Peek A Boo!

Henry is in everything now.  And I mean everything. He has been crawling for a few months, and is now a pro at pulling himself up to stand and "cruise" around.  He is especially attracted to outlets in the wall, which are "babyproofed" with those little socket covers that slide into the slots.  I may have to readdress the effectiveness of those, since Henry enjoys simply pulling them out from the sockets and trying to eat them.  Yikes.  He also has discovered the ability to open the lower cupboards in the kitchen.  The fascination with opening the cupboards and pulling out the contents is something that I was expecting, since his older siblings both enjoyed doing it.  Our solution for them was to have one cabinet that they were allowed to go through.  We are in the process of redirecting Henry to that cupboard each time he opens a different one, and he definitely enjoys playing in there.  The other day he kept reaching a little further in...then a little further...until he was all the way in.

 

It was adorable, but it particularly squeezed my heartstrings because I remember seeing another little one in that exact same position about five years ago. 

 

 

Sienna used to L-O-V-E that little cabinet and would even play peek-a-boo in there when she got older.  Can you believe that is my big girl?  She was so tiny, and really, Henry constantly reminds me of Sienna as a baby.  Those big round cheeks and blue eyes, and just their baby faces side by side shares a strong resemblance.  Look at how sweet my little (big) girl was!

 

These aren't the best side-by-side comparison photos, but can you see the resemblance?  Or am I the only one?

 

 

And here they are together this week, playing peek-a-boo.  Sienna is an amazing big sister to both Charlie and Henry.  She is patient, loving, playful, and attentive.  At the end of the video you can get a little peek into Henry's latest attention-grabbing tactic.  (Listen for the loud shrieking/screaming).

 

Since this post has been very Sienna and Henry-centric, here's a shot of Charlie strumming on David's guitar this week - obviously he's really happy that I'm taking his picture!

 

 

 

And here he is at 21 months, strumming away.

 

 

Ohhhhh, look at that little baby Charlie, he was so cute.

Ice, Ice Baby

Why have the last two posts had cheesy song titles with a cold weather theme?  I think it's because we are surrounded by several feet of snow that seem to keep accumulating almost daily!  Sienna has been thrilled to miss three or four days of school so far on account of snowstorms.  I tried to explain to her that she will need to make up these snow days later in the year, but I'm not sure she grasps that fact.  Anyway, the "ice" in today's title refers to a birthday party I took Sienna to last weekend where she went ice skating for the first time (and I went for the first time since before she was born!)  After we had her laced up and ready to go, we walked over to the entrance to the rink where she saw some of her friends sliding around (and falling) while holding onto the wall for dear life.  Surprisingly, this did not give her a lot of confidence to get out there and skate and she asked me sweetly if I could please go with her.  So after warning her that I would probably not be very helpful, I got myself some skates and headed into the rink with her.  It was a lot more difficult than I remember!  We had one fall together but managed to stay upright the rest of the time - at least, I did, Sienna had a fair share of falls but was a good sport about it and did not want to stop once she got the hang of it! So let's get to the good stuff, some photos:

I loved having some "girl time" as Sienna calls it.  We need to take every opportunity for it living in a house with three boys!  About halfway through the party, however, I got off the ice and girl time was promptly over.  Sienna spent the rest of the party skating around with a little boy (J) she sits next to at school.  It was really cute, they helped each other along and a couple of times when he saw Sienna struggling a bit, J reached out his hand to help her up and they skated hand in hand.  

I sneaked a little shot of them skating hand in hand.

I took a little video of her skating - which was really more like walking in ice skates.  :)  

Fun fact (ok, maybe it's not so fun, so it's really just a fact  :p) : The last time I went ice skating, Sienna did go in a way, because I was pregnant with her!  Some friends of ours came to visit from England before any of the kids were born (Chris and Nicola, who now have a gorgeous little girl named Holly!)  Chris and David's families have always been close so they grew up together.  Anyway, they came to America and stayed with us while I was really early on in my pregnancy with Sienna.  We had  not told anyone yet, not even my parents who we were living with at the time - we were a month away from closing on our house but our apartment lease was up.  While Chris and Nicola were here, we went into the city (New York City...obviously! hehe) and walked around Bryant Park.  It was late fall/early winter, and the park was decorated for Christmas.  If you live near NYC and have never been to Bryant Park at Christmas, I highly recommend it.  It's enchanting.  They set up a little ice skating rink as well, so the four of us went out.  You would think that being pregnant (and rather queasy) I would need David's support on the ice, but actually it was the other way around!  Although my husband has a plethora of talents, balancing on two very thin metal blades on a slippery surface is most definitely not one of them.  Let's just say there were some flailing arms involved and it still makes me giggle to think about it!  Unfortunately, this was before I got my first digital camera, so I don't have any photos to show you from this day.  I do have a couple more from this week though!  Charlie and I built a "death star" out of lego the other day. We each took turns putting the pieces on, but he told me where all my pieces should go.

It was the perfect spot for Darth Vader to hang out "in his office," as Charlie put it.

Unfortunately, we had a few ninja casualties.

