Sam's new skills

This weekend we had no plans, which was actually really nice because we could just do whatever we felt like. Oh, we did have one plan, for me to run Martha's Run a 10k up and down the hills of mt. lebanon, but that is another story. Greg came up with the idea to get dinner out and have a picnic at a park so that the kids could play! I thought it was a great idea so that is exactly what we did. The kids had a great time. Sam surprised us once again when he said "look what I can do mommy!" He went the whole way across the monkey bars without any help! Now, I know from experience those monkey bars can be a little challenging for sure. He just needed lifted up and he went the whole across without any hesitation. like he has been doing this for years or something!

Then, again on Saturday , I was sitting on the couch feeding Sydney with Greg when it was completely quiet. Both kids were sitting nicely at the bar with coloring books and crayons. I made a comment to Greg about how nice they were sitting and how unusual it was for them to just get the coloring books out on their own without my suggesting it and color for so long, without eating crayons (Anna) or throwing crayons all over the place. Then, all of a sudden Sam brings over his picture that he has been coloring to show us. Beaming with pride he says, "mommy, daddy look what I did!" He held up a completely colored (within the lines I might add) picture of Buzz Lightyear! It was amazing! Sam has never done anything even close to coloring a picture before this. Greg and I just looked at each other in amazement, and both remarked about how great it was! I think we both felt a little misty eyed as our little boy was growing up!

Anna turns two!

Well, my baby girl turned two last Friday. It is hard to believe she is growing up so fast. When she turned one, it didn't phase me, but this birthday all I could do was think of how big she was getting so fast! It just so happens that for the past 3 years I have been at the zoo on April 1st or 2nd. The year Anna was born I took Sam to the zoo on April 1st before my doctor's appointment partly to spend one last special day with my little boy before he was made a big brother and partly because I wanted to get this baby out of me! Last year we went to the zoo on Anna's first birthday. So what else was Greg and I to do but take the kids to the zoo for the morning to celebrate Anna's birthday. It was Sydney's very first trip to the zoo and Anna's first time that she was really excited to see the animals and not just along for the ride. My most memorable memory from Anna's 2nd birthday trip to the zoo is something very simple and sweet, just like her. We stopped by the ostrich, giraffe, gazelle area. Anna quickly became fascinated by the large goldfish hanging out by the fence in the stream. All of a sudden two ducks came swimming down the stream and stopped by all the fish, and started looking for food walking around by the fence that we were standing at. She was in heaven! She loved just standing there for what seemed like hours watching the ducks and the fish. She also caught a glimpse of the funny looking ostrich. She was so cute and innocent as she laughed at the animals. Eventually I was able to get her to move on to the elephants, and she quickly started running on the path to the next animal. That night we had some friends over to have a small celebration for Anna. She was SO excited to have a day just for her! The next day was her birthday party. Not many people could come, but she didn't care, she was SO excited to wear her "princess skirt" and have her hair done for her special day! At the end of the night we put our tired little girl to bed and found her later that night sleeping in her rocker! So, it begins a long stretch of her sleeping in her rocker. I haven't figured out when she is going in her rocker with her blankie and doggie in tow. Might be before she goes to bed for the night or it could be she is waking up in the middle of the night or early in the morning, but one thing is for sure she loves her rocking chair! Tonight she told me, "I want to go night night here." Meaning in her rocking chair. I told her she needed to go night night in her bed with her animals. She promptly told me no and became upset when I put her in her bed. I guess we will see where she ended up sleeping when I go to check on her in a couple of minutes!