I'm Fresh Out of Creative "St. Louis Visit" Post Titles

The kids and I headed down to St. Louis last weekend to see my family and have a birthday celebration for Miles down there. The weather on Friday was amazing!

That night, we got to see Amy and her kids and Paul's fiance Jamie when they came over to Tim and Krissi's. This is the picture that we sent Matt when he sent me a picture of the beautiful golf course that he was at in California.

Of course the girls played with play-dough.

Trying to get a decent shot of the cousins.

Tim and Krissi win Aunt and Uncle of the Year award for offering to host Brooke for a sleepover.

Krissi claims that this was taken after giving the girls the *incentive* of no more sleepovers if they didn't stay in bed.

Getting sassy in their matching dresses from Gigi.

Both boys were diagnosed with ear infections while we were down there. Poor Miles was running the highest fever I've seen him run. Despite that, they were less work than the girls.

We finished the weekend with Easter egg dying. Incident-free Easter egg dying, I might add. I think the trash bag smocks might have helped.

If I were a classy blogger, I'd end this post with a beautifully lit, artsy shot of the finished-product eggs. But I'm not, so here's one more shot of the girls.

Big Kids

Both the kids seem to be wanting to grow up lately. Part of me loves it and part of me hates it. Here's Brooke trying to "teach" Miles to crawl on his knees. He happily continued army crawling after her. It was pretty funny, but I didn't switch to video in time. (Sidenote: Though the time change has messed up all of our sleep schedules a bit around here, I love that this picture was taken after dinner and it's still light out! Of course, we eat close to 5:30 these days. But still...)

Speaking of sleep schedules, his independently sitting up has taken a toll on his morning naps. Which is actually okay with me because he makes up for it with extra-long afternoon naps. Knock on wood.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do about Brooke's nap. I really think she still needs one at least a few days a week, but a lot of times a nap in the afternoon means she doesn't fall asleep until way too late at night. And let's be honest, Mommy needs some quiet time, too. So, at my discretion, I've let her play in her room during nap time a couple of days this week. After running up and down the stairs about ten times to her shouts of "Mommy!", I finally got through to her that it wasn't time for me to play with her or come up to fix one of her toys. She was alone for about an hour and I came up to the above scene - sorry about the lighting. She was throwing a "wedding" for her and her "husband" (who she wasn't able to give me a proper name for).

I let her do the same thing today and was greeted with the above scene when I went to check on her.

Miles is holding his own bottle most of the time now! And he seems to be getting the hang of the sippy cup.

And Brooke continues to love hanging out with her best friend up here, Kali. We spent last Friday at the DuPage Children's Museum. Despite the looks on their faces in the last picture, they genuinely had a good time.

Snow "Fun"

I'm not sure what's going on with the weather here, but we had our biggest snowstorm of the year last Tuesday. For those who need help with the calendar, that was March 5. The good news about snow this late in the season is that it's gone in a few days. I was inspired by the snow and decided to pull out one of my OT tricks and have Brooke play in the shaving cream "snow".

 

 

While I was in the basement looking for the shaving cream I'd used with my students, Brooke stepped on a toy and cut her foot. Then, my little chip-off-the-old-block wasn't super excited to get her hands dirty. She eventually embraced it and we were having fun drawing in it when Miles woke up. I went up to get him, forgetting to remind Brooke not to touch her eyes. Cue the painful screams.

 

The poor thing. I rushed down to help her clean out her eyes (I would've taken a pic but she was genuinely in pain) and she said, "I don't think I like playing with shaving cream." We'll try it again after the emotional scars have healed.

When Matt got home, we all went outside for a bit to play in the snow. Miles wasn't too impressed. 

It wasn't the best packing snow, so Matt and Brooke's snowman became a snow "castle". Complete with carrot door and windows (not pictured).

Seriously, I'm ready for spring...

The Reveal

I mentioned that revealing to the kids that they were going to be at Disney together didn't go quite how we'd imagined. Brooke and I got to the hotel around 10:30 at night and the Timmerman kids (who are HARD sleepers) were already out. Obviously, Lexi was not happy to be woken up, regardless of who it was.

The next morning, she didn't even remember that we were there, so we had Brooke knock on the door again. It's hard to make out, but Lexi says, "My wish came true!" She told Tim and Krissi that at the fountain at Epcot the night before, she'd wished that Brooke could be there with her. Then when we were getting ready to leave the next day, she started crying and said, "I don't want Brooke to go. I should have made my wish sooner!" So sweet.

Disney- Yes, Again

When we took Brooke to Disney for one day last month, I was thinking about how much I was going to hate to have to wait a year-plus to go again. So, when Krissi told me that they were going, I asked if she'd mind if we tagged along. We had airline miles for the flight and were able to get a pretty good deal on our tickets and hotel, so after quite a bit of deliberation, I decided to take advantage of an opportunity that doesn't come around everyday.

We didn't tell either of the girls about the surprise. I think the "reveal" was a bit anti-climactic, but it was still fun to surprise them.

Brooke and I weren't even in Orlando for 48 hours and the Timmermans were on days 4 and 5 of their visit, so on paper this wasn't the best idea. There were some meltdowns, but overall I think everyone did well.

We made it to all 4 parks in our two days of being there and met tons of the characters, including some that I don't think Brooke even knew existed.

Lexi played the Beast in one of the attractions that had scared Brooke when we were there last time. This time she actually posed with Belle.

We consumed far too much junk food. But when it's shaped like Mickey's head, calories don't count, right?

We also got to see multiple shows. The kids loved the Disney Jr. show. Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse AND Princess Sofia?!? Heaven.

There was also a show with Mickey and the Princesses outside of Cinderella's castle. Brooke knew most of the songs from her Princess CD's. Does Disney know how to market, or what?

At Epcot, on our way to dinner with the Princesses.

The kids got to meet and pose with five different princesses. Brooke's pose in this picture is an indication of how exhausted she was. That dinner turned into a bit of a trainwreck for Brooke, which was ultimately my fault for stretching her so thinly.

We rode a bunch of rides that we didn't get to last time. Here's Brooke rocking out to a singing trash can (not pictured) in Tomorrowland.

She LOVED the teacups.

It was always fun when the girls could ride in the same car. Here they are on Dumbo.

We rode the water ride at Animal Kingdom FOUR times. And it wasn't that warm.

Watching the parade at Animal Kingdom.

On Barnstormer, Brooke's favorite ride. On the second morning, we asked each girl what their favorite part of the day before was. Brooke: "Playing with Lexi." Lexi: "Seeing Brooke." It's great that they love each other and all, but c'mon, can't we at least recognize the fact that we're at Disney World?

On the Magic Carpets. Which is essentially just like Dumbo...and about 5 other rides there. They loved it, though.

The end of our first day. One of those times that I really wish Brooke was good at falling asleep in places besides her bed.

Saying goodbye at the airport.

Again, it was a really special treat to be able to do this and I'm so glad that we took the opportunity to make the memories. Special thanks to Matt for encouraging us to go and to my awesome friend Katie for watching Miles during the days.