20 months!

Happy 20 months, Charlie and Lily! You refused to pose nicely for a picture together, but I'll forgive you :) (Notice in the background that Roy is at least posing for me.)

I'm throwing our lesson week into this post, because I didn't really take any pictures to go with it! We focused on transportation, since both Charlie and Lily really love their cars and trucks. We sang "The Wheels on the Bus" and watched Baby Einstein On the Go. We played with the trucks and cars and of course their new Little People Stand and Play Wheelie Rampway. We worked on identifying red, yellow and green, and for art Charlie and Lily made tire track paintings. This activity was awesome because they were able to do it entirely themselves! I put a plate of paint out and gave them a toy car to run through the paint. Then they wheeled the car over the paper to make tracks.

Changing gears now (pun totally intended), we need to say congratulations to Aunt Linda and Uncle Mike who were married yesterday afternoon. My wonderful friend Lauren was at the wedding taking pictures, so once we have those I'll have a whole post about the wedding. But for now, I couldn't resist giving a sneak preview of the cutest little ring bearer and flower girl ever!

I need to find more occasions for Charlie to dress like this...
Pretty Lily, before I tricked her into wearing her fancy headband.

S and T Week, and Grandma's surprise party!

Yesterday we gathered with the family at Uncle John and Aunt Rebbecca's to celebrate Grandma Anne's birthday with a big surprise party! Charlie and Lily had a great time hanging out with all their relatives and partying down, and we hope Grandma was surprised!

Charlie loves cousin Melissa - he's such a flirt!

Passing time coloring in their Sesame Street coloring books. Lily kept tossing her crayons into the pretzel bowl. (Target has the BEST dollar section. I went yesterday afternoon and got all kinds of great Sesame Street stuff - coloring/sticker books, stamps, bath books, board books, etc.)

For Christmas, Uncle John and Aunt Rebecca ordered Charlie and Lily the Little People Stand n' Play Rampway, but it was back ordered. It came in this week, so Uncle John set it up for Charlie and Lily to play with at the party. Charlie loved it!
"Wait - we get cake again?!?!! Birthdays are great!"
In between all the birthday celebrations of the week, Charlie and Lily also learned about the letters S and T. We read No, No, No Little Turtles and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "I'm a Little Teapot." We had a tea party with our Laugh n' Learn Tea Set and made tree Ts for art.

For a special snack, Charlie and Lily helped me make teddy bear trail mix. We combined Teddy Grahams, Cheerios, raisins and chocolate chips in a tupperware and Charlie and Lily shook it all up to mix it.

Yum!

The other morning I sprinkled a little powdered sugar on Charlie and Lily's french toast. Needless to say, it was a huge hit.

I just realized that I never posted these pics! About two weeks ago Aunt Diane and cousin Adam came over to visit. Charlie and Lily had a great time showing Adam all their toys, and Diane taught Lily where her eyes are. Lily now says "eye" and jams her thumb into her eye. We're working on making that trick a little more gentle... ;)

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today is Grandma Anne's birthday! We won't tell you how old she is but let's just say she's not too far away from a letter from the President and a "happy birthday" message from The Today Show.

To celebrate, she came over after work and helped us play outside. The weather has been unseasonably warm (mid 60's) so we've enjoyed breaking our normal indoor routine and playing outside in the yard.







After a nice dinner of take-out Italian, we had cake and ice cream. Lily and Charlie weren't too keen on the candles, but they were more than excited to have a few bites of dessert!



After treats, there's always time for a round or three of "This Little Piggy."


Happy birthday, Grandma! Thanks for spending your big day with us!


While it has nothing to do with Grandma's birthday, Charlie looks damn cute in his "'Cause I'm a ladies man" tee. And it's totally true. That boy will flirt with any woman on earth. (He comes from a long line of excellent flirters; it's a proud tradition for the men in the family, and he is carrying on the legacy like a natural!)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I tried so hard to get a good picture of Charlie and Lily together in their Valentine's Day shirts, but sadly, this was the best I could do. Oh well, there's always St. Patrick's Day. Daddy's Valentine.

