6 months/ 3 1/2 years

The children's half birthdays are today.

Will I ever get over the fact that they were born on the same day? Probably not.

Henry told everyone all day that he was 3 1/2 years old. I sang Happy half birthday to you, happy half birth---
NO, says henry. Just sing Happy Birthday.

Marnie's day started off lovely, but by the end of the day she had a slight fever, runny nose, and slept a lot, and only wanted to be held. Teething.

We went to the Science museum to meet friends, which in hindsight was a bad idea, but I can never say no to a good outing. Marnie screamed all the way to the bus stop, and all the way from the bus stop home. She was asleep and tolerating the outing in between the screaming. She never screams or fusses really, so I got flustered and stressed out. But now I'm sitting here writing this and realizing how lucky I am to have a baby that hardly screams or fusses. She's mostly just pleasant as can be, and curious about everything, and always looking around for someone to smile at. What a dear.

I thought of making a little cake for their half birthdays but then I realized I haven't slept in 6 months and who am I trying to kid. Instead I bought a box of ritz crackers and cut up some pineapple to share. Nothing says party time like American crackers and tropical fruit, right? ;)

I love my babies. Love their friendship. Love the way they can't wait to see each other every morning. Love how Henry gets mad at Marnie when she grabs a toy he puts in front of her or pulls his hair if he lays next to her (she just loves you, Henry, I always say). Love how Marnie's arms and legs flail wildly every time Henry comes into the room. Love how they understand each other. And I LOVE when they both let me snuggle them at the same time. Basically mom heaven.

Henry's first photos and art direction

I've been pretty lazy about bringing out my nice camera this year, but occasionally I'll remember and start to use it again. I brought it out for Portugal and it's been coming on outings with us ever since. And one little boy is taking a notice. I can hardly take a photo without him running over asking to push the button or take a picture of something.

So the other day I let him take a few photos in our living room (while heavily heavily supervising him over a carpet). He wanted to take a picture of his bus, and then he insisted on another picture of the bus inside the dump truck. It was so cute to watch him think of new photos to take, and he directed me on where to put the bus and everything. Future director? Or just bossy? ;)

The first couple photos are test shots (by me). Just thought his little hands were too cute not to share.

Life lately.

I look around my house, and I see scattered strawberries and watermelon bits on the table where a certain two-year old got sticky fingers...cookies that need to be baked...laundry to be done...toys scattered everywhere...sand bucket and shovel on the ground waiting to be taken to the sandbox...a new doughnut cookbook begging to be used...windows open letting the fresh warm air into this little flat.

It is summer. Everything in my life just lazes along right now, like summer does. I'll get to the messes later. I'll clean sticky fingers tonight. We'll take that bucket and shovel and strawberries straight to the park and enjoy these warm, sunny days that have finally graced us.

And I've got some serious doughnut-making to do. I'm trying to find my soul-doughnut. It's important to have that kind of stuff figured out.

Today I was laying down next to Henry before his nap and I said Henry is the best. He looked at me and said Mama is the best. And we laughed and my heart fluttered with happiness.

Henry, the Gentleman.

Honestly, I've never met a more delightful human being than this little guy right here. He is the perfect blend of silly, happy, and opinionated. The only way we can get him dressed most Sunday mornings is with a cookie in his hand, and you know what? I can't blame him. The other day I was cutting up some vegetables for dinner and I hear from the living room...H, I, J, K, LemmoP...all the way to Z. I looked in at him and he just smiled back at me while he played with his cars, and I asked him to please sing it again for me, and of course he wouldn't. But I heard it! All 26 letters, give or take an M and N, he knows his alphabet. I'm calling it, at 26 months. Another achievement I want to log here is he can count to 10 and we are working so hard on his colors but he just doesn't care to learn them. With Henry, he will hardly ever willfully repeat something you ask him to, but when you least expect it, he'll demonstrate his knowledge. On the way home from church this past Sunday, I heard him singing from his stroller Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And when he finished, he clapped and said YAAAY! And I need to capture this on video because it's too funny, but every time he hears a song with a good beat, he smiles and looks at me and starts bobbing his head up and down and swaying side to side. It's a really good dance that I can't see improving too much over time. It's the perfect dude dance.

Henry is two.

Well, it happened. Somehow that little baby of ours grew up into a funny, opinionated, sweet little toddler. 90% of me is thrilled, the other 10% can't help but think back on his little squishy knee rolls days. If I squint, I still can see some elbow and wrist chub, but that's pushing it, folks.

We took Henry to Rome for his second birthday, because we couldn't think of a better reason to finally get ourselves on a vacation, and also we are awesome parents. Though, the bar has been set a little high. I mean, where does a person go for the 3rd birthday when they spent the last in Rome, for goodness sakes!

