Too cute.

Mini-me

Zoë is turning into a little mini-me/Mommy. We found some of these pictures of me when I was almost exactly Zoë's age. When we showed them to some family members they actually thought they were pictures of Zoë...
Mommy - December 1979 (11 mos)

Zoë - April 2011 (10 mos)

Mommy - December 1979

Zoë - May 2011

Mommy - December 1979

Zoë - June 2011 - I think I have a better one but I'll have to keep looking...

Storyland 2011

After school got out we took a family trip to Storyland in Glen, NH - Amelia was old and big enough to ride rides and Zoë, our easy companion, just enjoyed being outside and out and about...

Amelia enjoys the carousel. Interestingly, one of the oldest of its kind in the world - there's something special about it... it's from Germany... that's about all I know. It was fun.

Awake...

Asleep...

Amelia/Spidey and Mom go for a ride on the "whale ride."

Spidey is very serious... Zoë is quite silly...

Zoë LOVED riding on the train. She sat like this the entire ride and just yammered on and on to herself - and to anyone else who would listen.

Zoë (a.k.a. thunder thighs) also enjoyed this part of the park where foam balls fly all around and out of walls, etc... She mostly carried around the first two she got her hands on and just squealed at everyone around her.

In a pinch baby gate

11 months!

It is literally impossible to get her to sit still in this pillow...my arm is in this picture to TRY and keep her still for 1 second so I can take the picture!

Hard to believe it, but in a few short weeks our baby will be 1 - no longer a baby but a toddler! Technically she is already a toddler because she is walking around like crazy...but I'm going to go ahead and call her a baby while I still can!

Wordless Wednesday

Lake George!

This past weekend we had the privilege of opening up our house at Lake George. We had a fantastic time and got to spend time with lots of family. We are so so lucky to have each other and to have a place where we can come together! If we can just make it through the last few weeks of school (will it ever end????) we will be there for the whole summer!

"What are you looking at?"

Happy happy happy girl!

Amelia is very excited to start the fishing season - here she borrows Caroline's fishing pole but if she has good bedtimes for a whole week Daddy told her that he would get her one for herself...so far 2 good bedtimes in a row!

Amelia's first catch of the season...

Cheese!

10 months!!!!!!!

Just for comparison, this is Zoë last month.

She looks so much older this month! Or at least I think so... much more little girl...

Amelia of course had to be in the mix (so did Yoda)...she would NOT let me take a picture of Zoë by herself... I will admit I started to get annoyed and then I just told myself that it was not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Amelia snapped this one... love how Zoë is looking at her sister!

Zoë is a very big girl! This month she started walking - and then decided crawling was a lot faster so we don't have any pictures yet. She is eating lots of table food, talking up a storm and we think that "Dadadadada" is intentional. Very cute. She also does the sign for "all done" whenever she is done with anything. She has adopted a "lovey" and sadly it is not one that we can go out and buy 10 more of like we could for Amelia. Hope we don't lose it! It is so hard to believe that she will be 1 in 2 months. Such a big girl and we love her so much.

Wordless Wednesday

Zany for Zoë

Can you hear me now?

Today both girls had surgery to have tubes placed in their ears. It was a decision that came with a lot of thought and conversations with each other and different doctors, but ultimately we decided it was the best choice for them. Both have had over 6 ear infections since November, both have residual fluid in their ears, and both have had hearing loss as a result. We figured if we did them together we could just get it over with and be done with it - so today was a bit exhausting (mostly for Mom and Dad) but everything went well and we couldn't be happier with our decision.

I suited up to take the kids into the OR and sit with them until they were asleep. They took Zoë first; I came back out and waited with Amelia and then went back in with her when they were done with Zoë.

Amelia is a sassy pants in her scrub hat... She did great; we are so proud of her - it was not easy for her but she did it.

Zoë charmed everyone in every room she was in. She also did great and we learned that she actually had an ear infection we didn't even know about yet! Her tubes are already doing their job because we can see the fluid draining right out of the infected ear. It's gross and when I see it I am so glad it's not inside of her anymore.

They can't go back to school / daycare until Monday so tomorrow they are spending part of the day with their Grammie and then I'll leave work early, and then on Friday Tom gets to stay home with them for the whole day - he's already started resting up to prepare!

Playtime at the park

Amelia had her first "friend" birthday party on Saturday - it was fun but I was glad we didn't do that for her this year because it looked EXHAUSTING. I helped myself to pizza and birthday cake, though, so that was fun for me :)

After the party we headed over to a local park so that Amelia could play a little bit longer with her friend Michael - they are SO. STINKING. CUTE.

Amelia had so much fun...

...And so did Zoë!

HAPPY EASTER!

We had a really fun Easter weekend. We might argue it was the BEST Easter EVER. Aunt Liz, Uncle Scott, Sergei & Sasha came up to celebrate with us. Amelia and Zoë were so excited they were here and Amelia in particular had a lot of fun!

Zoë got passed around a lot and as long as Mommy was in view, she was normally okay with it.

Amelia was adorable in her Easter dress... and she knew it...

There was an Easter egg hunt after the church service and Amelia actually understood it and had fun... they also learned from last year and had an "Under 4" section - she her eggs weren't stolen by crazy 10 year old boys this year...

Sister love!