Opening Day: Then, Then & Now!

My have I changed over the last three years!

2007 .....................2008....................2009

Opening Day - 2009

Well, the Indians started their season again and this year I had a baby brother to share Opening Day with! We also went to visit the Easter bunny, but as I stood there watching the other kids sit on his lap, I thought, "who in their right mind would sit on an over-sized bunny's lap without crying!?" So, I did just that... cried and cried and Ben had his picture taken without me. I know Ben will join the dark side with me next year when he's old enough to realize how creepy that bunny is!

So, instead of a cutesy picture of me and Ben on the Easter bunny's lap, I'll leave you with these feel-good pictures of the two of us. You can really see how much we look alike here!

Black & White

Here are some black and white pictures my Mommy took of me. I love to be silly and make all sorts of funny faces!!

Having a Playmate!

Well, it's still mostly one-sided, but it sure is nice to have another little body to have around! Here, I've set up a picnic for Ben and I (and if you can tell by the look on his face, he's not buying into it). My Mommy gave me real marshmallows and we pretended to have hot chocolate! Mmmm!

Sleeping Beauty

After a great trip and not much sleep, I finally did sleep in the car! My Mommy still gets choked up when she sees me sleeping. She says it reminds her of when I was a little, little baby and always slept on her.

My first sleepover!

Well, I have to admit up front that it was a bust. It had potential though! Me and my cousins were going to all sleep in new sleeping bags Mimi and Poppy got for us in Mimi and Poppy's room. It started out great, but ended with me winding up in Mommy and Daddy's bed for the night because we just didn't want to go to sleep. It was around midnight that I finally did fall asleep that night! Maybe next time?

Started the night with pizza, a movie and ice cream sundaes!

A little jumping on Mimi and Poppy's bed to wear us out? Not a chance it did the job!

Even though we didn't get to spend the night with each other, at least we got to play together first thing the next morning:

Hangin' with my cousins

I got to spend some time with my cousins, too. I have so much fun with them!! Lauren and I are so much alike - we are both very girlie.

Here I am with Lauren:

They have this huge horse you can ride on and it even talks and moves it's head!! It actually kind of freaked me out!

Being silly at my cousins' house:

Cooking at Mimi & Poppy's

My Mommy and I did lots of baking and some cooking while we were there. I'm a great helper in the kitchen, as you can see!

Fun in Virginia!

Me, Ben, my Mommy and Mimi drove to Virginia in March. My Daddy flew out at the end of the week to drive back to Ohio with us. We had great road trips both ways and an even better visit!! It was Ben's first time there and his first time in the car for a long drive. He did really great! The weather was beautiful there!

I love Mimi and Poppy's sandbox - it's so big!

Posing by a tree in their backyard:

Budding Artist

I did this back in March, at about 29 months. It was one of my first smiley faces - I even gave him hair and ears! It's the blue one in the upper left corner. Everyone thinks it is pretty good for my age!!

Word

This one is for my homies

Princess Tea Parties

Tied for first with being a doctor, I also love, love, LOVE being a princess! Of course, Mommy and Daddy tell me I don't need to dress up to be a princess - I just am I guess. But, it's more fun to put the clothes on. One thing I adore is having tea parties when I'm dressed up as a princess. Sometimes I get fun snacks during my tea parties, too. Like popcorn, or goldfish crackers or marshmallows. I serve my little stuffed buddies, make sure they're taking sips of their tea and will even feed them and wipe their faces. A princess always remembers her manners, right?

Making sure my guests are well served and taken care of, as a good hostess does:

All served up!

Dr. Haleigh

One of my most favorite things during my entire childhood so far has been pretending to be a Doctor! I like to do this several times a week and even almost daily I'm helping care for one of my sick or injured stuffed animals. Even the slightest dent in fur or seam is enough for me to break out the band aids and stethescope for my little patients. Now that I have a brother, it's even fun making sure he's feeling good, although now that he's a bit older, he wants to grab my Doctor toys so he's not too much fun anymore. Here I am working my magic on my patients.

First: you must make sure their bottom is clean - check out my skills... doing it just like Mommy and Daddy do it on Ben:

Next: Nose-to-nose, my nose looks good and so does Cherry Bears:

Do not forget: this is very important - you must make sure their head pressure is normal!

It appears there was something wrong with the patient so I had to administer medication - you must make sure to open their mouth as wide as possible:

My Bike!

I'm still not very skilled at riding my bike, but mostly that's because I'm so short. I can hardly reach the pedals which becomes a problem when trying to push them forward to get going. I still like trying it out for a few minutes here and there. This was my first time on it this season - back when it was still pretty chilly out!

More Indoor Activities

My Mommy had to come up with lots of stuff for us to do inside this year because we couldn't take my baby brother out of the house too much. Here I am picking up beads with tweezers and sorting them out. I also got to glue them and make cool designs out of them. She said this was helping with my fine motor skills - whatever that means!!

And the weather is getting better...

I can't wait for summer to get here because that means I don't have to bundle up in my coat and can go to the playground several times a week! I'm looking like such a big girl here...

That's better...

OK, this is a MUCH better picture. I'm looking like my usual happy self here!

Just me again...

This is just another picture that my Mommy likes. I'm really not sure why because I don't look like a very happy girl in it!

Safety First!

Of course, you can't ride your bike without a helmet on... even if it is on soft carpeting!

Finger painting

Winter is good for all sorts of indoor activities. One of my favorites is finger painting. I love getting messy and feeling the goo between my fingers. My Mommy even let me finger paint on our sliding glass door. That was really fun!!

Garden Time!

This has become my favorite activity when my Daddy gets home from work. We check on the garden every day together. It's kind of "our thing". Here we are planting the seeds for the garden. We planted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, snap peas, green beans, green peppers, basil, carrots and jalepeno peppers. The best part is, I'm eating all of these vegetables fresh from the garden, when I wouldn't even eat them before! Yum!!

Definite Perks

So, there are definite perks to having a little baby that is learning new things in the house. My Mommy and Daddy have brought out lots of new toys for him to play with and I've been really enjoying my time playing with his things. He is so considerate to share with me. When he's crawling around getting into my things in a few months, I'll have to remember this! Hmmm... what are the chances???