The very happy birthday girl!
Jack REALLY wanted her cupcake...
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Elise is 4!
Happy 4th Birthday, Elise! We love our sweet, silly, smart, and strong-willed little girl :) She is growing up waaay too fast. We are so, so blessed to be her parents. The 4 year old summary is coming soon. For now, here are some pictures from her family birthday party in Texas in early January. Thanks to Bryan and Michelle for documenting it for us! I absolutely love the facial expressions in these pictures. She loved having all her grandparents, aunts, and uncles together to celebrate her special day in person :)
Jack - 21 months
Stats: Need to measure height and weight. He's recently outgrown some clothes so I think he has gotten taller. Heavier, probably not :) He wears 18-24 month and some 2T tops and mostly 12-18 month pants, size 2T pajamas, and size 7 shoes. Updated: Height is approximately 34.5 inches and weight is approximately 24 lbs, with fuzzy pajamas on :)
Sleeping: Sleep is still great. He goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 and is usually up around 7 just talking in his crib. I usually get him up around 7:15. He takes a 2.5ish hour nap from about 12:30-3.
Eating: Eating is still okay. He always eats a great breakfast and loves eggs, bacon, pancakes, oatmeal, bagels, waffles, dry cereal (current favorite is plain Cheerios), yogurt, fruit, etc. Lunch and dinner are hit or miss. He is offered 3-4 items that are similar or the exact same as the rest of us are eating and if he doesn't choose to eat much, then that's his choice :) He likes all fruit, meat sometimes, beans sometimes, and he will finally eat regular cheese again. I've tried peanut butter again and it doesn't make the skin around his mouth red, so he gets that sometimes instead of almond butter. His favorite (ok, only) vegetables are sweet potatoes and pureed butternut squash. I still make purees with fruits and green vegetables about 5 times a week, and he enjoys eating them out of a bowl or in a Sili Squeeze. He uses a fork and spoon well and enjoys his newfound independence with food that he can spoon feed himself. Mama enjoys this, too! His all time favorite food is macaroni. I walked into Panera Bread the other day to pick up some bagels, and he immediately started saying "rah roni peeeez, rah roni peeez" and only gave it up when I promised part of a bagel. His favorite snacks are currently raisins, pretzel goldfish, healthy granola bars, fruit, or squeeze packs. He drinks probably 90% water and 10% whole or 2% milk. This month he finally started saying "water" or "my water cup" instead of "mytraw" (my straw, which took us a long time to decipher!).
Playing: Jack will play for a long time with a lot of different toys, but his favorites this month are the trampoline, duplo car track, magnets (letters, shapes, numbers, words, etc), balls, and stacking cups. He has one train car and loves trains, so I think we will probably go that route for his 2nd birthday. Any opinions on Thomas vs. Chuggington or other brands? He absolutely adores jumping on the trampoline and I have counted 30-40 consecutive jumps on multiple occasions. He still loves to "pay football dada" and run around and chase or be chased by us. Elise brightens his world and he always wants to know where she is and what she is doing. He gets so excited when it's time to get in the van to go pick her up from preschool.
Learning: Jack is such a little chatterbox. He is constantly using short sentences and phrases to narrate his day. He can now answer "or" questions instead of just repeating what I said. He always points out colors, numbers, letters, and shapes. He knows almost all of the lowercase letters now and a lot of new shapes, like octagon, pentagon, parallelogram, trapezoid, etc. He's started picking up on letter sounds and will sometimes randomly say them while playing with his magnets, like "Z Z zuh zuh zuh". He often stacks 6-8 small blocks on top of each other before they fall. He normally tells me when he goes #2 and asks for a new diaper. He likes to sit on the potty but hasn't done anything on it yet.
Other Likes: Riding in the car, stroller, and Beco, playing with his peeps, climbing, hiding, getting his vitamins, music
Dislikes: Getting nails or hair cut, when Boss takes a piece of food out of his hand (he bawls and bawls, which is why he eats most snacks while strapped in the booster chair), when someone says that it's nap time or bed time
Funny Sayings: The funny sayings have started and his little voice is so sweet.
(during a diaper change)
Daddy: "Who loves you, Jack?"
Jack: "Mama wuvs you. Daddy wuvs you. Weeese wuvs you. Payoom (playroom) wuvs you!"
