Sophie 17 mths, Jack 2.5 yrs

Potty Training

It’s funny what  a little competition can do. Jack has been sporadically interested in the potty here and there. But when little sister showed some interest and peed on the potty, Jack became really interested. “Jack can do too!” And so it began. The potty training journey. At first, it was a battle to even get him to wear underwear. Even specially picked out underwear was a battle in the morning. No milk until you wear your underwear… fixed that pretty quickly. Once they were on, a few accidents began. “Uh oh buddy. Next time tell us and we will help you sit on the potty”. We also set the timer for 15 minute intervals. Every 15 minutes, the stove would “beep” and we would have jack sit on the potty. If he peed, he got a treat. (Halloween candy, peanut M&M, fruit snack, piece of cookie). We started on a Wednesday, poor Kendall’s second week. She did well though and kept encouraging him! By Friday, we went out to dinner with Nana and Buddy, and we had him use the potty before we left, before dinner, after dinner and when we got home. Success!!! Accidents began to lesson, and still happen every now and then. Poop is a different monster. It took Jack closer to 1.5-2 weeks to get a poop in the potty. And when he did, boy were we happy! 2 cookies for you! It has been hit or miss still, 4 weeks in. We get about half of the time the poops in the potty. Still working and he does well. We rarely have accidents now. One every couple of days for pee, but still working on poop.

Sophie is interested, of course, because big brother is. She will go diaperless in the evenings and sit on the potty sporadically throughout the night. I can never tell if she goes or not, because there is always pee in there from Jack going every 30 minutes as well. There are few accidents, so I think she might go sometimes. She also took me she had to pee, and sat down and pooped on the potty! Looks like someone else is interested! We are practicing in the evenings with Sophie and might just go for it on the weekend with her. Appears shes interested. And I already make several trips for Jack to go to the potty and remind him, might as well add another. J

Talking

Wow. Where to start. Jack is saying sentences and is so clear. He is starting to use pronouns (“Get off me!”) and “ing” words (Coming, Going etc). Sophie uses 3+ sentence words too. I can’t even count the number of words she has! She knows everyones name. She says “get down now”, “Jack here”, “Jack pee pee”, “Milk please”, “thank you” after receiving something and much more.

Jack thinks every day is his birthday right now. “First, Toashies birthday. Then Mommys birthday. Now Jacks birthday”. Yes, makes sense buddy. “Happy Birthday Jack”. Sometimes Sophie says, “Happy Day”. To which Jack replies, “No Toashie. Not happy day. Happy birthday!” HA! We have had conversations between the two of them about fighting too. Jack was playing with his cars, and Sophie came up to play. He slightly pushes her away. “No push, jack”.. and pats him on the back. “No hitting, Toashie” he says snooty. He also tells her, “Be nice”, “No biting”, and “No hitting”. And so the sibling fun begins. J

Other

Sophie is hilarious and her personality is huge. In the grocery store, she waves and flirts with everyone. “Hiiiii!” “Byeeeee!” “See ya!!!!!” “Heeee yahh” and furrows her brow. People say hi back and she continues. She was a  hit at the urgent care, after eating her pipe cleaner. She even said “Cheese!” for her x-ray picture.  Last night she was smelling the dogs, and saying “Eeeewww!”. Even though Tom was in a grouchy mood, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Jack is starting to get so much that is going on around him. He is afraid of the big bad wolf right now (nice job mommy!) and tells Kiki and Bri to “be careful guys, be careful of the big bad wolf!”. He thought the wolf would blow down Jacks house, but no, Daddy showed him its made of bricks. Then he said the big bad wolf will blow down Mimi’s house, because its made of straw! Haha! Nope buddy. Her house is bricks too. J I think he might sort of get Christmas this year. We will be putting up our tree soon and starting the Elf on the Shelf. He has visited Santa, and told Santa he wants an Orange Car and a Gas Tank for his car. HA!

He is really into movies right now. Lilo and Stitch, Cars, and Sophia the First! Sophie likes Nemo. “Remote. Nemo.” she says! I can’t wait to take Jack to the movie theater.

The new sitters are doing awesome, and have been such a welcome to our home. The kids appear to like them. They are making quick friends with Maliya and learning things from her (and her from them). They hug Maliya bye every night when she leaves, and yell “Byeeee” to her several times. Both girls are very helpful to Mommy, helping with cleaning, laundry, dishes and prepping dinner. Its so wonderful to come home to a nice clean house, with dinner simmering in the crock pot. Kendall and Maddy have both been patient and helpful with Jack’s potty training, which I really really appreciate!

SHARING? What’s that? (Jack 2.5, Sophie 1.5)

SHARING? What’s that?

