Goodbye February

Today is the last day of February and I'm ready for spring! Since there's no more hope for snow days (darn) and we're losing part of our spring break to make them up (double darn) I am ready for spring days to come around. We had a little taste of spring on Sunday with 73 degree weather. Ingrid got to wear a jumper without tights to church! She was so excited.


She was also way too busy to get many pics made.


Ingrid is so active these days. It was nice being home with her all weekend to see how much she is doing. She is crawling everywhere. She wants to get into everything. And once she gets to her goal, she immediately pulls up on it. With lots of "dangerous" furniture (i.e. coffee table, side tables, entertainment center) to bump chins and heads on, I was very busy chasing Ingrid Cate around. And now her knees are starting to show how hard she's been playing.


I guess Ingrid is ready to say goodbye to February too, because tonight SHE WAVED!! We've been working and working on it. I was so happy. Heather was here for supper and she was about to take Ingrid to her room to get her jammies on. They were waving bye-bye to D. Like we do when we go anywhere. And.she.waved. Just like that. I was so proud. Then she kept doing it over and over. So many memories. So glad I have this blog to help me document them.

Happy Weekend!

I haven't been in the blogging mood the last couple of days because my nieces have been so sick. :( I was sad for those little tots and for their mom. Elise still has to be watched closely for the next few days and Amelia got antibiotics for her double ear infection. Hopefully they will be on the mend soon.

I will be husband-less and computer-less this weekend. Derek is going to Russellville to shoot video and photos for CHRISTeens and he's taking our computer with him. So I'll just leave you with a few photos of Ingrid looking cute and mischievous climbing on the couch!

Happy Weekend

Other Plans

I've been itching to put Ingrid in one of the pretty vintage dresses I snagged for her on Etsy a few weeks ago. Derek left for a bball game tonight and I thought it would be the perfect time to play a little dress up with Ingrid Cate. She had other plans. The green rocker in her room is usually the perfect spot for a little photo op. She had other plans. I thought, maybe she will sit in her crib for a quick snap in this precious dress. She had other plans. She is no longer stationary. She is mobile. A mover. A shaker. And although I didn't get the perfect picture, I love chasing her with my camera.





Lately, if you are on the floor playing toys with Ingrid, and she realizes you are there, she will abandon all play things. For the great challenge of climbing you! She will pull and tug and climb and crawl until she is successfully sitting in your lap or you are holding her to keep her from climbing up to your shoulders! This is a very fun game. For her.

Mondays

Mondays are usually hard. Back to work. Back to the daily grind. Back to "reality." But I prefer to think my "reality" is really home with my family. I tried really hard to have a good attitude this Monday. Knowing it was going to be a hard one: literacy night at school until 8:30, not getting to put Ing to bed, progress reports to complete, p/t conferences to prepare for, another late night at school tomorrow, etc. But, I started the day off in a good mood. Exchanged a couple of emails with Derek early in the day. I was going to make this Monday great. Then, BAM, huge headache. I don't normally get headaches, and this was a beast. It made me sick to my stomach. I felt awful the rest of the day. Monday, you really don't like me. However, I will not let you win. It's 11:03 pm. I almost surrendered and went to bed in a funk (after finishing those reports...) but I refuse to go down that way. These sweet pics of Ingrid Cate were in the back of my mind. And I'm choosing to end my day with these precious images of my little girl.

Cool Tricks, Cool Tricks

There is a segment on "Yo Gabba Gabba" where kids get to show their cool tricks. We always say it to Amelia when she's doing one of her famous moves. I have Gabba on the brain because this weekend was Amelia Claire's 2-year birthday party! Heather did an absolutely amazing job; she pulled off TWO Gabba parties in ONE day. They were both so much fun! I won't post any pics because I know she will have lots to share!

Ingrid Cate is interested in sharing some of her own cool tricks though!

"It feels like summer"

This is what I heard all day at school today. "Mrs. Henderson, it feels just like summer out here!" "Mrs. Henderson, I sweated to death at recess." "Mrs. Henderson, is it above 100 today?" hahaha I love that last one. In their defense, the high was 73 degrees today. It was wonderful. I love the warmth. It makes me long for days full of sun and heat and NO wind. I guess I'm being too picky, but it is always windy here. And that's the pits for kids. Sunday afternoon, the wind wasn't too bad so we did get to go on a stroller ride. I got a few pics. But Ingrid was way too interested in the stroller strap and a little puppy jogging along beside us to bother posing for my camera. She got to wear her cool pink shades from Drew's party though. She loved them.



