Playing at School

Amelie likes to stay at school and play when I go to pick her up at noon. I'm pretty sure she'd just starve to death if her other option was to keep playing all afternoon. I took these photos once we were the only ones left on the playground. (I wear James in the Ergo carrier and he sleeps, or if he's already asleep, I carry the carseat and put it in the shade -- then I have to stand guard so none of the other preschoolers poke him.)

Thank you to Grandma Mary for the SMILE shirt :)

(Second) Cousins!

 At first, they wanted to sit on different porch swings. We convinced them to sit on the same one.

I think these kids must get their picture made too often -- they don't care about looking at the camera one bit.

Wait -- something got Marlee May's attention.

 And she's off! Done with that!

Grandma Doris

Grandma Doris taught Amelie the "Here is the church; here is the steeple" game while we were in the bootheel:

Grandma Doris also got to hold baby James: 

On the Couch

Getting a picture of these two together is well-nigh impossible. "What? Sit next to him?"

So we scooted him next to her, and it looks like Amelie is up to something.

Now James wants to see what this fun toy is.

Well, maybe we can get one of James in his snazzy shirt and tie. (Okay, shirt with tie. Also, his "shoes" are just socks that look like shoes. We're all about the art of deception.)

I've got a pretty goofy baby. 

Thank you to our friend Kara for the tie onesie! And thanks to Grandma Mary Beth for the pants, both of the gray and polka-dot variety. 

Achievement Unlocked

We'd come close, but James had never quite gotten his feet all the way into his mouth before.

Piano

Sam and Amelie played the piano at Grandma Doris and Papaw Leroy's house.

Dada appears to be much more serious about the whole endeavor than Amelie is.

Cousin Marlee even got in on the action a little. She (somewhat generously, in my opinion) even boogied down to the music they were playing and showed off her dance moves.

I'll have more pictures from our short trip to the bootheel up soon.

Cousins

This post is from a little while ago, but better late than never is my philosophy!

My kids look super-thrilled about this photo shoot, am I right?

They eventually warmed up to the idea: 

Family photo time.

James and Benny are just a little over 2 weeks apart.

Even More Baby-Led Weaning

Well, we are almost a month into our baby-led weaning experiment. James is pretty reliably feeding himself, though he does still sometimes mash the food onto his forehead. This method is supremely, supremely messy, hence the baby in only a diaper in the bumbo chair. When he drops his food, I can pick it up off of our table and put it back on his tray.  So far, he's eaten: sweet potato, banana, avocado, carrots, beef, pork, chicken, asparagus (this was just exactly the perfect size and shape for him to pick up), regular potato, blueberries, pear, plum, applesauce, egg yolk, and bell peppers. I've offered broccoli and cauliflower several times, but he still hasn't eaten any yet, and I tried peas once, but he only had a taste. I'm offering usually two meals per day. In any case, he enjoys mealtime a great deal -- and gets upset if he's not included when the rest of us are eating.

Snowsuit

Hey! Remember when it snowed? These pictures are from then.

Nana Jana sent a snowsuit with Amelie's Easter basket. Conveniently enough, we got another snowstorm at the end of March and she was able to try it out:

 Schroeder enjoyed the snow, too.

She was upset that some of the snow stuck to her mittens:

All done!