Saturday, November 27, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
Again this year we have so very much to be thankful for. In the words of my dear friend Joanna today, "Thankful doesn't even begin to describe it."
My thoughts exactly...
We spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home with our little family of four this year. We watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, put up some Christmas decorations, and stayed in our pajamas most of the day. It was a lovely, relaxing day - the kind that just doesn't come along very often lately. Michael and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner together after the kids were in bed and reflected on just how grateful we are for the many, many blessings in our lives.
We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday again this year at (Uncle) Todd and Michelle's lovely home. In true Mia fashion, she loved the meal :). In true Luke fashion, he at crackers and a cheese stick and then fully enjoyed himself some dessert. Oh well ...
Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family. We are so thankful for each of you!
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Cabo!
The kids did so well traveling, and we had so many extra hands to help out (how nice!). My parents (Day & Paw) and (Uncle) Todd and Michelle were with us. We spent the days swimming at the pool, relaxing in the condo, visiting the beach, and enjoying the sun. Luke and Mia made it out to dinner with us every night. Going into this trip, Michael and I had decided that we would be more than happy to get out to dinner 3 nights while we were in Cabo. When Luke and Mia just continued to rise the occasion, we continued to take advantage! :) They both napped late each afternoon, so that helped. Sleeping went better than expected for both of them (even with Mia getting two teeth while we were there!). All in all, an amazing trip.
I took a ton of pictures, so I'll try to give a semi-brief synopsis of our vacation with some of my favorite photos.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Preschool Update
Our school boy - I can't get over how big he's getting! When comparing this to last year's picture, he looks so much older. :(
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Going for a ride
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Life with a preschooler
Well, I guess Luke truly is a full-fledged preschooler now. Sort of scary to think about how quickly the time has gone. I am lucky that he sometimes still likes to pretend he is a baby because this affords me the opportunity to hold him (and in doing so, feel with complete amazement how big he is, seemingly all of a sudden).
Luke's nearly 4 months as a three-year old have been ones of great fulfillment and great challenge (for us!). He has become amazingly well-spoken. Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking with another adult. He can now really identify and express to us his feelings and emotions. My recent favorite is when he tells me that he can't or won't say something because he's "too shy." So cute! However, he has also learned to use this voice and new-found vocabulary to express his very strong opinions and tell me why he absolutely is not doing what I have asked him to do. Ay! Pressing the limits is pretty much the name of Luke's game right now. I can see his mind working, "I know that I probably shouldn't be doing this, but let's just try and see what happens."
In the past 6 weeks or so Luke's daily afternoon naps have become hit or miss. I would say that he naps about half of the time now. The days that he does not nap, he rests in his bedroom for about an hour and a half (about the same amount of time that he would sleep). A no nap day means bedtime at or very close to 7pm. Bedtime on a nap day is closer to 8:00 or 8:30 (and not sleeping until close to 9). In general Luke wakes in the morning sometime between 7:30 and 8:00.
Luke goes to school three morning per week for 3 hours. He pretty much tells me every school morning that he doesn't want to go, but once he get there seems happy and sometimes even forgets to hug this Mommy goodbye! He is doing great in school and seems to take part in a variety of activities while there: pretend/imaginative play, art, sand play, puzzles, playground time, music, and cooking jobs. On Thursday afternoons he goes to swimming lessons and usually tells me that he doesn't like going to them either, but once we get there appears to have a fabulous time. He also is becoming quite a good swimmer and is learning some new water safety skills. I think we may continue to swim through the winter - it really seems like the right time for him to make some progress.
Some of Luke's favorite things at 3 years, 4 months old:
-Chuggington the TV show
-banana and chocolate milk, french toast, cheese, yogurt, and fruit (pretty much all he eats)
-coloring, painting, stickers, and just art in general
-reading books
-swinging and playing at the park
-going out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants (McDonald's, Antipastos, Panera Bread, Chilis)
-Happy Hollow and the Discovery Museum
New skills:
-counting through 39
-writing letters
-drawing faces
-pedaling his tricycle and fire truck FAST!
