Happy Memorial Day--a bit late

We hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend. We attended a few parties and had a good time. Baby girl got to go swimming for the first time this season. Even though she went every day last summer, it was a bit of an adjustment getting in again this time. I had intended to take her a few times over the winter, but just never got it together to go, so now we need to make a big effort before heading off to Florida for Mark's conference. If I can't entertain her at the pool, the days will be very long. Sleeping in the hotel room watching Price is Right, Ellen and Oprah will not have the same appeal as it did last year when we went to Florida with Mark.

She did have one big fall this weekend. She was sitting in a little chair, reaching for pretzels on the table--never mind she already had about 5 in her hands, and the chair tipped forward, causing her to hit her head right on the metal outdoor table. I was sitting right behind her and as soon as I picked her up, her head was blue in the center. I placed her on my shoulder and then pulled her back to look again and a huge bump had already started to grow. My mom went to get my cell phone and another person went for ice. By the time they got back--less than a minute--she had already stopped crying and was searching for more pretzels. I called the doctor anyway, and just watched her the rest of the afternoon, but she seemed fine. Another mom there had a friend who is a nurse and the nurse suggested putting Vaseline on the bump to reduce bruising. It worked. The bump was nearly gone the next day and the bruise is fading quickly too. I have heard of this for cuts on the head, or witch hazel pads for stopping bruising, but maybe there is something to this too. I am always amazed at how fast babies heal.

Giving up on Flickr for the moment

So, since Mark is in charge of Flickr, I am giving up on it for the moment. Hopefully I'll get it together soon, but in the interim I have posted recent pics to Walgreens. Here is the link.

http://photo.walgreens.com/groups/hendersonfamily

Email me (ehenders@gmail.com) for a password if you want to see pics. You can even order them if you have a Walgreens. Once we get Flickr set up again, you'll be able to order from there too, through Target. They just announced the partnership this week.

We tried Picasa--googles image catalog system--wow--powerful, but a bit too much and somewhat confusing with the way we have our pics backed up and organized, so we are staying with Flickr.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend. We are going to a barbeque, cleaning and hanging pictures--it will look like a real family lives here.

We have so many pictures framed, and many empty frames that have not been put up in years, so it will be so great to get our house together. On the first floor we only have one room left to paint, and then we move on to the bedrooms upstairs. We have the designs picked out for the baby's room (well, two designs at this point--one girl, one boy) And we have decided on a design for Baby Girl's room too. I can't wait to get started. And we are going with the same green for our bedroom. So the hard part is done for us, the painting will be eaiser than the selection of design. Look for pics sometime in july.

Baby Girl gets a tricycle

I never really planned on getting her one this year. She has a little ride on princess toy that she loves and rides it all around the house. We bring it outside too now that the weather is nice. However, she loves to get on the neighborhood kids' tricycles and bikes when we are all outside.

So I figured I would go tricycle shopping. She got a cute little radio flyer tricycle that is purple, pink and white. I was looking for something more gender neutral, so it could be used for a boy and girl, but no such luck. I can't believe all the character bikes now.

We bought her a little Disney Princess helmet and it came with knee pads and elbow pads. And it is a good thing it came with those. She started out great. We pushed her and she knows right where to put her feet and how to hold on. Then the grandparents show up, and granddad pushed her down the driveway hill without holding on. So, of course she fell over-even though the hill has a tiny incline, she's 19 months-she can't steer or stop- and her love affair with her new tricycle ended in that second outing. We even caught it all on tape. After 10 minutes outside and placing her baby doll on the bike she was more interested in getting back on, but she quickly got off. So we will see if this toy stays or gets put away until next summer. No telling at this point if she was bored, or just did not like it anymore. I'm thinking she will like it again, and be out riding it all this weekend.

Boy or Girl??

We are still waiting to find out. The little baby is proving to be less cooperative than Baby Girl. This one is breech, sideways and legs crossed. Baby Girl was head down and ready to go from my ultrasound at 20 weeks. Of course she was still 8 days late. Bonus--I get another ultrasound through insurance because the tech could not get good spine, lip or heart pics. Everything looked good from what they saw, so that is always nice to hear.

So, you should be getting our moving announcement cards in the mail soon. We took that picture in January and I had the cards in February, but yeah--printing the labels took forever. So, I made it just in time before stamps went up, which was a good thing because they were already stamped and I did not want to spend the time to put extra postage on all of them.

We've been busy lately with the good weather. We've been to the Zoo, Grant's Farm, lots of parks, and Mo. Botanical Gardens. I gave Mark a GPS system for his birthday, so we are planning on starting GEO CASHING. Should be fun and get us out exploring the city.

Baby Girl is growing so tall. She is over 100% in height for her age. She is quite the active little one. She loves Little Gym and now swings from the even and uneven bars. She also discovered the fun of jumping a few weeks ago. so now rather than jumping from one object to another, she jumps on the ground, much safer. She is starting to recognize her letters. We play with a puzzle and she can pick out specific letters when asked, so that is fun to watch. She also picks up new signs every day. I love the baby sign language.

I'm almost caught up posting our pics up online and when I do we will be providing a link.

Hope everyone is doing well.