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.

Nature Walk at Powder Valley

Baby girl and I went to Powder Valley for the Parents As Teachers Stroll with Me event. We had a wonderful time. They had 5 stations set up--songs and rhymes, viewing station, bubble on the blanket, parachute play, and a nature craft. The nature craft was adorable. She made her first real craft project. (pictures to come) We of course are getting it a frame and hanging it in the office. It was such a simple idea for a various group of ages. I was suprised at how calm the area was and how all of the children were enjoying the craft.

We have had a great year with Parents as Teachers. It is really unfortunate that this program is not available to all families in the US. We have loved every minute of it. We are looking forward to next year's events and repeating favorites with the new baby.

She had her 18 month visit last week and she is certainly her daddy's little girl. Aside from looking just like him, she has his height--over the 100% for her age. She is doing very well with everything and sounds like she will be talking any day now. She has lots of signs and learns new ones as soon as she is shown, so communicating is not too difficult.

A day at Purina Farms

Today baby girl and I went to Purina Farms with some other moms and children. The Easter village was too cute. Baby girl loved looking at the little pigs, bunnies, chicks, and dogs. She of course thought all of the cows and horses were dogs, and would say woof, woof to them. Then when we got to the dog area she was so happy. She kept running from dog to dog sticking her hand and face up to the kennels so they could kiss her. She also gave out many kisses to the dogs that were out with the handlers. She must have really had a lot to say, because she talked to one of the employees off and on for a good 20 minutes. I am so happy I have been able to do these things with her. We have such a good time and the day really flew by. We got there at 10 and did not leave until after 1. She only had one brief period of crying, and then passed out on the ride home. I did take a few pics and if I ever get our Flicr account linked here, you'll find the pics under the April 2007 folder. If you have not been to Purina Farms, I certainly suggest making a visit. It is very child friendly and free, so it is worth the drive.

Big News

Mark and I are expecting baby number 2. I am due September 25. We are both excited to grow the family. I'm not sure baby girl is excited yet, but she does love babies. Of course she usually carries her baby around by the head and smashes her in the trunk of her car when riding it around. I may have to really start working on teaching her gentle in the upcoming months.

Everything else is going great as well. We have been busy with everything other than the house so it is now time to focus back on getting that together. Baby girl has been enjoying Little Gym and Kindermusik. She walks on the balance beam (holding my hand) and today even layed down for the baby massage part of music class. This was a first--I never believed it would happen.

We went to Missouri Botanical Gardens this past weekend for the Orchid show. How beautiful. If I ever get my flick account linked here, I'll share some pics. Baby girl was really good. She stayed in her stroller and looked around most of the time. We of course got the typical reaction when people asked how old she is. She's soooo tall! We all laugh when Mark is with us and people comment on her height. Of course she is tall, look at her daddy. Although, I do have to admit, that she does look kinda funny with those little feet hitting the bottom of the stroller and that tiny little nearly toothless head pearing out.

The snow has melted

Wow. The past week was freezing. Baby girl and I stayed inside as for days. Mark was gone so it made for a long week. We did go to the free family night at the Magic House Children's museum. (What a great concept, once a month, a free family night, so wonderful for those who can't afford the $7.50 per person admission price.) We spent about 1.5 hours there and had the best time. I think we will be purchasing a membership because I can really see us going there a lot. It is close to home and a great activity for those long afternoons when she wakes from her nap early and it is a struggle to keep her up until bed time.

Things are back to normal now with Mark home. Today we went to visit an old friend of mine who has a sweet little baby girl who is still in the non moving phase. So while the little one sat playfully on a blanket, I ran around my friend's house calling my little explorer back to the area where I could see her. I guess baby girl just wanted to take a tour of the entire house.

I'm hoping the nice weather continues for a bit. I really want to get outside during the day and take a walk. I'd really love to go to Mo Botanical Gardens or the Zoo this weekend. Guess we'll have to check out the weather reports.

Other than that, we have our gym and music group classes this week. Baby girl sure loves these. She is so happy to see the other little babies. And she is starting to really like the teachers too.