How I find these two...

On the weekends, Jason loves to put Margaret Mary down for her afternoon nap. And when I say put down, I mean fall asleep holding her. It is the sweetest; they both love this time together. I love finding them in crazy cuddle positions.

Silly Henry

This little guy is SOOOO much fun! He keeps us laughing. We he laughs, he laughs on the inhale AND the exhale. It is quite the laugh.

My Loves

Sugar and Spice and everything nice...



Snips and snails and puppy dog tails...

Belview Park

Today we went to Belview Park, just a five minute drive from our house. It started out rough when I tripped on some uneven pavement with Henry in the sling. Thankfully my hands were free so I could catch myself, but Henry was pretty shaken up. As I was trying to calm Henry down (still sitting on the sidewalk), MM started yelling that she had to go pee. I knew there was no way I could get her to the bathroom, so I told her to squat in the grass. Thankfully, she listened went. It was quite the first impression.

But, the park is really wonderful. There is a river the runs through it, a petting zoo and a train that takes kids on a little five minute ride. Henry had fun cuddling with Papa in the sling, and I got to spend some quality time holding our daughter. I love all of these city parks; they have the most perfect green grass. I love not having to worry about mowing or evil biting ants.




The best part was just lying in the grass watching Jason and Margaret Mary play in the freezing water. If you look closely in the last pic, you see Jason making his "its freezing!" expression. There was a family there racing homemade boats down the river and we were really inspired to come back and do the same thing! Henry was really funny. We were sitting on a hill and he couldn't figure out how to balance his weight to sit on it, so he he was constantly falling over! But, he had his apple, so he was happy. :)







What a great way to bring in the summer!

On a side note, we went to Target later to get some things for our upcoming trip. Walking in the door, MM said "Yay! The RED Store!" Jason said it is because his face gets so red inside (he hates Target). But I thought that MM was being very observant!

Tonight, MM said a seven word sentence: "I want it in the green cup!" Go Margaret Mary!

On another side note, the necklace Henry is wearing in lots of photos is a teething necklace. It is supposed to help with teething pain. I don't think it is helping that much, but it cost $20 (I was desperate) and Jason threw away the receipt, so I'm going to get my moneys worth of it! We think he looks like a little hippie baby in it.

Sibling Meltdown

One of my MANY attempts to get a cute picture of the both of them.

Silver

I love watching Margaret Mary grow up and how her relationship with Jesus is growing. She calls Jesus her "holy papa" which isn't exactly correct but we go with it. There is a little monastery down the street with a chapel that we go to, and she always delights in blowing kisses to pictures of Jesus and Mary. She calls Mary her "holy mama," and then proceeds to tell you that she has "two mamas:" Me (Katie), and Mary. (Don't worry, protestant friends, this explains everything: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1998/9805fea3.asp). She is very proud of this. We talk about Jesus a lot at home and about how he is a doctor for our hearts (as doctor is her new favorite game to play, which simply involves giving shots, and then stickers :) ). She seems to really get it. The other day I was really frustrated and decided to take five minutes to sit on the couch and pray. MM came up to me and I told her that I was frustrated and sad and needed Jesus to help my heart. After stroking my arm for a little while, she went over to our altar and asked Jesus to "help mama's heart." I am so thankful for my little intercessor!

One of the biggest blessings of our parish are the children that go there. After Mass each day, Margaret Mary practically skips out of the chapel holding onto a friends hand. They run around, play with toys, eat ice, color together, talk about their siblings, it is very sweet.




What is so great about these kids is how they love each other, especially the sibling groups. They kiss each other, play with each other, help each other, and the older ones hold napping younger ones (which is the sweetest, seeing a nine year old struggle to carry a sleeping toddler, but all the while, so proud of herself/himself). A family will introduce Margaret Mary to their baby, and she will proudly smile, make the baby sign and point back to Henry, as to introduce him. These kids are also very loving to my kids, helping and kissing them as well. I really think Margaret Mary is learning how to love her baby brother by watching these beautiful children. What a gift.