But when we got back home and presents were all accounted for, we held a proper birthday party for the squirmy car-obsessed two year old. While he napped, I whipped up some carrot cake, hung paper garlands, and wrapped all his presents. I'd never been so excited for him to wake up from a nap, ever! It was so fun, and just a reminder of why we love Henry. He's the best.

So a quick round up of Henry. The best of.

He recently started insisting on helping me cook everything and anything. Whenever I go into the kitchen, or go to the cupboards, he runs over and asks, "Watch?" or his recent favorite request, "Dump it?!" We have been baking our bread the last few weeks and he helps everytime. He always asks for a taste of the dough, never likes it, and ends up eating flour instead. But his favorite part is "dump it" aka, putting the cups, teaspoons and tablespoons of ingredients into the bowl.

He loves anything train, race car, bus, cool car (what he calls MINIs, VW bugs, and other old cars he sees on the street), and of course any construction vehicles.

He really gravitates toward older kids, between 5-9. He made a new friend recently at church and followed her around when we visited, asking her, "Hold hands?" and charming them into getting him anything he asks for. He's smart.

He recently acquired a secondhand scooter, and asks every time we leave, "bring scooter?", and I'm like Henry, do you have a death wish? He's not very surefooted on it, so we practice inside. Of course, he's getting better and I just need to come to terms with the fact that he's a daredevil. He only wants to ride it when we come to the top of a big hill.

His eating habits are finicky, but he does ok for a toddler. Mostly he eats scrambled eggies for breakfast or toast or yogurt or sometimes all three. Dinner is a mixed bag, but the other night we sat down to dinner with salmon and broccoli and he just picked up the broccoli to eat it like it was no biggie. I was like, Mark, don't breathe.

He's still a pro sleeper. Sleeps 12 hours most nights (8:30 - 8:30) and takes a 3 hour nap most days (1:30 - 4:30). It's awesome. I think it might be time soon to get him into a toddler bed, but I'm waiting to pull the trigger until I'm ok being woken up by a wriggly little boy climbing in my bed. :)

We turn on some music most mornings and have a dance party, and I swear it's one of our favorite parts of the day. He bobs up and down, usually with a snack in his hand, and more often than not, pants-less. I die over it all.

We realized the other day he knows and can sing along with most of our favorite bedtime songs. He can sing along to about half of the words to Edelweiss, Moon River, If I Only Had a Brain, Twinkle Twinkle, and probably more that I don't know about.

He loves music and will help me play the piano, help Mark play clarinet/saxaphone, and has just in the past few days started singing to himself while he plays. It's soul crushingly adorable.

His favorite words/phrases:
Iht ummy! (It's yummy)
Iht hot (It's hot)
Peeea? Dee doo. Bo Belpum (Please? Thank you. You're Welcome.) *He combines them all, it's effective.
Mama, sit down, sit down, mama.
Iht fends! (It's friends!) *He says this at the playground or church when seeing other kids.
Hide mama woom? (Hide in mama's room?)
Wah Pop Pop choo choo! (Watch Pop Pop's choo choo video)
Call Mary
Call Jejy (Call Jenny)
How bow...tutee/toach/shoes/pezle (How about cookie/toast/juice/pretzel)

We feel blessed every day to be parents to Mr. Henry. Even on the hard days, he is still a peach and we still laugh and quote him while we go to sleep every night.

Henrys Roman birthday party

I was feeling a little sad about being far away from family this year for Henry's birthday, so on a whim we decided to go to Rome. We bought plane tickets, rented an airbnb apartment and 4 days later, we were off! After all, you only turn two once, so why not celebrate in style, right? ;) Considering his favorite things right now are fountains, pizza, ice cream, motorcycles, and cool cars (seriously, he points at little cars and says, "cool car!"), it was sort of a no brainer to go to Rome, a 2 year olds paradise.

We stayed in a beautiful modern loft apartment right next to Rome's Termini station, the main train station, so travel in and out was very easy. The apartment also had an amazing roof terrace with views of the city which we thought would be nice to enjoy during Henry's naps or at night after he went to bed, but we ended up being quite the night owls exploring the city so we didn't use it too much. Rome is a late city - most restaurants don't open for dinner until 7:30 or 8:00p, so we mostly tried to get Hen to nap late, then we would wake up around 6, explore Rome at night and eat dinner at 8, and put him down to sleep around 10:30/11 (which is RIDICULOUS, but he was such a good sport about it).

