Valentine's Day

It's more of a Valentine's weekend really...

Pink velvet cake with real strawberry cream cheese icing

The kids and I had a busy day on Friday - we did Valentine's crafts and Skye and I baked a yummy cake and then mommy slaved over the stove and made a nice gourmet (?) dinner.

Creamy spinach and mushroom smothered chicken with Valentine rice

Saturday was an entire day of hearts and pink and red and kisses with the munchkins!

Skye got a little surprise treat when she came out for breakfast.
She LOVES her balloons.

Mommy made pancakes for breakfast - which were supposed to have hearts drawn on them, but they didn't show up too well. They tasted good none-the-less. Different game plan next year…

Rhysee got to eat his first pancake with fresh strawberry drizzle. I think there was more on the floor and his face (and in his ear!!) than in his mouth, but I think he liked them.

Lunch continued on with the heart theme. Skye was quite impressed :-) it's the little things - haha.

Then we had a mini photo shoot/workout for mommy. Rhys was a tough subject and not very smiley (unlike him, probably getting tired). Plus he wouldn't sit in one spot for more than a few seconds, so it was like constantly picking up a wind-up toy and putting it back in place. And Skye was her usual energetic self and wouldn't sit still either. I had to keep bribing her with quarters (at least they were daddy's).
Result - 99% of photos taken were blurry. But here's some that turned out mostly.

yes please!

kisses 25 cents. Any takers?

his sister would like to buy some kisses!
she smothered him with kisses all day long, even after she ran out of money

tickle kisses!

trying to get away!

dancing

and singing to her musical card

Rhys is singing too

even hearts in Skye's hair :-)

little sweetheart

Dinner wasn't heart themed either, but it had lots of hugs and kisses and love anyway. We picked up pizza and went to take Nonna her Valentine card. Rhys was extra chatty and goofy, which had us all laughing. It was a great Valentine's!

Tomorrow…probably more Valentine's crafts and kisses!

Rhys - 10 months

So for the last 5 days Rhys is pretty much on his knees full time while crawling. And it's so cute to hear him come down the hallway with his hands smacking the floor.

He likes to explore the whole house, so we have resorted to closing the laundry room and bathroom doors - as his favorite spot seems to be standing up at the bathtub so he can try and reach the soap bottles and chew on the caps - yuck! He also loves to crawl up to me and pull on my pant leg in hopes of being picked up. This is usually when I am rushing to get supper made and can't pick him up poor thing. As soon as he hears daddy come into the house he speeds down the hall to the back door to pull on his pant leg and daddy will pick the poor child up and then he hangs on for dear life if you try and set him back down ;-)

He is still putting everything and anything in his mouth. Which is proving to be a challenge with keeping the floor clean of all bits. The odd time he will find a big crumb or a small piece of toast from breakfast (or paper laying around) ;-) He is eating more finger foods and likes to feed himself. He has also discovered that his little front chomps are good for chewing, like they are supposed to be, and he will hold puffs and cereal just in between them and crunch them. His favorite foods right now are cheese, toast with butter, puffs, cheerios, sweet potatoes and steak!

He still has the 6 teeth, but is showing signs of teething again this past week - excessive drooling, red cheeks, diaper rash, fingers in his mouth and a runny nose…but I haven't felt any new little fangs.

Still haven't sleep trained him…we are procrastinators. I'm blaming it on daddy since he hasn't lowered the crib (Rhys is still in the playpen in our room), and it will be up to daddy to do the sleep training and he can't commit because he has evening appointments!

So for now I continue to enjoy the Rhys snuggles. I have even managed to fit in a nap or two this week just to get in extra cuddles! :-)

He is still getting fed a couple times during the night and waking about 3 or 4 times…

Bedtime is 7pm and the kids are usually up around 6:30/7 (too early for mama with all the night wakings still).

I weighed Rhys this morning and he is about 23.7 lbs! yeesh…no wonder the car seat is almost impossible to carry anymore! I didn't try and measure him…too squirmy. Maybe in a few days.

Rhys is into "playing" more now and will rummage thru the toy box (that he almost falls right into) and dig toys out and play with them. He especially likes the monster trucks that you "wind up" by pushing forward and then let them go.  He pushes them down the hallway as he is crawling.

Yesterday he pushed the heavy wooden play cube halfway across the tile floor. And he likes to prop up against the ride on zebra and dump truck and push them.

He really likes standing now and is brave enough to let go with one hand to grab something else and hold it. He LOVES to stand at Skye's piano with the microphone and gob it all up - because he realizes that if you make noise into it, it comes out louder! He also really likes the drumsticks and a little toy hammer we have - he bangs away on everything.

Skye is starting to get a little more annoyed with him, as he will crawl over to her and try to play too. She sometimes shares really good and other times not. She loves her brother though and usually smoothers him with hugs and kisses. She likes to throw all the bed pillows into the playpen with him (when he is awake) and jump in there to play with him. She also thinks it's fun to have a bath with her brother - which has only happened twice now. 

And he is much more vocal these days. Screeching just to hear the sound of his voice, grunting and growling at meals when I don't feed him fast enough and just general jibber jabber. And he says "MUM- MUM" :-) love it! We are working on "Da-da" now. 

He is a happy little guy and really only gets upset when you have to wrestle him to change him (he is SO hard to change), wash his face, get him dressed and don't feed him fast enough.