April Showers

bring May flowers.

Except here, where we've had much more rain in May. Today being one of them. But we've had some VERY warm days the past week, so I can't complain at all. Although after living in Florida for 18 years, I don't know when I became such a baby about the heat. It has been really fun this spring to see the flowers that have come up in our yard. We've been doing lots more gardening than we're used to: planting our herbs in the ground, planting annuals, mulching, playing with the sprinkler system, fertilizing. It has been fun, and we've enjoyed learning some new things. We'll see how the yard looks in the middle of the summer though!

But for now, I'm mostly enjoying the pretty flowers in my yard:

I love yellow flowers, so bright and cheery, and these irises all grouped together definitely make me happy

These purple flowers are right beside the garage in perfect view every time we come home

Henry's favorite flower? The blue ones, of course! And here is the one and only blue flower in our yard, just for him

And tied for my favorite are the bright pink peonies- bright beautiful blossoms

And these multi-colored irises are really interesting two. We've also got some in white, light pink, and peach.

I didn't get any pictures of the daffodils and tulips that came up in early spring - but there weren't many of those. Three to be exact. I'll have to figure out when to plant those bulbs because I do love those early spring flowers.

And I'm also learning about roses - we've got eight roses out front. If anyone knows any tips, please pass them along. And a few blooms actually opened up the other day, so I'll be taking some pictures of them too! They seem to take a little more work than everything else, so we'll see. I found out from the neighbor that the person who lived here before us called her and checked up on the rose bushes! I know they were important to him and his wife, so I hope I do okay with them!

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these funny faces...

....are making me laugh every time I look at them!

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take me out to the ball game

We make it to one ND baseball game a year, and this weekend it was it, especially since this was the last home game. Henry loved running around in the grass with his baseball, waiting for the game to start.

"I've got the pop fly, guys"

He played catch with dad of course, and although he's handing it off here, he is getting better at throwing.

What else can you do with a baseball you ask? Well....

you can kick it.....
or use it for a seat....


but the best thing to do is take your baseball and run


and run


and run


and run!

This little guy is not Henry now, but I hope it will be Henry in 4 or 5 years! The batboy was a-DOR-able, gold helmet and everything

mommy and henry

the boys watching baseball in their Notre Dame caps

We were so impressed with Henry's patience with watching the game, we were able to stay for 7 innings. Of course we were able to break the game up with some running, driving a train on the bleachers, going up-up-up the stairs, and having a snack. The Irish didn't do so hot, I don't even know the score at the end but it was like 9-0 Louisville when we left. It was a lot of fun, and made me remember Henry's first baseball game.

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an evening with dad

Last weekend, Gabe took Henry downtown as there were lots of family events going on, including a family entrance to the College Football Hall of Fame for 5 bucks. That's pretty cheap. I wanted to go, but have been overcome with sickness that I can not for the life of me get rid of. So Gabe took Henry so I could have a night to rest. He got to get a balloon animal, and make a kite. And of course, do fun things at the museum like turn the mascot pages, throw a football, and "ditz" it (kick it!).



Sign him up for Irish d-line now. Except he's so tall and skinny, he's much better suited for basketball. Luckily, that is still his favorite sport.

He came home, marched up the stairs, in one hand was a balloon dog and in the other hand a bag of chocolates for mommy. He walked right over, big smile on is face, handed the chocolates to me, and seemed like such a big boy. I find my self saying that a lot lately. I'm so proud.

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henry, henry quite contrary

how does your garden grow?

These pictures are from a couple of planting experiences with Henry. When he was feeling bad a few weeks ago, we waited until some moments he was feeling good and went out and did some planting. Henry choose his seeds at the store. Knowing that green beans are pretty easy (at least, I think?) I put him right in front of the green beans, so he picked that off the shelf. He also picked pumpkins, and some red flower bulbs.

surveying the land

digging the holes

planting the green bean seeds

he really loved putting exactly 3 or 4 in the hole (I can't remember how many we counted to) At one point, one hole had too many and he moved home seeds.