We arrived in Rome the day before Henny's birthday, so after he took a nice long nap, we woke up and walked to the famous Trevi fountains, got some gelato, and threw all the coins we had into the fountain. Henry was over the moon.

On Henry's birthday, he woke up to some yummy Italian pastries, then we checked out our loft rooftop to gauge the weather. It was going to be a cloudy/rainy day, but we made the best of it. We spent the morning exploring the Roman forum and searching for the Capitoline museum, which we never found, but we did happen upon the Altare della Patria, or the Alter of Fatherland, which commemorates Italian unification, and is an eyesore to local Romans apparently - it was built in the 1800s and destroyed some of a medieval neighborhood - but we went inside to escape the rain and found a museum dedicated to recent wars, which was sort of interesting. On top of the building, we ate lunch at a nice cafe with good views over the city, which was a good place to be during some heavy rain. After the rain, we retreated back to our apartment so Hen could enjoy a nap and we could regroup and rest. Round two was much better - we walked to the Pantheon, which completely took my breath away, gave me chills, and was our absolute favorite thing we saw in Rome. We spent some time walking around the Piazza and then found dinner at a nearby restaurant. I tried Pasta Carbonara and it lived up to the creamy hype. Then we walked through a few narrow crooked streets to land the best gelato we've had in our lives, at Giolittos.  Yes, that is fresh whipped cream on top of the cone! They gave Henry a free little cone with a bit of vanilla gelato. He loved it - his first ice cream cone, too. Not a bad place to have your first ice cream, Henny!

I'll share the rest of our trip from Rome tomorrow - more beautiful Rome, Vatican City, and Spanish Steps. 

My adoring fan.

Hi Henry, it's me. Your most favorite person on the planet. Sometimes I wonder how I got to be so loved and adored. I always wanted to be the first on someone's list, and now that I am - uhhh when do I get a second of alone time?!

Oh, I know it's been a hard month. You miss your Tia (so do we). You've been dumped on the front door of many a people in the past couple of weeks, and it's long days with the new babysitter, but you're doing a great job. I love the afternoon hugs and rejections of bedtime without at LEAST 5 songs from yours truly. Oh my darlin', Home on the Range, Edelweiss, Polly-wolly doodle (your favorite, you funny thing), are all on heavy rotation these days on my old pipes. 

I think I'll just be putting away the maxi skirts for awhile because you find it way too easy to pull me around by my skirt and it's hard to say no to that.

 

You're growing up oh-so-fast and doing new and funny things all the time, so it's hard for me to be away from you during the days right now. Who am I kidding, it was never easy and it probably never will be. But I'm proud of you - the nice boy on the playground, the high-fiver, the eater of broccoli, the singer of "baby, baby" and "E-I-E-I", and the sweetheart who gives me a goodnight slimy peck on the lips every night.  How lucky can one mama be?!

A man and his dog.

Henry is completely obsessed with his little doggie. So much so, that this weekend he uttered his first sentence: Doggie walk outside?

So you better believe we took that doggie outside for a walk around the block.

For the past week or so, he has also been saying More...(insert word here of whatever he wants more of). Like in church, after sacrament, he'll say more...bread? He also says it when he just wants something, that maybe he hasn't already been eating. More cheese? More eggs? It's cool that he's able to communicate what he wants, but boy you'd better get it for him right away and not tell him we don't have any and we need to go to the store because darnit that answer is not good enough!

Milestones: Henry's first haircut

Well the big news around here is that we gave Henry his first haircut. We dressed him up for church on Sunday and he looked so cute, but when I was watching him toddle around the aisles of the chapel, I realized - my baby has a serious mullet. I woke up Monday, resolved to fix the problem, i.e. cut off his blessed sweet curls!! Don't worry I saved some curls, it's one of those gross mom things I never thought I'd do, but alas. He was a superstar during the haircut. I just sat him on my lap while we watched Cars and Mark buzzed and snipped away.

Doesn't he look dashing!? Bonus - this haircut really makes it easier to tell that yes, he is a boy, strangers in the grocery store and in the park.

Maybe summer isn't so bad after all...

I've always been a fall/winter girl. I'm guessing it's because I grew up in the DC area, where hot, dripping humid summers are the norm and I always feel like I can't breathe in that heat. But! I think Henry is changing me into a summer lover! He loves to be outside, and I love to go on neighborhood walks with him and play on the playground, watching his confidence grow on the slide and climbing everywhere. Henry is a very careful and cautious little baby, and to see him learn and grow brings me so much pride. I just love him so, and I can't believe he is running around and talking so much! We've already taken him on his first beach trip of the summer, signed him up for swimming lessons, gone to the pool, and he hangs out in this little backyard pool nearly every day thanks to his awesome nanny (and isn't his friend so cute?! They are super besties). Summer, you are becoming my season of adventures and carefree exploring!

