Juliette turns 1!

Juliette turned 1 today - wow how time passes so quickly these days! It's so hard to believe that our little baby is already a year old! To celebrate, we had Uncle Phil, Aunt Sandy, Joey and Jillian over for dinner and cake. I made one of Juliette's favorites for dinner - spaghetti with homemade sauce using tomatoes from our garden. Then it was time for cake!

Abbey and Joey had a blast pushing the stroller around the house as fast as they could together. They were laughing hysterically the entire time. If they ever get married, this is the perfect picture!

As is tradition, Juliette got her own comfy chair for her first birthday. She really likes crawling into it!

And she got her very own rocking chair from Madgie and Patch. Here is Ben showing her how to rock in it.

More celebrations to come, but Happy Birthday JuJu!

Spray and Play

Today we met Aunt Domi, Caroline and Hunter in Glen Ellyn to see some circus tents get set up. It was actually really neat to see how they pull up these huge tents. We also got to see some of the circus animals up close. This is a far away picture, but that is Ben, Abbey, Caroline and Hunter watching the tent get put up.

Next to where they were putting up the circus there happened to be a spray park (good planning)! Abbey got right into it and enjoyed filling up several buckets.

Here are Ben, Abbey and Caroline filling up a big bucket - good job working together guys!

And Juliette's big news of the day - she learned how to stand up all by herself. She did it all day - standing up, then sitting down, then standing back up again (looked like quite a leg workout). No official steps yet, but getting closer!

Day out with Thomas

We met up with the Glynn family again this year to go see Thomas! It was a lot of fun, but pretty hot. Abbey was very excited about it this year and Ben got a kick out of telling her exactly how it would be based on his memories from last year. He enjoys big brother moments like that. Here's the family with Thomas. You can see that Ben's not quite as interested as he was last year.

On the train, Ben got to sit with Keegan and Mr. Bob.

We sat with the girls.

Juliette played commuter for a while.

Juliette and Kasey (1 week apart) enjoyed catching up with each other.

Ben's favorite part this year was definitely seeing the very cool trains that were on display at the museum.
All in all, it was a fun day. Thanks for meeting us Bob, Heather, Keegan and Kasey! Next year we will find something different to do, but this was great these past 2 years.

Pictures

We finally went to get Abbey's 2 year and Juliette's 1 year pictures taken. They both took a while to warm up, but we eventually got some good ones.

And since we had 2 of 3 dressed up for pictures, we decided to get one of all 3 of them together. This proving to be more difficult than I ever thought. Maybe they are just too young to get a great picture of all of them, but this was was pretty close.

I will post Juliette's 1 year pictures on her birthday.

Abbey Update!

Well, Abbey turned 2 back in early July, but I just took her in for her 2 year doctor's appointment today. I assure you it was not due to my lack of trying, it's just that when I made this appointment back in early June, today was the earliest morning appointment they could give me with the doctor I wanted. Anyway, on to the visit...she did great! This was the first visit in a very long time that she hasn't cried or completely freaked out when seeing the nurse or doctor. I think coming with me to all of Juliette's appointments may have helped, or perhaps just getting older helped. Either way - she did great! She was a little unsure, but luckily we had a fantastic nurse who took her kitty cat toy that she brought with her and weighed the kitty cat on the scale before Abbey had to get on. Then she saw how tall the cat was before Abbey had to stand next to the height measurer - she was great. Anyway, down to business, she weighed in at 27 pounds and was 34 inches tall, which put her right in the 50th percentile. The doctor was impressed with her language skills and use of complete sentences. She got her finger pricked and a shot, but she took them both pretty well with minimal crying. I was so proud!

As for her other development, she is learning so much every day. She is starting to test her boundaries and has been sent to time-out in her room a few times. She loves playing with her dolls and wants about a million things in her crib with her when she sleeps (multiple babies, Mickey Mouse, Mini Mouse, blankets, etc.). She is starting to get interested in TV, but really only likes to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She does, however, know all the songs to the Lion King - despite the fact that she has never seen it! She is still in her crib - not sure when we will switch her over since she is sharing a room with Juliette. She also so far has minimal interest in the potty. She wants to sit on it sometimes, but has yet to actually go in it. I am not pressing it - potty training is not on my list of priorities at the moment. Ben was already in a big boy bed and in pull-ups by this point, but seeing as how Abbey has a younger sister not too far behind her and an older brother, I do not have the energy or motivation to really tackle either of these things any earlier than necessary right now! She is doing great though and changing so much every day. I love this age when they are just learning so much each day and you get to see them start to understand and become a big kid. So sad, but definitely fun to watch too!