Shots :(

Poor baby got her shots today. She was not very happy about it, as you can imagine. Right before they stuck her she was smiling and cooing at the nurse. Finn was also very upset about her shots and even volunteered to take them for her. What a sweet big brother. She received her shots a little late, 11 weeks rather than 8. We had to reschedule her appointment and this was the earliest we could get her back in, which I was glad for. She is so tiny and I felt better about her being a little bigger. She was 12 pounds exactly, so she has moved up from the 25 to 50% in weight. Yeah! They measured her at 23 and 1/4th for height but I noticed that included her hair, which sticks up about an inch, so I am not sure how accurate it is. At that height it would make her have grown almost 4 inches since birth so I think it was a little off. Regardless, we know she is growing well. Finn was impressed with her 2 sparkley bandaids, which you can see on her legs.

Earth Day

I know that you are suppose to wait until Mother's Day to start planting, but being the big risk takers we are we decided to chance it. Earth Day was a gorgeous day so we celebrated with a picnic at the park, cleaning up trash and planting. After preschool, we picked up lunch and headed to the park for a picnic. When we got home, we picked up all the trash and old leaves that had blown in from the cornfield behind our place. Finally, we planted some new flowers. Finn got to pick out his flowers himself and chose some in his favorite color, red. He was responsible for planting his flowers and keeping them watered. He is very good at keeping them watered, I hope they are able to survive will all the love and care they are receiving. I weeded the area around my tree and planted some new flowers. I have since noticed that Finn "planted" some dandelions he had picked right where I had weeded. He just can't understand why our neighbor keeps trying to "kill the pretty yellow flowers". I love the bunches of dandelions he picks me every day. They are the most precious flowers I have ever received.

Pushing up

Lucie has been trying so hard to push up and get her head steady. Tummy time is not her favorite and it is a daily battle to get her to practice her head control. She either cries or falls asleep on her tummy. So we go for short but frequent bouts of time. She was really focusing tonight and managed to keep herself pushed up so she could look around a little. It seems to go better if one of us gets down there with her and encourage her to want to push up and see us. We have also been using her new musical seahorse to keep her pacified. She was 10 weeks old yesterday and looking so much bigger.

Volcanoes and "Splosions"

The volcano in Iceland has captured Finn's attention. He has watched it on TV, seen pictures in a magazine and had me look it up online. He loves making his own volcanoes and we have made plenty in the past week. Mommy and Finn made one that had a great "splosion" out of baking soda and vinegar. Then yesterday in the sandbox we made a couple out of the sand and water. Finn thinks that the large piles of rock near the quarry must be volcanoes and yesterday on the way to gymnastics he feared they would explode and bury Daddy's red car. The sandbox has been played with more in the last week then it has been since we bought it. Finn is probablly the only person in the world who is loving that volcano.

A Beautiful Spring Day and Friends

We met our neighbors shortly after Finn was born and found out that they also had a little girl born less than three weeks after he was born. We quickly became friends and our children have grown up sharing in many experiences together. We celebrate birthdays, holidays, parades and beautiful Spring days. Our littlest have now joined us and are less than six months apart. I believe this picture may be the first of all four together.

Already this Spring we have had many trips to the park, picnics and even a slide or two down the slip and slide. The weather had been gorgeous and we are taking ample opportunity to be outside enjoying it.

My Little Ladybug

My little ladybug looks so sweet in all her ladybug gear. Finn has always been my little lovebug and now Lucie is my little ladybug. I can't resist buying her ladybug clothes and accesories when I see them. She actually seems to like her ladybug glasses and smiles when we put them on her.

Patterns

Over the winter we did a lot of work on making patterns. We made patterns out of shapes, colors, blocks, beads, etc. Most of the time I initiated these activities and asked Finn what came next. Lately, he has started making them on his own. He beaded a necklace with an A B C pattern and has been making patterns out of his coloring. He even makes lunch time into patterns- a bite of spaghetti, a bite of peaches, a bite of spaghetti, a bite of peaches, etc. Yesterday, he came running into the kitchen telling me to come see the AB pattern he had made. He was so excited that he could make a pattern using red and blue cars from Cars. I also realized that we really have a ridiculous amount of Lightening McQueens. It is so exciting to see the lessons I have begun teaching him take root and watch him explore them on his own.

"Mommy, look she's smiling!"

