Evening Stroll

It has been absolutely beautiful here.  I hope that this spring lasts for a while longer.  The other evening, we were all home for dinner, a rarity, and I don't know how, but I was able to pull Ashton away from March Maddness and we went for a walk after dinner.  We strapped Dexter's "new" helmet on and he rode his trike.  Since he is still new at pedaling, we put the parent push bar in to help with steering and the occasional push.

(I found his helmet at the Take 2 consignment sale for $4!  Yay!)   

It was the perfect evening.   Simply perfect.

My View

We were walking to the park and I had the camera in hand.  As we were going, I decided I needed to capture this moment for me.  I love looking down at Juliette in the stroller.  She has such happy, wiggly feet and legs when she is there.  And I love how big Dexter has gotten.  He has a funny little strut that he does when he is on his way to go have some fun.

Splish Splash

I like to give Juliette a bath in the sink.  On days when Dex doesn't need one but she does, that is where she goes.  It is easier for me and there is just something about a baby in a sink that I adore.      

I was playing with the settings on the camera so that is why some of the pictures look a little different.  Also, that side of the sink slowly leaks and you'll notice the water level slowly get lower.  

This one, she is laughing at her silly brother.

And these are to document her love or chewing on her wash rags.  It is one of her favorite things to do.

Fun at the Park

We had this amazing weather, and went to the park almost every day last week.  I even got the swing out and put it up so Juliette could enjoy it too. 

Ignore her hat though.  It was the only one that semi fit.  I got her a much cuter one since then :)

Dex wanted to wear a bucket hat too.

Lovin' it!

Planting Flowers

One of my favorite things is to start my own flowers.  I love to look at them when they are flowers, and I am filled with great satisfaction knowing that I grew them.  I don't know why.  I didn't grow up starting seeds, and when Ashton and I took a gardening class at CSI together forever ago, I didn't even think about flowers, just produce.  I started my own flowers our first year here, but not last year.  I did miss not having done it last year, and I have been really excited to do it this year and have Dexter be involved and see them grow.  

This last week we have had amazing weather.  We were in the mid 70's to 80 all week long.  Monday, Dex, Jules, and I got to work starting our flowers.  I think we are kinda late starting the pansies, but if they don't bloom 'till summer, it'll be just fine.

Dexter got to fill the egg cartons with dirt.  He LOVED doing that.

Juliette sat in the stroller enjoying every minute.  She loves to be outside and loves to be in the stroller.

 We planted one egg carton of pansies and one egg carton of white alyssum.  I forgot to label them though.  So I'm just going to have to transplant them without a care and know that it'll be beautiful no matter what.  One of the egg cartons is already sprouted up.  I believe it is the alyssum.  I've started pansies before, and if memory serves me correctly, it took a while for them to grow.

I'm trying to pay attention to, and realize what brings me true joy.  I have found that this is one of them.

Moovin' and Groovin'

She is almost a crawler!!!  

She has been a little more content not being next to me or in my arms as of late.  She is working on this thing called crawling.  I'm excited for her being content, but oh man,  I will never have her not by my side once this is mastered. 

 I can't believe how fast she is growing and changing...  

...and just look at how cute she is...

...and how proud she is of herself.

Where did the time go?

7th Month

Juliette at 7 months:

She has suddenly let her little personality show more.  She is either happy or mad--there is no in between.  She has also decided to be a mover and a groover.  She rolls and is trying to crawl.  She laughs just slightly easier, but still not much, and she loves to munch on her wash rags.  I try to giver her her taggie, but alas, it must be a wash cloth.  She talks quite a bit more too.  She loves to be in the stroller and laughs and kicks the whole time she is there.  Next to wash clothes she also loves to munch on mommy's hair and Dexter's cars.  She has also decided that she needs to lick things.  My arms, legs, the couch, the arms on the rocking chair...silly girl.

Learning to Pedal

On the same day that I painted Juliette's toes, I pulled Dexter's trike out of storage.  He has been asking to ride all winter and I kept telling him he had to wait until spring.  He then started telling me each morning that it was indeed spring and that he could ride his bike today.  :)  Oh man, I love him.  When I really did pull it out and told him he could ride it, he was beyond ecstatic to say the least.

It was harder than I expected to teach him how to pedal.  I bought this trike on Craigslist last year and it comes with a parent push bar I can attach to the back to help push and steer him.  I wanted him to have no excuses and have to learn how to pedal so I didn't attach it.  He didn't like the idea at first, but finally figured out how to pedal.  Steering is something we'll be learning this summer, but he is figuring out pedaling.

Girly Stuff

Last week, we had a super warm day, 70s warm day.  The kids and I loved every minute of it.  But the one thing that I've been itching to do all winter once those little toes of Juliette's weren't covered up anymore, I did.  I painted her toenails!!!

I need more colors, babyish colors, but we made do with what I had.  She was pretty excited afterward:

And then she finally noticed them and started to inspect them.

Hehe!  It was pretty fun!  This having a girl thing is going to be awesome!

Oo da-lolli, Oo da-lolli Golly What a Day!

 Oh what a day indeed!  A couple of weeks ago (February 24, actually), I had quite the day.   First, I was a witness to the end of a crime, 5 police cars surrounded our parking lot, tow trucks showed up, questioning, Ashton came home early, and then the kids and I were finally off to the Circus, which was an event in itself.

First the crime, a car was stolen and thieves decided to park and abandon the car, right in front of our apartment, across from where we park.  I had the blinds open and they caught my eye because I had never seen them before and they looked to be of no good. I saw 2 of them and what they were dressed like, and that they left separately and which direction they went.  One of them however, was coming straight at my window.  My first thought was they just did something bad, and are now abandoning that car and fleeing, and then as this man came walking towards my home, appearing to even be coming to my door, I watched him, and then quickly turned away because 1.  Just his mere presence reeked evil and sent chills down my spine,  and 2.  I immediately thought that I didn't want to be caught "seeing" him and marked as a witness in his book.  It also made me afraid for my family's safety.  So, I turned away.  Maybe 30 minutes later, if not less, the car they came out of was surrounded by police cars, so I figured it was either used in a crime or stolen.

It ended up that the car had been stolen and I was able to tell them there were 2 people not just 1, give descriptions of what the men were wearing, and that they freaked me out and were of no good. Pertinent details, but it's what I knew.

So Ash came home with a few less police cars around, we took him to work, then the kids and I went to the Circus!

I hadn't ever been to the Circus before and was kinda excited and thanks to Early Access, we were able to go for free.  That was a feat, but we made it.  We got inside, and just as we were about to sit down, Dexter starts to freak out.  He starts crying, saying that he wants to go home, needs me to hold him, but I couldn't cause I already had Juliette I had to hold, so I finally talked him into staying to see if he wanted to watch the show once it started.  I also bribed him with cotton candy.  To take his mind off the ordeal, we started to look for silly clowns and took pictures of the ones he like the most.

Then the music started, which was a live band and Dexter, still put out, sat in his seat for the rest of the time with a finger in his ear, eating cotton candy.  He did enjoy it though.  On our way home he told me all about the lady with the hula hoops, the elephant that danced, and the people that were way up in the sky.  

It was different than I expected, less grand than what Dumbo makes it out to be ;)  and the seeing the bears do human actions like riding a bike, walking, driving a motorcycle... actually bothered me.  

There were BMX bike riders, a cute dog act, some funny clown acts, tigers who jumped through a ring of fire, and a dancing elephant.  There were more acts than that, but that is what sticks out right now.  The ringmaster was a she, and her attire changed with every act.  I kinda wished I had taken a picture of each one, just to keep track.  She opened the show whit a song and actually had a beautiful voice.

When we got home Dexter had to watch Dumbo and fell asleep.  It was quite the day.  I was so very proud of him though, despite his little melt down at the beginning.  He had to walk everywhere and stayed with me and listened to me so well.