Weekend in Washington

The White House

Museum of Natural History

Rose was fascinated by the dinosaur exhibit.

The beautiful Cherry Blossoms

The Washington Monument

Freezing at the Cherry Blossom Parade. It was so windy the giant balloons were cancelled.

"I don't know what happened!" Pearl says, standing in front of a vase similar to one in the Hotel Lobby that she broke!

Thankfully the Hotel is actually very kid friendly. They even bring the kids cookies and milk room service at bedtime.

Hotel Lobby

Room with view.
We could see the tip of the Washington Monument and the Flag on top of the White House.

Rose enjoying the high life!

I love being a princess!

We went to the National Zoo.

There was a very timy baby gorilla she was so cute, but we did not get her picture.

Rose communicating with the Gorilla.

Pearl may become a zoo keeper someday. She wanted to pet or hold nearly every animal including some frightening ones such as the eight foot Boa Constrictor.

Rose and Daddy in the hotel lobby.

A Random Post

This weekend my sweet friend Emily and her adorable 2 year old, Mary Hannah, flew in from FL. (Her son, Avery, was Rose's "best" friend when we lived in FL. Unfortunately he was sick and not able to join them on this trip.) We had fun hanging out with them and took them to The Reading Terminal Market, a giant farmer's market established in 1892. We enjoyed cheesesteaks at Thunderbird. We finished off our yummy dinner with another local treat, Rita's Water Ice and Frozen Custard. The girls had fun dressing up as princesses and Mike watched all three girls (good practice for the near future) while Emily and I went out for a spa pedicure and manicure.

I do not have any pictures of their trip here as my camera is getting fixed. It is a Cannon Powershot camera and was only about 6 months old when I had it setting on my bed and tossed my cordless phone on my bed. The phone must have hit the camera (I did not see it happen) and smashed the screen. I have been taking not so centered pictures with it and have been unable to switch modes since I cannot see the screen. Mike was about to buy a new one but I said lets contact Canon. We had aother Canon Powershot for the past four years and had some problems with it due the humidity in Florida and they had fixed it twicen (free of charge) and always returned it within seven days. Anyway we contacted Canon about this new camera and they said they would fix it free of charge unless it had been dropped or something spilled on it. They have fixed it free of charge (even though it was not technically dropped I can't believe they covered it) and it is on it's way back to us in time for our trip to see the Cherry Blossoms in Washington DC. I LOVE CANON! and will always buy a Canon from now on.

Speaking of buying things.. can you believe both of our TV's died this week! We had just ordered a new one for our bedroom and then the one in our famly room died. So we are not watching TV this week and I am realizing how addicted I am to TV, especially at nighttime.

Well that is all for now more about our trip to DC coming soon and hopefully we will have pictures to show for it.:)

PS told you this was a random post!

The knee bone is connected to the...
The other day I was reading the girls a story about skeletons. Pearl was very interested in learning the names of several bones she had not heard of yet and was pointing them out on herself. Then she decided to teach me a bone I had not heard of, she raised her arm up and said and this is my pit bone!

Pearl has recently become very curious about the differences between male and female anatomy. She is always saying mommy has boobs, daddy and I have nipples. She also asks Mike "You a boy daddy?" when he replies, "Yes, I am a boy." the next question is always whispered "You have a penis daddy?". She almost asked our pastor this same question a few weeks ago, at church, but Mike stopped her just in time! Yesterday at breakfast she told me that a piece of my scrambled eggs with cheese looked like boobs!

As long as I am sharing more Pearl stories I am actually behind on her antics. I can only imagine the stories we will have to tell her when she grows up and am trying to record them here so I don't forget.

Last summer while baking with the girls I was using the mixer and Pearl decided she wanted to taste the cake batter and stuck her hand right into the bowl while the mixer was running. I thought for sure she was going to have broken fingers as I quickly unplugged the mixer and struggled to remove the beaters that were stuck due to her hand being wedged between them. When I pulled her hand out she was able to move all of her fingers and only had a few red lines on her wrist that were no longer visible within the hour. I can truly say God once again had angels watching over this child.

Pearl being potty trained early has been a mixed blessing. She is physically capable of going into the bathroom and going potty all by herself, she just can't be trusted alone in the bathroom by herself as she will get into some kind of mess. Here are a few of her bathroom escapades...

One day while waiting in the bathroom for me to fill the tub for her bath she became impatient. She decided to take matters into her own hands. She pulled out tons of my clean facecloths and began dipping them in the toilet and then tossing the wet cloths into the tub. Of course my bathroom floor was covered in toilet water and I quickly threw her dirty little self into the tub to be scrubbed while I cleaned the mess up. The next day when she asked for a bath I told her no not right now. (She loves baths and would take three or four a day if I let her.) So she came up with a way to get mommy to give her a bath, she stuck her hands in the toilet and tells me "Mommy I put my hands in the toilet can I get a bath now?" UGH! Little stinker, as much as it killed me to not just throw her in the tub to wash all of those nasty germs I was afraid if I gave in and gave her a bath she would be putting her hands in the toilet every day to get a bath. So I just brought her to the sink and washed her hands and her arms up to her pit bones and called her clean.

One night while she was supposed to be going potty I went to check on her and smell a strange minty smell. She had squeezed an entire tube of toothpaste on the toilet seat, the floor and her arms and legs. She of course got a bath. Our bathroom smelled fresh for days.

