We ♥ Spring!

Had to buy a baby swing. Have a feelin’ we’ll be using it A LOT!

Aria - 9 Month Checkup

Aria went in for her 9 month checkup Monday. All was well until the doctor said she had an ear infection! What? How long has she had an ear infection? He, of course, has no idea how long she has had the infection. So, the good mother of the year award goes to. . . 

Me! Yea me.

So here are the pertinent measurements from Monday's visit:

Age: 9 months

Date: April 19, 2010

Length: 28 1/4 inches (75%)

Weight: 20 pounds 4 ounces (75%)

Head Circ: 43 centimeters (25%)

 Developmental Milestones:

**Listed on her developmental sheet, she should 1. sit alone well, 2. may creep crawl, move forward by scooting on bottom, 3. bear weight momentarily with feet, 4. do several other relatively boring things.**

In reality she can:

-Pull up to standing, cruse around furniture and people, stand unassisted for several seconds before she gets so excited with herself she bounces too violently and falls over.

-Eats everything she can gets her hands on.

-Claps her hands when she is especially pleased with herself or others.

-Loves attention and when she wants your attention she will put her head between yours and whatever your attention is focused on.

They poked her toe to test her iron. When I picked her up out of her crib after nap time she was chewing the band-aid like a piece of gum. Yummy.

And here is the proud big sister totally hamming it up for the nurses!

Bottle Shmottle. . .

Uh-oh. I've passed on my bad habits...

This is usually what I look like after I toss back a cold one...

Taking the Stay Close to Home Vacation Up a Notch

March 12&13, 2010
When we decided to stay close to home this year for our vacation I still wanted it to be a really fun vacation for the girls. So I kicked into manic mode and I made up special staycation packets for everyone. In their packets were: 1. Stacation dollars (Redeemable, through mom and dad, at any souvenir shop.) They may look a little familiar if you have ever used Disney Dollars ;), so thanks to Disney for the great idea! 2. Tickets to ride on the "Van Horn Van Lines" (do all kids love tickets as much as mine do?) 3. Lanyards with special "pins" for trading.

4. A Travel Journal to document all the fun things they did on vacation

5. An itinerary, activity pages and gum

It's hard to tell what is my favorite thing, the tickets were pretty cool. I had fun making my own money ;) but I think the "pins" were a stroke of brilliance.

I didn't want to have real pins because the Boss and anything sharp is not a good combo. So, I found some Curious George stamps at the dollar spot in Target. Cut off the rubber stamp with a bread knife and hot glued the foam to a plastic barrette.The pins clipped onto the lanyards and the girls could trade with each other or earn new ones from me if they were especially good or helpful.

Drama and Pooh Bear loved everything. They made sure the tickets got collected, checked everything off their itineraries as we did things, loved the “pins” and had fun spending their money. Pooh Bear even wore her lanyard to school the next week! I think they had just as much fun as they would have going far away.

Drama's Pocahontas Report

I should have recorded one of Drama's dress rehearsals, but I didn't think about it. So, when it finally occurred to me, yesterday, I had her do it again one last time for posterity. She didn't really want to until I told her it was for the blog. . .

See how well she did! 

I have to confess I was one of those "crazy moms" for this project. I tried not the let on too much for Drama's sake, but inside I was insane. I don't ever remember being worried about what other kids (and their uber talented mothers) would come up with when I was in school. There was one other little girl in Drama's class that chose Pocahontas and my competitive nature may have kicked in a teensy weensy bit. Don't misunderstand, Drama did all the work. She did the research, wrote all the information for the poster and typed it into the computer, she chose her pictures and made her poster, wrote her presentation and had no problem memorizing it, I helped put the beads on her costume because there were A lOt of them. No, I worried about whether I was helping her too much or not enough. Was I teaching her how to research or just harping? Was I letting her be creative enough? Would her costume be okay? What if the other Pocahontas was a better Pocahontas? Gasp! (I'm a freak I know and Mark heard all about it as I obsessed.) I turns out I was crazy. Drama did a great job (obviously)!

Cheerios!

Yummy, yummy cheerios.

I lOvE chubby baby hands with BIG dimples.

Look at that face.

This face is upstairs crying right now. As evidenced by the drool, she's still working on those two top teeth. I should go snuggle her to sleep. Jealous? You should be.

April Fools

A bug-a-licious lunch.

Trap laid for Daddy.

Nutritious meatloaf cupcake with mashed potato frosting with a refreshing jello drink.

Yummy "dirt" cupcakes complete with worms.

Pocahontas

Drama is in the 3rd grade. I know, 3rd Grade! The 3rd graders were given a book report/project assignment where they were to read about a "hero" of their choosing. Drama chose to study Pocahontas and her life. As part of the project the kids had to dress up as their hero and participate in a "Wax Museum". The entire school and the 3rd grade parents were invited to walk through the museum. Here is our little Pocahontas.

Pocahontas bringing food to the starving Jamestown Colony.

The Boss was so excited to see her sister. She kept trying to get her attention. Which resulted in  A LOT of giggles.

Also as part of this project Drama had to write, memorize and present her report as if she were Pocahontas. She did an amazing job writing and memorizing her report!