Baby Shower for the Wells Family

Today we hosted a baby shower for the Wells Family. To kick things off, Laura and Ethan took a spin on the tractor before coming inside for the festivities.

Mary Kate woke up from her nap shortly after the party started and Laura helped her play with farm animals.

After brunch, Ethan and Laura helped Michele and Mike cut and serve the carrot cake that Mom made. They were so excited...since they had spent the last hour asking "When are we having cake?"

After cake, the Wells family opened presents. Baby Wells and soon to be big sister Laura got lots of nice books.

Then everyone headed outside to enjoy the beautiful 80 degree weather. Here's Mary Kate doing her new favorite thing...pushing the walker on the grass.

And she also loves to climb in and out of the kid-sized lawn chairs!

Mary Kate Has a New Pair of Shoes

After our swimming lessons, Mary Kate took a three hour morning nap! She was worn out. After nap, we had lunch and went shopping for her first pair of shoes.

First, she checked out the selection. She liked the purple and pink ones a lot, but they didn't fit very well.

Then we found the perfect pair. A stylish pair of white and red sandals with a flower.

She took a cool trike for a spin after both sandals were on.

Then she took the new sandals for a spin with Daddy.

A fabulous morning at the pool

Today our entire family hit the pool for swimming lessons!

Mary Kate enjoyed her first Waterbabies class with mom, and Ethan participated in his first "big boy" lesson (called Beginner 1) all by himself in the pool (with Dad seated nearby). Everyone had a marvelous time. The pool is heated to about 90 degrees, so it's very nice for swimming.

Here's Ethan during his lesson (the redhead in the foreground). He was a very good listener and did a great job following the instructor.

And here's Mary Kate working on her front float. She's quite a good kicker!

Ethan kicked back and relaxed after his lesson.

The great chair climber and sock remover

Mary Kate is quite an accomplished climber. She started trying to climb things just a couple weeks after she started crawling, back in January. So, over the past four months, she has perfected her clamboring skills into something of an art form. And we have to admit, she has fabulous balance for an 11 month old.

Her favorite thing to climb on, up, over, around and under are the kids' chairs in the family room.

Here she is performing her signature move, the arm to arm suspension bridge climb (note her graceful form and nice height over the arms of the chairs).

She takes a quick breather to contemplate the ceiling and stretch out after that difficult climb. Note that she has removed a sock between completing her climb and settling in for a rest.

She is holding said removed sock in her left hand while reclining...then she realizes one sock is still on and quickly moves to free the captive piggies on the other foot.

Success. Both socks removed!! "Mom...what are these things for, anyway?"

"Really, Mom...the only thing these socks are good for is alleviating teething discomfort. So you can keep putting them on my feet if you want, but I am going to take them off and eat them every chance I get!"

"I think I'll keep chewing this one for a while while I check out my rocking dinosaur. "

A Cup and Cone adventure

Today was a very important day for the Grilz family. It was our first visit to the Cup and Cone in 2007. Mary Kate enjoyed her first baby ice cream cone. Here she is in line with Daddy.

This was also Ethan's first trip to the C&C as a cash-carrying customer. He has a significant ice cream money fund built up from over the long winter, thanks to lots of grandparents who see fit to send ice cream money with most holiday cards. Here's E keeping a close eye on his currency (safely tucked into a very stylish green coin holder that he got in his goody bag at his friend Millie's birthday party).

Finally, it was our turn. Ethan ordered his cone by saying "a kid size chocolate cone in a cup with sprinkles, please," paid for it, and said "thank you" when given his change. A very proud moment in his life, indeed!

Placing his order...

A kid size cone will set you back a buck these days...

Anxiously awaiting arrival of the cone...

And worth every penny...

Mary Kate loved her cone...after she got used to the cold.

A pre-cone family photo...

The first chilly taste..

Followed by a huge bite!

Oh yeah...this is definitely good stuff...


And to conclude...Ethan and Mary Kate share a laugh together...

Reading together

Ethan has discovered the joys of reading to his baby sister. He likes to arrange their chairs together and read book after book to her.

And when she's had enough, she just climbs out of her chair!

Happy Easter!

Mary Kate's first Easter celebration was fantastic. At first, she was more interested in Ethan's basket.

Then Ethan helped her check out her own basket. She wasnt' quite sure what to think of the stringy grass stuff.

She really liked her new book.

But then, she caught a glimpse of Ethan's chocolate bunny and decided to go for it!

After that, Ethan instructed her in the finer points of tossing Easter grass in the air. Notice that she still has a hold of the chocolate bunny.

After church, Ethan got to eat a piece of his bunny.

Then Grandpa Grilz and Grandma Brenda came over for Easter dinner. Here's the best picture of the four of us that we got. Holding still and smiling at the camera all at the same time is not one of our strengths!

Here we are with Grandpa and Grandma.

Egg Hunt!

Today our friends the Wells family came over for an egg hunt. We had originally planned it for outdoors, but the consensus was to move the festivities indoors. Ethan and Laura followed the clues and found eggs filled with goodies all over the house.

Here they are, baskets ready, discussing their search strategy prior to the first clue.


Once the hunt began, these two moved too fast for us to catch anything but blurry pictures!

After all the eggs were found, Ethan and Laura retired to the couch to comb through their treasures.


Ethan needed a major scrubbing in the tub after supper. He was one sticky guy. Note: hairstyling by Mom. This is a classic "faux hawk" that is now all the rage. It's a sophisticated, understated mohawk.

Spring...Indoors, Anyway!

Dad had today off, so we decided if we can't enjoy some spring weather outdoors (due to the continued Arctic blast), we'd take a trip to the Como Park Conservatory to enjoy spring indoors.

The hydrangeas were gorgeous.

Mary Kate's new favorite thing is to be upside down. She took in the sights around the conservatory from this angle.

Cruising...Toddlerhood, Here We Come!!

We are experiencing a last (we hope) blast of winter here this week. Today was very cold and windy with a high of only 29 degrees. We have snow on the ground, covered with a lovely layer of ice. So we did lots of laundry and Mary Kate worked on her standing and walking skills.

First, she helped fold some laundry.

Then she cruised along the strategically placed furniture.

Followed by a walk around the family room...only needing to hold on to one of Daddy's hands today. He had to hustle to keep up!

And here she is standing all by herself. Hooray!!