Winnie Getting (A Little) Groove On

I've decided that Winnie is a little camera shy when it comes to her dancing. Any time I pull the camera out, she stops. This is the best video I've been able to get lately. It does, however, capture two of her trademark "bread and butter" moves...the spastic arm and the pelvic thrust. This is her little frog (I think it's a frog?) from Target who plays different dance tunes. Her favorite is the featured "Let's Salsa!" Enjoy!

Fun Times at Home

This is one of Winnie's fun little games she played with us. Note what she is holding...her most prized possession: I hide Andy's Naked Juice lid (he drinks one every night with dinner) in a compartment in her music table every night so that she can find it the next morning. She loves them!

Happy Mardi Gras!

This past weekend was great, even though we were very sad that Daddy was gone. But, he went to the farm with his guy friends, so we were very happy for him. Friday night, we went to the bar for dinner with the Reinbergs, and Winnie was thrilled to nibble on her favorite food, macaroni and cheese. On Saturday, I got a TON of cleaning done...I was in one of my anal fits. But my hard work shows. Winnie got to spend some time over at Al's while I was cleaning. We went shopping Saturday night, and she had fun with all of the samples at Whole Foods. My funny story from the weekend was that I got Mardi Gras and Cinco de Mayo confused in my head, so all day Saturday, we ate Mexican food, sang Spanish songs, recited the Spanish alphabet, and I switched her music table to the espanol version. In celebration of Mardi Gras. Mary would be so disappointed.

So They Now Play Together...

Aunt Jenny gave Winnie this beanie baby Puffin at Christmastime to accompany the book There Once Was a Puffin (Jenny's favorite book when she was little). Well, homerun for Jenny, because Winnie loves the puffin. It has helped birth many games at our house. One is the game "You've Got a Puffin On Your Head." I put the puffin on her head, say the title of the game, and she smiles, laughs, and pulls it off. Then she tries to put it back on, it ultimately falls off, and she laughs again. She actually has gotten it to stay on her own, but seems so surprised that she knocks it off, looking for it around her. We repeat MANY times. The beanie insides make it very easy to stay on her head, if you were curious. It's very fun, and I got a cute photo to prove it!

The Water Hose

Drinking out of a water hose is wonderful. That water always tasted so good! Winifred seems to have caught onto that idea...her new thing is turning on the water and taking drinks. So cute! I have to let go of my "Winnie can only drink filtered water" notion during bath time and just let her enjoy being a kid. I only put a tiny bit of water in the sink at the beginning of her bath, because I have to account for her constant turning on of the water. I love that she is turning into such a smart girl who can figure things out! Andy caught all the steps...

Happy Valentines!

I used to love Valentine's Day when I was little. I think making my valentines card box to take to school for our class party was one of the highlights of my year. And I loved when my Dad got me a gift...flowers at school, boxes of chocolates...it didn't matter what it was. When I became an adult, I didn't think Valentine's Day was that big of a deal. Andy and I don't do anything to celebrate. I do think, though, that it'll be a fun holiday to celebrate with our children. I hope that it is an especially special holiday for Winnie and Andy to share. This was Daddy's Valentine's Day surprise from Winnie. (it looks like she even made the shirt, but I did--writing on a shirt with a Sharpie is harder than it looks!) She has a great Daddy who loves her very much. What a lucky girl!

I'm So Excited!

Our laundry basket is in our closet on a shelf (to keep Puddy from getting out dirty laundry). When it's time for me to do a load, I get the basket down, separate it in our bedroom floor, reload it into the basket, and carry it over to the laundry room. When I am loading the machine, Winnie has usually found me in the laundry room, so I put her in the empty basket and give her a 20 ft. ride back to our closet. She loves it! She claps and smiles the whole way back. I guess she got a little excited and couldn't wait for an empty basket. She just dived in head first, found her way out, and popped back up!

A little help from my friends

Andy seems to be recovering from a long week of sickness. Praise the Lord! Selfishly, we did enjoy having him home from work for so long (Andy NEVER misses work--even goes in on weekends sometimes, just because!) But now, we are back to normal. Well, close to normal. Winnie has been waking up at 5:50 every morning for the past three days. And, not napping more than a couple hours...two one-hour naps. She was sleeping really well before this. What am I to do? I am hoping it is just a three day phase and that all will be well tomorrow. I keep saying that.
The other night, Al came over to visit with Winnie. Really, Aaron came over to visit me, but they seemed to be more aware of each other than they normally are. Andy took some photos, but no shots came out where they were both smiling. So I put one of each. He is too cute! We are so proud of how well he is sitting up!

Book It!

Winnie has been very interested in her box of books lately. Her favorite one actually belongs to Rafferty. It's a paperback Wonderpets story about a tiger with a thorn in its paw. All of her others are board books or soft cloth books, so this one is easy for her to pick up and turn the pages. I love how she really looks like she's reading! Here, she's telling Puddy a naptime story. Thanks, Raff, for letting us borrow your book!