Kinda forgot about this whole blog thing...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to try this again.  Poor Caroline will undoubtedly be the victim of my lengthy blog-vacation.  What else is new?

I'll tell you what else is new.  Another member of our family - sweet little Charlotte arrived on St. Patrick's Day last year (just under the wire at 11:57 PM).  She makes our family complete, and Katie and Caroline are wonderful big sisters.

This is Charlotte around 6 months old:

She's been pretty easygoing and happy, which has been a blessing.  Life with 3 kids is challenging enough and she seems to intuitively know that and behaves accordingly :)  We will soon celebrate her first birthday- a bittersweet celebration, as I feel I am leaving those sweet, snuggly, tantrum-free moments behind...

Snow, snow and more snow

Well, it's been an eventful winter so far.  We are now digging out from a 27" snowfall over the weekend, and there is more snow coming tomorrow.  We had imagined a very relaxing weekend- watch movies, maybe build a fire, sleep, cook, eat...  Alas, it was not to be.  Both girls are sick with RSV, a bad respiratory virus, so we spent most of the weekend administering various medications (in case you're curious, Caroline HATES the nebulizer. In fact, she strongly dislikes anything that requires her to stay still for more than, say, 10 seconds.)  We did LOTS of digging (Ryan did far more than I), some playing in the snow, some cooking, lots of eating, more digging...  We actually did manage to take Katie for a few sledding runs on Sunday, but she didn't last long before she had a total meltdown.  Fortunately, they both seem to be on the mend now, but I am running out of ideas for indoor craft activities!  I'm ready for spring.

One Bad Blogger

After reading my sister-in-law's very entertaining blog, I have a renewed hope that I, too, may be able to keep up a blog.  After all, the laundry and dishes don't really need to get done right now, do they?

So, much has changed since my last posting.  For starters, we had another child.  Caroline was born in June and is a fantastic, sweet and surprisingly calm baby.  I guess you have to be when you have a crazy 3 year old for a big sister.  Here's a photo of her taken earlier this month:

Life with two kids has definitely been hectic - it's a constant battle to decide who needs attention at this very moment.  That said, Katie is a wonderful big sister, absolutely in love with Caroline (to the point that we have to ask her to back off from time to time!) They are both happy and healthy and I truly could not ask for anything more.

I don't feel like I have the energy to go into full detail of all the events of the past few months, so I will share some funny Katie anecdotes instead...

I recently took Katie to a pediatric orthopedist, because she has been rolling her feet in when she walks.  They wanted to take some x-rays to make sure there were no bone issues.  So, the nurse explains what they're going to do, then tells Katie "I'm going to go set up the x-ray machine, so you think about any questions you have and I'll be back in a few minutes."  The nurse comes back in and asks Katie if she thought of any questions.  Katie responds "I don't have any questions, but I sure do like lollipops." Nice, kid.  Needless to say, she got a good laugh...and a lollipop.

On a recent Sunday morning, we were all snuggling in bed and Katie starts running her fingers through Ryan's hair and starts singing him a song to the general effect of "Oh Daddy, sweet Daddy, you're the best Daddy and I love you and you let me watch cartoons every day..."  Nice try, kid.

And then, last week, she was playing with some new friends from preschool.  When I said it was time to leave, she said "Mommy, I'm not ready to leave yet - Zach and I are having an interesting conversation."  What about? I'll never know.

That's all for now. I have some laundry to do :)

Easter Egg Hunt

MVI_1196
Originally uploaded by stephaniecsmith

Dancing at the White House Easter Egg Roll

MVI_1219
Originally uploaded by stephaniecsmith

Holy Moly Crap

Ok, so I have to add a few recent anecdotes for everyone.

The first is that the other day Katie was working on something, stopped, looked up at me, and said "Holy Moly Crap." Great. We had her saying "Holy Moly Guacamole" in Hawaii (the kid LOVES guacamole) and I'm sure one of us said "Holy Crap" in her presence - and now we have "Holy Moly Crap". Fabulous.

Katie is now singing all of the songs that have been sung to her over the past year. It's pretty funny, because of course she's not singing them correctly. In fact, she often repeats the same refrain over and over again. The Itsy Bitsy Spider, for example, is perpetually going "up the water spout" and the sun never seems to come out to "dry up all the rain". Poor spider is probably drowning. Ring around the Rosie goes like this: "Ring a rosie, pocket posies, ashes ashes, all fall down" and she insists you fall down (FALL DOWN, MOMMY!!!!). If you don't fall, she will pull you down. She's got Wheels on the Bus, Row, Row, Row Your Boat, It's Raining, It's Pouring, If You're Happy and You Know It, ABCs and, of course, all of her music class songs. When we go for a walk or run in the stroller, she serenades me with her version of these songs. It's pretty amusing!

And another before I go to bed - she woke up this morning, talked to herself for awhile, then started saying "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" then, "Mommy, can you hear me?" That got me out of bed. Laughing my a** off.

I'm a terrible blogger

So it turns out I'm just as abysmally bad at blogging as I was at scrapbooking. I'm going to try to be better, I swear.

We have had a busy two months since the last time I wrote (see? at least I have prepared an excuse for my non-blogging!). In June, we went to NYC for a weekend to visit Erin and Eric before they moved to LA, Kate, Foxy, and Julia came to visit us over Father's Day weekend, and then Mimi and Aunt Nini came to visit us at the end of the month. Mimi and Nini taught Katie all sorts of great things. She now knows about money, diamonds, Coach purses, makeup and credit cards. Fabulous. Thanks, guys. I'm sure their next visit will cover sex and drugs.

In July, we headed off to San Diego and Hawaii to spend time with Ryan's family. Katie had a fantastic time- she adores any form of water. The first day in Maui we headed straight to the beach (which was about 50 feet from the back door) and Katie stood at the edge of the water, holding my hand, just watching the waves. After a few minutes, a big wave came along and she backed up a few steps. Then the waves got smaller and she approached again. After a few more minutes, she was swimming in the ocean (with us, of course), kicking her little legs and laughing. She would wake up in the morning and say "ocean?" Yes, I think it's safe to say she enjoyed herself!

Katie spent lots of quality time with everyone in Ryan's family, which meant that we had time to go snorkeling and go on a "date" together. While snorkeling on the last morning, we saw FIVE sea turtles, up close and personal (in fact, one was a baby turtle -though it was still 2 feet across). Very cool. Our early morning venture (we left at 3 AM) to see the sunrise at Haleakala, on the other hand, was a miserable failure. When we got up there it was so cloudy that we could only see 5 feet in front of the car. In our ridiculous outfits (we didn't exactly bring cold-weather clothes) we waited on the top of Haleakala for sunrise. When it arrived, the big white clouds that surrounded us simply became a few shades brighter. So much for the awe-inspiring dawn. Oh well, all-in-all, we had a great time on Maui and it really was fun to have Katie with us this time.

Ok, that's all for now. I will post pictures as soon as I upload them to my laptop!