OCD or Brilliant?

Like most parents we think our kids are genius! But Grady walked into the room the other day to find that Annie had put all of her blocks in a strange arrangement -- they were all lined up, grouped together by size and shape -- there was not really a discernible color pattern, but when Grady found a black block Annie had missed, she carefully placed it in the line and had to rearrange a couple to get it just right. We're hoping its a sign of brilliance as opposed to obsessive behavior! Harry's latest genius is saying "mama" and sometimes "dada" and he's actually doing some more signs - he signed thank you appropriately the other day. He waves hello and goodbye, and loves to do the hand signs when we sing my family's traditional flemmish song (the title of which I won't tempt to spell without help from Ma B).

Cake!

This entry is a little out of order, but I had to put some of these photos up. Annie helped Ma B make Harry's organic, wholewheat, no sugar, carrot cake for his birthday. She tasted every single ingredient before it went into the bowl (except the raw eggs) and thought they were all delicious (even the baking powder and wheat germ - yuck!). Harry thought it was pretty delicious after it was all baked up. Annie has already "ordered" her own birthday cake from Ma B - vanilla cake with green frosting (I think it will likely have sugar in it). When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner and suggested Belgian salad (a favorite of mommy's) Annie said, "maybe it will have some frosting in it." Coincidentally, she also apparently refers to the ice cream parlor as the "sugar shop!"There is a grandparent behind that one to blame; I'm sure of it.

Daddy's Day!

This is how we spent our Father's Day - keeping cool in the kiddie pool and down by the river. That was after Annie helped Daddy eat his blueberry, rice pancakes and sausage in bed in the morning, and after Daddy got to "sleep in" until 8:45, and before Harry devoured broccoli doused in butter and cheese at Daddy's favorite restaurant - Old Spaghetti Factory!

First Annual FOO Trip

We met up with some Friends of Ours (FOO) in Zion's National Park for a couple days of camping with all of our kids (ages 8 months to 3 years). The kids did surprisingly well (given Harry came down with a cold the first day and the tent was literally blowing on top of Annie in the middle of the first night). Jon, Meghan and Riley (aka "monster") came from Albuquerque and Alison, Corey and Dillon (aka "peanut") came from L.A. We all hiked to the top of Emerald Pools with the babes in backpacks, and Annie made it nearly to the top all by herself (Grady had to give her a shoulder ride up the last part). We were very proud of Annie for hiking all that way and rewarded her by letting her run naked in the pool -- she loved it! I had to carry Harry part way down in the pack -- all I can say is we won't be doing too much hiking until Harry can carry himself! We are already looking forward to next year's FOO trip!

Harry is ONE

Harry had quite the celebration(s) in Utah for completing his first year. I'm not sure what he thought about it all -- Annie, on the other hand, was unstoppable - she "helped" Harry open all of his presents, "helped" him play with all his new toys, and "helped" him eat his birthday cake. I'm sure she would have "helped" him wear his new clothes too if I'd let her (she'd probably fit in some of them). We took the kids swimming on Harry's B-Day: he spent the first 10 minutes crying, the next 10 minutes grimacing, the next 10 minutes smiling, and then the rest of the time he was literally dunking his face into the water! He practically started swimming on his own he was so anxious to play in the water.

Blowing Bubbles and Slurping Noodles . . .

are Harry two newest accomplishments. The other night in the tub he just stuck his face right down in the water and started blowing bubbles -- he must have learned from watching Annie, but it surprised Annie and I and we all started laughing. Harry started clapping for himself (also a fairly new accomplishment thanks to Bonnie). Then, we decided to try giving him spaghetti noodles. He was grabbing it in fist fulls and shoving into his mouth, and sure enough he began slurping his noodles - what a cute mess! Annie is so excited for Harry's Birthday, mostly because she knows there will be cake (without sugar of course) and a party. We decided to turn his car seat around since he's well over the 20 pound minimum - he loves riding forward like his big sister and I love watching all of his expressions from the rear view mirror!

"I have a Harry."

Annie and Harry hung out with Oma and Opa last week-end while Grady worked on his presentation for the Math Geek convention ("Workshop on Petascale Computing: Its Impact on Geophysical Modeling and Simulation" -- I almost fell asleep just typing the name), and I flew off to L.A. to visit my long-time girlfriend Alison and her 8 month old son, Dillon. I know the kids had a good time because every time I called to say hello, Annie could barely stop long enough to say hi. Usually she was yelling about having one of Oma's "cherries" (the bright red, sugar infused ones) or playing store with Opa.
Harry has been teething for a couple of weeks now -- he's got 4 coming in on top. I think 1 or 2 have finally broken through. He's walking on his own now (on purpose) and getting ready to turn ONE - how did that happen???!!
A little boy asked Annie at the playground the other day if she had any brothers or sisters. She replied, "I have a Harry." It was adorable. We also had a conversation about homeless people (stemming from her questions about Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" song). When I told her that some kids don't have any clothes she said, "they just have pajamas?" I told her sometimes they don't even have p.j.s. She said, "they just have naked time?" She got upset when I laughed because she was so serious. We decided we would take some toys, clothes and food to the homeless shelter. That made her feel better. Of course she wanted to take them toast with berry jam. I told her maybe we could take a jar of jam instead.