Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." ~ John 11:25-26.

Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter by first decorating eggs with Anna on Saturday night. She had a blast doing "arts and crafts" and really got into choosing colors and decorating her eggs with eyes and mouth stickers. At one point she had two eggs talking. She told me it was mommy and daddy. All of a sudden she had the eggs kissing and making kissing sounds. Then she moved the eggs so that their "eyes" were touching and said, "Hey Mommy. You and Daddy are giving butterfly kisses." Yes, so cute; I know.

We let the girls see their Easter baskets first thing in the morning. Anna helped Megan and fed her the yogurt melts that were left in Megan's basket. We went to Mass at Saint Patrick's, enjoyed a fun first annual Easter egg hunt in our front yard, had naptime, and then headed to the Blaze house for a small dinner. Beautiful weather, beautiful family, a great holiday weekend!

The First Annual Zumbiel Easter Egg Hunt

And Finally, A Relaxing Family Evening

Happy Spring!

Wow! Has it really been four weeks since I've posted?! Spring is upon us and good weather means little time indoors or in front of a computer....

What have we been up to....Our days lately are spent outside, playing around the house or at a local park. We've gone to the zoo only once and are waiting for spring breaks to be over so I don't lose any children in the crazy crowds. I've really been looking forward to playing outside now that Megan is walking. It's working out pretty well. She loves to explore and run all over the place. At playgrounds, it's a bit overwhelming with two kids darting in two directions, but we're managing okay. We met about 5 of my friends and their kids last week at a park. In theory, it sounded like a fun morning with my girlfriends, but chasing kids meant no real conversations. So although I get to see my friends sometimes, it's truly full time mommy for me even if we're out enjoying the sunshine.

(We're fortunate to live near this great park. You can see our neighborhood in the background of the picture with the two girls. We walk up here a lot.)

Developmental updates:

Anna

- She completed 8 more weeks of Parent and Child swim lessons and loved it.

- She is speaking in complete sentences more and more which is really funny to hear. She uses words like "maybe" and "probably" which just adds to the amazement of watching her grow and knowing that her little brain is processing everything!

- We're not sending Anna to preschool, so to get a "classroom" element into her routine, we've started going to some library classes pretty consistently. Our favorite is Mr. Joel's preschool singing class http://www.joelsings.com/music.html. You should check it out - this guy is fantastic and you will LOVE his cds. Even Megan asks for his song called "Popcorn" by sitting in her carseat saying "pop, pop, pop" until I turn it on.

- Anna sings songs spontaneously which is so fun to hear. She picks a song and makes us play it over and Over and OVER again while I'm driving. Some past favorites: Tiffany's I Think We're Alone Now, Mercy Me's I Can Only Imagine, a song called I Lost My Socks and Shoes by Mr. Joel and her current favorite: Abba's Mamma Mia. Matt just loves listening to that one for an entire car ride....

- She thinks the funniest thing to say is "stinky butt". She inserts it into her speech, and especially songs, any chance she gets. For example, "A, B, C, stinky butt " (insert roar of laughter) or "Twinkle, twinkle little stinky butt"....she definitely gets her sense of humor from her Daddy.

Of course, I could go on and on with all the fun things Anna is doing. This age is unbelievable for growth and personality development. It's wonderful!

Megan

- She has 3 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom. She has three molars coming in.

- Megan is a climber! She is fearless and will venture to the top of almost anything.

- Her signing has exploded. She probably recognizes about 25 right now and can do about 10. The other day I was at Babies R Us standing in front of the diapers. She started doing the change diaper sign for the first time. Of course I was shocked and started praising her like crazy just like any proud mama would do. She knew she did something special and wouldn't stop doing the sign. It was pretty cute.

- She is really trying to talk a lot. She says Anna all the time, Indi, Baw Baw (Grandpa Blaze), ball, milk, treat (for Indi), night-night, bath, book, choo-choo, Angie (our stroller class teacher), and more.

- It is quite amazing to watch a little baby's brain soak everything in. I know we went through this with Anna, but it is crazy to witness her understanding of language. The other day, I was talking out loud and said "Megan, what did you do with your other sock?" (she had one on and one off). She walked out of the kitchen, into her room, opened a drawer, pulled out a swim suit, and underneath was the sock she had pulled off and hidden...simply amazing!

