Taming My Wild Beasts

Brian's parents, Mimi and Da, brought by a bunch of costumes for the girls this past week. This is my little wild lion trying on her possible costume.



She wasn't sure what to think of the mane at first.









Practing her "roar"...no, really I think she was trying to eat the camera. The closer I got, the wider her mouth opened.

Brian got in on the fun, too. His head nearly came with the hood when he tried to get that thing off.









Appararenly Charis thought we were shooting a slow-mo shot for a kung-fu movie. Looks like Atalie is getting a roundhouse kick to the back of the head.


Why is it so hard to get a good photo of two kids at the same time?

These were my best shots of them together.

Sad.

Though Charis (again) looks like she's attempting to play whack-a-mole on Attie's head, and Atalie looks like she's using her Jedi skills to block her...

no. Actually Atalie is (again) trying to taste something. This time, Charis's costume. And Charis, well, she's just wiggling. What else is new?

My Gym!

For Charis's birthday, her Uncle Jason and Aunt KeeKee got her a 3 month membership to My Gym. It's been so much fun!! Every Monday (and every time we get in the car) I hear, "We going My Gym, Mommy?"

She's climbing to kiss Mr. Bear.

Her favorite...the ball pit!!

Circle time! Not her favorite (since it involves stopping free play), but once the music starts, she's all smiles again.

Thank you Jason and Keex for the amazing gift! They even let Atalie roll around in a walker while Charis plays. Big thanks to Bean for babysitting Attie while Charis and I spent a little time together.

Brian has officially decided that we now need a rock wall, balance bean, and hanging swings in Charis's room.

Almost on the move...

Just a few update shots of Attie-bean (notice the tongue is out in most pictures). She's 8.5 months and attempting to crawl. There's a lot of knee-rocking going on, and a few face-plants forward. She loves her sister to pieces and can't get enough of her! Still no teeth, though I think she's working on some.

There's a few outbursts of tears when I leave the room, but she's done within 10 seconds. I guess she doesn't miss me that much. :)

She also lights up when her daddy walks in the room. Definitely a daddy's girl. She'll stare him down until he notices her and will screech in attempt to get his attention. Feeding her with him around is a no-go...all she wants to do is gaze lovingly at him and perform just to see him smile at her.

She likes to be read to, but mostly in hopes of tasting the book. Atalie loves being outside--the windier, the better.

She's finding her voice, which can be heard if the room is mostly quiet. Otherwise she's busily taking everything in, waiting her turn to be heard.

Babies, bugs, and baths!

Bathtime has gotten to be a lot of fun around here. Atalie happily chewing her washcloth and Charis lining bugs around the rim of the tub.

And of course, a serenade or two from my girls.

Her lyrics: Zip-ee-doo-da, Zip-ee-aye. My goodness, wonder day. Penny sunshine in my way. Zip-ee.....Everybody ready go swimming!"

Our new playset!

We were recently blessed by our neighbors with a play set. Their youngest son had outgrown it and they wanted to know if we'd like to have it. That decision required no thought.

So when Brian came home the next morning, I asked him, "Guess what you get to do this weekend?" :)

The neighbors even disassembled it for us and helped carry it over. Since Brian is such a handyman. He quickly assembled the play set. It's not hooked up yet, but there's even a teeter-totter on the end.

When Charis got up from her nap, I told her to look out the window and asked her what she saw. Her eyes got wide..."A park!"

So...we now have a "park" in our backyard. Yay!

Charis is even learning to slide....

head first.

It was slow and painful (to watch) at first, but she got there!

$1 Poonkin head

I'm such a sucker for those dollar bins at Target. I needed one thing...and it wasn't the felt pumpkin toboggan I came out with. I know! "Everyone needs one of those!," you say. You should have seen all those glistening goodies staring at me as I loaded the girls up in the double cart (which, by the way, cart-maker-guys...good thinking!). Cute little buckets, Princess stickers and paraphernalia, candy corn socks, $1 boxes of M&M's...I resisted so much. But alas...

For the record, $1 for a box of M&M's is not a deal. But I do like M&M's.

I went in for shoes for Charis. I came out with a pumkin toboggan, Cinderella sheets, and yes, shoes.

Candy corn socks just weren't in the cards. I did put those in the cart, but when I got to the register there wasn't a barcode. Intervention. (And I was not getting out of line and digging through a pile of unorganized socks to find one with a barcode while 2 hungry girls get antsy. Not worth it.)

Look at all the cuteness $1 can get. Before: Cute little baby. After: Cute little baby in a cheaply made felt pumpkin hat. Totally worth the dollar. She couldn't have been happier as I squished that almost too small hat down on her head for a photo op. Charis tried so hard to get the "poonkin head" on. If only they'd had one in Charis's size too...oooh...and some candy corn socks for her, too....and they did have this $1 pumpkin t-shirt...

Delightfully squishy...

...that's how I describe my little Attie-bean.

She is one sweet little baby. Cheeks you could just eat up, staring you down until you smile at her, and toothless and chewing on everything in sight. Newest accomplishments: working her core, plank-style...skipping rolling over (she's done it a few times and she's not so interested) and trying to go straight to crawling...hands out, sleepwalking style, until she grabs something to put in her mouth...and the lovely "happy scream."

She turned 8 months old this week!