We also made a project on one of the rainy days, and Henry scribbled on his signs. They didn't make it through the rain, but he liked doing the project

Watering the seeds

He really loves to water plants. He waters some plants outside everyday. When the water runs out, he knows right where to go for more. Somedays, we water our pants too. Then, he runs around with no bottoms on, which makes him squeal!

We're growing the pumpkins inside to start with, and they are doing great! We'll move them outside soon. The green beans have just sprouted, but some of the leaves have already spots or are dried up. So I'm not sure how they'll do. One of his flower bulbs is doing great. One is doing ok, and the other two, not so much. So we'll see how his first garden ends up. As for our garden? Our basil and tomatoes and peppers got bitten by frost and are dead. All of our other herbs are doing great, and we've already started to use some of them. We'll have to replant this weekend. And we started lettuce in a pot this year as something new, and it is really taking off! I'm looking forward to a delicious salad of home-grown lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. In about 80 days. :)

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Happy Mama's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I was greeted in the morning with a great big "Hap Ma Mama!" from Henry! By the way, he's been calling Gabe Da-dee for awhile, but I've been trying to hang on to mama for as long as I can. Sometimes, he'll slip a Ma-mee in there, but for the most part, I'm still mama, which is just fine with me.

We had a wonderful day. Church in the morning, followed by a delicious brunch and a family nap! Since I've been sick the past weekend, and Henry the week and a half before, we've had someone in the house sick for two weeks straight. So a nap was definitely in order. And said sickness definitely rained on my fun plans for the weekend - College Football Hall of Fame on Friday, planting on Saturday and bike riding on Sunday. Turns out, the weather didn't cooperate either. So, we ran some errands instead on Sunday since that didn't take much energy and then I played outside with Henry while Gabe cooked a delicious dinner. Even though it wasn't a day too much out of the ordinary, I was lucky to be able to spend time playing with my Henry and enjoying being a mom. And I've been really thankful to Gabe whose been running the house these last few days - just call him Mr. Mom. I'm saving up a special bike ride on a new trail in a couple of weeks. No pictures with Henry yesterday makes me sad - but I'll take some with him soon.

Thought I'd take some time to update Henry's new accomplishments:

Henry's been adding so many new words to his vocabulary lately! He's definitely a pro at the two word combos, and he's adding in some three words too. "Uh-oh choo-choo" is a current favorite, whether a train has had an accident or something else! He loves making hot soup and saying hot soup. I'm not sure if he really knows what hot soup is, but he says "hot soup dinner" every night. And then just eats our regular dinner anyways. Some of his first sentences have been "I do that/this", "I don't want that", "I love dada and mama". He's been working on his letters, and can name quite a few correctly most of the time. His favorite color is blue, he always chooses blue when given a color choice, and actually he calls almost every other color blue too. But, he can correctly point to something that is blue, and we're working on adding yellow and purple, which he can say. Mostly sticking with red, yellow, blue and green though since most of his toys and art supplies are those colors. He recently used a spoon all by himself to eat a whole bowl of yogurt, and is getting better at stabbing with a fork, but still needs help to press hard enough to get the food on the fork. This morning, he marched and clapped at the same time to some music. His favorite toys are still trains for sure, and he still loves books. He even says "more books" when we go to the library, which he loves to do. We've had a few issues with temper lately, mostly when he was sick and he's doing much better now, but still some things set him off. Gabe and I are trying to remember to give him choices as much as we can, and that really seems to help. At the park, he can do the slide all by himself, which makes him seem like a big boy.

It's hard to believe that he'll be 21 months fairly soon and then only three months till my baby is 2 - and that is unbelievable to me. It really seems like we just celebrated his one year birthday and moved. In my mind, I feel like he is 15 months, just with more vocabulary. I'm proud of his accomplishments and growth for sure, but has anyone found the magic potion to keep them little yet?

Coming up soon - gardening, pictures from Gabe's adventure with Henry to the College Football Hall of Fame.

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Saturday night cars

Me, as Gabe brought me a drink: "thank you hon-day"

Gabe: "you're welcome, Toyota."

Followed by lots of laughter. (I was trying to say honey, and read the word Sunday at the same time, so hence the combination of the two.)

Oh, it's a crazy Saturday night here at the Brown house!

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