Little Lady

So, these are Henry's 18 month overalls. But, as you can see, that is NOT Henry.

The Only Bottle He Will Take...

Boy Hair

Tonight while Amelia was "helping" with Henry's bath, she was pretending to search for a baby boy. She was hiding in the shower curtain and sticking her head out occasionally and saying, "I'm looking for my boy baby!".

Feeling brave, I asked her, "What's the difference between a boy baby and a girl baby? How do you know that this baby is a boy?".

To which Amelia responded while touching Henry's head, "He has boy hair! See, it looks just like a boy!".

Mother's Day Tea

Ever since Amelia got the Fancy Nancy Tea Party book for Christmas, we've been talking about how much fun it would be to host a tea party of our own. So, about two months ago we got serious and decided we would host a Mother's Day Tea Party for both of Amelia's grandmothers and both of her great-grandmothers. We are lucky to have such wonderful women in our lives!

So before we even sent out invitations, we started copying projects from the book (which I LOVE by the way). The ideas were so cute and simple to recreate and it was perfect for my craft-loving little lady. We tried to complete a project each week or so: decorated placemats, bejeweled plastic ware, tissue paper corsages, place cards, painted flower pots, and a keychain photo album.

Unfortunately I took ZERO pictures of those projects. But, at least Jason got out the camera this morning to get a picture of apron-clad Amelia setting the table. All I had to do was open the Fancy Nancy book to the correct page and she was off matching each place setting to the book!

We had six attendees to our tea party and Amelia was bummed to have to stop after making only six of these fancy place mats.
She was in charge of picking the shape of each place mat, as well as jewel placement. The one below was extra bejeweled because it was the one she made for herself.

Another highlight was added the gems to the forks and spoons. So fun for us both, really.


And in true Fancy Nancy fashion, we folded the napkins accordion-style and put them in the tea cups. Incidentally, we were two tea cups short for our party so my mom went to the antique mall to try to pick up two inexpensive cups. She found this extremely appropriate "Mother" tea cup and saucer. She also got a teeny tiny cup and saucer set for Amelia.

The place cards were mostly Amelia's creation as well. She picked out these princess toothpicks at the store and I added each lady's name. She decided to copy FN's idea to stick them into large marshmallows. Turns out she was just interested in eating them all on party day. Guess I should have seen that coming!

I am honored that she was able to make my place card herself. She has several words that she can write on her own and "MOM" is one of them. Awww.

She made her own place card too. She had to write it very, very small and I am a bit surprised quite frankly that she could do it!

We had practiced some things we could say when our "guests" arrived including, "Welcome to my tea party", "Would you like a corsage?", or "Happy Mother's Day!". When our first guest arrived, "Don't I look fancy?" is what came out of her mouth.

our tissue paper corsages waiting to be passed out

When each guest arrived, she put a corsage on each of their wrists. They were attached with pipe cleaners and she could do it completely by herself, which of course, she enjoyed!



After each lady received her corsage, she was directed to choose a fancy hat to decorate. There were many embellishments to choose from including fake flowers, feathers, jewels, stickers, and greenery. They were put on with a glue gun. I wasn't sure how everyone would feel about this considering the hats were made from plastic bowls and neon construction paper. But, everyone was a great sport and the hats turned out surprisingly cute!

I mean you've seen worse hats at church on Easter Sunday, right?

Of course, we couldn't pass up a group picture of everyone looking equally silly, er, lovely in their homemade hats.

After the hat making was completed, it was time to eat! I have to give full credit at this point to Jason for acting as the tea party chef. Amelia was the sous chef. They planned the menu, grocery shopped, and prepared the entire meal for the party. The food is my LEAST favorite thing to plan for a party so I was eternally grateful for this. And, to top it off, they actually did a great job. Everything was DELICIOUS!

The table prior to devouring the grub. (NOTE: "grub" is NOT a Fancy Nancy word!). I used my grandma's china as well as some of her table scarfs for decoration. I wish that she could have been there with us for the special day, so I felt like it was nice to at least use some of the fancy things that she passed on to me.

What was on the menu you ask? Tiny chicken salad and PB&J sandwiches (complete with fancy toothpicks holding them together and no crust), fruit kebobs, cheese fondue with vegetables and bread for dipping, puppy chow, and a make-your-own ice cream sundae bar for dessert. To drink Jason and Amelia whipped up some pink lemonade and some tea (duh!) complete with cut up lemons in the pitcher and lemon slices for our cups.

I'm pretty sure Amelia was trying to make sure everyone was drinking with their pinkies up in this picture!

While we ate, I decided to share what Amelia made me at school for Mother's Day. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the drawing she made that was on the other side, but I really liked the answer to the questions that were asked. Particularly, "My mom likes to make things that I don't like to eat". Sigh. At least I was pretty when we went to Tennessee I guess!

Even though the tea party was supposed to be girls only, Amelia granted a special exemption to Henry who got all dressed up for the occasion.

And, actually he ended up in a seat of honor during the meal--Amelia's coveted princess chair that Henry has grown to know and love.

that face says: please burn this picture as soon as I'm old enough to understand what its all about.

And, we certainly could not have had a Mother's Day tea party without a special little gift for each lady to take home. Luckily, I had these tins leftover from Amelia's birthday party last year and they were perfect for the photo key ring I made for each mom/grandma.

Amelia also spent a lot of time painting pots for each special woman. She did a great job and they turned out so cute! We planted some impatiens in each pot the weekend before the party.

After we ate, Henry entertained us with some rolling over and Amelia played a few "pretty" songs on her princess piano. After she got bored with that, she grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics of the party. I'm actually glad she did because she got some good ones!

