Foam Stickers

Carys has always loved stickers. You know they have been a primary source of entertainment for at least a year or year and a half. But we discovered new foam stickers thanks to Dani's Mom. They had their first playdate and they did sticker crafts with these foam stickers. They come in buckets with themes. We got a few buckets for craft time at home. Carys really loves them.

Hanging out with Poppy

Very rarely Poppy gets to sit on the couch with Helen while I finish getting Carys ready in the morning before work. It's truly a moment I hope they will repeat often and enjoy every second of it. From the looks of it, they are well on their way.

Morning Breakfast

Breakfast time during the week is tricky. Sometimes we have eggs, sometimes a yogurt and lately most times are cereal. Carys loves the yogurt cheerios. She gets a breakfast at daycare but we really want to be sure she's off on the right foot. Most days we will encourage her to have eggs for protein if she's up early enough.

Helen, being the baby, is happy with the rice cereal they serve at daycare.

We are now addicted to coffee. Ten years and two kids later, we actually use our coffee pot more for ourselves than our guests.

Chatting with Pinky

Carys loves to talk, sing songs and use her imagination (more on that later). Lately Pinky has been willing to hear her out. He doesn't always stay for the entire story but he finds her amusing and interesting most times.

Teddy Bears

Helen got a couple of bears for Christmas and she's not really attached to any of them. However, I would like her to have some comfort when she wakes up at night so one of these is in her crib with her. I'm not actively trying to attach her to the bear but I do hope she can find something to help soothe herself back to sleep since she's not sleeping through the night yet and I'm about to go psycho from lack of sleep. I've even been crazy enough to push Poppy out of the bed to take care of the babies if I've been up too long in an evening. That speaks volumes.

Cinnamon Rolls

Carys is learning to the benefits of baking things that require frosting. She gets to lick the spoon. When Helen realizes this benefit, I guess we'll need two spoons or two pans of cinnamon rolls. Darn.

Be My Valentine

So today started the tradition of giving valentines for Carys. Of course, I bought her valentine cards but forgot to get the list of kids from the daycare so we brought cupcakes instead. Carys came home with another candy haul. Not that I mind giving her candy but it would be nice to come up with a cheap valentine treat other than candy. Like maybe cupcakes:)

Seriously, like stickers or valentine crayons or little coloring books or something besides sweets. Hmmm.

Yummy

Sometimes you just need to chew on some cardboard. Don't worry she did not eat this. We took it away when both ends were nice and moist. Helen does have other toys but there's an allure from the cardboard tubes for babies.

Feelin' Fine

I know ya'll probably thought I had quit the blog. But thanks to you guys who still checked in. We had a lot of sickness around this house and that made Momma very tired and eventually the last to get sick. We've taken our antibiotics and are back on track to feelin' fine!

Resemblance

Hmmm. Do I see some resemblance? Possibly in the right eye.

Cupcakes

This week-end Carys reminded me that she was a good listener at daycare and I promised we would make cupcakes. It turned into a two day project but we had a lot of fun decorating. The sprinkles did not make it though since they were dropped in the middle of the icing. These don't look the greatest but they were very tasty and Carys loved eating sprinkles and icing the most.

Stealth Stander

Helen started pulling up on anything chest height to her. Of course whenever I would point the camera in her direction, she would stop and sit down. I had to cobble this series together from a bunch of false starts. Carys and I were doing a project and Helen was happy as a clam trying to stand. After some discussion with friends on Saturday, we determined the whole bowlegged thing from early standing smells more like an old wives tale than sound medical advice. However, I'm not knocking my doctor, she's been right many, many times before. I'll just say that I'm following her advice not to encourage Helen to stand but I'm not going to discourage it either at this point.

Lil ' Henry

Meet Henry. He's Helen's first playdate before she even knows what a date is. His Mom and Dad, Tamra and JT, are some of our closest friends here. I love knowing that they will grow up together. It will be such fun!

Peek A Boo

Carys started playing peek a boo with Helen. It's interesting to watch Helen and Carys interact. Carys loves Helen (except when she has one of her toys) and Helen loves to watch Carys run and play.

Pulling Up

Sorry no pics yet. Just a post b/c until now, Helen has not paid any attention to anything above her head when she's crawling. Today at daycare, she pulled up in her crib to stand and she was definitely eyeing the contents on top of the coffee table. This makes me a little concerned b/c the pedi said not to encourage standing so early b/c it might cause bowleggedness (is that a word?). Anyway, I hate to discourage her too. It's a quandry. I'm going to try to capture any stealth standing with my night vision setting tonight when she wakes up for her midnight snack, hee hee.

One to Five

Carys is getting pretty familiar with her numbers and is in the process of learning how to count things. We don't push her and we make sure it's fun for her. Next time I'll catch her "hook 'em horns" sign, it's cute.

Night Light

Poppy is always on the lookout for cool items for Carys to explore. Although we don't always agree they're age appropriate, he does take steps to ensure supervision. I've never seen this in a nightlight format but Carys was transfixed.

I'll say the super shot did it's magic and she is feeling better. She is no longer contagious and will be attending daycare tomorrow.

Scarlet Fever

Yes, Carys has been diagnosed with scarlet fever. I felt like I was back in the dark ages when I heard the diagnosis but thank God for antibiotics. My poor baby had to get this awfully painful antibiotic shot today (2 inch needle and thick, thick liquid). She was a trooper though and is still recovering. She's on a 10 day span of antibiotics in addition to the shot but she can return to daycare on Monday. I'm torn b/c I'm still at work and part of me is relieved she can go to daycare and another part of me is outraged she would get this infection of course from the daycare. It's highly contagious and she could be easily re-infected if there was an outbreak. I just urge other parents to keep their kids at home when they are sick. This would reduce the spread of these sicknesses and save everyone from needless sickness and Dr. visits. Oh yeah, Poppy and I are feeling a bit of throat soreness so we'll probably get checked out at our local clinic tomorrow. I just hope Helen escapes this.

Left Hand, Right Knee, Right Hand, Whoops!

Helen crawled a LOT today at daycare. She's been doing this throw her weight in front of her to propel forward but this is the first day her limbs worked in concert to crawl. Unfortunately, I don't know how to take action shots with our new camera as well. I especially like her final shot, and the expression she has like "yeah that's what I wanted" Exactly.

Banana Hands and Apple Juice

This is Helen's first time in the chair to self-feed. She did not know what to make of the bananas and even once I fed one to her she made a face (sound familiar?) So I think we'll have to practice this a lot more but I'm sure she's eyeballing me while I eat my dinner so she's definitely ready for table food.