himself in his crib. I got up to get him, but found that the door to his room was open, which is strange. I looked in and this is what I saw ....

Sweet Avery had gotten up, come down the stairs, gone into Kai's room, climbed into his crib and started playing with him. I don't know how didn't hear her or how she got in the crib, but it was beautiful!

Kai's new thing...

Tonight we put him in the bathtub. He grabbed the faucet to pull himsekf to standing. I sat him down again, and he immediately pulled himself back up. Apparently he only takes baths standing up now. Very safe. :-) As he was getting into the bathtub, Avery was changing out one tutu for another in her room. As background, Kai had drooled a tiny bit on her first one as they were playing together. When she saw Kai, she said with a totally serious but sweet voice, "kai, I warn you not to drool on this tutu. It's the last one I have in my drawer." I warn you???? I don't think I say that to them, but I Don't know where she gets this stuff.

New London

We are in CT this week. On the way here, we stopped to see the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is in Little Einsteins, which Audrey and Avery love. Also, last week, Kai raised one fist in the air and Audrey said "Kai is saying he wants to see the Statue of Liberty." So this stop seemed like a pretty good idea. Once we parked, we decided it was way too cold to get on the ferry with the kids and that no one would have a good time, so we just looked at it from the boardwalk and then went to the playground that was there instead ... very good call. Also a pic of the kids on a whale in front of the children's museum, of Kai in a bathing suit for the first time, and the 3 of them in their footy jammies this morning in the hotel. =) Yesterday, we went to the aquarium and Audrey touched a shark. So brave!

Easter

Iain and the girls made some crosses and tombs. They nailed Jesus to the cross and then before bed they put him in the tomb. When they woke up the next morning, we had put Jesus in the "sky". They were excited to look for Jesus and also to look for their Easter baskets! Also a family pic with terrible sunlight, but it's all we've got.

9 under 6!

Two weeks ago, we went to NC with my brother's family (2.5 year old and 14-month old twins), my cousin Jill and her family (3 year old and 17-month old), my cousin Kelley and her family (19-month old), my mom and my aunt and uncle. It was AWESOME! Not relaxing. Not even a little bit. But fun!! We stayed in two cabins next to each other, and mostly just moved between eating and nap times with a park or easter egg hunt sprinkled in.

Grandma Swisher

Iain's grandmother died at the end of March. She was 102 years old and had a pretty amazing life! She was very gracious to me from the time Iain and I met and I even went out there for a long weekend once sans Iain and we had lots of great conversation and laughter. Iain, the kids and I went to San Antonio for the funeral and had the great opportunity to see his family while we were there. Here are a few pix, including Kai sleeping in a dresser drawer (the hotel didn't have a crib).

Audrey's Jack-O-Lantern apple

She was very proud of this. She also set up a picture studio on the porch and I took their pic. =)

Fun in New Orleans

We went to New Orleans to visit Ava, Emma & Sophie at the end of February (we also saw their parents). =) I was woefully terrible at using my camera while we were there, but here's a shot of all the kids, and also a pic of our girls and Mim on the way back home (a random stop off the interstate to use the little pink potty, which turned out to be a beautiful place)!

Snow Day

This winter was a bust. Snow on only 3 days and there was never any snow on the ground by the next morning. But on President's Day, there was some snow about an hour southwest of us so we drove to find it. Mim was visiting and we had a great time! We stopped at the perfect sledding spot ... a little church with a playground. So by the inevitable time that our children were done sledding, there was a playground to use!

Audrey's 5th birthday

Yes, a little late, but I'm going to try to get my act together (again)! She had a gymnastics party with a few friends from school. Very fun! For her actual birthday at home, she requested donuts and that we sing Twinkle, twinkle instead of Happy Birthday. =)

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Avery, the Announcer

We are in New London, CT this week while Iain attends a conference. Yesterday, we were walking around an empty auditorium at the Academy and Avery went up onstage and did a little tap dance for us. This is not abnormal. I asked Audrey if she wanted to go dance. She told me no, so I tried to think of something else she might like to do on the stage. I told her she should pretend to be hosting a conference and she could take questions from the audience. She went up there and asked for questions. Iain asked a question and she answered. Then she asked if anyone else had a question. Avery walked to the microphone on the floor and said, "Yes, thank you very much for that question. Next we will be having a dance and then we would like to invite everyone to a birthday party tomorrow. Have a GREAT day!" It was hysterical. We can only guess that she's been to lectures before and knows how to transition from one subject to another well. =)

My little clone

A few weeks ago, I was asking my mom if I liked to play with dolls when I was small, since both my girls do. She said, "no, you liked to make lists." Sounds really fun, right? =) Well, last week, Audrey found a small piece of cardboard. She came to me and said she needed to use it to make a board for writing. "Like a clipboard?", I asked? She said yes. So I got her a chip clip. She put it on the top, got some paper, clipped it on, and then told me she needed to sign in. And diligently, for 3 days in a row until we left on vacation, she put the date and signed in each day. Hilarious. The following day, she was sitting at the top of the stairs with a pad of paper, and asked me what our problems were for the day. "Problems?" "Yes," she said, "I'm making a list of our problems." So I think I might have another little list-maker on my hands. =)