The Summer of Anne

The summer of Anne has officially begun.  I submitted my last grades yesterday.  The first 18 hours of the summer of Anne have involved laundry, cooking, cleaning, a run, summer phonics workbooks with Mariel, Holden deciding that he wants to climb on everything in conjunction with the discovery that he can use chairs to get on top of tables, and Noella peeing in her bed.  Patrick is a little disappointed; he thinks that the summer of Anne should more closely resemble the summer of George (Castanza).  He is looking for more leisure suits, naps, and a big block of cheese.  Maybe tomorrow?

Happy First Birthday to Holden!

Here he was a year ago on May 10th

 And here he is this year on May 10th!

 We had a BIG party.  I love the first birthday parties, because they are really for the parents.  The babies have no idea of what is going on, so I get to plan the party that I want.  We had lots of guests- about 15 kids and well over 20 adults.  As you can guess, there was plenty of good food and desserts.  Holden (read: I) wanted a dog themed party, since he loves dogs. 

 Mariel decorated with crepe paper, I got to do the flowers.  Noella declared herself in charge of cutting up crepe paper into teeny tiny pieces for confetti.  Unfortunately, while I was cleaning up the counters before the party, I knocked over the confetti and made a giant mess.  I suppose that is the point of confetti, but the timing was off!

 Here is our birthday Prince!  The smile was thanks to our friend Sarah, and I have no idea how she managed to do this. He does not like things on his head at all!

 He was initially a little hesitant with the cupcake, but once he had a taste was ready to jump right in.

 And of course, the honorary birthday plate for the first of many celebrations!

 Some of his birthday cards out on display

 And here is the big man, contemplating his next move.

For his official 1 year stats at the doctor, he was 30 1/4 inches and 23 lbs 10 oz.  A bit bigger than last year at this time :)

Looking forward to hindsight

I wonder when it is that I will forget enough about having small children that I will honestly say to young mothers; "Enjoy every minute!"  I have been told that many times lately, and depending on my mood I either want to laugh (because it is rather ridiculous to think that someone really believes that I should enjoy being bitten, scrubbing pee off of bathroom tiles, or listening to the same fight that has taken place 100 times before), cry (if it is one of those days where all of those things not only happen, but happen all at once), or just feel myself overwhelmed with guilt (because maybe I should actually enjoy those things and there is something wrong with me that I can't?).  Overall we are doing very well and looking forward to the summer break.  The kids are mostly quite entertaining and well behaved, and all have some pretty strong personalities.  So I enjoy MOST minutes... but don't quite think that I will every embrace each and every single moment, particularly those that involve bodily functions or whining.
We are gearing up for Holden's birthday next week- he is still a mover and a shaker.  He has really taken to adventure, and every unsupervised moment there is a good chance he is trying to find somewhere that he should not be (climbing stairs if someone has left the gate open, getting into kitchen cabinets if they are not locked, playing in the toilet, or pulling everything out of bathroom drawers, garbages, etc that he can get his hands into...) I am thankful for the watchful eyes of his sisters these days!
Mariel had a 6 year checkup a bit late, but was deemed to be in great health.  She is now 48 lbs and 47 inches, and quite a big girl.  I don't know if we have tall friends or what, but I did not realize that she was in the 90th percentile for height!
Noella seems to be thriving on her no-corn diet.  Her skin is in good shape and she has not told us that her tummy hurts in a while.  Our big accomplishment lately is that she no longer wears a diaper or pull up at naptime and she is VERY proud of herself (we announce this feat to strangers regularly).  She is also feeling quite possessive of the letter N these days and likes to find "her letter" wherever we go.
The girls have also been having fun with the iPhoto on my computer.  Here is one of Mariel's works of art:

Here is our baby walking.  The video is sideways (and I am refusing to buy the Apple upgrade that would let me edit it), but you get the point!  He is having a good time walking around the house, chasing the dogs, and going up and down stairs.

Holden is 11 months old!

Likes:

• Crackers
• Yogurt
• Remote controls
• Walking
• Dogs
• Cats (which are also called dogs)
• Miss Mandy, his favorite "teacher" at school
• Biting
• Taking everything out of drawers that he can open, off of counters and tables that he can reach, and pulling on electrical cords
• Throwing things into or out of the bathtub
• Peek a Boo

Dislikes:

• Sitting still
• Sleeping all night
• Being told "no"
• Diaper changing