-hitting a baseball
-identifying shapes
-making up silly rhymes
Wow - what an amazing journey parenthood is. We are so blessed to watch him grow from a baby into an amazing little boy.
Luke's nearly 4 months as a three-year old have been ones of great fulfillment and great challenge (for us!). He has become amazingly well-spoken. Sometimes I feel like I'm speaking with another adult. He can now really identify and express to us his feelings and emotions. My recent favorite is when he tells me that he can't or won't say something because he's "too shy." So cute! However, he has also learned to use this voice and new-found vocabulary to express his very strong opinions and tell me why he absolutely is not doing what I have asked him to do. Ay! Pressing the limits is pretty much the name of Luke's game right now. I can see his mind working, "I know that I probably shouldn't be doing this, but let's just try and see what happens."
In the past 6 weeks or so Luke's daily afternoon naps have become hit or miss. I would say that he naps about half of the time now. The days that he does not nap, he rests in his bedroom for about an hour and a half (about the same amount of time that he would sleep). A no nap day means bedtime at or very close to 7pm. Bedtime on a nap day is closer to 8:00 or 8:30 (and not sleeping until close to 9). In general Luke wakes in the morning sometime between 7:30 and 8:00.
Luke goes to school three morning per week for 3 hours. He pretty much tells me every school morning that he doesn't want to go, but once he get there seems happy and sometimes even forgets to hug this Mommy goodbye! He is doing great in school and seems to take part in a variety of activities while there: pretend/imaginative play, art, sand play, puzzles, playground time, music, and cooking jobs. On Thursday afternoons he goes to swimming lessons and usually tells me that he doesn't like going to them either, but once we get there appears to have a fabulous time. He also is becoming quite a good swimmer and is learning some new water safety skills. I think we may continue to swim through the winter - it really seems like the right time for him to make some progress.
Some of Luke's favorite things at 3 years, 4 months old:
-Chuggington the TV show
-banana and chocolate milk, french toast, cheese, yogurt, and fruit (pretty much all he eats)
-coloring, painting, stickers, and just art in general
-reading books
-swinging and playing at the park
-going out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants (McDonald's, Antipastos, Panera Bread, Chilis)
-Happy Hollow and the Discovery Museum
New skills:
-counting through 39
-writing letters
-drawing faces
-pedaling his tricycle and fire truck FAST!
-hitting a baseball
-identifying shapes
-making up silly rhymes
Wow - what an amazing journey parenthood is. We are so blessed to watch him grow from a baby into an amazing little boy.
Our 10 month old
10 months have flown by and as Mia's personality really begins to emerge, we fall more and more in love with her. Here is the latest and greatest at 10 months old
Eating
She continues to be a good eater. She loves her pureed foods (I've continued to make all of her food, which has been easy and sort of fun), and has been a bit slower to take on finger foods than I anticipated. Perhaps it is because she is still working with only two teeth. Favorite breakfast foods include waffles, pureed fruits, yogurt, oatmeal, toast (I've tried eggs a few times, but without much luck). At lunch we try to serve only finger foods. She seems to love deli turkey. Her tray usually has quite the sampling on it - cheese, different types of diced fruits and veggies, small crackers, pasta, etc. At dinner she eats several ounces of pureed vegetables (she's not picky - loves them all, even brussel sprouts!) and rice cereal along with any finger foods that she can have from the regular dinner table. Her favorite finger foods are puffs - and she enjoys teething biscuits as well! She has a cup of water or half juice/half water with just about every meal, and I have started to offer formula in a sippy cup occasionally to prepare her for the transition to regular milk in a few months. She still nurses about 4 times a day (wake up, late morning, before afternoon nap, bedtime) and in the past week I have substituted one feeding (late afternoon, when my supply feels lowest anyways) for a bottle, which she seems happy to have.
