Henry's first haircut

I've had a long-standing fear of baby mullets, especially for boy babies who have no need to endure a "growing out" phase like baby girls. So, when we noticed that Henry's hair was a bit "poofy" on top, it was time for Daddy to go to town with the clippers. It's by no means a professional job, but we did the best we could with a squirmy 7 month old. He looks so grown up! Here is the before and after. Also check out the picture I added to the crawling post below.

Happy birthday, MADELINE!

Besides Henry crawling, we celebrated another huge milestone this week - Madeline turned 3 on Monday! Now we get to look forward to all of the fun that comes with being the parents of a 3-year-old girl.

We've had a series of princess-themed birthday parties with family over the past few weeks - starting with Memorial Day mentioned before, continuing to a party here in Minnesota, and ending with cupcakes at daycare. So, I can definitely sleep well at night now that Madeline got her fair share of birthday attention. And it's also nice to finally have a week where there is not a huge sheet cake laying around, because who can say no to sheet cake?

Speaking of the princess theme... the excellent Disney marketing staff has done an unbelievable job of branding items with the 3-5 Disney princesses, and my mom has managed to find it all. Madeline alone has the following Disney princess items - clothes, PJs, dress-up dresses, dress-up shoes, sandals, pillows, sheets, blanket, swimsuit, swimming suit cover-up, princess versions of Barbies, figurines, hair bands, bracelets, sunglasses, sippy cups, plates, riding car, books, movies, suitcase, purses (about 6), play make-up, toothbrushes, toothpaste, diapers, pull-ups, a bike, and bike safety gear. And she loves every single bit of it. If it's pink or princess, then it's a sure win!

She got checked out today for her 3-year visit, and she is 46 lbs (100%+) and 40.5" tall (100%+). The good thing is that she is checking out to be healthy, which we continue to be grateful for. I asked the doctor how tall she was tracking to be, and he gave a rough estimate of 5'10" - same as her mommy! Ever since she was born, she's always been off the charts for height and weight, so it'll be interesting to see if this trend continues as she gets older. She's our big girl in many, many ways!

Crawling!

Well, as predicted, Henry refined his very effective lunge-pivot technique and began crawling last week. Wish us luck - as it is now a whole new ball game now that we have a little mobile guy and one not so good about picking up after herself.

Henry is in a class of 7 babies - 6 boys and 1 part-time girl. So, it's quite the meat market for little baby McKenna. I'm hoping that he doesn't turn into the class bully as I am pretty sure he's the only crawler now. I set him down on the mat this morning, and he immediately started crawling on top of his friend Ryan, moved his toy away from him, and then tried to steal the pacifier in his mouth.

And the only other update about Henry is that at 7 months he is starting to show signs of that separation anxiety phase, especially as far as mama is concerned. Poor guy - as soon as he sees me, he starts crying, like "I forgot that you were gone, but now I see you and I need you RIGHT NOW." Of course, who am I to complain that he wants his mama so badly?

Henry at 7 months

Henry turned 7 months old this past week. He's moved from babbling non-stop "da, da, da" to "nuh, nuh, nuh." And he's lunging for toys and getting up on his knees. It'll be interesting to see when he starts crawling, but we're thinking it could be within the next few weeks.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend visiting our family. On Friday we drove to Chicago to visit Aunt Laura. She took Madeline to the Build-a-Bear store to pick out an animal for her upcoming 3rd birthday. We were all surprised when she picked out the triceratops, but then all was back to normal when she picked out a dino-sized sequined purse for her new favorite stuffed animal. As you can see in the picture below, she wasn't really excited about the experience at first because she was pouting that her dinosaur was all floppy and deflated. Then she caught on that this may actually be fun after all after the dino was stuffed.

On Saturday, we continued our journey to Indiana, where we saw Grandma, Amanda, Katie, Albie, and cousin Landon. We had a great visit, but it was way too quick. We miss you guys already! The sunset shot is from my mom's patio. Can you see all of the flags that line the bridge? It was really a special sight - small town America during Memorial Day weekend with our brother -in-law in Iraq. I just loved the simple but huge symbolism in it all, so I couldn't resist taking the picture.

Mother's Day

I had the BEST weekend and Mother's Day weekend!!! Nathan and the kids surprised me with breakfast in bed on Saturday morning, along with the pot of grass that Madeline grew for me as their daycare project.









On Sunday, we went to church, brunch, and then the Children's Museum. It was our first time going, but I was so anxious to check it out. Some of my favorite childhood memories were going to the Indianapolis Children's Museum, so I was hopeful that the Minnesota one would be just as good. (Nathan and I only buy each other Mother's/Father's day gifts that we can use to do something with the kids, so membership to the museum was the perfect gift!) Poor Henry couldn't do much there, but Madeline loved the main street area where she got to play doctor, drive the bus, and shop for groceries. And she LOVED this little station where she got to color all over her face with paint crayons.



I feel so blessed to be a mom. It truly is the best and hardest and most wonderful thing I have ever done. I certainly didn't need Mother's Day to remind me how lucky I am to have my husband and kids in my life, but it was a perfect excuse to celebrate our little family. I hope all of you mommies had a great day, too!

Photos of kids

Many of my friends have used this photographer, so we decided to hire her as well after seeing their cute pics! The occasions were Henry's 6 month and Madeline's 3 year photos. Madeline was not into it on Saturday, but I think we'll get some cute ones of Henry.

Check out the "sneak peak" here:

http://www.jlphotographybyjoey.blogspot.com/