Little Red Wagon

I love how nostalgic a little red wagon is.  I had one growing up.  Maybe you did too.  Anna and Clara have been taking quite a few rides around the farm in their little red wagon.  This ride culminated in a stop at the garden, where Eric was rototilling.

 



Rolling a dandelion in her hands, the wind in her hair... this photo is too beautiful!

 

Nap time anyone?

 



Photo Bomb!

A photo bomb, if you have never heard of one, is where you drop a bunch of photos with minimal text.  Here are several photos from one of the first nice days this spring, where the girls were able to play with their new outdoor toys, including their little play house.  Enjoy!

 

Planting the Garden

 

Our 2013 garden is our fifth garden.  This year seemed later than others due to the weather and general busy-ness.  Anna was a great helper this year!

 

 

Clara mostly watched, either from the little red wagon, or from a nice blanket at the edge.  I admit that I did more watching and picture taking than helping.  In fact, let's be honest.  Eric does everything with the garden.  I just watch and later, during harvest, I cook and preserve.

 

 

Anna helped to plant green beans this evening.  The sky kept threatening to storm, but it held off.

 

 

She's very hard at work!

 

 

Yes, watching is quite nice.

 

 

I love this picture of Anna holding a big old handful of bean seeds. 

And I love this farm girl t-shirt.  "Anything Boys Can Do I Can Do Better."

 

 

Just by observing daddy, she learned how to line the bean seeds up in a row.  And poke them into the ground.  We may have beans coming up in the spinach row...

 

Clara decides to venture off of the blanket to the garden edge.  Not too sure of the grass/dirt textures yet, but she'll get there!

 

 

When our two black barn kitties came to visit, Anna was overjoyed.

Bye, Bye, and Good Night Garden!

 

What a wonderful May evening!

Clara's First Birthday!

 

Clara turned one on May 8th.  Thinking back to this day in 2012 and some momentous occasions throughout her first year, a few memories come to mind. 

 

I cried during delivery, something I didn't do when Anna was born because I was only vaguely aware of what was happening to me during my first delivery.  The emotions in general were much stronger with her, maybe because I felt like I'd had taken my mommy training wheels off and was learning how to cruise along in the newborn department. 

Holding Clara and cuddling with her alone during the two nights at the hospital were beautiful.  Trying to juggle two little ones that first summer, I remember Anna falling asleep on my feet as I was nursing Clara because she wanted some mommy cuddle time.  All of a sudden, time flashed and she learned how to scoot on her bottom to get places.  And she's still scooting today.

 

Clara's first birthday party was a lot of fun. We did a ladybug theme.  We invited 50 people to our house.  I was counting on being able to enjoy the outdoors, but it was 40 degree weather for most of May, so we were packed into our house.  Despite this, I wouldn't have changed a thing. 

I found really cute ladybug ideas on pinterest.  I made a ladybug cake.  It was a round cake with red frosting.  Purchased tube black frosting outlined the body of the ladybug, and mint candies made the spots.  For the eyes I pushed mini marshmallows into the frosting and put a dot of the black frosting on it.  I frosted cupcakes with green frosting and put little flower candies on them to dress them up.  We barely had enough cake and cupcakes to feed everyone, but it turned out really cute.

For favors I made oreo ladybugs.  I also found this idea on pinterest.  You dip oreos in melting chocolate.  First in the regular brown chocolate and apply the candy eyes while it is wet, then after it dries (hardens) you dip the sides into the red melting chocolate. 

I found that if you pop them in the fridge on a cookie sheet for a few minutes you can speed the process up.  After the red chocolate dried, I used toothpicks to put the dots on the bugs.  By the way, I'd had my gallbladder out the Monday prior to her birthday, so I was home to do all of the party prep.  And I had help from my mom!

 

 

 

My brother-in-law Travis had access to an inflatable bouncy house, so we had that running despite the cold weather.  The girls loved it!

Clara was pretty tired out by the time it was time to do the cake, so she didn't enjoy the process as much as I'd hoped.  She poked it a little and ate maybe a bite or two. 

She perked up when it came to the presents, but Anna probably had more fun opening presents than she did.  And Anna continues to have challenges sharing Clara's toys, but that is another story.

A big thank you to all of our family who came, helped, and shared with us little Clara Bug's first birthday!

 

 

  

First Family Vacation

 

Our first family vacation was to the Pittsburgh, PA area.  Eric wanted to see where some of his family originated.  We found his great-grandfather's brother's gravestone in the West Newton cemetary on a rainy Friday afternoon. 

We had made it there after 3 pit stops.  We found out that between a 9-month old's small stomach and a 2.5 year old's small bladder one cannot get far without needing a gas station or place to pull over.  We weren't in any real hurry, however.

We at dinner at a family restaurant called the Chuck Wagon that steadily filled up as we ate.  The food was not very exciting, and in hindsight, we probably should have ate at the nice pizzeria that looked like it inhabited an old train station building along the tracks.  We took a picture of a historically preserved train station.  We drove around a bit and then we drove to our first hotel south of Pittsburgh. 

The next morning was all about the zoo!  We had been promising Anna that we would take her to the zoo for almost a year.  We were going to go during the summer sometime but never found the time, we were so busy on the farm.  We promised her that if she went on the potty all of the time, we would take her to the zoo.  So we had to follow through on that promise (she stayed dry in her big girl undies the whole trip). 

