On (or maybe I should say "in") a Roll

Amelia's room isn't that big, but yet she has come up with a lengthy list of places to nap in it. Her bed, of course, is her mom's preferred spot for her to rest. But, often Amelia prefers to sleep under the bed, on the window seat, or behind the blinds.

But, when I went to check on her the other day during naptime, I really really did not expect to see this:


Can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Add it to the List

In case you were wondering what to get Amelia for her upcoming birthday, she spotted this the other day at Hackmann Hardware and requested it be added to her birthday list.

Check out that (gulp) price tag! Hope she's not holding her breath.

Wee Ones Workout

I LOVE our district's Parents As Teachers program (and I'm not just saying that because my educator is an occasional reader of the blog). A few weeks ago, we dropped Amelia off at school and then went to Wee Ones Workout for birth-24 month olds. I ALMOST didn't go because I saw the woman in charge unloading a sit-n-spin and a mini trampoline and I kept wondering what she could possibly bring for Henry to do.

Turns out, she had TONS for Henry. Quite unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, but I can assure you that he enjoyed himself immensely being rubbed with a feather, kicking a "kick board", rolling on a bolster, and magic blanket riding around the room. Perhaps his favorite thing, though, was a water bottle filled with shiny beads and sparkly pom poms. He was mesmerized by its beauty and hypnotized by its melody when shaken.

So, after we picked Amelia up from school (she will never know this, but the Wee Ones Workout was in the same building as her school), we came home and made our very own plastic bottle rattle.

This was right up Amelia's alley. She got to cut apart one of her thousands of bead necklaces and pick out appropriate pom pom's (no pink was her rule!) to put inside the bottle.

It was a big hit with Henry too! No surprise there!

Party Pics!

Thought I'd add these pics from Jason's birthday. Yes, it has been nearly 3 weeks, but the pictures are still pretty cute!

Amelia and I spent the ENTIRE morning decorating the house for the big birthday celebration. Seriously, I think we taped crepe paper around for like 3 hours that morning. I should have taken pictures of Amelia's "interesting" decorating.

Then we headed out to the mall to pick up a cookie cake for Jason's birthday. That was his request and I know you can make them at home, but I think there is nothing better than a cookie cake from the mall. YUM! Amelia picked out the colors, border, picture design, shape, and even the message on the cake (Suprise Daddy! is what she choose). It was fun and sooo delicious!



We met both sets of parents at our new favorite, local Mexican restaurant. Then, back to our house for cake afterwards. Do you see Amelia's "vase" of "flowers" (blue cup of dandelions) on the table next to the cookie cake box? She picked those for our centerpiece! Such a fun day!

Another Blog or Two

For a long time now, I have been attempting to keep journals for both kids. I started each one during the pregnancy of each child and haven't done much with them since. I think Henry's is a total of about 5 entries and Amelia's isn't much more.

A few weeks ago, while looking around on the internets, I came across an idea to keep separate blogs for each kids. Essentially an online journal that can be printed in to a book down the road. And so yesterday I started one for both Henry and Amelia. For some reason, I think keeping them electronically will be more successful. THIS blog covers the bigger events in our lives, but I hardly write about everyday events. I hope to write just a paragraph or two on days that something noteworthy happens.

Don't worry, you won't have to read about all of the mundane details of our lives. I set the blogs to private. Just thought I'd pass the idea along in case anyone else was looking for a way to keep things documented.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Apparently the Easter bunny reads this blog because on Easter morning, Amelia found the following note on our bedroom door. The very door she enters each morning to greet us upon awaking.


That clever Easter bunny stole our camera and took pictures of different places around our house while we were sleeping. Then, he set up a photo scavenger hunt to lead Amelia to her basket. The first picture (above) is a painting located in Amelia's playroom that Jason painted.

Once she understood what the point of the activity was, she was off!

That crazy Easter Bunny led her up and down all three levels of our house. Here she is snatching a picture clue from one of her bath toys.

There was another clue behind the shower curtain in her bathroom.

And another inside her Curious George movie.

The second to last clue led her to her easel and on it was the final picture clue showing one of the vinyl stickers in Henry's room.

And there, next to the sticker was her basket! This was such great fun for her, I might just have to steal the Easter Bunny's idea and do it again!

Money Talks

Jason recently taught Amelia that her age is "Three and three-quarters". For several days, anytime she was asked her age (which happens often given her chattiness with strangers), she would reply, "I'm three and three-quarters".

The other day, however, when she was asked the reply was different. "I'm three and three dimes," she said.

"Three and three dimes?", I said. " You mean three and three-quarters, don't you?".

To which Amelia replied, "No, I am three and three dimes. I like dimes better than quarters because they are so cute and tiny".

Easter '10

This year's Easter celebration was insanely busy, but equally as fun. I will try to keep this short and sweet (which incidentally was very different from our day!).

Our morning started at a respectable 7 AM, with a scavenger hunt set up by the BIG bunny himself (more on that in the next post though). Then it was the typical egg hunt at the ol' homestead. Amelia hunted 29 eggs in record time!

Here's Henry trying to figure out what the heck his sister is so excited about.

The Easter bunny opted to bring Henry a truck this year until his family has the chance to pick him up an Easter basket. He was "digging" it!


He also got a new sun hat. The good news is that he desperately needed one. The bad news? It won't fit him until he's like 4.


This picture was taken shortly before Amelia started hitting up Jason for a piece of candy. It went something like this, "Mommy, uh, I mean Daddy, can I have a piece of candy?". She obviously has learned who she has the best shot with!

Shortly thereafter, it was on to house #2: GG and Papa's. The Easter Bunny had made a stop there, too, apparently. He decided to do an outside hunt which was a nice change for the little one. There were 20ish eggs to find there, all hidden in the front yard. All were walked right past by Amelia when we went from the car to the house upon our arrival. She practically had to step over some to make it to the front door!

Amelia decided to take a break mid-hunt to pick some flowers. Check out those coordinating purple nails!

This picture is far from Eastery, but cute nonetheless. In case you don't know, my mom has an obsession with Betty Boop and has an entire shrine-like bathroom dedicated to her. Amelia loves to get in there and find breakable things. I went to check on her and she was (no surprise) in the room goofing around. I loved her little "busted" smile!


Handsome Henry! He looked so sharp in his button down green striped shirt and his matching argyle sweater vest. Too bad it was like 85 degrees. He shed that outfit SUPER fast by the time we got to house #3.

And speaking of house #3, this is the ONLY picture I took there. I have a really bad habit of starting out strong and then fizzling quickly with my picture taking.

House #3 had yet another outdoor egg hunt and more food to eat. By the time we reached house #4, both kids were wiped! (As were Jason and I!).

The short nap for the two little ones, did them well. The final egg hunt of the day was a nighttime one. We waited until it got very dark and then everyone headed out with flashlights to find some eggs. It was really fun, but I think we were missing 15ish eggs by the time we gave up finding anymore!

So, like I said it was lots of fun and very exhausting! We are so lucky to have such great families to celebrate holidays with. Everyone is so generous with our children and it is always a wonderful time!

Measuring the Man

In a desperate attempt to keep Henry's baby book exactly up to date, I set out to get his 3 month measurements a few weeks ago. As you may or may not know, most doctors don't require infants to come in during month 3, so these measurements were far from "official". We had a good time anyway climbing on to the table and giving it our best shot.

Mr. go-with-the-flow had no problems lounging on the hard table.

After witnessing her brother getting to spread out on the table, Amelia wanted a shot as well. We obliged and let her lounge a bit, but to get an accurate measure of her, she had to stand against the wall.

Henry decided to take this opportunity to see if we could get a handful of his sister's hair--his new favorite pastime. Luckily (for now anyway) Amelia thinks this is great fun and often puts her head of hair near his hand in an attempt to get him to grab it.


Twenty-six inches it is! Upon hearing this, Henry decided he better get going on practicing those b-ball skills (see the basketball rattle in his chubby little hand?).

Dye Baby Dye!

Not much to say about this post.

