Princess Party

Catherine's first year went by so quickly that I'm almost scared to have another kid.  

Will time go by even FASTER?  Is that even possible?

Keeping with tradition, Jon missed his child's first birthday while he was off doing church-related stuff.

For Seth's birthday it was a meeting of some kind.

For Catherine's it was Scout Camp.

Before he left on the morning of her birthday, 

we opened her cards from her grandparents and great-grandparents.  

Seth helped by playing Angry Birds on the Kindle.

Once all the cards were opened and thoroughly investigated, Catherine resorted to her favorite activity:

throwing things on the floor: 

At this point Jon exits right and we are left to party by ourselves.

The birthday girl devouring her birthday breakfast of eggs (her favorite): 

Attacking her birthday balloon (Seth picked it out for her): 

We postponed her actual party until the next day.

I figured her father would kind of like to be there.  

The thing with first birthdays is that you have to catch the kid at just the right time of day.

Otherwise the party is just a disaster.

We...missed our window of opportunity, shall we say.

I hope she doesn't compare her cake with Seth's first birthday cake: 

Even I will concede that it's not that cute, and I MADE it.

But her cake wins the taste-test, hands down.

Lemonade cake with raspberry filling and lemon cream-cheese icing.

Yumyumyumyum.

Her party was very mellow--just us and the Oliveras.

We decided that Emma and Catherine would be best friends before they were out of the womb,

so it was only right to invite Catherine's best friend.

(We've also arranged a marriage between Emma and Seth, but they don't need to know that yet).

Catherine and her loot:

She was not a fan of the sticky icing on her fingers:

Want to know what she has in her hand?

A bottle of ibuprofen.

It was the only thing that kept her happy.

Time for present opening!

To absolutely no one's surprise, Catherine was one spoiled little girl.

Of course, big brother generously offered his assistance with the gift opening:

But Princess was quite capable of ripping paper to shreds all by herself:

pat the bunny book from us (we used to have one, but it disappeared):

...and an electronic birthday cake from Grandma Cathy:

The cake was a big hit with all party attendees (including Seth): 

Emma investigates the cake.

As it turns out, the electronic cake was a bigger hit than the real thing: 

And the verdict is... 

...not good.

Seth was more than happy to take care of her rejected cake.

So we failed pretty miserably at making her party enjoyable for her, 

but first birthdays aren't really for the kids anyway.  They're for the parents.

At least she's pretty happy with her gifts:

"Sit and Spin? I think I'll try for a Stand and Spin.  That sounds like WAY more fun!"

"Oh, I know what THIS is.  I've only been waiting for mine my ENTIRE LIFE."

"Now let me just position this carefully..."

"Ta-da!  Now no one can mistake my identity."

Happy Birthday, Princess Bug.  We love you so!

(12 month achievements to come when I get her photo shoot CD back) 

Valentine's Day

I saw some pretty cute Valentine's ideas on Pinterest, but decided to opt out this year.

I tell myself it's because Seth & Catherine are too young to appreciate it, but really, it's because I'm lazy.

But not too lazy.

The kids did get strawberry milk and pink pancakes for breakfast, 

along with their treats from Grandma Cathy.

Seth, bleary-eyed at 7am.

(funny side story: Seth started getting up earlier and earlier, so we finally put a digital clock in his room.  We taped over the minutes, so all he can see is the hour.  We told him that as soon as he sees a 7, he can leave his room.  Now, almost every morning at 7:02, he'll come stumbling down the hallway to our room.  We try to explain that just because he sees a 7 doesn't mean he HAS to get up, but to no avail.  How fondly we think back on those weekends when we used to get to sleep in until 8 am!)

Princess also enjoys her Valentine's pancakes: 

And her Valentine's Princess bear from Grandma Cathy: 

Seth got cars, of course.

Three red Valentine cars.

I asked him why he got the cars.  His answer was, "Because Gramma WOVES me!" 

Jon and I gave each other...nothing.  

Sometime we'll go out to eat, but at the moment we don't feel like torturing anyone by leaving them with Catherine.

And here is Seth wearing a portion of Catherine's bow collection.  

No, I did not instigate this.

Stuff Happens

Like one of Seth's (and our) good friends moving away: 

(Victoria, Brie, Angelina, Gabe & Seth)

Last day of Joy School with Victoria

Just for fun, here are Seth and Victoria at 4 and 2 months old:

And their second Halloween: 

Best of luck in Utah, Atkinsons!  We miss you already!

Sometimes I forget that I'm antisocial and take my kids to fun places with fun people.

Like Storyville with (I swear) every kid under 4 in the stake.

 

Catherine investigates the 'babies only' area

She prefers to be with the bigger kids.

You know, where she can get run over repeatedly.

Anora & Catherine, banished to baby land

I couldn't get Seth to slow down long enough for a picture.  This is as good as it gets.

Then there was one day where it sort of, maybe, possibly, thought of snowing for three minutes.

Seth told me he wanted to go taste the snow with his tongue, so out we went: 

He told me it tastes like sugar.

And then there was the one time I tried to be a good mother and let Seth help me make cookies: 

Note to self:

Seth's idea of 'helping' means turning the oats into snow and making it snow all over the counter.

