More March Madness

March is about over and I haven't gotten much better about blogging. I haven't actually been taking as many pictures lately anyway. I guess that's the busy life of the moment creeping up on me. Buddy is quite possibly the busiest member of our household. He's still not QUITE walking, but he's REALLY close. He cruises, climbs, clings, falls. He is into everything, but especially the dog bowls and the bathroom. The kid comes by his love for water quite naturally, but does he really have to unroll the toilet paper into the potty while I'm cooking dinner?!?

Claire is getting really close to her first dance recital. Pictured below, she is doing our toddler yoga video. Even mommy likes to do this video with them. The girls love their Easter dresses and have been enjoying playing at Easter Egg hunts. Evie is also now big enough to play hide and seek, so they seem to be getting along better these days. Since we don't watch TV any more (Yoga video excepted), they have gotten really good about playing creatively. Anyway, enjoy some pics...

Entering March

I realized today that I hadn't posted new pictures in awhile. As it so happens, I haven't really taken very many pictures lately. But there are a few here for you to enjoy. Meanwhile, life goes on. Evelynn is no longer in pullups ever, night, day, out, in, and she is doing very well. Buddy has a total of 6 teeth now and is less interested in baby food and far more excited to eat what everyone else does. He is also cruising a little, pushing chairs or crates around (though he's not quite fast enough to keep up with his actual walker yet). Claire is loving ballet and getting ready for her big recital the first week of May. Buddy and Evie both had well visits at the doctor last week. Buddy is in the 50th percentile on both weight and height and Evelynn is 50th on height and 75th on weight. We are growing, happy and doing well in the Peel household.

More from February

In case I didn't say this in my previous post, Buddy is officially standing up at every opportunity. He's not yet 9 months and he is ever so mobile. All he wants to do is walk! Claire is enjoying ballet and getting ready for her first recital. Evelynn is into talking up a storm (which usually involves repeating everything her sister says), and would probably rather swing than do just about anything in the world. We have had a fairly good February despite Buddy's short fever virus and are looking forward to spring!

February Post

Amazing! It is February and I am posting pictures from - February! The month started with our first sickness in quite a long while. Buddy had a fever virus lasting several days that kept us up many many nights in a row. That led to separation anxiety and a baby who refused to sleep unless he was being held even when nothing was wrong, so we moved into tough love mode. Boy am I glad we did!

For as long as I can remember, he has had this routine of waking 30 to 45 minutes after being layed down at night. He just wants another minute (well, 10 minutes) of rocking and holding. It already takes 2 people to put kids to bed in our house. Evenings here are CRAZY! Geoff gets home at 6 and goes straight to shower since he has been swimming. I heat up his dinner while he showers and when he gets out he eats while I bathe Buddy. Then he comes and gets Buddy and gets him ready for bed while I start the girls' bath and get their jammies and books layed out. Then I go to nurse Buddy and put him down while Geoff bathes the girls.

Once Buddy is asleep, I come get Evie ready while Geoff gets Claire ready, and then we have reading time with the girls. About a month ago we finally managed to fully combine the girls' bed reading routine. They used to have different tastes in stories due to their ages and attention span differences and Evie used to go to bed slightly earlier than Claire. It has been a big relief to have them both do a joint reading time and go to bed at once, because there is now the possibility that one person can handle their bedtime (though this rarely happens). However, even with their time combined, there was still the issue of Buddy waking partway through their reading time and Mommy having to go rock with him for another 10 minutes or more, meaning evening outings for either parent have been an impossibility for 8 months.

Thankfully, Buddy has been Ferberized in the last few weeks and he is now fully down for bed at 7. This means FREEDOM. I haven't taken advantage of it yet, but it means a girls night out for Mommy is coming really, really soon. The difference between being able to leave the house around 7 and not being able to get out until 8 is HUGE! I cannot wait to enjoy it.

Okay, enough of our evening snapshot, here are some pictures to enjoy...

 The girls always fight over the middle seat in our car. Yes! We still drive a sedan (hatchback) and we bought carseats to fit 3 across. It was such a good decision though I would actually love a minivan at some point for the convenience. Anway, the girls have finally figured out that being in the middle is not all it is cracked up to be, largely because Buddy has figured out that he can reach them pretty well with his feet. I hear an unending refrain of "No Buddy!" from whomever sits in the middle now, but they still fight over it each time we get in the car. 

 Every afternoon from 2:30 to 3:00 I get some one on one time with Buddy in his room. To the right, I used olive oil to get the last of the cradle cap out and took advantage of the oil to style him right!

 All kids love to wear their parents' shoes!

 He now thinks playing UNDER the exersaucer is way more fun than being stuck in it and unable to get out and about.

 Helping Daddy weed the front flower bed

 This boy is in constant motion. He does his swimmy crawl, moves into the "downward dog" yoga position, sits up and then finds something to pull up on. I'm afraid we are going to have an early walker on our hands... 

Play time with our neighbors and good friends! There's nothing like having a 4 yr old and 3 yr old right next door to create some good times.