Necessities

Allie: "Mommy, I need to get down."

Mommy: "Allie, you're not done eating, you can get down when you're done eating."

Allie: "Mommy, I be right back to finish my food, but I need to get down right now."

Mommy: "Do you need to go potty?"

Allie: "No, I need to go dance. I be right back."

She proceeds to get herself down out of her chair, run to the playroom, dance for a few minutes and returned to finish her meal.

Imagination [train] Station

Some days, the kids play so very well together that I'm certain they don't even need me there to supervise. This was one of those fabulous mornings. I was finishing some laundry upstairs and they were really quiet. When I came down to check on them, I found them engaged in a super-fun imaginary adventure that included a train ride to the circus. When I asked what they were doing, Allie said, "We're riding a choo-choo-rain to the circus!"
Allie kept referring to Zachary as "Engine" (instead of conductor) and continuously made requests for snacks, reading material, seat-switching, etc...to which he immediately obliged and served her with exceptional zeal!
Except when it was time for him to "drive" the train, as pictured below. He's yelling, "chugga lugga choo-choo!"

Pictured below, Mr. "Engine" is doing his very best to appease a disgruntled passenger. Apparently, she'd requested a peanut-butter & jelly sandwich, not a turkey sandwich (seriously, that was the real argument).

When she requested a seat change, she wasn't upset that her new seat gave her absolutely no leg room. As long as she had her reading material, she was happy.

In the picture above, behind Allie, you can see Raccoon & a bird, enjoying their fruit. And below, Allie's baby doll Abigail is enjoying her "hot soup and iced tea."

And of course, Panda found himself as the caboose, and was spoiled rotten with a lot of ice cream.

When I asked if I could ride the train, I was told that there weren't any seats left, but if I wanted to sweep (the carpet floors with a broom), I could.
Which I did.
Also with zeal.

Legos!

I have enjoyed Zachary transitioning to an older stage of toys - especially Legos! He & I spent an hour today following the wonderfully detailed, step-by-step instructions that the Lego company diagrams in a little book that comes with their products. It was really fun. I was surprised at his patience and attention span throughout the entire project.
We followed the instructions exact on the "garage" part, but Zachary wanted to create a car that had a truck bed in the back, so the "little man can transport his tools." So we improvised and created a car/truck on our own!
Being raised in a house full of girls, I don't recall having many Lego experiences, so I'm excited to know that I officially love Legos.

Birthday weekend pictures

I stole these from my sister Raschelle since I didn't take any of my own pictures over the weekend.
Here's Ari in her birthday dress!

She's eating her rich chocolate raspberry cake that Grammy made. It was fantastic. Ari has a whole piece of just the icing in her hand!

Allie & I were reading a cute little book.

Here's a picture of my family stealing a photo-op while I was asleep. They are wicked sneaky.

A happy first birthday!

Today we celebrated my niece Ari Taylor's first birthday. I really enjoyed her sweet little smile all day. She's such a cutie! I have no pictures, but I'm actually grateful that I was able to enjoy the moments without worrying about capturing the memories on camera (there were lots of picture-takers, so I'm counting on their pictures!).
Ari is so sweet and smiley! I loved watching her reach for people, yell for the dog magnet over & over (even though it had disappeared!), learn to sign AND say "lights," and show her pretty mouth full of teeth.
She is such a blessing to so many of us. It was fun to watch about 15 people completely enamored by her cuteness while she opened presents and ate her yummy cake.
Happy Birthday sweet girl!! We love you!