Sleeping
Ugh - this child has really put us in our place as far as the sleeping goes. I guess we were a bit over confident in our abilities to sleep train. Luke was such a difficult, fussy infant, but ended up being a champion sleeper by about 5 months old. Mia ... not so much. The good news: she is now very good at putting herself to sleep, both at night and for naps. The bad news: she still is not consistently sleeping through the night (and by that I mean, 11-12 hours). We often have a wake up somewhere between 2am and 4am about 4 nights out of every week. Until very recently, I would eventually respond to her because she could scream so loud and for so long that we weren't sleeping through it anyways (even without the monitor turned on), but we've made the decision with the go-ahead from our pediatrician to really put our foot down, so she's going to cry/yell it out at night. Earlier in the month I tried putting Mia to bed earlier (somewhere between 6:15 and 6:45), and this seemed to help her get through the night. So, her day looks something like: 6:45-7:00 wake up, 9:30-11:30 morning nap, 2:30-3:30/4:00 afternoon nap, and bedtime by 6:45.
Playing
Mia is very mobile. She is fast and often surprises people with how quickly she moves around given her size (since she looks so small). She can crawl at lightning speed, can cruise around furniture, and I even have caught her standing on her own without holding onto anything a few times in the past week. Her favorite game is climbing up the stairs while someone chases her. She also loves "helping Mommy" - putting laundry in the dryer, climbing into the open dishwasher, unloading newly folded laundry from the basket (onto the floor in one giant heap), and unrolling toilet paper from the rolls in all of the bathrooms. She doesn't seem to really love any one toy - in fact, she seems to like playing with all things that are NOT toys. And, of course, she loves anything her big brother is playing with, much to his dismay. Pat-a-cake and This Little Piggy are two of her favorite games and she has just recently started dancing (rocking) to music or singing.
Talking
This month has also brought with it some of Mia's first words. Her first word was "da-da," followed by "ma-ma." She also can now wave and knows the sign for "more." She loves to babble and "read" stories to us. We are working on learning many more new signs - Luke was such a great signer, and we loved to be able to communicate in that way with him when he was a baby, so hopefully it will be the same for Mia.
Growing
Ah, she's SUCH a peanut! People see her and almost always guess that she's about 6 months old (until they watch her take off crawling!). My guess is that she's about 16 pounds now. She is really fitting into the 6-12 month clothes, but sleepers in that size are still too big. Carter's 9 month clothes are still a bit big, but that's what she's wearing. When she wears disposable diapers they are size 2 ... although, I just bought a pack of size 3 this week for our upcoming trip to Cabo, and I just washed her medium sized BumGenius diapers and I'm going to put the smalls away. I am so savoring this time where she's still small and feels so much like a baby - I know it will be gone all too soon.
Just in general, Mia is a very happy and pretty easy baby. She definitely has a mind of her own, knows what she wants and isn't afraid to tell you, and is very short right now in the patience department (think yelling immediately upon waking or when she decides she has finished a meal). She can be very loud, loves to squeal, and is full of smiles and laughter. What a joy ... what a perfectly, well-rounded girl. We're in love!
Eating
She continues to be a good eater. She loves her pureed foods (I've continued to make all of her food, which has been easy and sort of fun), and has been a bit slower to take on finger foods than I anticipated. Perhaps it is because she is still working with only two teeth. Favorite breakfast foods include waffles, pureed fruits, yogurt, oatmeal, toast (I've tried eggs a few times, but without much luck). At lunch we try to serve only finger foods. She seems to love deli turkey. Her tray usually has quite the sampling on it - cheese, different types of diced fruits and veggies, small crackers, pasta, etc. At dinner she eats several ounces of pureed vegetables (she's not picky - loves them all, even brussel sprouts!) and rice cereal along with any finger foods that she can have from the regular dinner table. Her favorite finger foods are puffs - and she enjoys teething biscuits as well! She has a cup of water or half juice/half water with just about every meal, and I have started to offer formula in a sippy cup occasionally to prepare her for the transition to regular milk in a few months. She still nurses about 4 times a day (wake up, late morning, before afternoon nap, bedtime) and in the past week I have substituted one feeding (late afternoon, when my supply feels lowest anyways) for a bottle, which she seems happy to have.
