Guess Who's Cooking Dinner!

Jason had a really great idea a few weeks ago--to have Amelia be in charge of dinner one night.  She decided she would bake up a pizza for everyone!  From start to finish, she was in charge of the whole deal.  Other than read her the directions and put the pizza in and out of the oven, she did it all.

Pre-heating the oven (standing on the stool that she scooted over).

 Pouring and spreading the sauce.  I was biting my tongue here so as not to say "that's too much" or "spread it a little slower".

Adding lots and lots and lots and lots of pepperoni--the entire bag, in fact!

A little cheese at first....

Followed by LOTS of cheese later.

Her puppy, Louie, had to steal a taste before it went in the oven.

I think teaching Amelia how to make a handful of recipes on her own is a brilliant idea!  Especially if she could learn a dozen or so before heading off to college.  I sure would have liked that information when living on my own (or even before I got married).  When I get organized enough, I think Amelia will be in charge of cooking once a week.

Oktoberfest

 Our weekends have been out of control busy lately and part of it is our own fault.  I mean, did we HAVE to attend the Oktoberfest parade immediately after swim lessons a couple of weeks ago?  Probably not. 

 And did we HAVE to return that evening for a few hours?  Well, no, but it was sure fun.

See? Henry loved every minute.

As did Amelia.  Despite the drizzly weather, she stuck it out on the dance floor all night long.  We literally had to drag her from it.  Even though in all actuality, I could have watched her and her striped tights rip up the dance floor the whole evening.

Chomp

Today is not only special in its unique numerical digits, but today is the day that Henry sprouted his very first TOOTH!  I cannot believe its taken 9 1/2 months to arrive.  I can tell that two others are not far behind.  We are bracing ourselves for a rough couple of weeks over here.

You Know What they Say.....

The Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

In all seriousness, Amelia is remarkably competent with her computer skills.  She can get to one (or both) of her favorite websites completely on her own now.  She knows how to open Firefox, find the Bookmarks tab, and search through the list for either Starfall or PBSkids.  I can only imagine what she will be able to do 10 years down the road.

Campin' Out

What better time to build a tent in your room than nap time, right?  This is what I found after I opened the door to check on her after she had been in her room for a little over an hour.  I knew I should have been suspicious when she voluntarily closed the door.....

Needless to say, she was pretty proud of herself!

9 Months and counting!

While it is fresh in my mind, I will start with Henry's 9 month stats:

Height:  30 1/4 inches (96th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs, 11 oz. (79th percentile)
HC: 98th percentile

Its hard to believe that (hopefully) Henry's next doctor's appointment will be his one year check-up.  The doctor said he looks great and he was all smiles and giggly for her.  He only had to get a single shot today (flu shot!).  I was shocked because Amelia cried with hers and Henry didn't cry a bit.  He didn't even whimper!

His sleeping is still good for the most part.  I told the doctor that most nights he sleeps 12 hours and then takes 2, 2 hour naps for a total of 16 hours of sleep each day.  She was surprised given that most kids his age are only sleeping 12-13 hours, but reassured me that he just needs a little extra right now.  She also advised that I enjoy it, since the days of that much sleep are probably numbered.

Henry is crawling on his hands and knees 100 % of the time now and is remarkably quick.  He is still pulling up, climbing on everything, and cruising quite a bit.  Twice this week, he has let go of the couch and stood by himself for a few seconds. Amelia's room and the dog's water bowl are his most desired destinations currently.

It feels like we've been extra busy with Amelia on cycle break, but luckily he is pretty go-with-the-flow.  Until last weekend, that is.  We had a SUPER busy weekend and Henry was crabby from Sunday evening on.  He continued his fussiness on Monday and I could not even put him down on Tuesday without him full out screaming. That afternoon, I took him in to see the doctor fearing an ear infection.  At the least, I thought it might be teeth (he still has NONE!).  Turns out, the doctor is pretty sure it was all behavioral.  Yikes!  Hopefully that isn't a glimpse into my future.  She mentioned his bottom gums are pretty swollen, but he was completely healthy otherwise.  She asked if he stopped fussing when I picked him up. When I answered "yes", she politely pointed out that most pain doesn't go away just because our mothers are holding us.  Hmmm....not sure why I didn't think of that BEFORE forking over my $20 co-pay.  The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that he was still exhausted from our dinner out, football game, breakfast out, parade, late night Oktoberfest, visit to GG and Papa's, church, and zoo weekend.  Wouldn't you be? Things have been much smoother after we took it easy on Wednesday and he rested all day.

It seems like Henry, too, is going to have Jason's metabolism.  A typical breakfast for Henry is a medium bowl of oatmeal, 1-2 pancakes, and half a banana.  Lunch might be a grilled cheese sandwich (the WHOLE thing), 1/2 jar of green beans, and a handful of crackers.  Dinner is usually whatever we are eating--in a good sized portion!  He does not miss meals.  Ever. And he still nurses multiple times a day.  But yet, he is loosing ground on the percentile chart.  If only I were so lucky.....

And his best friend is still his sister.  There is nothing more exciting to him than crawling into her room (especially when its time to wake her from her nap), pulling up on her bed, and squealing with delight at catching a glimpse of her.  Sometimes he will pull on her shirt (or her hair) if she is within reach.  He definitely has sounds that are reserved only for his interactions with her.  Thankfully, she is also pretty amused by it--most of the time.

According to Henry, the low points of the day are definitely getting dressed and diaper changes.   The high point (besides waking up Amelia) is still bath time!

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.