Birthday Week!

We have had a busy, busy week of celebrating Henry's 5th birthday. Last Friday Grandmother Dixon and Uncle Russ and Aunt Morgan drove up form NC (Russ is actually David's cousin but he is Uncle Russ to Henry and Addie who adore him and Aunt Morgan). We had Henry's birthday party with friends on Sunday afternoon at a local place called ideavention. Even though I really do love throwing birthday parties I couldn't get Henry to keep the guest list to a manageable number so we ended up with 19 kids at a party place. It turned out great though. It was a pirate theme and the activites included making a boat out of foil and testing how much weight it could hold, making pop canons with bottles and balloons and then going on a treasure hunt for gold coins and shells. The kids were all so cute and henry was a good little host. After the party we went home to open presents and then we drove out to Great Falls Natl Park and looked at the falls. It was a beautiful evening and the kids ran around and then slept in the next day which was great since David and I stayed up till 12:30 making a treasure chest cake! Henry didn't have school on his birthday so David stayed home from work and we had a nice relaxing day. On Thursday I went into Henry's class as a teacher's assistant and the class celebrated his birthday by singing him a song and I brought in brownies. I am glad b-day week is over b/c I have had so much chocolate goodies and not a lot of sleep ( :

hello again

I am really going to make an effort to post to the blog. I recently started reading through old posts and realized it's really great to get things down b/c life moves so fast. Both kids seem to grow up a little more every week. Addie's vocabulary and communicative skills have exploded the last couple weeks. It is good and bad. Good b/c I have always had issues trying to understand Addie's wants and needs (never had that problem with Henry, even when he didn't speak a single word). The bad thing is that this new milestone has disrupted her sleep, or rather the abilty for us to get her to go to sleep at night. One night last week she wouldn't stop asking "what's that?" as she walked around her room. Henry is still enjoying school and was feeling a little anxious about not going to his current preschool next year. I reminded him of some of the older neighborhood kids he will see at the Elementary school and we have driven by the school several times. This seemed to put him at ease at the moment although I know next fall is going to be trying for Henry b/c he isn't good about change.

Here's a video I took of Addie last week. i love how she says noise.

3rd day of school

Me: Henry, How was schooltoday?
Henry: I don't like it and I want to cancel it. I am all schooled out!"

Holiday run down

Well, It's the 2nd day after the holiday season and it actually was a pretty quiet few weeks. I started shopping early so when the big snow storm hit the week before Christmas I was already done with all the food and gift shopping. The snow started on a Saturday and we got out and walked around the following day. David spent nearly 5 hours digging out the cars but worked from home on Monday. Henry, Addie and I stayed home all week except for the quick outing to the grocery store on Christmas Eve morning. We picked up some last minute goodies and then came home and I waited patiently (and not so patiently) for David to get home. Addie was fussy that day and my plan of getting the house super clean and making fabulous snacks for Christmas Eve didn't happen. When David got home I had to rush and get things together as fast as possible. Luckily, I had gone to Trader Joe's and stocked up on some frozen party foods (mini crab cakes, mini mushroom turnovers,etc). I pulled together a cheese platter and we called it dinner and it was just lovely. Addie slept while we three sat at the table and enjoyed the food and peace and quiet. When Addie woke up we opened a few presents from family members and put cookies and soy milk out for Santa. We got Henry to bed around 9pm. I was so glad I had wrapped all the gifts during our snowed in week b/c I was exhausted on Christmas Eve. Luckily, Henry is still too young to be super excited about the whole Christmas morning and he slept in till normal time--7am. I also should mention that Henry plays the whole Santa game but a week before Christmas he informed me Santa wasn't real but just a story. He went into detail about how Santa doesn;t really live at the north Pole and reindeers do not fly. I just nodded and said okay and am happy that he still plays the game since I like the game but don;t like to push it too much. Opening presents in our house was a long process. It's not that we buy alot but Henry spends a good deal of time looking at each gift. I really thought we picked out some great gifts this year and Henry was really exited. It took about 6 hours to get through Christmas morning. We stopped for some food and drink breaks but for the most part those hours were spent next to the tree. I had the stockings downstairs in our family room and Henry didn't even notice those until late afternoon. Those gifts he tore open quickly and it may have been late afternoon giddiness but I swear the biggest squeal of the day came when he saw the mini-M&M's in his stocking.
We had a very quiet week between x-mas and new years but then new years day my brother Matt drove down from NJ with his daughter Melanie. Henry was so excited to see his cousin Melanie. Melanie and Henry are cut from the same cloth. They see a piece of paper, pick it up and say it's a clue and start reading it. Usually about a ghost or some crazy mystery to be solved. Even though Melanie is 6, Henry has no problem keeping up with her. Actually, It was so wonderful seeing Henry with someone that can keep up with him and entertain him and challenge him. We plan on getting them together more often. I wish I could find a buddy like that around here. Plan on updating this blog soon with some Addie stuff. She's just so different than Henry at this age. I am really having a blast with her.

Pictures

Fall

Things are going good in the Dixon household. This week I feel like I am seeing some semblance of a routine both during the day and night. Addie still is not sleeping for very long stretches at night but at least she is pretty consistent as to when she is waking (1am and 5am and sometimes 3am). I could be better about keeping her in her crib or side sleeper but i tend to bring her into the bed when I am really tired.
Henry just finished an 8 week class at the local community center. It was called "Introduction to Musical Theatre" and he loved it. They did a lot of pretend playing and also had song time, story time, craft time and snack time (Henry's favorite). It was a two-hour class once a week. I will miss the two hour break. I got to go to the store or come home and clean. The next semester of classes don't start until January. A couple of the kids in class live in our neighborhood so we will be setting up some playdates with them. They are kids Henry's age that are also not in preschool. Even before the H1N1 scare I decided not to enroll Henry in preschool this fall b/c I didn't want the germs in the house with Addie being so young. Henry has been asking to go to school and it has been hard entertaining him and taking care of a baby but I am glad I made that decision. Luckily, the time change means Henry is usually asleep by 7 or 7:30 and Addie usually goes down around 6 or 7pm which means I get a break at night. Some nights Addie wakes up around 8 or 9pm and is wide awake and ready to play which I don't mind b/c I like the one-on-one play time with her. That's about the time David gets home too so he gets to play with her too.

henryism

Henry: Mommy, Did you know I am smart.
Me: Yes Henry. I know you are smart.
Henry: And smart people can build robots. I'm going to build a cleaning robot. He will go upstairs and clean my room at night and brush my teeth for me.

Addie is Four Months old!

Addie is now four months old. I thought it was a good time to update this blog! Henry is totally in love with her. He begins each morning running to my room to see "baby Addie". Yesterday when David and Henry went out for breakfast David told me Henry wanted to get home to see baby Addie. It's been a busy few weeks. I have managed to post a lot of videos to my You Tube account--some new, some old.

Here's one of Addie.