Nine Months!

Born to be Wild

Another day, another bike ride.  This girl seriously cannot get enough!  We chose a new path this time that was lined with wildflowers.  I usually spend most of my time lecturing (over and over) that we CANNOT pick flowers, but even I couldn't resist these.  So, I told her she could pick one of each color and did a lot of explaining as to why we could pick THESE flowers, but not OTHER flowers.  Hopefully I didn't create a monster.  They really were beautiful!

Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

 As part of Amelia's "Summer Fun List",  she mentioned wanting to take in a Cardinal's baseball game.  My dad came through with free tickets, so we decided to give it a try with both kids.  (Grandma came along to help, keeping the adult to kid ratio at a tolerable 3:2).

 I was a little worried that Henry might be a little alarmed by the loud noises at the game.  Luckily, there was so much for him to see, he didn't even seem to notice the loud crowd around us.  He was VERY antsy though and poor Jason ended up pacing the stadium with Henry riding along in the Bjorn.  He was fine when he was moving, but had no interest at all in sitting still on anyone's lap.

Now Miss-I'm-Not-Wearing-Cardinal-Red-Because-I-Like-This-Beautiful-Dress-Better, was perfectly content sitting in her chair (or occasionally on the laps of others, including a complete stranger who she befriended in front of us), as long as she had peanuts in hand.

 We made it to the top of the 7th inning, which was far longer than I thought we would.  Unfortunately the game got moved from 6:15 pm up to 3:15 pm and we didn't found out about it until the day of the game.  It was a pretty warm day, too, so by the time we left everyone was sweaty and exhausted!

 We had such a good time, though, that we are going to give it another try next weekend with more grandparents in tow and more free tickets!  This time, however, we are leaving Mr. Antsy Pants behind!

Another trip to the zoo

 If I didn't know any better, I would say that Henry is becoming a regular at the zoo, just like his sister.  We headed there again last week in an effort to spend some of the passes we received as zoo members a year ago.  Despite visiting the zoo probably a dozen times in the last year, we STILL have 16 anywhere passes and 4 parking passes left.  We are most likely renewing our membership, so maybe we will do better next year?

 We met our friend "baby" Elise and her mom, Erin.  The girls seemed to enjoy each others company.  Or maybe more accurately, Amelia enjoyed mothering Elise all around the zoo.  Luckily, Elise is a pretty easy going little lady and didn't seem to mind the (s)mothering too much. 

 We made a stop at the Zoomagination Station--one of our most favorite places to be at the zoo.  Half-joking, I asked Amelia if she wanted to dress up like a huge bug.  She was pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing and really enjoyed gazing at her cockroach-self in the mirror.  It's hard to believe that this is the same girl that throws on a princess dress any chance she gets.

Henry was there too!  As you can see, he enjoyed his first encounter with the Zoomagination Station.

 

 

 

Turns out it is a little tricky keeping an eye on two different kids heading in opposite directions.  Since Henry can't get very far, very fast I kept my eye on Amelia mostly.  Within 5 minutes at the water table, he was SOAKING wet!  Soaking wet and smiling, that is.

Grandparent's Day 2010

Much like Grandparent's Day at Amelia's school last year, she was joined by both my mom and Jason's mom this year.  The special day happened to fall on one of Amelia's full days of school.  Grandma joined her in the morning through lunch and GG came up for lunch and stayed with her until the end of the day.

Both ladies had great things to say about the day (did I mention that Grandparent's Day is really a chance for me to question our moms incessantly to find out what REALLY goes on in Amelia's classes?).

Amelia was excited to share her day with these two special ladies.  In fact, on the way home, my mom mentioned that she almost fell asleep.  The poor girl was a mess for the rest of the night given all the excitement of the day!

Full of Hot Air

It is a tradition of ours to attend the Forest Park Balloon Glow every year.  Since Jason and I have been dating, I think we have made it to all but one "glow".  Back in the old days, we would pack some cheese, crackers, and wine and enjoy the view (and a quiet night) from a distance.

