A Happy Easter

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday yesterday! We started the day out with some gluten free pancakes. Daniel even ate one all by himself...without syrup, but still, his appetite continues to surprise me.

After that, we headed to church. Both kids were surprisingly good. Daniel slept most of the time so I don't have any pictures from church since we were pretty busy doing church stuff and wrangling kids. :-)

Then we went to my mom's house for our traditional annual child and adult egg hunts. The Conroys made out really well this year!! I think Lily got almost $20 in cash from her eggs as well as some candy and a few little treats. My mom and Jeff make every Easter so wonderful and we love going there. Lily has been talking about the egg hunt since January. We had a great time. Lily especially loved following her cousin Kelsie around like a little duckling. :-)

Finally we met Joe's family at a restaurant for dinner. It was so good to see them and I wish we could have spent more time with them on such a special day. Both of the kids love all of their grandparents and aunts and uncles and it was such a treat for them to see so many loved ones in one day.

Of course there were a few people we dearly missed..if you think you may be one of them, you probably are. Please enjoy these photos of our Easter 2013!

9 months

So it has been a while since I last blogged! I plead busy-ness! In the past three months a lot has happened. I've attended two more births as a doula and gotten more involved in the birth community. I'm about ready to submit my certification paperwork to DONA.

Daniel and Lily have both started to do many new things! If you follow me on Facebook you are probably kept in the loop for the most part.

Daniel turned 9 months old on the tenth. He is doing just awesomely. Both his developmental pediatrician and his regular pediatrician are just thrilled with his progress so far.

Stuff Daniel is doing since the last blog:
- sitting unassisted
- getting into sitting unassisted
- army crawling
- feeding himself...the latest...last night he fed himself some thinly sliced cheese. He loved it!
- drinking from a straw cup
- we are about 80% sure he is saying "Dada" to refer to Joe. I am about ready to write it in his baby book as his first word.
- sitting up for baths in the bathtub (due to the slippery-ness this is a harder feat than sitting on land!)
- has sprouted his first tooth (one of the bottom middles)
- Signing "milk"--he has not done any other signs yet.
- Giving kisses!

So yes, he is doing great. :-)

Stuff Lily is doing since the last blog:
- Starting to read!! We give her a sticker every night for every word she sounds out by herself.
- Related, she writes letters. She can make most letters herself and can write her name.
- She can also do some simple math in her head (addition and subtraction in units smaller than 10). We haven't worked with her as much on this so this is mostly her...she seems math inclined.
- Still doing ballet. Recital is coming up soon!
- She is just the best big sister ever!! We really have zero jealousy issues with the kids. I know it might not last but I am just so enjoying their sibling relationship right now.
- (this is a big one) Has started to spit her toothpaste out after brushing her teeth! I thought this one would never happen.
- She is the one who reminds us to pray before meals. It is really cute. She knows all the words to several prayers: Our Father, Hail Mary, Guardian Angel Prayer, and the Prayer Before Meals. I'm thinking about working with her on memorizing some poetry because her memory is so good.

Tangent, but related: when we were watching the election of Pope Francis, and he came out on the balcony and asked everyone to say an Our Father, Hail Mary, etc., Lily objected to his choice of those prayers. She wanted to say the Meal Prayer (Bless us O Lord...) instead. It was pretty funny.

I really do want to keep up on this blog, but it is hard to find time to sit down to do it. I am going to try harder because I do like having this connection to those of you who don't live close to us!! Hope to blog again soon.