A CASTLE

Our hotel is one of the orignal buildings in Charleston and it looked a lot like a Castle, which is what Ana referred to it as all weekend.
But of course, what else for our 2 princesses

Checking Out the Sites of Charleston, SC

Ana's big plan: both girls should wear their new sunglassed on their heads. Taylor did better at this than the plan maker herself

Check out the new side by side... Thank you Nani & Gagi. These 2 musketeers are hilarious sitting next 2 each other. Taylor thinks she has died and gone to heaven and Ana is learning the skills of self control..... quicker than she prefers :)

Charleston Girls

Horse and Carraige City Historical Tour

Taylor had to sit this one out. It was on our first night, after the long drive, and she just needed her bed!!!!

Playing the the Fountains

Dolphin Spoting

We ate lunch at this great seaside restaurant (the only one in Charleston) and was surprised by a group of dolphins playing happily right in front of the pier we were eating on.

Hide and Go seek

Among Ana's list of favorite past times. She was in hide and go seek heaven in the hotel with Nani and Gagi playing with her.

The Girls 1st Sleepover

This was back in March on our last trip home.


I was a little reluctant, as always, to let them go of them ALL NIGHT.

BUT... pair 9 months of no sleep with trusted family that the girls ADORE, and it was easier than I thought.


Here is Ana playing with
her best bud cousin, Maia


And Taylor at 3:00 AM...
PARTY GIRL

Nashville, TN- Music City

Our supposed new home to be..... don't change your address books yet, as nothing is ever firm until the moving trucks are in our driveway, but eventually we'll be in Nashville. Sooner than later I'm afriad (we're being told late summer)

So, a few weekends ago we decided to take a quick road trip to check out the music city for ourselves. It turned out to be quite an eventful day...
(1) Taylor gets car sick- let's just say she is now forward facing..forget 12 mo.
(2) It was SNOWING. YES. SNOWING that's right
(3) We had no plan, no map and no directions... GHETTO HERE WE COME

But... we did find a nice park outside Vanderbilt Univ (my hopeful new PhD home)- Centennial Park. The girls had fun despite the odds of the day.


Ana exploring the train exhibit at Centennial Park


Poor sick Taylor, enjoying a nice push from her sister through the park


Ana and Mommy bird watching along the River in Centennial park- downtown Nashville.

"I'm going to work in an acquarium"

Proclaimed Ana at dinner tonight.

We were sitting at dinner, I multi tasking feeding Taylor and talking to Daddy on the phone (he's in Boston for the week on a training trip), Ana quietly pondering away while eating her cheeseburger and beets, when out of the blue Ana looks at me and states, clear as day, "I'm going to work in an acquarium"!

Amazing little brain she has. Everyday something new amazes me.

So, for the childhood record, Ana's first career aspiration is to work in an aquarium.

Play Dough

This is a special activity that we save for babysitters or REALLY LONG AND BORING weeks. This week was one of those.

Here is Ana happily creating away. I think she is making an acquarium in this picture.

Science Project #1

Planting seeds



We go into our "greenhouse" every morning and spray water the dirt, watching the sprouts grow. She's quite amazed at the process.

Sister couch talk... bonding at it's best

Look at all my TEETH

8 in all....

So SICK

But still happy and playing (who would've thought with her rough beginning)

The Little Gardner & Her Supervisor Looking Down

Ana's new do

We finally bit the bullet and took Ana to one of those fancy shmancy kid hair cut places. She did great (what toddler wouldn't for a lollipop), and now it's all growing in evenly. Such a big girl.

Mini Cooper

Ana's new ride... (just like Gagi)
(It even comes with it's live in roadside assistant... Taylor)

And Taylor gets to try (the best feature = a parent remote control)

Stairs, stairs, BEWARE

I'm a little behind in my posting, but little Taylor is full of new tricks. One of the scariest is climbing up the stairs like her big sister...
Ana loves teaching Taylor how to learn new things, especially climbing!!!!! Here the girls are about a month ago.

(the other day I looked away from Taylor for less than a minute to talk to Ana & when I turned there was no Taylor... in less then a minute she had climbed all the way up to our platform and was looking down at us with a grin...sorry, no pictures it was camera or Taylor- I chose Taylor!!!)

Enjoying Spring

Spring is GREAT. I new I always loved it, but here it's even better. We get out every day and play hard. Now that Taylor is older she gets to join in the fun too

Here is Ana, Taylor and there buddy, Carson, playing in our backyard. Looking at these makes me realize how private and beautiful our backyard really is. SUCH FUN!

Happy Easter- 2007

This Easter we have a lot to rejoice and be happy for: a great supportive family, 2 healthy and vibrant girls and all the friends anyone could ever dream of.

A few of those friends made the trip over from Jacksonville, FL to celebrate with us. The kids
"painted" eggs, had a little hunt and played hard. The weather was COLD here, so we made do.

Ana had a big talk about Baby Jesus and told us that she was going to dream about him on Easter Eve and then she would "celebrate Baby Jesus's special day with the Easter Bunny tomorrow" I thought that was a pretty good into. into what Easter really is.

We also started a count your blessings tradition, where we all- kids included- talk about what we feel blessed for, and add it to our new jar- Thank you Teplins.

Ana sings Oh Susana

Thanks to Laurie Berkner and co-singer "Brian" has has become a star. Here she is practicing for her debut show... perhaps it will be in Nashville???????

Dishwasher Tablets are non toxic

In case you were wondering. Dear Ana tested that out for us. Other than massive vommiting, with an ice cream cure, no harm is had of eating a handy dandy tablet of Sun Light 3 in 1 tablet :)

Now she can be found putting anything and everything in her mouth only to tell me that, "mommy this ___ isn't food. It makes me sick. I'll have some ice cream now." Little stinker!

Oh, and she also has pink eye.