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.

hmmmm....

So today after Mass, a little girl was playing with Henry and leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Margaret Mary who was playing nearby, stood up, came over to Henry and wiped the kiss off of his face. She then leaned down, said "my turn!" and planted a big one on his head. Hmmmmm. It will be interesting to watch this this big sister, little brother relationship develops. They really do love each other; it already melts my heart.

(Picture has no relation to story).

Playtime!

Stopping to Smell the Roses

To play in water fountains (my kids favorite). Both kids were soaked afterwards :)




And then to head home for a nap

Sick

The past couple of days I have been battling mastitis, which makes you feel like you have the flu and is pretty miserable. I couldn't help but share what my sweet daughter said to me when I was sick on the couch.

"Mama, I will help you" while tenderly rubbing my arm.
"You drink da wawa!" Reminding me to drink lots of fluids (Jason has just been geting on me about that)

It was so sweet to be loved on by my babygirl!

Concert at the Museum

The other day, Jason was working at night, and the kids were giving me a really hard time. Henry wouldn't go to sleep and MM was flat out winy. Jason suggested I go for a walk to get some fresh air, so we got out the stroller and went, all in our pajamas. As soon as we left our front door, we heard music coming from the museum down the road. MM shouted "i like that music," and we headed that way. Turns out, they have a concert every Wed night during the summer. MM was so captivated.




Henry clapped his hands like crazy and then tried to eat every piece of grass he could get his hands on. I couldn't capture his intense clapping on camera, but I did get a couple of cute videos of the both of them.

Maybe Henry will prove to be a better dancing partner in the future? He dances to EVERYTHING around the house. Sometimes, MM will sing and Henry will dance to her song.

Margaret Mary's dancing style has changed a little bit. She now just runs around, jumps up and down and claps her hands. She recently watched a movie about ballet and is obsessed with everything "vallet." She tries to stand on her tip toes and spins in circles. But more on that to come...

Loving Margaret Mary

The twos have been both terrific and terrible at the same time. Margaret Mary is talking up a storm and has such sweet, funny things to day. Today, Jason looked into her eyes and said "Margaret Mary, I love you," to which she replied "I love cupcakes." :) I am never bored and really find myself enjoying time spent with her. The tantrums, on the other hand, have been intense. Most of her tantrums are thrown out of frustration. She wants to do everything herself and gets really upset when she can't do it, or we don't understand what she is asking for. One of our friends at church is really into Montessori and has been teaching me a little about it. The basic theory is that children love order and thrive when everything has a time and a place. You observe your child, and when you perceive a "sensitive period" (aka, a time when they seem really receptive to learning or really interested in something), you use that time to teach. Montessori is also really big on teaching children how to do practical things, like make their own snacks, make their beds, clean up, etc. The idea is to have a controlled environment so that children can do things themselves and succeed at doing these things, (not throwing a fit out of frustration because they cant do these things). So, I have a little pitcher and a cup, and I set the table so that Margaret Mary can pour her own milk. I also make a tray with her snack on it, unassembled, and show her how to assemble it herself. Everything is age appropriate, and therefore MM get soooo excited when she succeeds at doing something "big girl" by "herself." On days when I set her up for success at doing things by herself, she is more confident, receptive, and eager for help with other things (she has already proved to herself she's a big girl). On days when our routine is off, and I don't create opportunities to succeed, she has ALOT more tantrums and despises it when I try to help her with something. I have been really impressed with Montessori theory and am excited to learn more, and to set up my home in a way my daughter can thrive. I will keep you update on how this all goes...

Happy Father's Day!

What better day for Henry to break out his dancing skills? We love you Jason and look forward to celebrating the whole day how wonderful of a father you are!

Chatfield Lake

We are starting to implement Jason's new work/school schedule at our house. That means that two days a week, Jason stays and plays in the mornings with us and then works from lunch till late at night. We have surprisingly enjoyed it. It is like having three Saturday mornings a week! This Wednesday after Mass we drove out to Chatfield lake, which turned into quite the adventure.

Upon Arrival, we saw this sign:



If you can't read it, it basically tells you how to survive a bear or lion attack. It is pretty intense; the perfect mood setter for our nice little hike in the forest. So there we are, making loud noises (to scare away bears), keeping MM close...



...when all of a sudden we hear a large animal RUNNING through the woods RIGHT AT US. Then we hear it again on the other side of us. All of a sudden two, dark brown, deer run into the meadow behind us. We were so relieved that they were just deer, but my heart was beating like crazy. We walked for a little bit further, wading through mud, trying to get to the lake, when a pack of mosquitoes started swarming me. We turned around and headed back. Sweet Henry slept through the mosquito attack.



We finally found a more public access to the lake and walked a little bit further down the beach away from the fisherman. Jason set Margaret Mary down, threw out a line, and began to fish. I looked down at the sand to find a place to sit only to discover that it was like one giant ant mound. We packed up again and headed to the car. It was quite the adventure. Being in the mountains has defiantly brought out an adventurous side of me I didn't know I had, but I still have my animosity toward small insects, especially ones that bite me. Maybe I can hike with one of those electronic tennis rackets to electrify any insect that crosses my path?

Glendale Farm Open Space

This past Saturday we went to Glendale Farm Open Space, about a twenty minute drive from our home. It is a one and a half mile trail around rolling hills on an old farm and is very "out west" feeling. Margaret Mary walked VERY SLOWLY for about a quarter of the trail. She would stop and examine rocks and flowers, put them in her pockets, and kept on telling the wind to "go away!."



The rest of the time, she was carried by her loving Papa. Jason had to get creative.






At the end of the trail were these big, beautiful rocks. Margaret Mary, being so adventurous, wanted to walk on them. Jason sat her down at told her "Baby, you have to be careful because these rocks are dangerous." Margaret Mary looked up to Jason and said with the sweetest, most confident voice, and said "Papa will hold me." My little girl was telling us that she wasn't scared of the rocks because she knew that her Papa would be holding her. How beautiful, and what a great picture of what OUR confidence should be like, knowing that we are beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly King.



When we told MM it was time to leave the rocks, she said in a slow, sad voice "I want to stay here." So, we stayed for a little while longer. How can we refuse our daughter anything that is just and reasonable?

What fun.



Henry fussed for a little while (the wind was kinda strong), and then went to sleep. But I bet you knew that already...