Jennifer

- Yes, I have my own developmental update. Guess what, I ran my first Half Marathon on March 28! It was in Lexington through the Horse Park. Matt ran right beside me the entire race and Jonathan smoked us but cheered us on at the finish line. Although it rained, and sometimes poured, almost the whole race, I was very happy that I accomplished the feat of running 13.1 miles. I overcame pain and mental anguish to finish strong. I can't believe that some people keep running another 13.1 miles to complete an entire marathon....By the way, I still think that natural child birth is a much greater test of mental and physical endurance :)

FYI: I just signed up to run the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon on May 2. I won't say I'm addicted yet. I really just want the experience of no rain....hopefully.

Step In Time
This winter has meant many days in front of the television and many days finding new movies that will entertain Anna. She quickly fell in love with Mary Poppins and we watch it about once a week. Her favorite scene and song is now the Step In Time dance on the rooftops. One day I told her to go get her ballerina tutu and put it on to dance. She came back with her "tap shoes" and Christmas dress and told me she liked that one better. I wish this video was longer, but you can see how she is trying to mimic exactly what Dick Van Dyke and his chimney sweeping crew are doing. And really, if you just keep playing the video over and over you can get the same feel as if you were in the room watching her.

Go Away Winter

Sorry to be harsh Mr. Winter, but I don't care for you. You're cold, you're usually dreary and you are the reason my kids destroy my house. Thank you Sunshine for helping us out and giving us hope to get us through. Without you, I would be lost.

Even Anna yelled at you, Winter, the other day. Sitting at the table eating lunch, she fiercly proclaimed, "I'm gonna walk outside and say 'hey, go away snow. I wanna eat outside!" I couldn't agree more!

So here is how we find ourselves passing the time these days...

We have beach parties.

We play dressup in 'balleriba' dresses.

We fall asleep on Indi.

We do "Arts & Crafts".
We play with plastic bags. Okay, I guess we're getting desperate. Really, though, Zip-Loc bags have become Megan's new favorite toy. If you find that she's disappeared to the kitchen, you can pretty much guarantee that she's coming back with a plastic bag from her favorite drawer.
We explore the deep blue sea at the Newport Aquarium.
We have snacks with hot chocolate.

After posting these pictures, I guess winter isn't so bad after all. We get to find creative ways to have fun and in the end we all get to cozy up with each other in a warm house full of love. These memories have been good ones, but I'll still be happier when all that snow is gone and we can eat outside!

With over a foot of snow outside, I can't help but dream of warmer days. I was looking at some old pictures and videos on the computer and thought I'd post these sweet ones of Anna playing with Lucy, Great Aunt Maria and Uncle Kevin's dog. This video was captured in early September when we went over to play with their new puppy. Anna fell in love with her and still gets excited to see her. I think these videos are some of my favorite Toddler Anna memories. There's something about a baby playing with a puppy that captures childhood so perfectly....

Megan's Birthday Party
(slideshow with comments)

Cookie Monster Spray and Other Childhood Remedies

I think this will be the title of my mommy-hood book that I write....one day, when I have time... Anna has recently developed this curious fascination with Cookie Monster. The interest started out as pure amusement pretending she was cookie monster and eating things loud, fast and messy. Then in the last month it turned into anxiety.

At first, I thought it was a great game of imagination to get us in the car quicker while she was screaming, "Hurry, get in the car, Cookie Monster's coming!!!!" Then it really became a source of distress for her. She would tell us that Cookie Monster was on her ceiling or coming in her window or sitting next to her. Yeah, a bit creepy....

So one morning as she was feeling a bit panicked, I asked Matt if he would pick up some Cookie Monster spray on the way home from work. "Of course!" he proclaimed to Anna. I told him I was certain that I had seen a bottle at the store the other day. Anna was waiting by the laundry room when he came home that day remembering that he held the solution to her problem - as I'm sure she thinks Daddys always do. It was teamwork between Matt and me to get that bottle in her hands and she loved it. She began spraying the doors and windows. We set it on top of the refrigerator where she can see it and ask for it if she feels she needs it. So far, it's been successful for about two weeks. It must be some pretty powerful stuff.

