A Cowboy, A Princess and A Construction Worker....

The kids have been into dressing up more and more these days.  The other day I came downstairs and this is how Nicholas and Grace were dressed.  Nicholas was busy "making repairs" and Grace was "having a tea party."  They wanted Henry to join them  :-)

Grace - a.k.a "Little Mommy"

Grace received the Golden Book, "Little Mommy," for Christmas and it is no surprise that it's now her favorite book.  We read it several times a day every day at her request.  I think she enjoys it so much because she naturally just loves mothering.  We see this most of all when she interacts with Henry.  She is always aware of where he is, what he is doing, and if he needs anything, she automatically gets it.  If I'm tied up when Henry wakes up in the morning or from a nap, I can simply ask her to go in and comfort him and I hear her go into his room and proclaim loudly "Good Morning Sunshine!  How's my little buddy boo today?"  Then she proceeds to open the shutters, turn on the lights, pick out his clothes for the day, including diaper and a wipe, and then drop books into his crib for him to play with...all on her own accord.  And she will stay in there and talk to him until I make it into his room.  She is a great little cleaner, frequently picking up her toys without being asked, and she loves to help me wash dishes, set the table, do laundry, and vacuum.  She also loves caring for her baby dolls and cooking in her play kitchen.  She loves for me to tell her a story each night before bed and always requests either Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, or The Three Little Pigs.  I will occasionally hear her retelling the stories to her dolls the next day :-)  We love our "Little Mommy!"

Henry 11 Months

Henry's eleventh month has been a busy one.  His biggest feat...he is now crawling!  It is a kind of funny looking, somewhat awkward kind of army crawl, not on his hands and knees, but he goes forward, backwards and any direction, getting to where he wants to go.  He has also started pulling up to his knees and his favorite place to do it is in the bath tub!  We really have to watch him closely in the bath these days, he splashes like crazy, knocking himself over at times and other times he is slipping from trying to kneel up...he is keeping us on our toes...and very wet!  His cuisine has also expanded this month to include finger foods, and his favorite are "puffs."  He has gotten much better at drinking from a sippy cup without any handles all by himself.  Some of the new things he enjoys doing are dancing (bopping up and down) to music whenever he hears it, playing in the pantry while mommy cooks, and reading books (The Foot Book by Dr Seuss is his favorite...he laughs every time).  When you ask him how big he is most of the time he will raise his hands way up above his head to show you how big he is.  He continues to smile big and smile often...we love it!  And just today, his first tooth popped through!  What a great month for our little Henry!

A New Preschool....

This month Nicholas started a new preschool.  We had been on the wait list for our parish school, St Peter Chanel Preschool, since last January and we just got a call the first of the year that they had an opening for him in the 4's class.  We were thrilled, especially since we had been very unhappy with his other school and had actually pulled he and Grace out of it the first of December.  We've been praying hard about what was best for them.  SPC preschool is a loving, Christ-centered environment and we are so happy to have him there.  He loves it so far.  Two days this past week he even came to wake me up (at 6:30-7 am) to tell me he was already dressed for school (in his SPC preschool T shirt both days), had brushed his teeth, gone to the bathroom, and made his bed ALREADY!!!  Wow, I'm really loving this school :-)  We pray he continues to as well!