Friday, February 27, 2015

Birthdays!

So I have failed!  Birthdays have come and gone and so I will post pictures and that will have to do.  But I will say this….the birthdays were happy and that is true success.

Addie and Avrei turned 9.  They had a party at the house.  A puppy party!  The kids came over right after school and they had "puppy snacks" then they got to pick a puppy dog out and decorate a little dog house.  I think everyone had a great time.  It was simple and so much fun.





For Annaliese's birthday we were in Massachusetts.  It was her 11th.  Eleventh!  She wanted to shop at her favorite antique shop which we did.  We also took her out to Klem's to pick out some Bryer Horses.  I think she was in heaven.  We ended the day at Friendly's for dinner and ice cream.  Now that is my kind of birthday!






Thanksgiving 2014

We made a trip out to Texas for Thanksgiving this year.  It had been over 2 years since we have seen Byron and his family! Usually we see each other every summer but for some reason schedules weren't aligning and we kept missing each other.  So finally we decided to end it and get out there.  A fun time was had by all.  It was a quick weekend but we were able to hang out and just have fun being together and that was the point.  Here are some pictures.  I'm missing a lot of them…where did they go?  Here is what I have.













Our kids had never been fishing before so that was a highlight.  We also got to go to the zoo.  Althea loved the giraffes and has been in love with giraffes ever since.  Also another fun memory is the protest that the girls put on.  They watched a show called "Hogzilla" about a huge hog that was killed because he was a nuisance to landowners.  The posters and the speeches that the girls put together were adorable.  They were very persuasive!  Too bad our family was their only audience. =)  Another fun memory was playing on the pipe chimes that my mom brought with her.  We got to play different Christmas songs and was quite fun.

THANK YOU BYRON AND TAMMY! We love you!  Let's do it again real soon! xo

Thursday, February 26, 2015

16 months

I can't believe how hard it is to take 5 minutes to write a quick post.  Time keeps slipping away so here I go.

At 15 months Althea was finally weaned.  Kind of sad but very good.  All it took was getting her to like regular milk from a sippy cup.  It took some encouragement but we got there.  Amazingly she started sleeping through the night shortly after that.  No coincidence there!  It has been life changing for me.  I feel like a new person! Sleep is good.

She is a talking machine! I took her in for her 15 month check up last month and the doctor asked if she knew about 10 words or so. Um, yes...more like 50! The doctor said that said she should be connecting words together soon.  Yes, she was doing that too.  Now a month later I don't have a count of her words but I'm sure it's well over 100 and she is very good at communicating what she wants.  I love it when she says "pease, pease, pease!"   Good mannered little one!

When she needs help she does the sign for help.  But she also is starting to say it as well.  She loves climbing up on the homework table and pulling out the markers and coloring on stuff.  Watch out. I know we are going to have a colorful couch one of these days. 

The little thing doesn't think she needs to nap anymore. I put her down everyday but it hasn't been working.  She ends up throwing all her blankets and stuffed animals out of her bed and screaming for me to come get her.  She's clearly super tired so I put her in the car and off we drive around the block a few times and she's alseep in an instant.  She can still fit in her infant car seat so I just leave her in her car seat and take her upstairs to her room where she'll sleep until the girls are home from school.

She loves to sing.  She's doing pretty good with Twinkle Twinkle.  She says "kookle, kwookle."  Pretty cute.  She loves "itsty bitsy spider", "here is the beehive", "If you're happy and you know it" and never tires of "Ring around the Rosie."  She calls it "Asses, Asses" for Ashes, Ashes.  She likes to spread out a blanket and spin around in circles by herself and then fall down.  She's great at pointing to (and saying) all her body parts when asked. 

She loves food generally.  She'll eat about anything, thankfully.  She is a wiggler though.  From the moment she wakes in the morning until she goes down and night she is constantly moving.  She does pause now and then to read a book but 90% of the day she is moving all over the place.  We just got back from Princeton and she loved it there. We were there for a week and she just loved exploring all over the place.  There was nothing really that she she couldn't/shouldn't get into so she was in heaven.  Now that we are back home there is a lot more that she can't get into and it frustrates her. 

She loves to buckle things.  When I put her in her high chair she must be strapped in or she will stand.  Not to worry.  She likes to buckle herself now. Over and over.  I just have to help her unbuckle.

She also likes to climb lately.  She has a number of bruises on her face from the tumbles she has taken.  Stressing me out.  I have the stairs blocked but she constantly climbing up on speakers and stools and sometimes falls.  She's learning the laws of gravity.

Also she has been teething like crazy the last month or so.  Like 5 new teeth in the last month.  She's handled it well.  She likes to chew on her coat.  Every time I take it off her it is soaked.  Must feel good on those gums.

Our whole family is nuts about this girl.  I love it when calls to the girls by name.  "Anna, Addie (or Abby) and Avie".  She likes to point to their pictures and say their names.  She loves calling for mom or dad too.  (That's how we usually wake up each morning...and I love it!)  It's fun to have this wonderful girl around.  She is a keeper for sure!