Our little peanut is taking steps! She’s been trying one at a time for about a week, but last night and today she’s managed to accomplish more than one at a time. The most that I’ve been able to count is 6 steps in a row. Boy, are we in T R O U B L E !!! The first few times she tried walking sideways – most likely because that’s how she walks with Benjamin’s Nemo car. It’s too funny watching her side-stepping along. One toddler walking (and running) around is quite enough. Two ought to be fun!!!

Benjamin officially has asthma. We knew it was coming, but it doesn’t make it easier to hear. The appointment went really well. They looked at the asthma diary we’ve been keeping and we went over everything else that has been going on over this past year. Basically, he has respiratory problems with every illness he has. He coughs constantly, and he catches every single little bug he comes in contact with. We’re going to have to start giving him preventative medicine on a twice-daily basis. Fortunately, they’re letting us use what they called a “puffer”, rather than the nebulizer(sp?). We’ll still use the nebulizer for the serious problems, but we’re to add another med on top of the Albuterol(sp?). We now have 5, or is it 6? prescriptions for him. I guess we’re about to embark on quite the learning experience. Fortunately, we have Carrie’s vast knowledge on childhood asthma to help us out (poor Kris!).

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we have pictures from our Tulsa trip, as well as the Dogwood Festival this weekend up in the photo section. Check it out!

This weekend is the Dogwood Festival in Camdenton, which started with a parade in downtown. We parked up the hill from our house (yes, we’re too lazy to push the stroller up this hill – you would be too if you saw it ) and walked the remainder of the way to watch the parade. Benjamin loved the fire trucks and Elisabeth was fascinated with everything. We let Benjamin eat a DumDum (pretty sure there’s no peanuts in those!) and he thought that was pretty awesome. After the parade we went to carnival, which was also downtown. The Butcher Shop was selling hotdogs MUCH cheaper than the carnies, so with the exception of Elisabeth, we all had one. Benjamin had tried them before, but wouldn’t eat them. This time he gobbled it right down. After lunch we took Benjamin to ride the carousal and bounce around Bob the Builder jumper-thing. Benjamin also had his first taste of Funnel Cake – a carnival must have! Before leaving Benjamin & I took another turn on the carousal. While we were all exhausted when we left, it was a truly fabulous day! Both kids had a great time and so did Mom and Dad. Scott & I are looking forward to the coming years when the kids both really know what’s going on and get really excited about everything as the time nears.

Elisabeth is becoming quite adventuresome these days. She’s constantly standing in the middle of the floor – who needs help from the couch or a chair? When she stands up she laughs and gets really excited. Of course we clap and tell her what a big girl she is, which makes her even more excited. A couple of times she has tried taking steps, but she puts so much of her upper body into it that she falls over. She can hold onto the popcorn popper with one hand, and my hand with her other and walk anywhere. If I try to get her to walk with holding only one of my hands she sits on her bottom! She wants to walk around holding someone’s hand all day. She gets really mad at us when we won’t. I’m pretty certain that we’ll have a walking girl very soon! YIKES!!!

Her other new (and scary) thing to do is stand on Benjamin’s Little Tykes Garage. It’s so funny and cute, but it scares the bajeezus out of me. I try to keep her off, but she yells and climbs right back on! Little turkey girl! The other day I had her in my room while I was making the bed and Benjamin was playing in the loft, so I put the folded up pack-n-play in the doorway to keep her in. Who was I kidding? She got over it in about two seconds, laughing the entire time, then was off towards the office as fast as she could go.

It’s so funny to see such a tiny little girl getting into so much trouble. When she can walk, she’s going to be a handful. I can already tell!!!

We decided to visit Carrie, Gene and the kids for Easter weekend. We arrived early yesterday afternoon with Zachary in tow – we didn’t want him to miss out on all of the fun! After a delicious dinner at Carrie’s favorite Mexican food restaurant (can’t spell it so I won’t even attempt the name), we headed to our hotel so that everyone could go swimming in the indoor pool. All of the kids had a blast. Benjamin had on his little water wings, but with 4′ of water, he stuck to his daddy most of the time. He and Leah played a game with the diving rings where he would throw them into the water and she would have to go get them from the bottom of the pool. Elisabeth LOVED the water, but wanted to be held closely most of the time. She was so funny when I held her out and her little legs would kick like a little frog in water. Carrie & I talked about the babies that people just let go in the water, but there’s no way I could do that!

This morning, we headed for the Zoo with all of the kids (young and old). Benjamin was so excited to see the animals that he could hardly wait to get out of the car. The new double stroller proved to be a life saver, but lots of times it only held one baby and sometimes none at all. With four adults and two teenage girls we managed to keep Elisabeth & Benjamin completely happy 100% of the time. We saw most of the animals but due to two very tired babies, not to mention the very tired adults and teens, we skipped a couple of exhibits. We saved the Elephants and train ride for last, which due to Benjamin’s excitement, was probably a good idea. His last memories of the zoo were his favorite moments! It was so awesome to see him excited about everything!

When we arrived back at Carrie’s house, we whipped up dinner and boiled some eggs so that the kids could color them. Elisabeth was too tired to even try (and too little), but Benjamin made up for her absence in this activity. He had a little bit of trouble with the wire egg holder so most of the time he skipped that step and dove right in with his bare hands. Carrie’s probably going to have to buy a new table cloth after the mess he made! The girls and Zachary also had a great time coloring their eggs, but like Elisabeth, Kris was too tired and slept through the fun!

Right now the kids are both zonked out in the hotel room. Scott & I are exhausted, but it’s been so much fun that we don’t care. Tomorrow morning we’ll head back to Carrie’s for Benjamin’s Easter Egg Hunt and some more play with the cousins before we head back home.

Happy Easter Everyone!!!