Growing Up

There have been a few moments recently when I looked at Linnea and thought, "wow, she's really growing up." It's exciting and I'm happy for her, but it's also kind of sad. She's my first baby (well, second if I count Ringo, but still) and she's growing up! She's really exploring her independence these days, mostly by voicing her opinion...strongly. She's a gal who knows what she wants and goes after it. Oh, and I'm not going to say she hasn't been a little sassy lately too. I think I've already gotten the hands-on-hips with eye roll, "fine, mommy" a couple times. Yikes.

She's also developing her negotiating skills:
Scenario - Linnea and I are about to leave for her swimming lesson. Linnea wants to sit in Eliza's car seat in the back of the minivan.
Mommy: "Linnea, I'd like you to sit in your car seat closer to me, so I can reach you if you need anything."
Linnea: "Mommy, you could just throw me a sucker."

Here she is playing with the "big" girls at the park. These girls were in 5th grade...and she's already over half their size.

 

And here she is walking through the mall with her friend:

I think she's also developed her first slight crush on the neighbor-boy, Luke.

See?! 3 going on 13, right?! Yeeeeowzaaaa

Just Joey

Hi! I'm Joey, and I'm sweet...well, that's what people always say about me anyway. I don't really get it. I can throw some pretty serious tantrums. I guess my sweet moments must outweigh my not so sweet moments...

I don't complain when princess garb over takes my play space.

I mean, if the shoe fits, right??

And, really...purple enhances my baby blues!

I'm also good at sharing my toys, as long as I'm not "sharing" them with my sisters. My friend Julia is mega cute. Sharing with her isn't hard at all.

 

I even make sure to taste the toys before Juj does, so she doesn't taste anything yucky.

I'm not gonna lie...I'm pretty easily entertained. Oh, and bubbles make me super happy. 

Climbing in tubes makes me happy too, even if I get stuck sometimes...

Yep, I even look out for my buddy, Ringo.

So, if you think all that is "sweet," then call me sweet. Really, though, I'm just Joey.

Yep, we're twins...

Lizie-doodle's 'Do

Mom's always complaining about my poor sleep habits. Whatever. I showed her today with a 4-hour nap! Listen, yo, I sleep when I want to sleep.

I must say, though, that waking up from a long nap, can be a little rough...

It's like...really, mom? I wake up and you're right there with a camera in my face?? Sheesh

Yea, alright alright. I look pretty funny.

Ha! Check my 'do from the side. Yeeeaaayaahhh

Ok- enough is enough. Get me outa this crib!

Daddy's BIG "Angry" Oops!

Bath time for Lizie and Joey is no easy task. They splash like crazy and act like little water maniacs. The entire bathroom is drenched within minutes of them entering the tub. I'm not gonna lie...I kind of despise Lizie and Joey's bath time. So, to relieve me of the task, Daddy decided to tackle bath time while I entertained Linnea. Let's just say that tub time didn't last too long, but it's effects did...

Lizie and Joey were getting over a bout of the stomach flu, so they still had a bit of diarrhea. Yep, you can imagine where this story is going, right? Unfortunately, Daddy is mildly obsessed (okay TOTALLY obsessed) with Angry Birds, and thought he'd just play a "quick" game while watching the babies in the tub. NOT a good idea, Daddy. Shortly after tub time began, I hear Daddy yell, "I NEED HELP!" It didn't take me a fraction of a second to visualize what had happened...you got it, the tub was FILLED with diarrhea. The babies were bathing in their own poop. Gross. Daddy told me he wasn't sure when it happened because he was "kind of" into a round of Angry Bird. He said the babies might've been sitting in their poo for "I dunno, maybe a couple minutes." Well, if "a couple minutes" was an accurate time estimation, that would mean one thing: the babies definitely ingested poo. Great.

The next 3-4 days was a mess of disgusting blow out diapers. Joey and Eliza must have been so uncomfortable...my poor babies. The aftermath of Daddy's bath time was all on me (and our wonderful, patient, tolerant, understanding nanny). Fabulous. More hand washing, more laundry, more bed sheet changes, etc. Ugh. Let this be a lesson and reminder to parents everywhere: do NOT be a distracted bath-giver. You must commit fully to your bath-giving duties. Accidents happen in seconds...even poopy accidents. One or two games of Angry Birds is SO not worth excessive diarrhea. I don't care what level you're on. End of story.

Linnea talks up Florida...

Ugh...I've been waiting to get my hands on this computer. I'm not gonna lie and say I didn't try to pull it away from Lizie. Mommy saw me, though, and reminded me that I need to wait my turn...story of my life these days! Waiting is really hard, but I'm pretty good at it. Anyway, I have SO much to say! Lizie left off at a perfect point. Now I (as in Linnea) get to tell you all about our super fun trip to Florida!

