The Haps

A few recent photos:

Reading to Bitty Baby. Madelyn has really discovered her dolls lately and loves to be "a good Mama" to them. I love that they are sitting under her umbrella. Not sure what the catalyst for that decision was, but my sister and I used to do that with our baby brother when we were little. We'd get the huge family umbrella and camp out underneath it with blankets and pillows and stuffies...and Kristopher, of course!

This is Madelyn's (and mine!) favorite little spot in the house. It's the rocking chair that used to be in the kids' room when it could fit in there and is super duper cozy. When the sun in shining, there is no better place to curl up, read a book, or watch a little TV (like Maddie does every morning while Henry takes his morning nap). If you look really closely, she looks quite lanky in this photo, too. Our girl looks like a newborn foal these days -- long limbs with knobby knees and elbows. But she is coordinated and strong and is typically the fastest kid on the playground. Track, perhaps?

Linus! Henry carries his blanket around wherever he goes, often in his mouth like a puppy dog as in this photo. He has also developed an inexplicable and sudden attachment to a stuffed polar bear that was given to him by Uncle Kris and his girlfriend Laura. One morning, he refused to nurse until I handed him the bear, and since then, it has joined BeeBee as a security item that has to go with him everywhere. So random! Maybe he just has a thing for polar bears, though, because the picture of the polar bear in one of our books is one of his favorites and gets by far the most enthusiastic "Dee dee dee dee's" when we read it.

I just love Henry's eyes in this photo. Babies can just peer into you, can't they? I would love to know what he's thinking...

Dexter! Kelsie and Ben got a dog a few weeks ago (a French Bulldog) and named him Dexter. "Deedee" for "doggie" is officially Henry's first word. He babbles in a variety of sounds and inflections constantly, but this is the first word that he has consistently and nearly-correctly assigned to an actual object. I think that's adorable. My kids adore Dexter (and all of the dogs in our life, really). So far they have been pretty gentle with him, and they think it's hilarious when he licks them and surprises them with a smooch on the lips.

Also, I love Madelyn's hair in this photo. She wants to grow out her hair so she can do fancy things with it like some of the girls in her class, so we've been putting it in piggies and barrettes quite a bit lately given that it's pretty scraggly. With her hair pulled back from her face she looks so delicate to me all of a sudden. So grown up.

The BEST. These are my happy kiddos first thing in the morning during "Maddie/Henry" time. Madelyn likes to be the first person to greet Henry in the morning, and then the two of them like to play together -- without Mommy and Daddy -- for 15 or 20 minutes. I love to listen to them giggle and talk with each other, and I'm always amazed at how nurturing and attentive Madelyn is when there isn't anyone else around to do it. Our days start crazy early at about 5:45, but at least they start off this way...

Hmm, what else?

Henry is learning new things so fast it's amazing. I remember feeling this way when Madelyn was this age -- like I was watching brain cells divide and learn to talk to each other. He consistently signs "all done," "more," "water," and "milk" and we're working very hard on "help" as he's solidly entered the "scream when I get frustrated" stage. He knows his nose and toes and loves to help put his socks and shoes on his feet. He's really into making sounds lately and can do a duck (so he can quack for Ducks' games!), a monkey, a doggie, and just recently a rooster. He will vroom like a car and push a toy car on the floor or up your arm (like Daddy does to him when he's getting his diaper changed). But his recent obsession is the vacuum. I was doing some serious Spring cleaning last weekend and had the vacuum out for several days, and he only wanted to be over by it, touching all of it's miraculous parts and saying "vvvvv" reverently. I'm on the hunt for a toy vacuum for him as I think he would totally get a kick out of that. Our boy has also (finally!!!) discovered the joy of books. He actually goes to his book shelf on his own accord, picks a book, and brings it over to us to read it to him. Sigh.

Madelyn is our resident artist these days. Our girl is still busy and loves to run and be wild, but she can also routinely be found sitting at the table drawing or painting or doing stickers for hours. She has an unbelievable memory that gets Kurt and me in trouble all the time. She's set to start ballet at the beginning of April and she's super excited. It's the only thing she consistently says she wants to do, so we'll see. We get to pick out an actual leotard, tights, and slippers, so I'm kind of excited about that.

We're good. We hope you are too.