Sweet, sweet sisters

Addy’s self congratulatory dance

Ready…  Set…  Go!

You can add the “woohoo” sound effects here. 

Jungle Gym-ing at Nana’s

My girls LOVE to play in Nana and Grandpa’s backyard.  But with a full-sized playhouse, slides, and swings, who could blame them?

I’m not sure how, but the girls decided it’d be fun to go down the slide face first.  We’ve mostly bypassed this desire in the past; I’m putting money on some skinned noses this summer.  I love the one with Addy’s feet way up in the air- I think she went a little faster than she expected to, and then braked with her hands at the bottom.  It was rather funny.  She thought going down face first was fun- you can see in the last picture that she anticipated going down on her back head first.  We averted that disaster, thankfully.

Just hangin’ around…

And what are daddies good for, if not for doing things that make mommies have a heart attack?  Who’d have thunk that a pool noodle could be so much fun without a pool?!?

The Smiles I Love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up, up and away!

Piper’s working on swinging with her private OT right now.  Really, Miss Syd uses the swings (they have about 80 different kinds- it’s awesome) as incentive between tasks, and it works!

To get the “kick” motion out of her, Syd puts a couple of big-ish foam blocks out in front of her. It gets her to extend her legs right at just the right time. I’ve been replicating it at the park by standing in front her of and asking her to touch me with her feet. I figure she’s a ways away from truly independent swinging, but it’s sure fun to watch her try!

Luke was trying to show her what “real” swinging looks like the other day. “Kick, pull, kick, pull!”

We put the girls in the swings (infant swings by request- I dunno…) and he told them to “KICK!”

Both girls- simultaneously- kicked their feet back and forth as madly as possible. It wasn’t very efficient, though, because both legs kicked at different times.

It was like they thought they were running on thin air. Or something.

I have no idea.

But it was absolutely hilarious.

They thought so, too.

A parking we will go

The city built a brand new, HUGE, awesome park not far from our house.  The playground opened up in April, but some of the fancy features (the WHOLE THING is a splash pad!  And there’s a lake!  And carousel?  Maybe?) won’t be open until summer is officially here.  But we HAD to take a look at the awesomeness that was to be had. 

There are only pictures of the girls in self-contained apparatuses.  They had too much fun running from one place to the next- I could hardly keep up!  I think it’s safe to say that the park passed the initial viability test.  C’moooon, summer! 

So proud I could cry

Piper has a tendency to “hide” her emerging skills and wait to pull them out when she’s good and ready.

So you can imagine my surprise when, all of a sudden, this came out of her.

Admittedly, she did receive a little bit of proprioperceptive input on her pointer finger to do this, but it was all her.

I am one proud mama!

Easter!

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays.  It always feels a little less chaotic than Christmas, but we still get a whole lot of time with the family.  Lots of food, lots of fun, lots of just being. 

The girls got Easter baskets from Nana and Grandpa in the morning.  Addy’s favorites were the new headband (which she loves to wear- for about 4.6 seconds.  Why, oh why won’t she wear hair pretties???) and the dum-dum suckers, of course.  Piper LOVED her new magnifying glass (what?  Don’t your kids beg for magnifiers?  No?  Just mine?  Huh…) and popping the bubble wrap that it came with. 

Then they got to go outside for an egg hunt.  Addy had a ball traipsing around the yard with her basket, but I don’t think she could figure out why it was supposed to be “fun” to pick up the eggs.  Piper was more interested in riding one of Grandpa’s new trikes- Addy kept taking Piper’s basket to her trying to convince her to come “hunt,” too. 

I don’t think that Daddy entirely appreciated the Easter Bunny’s generosity in leaving musical, LOUD, toys.  This Sesame Street microphone is a new favorite of the girls- and nemesis of their father.  Piper’s got some pretty sweet dance moves with it, though, so that’s a plus.

Then the kids got to just play outdoors and enjoy one of the first nice days of spring. 

Addy and her “little” cousin- aren’t they cute?

What’s better than eating your dessert in the grass, anyway?  Oh, maybe looking at bugs with their uncle.  Yup- that’s probably better.