Evansville {part 4}

After the baby shower while Mary, Susan, Boothe and I were enjoying the yarn shop, stationary store, kid's boutique and the very creative Lost and Found, Dan, David and Magnolia spent some time at the Mesker Park Zoo. These 5 pictures are compliments of Dan's dad, David and his great photography skills. The statue of the baby giraffe Magnolia is posing with is a memorial for Dan's cousin, Margy. This was Dan and Magnolia's first time seeing the memorial, which is meant for kids to play on, and Magnolia took to it right away.

Evansville {part 3}...and Yes, there will be a part 4

Who knew I had such a talented family? Boothe is very drawn to the piano and has been since she started crawling. They have a little piano in their toy room that Boothe bangs on all of the time. I would love get Magnolia in piano lessons when she is 3. Now all we need is a baby grand as lovely as this one and I'll have 3 stars on my hands!!

Evansville {part 2}

Boothe has been clapping all the time these days. We were practicing all weekend. She loves to cheer on Magnolia while she runs and jumps and plays. I know Boothe is dying to be able to run and jump and play too! Poor little Boothe gets left behind. Before I know it, I'll be chasing 2 girls running in opposite directions.

Evansville {part 1}

This past weekend we traveled to Evansville, IN for a baby shower. Dan's cousin Ken and his wife Erika are due with their first in the middle of May. No one knows the sex or the name yet of the sweet little babe.

It was a long 7 hours getting down there. Boothe just hates being in her car seat, poor thing, and had her moments of non-stop screaming and crying. I'm happy to say that the drive home was much more pleasant. Maybe she just resigned to the fact that she was stuck in the seat and may as well get some rest!

Magnolia loves "playgrounds" of all shapes and sizes. Ken and Erika have a playset left by the previous owners of their home all set up and ready for their little one to grow into. Magnolia was happy to test it out for them...make sure it's safe and all. Isn't she sweet?

One of many trips down the slide.

First time on the monkey bars...with Dad's help of course.

I have several different posts from our Evansville trip. My plan is to post twice a day for the next few days; once in the morning and once in the evening. Stay tuned for more Southern Indiana fun!!!

Spring Buds

Spring is on it's way here and Magnolia and I have been watching the progress of our flowers and budding bushes and trees. I love this time of year when even a 45 degree day feels warm everything is coming back to life after the long winter. How much more I appreciate spring after passing through 3 other seasons since the last spring. I am anxiously awaiting all of the Easter flowers that will be blooming any day now!

Bouncing Around the Room

All of our outdoor toys have been moved to the yard! Yea!! We had a couple of sunny days last week when we spent all kinds of time out there playing. We also had a couple of rainy ones, but right now in March, we will take what we can get! This bouncy toy has been a hit in our basement since Christmas and is now even more fun outside!

Nice static...


Boothe as a foot stool...

Boothe as an object with which to wrestle...

Boothe as a best friend and sister... :)

Boothe forgotten about....goes with the sister territory.

Boothe finding her own way...

She did it!

Get me out of here!!!

Boothe is 9 months

Why does the second child's infancy and perhaps entire childhood go by so much faster than the first? I feel like I turned around and 9 months is gone. Boothe was a difficult baby and at the beginning of winter I remember thinking, 'I just need to get through this winter and then things will get easier.' Well we got through the winter and Boothe has outgrown her colic, but now I'm wanting our life to slow down for a while. Things are pretty good right now.

Boothe has developed the sweetest little personality. She is a babbler who loves to explore and put EVERYTHING into her mouth. You can almost always make her laugh in the middle of a crying spell, which is good for me since it takes away some of the frustration she causes me when it comes to her sleeping! She loves trying to keep up with Magnolia and chase her and laughs when Magnolia crawls like she does. But her absolute favorite is jumping...she is always bouncy around and wanting to jump in your lap.

I am so blessed that she is mine to care for and love. And may the next 9 months go by much slower than the first!! In 9 months I'll begin potty training so let's REALLY hope that doesn't come too quick!

Two Cuties

So do they look like sisters? Boothe's eyes are still a darker grayish color and her hair, although blonde, is nothing like Magnolia's toe-head blonde tresses. We will still have to wait quite awhile to see if Boothe has my curls or Dan's straight hair. Magnolia's hair managed to stay very light all through the winter and has no curl in it whatsoever. Secretly (well I guess if I'm blogging about it, it really isn't a secret) I hope that they both have simple straight hair. My unruly hair has been the cause of many headaches through out my childhood and even now. If you have straight hair and have always wished for curls, just know that YOUR grass really is greener. Plus you always have a curling iron when you need it!

Fun with my Camera

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls one where Magnolia is the focal point and one where Boothe is the center of attention. With Magnolia usually stealing the show, Boothe doesn't get to be the center of attention very often!! I give her a lot of one-on-one time to make up for it! As I am beginning to get the hang of this whole photography thing, the best thing is for me just to practice, practice, practice. So some posts in the near future just may be for the sake of photography. These photos were taken with a small aperture (small aperture number, large opening...I'm still not sure if that is refered to as a large or small aperture). If I had wanted both of the girls in focus I would have used a larger aperture (larger/smaller...whatever you call it). Now that I think about it, I should have taken a picture like that to use in this post to better illustrate this whole depth of field nonsense. In that case I would have used a slower shutter speed to let in more light to compensate for the smaller opening/larger number aperture. This may have resulted in 2 blurry babies though due to the slower shutter. Phew, I don't know about you but I'm exhausted just reading that.

Playtime

The playroom is getting full use these days from both the girls. Sometimes alone and sometimes together. I'll leave them both in there for a few minutes while I cook dinner, but it's much harder to leave a 9 month old alone this time around when big sister has small toys, crayons, paper, etc for the little one to put in her mouth. One of my projects for the near future is to go through the toys and put up the ones that aren't safe for a baby to play with and only let Magnolia play with them when she asks and then maybe only at the kitchen table. Any suggestions?

Boothe and the Great Outdoors

You have to keep an eye on this one. Everything is game for being put in her mouth. I guess she enjoys nature! So far her "tasting" list includes...rocks, bark, mulch, leaves, grass, sticks, flowers and her favorite, the seed pods from our maple tree.

It's Like Learning to Ride a Bike

The tricycle has come out of hibernation and Magnolia has been cruising around the sidewalk and the driveway. She can pretty much do it all by herself; she just favors one foot. I guess she just has her own kind of rhythm. It works well enough to get her from one end of the driveway to the other. She was so excited for daddy to come home so that she could show him how she rides her bike all by herself. And what a sense of pride I felt for my little girl learning to ride her bike, even though it is just a tricycle. I watched her focus and try and fail and try and fail and keep trying until she somewhat got the hang of it. I'm sure by the end of summer she will be racing around and need some new more challenging terrain, like our neighborhood sidewalks which look to not have been repaired since sometime in the 50s.

Magnolia and her Flowers

The first flowers of spring have shown their faces to the sun this past week and Magnolia is tickled pink. Our purple crocus flowers seem to become prettier every year. Perhaps it is because they have multiplied or maybe it's just that I appreciate them more each year.

Magnolia enjoys feeling their silky petals....

And she loves to smell them....And of course to look at them VERY closely....But Boothe, she just likes to eat them!

Boothe came over to see what we were doing and grabbed a handful of petals to eat, and because she needs to enjoy spring to, I let her. Just kidding!!! I let her grab, but not taste. We'll stick to the bananas and carrots for now....