 

Times have changed a bit. This ALMOST became another year we didn't attend.  Jason was out of town during the week and his plane didn't even land until 5 pm Friday night.  We picked him up at the airport, then picked up dinner on the way down to Forest Park.   I packed a bottle of wine and some plastic cups--although it wasn't quite the same as the "good ol' days".

In fact, it was 5 years ago that we packed a bottle of wine and a picnic and headed down for the Balloon Glow.  While in route, I told Jason that I was pregnant.  Needless to say, only one of us enjoyed the wine that night.  But it is a little surreal to think about that night and look at where we are now!

Even though Henry was pretty crabby going down, both kids did awesome once we got out of the car!  We had a picnic before the balloons started blowing up and then walked around the grounds and found some friends.

We left shortly before the fireworks started, but enjoyed the show on the way back to the car.  Henry fell asleep immediately after getting back into the stroller.  Amelia, on the other hand, stayed awake (and quite chatty) the whole. way. home.  It was almost 11 by the time she got into bed!

Not that you would be able to tell by the pictures, but I was there too!  And so were our friends, Susie, Mike, Natalie, and Emma.  Along with friends of theirs.  All the kids know each other and play great!  There was the perfect combination of snacks, glow sticks, and girly conversation to keep everyone happy (poor Henry was the only boy).  

It was a great start to our very busy weekend!

Look! I changed something!

Yep, you are still in the right place.  After YEARS of sticking with the SAME template, I decided to spend 5 minutes changing it around a bit.  I'm not making any promises, though, that the blog won't stay exactly the same for the next 4 years.  We will see when another available 5 minutes (and some motivations) presents itself...

Likin' the Bikin'

Amelia has logged over 7 miles the past two weekends on her Barbie bike. She was getting much more confident on her bike riding in our court, so we decided it was time to try it out on a real path. So, on Labor Day we first ventured to Creve Coeur Park for a little ride.

I figured we would bike the area the that touches the lake and back--maybe a mile. But, before I knew it, we were halfway around the Lake. And at that point, there was no point in turning around. Not that Amelia wanted to--she was having the time of her life! She ended up finishing the entire 3.7 mile loop without one single complaint. She even took a spill about 3/4 of the way around, but she got right back on and kept going!

We loved it so much that we headed back out this past weekend. Henry and I walk-ran it this time to try and keep the biking Amelia and Jason in sight. I decided to pack Amelia some snacks this outing which led to about 5 snack breaks along the way (making it much easier for Henry and I to keep up).

I love Creve Coeur park--a flat, easy path that is mostly shaded! The Lake is beautiful and Amelia thinks she is in the "forest" when we get to the wooded area. Once the leaves change colors, I think it will be even better!

Henry's Baptism

Well, I am a little embarrassed to say that I just finally got around to getting Henry baptized. I could lay out all of the excuses for you, but it doesn't really matter. Amelia was about the same age and as I get older, I have noticed that my overachiever, early bird tendencies have been replaced with complete procrastination.

Maybe we waited so long to ensure that we had the MOST beautiful weekend of the year. We chose Labor Day weekend, mostly so that we would have a day to recover.

We actually managed to get to church a little early which was great! We had time for a couple of pictures ahead of time. We got lucky to have only 3 babies being baptized that day. I think there were more than 10 at Amelia's baptism. The service was about an hour and fairly informal (which I appreciated). I think the informalness was supposed to make it more personal, maybe?

We were so blessed to have a wonderful showing at the church to share Henry's special day. I think there were around 35 people just to see the big guy get dipped! His baptism outfit (that I had to stuff his little body into) was the same outfit Jason was baptized in. I couldn't snap the onesie part between his legs because it was too small, so my mom whipped up a pair of white shorts for him to wear. My friend, Susie, tracked down some adorable white cross socks for him to sport.

