State of the Union

The big news in our house this week centers around Claire. She has kicked her diaper habit and is now wearing 'big girl underwear.' We couldn't be happier. She filled up a sticker chart over the past week and got a special treat from the store. She picked a Theodore doll and is working towards Simon with her next chart.

Just a shot of Claire playing in the rain

Our sitter texted me this photo of Kyle on Friday. He looks way too big here to be my little guy. I couldn't believe he sat on this truck!

I looked back at the blog to see what Claire was up to at 8 months and came across a video of her playing with pots and pans. I gave some to Kyle this weekend and he was a big fan. I always need ways to entertain him while I make meals.

On Saturday we had the opportunity to go to a Barack Obama fundraiser. Thanks to Mimi, who babysat, Lucian, Spen and I could go. I have never seen a president (past or present) in person, so I was pretty excited. We had very close seats and, you know, he looks just like he does on TV;)

The Park

I consider this a picture post. We met Claire's friend Sydney at the park Sunday morning. The weather was perfect and Lucian was in a photo taking mood:)

Claire is 3!

Our sweet Claire Brooke turned 3 on Sunday. Where does the time go? Claire is a passionate, driven and smart girl. She can talk up a storm and definitely knows what she wants. When asked what kind of cake she wanted this year, she said a frog cake. I was expecting an answer like chocolate, but frogs it was. It gave me a theme for the party, however.

We had family over on Sunday to celebrate. Kyle made sure he was well rested for the party.

I made some tissue paper lily pads as decorations.

Claire cried when we all started to sing and asked if we could be quieter. We all whispered happy birthday to her and then I had to blow out her candles. Little stinker.

One of Claire's favorite gifts was the book Shoo Fly. She loves to read it at daycare, and can recite the story herself. It is out of print and hard to track down. Thank goodness for ebay!

 Hugging Alvin the chimpmunk.

A rare group shot.

And an ever rarer entire family shot!

 The party continued Monday at daycare. Claire brought cookies for a treat and had a candle and a crown. She was loving it.

The Amazing Race

Color Commentary

 Spencer ran in The Color Run last Friday. It's a 5K where they throw powdered color at you as you run, a different color for every kilometer. They are gaining popularity across the country and I have worked on a few (marketing/design) myself. I planned to sign up as well, but when I went to register a while back, Milwaukee was sold out:(

Runners are encouraged to wear white. Spen and his friends created team t-shirts for the run.

They had a blast. I will definitely do it next year.

My weekend was fairly ordinary. We went out for frozen yogurt together.

I went shopping for baby food produce. Claire was delighted when she discovered these kiddie carts. She was positively beaming as she pushed around fruits and vegetables. And she narrowly managed not to knock anything over.

Here's a shot of Kyle up on all fours. I'm amazed at the ground he can cover without officially crawling.

Yesterday I brought the kids to the library after daycare. Claire and I have been talking about it for a while. She can finally read paper books without tearing pages, so we picked out a few stories and a movie (Pinocchio). She was thrilled to find her favorite book from daycare: The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear. It's great to see her so excited about reading.

It seems like I end every post with a shot of these two. Claire loves to hold Kyle and Kyle adores his big sis. They give me lots of opportunities for great shots. Claire often asks for me to take their photo, as well.

On the Go

My little Kyle Reed is rolling and pivoting and rocking on his knees. I see crawling in his near future. He is also displaying more complex babbling as of late, including "da da."

Over the weekend, my parents were in town, so we packed them in the van and headed to the zoo. We saw some animals, fed the goats...

 and rode the train...

Saturday we headed to a baby shower for some friends. It was co-ed, and Lucian's first shower. I thought Lucian looked funny sitting under this branch. Can you tell these two are related?

Lucian had some photography gigs planned Sunday, so I took Claire to the park to play with Sydney. They hit up the sand box.

And we wandered down to the beach. It was a beautiful morning.

Claire has a big imagination and very much likes to direct people. Here, she had Nana and Papa taking naps. She drove them in a "car" as well, where she assigned seats, buckled us in and told us where we were going. Unfortunately the wheels broke and she informed us she had to go shop for another blue car. I believe the game ended there. Nana and Papa were good sports.

My babies in the morning. Love these two.

Air Show

We were fortunate to go out on some friend's boat and watch the air show on Saturday. The weather was great and you couldn't have a better seat. Claire was a bit shy/nervous at first, but was running around with the other kids in no time.

Spotting some planes

 

We made a little nest for Kyle to nap, but he was more comfortable being held. He hung out here for a while looking around, but only slept while in a carrier.

Our friend Chris showing off his mariner license. He can do charters on his boat.

The boys comparing camera equipment

I am not an aviation buff, so this was probably the highlight of the air show for me:)

There were a lot of cool planes, however.

And just a cute shot from the grocery store yesterday. This was Kyle's first ride sitting in the cart. It's almost time to ditch the infant car seat!