So we were reading a book this morning about animal habitats. One page had a picture of a parakeet in a fish bowl. It said "Do parakeets live in bowls?" Anna replied laughing, "No!" I asked her what lives in bowls and she said matter-of-factly, "Footballs." She then told me something about the Superbowl. I'm so glad this girl loves sports. If you read Matthew and Kasey's blog today http://blazebaby.blogspot.com/2010/02/hoop-dreams.html, I'd have to agree that it must be in the genes.

Happy First Birthday Megan!!!!

What a wonderful day! We love birthdays around this house and we celebrated all day. First, we took a trip to the doctor's for Megan's one year well check which turned into a sick visit for both Megan and Anna. Thus Megan's first birthday gifts today were two vaccinations and then an Amoxicillan prescription. Not too bad I guess. She got some cool bandaid "tattoos" that made her look like a tough biker when her shirt was off for cake time and "at least the Amoxicillan is pink and tastes good" (in Becky's words.)

During nap I baked cupcakes, cooked dinner and decorated a little for our evening party. The "party" consisted of me, Matt, Anna and Megan; But when you call it a party, Anna gets so incredibly giddy with excitement that you really can't do it any other way. We had a banner, party hats and lots of cupcakes. We finished with birthday presents in the basement. It was a fantastic first first birthday party (we'll have the second with just family on Saturday - sorry friends, wish you could come to celebrate, but we decided to limit the kids since we just came off a 10 day hiatus of illness.)

I can't believe little Meggie Moo, Megs, Megan is ONE!?!? This year was so much fun. Really it was. I would encourage anyone who can muster the energy and strength to have two under two. Seriously. Go ahead. Twiblings are wonderful!!!! Now we have a one year old and a two year old. It makes your head spin thinking about it, doesn't it? It's definitely not for everyone, but we LOVE it :) ....However, check back in with me if this weather doesn't warm up one day soon. I NEED to get out of this house. This winter thing is what might make one rethink the whole idea of two toddlers...

Anyway, Happy First Birthday Baby Girl!!!! We love you!!!!

p.s. Thank you Charlotte for letting me borrow your very pretty "1" shirt. I think I looked so cute in it. It's nice to know I can still borrow clothes from my friends even when they live in Texas. :) I miss you! Love, Megan

I'm a big kid now!

Isn't that the old Pull-Ups commercial song?? Well, we are singing it in our house! I woke up on January 1 and thought "This is it. I'm done with "big kid" diapers. If all the 2 year olds at our NYE party are potty trained, then Anna can be too." We immediately went to big girl panties all day that Friday and we haven't turned back. Anna had a few accidents the first 4 days (about 6) and hasn't had one since.

Now, I am by no means an expert at potty training and actually have to say that I didn't do much to prepare us for it. But, it was easy. What I learned with the first child is this: parent and child have to be mutually ready to go through this or it's going to be way too stressful.

Anna was showing signs and interest back in March when I had 8 week old Megan to deal with. Although we purchased a potty for Anna at that time, I never really let her try to learn because I knew I wouldn't have the time or energy. During the summer, I tried several times thinking it was a good time to let her run around in just her underwear and that was a big mistake. She wanted nothing to do with it and even staked out places in the house to have accidents - behind her rocking chair, under the table, in her closet. It definitely didn't work. By the time this session of potty training came around everyone was mutually ready and anxious to achieve something. We were all positive and it was a pleasant experience.

Congratulations Anna! You're a big kid now! And I have to say that it's a bit sad. It's quite weird seeing my baby girl run around in her little Elmo or Ariel underwear.

The photo below was a strange mommy moment for me. We built a camp that day and the girls were crawling in and out of it. Anna let me put her hair in a pony tail - which is an accomplishment in itself - and she had her little Elmo undies on. It was surreal to see her little diaperless bottom running in and out and made me want to freeze time. Here I had my two baby girls enjoying this wonderful, innocent, childhood moment and I knew that I would find it passing all too soon. Anna was for so long toddling between the baby and preschool age and this little underwear moment made it official: she's considered a preschooler :( ...and tomorrow's my baby's first birthday so I better stop writing before I really start shedding some tears....