Heidi's Trip to Work

 I took Heidi into work for a lunch date with some of my coworkers.  She charmed the crowd, of course, and slept through lunch!  We did get her out and pass her around a bit eventually but for the most part she just sat in her car seat with her badge to identify her.

And for comparison's sake - here is Allison about the same age going to work for lunch!

Making Grr Proud

 Allison went for a bike ride yesterday.  It was a beautiful but chilly day so as we were heading out Allison was determined to wear a hat.  We put one on that Grammy had made for Allison.  It is made of sock yarn so it was the perfect weight to fit under her helmet.  Yup, that's Grr's girl - wearing a hat under a bike helmet, nothing is going to keep her from riding!

February Snow Day

 There are definite advantages to having a weather girl / meteorologist for a friend, I manage to stay up to date on snow levels for one!  We decided to go sledding this weekend based on the weather report!

 There wasn't a lot of snow (although it started coming down in earnest as we left!) but there was enough for sledding.  Allison & Mark had a great time.

 

 And Heidi stayed warm & cozy in her carrier.

 Our snow girls!

We learned two rather interesting tidbits on this trip as well:

1.  Allison's snow pants are too short.

2.  The Baby Bjorn + Cold Windy Weather = Unpleasant Dirty Diaper Changing Experiences for Everyone!

One Month

 Our little Heidi turned 1 month old this week.  The past month has gone incredibly fast!

I don't know her actual stats but she is growing like crazy and her cheeks seem to get fuller every day.

 She has started smiling & cooing. 

And she has taken to napping in her crib like a champ (most of the time!).

Her longest stretch of sleep at night is anywhere from 4-6 hours long.

Her awareness of her surroundings is improving and she is just starting to notice her sister, which of course Allison loves!

And here is on picture from her actual 1-month birthday - it was an overcast day & she wanted to sleep all day long so I didn't get very many.  Baby acne and peeling skin started in full force pretty much on this day, too.  Hopefully they will clear up soon!

Slipper Family

 Thanks to my Mom our family has fabulous felted slippers to wear to keep our feet nice & cozy on chilly mornings.  And evenings.  And just about anytime.  I love the fact that we all have matching slippers (except Heidi, but she wouldn't be able to keep these on anyhow!).

Allison's are extra special, Mom added non-skid bottoms to hers after she took three spills on our hardwood floor in the course of an hour - the slippers are warm & slippery!



Brought to you by the Letter 'G'

'G' is for Glitter!  (Something this girl loves!)

 Goblin Goo (a.k.a. chocolate pudding - this is what we made for the letter 'G' in my Kindergarten class according to my alphabet book....I'm pretty sure the letter 'G' was covered much closer to Halloween, though!)

Giraffe (yes, I know the 'G' in giraffe has a different sound but this was a much cuter craft than any goat themed craft I could think of!)

And.....Grammy!  Allison's favorite 'G' word, of course!

Heidi Smiles

When Heidi was less than a week old she started smiling in her sleep and it was the cutest thing.  Now that she is 4 weeks old she has been smiling after feedings pretty consistently.  Especially if we play with her mouth using a pacifier.  It is definitely cuter than the sleeping smiles! 

she definitely loves her Daddy (this is a smile, it is just hard to capture on camera!)



A Big Outing

 We took our first trip out of town on President's Day since Allison didn't have school.  We ventured all the way up to Salem (all of 30 minutes away!).  First we had frozen yogurt with Uncle Tills since he didn't have school, either!  Allison always loves seeing Uncle Tills (and the rest of us do, too!).  Uncle Tills now has bragging rights in the Kroon family - he's the first Kroon other than Grammy to meet Baby Heidi.  She slept the entire time in her car seat - he was that exciting!

 Then we met up with Nana & Papa and ventured out to the carousel - our typical Salem activity.  Allison rode twice, once with Papa & once with Nana.  Heidi thought the carousel was just as exciting as Uncle Tills!  After dinner we headed home - not bad for a first adventure with TWO girls!

