Watching the Mobile; Playing in the Sand at Freeman's Mill Park

One of Elyse's favorite pastimes is lying in her swing and watching its built-in mobile. Here are three pictures of her watching the birds and butterfly go by:

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Saturday afternoon (March 20, the last day of winter!), we went to the recently-opened Freeman's Mill Park in Lawrenceville to enjoy the seventy-degree weather. Jessica had a great time playing on the playground, and made a new friend, Marissa, with whom she played happily for about half an hour.

But perhaps Jessica's favorite part of the day was walking down by the historic mill and to the Alcovy River, not so much because she has any great historic or riparian interests, but because there was plenty of sand for her to cover herself with and to fling about:

(Jessica's legs probably look really pale, but it's only because when she got herself dressed, she started by putting on her white tights.)

(Note Mommy in the background, trying to figure out how we're going to fit a bath into this already busy day. It was easy: we put it off until tomorrow. Boy is Jessica's pillow going to be sandy!)

(If you look carefully, you can see on the left side of the frame the blur of the sand Jessica was flinging about.)

Two Months Old!

Today Elyse is two months old!

Mommy Goes Back to Work

It's hard to believe, but today Mommy's maternity leave is over and she goes back to her job as Media Specialist at C.J. Hicks Elementary. Eight weeks went by so quickly!

It's also hard to believe that now Daddy has to learn how to take care of two girls. Wish him luck!

Granny's House, Smiles, and Vines Gardens

Here are a few pictures of a recent visit with Granny and Pa. Elyse was asleep most of the time that Granny held her:

Jessica put on one of her princess outfits and did a happy foyer dance:

Elyse is starting to really smile, most commonly when she is looking at her Mommy:

On Monday the weather was beautiful and the temperature neared 70, so we picked up some Chick-Fil-A and went to Vines Gardens. Here are three pictures from that trip:

(As you can see, when she has he picture taken these days--except in her princess outfit--Jessica is more interested in sticking out her tongue than in smiling. Such is life with a three year old.)

March Update

We've decided that instead of maintaining two separate blogs for each of our girls, we're going to start using this one, Planet Burdett, for all of our Burdett news and pictures. And since we haven't done any posts on any blog in a while, here are a few pictures to show what has been going on at Planet Burdett.

For her third birthday, Jessica got a Fisher-Price KidTough digital camera, which she uses to take pictures of everything:

Here, Jessica helps Mommy prepare a spaghetti dinner:

A couple of weeks ago we had a major snow storm; here's Jessica all bundled up to go out in the snow:

And here, Jessica makes a snowman while Mommy watches:

Jessica loves her little sister, Elyse:

Sometimes Elyse likes to sleep in her swing:

But mostly she likes to hang out with Mommy:

Elyse had her one-month checkup not too long ago, and she's up to nine pounds! She's nearly two pounds up from her birth weight, which is fantastic.

Three Girls

This morning, Elyse, Jessica, and Mommy all snuggled together in our reading chair:

Gramma's Visit with Jessica

Last week, Jessica and Elyse's Gramma visited us for a whole seven days! We had a wonderful time while she was here, and she got to spend some good quality time with her granddaughters. Here are some pictures from her visit:

Doing a puzzle with Jessica:

Snipping:

Coloring with dry-erase markers on the My Family Album reusable activity book:

Making Valentine's Day cards for Jessica's classmates at preschool:

You can read about Gramma's visit from an Elyse-centric perspective here.

Gramma's Visit with Elyse

Last week, Elyse and Jessica's Gramma visited us for a whole seven days! We had a wonderful time while she was here, and she got to spend some good quality time with her granddaughters. Here are some pictures from her visit:

Sleeping in Gramma's arms:

While Gramma played with Jessica, Mommy, Elyse, and Daddy enjoyed a game of Scrabble:

Gramma spending time with Elyse:

Elyse spending quality aware time with Gramma:

You can read about Gramma's visit from a Jessica-centric perspective here.

Sisters

Jessica's little sister, Elyse, was born exactly two weeks ago today. In honor of this fourteen-day milestone, here are some pictures from Jessica's first in-depth, at-home encounter with her sibling.

She has cute little fingers:

Counting the fingers--one, two, three...:

Such cute little fingers need a kiss:

Happy Birthday, Elyse!

Our newest little daughter, Elyse Bethany Burdett, was born today at 3:58 p.m. We were expecting her exactly a week later, but Anna started having high blood pressure on Sunday, and two days of bedrest didn't help, so they decided to go in after her early.

Mother and Daughter and Father are all doing well, but Mother and Father are very, very tired.

We'll post pictures soon.

--Chris

UPDATE: Two days later, we've come home, and I really should be in bed, but I wanted to post some pictures first. Here's a chronological but very incomplete view of our last three days, starting with Anna in the Labor & Delivery room getting ready to go back for the C-section:

"Guess what, Molly? We're having a baby today!"

Ready for the surgery.

Ten minutes later, we've got a baby!

Daddy is even tireder than he looks on the second day.

Elyse is tired, too.

Ready to go home!

Christmas!

We had a very nice Christmas day, much of it spent at Granny and Pa's house. Here are a couple of pictures of Jessica and Mommy admiring Granny's tree:

Of course, Jessica opened lots of presents:

One of Jessica's presents from Granny was a princess dress-up trunk, which includes multiple princess dresses: