Sunday, February 28, 2010

I believe this sums it up

(click to see larger)

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Sander's

On my dad's side of the family, nobody ever wants to eat the last of anything. They'll just keep cutting it in half until it gets too small, and that last piece just gets left there. Except for Sander's bumpy cake. I've even seen certain relatives (who will remain nameless) scooping the remaining frosting from the empty tin with their fingers. Jenavieve has not yet had the pleasure of eating Sander's bumpy cake, but recently in our mall, a Sanders sandwich and ice cream shop opened. I guess there used to be a lot of them around, back in the 'good old days' but they had pretty much disappeared. While shopping the other day, my mom and Vivi and I decided we should try their hot fudge sundaes. They let Vivi have a tiny little baby cone (ice cream-less of course) for free, and mom and I got sundaes with hot fudge and marshmallow sauce, yum! It was cute, we sat on stools and they served the ice cream in old fashioned looking little metal bowls.

Here's Vivi sitting on a stool, aren't those pants hilarious?
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bounce til you drop retry

Apparently something went wrong with the posting before, so here we go again...

Going...


Going......


Gone!
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Monday, February 22, 2010

brunch date

Jenavieve and I have been playing in the nursery before church with Nathan because both his parents teach Sunday school.

Nathan turned 2 in October and seems absolutely smitten with Jenavieve, he calls her "Jeh-vieve", follows her around, and brings her piles of toys. If she starts to crawl toward a toy, he jumps up and gets it for her. Young love!

Yesterday Eric came in to visit and had stopped by the coffee hour table and gotten a bagel. Both kids were eyeing his plate, so we went on a field trip to get a snack.

I love how they both have bagels and drinks-Nate's cup of juice and Vivi's bottle :)

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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Baker baker cookie maker





After this picture she popped the butter into her mouth. How's that for fattening her up?
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bring on the packzis!

Jenavieve had her 9 month doctor's appointment today. She was 16.5lbs (7th%) and 28 1/2 inches long (74%) So, tall and skinny. We knew that, we've had to start buying 12 month pants for the length and filling them out with multiple onesies so they don't fall down.

But the doctor is a little concerned that she's still so small (even though she's always been under 10% and in her birthfamily, 3 generations up are all petite...) anyway, she wants her eating organic butter and olive oil every day, as well as more fish for the omega-3 fatty acids. We're also going to try to get her to eat more formula per day by offering her a 2 oz bottle every 2 hours instead of doing 4 oz every 3 hours (through the night since she started crawling!) to fill her up so she can be more full and start sleeping through the night. I chuckled when the doctor asked if she had any texture or taste issues with food. She has overcome her hatred of potatoes and mashed potatoes are one of her favorites. She grabs a fistfull of it and squishes it into her mouth :) She now eats and likes everything she's tried, from spicy curry to oatmeal with apples, ginger, and cinnamon, to quinoa with peas and cottage cheese.

She's also working on at least one tooth, we can feel the top left one, it hasn't broken through yet though, and she's been rubbing the bottom gum next to her right tooth a lot. Teething makes her really stuffy, which doesn't help her sleep either.

Other milestones of late have been clapping (sometimes while saying yay!), walking while holding our hands or the couch, and she's been working this week on pulling herself up to standing.

I'm not on the computer that has all the pictures since we're in the living room watching the olympics, so I guess that's it for this post!

broccoli!

We had a playdate with Vivi's friend from church, Nathan (and my friend from church, Belinda) The little ones had fun playing together. They had a bowl of veggies on the table, and Jenavieve wanted to try the broccoli after Nathan had some for lunch. She really liked it, so at home I steamed some and she was shoveling it into her mouth!

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Trouble maker

Vivi is working on another tooth and has had a horrible stuffy nose for the last few days. It's clear and she doesn't have any other symptoms, but the stuffiness is driving her crazy (and keeping everyone up at night!) So, we've been wiping her nose a lot. I went to throw the kleenex away and restart the dryer, and when I came back, this is what I found. Silly mama leaving the box on the floor!

 
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Monday, February 15, 2010

Sunday, February 14, 2010

New tricks

Daddy and Jenavieve have a new trick. Mama is so proud...

 
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We're mobile!

We officially have a crawler! After a lot of practicing on her 9 month birthday, around midnight she finally crawled! The first thing she crawled to? A cat toy.

The first picture is of her finally getting to the shiny cat toy. I love the joy in her face!




Now she's all over the place, she follows daddy around the house when he's home and has been terrorizing the cats. I'll try to get a video of her crawling up here.
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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Free birds

As Jenavieve has gotten older, it has been harder to take her to work. She didn't like getting up early to go, and she didn't like to nap there. So, we made the very difficult decision to leave. I told Laura I could go down to one day a week until she found someone, and she was able to find someone a week later. It was bittersweet, I've been there since the summer of 2005. Things changed a lot, from my first year when David introduced me as "my manny named Jammin" to everyone from the neighbor to the UPS guy, and Kaylee was just a baby. Now David is almost 7, excelling in 1st grade, missing some teeth, and loves playing his Star Wars game on the Wii. Kaylee will be 5 in May, loves school and dance class, and is really excited to be a big sister this summer. It has been amazing to watch them grow up and have so many fun experiences with them. It was truly my dream job, and I'm going to miss seeing the kids all the time.

On my last day, I asked Kaylee what she wanted to do. She said she wanted to go to the Hands on Museum in Ann Arbor. She packed her own lunch, called her friend Clara, and we were on our way. We all had fun, the big girls had Jenavieve be the sick person in the back of the ambulance, and pretended to be weather girls on the green screen. When we went home, we unpacked and waited for Laura to come home and for David to get off the bus. He came in and asked Laura if I was still going to babysit. I assured him that I'd see him again, and he started getting dressed to go to his friend's house. When he was little, I couldn't leave the house without a hug, a kiss, a high five, and waving to him in the window as I drove away. I asked if he was too big for hugs and he put his hand on his head and said "almost" and hugged me. Laura, Kaylee, and Clara waved to me from the window as I drove away.



As I was looking back over the last 5 years, a memory resurfaced that I had completely forgotten about. When David was 2 1/2, we watched Mary Poppins together on a gloomy winter day. When Mary Poppins was packing her things to leave and Jane and Michael were sad, David looked at me and solemnly said "they're sad because their manny is leaving". It was just my first year there, but it hit me that one day I'd have to leave, and it wouldn't be just the kids that would be sad.

But, life goes on, and I know I won't regret making this decision. It's been a week and it still hasn't really hit me that we're completely free birds after being in the habit of working for so long. It's amazing how fast the week went by though! I've heard retired people say that even though they've stopped working, they're just as busy as before. That's true of stay at home moms too!

So, now we spend our time with play groups, library activities, and visiting with family and friends. And so far, we're loving it.

Here are some pictures from my last day. Notice the matching shirts in the last 2 pictures, I love how Old Navy has been coming out with multi-racial shirts!




Sunday, February 7, 2010

Daddy's girl

Our little princess is a carnivore. Yes, that's a steak. Eric is very proud :)

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Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Monday, February 1, 2010

Tutu cute!

If you're not a part of the baby girl world right now, tutus are very in style. And expensive. Someone from the adoption group posted that she'd made one for her daughter, so I googled and found a pattern that doesn't involve sewing, and went to the fabric store just to price it out, and tulle is only $1.99 a yard! For under $5 I got the materials to make a tutu, with enough elastic left over for another one. It was really easy and pretty quick, and super cute!

 
 
 
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Happy 21st Aunt Janelle!

 
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