Happy 6th Birthday Henry!

I can’t believe you’re six and about to start first grade! You are so smart and are always seeking out more knowledge and new ways to learn. You can read almost any word put in front of you and pronounce it perfectly in Spanish and English. You love science and love to do experiments at home. You not only like to mix random things together just to see what happens, you also want to know why it’s happening.

You’re sensitive and are always worried about how other people make you feel but also how you make them feel. This can be challenging for you at times but I think it will continue to be one of your most valuable qualities as you grow older. A few weeks ago you and Felix got balloon animals at the farmer’s market and as soon as we got home, Felix’s accidentally popped and he started crying. Without hesitation you said “I’ll make it fair” and popped your own balloon.

You continue to be the best big brother to Felix. Last week I said something to Felix that I often say to you (he was screaming/crying), “I can’t hear you when you use that tone of voice.” After I walked away I heard you calmly coach Felix on the best way to get what he wanted. I was so proud of you for teaching him and staying calm. I love watching you two play (except when you wrestle, that makes my heart stop!) and I know you’ll continue to have a lot of fun adventures together.

You love to dance. So much so that you sometimes get angry that we won’t drive you somewhere to dance because you love an audience (the problem is that aside from wedding crashing, I’m not sure where to take you). Your favorite night of the whole summer might have been dancing at Monica and Zach’s wedding. I hope you always keep on dancing.

You are very particular about what you wear. You like to dress up in your handsome clothes when we go out to dinner and you also will ask Dad, Felix and I to dress up for dinner at home (and let us know if we’ve done a good job). If you’re playing outside and a football comes out, you run home to change into your Vikings jersey. I love that you see your clothes almost as the costume you’re wearing for that scene in your life. I hope you never lose this.

Your favorite toys right now are legos and beyblades. You love board games and have even started playing Monopoly with little help. You and I have had a lot of fun together playing lego wii games (harry potter, batman, Indiana Jones) and I am always impressed at your problem solving skills.

 As we talked about the other night, I’m so excited to be along for the ride as you start your 7th journey around the sun!
 

Happy 2nd Birthday Felix!

I really can't believe you're already two years old! We've spent another year so grateful to have you in our lives. You truly are a ray of sunshine (even when you're being a stinker).

This year you learned so much. You now speak in nearly full sentences and we love all the things you have to say. You like to refer to yourself as "me" and it's pretty darn cute. While getting into sticky situations you've been known to say to yourself "Careful, me!" because you're so used to us saying "Careful, Felix!"

You love to eat. Your favorite food is definitely noodles (with olive oil and a little salt). Just this morning you asked for noodles for breakfast! You still have to avoid dairy and soy but you don't seem to mind much and we know you'll eventually grow out of it, we're just not quite sure when that will be.

You love to play. Your favorite toys right now are your dolls (3 of them), your weegos (Legos) and anything electronic. You've mastered unlocking everyone's phones and can navigate to whatever game you want within seconds. You like talking on the phone and often ask to call gma Aka. You and Henry have so much fun together and I know that will only increase as you both get older. You're tough and can nearly hold your own when wrestling your brother.

You're still a huge cuddler and will often ask for cuddles. I enjoy the moments just after you wake up in the morning or after nap because all you want to do is be held or sit on someone's lap. You give tons of kisses and you always make sure everyone gets their share. If you think I'm leaving for work in the morning without kissing dad goodbye you point it out ("Kiss dada, mama?").

Some of your other favorites are Buzz and Woody (from Toy Story), Gabbas (Yo Gabba Gabba) and Elmo. You love books and pay so much attention to details in the stories. Mouse About the House is one of your favorites right now. You love music and you love to dance and we love to dance with you.

I love you more than I could ever put into words, thanks for picking me as your mom. xo

Happy Birthday Felix!

Happy Fifth Birthday Henry!

This has been another fabulous year for you Henry. You started school and learned so many new things (most notably, Spanish). You impress us each day with things you tell us. When we ask where you learned that you tell us in your “oh duh” voice that you learned it at school. We can tell you’re torn between being a little kid and turning into a big kid. Embrace all those little kid moments as much as you can but learn from and enjoy those big kid moments too.

You made a lot of new friends this year and it has been so much fun to watch you interact with each one of them. We have watched you gain your independence as you go on ‘play dates’ and attend birthday parties without me and dad. You often negotiate to stay up later by trading in stories so you can play with your friends (“I want zero stories tonight so I can play outside with Murray and Leo”)

You are the best big brother anyone could ever ask for. Felix looks at you in awe and wants to be exactly like you. You are so great at calming him down when he gets crabby and I’m always impressed by your ability to make him laugh when no one else can. I hope you continue to learn from each other and hold on to that deep love and respect you clearly have for one another.

You have become so great at communicating. Just the other day you told me you sometimes get frustrated (building legos) but that you know it’s better to stop and take a break than to scream and cry in frustration. You’re funny. One of your current phrases that always makes us laugh is “one never knows.” (“Will mom read stories tonight or will dad? One never knows”) You really listen to everything going on around you and you’ve always been great at understanding the context of things.

Your favorite toys right now are legos. You love to follow the directions and build huge things but you also love to take a random pile and create something all your own. It’s amazing to watch your creativity and patience as you build. You love books and you’re starting to read a few words. We read the Diary of a Whimpy Kid series most nights before bed and you try to read many of the words along with dad and me. Your favorite show is “Drake and Josh” and I’m fairly certain the entire family has seen every episode. Other favorite things right now are magic tricks (you put on quite a show!) and you still love superheroes and cars.

Dad picked one of his favorite quotes and put in on our calendar for this month in honor of your birthday and I really love it. “When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing” – Tom Robbins. I hope you never stop growing.

A rambling update

A few months ago Henry announced to us that he could write his name and proceeded to do so. He's been practicing at school every day and waited until he knew the whole thing before he decided to share it with us. We're so proud of him! He's been writing a lot more every day and is slowly showing an interest in reading the words he sees all around him.

Meanwhile Felix seems to always be peeking around every corner.

For our holiday card Bill caught some great shots of the boys. Getting two kids to look at the camera at the same time AND smile? Truly an impressive feat. Brotherly love is best portrayed through pictures.

Cousin Lily came to visit us over Thanksgiving and the 3 kiddos went to see Santa. Unfortunately Henry and Felix came down with a little sickness the night before but they pushed on through and made the trip to the mall.

Henry is an aspiring rock star.

Felix is usually up to no good :)

Henry went on a fabulous trip to St. Maarten with gma and gpa!

Sailing on the pirate ship and loving every minute!

Felix specializes in making silly faces. This has to be our current favorite.

Henry with his self-applied face paint at the Children's museum:

he wanted to wash it off as soon as we got home. He's growing up way too fast.

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.