Memories of Parent's visit...

Making shadows...


hippie concert :) At least we got to see Henry dance...


Fun (or shall I saw scares) with the new red rocking chair...


And the box the rocking chair came in...


Exploring parks...

The hike at Roxborough Park...



And just a whole lot of other fun moments too...


But probably the sweetest was watching shy Henry slowly form a relationship with his grandparents. At first, he wouldn't let them hold or help him, but by the end he was all snuggly like this...





Did I mention that Henry's walking!?!?

Wiped Out

We are wiped out from my parent's visit this past week. More pictures and stories to come soon...

And He's Off!

He gets sturdier and steadier everyday! Today, he took eight steps! After he falls, or gets to his destination, he turns around, looks at everyone and claps for himself. I think he is as proud as we are!

Happy ten months Henry!

Still hates the carseat...

Isn't it sweet that he likes to hold onto my finger in the car seat just like Margaret Mary did? My arm goes numb pretty fast, but I love that it makes him feel better (or at least stop screaming!).

House Update

It is with great sadness that I announce that the buyer for our house backed out. We had already submitted our short sale paperwork to the bank and hired a title company to negotiate for us. We have been assured that if another offer comes along, the process will be faster because we have already gotten the ball rolling.

My heart is heavy, because living in an apartment really makes me miss having a house. Without a buyer, we are in the foreclosure boat again, which makes owning our own home again five to six years off. I am sad, but I am still hopeful. Who knows the plans God has for our house. I find peace knowing HE is in charge. For now we wait and pray...

Boy Genius?

I think so! John Henry did this toy by himself...twice. He had a lot of trouble with the orange ring, and sat there patiently for several minutes trying to put it on. I was really taken back; the holes in this thing are REALLY small.

Everything is More Fun with Two

After we did this, some kids came over to us and told us that it looked really cool, and that if they had baby brothers and sisters, they would want to do this with them.

Henry thought it was the best thing ever; MM was just happy to swing. :)

Mama's Helper

"Painting" and pouring the garlic butter on top of mommy's cheese biscuits. Yummy!

Look Who is ALMOST Walking!

When he isn't miserably from teething, this is what Henry wants to do all day. Walk; aka push things all over the house. He cruises all over the furniture, can stand up by himself and has even taken a few steps (taken from momentum, not real first steps). He gets so proud of himself!

The Bakers

Today we went to a friends house for brunch after Mass and had a GREAT time. They live about thirty minutes away and have a house that has a great view of the mountains. I love the way the rolling hills and the sky meet on one side of Denver, and the mountains peak high on the other. Living here is such a treat for the eyes.



The Bakers have three older girls that really captivate me in the way they love their siblings. The take care of them, pick them flowers, carry them around, they are almost like second mamas. Margaret Mary loves being around them too, because they kind of adopt her. I love seeing them carry my little girl around...




One of the highlights of the trip was the chickens. Margaret Mary LOVED holding the chickens, as you can see by the picture, and kept on saying "I like this!" and "I wanna hold a chicken...a BIG one!"




Below was my best attempt to get a pic of MM and Isabel (who is three). These girls kinda have an off/on relationship. Today, it was on and Isabel kept chasing MM around saying "come here little sister!". Too cute.



One of my favorite moments of the trip was when we were all sitting down eating, I hear my daughters voice from the playroom: "Papa, where are you? I have to go potty!"

Bernadette

This is Margaret Mary's dear friend Bernadette. She is six (I think) and is so sweet to Margaret Mary. Her mom volunteers for our church, so she and her sister are there everyday after Mass for MM to play with. Bernadette gets out toys for MM, reads to her, talks to her about Jesus, carries her around, helps her get snacks, and really loves on her in such a sweet way.



MM talks about Bernadette all the time. She can't wait to go to Mass each day so she can see her, and wants to spend all day after Mass playing with her little friend.

I love that MM has a big girl to look after her. At Sunday Mass, when there are kids everywhere (it can get a bit crazy), Bernadette will come find Margaret Mary, hold her hand, and play with her. Its almost like MM has a big sister...

On another note: see her "muh", (her pacifier), with the ribbon tied to it? This is part one of our weaning program. MM has been really obsessed with her muh lately, and so we had to make it a little less pleasing to suck on. We tied a bunny to her muh to make it is a little bit harder to carry around all the time. The theory is that the weight of the bunny on the muh will make it so she has to hold the bunny to be able to suck on her pacifier. It is working! When she gets tired of carrying the bunny around she discards both the bunny and the muh on the floor. She rarely has the muh in her mouth anymore. Unless she is at Mass, which is where the above picture was taken. :)
She also calls the bunny a "rabbit", which I think it pretty funny.

