Rollover River

River has been rolling over for sometime now. The interesting thing is that River is now more interested in walking than he is in crawling. He can't pull himself up, but he can walk in his walker and he walks when you hold his fingers. He just might be one of those kids who walks before they crawl.

Llama? Camel?

Here is Simone with her stuffed Llama that she named "Camel". Aunt Jen bought this Llama for Simone a couple of years back.

Wizard of Oz

Tonight we finished the Wizard of Oz. Actually I read the book outloud on our vacation over New Years while we were travelling in the car. It's something Michael and I have done for years, we read a book on our long trips. Well on our trip, the Wizard of Oz book that I had didn't have many pictures and of course Simone was a little frustrated at that. When we got home, I went to the library and found another Wizard of Oz book with beautiful illustrations. She was enchanted. So I started reading the book again, this time she could look at the pictures. We just finished tonight. I don't think we'll allow her to watch the movie for some time, but she sure enjoyed the story. Happy reading!

Final Product

Here's the final product of the house. She's so proud of her work. :)

Craft Day with Simone

Here is Simone during craft time today. We made a house using construction paper, foam and stickers. I then pulled out the waterbased paints...not watercolors, but some actual paint her "Nanny" got her. I printed out some pictures from the computer and she had a ball painting.
She's very careful and usually does "Nice Neat Work". She says, "I'm a good 'arter' ". She's great.

Happy Day River

Here's a picture of River after he got up from his
nap today. He looks like he's as bald as a bowling
ball but he does have some hair on his head.
Simone was the same.....she didn't have a good
head of hair until she was almost 3. Tomorrow we are going to get portrait pics of River. Hopefully he'll be this smiley.

Up close and Personal

Here's a close up of River has he tries to grab the camera today. People are saying that he's looking more and more like Simone, although he favors Michael is eye color and skin tone.

Looks would be the only things these 2 would have in common. They are night and day. Simone is outgoing...an extrovert. River is a quiet more introverted baby. It'll be fun to see how these two grow up together. They get along really well right now, we hope that continues on for years to come :) .

River

Here is a pic of River right after he ate today. He loves to eat. He's by no means fat, but we can tell that he is going to be as strong as an ox someday..and built like one too.

Blay

Here is Simone and her "Blay". Blay is a blanket Simone got as a child from her great great Aunt Ginny. It doesn't go everywhere with her, but she doesn't sleep without it. Her blay also helps her transform into a superhero, a princess or a ghost. She loves pretending and has a great imagination. The blay is starting to show wear and tear after 4 1/2 years of use...hope it holds out through these "blay essential" years.

River has found his thumb

River was 7 months yesterday. Like I've said in previous blogs, he likes pacifiers and the like. Simone never did, nor did she suck her thumb. A couple of days ago River found his thumb, at first I thought it was an accident, but he's a regular thumb sucker now. If his paci isn't around his thumb always is.
Michael and I go out every Friday for a date night. My mom generously watches Simone. River is such a gentle soul that we usually take him with us. We had a Christmas gift card for Red Lobster so we went there last night. They are having a shrimp fest and did we feast. River sat happily in his carseat beside us with thumb in mouth.

Muffins on the Side

After our Chopped Salad adventure...Simone was still revving so we made some cinnamon muffins. Simone pulled out her apron, hat and oven mitt. She was ready to be a "cooker" as she calls it.

Chopped Salad Day

Every week or so we make a chopped salad at the Muhme house. It's nutritious and delicious.
It usually takes 45 min. to make with Simone's help. She's become quite skilled at helping. She usually chops the green pepper, cracks and peels the hard boiled eggs and helps chop the lettuce. I'm big on chopped salads with lots of things in it. I've seen salads at restaurants that are just lettuce and a tomato chopped into 4's on top then it's drenched in salad dressing. That'll do in a pinch, but it's not really a salad, it's lettuce with a tomato cut into 4's on top. :)
This is my recipe: Everything is chopped small.
Lettuce chopped into small bits
1 tomato
2-3 hard boiled eggs
carrots
1 green pepper
2-3 green onions
1 small can of mandarin oranges
walnuts
raisins
shredded cheese
croutons
turkey/chicken or ham...usually I just use leftovers.
It's a big hit here. It doesn't cost much to make either.
Here's a pick of Simone being "Mama's big helper".

The Joy of Painting

Today I broke out the watercolors. Simone got watercolors for Christmas. We hold some presents back and wait until the other presents lose their newness. Tonight Michael is teaching a class, so I thought we would paint. Simone is practing writing her name and drawing dinosaurs. She's having a ball.
River can now pick up his own paci and put it in his mouth. It's so cute to see him put it in sideways. Simone never liked pacifiers so this is all new to me.

The Jokes have Begun

Simone has learned the joy of Knock Knock jokes. She's very good at "Orange you glad I didn't say banana" . She's also learned the "Boo-whoo, don't cry" one. She also loves Aunt Jen's personal favorite...The interrupting Cow joke. We just need to learn some new jokes so she's not repeating the same joke 5 times in a row. Anyone got good clean Knock Knock jokes that a 4 year old would understand?

New Years Vacation

Usually on New Years Michael and I take a vacation, just the 2 of us. We usually go someplace like New York or Chicago and see some incredible broadway shows, or we go south and enjoy the warmth. This year we decided to take Simone with us. My mom and a few others graciously watched River. We didn't want to drive too far away, but far enough to make it feel like a vacation. We started in Indianapolis. We went to the Children's Museum. It was incredible! We spent 6 HOURS there. It has changed so much since I had been there in my teens. Simone absolutely enjoyed herself and Michael and I enjoyed seeing her eyes light up...especially in the dinosaur exhibit. That evening we went and had dinner with Jen Jackson. It was great to see her and her new place. We had pizza and Simone enjoyed seeing her kitties. That night we stayed in a hotel. It had been a long time since Simone had stayed in a hotel, so this really was the first experience for her...she thought it quite cool that she had a big bed all to herself.
The next day we were off to Lexington, Kentucky. We visited the aquarium. Simone wasn't as thrilled with the aquarium as she was with the museum. She did get to see Santa swimming with the sharks. She also got to see a special penguin parade. We didn't stay at the aquarium long but, ventured on to a nice seafood restaurant where Simone had her first taste of swordfish. She actually liked it.
Our plans for the next day were to visit and tour a horse farm. On the internet, they said, they were open, but when they got there, they were closed. We were very disappointed as Simone loves horses and we were excited for her to see some up close. We were scrambling to find something else to do for the next day. We saw that the Louisville Zoo was opened year round so we made that our plans for the next day. When we got there, we showed them our Potowatomi Zoo pass and they let us in for free. Praise the Lord...It was nice out, about 50 degrees. Many exhibits were closed, since it is winter, but we got to see many animals and a great exhibit called Gorillas in the round. You go into a room and the gorillas absolutely surround you. We stayed there for a long time. It was lots of fun. We stopped early that night. I thought Simone would enjoy swimming in the hotel swimming pool. We stopped at a couple of local stores and they didn't have any swimsuits. I know it's out of season, but what do people do who are going someplace warm on vacation or want a suit to swim at the "Y"? Well we ended up buying a leotard...on sale for $2. She swam in her leotard and had a great time.
We arrived home to mounds of snow and horrible road conditions. We were very thankful for the nicer weather and traveling conditions we had. It was a great vacation.