What do you see?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Little Girl is 4 Months

Little girl is four months today. Maggie hasn't been feeling well due to her four months shots, had a fever and was crank-y. But she seems to be doing better now, thankfully. Most of the time, Maggie is smiling, laughing, and even a little ticklish on her sides. I know I will say this at every birthday or month-day, and every milestone, but she is growing and changing just so quickly.

She's really taken to munching on her fingers

Gabe brought down some of her things from the attic, and we've been giving them a try this week. The exersaucer was interesting for a minute...

but then she spent the rest of the time staring at it suspiciously!

The jumper, however, was a big hit

I was talking to Gabe on the phone the other day, and Maggie put her hand up to her head like she was holding a phone, I swear! Okay, so it probably wasn't anything, and was probably just leftover tonic neck reflex, but she's too funny.

Maggie mostly likes to sleep with her paci and lovey, and for awhile I was putting her down on her side after rocking her to sleep, but now she is definitely trying to fall asleep on her own. Some nights and naps she does great, but other times she's not quite there yet. We've tried a routine, but haven't really found our grove.

This past week Maggie spent time checking out museums and zoos from the front carrier with mom.

I love having her there while she is still light enough, although it won't be for much longer, as she weighed in at 13 lbs 3 ozs yesterday, and 25.5 inches. She is a half a pound heavier and two inches shorter than Henry at this age.

We love you more than you love your fingers, little girl!

DC Museums

This past week we were DC bound for our first REALLY big road trip as a family. We loaded up the car, and hit the highway for a week in DC. We had so much fun and are so grateful to our friends the Floyds for hosting us and being able to spend time catching up with them. They showed us ALL around the city.

We packed up the three kids and headed downtown. Managing the Metro was a bit tricky with strollers and carseats and kids, but we made it. Henry did not like subway surfing, that's for sure. He was much more comfortable siting down and enjoyed riding the train.

First stop, Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs. And this really big elephant, which Henry spotted right away.

He liked looking at these dinosaurs, and he liked looking at the other skeletons as well.

Rocks and Minerals - I remember this exhibit from when I was a child. Henry found a big amethyst to sit on.

And we checked out the hope diamond. Pretty cool - even though Maggie slept through it. Grandad says that's good because if it was the first diamond she saw, she would get the wrong impression :)

The butterflies were free on the day we went, and they were beautiful! Henry was really gentle, and a couple even landed on Maggie in the front carrier. They were too quick to snap a picture, but I loved seeing the bright flowers, the warm lights and the beautiful butterfly colors.

Next up was the Air and Space Museum. We knew Henry would really love these big airplanes and rockets. He is really into outer space, and it definitely was fun to see them with him.

Henry really loved driving this airplane! Such focus and concentration!

Pretending to be rockets

In front of the Wright Brother's exhibit

I remember this museum too from my childhood and it was great to be able to bring my children to all these places in DC. I know they won't have too many memories of this trip, but we will go back someday and we can remember taking them when they were young. We had a blast and it was such a fun family vacation! Thanks a million Catherine and Tony and Patrick! :)

Friday, June 24, 2011

Daddy-o

I had a great day full of friends and play

But my favorite part is always coming home to you,

Daddy-O

Did so many things, where do I start

Gonna tell you everything and not leave out a single part

D-A-D-D-Y, Oh how I love ya, Oh how I love ya D-A-D-D-Y, Oh how I love ya, Oh how I love ya Daddy-O

Riding our bikes through the park Camping in the summertime Walking to the waterfalls, Daddy-O You teach me things without saying a word The time we spend together is worth more than all the silver and gold

D-A-D-D-Y, oh how I love ya Oh, how I love ya D-A-D-D-Y, oh how I love ya Oh, how I love ya Daddy-O

Love,

Henry and Maggie-O

A Happy Father's Day to my wonderful, funny, devoted, loving husband. We spent a relaxing day with the family at church, and then played at the pool and park. Gabe deserved every minute of being able to have some quiet time on the sun porch reading a book while both kids napped. We love you Daddy-O!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

what to do on a rainy day?

BOWLING! Hurray for Kids Bowl Free!

Henry carried his own 6 pound ball *most* of the time

He really liked knocking down the "bats" (like baseball!) and then checking the computer to see how many pins he had knocked down, and reading off the numbers.

He's so little out there!

Of course we used the ramp and he had a lot of fun pushing his ball down. After each push, he said, "go, go go!" to the ball and then "I want to do it again!" Luckily, in bowling, you get to do it again and again!

Miss Maggie took a good snooze, despite all the chaos going on around her.

And when she woke up, you know, she felt the need to stick out her tongue. Again. There's a surprise! She's so cute when she does though!

While we took a break and had a snack and Maggie had a bottle, Henry worked on his break dancing in bowling shoes. He bowled two and a half games, sat on some of the video games and pushed the buttons, and then we headed home. Fun morning for the three of us - and I only dropped the ball on my foot once.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Strawberry Fields Forever

Let me take you down, cause I'm going to.....

Strawberry Fields.....

With the song stuck in our heads, we found ourselves strawberry picking this weekend.

Maggie donned some cute strawberry pants

and snuggled into the front carrier (my little strawberry shortcake!)

This was our first adventure picking strawberries, and since we've picked lots of other fruits (blueberries, pumpkins, apples) we decided to try out strawberries. We braved the fog, and found a new patch when we realized our original destination was closed. Before arriving, we asked Henry if his berries would sound "kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk" in his pail like little Sal in Blueberries for Sal. When we got there, Henry said, "my stawbees don't sound kapink, kapank, kapunk in my bucket!" Alas, the problem with cardboard buckets.....

But we did have a Little Henry following a Daddy picking berries

Henry had a lot of fun picking berries, stepping over the plants, and running down the rows in the strawberry fields. He made sure to only pick the juicy red berries, and mostly wanted to pick the berries far, far away.

Wow, look at that fog! It's June!

When we got home, and got the kids in bed, it was time to jam. Strawberry jam, that is. Gabe graciously cleaned all the berries

and I set to work pureeing them and we collaborated on the jam. Almost three years ago was our first jam experience, and I looked like this:

Barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. Making jam. In June in the oven in the heat. 7 months pregnant with Henry. H-O-T.

This year, I looked like this:

Making jam in the oven in the kitchen in June. Only a lot less hot. And a lot less pregnant. I may or may not have been barefoot. I don't remember. But MUCH more comfortable. We successfully made 16 beautiful jars of strawberry jam, and have been enjoying PBandJs for lunch. And strawberry shortcake. And strawberries on top of waffles. And strawberries just plain.

There's nothing to get hung about, strawberry fields forever.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Baseball

This spring has found us at the baseball field! Henry has been learning about baseball and has really gotten into it. Gabe has been teaching him positions and rules, and it is really fun to watch Henry take an interest in a sport.

One of his favorite parts MIGHT be the hot dog. :)

Maggie took some good snoozes at the games

And this past weekend we went to the minor league team game. And had more hot dogs, of course

Maggie was pretty interested this time!

One of my favorite memories of minor league games from growing up was getting ice cream in a little helmet. So we treated the family to one. Fits Maggie pretty well!

We've played a lot of baseball in the backyard, and even went to our neighbor's coach-pitch game. Seems like this summer will be a summer spent at the ball park!