Baby, you can drive my car!

This was supposed to be a fun-filled vacation week for us, but alas -- sickness has once again struck the Vafi house. I woke up with a fever and a generalized feeling of having been on the losing end of some kind of a street fight, and Evie visited the doctor today and found out she has pink eye and a virus that's causing her to run a fever too. This is particularly unfortunate because we were planning on going to South Carolina to visit our dear friends Jane and Josh and their kids, but today Jane also informed me that all three of hers are sick too. Blasted sickness is all we can say! Well here's a little glimpse into what we've been up to lately:

Tamsie cuddles with her Daddy. She and Evie get so excited to see him when he comes home from work each day! As soon as they hear the garage open, they say, "DADDY'S HOME!!!!" and run over to greet him.

Thursday night we went over to JT and Brian's house, where the girls played with their buddy Dalen! He was very happy to show off his car to two pretty girls. 

"Baby you can drive my car!"

I just love his smile here. He couldn't stop smiling the whole time! :) He is SUCH a little cutie!

Evie at the wheel!

Riding together

They thought they were in control, but really JT was!

How cute is this?! I love that his little arm is around her shoulders. He's such a little gentleman already!

I think I was having to help a fussy girl out of the car at this point.

You might want to think twice before riding around with Evie. Apparently she thinks it's safe to read and drive at the same time!

Speaking of driving, sometimes this spontaneously happens:

 

Tamsie flips through one of her favorite books, Put Me in the Zoo.

It's a big deal around here when the school bus drives by each afternoon. A BIG deal.

See what I mean? (Yes, Evie actually starts crying when the thing goes bye-bye at the end.)

We took the girls to the zoo Saturday, and this was the least blurry picture I was able to take! This was when we were in the aviary. This time the biggest hits were the puma, who had lots to say, and the birds.

The low point of the zoo experience this time was when a little boy ran in front of the stroller, and his bigger brother said, "Get out of those old folks' way!" to him. Apparently we are old folks now. I guess we'll be relocating to a retirement village in Florida pretty soon? At least we'll be the only couple there with little tots!

Open flight area at the aviary

Evie enjoyed pushing her cup of milk around in her grocery cart this afternoon. Poor girl is sick, but at least she managed to have fun and play hard!

First Haircuts

Today was a big day for Tamsie and Evangelyn, because they had their first-ever haircuts today! 

T started out the day cuddling with her taggie, or her "blankie," as she has started calling it. Please note that she's also standing on a book. They put their poor books through so much! 

E kept her blankie close by too.

After their nap, we got them all dressed up and took them to get their hair cut at Prescay Parlour! Evie loved the wreath on the door and said "flowers!" when she saw it. :) 

Hanging out in the lobby. Tamsie's on the left, and Evie's on the right.

Sharing a chair

They were so good! I think they felt like big girls in such a fancy place! :)

They were fascinated by everything they saw, and they kept saying, "Pretty!"

Tamsie went first, since she was in an exceptionally good mood in the lobby. (Evie was in a good mood too, but she was definitely displaying her independent streak! She made it clear she did NOT want to hold my hand -- which is never a good sign -- so we thought maybe it would be a good idea to let her watch Tamsie before it was her turn.) Both of us suited up in smocks first.

Pre-haircut

Here we are during the haircut. Helen did such a fantastic job, as always! :) By the way, if you're in Memphis and you need a good stylist, I can't recommend Helen highly enough!! She always does a wonderful job with my hair. She's also my best buddy Jennifer's sister-in-law, so you know she has to be fabulous!

Here's Tamsie's after pic! Tamsie was just wide-eyed the whole time. She never fussed once, which is pretty remarkable for our little drama queen! :)

Evie before... not really sure what to think.

She started whimpering just a little bit, thus necessitating the Wubbanub, but she was fine after that.

And here's Evie after with Helen and me! I took away the Wubbanub right before the picture, so she was too busy looking for it to look at the camera... argh! All the way home, this girl sang a new song she made up: "No more bus! No more ABCs!" Ever since she saw a school bus leave our neighborhood yesterday (which greatly upset her -- she didn't want it to leave!), she has been talking about buses and how they are no more. She gets very emotional about it all.

Once we came back home, the girls wanted to sit in their high chairs and look at books. Here's Evie with her pretty new hairdo!

And here's Tamsie. Once we were back home, she patted her head and said, "Bow!" -- I think she wanted to look extra-special since she had just gotten her hair cut! :) I also love that she's started requesting bows. 

Eating a snack and listening to a story

These days, when we finish reading them a book, they hold up a finger, smile really big and say, "No more!" -- which actually means "one more!" They keep this up book after book until we finally have to cut it off. I love that they love being read to! 

Thank you, Helen, for making the girls' first haircuts so special and memorable!

Weekend Update Plus

We had quite the busy/fun weekend around here! I've been meaning to do a weekend update, but when I've had a break I've either been resting up, being lazy or watching Mad Men with the Vaf. We've been on one serious Mad Men streak lately, and it's kind of out of control! Last night we were up until 12:30 catching up on it! (And I use the term "catching up" loosely -- we're still on last season!) NOT smart given the busy-ness of our days lately, but alas.

T is too smart for me. I tried mixing her veggies in with her macaroni and cheese on Friday for lunch (and YES, those are PJs -- don't judge, ha!) because she wasn't eating them on their own. However, she meticulously pilfered through them and ate all the pasta, leaving the veggies behind! What a little punk!

 - When Chris came home Friday, we took the girls out to Chipotle, which was once again a huge success. I'm thinking that's their favorite restaurant right now!

- Saturday, the girls had a picnic out on the deck, and then later in the day we went to the zoo. They had the best time they've had yet at the zoo, so that was a ton of fun! They couldn't get enough of it all! :) I'm so excited we are officially zoo members now, so that we can enjoy days like these more often. Of course, this is the only picture I got:

Drinking a special treat: water with apple juice! They don't get to drink juice often, so when they do, they are obsessed with it! E drank the whole 10 oz cup while we were at the zoo, which is a pretty unprecedented accomplishment for her. Also, you should know this picture was taken before we'd gotten very far. They didn't stay in that stroller for long!

 We have a 1:1 parent-to-18-month-old ratio going on, so it's just not the easiest getting pictures of them during high-intensity activities these days.

Saturday night I met up with Melissa and Carissa for a girls' night out, which is precisely what the three of us needed! We had dinner at Aldo's, and it more than lived up to the hype.

- Sunday we went to church and then came home and had some good old family time since the girls refused to nap until much later!

Readin' and rockin' with the Tams. She went over to the rocking chair and patted it saying, "Chair? Please? Ok." until someone gave her what she wanted and picked her up and put her in the chair. She's still just a little too short to make it up there by herself just yet!

I love those big blue eyes!

Meanwhile, E (still wearing the bloomers that went with her church dress) was getting into her books... what else?

Then she saw how much fun T was having and had to get in on that. This is the least blurry picture I was able to get of the two of them together. 

Giggles!

Alright, time to get down!

This is their favorite spot to sit on the deck.

Always together

Savoring Daddy time

E enjoys the view

Chris had to run some errands Sunday afternoon, so Mom and I took the girls shopping. They fell asleep in the car on the way home, and we managed to keep them asleep as we moved them inside -- and then we proceeded to hold them for about half an hour, until E woke up and then woke up T immediately afterward! We felt like this hadn't happened in about a million years. 

When I say it takes me back, this is what I'm talking about! Here I am, gazing at E and cuddling with T, back in October 2011...

And here's E cuddling with my Mom back in March 2012!

My view of Tams. She had her little belly hanging out, but I was scared I'd wake her up if I did anything about it!

Sunday night we went out to eat at Macaroni Grill with my parents. Here's E and her Granddaddy....

and T and her Amma!

Last night Mom helped me take the girls to go see Chris play soccer at church. They had so much fun, even though I had to keep Evie from running onto the field several times! Tamsie was cheering for her Daddy (quite literally) every chance she got, and I had fun hanging out with the wives of the guys on the team.

Today has mainly been a day of recuperating after last night's Mad Men fest, so that should bring you up to date on what we've been up to lately! Hope your week is off to a wonderful start! :)