(in the morning after going to look for Daddy)
"Here he is! Get up, Dad!"
Me: "Jack, where are your shoes?"
Jack: (walks over to front closet) "My shoes. I found it! Here it is!"
Me: (trying to distract him while making dinner) "Jack, where is your (car) track?"
Jack: (trying to lead me to the playroom to the track that Daddy made) "Come on, Mom! I found it! Play track. Daddy did it!"
(when seeing something new)
"That called?" or "This called?"
Random adult at the store: "Hi there, how are you?"
Jack: "I fine."
Random adult: "What is your name?"
Jack: "Gak."
Random adult: "How old are you?"
Jack: "Two!"
Me: "How old are you really?"
Jack: "One half!"
Since our house is split level, I throw the dirty clothes over the railing upstairs to get them close to the basement door. One morning, Jack's diaper had leaked and he absolutely did not want to get out of his beloved fire truck pajamas. After I threw them downstairs, he cried and kept saying "Tuck mamas want to get! Tuck mamas want to get!" He started going down the stairs after them until they were in his way, and then politely said "Cue me, tuck mamas." (Excuse me, truck pajamas. Ha!)
I have taken very few pictures lately but here are some of him from our family photo shoot in early January. He does not get the "smile at the camera" concept :) Happy 21 months, little buddy!
Friday, January 18, 2013
Jack - 20 months
Jack's 20th month of life was so fun! We spent most of this month, from Dec 22 - Jan 7, visiting family and friends in Texas and he did great. He definitely is a handful on a 3.5 hour airplane ride (thank goodness for direct flights!) but he put on a show for everyone that he saw in Texas. He slept great, ate okay (normal for him), and had a blast playing with everyone. He was not into opening Christmas presents this year, but his sister graciously stepped in and took over the unwrapping.
Stats: He's definitely grown because his feet stay in his 2T footed pajamas now. I'm guessing he's over 34 inches tall and probably weighs about 25 lbs. This means he should be wearing 12-18 month clothes according to weight and 2T clothes according to height. Thank goodness for adjustable waist pants! He's got clothes in that whole range of sizes that he can wear. His size 7 shoes still fit well.
Eating: Jack came down with a fever soon after we arrived back in Baltimore. Stomach issues followed, and his eating is still not quite back to normal. His best meal is usually breakfast. He likes eggs, bacon, yogurt, fruit, dry cereal, waffles, etc. He still likes the pureed mixtures in the Sili Squeeze to get his green veggies in. For some reason, he still refuses to eat cheese unless it is melted. His favorite food by far is macaroni.
Sleeping: He is still sleeping very well, even with traveling and the sickness. He has always adjusted very quickly to the 1 hour time difference between here and Texas. He goes to bed around 7-7:15 and usually wakes between 7 and 7:30. He takes a 2.5 hour nap from 12:30ish-3ish.
Playing: Jack is 100% boy. He loves all the boy toys, from balls to trucks to cars to trains to blocks and duplos. He loves to run around and climb. His favorite books are First 100 Trucks, Flashing Fire Engines, and Tough Trucks. He loves his mama but he is definitely a daddy's boy. Anything is better with Daddy, and if Mike is home, Jack drags him around wherever he goes. He even asks to "Call Daddy please!" during the day. He also loves his sister, and is actually a lot more tolerant now of her hugs, kisses, and wrestling. He loves to hide with her under the quilt on her bed.
Learning: He's mastered the rest of his colors (to include black, white, purple, etc), numbers 1-10, and capital letters. He knows about half of the lowercase letters, and I'm sure he will pick up the rest quickly once I start working on it. He still talks all the time in a mostly 2-4 word phrases/very basic sentences. He likes to "narrate" his day. He has picked up on a lot of random phrases that we say and uses them appropriately. We were watching The Letter Factory downstairs a few days ago and he walked over to the stairs, turned, smiled, and said "Right back!", climbed up the stairs, and got the letter magnet off the fridge and brought it back down. He is very good at walking down the stairs now and either holds the wall or the rail depending on which set he is on. I don't let him go on the hard stairs in the kitchen and he knows to go to the carpeted stairs instead. He learned how to jump off of 2 feet in December. We just got a trampoline for the basement (thanks, Grandma Frances!) and he can now jump 10-15 times in a row on both feet. So cute! I should post a video. He is pretty good at sharing toys in the playroom (this might be because he and Elise usually aren't playing with the same thing) and we are working on the concept of taking turns with the trampoline. Currently, while she is jumping and he is waiting, he repeatedly says things like, "My turn. My trampoline. My jumping. Very high. MY TURN! MY TURN! Tampoline! Tampoline!" He is very polite and mostly obedient... sometimes more so than his sister :) He often says please and thank you without being prompted.
