Painting With A Twist

On Saturday night Rhiannon, Sara and I went out to Painting with a Twist.  It is a fun place where they walk you through painting a picture, the twist is that it is BYOB and most people come equipped with bottles of wine.  It was a really fun night!  I was slightly disappointed that the Fleur de Lis we were painting was already outlined on the canvas, but we did all the painting and shading and it took nearly 3 hours to complete!  

Sara, Rhiannon and Me after we finished painting part of the background.

 

Ta Da!!

My finished product.  Lily wants to hang it in her room.  She is so sweet! :)

The most notable part of the evening is that the class started at 7:00 and we were supposed to be there about 15 minutes early.  So Chip had to get both girls to bed all by himself.  He has never put a baby under the age of 3 to bed, so this was a big deal and he admitted he was terrified.  I knew it wouldn't be hard.  Knock on wood, Danielle goes down pretty easily at night.  Thankfully, it all went exactly as I said it would.  He fed her a bottle, put her in bed and she fell asleep and slept through until 4 am.  I am so glad it was easy on him -- maybe he can do it more often now!! :)

Mall

Lily has been begging me to take her to the mall for weeks now.  She just likes to walk around and shop!  But since I haven't needed anything at the mall, it did not sound that great to me.  Well on Saturday we had to miss out on Makaya's brother Matthew's first birthday party.  I was sad to miss, but with Danielle possibly having a virus I didn't want to bring her out to play with Abby and Matthew.  So instead I told Lily I'd take her to the mall.  She was SO excited.  We went to the Disney store, did some clothes shopping, saw the Easter Bunny -- but will go back to get pictures maybe this week.  I even let Lily pick a treat and she choose cupcakes.  So we went to the cupcake place that has a sprinkle bar where you can add extra sprinkles!!  She loved that!  It was a really nice afternoon.  I love to see her so genuinely happy.

 

Adding Sprinkles!!

Yummy!

Finger Foods

Danielle has been showing some interest in my food and tries to grab onto food and eat it whenever she can.  So I thought maybe she was ready to try some finger foods.  I just started with a couple cheerios -- same as I did with Lily.  Danielle was excited to pick them up and suck on them and she ate the first one that she got in her mouth, but she didn't like it very much.  I think she was weirded out by the whole experience and she didn't want anymore.  I tried to feed her another one and she refused it -- which is weird since she hasn't refused a food yet!  

Oooh a Cheerio!

Not so sure about this.

She would pick up the cheerios (she has a good pincher grasp), get them in her fist and cram the whole fist into her mouth!

I also bought some rice Mums at the store.  I never used these with Lily, but they were great.  They were just a rice cracker that basically dissolved in her mouth.  Danielle loved it and ate it up!  I think this is the best way to get her more accustomed to solid foods.

(you can see she has red bags under her eyes -- at the time I though maybe it was because she didn't really nap all day, but now I think it was left over from the red splotches the night before)

"Tattoos"

This is what happens when I leave Lily unattended for 20 minutes to put Danielle down for a nap.  She even wrote her name on the bottom of her feet.

Grocery Shopping

On Friday I took both kids grocery shopping by myself for the first time ever!  Normally, Chip would go or I'd have my mom come help or just leave the kids at home with my mom.  I never trusted the infant carrier balanced up on the cart and I couldn't find many groceries in the stroller (I guess I have been before with just the stroller, but that was just a quick trip).  This was a full blown, fill the cart with groceries for the week trip.  And it was Danielle's first ever time in a shopping cart!!   I was a little apprehensive since Danielle had refused to nap all day.  It was 3pm and she still had not slept.  Thankfully she was so engaged and excited to be in the cart, that the lack of sleep didn't seem to phase her.  All in all, it was pretty easy and a successful trip!  I'd even do it again if I had to. :)

 

She looked so cute and tiny in that seat.

