Big news this week

We are very happy.

We are a wonderfully happy family.  It just feels so nice. Its nice having Danny home.

Big news this week; Rosie can roll over! None of that easy front to back stuff, she can roll from her back to her front! and not even four months old! She does it with such grace too! She tips her head back, slowly arching her back as she gradually tips over and plays on her belly for a while.

I came home from work to nurse Rosie Tuesday and the babysitter and I were cheering Henry on as he pooped in the potty (more big news, Henry poops in the potty!).    Emily Grace (our fantastic babysitter for the summer) turned to Rosie and asked her if she had rolled to her tummy herself; obviously a rhetorical question as she knew she had put her down on her back.  Since we had missed it, we returned her to her back and she rolled over again.  I called Danny to tell him and he said, 'oh  yeah, I forgot to tell you, she did that this morning'.  Hilarious that he didn't think this the most important news of the day, week, month...!

We enjoyed our weekly outing with Papa today; after gymnastics the kids and I cycle to the square, climb the three flights of stairs (while counting the stairs) to see Papa at work and collect him for lunch.  We walk all the way through town (takes Henry a while as he is easily distracted!) to get chicken and fries. Then ice cream and free topping at Holli's Sweet Tooth and the long trek back across town to drop Papa back at work and cycle home.  It is so much fun!

I made a duvet cover for Henry. Its fantastic! Best of all, he loves it to bits! Pulls it up under his chin so that he is wrapped up in trains! What more could a little boy want!  I was working on a pillow cover with his name on it, but my sewing machine didn't seem to be working right, so Danny thought it appropriate to take it apart. Now its broken! So I have to take it to the Fabric Store tomorrow to see if they fix sewing machines. Then I have to make Henry some blinds for his bedroom.

Not too much else going on. We plod along, doing fun things. Rosie loves her little rattles and jungle gym.  She loves to stand up and was laughing hysterically this morning as we did 'trust falls' on the bed with Henry (an aided fall backwards on to my bed, made to feel like free falling).  She already wears 6-9 m clothing as her body is so long! She sleeps 645pm - 6am. Fantastic!  Henry loves to play in the paddling pool or sprinkler and the City pool opened for the summer, so we have been there. We took the kids to the lake Monday morning and Henry got filthy in the sand and splashed around in the lake. He loves to play markers and we usually do this outside on a huge cardboard box. He ends up drawing on himself (on purpose) and looks like a rainbow.  The other day I drew a Thomas on his leg and he had to feed Thomas each of his bites of food before eating it himself.  Hilarious.  Potting training is going well, as long as he isn't wearing any bottoms.  As soon as he is wearing underwear or pjs or a diaper, he goes whenever he wants. Other than that, he pretty much goes on the potty when we are at home.

OH! They are awake!

Cool Breeze

Newspaper fun

A few weeks ago, a disreputable newspaper stole one of Danny's photos.  A nice, conservative couple was cut out of their photo and placed in front of a bad picture of the Court House. So Danny threatened to sue for Copyright and we went around town taking up newspapers as the couple was very upset about it all.  So now, what to do with a huge stack of newspapers... why shred them of course!

Is this considered child labour?

We mopped the front porch for fun!

He calls the dust pan and brush his 'tiny broom'.

One month older!

Gees! Id complain to the management if I were you! A new baby and an entire month without a blog post.  Needless to say, Im not only busy with my kids, but tired because of them!  Im seriously lucky though, except for sicknesses and growth spurts, Rosie goes to bed between 7 and 8 pm and sleeps until between 5 - 9 am.  I wake her around 1030pm to nurse and she falls back to sleep before she has even finished.  When she is going to wake up in the morning is anybody's guess, but never before 5 am, so I get a seriously good nights sleep. Or I would, if I wasn't paranoid about running out of milk or emergency situations;  yes, I get up to pump around 3 am!  Im sure this will stop and Ill just pump in the mornings, but for now, it only takes 10 minutes and I can stick another 6 ounces in the freezer for some unknown catastrophe in the future.

We have great fun together, the kids and I, and even more fun when we have our Papa to play with.  One of our favourite games as a family is to bounce around on Mama's bed, hiding under the covers (note, Henry calls it Mama's bed, so where does Papa sleep?!)  Henry is so sweet with his little sister.  He likes to hold her hand, and lately has taken to putting her paci in her mouth, it made me nervous at first, but he is reasonably gentle so I let it go.  Yes, we are trying her on a pacifier/dummy.  She doesn't mind it, it keeps her quiet if she is mad about something (the only thing she gets mad about is being tired), but she will fall asleep far quicker if she is allowed to put her thumb in her mouth. The funny thing is, she doesn't seem to care which thumb she sucks on, unlike Henry who is still partial to those two right fingers.  One of her favourite things to do is to stand up, and she likes to watch the fan, just like Henry did! She doesn't really care for 'tummy time' but she is really good at it.  Today she sort of crawled across my bed; not really crawling but she somehow got from one side to the other by shunting her butt up. Bath time remains hilarious as she swims up and down the bath tub.

Henry can count to ten. He gets a little stuck at three, but can do the rest. I am not positive he knows what the numbers mean, but its a good start.  He speaks in sentences now, though you have to understand his language a bit.  He asked the painters today if they wanted some water, and they actually understood him:  "ask man water?" because when I asked him if he wanted some water, he said "man water" so I said he could ask them if they wanted some water, and he did.  He was also concerned that they might be hungry when we were eating our lunch!  We measured him today and since January 1st, he has grown an inch every two months.

Our lives are a whirlwind.  I got an awful stomach bug a couple of weeks ago, during Double Decker weekend, I actually violently threw up Friday night.  Combine stomach bug with holding Rosie in the Ergo, carrying Henry because he didn't feel good and something ridiculous like 95F weather, and I didn't have a very nice day.  Right at the end of a week when Henry didn't take a single nap; I wasn't a happy camper.  Lost 5 lbs in 3 days though!  We instigated the 'baby bed' as punishment if Henry got out of bed during nap time and after just two days, he was napping in his own bed again! Hooray for me.  There is generally at least an hour when the kids nap at the same time and it is bliss! We even bought a baby monitor so I can go outside and garden.  I made it to the dermatologist and yes, sure enough I have eczema on my face, though now it has also spread to my neck and chest, and I suspect the top of my back.  He also told me what the problem with my foot was and what the tiny spots on my arms and hands were (yes, I am falling apart, yes, it is possibly old age!) and no, I cannot use any of the necessary creams whilst nursing. Yeay for trying to give your child the best start in life and having to suffer in sheer agony as your face sets itself on fire once a week.  The compromise I have come to with myself is that I am giving her the best start by breast feeding her and I cannot live with the pain of the eczema, so when it gets really bad I use the tiniest dab of cream I can, until it reduces itself.  I will nurse Rosie as long as she wants to, but I am going to celebrate her weening with a 10 day course in steroids and whatever other creams he has given me for my face.

So sweet!

In Seattle a while back...

Henry, that belly button is not really a button...

It seems like Rosie is in the Bumbo much sooner than I remember Henry being in it...

Baked beans are one of Henry's favourite meals, especially when you add some hot dog pieces to it!

Yet more pictures on Mama's bed!

Where on Earth did this girl's beauty come from!?