We chose Jason's brother, Dave, to be Henry's godfather and my dear friend, Susie, to be his godmother. Doesn't it look like they coordinated outfits? I couldn't think of two better people to fill this important role in Henry's life!

Amelia thought the best part of having Susie as Henry's godmother, was having her best bud, Natalie, at the church and the after party. They were pretty excited to be wearing nearly matching headbands.

Although Henry has been pretty unsure of "strange" men lately (and even men who are fairly known to him), he had no problems with the deacon touching him and talking to him. He wasn't particularly smiley with him, but we also didn't hide his face or cry. Here he is getting the sign of the cross on his chest with the oil of catechumens.

When it came time for the water, we opted to have it poured only on his head (as opposed to full body submersion like Amelia had at her baptism). I love that the deacon told Amelia to stand on the lower part of the baptismal font so that she could get a good look at what was going on. Henry was very go-with-the-flow about the whole thing and actually decided about halfway through to arch his back in an effort to dip his entire head in the water.

Thank goodness Mike "the nanny" Burns was in attendance!

Post ceremony, we headed back to our house for the party. The weather was wonderful so people could enjoy the day inside or out. We had appetizers and cake and Amelia helped Henry open all of his gifts! I don't have a single party pic (shame on me!). In classic Jodi-style, I started out strong at the church and fizzled with my picture taking as the day went on. Hopefully I will be able to steal some from others for poor Henry's sake!

One more of the ladies!

Four generations of men in Jason's family. Jason's grandpa Sinovich, Jason, Henry, Jason's grandpa Ward, and Jason's dad.

I lied! I do have ONE picture of what Henry looked like post-baptism. It wasn't actually taken the day of the party, though, so maybe I didn't lie... Either way, enjoy this one of my sweet little baptized man.

one dollar skirt

I fell upon one of the coolest projects I've ever seen thanks to my daily check-in with the Crafty Crow. And the best part was that the project was just as simple as it seemed.

Much like the Filth Wizardry author, we started with a flour sack from the Dollar Tree. I cut it in half and sewed it into a strip. I gave Amelia a set of my colored Sharpie markers and let her go to town. (I am keeping directions SUPER short here since in depth directions are located at the link above).

I taped the flour sack strip to the plastic tablecloth I was using to keep it from moving. The Fruit Loops in the middle of the table are for snacking purposes only.

Amelia was SO. INTO. THIS. PROJECT. I should have written down all of the stories she was telling me about the drawings. I know for sure there is a picture of Amelia and Henry at school during show-n-tell. Amelia is showing a necklace and Henry is showing a giraffe. She also wrote her name, drew the entire Wizard of Oz cast and a whole host of other stuff.

My favorite was her "sparkle heart".

When she was satisfied with the drawings (meaning we were pretty much out of room), I robbed some paint from my mom's ridiculous stash. I watered it down and gave Amelia various brushes to paint the material. Surprisingly to me, sponge brushes worked best. My only requirement is that I told her not to leave any white.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the painting or drying process. But, when it was painted and dried, I attempted to heat set the paint (the same way as described in the link above) and then I washed the material. I then passed it off to my mom along with Amelia's waist measurements so that my mom could add some elastic and turn it into a skirt. I am sure I could have completed this sewing project myself, but with all we had going on that week, I gladly passed it on to my mom.

And Amelia (and I) LOVE the finished product!

Can you tell she loves it?

Nature Walkin'

When we created the Summer Fun List, Amelia was adamant about putting a "nature walk" on the list. We had visited Busch Wildlife in May and I think she wanted to get back again because she enjoyed it so much. The older Jason gets, the less interested he becomes in spending time in nature (yes, he is a PLANT biologist). So, once again, I was on my own to get this one marked off the list.

Since we enjoyed Busch Wildlife so much the last time, I thought we would head there again. They have a fairly short, paved trail and an inside nature area to explore. Plus, they have a couple of points of interest on the trail.

