Sima's May visit

My mom arrived early May for a three-week visit. We enjoyed seeing the weather turn warm and took advantage with a trip to Hunter's, the local ice-cream place with it's fun playground. I was still feeling morning-sickness at this point, but was getting better..

Nadia Birthday and Easter

Still catching up from spring pictures! I would love to get caught up before our son is born!! Here are a few pictures of Nadia's second birthday.

For Easter we did some egg-dyeing and had a whole group over after church on Sunday, which was so nice. Sophia and Nadia spent part of the afternoon at our neighbors, Kathy and Bernie's, so Easter dinner was actually just adult time, which was also a special treat. Having a fancy meal with two toddlers is kind of an oxymoron :-) We spent the first part of the afternoon at our house, and then the late afternoon at Joanna and Gordon's, where we ate the famous 'lamb cake' and did an Easter egg hunt with the kids, which they loved..

A little bit later--fun dress up time with Phoebe..

Another birthday party

Mid-April we had another birthday party for the girls, Phoebe and Orianna, whose birthday is one day before Nadia's. Lyn graciously hosted like last year and we did the same mac and cheese, veggies and fruit dinner, an easter egg hunt and a craft.



What an awesome rainbow cake!

The egg hunt :-)
People brought gifts, despite our urgings! Our girls didn't protest..

Sophia's preschool had an easter party on Nadia's birthday, so conveniently I told Nadia it was her birthday party :-) She chomped all the treats. The same morning I had my first midwife appointment, and it was great to finally hear the heartbeat!

Columbus cousins' birthday bash

MacGregor's birthday is a day before Sophia's, so in early April I took the girls to Columbus so they (and Nadia) could have a joint birthday party. I was nervous about driving to Columbus by myself with the girls in the midst of morning sickness, but the girls did very well on the trip. Miranda threw a very cute pirate-themed party complete with accessories and a pinata. Mike and Luise came up from Dayton for the party too. MacGregor is so big, Nadia was able to borrow his sweatshirt for an after-party walk. Though he's a year younger, they wear the same size :-)

Some informal and formal dancing in May

Sophia has been taking dance and tap since the fall. Her spring class was much bigger than her fall one. She had two performances in mid-May while my mom was here visiting. She improved from her first performance to her second, as you can see! And much better than the fall, as she froze up on the big stage and didn't move at all.. It's fun to see her progress.

Easter Egg Hunt

The girls enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt with Abbi and Jack at Gordon and Joanna's house. I love Nadia's serious determination in the hunting :-)

Early Spring happenings

We returned from Zurich mid-February and a few weeks later I started potty training Nadia. We did the 'hard core approach' with a timer every 10 minutes and naked from the waist down. She had shown some interest before we left for Zurich, even sitting on the potty on her own and peeing, so I didn't want the opportunity to pass. At the end of February, we also found out that I was pregnant (yay!), so that made me even more motivated to potty train. I didn't relish the thought of having two kids in diapers for a year, like I did with Sophia and Nadia. For almost three weeks, I minimized leaving the house with Nadia at all so that I wouldn't have to put a diaper on her. I would carry the potty with me, along with many changes of clothes. After a few weeks, Nadia became good at going potty on her own at home when she was naked from the waist down. More problematic was when she would have any panties or pants on, or if she was being asked to go on a public toilet. We pressed on through April and then in early May, my mom came. She babysat Sophia & Nadia for a weekend while Roth and I had a lovely weekend in NYC (amazing food, Broadway show, nice hotel, no kids--just great). Nadia got sick while we were gone and 'unlearned' potty habits and became really defiant. When we got back, we also starting having the girls sleep in the same room, in preparation for the baby and for construction on our house that was upcoming. That was a big challenge, so my mom wisely suggested I back off the potty training for a while. So Nadia was back in diapers through June (hard not to feel a bit defeated, but I know it was wise). Now, at the end of July, she is potty trained at home, when naked from the waist down, but that's as far as we've gotten. Also, after 5 weeks of late nights with the girls, and early mornings, we've separated them for sleeping again. Humbling when parenting feels like 2 steps forward, 2 steps back sometimes!

In other news, here's a picture of the new car! Shortly after we found out about the pregnancy, Roth found this car near us, a Toyota Highlander Hybrid. We've been wanting to avoid a van with its outrageous gas mileage, and this car has a small third row, and much better gas mileage than a van. We've been happy with it so far.

Playing with the last snow of the season..

Here celebrating Kathy's birthday mid-March

Here's a picture from April 5th, Sophia's birthday! We took the girls to the pub ( Brews n Bytes was closed).

She really enjoyed her peanut-butter pie