A Gorgeous Spring Day

The girls go walking

Rachel loved strolling along the sidewalk!

Megan riding her bike...she's almost too tall for it!

What a beautiful day! The temperature got up to 70 degrees today! Can you believe it? No coats were even necessary! We took full advantage of it and spent several hours outside today. Megan and I enjoyed some special time together while Rachel was napping, filling the driveway with chalk art, and sitting on our beach chairs having a popcorn snack.

We have discovered over the last few nice days that Rachel LOVES to be outside. Yesterday, all of us were outside in the driveway, and Bill shepherded Rachel into the garage so he could get out the wagon to take the girls on a walk. Well, Rachel thought this meant we were going inside and started CRYING like the world was ending! Then this morning, when we went out to the garage to take Megan to preschool, Rachel apparently thought this meant, "We're going outside to play," and started throwing a holy fit when I put her in her carseat. Screaming, arched back, throwing herself out of the seat, the whole nine yards. Let me just mention that this kind of behavior is completely not in her normal repertoire! It took a lot of effort on my part to flatten her into the seat long enough to buckle the seatbelt....at which point, trapped, she continued screaming for a few minutes. Oh boy.

As you can see from the pictures, Megan loves riding her tricycle this season. She really only got the hang of it last fall, right before the season ended. Bill and I are debating when to get her a "big girl" bike, because she is almost too tall for the tricycle. I think we'll hold off as long as we can though, because I think a big bike would just frustrate her at this point. She still prefers to have us give her a starting push, but once she gets going, she can pedal pretty well now. We're working on steering too. (Difficult to do when most of our exploits take place on a straight sidewalk!)

Rachel absolutely loves to walk down the sidewalk. Yesterday she protested when we put her in the wagon with Megan, because she wanted to walk. Today we went pretty far down the street and she never asked to be carried! She will say, "Wot, wot" (walk). I finally picked her up on the way back because lunch was calling and it was taking sooooo long to get home. Things might get tricky this spring/summer...I don't think this girl is going to be easily contained (or content) in the stroller! (This should make Disneyland very interesting!) Today it was actually pretty hard for me to get a decent picture of Rachel walking down the sidewalk, because she mostly insisted on holding my hand for dear life (even though she can walk just fine on her own, even on the pavement). When I would let go and run a few steps ahead of her to snap a photo, she'd come barrelling toward me, saying angrily, "Mama, mama, mama." I guess it's nice to be wanted :)

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain, but this was a great escape from the winter blahs, however short lived it may be!