NOTE: These pictures have been significantly cut down from the 35 or so that she originally took.

And last of all, a few pictures with my special lady and some of the amazing women in her life:

Great Grandma Ward and Amelia

GG and Amelia

Grandma and Amelia

Great Grandma Sinovich and Amelia

Thanks for a lovely tea party ladies! We will have to make this an annual tradition for sure!

Busch Wildlife

Each year, our Parents As Teachers group organizes two trips out to Busch Wildlife--one in the fall and another in the spring. And for the last three years or so, I have been wanting to take Amelia to one of these meetings, but have found an excuse each time to not go.

Boy have I (we) been missing out! We finally made it out there a few weeks ago and Amelia had a great time! And given the proposed PAT budget cuts, I am glad we went because it sounds like that might be the last time such a trip is organized.

Upon our arrival, the kids were allowed to roam freely in a classroom that was set up with various animal pelts, fossils, rocks, animal puppets, turtle shells, magnifying glasses, and the like. I love this picture below! That's my girl!

These are special glasses that show you how it looks through a bug's eyes.

After a short time exploring the room, there was a short presentation by a Busch Wildlife staff member. She talked about all the animals you might see in your backyard and showed the children a box turtle. She even let them "pet" the turtle.

After the turtle, she brought out a tiny green snake. The kids could only look, but not touch him because he was so thin and fragile. Amelia loved watching it "snake" around the girl's arm.

After the classroom presentation part, we took a short walk in the woods. I had no idea Amelia would be so into it! It makes me realize I need to take her out in nature more often. That will definitely be a summer goal.

Bird watching (she looks like she knows what she's doing, no?)

Henry was along for the ride too. Mostly crabbing along the trail. He was not nearly as impressed as his sister was.

The "hike" instructor pointed out two tiny birds nest (in a tiny tree, of course). Can you spot them both in the picture?

All that "hiking" made us hungry. Luckily I packed a lunch because it was a beautiful day for a picnic!



Henry was a little more tolerant after getting out of his car seat and/or baby Bjorn.

We plan on returning soon to Busch Wildlife--maybe with Daddy this time. There is so much more to explore and Amelia cannot wait to check it all out!

Decisions, Decisions

I've read numerous times that you should take your kid(s) to the grocery store and let them pick out a new fruit or vegetable that they would like to try. I thought we'd give it a go.

Amelia's first choice was cauliflower. Why? I have no idea! She wasn't impressed with it AT ALL, but luckily let me chop it up into tiny little pieces and add it to her spaghetti. She ate it, albeit unwillingly. Apparently the dog was more interested since she pulled the entire head off the counter and chomped it down while I was upstairs bathing Amelia.

So, despite the first attempt being less than successful, we gave the produce section another try. This time Amelia picked both mangoes and plums. Both were well received! Hurray!


And just yesterday, I told Amelia that its good for our bodies to eat fruits and vegetables of all colors of the rainbow everyday. And if you know my little girl, you know she latches on to anything having to do with rainbows. Yesterday, she had something from every color of the rainbow except purple. Today? Well, let's just say we need to do better. And luckily I have just the person to remind me everyday (or more like every hour actually!) about what we should be eating.

Everyday is Earth Day!

Tree hugging on Earth Day 2010!

All About Month Four

Well, month four brought LOTS of changes around here! The first is a bit of an unfortunate one, I suppose. After approximately 2.5 months of sleeping through the night consistently, Mr. Henry decided to give it up. Near the middle of the month, he started waking up 2 times each night to eat--usually three hours apart. The doctor warned me that this might happen because of his large size. She thought he may get to a point where breast milk alone wasn't enough.

You can swaddle me all you want, but you can't make me sleep.

So, the next change of the month was the beginning of solid foods. I would have liked to wait a little longer, but I also really like my sleep. Where it took Amelia about 4 or 5 months to get the knack of eating, it took Henry a mere 4 or 5 minutes. Immediately, he took to the spoon and the cereal. He eats amounts already that Amelia would never even dream of consuming. Rice cereal mixed with breastmilk, formula, or even water is great with Henry. He's also a fan of oatmeal as well. Almost immediately he began having it twice each day and the first night we offered it to him in the evening, he slept all night.

Cereal, oatmeal, my fingers....it doesn't really matter, its all good!

This, of course, put us over the moon--but, unfortunately the change was only temporary. After a few nights of sleeping all night, he has started waking again. Sigh...back to the old drawing board...

This month also brought several birthday parties: Daddy's, Great Grandma Sinovich's, and Baby Elise's (who I guess is no longer a baby now that she is ONE!).


In other news, Henry decided to wait until almost exactly the four month point to get rollin'. I guess he wanted to wait until he could master front to back and back to front rolling together because he did both of them on the same day. He is slowly working his way off of his play mat and I know that it is only a matter of time before we will need to get the baby proofing going again. He is already grabbing EVERYTHING in sight and shoving it into his mouth as fast as he can. He is such a happy baby and will smile at just about anyone, at anytime, for any reason. Oh, to be that content with life!

And his four month check-up brought a surprise or two as well. First, our little man apparently has a third nipple. A triple nipple if you will. I had noticed a wart-like growth on his chest and apparently that is the verdict!


The doctor was very supportive of solids twice a day and said that by 6 months he should be having them 3 times. She had to do some seemingly painful maneuvering with his circumcision but luckily Henry didn't seem to mind it.

His stats were as follows:

Weight: 18 pounds, 5 ounces (95th percentile)
Height: 26.25 inches (91st percentile)
Head Circumference: (85th percentile)

Still a big guy!
Its hard to believe, but I guess we are on to month 5!