Will

Here is the video of Will we were trying to post last week! Success, finally!

Overheard

The girls' vocabulary is exploding and they recently started conversing more with each other. I love to hear their little conversations, especially when they think we're not listening! We still use a baby monitor in their room since we're usually downstairs and they are upstairs so we listen in, of course! The other night, Amanda was having a little melt down about me leaving the room after saying good night. She wanted me to come back so she proceeded to scream at the top of her lungs for about 5 minutes straight. We listened for a sign that something was really wrong. Hearing none, we stayed away. Then, magically, during one her breaks for air, Natalie started talking to Amanda. Like a nice sister, she said: "Na-Nee (they still call each other that more often than not, although they now do say their real names, as well, on occasion) you get time out." In response, Amanda in her best whiny voice said "my mommy come back." Natalie: "no, Na-Nee, she not come back. You get time out." Amanda: [still whining] "But my mommy come back." Natalie: "No." Amanda, about 100 more times, but getting more quiet and less whiny each time: "My mommy come back." After all that it was quiet! I LOVE that Natalie talked Amanda off the melt down ledge. I hope there is a lot more of that to come in the future!

There was another funny one today at nap time. All three kids went down fine but after 5 minutes, Natalie starts screaming for her "fwoggy," saying over and over, "I need my fwoggy." Froggy is a small plastic frog that she got in her Easter basket, which she must have in order to fall asleep. Of course, she had the froggy when she went to bed so somehow she managed to "lose" the froggy after we left. Daddy went up and got Natalie her froggy. It was outside her crib on the floor. Later, we heard Amanda ask Natalie, "Na-Nee, why? Why you throw fwoggy? Why? Daddy nice; daddy come get fwoggy for you." BUSTED!

Here are some completely unrelated, but cute, pictures from today of the girls walking on a "balance beam" at the park. They had great fun!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our wonderful daddy, to Grandpa and to our brother and brothers-in-law! We hope everyone had a great day!

Here is daddy with his Father's Day present. Now he can go bike riding once again!!

Natalie and Amanda like it too!

Will Is Ten Months Old

Will turned 10 months old on the 19th. He is changing a lot these days. He is now an adept furniture cruiser and can "walk" with the assistance of a push toy. (We tried so hard to post a video but Blogger isn't really cooperating with us so you will just have to imagine it!) He also has an opinion about various things now and it's a strong one! When he does not get what he wants or he's frustrated by something he just starts shrieking. He's a good eater and is excited to try lots of different finger foods these days, but his clear favorites are Cheerios and bananas. And he is still one of the happiest little guys around. He is constantly laughing and smiling.

Here he is after eating some chocolate doughnut on Father's Day. He gave that a thumbs up!




Wearing stripes like Dad!



Hanging out with Sable. He adores her!

Flashing that cute smile of his!

And playing with leaves (and trying to eat them)....one of his favorite past times.

Something Is Missing

Something is missing from the photos this week. What is it? The kids! Mom and Dad had a great little escape this weekend to wine country. It was fabulous!!

Here we are at the incredibly beautiful Chateau Montelena:

This is the view at Rombauer:

And here is the spectacular view from Joseph Phelps.

We know that pictures of the kids are much more exciting, so stay tuned for more of those soon!

Weekend Fun

It is finally warm here in Sacramento. Yay! As a result, we spent a lot of time outside this weekend. It was great! Mommy's work had a party on Saturday night at the zoo and everyone had a GREAT time! We checked out the fish in the big aquarium,

Will turned into a cute baby joey,

and Natalie and Amanda drove a dump truck.

The rest of the weekend was fun too. Natalie and Amanda have turned into the pigtail/palm tree girls (and Will waves hello to everyone from the background),

we blew lots of bubbles,

laughed and smiled a lot,

and had a few silly moments!

Memorial Day

We hope everyone had a great Memorial Day. We wandered up to the Sierra Foothills to one of our favorite wineries and had a picnic lunch. A good time was had by all.







Will had fun hanging out with mommy...







....and eating a few rocks!






There is a pond at the winery with a few Koi and some guppies and the girls were SO excited when they first saw the fish swimming around in the pond.

Amanda liked saying hello to this "bird."

And we managed to get a fairly decent family photo!

All in all, a good day!

p.s. Only after we got home did we realize that we went to the exact same winery last Memorial Day weekend. What a difference a year makes. Check it out here. Will was still "cooking" inside mama and the girls barely had any hair!

Bubbles