Mother's Day

Mother's Day was pretty low key this year. Which is to be expected when you have a barely 6 week old baby. Our plans were a lot of "Well...depending on how the day is going..." not to mention the weather and the thousands of other things that can make a day crazy. Then, to top everything off, I came down with the biggest, baddest case of strep throat I have ever had in my life. Late Thursday my throat felt a little scratchy and Friday I felt pretty yucky all day long. Luckily my kids are entertained by the TV (big kid) and the ceiling fan (little kid) as John was having a hard time getting away from work. Late Friday night, it became clear this was more than just a spring cold and I was going to have to go in to Urgent Care when they opened Saturday morning. Tests confirmed I would be spending time on Mother's Day with strep throat* - not my favorite gift to get for sure!

By Sunday morning, I was no longer contagious and I was feeling much better. Not great, but better. The kids gave me (and John) the gift of sleeping until 8am! It felt wonderful to get such a big chunk of sleep, especially when I needed it so much. We particiapted in one of my favorite activities for a few minutes (all of us in bed together reading books and watching cartoons) before getting ready for church.

William waiting for breakfast by copying Amelia
Look at us! We're all dressed and ready to go! Mama and her two kids
William is so proud to be a big helper! A big thank you to Grandma for William's outfit and to Aunt Kaye for Amelia's outfit

What precious gifts we have! We have a lot to be thankful for!

Kisses for baby sister

After church, John cooked up some pancake lunch for us and then spent the rest of the day trying to get us caught up on laundry and other chores. It was a big relief not to have to start Monday morning with Mt Laundry waiting for me along with some of the other chores he cleared up.

The only real tradition we have with Mother's Day is taking a picture of the kids in front of Grandma Heidt's tree in our front yard. This is the tree we received at John's mom's funeral and we planted it in our front yard in her memory. It is a way for us to remember how special she was on this day and start to talk about her as a person with our kids. It is also fun to see how much the kids (and tree have grown every year. For previous years look here or here)

Amelia sitting patiently by the tree

Little tree, little girl
Smiling big kid, little kid, tree.

It is a lot of work to get him to stay under the tree AND smile...you don't want to know what I had to do!
Silly Billy
A different angle. Same kids, same trees
This one actually is pretty good! Miracle!
Amelia did NOT like the wind blowing on her...she kept putting her arms up
Then to top things off, we went to get some fajitas at Chilli's on Monday night (everybody together: Mmmmmmmmmmmm fajitas!). This picture is taken as this is the first time we've been highchair-less and booster chair-less. William did a pretty good job, although we didn't linger over our meal.

*I've talked with both our doctor office and the pediatrician's office about the kids. Strep throat is very rare in children under two years. Both kids are healthy and we are supposed to wash our hands a lot as well as monitor their behavior. If they run temps, act fussy/tired/sick, or change eating/sleeping patterns we are to bring them in. Otherwise, we are just laying low until I feel better. No reason to try and get strep swabs from either of them unless we absolutely have to.

Amelia's First Bow + Bonus Video

This week I was going through some things in Amelia's room (she doesn't actually sleep there yet) and I found some hair bows. Velcro hair bows that will potentially stay in very baby fine hair. So, on May 7th, Amelia wore her very first hair bow. Until her brother pulled it out.

This is a frequent sight lately. I get Amelia all set up with toys/books to enjoy for some tummy time and I come back to two things 1) Amelia is sleeping 2) William has constructed a huge toy viewing area around Amelia - although Amelia is not allowed to actually touch any of the toys.
In this case, I had turned around to get the camera to grab a picture of the bow in her hair while William worked his magic!
Then, when he sees me taking pictures, he needs to copy as exactly as possible the position Amelia is in so I will want to take his picture too. Which, of course, I do want to take his picture. Who wouldn't?

A close up of the bow - and I think these are from Jessica - so cute!

William has obviously been watching us! I went to the laundry room to start the dryer and came back to see this! and sorry it is crooked!

We have the cutest boy on the planet. Remind me about this tomorrow when he is throwing a tantrum about not being able to put on his own diaper, drive the car or cook on the stove.

And as a bonus for you all, here is an old video of Amelia (Amelia is roughly 2 weeks old) making faces and eating her hands. In the background you can hear the soothing sounds of 1231089725 onesies with snaps in the dryer and William playing. At one point, William bumps his arm while playing and then goes ahead and kisses the owie himself. Because he really is that cute.

And here we have William playing golf with Grandma and Grandpa when they were here visiting last!

A Playdate!

