4 years

jack is a four year old boy. tonight he will sleep in his big boy bed! it's getting harder to remember a time without my sunshine. he has been wonderful to watch this past year. he is so smart and passionate and creative. a great big brother. i love you jack!

mother's day weekend 2011

yes, it is a whole weekend. claudia said dada & jack needed to have a big talk with daddy.

9 months

my beautiful kids love to make funny faces and at 9 months, they look a lot alike

easter 2011

jack makes the funniest faces. claudia was perfect and i love how i am in the frame!

spring!

i am so happy today is the first day of spring. it was a long winter!

a couple days ago we went to grand rapids to see the butterflies! it's great to be in the tropical greenhouse while it's still cold. early that morning jack didn't want to see butterflies. he wanted to stay home and play blocks. i was a little worried that we would have a rough ride there. after chocolate milk in the car, jack was ready to see some butterflies. when we got there, jack watched a butterfly emerge from it's chrysalis. he really showed a lot of interest in what was happening. jack and claudia both really liked looking at all the plants and seeing the morph butterfly. it's a big, beautiful blue butterfly, the size of my palm.

claudia can climb stairs. she babbles a lot and is doing quite well with food. currently her game is to crawl really fast to the dog bowls and dip her hand in the water (if we don't get there in time). she likes to giggle with jack and be tickled by daddy. she has great empathy and cries when jack does too!

jack has an idea

jack's lastest thing is to come up with alternatives to a lot of things we ask of him. most of the time, his ideas are reasonable and i find it so exciting and clever that he comes up with new solutions. at times, i have to counter his argument with a solution that will work best for the both of us. like when he woke up at 430 this morning for breakfast. we agreed to have a little milk instead!

yesterday jack had to stay home because he had a fever. that left me and claudia to do grocery shopping. jack didn't like the idea that we were leaving. he told me that he loves claudia and he didn't want her to go. he really is a good big brother. he also fed her avocado yesterday, in which she really liked!

she's eating!

claudia has figured out that food isn't all that bad. she ate a good portion of her peas. while discovering her own knees can help her get around she is more interested in consuming calories.