Bed Time Routine

Routine is very important in our house, and Reilly really thrives on it. When we get off routine, it makes bedtime difficult. As part of that bedtime, Reilly reads books every night with Daddy. I snapped a cute picture of them tonight.

2 Year Old Tantrums

The 2 year old tantrum is mysterious. It often comes with no reason or warning.

Round One...

Take tonight for example. We picked Reilly up from school, as we do every day. At first, Reilly was very excited as usual. But as we were standing there getting an update from her teacher, she lost her mind. She screamed out "umbrella!", hit her dad and fell to the floor crying hysterical. We had no idea what brought it on, it was just there - and in our face.

As a parent, this is a difficult situation. You want to discipline, but you also want to just get your kid in the car and go home. So, at first, Mike tried disciplining her. Her reaction? She ran under the art table where he couldn't reach her. Her teacher looked at me and said, WOW - she has been so good all day. Hmm..

So, then we tried the "Bye, Reilly - we are leaving" approach. Her reaction? Screamed "nooooooo" from under said art table.

Eventually we discovered that an umbrella was what she wanted, so I ran to get one from the car while she waited at the door with Daddy and Brooke.

**Ding**Ding**

Round Two...

After a nice car ride home... we were approaching the house...just down the street actually and Reilly lost her mind again. Started yelling. And here is how the conversation went from there:

Mike: Reilly, do you want to walk home?

Reilly: Yes

Mike: (stops car) You do?

Reilly: (calmly) Yep. Are you going to walk with me?

Mike: No

Reilly: Well, I cant open the door.

Mike and I looked at each other...as if to say....um, what do we do now. It wasn't the answer we expected from her.

Mike got out of the car, started to unbuckle her so she could "walk" and Reilly said "See you at home, Mommy"

I turned so she couldn't see my laughing out loud...and as the cars behind us got annoyed because they couldn't get around, Mike put her back in her seat and we all drove home.

And the winner of this round is.....Reilly!

Grr...we'll win one next time.

Bad Nails!

Poor little Brooke is still at that age where she doesn't have much control over her hand movement. Yesterday she scratched up her face pretty bad. So, today I made her where these dorky newborn mittens. I thought she looked like a cute little boxer.

At the Park

We went to the park with The Orr's this weekend. Reilly and Marek had a blast playing on the tall slides and climbing all over the place. There was a underground "megaphone" toy - where you can talk to somebody at the other end. "Funny Mike" (as Marek calls him) was pretending to be a dinosaur as the kids talked to him on the other end. They liked it until he offered to come out from underground ;-)

Mike being an underground dinosaur


Amber, Kevin and the kids talking to the "dinosaur"


Reilly and Marek taking a snack break


Reilly on the slide


Brooke just hanging out through all the playing!


Here is Reilly climbing up the ladder

Reilly's Second Theatre Trip

Reilly went on a date tonight with Daddy. They went to see the new Beatles show - Reilly is the luckiest girl on earth, and here is a picture to show just how happy and excited she was (Daddy too!).

Brooke's Three Month Stats

And in this corner...weighing in at 16 pounds, 15 ounces - 25 3/4 inches - Brooke Harris!

She had a great 3 month visit with the doctor today ;-) But she is a big girl!

Animal Kingdom

As you all know, Reilly LOVES Disney. So, today we took her (and Brooke) to Animal Kingdom with her friend, Marek. We had a great time on the safari, rides, shows and petting animals. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera out too much - so most of the videos and pictures were of the petting zoo part. But I decided to go ahead and throw a quick video together!

Season passes are awesome!

Reilly's A Dance Star

Reilly LOVES to dance and has been very excited about starting class to become a "dance star." She has a book about Katy the Duck, a dance star and she loves to talk about her and pretend she is a dance star like Katy. So, as you can imagine, the anticipation leading up to her class was great.

And sure enough, she LOVED it. She really did a pretty good job for her first class! As you'll see from the video, she could stand to have a little longer attention span ;-) but she is 2 - and the teacher said she was right on track for her age.

Shabbat Stars

Reilly and her class were Shabbat Stars this week. That means that they got up on stage and performed a song for all the other 2 and 3 year olds in the school. Then they lit the candles and did a blessing over the bread. It was very cute. All the kids were so excited and eagerly got up on the stage.

(Mommy note: Reilly was in a cute sweater, not just this undershirt, when I dropped her at school ;-) )

Fake 3 Months

As you may have read a few days ago...I tried to take a picture of Brooke at three months old, but lack of planning lead to really bad pictures.

So, to make up for it. I faked a three month old picture today :-)



Brooke at 2 Months Old

Brooke at 1 month old

Reilly the tool woman

I love this picture

I took this picture of Brooke the other day and just love it ;-)

3 Months Old

Brooke is 3 months old today. The past two months I planned ahead, took her picture in the same spot.

Yeah...well, my life is CRAZY right now. So, I waited until 7 to think about it tonight. Brooke had just had a bath and was hungry - Reilly was tired and ready for her bath. I couldn't find my regular camera, so I tried to take the picture on my iPhone. Anybody with an iPhone knows that movement doesn't work well - and with a toddler and baby movements are somewhat unavoidable.

Here are the resulting pictures ;-) I think I'll try again tomorrow and fake the date ;-)

Riverdance

I took Reilly to see Riverdance tonight. She was very excited to go she the "dance stars" like the ones in her book about Katy the Duck. She did a pretty good job getting there, sitting and waiting until the show was supposed to start. But then it was 15 minutes late which really set her back. It meant about 30 minutes into the show she had had it.

The show has moments where it gets really quiet - and unfortunately 2 year olds like to talk during those times ;-) At one point one of the dancers was shirtless and Reilly shouted out "That dancer has NO shirt on."

Oh well, I think she had a good time for a bit ;-)

Here she is waiting for the show to begin.

4 Hours At Disney with 3 Two Year Olds

We spent the day at Disney today with Mason and Marek. The kids loved it. At the end of our four hour day, we attempted to get a picture of them in front of the castle. As you can see, that is impossible - but the out takes are funny!

New Years Eve - 2 Year Old Style

Two of Reilly's friends came over for New Years Eve - Mason and Marek. The kids had a dinner consisting of Mac-n-Cheese and Chicken Fingers paired with Sparkling Grape Juice - followed by a prompt ball drop at 7:23. The ball drop was a few fireworks and the kids learning to say "Happy New Year!" They weren't so sure about the fireworks, here they are looking on from a distance with a forced picture by the parents.


We attempted to get the kids down at 8:00 in the playroom while the adults enjoyed a nice prime rib dinner in the dining room - hah. The kids stayed up the entire time playing - but they did stay in the room! Finally around 10:30, we broke them up. Reilly went to sleep in our bed....we found here like this around midnight. She had sunken into our pillows and the only thing showing was her cute little face!