Things My Girls Have Said

Calli: "I'm washing my hands. I am washing the danger off my hands, Mamma."
Me: "What? What do you have on your hands?"
Calli: "Danger"
Me: "Is it from the toast? That is cinnamon."
Calli: "I have cinnamon on my hands, so I have to wash them"

Mari (losing her balance while walking) "I-fall"

Calli was in the car, telling Rich and I something, but we couldn't follow her.
Me: "What is it Calli?"
Calli: "I don't know what I'm talking about" - she laughs :)

Mari: "Ba-pa" "Ba-pa" for "Backpack" when the Dora Backpack song starts playing.

Curious??

Today our local Barnes & Noble had a storytime with Curious George.

Now, Jamie and I took Calli and Koji to see Elmo at B&N over a year ago. It was crazy! Pushy, demanding parents, a ton of people and kids that were scared of Elmo.

Well, this time there were only a handful of people, the parents were well behaved, but the kids were not so sure about it. My girls especially, were a little curious, but not enough to hug George, or even give him a high-five.

Mari takes a look at Curious George from the safety of Dadda's arms.

Calli can't pose for the picture because she has to keep an eye on Curious George.

Both girls did enjoy coloring pictures of Curious George.

Calli was so cute, she had to go and get a yellow crayon to color the hat - obviously, the man with the yellow hat had a YELLOW hat :)

Mari and I :)

Lets go to the Pool

Today a bunch of us finally coordinated to meet at the pool. It was a little cool but we had a lot of fun. Besides us there were: Dillon, Ashleigh, Koji, Izumi, Brennan, and Kellan.


Izumi, Calli, Dillon and Mari stop for a snack break.

For the birds

This afternoon, Calli played with our neighbor Jake. They played with Play-Dough, the made things out of popsicle sticks, and then they went out to feed the birds. Jake has this little itty bitty toy bird food bowl, and they took turns filling it with birdseed and then dumping it on the ground.

Then they moved on to chasing birds and trying to get the birds to eat the birdseed. Needless to say, that did not work very well. This picture was taken exactly 2 seconds after they were walking down the sidewalk holding hands - it was so precious, and so fleeting.

Library Fun

While not the best picture ever, I wanted to say that we have re-discovered the Skokie Library. It is a great place to spend time because they have a train table, puppets, a huge fish tank, and computers with a Dora game. Stay tuned for more . . .

Happy Birthday Jamie

For Jamie's birthday, I organized a small get-together at Pinstripes. We played bocce, ate yummy food, bowled, and generally just enjoyed some fun and good conversation without kids!

Sailing the Sea of Imagination

Today, Calli wanted to make a boat. So we laid out blankets, founds seats, made a mast (complete with flag) and wore our (life)jackets.

I was amazed I was able to such good pictures of Calli and I using the timer on the camera. Here we are, eating our doughnuts on the boat.

We even added these blocks, for the water.

So we can be safe

Today, we pulled out the "pretending box" which has a few dress-up clothes and props: a stethoscope, a firefighter's hat, etc. Calli found these knee and elbow pads and wanted to try them out.


Once she had them on, she wanted to roller skate. She had to settle for Dadda pulling her over the hardwood floors in her socks.

**And then,
a couple days later, we read a Dora book where Dora wore her knee and elbow pads along with her helmet to ride her bike "so we can be safe". So Calli insisted on wearing the whole getup next time she road her trike. I'm all for safety, but I really think for the speeds Calli reaches, a helmet should suffice. The pads would be more useful when she is running full speed down the sidewalk.

The End of Naps

And there was much weeping throughout the kingdom!!

It seems they teamed up on this one, and Mari decided to drop her morning nap at the same time Calli dropped her afternoon nap. So sad. I haven't quite admited defeat. For the last week or so, I've still tried to put Calli down for a nap each afternoon - even though she hasn't been sleeping.
So today, Rich heard some noice in her room and found this. She had gotten a bunch of toys off the shelf and brought them all on the bed. (We have a no toy policy for naps.)



