Liam funnies

For the most part there isn't much that Liam says anymore that has me scratching my head or laughing to myself. However, here are two recent examples;

We were driving in the car and Liam yelled from the back, "Mom! I can read all of these signs!"
I replied, "Great! that's awesome that you can do that now."
"No! I don't want to read right now!"
"That's kind of what happens when you learn how to read buddy. Words start to jump out at you and everything makes sense."

The most recent conversation:
"Mom, why is Moana's lips so big."
(Moana is a Disney princess from Hawaii)
I definitly don't want to miss an opportunity to discuss diversity with my children or how God made us all different so I had to pause before I answered this question.
"Well, that's how God made her."
"Um, no Mom. God didn't make Moana, the Disney people did."
(Laughing to myself)
"Well, yes, you're right but the story that they came up with had Moana coming from Hawaii and that's how Hawaiian people look. And that's why she looks different from me and you."

Beana

For a couple years now we have heard about Caroline's imaginary friend, Beana. Beana has blond hair and blue eyes and is maybe 6 inches tall. This morning Caroline told me that she likes to play with Lucy but that Lucy tries to eat her. Hmmm.

Sometimes Beana comes on errands with us. Caroline will have her hand outstretched like she is carrying her around.

For the last couple of nights as Caroline is fighting sleep she has come downstairs to tell us that for Christmas she would like an itty bitty pack n play for Beana to sleep in.

Last night on our way home from church she was talking about Beana and Liam kept telling her that she's not real. Caroline was getting very upset that her brother would talk that way about her friend. So she said, "I know she's not real! But she's my only friend!"

We reminded her that she has friends at the babysitters, at church and that we all like playing with her too at home. I hope that someday Beana will fade away once Caroline gets a little older. To be honest Beana kind of creeps me out.

My little one year old

Just like that our baby is no longer; she is officially a toddler! Lucy turned one year old November 21st and we had some fun parties to celebrate! (yes, it's been two weeks since but there is no way we forgot anything about this kids birthday)

The Sunday before Lucy's birthday we had the Walles family come over to celebrate! We were going to keep it simple and just have people over for a light soup dinner, cake and presents but then I went on Pinterest. Since Lucy consistently says "dog, woof, woof" we had a dog themed party. We made balloons that looked like dogs, cookies that were dog inspired, an adopt a puppy station for the older cousins and at the very end a 'simon says' game that was also dog inspired. So much fun!

Lucy's actual birthday was full of the usual Tuesday events. School, babysitters and work for everyone. We sang Happy Birthday to Lucy in the morning before we all left and tried to have extra play time before bedtime.

We were able to celebrate Lucy's birthday with my family on Friday since we had Thanksgiving on Saturday. Pizza from Monicals, a homemade angel food cake and presents was a great third first birthday party for this special girl.

At one year old Lucy weighs 16 pounds 9 ounces (7th percentile). And is approximately 2 feet 5 1/2 inches tall (58th percentile).

She is a very happy girl! Always laughing and giggling at everyone. She is constantly on the move and looks for any obstacle she can find. Climbing the stairs, climbing over the dog, unrolling the toilet paper roll and carrying around little stuffed animals are some of her favorite things to do. At her wellness visit the pediatrician was trying to ask me about her and the entire time she was walking around the room with her arms up yelling at the top of her lungs. That and climbing on and off the scale and climbing under the exam table. Dr. Traeger was laughing the whole time.

Lucy now says Dad, Momma, Dog and woof consistently. She has said in the past; cracker, up, more, Liam, please.

Lucy mainly now sleeps through the night. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 pm and wakes in the morning around 7 am. Sometimes she cries around 6 am but usually puts herself back to sleep. The other night she woke around midnight and cried for an hour with no signs of letting up. Evan tried to snuggle with her and give her water but she just couldn't get back to sleep. I finally went in, nursed her and she went right back to bed. I'm really not sure what we are going to do when we give up nursing but I guess we can worry about that when the time comes. Maybe then she will be a little more consistent with her sleep.

