Fourth birthday chaos!

Natalie wanted to have a soccer party... so we did.  She invited a bunch of her neighbor friends, her friends from school and family friends.  Thankfully big sister Katie was super helpful with the kids and everyone was willing to keep and eye on Eloise while mommy and daddy ran all around. 

The result?  A ton of giggles and a few hours of mostly-controlled-chaotic fun.

Party lady teaching the kids the rules of the first game, which kind of evolved into dodgeball...

Game 2 was a freeze-tag type game...

 

And finally, a soccer scrimmage...

Just a few of the party kids, from left to right (mostly): 
Derek, Natalie, Camilla, Julia, Thatcher, Andrew, Siena (with someone hiding behind her...Piper maybe?), Brynlee, Elizabeth, Caleb, Maddie, Sawyer, Eva, Sofia and Miles
Not pictured: Katie, Ryland and Piper De Marr, Nick Bree, Ainsley, Edison, Jonathan, Andrew, Brynn and Chelsea

After games, time for pizza and cake...

Natalie and her best friend from school, Camilla.

What soccer party would be complete without a soccer cake??

Scott and a few of the dads.

Thanks so much to everyone for coming.  Natalie really had a blast!  And her parents are thankful and lucky to have such great friends with fun kids.

5 months old and growing fast

"I woke up this morning around 8am and laid around in my crib talking to myself for a while.  I think Natalie must have heard me though because she came in (after her stoplight turned green) and covered me all up with my pretty blankets to stay warm.  I was so warm and cozy that I fell right back asleep for another 30 minutes or so.  Daddy had to come wake me up to sing Happy Birthday."

Eloise and George: April 18, 2015

"These days I'm sleeping 10-12 hours a night (8pm-8am) and am almost always the last one awake in the morning.  Mommy tells me how awesome this is because it gives her and daddy a chance to get up and get breakfast started for the other kids before they have their hands full with me.  I think it's awesome because, well, I just like sleeping in my pretty bed that feels like I am swimming in the ocean or an aquarium.  I take a 1-2 hour nap every 2-3 hours during the day. After I wake up in the morning, I eat breakfast, play and then nap.  Eat, play, nap, eat, play, nap ... all day long.

I hate tummy time.  Like really hate it. But last week though I made a new friend during tummy time and I talk to her all the time.  Mom said she took a picture of me and my new friend and posted it below. Funny thing is, this new girl that I met doesn't seem to like tummy time either and she is always talking when I'm trying to tell her something.  Clearly she doesn't have very good manners."

"Although staring at the ceiling gets boring after a while, mommy thinks that this is secretly why I am not interested in learning to roll onto my belly -- because why would I want to?!?! So I'm not rolling around in circles yet, but I love to roll back and forth from side to side.  My new favorite thing to do is to sit in my baby throne/entertainment center/the pooper (see photo below) because it has all sorts of fun things to play with, listen to and see.  So far, my favorite thing on it is the bumble bee.  This is also where I prefer to do most of my pooping.  Mommy thinks this is great because it's a position similar to sitting on the potty."

"Over the past month, I've started eating more interesting stuff than ever before.  A month ago I started eating rice cereal once a day, then I worked my way up to eating cereal 3 times a day.  After I mastered cereal, mommy started to give me some orange mush that she kept calling Sweet Potatoes.  I LOVED them.  A few days later she switched from the orange mush to a green mush called Green Beans.  They're not as good as sweet potatoes, but they're pretty good too.  Then I tried some carrots and most recently, my sister fed me a new orange mush called Squash.  I still eat cereal two or three times a day but also eat my veggies at lunch time and sometimes at dinner too."

"When I lay down to sleep, I love to snuggle with my blanket.  It's really special because my Aunt Ponda made it JUST FOR ME when I was born.  It's small enough that mommy doesn't worry about me getting all tangled up in it, but it's also big enough that it can cover up my legs (before I roll over onto my side) and still gives me enough blanket to hug.  Plus, the pretty colors are awesome."

"This morning I discovered my toes.  Mommy laid me down on the changing table in my yellow room and was putting away my laundry and I was happy just laying around, naked.  Then suddenly I realized I could touch both of my feet.  And I could even get my toes into my mouth to chew on.  Boy is this fun!

Well, I think it's just about time for me to get some clothes on and take a nap.  After all, I have a very special 4-year-old birthday party to go to this afternoon!"

A link to Natalie's 5-month photo shoot with Measurement Marty:
http://suburbanhayes.blogspot.com/2011/09/5-months-and-15-lbs.html

Lunch with big sister

Another Furball Friday at home with mom, but this time, lunch was served by big sister...

Apparently it helps Eloise when the spoon operator opens their mouth too.

Saturday, in the park...

While daddy was out of town at the end of January, I successfully got the kids to smile for a few great pictures...

 

 

 

Special thanks to our neighbor for making this happen.  He always seems to have a magic wand to make them smile.

Side-by-side

Just when I have convinced myself that they do not look alike, I begin to think that they do...

Who feeds their kid rice cereal for the first time without a bib?
Only a first time mom.

Eloise's spot makes it hard to try to mix up pictures of baby Natalie and baby Eloise to try to fool anyone.  Lucky for me, someday it will help me keep all the photos sorted correctly.

...and then I think they don't. 

Hayes family Easter

Despite an uptick in temper tantrums, the Easter Bunny stopped at our house again this year.  He left lots of eggs full of "noisy money" and some chocolate. 

Grandpa Larry, Gramma Judy and the other Hayes family joined us for a lazy Easter morning brunch at our house.

Natalie (almost 4), Katie (13.5), Eloise (4  months), Andrew (15) and Allison (11)

Super awesome Aunt Wendy always comes prepared to do something fun with just Natalie.  This time she brought some blue sparkly nail polish and volunteered to paint Natalie's fingers and toes!! 

Gramma Judy was in the right place at the right time and got to feed Eloise some cereal and green beans for lunch.  

6 days later and she's off on TWO wheels!

The Training Wheel Fairy came and took Natalie's training wheels away so she had to learn to ride her bike. After a few weeks it was clear that Natalie had no interest in trying, learning or bikes in general anymore. Mommy and Daddy were stumped.  But the Training Wheel Fairy doesn't bring training wheels back so what to do?  After a week or so, Mommy showed Natalie the next bike (Katie's old bike) that is ready for her but not equipped with training wheels.  It is pink and white.  BINGO.  Alright, so now we have some motivation to learn.  Natalie and Mommy spent every day after school for four days working hard on learning to ride her bike. This is the story...

Days 1-4:  Most of the work was mental. It was a battle to even get her to try. I'm pretty sure that she could ride the bike on Day 1 with only a little help, but she was super stubborn. One of the days we didn't actually do anything other than get the bike out, cry and put the bike away. 

By Day 3, Mommy wasn't holding on so tightly but was a little nervous to let go for too long.  Smiles were starting to emerge.  I told Natalie a few times when I let go and she smiled then got mental and hit the brakes.

Like I said, more than half the battle was mental.  A battle of the wills.  Parents searching for just the right motivational words to strike a chord in this insanely stubborn 3 year old brain.  For Mommy and Daddy, it was an exercise in love and patience.


Day 5:
It was the Thursday before Easter so there was no school the next day for Natalie or Katie.  That morning, Daddy promised to come home from work early so he could see Natalie ride her bike. She promised him she would show him how she could ride. But as usual, Natalie didn't want Daddy to help at all so mommy got her started.  Then Daddy took over.  He wasn't scared to let go...

As Natalie was riding, neighbors and her friends started to come home from work/school.  They all cheered.  They all stayed out to watch.  There were more and more smiles from Natalie.  A driveway happy hour evolved.



Day 5:
Soccer in the AM, errands, crabbies and time out. Loss of bike time.



Day 6:

Post-nap on Easter Sunday.  She's proud of her self and actually asking to ride her bike now and doesn't seem to think she needs any help or supervision. 

Hard to believe that this was just an hour or so before the 6:00 daily melt down.

Green Beans: Day 1

And after three days of sweet potatoes, we moved on to green beans...

She was a little skeptical at first and then instantly excited after her first bite.  Unfortunately, it got a little messy and required a bath.  Luckily, the kid loves baths and gives fantastic post-bath snuggles.

April Fools baby giggles

Who needs an April Fools joke when you can make a baby start to belly laugh?

Sorry for the shaky camera operation.  I was running low on spare hands.

Sweet Potatoes: Day 1

After a week of rice cereal with no issues, Eloise graduated to vegetables.  First up, sweet potatoes...

"Holy smokes Mom, what the heck is that stuff?!?! And why is it ORANGE?!?!"

"Hey wait just a minute, that stuff is AWESOME.  Give me more!!!"

Flipside Fun

Natalie got a new dress and new pretty white sandals from Grandma Becky a month or so ago but, with a little encouragement from mommy, decided to save it as her "pretty party dress" and her "fancy shoes" and only wear them on special occasions.

Now, if only we had a special occasion or party...

Thank goodness her friend Julia had an indoor (dress appropriate) birthday party and invited Natalie.  The party was at Flipside, which is a world of chaos beyond my wildest imagination and required both mommy AND daddy to manage it.  It's the kind of place where if your kid:parent ratio is greater than one, you're pretty much screwed. Thankfully, ours was equal to one. 

There was pizza, bowling, purple Frozen cupcakes, billions of loud arcade games, lazer tag, a giant maze and most importantly, there were "bumping" cars.

The video below is a very brief glimpse into the "bumping cars" experience.  This was her second time on the cars.  She smiled the whole time and giggled almost as much.  It was great to watch her brain trying to figure out the skid steer handles (that she can barely reach).

Moving on up... baby cereal!

When Eloise woke up on Saturday morning, she had no idea how drastically her life would change -- mommy made baby cereal for the first time.  So while the big girls chowed on french toast, Eloise was introduced to the spoon...

Soccer: Pull Back

Week 2 of soccer (after a one week break) was another success. I never saw a smile anything close to this when we did ballet, aside from when we picked out our "tard".

This week Coach Mike introduced the "pull back" so there was a lot of running to get your ball.  Despite being one of the youngest (you'd never know it based on size), Natalie can out run a lot of the kids. And yes, she is wearing a zebra print skirt to soccer.

The two other girls in this photo are 2/3 the triplets in her class.  They are 5 and Natalie says they go to her school.  The girl in the blue skirt cries at least 5 times each week for any teenie little reason.  Her mom laughs at her... which is good because the rest of the parents (myself included) are trying their absolute hardest to contain their giggles.

After introducing a skill and practicing it a variety of ways, it is time to scrimmage.  This week she was on the orange team - which had the power house kid who I'm pretty sure is on the upper end of the age bracket and has played soccer at least once before (lil dude with the blue sunglasses on). They named themselves the "Orange Cheetahs" and they pretty much crushed the other team.