Easter Party

Today I threw an Easter party and invited a few of Isabella's and Olivia's friends over for egg decorating, an Easter egg hunt and of course, food.
Isabella and Olivia must be sisters because they didn't quite grasp the concept of finding eggs, filling your basket and then eating the candy. Instead, they each stopped at the first egg they found, opened it and began devouring the candy while watching the other kids hunt for eggs. Kind of cute.
Olivia is so adorable because she gets so incredibly excited when she opens an egg and finds candy, she then tries to fit all 8 jelly beans into her mouth at once.
I think all of the kids and moms had a great time. Easter is definitely my favorite holiday.

Taking the plunge

I've decided that at the end of May I'm quitting my job and staying home full time with the girls and soon to be little guy. I"m also postponing school for a year. I've given this decision a lot of thought and feel that it's the best thing for our family right now. Jason's job has become incredibly demanding and that coupled with school makes for an almost absent father. So, looks like mom's going to have to take up the slack. I'm excited but realistic about the demands of being a full time mom. The girls are a lot of fun but obviously a lot of work.
Isabella is wonderful but is definitely at the stage of testing the limits and exerting her independence. Olivia is at a super fun stage but sometimes hard to keep up with and if I leave the girls alone for too long, someone starts crying and it usually isn't Isabella.
Despite the little hiccups, there is nothing else I'd rather be doing at this stage of life. I'm looking forward to the end of May.

The Children's Museum

Either I've forgotten how quickly kids learn or it's just that Olivia is actually picking up things more quickly than Isabella did because she has an older sister.
Today we went to the Please Touch Museum and both of the girls had such a great time. They both spent about 30 minutes at the "doctors office" where they cared for their baby dolls. Olivia loved carrying around her large, heavy plastic baby and changing it's diaper, putting baby powder on it and giving it a bottle. She also became upset when someone would try and swipe her baby. Once when this happened, Isabella took note and immediately told me so that I could make things right. I thought it was actually pretty cool that she was looking out for her little sister.
They also spent a lot of time pushing their baskets around the "grocery store" and cooking in the kitchen. Music time was fun as they both sat there drumming on buckets and singing along to a girl playing the guitar. Last time we were there, ballerinas performed and the girls were transfixed. I really love this museum.

The Ice Cream Cake

We also celebrated Darwin's B-day this weekend and to do so, we changed things up and purchased an ice cream cake from Cold Stone. It was delicious, ask the girls.
Ice Cream Face

More zoo fun

A video of the girls at the petting zoo.
(will only work if you have QuickTime or iTunes)

A perfect first day of Spring

Saturday could not have been more picturesque when you think of the perfect Spring day. The sun was shining all day and the temps reached the 70's. Lytle and Darwin made the trip to see us (well, to see the girls really) so we decided to enjoy a family trip to the Philly Zoo. The girls had an awesome time. Isabella is at the perfect age now to enjoy and really understand what she's seeing at the zoo. Olivia just loved walking everywhere and did get really excited when she saw different animals.
The girls both loved the petting zoo. We have a family membership so I'm sure we'll frequent this locale many times this summer.

MRI follow up

Olivia's MRI was scheduled for this Monday but again, we had to cancel. We've rescheduled three times now due to illness and weather. This time I felt she was just too congested to be safely sedated. So instead, we went to her pediatrician so that he could evaluate her as she's had a runny nose and a congested sounding cough for almost two weeks. He took a look into her left ear and yep...another infection. I think there is something wrong with the drainage of her eustacian tube on that side because she's had a chronic infection since January (off and on). This time she's on two weeks of abx and a week of steroids. Also, he remeasured her head circumference and it looks like this little one just has a big head. I've really been stressed about having to sedate her and put her through that miserable experience of the IV, meds, etc just to do an MRI which most likely is normal. Anyway, we're just going to monitor her growth and take it from there. I'm relieved. Other than a runny nose and an occasional cough you'd never know she has an ear infection. She's been such a happy baby and now that it's warming up outside, she's even happier to spend all day running around outdoors.