Lucy takes 1-2 naps during the day. When we are home with her we are trying to consolidate naptime to just once during the day. I try to get her down between 12:30 and 1 pm and she will usually sleep for 2-3 hours. At the babysitters she is still needing the two naps. I'm not sure if she is catching up on sleep from when she's with us or if she is used to the nap schedule with the babysitter but I'm sure soon she will move to one nap there too.

Lucy is a great eater and a very hungry toddler. She likes oatmeal, toast, yogurt, cheese, chicken nuggets, goldfish, all kinds of fruit and most vegetables. She most likely needs the calories since she is constantly on the move and burns them so quickly.

Lucy does not like when Caroline pushes her down or takes a toy away from her. She also does not like when we take her away from the toilet paper roll or the dog's water bowl. She is very vocal when she is hungry and you are not fast enough with the food.

Lucy is a roll with the punches kind of kid. She is happy to go along wherever the night takes us. Whether we are going to the library for Liam or taking the older kids to AWANA she doesn't seem to mind and always has a big smile for everyone.

We could not feel more any more blessed than we are to have this amazing family and to have Lucy be the last piece in our puzzle. She's the best!

3 year old funnies

Goodness gracious is this girl funny.

Today we were looking at a flap book together. Caroline pointed to an ostrich with two eggs and asked me if I knew what was in the eggs. I thought I would be funny and say, a monkey! She opened the flap and said, "Two sausages!" "Caroline, do you mean two ostriches????"

The other day Evan was home with the girls and had the Monterey Pop Festival on the TV as background noise. (music festival from 1967) He walked out of the room to grab something to drink and when he came back in he saw Caroline staring intently at the screen while Janis Joplin makes her premiere. He asked her, "Caroline are you watching her sing?" "No Daddy. She is not singing. She is screaming!"

Happy Birthday to Butters!

This old dog just turned 9! Unfortunately her birthday is on Halloween which means she spends most of her time in the bathroom whenever the doorbell rings and that she also doesn't get a walk. I think all of the people dressed up with masks on would make her go nuts.

The kids sang her 'Happy Birthday' before we left the house that day and I'd like to think she took some really long naps and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Sounds like a great birthday to me!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was a quiet one this year. We skipped the Children's museum and the library. We tried to keep it as low key as possible.

We did go with cousins to a Halloween party a couple of weeks before the holiday.

We also went to our church's Trunk or Treat event the week before.

The weekend before I took just Liam over to ISU for Tune or Treat. The strings students decorate the music hall (which is in a spooky castle) with spider webs and bats and then play music throughout the building. The kids have a code that they are trying to figure out and with each musician they would be given a letter to write on their sheet. It was pretty cool. They even allowed the kids to play a cello and violin at the end. After that we went over to a small Halloween carnival also at ISU which was ok but would have been a bit better for Caroline's age group. It was fun to just have a little time with Liam on our own.

On the actual day we went to Evan's work for a little party for the kids and then out trick or treating in our neighborhood. The kids had fun but Lucy was pretty cold. And Caroline wouldn't talk to anyone. After about 30 minutes I decided to take the girls home and Evan took Liam out more with the boy who lives a couple doors down from us. Evan said they had a lot of fun together.

This holiday is still one of Liam's favorites. He loves to go to the Halloween stores in town and check out all the creepy stuff. He had a hard time picking out an outfit this year though. He was trying to pick something really scary but I told him he had to dial it down a notch. So he decided on a skeleton.  He wasn't too happy with me when I told him that for the church events he couldn't wear his mask, so when the actual day came around he was determined to wear his mask. He wore it for about 2 blocks before taking it off since he couldn't see anything. (just like his parents said)

Caroline was talked into being a tooth fairy and then changed her mind to Queen Elsa. Of course.

Since Lucy can't talk yet I decided to have her be the tooth fairy instead. She was super cute.

Pumpkin carving was an Evan activity this year. (I think I was making cookies) The kids drew what they wanted their pumpkin to look like and then Evan carved it for them. They were ecstatic once they saw the finished jack o'lanterns. Evan also carved one for himself.

These three sure do keep us busy! 

11 months

This girl will not slow down. I can't believe that she is almost one year old! Walking a couple of steps just a couple of weeks ago has now turned into walking half way across the room.  A brisk pace is completely normal for her. I think she is trying to run. She still will crawl places but walking has become her preferred mode of transportation.

