Building a Birthday Bear

On Sunday, Jessica and the rest of us went to her classmate Lindsay's birthday party at the Build-A-Bear Workshop at the Mall of Georgia. We had a wonderful time, and Jessica got to build her own teddy bear, whom she named Buku. Here are some pictures of the two of them together:

Elyse Smiling, Jessica Jumping, and Both Girls Together

Elyse is a very smiley girl these days:

Jessica is very active; she loves to jump, as evidenced by these three pictures:

(In these pictures, in the chair from which Jessica is launching herself you can see her friend Hippo)

The girls love each other; Elyse usually smiles big when Jessica is playing with her (except when Jessica gets too rough, and then Elyse tends to cry). Here are a couple of pictures of them from last Thursday night:

Elyse is Three Months Old!

Today, Elyse is exactly three months old!

And she had a doctor's appointment this morning, so we know that she weighs 14.2 pounds (the 90th percentile, VERY big), and is two feet tall (the 75th percentile, which makes her, proportionally, the tallest of the Burdetts).

Elyse Smiles

This is how happy Elyse is to see her Mommy when she gets home from work in the afternoon:

Jessica's First Haircut

Last week Jessica went to Just Kids Kuts in Snellville for her first real haircut (besides Mommy or Daddy trimming her bangs), complete with shampoo and blow dry, and she got to sit in a pink Jeep while it was going on. (Except for the shampoo. Jeeps don't usually come equipped with sinks.) Granny was there, and took lots of pictures, six of which you can see below:

Hey, Hippo!

a true story, retold by Daddy

Jessica has had an imaginary friend named Rabbit for a couple of years now. We hear a lot about Rabbit; when we go out anywhere, Jessica tells us at least one time, "That's Rabbit's car!" (Rabbit has a remarkably diverse set of vehicles at his disposal, we've learned.) On our way to anywhere that requires us to go down residential streets, we will inevitably hear, "That's Rabbit's house!" Sometimes, it turns out, Rabbit has two or three houses on the same street. We've even been told, "Rabbit goes to that church."

Recently, Jessica started pointing out Rabbit to us at public places like Kroger or CiCi's or Stone Mountain Park. Rabbit changes form often, but usually appears to be a typical, unsuspecting shopper or diner who doesn't quite understand why he or she (Rabbit has no set gender) is being pointed to by a three-year-old.

Rabbit and Jessica have another friend, Hippo, who came into being, we believe, because of the giant purple hippopotamus we have in our living room (of the stuffed-animal kind), and because of Sandra Boynton's tendency to write about hippos in her books.

Jessica has also been pointing out Hippo to us.

Recently Jessica and I went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. Near the end of the meal, when Jessica's face was covered with chocolate frosting and sprinkles and so was the table, a man in a dress shirt and tie came in with a newspaper under his arm. "That's Rabbit!" Jessica said. "Hey, Rabbit!"

Rabbit went about the business of ordering his bran muffin and coffee, paying us no mind. Jessica went after the last of the chocolate frosting.

A moment later another man came in. He was...how shall I put this kindly?...a very big man. The kind of man who's probably self-conscious about his weight and the attention it may sometimes draw. However, his size and possible related insecurities were all immaterial to Jessica; she's oblivious to such things. What mattered to Jessica was simply that he was the person who walked in right after Rabbit.

And that's the reason Jessica pointed at him and said, "And there's Hippo! Hey, Hippo!"

I don't know if the man heard her or not; I hope not. If he did, I hope he understands a thing or two about three-year-olds.

But I was turning a little red. "Um, Honey, I think Hippo wants some time to himself," I said, quietly but urgently. "Let's leave Hippo alone for now. Let him enjoy his donut. We'll probably see him tomorrow."

And we cleaned up and departed without incident, leaving Rabbit and Hippo to enjoy their breakfasts in peace.

Easter Portraits

On Sunday morning, we set up our living room studio for some Easter portraits. Here are two of the best from the session:

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:

* * *

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.