Meeting New Baby Will

We got a chance to go up to New York this weekend and meet "new baby Will" as the kids call their new cousin. It was his baptism weekend and Erin has been looking forward to meeting her new baby cousin since he was born on January 1st (6 weeks early by the way. He's a trooper though and is already over 9 pounds. Way to go kiddo).

He's simply adorable. Both Erin and Jeffrey though he was pretty cool. Although I think Erin thought that maybe new baby Will would be a little more "fun". Cousin Rylie was there and it turned out that she was a little more fun to play with. That's ok though because mommy and daddy got some quality time with their new nephew. It's been almost 3 years since I changed such a tiny little diaper.

Erin did get a few chances to "hold" Will and to help out. Mostly we propped him against a pillow and put her arm behind him. She and Rylie did sit together to help give him a bottle at one point, which was quite precious.

Jeffrey also got in on the action. He loved to give baby Will kisses (sometimes a little too close to the mouth). Once we taught him - kiss on the head - it was a little better. He also wanted to help push Will in the swing. It was great to see him so interested in his baby cousin.

We had a great time with our family. It was so special to meet baby Will. We can't wait until May when we get to see you again.

More Singing

Here's some more singing. When I was taping Erin singing her Valentine's Day song they wanted to share some other songs. This is a very rare occasion (them actually letting me video the constant singing) so I thought I'd share with everyone. You can tell that by the end they were done with singing....and yes, that's Tinkerbell panties Erin's showing off.

He Was A Tree Cutter

Normally when I pick Erin up from school I ask her what she did that day? I start with asking about snack because she can usually remember that. Then she'll start to tell me about other things. The conversation went a little like this....

"What did you do in school today honey?"

"I dunno."

"What did you have for snack?"

"Teddy Bear crackers, grapes and bananas, but I didn't eat the bananas because my tummy doesn't like bananas." (she gagged on one at home last week - like mother like daughter) "Oh yeah and we talked about cherries."

"Cherries?"

"Yeah, like cherry trees? There was that guy who cut down all the cherry trees. I don't know his name."

"George Washington?"

"Yeah that's it. George Washinton. He was a tree cutter. He went around and cut down all the trees. Apple trees, cherry trees....all the fruit trees. That was what he did. All the trees in the forest that he didn't want he went and chopped them down. Especially the cherry trees."

"Oh really? Did he do anything else?"

"I already told you mom, he was a tree cutter."

"Ahhh ok. Was he also a president?"

"Oh yeah...that too. I don't want to be a President, that's what I told my teacher."

"So what do you want to do?"

"I want to be a tree cutter like George Washington."


Well at least she's aspiring to be like one of the founding fathers. And really...who wants to be President anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone.

This year Valentine's Day has been a bigger deal because Erin is in school. She had to make home-made Valentines for everyone in class. She really worked hard on them and made them special. She LOVES using scissors so she cut out hearts, then cut out some paper doilies and glued them on. Then she used some foamie stickers and glitter glue to finish them off. She picked out which one was for which person in class and then wrote all of their names (well traced what mommy had written). It was great to see her so excited about working on the project.


They had a little party at school today and Erin invited mommy to come along. Jeffrey was a little cranky so we only went for the last half of it. They all made ice cream sundaes with lots of toppings (Before Jeff and I got there). Then they showed off their Valentines and explained how they made them. They all made little penguin cans to hold their Valentines and Erin went around and delivered them individually into the cans. All this time Jeffrey had gotten over his grumpies, found another little brother of someone in class to play with, and played quietly in the school room.


The first thing she did when we got home was dump them all over the table and check out all her loot. A lot of kids added candy to their cards (we didn't) so that added to the excitement. The ones from people she considers special friends she would get even more excited about. It's pretty special to see the excitement that comes from something as simple as a home-made Valentine.


And here's our home-made Valentine to all of you.

A Special Message from Erin

This is something she learned at school...and it was too cute not to share. The fact that she actually did it for the camera is another story.....

Winter Carnival Fun

We went to a Winter Carnival with some friends last Friday. It was at Erin's friend Julianna's school and they invited us to come along. When I told Erin about it she was very excited to get to see her friends.

The Carnival was a lot of fun. They had the gym at the school set up with a bunch of games. The kids played a beanbag toss (which Erin was very good at) and a bowling game. Erin wanted to try the basketball game but needed a little help from Julinanna's daddy Jason to lift her up closer to the basket. She did do very well at the football toss though. Jeffret tried his hand at most of the games (except the basketball). He even got the football through the hoop and knocked down a couple of the bowling pins on his own. We had his wearing his puppy backpack since it was pretty crowded. He was not a fan of the backpack this evening though and kept fighting it on us. Better him fight us than run off and get lost though.

The biggest hit of the night was the inflated "bouncy" slide. It was about 20-30 feet tall and one of those great big bouncy things. Erin waited patiently in line with Julianna's sister Kasia. She scampered up the "steps" to the top pretty quickly and came flying down the slide. Jeffrey was all ready to give it a try but took one step on the "bouncy" area and screamed running back to mommy. If we'd let Erin she would have played on the slide the entire night.

In the cafeteria the school was selling drinks and snacks. They also had a cakewalk set up for the kids. They walked around in a circle stepping on different numbers on the floor. When the music stopped someone would draw a number and whoever was standing on that number won a cupcake. Both Erin and Jeff had a huge blast with this game. They even each won a cupcake to take home for later snacking (since we'd been out to dinner before the carnival and has dessert there).

It was a lot of fun to hang out and be silly with our friends. Thanks so much for inviting us.