101st Birthday Celebration

Mary Tom & Phil

our family with Mary Tom

Yesterday, April 7th, was my great aunt Mary Tom's 101st birthday. She couldn't have had a more beautiful day weather-wise for a birthday. It was sunny with a high around 75 degrees. Last year, we had a huge birthday party for her but this year we kept things a little more low-key. Our family met at Rafferty's to celebrate and had cake afterwards. Mary Tom has been well remembered for her birthday. She does really well overall considering her age. We were glad that we could celebrate with her (even though restaurants can be a bit challenging with 2 little ones). She is a wonderful lady!

Just Like Mama

Sophie with her mop

Sophie & Abbie

Here's a couple of random pictures from last week. Sophie sees me get out the broom or mop very regularly and she will often run and get hers too. Then, it gets interesting because sometimes she is right in the way of where I am trying to sweep. There's a fine balance there between encouraging her to help me around the house but also wanting to somewhat do it "my way". She's funny though. Whether she's trying to feed her babies like mama, change their diapers, put them down for naps, or clean up around the house, she definitely is modeling everything I do and say so I need to be very careful!

Sophie likes to love on Abbie but I have to keep a close watch on her. I'm glad that she loves her but she's not always as gentle as I would like. Abbie is usually OK with some attention as long as Sophie doesn't get too rough. Abbie has been laughing more in general. I'll have to catch her in action soon so I can post some pictures. She's just too cute! The last couple of nights she's been sleeping for very long stretches (like 10-11 hours). I'm afraid to brag too much but we are very thankful. The ironic thing was that Sophie woke up in the middle of the night last night and required some attention and Abbie didn't. Why is it that it's so hard to have both kids sleep well (whether it's naptime or bedtime) at the same time?

Tinklebell

Hopefully, I won't scar Sophie for life but this picture was too funny. Here's Sophie trying to practice potty training in her "big girl" panties. Matt came up with the title for this post, by the way. She didn't want to really get dressed that morning and stayed in her Mrs. Potato Head shirt. Then, at some point, we were talking about Cinderella because Sophie was trying to put Abbie's shoes on herself. Anyway, she put on some of her dress-up clothes. Too funny! Sophie has done really well. She had mostly worn pull-ups for a couple of weeks while potty training but she's been wearing panties this week. She wore them to school yesterday and was accident-free so we had a little ice cream party at home. It was just our little family but Sophie was really pumped about it. It's always something though. Yesterday Matt picked her up from school and they said that she had bit a couple of other children. I felt really bad about that, we had a talk, I called one or two parents for damage control, etc. I hope that doesn't happen again!

Abbie's Stats

Matt and Abbie

On Friday, Abbie had her 2 month check-up. She passed with flying colors. She weighs 13 pounds (exactly what we had guessed) and is almost 24 inches long. She's in the 90th percentile for height and weight. The doctor said she's doing great! In the last few weeks she has finally started enjoying her baths which is great!

Our Easter Best

Paula & the girls

On Easter Sunday, Sophie came away with quite a loot-candy, stickers, a Potato Head dressed like a bunny, a new Aquadoodle, crayons, and more! Abbie got some things too but she can't really eat the candy anyway. Sophie could tell that the Easter bunny had visited our home because he left carrots and potato chips behind (Sophie wanted to leave him some potato chips.) We were in such a rush on Sunday morning because Sophie went to bed late the night before so we didn't get any pictures before church. After church, we ended up going out to eat. We just couldn't seem to get everyone's schedules synchronized. Finally, around 2:00, we got home to an unhappy Abbie who had a very dirty diaper. We changed the diaper and got this quick picture. It's the only one of both girls dressed up in their matching Easter dresses.

Matt's parents were able to stay with us until Wednesday and we had a really nice visit! Both girls enjoyed all of the attention from their grandparents. By the way, Sophie is doing really well on potty training overall.

Easter Egg Hunt

Matt & Sophie in action

Sophie with her basket

Matt, Paula & Sophie

For Easter weekend, Matt's parents were able to drive down from Richmond. We were really glad that they were able to come. Matt's dad got the OK from his doctor on Thursday and they left later that afternoon (since he had heart surgery last month he hasn't been driving, etc until now). He got a great report and so they were able to come and visit us. They arrived on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning it was kind of chilly but we headed over to the Factory in Franklin where they were having a smaller egg hunt. We all had a great time! Matt is quite competitive so part of the time he picked Sophie up to race for the eggs. =) It wasn't overly crowded at all and Matt & I hunted eggs with Sophie while his parents babysat a sleeping Abbie. We also did some shopping while there. Abbie was such an accommodating baby-she slept until we got home!

Cute Quote

The other night, Sophie hit her chin really hard on the table. She cried, we applied ice, etc. The next day, I said, "Sophie, how's your chinny, chinny chin doing?" (just being silly) She said matter of factly, "it's under my neck." Too funny.