traditions are hard to keep

I want to start traditions for our family so our young kids can one day look back on unique fun things that make us a family, not just the trials and travails of having us as parents.  for instance, a few months back we started friday movie nights...grocery store pizza on the living room floor and a kids movie.  we had to stop for awhile when harry got too busy to be a passive participant in our film fest. but we hope to begin again soon.

today is a special day in our house that i hope we can mark with another miller family tradition...the birthday birth time photo.  our oldest jude is now a big four year old.  we've succeeded in getting the picture three of the last four years.  here's a look.

 5:04pm  Jude at four years

Jude at age one 2009

Jude at two 2010

notice we got the time wrong in year two! oops

in year three i was seven months pregnant with harry and just happy to make it through the day. too bad we missed the photo op on the stairs. but here's a picture from the party that day in 2011.

Jude age 3 2011

jude's fourth birthday also means the oak park baby blog is celebrating four years also. what began as greg's ambitious record of jude's hospital experience has become a treasured and hopefully honest and encouraging record of parenting, our family and baby products and tips.  thanks for reading along all these years.

raise your glass

the miller family journeyed back to ye old times.  in one of the better "hey honey i have to do this thing for work" moments, greg took kara and jude to medieval times for the matinee lunch and show.  i am an adventure person so i was excited.  and i will say, i really enjoyed the experience.

our knight is the red and yellow knight

jude began the two hour castle visit a bit overwhelmed, refusing to wear the crown for at least the first hour. and definitely not eating our dragon legs, i.e. chicken.

is this ok?

the medieval riders delivered a fun show with an impressive mix of lights, music and sparking sword fights.

our medieval crowns 

our medieval meal

we attended the educational matinee program. so they spent the first several minutes explaining the history of knights, using colored lights, and axe and sword wielding guys to help kids pick the right answers.  the rest of the show included jousting, lots of horses, sword fighting and of course a fight against the bad guy and his evil henchmen.

go blue knight go!

now...if only greg could work for the harry potter world at universal......well a girl can hope.

Mom's Day

just a quick mother's day update.  greg and jude made a giant poster card with answer to "i love my mommy because..."   not all are actual words or things we do :-) but it was very sweet nonetheless.

mother's day 2012

we enjoyed a lovely brunch with grandma carole and grandpa chuck and uncle todd.  thanks to them for treating us!

God's Fingerprint on the dinosaur pinata

So a few weeks back I asked mister jude what kind of birthday party he would like.  the little man turns four at the end of may.  He decided to have a dinosaur party, specifically a Triceratops party.  I laughed but was happy to have something to start from because I love party planning.  But this year's party will be different.

triceratops is tops for me!

First of all I think he's finally old enough that jude's birthday can no longer be an excuse for mom to invite her friends and kids to have a social time. This year its a smaller group of pals jude regularly sees or talks about.

Second, stay-at-home mommying doesn't pay well.  wesome dad's newer company is holding its own, its holding our purse strings pretty tight at home.  So i started praying for ways to have this party in a way we can afford.  I am one of those people who prays, not just in times of trouble or only for sick friends, but on a regular basis.  and this is where the story gets cool.

back in december I received a duplicate christmas gift from a fancy cooking store.  with my store credit i picked up a flowery apron (cause every modern mom needs one), a new cookie sheet and two dinosaur cookie cutters on sale.  I'd forgotten about them until after jude picked his party.  But yes, they are triceratops.

 prehistorically perfect  for making party treats

Then I went to the dollar store to see if they might have a small party favor to fit our small budget.  They had two bags of tiny dinosaurs...triceratops.  I also picked up a larger t-rex and triceratops to pose on top of his cake.

I resumed my tradition of making numbered birthday shirts after skipping #3 while super pregnant with harry.  I found an old sample pack of printer papers in our basement and whipped up an iron on transfer triceratops.  I knew harry had a dinosaur explorer outfit in orange and green, so i put jude's green dinosaur on one of his orange  t-shirts.  I was feeling pretty good about this budget party bash.

