Blog | 2012
Christmas Eve was a nice relaxing day. We started by decorating our first gingerbread house. I bought a kit with all the piece parts already made – much, much easier that way…B had a great time, and we all think it turned out pretty good!
All ready for Christmas!
Christmas morning we had our traditional orange rolls and attacked our stockings from Santa. I am not quite sure what happened, but I have no pictures from that…could be because M has become quite grabby and inquisitive…
After breakfast, we handed out and opened presents. B and Daddy ready to hand out presents:
B handing out presents:
M’s loot:
B’s loot:
B helping M open a present:
We had a wonderful time opening and enjoying our presents!
Despite croup, pneumonia, an ear infection, and a couple of colds, we have managed to have quite a bit of fun so far this month. We started with some Christmas lights at a local farm (before everyone got sick). M absolutely LOVED the lights. She danced, and laughed, and clapped the whole time. And B even rode a pony for the very first time. She thought it was great!
We also have had fun decorating the house. We put up B’s Christmas tree first:
And M really likes all the dancing/singing toys.
B being a “Santa princess”:
Of course, we visited Santa (another indication that M may be more outgoing than B…B would have never let us put her on a stranger’s lap, and even now, she didn’t want to sit on his lap).
We saw Disney on Ice, much to the delight of our princess (here with her princess Minnie ears – a gift from her buddy Hawke).
We even opened some pre-Christmas presents! Warm jammies for the girls:
And new shirts:
And all of our stockings (M’s was expected, mine was a surprise!):
YAY!!
I know I haven’t posted much. I know I missed M’s 10 month birthday. But it has been a rough few weeks. I got a stomach bug a couple of days before M’s 10 month birthday, so I’m sure you can appreciate why it might have slipped my mind. But, here she is a couple of days before that auspicious day.
Shortly after M turned 9 months, she started saying “hi” (hear it in your head like “hiiiiiiiiii” with a long southern drawl). She pretty much would (and still does) say hi (complete with wave) to anyone who came near you. We concede that you say da-da and hi, while your teacher also swears she has heard you say thank you and gator. We continued with our food experiments – she tried with no ill effects chia seeds, green beans, mangoes, quinoa, prunes, and coconut milk. She is still completely and totally NOT interested in any kind of finger food. She typically takes a short snooze in the AM, and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon when home. When at school, well, let’s just say you are following in B’s footsteps. She is becoming more mobile – when she really wants something, she will do some combination of rolling and scooching (mostly backwards) to get from point A to point B. In one month, her four front top teeth came in – wow! She handled it like a champ!
We have spent a lot of time this fall at local farms. They are festive, and B just loves them! Since our neighboring farm has ended its fall activities, we headed a bit farther out to a bigger farm for the last weekend of their fall activities. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. We started our fun at the corn pit. It is a giant gazebo-like structure filled with dried corn instead of sand. Personally, I like that much better. B and M really seemed to like it too!
Little Miss Hollywood
M was a little reserved at first, but she ultimately decided the corn was pretty fun too.
Getting buried by big sis…
Where did my legs go?
Hi Daddy!
I think we spent at least an hour in the corn pit alone – Happy girls!
While waiting for the train to arrive, B finally decided she would like to try the slide.
It was pretty high up, but I think she liked it!
Of course, we had to measure her height…
Finally, the train arrived! So happy to go on a train ride with Daddy.
After the train, we went on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch.
Getting pictures of both girls was an adventure…
We can’t wait to go back for their Christmas lights extravaganza!
B was VERY excited about Halloween. I had these grand plans of dressing the girls up like Thing 1 and Thing 2. I had the shirts (thanks to my fabulous friend Gina) and I made the hair myself. It was all working out great! And then…B decided she wanted nothing to do with that idea anymore and M decided the hair was more fun to pull off an eat. So, we moved onto plan B: M dressed up as Nemo and B dressed up as a princess (specifically a Halloween princess so her dress could have orange in it). Both were adorable!
Our beautiful girl…
This costume is great…I don’t have to worry about falling over at all!
M and the pumpkin:
Hawke came over to trick-or-treat with B (two very excited kids!). Ready to go…if only everyone would stop taking pictures…
M just hung out during the trick-or-treating…it was pretty funny to see her list further and further to the side.
Best house!
Look who’s 9 months old already! I will fill in her weight and height here when we see the pediatrician this week.
There have been some big changes this past month. Most recently, she has started to clap, particularly when one of us enthusiastically claps at her. Big sister is quite impressed.
She does not do much scooting yet, but she certainly spins around and rolls a lot. It is officially no longer safe to just set her somewhere.
Several people, including B, claim she has said Dada. I put it in the calendar, but Jason doesn’t think it counts yet. He wants her to say it on cue before he will concede she actually means him. I admit, it is hard to tell since she spends a lot of time saying da-da-da-da-da, and ga-ga-ga-ga. We have been working on sign language with her (eat, milk, more, mama, dada) , but so far she just watches us, and sometimes just grins at us.
We are thrilled she is finally eating solid food. Not only is she eating solid food, she inhales solid food. Once she decided food was pretty good, she became quite enamored with all that yummy goodness. So far, she has tried peas, spinach, pears, apples, carrots, squash, bananas, blueberries, and broccoli without any complaints. She appears to take issue with any foods having texture (puffs, cheerios, homemade peas, or baby cereal). I am just thrilled she will now eat (without fighting it, and without throwing it up)! Two weeks ago, she literally went from hating the very thought to gobbling it all down over night. Her pediatrician will be thrilled!
She fairly consistently sleeps through the night from 7:45-8 to 6:30-7:30. Even if she wakes up at 6:30 she generally lays quietly, talks to herself, or falls back asleep until 7:30. Yay! During the day she generally takes a short nap in the morning, and a long nap (2-3 hours) in the afternoon when at home. At school she generally takes 3 naps ranging any where from 15 minutes to 1 hour each. I think she would nap more like B did at that age if we were home more in the morning (B always has us on the go!). But unlike B, she will sleep when we are out and about, especially if I put her in her carrier.
We tried to capture her holding the number 9…very tricky since she just wanted to chew on it (she still only has two teeth, but she must be trying to cut some more).
She was not impressed with the kitty ears…
Growing so fast…it is hard to keep up with all of her changes, but we are sure enjoying every minute!
Is any season better than fall? Spring has its beautiful weather, but fall has beautiful weather AND football AND Halloween AND the fair AND pumpkin patches AND…We really like fall in this house! We have spent lots of time at the farm, and the fair, and doing pretty much anything fall-related we can think of. We have too many projects right now to get to the mountains for the leaves and the apples, but we WILL do that next year!
I tried to get photos with the pumpkins. For a change, B was agreeable. M was not. For now, we’ll just say M was smiling for me…
Hayride fun:
Way up high on the haystack:
B the spider:
Girls like trucks too:
Milk a cow wearing a dress? No problem!
At the fair, B made a friend (Leah) on the first or second ride she rode. They stayed together for the next couple of hours and rode every kiddie ride in the place!
I was amazed how willing she was to ride the swings:
And the really fast roundy-round ride (goes around a big circle and dips up and down):
And the roller-coaster:
She rode several rides by herself too (including a second trip on the swings and this bumblebee ride):
She also won prizes – her coveted red bear stuffed animal and balloon dolphin. We are ready for more fall fun this weekend!
My birthday weekend had one fantastic weather day, and one rainy (read as good sleeping) weather day. I’ll take it! We started the weekend with Family Fun Night at B’s school, where B had her face painted for the very first time. She loved it!
She only agreed to let us wash it off when I offered her Gator face tatoos the next day to wear for the big game…M also did her part to prepare for the big game by playing her weekly football game at school. I am now officially superstitious, as she wins every time she plays her weekly game.
Saturday I went skating to enjoy the beautiful day, hung out with friends, and watched lots of football. B even went over to her buddy’s house during the game so she could have fun and we could enjoy the game. yay!
Sunday we went to breakfast, and dinner and generally snuggled down in between to stay dry and warm. It was a very nice, relaxing weekend. And way too short…
Mackenzie is 8 months old already! I don’t know what she weighs or how tall she is, she is definitely growing!. When she is home with us, she takes a morning cat nap, and a marathon afternoon nap (~3 hours). When at school, she sleeps MUCH less, though we are hopeful that a new-found fondness for sleeping on her tummy just might change that.
At night, she more or less sleeps from 8-7:30 (though about half the time she wakes up and fusses because she can’t find her bink), and we have officially eliminated the dream feed. We stopped the dream feed while she was sick because every time I picked her up to feed her she started coughing, and would continue coughing for another 60-90 minutes, keeping all three of us awake (B was blissfully unaware). So, why disturb a sleeping, non-coughing baby when, as we discovered, she didn’t need that last feed anymore. Yay!
She is more or less still exclusively nursing/bottle fed. We are very slowly trying new foods. It is hard because I won’t feed her solid food in the evening because don’t want to discover right before bedtime that I am going to have to sleep in her room because she is getting sick. So, we introduce new foods on the weekends and on Tuesdays/Thursdays. It is not her idea of a good time. She just doesn’t like the taste and/or texture. Though she watches us very closely when we eat, and seems interested. Our last effort was carrots. That went O.k., but then she got a nasty diaper rash (which may have had nothing to do with the carrots). We will try again and see if it comes back.
Mommy, I might leave my headband alone if you give me my bink…
Nope!
She is very active and loves to talk, and she LOVES her big sister. They giggle and make each other laugh…warms our hearts. Though, M is still 100% a momma’s girl. She will play with B, but prefers to do so while being held by Mommy. When I ask her “where’s momma?” she often pats my arm or chest and grins like a loon. If I try to put her down or hand her to someone else, she objects. Loudly. We are working on it.
She has also started playing with her toys to specifically make noises (shaking her rattles to hear the noise, turning her rainmaker over to see/hear the balls fall, banging two objects together, etc.), and she loves it when I clap her hands together.
She is still mostly stationary, but she will lurch to try to reach things, and I am told she is starting to scoot at school. I am curious to see if she ends up crawling, or if she skips the whole thing (like B) and goes straight to walking. We shall see!
We ended September with lots of fun fall activities, and just plain enjoying the cooler temperatures. We have only been back to B’s beloved farm once so far, but I see many trips in the next few weeks. She loves the bouncy houses, the tractors, the sand box, the hay rides, the…well, just everything!
In this picture, I see a glimpse of the beautiful girl to come (despite the bunny ears…).
Brianna is getting so good at her writing her letters. With very little effort, she is picking up spelling and how to make complete sentences. Just yesterday, she came home with this drawing:
Camel is her new stuffed animal from Hawke – he brought it back from his trip to Quatar (!). Anyway, she wrote that whole sentence by herself, without any help from anyone. While there are spelling errors (she spelled by ear), you can still tell what she is trying to say – I think she did fantastic for a 4.5 year old!
She is also really into drawing right now. She comes home with at least 6 pages of drawings each day, and our front porch is quite colorful.
Mackenzie is so impressed with her big sister!
