3.5 months

Kaya is a cute kid, no bones about it. And post-3 months is when all babies get cuter and cuter with every passing week.

 

It looks like Boo loves Kaya. In reality, Boo loves this chair.

Boo also loves this chair, and this little stuffed kitten he has stolen from Liora. I think he secretly wishes Lexy would cuddle with him, and it's sort of funny that he has chosen a pretend kitty to fill that role.

What a beauty girl.

 

 

 

The baby bunny who was frequenting our yard this summer.

Kaya starts reaching for stuff.

Hugs for daddy.

Kaya came with mommy to the DMV right before my maternity leave ended. She was so amused by her little owl, and kept everyone in line happy. Smiles at the DMV? Love this face.

summer 2013 swim lessons

Liora took swim lessons again this summer. Daddy was the star trainer as mommy and Kaya spent that time going for walks and/or sleeping. The great thing about Liora is that she has no fear of the water, and is always eager to learn new tricks and swim around.

 

It looks like she wants out of daddy's arms and into the pool!

Hmm, not so sure about this thing.

Her best friend Elle took the class with us, so it was always fun to see them together and catch up with her mommy and daddy.

Liora is great at getting herself out of the pool on her own.

Experimenting with the kickboard.

Aww, so cute together!

last day

All good things must come to an end! After a wonderful week of togetherness, it was time for Gabi and crew to head back west to Colorado. Mommy never does well at goodbyes! We had such a great time having everyone in for a visit. It was wonderful bonding time for the kids, and for the mommies. Next time, we'll be sure to get a sister outing in there (it was a little difficult this time around with the baby).

 

Mommy is currently saving up for our trip out west (so stay tuned blog readers, at some point we WILL make it out there).

 

Paul gets in on the new neice action.

One last bath together!

Isn't this how all good trips should end?

natural history museum

With Uncle Paul back at the house, what could we do but drag him back to downtown DC? For our last big outing, we went to the Natural History Museum, site of mommy and daddy's first date!

 

Aunt Gabi and mommy have a photo posing in front of this same elephant when we were kiddies!

What, doesn't everyone dance in window frames during lunctime?

The butterfly exhibit is always a favorite.

There's one on mommy's head!

Liora holds one on a paintbrush given to her by one of the docents.

Posing with another beautiful one. At about this time, Kaya woke up and started crying outside the exhibit, so mommy had to give up her idea of asking David Grohl (!) to take a picture with my kids. He was there with his little girls, so I felt bad about interfering, but it was still cool. Even punk rockers need butterflies and family time!

The Zoo...not the one at our house, but the one with baby cheetahs

Continuing our whirlwind week of daytrips, we spent the following day at the National Zoo. Mommy was super excited, because I had heard that the baby cheetahs would be out and on display.

 

We started the day off right, with colored waffles! I believe Sam's was blue, Leo's was green, and Liora's was pink...fun times. I love the photos of the three of them at the counter.

We found out after getting to the zoo that only members could view the baby cheetahs. With minutes left in the cheetah's outdoor time, I raced to the membership booth to join so we could all see these little guys. It was so worth it. The baby cheetahs were adorbs, and the kids loved seeing them rumble around the yard.

It's like we're on the Serengeti.

Liora looking cute in her double ponies, Sam loving his new cheetah.

Another money shot.

 

Dueling red strollers. Liora holding the cheetah I got each of the kids as a commemoration of our visit. Liora has since named hers "Racer" and he goes with her everywhere.

Everybody: "CHEETAH!"

That evening, Gabi left to go meet Paul downtown for a date night. We had the boys, and Sam wasn't too happy to see mommy leaving. What made his frown turn upside down? Bubbles of course!

Nothing like blowing bubbles in your diapers to lighten a mood.

Look at that face, pure joy!

Leo eventually came out to join in the fun too!

air and space

Cousin Heather and Jeff came down to DC with their two boys the night after we went to the aquarium. That's right, count it, we had six kids and six adults sleeping under one roof (Paul spent much of the week at a training downtown)! Heather made a super yummy spaghetti dinner for us, and we all had a great time running around and catching up.

 

Four of the kids watching Cars 2 together.

 

The next morning, we headed out to Dulles, VA to the Air & Space Udvar Hazy museum. The kids loved being up close and personal with the planes...and the space shuttle, which made the journey to the museum just in time for our visit.

 

Getting five kids to all look at the camera at once is close to impossible. Sam and Liora are busy practicing their gymnastics.

 

Liora loves hugging her big cous! Leo looks less than impressed, but he put up with it.

 

Liora and I left a little early because she needed some alone time to relax; she had a bit of a meltdown during lunchtime at the museum. It was good for her to come back and rest, and then welcome her cousins back at the end of the day. The Necessary's returned to PA, and we were so glad they had a chance to join us, even for a day.

 

 

Kaya enjoying her bouncy.

Sammy showing off his new space shuttle. He was so great with baby Kaya, and gave her lots of love.

aquarium

Day three of Colorado cousin visit took us to Baltimore's famous aquarium! We started the day off right with a dolphin show.

 

Leo continues his awesome faces for the group shots!

Liora loves the dolphins and remembered her first visit with Auntie Elizabeth a year or so ago.

The kids loves looking in the tanks and seeing the fish.

Stingrays from above. Liora wanted to go home with another stuffed animal dolphin (which she already has), but I convinced her to get a pink stingray instead.

This is the best tank there; very well lit, so it makes for some good photos.

Posing with DeeDee.