This is unrelated to the above, but I thought it was alarming funny so I must write it down. One of my precious little girls at school came up to me this morning and said the following:
C: Wow, Mrs. Henderson!
Me: What, C?
C: Why do you have on make-up today?
Me: I always wear make-up. Every day.
C: No you don't.
Me: I really do, C.
C: I've NEVER seen you wear make-up before.
Me: Well, does it look okay?
C: Yes! I wish you would wear it every day.

So...I guess it's a really good thing Derek got me that Sephora gift card for Valentine's Day! Looks like I need it.

Hump Day

This is my second full week of work since Christmas break. Pitiful, I know. But that's the truth. Thanks to all the snow. And I am so thankful that it's already Wednesday. I was afraid the week was going to draaaaag on and on, especially with starting our Monday off with the Valentine's party. But, it's going by relatively quickly and I'm happy.

 What doesn't make me happy is how quickly Ingrid is growing up. I really can't believe all the stages that have come and gone. She really feels less and less like a "baby-baby" every day. She crawled forward the farthest yet tonight, and while I was so happy she reached this milestone, I was a bit sad that she already reached this milestone. I might be a tad crazy...But I'm glad Derek got it on video! Hopefully he will share it soon. It was really precious. (Minus my crazy baby voice. Why do I sound so scary in videos?) I don't have any pics because I was moving her object of desire (my phone) just out of arm's reach so she would go just a little farther!

I do have some photos of our last snow day together. Ingrid Cate played in her room with the play cube for an hour and fifteen minutes. Her attention never wavered. Mine did. Hers didn't!


She's really enjoying standing up and playing a lot more. Her legs are getting so much stronger! I think she might be an exercise nut like her dad because she's already doing calf raises and push-ups.




Ing is also starting to enjoy a few snacks that she can feed to herself. She's had mum-mums and puffs. She really loves mum-mums the best because it's more to hold on to and she can bite and chew on them. But they usually scare me to death! I know they dissolve, but she tries to put such a huge piece in her mouth that it doesn't have time to dissolve before she is ready to swallow. Then I'm fishing it out of her throat! I've tried breaking them into smaller pieces, but her slobbery fingers melt them away before she can eat them. Regardless, she thinks they're delish!

Where is the love?

Right here! We've been loved on and loved on this Valentine's holiday. Our celebration started this weekend with a visit from the Halsteds. The little girls exchanged gifts and Heather snuck in a gift for me! Ing loved the book Amelia picked out for her she I really loved the vintage romper that Heather picked out. I had mentioned that I found the cutest romper to Heather one day on the phone. It was in my "favorites" on Etsy (along with a million other things) and I was sad when I saw it sold. BUT it was sold to my sister!!! It is from Lishyloo, one of our favorite sellers.

We got Amelia a cute little baby sling to carry her dolls around! She loved it and I was so proud. I've been hanging on to that thing forever! It's from Etsy seller SnuggyBaby.

Ingrid Cate had so much fun watching every move Amelia made, as usual. But this weekend she revisited another favorite pastime: tearing paper. She loved it at Christmas, but even more so now that she's older. She was in heaven.

She also go super snazzy gold sandals for summer from Gammy and Gampy. And some much-needed 9 month sized jammies.

And we can't forget about Eeesie poo (as Amelia called her this weekend). She got gifts too!  (You might notice I snuck in a picture of some of my v-day decorations.  Heeheehee.)

We had so much fun with our family this weekend! I didn't want them to go back home. At least I'm left with these precious hand-made potato-print valentines from Amelia. I love them.

Derek and I were going to wait until Valentine's Day to exchange our gifts...but we were too excited. We opened them Sunday night! Ingrid was too sleepy, so she waited.

D got new compression shorts for bball and I got a Sephora gift card!!! We were just in Sephora because I wanted some new makeup so badly, but I just couldn't justify spending so much. So he snuck back in the store and got me a gift card and I can't wait to use it!

We got to give Ingrid her Valentine from us today and she was so happy to have more paper gifts!!

Ingrid got loads of stuff for her first V-day! I didn't get any pics of her presents from her Nana and Meme. Drat.

Derek and I got to go out to dinner tonight to Devitos! A local restaurant that serves the best lasagna and rainbow trout. Can you guess who got what?

I found a couple of scrapbook pages from Valentine's gone by. The first one is from 2004, our last V-day in Russellville. It was a really warm day (kinda like today) and we spend it at the park!

The other one I found is from the very next year when we had moved back to Harrison. Derek made me an 80s mix CD and created custom cover art! I loved it.

He's always so creative and thoughtful. I'm so thankful to be spending our 11th valentines together! I love you so much.

And I'll leave you with a preshy pic of our cupid!