Monday, March 30, 2009

faces from the weekend

We spent the weekend visiting and celebrating and it was wonderful! I have over 900 pictures in my March file and will spend the next week or so selecting the best to post and print. But, for now, here are some faces from the weekend:

Superhero Andrew at his superhero birthday party. Somewhere in the mass of pictures, I'm sure I saw a better one, but I'll post it when I post his party story.


Cute Charlie, my 14 month old nephew:

And his twin brother, Reese. The funniest thing was they were both fascinated with our light sabers. Who says that boys aren't attracted to swords and weapons. It must be something woven into their very nature.
Scott displaying his birthday present from Nana - a new set of flippers and goggles for swimming this summer.
Scott and his light saber cookies at his Star Wars birthday party.

Scott and his best buddy, Joseph. He is so blessed to have such a wonderful friend at such a young age. He cried when Joseph left.

Amanda's baptism. She was fascinated with the flowers.


Princess Callie, sporting new glasses, dress and purse. She turns four on Thursday.

Monday, March 23, 2009

night or day?

Andrew seems to be mixed up on what to wear when. Last night (and almost every night), he wore the clothes that he wore all day, specifically his polo shirt and khakis that he wore to church. This morning when we were all getting dressed, he chose to put on his new Batman jammies. He wore those all day. Tonight, he is still wearing the jammies. I'm not sure what will happen tomorrow.


Six Months!


March is indeed a month of birthdays around here, and this year we have an extra "birthday" of sorts. Today is Amanda's six month birthday! I'm not normally one to celebrate half-birthdays, but I think that the six month milestone is huge. It is hard to believe that she has lived six full months. On one hand it seems like yesterday that we brought Amanda home; on the other hand, I can't imagine what life was like without her.

By the way...happy half-birthday Dad. Yours is tomorrow. What is it like being 62 and a half? Isn't that a big milestone in the retirement world?

Here are some pictures of Amanda's first real feedings. They happened last Wednesday at lunch and dinner and Thursday at lunch. She spit up about 15 times on Friday morning, as she tried to digest the rice cereal, so we haven't attempted it again. Maybe we'll try again later this week. Again, it was so evident that this is the third child. Her yucky face that she made on Thursday with the plain rice cereal didn't faze me. I just asked Scott to grab one of the bananas off the counter, pealed it, mashed it with a fork, mixed it with the cereal and offered it to her. She loved it and ate every bite. (That could explain all of the spit up on Friday.)



Scott is such a big helper. He gave her this first bite of food and then took over on the camera. The picture above of me is one that he took, along with about 100 other pictures. The great thing about the digital camera is that I was able to delete most of them. Scott loves to take pictures.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Lion or Lamb?

Derrick and I have a running disagreement about the Lion/Lamb phrase for March. I distinctly remember learning in Elementary school that "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb." I thought every school child learned that just before learning "April showers bring May flowers." Derrick thinks that it can go either way - "in like a lion and out like a lamb" OR "in like a lamb and out like a lion".

Whatever the phrase, the weather this March has been a bit Lion and a bit Lamb. We began the month with a roar, experiencing our first snowfall in three years to the tune of six inches. The snow lasted for several days, but by the end of the week the temperatures were lamb-like in the 70s. The lion came back this weekend with rain and cold temperatures. Derrick even built a fire on Sunday afternoon. Today was high of 50 with drizzles, while tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 70. So, it appears the lion and the lamb are battling and we will see who comes out the winner at the end of the month. (We hope it is the lamb, as we have lots of birthday celebrations coming up.)

Here are some snow pictures:

Scott loved playing in the snow. The big flakes were beautiful. This picture was taken at the beginning of the storm. As soon as we got home from church, Scott rushed outside to play.


Andrew did NOT like the snow. He preferred to stay inside where it was warm. Each time he went outside, he ended up crying to come inside again.



Amanda did not have an opinion about the weather, as long as she was being held.


This picture has a funny story behind it.


The weight of the snow brought down a large tree in our front yard. It blocked the street, so Derrick and our neighbor spent about two hours in the snow clearing the road with an axe and chain saw.


Here is our house. Can you see how the limbs of the trees were so heavy with snow? The tree that fell is just out of this picture, to the right of the house.


I took this just as we were heading to bed. We lost electricity around 4:00 and it returned around midnight, so this picture was taken in the pitch dark. It was fitting that we were reading "Little House on the Prairie." I read a few chapters before bed by the light of my flashlight, and Scott was disappointed that we did not have an oil lamp.


Look! Derrick is actually using his snow shovel to shovel snow! It's main use is to shovel millions of pounds of leaves down our driveway each fall toward our burn pile in the back.


