Fashionista

Here we have Josephine modeling the outfit she dressed herself in for school this morning.

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Five weeks old

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...and smiling

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Painting Rocks and Climbing Trees

This weekend was mostly spent in and around the house because both of the girls were down with a nasty cold and cough.  We had a great time just hanging out together, but not much to report.  (We did finally get caught up on laundry thanks to Grandma Fifi and all of her help!)

Last weekend was great. The weather was nice and we spent a lot of time in the yard. The highlights were both Josie-inspired.  She & Louie decided to collect and paint rocks to look like bugs, and Josie was very engaged in that work for most of the afternoon.

Later she got it in her mind that she wanted to climb her first tree. We have enormous trees in our yard - not the best for climbing unless you had a ladder to reach the lowest branch. Luckily Lou realized that we had the "perfect" tree in our side yard and up she went. I love this first one of her looking up at the tree. Her face says it all.

 
I love these moments when Josie tackles something that she previously thought herself too small or too young or too scared to do before. She was so unbelievably proud of herself after this. (Made very obvious by the fact that she first declared before climbing that I should bring the camera, later she announced that she would tell all of her teachers about this at school on Monday, then she asked if we could go get all the neighbors so they could see her in the tree.) 

Oh how we love our brave little girl!  This one is my favorite - if you haven't already noticed the headband that she rocked all weekend, I think this shot just about sums up Josie - climbing trees in princess shoes:

In other weekend news, spring arrived on our block!  I am trying with everything I have not to get my hopes up too high and to try to be realistic about what we can actually accomplish in our yard this summer. But for now I am just positively giddy about the tulips and and daffodils and green buds on all the trees!

And - we have a woodpecker! We hear him often and over the weekend we finally captured him on film (albeit blurry film).

And we definitely now know his favorite tree - with telltale holes all the way up and down the trunk - that little stinker.

Days like these confirm we made the right choice by leaving the city and getting a yard. We love it here in EWH!

Swingin & Slingin'

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Bea loves the sling. I love the sling. Josie loves the sling because I still have two free hands. Three cheers for baby-wearing.

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The days are long...

...but the months are short

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A lovely day

Today was the perfect day. Lou had enough time this morning to make me breakfast, Bea took a nice morning nap so I got a shower, the folks at Trader Joes were super helpful with getting my groceries to and inside the car and Bea cuddled the whole time in the moby wrap. I came home and got a load of laundry done, nursed Bea and then we headed to the carline to pick up Josie. It was such a gorgeous afternoon at seventy & sunny that we decided in the school parking lot to head directly to the park! And so we did. I was a little apprehensive about my first time with both of them on my own, but it was great!

On our walk through the field, Josie found a stick shaped like an "L" and wanted to spell a word. We quickly found a broken stick in the shape of a "V" and our minds were made up. Then we found an "O" mushroom and made an "E" out of flowers. She later added a leaf for an "I" and an acorn "U". We took a picture to send to daddy and then I snapped the rest of these to share with all of you.

All in all, a lovely day!!! The kind of day that just makes you feel lucky.

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Roly Poly Hamburger Helicopter Schneider

Josie dubbed the baby "Roly Poly" all the way back in the second trimester of the pregnancy when we told her we were having a girl.  (Here's the link to the video if you'd like to take a journey back to that moment.)  As the months passed, Roly Poly's name continued to grow until one day when I picked her up from school and her teachers informed me that Roly Poly now had a middle name - Hamburger Helicopter. I repeated the name "Roly Poly Hamburger Helicopter" back to Josie to make sure I had it right and she corrected me by adding our last name "Schneider" to the end.  So for months, that was the name for our little gal. And it definitely stuck. In fact, it stuck so much that I couldn't resist doing this: 

Baby Goo-Goo

As if Beatrice doesn't have enough nicknames already, we can now add "Baby Goo-Goo" to the list.  It just kind of happened as a result of a book Josie has with a character named Baby Goo-Goo and all of the sweet little faces Bea makes as the three of us sit and stare at her.  Here are some Baby Goo-Goo faces for you all to enjoy!

The nickname list to date:
* Roly, Roly Poly, Rolls & the latest derivation of this from Josie: "The Rollster"
* Bea (like "bee")
* Bea (like "bee-uh")
* And now...Baby Goo-Goo
* And how could I forget - Bunny! (Which I did originally forget but remember as soon as I hit "post." Both Bunny & Bun were nicknames all along - since the very beginning - when Josie told us she'd rather have a bunny than a brother or sister.)