a little tea party

after the girls wake up from their naps in the afternoon I am giving them a mum mum cracker to munch on. they love it and they cruise around chatting, catching up on the time they were apart and munching. I often like to think they are having a little tea party together – especially when I found them like this the other day.

eleanore pulled her head back just as I grabbled the camera, but they were so cute. standing on either side of the chair babbling and smacking together.

eleanore’s view.

claire’s view.

here are some more of their antics. claire loved pushing this laundry bin.

then ellie came over to join in on the fun.

and down goes prabee.

both trying to break and enter the chemical cabinet. claire is even trying to climb up the cabinet!

claire are you supposed to be climbing up that?

what mom?

ellie is still holding tight to some object. these past couple weeks it has been a s&p shaker from the kitchen set downstairs. she always has something in each hand as she goes about her day.

the bookshelf is still a daily – make that hourly – battle. I am really close to just caving and putting it in the office for a few months.

claire loves pushing the lawn mower. she is so funny about her walking. she loves to push things or stand and sit independently, but she does not like when you help her walk. fine with me. I hope she doesn’t walk for a few more months.

speaking of claire standing. she loves and I mean loves to just grab something and stand up unassisted. she does it all day long. then when she gets off balance or wants to go somewhere she just drops to the ground and crawls off. here a series of her standing.

ellie loving her fake tantrums.

loving playing with charlie’s cars while he is still sleeping during his afternoon nap.

they are both getting all their top teeth. check out the drool.

I just love eleanore’s little puffed out lip.

these two girls fill my life with such joy!

keep an eye on prabee care!

wow – claire is really becoming a handful! she would not surprise me if she becomes a rock climber some day. it is actually getting dangerous. I can only capture some of her moves because other times when I find her I actually have to save her.

here she is going into the highchair or trying to get something off of the bookshelf.

trying to get up on the end table.

actually she is trying to get my iphone off the table.

here is proof of how quickly she gets up high. I need to tether her to the ground. any suggestions - besides getting her her own iphone?

in other news, at 10 months, she started walking while pushing the lawn mower aka "mawn mower". to walk with the lawn mower is just as hard as walking. thankfully she doesn't realize that she can walk yet so she only takes off when the lawn mower or push toy is nearby. 

E&E + E&C&C

that’s a lot of Es and Cs. my friend kate drove down from minneapolis with her 14 month old twin girls Elise & Eva. I tried to take pictures, but it was quite hard to snap good photos with the number of kiddos we had moving around. charlie was especially sweet with elise and eva. he treated them just like his sisters – actually probably sweeter. what a fun day we had. thanks again for making the trip kate!

charlie was really into eva and would just pull up a spot next to her and get closer and closer. (bummed the flash didn’t go off)

here he was trying to hold her cheeks.

the three Es all hanging out.

eva, ellie and elise.

it’s a race! go ellie & elise!

this was so sweet. elise was sad when kate had to go help eva. so charlie kept talking to her in a really high voice saying “its ok. your mom is coming back soon.” over and over.

sadly we didn’t get a picture of kate and I together or a picture of all the kids lined up. maybe next time right kate?

we throw tantrums

so both ellie and claire have decided they want to start throwing tantrums when they don’t get what they want. I don’t ever remember charlie doing this, which makes me REALLY nervous for when these two turn 2. back to the tantrums. each of the girls have their own style. claire does the ‘throw your head to the floor fold yourself in half’ tantrum. while ellie prefers the ‘fake pout cry scream’ tantrum. these videos crack me up.

here is a picture of ellie throwing her tantrum when auntie dotes would take away her plastic s&p shaker.

here is a funny video of it.

here is a video of claire's tantrum. i don't have a picture of her folded in half yet, but will need to get that up here.

this is picture from right before my parents left. I blame them for the tantrums – they spoiled the girls while they were here!

sentimental bomber jacket

check this out. charlie is wearing bill’s old bomber jacket. it fits perfectly and he looks so handsome in it.

thanks laura for saving it!

our latest happenings

the kiddos have been sick. poor claire fell asleep in the office while I was putting ellie down for nap. ellie had actually fallen asleep the previous day in the office while I was putting claire down. besides these two incidents none of our kids have ever fallen asleep while playing. obviously, the girls were sick so that is why they fell asleep, but it was still really sweet to see them crashed out.

c lined up some cars.

eleanore gets a hold of the garbage can. yuck! (claire does it too – so gross)

I came home from a weekend workout to 3 kids who were actually happy to see me.

practicing charlie’s smile.

we had our friend’s the barlows over for an afternoon.

sibling love.

eleanore got her first mole.

driving cars – ellie.

charlie is enjoying some craft time.

with our illnesses we have been home a lot. to keep things interesting we had to change it up and playing with snow in the bathtub was good entertainment for the honey badgers and fun for charlie.

both girls love pushing charlie’s CAT truck around. ellie insists on holding a little ball in one hand. if you take it away she acts like she just lost a limb.

more proof of her attachment to these little balls. the purple one is from a friend’s house. when we got home I found it in her car seat.

claire is a future rock climber. she literally tries to scale anything in her path. here she is climbing up the end table. she flipped into the tub last night while we were running the bath. I have also caught her half way up our dining room chairs (feet off the ground) and up on top of the CAT truck. I predict an accident in our near future.

another shot of feeding the dynamic duo.

we are thankful for nana & g.pops who came to help out while bill is in miami beach for a conference. while they are here charlie started playing “the chasing” game with g. pops. he LOVES it! he runs around the island and when he comes through the sitting area of our living room my dad jumps out and tackles him. they were both breaking a sweat.

another action shot.

mid tackle

assessing a bonk. I think in this picture he bonked his head with his knee. he would brush off any bonk like it was no big deal even though I think some of them really hurt because then he could get back to the game.

I love these action shots. charlie continued to say “I like this chasing game g. pops” or “can we do more running g. pops?” or “thank you g. pops. I love you.” it was precious.

g. pops are you tired??

on top of taking charlie skiing today, my dad also sheet rocked and plastered under our stairs yesterday. it looks fantastic and we really appreciate it dad! charlie had a blast skiing and was exhausted (as you can see in the pic).

the girls love being near people. if you are standing up cooking they will both crawl over to your legs and climb up and hold on for dear life so you are basically stuck. today I was just trying to put my hair up and they could not give me a bit of space. my mom was able to snap a quick shot.

no relief. but I have to admit I love how much they want to be near me. they definitely enjoy having mom in an arm’s reach.

do you think my mom was busy? here she is trying to chat with my brother danny, read to charlie, keep claire from flipping off her lap and keep ellie entertained by her foot. prior to this picture ellie was actually holding onto her leg.

so that is what we have been up to these past couple weeks. a lot of boogers, whining, coughing, but also a whole lotta love.