Amelia's new friend, Lily came over the play while William was sleeping this last week. The mamas had a great time visiting while the girls slept...and then we tried to take a picture. Obviously, Lily would rather be doing something else and Amelia is just confused. Isn't she the only baby who cries at our house? What is going on? Hopefully next time we get together, the mamas will remember to take pictures before the babies are crabby!

Amelia on the left, Lily on the right

...and Mama's toes on the far right!

Splish Splash at 5 Weeks Old

Amelia turned 5 weeks old on Monday, May 4th! Her umbilical stump FINALLY fell off the day before so we could FINALLY put her in the bathtub! Hurray! The big question on our minds was: would Amelia like the bath or hate it? We waited until William was in bed so we could really focus on enjoying her first bath without everyone's favorite helper around. Mama was in charge of the washing and Daddy was in charge of the pictures and video (video will come later, maybe).
Here are Amelia's 5 week old pictures and pictures of her first bath (they are the same because I am lame).

Getting ready. Amelia and her 876651679687 neck rolls have no idea what is coming.

Time to get naked! The bath is ready and waiting!
Smiles for the Mama!
Peekaboo!
And the moment we were waiting for! So far so good - no crying at least!
An extra washcloth for modesty...and take a look at the belly! No weight worries at this house anymore! I'm so proud of our good eater!
Looking at Mama

Washing the hair

Pinching (gently, of course) those chubby cheeks! How can you resist? And I swear we have the red eye function on our camera turned on. Hmm...I guess I should check it again.

The rest is here

What a mess the rest of these pictures are! But, I think we are almost caught up now. Warning: lots and lots of pictures in no particular order.

One of William's favorite books is Owen's Marshmallow Chick. So, of course we had to buy some marshmallow chicks to eat together for easter. But, then we forgot! So, here we are after Easter with William, his favorite book, and his very own marshmallow chick.

Mmmm...marshmallow and sugar!

Our boy still likes to line things up!

Anyone want some special soup? Handmade in the Heidt kitchen by our guest chef William

Daddy multitasking: petting the cat and holding a fussy baby.

William's first real wipe out on the sidewalk. Owies on both knees. Funny enough, it was more traumatic to put bandaids on than the actual fall was. And even more traumatic to have the bandaids fall off.

I call this one Wild Woman Hair in Early Morning Light
I've been doing some garage sale-ing the last few weekends. I picked up this pink hooded sweatshirt a few weekends ago thinking it will be good to wear in the evenings when it is cool, etc. It wasn't until I washed it, dried it and started folding it that I noticed some white lettering on the back...that by some miracle spell out my daughter's name. What is the chance of that happening?
A few weekends ago, there was a family fun fest at the community center. They had all kind of stuff like: firetrucks! Kids were climbing all over this fire truck. William wanted to look, but when we asked him if he wanted to get in, he replied "NO!" on every one of the six occasions we happened to ask him. We offered to get in with him and sit so it wouldn't be so scary. Still a big no from William.

The trouble began when we got back in the car. William was NOT ready to leave (Mama and Daddy were SO ready to leave) and started to cry and not getting to sit in the fire truck. We all had a good time waving goodbye to the fire truck together and we thought the worst was over. Since that day, almost every time William gets upset he brings up the fire truck and how we were mean and didn't let him sit in it. Mr Dramatic? Yes sir, indeed.
Picking ducks for a prize. He didn't care about the prize - he was having more fun splashing in the water.
Baby animals! William checks out the goat

Another baby goat
Baby pigs and bunnies!Another baby goat

William was hoping to take the llama out for a spin. Too bad he couldn't figure out how to unhook it.

This camel just kept acomin' towards William until I was concerned William was going to loose some of his hair, or worse.After nap time that same day, we went to a BBQ ata our friend's house where we met up with our friend Maya. It was a huge challenge to get William to sit on this chair with sweet Maya. He would NOT share the chair with her - and was pretty sneaky about it. He kept moving his legs, feet, behind, and body just a little bit to make it impossible for his to sit with him.
Our kids all dressed up!

All dressed up and smiling! What a miracle!

Two pictures smiling! Amazing!

Amelia's first fluffy butt! This one is a Happy Heiny - worked great!

William sharing his toys and special blanket with his baby sister. So sweet! Please note: she is not actually allowed to touch the toys. Just look.

Amelia is really starting to notice things around her - like our play gym. She really likes to look at the toys and talk to them! So cute (working on getting video of this soon)!
A ruffly butt...how girly!
The new belly! Just before she turned 5 weeks old, Amelia finally lost her umbillical cord stump!
Messy face on the big boy!