2 Years, 3 Weeks, and 5 Days

Charlotte & Ruby are 2 years, 3 weeks, and 5 days old today.  They have taken a big interest in learning opposites (wet/dry, light/dark, up/down, etc.) from a Sesame Street book.  Charlotte is intent on sitting at our dining table and pretending to eat or drink like grown ups, even though we rarely use that table for meals.  Ruby's imagination is huge; she stages elaborate scenes with small stuffed animals or play figurines on her own throughout the day.  We are experiencing summer in October currently, and taking advantage of the odd warm weather now before we are stuck inside for the winter.  Enjoy the photos!

The first 9 photos are from when we drove up to Wisconsin on Saturday to visit our friends Ben, Amy, & their son Zachary.  We had a great time, and it was a beautiful drive with the leaves changing and the many hills (Illinois is quite flat where we live).
Playing with Zachary's toys after we first arrived: 

We walked through charming neighborhoods with mature trees to a park that was about a mile away from their home:

At the top of the slide:

Zachary & Charlotte on the swings with Ben nearby:  

Bob pushes Ruby & Charlotte on the swings:

They all had fun taking turns on this slide before we left:

Ruby fell asleep during the walk back to their house:

Charlotte & Ruby were very excited to sit in their booster seats to eat lunch with Zachary while we were there:

I tried letting them eat in booster seats at home yesterday but alas, they were not distracted by the excitement of a friend and would not stay still after the first 5 minutes, so highchairs it is for now:

We realized that they had not eaten an actual slice of pizza before, so we rectified that Sunday evening.  Charlotte ended up preferring hers cut up, while Ruby happily ate 2 slices as is:

Charlotte laid on the carpet like this for over 20 minutes yesterday, quietly petting our cat Orange through the gate:

Ruby involved in one her imaginative acts with Sesame Street figurines sliding around the bead maze:

Despite all of their new toys and interests, they still love to sit down with a good book: