A vision of sleepovers in years to come...

Happy 2nd birthday, Charlotte!

After school, Madison swung by for an impromptu birthday lunch with Charlotte and Zoey. They left us moms behind, obviously. Here they are, heading to Mellow Mushroom for some pizza.




Charlotte kept running Madison, who was looking down at her sparkly shoes and couldn't be bothered to look up, into walls. They held hands for two whole blocks!

Charlotte's official birthday party is on Saturday. Cross your fingers for good weather so we can have it at the park!

Who needs a neck? Not me!

School girls

Charlotte finally had her second day of school (after a nasty cold caused us to miss last Wednesday), and she was joined by Zoey (who had to miss all of last week due to a nasty cold of her own). I'm sure Joslyne will write a beautiful and moving post on her own blog about the first teeny step toward Zoey leaving the nest (using much better imagery), but I'm just going to steal a few photos off of her picture share and report just the facts.

CJ and Zozo were not bothered in the least seeing us leave them alone with Miss Lola and Miss Denise (not sure of the name of the second teacher, actually). Apparently CJ grew concerned about the absence of Mommy about an hour into the two-hour class, but the teacher encouraged her to hang out with Zozo and that calmed CJ down. Both girls smiled huge smiles when we came to pick them up, and I think they are officially grown up. Well, as grown up as they can be when they still aren't potty trained.

Isn't Joslyne such a good photographer?

Babysitters in training

Zoey is a natural with Peter.



Charlotte (sporting some new shoes Zoey brought her back from South Carolina) pitched in and Zoey welcomed the help with open arms.



SMOOCH! Peter was starting to wonder whether his babysitters were really all that qualified. They seemed more interested in goofing around and giggling. Maybe they need a few more years.

Charlotte has a new audience to amuse

Charlotte's creation at "school"

CLEARLY, she is a prodigy.

First day of "school"

Ready to start my two hours a day, two days a week early childhood learning program! NanaB made me this cool bag to bring my change of clothes in and to bring home all my gorgeous artwork.



I thought it worked better as a hat though.



Come on, Mommy! Let's go already!!



Ready to head in and wreak havoc.



There were no tears when Mommy left me there. Should Mommy be offended or relieved? Just kidding. She said she is so proud of me! I'm going to have a lot of fun there.

The completed family tree

Okay, so it's not QUITE complete, because I still have yet to frame photos of Peter and Charlotte to put at the bottom on the trunk. But at least all of the ancestor photos are filled in!

Buddies to watch over little Peter and Charlotte

Some of our neighbors stopped by to bring a little gift to Peter. Someday, when Peter is a little older, I predict Sarah and Max will be good buddies to both Peter and Charlotte. Sarah was very interested in holding Peter and commented on everything he did. Max wanted to know what Peter ate and what he did all day. Don't they look like they're going to be great friends?

Great Grandpa Chuck

I finally got my hands on a photo of my Grandpa Chuck (my father's father) as a toddler. You may or may not know that we have a "family tree" painted on the wall of the nursery that features photos of Charlotte and Peter's direct ancestors hanging from the branches. Now all the frames are filled! I'll post a photo of the complete family tree later, but for now, here is Grandpa Chuck when he was probably about one year old or so. I'm guessing it was taken in Wyoming, where he lived when he was little.

Smack, smack

Peter's latest trick is to smack his lips like he's eating something delicious (when in reality all he's doing is chilling in his bouncy seat, batting away at the elephants and lion hanging from the cross bar). Charlotte and I think this is hilarious and imitate him whenever he does it. He doesn't seem to mind.