The last few weeks we have been soaking up every last bit of summer (or is it that I am sick of playing at home and looking for some out of the house activities?). Regardless, we've had some fun, busy days on Broadway...

...which lead to some pretty great naps!

 Lots of trips to the Birmingham zoo.

A few mornings at Overton Park in Homewood (a result of the coolish morning weather this week and last). 

An afternoon at the Galleria in Hoover for a carousel ride and a special snack.

And..

At our house things start going down hill about 4:30. Kids are tired and hungry and I'm usually scrambling to get dinner ready while holding Brooklyn who is crying and playing my tambourine for Sydney's parade. SO, that is why a special visit from Uncle Nate and Aunt Laura was a wonderful treat come 4:30 on Monday afternoon. Both full of energy and ideas for a little dress up time with the girls. And a welcome break for me.

Soak it up my friends because the school bus is fast approaching Broadway!! T minus six days.

Our lately...

Lately Sydney has been saying the funniest things. She's quite the talker these days. So here's a little mid-week humor...

• "let me check your heart beep"
• "I have the coughs"
• "Brooklyn going to sleep night and tight"
• Calling William's guitar a "ta-da"
• Me: "Okay Sydney, you're in charge" Sydney: "No momma, I'm not in charge, I'm Sydney."
• And for those Dora watchers: on our walk yesterday morning we passed some dog poop. Sydney then chanted, "Water, Poop, Mountain. That's how we get to my house!"

Additionally, Brooklyn appears to be growing to look more and more like William. As my Dad likes to say, she's "a William Paulk clone."  Her hair just isn't growing fast enough and she often gets mistaken for a boy. I have gone to great lengths to dress her in pink and put bows in her hair, but apparently, that is not clear enough (yes, I am talking to you, old man at the grocery store). Luckily William is a good looking baby. Here are some pictures of William at 10 months old and Brooklyn at the same age. 

William

Brooklyn

William (and G-Daddy)

Brooklyn

William

And yesterday Sydney got a back to school haircut...

We are cruising right along here on Broadway. Happy Hump Day friends. 

Real Shoes!

Brooklyn took a trip to the park this morning (72 degrees) for the first time in real shoes. Well, it's really her first outing anywhere in real shoes. Are those gold shoes, you ask? Yes, they are. They were 60% off, so yes, I bought them. She's standing and taking a couple of steps by herself - walking here we come!

The Real World.

Getting back to everyday life - post vacation - takes a few days to adjust. The girls and I waved good bye to William on Monday morning as he left for work wearing dress clothes after more than a week of wearing shorts and flip flops. I ate lunch without my daily vacation glass of wine and missed my daily vacation nap dearly. Apparently Sydney needed a few days to adjust too because I've heard, "don't like (fill in the blank)" about a million times the last few days (i.e. "don't like bath time," "don't like this song," "don't like breakfast time," "don't like this shirt, it's too itchy"). Need I even mention the daily vacation babysitter?

After the aforementioned adjusting, it seems we are right back in the swing of things. Schedules, routines... Which leads me to our weekly grocery trip where the girls now insist on choosing the HUGE green car shopping cart with double steering wheels and very poor turning radius. 

Don't say you'll never use this shopping cart. I did and look at me now. 

And on another note, here's our independent stander. Maybe this is the reason she is eating us out of house and home. Grilled cheese, ravioli, spaghetti, cheese toast, chicken nuggets, you name it she will eat it! 

A quick preview...

Here's a quick preview from this year's beach vacation. As you can see by the lack of pictures we took, the week was great fun (So much so that I need a vacation to recover from my vacation)! I have a few more pictures from Dad that I will share later this week. 

Sydney is becoming a pro at swimming with her new floatie (Is that a word? Spell check seems to think it's not.) and she spent lots of time with Harper and Grayson. Both girls loved the beach! Brooklyn finally figured out that she is not allowed to eat the sand and slept through the entire Blue Angel show without budging. Sydney on the other hand loved watching the Blues and was a pro at building sand castles, burying feet, and making sand cupcakes. Pop and William took Grayson, Harper, and Sydney to play putt-putt golf (not so easy with a 2 year old) and then to the ferris wheel. The week was a complete success! 

Filling some down time with Pop...

 Best Buds!

Dad, is it too soon to ask if we can do it again next year??

9 Month Check-up:

I lugged the girls to the doctor's office this morning for Brooklyn's 9-month check up. Armed with paci's, snacks, crayons, books, and toys - we made it with relatively little whining and crying. Brooklyn is right on track with her development and her ears have luckily cleared up. We're off for a week at the beach taking a clean bill of health with us. Here are the stats...

Weight (19 pounds) - 50th percentile

Length - 90th percentile

Head Circumference - 50th percentile

July 6, 2012

and a few action shots while were were waiting...

Happy Birthday America!

July 4, 2012

*Dress hand-made by yours-truly.