Making Valentines

On Tuesday Natalie had her Valentine's Day party at school. In our apparent have one of us unavailable for each holiday party (I missed Halloween, and Evan missed the winter party), I was traveling for the party. So, on Monday night Evan had Natalie fill out all of her Valentine's Day cards to give to her classmates. Writing her name 15 times in a row would have been a lot, so Evan asked her to just write a big N on each one, as she's the only person in her class who's name starts with that letter.

Earlier that evening, at dinner time, the kids were being kind of ridiculously cute together while eating.

I was sorry to miss it, but it was made up for by the awesome night we had when I got home - playing games with them, laughing and giggling. I always remind myself that when I miss one fun thing, I get to enjoy something else at a later time.

After dinner cuteness

There is one main thing that makes the holiday season for me: the mint-chocolate flavored treats that can be found everywhere! I absolutely love anything that's mint-chocolate flavored, and that's probably why I gain a couple of pounds this time of year. My current favorites for this year are: mint M&Ms (an annual favorite), peppermint-chocolate chip milkshakes from Chick-Fil-A, and my recent find: Roll's Gold peppermint-chocolate covered pretzels. Ohmygod, they are so very good. Unfortunately they're $2.99 for a pretty small bag, but I'm so very glad that I bought them! The kids were really good at dinner one night this week, so they each got to try one as well. Natalie enjoyed hers, even though I got her making this silly face.

 Calla was desperately hoping for a piece of anything to fall on the floor, as always, but look how cute she is with her new haircut!

 And Henry...well, Henry was absolutely in love with them. I present him with a new "real" food (such as chicken cooked a different way, or a vegetable), and he turns his face away immediately. However, present him with a new dessert, and he figures out immediately that it's sweet and he can't get enough.

Halloween Part 3: Parade

On Halloween I picked the kids up from daycare, brought them home and got them into their costumes. Amazingly, Henry put his on with very little fussing - he's not really a huge fan of anything like a jacket, which the top of the mouse costume definitely is. I got Henry in the stroller, added a blanket for later that night, the diaper bag, snacks, trick-or-treat bags, Natalie's coat, my coat, and off we went to the Leesburg Halloween parade! It starts about a mile from our house (a straight walk up Oakcrest Manor), so it's very easy for us to watch the parade at the beginning. Evan was already there, helping the Democrats get their floats ready, so I found a spot to watch the parade and he found us there.

As soon as we got our spot, Natalie parked herself on the sidewalk; Henry wanted out of the stroller to do the same

A few minutes later, who walked past but one of Natalie's friends, Gemma, with her parents and less than one month old new baby sister. Natalie and Gemma of course wanted to watch the parade together - they hadn't seen each other in months!

I was discussing Halloween costumes with Gemma's mom Sarah; she said this was the first year where Gemma chose her own costume, and they couldn't put her in a funny one (previously she'd been Abe Lincoln and a wizard). But this year, princesses ruled (for more than $30 just for the dress, of course). I related how excited I was for the costumes this year - Natalie loved her Tinkerbell costume that was a steal at $7 (and purchased by Grandma Lynn!), and Henry wore Natalie's old mouse costume, so Halloween was very inexpensive for us this year. Next year, who knows!

We were having so much fun watching the parade that I didn't end up getting any pictures, but it was a good one! The kids loved the lights, big floats, and of course the marching bands. After the parade (from about 6-7pm), we trick-or-treated some on the way home - we hit about 5 houses and then Natalie said she was done. Henry didn't want to walk at all, so he didn't do any trick or treating. We came back to hand out candy to any late trick or treaters, but ended up having no one come by! So, the two bags of candy that I bought are for us to eat, I guess...combine that with the giant bucket of candy Natalie got from the parade, and we have SO much candy in this house! I'll be taking a bunch of it to work, as we certainly don't all need to eat it. Of course that night the kids ended up eating some...amazingly, Henry was in bed by 8pm despite having eaten a whole lollipop at the parade, followed by a couple of Smarties and Junior Mints at home while going through candy. I'm not even sure how much Natalie had - I know she had Smarties and Junior Mints as well, and I believe she also had some gummy Lifesavers and possibly a candy bar, but she was still in bed by about 8:45. Ah, Halloween!

Oatmeal face!

We finally started Henry on solid foods tonight. I knew about 2 weeks ago that he was ready for it, but I didn't want Grandma Lynn to have more work to do when she watched the kids last week for us, so I held off until now, after we returned from Scotland. Boy was Henry ready for it! I think this video says it all, particularly the way that he's lunging at the spoon.

Ah, a meal well-enjoyed

Feeding time!

Natalie has lately gotten much better at feeding herself. She does really well with a fork now, but we're still working on not spilling things off of spoons. Here's me helping Natalie practice feeding herself (and me) with some cereal (which is probably her favorite food).

Natalie Eats With A Fork

Abbe had to work late tonight, so Dad got to spend some time with his little girl. It was a lot of fun. At dinner, I discovered my daughter has a new skill. Apparently, she's discovered how to feed herself with a fork. Look I even got video.



And just for fun, a couple more videos from the past couple weeks.

Here's Natalie enjoying Abbe playing the Piccolo.



And playing with Abbe on the couch.