And one last shot to close out this post -- Henry's little "stinky face."  It is always accompanied by a lot of dog-like sniffing.  I can't help but laugh when he does this!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

~Yes, I know it's been forever and a day since I've posted on this little blog o' mine!  This was due partially to technical issues and partially to my own laziness.  But with a new year come new resolutions, one of mine being to visit this little space more often so I can have a nice record of what our family has been up to.  "But we're already into February, and aren't New Year's resolutions meant to begin at the start of the year?"  You may think that, but I needed to get some other goals in line first, like creating a better daily routine and trying to be more organized.  Anyway, blah blah blah, the point is that hopefully I will get my bottom in gear and update more frequently!~ 

We have been having a rough winter this year in these here parts!  Although I reveled in every snow day as a child, I have become a typical grumpy old lady when it comes to winter weather.  I can't wait for winter to be over!  My children, however, have been really enjoying the snowy weather, so here's a few peeks into the two biggest snowfalls we've had.  This first day was back in November, and it was the first time I brought Henry-boy out to play in the snow.  The big kids had so much fun watching him.  He loved it, even when the cold wind blew bits of snow into his face!  At first he just sat and looked around, then eventually got the confidence to crawl into it a little.  It was adorable, as you can see!

 

 

You gotta love the snowsuit with little buds for hands.  :)

 

 

The snow was so deep for the little guy!

This was right after getting some snow blown into his face, hence the puzzled expression! Sienna loves this picture.  Poor little guy!

Sienna and Charlie had a lot of fun that day too.  I love this shot of the two of them.

It is hard to get a photo with all three children smiling!  Henry was just starting to get fed up with being in the snow so this was the best I could get. 

Big snow day #2 was just a couple of weeks ago.  Henry was napping this time around, but some friends from down the road came over to help us build a snowman.  I think this is the biggest snowman we've ever made - it was taller than Sienna!  It was our little friend's idea to stick the umbrella on top, "To keep him from getting snow on him."  Hmmm...we want to prevent the snowman from getting snowed on?  I guess that's some 4-year-old wisdom that I don't know about.  :)

Ta-daaaah!

 

 

Charlie was being a pirate.  Arrrrrr!  Which makes me think of a joke my mother-in-law told him: "Why are pirates so cool?  Because they arrrrrr!"  Cute, right?  Charlie can't remember the punchline though - he always says, "Because they say arrrrrr."  heehee. 

 

 

Hope you're staying warm this winter!

 

Photo Catch-Up: Part 2

This spring, Sienna joined the Daisy Scouts troop (you saw her marching with them in the Memorial Day parade).  On June 13th they had their induction ceremony, which was really sweet.  Sienna was a flag bearer in the beginning of the presentation.  She looked very solemn and official while walking up the aisle with the flag, then settled into her typical demeanor.  : ) 

"On my honor, I will try, to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout law"  -- taking the Girl Scout promise for the first time (which, surprisingly, has not changed since I was in Brownie Scouts!)

My favorite shot of the day (Sienna is with me and requested I write in pink, in case you were questioning the color change).

This is Sienna in a nutshell.  : )

 

Charlie's favorite part were the treats afterwards.

 

 

This next group of pictures is from Father's Day.  We all went to my sister and brother-in-law's house and had lunch together.

My brother-in-law, Charlie, my Dad, Sienna.  This is my Dad's usual assumed expression for photos...

But some people have a talent for making him smile!

 

I remember before Charlie was born, my Dad had been so completely enamored with Sienna, that he worried he would not give as much attention to our second.  Well, as you can see, even Henry receives lots of love and attention from Gigi (pronounced "jee jee") - as the kids call him.  And all of the kids absolutely adore him back.  He was sitting here with Henry, talking to him, for more than half an hour.

The conversation went a little like this:
"Hey, Dad, what are you doing?"
"I'm sitting in a chair, relaxing."
"I'm sitting too.  Ok, bye"
And many other similar "phone calls"; between each one Charlie would get up and run across the lawn and back-

#1 Dad with two of the greatest kids in the world (I'm not proud or anything).

I guess you could just reuse the caption from the above photo...   : )
Just a little FYI - what you can't see in this lovely little shot is that my Dad is standing on his tippy toes to get a little height advantage.  Sorry, Dad, the cat's out of the bag!

My sister and I inherited my Dad's silliness...and the love Japanese people have for using bunny ears in photos?

By the way, I promise my Mom was there, she just managed to avoid all the photos - except for one I took of her when she wasn't ready, which I kindly deleted, following her request.  

Photo Catch-up: Part 1

We've been busy around here and I have not gotten around to uploading pictures from the last couple of weeks.  So I'll do a few posts to just catch you up on what's been going on.  First up is a photo shoot of Henry with Batman, which (as you can see) went downhill rather quickly!

 

 

 



 Last week Sienna had her first field day.  It had been rescheduled twice (it rained on the rain date!) and luckily it was a gorgeous day.  I brought the boys to go watch; I think Charlie wanted to join all of the big kids in their relays.  Sienna had a lot of fun!

Singing, "You're a Grand Old Flag"

Frog jump relay

Don't trip over that shoelace!

Jumping over the hurdle or doing a funky dance?

A cute relay where they had to put all of these red, white, and blue accessories on

Water break!



Here you can see Sienna in action: The first relay involved balancing a dodgeball inside of a cone while running, and Sienna did well (once she was able to get the ball and put it in the cone).  The second relay was rolling an innertube to the cone and running back with it.  She took her time just a liiiiitle bit more with this one.  I think she wanted to be extra careful that it wouldn't fall!