Cathy and Sophia Visit! (continued)

Below are many pictures taken while Cathy and Sophia were visiting over the long thanksgiving weekend (and note 2 other new posts below!). Here, Sophia and Helen are taking in the new tree in the house (which seemed about 1/2 as big on the tree lot, I swear).
Here is the tree decorated. I am going to charge it 1/4 of the rent for December.
We went to the GA aquarium, which is always great fun if you sneak in as early as possible (which we did!). We enjoyed great views of the big tank for as long as we wanted. :-)
Here is the crew enjoying a great big view together.
Sophia "Mona Lisa Smile" H. :-)
Whale shark! So cool to see in person - they're huge!
More pea in pod shots from the park.
Spidey.
Spidees.
Doodlers.
We stayed in our PJs a good, long while on turkey day!

out of sequence post

Here are some pics from the camera from the previous weekend (before turkey day). Here, Helen is modeling: 1) her new cute outfit from my favorite consignment store 2) her new sparkly sneakers from same store, 2 sizes too big, but we must wear them anyway, and 3) kitchen tongs.
We went to the botanical gardens, which is fun to see over the different seasons (plus they do fun, Christmas-y things).
They set up a really cool model train, which Helen liked almost as much as...
THE CHOO CHOO TRAIN YOU CAN RIDE ON! HOW COOL IS THAT?! (note tai chi [sp? correct reference??] people in background to lend to the calm, cool atmosphere)
Here she is on the train! CHOO CHOO!

2 peas in a pod

Aunt Cathy and Cousin Sophia came for a thanksgiving visit and Helen had a marvelous time. Lovely turkey day weather made for a great day at the park.
Here are my peas.
And here again.
And again. (as H says often - A-gin! A-gin! A-gin! whenever she wants you to do something silly or fun over and over and over). :-) More momentarily.

Methodical Melon

I know, it's only been 5 days since my last post, but we've taken a couple cute pictures lately that I feel I must share. Helen is becoming a person with her own ideas, likes and dislikes. For instance, her favorite color is hands down green. And she often tells chairs, walls and eating utensils that they are "not nice" when she bangs her hand or toe into them or they've offended her in any other way. And Ethan, who is the culprit behind those scratches near her eye and a nice bite on the arm the week before is most definitely on her "not nice" list as she has often told us (luckily he's been recently moved to the next room up since he's just about 3!). My favorite right now is when we play "big hugs" and "baby hugs" - I usually get several of each.
Tonight, Helen went through most of our kitchen utensil drawer to determine the best item that fits into the tiny hole on the tricycle. Note wisk and ice cream scooper on top of garbage can to right.
Nope, the wisk doesn't fit.
It's conclusive: Helen's research has shown again and again that the beater handle is the best tool to insert into the hole on the tricycle (her original hypothesis).

D was in the big easy last week for work and brought home some presents for his gals. Here, Helen is wearing every single one of them.
"I've just got to be me...."
Trying to fit on the baby bed, complete with covers.

Pumpkins

We went to the pumpkin patch a couple weekends ago and saw big pumpkins and baby pumpkins and went on a cool hayride. Here's some pics.




Here's H at a wedding we went to last weekend. Congratulations to Peter and Elizabeth!