Liberty (3) Henry (4 months)

We took both kiddos for their Dr. well-visits and came home with these stats:

Henry:  15 pounds and 27 inches - - 97% in height and 46% in weight.
Liberty: 34.8 pounds and 40 inches - - 96% in height and 86% in weight.

*readers beware, annoying mommy bragging to follow...

In other milestone news Henry is enjoying tummytime, grabs at toys and puts them in his mouth and is the smiliest/laughiest boy on the planet.  He rolls and drools. He naps 2-4 times a day (usually 3 - 9am, 1:30pm and a snooze during dinner or in between those big 2 hour naps).  We are trying to consistently get him to nap in his crib but it's touch and go.  Some days he does, and some days we give up and put him in the swing.  He still sleeps 7:30pm to 6:30am with the occasional wake up at 4am to cutely coo like a bird until I pop a binky in his mouth because I am not a nice mommy at 4am.  We talk daily about wanting to move him to his room.  He loves bathtime with Liberty, the TV, Sophie the Giraffe and when Daddy makes him dance to techno music.

Liberty is so bright.  Her vocabulary is insane and she is a sponge for learning new things (dog breeds, types of rocks, flowers, presidents, every name of all my friends, and their husbands and babies and dogs and everyone's favorite color and favorite princess...) She knows simple addition/subtraction and can count to 25 but her real love is letters.  She's known the sounds of the alphabet for over a year and she can tell us what almost any word starts and ends with and loves figuring out what is also in the word (spelling).  She can write her name and mommy.  She can sound out simple words.  She CANNOT rhyme worth a damn and she is the most uncoordinated kid ever (she has just figured out a 3 wheeled scooter).  She doesn't like scary things (this includes villains, tall slides/roller coasters, alligators, etc). She loves cats, the color blue (royal blue to be precise, followed by green, then pink, then purple), princesses (Cinderella), her cat blankie named StrawberryRose, arts & crafts, Henry and bratwurst.  She asks me for a baby sister almost every day. "When you are pregnant some other time can we get a girl baby with a blue and green dress? That would be adorable.  But. You never know what you are going to get, a girl baby or a boy baby. It's a mystery."  I hear this speech often.  Naps 2 hours a day, wonder how long this blessing will last...

Children's Museum of Phoenix

Nothing like an expiring Groupon to get your butt to the Children's Museum of Phoenix.  The last time we went Liberty was 18 months old I think - so it was definitely time to explore again!  My mom got to come along and it was a fun time!

Easter Farewell Party for Martis!

We've celebrated Easter with good friends a few times in the past and this year we celebrated the weekend prior because our good friends Kelly, Ben, Adalyn and baby Nora were moving back to their beloved St. Louis.  We have a lot of good memories of meeting at bookclub and married women's meetups, GNOs, boating, Kierland Staycation, Flagstaff road trip, celebrating pregnancies and births - and simply starting a new friendship from scratch in 2008? 2009?.  We will miss them and their great family.  The Heppner's hosted as usual and outdid themselves again with another potluck feast that included Samineh's dessert like White Chocolate Cheesecake and the best sugar cookies I've ever had (that the kiddos decorated).  She also crafted bunny ears/tails for the girls to wear for a bunny hop race.  The Easter egg hunt was a ton of fun and it was great to sit outside and enjoy our growing families. Cameron was away in California getting his Project Management Certification from Stanford so he missed out on our farewell party - but Samineh took on the roll of photographer, thank goodness, to capture some of the fun.

Liberty turns 3!!!!!!!!

Liberty's blue/Cinderella Princess party was a hit - she wore a blue/green dress and headband she picked out, had some of her favorite people over, bounced in the bounce house, decorated cupcakes (her request - but never again!), and enjoyed the generosity of so many friends and family members.  Uncle Andy even flew in from SF again, which is becoming one of the most treasured parts of her birthday parties.  Liberty is a bright, thoughtful little girl now - no more baby... she has been a loving daughter and sister and we are as proud as parents can be.  I'll end up doing a separate blog entry to mark some milestones for our own memory...but for now - the BIRTHDAY ALBUM!

EASTER 2013

We celebrated Easter in Fountain Hills with my mom and dad.  We had a great brunch and Easter egg hunt.  Liberty got so many goodies in her 3 baskets from grandparents and us.  She told us her favorite holiday is still Valentine's day but she liked dressing up in a new blue outfit for Easter.  We also celebrated Easter with friends the weekend before and I'll share those pictures later.

Tummytime & Siblings

This was a really cute photo shoot of Henry finally enjoying his playmat.  He rolled over the day after I took these pictures.  Liberty decided she was in a camera mood so there are some funny pictures of her posing with Henry - It cracks us up that the happier/cuter Liberty is - the more miserable Henry looks...he puts up with a lot of smothering love from big sis.

Henry 3 months old!

Henry...
...cheerful as can be.  This photo shoot sums this kid up.

Other notes:
Finally some routine and predictability to the day.  4oz bottles usually at 7am, 10, 1, 4 and 7pm.
Still sleeping during the day in a bouncy seat and nights in our room.
Goals for April: get him napping in his crib and move him to his room. Because ...HE'S SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!  *angels sing*  We are talking 8pm-6:30am!  IF he ever wakes around 3am we just give him a bottle and he goes right back down and will probably sleep until 7:30am that way!
He's trying so hard to suck his thumb but isn't quite there yet.
He rolled over for the first time on March 14th. Belly to Back.  Once he figured it out he did it all day long - like 8 times!

Happy Henry Video

Henry is chuckling a bit these days.  He's happy and he knows it.

Conversation with Henry

Once a day, usually during Liberty's naptime, Henry gets real chatty.

Henry is 2 months old!

Henry is 2 months old!

12 pounds 11 oz, 24.5 inches
He is so mellow and smiles so easily for just about anyone (his doctors, my doctors, friends, family, neighbor kids - anyone who pays attention to him)
Chuckles now too (video to come)
Loves diaper changes.
Just started sleeping much better...usually something like 7pm-2am and 2:30am-6:30am. Still doesn't nap much in the morning time, so we hang out and do tummy time, etc.
Mommy got the first smile, but daddy got the first laugh.
Hair is growing.

A note about the crazy amount of pictures:
1 - I cannot figure out how to make my camera take good pictures inside the house, so there is a lot of experimenting with different settings/flash going on here.
2 - I don't have time to go through and delete and make a perfect album that is blog worthy.
3 - I can't bring myself to delete much anyway because every picture is cute to me, I'm the mom.
4 - It's much easier for me to just share the entire family album link even though I know many of you don't need to see 47 pictures of Henry propped up in a chair.

Drawing People

Liberty has just started to draw things that actually look like what she says she is drawing! She is so excited and frequently asks us if we want to "buy some of my famous artwork?" This is a birthday card she made for Grandma...she started by drawing Grandma (complete with ears, hair, hands, feet and my favorite - a belly button!) and then she decided to draw the rest of her family - of which Liberty is a baby. Hmmm... She told me this is a picture of Grandma taking care of baby Liberty.