bath time

around 5:15 both ellie and claire are itching to get into the bath. if I leave them unattended for a bit I will usually come back to find them on their way to the bathroom or already there. with about 15 minutes to go I strip them down to their diapers and that usually gives us another 15-20 minutes of happiness.

ellie sitting up and claire ready to rock.

looking pretty similar here. eleanore is on the left.

making the turn into the bathroom. claire is in the lead!

bath time itself is also becoming more of a fun activity if there are two adults around because we can spend more time with them in the bathtub. this past weekend we started bathing the girls together. I can’t wait to get all of the kiddos into the big bath tub.

claire. I think she looks a lot like charlie in this picture.

together. tight, but fun. ellie loves to splash splash splash when they are in the tub together and just giggles in delight. claire prefers to splash when she is alone in the tub, but I think she enjoys sharing the tub with her sister. they both love to just chow down on a bath toy.

modeling

the girls have a few “special” outfits that now fit. we had to put them in them and take pictures.

modeling their new zealand outfits from lindsay and rob. love these! claire sporting the pink.

standing tall.

ellie showing off the grey and finally filling out the 3-6 month leggings.

the closest we could come to a “together” picture. ellie was instantly taking off.

now to the leopard dresses. these were a gift from tish (my mother-in-law’s dear friend). I have to admit I would not have picked them out, but the girls do look pretty cute in them. again – getting them both to look at the camera was impossible. so here is claire looking.

then ellie smiling.

they were obsessed with the shoes!

both leaning ready to take off.

happiest with a shoe in the mouth. I love the bubble in the skirt.

tunnel time

how precious is that??!?! hearing ellie and claire giggle with each other is worth all of the extra effort. sorry the camera is mostly on claire's butt, but it is still so fun to hear them. 

check out ellie and charlie in the back. it was a kid fest in the tunnel. they all love it and are squealing and laughing. it is music to my ears. however, usually someone starts crying from getting bonked on their beezer. oh well.

charlie entertaining the girls while they were dangerously trying to climb the chair.

washington d.c.

last weekend at this time bill and I were cruising the streets of georgetown alone. tonight we are up to our eyeballs in poop…don’t ask. amazing how quickly things change. anyway - bill was sent by Mayo to DC for a conference since he is the resident representative.  they put us up in the Ritz so that was a plus. I am so thankful that bill knows me well enough to continue to ask me to go on a trip with him. he knows that my first answer is not always the best one (to my credit…he started talking about this when the girls were 4 months old…I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t fathom how I would leave them at that point because I was still nursing so much). I am so glad we got to get away and I was more than ready to leave our wonderful little pooping munchkins. in fact, I didn’t even cry when we left or throughout the trip, which really surprised me. we didn’t take a ton of pictures, but here are a few.

we arrived super late on thursday night and on friday bill went to the conference and I slept in, worked out, had quiet time, slowly got ready and then met bill for lunch. after a delicious lunch he went back to the conference and I was treated to a massage by laura (she is the best monster in law), took a bath and hung out waiting for bill to finish. it was incredible to just do nothing!  the ritz we were staying at was about a 5 minute walk to the georgetown area of dc and it has tons and tons of shops and restaurants. that night evening we cruised georgetown and had a great dinner.   

saturday I convinced bill to skip the entire conference and we slept in until 9 (!!!) and then headed out to cruise the monuments. the weather was perfect – sunny and 60 degrees.  we were 5 minutes from the white house so we grabbed coffee and started our day from there. throughout the day bill would call D.C. the “paris of the US”, which kind of proved true. we had a great time just walking our way through all the monuments without any crazy agenda. we also happened to be in D.C. on a special weekend. friday was 11/11/11 – veterans’ day so there were a lot of memorial type items set out by all of the monuments.

this is a not very good picture of us in front of the white house. this is what happens when you let other people take your picture.

walking through a park on our way from the white house to the vietnam memorial.

in front of the lincoln memorial. I forgot how huge it was.

this is picture of the washington monument taken from the steps of the lincoln memorial. the reflection pool is under construction, which is a bummer, but it will be beautiful when it is finished.

lincoln.

this is the WWII monument. I thought this was really beautiful.

minnesota. every state has a pillar.

me with the washington monument coming out of my head (bill wanted it like this).

at the smithsonian.

a picture with a t-rex for charlie. we cruised the museum a bit and saw the hope diamond. the number of kids in the place reminded me of how happy I was to be traveling without mine. it is a ton of work traveling with kids and it was great to just be responsible for myself!

in front of the capitol. at this point it was almost 2pm and we were starving we had covered a ton of ground walking and were ready to chow. our friends recommended this delicious mexican restaurant and it did not disappoint. we ate our hearts out.

