4th of July!!!

Annie as, "Lady Delivery" in the annual neighborhood parade, with Uncle Mark, Daddy, and Ezra.

Ezzy, celebrating his first Independence Day, with Auntie Ellie at the neighborhood party. The party is a big event, celebrated the 3rd of July each year in our neighborhood.

Annie swimming with her friend and neighbor, Anna. Annie is doing a cheerleader pose, of course.

Annie getting ready to go watch fireworks from a neighbors backyard on the night of the 4th.

Annie and Ez in their matching shirts, sent in the mail from Mama Pauli! Annie has been talking about 'twins' and wishing she were a 'twin' a lot lately, so Mama Pauli made her dream come true with these cute shirts and some jammies, too! So nice of our Mama Pauli!

Annie Said...

Thanks, my Benny, for writing a lil' bit for the last post. Ezzy definitely looks like a mini Ben, but with my eyes! He has his Daddy's sweet, calm disposition, too!

Now for a couple of quotes from the one who doesn't have Daddy's calm disposition- the one who got Mommy's... what's the opposite of calm disposition? ;o)

{June, 2011- To Mylo, while standing in the buff, watching her tub fill up...}

"No Mylo!!!!! My buns are privacy!!"

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{June 10, 2011}

Ben: What's your puppy's name?

Annie: Benny.

B: It's a little boy puppy?

A: No, she's a girl puppy.

B: Oh, Benni, with an 'i.'

A: She has two eyes, Daddy.

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{June 11, 2011}

"Mommy, you are cute, 'cause you are extraordinary. But, you are not extraordinary when you are mad because I'm in trouble."

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{June 2011- In response to me telling her that her outfit was cute.}

"I know. God made me a good dresser."

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{July 7, 2011}

"Soon I will be 4 and then I will go to kindergarten. Then I will be 10 and I will go to college."

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And one from today, July 10, 2011. I started to pack for our Minnesota trip (3 more days!!) so Annie went in her room and packed her little rolling backpack all by herself. She came out and showed me that she had packed some clothes, panties, pajamas and pull-ups, lots of books, a snuggly-furry friend, and a baby toy for Ezra. The last item in her suitcase was a fairy wand. She explained that the fairy wand was, "for when Ezra fusses on the plane, so I can bippity-boppity-boo him into a nice prince." Overall, I am very impressed with her packing. I may have her pack my bags, too!

Ezra on his daddy's baby blanket

Mama Susie was kind enough to give us some of my (Ben's) baby stuff from over 30 years ago. I think that constitutes them as ancient relics. One of the most notable items was this baby blanket made by my late Grandma Isabel.

I think my parents would agree: little Ezzy looks a lot like little Benny did, snuggled up for his nap.

Thanks, Mama Susie!

Little Body, HUGE Personality!

Oh the little things!!

I'm really enjoying the small things in life lately. I love sitting back with a cup of coffee and just watching my babies be themselves. They are amazing... Here are some of the little things I've enjoyed recently:

1. Annie is an actress, reciting and acting out movie lines for play almost every day. This is a picture of her acting out the scene in 'Beezus and Ramona' in which Ramona takes her school picture with raw eggs dripping down her hair. Hilarious to watch her do the whole scene, but this picture is pretty spot-on, on its' own!

2. Ezra thinks he's awesome because he can put his paci in all by himself. The funny thing is that he often puts it in sideways or upside down. I love the look on his face in this picture- he's like, "What's so funny, Mom?!"

3. Ezra can scoot now. But, he can only go backwards. I had set him on the green blanket to play while I cleaned off my desk in the kitchen and was talking to him until I left the room to toss the garbage from my desk. When I came back he was gone!! I said, "Ezra!?" pretty loudly and then immediately heard his fusses from behind the ottoman. He had scooted back there and couldn't move forward to get back out!! Poor buddy! I smiled at him and promised to be right back, because I had to run and get the camera to document his adorable face peeking around the ottoman..."A little help here?!" So stinkin' cute, this one!!

Snuggly-Furry-Friends

Can you find Annie in this picture? Ha ha ha! You can see the top of her head snuggled down for her nap with all of her snuggly-furry-friends. She heads upstairs for her nap on her own now, and usually takes at least 20 minutes to arrange her stuffed animals around her on the bed.

This is how I found Annie after her nap that same day-- playing with all of her 'snuggly-furry-friends' on her bed... wearing a pair of undies on her head. Weird science... What a goofball!

The Project Girl

Annie still loves doing 'projects' at her little art table. I have set out a little container to hold some general art supplies such as markers, crayons, scissors, glue, stickers, paper, etc. She really likes making a little project and then putting it in an envelope to send to someone. Now I just need to really make good on it and send them to you all!! The neat thing is that she even 'addresses' the envelope to the person by writing the first letter of their name on it. We have several envelopes with the letter 'P' on them, for Mama Pauli, since Grandma Pauli is so good about always sending Annie and Ezra things in the mail! We love heading to the real mailbox to see if there is anything for Annie. She can find the mail with her name on it and then 'read' the corner to see who sent it!

She is 'reading' lots of things lately. She recognizes and reads environmental print like store signs and logos (Starbucks, McDonalds, Target, etc.) and pretty much anything around the house with letters on it. Last night she really wanted ice cream after dinner and when Ben handed her a little container of yogurt that Mama Pauli had left in the freezer she said, "No Daddy! That's not ice cream-- the letters spell 'yogurt.' See?" She pointed to the words on the container and gave Ben a "I told you so" look. Ha ha- this girl is so smart, it's getting tough to keep one step ahead of her already!