"Mom! I'm coloring with Dani!"

"Mom! I'm coloring with Dani!"

Those are not the words you want to hear first thing in the morning as you're walking downstairs to get said small person out of her crib. Immediately I was terrified that Michaela had climbed into Dani's crib with her and they were making a mural of wall scribbles. Not good.

Imagine my happy surprise when I walked into the bedroom to find this instead! :)

Michaela had brought in a couple crayons and emptied out an XS box to share coloring with Dani.  She'd lift the box up to give the trapped baby a turn and then lower it onto her lap for some coloring herself.  So funny!

Taking turns looking at the camera for pictures... I hope this isn't a hint about how family photos will be for the rest of our lives. ;)

Leaves

Dani and Danny (aka Pop) at Michaela's gymnastics thing last week.  To get Dani to look at the camera for a photo Aunt Gigi was waving a leaf over my shoulder. 

 You can tell she's got her eyes on the prize, or in this case, the leaf that is out of reach.

But wait! What's this?

A whole tree full of those wondrous leaves!!!

The Spaghetti Twins

Can you tell they're sisters?  I frequently will download a photo of Dani and notice how similar it looks to a photo of Michaela at the same age.  Here's my Spaghetti Twins.  Blonde little Michaela at 19 months and red-headed Dani at 16 months.

Weeeeeee!!!!! Weeeeeee!!!

Okay, I just had to share this video of the girls riding the carousel while we were at Dutch Village the other week.  (You can read my post all about that trip here.)

This was Dani's second ride on the carousel that day and I was laughing so hard when she started to squeal with delight, "Weeeeeee!!!!! Weeeeeee!!! Weeeeeee!!!!"

Child of a 1000 Faces

I got my camera out the other day to snap a quick shot of Dani doing something new and silly.  Of course, Michaela is drawn to the camera like a moth to a flame.  She decided she needed to try out some of her faces and then proceeded to demand to see them on the camera.  How would she ever have survived during the days of 35mm film? ;)

Extra Cheese

When Michaela was about the same age that Dani is now I noticed that she's arrange her like styled toys into orderly lines.  When I caught Dani doing the same thing the other day I couldn't resist taking a picture...

"Mom, what are you doing?"

Then she immediately turned on the CHEESE and started grinning for the camera.  I was lucky enough to not only capture the first time she deliberately smiled at the camera, but also the first time she made this incredibly cheesy smile.

Three separate smiles all right in a row, all extra cheesy.  I can't help giggling again each time I look at these photos... hehehehehe :)

Grilling with Papa

This past Saturday we packed up the kids and made a trek out to Coopersville to get together with my Dad (aka Papa) to celebrate Father's Day.  He wanted to use his new smoker grill, so my sisters and I all brought a dish to pass and showed up for dinner.

With temperatures in the 80's I knew the girls would end up getting wet with the hose/sprinkler so I packed swim diapers (for Dani), a swimsuit (for Michaela), an extra change of clothes for each girl and their PJs.

Papa manning the grill.  3 different flavored pork loins, country style ribs and grilled veggies. YUM!

To keep the kids cool my sister Jodi turned on the hose for them.  Surprisingly Dani was the biggest fan of the freezing cold water.  She ended up with 2 outfits soaked and blue lips before we made her change into PJs to go home in.

Each time she'd take a pass through the water she'd run over to share some with Royce's toes.  I'm not sure what he thought about that, but Dani sure had fun!

Michaela and Dylan both had great faces to share with Aunt Jamie when took a turn with the camera.

"Oh! Dylan, what's this?  You want to share your salad with me?"

Dani likes ranch dressing and... anything vegetable covered in ranch dressing.

See how blue her lips are?!? Good thing Daddy noticed and wrapped her up in a nice fluffy beach towel. :)

I Love You! ... You though, you I will tease.

Dani has been really growing in her vocabulary skills and we are frequently amazed at the new words she has learned and sentences she is stringing together (of the 3 word variety).  It's also amusing to watch her sense of humor developing at the same time.  She understands when something is funny will often laugh at the antics of big sis Michaela or tease the grown ups.

Here's proof of both.

"I love you, Daddy." "I love you, Michaela." and "Thwppppp!" The continuing translation for "I love you, Momma."

I've now just taken to replying to her blowing raspberries at me like that with an "I love you too Dani." :)

Apple Blossoms 2011

Every year I take the girls out to the farm in the Spring to get pictures with the apple blossoms.  This year I didn't have any help to corral them so I didn't get many photos of them with the blossoms, but we had fun taking lots of pictures that day anyway.

 Proof that we saw the apple blossoms, and the industrious bees working their bee magic. :)

 Silly faces from the girls who don't like to hold still... Dani is eating some uncooked asparagus and Michaela is holding her stalk of it from Great Grandpa.

