Blog Catch Up!

It has been months since I have updated this blog, so I think it is time for a catch up post! First thing's first - let me introduce you to Vivienne Carole Tarry. Born March 22, weighing in at 6lbs, 2 oz.

She is a very sweet baby; eats well and sleeps well - what more could you ask for?!

Eleanore is a wonderful big sister. She is very loving and has yet to show any signs of jealousy. In fact, if Vivienne start crying, Eleanore says, "Mommy, pick up Vivienne!"

Patrick's Mom (Nana) came into town to help take care of Eleanore when Vivienne arrived. My Dad (Grandpa) also visited so Eleanore had lots of attention those first weeks. Nana and Grandpa were both here for Easter too - the photo below is from Easter morning.

Eleanore is growing up very quickly. She celebrated her second birthday in May. Her language has really taken off. It is so nice now that she can express what she is thinking! Sometimes I feel like I need a decoder ring, but most of the time she is pretty clear. One of my favorite phrases she has is "hey, what's the good idea?" I think she means "big idea", but I think "good idea" is so cute!

Make a wish!In May we traveled to Buffalo, NY to visit my family. It was great to see everyone! Vivienne did great on her first plane trip. Patrick flew out with us and then came home early. Tara flew back to Minneapolis with us. I was happy not to fly alone with both kids!
Eleanore loves riding Rocky!

We had portraits done for Eleanore's 2nd birthday (May 6) and Vivienne's 3 month (June 22).

For the Fourth of July we went to Bald Head Island with Patrick's family. The girls were again great travelers. We really enjoyed the beach vacation!

I will do my best to be better about blog updates... but you can imagine how much free time we have with these two! :-)

Aquarium - in a Mall?!

Today we took Eleanore to Underwater Adventure at the Mall of America. It is a big underground aquarium. The big attraction is a tunnel that lets you walk through the big tank while sea creatures swim all around you. She liked watching the sea turtles the best. In the photo above, that isn't a painting of a sea turtle - that is an actual sea turtle on the other side of the glass tunnel! She kept saying "tur-tle, tur-tle". She looks a bit scared in the photo, not because of the turtle, but because a big shark just swam overhead. Honestly, it was a little scary to me too. It looked like he was swimming right toward us!

For all the production of the attraction, we didn't stay very long. I think it was just about 30 minutes. Since it was Sunday morning it wasn't very crowded. Then we headed over to a nearby restaurant and had dim sum. Yum!

Minnesota Girl

Eleanore likes to play dress up. She is working on big things like shirts and pants, but she can easily put on boots and hats. Today Patrick was going to take her to the pool so he put on her swim suit. Then she got into her bag of winter clothes that we bring with her to daycare. She came back in the room looking like this. Somehow to me these photos make her look like the perfect MN girl... heading to the pool, but ready for a blizzard!

Big Girl Bed

It is official! Eleanore has a real life big girl bed. She has been very good about not falling out - We have had just a couple minor incidents (but we have pillows on the floor so her landing has been soft). She has also been pretty good about not getting out of bed when it isn't time - but sometimes it is hard to know when it isn't time yet, so we are being patient. Most of the time if she wakes up in the middle of the night it has been very easy to escort her back, cover her up and she goes back to sleep.

Before the mattress came, she slept for a few days on an air mattress on the floor. I think she likes this much better!

Eleanore's First Haircut

Eleanore's hair was getting pretty scraggly so it was time for her first haircut!

She wasn't super thrilled with the idea, and she fussed quite a bit, but it could have been worse. A full video is out on our Mac Gallery (link to our Gallery is on the left hand side of this page).

It looked so cute when they were finished - but she didn't keep the barrette in very long.

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year! We had a quiet NYE this year. We didn't want to go out, but I also didn't want to cook because we were hosting a brunch the next morning. So we ordered takeout from Pittsburgh Blue - a nice local steakhouse. We put Eleanore to bed at her normal time (around 7:30) and Patrick went to pick it up. We broke out the china and the silver and some candles and we had a romantic dinner - without needing a babysitter!

The next morning we had a traditional Southern-style New Year's brunch. Eleanore had lots of little friends to play with - Isabelle, Makayla, Olivia, Katie and Sophia. We had close to 20 people including the kids!

The photo above is from "close to midnight" on New Year's eve (I have to admit I fell asleep before midnight). The photo below was from our New Year's day brunch.

Christmas 2009

Christmas morning brought more snow to Maple Grove. We had a nice morning opening the boxes from Santa - which he sent from the "Amazon" instead of the North Pole.

Patrick's toy assembly skills were tested - not too bad though. Toys to highlight are Eleanore's shopping cart with lots of play food, an easel, a dollhouse, a tea set, and a lot of children's CDs.

Mommy got a waffle iron so I made waffles for everyone. Patrick made fire and we snuggled in for most of the day --- well the part of the day that Eleanore didn't ask to go "outside! outside!" Luckily she has warm snow clothes!