For Babs' birthday weekend, we went to the aquarium. It was a big hit (not unlike last year). We met a macaw named Margaret. We saw a dolphin show which really impressed the girls (and the adults). And also wandered around a bit.

When I saw this fellow, I tried to steer my children away (having mothered Kiddo for 4 years now). But I forgot about Babs. She really wanted to meet him, and shake his hand. (People who aren't Mormon don't get the whole small child who shakes hands but doesn't give high-fives, but that's who we are.) This also gave Kiddo the courage to go meet him too. 

The other hit was the jellyfish. They really are fascinating creatures.

(Kiddo announced that she wanted to be a dolphin trainer after we visited here. Of all the things she wants to be, that one at least made sense to me, because it would take a fair amount of education.)

We're super grateful for visits from Grandma, so we can go to such a fun place!

look who's 2

Babs turned 2 this weekend. This is her super attractive cake for her birthday. Having learned over the years that kids do not do well with opening lots of presents at the same time, we spread them out over the day. Here she is with her first present, from her big sis, Kiddo. It's a play chalkboard.

After that though, Sunday is Sunday, so there was a lot of non-birthday things to do, like getting ready for church, church, and post-church naps. (For both girls, which meant that we were all up late that night.)

Kiddo was more than excited to help Babs blow out her candles. We insisted she needed Babs' permission, and every time she asked, Babs would solemnly nod yes. So here they are admiring the cake (or her big sis, depending on which child you're looking at.)

Another highlight of the day, actually the weekend, was that Grandma was here to celebrate with us. We spent Saturday at the aquarium (perhaps pictures to follow). Babs got to talk to Grammy and Grandpa, and Aunt M during the day. When she was talking to Aunt M, she announced "I eating cake and popcorn!" which was clearly the highlight of that moment.  

 

Is she not so adorable?

moms!

Whenever a mom (mine or my husband's) is coming to visit, I start counting down the days. I often find myself thinking: Just make it 'til [insert date of arrival]. (In this case, Thursday. I can do it!)

It's not like I'm particularly overwhelmed with life right now (as opposed to other times when one or the other has visited) so I was surprised by this reaction. Maybe it's just the idea of help, of someone who's excited to play with the kids all day long, of someone who will stay with my kids while my husband and I go out... those are just nice ideas. Really nice ideas.

So come quickly Grandma. I'm anxiously awaiting.

(I believe the kids the will enjoy your visit too...)

prayer enforcer

Babs is way into prayers right now. We suspect it is because it gives her the opportunity to watch us all, and ensure that our eyes are appropriately closed. Many a prayer is interrupted by a small voice yelling "close eyes! close eyes!"

Primarily she yells at Kiddo, because she is the most likely to have her eyes open. But she'll call my husband or me on the problem too, if we should be caught trying to make sure she's not up to too much trouble.

Today, as we were leaving for church, she was not only telling Kiddo to "close eyes!" but also holding her hands over Kiddo's face to be double-ly sure she was blacked out.

I feel like such a real mormon parent now.

thoughts on resurrection

While running errands today, we passed a graveyard.

"Mom! What's that?" yells Kiddo. (She always yells, it's her default volume.)

"A graveyard."

"What's a graveyard?"

"It's a place where we bury dead people. Or the bodies of people once they die. Remember how we talked about how when we die we leave our bodies and our spirits go back to heaven? Well, we dig holes in the ground and put the bodies in places like this."

"Yeah, and then after heaven, we come back, dig up our bodies, and put them back on!"

take a closer look

Obviously the first thing this picture makes you think is how much you want to scoop this little girl up and love and hug her to bits, because she's just that adorable. But her absolute cuteness is not the subject of this post (although clearly I could go on and on about that).

While discussing things with Kiddo's preschool teacher today, my girls were playing. My warning to slow down had no effect, and Babs did a face plant. But she's tired, so I assumed she had hurt feelings more than hurt self, I picked her up without a second glance, and she calmed quickly.

On the way home I turned around to look at her, and thought, what does she have on her tooth? Followed almost immediately by a double look, and the thought, WHERE IS HER TOOTH? or at least that little corner that used to be there, and is now clearly not.

I turned back to the road, and sighed "oh shoot." At the next light, hoping I was seeing things (or not seeing things as the case may be), I turned around and asked her to smile at me again. It's chipped.

We skipped the store, and came straight home so I could find us a dentist. (Nothing like a crisis to help you get things off the to-do list.) We're going in tomorrow. Since she's smiling and singing, she's at least not hurt. But that tooth...

nap time

It's spring break, and Kiddo doesn't have preschool, nor does she really understand why she doesn't have preschool. So the time when she would typically be in preschool is a little hard for the two of us. On Monday we made jam. She was a significant help.

Today she wanted to go out in the front, so we went outside. Mostly she watched the comcast guys do some installation. Finally I told her that we needed to head inside, I needed a nap. She agreed that we would go inside in five minutes, then set up all her stuff on the driveway, lay down and started sucking her thumb.