Shredder Party

Yesterday, the girls and I had a shredder party. David has been collecting papers that need shredding, and so I thought that might be a fun activity for a 2-year-old. Full success... Lucia and Rhea were entertained, I got to shower in peace (after I verified and was comfortable with Lucia's shredding skills), and the whole stack is finally gone.

"Where did the paper go?!" ... and yes, our shredder is dusty.

Yummy food time! Today's menu holds corn and carrots.

Ooh, yummy!

She finished the whole bowl.

While I was feeding Rhea, Lucia was trying to put on a necklace in order to play... yup, you guessed it! - prinCESS!

And yes, all of her shirts are too small. Being a former South Carolinian, how was I supposed to know that the spring/summer children's consignment sales are not in mid-FEBRUARY up here, but in very LATE APRIL?! So... we're trying to make do with her too small clothes for another 5 weeks (though I couldn't stand the look of her high-water pants anymore and have bought her 3 pairs of pants already). Oh, and... yes, I will hopefully get to shop the sale Friday night before we leave for Chicago on Saturday morning to fly to Germany on Tuesday. I'm thinking I can just pack and repack in Chicago, right?

Puzzling Action

Lucia discovered a 100 piece puzzle in the basement the other day and brought it upstairs for us to do. So after I spent a good 30 minutes doing the puzzle with her on Friday afternoon, David graciously volunteered to do it with her again on Saturday morning. We really need to get some puzzles between the 4 piece stage and the 100 piece stage.... :-)
Very proud of her (and Papa's) achievement! What's with the crooked smile, you ask? No idea... :-)

After Bath

Here are some pictures of Rhea after her bath on Saturday... sweet baby has recently discovered her feet, so they are a new source of entertainment now.

My daily dose of Rhea smooches ... Lucia doesn't like to be "knuddeled" much anymore (just every now and then), so I have to get my fix from Rhea.

By the way... she officially now has four teeth! Her right eye tooth is just barely poking through too. Poor little thing - now let's root for her top middle teeth so she doesn't look like a vampiress (or... first grader lacking the front teeth) for too long. :-)

Spring!

Ok, so THIS is what I call spring! :) We've had beautiful weather the past few days and simply haven't been able to stay indoors. Today we wanted to go to the park (with the car), but it wouldn't start due to the old battery, so we went for a brief walk around the neighborhood instead and then had a little picnic in the back yard. (David, my hero, has already put a new battery in the car... so maybe we'll try again tomorrow.)

Lucia being the mommy and pushing both Rhea and her baby around the neighborhood. I'm so thankful for the double stroller - where would we put Baby if there was only one seat?!

Back at the house... Rhea didn't have the hat and blanket on very long - too warm!!

"Hey, Sister, what do you have over there?! Why don't I get any?"

"Mmmh, now I finally got some yummy food too!"

Enjoying her grapes and trying not to squint - it was so bright outside!

I took this picture yesterday... Lucia has been running short on sleep the past days because we had small group on Thursday (she didn't get to bed until 10pm), Saturday the neighbors were over (10 pm again... or... 11, considering the time change), and then on Sunday, Tante Pfeffer and Uncle John paid us a visit. She was so excited they were coming that she didn't go to sleep early that night either! So she crashed on Tuesday and had a 3+ hour nap. I started waking her up at 4:15, and she kept going back to sleep... as in, SLEEP. She didn't actually make it out of bed until 5:20 or so.

Here our little prinCESS is reading to her baby sister. The crown is courtesy of Tante Pfeffer and Uncle John. Lucia really misses you!! Thanks so much for coming!

New Friends

Last weekend, we had some people over who live a few houses down our cul-de-sac. They have a little two-year-old girl, Madeline, and she and Lucia have been getting along just great (see picture below). :-) And the parents had a great time, too! While we were briefly talking in the basement, the girls got into the other mom's purse and found some candy, which resulted in Lucia's first experience consuming a lollipop. Since she had never had one before, she ate it (read: chewed) in record time and later told me that it hurt her teeth. I had hoped to delay this day a bit longer, but oh well.