Laughing, Laughing, Laughing

Henry is SUCH a funny baby. At least four times a day, Margaret Mary looks over to me, makes the sign for silly and says "henyay silly!." He keeps us laughing; he really is such a joy to be around. I hope you enjoy these two videos of Henry. He plays so hard that he laughs at himself just as much as we laugh at him!

This movie captures Henry and his beloved tractor toy. We go to Mass each day and afterwards, the kids all play together. Henry is addicted to this toy. He pushes it all over the floor and cracks up playing with it. He's a Craig all right!


This was captured the other day when Henry reached up to the piano and started playing.


Enjoy!

How Sweet it is

It is funny how a quick run to the park can become the highlight of your day.

Henry is 8 Months Old!

Henry grew up into an "older baby" overnight. This past Wednesday he woke up crazy about solids (before then he could have cared less) and is now eating so much! He likes sweet potatoes, avocados, apples and chicken the best. If you hand him an apple skinned, he will eat about half of it with a big smile on his face. He is also started what Jason calls "mad dashes" where he sees something he wants and then crawls towards it as fast as he can. The boy can really move. He also loves to cruise furniture and tries to stand up by himself for a second or two. My favorite thing about his age is his body posture when he plays. He will be laying on the floor, the will twist up to sit on his knees, then will lower himself into a jazz split, then lay back on the floor, etc. He is so busy!

He is also falling more and more in love with his Papa. When Jason comes home, he gets sooo excited, squeals, bounces his arms up and down and either crawls to Jason, or throws himself out of my arms into his. It is really sweet. Jason and the kids have started a new post-work wrestle routine where they go to our bed and wrestle before supper. Well, Henry thinks this is the funniest thing in the world and rolls around all over the bed, on top of his sister, off the bed, with them. (I have to brag on MM for a second. Henry always pulls her hair and I know it really hurts her, but she never responds with violence. She just stares at me to come help with a painful expression on her face. We are so thankful!).

Henry is also starting to show frustration, for example, he gets upset when when you try to take a toy away from him that he wants to play with. Today Henry shocked me with how upset he got when Jason and MM left the room. The poor guy was so upset he hit my chest with his hand and then LOST it. When i took him into the room Jason was in he immediately perked up. Today, I also noticed Henry crawling by our patio door fussing. Thinking he was trying to get to the blinds, I moved him and gave him a toy to play with. Within minutes he was back in front of the door crying. After several times of doing this I opened up the patio door to put something outside and Henry got soo excited and tried to crawl through my legs to the patio. He was trying to tell me he wanted to go outside! Amazing! Once on the patio he had a blast spinning the stroller wheels, pulling up on the railing and crawling on his hands and feet (he only does this outside, we think because the pavement hurts his knees). I can't believe how much Henry is beginning to communicate with us! This is going to take me a while to get used to; I'm used to just lugging Henry around while we do what MM wants to do. Hopefully Henry will remain a good sport!

Lookout Mountain- Part Three

I think we're starting to fit in around here!

lookout mountian- part two

we are really falling in love with Colorado. the mountains take your breath away; almost as much as the ocean! it is such a blessing to be surrounded by so much natural beauty. it creates a constant tug on your heart that says "come, enjoy and explore me!"





sorry no caps; typing with one hand while a dashingly handsome little man sleeps in my other.

lookout mountain- part one

This past Saturday, we ventured out of Littleton to go sightseeing. We went to Lookout Mountain, where you can see all of Denver. It was beautiful and we had such a great time just being and enjoying nature. Margaret Mary , as I have mentioned before, is quite the adventurer. She went runing down the trail before Jason and I were completely out of the car! She wanted to climb every rock that came in front of her (some three inches, some seven feet!) and had so much fun holding her Papa's hand as she expored everything. MM was facinated by all the buffalo heads in the gift shop, and we think that the buffalo might be replacing the alligator as her favorite animal! As we were leaving she kept begging for "more buffalo!"

Can you feel the excitement?

Soon to come: a post about our awesome trip to Lookout Mountian.

P.S

I forgot to mention that Henry is completely obsessed with Margaret Mary's potty. He has figured out how to open it and take it apart. So far, I have been able to beat Henry to the potty after MM goes potty, but I am scared to death that one day he will win. Boys.