On Wednesday we still had snow, but it melted by the end of the week.

Birthday Celebration II

Let's see if I can post some videos from Andrew's celebration:





You'll have to tilt your head for this one...sorry.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Birthday Celebration

Happy Birthday to Andrew! (Sorry this wasn't posted sooner. I had complications uploading the photos.)

Andrew had a wonderful birthday celebration on March 6. We had his requested/favorite dinner - meat. Specifically, it was steak and green beans, with Batman Brownies and Ice Cream Sundaes for dessert. Here is a picture of the birthday boy with the Special plate!


Andrew blew out all of his candles in one breath. He thinks he is such a strong, superhero boy...and he is.


Here he is wearing his favorite birthday present, from Grandma...a batman costume. He especially loves the cape.




Scott was very willing to help Andrew open his presents and try them out.

Happy Birthday Andrew

Andrew officially turned three on Friday! I always like to "follow" my children through their birthdays. Here are some pictures:







Thursday, March 5, 2009

Update: Scott

I just hate it when I get behind on my blog. All day, I have funny stories and events that I want to record, but by 8:30 when the house is finally silent, all I want to do is crawl in bed with a good book. So, I get behind. So, I thought I'd post three entries of stories - one for each kid.

The big news for Scott is that we had Kindergarten registration yesterday. It went well. They took Scott back to one of the classrooms and gave him a little readiness test - write his name, identify letters, count blocks, colors, etc. He was most excited that the classroom had a pet. Also, that the teacher said they drink KoolAid in school (how he got on that subject is anyone's guess.) It is hard for him to grasp that it will be another 6 months before he actually goes to school there.

Another funny story - when I picked him up from preschool today, before I could ask him about his day, he told me that they did not go on the playground because a tree fell on the playground during the recent snow storm. Just a few minutes later, I asked him the most exciting part of his day. His reply - "The most surprising part of my day was that we did NOT go outside today." He sure is Derrick's boy.

When we got home, he and Andrew spent a full hour outside. I finally had to drag them inside at 1:15 to eat lunch. They were fascinated with the water coming down the drainpipe from the melting snow. The rerouted the pipe to a bucket to collect the water and play in it.

Update: Andrew

My most recent blog thoughts concerning Andrew have to do with his fascination with all weapons, especially guns. EVERYTHING becomes a gun in our house: train tracks, bristol blocks, and even a PB&J sandwich. It is about to drive me crazy.

So imagine my excitement when I read a recent column by the editor of our local weekly paper. (I tried to find the column online, but it wasn't posted.) He describes how much fun he had at his son's 12th birthday party, held at a place where they have mock battles. It sounded somewhat like paintgun, but with another type of weapon. He described in detail that they divided into teams and made battle plans, etc. And, then they go out and "kill" the enemy (i.e. the other team). YIKES! Do I have this to look forward to in my future? I sure hope not. For now, Andrew is excited about his upcoming Super Hero birthday party, although he insists that it is a "Bad Guy" birthday party.

We'll have more updates on Andrew soon, since his birthday is tomorrow! My little guy will be THREE!

Oh, and another thing. I've been humbled once again. I finished our Kool Aid dye experience with a rather smug "I'm such a great Mom for not putting that stuff in my child's body" feeling. Then, yesterday, Andrew and Scott asked for Fun Dip for their afternoon special treat (the stuff that Santa Claus left in their stockings). Andrew got it all over his finger, which promptly turned bright green. Even through several hand washings and scrubbings, the finger remains green 24 hours later. I hate to see what color the inside of his stomach was when he finished! So, the lesson learned is that Fun Dip is Kool Aid with added sugar and I'm really not such a careful Mom after all. But, they sure did enjoy their treat.

Update: Amanda

And, for my third update, I'll focus on my sweet Amanda. She is not into guns or playing outside. She is most content when in someone's arms and her sweet smile brings lots of joy into the house.

While I certainly don't think I'm anywhere close to achieving *perfection* in raising an infant, I certainly think I'm doing it a whole lot more like it is supposed to be - no books, no comparing her to other kids, taking others' advice in stride and simply enjoying her for who she is at that moment. This hit me the other night at the table. She had yet to try table foods and we were enjoying homemade applesauce for dessert. She was so intently watching my spoon move from bowl to mouth, that I thought she may want a taste. So, I gave her a spoonful. Her face lit up in a smile. And that was her first table food experience - no high chair, special spoon or camera. Just relaxing joy.

Of course, I know I can't get too far into this without taking some special photos. I haven't given her anything else yet, but next time around, the camera and special spoon will probably be ready. Maybe I'll try avacados or banannas or maybe just rice cereal.