21 Months

He y'all! I'm 21 months old now... can you even believe it? Actually I've been 21 months now for over a week, but Mommy is lacking in the "document my life as it happens" column. ;)

Here's the rundown of the last month. I'm still talking up a storm. I hear people can understand just about everything that comes out of my mouth, which makes life that much easier when I need to get what I want. It also cuts WAY down (SO FAR) on temper tantrums. To date I've maybe thrown 3... AWESOME. Mommy's favorite thing that I'm saying right now is "shore"... meaning "sure." "Emma Grace, do you want a cereal bar?" "Shore." "Emma Grace, can you get into your seat?" "Shore." And if Mommy is doing something dangerous... you know like standing on a chair... "Mommy! Be careful!" ADORBS.

Mommy and Daddy weighed me last night, and I'm up to 28 lbs... not sure on the height. I'm still wearing 18-24 month pants, for the most part 2T shirts, 5.5 shoes, and size 3 diapers during the day and 4s at night.

I've become a "great" eater... I use "great" lightly... I'll eat anything... as long as ketchup is involved. Mommy says it's not a battle she's willing to fight because, after all, she controls how much ketchup is being used. Mothers.

I love anything Reese loves and do everything Reese does... so I continue to learn how to do new things everyday. Puzzles and painting are two of my most favorite things to do. I also LOVE to sing my ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, the Oompla Loompa song, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. :)

I've added pink to the colors that I know, shapes... heart, and I can count to 10. Smartie McFartie for sure. :)Still no go on potty training. I love to be naked though. I'll tell Mommy that I need to "peepee", she'll strip me down, and then I'll run around the house occasionally deciding to sit on the potty.

Mommy has started collecting things for the big party in June... oh the EXCITEMENT! :)

And so it begins...

... the rest of my life. Rachel here. I'm 30. Today... March 28th... I turned 30. DO WHAT?! I have a mixture of feelings. Honest to god I feel like I just graduated high school. And then I'm reminded "just" is not synonymous with 12 years ago. Oy. Then there is college... wasn't that just yesterday? Nope... that was a wedding and 2 children ago. I'm not sure what I thought 30 would be like. Do I go out and buy wrinkle cream now? Is it time to start dying my hair to cover the grey? Do I contemplate tattooing myself to feel younger? Maybe a nice hangover is in the works. Or maybe I'll just continue to live my life... with my loving husband and adorable girls. Life goes on I suppose. While we are going out for a happy birthday Mommy dinner tonight, we celebrated last night with cake and singing... you know... while I was still 29. :)

Gertrude Bell

Mommy buried all of our new dinosaur bones, and we had to be archaeologists and dig them up. It was so much fun! I was way more into it than the baby sister, but she humored Mommy for a couple of good pix. :)

Disclaimer... I had to google "famous archaeologists", and the name Gertrude Bell popped up... let's be for real...

AWESOME

Our "new" art table is awesome!

Stocking up...

Rachel here. My package just arrived from Oriental Trading, and I just about died. I knew I ordered a lot... but holy cow. This is to get us a good start on summertime shenanigans. I'm getting more and more nervous with summertime approaching and knowing Reese will be back home 24/7. She's been doing such great things at Montessori that I'm afraid I won't be able to keep her attention. I've been searching for lots of open ended toys and arts/crafts, and trying to match up some of the things we have here at home with some of her favorite activities ("work") she does at school.

As far as arts/crafts supplies... we have a ton already, but I wanted to stock up on some things we didn't have and things we run out of quickly. I ordered some special paper that'll bleed color... one of Reese's favorite transferring activities (I'll share more on that later), liquid water color paint, regular washable paint, some ceramic markers (can be used to draw on ceramics... we have tons of random tile around here), different shaped sponges, "jewels", buttons, and a bag of wooden beads.
I also picked out some painting trays (we were using egg cartons and ice cube trays, but the depth was a pain in the butt for mixing and whatnot), some pipettes (for transferring water and liquid water color), and some plastic needles in hopes of working on some stitching activities with Reese.

When it came to looking at items we could use for Montessori, I made some great finds. Reese is totally into dinosaurs right now, and I thought these dinosaur skeletons would be great along with the dinosaurs we picked up from OUAC a while back. My plan is to turn the sandbox into dinoland... how fun would it be to dig for dinosaur skeletons???? It'll be like one big sensory box with some rocks and a volcano... I can hardly contain myself! NERDY.I thought these tongs were pretty cool. They have little holes in them... the idea is to find bugs, catch them with the tongs, and observe them. We'll use them in our sensory boxes and for transferring more than anything I'm sure.I've been wanting to get some of these test tubes forever now. We can use them to mix colors, to house "i spy" games, and I even found a really cool magnet activity that they can be used for. The possibilities are endless, and we're super excited.This is something I've seen all over the Montessori world and was excited to find it for a great price. The idea... Reese will put shapes on the cork and hammer the little tacks into the holes to hold the shapes in place. The reviews were great, and I think she'll really like it.I couldn't get Reese a specific "toy" and forget about Emma Grace. I found this really cute sensory matching game. Basically the shapes are in the bag, and you have to feel for the correct "shape" to fit into each block of wood. It'll be great to learn shapes, animals, colors, etc... And our newest sensory bin! I'm so super excited about this one. I had been wanting to make this one since we started these bins, but wasn't sure of what all we had. Bryan and I did some work in the attic, garage, and shed this past weekend and found virtually ALL of this stuff. The only thing that we didn't already have were the little seeds (the little red and blue wooden flower beads... they were from the wooden bag of beads mentioned above)... AWESOME! I think the girls will love the garden bin. The weather here in The Burg has been amazing, so these bins will soon make their way outside on the back porch... much easier on cleanup.Now the goal is to house all of this stuff. I have some shelving closet type things and some bins out in the garage, and then there are numerous nooks and crannies inside that house everything right now. My goal is to get everything in one central location where everything can be found and kept without me pulling my hair out in order to put things together. I'd really like to find an old curio/china cabinet that I can paint to house all the arts/crafts materials. I've been looking on Craigslist, but I'm just not sure what I'm willing/wanting to spend. Looks like a great goal for this summer... hello yard sales! :)

