Bikini babe

I bought Julia a swimsuit today and couldn't wait to try it on her. She looked so cute that I had to share the pictures. I also bought her some sunglasses but forgot to put those on, but they are adorable. In case anyone was wondering, she is NOT starving!!

New car seat

Julia is almost too big for the baby car seat but luckily the new one arrived today. She weighs 20 pounds and can stay in her current seat until she's 22 lbs, and I'm not moving her before that. It's too easy to pop it in and out of the car. I'm not looking forward to this big seat, but at least it's pretty! Julia seems to like it, too.

And here is Grant in the exersaucer. He's very excited that he still fits.

Tall tale

Grant is really into tall tales lately and has me make them up all the time. Except he calls them "long tales". I always ask him to tell me one, but he hadn't until today. We were in the car this morning and he said, "Mommy, I want to tell you a long tale. Once there was a tree. Then it died." That was neither a tall tale nor a long one, but he sure made me laugh!
Oh, and he read me the names of his friends on the Valentine's cards he got from school! I couldn't believe it but he was able to sound out about 80 percent. I was impressed!

Valentine's Day party

Today was Grant's Valentine's party at preschool and the parents were allowed to come. Grant was very excited that Daddy was there too! The kids had a good time, and Grant has had plenty of candy today. Before he ate some Laffy Taffy he asked me if it would make him laugh. Of course I said it would, so the whole rest of the time he was eating it (taffy takes a while to eat!), he was laughing. Funny boy.
Grant and Ellee
Grant and his teacher.

Me and Jules with Amanda and Cole (Ellee's mom and brother).

Beautiful day!

It was a beautiful day here today! Mid 60s and sunny so Grant drove his Jeep in the driveway while Julia slept, then I loaded them both into my new double jogger and we went to the park together. I managed to run the whole mile to and from the park - it wasn't pretty but I ran the whole way. The stroller is awesome and both kids seem to like it. Julia had her first ride in the swing today too. I left her in until she tried to suck on the edge - YUCK! Man, I wish every day in February were this nice, then I wouldn't mind winter so much :)
Oh, I can't forget to mention what happened on the way home. Grant likes to run the 1/4 of a mile along the pond, but as usual he wasn't watching where he was going. He ran off the edge of the sidewalk, tripped and landed in a HUGE mud puddle. He instantly starting crying, I instantly started laughing (but quickly stopped). I stripped him down to his undershirt, underwear and socks. Luckily I had a vest on so I put him in the stroller and covered him with it. And I wiped what mud I could off with some wet wipes. Talk about motivation to run home!

Mom and Dad's visit

My parents were here this weekend and went to the zoo with us. Here's another zoo pic (didn't all fit on last post).

Julia sucks her right thumb to put herself to sleep. Here she is on my dad's shoulder - she was asleep but must have known I had the camera, so she woke up to smile for the camera (and pulled her thumb out). What a ham! In other Julia news, she eats two solid food meals a day now. She likes everything she has tried, but avocado is by far her favorite. I put her on the baby scale yesterday (thank you, Taffy!) and she's 20 pounds! I looked in Grant's baby book and he was 18 lbs, 12 oz at her age. She is actually looking a little thinner these days - maybe from all of her floor exercises.

We also made Valentine's cookies yesterday. I overcooked the first batch, but after that they turned out great. Grant loved decorating them. The cookie closest to the red icing ended up with about 8 ounces of icing. I'm not sure if I'll feed that one to Grant or not :)

And as a special treat for all who view this blog, a rare picture of me. Enjoy - there aren't many out there!

Children's Museum and Zoo

We went to the Children's Museum with our friends the other day. As usual, Grant had a blast! He loves the grocery store area, as well as the dancing room. I have to admit it's pretty cool - it's a dark room with funky lights that show an animated version of you on the screen and the music is loud and dance-worthy. Grant is always sweating when he's done!

Grant and Ellee.

Julia likes to stand when we hold her hands. She thinks she's big stuff.

Her awesome curls.

Grant and the frozen waterfall. It's probably not there anymore since it got up to 61 degrees on Saturday. It was BEAUTIFUL!

Paper Grant

The other day we needed a good indoor activity since it was so cold out - we came up with Paper Grant. I have about 100 yards of butcher paper so we could make one for everyone, if you want! Grant loved getting traced, he thinks he looks so big on paper.

The many faces of Julia

Here are some pics of Julia over the past few days. She can sit by herself for a few seconds but then gets super excited and throws herself backward. And she still smiles all the time :) She is also in love with her feet - I need to get some pictures. They are her favorite toy right now.

It was beautiful on Saturday (56 degrees!) and we had friends in town, so we went to the zoo and the park. This is how Jules spent most of her day, bundled and happy.

Enough pictures already, Mom!

Julia loves her bath - she kicks and squeals and just has a great time!