hanging out

put henry in the jumper for the first time last night. it's his new favorite place to hang out while i make dinner. marianne was pumped...i kept catching her swinging, spinning, and bouncing him just a little too fast and rough. tonight i gave him a teether rattle to play with and he was working hard at getting ahold of it and into his mouth. he's been grabbing at things for several weeks now but he's really starting to get that hand-eye coordination thing down.

he is also starting to splash and move a lot more in his bath. evenings are generally pretty rough because he's worn out and it's always bad timing to try to put him down for a short nap because his sleepy window usually falls right in the middle of dinner prep. but as soon as he goes into his wash pod...he is a happy boy.

more bath time

here's a couple more bath time videos (was having trouble adding them to the previous post). 

marianne was helping me get him all scrubbed up tonight. some really great smiles in this one...and marianne gives him a mohawk.

got to get each and every part clean...even those smiling lips. 

date night

marianne and i had a date night tonight. i don't think we've had any serious quality one-on-one time since henry's arrival! we were long overdue. she is a tee bit OBSESSED with the lorax. her preschool's "curriculum" theme for march as been dr. seuss and then she got the lorax (that's "yore-lax" as marianne says it) book for her birthday from her great aunt penny. we've only read it about 10x a day since getting it. so when she woke up from nap today, i surprised her with the idea to go see the lorax movie on the big screen. she was SO excited to have me to herself. as we were walking into the theater she said "it's just momma and i going to see the movie. not daddy and henry. they stayed home!" she was skipping along, practically floating into the theater. the movie was really good. she was grinning ear to ear, scarfing down her popcorn and slurping her milk...completely entranced watching. afterwards she asked for ice cream...how could i deny her? so, we had a little dessert before our dinner. she insisted on licking it out of the bowl (should've gotten a cone). we grabbed some mac-n-cheese and pulled pork sammies on our way home—figured we should butter up daddy with his favorite bbq. marianne decided she wanted to try pickle juice. she took one sip, puckered, chugged down some milk, and went back for another drink! then pronounced, "i love it!!!"

a little one-on-one time with henry. i'm warning you, i make a complete fool of myself with the baby talk...just trying to get a smile or two. he was lighting up with smiles until i turned on the camera, then he just looks at me mostly like i'm crazy. but i am...crazy about his little chubby cheeks.

my arms are too tired

we went to the zoo yesterday. BEAUTIFUL DAY! Marianne & I decided Henry should wear his polar bear outfit and then on the way out the door I grabbed his peacock linen swaddle blanket to use as shade for him over the stroller. these outfit choices would prove foretelling because the peacocks and polar bears at the zoo gave us quite a show. I guess spring is in the air. Two different peacocks fanned their feathers to us and one of the polar bears was having a so much fun swimming around, playing with its pool toys. She kept climbing up on the rock and diving in on top of the floater balls, pushing them under water with her. She was having a great time and so were we. Marianne insisted on going back a second time to watch her.
Thanks to her aunt Kimmy, almost every trip to the zoo entails a request to ride the carousel. Yesterday I obliged. It is a fantastic, well-preserved old wooden carousel. All three of us rode...Henry in his car seat and Marianne on the polar bear.
It must have worn Marianne out...I had to ask her to put toys away before bath last night several times and on her final warning, she came to me with her arms crossed and said "but I can't put my toys away, my arms are too tired!"

pizza pie

we made homemade pizza for my birthday dinner tonight. marianne didn't want me doing the cooking on my birthday ;-) so she rolled out the dough and topped the pizzas. well, i may have helped a bit.

grandma & grandpa were here this weekend for a visit. henry wished them a farewell and safe travels for the remainder of their spring break trip. precious moments with them...i think they may love him just a bit. grandma may not have any voice left...marianne asked her to read the lorax about 50 times throughout the weekend.

recent footage

not to compare my two kids but...marianne turned over from belly-to-back at 11 weeks. henry is over 3 months old and hasn't made much progress in that department. i'm not even sure when exactly the "average" age for this developmental milestone should fall but i don't think we really have any reason for concern. my theory, though, is that henry is a little chunkeroo so he has more weight to carry over than what marianne (our little lightweight) did. plus, he wears cloth diapers so i think the bulk diminishes his leverage. the other day i gave him a few minutes diaper-less to enjoy the cool breeze on his bumbi. he was laying on his back and made like he was going to turn over onto his tummy. he had a few very close moments but didn't quite manage to make it. here's a short clip, in an effort to preserve his modesty i had to edit it down to a segment at just the right angle:

my little girl turned 3 this past weekend! of course it doesn't seem possible. we had a really fun weekend (more on that later) but i just had to share this take of her after opening one of her gifts : the lorax by dr. seuss. she loves loves loves that book (can you tell?) and asks to read it about 10x a day!!!!!

two kids, one room

well, henry has been sleeping soundly for 8-10 hours at night in his cradle in our room for a few weeks now, so i got brave tonight. both of my babies are fast asleep in THEIR room. it's his first night to sleep in his crib. i've been ready to move him but avoiding it because of the adjustment period. tonight was ideal however: marianne was asleep by the time i put henry down. i have a feeling not every night will be that easy.

today was also henry's first time to sit in his bumbo seat! it was a tight for for henry but marianne easily stuffed her"bumbi" into out. He's a chubber.

the unthinkable

i did the unthinkable tonight...i fed Marianne drive-thru food for dinner on our way home from a visit to see my friend, Kristin, who's in the hospital on antepartum bed rest. we stayed longer than i had intended and by the time we headed home it was well past our usual dinner time. so it was chicken nuggets + fries. to my horror, she gobbled it down like it was the best thing ever! what have i done? the worst part is that when she saw the golden arches, she said, "look, momma, an 'M' for Marianne!" henry slept through it all...he couldn't believe my gall.

good part: she had lots of fun playing with Jackson, Kristin's son!

my handiwork

the pink cake pops from last night and a few more photos from the backlog on my phone.

a beautiful month for some birthdays

i'm making pink cake pops tonight for a certain little girl's third birthday coming up. she has requested a pink fete! we went shopping yesterday for her pink birthday dress. she is going to be a shopping force to be reckoned with! she definitely knows what she likes and what she doesn't.
we've already had one fun birthday night this month. all it took to satisfy that birthday boy was a plateful of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, and carrot cake. marianne insisted on the candles, lighting them, taste-testing the frosting by the finger-full (much the same as she likes to eat butter straight from the dish), singing happy birthday, and calling daddy the "birthday boy"! and now into the rosy affair in our near future with a houseful of tots to help us celebrate. plus, there's still more than a handful of other family birthdays (immediate and extended families) left to go this month.

we've had some beautiful, warm afternoons for playing outside this past week...i hope it continues. we broke out the tonka and henry had his first ride in the tree swing. i had you keep marianne from pushing very hard...she wants him to have all the same fun that she does.

on the farm in gap

shopping for a pink birthday dress today and marianne put on this hat and told me she was a farmer.

tummy time

a few good laughs

yesterday afternoon we were just hanging out on momma's bed reading books, giving henry kisses and giggling. marianne and i were pretty sure that henry even gave us a little laugh.
marianne has been choosing her own outfits lately. i about died when i saw she had chosen all stripes--pink, on yellow, on blue--but it actually looked pretty cute. i think maybe she has an eye for fashion. ha