Birthday Celebration

Helen had an ice cream cake, chocolate cake and oreo ice cream. We sure do love summer birthdays!


Helen was also THRILLED when the crowd sang Happy Birthday. She had a little practice when Poppy sang it to her earlier. She danced a super cute dance to that tune.


Auntie Tiffy helped Helen open her gifts. Helen seems truly surprised that she's getting new toys.

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY HELEN

Helen is one year old today. I'm still in shock!

First Date

Helen and Henry are eating dim sum on their first date, supervised, and a group event. We had a great time.

I've been browsing my photos to get ready for Helen's birthday. I want to make a collage for her. I've come across some little seen pictures and my eyes are hurting because we have literally taken THOUSANDS of photos of the girls. I'm going to share a few of my favorites and a few flashbacks to one year ago.

Hand in Hand

Helen is finally walking independently. Sometimes it's more fun to walk with big sister though. Carys really loves to walk Helen around the house. They are having a great time.

Summer Garden

We've had lots of help to get this garden in shape. I'm still trying to teach Carys the difference between a weed and a flower or plant we'd like to keep in the ground. She loves to see the blooms and ever since spring came, she's kept a running commentary on the rose blooms which have finally opened this week-end.

Teeth!

This post is a little late but Helen is finally cutting teeth! Unfortunately for her, she cut them all at once so the two weeks it took for them to come in was unpleasant for us all. But now, she's happy to give a toothy grin.

Daycare Resolution

Sorry no pic right now but just a little update.

Most of you don't know but we've been struggling with our daycare situation. We have been actively looking for a while and since we did not feel that the girls were unsafe in their current daycare, we allowed them to continue. Today we found out that the head of the infant room is resigning her position and is starting an in-home daycare, closer to our house. Not only is she a gifted person with children, but our long-time babysitter will be working there for the summer too. So both girls will have some continuity of care and we think this will be a much happier situation for us all. Thank God!

Little Daredevil

The zoo has a great little playground area with a play gym just big enough to make a three year old's Mom a little nervous. Carys is a little monkey on these things and despite the height of the ladders, she was climbing up everywhere. Luckily on this visit, Poppy was with us to serve as a "safety" in case she slipped. And she actually didn't have any trouble at all.

Favorite Activity-Walking

A while back I promised pics of Helen walking. Here she is in her early days. Now that she knows I'm willing to do this, she wants to walk all the time. I wish I had more time with her to take her around. She's really excited to walk around and every few steps she'll stop and look up at me with a great big grin. I wish I could get that on camera but I'm holding both of her hands. Sounds like a job for Poppy...

Best Friends

Carys has a best friend named Dani. They met at daycare and it was a match made in heaven for us all. Dani's parents are lawyers and Dani has a baby sister too. We get along great and the best part is that Dani and Carys really do get a long well for a couple of three year olds!

Caterpillar

One of my favorite things about having a garden and a three year old is watching them discover new life forms. Actually, Poppy and I discovered this caterpillar and kept him for Carys. She loved playing with him he actually escaped alive which is more than I can say for any ants that cross Carys's path.

Standing Alone!

Helen surprised me one day by standing by herself outside. Of course, I did not have the camera and she does not do it inside. So Poppy was ready the next time we were outside and caught this great action of her standing. Now, she's cruising and really loves me to walk her around. More pics of that later.

Dance Class

It's hard to believe but Carys expressed an interest in dance classes when she was two years old. The instructor has recently announced a larger program so Carys will be able to take classes year round if she wants. Carys loves this class and frankly, I don't know what kid wouldn't. I just can't wait for Helen to tell me what she's interested in, I'm so curious. Poppy took these great pictures during class.

Zoo

We LOVE the zoo. We are members and since it's so close it's a no brainer to take the girls there on a nice day. It's open 365 and every year I say that I want to go when it's snowing to see it in that environment but I always chicken out. This is a really neat part of the zoo, they have special kids activities and it costs a bit extra so it usually keeps out most visitors. It has a great family restroom and even a nursing room, a new mom's best friend:) Plus it's a place where I can let Helen crawl around uninhibited except by other little kids running over her.

Spring Smiles

It surprises me every year how affected we are by the winter. Wintertime is a bit depressing, just trying to get warm and the lack of sunlight is physically depressing. However, we always come through it and when spring comes, it literally lifts our spririt. This year it was interesting to see that Carys was going through the same thing. We were working on the front yard and she was running up and down the sidewalk yelling "Summertime, Summertime". Well, not quite but it sure does feel great!

Grass

We've had some warm days to go out and enjoy the yard. Helen is experiencing grass for the first time ever. She doesn't like it. She's holding her leg up so it does not fall in the scratchy grass. Now I lay a blanket out and she crawls around it and picks aat the grass from her soft oasis.

Baby Play

Carys enjoys pulling on Helen and Helen enjoys the physical contact with her sister. Carys is surprisingly gentle with Helen and this interaction did not end up with crying babies. Actually, I sort of broke up the fun by trying to take pictures. They were playing and giggling for about 10 minutes before I showed up and ruined the fun:)

Spring has Sprung

Little Helen is enjoying the first sunlight she's seen in a LONG time. Actually we all were. We were able to do a little gardening this week-end along with a little earthworm farming (Carys's favorite:)

Dancing Princess

Carys had a big day today. She went to her first dance class this morning. She really enjoyed the play format of the class and listened to the teacher. It's a contemporary dance class with imporvisation of movement. The teacher is very good with kids and she actually taught Carys two and a half years ago at the YMCA, gym class. Carys could not even walk then. I had a big goofy smile on my face while observing the class. It was so enjoyable to watch her interact with the teacher and other toddlers. She did a great job. She's a little less outgoing than I imagined but I think after a few classes, she'll be ready to show off her improvising movement to the whole class. One great thing is that even though I was there, she was not clingy and did not even start looking at me until the class was almost over. These are pics at home b/c I did not know if I would be able to take some at class. I will probably bring the camera next time and turn off the flash.

Shedd Aquarium

Saturday we went to the Shedd Aquarium, the world's largest indoor aquarium. We had a busy time seeing all the fish of the world.