Father’s Day 2010
As I’ve mentioned before, Chris is the best dad ever! For Father’s Day breakfast this year I made the traditional Father’s Day dutch baby. Then we spend most of the day at Howell Living History Farm, per Chris’ wishes. We pretty much had the place to ourselves! Apparently not a lot of dads want to spend Father’s Day with their kids at the farm.
We joined a volunteer-led tour of the farm with one other family and literally we were the only ones there. Felicia, the volunteer farmer, told us that Mother’s Day is always packed and Father’s Day is always deserted at Howell. Weird. Although we are regulars at the farm, we’ve never actually gone on a tour before. The tour was amazing! I think the volunteer was happy to have some company and took Natalie around to do all sorts of cool farm chores that we don’t normally have access to. The girls were troopers at the farm, despite the 90 degree heat and being hungry. Unfortunately, when we got home they were both pretty worn out and cranky. I wonder how old they will be when they are able to accomplish not giving Chris any grief on Father’s Day?
Natalie and Daddy model their crowns Natalie decorated a crown for Chris for Father’s Day. Off course then she wanted one, too!
Natalie with her crown
Miranda jumping Our friend Joanne was kind enough to hand down this jumper to Miranda!
Visiting the horses
Pigs in mud
Natalie with Felicia the farmer
Collecting farm fresh eggs
Volunteer farmer shows Natalie how it’s done
Natalie and Daddy scrape feed corn off the cob
Natalie helps grind corn
Natalie turns the crank
Natalie looks at the ground corn
Natalie feeds her corn to the chicks
Pumping water
Natalie gives water to Blaze the 30 year old horse And he spits it right back at her!
Funny faces Most times this is the only way that Natalie will "pose" for pictures these days.
Miranda’s First Father’s Day III
Family Portrait Kids not smiling, of course!
Smily baby Miranda getting her diaper AND outfit changed outside yet again.
Lamb Grazing
Miranda’s First Father’s Day II
Miranda’s First Father’s Day I
Miranda is 4 Months!
Happy 4 Months Miranda! On the day Miranda turned 4 months old, I put her down in the playroom on her back. When I came back in the room, she had rolled onto her tummy and was looking quite proud of herself, as you can see in the photo above. Miranda has also discovered her feet and loves to grab them when she’s laying on her back. Sometimes she’s successful in getting her toes into her mouth!
At 4 months old, Miranda is a joy. She’s happy to play with toys, ride in her stroller, or hang out in the beco. She’s waking up a little more often at night, courtesy of the 4 month sleep regression, but is consistently sleeping in her crib for naps and at night. Miranda loves her big sister, as evidenced by her wide grins when she sees Natalie.
Miranda is happy nearly all of time—even today after having four shots, she was only mildly fussy. Traveling in the car is improving. The one frustrating thing is that she has learned to pull her binky out of her mouth. She’s working on it, but still doesn’t have the hand-eye coordination to put it back in. I suspect that once she master’s that, we can stop swaddling her for sleep.
We took her to the doctor today for her 4 month check up. The doctor says she’s doing great. Miranda is now:
26.5 inches (97%)
15 pounds, 1 ounce (90%)
Our Little Gymnast
A few weeks after Miranda was born, I signed Natalie and I up for a Mom/Tot gymnastics class at The Schafer School of Gymnastics, conveniently located 2 minutes from our house. Although she technically was old enough to start a preschool class with kids only, I wanted to make sure that I was spending quality time with Natalie outside the house (i.e. away from “the baby”). Plus I wanted to be there at first to help her acclimate to the new experience.
When I spoke to the owner before signing her up for the class, I was impressed with their philosophy. He said at this age they are looking for the kids to learn how to take a class, by listening to the teacher and taking turns with the other kids, and gain confidence in being in a new environment. The gymnastics skills are the vehicle through which those goals are achieved. The class also helps kids build gross motor skills.
I’ve been impressed with the teacher, Miss Janette, who is so patient and kind with the kids. Not only does she help break down the skills into easily learned pieces, but she encourages the kids to challenge themselves. At the end of the class, Miss Janette asks the kids to tell his or her parent what their favorite part of the class was. Then the kids all high-five each other, the parents, and their teacher. It’s super cute.
Natalie LOVED it from the moment we walked into the big gym. There’s never been a skill or new activity she hasn’t enthusiastically participated in. She occasionally gets frustrated when she cannot do something perfect immediately, so I am thrilled that the class is helping her learn to be patient and practice. I love watching how proud she is of herself when her hard work and practice results in her accomplishing a new trick.
One of the skills was to jump with both knees together onto the vault. Natalie had trouble getting her knees to stay together, so she practiced over and over again, using our couch as her personal vault. When she could do it well, she was so excited to show her teacher, Miss Janette. When it was her turn on the vault, she held up the line to be sure that her teacher saw her, shouting, “Miss Janette, Miss Janette, WATCH THIS!!!!!”
Now Natalie is more than ready to graduate to the kids only class, and once I go back to work Meema and PopPop will take her to class each week. Luckily I took this video that I can watch since I won’t get to watch her doing gymnastics live each week. The video shows off Natalie’s gym skills, as well as my lack of steady-camera skills!