2 Years, 5 Months, and 6 Days

Ruby & Charlotte are 2 years, 5 months, and 6 days old today. After such a wonderful time at the museum during our first visit, they brought home souvenir colds that lasted about 4 days each. Luckily the colds were fairly mild and never affected their energy levels. I read a book called Simplicity Parenting and have done a major toy purge here (7 large diaper boxes full), as one of the focuses is less is more in order to have more deep play with simpler toys. Ruby & Charlotte do not seem to have noticed the missing toys. And after almost 3 weeks without naps, it seems they might be bringing it back during their quiet time. The last 2 days they have slept. Enjoy the photos!

Under a pile of stuffed toys & dress up items, they decided that they were "hiding in the bushes" and we have no idea where that notion came from:

Completing a picture with colored snap caps while saying "We are working together!" repeatedly:

Ruby plays with a stuffed cow and makes it slide down some triangle-shaped wooden blocks:

Charlotte plays with the bead maze:

The progression of a hug between sisters (that looks more like choking):

How we found them sleeping during quiet time yesterday:

29 Months Old!

Ruby at 29 months old:

Charlotte at 29 months old:

2 Years, 4 Months, 4 Weeks, and 2 Days

Charlotte & Ruby are 2 years, 4 months, 4 weeks, and 2 days old today. Sadly, naps are no more here. Almost 2 weeks ago they started rebelling against sleep in the afternoons. We rearranged their schedule a bit for an early bedtime, in addition to allowing for an hour of "quiet time" each afternoon in their room so I can have a small break. We purchased a 1 year membership at Dupage Children's Museum in Naperville, IL on Saturday. The majority of photos below are from our visit there. Charlotte's favorite phrase right now is "Hey [insert name here], what are you doing over there?" Ruby is practically obsessed with playing her version of baseball after seeing an episode of Word World feature the game. We will be getting a T-Ball set with wiffle balls and base plates in the spring. Enjoy the photos!

In the giant chair at the museum (Charlotte is hugging Ruby):

In the WaterWays area:

Playing in bubbles:

In the Build It section:

Make It Move with balls on the drop along pathway:

Downstairs in the snack room, there was a 3-sided kaleidescope box that they crawled into:

A family photo in a room of mirrors:

Creativity Connections area with a giant Lite Brite (Bob and I had the most fun here):

Shadow play:

Painting with Light room:

In this alcove the lights changed color every few seconds:

Music room:


At home, this is what our living room looks like on a typical day:

Charlotte works on her name puzzle:

Ruby build words on the refrigerator:

Charlotte pretends to be a bull with the wooden letter C from her name puzzle:

She got the idea from this stuffed toy courtesy of Ikea:

Ruby in the midst of playing baseball, when she kept telling me she had her bat though I could not see one:

As it turns out, she was grasping this small baseball bat magnet from one of their magnetic play books:

Action shot of them running around the "bases" which actually means that they just run back and forth across the upstairs:

2 Years, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days

Charlotte & Ruby are 2 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days old today. They have started using larger words properly when they speak, such as "actually" and "delicious". We now alternate days for who gets first choice on things (choosing clothing, going downstairs for nap first, etc.) with Charlotte's turn being on odd days and Ruby's on even. Enjoy the photos!

Before:

After:

We survived our first blizzard:

Looking out the front door after we cleared away some of the snow blocking it:

Being the amazing parents that we are, Bob stuck them in the snow drift on the porch then closed the door while I waited further out to photograph the event (they did not find it amusing):

We have started taking them to the mall play area in West Dundee on Saturday mornings to let them run about with other kids while climbing, jumping, and sliding:

They are exceptionally happy after going down the book slide:

Sliding down the clock with Bob's help:

Charlotte on a giant toothbrush:

Ruby spent a decent amount of time pointing out all the letters on the sign and saying them out loud by herself:

Their first time in coin-operated rides:

Charlotte plays with Ernie in the Sesame Street house:

Ruby gives Big Bird a ride in the back of a dump truck:

Dumping all the toys out onto the table instead of picking out one at a time is far more efficient: