St. Patrick's Day

Since March is almost over, it's about time I posted some of our St. Patrick's Day activities! We went up to Morristown again this year for a party and a parade.  At the party, we munched on soda bread, cookies, and green bagels and watched a little soccer with Daddy.

Yay green bagels!

Baby Clare explored everything below knee level...

and played with lots of friends.

She couldn't hang on for the parade though. She fell asleep while we were packing up and Sean decided to help make his sister more festive for St. Patrick's Day:

The parade was fun to watch and all of Sean's favorites were there - fire trucks, loud music, balloons...

and a leprechaun he referred to as "Captain Hook"

But even two year old boys can start to feel a little worn out after a morning of parties and parades  :-)

Ouch!

Baby Clare's increased mobility is taking its toll. Today she pulled herself up on the mini ballet-bar at school and was happily chatting with her reflection in the mirror when she lost her grip, slipped sideways and ended up bumping her head and scraping her cheek on the wall (which is covered in a carpet-like fabric). Clare's teacher said she cried for a little bit, fussed when an ice pack was applied, and then went right back over to the ballet bar to continue her conversation with the cute little girl in the mirror. :-)

Bruised:

 Scraped:

Reminds me of when Sean was starting to get around more - this photo is from April 2009:

On the move

In the span of a week, Baby Clare's gone from pulling up to walking with her walking toy:

Falling asleep

Having two babies in one bedroom is a little tricky sometimes. Most nights, Baby Clare settles down peacefully while Sean quietly chats with his animal friends and drifts off to sleep. But some nights, Sean isn't tired, or he's thirsty, or his chatting with the animals turns into loud arguments. And some nights Baby Clare is just so tired, nothing can help but a good cry. She never cries too long, and it doesn't seems to bother Sean much - he deals with a lot of noisy friends at naptime at daycare.

But the other night Baby Clare was particularly fussy - I think her teeth were bugging her - she now has 6 teeth and 2 more are coming in!  She cried and fussed for a bit while I rocked her and it didn't seem that I could help her, so I put her in her crib to let her soothe herself. After a few more minutes of fussing, she finally fell asleep. It was quiet on the monitor for about 2 minutes when I heard Sean call out, "BABY CLARE, YOU SLEEPIN' NOW?" Apparently she was - and thank you for checking, Sean!

Love this guy

Pulling up!

Baby Clare pulled up to standing this weekend! She's so excited - each time she does it, she cheers for herself! Her teacher says Baby Clare loves to crawl over to the mini "ballet bar" to pull up to stand, then she smiles and kisses her reflection in the mirror.  Silly girl!

I hope to catch a video of Baby Clare pulling up soon, but in the meantime I was able to get this snap. Then Sean called out, "Looka me, Mommy! I standing too! Cheese! Cheese pizza!" Silly boy.

Mad?

Baby Clare's foot joined us at dinner tonight. Sean squealed "We don't eat feet!" and we all giggled and/or squealed and then Sean's mood suddenly turned serious.

He asked, "Are you mad, mommy? Are you eyes gonna get dark and you point you finger?"

Oh man. Mad mommy-face. He nailed it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Seanybear comes in for a smooch!

Kisses, Baby Clare!



Spring?

Has Spring sprung? It certainly seems so. Today was a beautiful day and I got home early enough so that I could walk the Sooy Babies home. This was my view - Baby Clare looking around and Sean lounging while munching on Cheerios and pretzels.

When we got home, we went to the park and then Daddy came home and we went to the backyard for some soccer fun...

Baby Clare wanted to join in so badly!

Soon, my little bird - you'll be walking in the grass and chasing Sean around soon enough!

Crawling crawling crawling

Baby Clare has a "crawl ball" that rolls and wiggles around the room on its own while playing music and lighting up. The ball is supposed to encourage her to crawl after it, but Baby Clare just likes to trap it under her belly and chew on the little ladybug on top of the ball:

Then she spots the camera and gets up on her hands and feet. She stays stuck in that little "downward dog" position...

Then gets up the gumption to crawl on her hands and knees...

But finds that army crawling is faster!

Potty time

We've been kinda-sorta potty training Sean for a few months. First we checked out books from the library about potty training and then we started to talk about it. We got the Pull-ups, and a little seat for Sean. He has been very reluctant to try it. Enter the M&Ms... they system is as follows: one M&M for trying the potty, two M&Ms for peeing, and five M&Ms for well, you know.

Sean's been getting one M&M every morning and night for awhile - which is good! Trying is great, but we're excited to note that just this morning Sean got TWO M&Ms and then this evening Sean got FIVE M&Ms!  Hooray for Sean!!

(And now the blog knows Sean's business. Sorry Sean, but potty training is exciting!)

10 months old!

Baby Clare - you're ten months old! What a quick month this has been - you are keeping us busy!

-Moving, moving, moving. You are always moving! You can now get yourself from crawling to sitting up, which makes you seem a lot more independent.

-No more purees for Baby Clare. You can eat pretty much all foods now and you seem to like everything that's put in front of you. You eat most of the school lunches and most nights you eat the same dinner as Sean! 

-You love to play peek-a-boo! It makes you giggle and squeal. You've even started to put your own hands over your eyes.

-You love "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Row Row Row Your Boat"

-You're such a sweet little bird - you love to get hugs and to get tickled. You can wave and you can blow kisses.

-You're teething again - some more of your bottom teeth are trying to break through. Tonight, you kept grabbing my hand, picking a finger, and gnawing away!

-You love reading books at bedtime with Sean and Mommy. While I read, you drink your "goodnight bottle" and play with Sean's hair and pat him on the arm - he seems to really like that!

-Getting a good photo of you and Pooh Bear together was impossible, but we gave it a good try:

Dinnertime conversation

Complete with "dragon voice," squealing and smashed sweet potatoes.