Twins

William was having fun playing with his reflection in the mirror at Caroline's ballet studio last week. It made me wonder what it would be like to have twins. My friend Brandy's twins are pretty cute, but I'm glad there's only one of each in this household. :)

Pbskids.org, I Love You

I taught Caroline how to use the mouse this weekend. I don't know why it has never occurred to me to do this before, but it bought me 45 whole minutes while she happily played "create your own superhero" by herself. Which was especially nice considering Daddy was out of town all weekend. It amazes me that when you first try to teach them something new, you think they'll never figure it out, but five minutes later it's like they've been doing it their whole lives.

Flashback Friday - Potty Training

It is amazing that Caroline has been potty trained for a year already. This was the beginning of such a hard, hard time for me. I was in my third trimester, large and uncomfortable, and just about to start a horrible round of sciatica. I was incredibly lonely; I hadn't really made many friends here yet. Steve started travelling, which was hard on all of us. I was nervous about adding a new baby to our family. And then we started potty training, and suddenly even the simplest outing seemed nerve-wracking and complicated. I remember sitting in a parking lot that first weekend, crying my eyes out to Erin. It is pretty awesome to look at these pictures from a year ago and see how far we've come. I feel great physically. We've added a wonderful little boy to our family. We've got lots of great friends. Caroline is maturing into a delightful, independent little girl. Life is good. :)

Isn't she the cutest little thing in these pictures? It amazes me every time.

Snow Day

We got hit with several inches of snow yesterday, and since we had a houseful of friends over, we decided it was the perfect day to get out and enjoy the white stuff. The kids weren't so sure. There was a whooooole lot of whining going on as we layered up and headed into the cold, wet outside.

Lynda did her best to motivate the kids:


Emily promised them playing in the snow is fun!

William wasn't convinced:

The girls: Cate, Caroline, and Ali:

The boys: Jack, William, and Jared:

Jack and Emily:

Most of them came around. Later in the day, Caroline pointed out that playing in the street isn't safe. Oops. :)

Dear Sasha & Malia

Flashback Friday - The Big Girl Bed

I've decided that Flashback Friday is the perfect cure for weeks where I don't take any pictures. Despite having my wonderful new camera, I just can't get motivated to take many pictures inside. And we've spent most of this week inside, fighting off colds. Plus, since I didn't have a blog last year, it's a great way to re-live memories. :)

It's hard to believe that it was just a year ago that we were moving Caroline out of the crib and into her big girl bed. It's funny because I don't think of her as a baby at all any more, but I remember thinking she was so tiny in that bed when we moved her last year. I remember listening to her talk herself through the transition for like an hour on the monitor - "I don't have a cribby anymore. I sleep in a big girl bed. I'm a big girl." She looks so little to me in this picture. It's amazing to me how much changes and you don't even see those changes happening. I love you, my big girl.

Crazy Caroline

Yep, that's my 3 1/2 year-old wearing a size 3 - 6 month onesie. I was going through a bunch of her old baby clothes to send to Penny, and Caroline "reclaimed" this one. She's been wearing it pretty much non-stop for two days. I know it's a horrible picture, but I still think it's funny.

Here she is when the onesie actually fit three years ago: