Um....?

Who's been EATING my deodorant?

Spaghetti-Ohs!

I'm not sure if Gabby liked the scraper or the spaghetti-ohs more. 

Great Day for a Kite!

What to do on a Sunday when church is cancelled and there is a hurricane happening? Well, fly a kite, of course! 

The hurricane winds made for EXCELLENT kite-flying weather. Brooklynn was SO excited to finally be able to fly her kite. We've had it all summer and haven't been able to use it yet. We even brought it to the beach one day thinking it would for sure work there...but there was NO wind that day. 

In case you can't understand what she is saying, it's a BARBIE kite.

Sometimes we had a little trouble...but it was still lots of fun.

Tea Party

I came across our nice "tea party" dishes when I was cleaning out the storage room. I have been saving it for when Brooke was a little older but she did so good at the tea house (good meaning she didn't actually break anything) that I thought I could give it a try. I brought up my small table-in-a-bag and the tea party dishes and we had a Mommy/Brooklynn tea party! So fun. I can't wait to do this more often and someday with both of my girls.

Oh, AND she stole one of my brownies. What a silly girl.

Gabby LOVES Paper!

No, really. I mean she LOVES it. You can hold paper out and she will crawl across the room for it. She will take out any obstacle in her way in order to hold, bite, squish paper. It makes her SO happy. And when she starts eating it and then it has to get taken away because she breaks it off and ACTUALLY eats and sometimes chokes on it? She gets SO sad. So really we let her have it sometimes, but then try and distract her after a bit before she can eat it.
Brooklynn is learning not to leave her cards, papers, coloring books, stickers around or Gabby will find them and then eat them. This makes Brooklynn super mad.

Learning to Catch

We've been trying to teach Brooklynn how to catch. She's doing really well! She also LOVES to kick, still!

Hurricane Irene

So yeah, a hurricane is no big deal, right? Especially when we're SO far away from the ocean.
That was the jist of my thoughts before the hurricane. And I was planning a garage sale for Saturday. So I was a little more into the weather since I was going to be outside. And then I started watching the news. Hmmm...we were right in the MAIN destruction zone. I know Philly tends to over-react about storms. Like they predict a blizzard and the grocery stores are packed with people stocking up on canned goods, water, shovels...who knows what else? But basically people act like they aren't going to leave their houses until SPRING. And it's a little overkill. Mainly because we'll get maybe 2 inches of snow?

(I took a picture of this purchase made by the guy in front of me at Walmart.)

So at first I figured it was the same, and MAYBE we would get some rain, maybe lose power and there might be minimal flooding. But that would be it.
Did I mention I was planning a garage sale? And that all of our stuff was already down there, organized...and did I also mention that our garage gets a LOT of water in it anyway when it only rains a little? So naturally I was freaking out....moving everything back. I did go out and buy a ton of water and canned goods...just in case. The more news I watched the more I would get nervous. I still thought it would be fine and was expecting just power outages and maybe our garage would get some water in it. But how was I going to cook for our family with no power? The refrigerator wouldn't work, our stove wouldn't work....the AIR CONDITIONER wouldn't work.
And you know what? There was definite flooding very near us...but mostly in basements. Some towns had major flooding and I know it had to have sucked. I know a lot of places lost power...and ours flickered but it never went out. I was so thankful because several people went a LONG time without it getting turned back on.
And on Sunday? It was barely raining...and the wind made some awesome kite-flying weather. I bought Brooklynn a kite at the beginning of summer and it has never been windy enough to fly the thing. So we were finally able to. She LOVED it.
So all in all....glad I was prepared...thankful it wasn't worse than it was.

I taped the rain before we went to bed. I opened the door to our balcony and was getting rained on. (It has a roof over it, too.)

Friends

We got to spend the morning with Emily, Cece and Andy AND Julie, Owen and Lydia who came from Hershey. We got to meet sweet baby Lydia. What a little peanut.

What is it about my kids hating group pictures? (The saddest part? This is the BEST picture out of like 10)

 The babies. (Again...what is the deal?)

 After the picture Andy and Lydia hung out and snuggled for quite a while. It was so sweet.

Safe Keeping

I just love this picture. 

Strings

So "strings" is my security blanket from when I was a little girl. And imagine my surprise when I let Gabby play in a HUGE pile of stuffed animals and she goes for...my strings. There really is something about them!

Road to Crawling

For a while Gabby couldn't quite get the hang of crawling...she tried to crawl backwards, on her head.

Sometimes she knew she was close but couldn't QUITE get the hang of it...and would get really mad about it.

And of course her "spin" (like a clock)

Then she moved on to what I like to call "baby yoga"

Then she would get on all fours and "rock"

And then...SOON...she was crawling.

Look out, everyone. Here comes Gabby!
(We enjoyed this for about a week and now she is standing and "cruising"...oh boy. More on that later.)

Fun in a Box

I'm not sure what is so fun about sitting in a box. But it is.

The Curse of Aunt Erin

Erin used to be a biter. Like so bad she got kicked out of the nursery because of biting so many of the kids.

(Or something like that, I wasn't there.)

Josh told me I HAD to title this post that....and it had to catch up with one of the Beans eventually.

Gabby got bit today in the nursery....pretty hard. Right on her FACE. Poor Gabby.

The saddest part? She was in there for ONE song. ONE. That is some quick work.

I don't blame the kid who bit her. I kinda want to take a bite out of her, too...she's so squishy and chubby and I just kinda want to sink my teeth into her. (Except I'm old enough to know better...and I would never actually do it. But how can I blame another little baby?)

 OUCH. Poor Gabby.

Baby-Led Weaning

So I had no idea there was this entire method called "BabyLed Weaning." That is basically what we did with Brooklynn and I never knew that it was an actual "thing." So I learned about it and have been researching it and I'm loving it. It is basically what it sounds like and it's completely up to your baby what and how much food to give them. Both of my kids hated anything I've tried to actually FEED them. With Brooklynn I had to just kinda slop food on her tray and hope she would get enough into her mouth after "painting" with it, and then sticking her hands in her mouth. Then she started eating when she was able to do finger foods. Well...Gabby sort of took the initiative when she grabbed my pizza as her first food. I guess she is more of a take-charge kind of girl. 

Anyway, the whole theory is that your baby is capable and actually enjoys just eating BIGGER pieces of food they can hold onto and gnaw pieces of food off. Think an entire carrot, not bite sized pieces of carrot. This was a whole new revelation for me and so much easier than trying to force baby food down their mouths. I guess smaller, bite-sized pieces are MORE of a choking hazard than a bigger piece of food they chew on and get smaller bits off. We're still learning what is OK and what is not, but Gabby is LOVING it. She still hates when we try and give her baby food. Or try and "help" her eat at all. She wants to do it all herself. 

In case you are not sure what a mean...this is Gabby with normal baby food...

EVERY time we try and "feed" her anything on a spoon this is what happens. 

You can now understand why I decided to try something else.

Here is Gabby eating a tomato:

some corn on the cob:

and some chicken:

 She even likes sweet potato! 

The chicken bone was the biggest hit so far.

My Messy Eaters

My kids are just....MESSY. Especially Brooklynn. Gabby is trying to give a good running, but she's nothing compared to her sister. It's amazing that several times a day I have to wipe off several inches of slop from the table, floor, walls, my children...sometimes myself. 

You can't really tell from the picture, but Brooklynn's ENTIRE face was covered in a thick layer of cheese. It was NASTY. She just kept saying, "cheese!" I had to laugh...I guess she is taking that expression pretty literally.

But they look so cute. 

I found another great use for my handy scraper...it's GREAT for putting all of Gabby's food back in a pile before she spreads it all around again.

Babies

Remember how Brooklynn has to put all her babies to bed every night?

(Yeah, this happens ALL the time now. It's a very cute game, except when we are forced to bring several of them with us at all times whenever we go anywhere....I need a minivan just for Brooklynn's kids, let alone my OWN kids.)

Well, Brooklynn has become quite the little Mommy. She is always very conscious of where her babies are, if they're hungry or sleepy or awake...quite the next step from just pushing them around in a stroller. Now there are many more things we have to do including "rock her" and "hold her"and my favorite, "SHHHHHHHHHH....baby sleeping". Brooklynn is even insisting on holding her babies at the table...and she can barely reach her plate. I then have to remind her that the baby is asleep and I just lay her down nearby in a special "bed" I make for her. Sometimes this works...other times she insists that SOMEONE has to hold her.

I've been waiting for the day when Brooklynn would start nursing her babies. Well, the time has come. It is so cute. What I didn't prepare myself for is that her babies bite her, just like Gabby bites me sometimes. I guess Brooklynn is very aware of this happening.

My favorite is the video! "No no no! Naughty! Bite me!"

Hmmm...maybe she has heard me saying this lately.

Sink Bath

So...I never did give Brooklynn a bath in the sink. This whole time I figured it was more work to empty and clean the sink, then clean it again after we were done....boy did I miss out on a fun time! It is GREAT! Not only are we already in the kitchen, I can just plop her in the sink, fill it up and rinse all the food off of her. It's especially nice because I have to use LESS water than a tub and it's right at a good level so it's kinda like I'm washing really cute and chubby dishes. And I can still keep an eye on Brooklynn while she finishes her lunch or dinner. The only downside? I often forget to put a towel by the sink for when we're done. So then I get SOAKED.

This routine happens a few times a day...since my children are not capable of being mess-free.

All Gabby wants to do the entire time is chew on the faucet.

My favorite. Thanks, Josh, for capturing such a sweet little face.

My view...

the end.