Eggs+Dye=happy children

Trickster

April Fool's Day is hardly a universally recognized holiday, I know. But I just can't help getting into it now that I have children and get those parenting magazines that include tons of cute little ideas for playing jokes. And although I got the magazines this year, I didn't have enough time to schedule and complete the "jokes" I wanted to play. We did a little better last year, even though Amelia totally didn't get what was going on.

This year we started the morning explaining the concept to Amelia. She immediately tried to "trick" me by saying I wasn't wearing any pants. Then it was, "Mom! There's a turtle in the backyard!". Before the day was over, I was "tricked" no fewer than four million times. Henry disappeared! There are two babies in the car seat! The lamp is on! The fun never stopped.

Jason suggested a few tricks she could play on her teachers and friends while she was at school. They were only mildly successful and didn't quench her need to April Fool me. The "tricking" started immediately upon picking her up.

I decided to channel her trickery into making a dirt cake. She had plans to spend the night at my parent's house that evening so we made a small version for us and a small one for them.

Not surprisingly, it was a big hit! The next day after coming back home we tricked Jason with the second cake.

And that was about the extent of our foolin' around. At least on that day. The fun has continued since April 1, apparently Amelia thinks that April Fool's lasts all month. Lucky us...

Dad Turns 32!

Happy Birthday to the best chef, lawn boy, money-maker, hug and kiss giver, rough-houser, singer, occasional diaper changer, chauffeur, photographer, guitarist, mechanic, grill master, researcher, carpenter, treat giver, doctor, storyteller, bottle giver (kind of), dog walker, garbage putter outer, teacher, gardener, and daddy around.

We love you!

Hard to Believe We're Up to THREE!

I know I sound a bit like a broken record, but the months seem to be getting quicker and quicker as each one passes. It's true what they say that things go faster with the second. Sheesh.


Well, month #3 brought Henry's first family vacation among other things. His first picnic, his first St. Patty's Day, his first NCAA tourney, and his first swim. He has really filled out this month and graduated to 6-9 month clothes (and 12 month onesies near the end of month 3!). I also bit the bullet and moved him up to size 3 diapers despite having (gulp) nearly 40 left. I think it was the day of 6 outfit changes that finally pushed me over the edge...

don't believe a word she says...do I look like I would cause any trouble?

In an attempt to fill in the "12 week" weight/height slot in Henry's baby book, I did some measuring. It appears that he is approximately 17 pounds and 26 inches. Of course, this is far from an exact science.

peacefully enjoying his first St. Patrick's Day

We continue to luck out with Henry in nearly every category. He is sleeping between 8-10 hours each night (closer to 10 usually!). He is generally a pretty happy fellow, even withstanding full body hugs and constant probing from his big sis. He also doesn't seem to mind the persistent licking and sniffing from Truman. With each passing day, he gets more giggly and now even does full out laughing on occasion. He gives "kisses" too, which is really fun! Although, I think they are more a result of something being near his mouth than an actual "kiss". He has found his hands and studies them with great interest. Often, they end up in his mouth and can be heard slurping them from the back seat. The boy can blow some serious raspberries too. But not on demand, so don't ask him.

sporting his swimming suit that no longer fits him a mere 30 days later

Notice, however, that I said that we've lucked out in nearly every category. Mr. Henry still isn't that interested in taking a bottle. My mom took the challenge on last week to get him to take it and after only 5 hours, he gave in. Of course, we haven't given him one since....can't decide who is really at fault here. I'm not sure it's Henry though....


And Amelia seems to continue to adjust to the changes around the house. She really loves Henry and loves to show him new things. She even has a handful of books that she can "read" to him because she has memorized the pages. Amelia is certainly Henry's favorite person to watch move around the house!

This month we have had to continually adjust the swaddling arrangements due to Henry busting out of everything we try. He likes to get that hand out so that he can suck on it.

Her temper tantrums seem to be getting better, although she certainly still has her moments. We continue to talk up all of the advantages of being a "big girl" and have even started a responsibility chart with her, where she picked out which chores she would be responsible for each week. Her enthusiasm about it is lukewarm at best, but we keep trying!

feeling a bit crabby
(yes, this picture was set up)

So there you have it, 25% of the way through the first year. Slow down big guy, slow down!

Three Months!