First Haircut!

4 1/2 years later.....Claire got her first haircut! I don't know how so much time went by, but it literally took years for it to grow and we just never got around to cutting it. Actually I loved her long curls, but it was so difficult to comb through everyday and would always get tangled. I knew it was time for a summer "do."

We've been talking about it for a while and she never seemed to like the idea of cutting it....until I offered a lollipop! So I bribed her with one and got to work. (I figured I'd give it a try, how hard could it be? We can always go to the salon to "fix it"!!)

Before: (it always looks so much longer when it's wet)

Snip snip! I don't know why I am so emotional about that little lock of hair. I keep looking at it thinking about how she had that same hair when she was a baby.

I think she was expecting it to hurt and when she realized it didn't, she was all smiles!

After:

I think it turned out cute! It was wet in this picture, but she definitely still has some curls. It was a bit shorter than I had imagined, but I was having fun snipping away and had to stop myself before it was a total disaster!

Somehow the bribe of a lollipop turned into a lollipop AND a present and since I had a couple little trinkets around, she got 2 ponies to join her animals. She was really excited and asked if she could get another haircut tomorrow!

St. Patrick's Day & Maymont

St. Patrick's Day was this past weekend and that silly leprechaun played all kinds of tricks on Claire at preschool and at our house! He left her a couple messages around the house, turned her milk and bath green, and made a big mess on our kitchen table. We had fun searching around the house for his tricks! :-)

I attempted a St. Patrick's themed hairstyle.....it looked much better on Pinterest.

We had made plans to meet up with Alison, Matt, and Katie at Maymont and it was the most beautiful sunny day. Katie and Claire were adorable walking around holding hands and chatting about who knows what.







It really was the perfect day to spend outside. We had so much fun and especially want to enjoy our time with Katie now that they will be moving for Matt to attend PA school. Thanks guys for a fun day at Maymont!

4 months

The little man is 4 months now....1/3 of the way through the first year! We had his well visit today and he was 26 inches, 14lbs 6 oz. (2lb gain and 2 inch gain since the last appointment)

Topsy Turvy!

Last week at school was Topsy Turvy day. It was supposed to be Monday and I had totally hyped it up - we had even picked out the outfit the night before. I had no idea it was supposed to snow! Schools closed (even though the snow didn't even stick to the streets) and I had one very sad little girl! Anyway, it was postponed to Wed. and she was super excited. It was also a fun day because I got to come in and play "pictionary" with the kids. From what I heard Claire was even more excited about me coming in (MELT my heart.)

Here we are waiting in the carpool line. Claire is excited and bouncing around the van and Fielder is crying....typical morning. Those teachers must think all he does is cry (which is pretty much true in the car, if he's not asleep he's crying.)

Go Rams!

Fielder helped cheer on the VCU Rams last night as they won the CAA Championsip!!!

Hurricane Samara Jane

Let me just say, hat's off to all the parents of 3 or more....I don't know how you do it?! Last Thursday I babysat for Samara from 7 until Mom came to take over and then I left for work. I was pretty proud of myself - all 3 kids were fed, happy, and somewhat entertained!

Even though it was a crazy day, I loved having some time with Samara. Here are the girls dancing together. Claire was very sweet and helpful with her cousin.


I love this girl!! (She was having a very serious tea party)


I even managed to get outside for a walk and try out the double jogger. (I had Fielder in the Moby taking his nap.) Phew, that was HARD work! Luckily it was a beautiful day and the girls had fun kicking their feet, laughing, and "talking" with each other. Samara pointed out every single bird, dog, and cat saying "oh WOW!"

Meredith stopped by as my "reinforcement" for the lunch hour. I was worried about how I would get Fielder down for a nap and keep an eye on the girls. Thanks Mere! (Again, how do parents of 3+ do it??) Samara ate a good lunch and left a nice mess for Charlie to clean up later.

After lunch, it was time to switch off to Mom and I left for work. From what I heard, it was Fielder that caused all the trouble in the afternoon!

My dad likes to affectionately call Samara "Hurricane Samara Jane" - but that night, it was Claire that caused all the mess!! I accidentally let Claire keep 2 pieces of styrofoam in her room. (I just didn't realize she still had them.) By the morning they were completely shredded to bits and COVERED her entire room and she was spreading them all through the house. A crazy way to end a crazy day!

It's winter after all!

After all this springy weather, I have to admit that I was a party pooper and was not too excited about the idea of snow....but Sunday night it started snowing and it was beautiful! It didn't really start sticking until we were getting Claire ready for bed (had I known, I probably would have just let her stay up late and play outside). The next morning though, she came downstairs at 7 on the dot and we were out the door by 7:15! Daddy stayed inside with Fielder and luckily he slept until 8 so it worked out perfectly. Claire was so excited....if only I were a bit more prepared. Neither of us had appropriate snow gear. She is wearing the SAME COAT as she did in 2009....seriously!! That is really sad. We did have a larger coat (that is still too small) but she insisted on the blue one. Her snow pants are too short, her boots too small, and no real snow gloves, but we made do and went out to play anyway!


Pretty soon there were kids on our street out sledding. Of course, she doesn't have a sled (if I didn't even have boots and clothes for her, do you really think I would have a sled?!) but one of the little girls let her take a few rides. It was so cute and very sweet of the friend! I wasn't sure how she would feel about going so fast, but she LOVED it!

I didn't want to hijack her sled the whole time so I had a brilliant idea of finding something that might work....like the top to our ladybug sandbox. I swear, one day Claire is going to look back at this and be like "MOM. Seriously? You couldn't have bought me a $5 plastic sled? That is so embarrassing."

(It didn't really work by the way.)

I promise, I am going to the store and buying this girl some snow gear ASAP.


The weather has warmed up and most of the snow has melted, but the advantage to having such a shady yard is that we still have snow! Today while Fielder was napping inside, I let Claire play out on the deck. This was both a really lazy and really great idea! Claire had fun, Fielder napped, and mommy could enjoy her lunch while watching Claire out the window :-) Win-win.

Ok, that was fun....now bring on SPRING! :-)