Cousins

Frederick got to meet his birth-month-sharing-cousin Maeve last week. Here's the very first picture of them together. They were both sleepy. 

 Liz and I were excited to meet each other's babies. This is our first attempt at a picture with all 5 cousins.

 We were gathered in Deerfield for a baby open-house. Clara was more interested in carrying her cousin Vivian around.

 Frederick and Maeve slept for the 3 hours or so that visitors were around. But they woke for a bit of together time afterwards.

 Maeve was born 12 days before Frederick. It's going to be interesting to watch them develop over these first couple of years.

 The cousins all seem to like each other so far.

A few days later was Henry's birthday. We had a fun breakfast at Walker Brothers before Pete had to go to work. He came home early and Henry was very excited to open his 'big' gift from us. It was a remote control car. That night we went to Barnaby's and met up with Grandma, Bampa, Liz and the two little cousins. 

Henry had requested a mohawk for the celebration. He then spent the whole evening pouting at me for asking him to put his book away. 

The next day was Thanksgiving. Frederick dressed up.

 The girls helped Grandma in the kitchen...mostly by eating the breads they were supposed to be putting on the tray.

 The turkey was on the table.

 Frederick hung out with Bampa, waiting for dinner.

 Henry and Clara assembled some sort of tent city in the basement.

 I'm including this photo just because I think Pete looks so cute in it.

 The following several photos show the progression of trying to get a nice picture of all 5 cousins together:

 We ended up with a pretty nice one. You'll also notice Vivian's broccoli lovie in the picture. Yes- we bought her that.

 Again we tried for some pictures of al 5 kids.

 Here's my favorite from the day:

Thanksgiving night we drove to Iowa City so we could catch Will and Sandy before they left for Colorado. It was their first time meeting Frederick. We also wanted to go to a football game, even with the terrible season the Hawks have had. It was very very cold. 

 Henry was at the game with his Grandpa, but their seats were in the endzone in the shade with the wind in their faces. Dad called me during the first quarter to say Henry was pretty miserable. We brought him down to our seats (Mom's seats) to try and find some warmth between us. It worked for a bit. We were all pretty frozen by the last quarter and we did leave a little early.

We had dinner at Dad and Kathie's that night to celebrate Henry's birthday (and also to eat some yummy ham and Thanksgiving leftovers). Dad picked out this book, all about gross stuff, for Henry. They both got quite a kick out of such sections as "ways to say you have to go to the bathroom". But I like this photo best for Clara and Eleanor. 

Look into my eyes...

Guests and Birthdays

I thought I had done a post about Amber coming to visit, but I guess I hadn't. We've had non-stop visitors and activities, so I forgive myself for letting it slip by. But Amber and Adelaide did come for a very nice weekend visit. She brought us treats and gifts and made us meals and did our dishes... She's a pretty great friend to have. And Frederick was quite comfortable with her as well. 

Almost as soon as Amber left Mom came again. She hadn't seen Frederick for a couple weeks and needed a little more cuddle time with him. 

It's easy to understand. He's pretty cuddle-able. 

At the end of Mom's stay Pete was heading out of town for his cousin's wedding. Joyce came to meet Frederick and we planned for her to be here in time to help out while Pete was gone. Mom and Joyce overlapped the first night that Pete left. Clara enjoyed sharing her room with all of our female guests...it's been like a non-stop slumber party for her. 

Aunt Joyce was here for Pete's birthday as well. She and Henry worked together on a lasagna for dinner. 

Clara helped me with the cake. 

And Frederick hung out in his bouncy seat. 

 We had a nice dinner at home with lots of food and cake and singing.

 Fast forward to a few nights ago... Frederick had his first bottle. He took it just fine, which was great because the next day I was spontaneously invited to dinner with a couple of girlfriends. I was so excited to be able to go. We had sushi and lots of girl talk.

 This morning we had Henry's birthday party. We decided to try to keep it low-key with a pajamas and pancakes party like he had a few years back with his pre-school friends. It turned out to be just right. I made a whole lot of pancakes and kept them warm in the oven.

 The boys (and Clara) watched Loony Tunes and played with balloons. They were supposed to be hanging out playing Legos, but "balloon war" was more exciting.

Everyone had their own set of toppings to add to their pancakes as desired. Pete and I came around with the syrup and whipped cream. 

This is a cute picture Pete got with his phone. They're not actually toasting, they're holding their cups up for hot chocolate. Take note that Henry had his sister sit right next to him. He was very good to her during the party...after a few conversations with each of them beforehand. 

 After pancakes the boys were a little too wound up to keep watching cartoons, so I sent them outside. Party favors were little parachute guys, so they played around with those while completely ignoring the fact that I had said only 5 kids up in the treehouse at a time.

 When it was almost time to go I made everyone go out to the front yard and I let them play a little pancake Frisbee with the leftover pancakes. They thought I was crazy at first, but I think they had fun!

OMG

Learn and Share

Clara has something called Learn and Share every day for school. It's half homework, half show and tell. Yesterday her learn and share was to write 3 reasons she loves her family. Today it was to dress like Mom or Dad. She wanted to wear a dress to be like me, but I convinced her that jeans and a sweatshirt were more realistic.

Tummy time

Forward!