Brat Fest and the Terror of the Wheel

We recently went to the wonderful Brat Fest here in Madison. It was simply delicious! There was all sorts of rides for kiddos and yummy food and beer. Esme has never been on any fair rides so she was in for a surprise! She went on the carousel, the mini roller coaster with Rory, the big Ferris Wheel with me and Rory and the princess bounce house. I have never been a fan of fair rides...I used to go on them when I young but I pretty much tortured myself by making myself sick. We went with our friends Annie and Brenty and they stayed (safely, comfortably, smartly) on the ground with Scarlett while Rory, Esme, and myself rode the Ferris Wheel. I guess I don't like heights anymore. I don't like being up high in a death cart with the people I love most in the world. I was a bit uncomfortable to say the least. Rory couldn't get over how "ridiculous" I was behaving. The carts we were in were large and spacious I'll give it that, but they are not the safest things in the world if you ask me. Esme kept going on her knees and I kept begging Rory to keep a hand on her at all times. If Esme didn't go on her knees she couldn't see any of the "beautiful sights." Oh boy. Thank the good green earth that this ferris wheel was slow and after a few times around was over. I don't think I'll ever have to go back on one of them for the rest of my life.

New subject: Scarlett the Great!

Scarlett is so funny and happy and sweet! Her favorite thing these days is being told how great she is so that she can clap. If you say 'good job', 'yay', or 'big girl' Scarlett claps for herself. She is at the age where she is so proud of everything she does. She also loves to eat Cheerios. She could eat them all day and be happy as a clam. She cruises around the furniture and lets go for seconds at a time before realizing she is standing and then either falls on her butt or quickly hangs on. She loves to follow Esme to her bedroom to play which is so adorable.

We've been spending all sorts of time outdoors lately and it's been wonderful. We've become friends with our neighbors Debbie and Jose and their dog Bugey. Esme is obsessed with going over to their house and Esme is crazy for their puppy. She makes this excited noise everytime she sees him and smacks her lips for a kiss.

The Latest from the Welch Clan

For starters, I got my hair chopped off! Hooray! I believe the last time I had my hair cut was when I was in Tulsa last year at Easter. I think. It was definitely needed for the summer!
Last week Brad, Cristen, Anne and Claire came to Madison for three days to visit. They stayed in a hotel within walking distance to our house which was awesome! We had a lot of fun playing in the pool with the kids and eating all the free food the hotel offered! They had social hour during the week for dinner so one night we had grilled burgers with the fixin's and the next night they ordered pizza. Also a keg of Leine's Beer was available for all to drink! Pretty nice deal if you ask me. It was Scarlett's first time swimming and she loved it. At first she was pretty unsure of the whole situation but after about 15 mintues she was loving it. She was happily floating around the pool in her boat while the three adults were tending to the three older children. Claire was fearless and had a blast jumping off the side of the pool to Brad. Esme did really well with an intertube and floaties on her arms. Anne is the opposite of Claire but once in awhile she gets moments of bravery and ungrasps herself from you!
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before but I am pretty busy these days being a nanny again! I watch a 3 month old baby girl named Matilda everyday until 1:30pm. I also watch my friend Jessica's son Shade who is 3 around three days a week. He and Esme have a blast playing together and it's really nice for Esme to have a playmate. With four kids under 4 I am pretty busy. It does make my days go by pretty quickly and I tend to have a lot of energy! I don't have time to be tired anymore! When the kids leave and I am left with my two, it feels like a breeze!
That's all for now! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend!

Easter 2009

We had a lot of fun this Easter! Me and the girls went to St. Paul to stay with Brad and Cristen and Rory stayed home. He was supposed to work on Easter then at the last minute he didn't have to. He could have come with but he already had friends coming to visit for the weekend and had plans to go to a concert. Even though we were apart we both had a very fun weekend. Anne and Esme had a blast coloring eggs and even more fun finding them Easter morning. I thought that it might be crazy chaos when the hunt started with shrieking and screaming and grabbing and pushing...but in reality the girls were so good about it all. They worked together finding eggs. They were overjoyed with every egg they found and just had a blast! Claire really was just all about eating the eggs. She loves hard boiled eggs so much that during the coloring she took a big CHOMP out of an egg; shell and all. Anne and Esme spent the majority of the weekend playing Princess and the Pauper. They each have the Barbie version of the story and happily pretended they were Annaliese and Erika all weekend. We were also able to spend a bit of time outside. We played in the backyard and walked to the park to play there.