Other than that, we all had fun making our own pizzas. The girls helped with the decorations, especially the cheese (and a bit of flour). :-)

If you've ever let two two-year-olds help in the kitchen, you can imagine the fun. :-)

Princess Attire...

... lies in the eye of the beholder, in case you were wondering. Lucia had already been fully dressed when she decided that she wanted to play "prinCESS" (how she pronounces it). All of this before breakfast, mind you. I happened to walk by her room as she was taking off her socks and starting to do the same with her pants when I asked her what she was doing, and she filled me in: she was going to be Cinderella and put on her princess dress. "Ok," I thought, but I told her when she was done, she needed to put her socks and pants back on. And I reminded her that princesses DO wear underwear, just in case...

About 10 minutes later, this is how she walked into the kitchen. She chose the "dress" all on her own and put it on, and found these princess shoes in her closet (which are still a size too big).

On her way to the piano to turn on her dancing music, she got sidetracked by a book on the floor, which revealed that, no, princesses must not wear underwear afterall.

Turning on her music. I just COULD NOT resist taking this picture. :-)

Another Tooth!

So here's a view of the new tooth coming in... please disregard the crusty nose and the drooly chin - she's been working hard at this one. For some reason, her left eye tooth has decided to make its appearance before her middle ones... and it's a big one! It has made its way through her gums, though it still has quite a bit of pushing through to do.

Enjoying the vertical view. And her hair is a bit frizzy because we were outside and she had a hat on for a while.

And here Rhea is enjoying her first very own piece of bread. I gave her the heel of a baguette to gnaw on, and she loved it!

Of course, when Big Sister saw that Little Sister had a piece of bread, she had to have a piece, too. :-)

A Sunny Day

It was beautiful outside again today, so Rhea and I went on a walk while Papa and Lucia took a nap. Then, when we got home, it was our turn to snooze. :0)
Anyway, below you can see Rhea in the stroller working diligently on her left eye tooth - it has broken through her gums as of this afternoon. She's been a pretty happy girl in spite of it, though! Should be interesting when both of her eye teeth are in, but the middle ones are still missing. Hee hee.


All that teething must be pretty exhausting, because she didn't last too long on our walk. Sweet baby girl. I wonder if missing her morning nap due to church had anything to do with it?!
Finally time for supper. Papa is feeding her green beans and carrot, and she seems to be enjoying her meal! No wonder, with all that sunshine pouring in...
Mmh, yummy!

"Boatsie Boatsie"

Lucia and Rhea have several games they like to play. Boatsie Boatsie is one of them. Lucia invented it - she was carrying one of her library books around one day, which happened to be about boats (in the video, you can see it lying on the floor in the kitchen). When she asked me what the book was called, I said, "Boats." So then she must have felt inspired by it and started playing the game below. I guess now it has become its own "phrase." :-)

Dancing Princess

Ever since we went to Disney on Ice a few weeks ago, Lucia has been a princess. Daily, she turns on the demo music on the digital piano, converts our living room carpet into "ice" and skates and dances like "Cinderella."

According to Wisconsinites...

... spring has sprung! It's "only" about 40 degrees cold and the sun has been out the past several days! We, of course, missing SC weather, had to participate in the outdoor activities, and Lucia was excited to ride her tricycle outside for the first time. Rhea was all bundled up with me and got to experience her first extended period outside too. Everytime the wind would blow across her face, she would gasp with surprise. :-) (And, yes, I tried to keep her little fists under the blanket.)

Good Example...

...of a terrible children's book. This is a reminder to all you mommies out there who take your kids to the library: don't forget to prescreen the books you bring home!!
Here's an excerpt of a very sweet looking children's book called Too Small for Honey Cake, a book about a little fox and his new baby brother.

...uh, yeah...no kidding!

And the story ends rather sweetly again: Little Fox comes out, has a piece of honey cake and Dad reassures him that, yes, he will always love his Little Fox even though he has Baby Fox now.

What the heck?!? "Baby Fox is a stinky-pooh"?!?! And those facial expressions... What are we trying to encourage in our kids? Hm... needless to say, that book has "disappeared" until it's due back at the library. :-)