Pool Time

Have a mentioned enough yet that it has been a hot summer? A hot summer means lots of time spent in the water, especially when a weather system that was officially deemed a "land hurricane" strikes and knocks your power out for 5 days.  Hello pool time. 

This was our first time breaking out the Crab Pool this year. You may remember it from last year.  Oh the difference a year makes (though, note how I was really behind on blogging even then. I should just accept that it is the new norm to blog a month behind).  A year seems to also make for a hole in the crab pool, so it goes flat pretty quickly. Alas.  But, seize the moment and enjoy the fun!


Papillon dared the crab to a staring contest. Cross-Eyed style! It was close, but the crab won.

Laughing hilariously as she dumped water on Aunt M.

Just barely big enough for the two of them! (We may need a bigger kiddie pool next year...)
Hibou just stuck her toes in, but she loves anything to do with water, so she was a happy lady.



Me and my matching-swimsuit-ed girls!

Side note: Toasty hot heat and humidity make for really long baby naps.

While our power was out, we trekked down to stay at my parents house.  They had both Air Conditioning and a Kiddie Pool plus a Full Size Pool to offer. We couldn't resist.
Papillon loved to "lay back" in her inner tube, and very much enjoyed being pushed around the perimeter of the pool. She was a little wary of getting out of the inner tube, but we worked on it some, and hopefully by the end of the summer she will be much more confident in the pool!
Hibou love love loves the water.  If she had the gross motor skills to coordinate those hand movements, I am pretty sure she would have taken off swimming on her own. She is definitely a water baby.

My God is So Big. Papillon Style

I am still behind on blogging, but this was too cute not to share right away.  Thanks to my church's "Toddler Camp", Papillon is a now a "Jesus Song" singing crazy person.  It so very much makes me smile to hear her singing songs like this.



She does know other line to this song as well (The mountains are His, the Rivers are His, etc) and when prompted will do the hand motions for that part.

"Jesus loves me" is also a favorite. She calls it the "Dear Jesus Song"

Beach Day and Sleepy Children

On one of Mon Amour's precious weekends home with us, we had plans to visit friends. But as I mentioned in my last post, we had all come down with Pink Eye. So visiting people was probably not the best way to make friends.   

We didn't feel like just sitting at home, however; so we headed to a nearby beach.  It was a sunny, rather warm day, and Papillon spent the entire time trying to figure out what was fun about the beach.  

The Sand? Nope, hated it. 
The Water? Nope, hated that. 
The Sun? Nope, too hot. 
The People? Definitely no. 
The Beach Blanket? She could tell there was sand underneath, so no. 
The lollipops were alright though. 


So after a few attempts to get her in the water...
...we headed back to the grassy spot in the shade by the car.  Much better.

Hibou was pretty neutral to the whole situation.


I am not sure what she was trying to be here. Cape...note pad...lots of cheery babbling. It was something imaginative, that is for sure.


All that fun in the sun (combined with the fact that we were all a little sick) makes for very sleepy children.  Papillon fell asleep in the Bumpo.

Hibou passed out on her play mat.

And at some point, Papillon made it to bed, death grip on her juice and still soooo tired.



Me + 2 Under 2 Vs. DC and 100+ degree weather

Some times, as a parent you take on a big adventure, hoping against all odds that you can pull it off gracefully with children in tow.  Some times those adventures flop and you are left wondering if you were crazy to even try. But sometimes you succeed and you celebrate your success for waaay tooo long.  This would be one of those crazy successes. 


Mon Amour had a conference to attend in Washington DC and since he had been home for less than a week before said conference and would be leaving less than a week after it finished, the girls and I decided to join him.  He would be busy all day, so we would mostly be on our own, but we would technically be together.

And, we would get to hang out in our cool hotel room on the 14th floor of the conference hotel! (funny story: you know how they skip the number 13 when labeling floors? Well, we would count the floors together on the way up, and it was convenient fir Papillon cause she skips the number 13 when she counts anyway! ...11...12...14!)

Of course we wanted to do more than just hang out at the hotel and twiddle our thumbs while waiting on Mon Amour.  So we bravely got our car out of valet (I have a mild phobia of valets...I always ended up feeling like an awkward middle schooler around them for some reason) and headed down to the National Mall.

This was officially the most adventurous part of our adventure. It was like 105 degrees and blazingly sunny every day that we were there.  On top of that, driving in DC is only for those trained in aggressive driving tactics and for lunatics.  Due to the lack of left turn arrows, I had to embrace my lunatic driving side a couple of times.  Then there is the parking.  The first day we lucked out and got the very last free parking spot on the mall. Parallel parking spot, just exactly the size of my car (practically) and I nailed it on the first try! With someone watching me impatiently from the car behind me! Score! The second day we were less lucky and drove around for 35 mins before parking at a metered spot and paying a small fortune for the pleasure of that terrible spot. Oh well. 


