Birthday Party #1!

R - Yes, indeed, I am a year old!  My birthday was yesterday.  Momma keeps saying that she just can't believe it.  But there you have it.  I am 1 year old!  And, lucky me, I get to celebrate my birthday several times.  The more the better, I say.  The first time was while we were in Florida, with Auntie, G and Poppy. 

We started with opening presents.  I particularly liked playing with the tissue paper.  That is some fun stuff!

My Grammy Thelmarine got me some tiny stuffed animals and a really fun book. 

The animals are very nice to chew, which is quite important to me these days. 

And here I am with the awesome snake my Auntie got for me.  See, you can't really tell it is a snake, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  I was so excited about this snake that I danced and shook it all around!  It's a great snake, trust me!

THEN, something amazing happened!

See, I had been wondering why Momma had taken off my clothes.  Usually when she does that I am going to take a bath or put on my jammies.  But if she does that and we stay in the kitchen, I know something great is about to happen.  Before, the something great was always SPAGHETTI.  That is definitely a meal worthy of naked dining!  I LOVE spaghetti. 

But this time, Momma set me on the FLOOR and put this green thing in front of me.  Hmmm, what is this??

CAKE!!! 

My heavens!  You have been holding out on me!  Cake is great!  First of all, it is nice and soft and squishy.  It is so much fun to dig in with your hands and make a fantastic mess!

Oh, and it tastes delicious!  Yum!

This stuff is great!  Squish, squish, squish!

I had to dance and sing a bit about it. 

Then I removed an entire layer of the cake and tried to eat the whole thing.  It was a bit too big for me, but TOTALLY worth the effort!

Yum.  Birthday parties are fun!  Did you say there are more to come? 

Bring it on!

Babes in the Bluebonnets

M - The bluebonnets are amazing this year!  I don't know anything about why it is better this year than last, though I am sure I could google something and find out.  I am happy to just enjoy them with the kids!  It was supposed to be a rainy weekend, but Saturday ended up to be a perfect photo day, so we zipped over to an area that tends to have great wildflowers to see what we could find.  I'd say we had some good luck!

This was Reid's first time to see a bluebonnet, so he was fascinated!

 They are both wearing outfits that I recently made...  Reid's has an orange giraffe on the front.  Elyse's is similar to last years Easter dress, which she wears at every opportunity.  I changed the bodice a bit but the rest is the same - twirly skirt and all!  She picked out the trim.  What a great eye!

 

Happy baby!

  

This dress, similar to the other one, is perfect for dancing!

We had a great time.  I hope the wildflowers are out for a while...  It would be fun to visit again!



 

Spring Break!!!

E - Now that I am in Kindergarten, I get a Spring Break.  We went to Florida!  We went to a place called Seacrest, which is in the panhandle.  Think white sand beaches and beautiful clear blue water.  It was GORGEOUS.  But that is starting off in the wrong place.  Let's start at the beginning.  We DROVE there as in, a car trip!  We made it a two day excursion, so we wouldn't get too bored being in the car for so long, as the total trip is about 10 hours driving, plus potty breaks, lunch, etc.  It was a good trip.  Momma bought some new fun games and toys and some cool new pens for coloring.  I was busy the entire time!  Auntie drove down there with us, and G and Poppy met us there.  It was a family vacation!

One time we stopped later than we should have for lunch, and Reid got so hungry he decided to eat Momma's arm! 

The house we stayed in was AMAZING.  In my room, there were two sets of bunk beds (meaning, there were 4 BEDS in there) and I slept on each of the beds, sometimes all in the same night!  And there was a beanbag to match each bed, so I brought them downstairs for us to sit on in the living room. 

When we first got to Florida, it was rainy, so we stayed inside and played games.  Auntie got me a new game called " Go Ape", which was so much fun, we played it about a zillion times.  And that is NO exaggeration! 

Here I am at the beach with G!  Did you know that G grew up in California?  She loves the beach!  Me too.  I think my words were "This is AWESOME".  I loved looking for seashells.


 

 

Here are Momma and Reid at the beach!
 
 
 

And Daddy and Reid watching the waves.
 

My favorite thing was to go out far onto the sandbar and then JUMP the waves with Auntie and Daddy. 

Auntie bought these TINY kites, they were called Microkites.  If you look in the upper left corner, you can see the kite and it's little tail flying! 

 

And look at this!  We were right next to ELYSEE beach!  Did you know I have my own beach???  Yep.  Pretty amazing, huh?

 

We bought this great game called Spring Ring.  See how G and I each have a round ring in our hands?  You bounce a ball back and forth using the rings.  You can see the ball in-between us, it's blue.

 

 Daddy buried me in the sand all the way to my knees!!!

   

Ahhh, relaxation.  Is the beach great or what?