This next picture is to remind me that really, my daughter is usually sweet and cute.  

Not a whiny, terrible teething disaster like she's been for the past three or four days.

This is actually Seth's doll, which he has since abandoned.

Seriously--anyone want to borrow her until her molars come in?  

Because some days I don't think I'm going to survive this round...

Seth at 3 1/2

Seth has been so much fun lately.  Granted, he kind of turned into a little monster right after he hit three, but that's (mostly) faded and he's back to his sweet self.

Some recent Sethisms:

*"Don't use that [Jon's razor] on me.  It will cut off all my freckles and they won't grow back."

*"I will get dressed sooner."  And by that he means LATER.  He would live in his pajamas if I'd let him.  He also hates jeans and Sunday shirts.

*"I don't want to be a Sunbeam.  I want to be a crocodile and chomp on people.  RAR!"

*Seth to Grandma Cathy: "Who put those stickers on crooked?"
   Grandma: "I don't remember who it was."
   Seth: "It was probably John the Baptist."

*Seth: "I need to wash my face."
  Me: "You do?"
  Seth: "Yeah. It has stupid crap on it."

*"You're ridic-a-luss!"

*"You're ingusting!" (disgusting)

*"Mommy, do you have a carving knife?" (Nursery rhymes can be dangerous sometimes.)

*He will let me read to him indefinitely.  We usually get in around 30 minutes a day, but he would do more.  His favorite book right now is A Fly Went By, much to my & Jon's dismay (going at top speed, the book takes me EIGHT FULL MINUTES to read all the way through.  And then he wants to read it again.  Every day.)

*He will not sing with me.  All his Joy School friends and Primary friends will sing with me, but not Seth.  He just watches me very carefully and then sings the songs to his cars later.  Unless we're in Primary.  Then he covers his ears and says, "Can we sing piano, please, Mommy?"

*He also covers his ears every time Catherine cries.  Usually runs up the stairs and closes his door, too.  This kid still needs a LOT of quiet time.

*He can put on his own pants, underwear, and socks.  Still needs help with shirts and some shoes.

*Knows almost all of his letters (W, U, Y and N are still iffy), a few letter sounds, and most numbers up to 20). He can also recognize his own name.  I'm trying to teach him to spell it out loud, but it's a little confusing.  The other day he spelled it 'Shet', which I think is fantastic.

*Generally dislikes coloring/writing in all forms.

*Still afraid of all movies except Signing Time and Blue's Clues.  This is getting really old.

*He's learning to brush his own teeth.  Mostly he just sucks off the toothpaste like candy.

*Favorite activities: riding his monster truck and motorcycle (tricycle and scooter), playing Angry Birds on the Kindle, reading books, and, of course, playing cars.

*Occasionally he will ask to play with Catherine.  When they play together it's awesome--laughing, giggling, etc.  But usually he spends his days trying to keep his cars away from her or informing me that she's stinky and needs to be put down for a nap (meaning taken out of his general vicinity).

*Very, very imaginative.  Recent personas include baby, girl, policeman, fireman, dolphin, turtle, and doggie.  Occasionally we get combos, like baby-girl-policeman, or baby-girl-dolphin-with-legs (?).   He also likes to make up names for his characters, like Foo or Sara Mommy.  He asked me if the new Friend magazine would have a story about Bandy the Bird--one of his made-up characters.

*Loves pretending to be the baby and doing the things that Catherine does.  Sometimes it's cute, sometimes it's just plain obnoxious.  But I understand the need, so I try to be patient.  Like when he insisted I take these pictures of him crawling up and down the stairs because I had just taken pictures of Catherine crawling up the stairs:

I'm so proud.

*We recently were given some fake food by a friend (thanks, Dawn!) and he spent the afternoon preparing 'dinner' for me & Catherine.

*He's given up naps entirely, but I still enforce an hour of 'quiet time'.  He's completely on board because that's the only time he gets to play with playdough.

I love this little man.  

This is January?

So many times this month I've caught myself wondering if I somehow accidentally brought the Arizona weather home with me.  Because even my irises and daffodils are confused--they're coming up!

The way things are looking, I might need to start my garden in February this year...

Needless to say, the kids are loving the opportunity to be outside instead of house-bound.

Catherine loves nothing as much as sitting outside, throwing grass, dirt and mulch.

Stealing the neighbor boys' football is also very fun.

As is riding your scooter through mulch (?)

Since it wasn't snowing, we figured we might as well rake all those leaves in our backyard.

Seth was a big help.

Having kids makes everything fun all over again.

On another lovely January day, we met some friends for lunch at a local farm, and then let the kids run wild:

Or sit wildly, for those who aren't yet running:

But sometimes we stay inside and play with our (massive amounts of) toys: 

Racing cars down the stairs

Daddy fixing Mommy's terrible engineering job.

And now for some photographic evidence of what has become a daily occurrence at our house: 

Jon & Seth, fighting over the Kindle.

Every day.

Usually repeatedly.

Oh, and I guess one time it did snow:

Once.

And then melted.

How is this possibly the same place that dumped over two feet of snow in one night two years ago???