What's Valentine's Day without a little chocolate?

PS: I need to take a moment and say a giant "thank you" to the incredibly generous stranger who sent us $250 cash in a unsigned Valentine's Day card. I found it in the mailbox this afternoon and I'm speechless. We received the same mysterious gift at Christmas. We don't know who you are, or what we did to deserve your generosity, but thank you so, so much.

Love Week and some dental hygeine

This week we focused on love and Valentine's Day - the best theme so far! Crackers bought Charlie and Lily several Valentine's Day books which they adore, so we spent the week reading Where is Baby's Valentine?, Where's My Sweetie Pie?, and What is Love, Biscuit? We sang "If you love me and you know it" and "You are my Valentine." Charlie and Lily tasted pink heart shaped strawberry marshmallows too, but neither of them was a fan. They've also been wearing their Valentine's Day/love themed attire, courtesy of their favorite stylist, Grandma.

For art, we made Valentine's Day wreaths for Grandma, Grandpa and Crackers, but I forgot to take pictures of them before we gave the away. We also decorated a Valentine's Day mailbox with hearts. Lily really enjoyed working on the mailbox. Charlie, on the other hand, yanked off the first heart we put on the box, ran off with it and proceeded to spend the rest of the time sticking and unsticking the heart to the sliding glass door.

"Look what I'm making!" (Notice Charlie at the window back there.)
Ready for some Valentines! I'll have another post on Valentine's Day tomorrow, when I hope to trick Charlie and Lily into sitting still long enough to get pictures of them in their adorable V-Day shirts. But now, I need to share thse super cute pictures of teeth brushing time. Brushing their teeth is offically Charlie and Lily's new favorite pasttime, especially before bed. Joe snapped these pictures the other night. Who knew a toothbrush and some toothpaste could make them so happy?

"Yes! She's got the toothbrushes!"

"Don't be stingy with that Abby Cadabby toothpaste there, Mommy."

"Woo hoo! Here we go!"

"Man, I have a lot of teeth. This is exhausting."

"Don't even bother brushing, Lily. Just chew right on the bristles like I do!"

"Alright, Mommy, you can help."

"I've totally got this, Mom. And I'm freakishly strong, so good luck prying this toothbrush out of my hand."

Charlie singing "Crocodile Rock"!

Yesterday Elton John was on Live with Regis and Kelly. During his performance of Crocodile Rock I was dancing around with Charlie and Lily and singing to them, and Charlie started to repeat the "la la la la la" part of the song. Last night we demonstrated for Joe and he got it on camera. (Please ignore how horribly annoying I sound on this video, mmmmkay?)

Q and R Week (and a trip to the doctor)

This week Charlie and Lily learned about the letters Q and R. We read Quack, Quack and Little Red Hen and sang "Little Bunny Foo Foo." We worked on making the Q and R sounds and Charlie and Lily tried Rice Krispies for the first time. Charlie liked that he could crush them so nicely in his hands.
Lily didn't know what to make of them.... But she liked when I gave them to her in a bowl with milk.

For art we made queen Qs and rabbit Rs.
In other news, both Charlie and Lily came down with nasty colds and coughs this past week and I ended up bringing them to the pediatrician on Tuesday to have their coughs checked out. Lily was diagnosed with a cold but Charlie had mild bronchitis and earned himself a date with the nebulizer. He was not a happy camper about getting the treatment in the office, but he's been doing really great with it at home. Thankfully both babies stayed in great spirits even though they weren't feeling well - they're troopers!

We've been working a lot with getting Charlie and Lily to use forks and spoons at meals and they've been doing great. This week I introduced them to cereal and milk for the first time. Charlie spit his out, but Lily really enjoyed it.

Last Sunday Grandma and Grandpa came over to visit and we ordered Italian takeout for dinner. The food came in this big box, which was just the perfect size for Charlie and Lily.

Does anyone know why little kids do this? It cracks me up. We call this the Downward Bug.

I took this as a sign that Charlie needed a hair cut.

Much better!