Just Keep Swimming...

Emma Grace here. We rang in my 21 month birthday by starting swimming lessons. I LOVED IT, AND HAD THE BEST TIME! I'm like a fish in water. Floating on my back wigged me out a titch, but Mommy sang "Twinkle Twinkle" to me per the instructors, and wouldn't you know... I calmed right down. :)
Now the sister... TOTALLY different story. That girl was buggin' hardcore. She kept screaming that she was sinking... "Mommy don't drop me! Mommy's gonna drop me!" She managed to last the full 30 minutes, and hopefully things will go smoother next week. I was kind of a handful while it was Reese's turn... I kept trying to kamikaze jump into the pool... Daddy ALMOST had his hands as full with me as Mommy did with Reese. :)

Pink Princess Castle

Rachel here. I can't tell you how long Reese has been asking us for a pink princess castle. What kind of pink princess castle? Who knows. Where did she see said pink princess castle? Beats me. I told her that we were in fact not going to buy her a pink princess castle, but maybe her daddy would make her one if she was really really really good. I figured we were in the clear. Then I looked at Pink and Green Mama's blog today, and wouldn't you know she had a homemade Rapunzel castle as her latest entry. It was GORGEOUS, and I knew I couldn't make mine as fabulous as hers, but I was sure going to try. Besides this was a sign, and I knew we had to get it done or we would never hear the end of it.
The goal... turn this into a BEAUTIFUL pink princess castle for two creative little girls.

I think we did it! It took me about 2 hours during nap time (Reese supervised) and about 4 this evening (after the girls went to bed). My back is killing me, my fingertips are burned, and I'm pretty sure I'll have to listen to them fight over it all day tomorrow. BUT... I think it turned out great, and the girls are going to love it. And did I mention we already had all the materials except for the fake flowers?! I sent Bryan to The Dollar Tree around 830 to pick them up... we're talking $3 people!

It even has a braided hair rope to throw out of the window. SERIOUSLY?! I could die.

I think Reese is going to love it. :)

Going Green

I had "green day" today at preschool. It was AWESOME. We tried about 8 different foods that were green... including guacamole chips (which I LOVED) and capers (which apparently made me want to vomit). Emma Grace had a playdate with Aly... AKA... Mommy had a playdate with Auntie Lu... fun was had all around.
We OF COURSE had to venture on over to Macado's for our annual St. Patty's Day dinner... complete with green beer for the grown ups.
We ended the night playing in the backyard and looking for shamrocks. :) Pretty low key this year... but that's how we roll. Happy St. Patty's Day!

Dumpster diving???

Check out the new art table Mommy brought home!!!!! So we were sitting in art class, and Mommy said how cute this little table was... Ms. Carol looked right at Mommy and said "Take it... please." FOR FREE! WHAT WHAT?! Mommy was more than overjoyed. It even has the slots for the rolls of paper... I think we're all in heaven. :)

SIDE NOTE... Rachel here. I've been wanting a table like this for the girls FOREVER. My dream table is from The Land of Nod (<-- click the link) with the slits and hooks for the art paper added to it... perhaps Grandaddy will be up to building it for his precious granddaughters when we have a bigger house... hint hint... ;)

JACKPOT

Rachel here. Look what we found coming home from NC!!!! That's right... EMMA GRACE DR... located in Jonesborough, TN... HOLLER!

Paging Anderson Cooper...

Rachel here. Bryan and I got away this past weekend to celebrate my birthday a little early. Reese was still having a few minor issues with being sick, and I woke up sick as a dog Thursday night, but we had the trip planned for weeks... so we dropped the girls off at the grandparent's house, forded the river, and crossed our fingers.

We ventured to Asheville, North Carolina to visit The Biltmore Estate (I continued to be sick the ENTIRE WEEKEND)... which is the largest home in the United States belonging to the Vanderbilts . OMG doesn't even begin to describe this place. It was the most amazing home ever. Sadly they wouldn't allow photos inside, which is probably a good thing because I would have had hundreds of photos to sift through. Instead here are some photos that we were able to walk away with. :)

We ate our lunch in the old horse stables... it was really neat!

After lunch we toured the grounds, which were GORGEOUS. I was a little sad that we weren't there in spring because the gardens are supposed to be absolutely BEAUTIFUL when in bloom.

Thank you B for a GREAT weekend... minus me being sick... away from home. :)