Sleeping
Ugh - this child has really put us in our place as far as the sleeping goes. I guess we were a bit over confident in our abilities to sleep train. Luke was such a difficult, fussy infant, but ended up being a champion sleeper by about 5 months old. Mia ... not so much. The good news: she is now very good at putting herself to sleep, both at night and for naps. The bad news: she still is not consistently sleeping through the night (and by that I mean, 11-12 hours). We often have a wake up somewhere between 2am and 4am about 4 nights out of every week. Until very recently, I would eventually respond to her because she could scream so loud and for so long that we weren't sleeping through it anyways (even without the monitor turned on), but we've made the decision with the go-ahead from our pediatrician to really put our foot down, so she's going to cry/yell it out at night. Earlier in the month I tried putting Mia to bed earlier (somewhere between 6:15 and 6:45), and this seemed to help her get through the night. So, her day looks something like: 6:45-7:00 wake up, 9:30-11:30 morning nap, 2:30-3:30/4:00 afternoon nap, and bedtime by 6:45.
Playing
Mia is very mobile. She is fast and often surprises people with how quickly she moves around given her size (since she looks so small). She can crawl at lightning speed, can cruise around furniture, and I even have caught her standing on her own without holding onto anything a few times in the past week. Her favorite game is climbing up the stairs while someone chases her. She also loves "helping Mommy" - putting laundry in the dryer, climbing into the open dishwasher, unloading newly folded laundry from the basket (onto the floor in one giant heap), and unrolling toilet paper from the rolls in all of the bathrooms. She doesn't seem to really love any one toy - in fact, she seems to like playing with all things that are NOT toys. And, of course, she loves anything her big brother is playing with, much to his dismay. Pat-a-cake and This Little Piggy are two of her favorite games and she has just recently started dancing (rocking) to music or singing.
Talking
This month has also brought with it some of Mia's first words. Her first word was "da-da," followed by "ma-ma." She also can now wave and knows the sign for "more." She loves to babble and "read" stories to us. We are working on learning many more new signs - Luke was such a great signer, and we loved to be able to communicate in that way with him when he was a baby, so hopefully it will be the same for Mia.
Growing
Ah, she's SUCH a peanut! People see her and almost always guess that she's about 6 months old (until they watch her take off crawling!). My guess is that she's about 16 pounds now. She is really fitting into the 6-12 month clothes, but sleepers in that size are still too big. Carter's 9 month clothes are still a bit big, but that's what she's wearing. When she wears disposable diapers they are size 2 ... although, I just bought a pack of size 3 this week for our upcoming trip to Cabo, and I just washed her medium sized BumGenius diapers and I'm going to put the smalls away. I am so savoring this time where she's still small and feels so much like a baby - I know it will be gone all too soon.
Just in general, Mia is a very happy and pretty easy baby. She definitely has a mind of her own, knows what she wants and isn't afraid to tell you, and is very short right now in the patience department (think yelling immediately upon waking or when she decides she has finished a meal). She can be very loud, loves to squeal, and is full of smiles and laughter. What a joy ... what a perfectly, well-rounded girl. We're in love!
A photo shoot ... or four (or five)
Well, in typical "me" fashion, I started planning Mia's birthday party in October. But, to my credit, the holidays are quickly approaching, and those invitations need to get in the mail. I set to work trying to snag a good photo for her party invitation over the past week.
Here's a recap (oh, and I'm quite obviously undecided as to what she should be wearing!):
Photo shoot #1
um, yeah, except I wasn't planning on a "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" theme
Photo shoot #2
so, not quite as bad, but still pretty serious. I was hoping for a "happy" picture
Photo shoot #3
much better ... but then I decided that the colors and outfit were all wrong
Photo shoot #4
ah, now we're talking.
Photo shoot #5 ... yes, there was a FIFTH one and the invitation photo is from that one (in yet another outfit), and you'll just have to wait to see the winning picture!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)