Four Years Old

Ever since she went to a party at Monkey Joes, Violet has talked of nothing else. Finally she got to have her own birthday party at the "bouncy place" as she calls it, and it was so much fun. I booked the earliest slot in the morning and we practically had the place to ourselves! The guest were a nice combination of school friends and neighborhood kids and everyone had fun. Girlfriend is already talking about having her next party there! (Um, no.)

My four-year-old!

Choosing this cake practically took an act of congress!

No party is complete without a dum-dum tree!

Slumber Party!

Dinner time!

When we found out Violet's BFF Emma wouldn't be able to make it to her birthday party, I knew we had to find a way for these girls to celebrate together. Cue their first ever slumber party! They talked about it forever; even Violet's speech teacher knew the big event was coming! They had dinner, watched a movie with popcorn, played, slept, played some more. It was a huge success!

Movie time!

Silly time!

Eventually I went upstairs and laid between them so they would stop being silly and go to sleep!

Painting in the morning.

My Funny Valentine

Heading out on a daddy-daughter date night at the movies!

We're having a quite Valentine's Day. It's the way I prefer it. We all headed to our respective jobs and schools after a week of snowed-in togetherness. We had dinner at our neighbor's house. Then Matt took Violet out on a movie date night while I stayed in with my littlest Valentine. Sometimes keeping it simple is the sweetest.

Love them so!

Google's auto-awesome feature cracks me up!

This was my Valentine's date for the night. She went to bed after plenty of giggles.

When I told Violet I wanted to take a Valentine's picture of my two girls, she spontaneously kissed Annie's hand. So sweet!

Snowed In and Out

It was back to work for me today. A teacher workday, and a delayed opening, but if I'm this exhausted after a day without kids, I don't know how I'm ever going to work another full week again! It was lovely having so much time at home with my family again. Here are some of the memories we made:

When I finally convinced Violet to go outside (she doesn't like how wet the snow is), she discovered she actually loved it, especially when I told her she was allowed to taste the snow. She insisted on taking a bite out of every snowball she made.

Living on a golf course makes for a beautiful backyard.

Our Frosty.

Snowman photobomb!

What a scene to wake up to!

Cereal, the Circus, and More Snow

So I'm sitting here, still in my pjs at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday. That's right, it's another snow day! I'll take it. With every weekend already booked up, it's nice to have a break in the middle of the week. Annie is napping upstairs, I've been watching the Olympics non-stop, Violet is keeping herself busy making "love bugs" with her fingertips and a stamp pad. It's all very cozy.

Snow fall outside the nursery window.

Since my last update, Annie has really gotten the hang of this eating thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure she prefers her cereal to the bottle now. I can't seem to feed her fast enough! She's tried pears, apples, sweet potatoes and squash, and seems equally happy with all of them. Neighborhood dinners are much more fun now that she can participate. Amy swears that the reason Annie would get so fussy at the table is because she was feeling left out - and I think she was right! The Bug gets cereal at school (her teachers were impressed at how good she is at eating already!) and again at dinnertime. She's cutting down on how many ounces she'll drink now, but she's making up for it with food (and seems just as happy and healthy as ever).

Nom nom nom.

Physical therapy continues. Neck stretching is in maintenance mode and now we're focusing on arm strength and movement. So PT is now fun, with lots of playing with toys and reaching for things and me jumping around like an idiot getting Annie to turn her head this way and that.

This past weekend we went to the circus with the neighbors. We went last year as well, and now that Violet knew what to expect, she was even more into it. I love the circus. Annie was fabulous. She hung out with me in the moby wrap or on my lap. Then at one point, we realized both our girls were asleep! It was an exhausting, cotton-candy filled extravaganza.

At the circus!

Random picture Violet took of Annie on our way to church.

Gus "helping" me grade papers this morning.

There's no word yet on how long our snow-cation will last this time, although the snow is being replaced by rain, which they say will turn to ice tonight. So that's promising. Here's hoping we don't lose power. Going to Publix yesterday afternoon was an adventure - I kept buying things I didn't need, just because it seemed so important to stock up. There were no bananas, bread, cinnamon rolls, salad, barely milk... it's crazy. Georgia seems so determined not to get caught unawares again that we've completely overreacted. The news keeps using words like: event of historical proportions, crippling ice, catastrophic, significant... I actually checked the batteries in our flashlights this morning, just in case! I'll keep you posted on what ends up happening.

Annie at Four Months

Happy at school!

Annie finally had her four month check up and shots. We had to reschedule a few times due to the snow and ice, but we made it in on Thursday. A quick run-down of stats: weight 14.14 (75th percentile), head (95 percentile - no wonder tummy time is such a chore!), height 25 1/2 (90th percentile).

We saw a different pediatrician than our usual doctor, but it was nice to get a fresh set of eyes. While the doctor didn't totally blow off my concerns with a breezy "everything's fine, you're a crazy mom," she also didn't go overboard with "your baby's broken, why can't she roll over yet, call the specialist!" We were on healthy middle ground. The verdict - more tummy time for this chunky monkey, and we'll start worrying at six months. (Violet didn't roll over until the day she turned six months, so there is a family history of late rolling.)

So I'll try to not freak out when Instagram is full of babies who are Annie's age and rolling all over the place. To each their own path, right? It's the advice I would give any other mother in my position, but man is it hard to follow when it's your own baby.