She still loves the dog and now will say "Dog. Woof Woof." She will also say "cracker" although that sounds more like "cr-ckr". She has even said, "bye-bye" while waving. She has also said "Liam" and "JJ" (the other baby at the babysitters). She loves to give kisses (open mouthed slobbery ones) and enjoys reading her 'Huggy Kissy' book. Her Alphabet book has become a favorite as well.

We are now nursing just twice a day. Once in the morning and once before bed. She has started drinking whole milk with some hesitation. But I am completely out of all of the breast milk that I had pumped throughout these last 11 months and at work I was only getting 2-3 ounces at each pumping break which really wasn't enough for the 4-6 ounces that she would drink while I was away. So, we introduced the whole milk a month early. She isn't super excited about it and while at the babysitters if she sees the other baby getting a bottle she gets a bit upset that she doesn't get one as well. I feel that she is going to hold onto nursing longer than Caroline did. While I'm ok with that I'm also ready to be done. (I nursed Liam until 16 months and Caroline was done right about 12 months) But I will try to remember that this is it. Our last baby. She enjoys nursing. And in the middle of the night it's the only thing that will get her to go back to sleep. That is pretty special.

Sleeping has been going well though. It's the rare occasion now that Lucy wakes in the middle of the night. She now goes to bed between 7:30-8 pm and doesn't wake until around 7 am.

Napping is still happening twice a day during the week but on the weekends most of the time we consolidate to just one nap.

Lucy is a great eater. What she is not great at is being patient or using her baby sign language on a consistent basis. She really likes to scream while in her highchair. We really don't like it when she screams in her highchair. We are really trying to work with her to use her sign language to tell us what she wants. 'More', 'Drink', 'Please', 'Thank you' and 'All done' are all signs that we are currently attempting to use.

The baby time is winding down. We are moving into toddler world in just a few weeks! My little one is almost one!

Because why not

Walking at 10 1/2 months???? Why not. After all she has a big brother and sister to keep up with.

3 year old funnies

Tonight after putting the kids to bed Evan walked by the kids room and heard Caroline talking and playing. He promptly told her it was bedtime and that she needed to be quiet so that she wouldn't wake up Liam or Lucy. She looked right at him and said, "My baby is trying to sleep too but she's upside down just like a bat."

Earlier Evan was asking Caroline if he knew what her shirt said today. (it said Always Brave) She didn't and wanted Evan to explain to her what brave meant. So, Evan tried to tell her it means that sometimes you can be scared or nervous to do something but then you get stronger, have courage and become brave. He asked her if she is ever scared. Her reply? "When I get scared I just yell for Jesus...in the water." Not sure what being in the water is all about since she is fearless while swimming.

I seriously love this age. Being 3 means saying all sorts of ridiculous things that don't quite make sense.

Milestones even while not feeling 100%

Standing on her own?        
















Taking a step with no help? 







Waving?


Saying uh-oh!


Getting another tooth (#8)

This girl can't and won't slow down.

Even when she's so sick it turns into croup.

Even when the steroid she's been taking has her sleep schedule so completely messed up and she's so wired she literally cannot fall asleep.

Nope. Not even for that. She's one tough cookie!

10 months

Wow! Just two short months away from having a one year old!

I think this is my favorite time of having an infant. Lucy has changed so much in the past month. Just recently she has started to stand unassisted and stay standing for several seconds at a time. She still loves to climb the stairs and crawl everywhere. She also still loves to make her own obstacle courses. Climbing over the dog, under chairs and around the table are great activities. Now that she is tall enough, looking out windows has become her new favorite thing to do. She will now also dance when music comes on. It's adorable.

She has also become much more aware of being able to communicate with us. Using baby sign language she will tell us when she wants 'more' of something or if she is 'all done'. I'm beginning to introduce drink next. This is much better than her just screaming at us from her high chair, although that sometimes still happens as well.

Her hair has started to grow and just yesterday I put it into the cutest little pigtails. *sigh*

At this point I think it's safe to say she has three words to her vocabulary. "dog" "Dad" and "Mom". She doesn't say any of them consistently but every once in awhile she will and we kind of look at her like, "Did she just say a word?". She babbles and "talks" a lot though just not any real words besides the three up above.

