Playing Catch-up

I can't believe that it's been over a week since I last posted. I wish I could say that we've been on a fantastic vacation and I've been relaxing by the beach, but sadly, that's not the case.

We've been here, at home, just doing our thing. Sophia has been awake for longer stretches during the day now, and Emma is currently in the process of giving up her nap (much to my dismay), so blogging time doesn't come easily.

So what have we been up to?

I'm not a big fan of sandboxes, and we don't have any beach vacations planned for any time soon (Honey? Are you listening?), but I wanted Emma to get a chance to experience the fun of digging around in the sand without worrying about what is in the sand (I have a mild case of germaphobia). I got this great idea to make a Sensory Box, which introduces kids to various environments. I did a beach box. Emma loved searching for buried sea creatures, plants, and other beach themed objects.

Even Sophia got in on the action.

This sweet little lady had her first, real night of sleeping through the night. We've been hitting 5-6 hour stretches, but last week, she went 10 1/2 hours. That's right. It hasn't been consistent since then, but whoa, was it awesome. Of course, I didn't really take advantage of it. I shot up out of bed in a panic when she didn't wake up at her usual 3:45 feeding. For the next five hours, I popped in and out of her room to make sure she was still breathing. Sigh. The life of a paranoid mom.

When she's awake, she is AWAKE. She is so active and alert. Her favorite hobby is to watch her big sis run around, singing and dancing like a lunatic. I can see in her eyes that she can't wait to join in. I love when her eyes get big like this, and she's intently checking something out because she's the spitting image of her daddy.


Emma's great-Aunt Margie gave her a water/sand table for her birthday. We filled it up with water to try to beat the heat. We had a few days in the 90's last week, so we broke out some of Emma's summertime toys for a test run. She liked it just a "little" bit (please note the sarcasm). I don't think she could have had more fun.


I also set up this sprinkler attachment that Emma received as an Easter gift from her aunties. She was a little afraid of it at first, but pretty soon she was having a ball running through it.

I love this kid!
p.s. She took a GREAT nap that afternoon!

Our best buddies came over for our monthly play date night and we had a great time, as usual. Sophia was so good, and showed her godparents that she can do more than scream. Here she is getting snuggles from "The Godfather."

We attempted a group picture of the kids, and well, this is the best we got.

Are they smiling? Nope.

Are they all looking at the camera? Nope.

Are they cute as can be? Yup.

I love these little munchkins.