We love this sweet little guy! Happy 20 months, Jack!
"hiding" with Elise
playing with his buddy Luke (apparently they were not in the mood to smile for the camera, but at least they are both looking!)
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Kid updates and family pictures
We had a wonderful Christmas and are thoroughly enjoying our time in Texas. The kids are thrilled to get so much play time with their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Christmas update hopefully coming soon, but first, some kid updates that I have been meaning to post for a while.
Elise - almost 4 years
Things are going well. She is definitely a strong willed child, and I feel like discipline is a work in progress (especially for the last few months!), but we are having so much fun with her. She's grown up so much and I treasure the time that we spend together. Since my most recent Elise update in September, things haven't changed too much. Sleeping and eating are still great, even on vacation, though sometimes she takes forever to finish her meal. She still takes a 1.5 hour nap almost every day. She's grown about 1.5 inches and gained a few pounds, and is now about 42 inches tall and weighs about 40 lbs (clothed). A few of her 5T clothes are too small now but for the most part she wears size 5 and 6. Size 11.5 and 12 shoes still fit but I think she needs new ones. Birthday, perhaps?
In the last 3 months, Elise has grown up and learned new tricks. She can pump her legs to swing herself in the big girl swing and actually catch a ball. She switched from baths to showers and now prefers to walk rather than ride in the stroller (unless I am pushing the stroller while running... then she gets to walk after I am done). Most of the time, she dresses herself in the morning before coming out of her room. She absolutely loves preschool and playing with kids her age. She also loves playing with Jack, but that usually consists more of chasing each other and acting silly. She's entered the princess phase and loves jewelry, dress up, dolls, accessories, and anything girly. She's my little companion and loves getting to run errands with Mommy, especially when the boys stay home :)
She was talking to Pop on the phone earlier this month and he asked her how many days left until our trip to Texas. She enthusiastically said 10 days! And then tomorrow there will be 9 days, and then the next day there will be 8 days, and the next day there will be 7 days, and continued until she got to one. I had no idea that she could count backwards.
For most of this time period, she was obsessed with her bible from preschool. As in, we read it for every nap time and every bed time for about 3 months. It is 500 pages long, and I'm sure we read through the whole thing at least 20 times. She knows the stories very well and can describe them to you. This has resulted in a few funny conversations...
She was playing around on her chair at dinner and almost fell off:
Me: Elise, please turn around and face the table.
E: Why?
Me: So you don't fall off the chair and hurt yourself.
E: But don't you think that God would heal me?
Praying at dinner:
E: Thank you God for our food and our toys and for Mommy and Daddy and Elise and Jack and Boss and for everything around the whole world, and for light bulbs and beds and for my clock and for sending Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sins.
Reading a bible story from the old testament:
E: "Are Elijah and Elisha in heaven?"
Me: "Yes."
E: "Why?"
Me: "Because they believed in God and Jesus."
E: "But Mommy, Jesus hadn't even been born yet!"
Oops. Elise: 1, Mommy: 0
Jack - 19.5 months
Jack is in a really cute phase right now and we wish that time would slow down just a little :) He is also sleeping great, even in a pack and play. He's still a pickier eater than his sister, but I think he has fewer picky meals now than he did at the last update. He is still tall and thin and wears 18-24 month tops and 12-18 month/18-24 month pants. Size 7 shoes are still good.
He speaks in mostly 2-3 word phrases and can accurately say up to about 4 syllables. He talks all the time. He's 100% boy and loves trains, trucks, cars, balls, blocks, collecting sticks and rocks, and knocking things down. About a month ago, he finally started calling Elise "Weese" instead of "tister". He is very interested in letters and probably knows all of the capital letters, most of the numbers from 1-10, and at least half of the lowercase letters. He loves his block toys and duplos and always stacks duplos of the same size on top of each other. He won't make a tower with mixed block sizes. He is very good at the shape sorters and is getting good with his colors (red, yellow, and pink are his best).