Mice in the House

By lunchtime yesterday, I had already killed two disgusting insects in the apartment. When I heard Margaret Mary in the hallway yelling "mouse, come here!," I wanted to vomit. Mice? Really? I ran over to her and asked her to show me where the mouse was. She pointed to the corner of the hallway and said "mouse dance with me!" When I discovered that nothing was there, I had to smile. Margaret Mary's imagination is starting to come alive. Apparently, there are mice in the hallway that dance ballet with her (she got this idea from a movie she saw), foxes (a papa, mama and baby) that play in the living room, and a horse that takes a bath with her. It is really cute.

Here is MM playing in the bathroom sink. She LOVES it when I fill it up with water and she will play there for half an hour: singing, pouring and splashing a little bit.



Now, if I could just keep Henry away from the toilet...

My Big Girl

MM needs an update as well. She is talking so much and is able to comprehend so much more each day. It is amazing how her language skills have exploded over the past couple of weeks. We can have actual conversations with her! She tells us about how she wants to sing with an orchestra, dance ballet to loud fast music, wants pjs with horsies on them, is scared of a "bear" in the study and how Henry likes everything that she does. At Henry's 9 month check-up, she wouldn't stop talking to the doctor. The doctor was asking me questions about Henry, and she was singing, dancing, telling stories, talking gibberish, anything to get the doc's attention. I was completely caught off guard. I know that big girls do this, but didn't expect it to happen so soon!

One of my favorite things that she does is add a "a" sound to words in sentences were there are a lot of "a" sounds. For example " I uh drink-uh mama's wawa," and "i will help-a papa."

Margaret Mary utters the phrase "my turn" about once every ten minutes (okay, maybe every five). She is obsessed with things being her turn. The other day at a party, I heard her yelling "my turn, my turn!" When I looked to find her, she was all by herself playing with a ball. Silly girl. The other night, she woke up screaming "my turn, my turn!" She is defiantly two.

We can't get enough of our little girl. Even Henry gets fussy waiting for MM to wake up in the morning!

Potty Talk

It is extremely funny to have a talking, potty training toddler because she says things about the potty experience that we would never say out loud.

Below are a couple examples:

With an extremely impatient tone, "Poopy, GET OUT!"

Jason: are you done yet?
MM: One minute. One more...its a big one.

MM keeps us laughing!

Henry is 9 Months!

Henry's personality has really developed this month. There is so much to say about how much he is growing up. First, his play has intensified. He is so focused, determined and creative when he plays. He will play by himself with one toy for half an hour. He seems to know how to use things. For example, he tries to do MM's puzzles, and when handed a rag, wipes the floor, the cabinets, anything! It looks just like he's cleaning! He loves to dig, to transfer objects from one container to another, to "stir" a spoon in a container, dance to just about anything, stand up on just about anything...



He can even stand up for a couple of seconds by himself! He loves to help me unload the dishwasher and grind up the coffee beans in the morning time. He really seems to get a kick out of sharing experiences with us. When he thinks something is funny, he will smile, but then immediately turn to us to see if we are smiling, and if we are, then he will really crack up. When he is happy, he throws his head back with a smile before doing the happy dance, (video to be posted later), where he twists his torso back and forth while waving his hands. It is probably one of the cutest things John Henry has ever done.

He loves blowing bubbles, esp when there is someone to do it back to him.



He loves singing and clapping his hands. He gets so excited when he claps that he literally bounces off the ground. He still is infatuated with Margaret Mary and laughs and laughs at his big sister all the time.

He is also growing heavy. He now weighs 21.8 pounds! It is really hard to hold him without a sling to help balance out his weight on some other part of my body. Henry has backed off of solids a lot, and we think it is because of the four teeth that are coming through up top. We cant wait to see what he looks like with top teeth; we really enjoyed the "two teethed Henry" stage.

Sometimes he seems really old, and sometimes he still seems like a little baby. He def loves his mommy and hates to be passed at events. He won't even let other children hold him (like MM did at this age). He loves to interact with people, but just from the safety of his parent's arms. He really loves Jason and bounces up and down when he sees him. He has even started cuddling with Jason, laying his head on his shoulder and smiling. Jason loves his son and often picks him up exclaiming "my son! my son!" I can't wait to watch their relationship grow.