Our little "Chef-Man"

This post is about two of our daughter's birthday gifts, a Chef Hat and Kitchen. :)

S: Who are you? 

L: I'm a Chef-Man. 

S: You're not a Chef-Woman or a Chef-Girl? 

L: No, I'm a Chef-Man

 The Chef Hat was one of her momma-made gifts. It didn't cost me any money, the green polka-dot is left over from the back of her baby quilt and the blue is remnants from the binding on Michael's quilt! :) I love projects that I can make with what I have - especially when they are so stinking cute! I still can't believe how well the fabrics match her apron! (Lucy got her apron as a baby gift from our good friend in Chicago, Jenny - it's from Anthropology!)  

Side Note: This is the second chef hat I've made, 

to see the first and for a link to the tutorial I used, click here. 

Here is a video of the first time Lucy saw her new kitchen:

The kitchen has already filled many hours with creative, imaginative play.

Birthday cakes are a specialty of our "Chef-man"

She uses her scrub brush to wash her dishes and makes "beeping" sounds for the microwave.

(Here is a mini interview I did with Lucy while looking at these pictures with her)

S: Lucy, what's your favorite thing to do in your kitchen?

L: Cook. I like to cook donuts.

S: What are you doing in this picture?

L: Toast is in the toaster. 

(It is.... the green thing on the hearth is a toaster. :) )

S: What about this picture? What are you doing here?

L: I'm playing with my silverware.

S: What kinds of silverware do you have?

L: Kinds of silverware. 

Her kitchen is well stocked, thanks to the generosity of grandparents and friends. 

I had to include this picture - mostly because of her hair! I was pretty proud of her side braid that day. It is rare when she holds still long enough for me to do her hair. I can't remember specifically, but if I had to bet - a TV show helped her sit still this day. :)

I have no idea how I captured this picture but I love it - the blurred action around Lu and the fact she is in focus. 

How her table looks most days - all the guests attending her parties get silverware, a treat and a drink  (in a mug/tea cup or a bottle). :)

Looking for a candle for the cake. It is not uncommon for me to hear, "I need help finding a candle for my cake!" :)

There - she found it! Throwing a well thought out party takes concentration! :) 

Inconsistent

I had an interesting conversation with Lucy last Saturday.

L: (putting her spoon in her big girl water glass) "My spoon go here?"
S: No Lu, your spoon doesn't go in your cup - you can put it in your bowl or on the table.
L: Oh

A few minutes later

L: (Looking at me out of the corner of her eye, puts her spoon in her cup)
S: Lu, I just asked you to not put your spoon in your cup - if you do it again, I am going to put your water in a sippy cup.
L: But mamma put her spoon in her cup? (Said in her sweet, voice-dripping-with-honey-voice - yes, she is 2 and already has this voice down pat.)
S Thinking: Touché daughter - great I have double standards....
S: OH!!! Lucy you're right, Mamma does stir her coffee with a spoon don't I.

Honestly I don't remember what I said next, but I knew in that moment that this wouldn't be the first time Lucy pointed out an inconsistency in my parenting.

Things have been quiet around this here blog for about three months now. This has not been intentionally, it has just happened. Life has been a bit busy, Grandma Buning (Brad's mom's mom) lets me know that she misses updates on the blog, but understands I've got more on my plate with two little ones now. I miss updating the blog too! And I really hope to be better at this whole blogging thing - but honestly... I will probably continue to "blog binge" as Brad calls it - posting a TON in a short period of time. :)

I've been asked by a few people why I don't just post fun things as they happen and then go back and post things from the past. It's a good question and my response is always this: I hope to someday have my blog published into a book for our family - I see it as a sort of modern-scrappbook - and I really want to have everything in chronological order for that reason. :)

I got a fun (very early) birthday present though, that is hopefully going to help me be a bit more consistent with this hobby of mine.

Isn't she pretty? 

My computer is full of unpublished pictures and I've been keeping pretty good notes to recount our memories from the past few months. So get ready friends, we are going to take a trip back to July over the next few days and work our way toward the present. :) 

Are you ready?

Mr. Michael (aka. Cutie Pie)

Sometimes, when the kids are being super cute, I just need to put down my current activity and pick up the camera. :) It helps me live in the moment and enjoy the simple things of life. 

And when it happens that the pictures are too cute not to share immediately I post them to Facebook! This doesn't happen very often - I try to save my uploading-picture time for the blog - but I just had to share these! :) So some of you have already seen these, but for those of you who haven't here you go!

Michael Bradley, aka. Cutie Pie :)

Oh those cute little teethers! :)

His eyes are SO reflective! Are all babies eyes like that? 

I believe this is the funniest picture of Michael to date. :)

Have you captured any fun pictures lately?

Six Months

 Six Month Accomplishments:

• Jumpy Seat: Michael loves to hang out (literally) in his jumpy seat - his seat is located in the archway between the living room and dining room, a nice central location where he can watch whats going on and pretend to be a froggy as he jumps around. :)
• Eating Champ: Feeding Michael his rice cereal no longer takes 15 minutes, he has gotten so much better and can down his dinner in less than 5 minutes. He is still nursing full time (usually once/night but sometimes less, sometimes more) and eating cereal once a day. 
• Comfort Objects and Sleepy Position: Michael still sleep swaddled (chest down), on his back and need his "Lovie" (burp cloth) to be put on his right sholder and Baby Moose to be put on his left side within reach. He pulls his Lovie close to his face and sucks his left thumb when in bed - he doesn't suck his thumb outside of his crib unless he is super tired. His schedule has evened out a lot more, he takes two longer naps a day and one short one. :)

To see Lucy at 6 months, click here.