Here are some of the highlights at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium:

The Tiger

 

One of the first animals we saw.  He was pacing in front of the window, which was kind of him.  It wasn't so kind when he sprayed on the window right at us.

 

 

The Elephant

 



 

The zookeepers were washing this elephant's feet when we entered the indoor viewing room.  We watched in fascination as the elephant did as he was directed and put all four feet one at a time on the rail to be washed.

 

The Penguins

 

Anna asked over and over again to "can we see the penguins, now?"  I'm not sure which she wanted to see more:  penguins or giraffes.  Unfortunately, the giraffes were not out that day because of the cold and ice.  So the penguins won and were her favorite animals at the zoo.  They had a special "penguin walk," where they let a handful out to walk a path down a small hill and back.  We bought her a stuffed penguin, which she and daddy affectionately named "Petey."

 

The Aquarium

 

 

The aquarium was fun.  Clara seemed to especially like watching the fish.  It was also nice to get indoors where it was toasty warm.

 

The Sea Lions

 

 

I love these two pictures of Anna at the sea lion exhibit.

 

After the aquarium we drove through Pittsburgh, hopelessly looking for a kid-friendly and parking-friendly restaurant to eat lunch.  We had just given up and thought that we would head to the second hotel when we saw the Carnegie Science Museum.  I had heard that this museum was great, so we paid $5 to park.  We ate in their cafeteria and then realized that in order to see anything we'd have to pay $17 per adult (kids were free).  So after that surprise we decided to give it a chance.  It was definitely great for all ages, but Anna was a bit young for most of it.  There was a great train station exhibit and the whole 4th floor was for the younger kids. 

 

 

Here are some highlights of the museum:

 

More fish, but with a magnifying glass

 

 

 

 

 

Jungle Gym

 

 

There was so much more!  But blogger isn't cooperating in letting me post photos right now.

 

The day we drove home we made a couple of stops.  One stop was at Grove City to check out the outlet mall.  We bought overalls at Osh Gosh (of course), ate, and headed back to the car.  We also stopped in Erie and did some mall walking.  We bought a pair of shoes for Anna that light up.  She LOVES shoe shopping!  Clara had also gotten a pair of shoes at Target back near Pittsburgh. 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I had so much fun with the girls.  But most importantly, and the main reason why I loved our vacation, was the time we were able to spend with Eric.  He hasn't had a vacation since our honeymoon five years ago, and it was great to see him relax.  He was so understanding about dealing with the crowds at the science museum, and my difficulty in navigating and driving in Pittsburgh, and he tolerated with good humor sharing a bed with Anna (who wiggles all night long).  Actually, I think he really enjoyed snuggling with her, especially when she wouldn't settle down the first night and kept kissing his cheek and hugging him.  We shared a lot of good laughs about Anna's obsession with elevators, which she accidently always called "alligators," and automatic toilets.  Clara was a good trouper through it all, as long as she was well-fed.

 

 

The End.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Just Winging It

So often, I realize that I try to overthink motherhood.  I try to read about raising babies and toddlers.  How to feed them the best foods.  How to handle tantrums.  But sometimes the best child-raising outcome is one that happens naturally.

Anna is finally potty trained!  I have been putting her on the potty in spurts of diligence off and on since she was 1.5 years old.  She is just over 2.5 years old.  So this long year of frustration over whether she was going to EVER going to go on the potty has concluded with much amazement that she simply decided one day to GET IT.  There was one morning where she went through 6 pairs of undies before 9am.  Another afternoon where she peed on my (new) couch not once but twice.  It always seemed like when I pushed she pushed back.  I tried rewards:  m&m's and marshmallows.  I tried a made up a potty song that was really not very catchy because I can't remember the tune now.  When she indicated interest in riding a school bus, I told her that only big girls who go on the potty can ride school buses.  I bribed her with the offer of taking her to the zoo if she went potty all the time.  Well, none of those things seemed to work and I did feel a little guilty for all of the bribing!  Finally, I relaxed a little.  Probably because I was exhausted of the whole issue.  I let her tell me when she had to go.  And she did, and has been dry for a month now.  Even more amazing, I thought that it would be another year of wearing pull ups at night but she has been waking up dry in her big girl underwear. 

So there is one example of how just letting things take their natural course has been effective.  I have also been pleasantly surprised with Clara's reaction to trying table foods.  I followed all the common "food rules" with Anna.  I fed her pureed veggies before fruits so that she wouldn't get hooked on the natural sweetness of fruit.  She doesn't like (many) veggies.  I never gave her samples of my ice cream and cake until her 1st birthday.  Clara has gotten the benefit of loosened "food rules," mainly because I don't want her to develop challenges with trying new foods like Anna.  So Clara gets little tastes of anything that she can gum.  She's had waffles, toast, hard boiled egg, scrambled egg, shredded cheese, string cheese, corn, peas, carrots, peaches, pears, pot roast, spaghetti, and even cake and ice cream!

So maybe part of being a good mom is overthinking each decision and worrying about whether I'm making the right one.  But I think part of learning to be a good mom is learning how to wing it.  How to let the "I'm not doing enough" and the "I have to follow the rules" go.