Trip to the zoo...

Because the weather was so great a couple of weekends ago, we decided to go to the zoo.  But overnight from Friday to Saturday, it seemed like something was really bothering Karina, since she was waking up crying every 45 minutes.  We took her to urgent care in the morning and sure enough, she had an ear infection.  So Elvin took Eliana to the zoo while Emily stayed home with Karina.

Although Eliana enjoys looking at the animals, what she REALLY likes is playing with all the animal statues.  Most of the time there was spent climbing on things... 

  

 Or pretending that Eliana is a zoo keeper to these lion cubs.

 Or climbing this thing that's supposed to be an anthill.

  

 Or pretending to feed this little squirrel statue.

 And this bear plaque really caught Eliana's eye.  She wanted to take a picture with him.

 That weekend, we also went to Emily's brother's house for dinner.  Karina usually doesn't like being held by people she doesn't know, but is more accepting of other kids holding her.  She was fine with being held by her cousin Millie.

 Eliana is really into ballet right now.  So cousin Millie and Eliana both changed into ballet clothes.  And Millie showed Eliana some ballet moves.

At the end of the night, cousin Abby played a piece on the piano for all of us.  Eliana spontaneously decided that she needed to dance with the music and Millie joined in...

The two girls still get along well.  Eliana still likes playing with her sister and likes to hold her.

We've been spending more and more time outside now that the weather is nice and spring is in full swing.

Karina's skin is very fair, just like her Mommy's, so we try to keep her under the shade.

We got a new bike for Eliana.  It doesn't have pedals.  Rather, you use your legs to push yourself foward.  It's supposed to teach kids how to balance on their bike.  Eliana still needs to practice.

Karina comes out to watch.

Eliana has a different bike with training wheels.  After some weeks of practice, she can pedal on it pretty well now.  But it takes so much concentration that she keeps looking down at the pedals while going foward.  This makes it hard to steer in the right direction.

We feel like our little girl is growing up way too fast.  In one more month, she's going to turn three!  When you ask her when her birthday is, she says "Fourteen July" -- meaning, July 14th.  She's very excited about that, because she knows that she can go to preschool when she's three.

 

 

Karina is learning more every week as well.  She can get around in her own way and entertains herself by getting into everything around the house.  We're back to baby proofing our house 100%, which means vacuuming the house constantly and being on the look out for things that she'll tear apart or destroy.

When Karina wants something, she'll get there eventually--but not on her tummy.  She's developed a special technique that doesn't require her to be on her belly--which she hates.

 

And last weekend we went out to a German restaurant just for fun.  (Eliana LOVES going out to eat.)  Prost!