Sunday at the park

Ruby shows you how to tie your shoe

Michigan 2014

Beatrice loves Eli

Beatrice has quite the crush on her friend, Eli. Today she made her feelings public.

Regular evening in the backyard

Beatrice and the matching game

Beatrice and Emilia recently played "memory," the card matching game.  Bea took her sweet time.  And dominated.

Ruby's 5th birthday interview

For the past two birthdays, we've interviewed Ruby using the same series of questions. Her fifth birthday is below, and her fourth can be seen here.

Sisters' shared bedroom

On Christmas Eve, with the kids out of the house, Emilia, Aunt Lo, Uncle Jacob, and I worked our butts off to transform Ruby's room into a shared bedroom for both Rubes and Beatrice. They had talked about wanting to do this for a while, and with Beatrice transitioning out of a crib, it was the perfect time. We filmed their reaction.

Beatrice the Ballerina, Part 2

This morning was observation day for Beatrice's creative dance class. Luckily, David (the photographer of the family) was able to attend and took some beautiful shots of our girl. Prepare for a lot of pink.

San Antonio!

From a  Halloween trip to San Antonio. Happy children. 

Beatrice Lolly

Happy child. 

Throwback Wednesday (whatever)

Ruby, back when she was on the carb-loading diet apparently. 

Guy's Night

David, Uncle Jake, and Tio Chuy had a guy's night last week. While I was finishing up bath, Ruby started asking questions about what their evening would entail and then WENT OFF. I grabbed my phone to record some of it and sent it to the boys. 

And this was their response back to her:

This girl cracks me up. So do her daddy and uncle. 

A day in piggies

Results in this wonderful look for Beatrice:

This girl can make some silly faces

My children

Prima Ballerina

Beatrice had her first every dance class today. She did amazingly well, especially for her first time to do anything without me, David, or Ruby at her side. Here are a few shots of her in her pretty pink tutu, ready to take dance class by storm.

Finally, here's Beatrice showing off her skills a few nights ago:

Just in time for football season ...

Beatrice perfects the hook'em. 

A Day with Bebe

Beatrice and I spent the morning together, just the two of us.  It's rare that we have much time alone these days, as I nanny an eight month old, and Ruby only has school two mornings a week.  But today was special, as Ruby is in Houston and I didn't have to take care of Evelyn. I asked Bebe what she wanted to do today and she replied, "read books and eat lunch." Not very fancy requests, but ones I was happy to fulfill.

Beatrice and I stayed in our pj's until almost 10am, doing puzzles, reading books, and practicing letters on the Ipad. Then, we went to a few thrift and antique stores on Burnet Road, taking our time going up and down the aisles and looking for treasures. We picked up lunch from Upper Crust Bakery and made our way to Mayfield Park for a picnic. 

I have probably been to Mayfield Park about a dozen times since moving to Austin 13 years ago. When Ruby was little, it was one of my favorite spots to take a picnic, read some books, and explore the grounds. In fact, one of my top five favorite pictures of Ruby was taken at Mayfield when I was pregnant with Beatrice (see the awesome picture here). But today, there were signs everywhere that we were not allowed on the grass, and our picnic was cut short by a very aggressive peacock who would not leave us alone. Luckily, I was able to get some sweet pictures of my almost two year old before we left. 

Ten on Tuesday!

1. I need to be better about documenting our lives on the blog again, hence this post tonight. David pointed out that we used to post so much when Ruby was little, documenting the tiniest details about her life and celebrating each milestone. I don't think I'll be able to keep up with the blog like I did when it was just Ruby (I had THIRTEEN posts for her the month before her 2nd birthday), but I can at least attempt to get an occasional post in about the girls. And I love any excuse to post cute pictures of my ladies.

2. My favorite time of day with the girls right now is the first moment that they are both awake. Beatrice usually wakes up first, and we hang out in her room until Ruby is up too. As soon as Bebe hears Ruby's door open, her body starts to shake with excitement, she runs to the hallway and whispers "Ruby awake, Momma. It Ruby! It Ruby!" Then, they meet in the hallway and hug. I need to record the interaction so that I can replay it for them in ten years.

3. I recently took the girls down to the Capitol to witness history being made on the Senate floor. State Senator Wendy Davis was attempting to filibuster a bill that would greatly limit the rights of women in Texas. I obviously didn't explain the women's rights issues to the girls in great detail. I simply told them that we were going to support Senator Davis because we agree that women should be able to make choices for their own bodies. I felt that keeping it as simple as possible would limit the questions I'd get from Ruby, but also help her to understand why I felt it was important that we go witness the filibuster. We only spent a few moments in the gallery, as it was very crowded and we had to be home before bedtime. I hope, however, that this is just the beginning of showing the girls how important it is to be a part of the political process and defending their rights.
 

4. Beatrice continues to ask regularly for Stella. It makes me a little sad, but it also makes me so happy. I love that Stella was such an important part of the first 22 months of her life and that she misses her furry friend.

5. Beatrice was examining me the other day with her doctor's kit and a flashlight. She kept shining the light in my mouth and telling me to "open my mouse." It was too sweet, I couldn't bring myself to correct her.

6. Beatrice Lolly will be two at the end of the month. I love this age so much, because she is starting to be more of a big kid, but she still has baby moments where she needs her momma. Here she is, enjoying a baby moment, passed out at the beach for naptime.




7. Fridays are my favorite day of the week. I have the girls to myself, and we have established a pretty fabulous routine. We usually meet Henry and Aunt Lo at Deep Eddy Pool (where Ruby is now swimming on her own thanks to a week of swimming lessons!) and then head to P. Terry's for cheeseburgers. It's a pretty perfect Austin day, and are lucky enough to do it once a week.





8. Dress up has become a favorite for both girls in the last month. I think part of its revival is due to the necessary escape from the summer heat. I also think Ruby likes helping Beatrice create fancy ensembles to model for me.



9. Our spotify playlist has a lovely mix right now of songs from the Brave soundtrack, Scissor Sisters, Bob Schneider, Miley Cyrus, Willy Wonka, and The Princess and the Frog. Afternoon dance parties are also an excellent way to beat the heat.

10. We spent a week in July in Branson with my parents. It was a great vacation, and I already shared a ton of photos on Facebook, but I'm sharing this one again. It's my new favorite picture of my three favorite people. I printed it this week and plan to frame it by my bed.