My valentine loves

I love this next progression of pics. You can totally see Cora stealing this cart from Quinny. Look at their boots!

Quinny keeps smiling, even though she's on the losing end of a steal.

With the beloved Miss Aimee, of Miss Aimee's Sullivans Island Child Care.

Lamont.

Valentine's Day Party!

Oldies but goodies

Confession: There are 2500 pics on my phone. I know, it is embarrassing. And, there are like 400 pics on the good camera that I need to download. The fact is, Landon was in class last spring every single night of the week. My spring was super busy with work. AND, sometime late March, we decided to put our house on the market. Honestly, I feel like I just sat down to take a breath this month. Even when we were homeless this summer, I kept the girls home with me and worked from home in the evenings, which meant there wasn't anytime. Enough whining - I know others are way more busy than me for much less pleasant reasons!

So, here it goes. These are old pics. Like from January. I'm going to tell myself that scrapbooking is unrealistic, and I don't know of anyone who keeps up with it after they have more than one child. AND that my childhood pics feel precious to me, even though they are piled into stacks of albums (albeit sometimes oddly quilted albums with lace around the edges, thanks to crafty moments of Mary Jane Blair and friends...). Sometimes these old pics come with stories. When I look back, it breaks my heart. QUINN HAS PRACTICALLY GROWN INTO AN ADULT SINCE THEN!!!

Look at this beautiful baby. 

Cora & Zoey, playing dress-up. Several times in the spring, Scott was working late and Danielle had kids on own, too. Papa Murphy's Pizza for kids; salads for us. Good memories!

I LOVE these pink shoes Quinn is wearing here. I'm not sure if I got another picture of them. We wore them until the bows came undone. They were so stinking cute on her cute little feet.

Somebody got in mommy's make-up. I took a pic before I grabbed a towel :)

I'm not sure if Cora was trying to feed Quinn here, but Cora often likes to feed Quinn. Still does. Cora doesn't really like to feed herself (she's become our picky eater), but she's happy to make sure Quinny tries everything on her plate.

These pics are from January - around the time when Quinn came strolling by pushing the shopping cart. I blogged about it, without pics. We thought Quinn would never walk; one day, out of the blue, Landon and I were cleaning-up dinner, when Quinn came bee-bopping through pushing a shopping cart, like it was nothing. 

Beanie sent Cora this cute doll. A boy wearing jeans and a vest. He looks like Uncle Matt, and the doll's name is Matt. Cora loves it!

Another Cora Observation

We went on a family adventure tonight. Landon put girls in basket of tricycle (adult old-lady tricycle; our friends laughed at us, now they all want one); I followed behind. We went to playground in baseball fields behind Whitesides. It was a great daddy-inspired impromptu adventure.

On way back, some big kids were having a birthday party, with one of those inflatables taller than a house. Cora loves inflatables so we didn't want her to see this way-too-big-for-her structure poking out from behind a house. Ii distracted by pointing out blue balloons on a mailbox we passed. 

Me: ah, they've had a new baby boy!

Cora: where?

Daddy? There, where the balloons are.

Cora: they had a baby boy? why is he a baby boy

Daddy: why are you a baby girl?

Cora: I'm not a baby.

Little Blue Truck

Have I mentioned Quinn's obsession with Little Blue Truck?
She wants to read it EVERY SINGLE NIGHT.
We have it memorized verbatim.

When it's time to say, "HONK" Quinny cackles.

Breaking spaghetti

UI'm making spaghetti. Cora wanted to help. I gave her task of sitting on floor breaking spaghetti into smaller pieces before boiling it. She's all chatter chatter.

A spaghetti piece flung across room; Pearl "saved" me from having to pick it up.

Cora: pearl, no!

Me: she's ok

Cora: why's she eating it?

Me: cause she is.

Cora: why's it on the floor?

Me: because it is.

Cora: why is she a dog?

Tickle toes

Quinn's feet are really ticklish. Super ticklish. Friday she was super tired and (in unquinnlike behavior) melting down by bath time. She was also super grimy so a bath was a must. When I went to undress her she was bawling. When I took off her shoes she started to giggle. When I got to her socks she was straight cackling; the kind of laugh that is tough to distinguish from a cry.

Quinn brings so much joy to our lives. 

These pics are from the picnic at Cora's new school. Quinn jumped right into play, and many of the younger siblings of Cora's classmates will be in Quinn's class. Quinn loved the playhouse. 

Eliza is hugging Quinn. She also goes to our church. Eliza is in Cora's class, but is the youngest in her family and has a late birthday... Which actually makes her closer to Quinn in age and development. These hugs were really sweet. She clearly recognized Q from the nursery at church and was happy to see her. 

Quinn accepted the hugs but clearly didn't know what else to do. It reminded me of Cora at this same age, when she refused to touch baby Quinn.

Wagon wheel

This morning Wagon Wheel was playing. Darius Rucker lives some place between us and Sullivan's, so it feels like they're playing Darius every 4th song. 

Quinn must have recognized it. The song ended and Quinn continued to break it down in her car seat. I turned down the radio chatter and starting belting it out for her.

Me: Rock me mama like a wagon wheel.. Cora (screaming over me): stop it. The song ended. It isn't your turn anymore, mommy, stop singing!

Me: rock me mama like the wind and the rain...

Cora: (matter-of-fact announcement) Mommy. Mommy. We don't rock our babies in the rain!

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