 

As you can see, we had a marvelous time at the beach.  I was very sad to go.  I think we should return every year.  Momma agrees.  Well, I think we all do.  It was a wonderful vacation. 

11 months old!

 R - You  might have wondered if I just passed my 11 month birthday up or what...  See, I turned 11 months right before we were leaving for our Spring Break vacation in Florida.  so we decided to take the photos there.  Then we got home and life got crazy and we just now had time to get everything posted.  So, better late than never, right? 





I am playing with this ultra-cool snake that my Auntie brought for me.  It twists around and makes a fun noise.  It is great.  She finds the coolest things! 

























And then I played with the sand kit Momma found.  It had a bundt cake pan and some ice-cream cups and cones.  Very cool. 

Thing is about sand.... it is kind of tricky.

I like to play with it.  Then I decided I should eat some and that was YUCKY!  Blech.  But THEN I rubbed my eyes with my sandy hands and that was a VERY BAD idea.  Sand in the eyes is NO GOOD.  So, sand is good to play with, for your hands and toes, but NOT good to eat or put near your eyes.  I learn something every day!










We had SO MUCH FUN in Florida.  Just wait - more pictures are coming!

 

Emergencies

E- It has been a month of emergencies around here.  

Well, not really a month full, but we have had our fair share.  

It all started in the shower.  You know how I love to dance?  Well, I am not sure if you have seen my Momma and Daddy's super amazing shower, but seriously, it is fantastic.  It is giant, thus there is plenty of room to dance, right?  Except pretty much EVERYONE had been telling me not to dance in the shower.  Well, I did it anyway and FELL and bashed my chin on the tile floor!  OUCH!  It bled and bled and was VERY scary.  Momma took me to the emergency room so a doctor could see what I did.  I was very scared to go to the hospital, but it turned out that it was not bad at all!  I got to watch a movie!  The doctors were very nice and I didn't need any shots.  I ended up with 6 stitches in my chin!  And while they put in the stitches I got to play on an ipad!  Then they gave me a DOUBLE GRAPE POPSICLE because I had been so brave.  AND I got a cool Mickey Mouse thing to color!  Totally a win, win, I'd say.  I left with a bright pink bandaid on my chin.  How did they know pink is my favorite?  Those people are brilliant, I say.  I got home from the hospital very late at night.  I told Momma, "I learned a hard lesson today."  Momma agreed.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, FOUR DAYS LATER Momma took Reid to the emergency room, too!

Yes.  It really happened.  When my baby brother gets croup, he has real trouble breathing.  The first time this happened, he became very pale and limp and Momma was VERY scared.  This time, he was gasping for air and Momma knew to get to the ER right away.  They gave Reid a breathing treatment and a steroid and then he was much better.  Some babies have a harder time with croup than others, I guess.  Poor baby.  I don't like for my baby brother to be sick.

We are all better now.  My stitches are all gone and Reid is back to his happy, healthy self. 

Thank goodness!

10 Months Old!

R - It is hard to believe it, I know.  Yes indeed, I am already 10 months old!  We finally had a pretty day, so Momma and I went out outside to play!  It is fun to play in the sunshine!

I brought my stacking cups and bumpy ball outside to play with today.  Though the cups ARE nice to stack, I prefer to bang them together.  They make a nice sound!

It is also fun to play with the blanket.  Peek-a-boo is one of my favorite games. I even play it in the grocery store, which makes the old ladies so happy!  Old ladies love me!

What's not to love?

I was trying to be sneaky and grab some grass to chew on, but Momma didn't find that to be a good plan.  Oh well, there are so many things to see and do outside!  Three cheers for good weather!

Playtime!

R - I love playtime!  Did you know that Elyse and I have a playroom in our new house?  We do, and it is fantastic.  It is filled with all sorts of things (most of which are Elyse's right now, but some of it is mine, too).  Soon, we will really have to organize that room, as Momma does not want me to play with some of the things that Elyse can have.  She is a big girl, thus she has scissors and glue and tiny beads and little things that I am not big enough to play with yet.  However, I have some great toys in there, too!

Do you see that big blue ball by the mirror in this first picture?  One game I like to play is "roll the ball".  Momma and I roll the ball back and forth to each other and it is fun!  I laugh and laugh.

Wormie is great fun to chew on (as are most things)!

He also makes a great jingly sound when you shake him!

Like many of my toys, wormie first belonged to Elyse.  He was one of her very favorite toys.  She also really liked the little ball that is sitting by her, which I love as well.  It makes a great sound when you shake it and it fits perfectly in my little hands.  That sister of mine... she is one smart cookie!

This is my friend, Ann.  We both like stripes.

How fun to play with a friend!

However, my favorite person to play with is Elyse.  She is great fun!  She can always make me smile.

I am so lucky to have such a great big sister!