His little brain is working hard! Here are a few little stories from the buddy.
He's started putting up a little bit of a fight when you tell him it is time for bed. He will run away from you yelling, "No bed! No bed! Play mommy! Play daddy!" Once you pick him up and take him to his room, he is fine and content to read his truck books.
The other day, he wanted to go outside and I was holding him, so he kept saying "Mommy outside". I told him it was too cold for Mommy to go outside, so he said "Daddy outside Daddy outside." Daddy didn't answer right away so he turned to Mimi and said, "Mimi outside!" Mimi obliged and he was successful in manipulating us :)
He was fussing about 15 minutes after going down for his nap today, so Mike went in and checked and he had pooped. As soon as Mike laid him on the changing table, he said "Tank ooo daddy, tank ooo daddy!"
If you ask him if he is a baby or a big boy, he says, "I baby!" If you ask him how he is, he says, "I fine!" If you ask him how old he is, he still says, "Two!", even though I've tried to teach him otherwise.
He often says "peeease" and "tank oo" without being prompted. He loves to greet people by saying "Hi" or "Heyyy". He is able to say anything that he needs to say, and usually communicates very well, except for some reason he cannot clearly say "water" and often gets frustrated because we don't understand him the first, second, or third time.
He loves his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and especially loves hanging out with the guys. He will walk up to them saying "Hug _name_" and give them a big hug. He will cry if one of his guys leaves without him. He loves following his daddy around and greatly prefers for Mike to put him to bed.
He also likes to direct people where they should go. I was fixing breakfast a few weeks ago and he grabbed my hand and started dragging me to the playroom saying, "No eat. Mama playroom!"
Mimi was playing cars with him and said, "Jack, that is so silly!" and he replied, "I know.".
He has started saying "Bless you" after he sneezes.
Here are some favorites from our November photo session with my lovely sister-in-law, Michelle, of Michelle Boyd Photography. Jack was extremely fussy during this shoot because a)he didn't want to wake up from his nap, b)it was very cold and windy (low 40s) outside, and c)he isn't bribe-able for picture taking. Elise will smile for a goldfish cracker. Thankfully, Michelle still got some awesome pictures and we love them!
Friday, December 21, 2012
Family Christmas
Here are some pictures from our family Christmas a few days ago. Mike and I laugh because we totally could have stopped at the stocking and not gotten anything else. Elise was so thrilled with the new socks and bows in her stocking that she didn't even realize there were more presents. I hope this excitement over little things lasts for many, many years. We had a hard time figuring out gift ideas for her this year because she isn't into anything specific. There wasn't an obvious "big toy" like there has been in years past. She's taken a recent interest in dresses and princesses (until this month, she hadn't willingly worn a dress in a year!) so I may do something like that for her birthday. She loves clothes and accessories, so we got her the socks (HUGE hit... she tried on all three pairs right away), a sparkly headband and a few bows, a new pair of pajamas (pictured below... another huge hit!), and a new shirt. Jack got her two mini American Girl dolls, which she loved and immediately proclaimed, "Jack did such a good job picking out these dolls for me! I love them!" Santa brought her a new Boz DVD. Jack got a Duplo table (courtesy of $10 on craigslist) and was not interested in anything else :) Elise gave him her old trike, and he also got new pajamas and socks and an old toy of Elise's (the Melissa and Doug shape sorting clock) and a Boz DVD. We are so thankful for our precious kids and can't wait for more celebrating with our families next week!
Before we started
Jack loves Duplos
modeling the new PJs and accessories
opening the American Girl dolls
Jack trying to escape
trying on the third pair of socks
Boss's present, which was demolished in about an hour
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Sisters
So thankful to have these ladies in my life. Elise and Jack love their aunts and had a great time with them in November!
Elise and Jennifer in front of the White House
Checking out an airplane by the WWII memorial
Elise and Michelle
Don't be fooled since you can't see their faces... Jack is definitely less than thrilled whenever Elise wants to show her affection... but it does look cute from behind :)
The kids can't wait to see all of their aunts and uncles in about a week and a half!
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