Sick Again

On Thursday when we were registering Lily for Kindergarten I noticed Dani's face was turning kinda red and splotchy.  It was warm in there, so I thought maybe she was overheated.   But a couple hours later it was still there and getting worse.  It was mainly around her nose and eyes and spread to the back of her neck and eventually made it to her back and shoulder blades.  She had already been having diarrhea for a day, so I took her to the kids urgent care.    

They said is was either an allergic reaction, which was what Chip's guess was too based on the splotchy redness, but she hadn't eaten anything new and for the life of me, I have no idea what could have caused it.  Or it could be a viral infection of some kind.  They gave her benedryl and it seemed to help.  The splotches were gone a few hours later and, knock on wood, have not come back.  But we are still dealing with the diarrhea which makes me think she has a bug of some kind.  Poor baby girl, it's tough having an older sibling!!

You can kind of see the redness on her face, especially around her eyes.

Kindergarden Roundup

Thursday was Kindergarten Roundup when you register for school in the fall.  We had to go down to the school with all the proper paperwork and officially get her signed up.  I'm very much in denial that Lily will be starting Kindergarten in the fall.  It hasn't really hit me yet.  It is so bittersweet.  She'll know a few kids from preschool and playgroups, but none of her best friends will go to the same school.  In a way, I think that is good.  She has had these same friends to lean on at preschool for the last three years, it will be good her to branch out and make new friends. 

Here she is in front of her school - she is officially a registered kindergartner!

 

Baby

My mom bought this onesie for Lily and I had to get a photo of Danielle in it.  It is the best onesie ever.

Naptime

Sweet cheeks asleep in my lap.

Sesame Street

On Tuesday morning Danielle grabbed the remote and happened to turn on Sesame Street.  She was hooked immediately.  While it didn't hold her attention for the whole hour, she was loving the muppets.

She was so enthralled as she watched her first ever episode.   It is pretty safe to say it will likely be a favorite show, just like it was for Lily.

This Week in Outfits

Here are some of our outfits from this week!  A few days she wore outfits that I have already gotten pictures of, so no need to document them again!

Last Sunday Lily went to Luke's birthday party at a local bounce place and Danielle wore this dress that used to belong to Lily.

Wednesday all ready to take Lily to dance:

This Sunday Lily was invited to Christie's Smurf party and everyone was encourage to wear blue. Dani wore this outfit that was Lily's:

And Lily looked super cute in her new little blue dress:

Lazy Sunday

Last Sunday morning was a lazy Sunday morning.  Danielle sat nearby and played while Lily and I played with play doh for hours.

St Patrick's Day

On St Patrick's Day Lily, Danielle and I met up with Rhiannon, Carys and Abby at a nearby outdoor shopping area where they were having all kinds of Irish festivities.  There was music, ice cream, face painting, etc.  Rhiannon's sister was there with friends and had a table at a restaurant right on the green, so we all sat there and watched the girls play and dance.  It was a nice outing and a fun way to celebrate!

In the evening, after the kids went to bed I went out to Top Golf to celebrate with my friends.  Chip couldn't come out since he has a big test on Monday to study for.  But we had fun -- it is always great to get out with friends.  In fact, we have gotten pretty good and stepped out Mom's Night Out from once a month to almost weekly (sometimes bi-weekly!).

Me and Sara

Me and Rhiannon

Patti, me and Rhiannon

All we had was a camera phone, but it is better than nothing!

7 Months Old

 

My little leprechaun turned 7 months old on St. Patrick's Day!  Lily got this dress as a gift from Chip's Aunt Terry when she was a baby, and it was perfect for Danielle's 7 month pictures.  I can not believe she is 7 months old.  She is still perfect and such a good baby.  Her naps are still erratic at best and not very long -- hopefully she gets better at napping soon.  But otherwise she is the happiest little baby.  She adores her sister and loves to play with her toys, play Pat-A-Cake, and dance to music.  She truly is a joy and we all love her so much!

Princess Danielle

Lily dressed Danielle up as a princess.  They were both pretty proud!