Yesterday as we were finishing up lunch Pearl said she had to go potty. I sent her up while I finished cleaning up the kitchen. (Not sure why I ever let her go to the bathroom alone at this point.) A few minutes later she starts screaming crying. Come to find out she had smothered her feet in lotion and then smothered her plastic step stool in lotion. The very slippery combination had resulted in a fall thus the screaming I heard and yes she and the stool got another bath.

Here is a Rose story for good measure. This one is not really about any trouble she got into as she in not as bad about messes as Pearl, although I think her incident of calling 911 a few weeks ago equals several of Pearl's messes. Speaking of messes our playroom was a disaster, so messy that the girls wouldn't (more like couldn't) go down there to play. The other night after the girls went to bed and I was exhausted Mike went to work on straightening up the playroom. The next morning when Rose saw her nice clean playroom she says "Daddy did a very nice job on the playroom, but he didn't put the right outfits on the Barbies when he dressed them."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My little leprechauns.

Rose was wearing a kiss me I'm Irish sticker. I kissed her and told her she was Irish.
She says "I am not Irish!". I said "What are you then?". She says "I am Polish!".
Well she has a point since she is 50% Polish and only about 6% Irish!

Rosey goes to the dentist.

Rose had her first visit to the dentist today.
This picture is while she was waiting to get started. She was so excited.

Pearl observing her big sister.
(I was hoping she would pick up some of her big sister's bravery for when it is her turn.)

She was so good!

She picked cotton candy for her fluoride treatment however she said it tasted nasty.
Poor girl.

Proud of her beautiful smile.
P.S. Some of you know she was born with two teeth, no kidding! The nurse in the hospital discovered them. (Mike said she was ready for steak.) She still has those teeth, although they are a little smaller then her other teeth. They took x-rays and her permanent teeth are under them and they look fine. So that was good news.

Enjoying the Spring Weather!

The girls bedroom makeover!
(on a budget)

Pearl's dresser, with Sunny the fish. The yellow dressers are part of Rose's nursery furniture and were a gift from Mike's childhood Sunday School teachers, aka adopted parents. Although the crib matches the dresser I wanted to use them in the big girl's room and will get another dresser for the baby's room.
I love this dollhouse bookshelf. I had wanted one so bad when Rose was little. One day I walked into Big Lots and saw this bookshelf for $10 or $15 (can't remember exact price). It was just missing the dividers that made the bottom shelves into two spaces so it would look more like a house, but not essential for support.

The girls wanted to pose for these "sister" pictures as they called them.

More cute sister pics.

Rosey in her lavender room.

Pearl wanted me to take some pictures of her.

Pearl's name hangs over her bed. She broke the "L". I glued it back together.

The purse and necklace rack, we've had for awhile.
I got it at TJ Maxx for $5.

Rose's dresser with some of my porcelain dolls from when I was a girl.
I need a lamp shade. The other one melted last week. I really want to make a shade with lavender silk roses on it. I saw one at PB kids but it was like $50 for the shade.

The "R" and the "P" hanging above the bookshelf were painted by the girls.
I cut out some contact paper in the shape of their initial and suick it on white paper. The girls then painted the paper with watercolors. When it was dry I removed the contact paper and their initial stays white. The frames were only 1.99 each at Ikea. They were light colored wood so I let the girls paint them white. Not only did they enjoy being part of decorating their room it was a cheap project and turned out cute.

I got these letters a few months ago at Joann's for $1 a letter. I was glad they have short names. The fairy wall stickers (from Dollar Tree) are not something I really wanted to hang on the wall. Rose wanted something hanging above her bed that Daddy could tell her stories about at bedtime. Before we painted we had some very cute fairytale character wall stickers that Mike had made up many tales about. Dollar tree no longer had these stickers so I went with the fairies. I am getting used to them now.

I got these rose duvet covers at The Pottery Barn Kids Outlet. Rose's is a double and was only $12 and Pearl's is a twin and it was $10. Considering the original price was about $70 and $60 each I was proud of my bargain.

My little faker is not really sleeping but this is what she looks like when she is sleeping.

My snuggle bunny.
I still need to get some curtains (and a shade) but over all I am excited that their room is done and cute. I also have some purple rose photos that I took. (My Valentine flowers came in handy.) I need to print the photos and hang them on the wall by Pearl's bed. The girls like their "new" room and I do to since it is not to Disney princessy but still girly enough.
Next up picking a paint color for the baby's room.

I am now 26 1/2 weeks pregnant.
Only 90 some days to go...

Below is a picture of me at 18 weeks pregnant for comparison. (Taken in mid January)

18 weeks

26 weeks (Boy, I mean girl, have I popped!) It could be the baby growing or the fact that I gained 7#'s last month! Oops... actually I hadn't gained any weight at all until then so as long as I don't repeat that for the next three months I should be okay.

Pearl kissing me right on my belly button which has also popped! The girls seem to think my bellybutton is like the microphone to talk directly to their sister.

Comparing tummies. I think I have her beat now!

Rose is my in house tummy photographer.

More Dr. Seuss Fun!

Our local High school is putting on Seussical the Musical.
The weekend before the show they have a breakfast with the Characters.
Rose and Pearl enjoyed meeting the characters. We will be attending the show this weekend.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

The girls had fun celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. This morning they watched several Dr. Seuss movies on YOUTUBE. We made Cat in the Hat hats! We also read the Cat in the Hat and Oh the Places You'll Go. Here is a fun website with Dr. Seuss games and print-outs. Tonight before bed Rose made up a play and a sang a song about The Cat in the Hat story!