travels, nuptials, museums, and cuteness

We've been busy...

In August, we took our first overnight trip as a four-person family. We drove up north to celebrate my cousin Sarah's wedding.  We took advantage of the opportunity to see some dear old friends on our way north. It wasn't easy travelling with both kids, but they were mostly both pretty darned good.

It was a great trip. Sylvia had a great time with the family, and especially enjoyed meeting her new cousins. 

On the way back home, we stopped and visited with dad's sisters who live up north. My aunt Claire made us a beautiful breakfast, and Sylvia spent most of the visit chasing cats. And Hannah had some big smiles for everyone!  A few weeks later, my aunt Claire was in an Avon Walk for Breast Cancer that was in our neck of the woods. Here she is with Sylvia, both donning princess tiaras & wands:

We hadn't really caught up with things back home after our trip north before we were heading south for Max's sister's bridal shower. Hannah got to attend her first shower. She also got to meet her aunties, uncles, and cousins; Sylvia got to play with them!

And before we knew it, we were back again for the actual wedding. It was beautiful, and Sylvia was a flower girl!

Cousins!

While we were in San Diego, we made it to Balboa Park a few times.

Science Museum with Bert...

Carousel (twice).

San Diego Zoo with Ilana & Brynn. 

And we also went to Legoland

  We've had quiet enough going on at home, too.  Sylvia graduated from the toddler room at her school to the "preschool" classroom.  She was psyched to move to the bigger classroom, with the better playground equipment. Plus, she got a new lunchbox.

And she still goes to MyGym once a week, but now she's outgrown the Parent Participation classes.  She likes it when one of us stays and watches from the lobby, though.  She usually listens well and is pretty good at keeping up with the rules and tricks.  Usually.  But she always has a good time.

And she's finally getting the hang of pedaling! For the longest time, she just refused to do it, or always went backwards. But now she zooms ahead! It'd probably be getting her a proper bike (with training wheels) if we weren't moving soon.

 We try to get out a lot. We spend a lot of time at local playgrounds, but we also try to branch out. We found our way back to the pumpkin patch (see here), and Hannah got to wear Sylvia's old pumpkin costume. 

Last weekend we ventured out to the Sea Center. 

They have touch tanks with sharks and sea stars; a dark room full of jellyfish; a cave through an aquarium; a hole in the ground that goes straight to the ocean... Sylvia was adamantly against the touch tanks for a while, but she came around.

Even still, her favorite part was the puppets.

Hannah's a good sport through all of this. She's usually pretty happy being carried around in her ErgoBaby Carrier.

She comes with us to work 3 times a week, and otherwise has to tolerate us spending a lot of time working at home and entertaining her sister. In the beginning, she was a dream through all of it... we'd hold her a bit, but she'd mostly be happy in a swing or on a play mat. She gets more bored these days, and is more eager for interaction. She has a bouncer that she loves, but nothing makes her happier than having someone hold her and sing to her.  

She had her 4-month pediatrician check up last week, and she's generally doing great. The doctor says her umbilical hernia is fine and will heal on its own, and the doctor was totally happy with her height (50th percentile) and weight (80th percentile). She was also crazy impressed with how well she was sitting. She said that she's never seen a 4-month old sit so well, and she commented on how eager she is to play and keep active. The doctor didn't really believe me when I told her that she's been having long stretches of extreme fussiness.  Hannah had my back, though; she totally lost it for the doctor! It's a good thing, too, because it convinced the doctor to look for an infection, and now the poor kid is on antibiotics again.

But the girls really love each other, and they're really cute together.