Loving all this playtime!

We have been having so much fun over here lately!  (and I mean that in all honesty, there wasn't any sarcasm intended in that statement).  Every day A becomes more independent and more interested in what J is doing, and trying to catch up to her big brother.  She is walking more and more.  And by the time today rolled around, she was walking about 50% of the time.  It won't be long until she's running with J.

pretending to sleep during breakfast

Monday we had a play date out at "Tot Town" with our neighbors as well as the Mom's group I joined.  After that it was just some hard playing at home.  And no day is complete lately, without J attempting to ride Gunnar at least once (I am so thankful he is such a patient dog)

I worked Tuesday and Wednesday this week to allow for A's first birthday pictures on Thursday (I can't wait to see how they turned out!!!).  That night we met up with Papa and Grandma Suzanne for dinner with my Nana and Papa too.  Friday afternoon Papa and Grandma Suzanne came over to visit a little before heading north for the weekend.  J slept through their visit, but A was soaking up the attention.

Later that evening, the kids discovered that the tent has a side entrance, and they finally made it into the abyss that is the area behind the couch.  Back there they found some of the old baby toys, like the baby-gym.  Wouldn't you know that thing kept these two kids occupied and entertained for 45 minutes!

Saturday morning, J came down the stairs wearing two of my socks…they eventually made their way to his hands as gloves as well.

We enjoyed some family time during breakfast before hitting the floor to play hard with the tent and tunnel.  I was slightly surprised that A took to it so well, considering it took J a good 6 months before he would even consider crawling through it.  She just followed her brother in without looking back.  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised though, she's freaking fearless.

While A napped, J "helped" me fold the (I'm embarrassed to admit) 3+ weeks worth of clean clothes that have been piling up.  And by "help", I mean he sat in one of the laundry baskets of clean clothes and drank his water, occasionally handing me an article of clothing to fold…provided he wasn't sitting directly on top of it.

After lunch, we got a brief rain shower and took the kids outside to play in it.  The picture below is the exact moment J realized his shorts were soaked through…but right before he started splashing in the "puddle" he sat in.

After we got J dried off and into new clothes, I sent them on over to Grandma's so that I could have some uninterrupted time to clean my much neglected house.  I managed to get the bulk of the downstairs looking semi-respectable in the 2/3 hours I had.  Unfortunately, while at mom's, J and a not so pleasant encounter with one of Uncle Allen's cats.  He's fine, and seems completely unfazed by the encounter, he's just left with a bunch of nasty looking scratches.  We are just so grateful that the cat missed his eye….

Today we took a trip to the grocery store, where J managed to take 120 selfies of himself on my phone

Then it was home for A's first nap and lots of play time.  After she woke up they were back in the tunnel and the tent for the bulk of the day.

though they did "help" me make the bed up in the guest room...

That's it for this week folks.  I'll leave you with a little clip of A's impersonation of a drunkard walking home.