Bowling and "BOB"

Things are going pretty well for us at the Welch household. I finally found a nanny job for a sweet little 2 month old. I start that position this week. Wish us all luck! For our friend Brent's birthday we all went bowling! Annie, Brenty, Rory, me and the girls. It was Esme's first time bowling and she had a blast! She really got into it and before each roll she would scream at the top of her lungs in a deep husky voice, "READY???!!!! ONE!!!!!! TWO!!!!!!! THREE!!!!!!!!!!" She then let it roll. The Dude would have been proud. Scarlett has recently started to love saying the letter 'B'. She says bubba bubba, what sounds like Baby and Baa. Our favorite word that she says is 'Bob.' It is the cutest thing in the world. She'll look at you and just say 'Bob.' Rory and I told her that if she wants to call her Dad Bob for the time being that would be fine with us. Scarlett has been a busy little baby learning all sorts of things this month. She will be 8 months old tomorrow and she signs "more" for more food when eating and can do the "milk" sign for nurse. She can grab your nose when you ask her where it is and she crawled forward for the first time this past Sunday! I missed it though because I was at the store, but her father and sister swear it happened. She really can move all around the house now, what with rolling, crawling backward, and kind of throwing herself forward. Her biggest motivation is Esme and Esme's toys. Especially the barbies. The girls and I will be heading to St. Paul this weekend to spend Easter with my brother Brad and his family and we are super excited about it. Rory has to stay home because he can't ask off for the whole weekend. We will miss him bunches but at least he has some friends coming into town for a concert, so that will take his mind of missing his family a little bit. That's all I have to report for now. Will post again after the weekend in Minnesota.

WOW! Something New!

A lot has changed since the last time I posted on here! I've been so very bad about keeping our blog up to date and I vow right here and now to do better.

It is now the middle of March and we have been living in our own house since February 1st. We live in a lovely duplex on the far east side of Madison. We really like being on the East side but ideally we'd like to be a little bit closer to the center of town. We have a very nice backyard which we've already made use of with the lovely weather we've been having!

Scarlett is of course changing all the time! She looks a bit different than she did from my last post in December. She is very much a Mama's girl which is a different story from when Esme was a baby. Esme was a complete Daddy's girl and still is! Scarlett has many nicknames which we bestowed upon her from her early weeks. Some of them are: Scarbo (from Rory calling her Greta Scarbo), Scarlito (Scarlito's Way), Scarborough Fair (obvious), Scarbo Cutepants, and Scar. When I was pregnant with her I swore I'd never call her Scar, but it has stuck. Scarlett is sitting up by herself, crawling (scooting really) backwards and around in a circle and babbling all of the time. She recently discovered blowing raspberries and does it so much that sometimes she does it in her sleep! She is very passionate about eating food. So far her favorite is sharing a banana with me. She also loves rice cereal and sweet potatoes. She is on the fence when it comes to avocado though. She is also very good at drinking water from an open cup.

Scarbo's favorite person is still Esme of course. It doesn't matter what Esme is doing she loves it! Esme dances for her, sings to her, holds her, lifts her up and moves her around on the floor, plays pretend with her, reads to her, and is just super attentive to her little sister. She is always making up songs about how she loves being her big sister and that they will always be together. I am so happy and proud of Esme for being such a wonderful big sister. She takes her role very seriously. Esme is taking some time adjusting to our new house. She mentions quite often how she wants to live back in Stevens Point at our old house with all of her friends. I think now that it's getting to be spring and we will be able to get out of the house and do more things she will start feeling better about being in Madison.

I feel that this is already a novella so I will stop for now, but I promise to make more frequent posts with all of the fun things we are doing in Madison! Happy Spring Everyone!