Lucy's Birthday

On June 13 we headed, as a family, to Dallas for a few days of rest and rejuvenation. It just so happened that our daughter's birthday was going to happen during our stay so we had a good reason to do some things that she would enjoy.

 In the car, on the way down to Dallas - it's about a 5 hour drive. 

 Michael was playing with his bottle, not coordinated enough to feed himself from it, but he was having fun nonetheless. :)

 Our fearless driver (aka: Daddy)

 Our sweet sweet girl. 

We got to the hotel, ran into Brad's cousin randomly (he lives in Houston but was in Dallas for work) and were able to go to lunch with him! When we got back to the hotel, it was a bit late for naps - so we decided to go swimming as a family instead! :) 

 All ready to go up and do some splashing!

 They both really enjoyed the pool - Michael kicks like a little fish and Lucy is getting good at blowing bubbles in the water. 

Both the kids were pretty tuckered out after a long day of driving, visiting and swimming so we decided to stay in, feed the kids leftovers from lunch and order pizza for our dinner after the kids went down (we are big fans of date-night-in!). The hotel didn't have any Queen sized, regular rooms available so we were upgraded (for a very reasonable amount) to a suite! What a blessing when you have two kiddos to have two rooms! It was fabulous - a great help to our rest. 

 Her last night as a 1 year old! We had taught Lucy, when asked "How old are you?" to say, "Almost Two!" We may or may not have asked her that question over 10 times on the 13th - it was just too cute to not soak in as many times as we could. :)

 Being a goof ball while eating her dinner :)

Giving daddy kisses good night

 Right before Brad and I went to bed, I set out Lucy's gifts on the coffee table (well, most of them - she had a big gift waiting for her at home) so they would be there to greet her in the morning.

Lucy's Birthday, June 14th 2012

 She had been asking for the week prior, every morning, "Birthday now?" This was her face after I told her, "Yes Lucy! It is your birthday!"

 Daddy went down to the coffee shop in the lobby to get a birthday breakfast (and lattes for he and momma!). 

 She was so sweet, we had been practicing "blowing" and she did great making the flame waver - daddy secretly helped from above to extinguish the flames though. :)

 She really got into opening the presents - and loved. every. one. :) 

 Playing with her new toys while momma and daddy got ready for the day. 

Next up: The SeaLife Aquarium

All ready to go in - we ended up putting Michael in the stroller and letting Lucy walk.

 She l.o.v.e.d it! 

 "Another one! Another one fishy!"

 

 They had cool insets into the tanks that you could crawl into and feel like you were in with the fish. 

 This was a far as Lucy wanted to venture. :)

 An Octopus! It had the coolest texture! 

 This tank was raised off of the ground so kids could crawl under and stand up in a dome and see the fish - it was really neat.

 She kept pointing out colors of different fish - "red one! green one! yellow one fishy!"

 The jelly-fish was Brad and my favorite - it was so. cool! 

Lunch: Rainforest Cafe

 I think the previous day's no-nap had really caught up to Lucy at this point - she was pretty apathetic about lunch as a whole (we kinda felt like she would have enjoyed Chick-Fil-A better...) but it was a fun experience and she wasn't scared of the gorilla above our table! :)

 Every 20ish minutes the gorilla would dance and "whoo whoo hu hu" :) haha

(Phone picture) She was pointing out the "bugs" hanging from a neighboring tree.

We headed back to the hotel for much needed naps and enjoyed some laid back family time in the afternoon.

 Lucy loves her brother - a little too much sometimes. :) 

 Our hotel was right by the DFW and in the late afternoon we watched the planes fly over our building and head toward the airport for landing. 

 This picture doesn't do it justice, they were so close when they were just appearing! We would hear the sound of the plane and see their shadow pass over our building then would see them! Lucy really liked it.

 Hanging out with Daddy. 

 A rare moment of sharing Ellie - she is really good about sharing everything else, but has a difficult time letting others touch her special elephant. 

 Just me and my girl. 

June, 14 2011 and June 14, 2012

As you can see, Lucy's affection for Ellie has not changed (although Ellie has aged a bit!).

We went out for dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory, much better than lunch! :) But I forgot the camera... :-/ Thank goodness for modern phones with picture-taking abilites!

Practicing blowing out the candle: 

 

  We had asked her a lot how old she was during the day (because it is really cute to hear your daughter say, "I'm TWO!") so she wasn't enthusiastic about showing off for the video. :} Also - I ask her to do "bunny ears" in the video, I just wanted her to hold up two fingers - my trick didn't work. :)

  

A few observations from the above video:

• Sorry you have to hear me sing.... um, it's not so great. 
• I love how she calls her cake a brownie.
• I think it's funny that the last thing you hear in the video is me saying, "What?!" because Lucy has decided she doesn't want cake....thankfully, she changed her mind and enjoyed it a lot!

 

 Michael was a trooper at dinner and seemed to enjoy the festivities too!

 Such a good sharer - maybe a little too generous sometimes. :)

Our Lucy seemed to enjoy the day a lot - exactly what we hoped! What a fun day celebrating our TWO year old. 

*Update: I just showed Lucy this post and she said, "I need to go to the hotel and have a birthday! See fishies too!" Haha- love that girl. :)