First stop: The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum! I always forget how impressive that place is. Papillon was not in awe as much as I was, but I do believe she enjoyed herself.
Side Note: Try not to be discouraged when the "friendly" old man at the information desk, when asked what a 2 year old might enjoy seeing, says "Oh, well she is really too young for this museum".  He is clearly crazy. Papillon enjoyed the room with all the planes, the room with all the "moons" (planets), the kid-specific hands on area, and the in-museum McDonalds where we got ice cream.

It is a great museum for little kids. Apparently that friendly old man is not as much of a grandfather-ly type as he appeared. 

Hibou also enjoyed the adventure...and by enjoyed, I mean that she slept in the sling the whole time. Go Hibou!
After our Air and Space museum adventure we headed back to the hotel to relax and cool off. This should have been the easy part of the trip. But I quickly learned that I set my expectations waaaay too high for the supposed napping part of the day.   Getting all three of us to sleep in the same room at the same time proved very tricky and very aggravating. Who knew this would be the hardest part of the adventure!!  Thank heavens for PBS Kids.


Day 2. Possibly only 99 degrees this day. Woot!  And off we went again!  Admiring the flowers while we waited for our car.

Today's stop - Natural History Museum!   I thought Papillon would love the elephant. But it was hugely crowded, and combine that with the lack of napping the previous day and she proved to be more overwhelmed than impressed.

Her favorite area (other than the gift shop with all the stuffed animals...) was the bug area. It was fascinating to me to note that the creepy-ness of bugs is not actually innate. She was Oooing and Aaahhing over bugs I didn't even want to look at!  (Like the 8 inch long black and red centipede! Ick!)

We then decided to buy ourselves some lunch. The PBJs waiting for us back at the hotel just didn't sound appealing enough.   Though, after discovering that 1 slice of cheese pizza and 1 fountain drink cost you $10 at a Smithsonian....I really wish we had opted for PBJs.  Oh well. Live and learn. 

Hibou enjoyed sitting in the stroller while Papillon and I ate our  [one slice of] pizza.  She looks so grown up!  (Papillon was slightly jealous!.  "Papillon's stroller! Move baby!")

Smile for the camera, Papillon.  "Cheese!"


After taking Papillon and Hibou to two of the coolest museums around, we decided to go on a low key afternoon walk (some clouds and the threat of rain brought the temperature down to a "pleasant" 95 at this point. Woohoo!).  On this low-key time-filling walk, Papillon discovered her favorite part of DC.  A random statue to some random historical doctor.
We hung out here for a long time.  Watching people walk their dogs. Pointing out the "triangles" (Vs, and Ms and Ns) on the statue writing. Playing Ring Around the Rosy by herself.  She positively loved it.

Back at the hotel that night it was time to finish off some pizza (some slightly less expensive non-smithsonian pizza). Papillon wanted to "cut it in half"
And then preferred to eat it crust-first.


More snuggling on the amazingly comfortable bed.

The last day we had time for one last walk. We trekked all the way down to Dupont Circle and watched the pigeons. Papillon also loved this activity. It's the simple things in life.
All in all, I would say that our trip to DC was a huge success. Everyone had fun. No pone passed out from the heat.  And we got to see little glimpses of Mon Amour here and there. 

And then we all got pink eye. 

You can't win them all.

Bittersweet Family Time

As i mentioned last month (yes...still a month behind on blogging) my wonderful grandfather passed away.   While clearly a sad time, the subsequent family together-ness time that it inspired was very sweet.  We all gathered after the funeral service for some food and fun memories.

Nannie and Papillon.

Aunt Mmi and Papillon bouncing on a trampoline

Perusing the family photo albums that Nannie brought along.

Just chillin with Hibou

A bible that belonged to Grandpop's mom, Papillon' Great Great Grandmother Namesake



Possibly the most entertaining of all the boxes of memories was ths scrap book that Granpop's mom assembled of nothing but catastrophes. Plane, train, car crashes. Deadly house fires. Freak accidents. It was weird....but oddly entertaining.


Checkin out the smart phone with her Uncle A and my Aunt N.

Cool antique paraphenalia that belonged to Nannie and Grandpop and assorted family was also on the agenda for the afternoon.

And, of course, a few family photos.

Nothing beats some good ol' family time!

Lemon Blueberry Shower

A little over a month ago now, I had the great pleasure of hosting a Bridal Shower for a good friend of mine from college.  Her wedding colors were going to be blue and yellow, and it was a summer shower, and on top of that her new last name is Lemon.  So, obviously we had a blueberry and lemon themed shower. 

Complete with an AMAZING cake made by a friend of mine.

Lots of blue and yellow foods (including blue and yellow jello salad...not pictured. When looking for blue food, you obviously have to do blue jello. I got waaaay too many compliments on the creativity of this idea. People give me too much credit)

Lots of presents! Check out that sweet wedding-cake-present!

There only a few puns on the new last name.

College friends!

Family!

Papillon thoroughly enjoyed herself. She made friends with one of the Bride's friends who colored with her, and played in her room and all that. So she a little sad when the party ended. At least she got to hold on to some streamers to keep the celebration going.

Hibou also did a great job - everyone thought she was the best baby ever.  she was pretty calm the whole time and allowed me to play hostess