Lorelei has been learning and doing a lot of new things lately. She is such a curious little gal. Here are some photos of her recent adventures.
Check them out here:
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We've been having a great summer. The girls are at really fun stages and are both very active! Lorelei is taking swimming lessons with her cousin Ethan and despite the tears, they are learning a ton and are doing very well. Charlotte no longer walks... she now runs. It is really had to keep up with her. She is now finally SLEEPING THROUGH THE WHOLE NIGHT! Praise God! Getting full nights of sleep has been a blessing after a year of getting up with her every few hours! Charlotte says several words now: Mama, Dada, Dog, LiLi (Lorelei), up, milk, no, stop. Some of these are in a language all her own. Lorelei is a bright little gal and amazes us daily with the things she knows and the things she says! We've been having fun enjoying summer activities and LOVE our pool. We are also really looking forward to Uncle Kyle and Auntie Aimee's wedding in a few weeks! Every day Lorelei asks, "can we go to Kaka and Aimee's wedding today?" and then says, "oh, the doors aren't open yet?" after hearing my answer. The girls will be the flower girls and we ask that everyone start praying now that they actually go down the isle! Hope all is well with everyone and we'll keep you "posted"!
Here are some summer photos:
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My Mom sent me some great photos from Charlotte's first birthday party as well as fun photos from the memorial day BBQ at our house. We wanted to share them with you!
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Today was a sad day for my Mom, Dad, Kyle and I. We had to put our beloved cat Tugger to sleep. He was shy of 16 years old and was fading fast. Over the last few months he went from being the slightly-portly but healthy, beautiful cat we loved to a shadow of his former self. His balance was failing him as were his kidneys and quality of life. Kyle and I opted to not attend the appointment today and said our goodbyes yesterday with a few scratches under his chin and kisses on his nose. This left Mom and Dad to be the ones by his side as he slipped away but they assured us that they didn't mind. He left his body peacefully and he gave the gift of peace to my parents by his willing surrender. We had made the right decision and we knew that he would be happy to see his old pal PeeWee as his paws padded across the threshold of heaven. There they would be agile once more, romping together in their nightly wrestling match.
Our beloved pets live for a fraction of the time that we are on this earth leaving us to experience the full cycle of their life and death...and then the void they leave behind. But the joy they brought by their uncomplicated and unconditional companionship makes the pain of their loss more bearable. How sweet it must be to live such a simple existance. We only hope that in their blink-of-a-life they found joy in our presence as well.
We'll miss you Tugger.
Love,
your family
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Well, our little Charlotte is now 1! It really is so hard to believe. Was it only a year ago that we were just a family of three? Becoming a family of 4 has been so awesome and we count our blessings daily for our little Charby.
We had a great little party for Charlotte last weekend complete with ice cream cookie sandwiches. YUMMY! Thanks Grandma Barrow! Charlotte loved observing all of the action and looked cute in her birthday crown. She totally dug in to her ice cream and picked up chunks of it with her little hands until they froze! She received many nice gifts and was very attentive during the gift-opening session. What a nice day!
Charlotte also had her 1 year "well-baby" checkup with our pediatrician. Her stats are as follows: 17.5 lbs, 29 and a quarter inches. Overall, she is a peanut although her build is much more solid than that of Lorelei at the same age. She is taking steps on her own quite often now and even stops and changes direction! She still only says about 6 words, but why talk when Lorelei can do all of the talking for her?! Charlotte still gives us heart-attacks with her climbing and she can completely disassemble a room in a split second! But that sweet smile and personality continues to melt our hearts. What a joy she is.
Here are some photos:
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Well, the end of May has roasted us with some very hot weather and we've been enjoying the pool...(all except Charlotte). Lorelei would love to live in the pool along with Baxter! The girls have been up to their normal antics of playing and fighting. Charlotte has become very willful lately and lets her sister (and parents) know how she feels by ear-piercing screeches. Oh boy. We'll be putting a stop to that! Lorelei is still a very tolerant and sweet big sister but once she reaches her limit, all bets are off. As a result she's become quite a regular in her time-out spot. And because practice makes perfect, she is now able to articulate very well the reason she was placed there each time! Hug-and-kiss apologies are often not well received by Charlotte but Lorelei feels that until her little sister is smothered into submission to receive the hug and kiss, her debt has not been payed...then Charlotte gets irritated and the vicious cycle continues! Despite the drama, for the most part the girls play together very well. Charlotte loves to imitate EVERYTHING Lorelei does. She cut two new teeth and she has been working on her first independant steps this week. Soon she'll be running behind Lorelei without the use of the push cart! Lorelei has been making up songs left and right and she entertains us in the evenings until we nicely ask her to quit. May has been a fun month and we know there will be many more memorable moments to come in June.
Here are some photos:
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Just like the spider in the movie "Charlotte's Web", our little Charlotte is quite the climber. Here are a few shots of her in action. Yes, she causes us a heart-attack at least once a day.
Check her out...and hold your breath!
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Many of you will remember the dear friend of ours who stood guard on the porch of every place that Matt and I called home: our beloved cast-concrete E.T. Matt "acquired" him from a college buddy and ever since he has been with us through each move and change. He traveled with us from Sacramento to Eureka where he adorned two different porches...and then on to Orange County and then to each of our houses in Lodi. But last night he was taken. We are so sad. We had hoped that my brother had taken him as a joke but no...he is gone. We knew we were taking a chance by having him in our front yard but everyone knew our place by our E.T. I will be posting an ad on Craigslist if we can come up with some sort of "reward". Maybe we'll wake up tomorrow and he'll be back in our front yard. That would be cool. I just hope some dumb teenagers didn't steal him to shoot at him with a BB gun or smash him in the road somewhere. If they did steal him, I hope they were on bikes and I hope they put him in a basket on the front. He would have liked that. But instead, I would like to think that maybe his spaceship just came to take him home. If that was what happened, we're ok with it.
Here are some photos of our dear E.T.
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Well, Charlotte is now 11 months old. How can this be? Her new trick is that she blows kisses...it is so adorable. Here are some photos of her:
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Here are photos from the rest of April. Overall it was a good month and the girls are growing and changing by leaps and bounds! Charlotte is running all over the house behind her push cart chasing her sister everywhere she goes. She loves to feed herself finger foods and now waves, shakes her head "no, no", says "Mama", "Dada", "Dog", "naw, naw" (no, no) and gives hugs and kisses on demand. She climbs anything in her path and loves to sneak over to our indoor plants and eat the bark and dirt whenever she can. Poor Lorelei...she is having to learn to deal with a very grabby baby sister who claims things with her slobber and chews on all of her coloring books! But overall, Lorelei is a very patient, loving big sister. She is very helpful to Mommy and loves Charlotte to pieces. Lorelei's vocabulary never ceases to amaze us as well as the clarity with which she speaks. She has great little sayings like, "oh dear" and "hey there Mommy-o" and "no way Jose!" She is potty trained (#1), but we are still working on #2. Lorelei is a dancin' fool and will move to the beat of anything! She loves spotting police cars on the road since Uncle Kyle drives on of those cars and she lives and dies for time at the park. Lola also loves to help clean and works alongside Daddy when he mows the lawn or tends the garden. What a big girl she has become! We are so proud of her. Our girls keep us busy and we love them to pieces but Matt and I find enjoyment in the little moments we have alone after the girls are in bed!!!
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