Following in the "crawl" of other Wichard Babies

So Francine has been crawling since 6 months and next week she will be 10 weeks.  Many of us thought that she would be walking by now, but she has become quite the efficient crawler.  Although she is a great crawler she is a quite unique mover.  She always has one knee scooting on the floor and the other leg does not do much work and just drags behind.  Our amazing friend Kelly asked us if we had video of the crawling and I couldn't remember so we made a few new movies today.  Thanks Mom for the great dress, I wish that I would have remembered to put back on her diaper covers before I took the video :) 

Swing Photo Shoot

Dad and Walt were napping this afternoon so Francine and I took advantage of the beautiful weather. 

Friday photo shoot.

It is so fun to see the kids loving on each other!  Tonight was just a fun night, beautiful outside! 

Umbrella, ella, ella.....

It has been raining sooooo much this spring.  SO we (the easter bunny) only thought it was appropriate to get him his own umbrella.  Here are some pictures of him on a rainy day, with his frog boots. 

Easter

We got a couple good pictures of the day before the rain came. 

Nanny makes the perfect hat!

Nanny makes great hats for Francine (and Maddie too!).  I told her about Francine's easter dress, so she designed the PERFECT hat for her.  She has been a little stinker about wearing her hats, so i was lucky to get these couple pictures!

Walt is quite the chef

Ge-ma had heard that walt was a great chef, so she got him a new (his first) apron.  They made cupcakes, died eggs, and made deviled eggs today. 

Francine wins a hat

My great friend Kate has a new blog http://ayearofhats.blogspot.com  She is knitting a hat a week for the year.  She had a contest before Easter for an Easter Hat.  Francine wrote the winning haiku.  Here are the pictures!

Football with Papa!

We have had some really crazy weather here in St Louis.  Most of you probably heard about the tornadoes that hit our area on Friday night. The airport was hit and closed.  My parents were driving here and luckily they were about an hour behind the storms!  So we had a short break in storms on Saturday so we got out and walt and my dad played a little football with him.   Even with rain, bob bbqed some ribs for us for dinner. 

Baxter Visit

Walt was off school today (for some conference/meeting deal or something) so Nanny and Poppie came up to hang out with him.  Coincidentally, Baxter was in town to visit.  It was a remarkable feat to have the three kids behave long enough to take this picture, so we feel pretty lucky that it happened.

As a side note, the hat that FrannyPants is wearing was sent from Wisconsin by Kate (of Kate, Jeremy, and Kieran fame) as a result of an award winning haiku.  Thank you Kate.

Swim Classes

Both of the kids are in swim classes at the YMCA.  Francine for the first time and Walt is in his second session of his upper level class (where he goes by himself- without us!).  They both are loving it.   I took a couple pictures tonight.  I need to bring the camera again to get some better pictures of WAlt.

Francine is 9 months old

We have not been to the dr yet for her 9 month appt so I don't have her latest stats, but she is crawling and getting into everything, she already loves the tupperware drawer in the kitchen.  She pulls herself up onto just about everything and sometimes lets go and tries to balance herself.  No steps yet, but I am sure soon. 

Walt at the Park

I think that I have mentioned that Walt occasionally gets into a mood where he sees the camera come out and thinks that he is a model.  (He might be get that from me, I had a short career as a child model)  :)

Anyway, these pictures are from last weekend. 

new video

Walt is scheduled to get his toncils and adenoids out on May 18, he is getting them out because he suffers from sleep apnea.  I want to get some videos of him talking before surgery because there is a good chance that his voice will sound very different.  :)

Unreal Day!

So Bob is in Denver for work, I am surviving at home.  Things were going pretty good, until I talked to Bob a little before 5pm and he got a call from Walt's school that he had a fever.  Yikes,  Francine and I went and picked him up.  I got him and he was still pretty sad and pathetic.  So I called Diane and Wally and they are so WONDERFUL!  They said that Walt can stay at their house until we can get him.  I have a concert on Thursday with my choir so I can't really be out.  Then we meet them half way and I have to get gas (because I was not expecting to drive 80 miles tonight) and I forgot my wallet!!!  Who does that, luckily the gas station took bob's credit card # over the phone.  I think that the woman at the gas station thought that Francine was super cute!  :)  Here are some pictures from today after Walt's Tylenol kicked in.

Storytime at New City

Once a month New City School sponsors a storytime with songs, stories and arts and crafts.  It is awesome.  I have never had my camera before but I decided to take a few pictures of Bob, Walt, MP, and Maggie planting.  Walt put watermelon seeds in his milk carton!  YIKES!

Magic House and Transportation Museum

At the end of our Spring Break Week the weather turned very cold, so we headed indoors on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday we went to the Transportation Museum.  Walt is showing you in the picture his conductor hat (Thanks Foslers!) and it looks like he is saluting, but he says that is what conductors do when they ask for tickets?!?   :) 

Friday we took Big Claire with us to the Magic House, she went all over with walt.  Which was nice, Francine and I played in the water and in the baby area.  Francine is quite the big girl these days! 

Srubas Visit

Amanda, Chris, and Claire (we call her little Claire, Big Claire being our babysitter) came for a weekend in St Louis.  We were so happy to have more visitors, it makes our life so much fun.  Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate very well.  They came on a weekend when it snowed 3 inches!!!  But we had fun nonetheless!  Saturday we took the kids to Monkey Joes to bounce around and then played at home.  Sunday, the dads took the big kids to the park to swing, and the moms took Francine to the mall to shop a little!  It was a great trip with a lot of good laughs and conversation.  Probably the last time our families will be together as a group of 7!  Amanda is expecting a baby in June. 

The best Kisses

I know I have been a little behind on blogging.  We have had a lot of visitors and then the FLU decided to take me over.  I am just starting to feel better.  Luckily no one else in the family has received the sickness.  Tonight Bob went to the Blues game and I can't find the cord to upload new pictures, so instead I took a video of the kids.  I loved it when walt saw Francine's belly and gave her big kisses.  So sweet.