Gwyneth is a happy, healthy, and dare I say, perfect baby girl! Of course, she’s absolute perfection to us and her pediatrician agrees! We went for Gwyneth’s 9 month check up and she turned on the charm for Dr. Brucker. She has been having some stranger anxiety lately so I was a little nervous but she was all smiles and giggles (until she had to get shots!). Dr. Brucker says she is right on track developmentally and even seems to be a bit ahead of the game socially. She attributes this to the girls being so close together. Gwyneth sees what Annabelle is doing these days and she’s doing her best to keep up. She gave us the ok to start Gwyneth on soft table foods. Gwyneth is already starting to plow through the puffs – we went through an entire can yesterday between the girls – so table food will make her very happy.

Here’s how Gwyneth is measuring up:

Annabelle has developed a love of hats and wants to wear them constantly (even with PJ’s). Annabelle really wanted Gwyneth to wear a hat too but Gwyneth just thought it was a game. They rolled down the hall together with Annabelle finally laying on top of Gwyneth to put the hat on her. I wanted to break it up but they were both belly laughing so hard I wasn’t sure who I would be helping by tearing them apart.

Annabelle was determined to get that hat on GG’s head!
Showing the love for the St. Louis Cards

In Colorado, we wear all different hats in April! Yesterday, it was almost 70 degrees so we had sunscreen and baseball caps on for our outings. Today, we woke up to snow so out came the winter hats. I’m REALLY over the snow. My girls get me thru by looking so cute in their winter gear.

In a horrific baby doll accident, Annabelle’s bitty baby had been decapitated (Annabelle carried her around by her neck and her head popped right off – #1 reason we don’t let Annabelle carry GG!). Bitty baby returned home today from the American Girl hospital with a brand new head! If only real life was that simple…

The girls thought this was so funny!Annabelle loves her baby dolls.

My sister shared some photos of my sweet little niece, Maeva, from the Oakland zoo. She is such a little peanut and looks absolutely adorable in her little pink ball cap. We haven’t seen her since her birthday which is right after Christmas, and we are really missing her. We show the girls pictures of their out-of-town-cousins where Annabelle indentifies Madison as “LaLa” and Maeva as “M-Duck”. We are looking forward to visiting them in California later this year.

Jennifer brought blackberries up to Breckenridge and Annabelle got her first taste and has been a big fan ever since. I bought a big crate of them at Costco and they are being devoured. I remember buying fruit from Costco before I had kids and it would spoil before we could get through it all – not a problem any more! I still think grapes are Annabelle’s favorites…she asks for them by name while referring to herself as Apple – “Apple more grapes, Apple more grapes”. What a character!

Annabelle was enjoying her blackberries so much that we felt it was just plain mean to not let GG have a taste too. We tried out the mesh baby feeders and GG got lots of sweet blackberry juice! Both girls were very happy and VERY messy.

Annabelle had cream corn for the first time tonight – another huge hit! Little girl has lost her mind if she thinks I’m going to just hand over my camera to those messy hands!

After dinner the girls were in serious need of a bath. Blackberry juice everywhere!

They clean up pretty nice though….

We buckled the girls into the car and off we went to Costco – with these fruit-eating, diaper-wearing, wipes-using, goldfish-devouring, applesauce-loving girls we get our money’s worth in our membership. We have really got this shopping bit down to a science. In just 30 minutes we were able to load our cart with all the essentials and blow 200 bucks….HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN??? I can answer my own question – diapers, diapers, diapers, but my goodness. There are three stores that are the crutch of my existence and I can never get out for less than $100 – Target, Babies R Us, and Costco. Costco has now been bumped to the $200 range. I think it’s time to start potty training!

I have been accused of only adding posts and photos of my married friends with kids here. In my heart, I show no favoritism toward this group and apologize for an persecution those who have been left of my blog recently have felt. I will work much harder to clearly illustrate that my blog is an equal opportunity for all! The surest way to make it on the blog though is when you see me coming with my camera just hold one of my girls – little tip for those looking to score a spot on the blog! HA! 🙂

Both my girls love shoes! Funny – because I have 3 pairs of shoes that I wear pretty religiously and don’t have a flair in the shoe department so they didn’t get this obsession from me. Here’s GG playing with her jelly’s – she’s ready for summer. (I did LOVE my jelly’s when I was a kid!)

GG and her Godfather, The Gus.

Miss Melissa came over to babysit the girls and B and I had a great night out just the two of us! We’ve had parties, games, birthdays, etc. but this is the first night we just went for dinner and a movie. It’s always really fun to go to the movies with B because he doesn’t follow new releases, he lets me pick, and goes in completely blind to what movie we’re seeing. It’s nice to hear his perspective about the movie because he has no preconceived notions. Luckily, this movie came through. It was really good although – who is buying that Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck are college roommates??? They put a little grey in Affleck’s sideburns and we’re supposed to believe that he’s as old as Russell Crowe – who I must say, looks like an old shoe! (In case you are curious – Crowe is 45 and Affleck is 37 – not a huge age difference but paleeease…they weren’t rooming together in college!) Besides that one silly detail, the movie had a lot of nice twist and turns and was entertaining.

We bought this shirt when we first found out we were having Annabelle while living in downtown Chicago. B has always found it hilarious and when he tells his joke to the girls they find it soooo funny too. Luckily our girls are both smart and adorable because sometimes I just don’t know about their sense of humor!!

We joined the Carlson’s for Elmo Live at the DU theatre. Both girls LOVED the show. I can’t stress enough how much they enjoyed it. They just have music in their little heads and hearts. I thoughts Annabelle would get a kick out of it because she is going through a serious Elmo phase, but wasn’t sure if GG was too young. She certainly was not! She loved the lights and music and clapped and danced her way through the first part of the show. These show are usually about a half hour too long for my girls so GG ended up sleeping through the 2nd act, but what she saw she loved! Her favorite was Oscar the Grouch (which was mine and B’s favorites growing up too!).

Annabelle loved Elmo, of course! Her favorite part was the Cha Cha Cha which she did with her dadda and continued to do in the car all the way home. She continues to Cha Cha with her baby dolls after the show.

Small world , while we were waiting to head in we ran into Nicole Boeckers and her little guys. She’s a good friend of B’s family and is expecting her 3rd little one this summer.

GG rockin to Oscar’s song
Enjoying a soft pretzel during intermission