And I just love this picture. Isn't is so cute when they cross their legs when they are asleep??

Still my little girl

Recently Calli has gotten a couple of Hello Kitty toys in McDonalds' Happy Meals. One is lip gloss, which she loves, and we have hidden. The other is a cute bracelet/ring set, that came in this Hello Kitty tube. She has been playing with it a little bit over the last couple of days.

Today, she asked me for help putting on the bracelet and ring. Almost immediately, she wanted me to help her take them off. She said, "I do it later, after I grow up, like a mom".

She's still my little girl!

Not a Baby

Hard to believe, but Mari is already 15 months old. She's not really a baby anymore. She walks pretty well, and says lots of words: Mamma, Dadda, Whats(Th)at, Agua, More, AllDone, E(l)mo, M(e)ow, Cheese, No, P(l)ease, Mo(re), Bo(ok), Ba(ll), Mine, DeeVee(D), and Tea.

This is my favorite. She has doesn't quite understand "no". I mean, when I tell her "No, we don't hit Calli", she understands that she is in trouble, but usually shouts back "NO" at me, and hits me. (We are still trying to avoid that reaction.)

The cute part is when you ask her if she wants something. If she wants it, she'll shake her head and give this long sweet "nooooo". Then I ask her, "What do you say?" and she says "P(l)eeeeease". So funny!

Well, with my baby getting so grown up, it is a good thing that I have Owen to cuddle with me. Although with all that hair he looks more like a little man than a baby.

"More"

So after a couple times down the waterslide, Calli said she was cold and wanted to sit on the towel have something to eat. I was beginning to give up on the idea that she might really get into the waterslides this year. But then - Mari got into them. As soon as we got to the bottom of the slide, she would sign "more" and say "muh, muh". That was the first time I'd seen her use that sign.

So we went 3 or 4 times in a row. At which point Calli really started to enjoy it. She even started going down by herself! Yay! Even though they are "kids slides" as Calli calls them, I think they are great fun!

Dragon Attack

This summer we have enjoyed some really good programs through our local library. Calli has made:

• a outerspace bookmark
  
• a "dirt cup" (with oreo crumbs, pudding, and gummy worms)
  
• a butterfly (remember the one out of waxed paper and melted crayon shavings from when you were a kid?)
  
• and now this dragon

After all the kids finished decorating their dragons, they had a little dragon parade through the library and down the sidewalk. It was really cute. Lets hope I can find such great programs this fall!

Cow on Parade

I'm not sure if this lone cow was left from the parade several years ago, or where it came from, but the girls thought it was fun!

Calli checks out the cow.

Ride 'um cowgirl!

Mari tries to reach him.

Craft Time at Millennium Park

After Wiggleworms, we were sooo hot. We all splashed around in the fountain for a while to cool off. At the fountain, we met up with our friends Ruth, Lauren and Lydia who were visiting from St. Louis.

After the fountain, we went to check out the craft tent. The older girls had a great time making hats, and Mari (amazingly) just hung out in the stroller.


Ruth and Lydia


Lauren and Calli


Smiley Mari!


She was so hot and sweaty, but Calli wanted to wear the cool hat she made!


Lauren modeling her hat.

Wiggleworms at Millennium Park

All summer, I have know about these Wiggleworm concerts going on in Millennium Park. So today was the day we went down. It was really nice. They have a great tent, a guitar player to lead the kids in song and dance, and even little instruments for the kids to play. If only it wasn't 90-plus degrees, it would have been perfect! Poor Calli, she gets a sweaty nose - just like her mom.

Mari enjoyed watching other kids and taking their instruments if they ever made the mistake of setting them down :)

I LOVE Dora in the morning

Lately, the girls have been waking up early. Early for me, is any time before 7:00 am. So I set them up with blankets, pillows, water in their sippy cups, bags of dry cereal, and a Dora video. Then I try and get a few more minutes of sleep on the couch! Thanks Dora!