I hear this phrase so many times a day and everytime I also break into a smile. Finn is falling more in love with his sister everyday. She is becoming so much more personable and he loves interacting with her. He will talk to her, give her kisses and

make faces that make her break out with her new big smile. She started smiling a couple weeks ago but she smiled more at her friend, the fan, than she did towards her family. Now she is smiling in response to our smiles and to our many attempts to see her beautiful smile. At night when she is suppouse to be sleeping, I will look over and she will give me her biggest, brightest smile. I feel like she is saying, "see how cute I am, don't you want to pick me up". It is so much fun for Brian and I to see our two children having fun together, we could just watch them forever.

2 Months Old!

Our little Lucie is already two months old. I just can't belive how fast time is flying by. Many times I think how I wish I could just slow it down, I know someday I will look upon these days as the best in my life. I am so grateful to be able to be at home with my two young children. I wish I could keep them little and all mine for longer, but soon I will have to share them.

Lulu is a beautiful baby with dark, curly hair like mine and blue eyes, though it is too soon to know if they will stay blue. She is happiest when being held and would prefer to take all her naps this way. She is staying awake more now and very alert. We are all so much in love with her and our family of four feels like it has been this way for much longer than 2 months.

Wearing My Shades

While her brother played in the rain, Lucie prepared for sunnier days trying on her new shades.

It's Raining, It's Pouring....

Spring has started with lots of rain and storms. The weather is all over the place with temperatures ranging from 84 to 30. Finn has really been wanting to play in the rain, but usually when it rains it storms. We walked to the park the other day and had to run home being chased by a storm. The second the kids stepped on the playground we saw lightening. We were with Emily and her kids, so between us we had 2 babies, 2 strollers, 2 scared preschoolers, and one bike all going uphill. Not the best park experience. Despite crying halfway home about being scared of the storm, once we got home he wanted to go back out and play in it. I explained that you can't play in rain when it is lightening, but we had another chance the next morning when it was gently raining minus the thunder and lightening. Finn put on his fireman rain boots his "Mine" (Grandma) had got him and his duck raincoat. He liked splashing in the one puddle he found but also thought that it was pretty cold rain.

Spring is here!

In between storms we are trying to get outside to enjoy the warmer weather. Our days are full of picnics, park visits and outside play. Finn has been thrilled to be riding his assortment of bikes, big wheels and trikes. He likes to park them all together in the driveway to make a parking lot and gas station. Today he rode his bike around all afternoon while Lucie and I sat and watched him. We are so very happy to be outside again!

A Tisket, A Tasket, A Baby in a Basket

Finn and Mommy thought it would be funny to put Baby Lucie in an Easter basket. Finn added some eggs and just kept laughing. The look on her face shows that she may not have been as amused as we were. She looks rather confused to why she is in a basket.

Baby Bunny

Our sweet little baby bunny.

Easter

We had a beautiful Easter despite Lucille having her first cold. We went to Egg Hunts and the MOPS Easter party. That night we dyed easter eggs and set our baskets out for the bunny to fill. On Sunday morning Finn woke up early and before his eyes were even open he asked if the bunny had found our eggs to hide. Sure enough he had and had left great baskets for both kids. It was so much fun to have our first holiday (besides Valentine's Day) with 2 children. Finn loved his basket and enjoyed showing Lucie what was in hers. After baskets, eggs and hot cross buns we headed to Bettendorf for Easter brunch.

Egg Dying

Finn had been asking to dye eggs for weeks so he was thrilled when it was finally time. He could barely wait for me to fill the cups before he was putting the eggs in. His favorite color is red but the red dye turns out pink, which he adamently declared was not his favorite, so he went with blue. He told me that Lucie's favorite color was yellow but that she wanted a green egg. This was the first year where he was really able to dye all his eggs with very little help and he did a great job, they were beautiful!

Sweet Dreams

One of my favorite parts of the day is bedtime, that is when it goes well. We always do baths before bed and I love the smell of my fresh out of the bath babies. Wet hair snuggled underneath my chin as we read our bedtime books will be one of my favorite memories of raising young children. Right now Finn is loving the Max and Ruby and Little Critter books. After reading the Little Critter books, we flip the book over to look at the mini images of all the different titles and we have to go over each one. We talk about which ones we have read, which we have and what one he wants to get next. We have been reading books together since the day I brought Finn home from the hospital. At that time we read I Love You Through and Through every night. He now can read the book to Lucie. After baths and books we head to the bedroom for prayers and night songs. We sing Rockabye Baby, You Are My Sunshine and Twinkle Twinkle every night. Somewhere along the line Brian and Finn began singing God Bless America together, which Finn now can sing by himself. I love bedtime and will be so sad when he no longer needs us to go through his routine, but I hope we have many more years of sweet bedtimes together.