Arts n' crafts

The Sooy Babies were enjoying some finger painting on the kitchen floor, when Baby Clare decided that she was all done.  I cleaned her up and was getting ready to clean up Sean when Baby Clare crawled over to Sean's artwork and decided to leave her own... imprint on his work:

Sippy Cup

Baby Clare has been practicing with the sippy cup!  She's getting better everyday and learning that the cup is more than an instrument for smashing up her dinner :-) Good thing I've got a couple of videos to remember these early days with the cup (just like we did with Sean).

Adventures in the grocery store

On our way back from the beach this past Sunday, we came upon the grocery store.  Although Sean had napped for about 20 minutes total that day and Clare was due for a bottle in 30 minutes, I decided to take a chance and go in for our weekly trip. 

Unfortunately, there were no two-baby shopping carts anywhere! But I pressed on, putting Clare in the Baby Bjorn (which she's wayyyy too big for!!) and Sean in the cart.  This worked okay for a little while - the kids giggled and pinched each other's noses, but then Baby Clare started to fuss in the cereal aisle. And then Sean started whimpering in the spaghetti aisle and finally in the coffee aisle he announced, "My butt hurts Mommy! Too much sitting today!" Yeesh. 

So I let him out to walk with me under the condition that if he strayed, I would take away the bagel he was munching on.  So with a happy Sean chatting and walking and a happy Baby Clare sitting in the cart, the trip went much smoother.

And thank goodness for bagels! They make everyone happy… except for the checkout lady who saw the bagel in Sean's hand and asked, "is that the only one he's eaten?"  I wanted to say something snappy, but just chuckled at the thought that my Sooy Babies probably could put away more than one bagel on a shopping trip if they tried.

Beachy Keen

Mommy took the Sooy Babies to the beach on Easter weekend and this past weekend since the weather was so warm and because Daddy needed some "peace and quiet" to finish up his Spring class - he's all done now and has the summer off - yay!  Anywho, here are some snaps of Sean and Baby Clare enjoying their time in the sand... in April!!

Sean loves playing in the sand!

Baby Clare and Mommy!

Baby Clare tests out the sand... it's NOT food!

She crawls over to Sean's "castle"

School Pictures!

We got Sean and Clare's Spring picture day photos back!  But first, let's take a look way, way, way back to September... Clare was 3 months old and Sean was settling into being two. Clare had a rough time, but Sean hammed it up, of course:

Fast-forward to March and we find that Baby Clare had a much better time!  She smiled, giggled and was super-adorable:  

Sean's pictures make me smile ear-to-ear each time I look at them:

The photos of the Sooy Babies together are great - here's fall 2011:

And Spring 2012:

Eleven Months!

Baby Clare!!!! You are eleven months old! You're almost one! Our little baby girl is growing bigger everyday! There are so many things you can do these days, it's hard to keep track!

- You are a cruising machine - you love to be up on your feet, as long as you have something to hold on to! You've been starting to get up on your hands and feet and you walk along like that for a few steps before you call someone over to help you out.

- You are getting so vocal! You use the "da" and "ba" sounds a lot and we can recognize rhythms and patterns to your babbling. You say "dadada" and clap your hands when you see Daddy and when you want my attention you can say "mamama"!

- Suddenly you're another little individual in our house. No longer content to just go along for the ride, you make sure we know what you're thinking and what you want to do!

- You are such a good eater! Right now, your favorites are bananas and peas but you really love just about anything that's put in front of you. You eagerly sign "more" to me and when you've finally had your fill you sign "all done!"

- You are such a silly bird! You love to play peek-a-boo, clap, and blow kisses.  

- You love to look at books and you pay close attention to the stories we read at booktime each night.  We know when we're reading a story you like because you push aside your nighttime bottle, sit up, and try to grab at the pages.

- You love your brother! You guys are starting to play together more and I think you're learning about being what it is to be a little sister. Sean will boss you around or take whatever toy you're playing with and you squeal or fuss, then you either move onto the next toy or you crawl into my lap for cuddles.

And here are your eleven month photos, which were kind of a challenge to get but I think we did okay:

On eating chocolate

Happy Easter! We had a fun weekend celebrating with family and... chocolate! Seanybear demonstrates how to truly savor a piece of chocolate:

First, sniff the chocolate, enjoying its aroma...

Next, rub it on your upper lip and cheeks to test the chocolate's texture because only the finest chocolate will leave you with a nice beard:

At last, it's time to EAT the chocolate!

Don't gobble it up! Take little bites!

Do a happy dance in your seat!

Yay!

Daycare pick-up

Sometimes when I pick the kids up from daycare, I don't know what to expect. Will the kids be in a good mood? How many times did Baby Clare get her clothes changed? Was Sean a good listener for his teacher? Will Baby Clare be having a bottle when I come to get her? Will I have to tear Sean away from the playground?

On this particular day, Baby Clare showed me how much she likes the mini ballet bar (the scene of this accident ):

And Sean's been playing in the pre-K classroom's dress-up closet. This is his "kooba helmet! I'm a kooba diver! I'm gonna go find Nemo and I'm gonna get him!"

I also find that he's charmed the vice principal into giving him a late afternoon snack - "How I eat my cereal bar? Mommy? Help!"

"Oh okay. I eating my snack!"

Arts and Crafts

At the end of each month, Baby Clare's teacher includes a nice stack of photos that she's taken of Baby Clare. March's photos included these gems of Baby Clare enjoying her St. Patrick's Day craft... a little too much.

"Yay! Finger-painting is fun! Hey..."

"I wonder... can I eat this? Is paint for eating?"

"Nope - paint is just for painting! Back to it!"

Egg Scramble

We'd been looking forward to taking the Sooy Babies to their first Easter egg hunt on Saturday, but the weather was not very cooperative. A steady drizzle following a whole night of rain would make for a soggy time, so the event was moved to the basement of the community center.

We waited patiently for the fun to start...

Due to the space constraints, the hunt turned into more of a scramble. 

Sean packed his little bucket up with eggs and then carefully picked his way through the crowd to Mommy and Daddy so we could crack open his eggs.

Then it was time for a big decision - whether to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap or not. Sean decided to only wave at the bunny - "Maybe I sit with him next year."

Looks like Baby Clare would have made the same choice.

Afterwards we ran some errands - coffee! - and Baby Clare snoozed with the prize Sean got for her at the egg hunt/scramble.

And here's Sean's breakdown of the morning's events: