Totally (but not yet terribly) two

I just don't even know what to say. Look at those eyes. The curls. That sweet, sweet little girl...

She's wonderfully loving, fiercely independent. She's feisty yet sensitive. She silly and serious...and sometimes, esp. when she pretends to fall asleep (even mid-bite), she's seriously silly.

She speaks English and Spanish. She's a dancer. She's a runner. And boy oh boy she's a screamer. She's practically potty trained -- yee ha!


She loves her thumb. And her silky "la la" blanket. She loves her "Tru-ee" (Truman). She adores -- she idolizes -- her Lily.

She's her own little person. She's wonderfully Anna. She's also my baby, for which I'm so grateful. It's hard to remember our family without her in it.

Saturday she turned two. And yesterday we celebrated. Family. Friends. Lots of friends. Together we cheered for our dear, sweet Anna.

It's still hard to believe that it's been two years... Happy birthday Anna Lake!!

We had a major Yo Gabba Gabba party, complete with DJ Lance Rock (you know, the tall white Jewish version!)

The very handsome Will (aka Willie), beau #1 from school.

Lauren sporting her Foofa headband -- you too can get your own if you go see Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

Beau #2 from school (one for each arm!), Ryan

I swear we didn't plan on having a very yellow day...

MY birthday buddy -- 35 years later!

If Peter and Anna married...holy blue eyed babies!

Will 1, Cupcake 0

She may be little, but boy can Claire-bear party!!

Brobee headbands -- thanks Aunt Sara!!

There's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy...

Our sweet Caroline -- next one in line to turn two!

Three of the six GWU MBA "babies"...

Under roof

It's hard to believe that just a few short weeks ago there was just a slab of cement on our lot. Now we have a house.

With windows! LOTS. OF. WINDOWS.

And Tyvek.

And duct work (although decidedly less exciting than those pretty red windows)!!

Coming soon -- doors and wiring and plumbing. Yee-ha!

Look, it's the Passover bunny!!

I know, I know, I know... What can I say, but I'm a sucker for certain holidays. Not the religious side of them. But the traditions. And Easter is one of those that I just can't pass up. So we celebrated it. Twice.

First with our neighbors on Saturday, when the weather was supposed to be nice...

At not quite two, Anna has a serious chocolate addiction. Perhaps that's why potty training is going so darn well...

Although she still hates group photos. Darn baby!

Lily, on the other hand, accepts brides quite nicely!

And then with our cousins on Sunday, when the weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Can you believe I have a child with such (relatively) straight hair? I'm hoping that her curls will come back, as did mine, when she hits puberty.

Yes, my diet started today. Seriously.

Attempting to take a nice cousins photo (we were sad to miss you in the photo, Miranda!) until I realized...

...that little Anna was picking her nose while sucking her thumb!

And then the rest of the group figured it out too...big Anna (the bride to be) tried to prevent little Anna from doing something G.R.O.S.S.! The attempt was largely in vain.

That devil baby...!!

Spring has sprung!

Although in reading this blog lately one might think that "Life with Lily and Anna" is all about the new house, that just 'aint so. Life with Noah, on the other hand, does revolve around the house. He is taking on the herculean task of building out the basement. By himself. At night and on the weekends. He single handedly has to try to keep up with the work crew of close to a dozen upstairs. Suffice it to say, I was on my own this weekend.

And since my life sometimes feels like a zoo...today the girls and I went to one. And while the Nation's Capitol has one of the best zoos in the country -- and it's FREE! and we're MEMBERS! -- we chose to go to a little petting zoo in the burbs, the Reston Zoo. Because, you know, I so love to pay for activities when we could get them for free...

Anna was not at all interested in a group photo...

She was much happier watching the spider monkeys...from afar.

Highlight for her -- when they went down to get a drink.

Anna wasn't super excited about getting up close and personal with the animals. Lily, on the other hand, couldn't get enough. In the car ride home she had a hard time choosing her favorite animal -- was it the baby pot bellied pig? or the baby goats? or the baby sheep? the super soft camel she got to pet? the bunnies? the turtles? Oh the decision was agonizing (for us all!).

In the end the baby pot bellied pig was declared the favorite.

"Stay over there, you goats" Anna declared (more than once)

Lily discovering the turtles...

Lily moving in for a "pat" (it's a petting zoo afterall)...

Lily trying to swipe the turtle...

CAUGHT!

It was the perfect day for the outing. 70+ degrees and a clear blue sky. Even some of the flowers have started to bud. Just a taste of the good times a comin' our way!

Did I mention that Anna came down with pink eye (or crust eye as some people in this house like to say) this weekend? Yes, I am living in a zoo!

Extreme makeover Arlington edition?

On Sunday we had just a slab. Today it's a 3 story house. 4 days. 3 stories. I'm still in shock.

With 9 foot ceilings on all 3 floors, our house is tall. Very, very tall...

View from the kitchen in to the living room...complete with (soon to be) gas fireplace.

And the view from the other direction. Large window in the kitchen will look out at the side yard.

Walk-in pantry. Space for the 12 boxes of cereal we always have on hand. Y.E.S!

Tall. Very, very tall...

Noah snuck in today and climbed the ladder to the second floor. Apparently our walk-in closet is as large as our current bedroom. My smile is ear to ear.

All hands on deck

Although an insane day at work almost prevented me from leaving my mark on the house, all four of us will forever be remembered in this little corner of a basement storage room. Of course, this is the only time we'll see the hands, and names, head-on; they'll be upside down once the walls are framed in (yeah, we didn't exactly think that one through well enough...).


Pretty cool that we'll forever have this little "time capsule" built in to the new house.


Speaking of which, we've been told that we will be under roof in two weeks. Given the delivery that was made this weekend, I'm actually inclined to believe them!

I'll Huff and I'll Puff

No one's gonna blow down these walls. YES WE HAVE WALLS! (well subterranean ones)

And, yes, I still have children. It occurred to me that "Life with Lily and Anna" was starting to just look like "At home with Bob Villa."






For better or for worse, our lives now revolve around work, new house, work, Annie, children, work, ant abatement (thank you very much Spring + rental house) and Yo Gabba Gabba...not necessarily in that order.

At least this time I was able to get pictures of the kids AND the progress.