Poetry in motion

More photo challenge photos, many involving capturing my moving targets.

Tiny hands at work.

Hugging a loved one.  Zoey was not in the mood to be held or hugged.

Laughing

Sneak around the corner and catch them not paying attention.  Zoey loves to carry things around.

This was an attempt at the sneak up on her.  She was so cute playing with these dolls.  She was moving them and walking them and such.  Not sure if she is copying Samantha or if she is imagining something in that little head of hers.  But I am excited that soon she will be able to tell me more than labeling what she wants or sees.

Looking out a window.

Zoey coming out of her cardboard house.  She loves it.  This was when I was trying to get laughing, but I think she stopped to say cheese.

We are still having a good but busy summer.  We have taken on a lot with classes and other stuff.  My mom helps so much and we certainly could not make it all work without her.  Nick's parents are visiting soon, so that will be lots of fun.  And classes end at the end of July and we are going to the beach for a vacation.  For right now, we are just trying to get through all this rain and the havoc Debby has brought to our schedules.  And clean the house for our visitors :)

Samantha has made a lot of progress in reading and math.  She is like a sponge.  She can do lots of subtraction or take away problems.  And she can learn a new book so quickly.  And Zoey picks up about a word/sign a day still.  It is so impressive to watch such learning unfold.  It is also funny how many food related words she has learned.  She has used ones like food, banana ("nana"), water ("wawa"), cookie, puff, cheese, bread, more and all done for awhile.  Recently she has started saying berry, which is one of her favorite types of food.  She even said noodle ("nonul") the other day.  And at my mom and dad's she was eating a few foods including banana.  When the banana was gone, she pointed to the spot where it had been and said "More 'nana." And she is determined at times to try and feed herself with a fork or spoon, so that can be a challenge, but I know these are important skills.

Happy Father's Day!

I hope everyone had a great father's day.  Here is a picture Sam drew for Nick.  Notice the blue eyes.  And the brown circles represent food in her stomach.  Some days her imagination and creativity just blows me away.

First up is a few Father's Day pictures.  Nick had stayed up late cleaning up the office.  I did not know this, but I did let him sleep in.  Zoey got up really early, so she and I played a bit and she ate some breakfast.  I took the girls and we went to Dunkin' Donuts, his favorite, to grab a dozen and then by Publix to grab a few needed things.  Then Sam ate her donut and we hung out for a little bit.  Zoey actually went back down for a nap before Nick got up.  Like I saidm she got up really early.  Sam spent a lot of the day at my parents and Zoey, Nick and I did a Target run.  We came back and Nick cooked ribs while I did the sides.  We had a nice dinner with my parents.  Nick's main gift was an upgrade to his brewing materials, but I also got him a #1 Dad Tervis cup and a T-shirt with a mythbusters slogan.

Unwrapping his cup.

Hanging out with the girls on Father's Day.

Papa is such a great playmate.

Many may remember Samantha's two house boxes, 1 in Atlanta when she was about a year and 1 in Huntington when that one had fallen apart.  I got Nick to make Zoey one as well.  Sam loves it too.

Nick got in with Zoey.

She loves peeking out.

One of her newer words is door, so that is one of the first things she said when she saw it and she loves closing the door.

 The photo challenge continues.  Recently was what they do in their quiet time.  Sam is always reading, and now she can even actually read a lot of the books, not just what she memorizes.  Such an impressive kid.

 This is Zoey in her quiet time.  All about the elmo stuff ("Belbo") and all about pulling things out of drawers.

 Another recent one was interacting with siblings.  The girls had such fun on the mini big wheels.

At Publix, Sam begged me to buy a balloon for Nick.  I said no until Zoey starting smiling and saying "baoon".  So Nick got a Father's Day balloon and Zoey loves it.

This photo is so funny.  Sam was singing and trying to get Zoey to dance with her, but it looks like she is screaming.  :)

Zoey loves markers, really anything of Sam's or anything she should not have.  I helped her draw.

 And here she is eating grits.  Sam has loved them for so long too.  My two southern girls.

 Another photo challenge one was playing outside.  Sam at the top of the climbing thing at Christina park.

Zoey was harder to capture, my perpetual motion machine.

I thought this one was kind of cool.

 And another challenge shot was walking away.  Zoey loves carrying things around.

And she loves to dance.  It is hard to get on video and even this one has Sam distracting Zoey and asking me to take a picture of her.  But here are some of Zoey's moves.  She loves to sway back and forth and then throw in a small spin.  Cracks me up.

10 little fingers and 10 little toes!

A playdate recently was about making salt dough hand prints.  I did both girls on a rectangle one.

Now, back to the photo challenge.  One day was your kid eating breakfast.

Today was your kid from above to show how small they are.  Zoey would not really cooperate, but she loves taking play camera and putting them to her forehead and saying cheese.  She is putting her hand there and saying cheese in this one.  Silly girl!

A couple days ago was holding hands with someone.  Zoey wanted Sam to let go so badly.

She did a little better when allowed to be in motion.

Sam started karate last week.  Here she is showing off a punch.

Sam also planned some hand holding.  Here she got Papa to kiss her hand.

I was not sure if any were what I wanted, so I got Nick to open the door and hold Zoey's hand.

Another day was feet.  Zoey hardly sits still, so I let her play with Sam's shoes.  I then also played with the shot in photoshop, but I am not sure which I like better.

Shadows and screams

The photo challenge continues, but first a cute Sam one.  Doesn't she look like a diva in training?

Last night we were tasked with doing a silhouette shot.  Nick set up his shop light and we got Sam to jump.  It took a lot of work, but it is kind of cool.

Nick also got this one playing with outdoor light.  She loves her sand table.

The one for Thursday was bath time, but I work late that night so we skipped baths and so this one is actually from Friday.  We just got a new version of photoshop, so I played around with it and made the background black and white and the girls in color.

 Today's was crying or tantrum.  I just did not know how to get that one since we have such angels.  Ha ha!  This was Zoey when her cup would not sit on the ledge on her high chair.  Such a personality this one has!

The other day was crack the door and see what they are doing.  Sam was at school, so I hid around the corner and Zoey of course started pulling things out of the drawers.

And Zoey loves to get into the dishwasher.  One of her newer words is help, so she was saying, "Help, help" as she pulled the drawer out about 10 times.

Splish Splash!

The photo challenge for yesterday was your kid with their favorite toy or stuffed animal.  Sam picked out this unicorn at a sale the other day and it is a current favorite.

And today was Sam's last day of PreK 3 and it was splash day at school.  She had a blast, even though it was a bit chilly and overcast.

Shaving cream table.

Splash pool.

Crazy sprinkler.

Huge inflatable slide.

All wrapped up to go change.  There were blue sno-cones, too.  Can you tell?

She has her pizza party and then is officially on summer break!