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Friday, November 17, 2017

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!"

Saturday, November 4, 2017

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! 

Monday, October 30, 2017

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!

Monday, October 9, 2017

Because why not

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


Saturday, October 7, 2017

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.


Friday, October 6, 2017

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!