A week later

It's been about a week since I planted a few little seeds and I'm happy to report that they are really growing. It's now time to thin them out (cut off the ones that are smaller) so that the heartier ones aren't competing for nutrients and water. My only disappointment is that my peppers haven't sprouted, perhaps they take a little more time. We'll see. It's been a lot of fun watching them grow.

The outdoors

After several months of hibernation, the weather is finally warming up. Well, if you call 50's and a high of 60 warm. I'll take it. It's fun to see Olivia exploring outside. She absolutely loves Isabella's Dora bike even though she has a bit of growing to do before she can actually ride it.

Good Morning!

Isabella took bed head to a whole new level this morning. Unbelievable.

Sowing seeds

I'm jumping in feet first to gardening this year. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but I'm giving it a good try. I started out a few weeks ago by checking out several books from the library on gardening and particularly, gardening in NJ. I researched who I should purchase the my seeds from and finally decided on Hudson Valley Seed Library. My seeds arrived yesterday so the girls and I took a trip to Lowe's today to get the rest of the supplies. I decided to play it safe and bought a seed starting kit because again...I don't really know what I'm doing. The little babies are sitting on my kitchen counter right now with a heating pad underneath them and a lamp overhead to provide them with adequate heat. I hope this experiment works.

Growing up

After I bathe the girls and put their pj's on, we usually hang out in Isabella's room and play and read books. Tonight Olivia grabbed a hot pink purse, clutched it tightly as she gave me a kiss, said "bye" and walked out the door. Gosh....they grow up quickly.

A free spirit

Olivia is turning out to be quite the free spirited little girl. She has little fear of anything and loves trying to find the highest spot in our house to climb onto. She already wants to walk down the stairs the way I do and her favorite thing is to climb onto any chair in the house and sit on it, the higher the better. She also loves rocking in the rocking chair in Isabella's room all by herself of course. In contrast, Isabella has always been the cautious one when it comes to physical feats.

This Sunday I spent the last two hours of church in nursery with the girls because I just didn't feel like hassling with chasing Olivia around the various classes. It was fun to see her in action around older kids. She just gets in the middle of the action and fights for her place. She has no fear of the older kids and when she sees something she wants, she'll do anything in her power to get it. The last 15 minutes of nursery is music time and Olivia was just one of the crowd sitting in her chair and completely involved in the songs, even doing the hand motions to most of them. It was so cute to see this little person just enjoying it all as if she'd been there many times before.

Homemade popsicles

Isabella kept asking for popscicles yesterday so today I decided we'd make them. She loved stirring the concoction on the stove and asked about one hundred times if the popsicles were ready yet. They turned out great and are super easy. I'm sure they'll be a summer staple in our house....if summer ever gets here that is.

Beginning of the end

I think it's a bad sign that I thoroughly enjoyed cleaning out my fridge more than studying yesterday. Looks pretty good, huh?

Detox

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the things we put into our body can seem totally benign but are potentially extremely harmful. I listened to an interview on NPR today with the authors of this book and found it interesting. In addition, after reading Michael Pollan's book I have a greater understanding about the history of the American diet and a new found awareness about the everyday foods we eat. I try to eat a healthy diet, but I'm also extremely practical and find that paying three times as much for organic produce seems like a waste of money. I've committed to buying only organic meats and eggs and that has been pretty simple, but I haven't yet embraced the organic produce aisle. I'm also going to make a better effort to purchase milk that is rBGH free. I've been pretty good about it in the past but have slacked off lately. Being vigilant about the food choices we make now goes above and beyond healthy eating. Because of the girls, I now feel even more compelled to make the right choices. I put our name in a lottery for a garden plot in our neighborhood and I'll find out later this month if we won a coveted spot. Fingers crossed.

I'm contemplating...

disconnecting the internet while I'm studying right now. The internet is such a distraction sometimes. I love it, but what I'm going to love even more is kicking "A" on this pharmacology exam. Focus, focus, focus.