12 Month Millie

More birthday girl photos to come!

Sheep Shearing

We began our celebration of Millie's birthday today by taking her to the annual sheep shearing festival at Stone Barns. It was the perfect trip for this bunny baby because it included her three favorite things: cute animals, delicious food, and live music. We all had a wonderful time, though honestly I think the sheep looked a little uncomfortable.

This sweet little black lamb was nursing from all the Mamas. Millie was a little unsure about how to react to their loud Baa-ing, but she liked them. She called to the sheep dogs with "kitty kisses".

They had fiber arts set up in the haybarn. We played with some wool roving, watched a lady spinning yarn, a natural dying demonstration, and we made a wool bracelet!

 

We went around to all the food vendors and made ourselves a yummy picnic. There was a great folk band playing the whole time and we sat for a while to watch and dance.

Finally the sun came out, and the almost-birthday girl had her first dish of strawberry ice cream. Isn't she just perfect?

Some photos from our weekend

Bear Mountain Park

 Snack time

 Gardening

 a new love: kale chips

 strawberries

*Le Sigh*

The morning she was born...

This morning...

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter today with Millie Bea, welcoming Spring and celebrating all the new life around us. She had a special breakfast including an egg and cheese omelet, a strawberry-jam homemade poptart shaped like a bunny, and raspberries. After breakfast we went on a family walk into the park with Sneaky Pete.  When we returned home Millie changed into her Easter dress with her Daddy, while I checked around the garden to see if the Easter Bunny had come while we were gone. He had come! We were so surprised! Millie decided to take a walk outside and see for herself.

In Millie's basket: four knit finger puppets, two packages of seeds, a big-girl toothbrush with a rinse cup and all-natural banana toothpaste, and a card with a letter from us. The E.B. found a couple of last minute additions at a consignment store yesterday: a cute Easter book by Mary Engelbreit, and a new-to-us pink Hanna Andersson dress for spring.

We planted wheat berries two weeks ago and Millie has enjoyed watering them and watching the grass grow, running her hands through it, and picking it to feed to the pets. Her favorite things from her basket were the toothpaste and the grass. 

After that we headed to Muscoot Farms to see a puppet show and visit the animals to wish them a happy spring.  We watched a (non-violent) Punch and Judy puppet show that was very good. Millie was giving her usual "serious" face, but was watching the whole time and enjoyed it. She was absolutely delighted to see the farm animals! She called to them with "kitty kisses", waved, reached, pointed, and came up with an adorable new giggle/chuckle. 

We hope you had a nice Easter too!

Happy Spring!

The weather has finally turned nice here and we are ready for spring! We have some fun plans for Easter tomorrow. Stay tuned.

(MB's Easter outfit!)

Birthday talk + 11 Months part 2

For a couple of weeks now we have been singing a birthday song to Millie, in anticipation of the big day. I sing it to her first thing in the morning and she bounces around the bed laughing. Here it is... (sung to the tune of "Here Comes Santa Clause")

Who has an April birthday soon?
Millie has an April birthday soon!
Who is a bunny that Mama loves?
Millie is a bunny that Mama loves!
Birthday soon?
Bunny love?
MUST be Millie!
Must be Millie!
Must be Millie... Millie Bea!

She just adores songs and silly games, mostly ones we make up. I'm writing some of them down in her journal so we don't forget them. There are a few silly routine songs and lines she loves that we have been doing since she was very little. I definitely want to remember them forever! That will be a separate post :)

So for her 11 month photo shoot, I thought I was so clever. I had a little bowl of raspberries, and I thought if I handed them to her one by one she would forget about her usual game of grabbing the heart off the chair. Well that worked fine, but don't you know that raspberries make a person pucker their lips, making it even more difficult to get a good photo? Well, now you know. So then I tried giving her cat treats to throw to Shark. How did that work out, you ask? Shark ended up on the chair, and the cat treats ended up in Millie's mouth. Incidentally, cat treats also make a person pucker their lips.
Here are some outtakes:

This week at Book Babies, Millie helped with the story by holding the deer. She wore her new walker shoes and walked all around, even taking some books off the shelf. The last picture is of her passed out in the car after the library.

And now she's waking up from her nap! Gotta go!