at dinner on saturday night. we had such a late lunch and must have really chowed down because we both were not that hungry that night. we sat down for a glass of wine and a little pizza around 9pm.

sunday, we got up and cruised around georgetown a bit before heading to the airport (where we got delayed – my first frustration of the trip). georgetown has this adorable little stream running through it. what a beautiful place!

in georgetown is the famous cupcake joint – georgetown cupcakes. we never went there, but were always amazed that it had a HUGE line outside it every time we walked by it (which was various times of the day). I still can’t believe people wait this long for a “famous” cupcake.

it was a great trip to get away with bill and we had a wonderful time. I loved sleeping through the night for the first time in 7 months! thanks again to my parents for watching our chitlins. we can’t wait for our next get away!

first dentist visit

charlie had his first visit to the dentist today! we had charlie go to a pediatric dentist in town. I had been bringing up the fact that we were going to go to the dentist a couple of times over the past week, but didn’t make a big deal of out if. the dentist office had sent me paper work to fill out prior to coming and it included a pamphlet with a few pictures about the experience. I had it in my handbag this morning and charlie saw it on the way to music class. he instantly wanted to read it. he then proceeded to quietly “read” (ie: assess the pictures) about his upcoming dentist appointment while he was in his car seat. he is a very intense little boy and he just poured over those pictures without talking very much. he picked up that they had some sort of puppets in the pictures and would mention that he was excited to see the puppets.

so off we headed to the dentist. he reviewed the pamphlet on the way there. we walked in and he was pumped to check out the fish tank. I could tell he was a little apprehensive. the hygienist came out to meet him and was great. she started talking to him about the 2 cars he had brought and he started to get a bit shy. I mentioned the puppets and he instantly became interested in what the hygienist was saying. with that they walked out of the lobby into the back of the office. I couldn’t believe that all of a sudden charlie was going to an appointment without me by his side. I was also beaming with pride that he was such a champ about going with the hygienist without me there.  at the appointment today they just walked through brushing and flossing teeth (with the puppets) and checked charlie’s teeth out. they do a cleaning at his next appointment in 6 months. he loved it. he came out to get me with the dentist a bit later so we could talk through things and was just over the top excited. the dentist mentioned how interested he was and how well he did (I am sure they tell all parents this, but I felt proud that he did well without me – I love seeing him be confident in himself). I can’t imagine what it is going to feel like when he goes to preschool next year!

for the rest of the day, charlie would use his dentist gloves to pick up cars.

he also would put on his gloves and “count your teeth”. here he is counting ellie’s teeth. as you can see she loved it.

and now flossing….

a lot to post over a little dentist appointment, but I was shocked at how big it made him seem to me. you should also notice that charlie is wearing his “business shirt…like daddy”. he has been wearing this shirt a lot lately because he insists on wearing what bill wears to work. what he doesn’t realize is bill usually wears scrubs, but only occasionally when bill can go to work “late” (7 am) he gets to see him in a suit. I just love this boy!

survived and thrived

they survived (my parents that is)! my parents took care of charlie, ellie and claire while bill and I went to DC (bill had a conference) last weekend. after looking at the pictures i would even say they thrived. I don’t know a ton of what they did, but their pictures were adorable.

I am so proud of my parents. they did an amazing job managing our hot mess. I was amazed to also come home to a clean house and my laundry done! thank you thank you thank you mom and dad for being so willing to come and watch the crew so bill and I could get away. we had a wonderful time and came back rejuvenated (well – for a day or so!). ok – back to the pics.

this is right before we left to go to the airport. my dad always likes to hold kids by their feet and have them stand free style. claire and g. pops were doing it really well, but the only picture I caught show her not standing. whoops.

bill showing off with ellie.

a sweet picture of claire sleeping.

eleanore – all smiles.

g. pops keeping the honey badgers happy. claire is looking at the camera.

I just loved this picture of claire.

guess who??

charlie learning to dip his cookies in milk. yum!

claire being a goofer. she is definitely the goofier one of the two.

ellie and g. pops after a bath. perhaps an early morning bath. my mom didn’t mention that they had some serious poop issues while we were gone until after we got home. she was kind because she knew I would get worried.

charlie learning to dress by himself. this is his “I’m trying to figure it out face”

happy ellie in her crib. she was probably supposed to be napping (according to my crazy schedule).

double duty.

my beautiful mom with her sweet granddaughters. ellie’s (polka dot) smile in this picture just cracks me up.

love this picture of ellie and my mom.

my parents decided to just strip the girls down to feed them. then they didn’t have to spot treat their clothes. not a bad idea, but then I would have to be undressing and redressing them all the time. it is like wrestling an alligator to dress/diaper/undress those two.

ellie’s calming pose.

claire being a goofer with her smile.