Do you see the asparagus in this one too?  Michaela is now feeding her stalk to Dani, this is how you get these two to hold still for half a minute.  Of course, sitting still and facing mom at the same time is a skill we are still working on. hehehe

Michaela thinking and Dani with a dirt rimmed mouth.  She is still learning that rocks are NOT for eating.

Picking up all the rocks out back at Grandma's pump.  They were very content to "helping" Grandma with this special job just for little girls for a very loooong time.

Proof that I was there watching. :)

Another fun trip to the farm playing outdoors, running around, visiting Great Grandpa & Great Grandma, swinging, and even checking out the neighborhood bison farm (complete with sunbathing bison calves).

Hamming it Up

This is what happens when I get my camera out now.  Michaela runs up and wants me to take a picture so she can look at it immediately after, and Dani ignores me for the most part.  I thought these were just too cute and had to share them.

*NOTE: this is a repost from last Thursday 5/12, this post was lost during the issues with Blogger.

Dandelion

Driving down the road the other day Michaela asks, "Mom, are dandelions flowers or lions?"

"They're flowers."

"Okay."

"I'll hold her!""

Dani had just gotten up from her nap the other day and I needed to get up from the couch with snuggling her to take care of something.  Michaela instantly volunteered, "I'll hold her!" and started trying to take Dani onto her lap.

As you can see, Dani was SUPER excited about the whole process. hehehe

Michaela's First Dentist Visit

We had Michaela's first trip to the dentist a couple weeks back.  Well actually, it was her second trip there, but her very first appointment for herself.

The week before when I had my 6 month check up I brought Michaela along to the dentist to familiarize her with what happens at a dentist appointment.  By the time we left my check up she had ridden in the dentist's chair, watched them "tickle" mommy's teeth, and learned all about wearing special sunglasses so that the dentist's bright light didn't hurt your eyes.  Oh, and they let her pick out a special prize for being so good while she was there with me.

Needless to say the dentist became pretty popular with Michaela. :)

We went back a week later for her very own appointment and there was EXTREME excitement to go to the dentist.  Here's a little video of her laughing at them "tickling" (brushing) her teeth.  She keeps saying "ha, ha, ha!"

ROOOARR!!!

I was looking through my pictures from Easter morning and couldn't help but share these.  Dani and Chris were 'roaring' back and forth like lions. 

Here's my version of what Dani's thinking from watching her expressions in these shots.

Photo #1: "Huh, what's Dad doing?"
Photo #2: "hehehe..." 
Photo #3 & 4: "My turn!... HA! HA! HA! I'm so funny!"

Panda and Fluffy

While Chris was out of town for a business trip last weekend (Thursday-Sunday), we had an extended Girls Weekend. Michaela, Dani & I kept ourselves occupied and even mundane tasks and errands became special for our Girls Day Parts 1 through 4. :)

We had a lot of fun and even ended with a trip to Build-A-Bear where I let both girls pick an animal and dress it.

Here's the no-so-fantastic pictures from my camera phone of Michaela and her panda bear named Panda (yeah, super original). If you couldn't tell, Panda is a Red Wings fan and actually is a girl hockey player (all according to Michaela).



And here's Dani with her bunny. The funnest part of this little excursion for me was helping Dani to pick out her bunny's name.

Me: "Dani, what do you want to name your bunny? Bunny?"
Dani: blank stare
Me: "Hopper?"
Dani: blank stare
Me: "Fluffy?"
Dani: tiny smile and a hummed out "Mmm, hmm."

And that is how Fluffy the bunny came to be named. :)

Mommy Juice

I've been meaning to share this story for a couple weeks...

A couple weeks ago on a beautiful sunny Friday, Michaela and I were having breakfast together.  I was just sitting down to eat when gesturing to our glasses of orange juice Michaela asked me, "Is this mommy juice?"

"What?" I replied to her, not really understanding the question all that well.

"Is this mommy juice, or kid juice?" she clarified.

This is when the light bulb went off over my head, "Oh.... mommy juice.  No.  This is regular juice for mommys or kids."

"Yeah, cause mommy juice is for just at night."

"Mommy juice" Michaela speak for wine.  The best part is that she hasn't seen me drink a glass of wine in... seriously don't know the last time.  She just remembers things so well that it comes up weeks or months later we have to roll back through our memories to figure out what she's talking about.

The next day Chris took me wine tasting for my birthday and while I stocked up on my mommy juice selection I remembered to tell him this story.  His response? "Well, she's got your number doesn't she?"

Yes.  Yes she does.

Papa Came To Visit

I was just looking through some photos I've downloaded and came across these of my Dad with the girls.  Papa LOVES his girls, and they LOVE him!  There was a lot of giggling going on when Papa came to visit. :)