Then this happened yesterday.  At target jude got a burst of energy to explore.  he was in such a good mood.  our walk led past the party aisle. i forget target even had one.  and guess what we found.

perfect pinata in our party colors

that's right- triceratops, a pinata in the colors of the boy's outfits i've already made.  i felt like it was such a nice moment from God of I hear you, thanks for praying, trust me.


and lord knows i need to keep trusting and praying.  raising two boys is among the hardest things i've ever done.  their energy, noise, tears, mess is overwhelming for a mom who genuinely enjoys private quiet moments in days that no longer have them.

let's play pan lid cymbals again harry

I've apparently been too vocal in my Lord help me make it, help me handle this prayers.  yes, i say those words out loud in crisis with the kids.   Something spilled and jude turns and says to the sky, God, help my mommy make it.  Cute and made me pause at the same time.

I hope you are making it today. the small but now awesome party is next week. i'll post pics.

the adventures of two brothers

Poor harry the second brother.  this photo seems to capture the knowing look of yes this is my toy and yes my big brother is playing with it instead of me.

waiting for a turn

today it was the leap frog learning table we pulled out of storage.  jude decided it worked better up high, which meant poor harry couldn't reach it without mom intervening.  i know one day soon they will be more equal playmates.  but for now its a lot of harry learning to wait and jude learning to play gentle.

future playmates

with harry starting to sleep through the night a little more often we are taking a few more adventures.  recently we went with grandma carole and uncle todd to the abraham lincoln presidential museum in springfield.  

the lincolns and the millers

I wish I could say it was a great time for the whole family, but honestly it was a not.
First the good- the exhibits are well done and informative.  The children's hands on discovery play area has old time wooden toys and of course, lincoln logs.
But overall the museum does not get my vote for bringing little kids. First of all I brought the double stroller. My plan was to recline harry and perhaps even jude and let them nap in comfort if they got sleepy.

in the double stroller until we got inside

But the museum does not allow double side to side strollers. instead you have to use a very simple hard plastic front and back double stroller- no tray, no recline, no cover.  That meant no easy napping and child meltdowns by about 12:30pm.  Second, the life-like people are throughout the museum and I think they creeped jude out a little bit.   Thirdly, we went the to the "Ghosts of the Library" theater show, the tamer of the two.  Unfortunately in the middle of the program there is one scary loud thunder clap and a group of ghosts appear.  Jude wailed a full minute afterward.  I also forgot the bit of Lincoln history that their three year old son died of an illness.  There was a gravestone and a room re-creating Lincoln's sick little boy.  In addition there is a dramatic, somewhat scary slave market scene inside the white house exhibit.   Again the museum is all well done and excellent history.  But I would not recommend it for a three year old.  Next time perhaps we'll try new salem, the pioneer village of lincoln's past.

nine months of cute and crazy

nine months into life with two oak park babies and we are finally starting to sleep through the night.      mister harrison now goes to sleep about 6:30pm and wakes closer to 7am.  at least he has for more than two nights in a row. that's saying something for light sleeper man.

oh was i supposed to sleep?

i know babies like routine.  harry now seems happy when i take him upstairs for morning and afternoon naps, even if he protests a bit while actually in the crib.  the funny part is harry has decided that sleeping sideways by lying across the mattress is best.  so you have huge crib with little guy crowded into one side, against the rail.  when he moves at night we hear little thunks.

speaking of crowded, big brother jude is having space issues.

who me?

yes jude has decided that he needs to be in the same space as harry.  a frequent refrain in our house is "don't sit on your brother!"  harry takes it in stride while jude takes a walk to his timeout spot on the stairs.  fortunately there are many cute moments...yesterday the boys played 'hide and seek' with mom. as in, they lie on my bed on the pillows and pull the comforter barely over them while i lay next to them. that's 'hiding' and mom has to 'guess' where they are.  so cute!   jude also loves to play hide and seek with his babysitters. our 3 year old usually tells them where he will hide while they go count.

and speaking of counting, here are the numbers from harry's nine month check up:

25th percentile in weight at 19 lbs

75th percentile in height at 28 1/2 inches long

still growing into my carolina basketball body

our cute army crawler can now explore the exciting world of mashed up table food, water from a sippy cup, and whatever else he can shove in his mouth from the living room floor.

that's all from oak park baby world for now.