The Arm, Part 2

As promised, here's a video of Brooke rocking out at Yogli Mogli with Aunt Jamie. And this is just a taste of her sweet moves.

Look Who's Talking

At Least One of My Kids Will Smile for the Camera

Look who's smiling! Melt my heart. I may have mentioned this, but ironically enough, one of the places he's happiest now is on the changing table. Brooke is still enjoying making us work for camera smiles.

I'm not even sure which outing this was. The poor kid gets dragged to so much. Thankfully he's still a good sport about it.

 

Brooke at the Arboretum with our friends Beth and Luke. We love that place!

 

Miles is also (usually) really happy in the morning. What a great way to start the day.

Brooke "helping" with the Three Musketeers.

He's not smiling in this one, but look at those eyes!

Change of Plans

On Saturday, we had back-to-back-to-back plans with friends/family who either live in or were staying in the city. Thanks to NATO (/protesters), all but one of those plans were cancelled. And of course, I didn't get any pictures of that visit (it was great to see you, though, Mary!).

We took advantage of the free time and beautiful weather by having some much needed family time.

 

We spent some time at the Lake/Forest Preserve across the street.

 

 

There's actually photo evidence that I was there - and Brooke's smiling!!!

 

That night we went to the Taste of Glen Ellyn. Brooke's going to think there are carnivals every weekend.

Just a motorcycle. No big deal.

The Arm

You thought I was exaggerating when I talked about Brooke's throwing ability. Maybe with a little work she can take after her mom and play right field in 7th grade softball.

Family

We spent a couple of fun nights in a row this week with Matt's family. First, we went over to Matt's grandma's for pizza. Brooke always loves it over there. It was Miles' first visit, but judging by how happy he was the whole time we were there (usually the witching hours), he's going to feel the same.

Occasionally, I'll have someone comment that one of the kids looks like me. I get excited, then realize that every time it's someone who's never seen Matt. 

  

Miles with Grandma Audie...

 

...and with Grammie Deb the next night.

When we told Brooke who was coming over, she said, "I'm sooo excited!"

They all lived up to the hype. We love our family!

The Carnival

 

Last weekend, Matt was at the wedding of our good friends Nate and Alissa. As much as I wanted to be there, I wasn't quite ready to make the trip to Savannah with a toddler and a 6-week old. Instead, the three of us ventured to St. Louis. The ride down went great...for the first 3 1/2 hours. Then, literally within 10 minutes, we were in stop-and-go construction traffic, Miles woke up hungry, and Brooke had to go to the bathroom (I tried to get her to go in her diaper but she wasn't having it. That's a good thing, right?). Almost 2 hours later, we made it. I think our days of making the trip in just over 4 hours without stops are over for the time being.

 

Of course the girls were happy to see each other. Unfortunately, Luke was sick so we didn't get to see much of him all weekend. We pretty much laid low the whole time, except for Saturday night, when we went to a local carnival.

 

Brooke is barely 36 inches, so she and Lexi were able to ride all the kiddie rides by themselves.

Brooke was not a fan of the spinning dragon.

Papa T was a little freaked out by how fast the merry-go-round spun.

This reminds me of that car commercial where the dad is talking to the little girl in the driver's seat, then all of the sudden she's 16 and driving. Go ahead and call me Debbie Downer.

Other than the spinning ride, Brooke really seemed to love all of them. She's been really into motorcycles lately, so this one was a favorite.

The swings were fun.

We capped the night off with a dance party.

Miles was there, too. Just chilling.