7 months old and weekend of firsts

Where is time going?  How is Naomi already 7 months old??  The last 7 months have flown by.  Here is Naomi on her 7 month "bday" on Friday.  It was also her first time in a swing at the park.  She really liked it. (And yes, it was warm enough all weekend to play at the park without a coat.)

Naomi truly has such a sweet disposition. She is smiles and happiness, easy going and beautiful.  I know she is only 7 months, but you can already see what a joyful spirit she has.  I already feel that I've a lot to learn about being carefree and joyful from her.

Another first this last weekend was Audrey riding a horse for the first time. We went to birthday party at a ranch and the kids were able to ride miniature horses.  Audrey has an adventurous spirit - as long as she feels safe and secure. She seems to be getting more and more sure of herself, especially now that she's 4. She'll often say, "now that I'm 4..." before she tries something new.  And seems brave enough to try more and more these days.  She only hesitated a brief moment before getting on the horse.

She was definitely excited that she got to ride.  

It was a great weekend with the family. We sure are blessed with two amazing daughters.  

Week 3/52

In keeping with the goal of a picture each week...here are this week's pics.  Audrey even agreed to smile for the camera!

Poor little Naomi has had a rough week but she's still a trooper.  She had what we thought was a cold until she wasn't getting better. Turned out to be RSV and bronchiolitis.  Fortunately it wasn't so severe that we needed breathing treatments.  Today we took her back to have her ears checked and it's looking like she has the start of ear infection #2.  And on top of all that - her first tooth broke through in the last couple days as well.  I guess she likes to get everything out of the way at once.

And for a picture only a mother can appreciate - here is her tiny, itty bitty little tooth.  See it???  It's that tiny little white spot on her gum in front of my finger.  Ah the things that moms get excited about.

I've also decided to start capturing the funny things Audrey says. It won't be long before she loses her innocent childhood expressions, so I want to capture them as best I can.  You'll see I started a little gadget on the right.  I'll also be tracking Naomi's stats as well.  This will be my way of creating a "baby book" since I know I'll never actually fill a real one out.

Explaining death to a 4 year old - about as much fun as you'd expect

As some of you know, Audrey has been a bit inquisitive about death for the last three months.  It all started with a bible story about Moses. At the end it said something like, "and then he died."  At first Audrey was VERY upset about this. She started asking about death - when we would die and saying she didn't want to die and getting pretty upset about it.  It caught Jamie and me off-guard and was rather unnerving when she'd start to cry and say "I don't want to die."  We told her that most people don't die until they are really, really old - like 90. This seemed to appease her-  as she no longer thought her death was imminent.

Well, three months later, the discussions continue.  She doesn't get upset about it anymore but man, does she ask tough questions.  She's asked all of the following:

• If your bones stay in the ground, how do you walk in heaven?
• If you can't take your things with you, what happens to them?  (enter the discussion of wills - not a topic I thought I'd be discussing with a three year old.)  
• Which way is heaven?  Is it up or down?  Can people in heaven see me?

Last week we were talking about keeping her Legos and Pixos picked up so that when Naomi starts crawling, they won't be on the floor. I told her Naomi could choke and it's very dangerous since she could stop breathing and die.  And as soon as I said "die," I held my breath hoping she'd just ignore me.  Nope.  She's too smart for that. Without missing a beat she said, "But you said we don't die until we're really old.  Naomi isn't really old.  Were you teasing me?"  Sigh.

Last night she wanted to play "kill the bad guys."  I told her it wasn't nice to kill people, even if they are bad.  She looked at me and said, "Mom, it's ok.  It's only pretend. They aren't really dead."  Thanks, Audrey.  Hard to argue with that logic.  At least she's not freaking out about dying anymore.

A picture each week

A friend on my mommy board proposed doing a picture each week of you and the kids for the year 2011.  I thought this would be a fun idea.  We can watch the girls grow and it'll force me to at least pick up the camera each week.  Here is this weeks picture. 

I have a feeling they will all be something like this. :)  Audrey loves making funny faces for the camera.  Hey - 2 of us with eyes open and smiling is great. I'll definitely take what I can get.

The big 4

Audrey turned 4 on 1/4.  A very special birthday - to be "4" on the "4th" according to Aunt Nicole. And I'd have to agree.  We had a wonderful party with about 20 kiddos on Saturday.  I managed to get three blurry pics.  As you will soon learn, I'm terrible with the camera.  But - fortunately Uncle John was there and he's quite the amateur photographer. He even braved some tripod shots as kids ran from bouncy house to bouncy house.  So - hopefully he got a few great pics to share.

As is tradition, we eat donuts on the morning of her birthday each year.  What better way to start your birthday? Uncle John and Aunt Nicole joined us.  (That's a snowman donut in case you're wondering.)

I think all in all this was a birthday Audrey will most definitely remember for a while.

Welcome to our blog!!

I've been wanting to start a blog for a while and decided 2011 is the time to do it. I feel like the days pass us by so quickly and we forget so much of what makes our lives special everyday. So, here it goes!  I know myself well enough to know I am not good at these sort of things.  When I had to keep journals in school - I was the one filling a week's worth of information out five minutes before class.  Therefore - don't be disappointed if I don't update all the time. I really am going to try...but don't be surprised if updates come in waves.

And in case you're wondering, Chica and Munchkin are my nicknames for Audrey (Chica) and Naomi (Munchkin).

Happy reading!