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We had a rainbow party for Aurelia’s 4th birthday. We invited just a few of her closest classmate friends from daycare, Jackson, and then we had some older children that are friends from other connections that came, as well. They all played together really well and had a great time. For food, we grilled hamburgers, had orzo salad, colorful veggies and fruits, strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing, and homemade strawberry ice cream. With help from some special friends who arrived early and helped me finish setting up, it all went smoothly. The birthday girl had a great time, and she received some really enjoyable presents. A rainbow dress to fit with the party theme. The dress has french seams on the strips and the bodice encloses the skirt edge, so there are no exposed edges (I love it when I can figure that out – such a nerd, I know.)
Aurie opening her presents! I was almost too busy to take pictures until some of the guests left, but here are some pics of the ones that stayed later. Marcus and the boys hanging out/on! at the table. Angie and Ivera helped so much with clean-up. There wasn’t anything left to do once they left!
Birthday girl having a pageant to try on her new dresses. The older girls helped her change, would announce the new style, and had her all decked out!
The guys played some video games and then Marcus showed how to play one of his favorite computer games.
Playing with new toys. The bubble scepter was a big hit, and made great bubbles – you never know with those types of toys. Jackson gave her some puzzles, and she set to work right away putting them together once the house was quiet. She could do the Winnie the Pooh puzzle all by herself!! It has 25 or so pieces. Watch out! I have four teeth, and I leave a path of destruction in my wake! Simon’s top two front teeth are in, and he is starting to bite. As with most babies, it is mostly when he gets a little too excited, and we just have to calm him down. A few mornings ago, he and Aurelia got so wound up, he was dive-biting a teddy bear. Really funny! Aside from being excited, the other time he bites is when he falls asleep nursing – yeowch! A lot of times it is in the night when we both nod off in the chair. Talk about a rude awakening. Simon is such a good cruiser, and his almost-independent standing skills are getting very good as well. He can stand well enough to open cabinet doors and check out the contents, and he can open drawers and unload shelves with great ease. Yesterday, he went in Aurelia’s room and dumped out a rack filled with 4 wooden puzzles, including an alphabet puzzle, then he dumped her basket of stuffed animals and pulled a box of books off the the shelf on the floor. Godzilla, I tell you! This is that stage where all of the loose things in the house start moving up, up, up, and then once he starts having a little self control, they will come back down – if it isn’t time for the next round of babyhood – who knows! 4 Teeth!
Unloading the kitchen linens onto the floor! (I should totally have taken a picture of sister’s room, yesterday. Marcus thought she had been having a tantrum and throwing things around – nope, it was Simon!) He has this little brother thing down already.
“This is what you wanted me to do, right, Mommy?”
He’s been standing and cruising around with great agility since early in April. For the past month or so, he has been pushing anything that he can move around the house so that he can walk behind it. He can also walk while holding onto Mom or Dad with just one hand, and Aurelia walks him around the house by his hands a lot. He can stand for a few seconds at a time without holding on, but the sits when he realizes what is happening. Walking on his own can’t be far off… yikes!
Simon LOVES to splash! Mommy has to change into her jammies after bathtime, too, most nights, because he and Aurelia get me soaking wet during their bath. He really liked the pool, but he was a little too interested in eating grass the whole time, too. We have to watch him like a hawk to make sure that he isn’t eating anything and everything he finds – grass, leaves, tiny pieces of paper, you name it, he’s tasted it.
Speaking of eating, Simon is a big eater. He usually has cereal (oatmeal and dry cheerios), fruit puree, veggie puree, and bits of table food everyday, and he is still nursing about as much as he used to. He’s just so busy that he burns it off. We can tell when it is a “growing day,” because he takes nice long naps between pigging out sessions!
Last, but not least, check out these curls!! His hair is really filling in. It’s sort of a strawberry blonde, and the ends are starting to curl. Love it! This is a bit gratuitous, but I wanted to post a picture of Aurie finally wearing her “mini me” shirt that I made for her last summer. I guess I might have to make myself another one, because my original was a maternity top. Mommy a couple of days before Simon was born at the bottom of the Devil’s Millhopper sinkhole, and Aurelia finally wearing her shirt the next year.
Back in April, we finally made it down to Ocoee (Orlando, basically) to visit the Farleys. Aurelia had such a great time! The kids played dress-up, complete with Tori fixing her hair. The kids had a little pageant to show us their dress-up outfits. Aurie was in princess/ballerina heaven, because she got to try them all on (and Tori was pretty excited to play with her life-sized doll.) Tori read books to her, we had grilled lunch and strawberry shortcake, and we went for the first COLD swim of the season. As we were walking back to the house from their neighborhood, I just had a take a picture of the three of them holding hands – so very precious. I especially love Bennet’s Spiderman floaty suit. The downside is that we want to go down there nearly every weekend, now.