Its Potty Time

The date was marked on the calender: Memorial Day Weekend. That's when we were kicking Margaret Mary's diapers to the curb and hitting this potty training thing hard. We had been talking about the potty for a couple of months now and Margaret Mary already had a little potty and some training pants. I checked out books and movies from the library about going potty for her to learn from and put them in the corner of the living room, ready for our big weekend. But then MM got sick, and then she had a painful diaper rash the size of Texas on her bottom. The poor girl was in so much pain every time we changed her diaper. We decided she needed to be naked to let the rash air out, and thus, our potty training plans were pushed a week early. When we told her that she could be naked all the time IF she went potty, the girl was game.

Margaret Mary is doing so well! It has been six days since we started training and she has had very few accidents. At home, she goes when she needs to without any prompting from us (unless we are trying to go somewhere), and when out, she is getting better and better at getting to the potty on time. Potty training came at a great time for her. She is in the "myself" age which causes a lot of tantrums. She WANTS to do things herself, but when she tries, gets really frustrated. Potty training has worked perfectly because she is finally succeeding at doing something "big" (her favorite adjective) herself. She even has a new smile that has come from potty training (which has been my favorite part of the whole process). It is a subtle, little, proud of herself smile that is all lips, no teeth. It melts my heart. She also has a potty dance (when she goes in the potty) where she spins and goes crazy dancing on our carpet.

I was totally unprepared for how grossed out I would be at the whole process. I can change a poopy diaper that has exploded all over the body without a gag, but as soon as I see the turd in her little potty I start dry heaving! It is intense. I was also unprepared for how grossed out I would get by all the pee pee and poo poo songs and movies. I'm an adult right?!?

It has been wonderful to watch my baby girl start to live life as a "big" girl. She knows what she wants, wants to "help mama" do everything, plays pretend by herself, and even helps out with Henry; she is amazing. Margaret Mary is very adventurous as well. With everything she's doing, she wants to go "higher!" and "faster!" She loves to dance, loves to sing, and still LOVES it when her Papa comes home from work. She sings lots of little songs about life. When bringing home some supper from the store her songs are about "mama henry chicken, me big chicken!" and when singing at home "henry toys play me". She is talking a lot too in four and five word sentences. I love what her little mind comes up with. One of my favorites is when we put her to bed at night. We ask her "do you want Mama or Papa to rock you?" She, determined NOT to go to bed, comes up with an answer. "No mama rock me, no papa rock me." Margaret Mary is even helping me teach Henry sign language, which has been really funny to watch, as she has mastered an exact replication of my facial expressions, pitch and tone when talking to Henry. He will be watching her dance and she will stop, get down eye to eye with him, make the more sign and ask him "more? more?", give him a second to answer and then go back to dancing.

She also imitates everything. Today I yelled out "bye Babe" to Jason as he left for work and Margaret Mary called out "Bye Babe!" as Jason shut the door. Love that girl.

Poor Baby

How Henry shows his sorrow. If I don't get to him fast enough, he collapses onto the ground and lays his face on it like "help me, I'm desperate!" Poor guy, this teething stuff is hitting him hard. When you pick him up, he melts into your arms, puts his arms around your shoulders and lays his lead on your neck. It is the sweetest.

Happy Birthday Margaret Mary!

We can't believe our baby is two! We wanted to throw her a big party, but downsized it to a family thing when our cash flow, and energy, was low. The night before her birthday she was so excited she had a hard time going to sleep. She kept on rolling over to tell us "exi-ed!". How cute. The girl makes my heart skip beats sometimes.

Her birthday started by waking up to a room FULL of presents.


(These came from her Granny, and included a card, lots of sweet dresses, some bubbles, a tunnel (which the kids (and Jason) LOVE), and a bead set. Anytime MM wears one of the dresses that Granny sent, she always points to it, tilts her head, and says "Ganny." My mom made her a dress a while back and MM does the same thing. She points to it, tilts her head, and says "mawpaw" (which is what she calls her Memaw and Papaw).


