Slacker!

Wow, I've been really bad about posting lately. (Sorry Dad.) We've been busy, and pregnant plus two babies is hard work.

Dani and Tori have been growing like weeds--Tori sprouted some more teeth and the kid is walking. Walking! Short little steps for now, but still, scary. When we aren't looking, she tries to climb up the slide. The kid is completely fearless, in a way Dani never was. She's giving me gray hairs!

And Dani is still mommy's helper. Sunday she helped me frost cupcakes, and then happily ate them.

I promise to be less of a slacker this week! More pics coming!

Party girls.

The whole family went to a late afternoon birthday party in Clifton Park at a place called Bounce Around. It was kind of like a Chuck-e-Cheese, but without making any effort to make parents actually want to be there (by serving food or beer). If you are having a party you can bring your own, and the party room we had did have some chow from the hosts, Aimee and Seamus McNulty, and 3 year old birthday boy Liam.

The place was like walking into a toddler's dream. It was bright, and colorful, and loud and every square inch was packed with something to bounce on or play with. Dani spent some time in a cool car.

She adhered to her rule that cupcakes are best eaten by licking off all of the frosting. Dani's rule was slightly modified today, as she dipped popcorn in the frosting, and seemed to think that was a great nosh.
She was on the young side, so we stuck her in the 1-3 year old only farmland bouncer. For the first few minutes, she was the only kid in there, and just kind of walked around trying to figure it out. Then a more experienced kid came in and started leaping around, and that was all Dani needed to get rolling.
Tori was too little for much, but we bounced her on the wall of the toddler bounce house while Dani was playing. She was screeching and waving and saying hi to everyone and everything.
Dani insisted in going in the "Go Diego Go" bounce house. She was alone for about 5 seconds, and then an older toddler came in. Of course, they bumped heads in less than a minute, and two crying toddlers rolled out of the bouncer.
Undeterred, she continued to play and eat and have a blast!

Valentine's Day.

Mommy, we don't care if it is Valentine's Day and we are wearing matching t-shirts. We want to play. We will sit still for one picture, but we won't smile. So there! Okay, plaaaaaaaaaaaaaytime! Time for climbing on chairs! And spinning! And since we're not posing for you mommy, we will be sure to smile!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Need to custom print? BuildASign.com

Well, as you know it's a very rare day when I post about a product or a service that I've used or been asked to sample. And, it's only when I think stuff is particularly awesome.

The folks at http://www.buildasign.com/ contacted me and asked me whether I'd be interested in seeing what they had to offer. Since I do printing for political campaigns, the law firm and just silly personal stuff, I thought it was a great idea.

I decided to create two very different things, each featuring one of the kids. I'm only going to share one of them with you tonight.

These guys http://www.buildasign.com/ can print all kinds of stuff from banners to window clings to political signs--full color, and reasonably priced.

The best part is that you can design your own stuff right on the site and it's really easy.
Anyway, they even have different art, that you can modify to add text and pictures. So, for Dani's buildasign.com project, I chose Van Gogh's "The Scream."

As you can see, Dani is WAY cuter than the actual screaming guy. The print is 24" by 18" on artboard, which I will frame for Dani's room.

When I showed it to her tonight, she thought it was the coolest thing ever. And, it was easy--I was able to import a photo and crop it to size right on the screen and place it wherever I wanted. And the prices are super-reasonable. So, this cool pic is a keeper, thanks to the folks at http://www.buildasign.com/.

Stay tuned for Tori's project. It's for her birthday and it's awesome--even Big Man was impressed. We will definitely be back to buildasign.com for more cool projects soon!

Snow day!

Hurry up, mommy! You are too slow. We need to plaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

There are snow angels to make! And snow hills to slide down!
And snow to eat! Yay!

The snow is taller than me! I hope it stays like this forever!

Mommy's little helper.

Dani is very interested in helping mommy these days. Every time I start a task, I hear footsteps and a little voice saying, "Help mommy!" When I'm making dinner, we pull up the Costco stepstool and Dani "helps" me pour or mix or something (generally it just exponentially adds to the mess). When it's time to change Tori, she shrieks, "Go on Dani dock!" Dani dock is a Dani-invented phrase for the covered radiator next to the changing table that Dani insists on standing on to help me change Tori. Helping, on a good day can consist of Dani assisting me with the baby powder, and on a less good day, tickling Tori's feet or tummy while I'm changing her. Oh, did I mention that she is usually repeating, "big nasty poop" regardless of what's in Tori's diaper? Yep--no idea where that came from; I blame Big Man.

Tonight, the girls got to sit on the changing table and watch daddy snowblow. Dani wanted to "help daddy shovel".The cutest "help" she provides nightly is sneaking into the kitchen to feed the cats. I never see her do this, but usually once I've put her to bed, I find this in the service stairwell:

Apparently, my talented cats can open cans of food all by themselves. But that's Dani's way of helping, and I think it's adorable.

Oh yes, the other kiddo. She's fearless and trying like heck to walk!

We're supposed to get about 18" of snow tomorrow, so I hope to have some good snowy pics in the next day or two.