On her way to ballet

Every Monday Noah and I have a date to go to her Tippy Toes Ballet & Girly Tea Party class. This morning I had a hard time getting her out of her dresses and into her tutu. She loves her tutu, BUT she connects her tutu with ballet and dresses with princesses. So at this moment she preferred to be a princess over a ballerina. Go figure. Then later she took the baby doll I had when I was a little girl and dressed her up for ballet and told me all about all the ballerinas that were coming over.

Noah loves Jenn and Jonathan

Jenn and Jonathan came and stayed with our family this past weekend. I can't say enough how much I enjoy both of their company. Jonathan is so fun and funny and Jenn is SOOO helpful with the kids and the house. Plus Noah just adores Jenn and every morning when she woke up she asked me where Jenn was over and over again for the next few hours until Jenn woke up. Jenn and I went for a walk/run and she totally broke my jump rope with her crazy jump roping skills (or lack thereof.) On Sunday morning Jenn and Jon went me Noah and I to make up one of her ballet classes. Then we took Noah to play in the playpit (which she loves) and had coffee. It was nice to have some other adults to talk to and watch Noah jump from the cupcake to the watermelon to the big banana.

After the kids took their naps, Jenn, Jonathan and I took the kids to The Grove. I needed to get a pair of sneakers since I am an exercising beast! Because we are gluttons, we first stopped and had Pink Berry in the cool shade. It was the first real ice cream (okay frozen yogurt other than the organic tubes from Trader Joes) that Noah has had. We shared a medium coconut and rasberry Pink Berry. it was delicious, but Noah was shoveling it into her mouth so fast I had to eat fast so I could get some before she ate it all. She got cold and sat with Uncle Jonathan to get warm. She was so funny sitting there shivering eating the ice cream with such furry!

Driving home we saw some young girls at the bus stop in short shorts and tiny t-shirts. They looked cold and Jonathan said, "We might be cold, but we're cute." Then a little voice from the back said, "They're not cute Uncle Jonathan." And they really weren't, at least she's honest!

Already all up in my stuff

When Noah can't find her ballet slippers she goes into my closet and gets mine. She's also started asking to borrow my dresses, which are actually shirts. "Can I borrow this for a little, tiny bit." And she holds her finger together, almost touching, to show me how long she needs a certain item. She also tries to convince me to let her borrow something or the other because it's what princesses wear.

Send us your spare change

Doing more Magic

This is how she came downs stairs after she woke up.

Dancing with the stars

Not those stars but all the stars she made with her magic wand. We turned on some classical music (princess music) and we danced. I forgot to close the curtains and waited for the white van to come get me. We danced for about an hour and I actually got sick from dancing so much but i made her so happy and it was great to spend time with just her and do exactly when she wanted to do. She didn't have a lick more rhythm than when we started, but she seemed to be so in love with me... which is the best thing in the world, I promise.

Can he lives with us?

One of Noah's favorite things to do with Delmy is find bugs, snails and worms in the yard. When I take her for a walk she always wants to stop and pick flowers and if she happens to see a snail she wants to "hold him." She has an old butter jar that she collects them and keeps them in. Broderick won't allow them in the house so we keep them, in their jar, in the flower pots on the porch. If they're big they're mommy or daddy snails and if they're little then they're baby snails.

It's a castle

Noah has a habit of stacking things, anything. She does it with the cups in the sink, with blocks and even the remotes. She tells me she's building a castle. I put the tv on for her when I have to brush her hair, and no I don't use that round brush on her hair Taren. Anyway her first TV show was the Doodlepops (even though Broderick wanted it to be Higglytown Heros.) Then she moved to Wonder Pets which she still sings the theme song and then to Backyardagains and now she is in love with Diego. The other day we called Uncle Jonathan, I mean Diego, and she talked to him about the missing penguins and her princess crown. She also talked to Dora, I mean Taren, about a few things too.

Our sweet little honey bee

This big wide grin is so Isaiah. I think he gets his dad's great smile, hopefully he will get my fun and his daddy's intelligence! His little finger is always in his mouth like this. This picture of him is how I dream of his little face when I'm not with him or when he's asleep.

Unhappy fairy turns daddy into sandwich

Not too sure why grumpy gills was so grumpy - she gets that from her daddy. Perhaps it was because something didn't go according to her princess plan. She often will tell us that princesses do this or princesses have to eat this. She has a whole list of rules and protocol for being a princess, which she most definitely is. I called her ma'am today when we were playing shoe store (my way to getting her to try on shoes to see what fit and what doesn't.) She almost started to cry and I corrected myself and said, "princess ma'am." And she let me know that she is absolutely not a "man" and she is a "princess." Then she refused to try on shoes so upset with being called a man!

Now We're Cooking

Isaiah loves Noah's kitchen. We laugh every time we see him standing there banging the spoons and pans. He seems too small to be standing up. Noah was walking at the age he is now, yet he looks so little. This Saturday while we (Jenn & Jonathan) were sitting in the breakfast nook eating pancakes, Isaiah took out the whisk and started beating some imaginary batter in the bowl. Broderick said, "He's a genius." We all agreed.

Neighborhood Tea

A few weeks back, when Nana was here, we had a tea party and invited some of the neighborhood girls over. We finally got to use the big girl tea set that Auntie Jessica gave Noah two Christmases ago. Noah was so excited and talked about it the whole night before and morning of. We had real tea, scones and even a clotted cream. The girls didn't really talk to each other but it was darling to watch them, in their dresses, sip tea. Eventually they hid with each other in the curtains and giggled and so enough fought over the toys.

Princess This and Princess That

It's insanity. She has a wand, a crown, dresses and jewels and she puts them on and takes them off several times a day. Her favorite thing to do is play dress up. Today I moved her regular clothes to the top dresser drawers. She's constantly finding reasons to change outfits. And her criteria for "matching" is that there's pink or purple in both pieces. She loves skirts and dresses and would prefer to wear her ballet slippers all day and to bed if she could. She also asks everyday for tights that she doesn't own. I bought her a pair of pink floral biker shorts that she puts on every morning and will pull the out of the dirty clothes. On Friday mornings when I do laundry she goes through all the piles and has wardrobe changes while I do the wash.

A few nights ago I went to see Sweeny Todd with Jenn. Noah requested I wear a black "spark-a-wee" skirt and told me, "Mommy you will look beautiful in this." She also was so excited for Jenn to see my outfit because "She is going to say you look beautiful mommy." The dress conversation went on the entire time I got ready. Noah likes to hang out with me in my closet and move things around, like earrings and Obama pins with tweezers. She told me that I looked like a princess and asked, "where's your wand, you need a wand to do magic."

Bath time

Isaiah is old enough to be out of the sink and in the tub with is big sister. Poor Zay Zay gets bossed around. She tells him which toys he can play with. She tells me why it's "dangerous" for him to eat paper or open drawers. She pulls him down when he stand sup so he won't fall. He cries half the time with her, but the other half he is delighted to just hear she sing to him or talk to him in her made up language.

Crawling

Isaiah has yet to officially crawl. He does more of a combat drag. Isaiah loves to follow my voice and will "crawl" from whatever room to find me. Poor little honey bee is going through a grouchy phase. Ever since we got his allergies under control, he has been so delightful. But for the last few days he just can't seem to get himself right. We babies him, because he is a baby, this last week when he was sick and now he is waking up way to early (4am.) But I'm hoping he'll get back in his groove. Tonight I went to our local theater to see a demonstration of a contemporary ballet that we'll (maybe Broderick) be seeing this Saturday. Kamilah watched the kids. They are always so good for her, well for everybody except me. What is that all about?