Catching...

Here's a catch up post for you... because apparently at our house, we're really good at catching things.  As in bugs.  The sick kind, not the crawling kind.

MiniM.E. was sick for a week or so, had a few days of feeling good, and then got sick again.  Then Bob got sick.  Then I got sick.  And we're all still a bit under the weather.

And if I thought it was hard to find time to make blog posts with a healthy baby, it is infinitely harder with a sick baby.  Especially when she's up a million times a night.  And I'm not feeling good either.

So even though we're both still a little under the weather, I finally feel like I can stay awake during one of her naps and write a post longer than three sentences.


Exciting news!  Someone took her first steps!! We're on our way to walking!

In other, less exciting news, we've been spending most of our days outside.  I think I have a budding gardener on my hands.  (Or at least a budding mulch-eater).

We've been to the park to feed the ducks a few times

We celebrated MiniM.E.'s 11-month birthday by buying her a musical walking toy.

Of course, the best part is the box it came in.

The second best part is playing with it sitting down.

She also likes to crawl behind it.

We haven't really gotten to the walking part yet...

We also took her in the wagon to the playground near our house.  It's a pretty awesome playground.  Unfortunately it's sort of geared more towards big kids, but we played for a while and MiniM.E. seemed to have a good time.

Yesterday we went up to Lake George for the Jazz on the Lake jazz festival.  We were all still a little under the weather, but fortunately it was pretty relaxing.

Molly's favorite part of the day was petting a couple great danes we ran into.

The other thing she really like to play with were the trees.

Between the dogs, the trees, the jazz and not feeling so great, we must have really worn her out because she fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept until this morning!

Our First Weekend Visitors

Last weekend was a very exciting one for us as we had our first weekend visitors.  Not Gram... she doesn't count... or Uncle Bill, again... doesn't count.  This was not only my visitor, a friend from high school, C, but also her adorable baby boy, Stretchy's first visitor, H.

I admit, I was a bit worried about having TWO babies in my house for 5 days, as sometimes ONE is enough to make me want to pull my hair out.  Half the time we don't get out of the house until 11am, and our schedule is totally unpredictable.  I could only imagine what would happen with TWO unpredictable babies.  Would we ever get to leave the house?  What if one of them cried and woke the other up?  Would Stretchy behave like she does at playgroup and fuss the whole 5 days because someone else was playing with her toys and getting her mom's attention?

BUT, fortunately, I worried for nothing.  It was a FANTASTIC visit.  I think we all had a great time.

C & H arrived late Thursday night.  According to the law of GPS, they had a rough time getting here.  Between countless "recalculating"s and turns onto roads that didn't exist, it was a miracle they arrived at all.  It was right around the time Stretchy would usually eat dinner.  We hadn't even started dinner.  I could see the evening headed downhill, but to start things off on the right foot, since Stretchy had taken a longer than usual nap that afternoon she seemed fine waiting on dinner.  We had the babies in the bath by 8:30 and Stretchy was in bed by 9.  H didn't really want to sleep after napping all day in the car (can you blame him?), but that gave me and C time to hang out with him and gave him lots of time to explore some new toys.

Can I say that two babies in a double sink is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen in my entire life?

Friday morning we got up (H even slept until 8!) and went to swimming lessons.  It was a little more of a hassle getting FOUR people out of the house.  Not to mention that we might have had a slight episode to take care of before we left (have I ever mentioned I have an escape artist cat that likes to get into the garage?)  H had never been in the pool so it was a lot of fun to see him in the water.  As usual, Stretchy loved every minute of it.  

After a nap, we headed downtown for lunch and a walk in the park.  We decided to feed the ducks.  A few weeks ago I'd been to the pond and fed the ducks and the cute little ducklings would waddle close enough to grab some bread and then run back to the mommy duck in the pond.  Well, this time the half-grown ducklings were so brave that the waddled onto our blanket and even managed to nip some poor little baby fingers and toes.  It would have been a video to send into America's Funniest Home Videos had we not been so involved in protecting our babies from being nipped to death, pooped all over, or carried away by some very hungry ducklings.  

We wore those babies out!

Saturday the weather took a turn for the worse, and again, I got worried.  When Stretchy and I have to stay inside all day we both get pretty cranky from a case of cabin fever.  BUT, again, the babies were angels and played nicely together all day and took long naps, which gave us a chance to rest up a bit too!  After another swimming session at the Y, C and I stayed up late chatting.  (Boy, you really feel old when you look at the clock and it's 11:30 and you both look at each other and can't believe you've stayed up SOOO late!)  

Sunday was a lazy day of getting up and hanging around the house.  We decided to go back downtown to re-do the duck feeding and capture the funniest video ever.  The ducklings didn't cooperate though, and this is what we got... 

At least we got to ride the carousel.

The weather turned in the afternoon and Monday morning wasn't much better so there was a lot of playing indoors, but both Stretchy and H seemed to enjoy each other's company and were very well-behaved.  

Not sure what we did for this captive audience

Yum! More please!

Tired of sharing the couch

Guess the feeling was mutual!

It was great having C & H and I think Stretchy misses having a live-in playmate.  Come again soon, guys!

Fun Outside

Over the weekend we took advantage of the nice weather and the extra day off.

Saturday we hung around the house, finishing putting everything back in its place.  We grilled with some friends and enjoyed the backyard.

Sunday, we went to a BBQ where Stretchy spent some time outside on the playground,

got to meet some dogs,

(and even ride one!)

and made a new friend.

We took a hike at the Saratoga State Park.  Stretchy had a great time.

Such a good time, that this is how we ended the hike.

We also went to the park and fed the ducks

and rode the carousel.  This time, I forgot the video camera and the crazy thing was going so fast all my pictures were blurry :(

It was great to have a long weekend and spend time outside.  Today it is SUPER hot, so we'll hang around and get some errands done... looking forward to more nice weather!