Claire’s 3rd Birthday

 

Leading up to Claire’s birthday if you asked her what happens when she turns three she would answer, “No more wearing diapers”. I wasn’t quite sure what would really happen when the day arrived. In the morning I took off her nighttime diaper and tried to put on a pull-up, she flipped out and said, “No! Underoos (our word for underware)!” So after that I knew we were working together on the potty-training. Because of that, we spent the entire morning at home and only ventured out to meet Paul for dinner.

To begin the day, she was able to open one gift from Gramma and Grampa:

We did some finger painting:

  

Then it was time to play some games:

Once Henry was awake from his morning nap, we went outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather we’ve been having (I now know what it’s like to have sunny days in winter). These are some of my favorite pictures of the kids to date, it captures their stages perfectly:

      Yes, our daffodils are blooming. It’s been a strange winter.

Later, we went to meet Paul for dinner. We returned home for a cupcake and a couple more presents:

 

Widget and Walden from Meema and Boopa. After she opened that we had to convince her to open the other gifts!

Wanting to get in on the present action.

It was a great day and overall she did pretty well with the potty-training, only a few wardrobe changes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!!

Playtime Survival

 

Playtime with Henry and Claire usually goes something like this:

Claire starts playing with a toy-tonight it was the piano:

Then Henry decides to play with the toy:

It goes well for about two minutes:

  

Claire then starts to yell at Henry and push him away:

 

Henry then ends up here:

Claire ends up having the toy to herself again:

 

(Usually the scenario ends with a nice talk from Mommy to Claire about sharing toys and being nice to Henry because he is smaller. Worst case-a timeout. For tonight I just let it play out and see what happened; we were all at our tired-end-of the-day rope.)

Eleven Months

 

(He never sits still!)

 

It’s crazy that Henry is almost a year. It has gone by so fast. Here is what he has been up to:

• Walking. Like crazy. He started last week. Each day he does more walking than crawling and his fair share of falling.
• Talking and babbling. It took a while, but he is finally starting to really babble and talk a lot.
• Sleeping!! Well, mostly. He is still up wakes up once most nights to eat, but he is sleeping about 14 hours; I’m not complaining.
• He now has two teeth peeking through, which is great, but it’s making him(even more) incredibly clingy to me.
• A human garbage disposal. He finally figured out that solid food is amazing and can’t get enough. That kid can eat and eat and eat.
• Adoring Claire. That hasn’t really changed, he follows her around, plays with her toys, and just thinks she is the coolest person. Thankfully she is great with him about 70% of the time. It is so much fun to watch.

Daddy’s Little Girl

 

We have high expectations for Claire:

A Pajama Kind Of Day

 

Today was a day where pajamas were needed. Henry is getting about eight teeth right now; at least that is what it looks like on his poor swollen gums. Claire just loves wearing pajamas and I didn’t feel like putting up a fight with her today, so we had a lazy day in the middle of the week. It was cloudy out so I didn’t feel too bad.

Claire, mid-jump (I can’t get her to stop jumping.):

Henry as I see him- every hour, every day (with that expression).

 

Yes, that’s Henry walking.  Yesterday he started taking more and more steps. Now he walks across rooms. The only problem is he falls ALL the time. With Claire, she didn’t walk until she was almost 16 months old so she never really fell once she was walking. I think we are going to get some more head-bruising with Henry. Must be a boy-thing.

Henry mid-fall:

A Friday Night With Kids

 

Here’s what our Friday nights tend to look like:

 

Henry attacking me with kisses.

Practicing his walking skills. He took about eight steps by himself!

Claire “painting” away after she tore apart all my Post-Its. She has a faster learning curve than I do on that thing!

My Assistant Continued...

 

This is what I found in Claire’s room:

That’s Claire under her life-sized Mickey Mouse.

 

An the damage to the room:

Not as bad as I thought from the sounds I heard; at least she made it back to her bed to sleep.

My Little Assistant

 

Since Henry is attached to me all day he pretty much has no choice in helping me with chores. His favorite, by far, is laundry. Whenever the laundry room door is open he is in a full-sprint crawl to play. Sometimes just to get a break I will open the door so he can have his laundry fill.

 

Those big blue eyes get me every time!

Note of the day: Claire has figured out that she can play in her room during naptime. She finally fell asleep 1.5 hours after going in her room. I’m scared to see what her room looks like, there was a lot of banging around…