The golden age

We are officially over the terrible twos in this house.  Okay, Violet was never really terrible. in fact, compared to a lot of kids, she's an angel.  But from the time she turned 2 till a couple of months ago she did not have great sleeping habits. And by not great, I mean coming out of her room every 5 minutes until 10:30 or screaming at her door for half an hour.  It would alternate from night to night depending on how much screaming I could handle.  She had given up naps, but was still in the phase where if we got in the car any time past 3:00 she would fall asleep and ruin her bedtime. Couple this with a newborn who had gas until he was 6 months old and it becomes clear why I use birth control. 

But Violet is almost 3 now, and it's glorious.  She goes to bed on time, without crying.  She entertains herself.  She is independent.  Charlie is sitting up and almost crawling, so he can entertain himself for almost as long.  And he sleeps in till 9 every morning.  Every person who ever criticized me for sleeping in when I was younger (I got that alot-- "Just wait till you have kids! You won't be able to do that anymore!") can kiss my butt.  I love every minute of late morning sleep I get, and I don't care how lazy it makes me. 

However, this isn't to say that this age is perfect. Yesterday at the pool a kid started playing with Violet's floatie, and she wanted it back.  I told her, "You have to share your toys," and she responded, "Or not. "  Then today I was trying to get her to come home while she was playing outside, and I said, "You can jump three more times and then we have to go home."  And she looked at me and said, "Just don't talk right now, Mom."  And weeks ago when we were still living in corporate housing, we came to our other house and when we pulled into the garage she yelled, "Are you kidding me, Mommy?  I want to go to the splash pad house!"

Ah, yes. Back talking has begun.  But who wants perfect, anyways?  I would take spunky over boring any time.

For the love of food

Oh, Charlie.  I have never, ever met a baby who loves food as much as this little guy does.  He can't really crawl yet, but if there is food anywhere in a room he becomes completly mobile.  This morning Violet was snacking on some dry Lucky Charms and made the mistake of leaving her bowl on the floor.  This was what we came back to. 

I will find you, and I will EAT YOU!

When he was only 6 months old I was holding him and walked through the baby food aisle at the grocery store.  Immediately, he forcefully spat out his binkie and started smacking his lips.  And just last week I bought Violet a soft serve cone at Burger King and handed it back to her in the car.  Then I heard, "MMMM. MUH MUH MUH MUH. MMMMMM" coming from the back (those are Charlie's food noises) and thought, great, he is going to complain all the way home.  Actually, though, he decided to take matters into his own hands, literally.  I looked back a couple of minutes later and Violet had a chunk of her cone missing from the side.  At least he enjoyed it. 

Surfside

We finally went to the beach.  I told myself that if I lived another summer in Houston without going to the beach, it would make me the most boring and useless mom on the planet.  So when a couple of friends invited us to surfside, I made sure we came.  Violet immediately felt at home in the sand and water.  To make things even better, there was a little girl there that she knew, so she stayed self-entertained the entire time, which was great because I had to spend a good amount of time trying to keep Charlie from crying.

 Yes, Charlie hated it.  The sand was gritty, the air was sticky, the fish were smelly, and it was impossible for him to stay asleep.  I set him down and got a couple of cute pictures of him before some water washed over his legs and he started crying.  Then I took a couple more pictures before picking him up, just to be mean.

 But both of the kids got lots of daddy time, and that made everyone happy.  Brandon is so much fun.

 One thing Charlie did like was being held by me in the water.  I guess the rocking motion of the waves was soothing for him, and he would just lay his head down on me and stare off in the distance.  I love having such a cuddly baby!

 Violet and Brandon built a pretty cool sand castle.  This is what Violet spent 75% of her time doing (and undoing).  She also told me that a little princess named Mary lived in it.

 And Charlie didn't mind digging around in the sand while propped up on my leg.  All in all we had a great time, but by 2:00 we were worn out and headed back home.

Growing up!

My baby has been reaching a few milestones lately so I thought I'd include some photographic proof that he is getting oh so big.

Charlie has decided that sitting up is fun, and luckily our pool is the perfect depth for that stage.

Violet keeps our lives interesting.  Look at this face, she is up to no good.  A couple of weeks ago we found a lizard in my mom's house and had to catch it and put it outside.  When it scampered off, she said, "bye, baby lizard! See you next week!"  Then when we went inside to tell my parents about it, she said, "We found a lizard, and we didn't lick it!" I can never figure out how she thinks of these things!

Also, Charlie has started on solid foods.  Can you guess what is one of his favorites?

Clearly he's pretty enthusiastic about it.

And lastly, Violet is very girly.  She will only wear things if they are sparkly, and she loves pink.  Today she picked out a headband that would give Atley a run for her money and can't stop looking in the mirror and squealing.  No problem with self-esteem here.