Mommy and Daddy had been talking about the beach for months! They kept saying, "we're going on an airplane soon," but "soon" was such a long time. It seemed like FOREVER before we got on the airplane. When the day finally came, I was really excited. On the airplane, I sat in the seat right next to mommy. I didn't even have to sit in a car seat like Joey and Lizie. I'm such a big girl. Mommy made sure to bring her phone on the airplane (it has fun games), and Daddy got me an ipad, so I didn't even get bored!

We got to Florida really late at night, so I just went right to bed. In the morning, I couldn't wait to go to the beach and put my toes in the white, velvety sand. Siesta Key is the BEST!

I had so much fun building sand castles and jumping the waves in the ocean! It felt GREAT to be outside again. Lizie and Joey liked the beach too. They ran all over the place and kept Mommy and Daddy running too. It was kind of funny to watch them all scramble back and forth. Hehe

We did a lot of exciting things in Florida. One day, we went to this cool place called Jungle Gardens. I got to feed flamingos! Check it out:

...and Mommy thought there was no such thing as fun for the entire family! Hmph...we had a blast!

Now, what I'm about to tell you might shock you - Mommy and Daddy took me to DISNEY WORLD!!  ;-)  I think they must know how much I love Mickey and Minnie and all the Princess and Princes, because they took only ME! I got to go all by myself with Mommy and Daddy, and we even met Gigi and Bumpa there too! I could hardly contain my excitement about going in the castle for my lunch with Cinderella. I got to meet all my favorite princesses. It was a dream come true.

I felt so special that Cinderella invited ME to have lunch at her Royal Table. I was happy to finally meet her and show her my wand that lights up. She thought it was really cool.

Ariel came to see me during lunch too! She asked me if I made pies like Snow White, and then said I should make a seaweed pie. She was super funny.

Princess Aurora was really nice. She told me we were lucky to have hair the color of sunshine, and I agree!

I could hardly believe it when Snow White showed up at lunch too! I just love Snow White. Don't we look pretty curtsying in our dresses?

It was really neat to see Belle. I told her I was glad the Beast rescued her from the wolves.

I met even more Princesses and other Disney characters too, and I got to watch some cool shows, AND parades! Disney World might just be my favorite place in the whole wide world. I think it might be mommy's too.

As much fun as I had at Disney, I was happy to have a couple days back at the beach to relax. Daddy even taught me how to fly a kite, and I did it ALL by myself!

I was sad to leave Florida, but I'll be back next year. And next year, I'll be 4 years old!!

Catching up with Eliza...

Since Mom has been totally slacking on whole blogging thing, I decided to step in and get you all caught up. Now, let me tell you... a LOT has happened since Mommy last blogged. First of all, Joey and I turned 1 year old! We had a fabulous birthday at our Meemee's house. That Meemee really knows how to throw a party!
















Oh, and I looked adorable. Check me out:

The holiday season crept up on me. I hardly had time to catch my breath from my birthday party before Mommy was telling me it was a special day for turkey's...or something like that. Gigi and Bumpa made a ginormous spread of food and we all said "thanks" for stuff.

I said "thanks" for my binky and blanky...and cuddles with Mommy, of course.

It was nice to relax after eating SO much food. I said "thanks" for that too...

Right after that funny day for Turkey's, Mommy and Daddy put up a HUGE tree right in our living room. Weird, right?! It was kind of pretty, though, especially after Mommy and Linnea decorated it with a bunch of sparkly shiny things. I tried really hard to get my hands on the shiny things, but they were too high on the tree. Darnit. So, I decided to taste the tree instead:

It turns out the tree was part of a celebration Mommy called Christmas. It was Jesus' turn for a birthday party. I like that guy Jesus. Apparently he did me some kind of huge favor a long long time ago. He didn't even know me yet! I must be pretty special.

Christmas was majorly fun. I got to see almost everyone in my family, and they all gave me a bunch of toys! It doesn't get much better than that.

  

Things slowed down a little after Christmas. Mommy, Joey, and I went to ECFE on Wednesday mornings, but we don't go anymore. I didn't like it much. I would rather have been napping. I think Mommy was sad we dropped out, so she already signed us up again for next fall. We'll see if I like it better then. Mommy also signed up Joey and I for Little Gym. I REALLY like Little Gym. I get to run around and be all crazy. It's super cool. I'm so good at Little Gym, in fact, that I got an award. Yay me!

Okay, okay...Joey got one too.                                    

Well, that's about all I have for now. I think I'll pass it off to Linnea...she's bugging me for the computer anyway. Time for a nap. All this jabbering wore me out.  -- Lizie