February Sunshine & Bike Rides

 Around here if the skies are blue and the sun is out in January or February you try as hard as you can to get outside and enjoy it!  We've actually had some nice weather since Heidi has been born - the fog and cloud cover don't always burn off but when they do we head outside for walks.  We've also been having Allison practice riding her bike.  Late last fall she was struggling with using the brakes on her new bike and accidentally rolled into the street once.  Ever since she's been a bit afraid of her pink bike.  So we've been taking her to bike paths where she doesn't have to worry about cars & street crossings.  Her braking ability has improved a lot, she can even leave skid marks now!  Hopefully the training wheels will be gone soon, too!

 I don't think she's used to the sun, hence all the squinting!

Our little rider - we're very glad she enjoys riding her bike!

Big Sister the Lil' Helper

 Allison is settling into her role as a big sister pretty well.  She adores her little sister, Heidi, and so far has been really good around her.  Last night she was able to help Mark give Heidi a bath and she was pretty excited to have so much responsibility.  Heidi seemed to really enjoy having Allison around, too, she just watched Allison the whole time and didn't cry at all until Mark started washing her face!

Valentine's Day 2013

 We had a fabulous Valentine's Day around here.  Both girls wore new clothes and Allison had a small party at school.  She was very excited about her bag of Valentines.  She also got a bag of treats & a butterfly balloon from Daddy.

The flowers weren't actually from Mark, they were sent for Heidi from my work.  Mark brought me some of the best chocolates ever from a local chocolate shop.  And I made my normal sugar cookies with a gluten-free baking mix just for Mark.  Thankfully they turned out okay, the texture was a little lighter & crumblier than my normal cookies but the taste was pretty close.  And Mark & I took Heidi along for a date to a new favorite restaurant, Eats & Treats - it is entirely gluten free so Mark is able to eat whatever he wants there which is a definite treat for him.

Allison's Terrarium

Allison went on a special outing with Nana & Papa to a 'Little Sprouts' event at a local nursery.  She made her own terrarium which is now living in her room.  Mark gave her $5 (five $1 bills) which she kept in her own green purse to pay for the event, she was pretty proud of herself for having her own money on an outing without her parents!  She had a great time and we're curious to see how well it survives around here (I certainly am not skilled at keeping houseplants alive but this is supposed to be very low maintenance).

Three Weeks

 Heidi is three weeks old already!  Eventually I'll get to the point where I only do updates monthly but for now, while I'm on leave, my time is spent feeding this cute little girl and teaching her how to sleep.  Oh, and taking pictures, which I do a lot of.  Heidi has a very strong neck (she has since she was born!).  It makes it difficult to hold her upright against my chest but she's been learning to relax when held that way since it helps with the gas pains - which appear to be in full force this week!  Other than the occassional disruption from gas pains she's getting more and more consistent about her eating & sleeping - that is about all you can say about a 3-week-old.

 Although I enjoy taking pictures a certian baby girl informed me that she had enough of the pictures today.  I actually have quite a few with quite the mad face going!

And she is starting to spend some naps in her actual crib rather than in her portable bed.  I love sleeping baby pictures!

Allison's 2013 Valentine's Day cards

This past Saturday Allison & I made Valentines for her to give to her class on Valentine's Day.  I found a small Hello Kitty stamp set at Michael's and Allison used that with a bright pink (washable!) ink pad to stamp some plain white paper.  I cut the paper up and we glued it onto pink and purple tri-fold notes.  I wrote her friends' name on each one and she attached a Hershey's kiss to each one.  Oh, and she sealed each one with some Hello Kitty tape which she thought was pretty fabulous!

In full disclosure I should mention that about 1/2 way through this project Mark came by and made the comment, 'Do you sometimes feel like the victim of your own ideas?'  We did have fun doing this but it was a bit much for Allison's attention span to handle even though we broke it up through-out the day.  I struggled keeping her on task to finish and we battled about whether or not she needed to make one for herself.  I could have helped things by having prepped more ahead of time.  I think we both had fun but next year we'll be doing things differently!



Brought to you by the Letter 'F'

'F' is for......Fuzzy!

 

 Fancy Nancy

(We went and got Parfaits - a.k.a. 'Fancy Ice Cream' in honor of Fancy Nancy)

French Toast and...

 Flowers!