Little Reader

Both of my babies love to read and be read to, but I think it's so much more fun when they read to me. The babies woke up super late this morning (they missed one of their naps yesterday, so I think they were wiped out). Ella woke up first, a little before 10 a.m., after going down at 7:30 the night before (Evan didn't get up until 11:00 a.m.!!!). It was fun visiting and playing with just one at a time, so Ella and I played with her blocks, snuggled, read stories, and rearranged a cupboard (not my idea). Later on she sat her chair and started reading me a story. It's so cute to hear her tell me all the things in the book, what sounds they make, or what they're doing in the picture. Before I turned on the camera she had turned to some pages and said, "baby night-night" and "baby bath". Most things she says anymore are two-three words long-- so fun!





Here's a little clip of Ella telling me about her book (sorry, not as detailed as most times, but you get the idea)...

The Pianists

Ella and Evan really enjoy playing grandma's piano when we visit her house. I think they play pretty well! What do you think? =)

Dancey-Dance!

Evan just loves to dance! Anytime he hears music from anywhere, he starts shaking his arms and rocking back and forth. His "moves" keep getting funnier and funnier each day! Ella likes to dance too, but she usually does so in the form of bouncing up and down! =) Here's a short clip of Evan dancing. He likes to turn the clock hands on their house and wait for the music to play so he can dance!

Chairs

I had mentioned before the issue with having only one chair for Ella and Evan. You can tell by these pictures that they're not too happy to share all the time. They're both pretty stubborn (more Ella) and don't want to get out. I decided that it would be best if I went and purchased another chair just like this one... and what a great choice it was! They both love to sit in their chairs next to each other! =) Here are some of the things they enjoy doing while sitting in their chairs...

And yes, Ella is wearing boy pjs. It's been too hot to wear long sleeved pjs and that's all she had, so she's wearing Buddy's! She didn't seem to care! =)
Look at those two fighting!

Enjoying a good book! Their favorite right now (both of them) is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Reading and building blocks

The Cleaners

The babies have discovered the Swiffer cleaning wand ("cleaning stick") and love to clean everything with it! They help me clean the floors (including carpet), rugs, shutters, couch, you name it! What good little helpers I have! =)

Here's a short clip of Evan cleaning the carpet!

Couch

Bean and Buddy just LOVE to sit up on the couch. And, unfortunately, if they try hard enough they can climb up them. Hmph. They love to sit up there with us, eat their snacks, play, read books, and watch their favorite t.v. program-- Yo Gabba Gabba! It is their favorite by far (even above Sesame Street!). Here's my little monkeys...

Enjoying some graham crackers and milk for snack time!

And here they are cuddled up watching, Yo Gabba Gabba with daddy.

Secret Hiding Place 2

Ella and Evan had fun sharing their secret hiding place with their cousins the other day...

Proud Bean

My babies just love playing with their blocks! And Ella LOVES to build big tall structures with hers! She'll sit in her chair and build away and likes to show us her creations! Often times she likes to color coordinate and build some that are all like colors. You can see by this picture that she started off with mostly red and moved to yellow. She's my funny girl! =)

Spoons!

I have just recently given Ella and Evan a chance to eat with spoons. I feel like such a bad mom not doing it sooner, but it hasn't always seemed needed either. The foods that they usually eat don't need a spoon and/or fork, and if they needed one, I would just quickly feed it to them (i.e. yogurt, applesauce)... everything else they just eat with their hands. They absolutely love playing with spoons though and pretend to eat from a bowl, etc., so I decided it was time for the real deal. It went pretty well, although they'd ask for "help" every once in a while and I'd put some on their spoon and they'd take it to their mouth. They'll learn though! =)

Daddy's Day!

We had a great day celebrating Father's Day for Greg. We woke up and fixed daddy some cinnamon roles for breakfast and then got ready for church. The babies did a great job going to the nursery for the very first time at church today. Up until then I was way too worried about leaving them and all the icky germs they could get! They had a fun time coloring, playing with bubbles and other toys and, of course, snack time! They supposedly sat next to each other at the table and ate some Ritz crackers. When we picked them up they seemed to be following "the flow" of people going towards the door as lots of kids were leaving the room. I saw them and they were perfectly fine until the spotted me and then COMPLETE meltdown! Poor babies! They missed their morning nap and it was lunch time and time for a nap so we thought they did exceptionally well. Greg and I are just hoping they don't get wise to the whole nursery thing and know that going to the nursery means being away from mommy and daddy. Hope not.

We came home and took a nap and then headed over to my sister's house for some more celebrating with my family. We had a nice time visiting and eating lots of yummy food. And the babies had a great time playing with their cousins too!

It's not for a while, but the babies and I got daddy some Jack Johnson tickets for early October. We love Jack Johnson, but the last couple of years I haven't noticed that he's been in our area, not that we would have had the time to go anyway! =) We're looking forward to that though!

Happy Father's Day, Greg! You are a great daddy to our babies and a wonderful husband to me! I'm so thankful for all the great dads in my life! Happy Father's Day!

Giving daddy big hugs!

Bean off and exploring...

The dads hangin' out...

Ella and Evan wanted to sit at the big kids table! They would sit in the chairs, get down, sit in the chair, get down... forever!

Running to see the dog outside!

They love Hans!

Water Table

Greg and I purchased a water/sand table that I saw at Costco MONTHS ago. The spring weather was still pretty icky, with fairly low temperatures, so I wasn't really rushed to get it out and set it up. The California weather has definitely warmed up and I decided it was time to bust the table out. Right before the babies' afternoon nap I brought in the huge box from the garage. The sight of a box (let alone a GIANT one) is enough to get the babies all excited and worked up with lots of squealing and clapping of hands. Too cute! They helped me take out all the pieces, climb on the box (later collapsing it-- heavy load!), and turning the umbrella pole into a sword. It was so cute because I'd bring pieces over to assemble and they'd bring pieces over as well and gently lay it on the table. Such good little helpers I have! We haven't officially tried it out with water OR sand, but they seemed to enjoy playing with it in the kitchen just the same. I'm sure we'll be splish-splashin' tomorrow! Check back for those fun pictures... =)

Before Bed

We got the babies home super late tonight (8:30 p.m. when they're usually down by 7:30!), but we had decided to go to dinner after our workout-- sounds right, huh? =)

By the time I got them changed, washed their feet and hands (no time for bath tonight), played with a few toys and daddy, and read a few stories it was a little after 9!!! One of the babies' favorite things to do now is crawl up the stairs for nap time and bedtime. They think it's so fun and walk right toward the room (although Evan usually makes a hard right for my craft room if the door is open!). Evan will usually walk over to the ottoman and turn on the starry light turtle and then they both head over to the book and/or toy baskets. We then usually rock in the chair together, sing some songs, say our prayers, and then to la-la land we go. Boy do I love these babies! =)

Starting up...

round the corner...

almost there...

and run through the loft to their room!

and go straight for the toy and book bins! =)

And have to make sure that turtle is on!