Longwood Gardens

We're in Philadelphia right now taking our kids to visit family. Carolyn has been talking about this trip for quite some time. Our first full day here we took the kids to Longwood Gardens. They have a children's conservatory that Carolyn loved.

After we explored the grounds, we went to a concert for Ralph's World. I'd never heard of this band, but they did kids music and Carolyn loved it. She didn't sit still for long.

Here she is on stage during the last two numbers, playing the drums on Dad's head.

Even better is this video of her dancing to one of the songs.

It's picture time again

Pictures taken by Megan

Watch out, Aunt Laura!

Carolyn: I got married today.

Me: Oh? to who?

Carolyn: Uncle Joseph.

These shoes aren't made for walkin'

These are Carolyn's new shoes of choice.

This is what happens when she tries to walk in them.

Little Mommy

We have recently added a third "child" to our family. After 18 months, bitty baby got a name. Ruthie. And she goes with us everywhere! As you can see, Carolyn has holding a baby down pat. You give them some booty support and hold the leg. She also puts her baby down for naps and gets her up after about twenty minutes. Ruthie cries for her mommy and only wants Carolyn. It's been nice because this new diversion gives Blake a little more space, but Carolyn is starting to do everything one-armed so she can be attached at the hip to Ruthie.

My secret garden

Our back yard consists of bark dust and weeds. Every couple weeks, I go out and pull all the weeds I can find.

Today I found pea plants scattered in different locations throughout my yard. I probably pulled out eight total. That made me a little sad because I love fresh peas. While my soil is probably not the most nutritious, I would have maybe tried to nurture them to see if any thing would grow past an inch. All of these plants had the tiniest, old pea pods ever.

Then I went to the side of our house and found this:

Not a big deal, a little larger than your average weed, but still easily pullable.

But take a closer look:
Yup, that's a sprouted walnut. I found four of these. Four.

To whoever is throwing walnuts in my yard--

Please stop. Thank you.

I'm a sitting man!

Twinners

Carolyn picked these jammies out all on her own. Her daddy was so proud.

Battle Ground Lake

We just got back from a very tiring, but very fun camping trip.

How big of a bed does a six-month baby need? Answer: queen size. Blake did not enjoy the bed we made up for him on the side, so he joined me on the air mattress, while Jeremy and Carolyn slept on the ground.

I've never gone camping with a baby. Carolyn was 14 months old the first time we took her. I think we did pretty well, but I didn't think about his bald little head at night. It was freezing, so we ended up sharing my sleeping bag so he could have some warmth for his noggin.

Don't judge the photography, but this rock proved quite entertaining. The children would all line up and jump off and then start again.

Of course, what is camping without marshmallows? The key to delicious campfire treats is to put the chocolate in the center of a very hot marshmallow and let it melt. So good. You definitely don't even need the graham for this.

Next trip: maybe a bigger tent. And figure out a way to get Carolyn to go to sleep before 11.

My little fish

Swim lessons have started at our house. Carolyn loves them. After her first lesson, Carolyn spent about 10 minutes drying out in the sun. Then she came up to me and told me she was ready. I gathered up our stuff to go to the car. She quickly clarified that she was ready to go back in the pool, not leave. She'll be quite disappointed to find out they only last two weeks.

P.S. Photos are courtesy of Rachel. She actually remembers to take her camera places.

Budding Artist

Carolyn really enjoys coloring. I have never seen another toddler color in quite the same manner. The picture is not finished, until there is not an inch of white left. We have sheets of coloring book pages in solid colors. Periodically, she branches out and uses multiple colors. But usually, it's like these. She calls them Night and Moon.

Carolyn figures it out...

We gave Carolyn this bike six weeks ago. Good thing we had time to practice so that on her birthday she was actually able to do this.

Feeeeeeeed ME!

I felt bad for Blake yesterday as he watched Carolyn enjoy all her birthday treats. He watched all the food move from the table to people's mouths. I tried to wait until his doctor appointment next week to start him on food because of some questions I wanted answered. But last night we just went for it. I'm glad we did. He was totally ready and really enjoyed his rice cereal. He giggled through most of it because he was so happy to finally get some food.

That party was out of this world!

Last night we had a family party, but today we took Carolyn and three of her friends to her favorite play place for a birthday party. The kids played on a bouncy house...

and did some rock climbing.

Here's the party gang racing down the wavy slides.

We let Blake participate a little bit.

Here's her birthday dessert. This year, I did a semi-homemade ice cream cake, but she still didn't like it. I give up on the birthday desserts. Unlike last night, Carolyn managed to blow her candles out.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

I've watched this little girl grow up before my eyes, and it amazes me that she is three today. It doesn't feel like very long ago that I held her in my hospital bed. Around October of last year I realized she just wasn't my baby anymore and was growing into her own person.

She has personality, and I love looking back to her time as a baby and recognizing the early signs. Right now she loves coloring the most. She can amuse herself for hours, and I used to let her until I noticed she was using up all my baby wipes trying to clean crayon off of various surfaces. Now her coloring is a little more supervised.

At 3, she loves to sing songs--real or made up. My current favorite is Teach me to walk in the light. She counts to 10, but almost always misses 7. Same for the letter J. She has learned to assign last names to people and always asks me if people are Horners. She tells me stories that she makes up if she can get them out through her giggles. She will always clean. I've had mornings where she cleans the entire living room for me.

I absolutely love her to pieces. She can make me steaming mad and then say, "Sorry, it was an accident" in the sweetest voice that melts my heart. She is always quick with hugs and kisses and makes me feel like I do a great job. It's good she won't remember all the mistakes I've made with her and we can grow together.

Happy Birthday, Carolyn!