Our present to our girl. I found this on clearance at target for $50! MM and Henry both love it. I put a jar of beans on top of the kitchen, and when Henry is sleeping, MM likes to pour the beans in measuring cups, pots, containers, etc. Today, Jason came home from work with a migraine, and MM brought him supper in bed (an assortment of stuff from her kitchen.)


The MEGA present, also from Granny, and what MM had been begging for for months. A bike. She loves this bike and wants to ride it all the time.

It was quite an eventful morning.






We then went to Mass and had a normal day. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her a lot. She would ask for it: "sing happy you you, sing happy you you" and we were always glad to oblige. One of my favorite moments was when I took MM to the park to blow bubbles. I told her that it was time to go home to make spaghetti for supper and she took off toward the house, with both hands lifted high in the air, yelling "SPAGHETTI!!!" The girl was so excited. After supper was cake.



Jason and I like to call it the seizure cake. The chocolate funfetti didn't turn out as pretty as we thought it would, but MM was thrilled with the "balls" all over her cake.

Margaret Mary, we love you so much and pray that you would always know how much we rejoice over you and how captivated we are by you. We couldn't have imagined a more perfect daughter and we are so thankful that God gave us you. Happy Birthday!

Henry and the Hat

Henry is such a fun baby. He loves to play by himself, but also loves it when you get down with him on his level and play. One of these games is to crawl around with him on the floor and follow his lead. He takes you to a toy, cracking up at you following him, shows you how to play with it, looking to see if you are enjoying it as much as he is, and then moving on. He still LOVES his sister and laughs at everything she does. I could watch him watch her all day.

Isn't it amazing and inspiring how kids love without resentment? I can't tell you how many times MM has hurt Henry (dropping toys on his head), has pushed him out of the way, has yelled at him to "go away", etc, but he still adores her as if that stuff never happened. What a picture of beautiful unconditional love.

Funny story. MM threw a bread pan and hit Henry in the head. He was crying, but okay. I told MM to tell Henry sorry and to give him a kiss. She looked at me, as if to say, "do I have to? i don't want to" and I made a big deal on following through with what I asked. She eventually obeyed and said sorry and kissed him. Within a couple of minutes, she threw the bread pan again and it hit HER in the head. SHe paused for a second, said "sorry me" in a sincere, genuine voice and then went back to playing. How funny. She apologized to herself for hurting herself. :)

Helping Papa

Please forgive me for the lack of posts the past week. It is been crazy around here! We had three celebrations (two birthdays and a mothers day), two and a half rainy days (trying to keep the kids busy inside is EXHAUSTING), a fussy fussy teething Henry, lots of tantrums from a sick baby girl, and an impromptu potty training effort, (as MM's sickness left her bottom raw). We are just now starting to slow down.

But back to the blog title "Helping Papa." In all this chaos, Jason has had more help than he needs around here.

The kids "helping" Jason put together my nursing stool. See Henry's fussiness? MM uses my nursing stool as a kneeler for praying and a desk. It really is just her size!



The kids "helping" Jason move a table to the corner of the room. Check out little Henry jumping in on the action!



Poor guy. It takes him twice as long to do anything around here. At least the kids get a big kick out of "helping" out.

Where did 7 Months go?

Henry is about 7 1/2 months old. I don't know when this happened.

He is such a charming little guy. He LOVES to play and have fun. He likes to wrestle, pull up on his sister, pull his sister's hair, crawl around on the floor, laugh and scream (with excitement) while crawling around on the floor, make beelines to the bathroom to play, push MM's potty all over the kitchen, take baths while splashing (and soaking) everyone around him, be tickled on his back and to comfort nurse when he gets hurt. He is scared to death of the vacuum cleaner, he talks with his eyebrows, makes man noises (huuuuhhhhhh), cruises around all over the living room, gets REALLY upset when someone takes away a toy he is playing with, and hits his hands up and down when he is excited. He is absolutely delightful. We are totally smitten with him.

His big sister is too; she loves to kiss his head. We are totally smitten with her as well. It is hard to believe that SHE was seven months when we found out we were expecting Henry.