Freya at 4 months

I’m enjoying Freya so much. We are on the go a lot so she takes most of her naps in the Ergo carrier with her head laid against my chest and I savor those naps. She is quite conversational and when we have the time to stop and give her attention she’ll respond with squeals and “take turns” talking.  Freya loves to see herself in the mirror and to play with toys. She spends a lot of time looking at her hands and trying to control them as she reaches for toys. We still swaddle her most nights for bedtime.

Freya has learned to grab her feet and she loves to do this – especially during diaper changes when her toes are freed from her jammies. She now seems to enjoy tummy time more than being on her back.

She sticks her tongue out a lotShe hasn’t rolled over from her tummy to her back yet but she rocks from side to side. Freya attracts lots of admirers of her red hair at the grocery store and I notice that I’m also getting lots of comments about her chubby cheeks as well. I don’t think its possible to hold her without nuzzling and kissing those cheeks.

Denver Zoo-day

We ate lunch and played at Ashley and Matt’s afterward

Norah’s first day skiing

Bryan, Uncle Matt and Norah all went skiing at Loveland the day after Thanksgiving. Norah was in ski school and was lucky enough to have a small class of just 3 kids for the first half of the day and 2 the second half. She woke up naturally at 6 am ready to put on her thermals and head to the mountains. Matt said she was singing “I’m going skiing, I’m going skiing” in the parking lot. Bryan said she made some great strides and enjoyed herself. At bedtime I asked her what the best part of the day was and she said “when Uncle Matt bought me a pretzel.” I thought that was sweet and texted it to Matt who told me they were just handing out free pretzels. Ha!  We won’t spoil the memory of the moment though.

Here is a link to a video of her skiing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zuicl5H6Do&feature=youtu.be

Alice’s 3rd Birthday “for real”

After Alice’s birthday she kept asking if she were 3 and we would say “well that wasn’t your real birthday but you’re almost 3” which confused her. She’d ask “I’m really 3 now?” daily. It was nice to make it official on the 28th!

Thanksgiving in Denver

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My entire family was together and we were joined by my cousin Ben’s family and my Uncle Nyman, Aunt Shelley and my cousin Aidan. Everyone brought their culinary A game and it was just what you want at Thanksgiving: a full house, kids laughing, interesting conversations, lots of pie and good weather for a walk to the park.
The Brooks grandkidsThe pies (minus Ben’s cherry cheesecake that hadn’t yet arrived) Ashley’s cranberry pecan was crowd favoriteIt’s is so much fun that Norah and Alice each have a cousin their own age. They really enjoy playing togetherBen’s daughter Anna and AndrewAidan’s dog Woody was so sweet with the kids. Andrew just loved himThis is from the night before but I think it’s the only pic I have of Aidan Grandma Lorraine and Freya Lorraine together. Remember when Norah wore this cute dress? Freya is younger than Norah was and she has already out grown it. And here is Freya with Grandpa Dean the next day 

Tea Parties

One of the joys of parenthood is getting to play! I bought myself a tea set for Alice’s 3rd birthday and have really enjoyed having weekend morning tea parties with Norah and Alice. Norah gets really into it. She always dresses up as a princess for the occasion – I can’t wait till we start doing fake British accents together. These pictures are from the Sunday morning after Alice’s birthday bash (11-16). Alice didn’t quite catch the vision. I think since Norah’s princess dress was also her Halloween costume, Alice assumed proper tea party attire was a Halloween costume and came as a kitty cat. I was the last one to wake up this morning (or the first one to wake up and then nap depending on how you look at it) so I came to the tea party in my PJs.Alice also received a plastic tea set for her birthday which I think she enjoys even more since we let her be completely in charge of it

Alice’s Hello Kitty Party

We celebrated Alice’s 3rd birthday (or as she says: dirthday) two weeks early to avoid competing with the holidays. She has been very into cats lately and since Hello Kitty merchandising is everywhere (happy 40th to you Hello Kitty!) it seemed like the obvious theme for her party. Three is such a fun birthday because they are old enough to really understand the fun that is coming and enjoy the anticipation. Alice has been talking about her “dirthday” for months and honestly, I don’t think she could have waited any longer for her party so it is good we celebrated early.Bryan led the kids through games of freeze dance, hot potato, bean bag toss, duck duck goose and pin the bow on Hello Kitty. The games went smoothly and Alice had a lot of fun. She was smiling the whole time. Then we had pizza and veggiesand birthday cakeI’m so mad at myself for this being out of focusThe Party Kids lined up for the piñata. From L to R: Oliver, Frederick, Alice, Willa, Nicolasa, Henry, Hope, Harper, Norah, David and BenjaminAfter the party was over and Alice had had her bath I had Bryan take a picture of me with the birthday girl