Vivi loving the tub

Sorry for the annoying "mommy voice". :-)

Dresses are fun!

It was supposed to be 86 degrees today, so Mommy dressed me in this cute little number for school.

Vivi is 4 months old!

Today Vivian turned 4 months ~ wow, how the time has flown.

Here's what she's been up to lately:

• Battled her first cold - complete with stuffy/runny nose and sneezes, not fun, but she survived
• Wearing size 3 diapers and size 3-6 month clothes, some 6 month clothes
• Drinking 6 oz bottles every 3.5 hours
• Napping three to four times a day for about 45min to an hour, sometimes she takes 2 hour naps, but she's more of a power-napper
• LOVES the exersaucer and standing up holding onto your hands
• Started sleeping through the night without being fed when she wakes; we just pop the paci back in and she goes back to sleep. We've had several nights where she's slept 7pm-7am without waking once, but for the most part we're usually up doing the paci thing. Hoping once the cold is completely gone she'll go back to the 12-hour sleeps.
• Still sleeping swaddled because she hasn't figured out how to roll from back to front yet, just tummy to back. Her daycare teachers said she "scooted" backwards during tummy time last week, but we haven't seen it at home yet - probably because since I'm back to work now I never want to put her down in the evenings and on weekends.
• Lately is all about putting her hands in her mouth and gets mad when you try to take them out
• Starting to get more blond hair (but still not enough for cute little clippies, much to mommy's dismay), and eyes are bright blue
• Won't know her stats until her 4-month well-visit on April 21st

My babies and their lovies

Angel Dear makes the best lovies. Owen has sleepy lamb and sleepy bunny. He takes one to daycare for the week and the other stays home. They get washed every week and then he switches which one he takes to school. The bunny was given to him as a gift when he was a baby. He became attached to it around 16 months or so, and that is when I ordered the second one. You know, "just in case" he ever lost it and wasn't able to sleep without it.
Vivi received her sleepy giraffe from my cousin and his wife when she was first born. She doesn't sleep with it yet, but definitely enjoys cuddling with it after tummy time. I have a feeling we'll get her a "spare" when the time comes. The website knows all about the "just in case" and goes one further with A Pair and A Spare. Genius!

Floating is fun!

Owen wrapped up his fourth week of ISR lessons today. He has been doing really well, as per his instructor, and is on track to graduate at the end of next week when he (hopefully!) passes the tests. We've been impressed with his progress so far and look forward to his next series of swim lessons with Carlile Swimming starting in May. It's an Australian program that was brought to the US by former Olympic swimmer Tom Dolan who grew up in Arlington. We're so lucky that they decided on Ashburn for their location and Owen will be in the Tadpole class on Sunday mornings with three other kids his age. We can't wait!

Banana Splip

It was so warm today that when Owen and I were driving home from swimming (Ben had picked up Vivi from daycare on his way home from work), I said to Owen that we should go out for ice cream after dinner. We practiced the sentence "Daddy, can we go get ice cream after dinner?" since it was a long one, and when we walked in the door, Owen proudly said to Ben "Can we go get ice cream after dinner Daddy?" Of course, Ben said yes.
Owen loved his very first banana split, aka banana splip. :)

Big girl jammies

Since Vivi has started sleeping through the night (knock on wood - this just started last week and we hope it keeps going), I started putting her in her big girl jammies. I had always been a fan of the sleep gowns that Carter's and Gerber make because when you're changing a diaper at 2:30am the last thing you want to deal with is snaps or even zippers. But now that we're not changing diapers in the wee hours of the morning, the Children's Place zipper pj's are now the go-to jammies.
I just think she looks like such a big girl in them! Our baby is growing up too fast. Stop Vivi! Stay little for a little longer! (But do keep sleeping through the night. Mommy and Daddy like their sleep.) :)

Boy lashes

I sure hope Vivi's lashes grow in like Owen's have. Otherwise she will probably be very jealous.

Fireman Owen

This morning Grandma Marshall, Grandpa and Aunt Hillary came out our way early so that we could all go to the Ashburn Fire Department breakfast. Owen was decked out in his fireman rain coat that Aunt Hillary had given him for his 2nd birthday. Grandpa treated us and we all had a delicious pancake breakfast at the fire station. Owen was a bit distracted during breakfast because he could not wait to get outside to check out the fire engine on display.

He got to sit in the driver's seat and it was quite a different reaction than last time we were there. One of the firefighters even let Owen get an inside look at an ambulance! He LOVED it (as you can tell from the expression on his face). It was a fun way to spend Sunday morning.

Happy 1st Birthday Nate!

My godson Nate turns 1 on the 5th, but today was his 1st birthday party. Molly and Tim did such a great job with all the decorations, food, cupcakes and favors. Everyone had a great time hanging out and the kiddos ran around playing all afternoon. Nate is walking and it was so cool to see him running around with the big kids when the last time we saw him he was still doing the army crawl. (He took a tumble on the driveway the other day, hence the boo-boo on his nose - a rite of passage for every baby at this stage.)

When it was time to sing "Happy Birthday", Nate was ready to tear into his cake. He had so much fun with his smash cake!

Before everyone headed home, we gathered the Birthday Boy with his buddies for a group picture on the couch. Owen held his little sister and Kayla held her baby brother Ryan (just 10 days old!).

Happy 1st Birthday Nate!!!