a playdate

handsome boy, i should have cleaned the crumbs off!

maybe the cutest picture ever...
it's SOOOO fun to see them play together instead of beside each other (or yelling MINE!), and make each other laugh so hard by squeezing a squishy rubbery frog toy in each others nose and pretending to be totally grossed out by it.

benjamin, one of our newer and totally adorable friends

sure they play with trucks and trains, but they also try shoes on each other...no words were spoken, it was just understood.

super cute ben again

toy nest

harry potter sort of upside down

sweet jacob

he hosted the play date and tried so hard to be good, but sharing your toys with a ton of friends is very difficult, especially when you are 2 years old. he did very well, but occasionally gave the "stink eye"

goofy

i'm proud of her and i love her flower butt

good weather, and mom's club friends who are willing to share their homes, friendship, and food make a really lovely day. early springtime...then it got so cold again. such is life in new england.

sunshine makes me happy

dare devil (i was standing and looking up, not kneeling when i took this picture)

his eyes were watching us

spiky ball things

nice hole in tunnel

1 part spacing out + 1 part i know you're taking my picture and i'm trying not to act like i know

i think she looks like me here, holding blues clues on dvd of course

nice hair

no windows by couch

speedy

smug cuteness

hello

disgruntled carny

another disgruntled carny

i love her feet

laugh

chaperon

justine took this one that i love

zoey loves lowly

jonathan, "hmm, a girl at the wheel..."
zoey, "he has no idea i'm taking him to the princess store"

she's just like me

this morning, around 4 or 5am eric and i woke up to zoey crying in bed. i thought she was awake, until she said emphatically, "I DON'T WANT TO GO TO THE LIBRARY!!!" we giggled as quietly as possible, then waited for her to get up or call one of us over, but she went back to sleep. YESSSS! this was pretty telling, as it is what takes of a good deal of our days up...refusing to go anywhere, come back from anywhere, leave anywhere, stop doing anything, etc. etc.

i remember reading this somewhere, it must be a phase. change is hard, toddlers hate change. i wonder if it's harder for her or for me and eric. i'm guessing her because she takes longer to get over it. it's definitely more exhausting for us parents though. you know, the old, she FREAKS OUT and screams that she doesn't want to take a bath, then we get her in there, and she does the same thing about getting out. i think i might need to read up again on transitions.

i'm very bad at making transitions easy for her because i am so damn indecisive that i usually make last minute decisions. i do warn her that we have 5 more minutes to play if we have to leave a playmate's house or something like that...and i'm happy to say that she complies some of the time. still, the 1000 other times are there.

this stage seems to be all about bribes...a book on cd in the car, a candy in my bag, a new snack at the grocery store. today we went to our friend's house and instead of recognizing it as jacob and ben's house, when we pulled up the driveway, she said, "this is the house on veggie booty!" (that "health food" snack called "pirates booty" that she loves right this minute.

eric is still putting her (and himself) to bed every night. actually he's gotten very good at coming out before too late, so he and i get a little time to watch mind numbing shows on the laptop.

this weather is heavenly by the way. it has been sunny and in the 70s for the last three or so days! vitamin d is being soaked up as much as possible!

a visit

first zoey stuffed the "hay" in sophia's face, somehow thinking that was sharing with her

i fell in a swamp

zoey pretending to sleep, while sophia tackles her

zoey's first drawing of a face and body

they totally love each other

while eric was away, and scott was working, kristin, sophia, zoey and i had a three day date. sophia and zoey had random hugging sessions which broke our hearts, in a good way. they really enjoy each other's company i think.

avo's 90th birthday celebration

dad and his mom (avo) (it was ash wednesday, thus the mark on her forehead)

jason, christen and kohle (kohle popped up last minute, of course :) )

she blew out the candle in one breath!

she has great love for all her family members

zoey said this i kohle eating the candles

zoey couldn't stop talking about cake, all day, until she got some in her mouth

there's not much to say about getting very old, that hasn't been said before. although her body looks worn, she's still able to wish she was home instead of living in a nursing home...she's able to through a ball on the floor so zoey will go fetch it...she's able to blow out her birthday candle. she does think she's 88 however...and why not let her.