Ryan's 1st Birthday Party

Today we all went to Ryan's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese. Ryan is such a big boy and so cute! I can't believe he's one. I remember when he was a newborn and for a few weeks Andrina was actually bigger than him. Now he's got about 10 pounds and at least 2 to 3 inches on her. Oh well, my petite little girl...

Here's some pictures from his birthday party:

Ryan and Andrina being silly

Daddy helping Andrina to finally drinking from a straw. All because Mommy was frazzled looking for her keys when it was time to go and I forgot to bring her sippy cup. But it all worked out since she has refused to drink from a straw before.

Mommy and Baby, can you tell she enjoyed the party?

Riding the little kids' merry go round

And a second time around

Playing in the toddler area

Ok, I don't have any pictures of Tom and I with Andrina or Becca and I with the babies. Shoot, oh well, it's always busy at parties!

Happy Birthday Ryan! Thanks for inviting us to your party!

Bathing Beauties

Here's Andrina and Anne after swimming together today. They are such little cuties!

Bring me the book....

.....and I'll read it to you. That's what I told Andrina this morning while she was going through a bunch of her baby books. Well, I said it and she did it! It was the cutest thing! She was sitting down holding a book, got up on her knees and "walked" on her knees over towards me until she reached the ottoman, then she stood up and cruised the rest of the way over to me, book still in one hand, then reached up her arms (book still in one hand) to me to pick her up! So incredibly cute and it was yet another one of those moments that just melts my heart all over again! My baby has such power over me. Oh, and of course, I read her the book too and I get the added bonus of more cuddling!

No Second Nap

Well, Andrina needed the second nap but refused to take it. At least she didn't cry very long and spent some quiet time by herself getting some rest she needs. Even if she didn't nap.

It's All Part Of Being A Mom

As I've blogged before, Andrina's nap schedule is all out of whack. Some days she only needs one nap but today she needs two. Andrina woke up at 7:45 and by 10:15 she was yawning and rubbing her eyes. So I put her down and she immediately she fell asleep and slept until 12:10. Almost 2 hours. But it was close to 3pm and she was cranky so I decided she needed another nap. To prove my point, she yawned too. So I changed her and cuddled with her to read her a book before putting her down for the nap. Well, as soon as I finished the book and put it down, she started crying really hard. So I cuddled her and sang to her. And then a gross thing happened. She put her fingers in her mouth and then started to run them over my face, baby slobber and all. Then she put them in my mouth! So I'm trying to comfort her and sing to her while not having to move away from her little slobber covered fingers too much.

The bad part is I put her down for nap and she started crying hard again and has been for 10 minutes now. I hope she'll be able to settle herself down soon. Poor baby.

My "Home Making" Continues

So yesterday I made homemade pot roast which I blogged about. Well, that is what Andrina has been eating too with us. And today we had a lot of leftovers. So I decided that Andrina would have pot roast for lunch and dinner today. She still has a cold so she hardly ate any lunch. She was a little more eager for dinner but it was taking her such a long time to chew the meat as she has no molars yet. I remembered that I had a mini electric food chopper that my mom gave me as a Christmas gift several years ago. So I decided to use that to make the meat easier for her to chew. Tom watched her and fed her veggies while I washed it out (it had never been used before) and cut up roast and put it in there. It was funny, the chopper or food processor chopped up the meat into fine little strips. So I added some of the juice from the pot and ran it though again and now it looks like meat baby food. Which, essentially, is what I ended up doing. Making home made beef roast baby food. Andrina ate a few bites of it but just isn't into eating at all today. She didn't even want graham crackers at lunch today. So I blended up more of it and but it into two small plastic containers for lunch and dinner tomorrow. She has no problem chewing up the carrots and potatoes, so I'll just cut those into small pieces for her again.

I ended up making homemade baby food. Wow. That wasn't something I really set out to do. I never really wanted to do it before, but the need arose this time. But hey, anything for my baby and she can't chew the roast yet. And Tom and I both thought the meat was very tender too. I guess not tender enough for someone without molars. Oh well.

I also now know where my food processor is and I'll be using it to grind up broccoli and potatoes for some homemade soup soon. And I decided that when the pot roast leftovers are gone, I'm going to freeze the leftover beef "stock" liquid and try to use that in soups too. Since I'm on this kick of wanting to make homemade soup lately.

At Least I Got This Picture...

...of Andrina standing by herself. Now if she'd only walk when I have the cameras ready...