The Higgins Family: The House of Higgins: March 13

Embry's Spring Break: Dallas Arboretum

This week was Embry's spring break at MDO and it rained ALL WEEK LONG. Monday the rain didn't start until Monday around noon so we hit up the Arboretum!

The Fab Four! So glad to have Sophie with us, since she does MDO on the opposite days as the rest of us!

William giving E a flower. How amazing are those tulips?!?

T zonked out in our new stroller!

Eating her lunch while waiting for face painting.

Picking out their face paint!

Checking out their paint!

Sweet Toddy Lu!

Petting zoo!

Embry's Spring Break: First Day of Swim Lessons

We decided to enroll Embry in swim lessons since gymnastics is over and summer is approaching! We're going to Mockingbird Swim and Total Fitness and I'm super impressed with them thus far. Embry was so pumped for her lessons and is thrilled her buddy William is in her class. She'll go through the end of May once a week =)

They start with 15 minutes of "land exercises" specific to strengthening the muscles used for swimming. Then they have 45 minutes of pool time. So....Embry cried every time it was her turn to do anything in the water. I ended up going into the pool room and told the teachers I wanted them to make her participate. Despite crying basically the whole time she talked about how much fun she had the whole ride home and in the bath that night was putting her face in. Hah. Three year olds!

Embry's Spring Break: Rain, Rain, and More Rain

We spent a lot of the week around the house. In a way it was good because Todd is really starting to become a great sleeper. Each day he took two 2-3 hour naps at home! Next week we're back to being on the go! Poor guy! Hah!

E kept wanting to bake a pie this week...Tuesday she settled for blueberry mini muffins

Worms everywhere

Brave girl with her worm!

Rainy day play date with William

Back to her begging to bake a cake...she settled for making a mini batch of Easter egg cookies

Since we only baked a few, I didn't want to make icing..I stole my Aunt Jamie's idea of "painting" with Karo syrup and letting her ice them! SOOOO easy and cute!

E found her "computer" (her Leap pad thingy from Grandpa Higgins) and "worked on it" some this week. She loves pretending her work is important ;)

Rainy trip to Target

We were able to squeeze a few walks in this week between downpours.

Todd Food Update

Todd's still not into food..really at all. I got a few more jars on Tuesday and he kinda liked sweet potatoes, but didn't like them the next few days I offered them.

Embry Food Update

We had a few eventful food days with Embry this week. For 5 months now we've been doing the "you don't have to eat this" for dinner and serving her what we eat and not making her a special meal. She basically hasn't eaten dinner in 5 months. She knows she doesn't get a show or a treat from Daddy if she doesn't try everything on her plate. She's gotten to the point where when I'm cooking dinner she'll announce she doesn't was a treat or a show. Ugh.

One night this week she got particularly upset during dinner (I had mentioned Daddy was going to bring home a Butterfinger and I guess if she didn't eat her quesadilla with taco meat inside then I'd eat the treat). So I sent her to her room while she threw a fit and low and behold she does what she does when she gets super worked up...she puked, everywhere. UGH!

Well two weeks ago we had a great speaker at MOPS about positive reinforcement so I decided to put some of what I used into action and made a simple reward sticker chart. She needed to try each thing on her plate and when she did three times she'd get a treat that she picks (she's saying a sucker, haha). The first night...it worked like a charm! She ate some chicken, roasted potatoes, and cooked carrots. Well the second night...she gave me the ATTITUDE of the century! Video below....UGH! My most used phrase right now..."Ugh, three year olds!".

When she pukes she gets broken blood vessels all over her eyes...they stayed for a few days. Oye.

Garden!

On a whim, Jacob decided he wanted to grow a vegetable garden this year. Embry was pumped so Saturday morning they went to Home Depot and we proceeded to spend the entire day outside working in the yard and getting the garden ready.