Lucy now has 7 teeth. Four on the bottom and three on the top. She loves to smile and show them off at anyone who takes time to talk to her.

My most favorite thing about Lucy being 10 months old? She has now consistently been sleeping through the night for the last 1-2 weeks. It's marvelous. We haven't done anything differently. In fact, right before this giant milestone we had a couple of nights where she woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. She would quiet down while holding her but if we tried to lay her back down she would immediately wake back up and start to cry again. Evan even laid out the sleeping bag to sleep next to her crib. *he's such a good Daddy* Those times the next morning she would have a new tooth so at least we had a reason for the waking. And as I type this I'm sure tonight she won't sleep through the night but can I get a Hallelujah! And apparently my body is still trying to recover from lack of sleep because when the girls take a nap I still try to take one too. 9+ months of sleeping for only 4-5 hours at a time is hard on an old body like mine.

And just recently, for the past week, she has also started protesting morning naps. I'm not sure if she is transitioning herself out of them or what. I will say that I'm completely ok with that choice if she is. Two naps a day is very difficult. We miss out on so many of the morning activities like Baby Rock at the library (story hour, music), Rader Pumpkin Farms, Children's museum. We still try to do those things but between the naps gives you only such a short amount of time. It would be nice to be able to get out in the morning again. We shall see what Lucy decides to do about that.

I really can't believe that this little girl came into our lives 10 months ago. It has gone by so fast! She is our last baby and soon to be toddler!

The Funny things she says

I love how Caroline says...

"I need a wiper towel."

"Mom, do bees make peanut butter?"

"I'm saying hi to the sun."

A recent conversation had me giggling to myself as well.
M: "Caroline, Cubbies is going to start soon! You can go to AWANA just like Liam and learn bible verses and wear a vest! Do you know what color your vest will be?"
C: "Purple."
M: "Actually it's blue. Cubbies wear blue, they always have."
C: "Mine will be purple."

"When I was a baby I didn't like when Aunt Emily held me."

One of the great things about being 3 that I have always loved, saying whatever comes to mind.

Go Go White Sox

Sometime in July, Evan and I woke up on a Sunday morning and thought to ourselves let's be completely insane and take the whole family to a White Sox game. Evan didn't really think it sounded that crazy. I thought it sounded like a nightmare to take a baby and a 3 year old to a 3 hour ball game but I was told that it would be fine. Evan and Liam had a great time.

Should I leave it at that?

Lucy and I watched the first inning. Then she got hungry so we went to the bathroom where I nursed her and she fell asleep for about 30-45 minutes. While I was gone Evan said Caroline was....a 3 year old. Constantly moving up and down the aisle of seats, swinging her new metal water bottle that we just received as the free gift and almost hitting the people's heads in front of them. Once Lucy and I got back up to where they were seated we all went back down to find some food. Once we got the food then we went to the kids area. Once again, Evan and Liam had a great time. Lucy, Caroline and I were stuck on the other side of the doors of the kid area because Evan had bought a giant tub of popcorn that you aren't allowed to take into the kid area. Since I knew that the giant tub of popcorn most likely cost $15 I was less inclined to throw it in the trash. But as I sat eating out of the giant tub of popcorn all by myself I realized first how sad I looked and then also how it didn't even really taste that good. Once I threw it away we all took off to find the boys. They were in fact having a great time.

We finally went to sit down only to realize it was now the 9th inning. The good part was the Sox hit a home run to win the game and we were illegally sitting along the 3rd base line fairly close to the field. That was exciting! When he hit the homerun Evan picked up the nearest kid, realized it was Caroline who could have cared less about the game in front of her, put her down and picked up Liam who again, was having a great time.

9 months

Holy cow... Lucy is 9 months old!

Lucy at 9 months old is a baby who does not like to stop moving. She crawls everywhere, pulls herself up to a stand on everything and recently has found our stairs and loves to try to climb them. She also loves to crawl to the dog bowls and play in the water. She has started to clap her hands together and loves to turn pages in her flap books and also her Baby Faces book.

Lucy weighs: 15 pounds 3 ounces
Height: 2 feet 3.8 inches
Teeth: 4
Eyes: Dark Brown
Hair: Blonde

Lucy has become a very good eater. She enjoys chicken, hamburger, sausage, crackers, Cheerios and toast. Yogurt and cheese are also yummy. She has become very skilled at the finger pincher technique and so picks up her food from her tray very well. She still has some of her pureed foods but I am hoping to start transitioning her to diced food very soon. Currently, when she is all done she will just cry so we are still working on baby sign language for 'more' and 'all done'.  The last couple of nights she has gotten very good at signing 'all done'. She is still nursing about four times a day.

She has the greatest laugh and likes to be tickled. Lucy adores big brother Liam and many times will laugh at him when he is trying to get her to notice him. She also adores the dog, often times crawling to be near her or crawling over her and falling on her face. Butters is very good at allowing her to be near her. (even though I'm sure she would much rather be left alone) She likes to watch Caroline as well but Caroline still gets a bit too close so Lucy is trying to figure out how not to be knocked over instead of enjoying her sister.

Lucy takes two very good naps during the day. We usually put her to bed still awake and she may cry for a little bit but can and does put herself to sleep most of the time. We are still trying to figure out what we are doing at night though. She will put herself to sleep at night or I nurse her to sleep and then will sleep from 8 pm-3 am. Evan has been going in trying to get her to go to back to sleep. Currently that involves him picking her up (which goes against everything that we have read about sleep training) and helping her go back to sleep. In the beginning she would then sleep until 5 am, where I would go in and nurse her, then put her back to bed (again!) until around 7 am. Most recently, she has become very upset to see Evan (instead of me) and will not go back to sleep. A few most recent nights she has stayed awake crying for almost one hour. *sigh* I do not know what to do about this and am giving in so easily by just feeding her so that we can all go right back to bed. Although, I know that I would LOVE to get a full nights sleep again. It's been way too long for me!

Lucy is wearing her 6-12 month and her 9 month clothes. This is so weird to me. I mean, yes she is 9 months old so it totally makes sense that she should be wearing that size right? Except that Liam and Caroline were both usually one size smaller than their age. Meaning that at 9 months they still wore 6 month clothes and by age 2 they could still fit in 12 month pants. While Liam and Caroline are short and stout, Lucy is long and lean. I think she will be tall like her Daddy. Which also means that Christmas dress I bought for her in February on clearance probably won't fit her come December. *sad face*

She is SO mad at me for trying to put her hair up.

Lucy is making lots of different sounds with "da" or "do" being on the top of the list. It's quite possible that her first word may be dog. She crawls over to the dog and climbs on the dog and the whole time says "da, da, da". She has even made some sounds like "Mom". A couple times I noticed it in the middle of the night, but it is the middle of the night and I thought my brain was playing tricks on me. But the third time I heard it was when Evan was trying to put her down for her nap and she was crying and very clearly saying "mom". She won't and hasn't said it since.

First day of first grade!

Last Friday, Liam had his first day of first grade! He was so excited to see his friends, ride the bus again and meet his new teacher. I was very excited that Liam got in Mrs. Williams class whom I requested last year. She seems really great and I've heard very diligent with reading, which is just what Liam needs.

Lucy, Caroline and I took Liam to school in the morning and it was so fun! Liam's kindergarten teacher made a big deal about him being a "big first grader" but I think Liam was a bit preoccupied with his own thoughts because he told me later he didn't hear her at all. But as we were walking one of his best friends from last year ran up to him to walk with us for a couple of minutes. They are in the same class and Liam says their desks are almost right next to each other.

Liam rode the bus home and said his first day went great! Mrs. Williams seems very nice and fun. He even has a locker!

I am so excited that Liam is excited for a great school year!

Summer

gone like the wink of an eye!

Sleeping in Mom and Dad's bed

Playing in the sprinkler

Playing at the splash pad

Baseball

Fun Runs

Flying a kite

Harry Potter parties at the library

Michigan

Eating s'mores

Time with Great Grandma

I would say we have had a very busy summer. Since school started last week we must say good bye.  Successful summer - check!