day 86: Paul is turning out to be quite the ham in front of a crowd. He loves to make people laugh and he put on quite the show at our Sunday brunch playing tug-o-war with his Aunt Tai.

day 85: probably my favorite of Paul and Amelia’s new “tricks” is one taught to them by my mom – they now actually literally stop and smell flowers. So stinkin’ cute. They wrinkle up their noses and take a big inhale sniff… and then giggle. I love it!

day 84: on Friday Ben’s parents arrived and spent most of the day hanging out with me and the kids. It’s nice for them to get some quality time with their grandparents since they don’t see them very often. Of course reading books was high on the list of “must do” activities

day 83: I’m sorry you have to see this photo. Quick close your eyes and maybe you can scroll down past it. I realized only after I’d woken up the next morning that this was the only picture I’d taken all day and that it wasn’t quite the kind of thing you’d be hoping to see on the blog. Poor Amelia (and Paul actually has a similar although slightly less red one) has this horrible rash under her arm. I was taking a picture to send to a friend to see if she could identify it.

day 82: inspired by Alton Brown on Good Eats I tried out a new cookie recipe. Can you guess the secret ingredient? They really are delicious

day 81: Paul is officially tall enough to not only reach things on the dining room table, but to see everything up there too. Yes, if he is standing up tall the table is below his eye level. So much for just keeping things off the floor – now the table is off limits for non baby friendly items as well. Next he’ll be able to see and reach everything on the kitchen counter and then we’re in real trouble.

day 80: today was another exhausting day. Mostly just because I’m starting to feel like I’m getting a cold again – which CANNOT be happening because we JUST finished getting both of the kids over their month long cold/virus/flu/whatever they had and they are NOT allowed to be sick again. Lucky for me I have the best husband ever and he made me a delicious pizza for dinner with no complaints. Actually he pretty much always makes dinner (what a guy!) but normally I at least pretend to sort of help. I made no effort today. Just sat around like a slug. I was entirely wiped out! Tomorrow I’ll help with dinner. Promise.

day 79: Sunday was a busy day. We went to the park in the morning and in the afternoon we went to meet up with some friends and see their new apartment and grab dinner. The whole weekend was actually quite action-packed. I need a vacation to recover from my weekend 🙂 Here’s the lovely ‘melia on the swings.

day 78: today while Ben and I got help preparing our taxes (so fun, right?) the babies got a special visit from grandma and grandpa to keep them entertained. Paul and grandpa invented a great new game – some sort of dangled by the armpits soccer which was apparently HILARIOUS and Paul’s new favorite thing ever.

day 77: whew!! All caught up. Let’s just hope I can stay that way 🙂 This morning the kids and I met up with my friend Christina and her girls at the beach. Such a GORGEOUS day out. I think this is my new favorite picture of Amelia. I love the expression on her face and I love all the pink – especially the rosy cast on her cheeks from the umbrella. It makes me smile