Below is a huge wall that was built with small "windows" cut into it. On the other side of the wall are dozens of bird houses and feeders where numerous birds are always dining. While we were watching them eat, a deer walked by! That was really the highlight of the trip for me!



Other than two bridges on the trail, it is super stroller friendly. Amelia chose the "long" loop which I think was slightly over a mile long.

She brought her nature box to collect some things along the way. We ended up with some acorns, gum balls, a beautiful leaf, and some hickory nuts.

Amelia decided to get in on the camera action. I will leave out all of the close up pictures of leaves and sticks. She did manage to get one picture with a subject or two, though.

Seeing the deer was the first highlight of our day. The second was happening upon story time while we were there. Under a huge oak tree, a Busch Wildlife employee had various blankets and carpet squares set out for people to sit on. She had a huge stack of books and basically sat there and read to anyone interested in listening for two hours!

Jackpot! This is right up our alley. Did I mention she had about a million puppets for the kids to play and snuggle with too?


The ONLY bad thing to come out of this story time were some chiggers on all of us the next day.

In the end, we were the last ones standing. At one point, I thought Amelia was going to lay down and take a nap while listening to the story. We could have stayed the entire two hours, but I felt bad that the girl was reading to just my kid, essentially. It turned out really good, though, because she let Amelia pick out a book she would like to hear. Amelia picked out a (very large) non-fiction book about wolves (an animal she has been afraid of and sometimes has nightmares about. I finally had to show her a map online of where wolves live so she could see that there are none in MO). The book talked about how wolf packs are a lot like human families and made them out to be pretty unscary. I've yet to hear another negative word about wolves since.

I didn't get a picture of this, but by the time the employee got to the end of the story, Amelia was nestled in her lap and playing with her long blonde hair (she actually told the girl she needed a haircut). She definitely made a new friend that day. And I'm so glad she did! The girl gave me TONS of great information about activities going on at Busch Wildlife and even got me signed up for the email list. I've always heard about great things going on out there, but have never put forth the effort to research them. There is a great activity coming up called "Creatures of the Night" that I cannot wait to take Amelia to. Hopefully it won't lead to more nightmares.......

Eight is Great!

Wow! Two-thirds of the year through year 1!

Month 8 has been very, very busy. It started in Texas (then Oklahoma, then Missouri). We spent much of it working on our summer list and enjoying those final days of summer.

Sorry for the repeats in pictures, I have an alarmingly small amount of pictures from the last month of Henry. Ooops!

I did manage to get some unofficial measurements, though. Taken on his exact 8th month.

Weight: about 23 lbs. (I got a new non-digital scale though which made this much more difficult and less accurate probably.

Height: 29.5" was the best I could tell


Henry is pulling up on everything in site and becoming more comfortable cruising the couch. If I take my eyes off of him for a minute, he usually sneaks off to climb the stairs. Guess its time to get the baby gate at the bottom of the steps again, since he is usually about 4 steps up before I get to him. He has also gotten a lot better at giving "high fives" and can identify each of us by name. If we say, "Henry, where is Amelia?". He will look at her! His obsession with balls continues and it's obvious he knows that word as well.

And my favorite, he will usually give "smoochers" on demand. Sometimes even if I don't request one, he will just turn around and willingly give one. His favorite thing to say is "Buh". Which he says all day, every day. About half the time he army crawls and the other half of the time, he crawls on his hands and knees. And diaper changes have been SUPER challenging, some may even say impossible!

And although he still has NO teeth, this boy is eating EVERYTHING in site. I have pretty much given up on all baby food except oatmeal. He is perfectly content eating pancakes, waffles, toast, pasta, corn, beans, tofu, grilled cheese, omelets, pizza, cheese, and various fruits and vegetables.

Stranger anxiety has appeared a bit this month, as well. It was strange that just one day he decided he was wary of almost any male. He is usually okay and smiley with the female set, still. One male he is NOT wary of is his father. He crawls as fast as he can to get to him every day when he gets home from work--obviously thankful to have some more testosterone in the house!