Peas in a Pod

We have dug ourselves out of the sick house, thrown away tooth brushes, and sanitized every surface in sight.  It is nice to be reporting from a house full of well pdeople!  It's even nicer to be sitting out on the front porch again (this time not with a glass of milk!) enjoying the gorgeous weather and browsing through some hysterical photos from this past weekend.  Molly & Bella made the trip down to Charlotte this past weekend for a few days packed with fun - we had SUCH a blast.  Emerson had so much fun with Bella, it warmed my heart countless times to see how they already love each other.  It also gave me some serious mother's guilt that she doesn't get more time playing with other little kids, but hopefully I'll get over that part soon.  I'll try to do pictures in synopsis here of our weekend.

As always, the girls had a blast together in the bathtub.  I don't know why we didn't take video of this; probably because we were all busy laughing too hard at them.  It is so funny how they get each other so cracked up and they are both belly laughing so hard as they doused themselves, us, and the entire bathroom in water splashing around like crazy. 

The girls think it is a trip to wear the same clothes, so they wore their matching pjs to bed that night and snuggled in for story time and were up in the morning eager to see what was going on outside so that they could go get in on the fun. 

We played hard at the playground and let them share a stroller on the way there.  We laughed at how submissive Emerson is and she so willingly does whatever anyone asks of her/does to her - her younger siblings will luck out on this some day! 

The girls dressed alike on Saturday for their train ride and Em even was eager to wear a hairbow (miracle of miracles!) because Bella wore one like she always does.  When her bow would fall out, she would take it to Bella and wait while Bella tugged on her hair and tried to put it back in for her.  Truly hysterical.  (Sidenote: The train and Uptown were packed because of the NCAA tournament and a St Patricks Day parade - we had great 'views' of the parade with horses, leprauchans, cheerleaders and beyond during lunch!)  Bella also taught Emerson ring around the rosy ...(rosey?) while they waited for the train which everyone enjoyed watching.

Bella was great at helping get Emerson undressed when it was time for the bath - such a good helper [check out Emerson's face, maybe she's catching on that she is like B's little pet here]! 

Molly and I got to go on a date Saturday night to our favorite restaurant and for (of course) some frozen yogurt afterwards thanks, hugely, to my fabulous and adoring husband who stayed home with the girls and watched Barney & Sesame Street (lucky man!) with Bella until she fell sound asleep on his chest - precious. 

We will get to see Bella & Molly again at the end of April for another intern wedding, but we aren't taking Emerson with us on that trip, so we had to be sure to maximize play time to store up until our next get together!  Clearly, and as always, we had a blast and were sad to see them leave - they were just what the doctor ordered to get our house back up and running and feeling well again! 

While we tried to push Em's bedtime back when the time changed so that she got to stay up until 7:00 (late night!) with us, we gave it a go for 2 weeks, and it just wasn't working well and she was not adjusting very well, so we have been back to getting in the bath at 6:00 and she's been sound asleep by 6:30 for the past three nights and seemingly very happy about it!  I'll try not to feel so sad or guilty about the little amount of time that we get together during the week and instead soak up how glorious our Monday afternoons and weekends are together!