Happy 1st Birthday Felix!

You are daring. Far more daring that your brother which is really saying something. I hope you always keep that fearless attitude toward life and continue to try new things without hesitation. (but please stop trying to climb to the highest point in the room, thanks!)

You are sensitive – not only about what you eat (hopefully you’ll get to try dairy for the first time very soon!) but about every aspect of your life. If someone looks at you wrong you’ll burst into tears and I love this about you because it makes you who you are.

You are loving. You love to be loved and always show us you love us by cuddling or snuggling or kissing us. If any one of us finds ourselves lying on the ground you are always quick to come over and attack us with your slobbery kisses. Your love for your brother is probably one of my most favorite things. I really hope you two never lose that connection that you clearly have.

You are expressive. You have very few words (mama, dada and yeah are really the only ones you seem to somewhat grasp the meaning of) but you still say a lot. Your smile lights up a room and your “angry face” can stop us in our tracks. You have 6 teeth, you can crawl at warp speeds and we’ve seen you take a few steps when you thought no one was looking.

We faced a few challenges this year with you, first when I had to learn what to eat to make sure I didn’t make you sick and then there were many many times I wondered if I’d ever sleep again. It was in these moments that I realized you’ll never need me as much as you do right now and I cherished every minute. I cannot wait to watch you become more and more independent but will always miss those late night meetings we had together.

Just like with your brother I hope to watch you become who you’ve always been without any of us changing your path. It’s been clear from day one that you have your own unique personality and we really look forward to finding out who you are. I feel so lucky and proud to be your mom.

I can’t wait for our next trip around the sun together.
Xo
mom

Turns out having two kids is extremely time consuming

I've been a horrible blogger lately and hope to get back into the swing of things. So I'll start with a few cute pics from the last few months.

I just love this one of the two of them:


Felix has been standing unassisted (yet to be caught by a camera) for awhile and has even taken a few steps!


And I don't know whether it's because Felix is the 2nd child and therefore less supervised or if he's just way more mischievous than Henry was, either way the kid makes a lot of huge messes!

It's dirt from a plant:


I'll finish with a cute Henry story. He has really been interested in letters lately now that he's in school and he can recognize all of them and write many of them. So he and I were saying the alphabet together as he pointed out each letter on his floor mats. We got to the end and he said "w, x, y, m, z...mom, where is the m?" I told him that it was "y and z" he was happy to know the answer but seemed a little annoyed. Sorry dude, I think they just put that "and" in there to confuse small children.

Henry's first day of school

Henry started school at Windom Dual Immersion School Spanish/English this year in their "High-5" (pre-k) program. Here he is on the first day of school:


Waiting for the bus:


Ice cream after school :)

Happy 4th Birthday Henry!

This has been a huge year for you Henry. You became a big brother, a role you have embraced from the day Felix was born. He already looks up to you and his face has always lit up when you talk to him. I can tell you two are going to have a lot of fun together (and maybe get into a little trouble too :)). I couldn’t ask for a better big brother to Felix, you are caring and compassionate and set a great example.

You’ve always been a good talker but this year you learned how to use your words in more than just the obvious ways of communication. You learned how to make jokes and be sarcastic, you asked in-depth questions about the things going on around you and you began to try and “make conversation” with complete strangers.

You’ve always been friendly and outgoing but this year you encountered situations that in your own words “made you feel a little shy.” And that is OK buddy, we all feel a little shy sometimes. Your dad and I are so proud of you in those situations as we watch you slowly open up as you become more comfortable.

You continued swimming lessons this year and have been swimming short laps in class doing real swimming strokes (frank and murrays :)) with no help from the teacher or any type of flotation. I hope you never lose your confidence in the water. You also started soccer this year and we watched as you got frustrated playing on a team. You’ve told us you never want to play again but I think you just might change your mind.

This year you started telling stories and asking us to tell you stories. You want to hear stories about when dad and I were little (“ tell me a story about a time someone was mean to you when you were a kid” “tell me a story about a time you did something nice for someone”) and we do our best to remember the details of our childhood so we can share it with you. During these stories you often share your worry with me that you’ll have trouble finding a wife and that you just don’t understand why I can’t be your wife. I cherish these little moments we have because I know one day soon you’ll feel completely differently about this subject.

Your love for superheroes, especially Iron Man, has been so interesting to watch this year. You’ve never seen the Iron Man movies but through bedtime stories and books you have asked us all to tell you the story of Iron Man (and others). I love that when I’m telling stories you want to know all about Iron Man’s girlfriend, something you never mention to your dada.
Your love for your family is truly beautiful. You love your grandma Deb, grandpa Jack and grandma Aka with no condition. You get excited at the mere prospect of seeing one of them and we know this is because they are so good to you. Kids see the truth in people and you’ve always been a good judge.

So as your 4th year of life comes to a close I want you to know how proud I am of the person you’ve become and I can’t wait to see what the next year brings. You have taught me so many things and I am so very lucky that I’m the one you call mom.

