Dinner with the Erxlebens

I really wanted to go to IKEA on Saturday to get a new lounge chair for the playroom since we returned Topher's Pottery Barn Kids chair back to Emily. I searched all over the place and finally decided to get her a baby Poang since she loves the adult ones that we have.

Since we're about equi-distant from a couple of IKEAs, I decided to see if Lauren and Audrey wanted to meet us at the one in College Park, which they did. 

Of course, I can't go to IKEA and just get one thing, well, I can, but only if Tom is with me, hurrying me out of the store. After we found the chair, we decided to browse the children's toy section and wouldn't you know Stasa picked out a stuffed animal for herself, so I let her keep it, even though I wished it was a slightly less creepy stuffed animal. I also got a hammer toy and a giant stuffed alligator in a nightshirt that was eating it's baby.

Oh and her creepy animal? Yeah, a stuffed rat, who I now call Rat Baby or Rattie. She grabbed the one in grey.

And she lovingly held Rat Baby and patted its back the whole time we were in IKEA. While we were shopping, Dan called Lauren to let us know that Tom was going to drive up so we could all go out to dinner together. Our mens aren't the best of planners. Lauren and Dan live an hour away from us. Tom could have just driven with me to begin with, but no, he and Dan decided the minute Lauren and I left our houses that getting together was a fabulous idea, which it was. Just not the most efficient way to meet up. 

We went out to Carrabas for dinner and the girls were really well behaved the whole time even though it was getting pretty late. And Tom and I decided to hang out for a bit afterwards, which turned into a pretty late night for everyone. I wish we had planned ahead and brought overnight bags with us - driving home at 11:00 PM when you're an hour away is looooooong. But the girls had a blast and were definitely punch drunk. They ran around for hours, climbing up on the couch and then chasing the dog and then running into the office where the dads were. Lauren and I could not stop laughing at our two lunatics. And it made me really excited for our weekend at the lake in August. 

More playtime and the ZOO!

Stasa kept bringing me my jacket so I thought it would be fun to have her wear it. She ended up looking like Alvin, Simon and Theodore.



And she finally fit into the overalls that Theo Peter and Aunt Tiffany gave her. They're just too cute for words (the overalls, not Theo Peter, lol).



And look how old she looks here!



The only way to eat is stuffing your whole hand in your mouth, right?



El Zoo

Waiting for Audrey to arrive


She's here! Let's get this show on road!


Already passed out.


LUNCH: animal shaped chicken nuggets, of course.


Strollin' through

T.i.r.e.d.

We spent all day yesterday cleaning and reorganizing our utility/storage room and I'm happy with our newly organized space. I then spent the rest of the afternoon vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing and mopping our downstairs area. Now I just have 1 more closet to reorganize and I'll be DONE.

Before the cleaning frenzy started, Stas and I spent Saturday at the Annapolis Mall with Lauren, Audrey, Emily and Topher. I was worried for a minute that I would have to drive over a bridge to get there, but I lucked out. I really hate driving over bridges. I'm always afraid that I'll be blown off or if it's a drawbridge, I always think the mechanism is going to break and I'll fall in.

At least now the house is ready for the mamas and their toddlers. I'm so excited that everyone's coming to stay and play this weekend! Now I just need to finish planning the low-carb menu - have any suggestions?

Lu's First Birthday Party

Saturday morning Stasa and I packed up our overnight bags to head over to Lesli's house for Lu's birthday party and a slumber party. We (the moms) had a ton of fun and the kids LOVED playing with each other. It was especially cute seeing them "find" each other on Sunday morning. I took Lu's official 1 year pictures on Sunday, but haven't finished editing them yet.

Here are some pictures from Lu's party.


And a couple of videos that Lesli took.

Goofballs

As you can see, Stasa and Lu had a great time playing together. Lu makes the cutest "ooo" face and is quite the wrestler. I think you'll be seeing both of these diesels on WWE one day.

They do not like to share and fought over the same toys a lot, neither one wanted to give up the "crackberry."

Happy Halloween!

Stasa had a great first Halloween and even managed to get through 4 costumes. She was a ballerina on Friday while we visited Aunt Kelly and her mom, a bumblebee and bat on Saturday and a ladybug for our get-together on Sunday. She won't tolerate anything on her head, so it's a miracle that I managed to capture the antennae at all.

Here's our little bumblebee on Saturday morning

"Get this off of me!"

"Antennae are tasty."

Sometimes bumblebees get tired of flying and feel the need to crawl.

Boo! Our scary pumpkins, the monster, the crying baby and the drooling jack-o-lantern (you can't really see his drool in this picture).

Eee! Eee! It's our scary bat!

Sometimes bats get thirsty...

"Whatcha doin' there, Grandpops?"

We went over to Henry's house on Sunday for a Halloween get-together. This is the only picture I could get of all 3 babies. We had to keep piling toys on them to keep them in one place for more than a second.

"Yum, give me more, Audrey."

The pouty little ladybug

Costumed babies: Henry the monkey, Stasa the ladybug and Caroline the elephant

And here's our first ponytail. How cute is that?!

The Crab Feast

Stasa, Tom and I headed up near Columbia, MD on Saturday for a family get-together with our playdate friends. We had beer, crabs, slushies and tons of cake! Almost all of Stasa's friends were there...

...LuLu (she even dressed for the theme)...

...Caroline came down from Connecticut...

...Henry (the Digster) came in his Game Cock gear...

...and Audrey was a most generous hostess.

Stasa played with some of her new mommies. She kept trying to steal all of the Julia's attention every time Caroline was sitting with her.

She used Lesli as a jumgle gym to practice her gymnastics.

We stuck all of the babies in baby jail while we ate and drank our slushies. They got a little fiesty in there, so we tossed them some puffs and mum mums.

It was a feeding frenzy! Those kids don't play around when it comes to puffs.

Finally, we tried for the group photo. In theory it was a great idea - all of the girls in tutus and Henry in his bowtie. It did not go well. Henry tried to escape all of the tulle and the girls got so upset they toppled over.


Take 2: Stasa is done and crawls to freedom while everyone else breaks down. Look at Lu's pouty chin on the left.

A weekend of friends

Three little ladies, all dressed up.
Caroline, Audrey and Stasa


Not so happy with mama...she's looking at Julia to save her.
Audrey, Stasa and Caroline (Audrey's really enjoying that necklace!)


Happy 34 weeks, Stasa!


STANDING UNASSISTED!!!! She started this at 35 weeks exactly.