Pancake Chef Charlie Mac!

Charlie Mac's favorite breakfast food is pancakes - and this morning he got to help make them "On a weal stove" See how proud he is flipping ("fwipping") all on his own! Willa Ann certainly enjoyed the fruits of his labor! She said "pah-cay!"

New Bikes!

Whilst I've been exorcising Sinus Demon 2009, Bradley has been playing Super Dad. He's been on his own with the kids for the last day and has not only painted CMac's room and part of the kitchen, he also took the kids to get NEW BIKES!!! I took a few minutes outside to see them ride on them. Willa Ann was more interested in her "juice" but Charlie Mac is really taking off on his bike. He told me it was a Roll Tide bike, which I'm sure would make my mom excited, but I had to correct him - it's clearly a Hotty Toddy ride.
Are you ready???

 

I wonder if my constantly telling him he's so handsome will have a negative effect some day?? nah.

her "cheese" face is hysterical

gimme dat sugah!

aunt augusta took a spin

I don't suggest you try to take this water bottle from her....

Charlie Mac starts Montesorri and Willa Ann finds a slide just her size!

Well, I have to say that I've just not been able to keep this blog up the way I wanted to this last year. While I truly love working and have absolutely enjoyed the jobs I've had here in Oxford, my heart has broken a little every day for the last two years being away from my babies for all but a few waking hours every day. With that in mind, we've made some huge changes around our house for lots of very good reasons and I'm going to have a lot more time for my most important job: Mama.  I am also working on my masters degree and the career that I hope to build from that - but being Mama is the most important. I hope to be able to "fill in" with "flashback" posts from the past year.

For now, please see the pics below from CMac's first day of Montessori school. He loved it so much that he cried when we left! The first few days are only an hour long each, so Willa Ann and I wiled the time away at a park nearby. It was especially fun because there was play equipment (funny phrase, that) just her size! That's rare around here and it was great fun for her to be able to freely climb and slide when she's usually being at least "spotted" by me if not kept off big kid equipment entirely. We'll probably make this part of our mornings every day when the weather's nice!

A big grin from my handsome fella









Oh look! A pecan! I love his precious excitement over everything.

Climbed up all by herself!

ready?

get set!

go!

wee!!
and back around for more!!!

toothy grins on the way, chores to get to Sesame Street

or toothier I should say. Willa Ann is currently sprouting four more teeth to add to her current four little mouse teeth. She's growing up so fast!
This morning I was blow drying my hair. Instead of playing with whatever she can grab as per usual, Little Miss went and opened a drawer, got out a hair brush and started to brush her own wispy cap. She seriously melts my heart constantly.

Charlie Mac is learning to do chores, or "choys" as he calls them. He gets to watch Sesame Street if he completes his tasks of the day. He "sweeps" or helps take out the compost or something like that. Until today he's been excited and proud - and maybe we didn't give him enough time after he woke up (he slept later than usual and we were headed out the door), but he said simply "no" when I told him he could sweep today. Ha! Hopefully he did it after all. Little man.

Oh mis bebes!!!

little working man

Charlie Mac has informed us of several "jobs" he's had over the last few months. Of particular note is "watching TV." It seems as though his career has taken a turn towards the philanthropic however, and his new post is "Protecting Baby Sister."

I know, I'm melting too. :-)

Willa Ann in the morning

Willa Ann comes into bed with us still at some point in the night. Usually around 1 or 2 - which is fine. When it's midnight or 3, it's usually a bit of a job - but at 2 it's OK. She's like a clock when it comes time to her breakfast though - and that's 5 a.m. I usually wrestle/nurse her for about an hour before she reaches the point of no return and at that point she's kind enough to let us know it's time to give up and get up by kissing our faces. So sweeeeet! Makes up for the fact that I haven't slept more than 2-4 hours in a row for four years now.

WILLA ANN IS SO FUNNY!!

Today she came into the living room carrying her sparkly red shoes that her Aunt Augusta gave her for Christmas and set them on the coffee table. She walked over to Trina and grabbed at her and gestured to her shoes on the coffee table. Trina picked them up and told her they were pretty and put them on the table again.
This is not the reaction that our little diva was going for.
She fussed and pulled on Trina and pointed at her red sparkly shoes until Trina got the message. She took off the (apparently unsatisfactory) shoes that Willa Ann was wearing and replaced them with the red sparkly converse shoes. Willa Ann proceeded to prance around the house and stare at her feet.
I am so proud.

p.s. she had to pull out her shoe bin from under her changing table and go through it to get to them. She just turned 1. Brilliance!!! :-D 

ICE! at the Gaylord in Grapevine, Texas

While we were in Texas, Brooke and Leland told us about this exhibit that the Gaylord has every year. It's simply awesome and I recommend it highly! In fact, I would like to go to the Gaylord and pretend I'm locked in for a week every year. Can somebody please arrange that for me? Thanks. 

Here are the pics of the ICE! exhibit, which was very cold, so I'd need the key to that part. Thanks again. 

Before we went into the ICE! part, we looked around the awesome lobby. It is like the perfect spring day in there 365 days a year. 

We got our parkas and we were off!!

this picture is a perfect illustration of CMac's emotions as he was so excited that he was pretty much a blur the entire time we were in there: 

Je

The ice slide...I hear there's a video of my decent down it...no clue where that is, so don't ask.

Charlie Mac's 3rd Birthday!! Nature Museum and Cake with Texas family

Waking up on his third birthday included a major snuggle session with Mama, Daddy and Baby Sister! Apparently, Charlie Mac and I have the same hairstyle when we wake up...

We went to the Children's Nature and Science Museum for birthday fun. First stop was the hall of Texas Wildlife: 

Which included a log tunnel to illustrate butterflies and their development. Here's our little bug:

Then on to the Mineral exhibit. Lots of buttons that opened things up and shined lights on things here: 

Willa Ann wants to know the way to the precious gems please. These rocks are great and all, but...

Here we have the Wild West exhibit. Charlie Mac's face as he looks at this snake is priceless: 

Here we are in the Ocean Dallas exhibit that taught us about what lived under the water when Dallas was underwater: 

Charlie Mac tries to convey the wonder of the Golden Ratio as he points out the Nautilus:

I know what he's thinking here...he wants one of these...

Here there was an interactive area where kids can learn about physical science...or have a blast rolling golf balls through different loops, etc:

It's time for birthday cake!!! 

Willa Ann can't get enough of that icing--oh my goodness it's too good!