An adventure with Felix & Henry

Two weeks ago Bill and I flew to Boston to visit Bill's sister Sarah, her husband Mike and their gorgeous new baby, Lily. We decided it was best to go without the boys so we could actually spend time with Sarah, Mike and Lily and also because the thought of flying to Boston with both boys made me want to pull my hair out. So my parents generously offered to watch the boys for the long weekend we planned on going. In a moment of some sort of insanity they decided they would take the boys to Kansas City to visit the Brockways and Hayes. So Felix took his first flight and Henry went on the first flight that he remembers (St. Maarten '09 was his last one, he can't really remember it). Needless to say, they had a blast and so did we. Here are some of the fabulous pictures uncle Dave took of their weekend.
Fishing with Bryan:

Eyelash boy:

Bubbles!

Hanging with Jenny:

Brotherly cuteness:

Six Months

It's hard to believe that Felix has been in our lives for six months already but at the same time it seems like we've never been without him. He continues to amaze and amuse us on a daily basis and is certainly the perfect balance to his brother Henry. When Henry cries, Felix laughs to cheer him up and when Felix cries, Henry does silly things to cheer him up. Watching their relationship as brothers grow is one of our favorite things. I love that only they truly understand their bond and I hope that they continue to learn from each other as the grow.

Here is our little man on his 1/2 birthday:



And here he is month by month for the last 6 months:

Babbles

Felix has been cooing and babbling for a few months and he certainly has a lot to say! I remember Henry being the same way and he definitely hasn't slowed down, we expect Felix will probably be a lot like his brother in the verbal skills department. Sometimes the babbles are cute, sometimes they're more like screams and often they're better classified as screeches. Parenting is often challenging but we try to focus on these special moments because we know in the blink of an eye he'll be nearly 4 years old and already know everything ;) One of these special moments has been happening for both Bill and I recently because while Felix is practicing all his sounds he's started to babble first "dadadadadadada" and now "mamamamamamama." We realize he doesn't really understand what he's saying yet and that he's just gearing up his tongue to learn how to make real sounds but that doesn't make these moments any less special.

He seems to save the mamammas for when he's really mad at us and I must say that when I'm trying to calm him down and he starts saying mamammama I can't help but smile.

He's witty

Henry has become increasingly entertaining as he gets older. We've always enjoyed his antics but lately it seems he has really upped his game. A few recent examples:

He was leaning over Felix who was laying on the couch.
Henry: "Hey buddy!"
Felix: coos and kicks his legs
Henry (having just been kicked in the chest): "Is that all you've got?"

Bill and Henry were sitting on the leather couch. Bill reaches his hand back on the back of the couch and feels something sticky.
Bill: "Best case scenario that is jelly"
Henry: "You can say that again!"

There have been more and I promise to get better at writing them down when they happen but wanted to share these two that were fresh in my mind.

Here he can be seen modeling some of the hottest looks for spring:

Felix Giggles

On Friday, February 26th the boys ventured to the Minnesota Children's Museum. Henry played hard for about 5 hours and Felix demonstrated for us his first official giggle. Cute, contagious and filled with harmonious fluctuations... Needless to say I am a huge fan!

Henry's Restaurant

On Friday evening Henry's Restaurant opened to rave reviews. Chef Henry made pizzas for everyone. As you can see from the photos Henry's philosophy is simple: work the dough well, use the best ingredients and a chef's hat MUST be a fedora!

A vegan who eats meat

We recently learned through a little google searching and talking with our pediatrician that Felix is intolerant to cows milk proteins. What does this mean you ask? Well it means that mama can't eat ANY dairy or it will pass to Felix and make him crabby, spit up, sleep less etc. At first I thought this wouldn't be too hard because frankly I don't even like to drink milk. I have since realized it's nearly impossible and that there is dairy in just about everything! So I thought it would be best to blog a little about this so I'll always remember this time in our lives. After going grocery shopping a few times and reading the labels on everything I buy I'm trying to see this as a blessing in disguise. Going dairy free really just means that aside from avoiding the obvious foods (oh cheese how I miss you!) all you have to do is avoid processed foods with a million ingredients!

So our dinners are back to the basics; meat, veggies, breads and pastas. Snacking is a totally different problem though because most chips, cookies, crackers etc all contain some sort of dairy (see above, processed foods). Did you know that salt and vinegar potato chips contain dairy? Neither did I. Dining out is less appealing because I have to ask if there is dairy hiding in everything (is there butter in this? do you use milk in your bread?) but there are other things keeping us from dining out so that is less of a problem ;)

Foods I can't eat:
chocolate
caffeinated beverages
dairy
eggs (seems to be OK if they're baked into something but he gets hives if I eat a whole egg so I avoid baked-in eggs whenever I can just to be safe)
soy

So what am I eating? A lot of rice based foods. (Rice milk has replaced regular and soy milk.) A lot of meat and veggies. For snacks I like this brand because their foods do not contain any of the top 8 allergens. Our co-op carries vegan baked goods which are delicious (dairy and egg free). So far he seems OK with the other 5 top allergens, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, fish and shellfish.

Take one day and look at everything you eat, I bet there is dairy in almost all of it. (most packaging lists allergens in bold print at the end of the ingredient list e.g. "Contains Milk, Egg, Soy" but for a full list of hidden dairy click here or here) Needless to say I have a whole new respect for people living with food allergies. Let's hope Felix grows out of this!

Why do I do it? This is why: