Happy Mother's Day to Me!

April

I almost titled this post "March!" Oh how the time does fly... Here are a few things we've been up to this month. Clara, Frederick and I drove to Iowa City for a few days because Ellen was in town. Mom suggested we take the girls to Cedar Rapids because they were putting on a ballet of Prokofiev's Cinderella. The girls put on their fancy dresses and had a great time! 

It was great to spend time with Ellen and see her kids. Our girls all got along well. Gretchen is the oldest, with Adelaide just a little more than a year younger. Clara is in the middle, as always. I think this picture captures them so well. We all wished we had gotten a comparable picture of us Mamas. I think it's the last time Ellen will be home before her parents sell their house and move to Portland! Hard to imagine going back to Iowa City and seeing the Yerkes' house not be the Yerkes' house. 

In the meantime, Frederick has reached seven months! Here he is, showing off his physique, on March 25th. The quilt Aunt Joyce made for him also helps him to show off his baby blues. 

I can't remember who it was that said I should post a photo to prove that he does cry sometimes. He does. But that doesn't mean he's not a perfect baby. Votes on who he looks most like in this picture? 

We were waiting for his sitting-up to be a little more stable before starting solid foods, but that wasn't happening and the little guy was just acting hungry! He still nurses a lot, but he has now tried a variety of fruits and vegetables. So far his favorite is avocado. He also likes rice cereal. 

Last weekend we drove to Cincinnati to celebrate Maeve's baptism. I didn't take too many photos with my camera, but here's a fun one of the two cousins trying to get along. Maeve was a fan of Frederick's cheeks. They actually did a little bit of playing and cooing at each other on the floor, which was pretty cute. 

When he has a good afternoon nap Frederick gets very busy before dinner. He'll spend a couple hours rolling around in the family room just getting into things...and we have plenty for him to get into. 

 I looked over to find him like this yesterday.

 He also mostly uses his crib as a place to play. He often hangs out in there while I shower.

 Tonight the kids are having a sleepover in the family room. We watched an old Disney movie called The Ugly Dachshund, had some popcorn and ice cream and now they are falling asleep while Pete silently watches the Blackhawks. Notice how busy Frederick is in this photo. He has things to do...music to play...

7 months

Blue Eyes is 7 months old! 

More of an update to come later...just couldn't wait to share this photo.

Growing Boy

Here's how Henry's room used to look...still with the sweet animal quilt and valances he had since he was a baby. Bit by bit he's been posting other things on his walls and I had asked him a few times whether he wanted to start redecorating. He resisted for a while, but in the last several months had decided he was ready for a more grown-up look. 

He started with a Hobbit poster he made, an Angry Birds poster he chose at the book fair and a poster from Phineas and Ferb.

We found him some more grown-up curtains, (which are still cute with a subtle polka-dot circle design)  and some dinosaur and space wall decals. A couple days ago the piece de resistance came in...the new Hawkeye flag. So this is how his room looks now:

I'm sure it will only be a few more years before the planets and dinos feel a little young for him too... Sigh. 

Rainy Day

Henry had a half day of school today, due to a teacher inservice. We took advantage of a break in the rain to go check out the area flooding and to do a little puddle stomping. 

Easter

Frederick is six months old. Crazy. Check out how his eyes match his overalls.

 Last Saturday Liz and Van and the girls came over to drink coffee, dye eggs and hang out. It's so fun to see this group of 5 together.

On Sunday the kids were up early and ready to find some eggs. Pete had been out playing his drums late the night before, so he and I were not in a hurry to get out of bed. They went ahead and found dozens of eggs and their baskets, brought them in to show us and everyone was happy. 

We did finally get up and clean ourselves up a bit. I'm not sure why this picture looks blurry...is it my old eyes? A fingerprint on my lens? 

 This one I cropped and played with a bit...I just love my 3 kids!

And here's a full family shot: 

 On the way to church we had a typical rock-it-out moment in the car. We also have video of this moment. My favorite thing is Frederick in the mirror...just watching his brother and sister and absorbing.

 It was hard to capture the full cuteness of Frederick's bunny ear hat. Here's an attempt while he was down for a diaper change.

 Here are the 5 cousins again, with their baskets.

 Frederick got some swim trunks and a matching hat in his basket. Here he is trying it on.

 The lovely 'big' girls.

 Just the guys (minus Van- but he was there!)

 Frederick also had a bunny-face sweater. He was sporting a Peter Rabbit onesie underneath, which was also adorable.

 Here's me and my baby boy.

 The big kids went out for some egg hunting in the backyard. They were all over the place, but I did manage to get this picture of the 3 of them together.

 We had a great dinner and a really fun day with the family. When we got home Clara took this picture of Pete and me with Franklin. We like her composition.

It's easy to end corny with blog posts about family and holidays, but we really do have so much to be thankful for with our wonderful family and the health that we were given. And that is all. Happy Spring!!

Grand Central Station

First of all, this guy is Five Months Old!!! He has a tooth and he enjoys rolling over from his tummy to his back. Hi! I'm a big guy!

Check out that pearly white!

So,  our house has been like Grand Central Station lately. First, Aunt Joyce was here for a week over Valentine's day. She and Frederick got along like great old pals. 

We were able to go to Clara's school for a visit on Valentine's day. 

And later I was able to go to Henry's school to help with the party. 

And we made and decorated cookies, of course. Frederick may have snuck a lick while we were getting this picture, but he wasn't talking. 

We also took advantage of having Joyce in town to go to Henry's parent-teacher conference and I had the chance to volunteer at the school book fair a couple of days. Then Pete and I were able to go out to a nice dinner on Valentine's day. After dinner we went to the restaurant where our friend/neighbor Ed works and sat at the bar to watch the Hawkeye game. It was a very nice night. I love my Valentine!

Before Joyce had to leave, we went down to meet Pete for lunch at our favorite Thai place. Henry had the day off school, and Clara was with us- but sitting on my side, so not in this picture. 

The day Joyce left the kids and I, along with Anna, went to a community theater production of Snow White. It was totally corny, but the kids had fun. Originally we were going to go with Joyce the previous weekend, but Clara had gotten sick that day, so we exchanged our tickets. 

Sunday Rob and Carrie and the girls showed up to spend the night. Rob was doing some work downtown, so on Monday Carrie and I took the 5 kids down to the Museum of Science and Industry. Being Presidents' Day, it was a bit crowded, but we had fun.

I especially enjoyed the Charles Shultz exhibit, for which it was the last day.

The next day Carrie and the girls came back (after staying at the hotel with Rob). Clara was excited to see her cousin in the car when we picked her up from school. The girls were having twin-dress day as well. We made some special Rice Krispy treats that afternoon.

Penny enjoyed playing with all the little guys and my old dollhouse. 

 She and Frederick hung out a bit. Both of them had a little bit of a stuffy nose and red cheeks.

 The next Saturday Mom came to town on her way back from Great Aunt Jean's in California. Sunday Pete left for a few days of work in New Jersey. Is your head spinning yet?
It was very helpful having Mom here those few days while Pete was gone. Especially with the snow! The kids loved it, since we've had so little snow this winter. Mom and I took turns shoveling.

 That brings us to today. Mom left around noon, Pete got home around 2. We love the visitors, but are also going to enjoy a few days of our standard family unit as well.