More videos

Laura is soooo delicious! Her personality comes out more and more each day. She is making up for the first 5 months. In the last 2 weeks, her vocabulary has easily doubled and her memory is simply amazing. You tell her what something is, and ask her the next day, and she knows. Luzma says Laura understands both English and Spanish without any problems. We just want to squeeze her. Here is a video of her taken a couple of days ago.




Claire is taking after her mother. Hard headed. When her mind is set on something you need to summon the gods of distraction to get her mind on to something else. Last night Lynn hosted a Mary Kay fundraiser at the house for the mango tree foundation. I came home towards the end of it (like I was going to hang around for 20 women all trying on make-up) and someone had given Claire a makeover. I need to find a photo of it. Anyway, here is a video of a nightly event in our house when Claire puts on her PJs.

Birthdays and Career Aspirations...

My beautiful wife turned 40 yesterday. There were no parties or pictures. Only 5 of us (including Magen) to have some cake, which had to have candles so Claire could blow them out. In all fairness Claire did sing Happy Birthday to Lynn. Lynn did get a replacement iPod touch for her birthday and a card the girls made. And a long dinner at a Japanese restaurant, with horrible service. At least the company was wonderful. It is hard to believe that Lynn was 23 when I first met her. We are blessed.

Laura's vocabulary is starting to grow and she repeats more words that we say. She is so delicious. Her personality is very strong, as she can be quite stubborn and independent, and when she doesn't get her way, frustrated. She still hits and bites. I guess we need to be more diligent in that department. You can see new photos of Laura here.

We are however, much more diligent with Claire and her habit of getting out of bed after we put her to bed for the night. On a typical night she will get out of bed 4-5 times within 30 minutes of her going to bed. "Mom, I got to tell you something" is the standard excuse. Now, we tell her (and follow through with it) that we are taking a plush animal out of her bed everytime she gets up. This tactic has cut the getting out of bed to once an evening. Anyway, here is Claire working in my office

She did say the other day that she wanted to be a dancer when she grows up. And based on this video, we are enrolling her in dance class come August.

We try to skype with Paul, Taya and Theo as often as we can. It's becoming a challenge to get the girls to skype for more than 4-5 minutes, before they are on to something else. But they are both super interested in Theo. He has changed a lot in his 4 weeks of life. Here is a photo of him my brother took. You can read about their adventure here.

Just another sunday

Since my last posting, my brother and Taya had a beautiful baby boy, Theo Denis. We can't wait to meet him in person in July when we travel to the west coast. Click on the above link to follow my brother's blog about parenthood. We've been skyping with Paul, Taya and Theo about every other day and it's interesting to see parenthood through their eyes.

This weekend we were busy around the house. We (I) planted flowering bushes, we for Mother's day. The girls stayed out of the way for the most part and played nicely in the sandbox, although Claire did help with the watering. They both needed baths afterward. And in the afternoon, Claire helped water most of the bushes in the front yard. She is such a good kid.

This Sunday marked the start of something new for Claire and me, as we are going to have breakfast together (just the two of us) every weekend - or at least try to. Mom had Claire in a dress and I took her to IHOP. She was the best dressed in the whole restaurant. And I had a coupon. After discussing the weather and current events in the middle east, we got down to brass tacks, what we were we going to do after our nap this afternoon.

Turns out we didn't do too much as someone (not me) slept until 4pm. Oh well, there is always next weekend. Until then, here are a few photos from this weekend.

Like father, like daughter

So, sleep has been a popular topic around our house these days. I am sure you all know how much Mark loves to sleep. Well, it is definitely echoed and noticed in our house. Two sweet examples:
This morning, Claire, Laura and I were playing while Mark was at church. Just before 9am, suddenly Laura comes over to me, whines, gives me a hug and then walks over to the stairs and looks at me. I walk over and she starts crawling up the stairs, walks to her room, I change her and she goes down for a nap. Like clockwork! Love it!!
The other night, Claire and I were reading the Dr. Seuss book, Maybe you should fly a jet, maybe you should be a vet. As we are going through each page, she would tell me what she wanted to be. When she got to this page, she said, "That's what daddy wants to be!" I will let you guess which one she chose. I just about fell off the bed laughing.
Anyway, all is great in our household. Laura is learning words daily. She's got book, ball, bird, baby, mommy, dada, and foot down pat. Of course, that is in addition to what's that and who's that. She is developing quite the personality, too. As everyone who meets her agrees, she is a mini-mark - both looks and personality. She is very serious, but also very mischievous - a total tease. She loves Claire and Claire loves her. Actually, Claire gets very upset if she doesn't get to kiss her before she takes a nap/goes to bed.
We also have pictures from Claire and Mark's work together planting my mother's day roses and gardenias and also from their special outing this morning for breakfast. Will post those to Mark's picasa account later.
Hope you are all well-rested!
Lynn

Happy Mother's day

Lynn celebrated her fourth Mother's day with a photo shoot with the girls. As you can see, someone was not cooperating. Anway, we culled 250 photos down to these. The day started off great, as Nick, Curt and I came up with a great plan while we were golfing on Saturday. We were going to cook breakfast for our wives. Mimosas, eggs, bacon, has browns, fruit, and french toast. It was cholesterol heaven. After breakfast we all went to Kristi's work where she has a gym for kids to do exercises. The kids had a ball. There were 6 adults and 5 kids.

During the past week we were treated to Grammy and Grampy visiting us on their annual migration north. The girls sure enjoyed having their grandparents visit. They went to the bounce house, the park, and Claire got her hair cut. I am not sure who was more tired at the end oftheir visit.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the girls first cousin. Auntie Taya and Uncle Paul are expecting any day now. The baby (sex unknown) was actually due 3 days ago. We applied for Laura's passport last week, as we are heading to Canada to mean the new family member in July.

Finally, here are some other photos from Luzma that she has taken of the girls.

Our kids say the darnest things...

The girls continue to bring such joy to our lives. Laura is starting to mimic many gestures she sees and words she hears. From "What's that?" to barking like Kayla, she is a hoot. And she is super mobile now, walking out of our sight when ever possible. She seems to be drawn to the stairs like iron filings to a magnet. To the right is a photo Luzma took at her house. Maybe she will have Laura potty trained before she is 2.

Claire is the pee-pee on the potty champion. Accidents are becomeing increasingly rare. At times it seemed like this day would never come. She has taken to saying the funniest things. The other night I was rocking Laura just before her bed time and Claire comes in the room and announces that she has to check her email. Or reminds me that I need to charge her iphone (yes she has one) over night so she can watch Caillou in the morning. She has really taken to her baby sister in a protective way - unless Laura is playing with something Claire wants. Laura will be the rough and tumble one. It is only a matter of a few weeks when the girls will have their first and only first cousin, as my brother and Taya are expecting soon. We are taking the girls to Canada in the summer to meet their new cousin. Speaking of which, I need to get Laura a passport, pronto!

Look Who's Starting to Walk