She loves to feed her little brother. Also, that dress is now her official favorite – I need to hurry up and get another spliced-t-shirt gator dress made up, because this one is getting too small and has paint on it. So much to do!
Aurelia loves to dress-up. She has gotten a lot of wear out of the lion suit, which I made for her second Halloween. Look how short the sleeves are! Last weekend, we made a castle from one of those foam rubber kits. She had a great time decorating it with Mommy. The other night, I was doing some hand sewing to finish up a bag, and she really wanted to try it. So, I set her up with a scrap of material and a large needle. She got the in-and-out motion going pretty well. I need to get an embroidery hoop so that she can practice more easily. I love it that she is so curious about trying everything that we do.
Eating a sun-butter and jam sandwich after blueberry picking. Eating our first watermelon of the year! She and Simon both dug in! We’ve also had some really great cantaloupe already. These pics are not from the same, day, but she has been wearing the “berry picking” shirt a lot, lately. She originally wanted to wear it picking so that she wouldn’t get lost – love it!! Now, it is in frequent rotation, probably due to the memory of a great day of picking. We went blueberry picking with some of our favorite friends – Jackson and Kate (his momma). After a couple of quick exchanges on Facebook about a desire to pick berries, Kate and I decided to meet up on a Friday morning (and me play hooky from work) to pick blueberries. BlueBella farm was out in High Springs, which was a little bit of a drive, but the rows of blueberries were just awesome!! Aurelia and I picked 13 lbs, and Kate and Jackson picked 20 lbs in less than about 2 hours. Needless, to say, our freezers are stocked for the year. Aurelia and I were eating 2 or 3 big fistfuls of berries per day for the first week before the last bag had to go into the freezer. Yummy!! Check out these bushes!
The two berry scouts (or “sprouts,” as they kept saying and singing – like on Curious George). Simon just hung around. He thought that he was supposed to eat the leaves rather than the berries. I think I pulled leaves out of his mouth about 20 times! He also sampled the mulch when I tried to set him down for a moment. At least he had a good time, too.
Our huge haul of berries – and we totally could have picked more. (But, then we would be broke! – they were a little pricey.)
Another one of the perks of working in a horticulture department is getting fruit and veggies for free! I brought home a big bag of peaches the other day, so Aurelia and I worked them up for baking a pie. She really enjoyed getting to use a knife to split the peach and then dig out the pit. They were so nice and ripe, we just broke them up with our hands. Simon also enjoyed some of the fresh peaches as a snack after I smooshed them up in the babyfood mill.
The pie – just a basic recipe from the BH&G cookbook, and Ina Garten’s killer crust. The top crust is sprinkled because I didn’t get it quite right and had to make a second batch of pastry. My pie plate is a little bit large, so there is never enough to make a pretty edge along the crust. I need to start adding an extra 1/4 recipe. The picture of Aurelia eating the pie is a little deceptive. She actually didn’t like it!! However, she really loved the crust. And the little crust bits that I baked with cinnamon and sugar were a huge hit. She likes “crunch” (crust) dishes, like pie and quiche, but it is really the “crunch” part that she likes the best. The book on her left is a little journal project from the library. She has enjoyed having a blank book to color in and make her notes. I’m so glad that she is finally taking and interest in letters/writing/reading. I thought she was never going to start. Actually, just this morning, she picked up a shirt that had “Arizona” on the label, and said “That’s my name!” She is starting to recognize the letters, and it is pretty close to how her name is spelled. Good job, sweetie!! For Easter this year, we colored eggs, had discussions about Jesus, and ate candy. It’s funny how those do and don’t fit together. Our approach is to talk about it being a celebration of Jesus coming back from the dead (which she doesn’t get, either), thus the candy and such. That seems good enough for now. Simon liked to roll the plastic eggs around and chase them. It was a good day. We attempted to have a little photo shoot in the back yard after worship, and we were semi-successful. Here are some of the best shots.
Aurelia with her candy haul, and Daddy holding Simon during the egg hunt.
The one on the left turned out pretty well. They are so cute! Right – Momma with the kiddos. We didn’t even attempt to get out the tripod and do a full family picture. They kids were headed toward meltdown as it was. Maybe someday we’ll get one of our friends who are now actually “doing” photography to take some family pics. Debbie did a great job with my maternity photos.
See, sleepy. Here’s the back of her dress with the covered buttons and loops. I’m trying to make myself learn new skills with each new piece these days. I can check off shirring as a learned skill as of this week – yes!!
Oh, that boy! He is just the yummiest baby! Simon’s upper teeth sneaked into his mouth…we didn’t see them till we held him upside down. No pictures…too difficult to take photos of a child being held upside down.
Simon’s First Video, Still in the Hospital
Simon’s First Roll
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