Easter 2013.

How our Easter went this year: Buy pants for Easter Sunday outfit from the girls department of BabyGap. Order bowtie from Colins Closet. Fill 5 Easter eggs with blueberries and cheese bunnies. Wake up 16 month old boy and direct him to easter basket. Watch your little boy laughing about blueberries in an egg, watch him running around, learning all the little details of life, watching him learn how to make other people laugh at church, wonder why he will not eat anything other than bread and cake (I think it's genetic?) but at least he doesn't eat candy (yet?), see him learning to play and interact with his grandparents, auntie, and other family, kiss his sweet little face at the end of the day. Think about next year, when he'll be able to get into the Easter egg hunt (and how will you keep him away from candy this time next year!?)

I love you.

On Monday night, we were putting Henry to bed. Take the bath. Read the books. Drink some water. Read another book. Sing the songs. Then put in the crib, and we say, I love you! This time, he looked back up at us and said "I wuv oo".

If you need me, I'll be mopping myself up off the floor the rest of the week. Major love-puddle territory.

Saturday date.

Last Saturday, in anticipation of not seeing much of Henry this week, I decided to take him and I on a little date to the Portrait Gallery on Saturday. He tolerated the portraiture, but I knew he needed something more. Perhaps something with a little more color and movement, because you know - toddlers and all.  We took the elevator to the modern art portion of the American Art museum, and success! Henry kept repeating "wow!" "wow!" at everything. It was my first experience with him that felt like we were just hanging out enjoying something cool together. I was in heaven!

Afterwards, we went to the Kogod courtyard, where he could run around as much as his little feet cared to run. I snapped some photos and looking at them now, I cannot believe how grown up he looks. Definitely not a baby anymore, and still looks like a mini-Mark, but! I can see some Rowlett genes in those eyes of his, not to mention his chin. I never thought I would be so excited to pass on something as miniscule as a chin! Chinny chin chin! He is a handsome little devil and I love him to bits and pieces.

Henry update: 14 months

The little manchild is now 14 months old and declaring his independence at an early age. 14 months is so fun. Just getting 2  new teeth on top, which brings the grand teeth total to a whopping 6! ;)

Current likes:
Dogs
Trucks
Hiding around corners and stepping out to say "boo!"
Reorganizing the pantry and dressers
Music with a beat
Cereal
Kitteh
Helping empty the dishwasher ;)
Bathtime
Climbing stairs
Standing on my feet while I make dinner
Putting anything through the mail slot on the door

Current dislikes:
Getting dressed
Diaper changes
Running out of cereal
A closed bathroom door
Getting in the carseat

Growing vocabulary: new words he's saying: circle, snow, boat, helicopter (coppa!), please (pees!), star, fish (shhh), Tia (gia! - what he calls his Portuguese nanny)

xo

Merry Christmas.

Christmas with Henry was a dream. We spent the evening before having our traditional fancy Christmas Eve dinner, which is the one time per year we break out the china, and also - as it turns out - the one time per year that we make meat for dinner? Mark made a pork tenderloin stuffed with figs, and I had to pick it up from the butcher (of course sending a sort of vegetarian to do that job was a comedy of errors, but we ended up with the right thing in the end). Christmas morning was spent letting Hen unwrap every present and pull off bows and tags and wowing at all the gifts he purchased for us (wink). I thought I had Mark beat with the secret surprise christmas gift, but he killed any chances I ever had by purchasing round trip tickets to Germany for me and my mom. I couldn't believe it! We've been trying to go for years, but something kept coming up - job stuff, pregnancies, condo purchases, etc. But now we are locked in and I cannot wait to take my mom on her first trip out of the country, and to the place of her ancestors! It will be so amazing. We left our house for Virginia after presents were unwrapped, stopped by moms to give her the good news (tears, tears, tears!), then spent the rest of the day with Mark's family. We had such a great time seeing family and eating great food and making good memories. We put Hen to bed a little late, and snuck out to watch Les Miserables while Mark's parents were sweet enough to keep an ear out for little sleeping Henry. Amazing movie. We came back to his house after midnight and slept a restful sleep until the morning, where we woke up to snow. It really was magical.
A few things about Henry that I don't want to forget -
his expressions when we opened a new present, "wow!"
looking at the "tee" and the "ee-ohs (lights)"
his little laugh he uses to charm people
he pulls himself up on my legs and gives them a giant hug (melt)
after he's finished nursing at bedtime, he looks at me and says "appy", which I can only interpret as "happy".
this little boy is great. i think we'll keep him.