Wow. What happened to summer? It’s over! Here comes fall. And so much has changed. Talk. Talk. Talk. Everyone is talking in the Alban house hold. Jack says EVERYTHING. And I mean EVERYTHING. He is now repeating cuss words, so we have to watch what we say. He is also getting some 3-4 word sentences out, “Mommy watch cars please”, “Mommy chocolate milk please” “I pee”, “Toashie- NICE!”. Sharing and fighting have started to become a regular occurrence in our house. Apparently, every toy in the house is Jacks. Especially Lightening McQueen and any other cars. Well, except for the purple and pink ones. We work on sharing, but its so hard. Jack will intentionally push Sophie and she falls over. She cries. Time out for Jack. Or… she will bite back. Even better. Then he cries too. At least she has developed a method to protect herself I suppose. Good thing kisses and Cars band aids can easily fix boo boos. J

This weekend we picked up some pumpkins. I thought this would be SO FUN. Which it was… for about 5 minutes. Then all of the pumpkins were Jacks and Sophie wasn’t allowed to touch them. Which didn’t last long before she ran up and grabbed run and ran off. Well then  Jack is crying and grabbing it back. Pushing. Biting. Screaming. Crying. Happy fall everyone! J

Sophie, 15 mths

Sophie says no, mommy, daddy, pappy, papa, mimi, kiki, up, down, ee ee, go, baba, nah nah, nana (banana), moooo e (More), gink (drink), car, cat, doggie, two, Ack (Jack), cow, wa wa (water), bus, tree. Who would have thought a 15 mth could say SO MUCH? After so much silence from Jack I was not ready for this explosion! And its SO FUN! Sophie is exploading! She still nurses here and there, and will ask for it. I didn’t know this was going to happen, but we are going with the flow. She usually nurses at 5am, and back to bed. Sometimes when I get home from work. I recently started telling her “No” in the middle of the night and she seems to go back to sleep (or I put her in her own bed and she falls asleep). Sophie does GREAT at bedtime. Bath, bottle, cuddles, bed. Little crying and down anywhere from 830-9 sleeping most of the night in her own bed. She is walking and running and chasing brother. She wants to be just like bubby. If he has a banana, she wants a banana. If its in the peel, hers needs to be in the peel. If his is out, hers is out.

Jack, 2.5 years

Wow. I was so worried about Jack talking and this summer it took off. He repeats and tries to say everything we do. Last time I blogged I could count the number of words. I couldn’t even begin to try to count the words anymore. He assigns a name to everyone, and people even have things (Buddy’s car, Mimi’s car). He knows what kinds of cars everyone has… and will point them out on the road. He knows all colors and counts to ten. (One, two, three, four, five, fifteen, eight, nine, ten!). And we can never count to three… its always ten.  I am so proud of him! He is doing so well. He points out every bus and truck and motorcycle and “race car”. He loves cars and lightening McQueen. He has attempted the potty hear and there. We are getting there and he doesn’t like the poop in his diaper… So it must be getting closer. We still notice he has a hard time with groups or attention. He doesn’t like class settings, teachers or the fire man at the festival this weekend. Class makes him afraid. He doesn’t like the “birthday song” either…. Too much attention.  I hope he grows out of it. J

Things are going well. Busy parents, busy kids. Last night we went to feed the ducks and Jack ran the whole way home. I swear I don’t know where this kid gets his energy. And of course… baby sister was following and trying to run too. She did pretty good for a 1 year old. J

It’s baseball season!

Jack has become obsessed with baseball. Daddy is watching the Reds, and so naturally, so is Jack. He wants to play whenever the Reds are on TV, and he quickly finds his bat (“bap”) and ball (“baaaaallllll”)  and wants to play with Daddy. Daddy tosses it, Jack hits it. He used to be the pitcher, but now Jack is the batter. Whenever the Reds player makes contact and hits the ball, Jack cheers. Yay! His favorite toys include the bobble head and Johnny Gomes Gnome. Even though the toys went to the store and have sustained some droppings, they are still up there as favorites. He then noticed that the figurines have the “C” for Cincinnati Reds, and that’s when his interest grew for the baseball on TV. Sophie has also learned the word, “Baaaaall” and she will say it and try to steal the balls. Jack does not find this amusing. Last night,  Jack insisted on sleeping with his balls. A real baseball, a hard one, and a soft play one. Ok. Whatever. So into OUR bed the balls come. Sophie slept in her own bed, but awoke to nurse around 1:00. SCREAMING. OK. So I get her and bring her in to nurse. Then I fall back asleep. Next thing I know... I awake to Sophie talking… “Baaaaall! Baaaaall!” as she is playing with one of the balls. It must have seemed like the best thing in the world to her. There was a ball in the bed in the middle of the night!!!! Wow. Amazing! HAHA! So back to her bed she goes, because we aren’t playing ball in the middle of the night. Then Daddy rolls on a baseball, so he tosses it out. First thing when Jack wakes up, Baaaaall? Baaaall? Yes Jack, here they are. Uh oh. Only one. Two! He says. Two!!!! Because he remembered there were two. We look and look and locate the said ball. Smiles across his face… well until Sophie begins to steal the balls. “Baaaaall! Baaaall!” she says. J

Jack, 2 yrs

Jack’s talking is taking off. Its hard to even list the words. Some of the new words include, Ball, Bat, Tree, Tent, Peez (Please), Mommy, Kiki, Gigi, Paul, More, Nemo!, Dori, Truck, Bus, Bee Bee, Nonna, Nana). His signs are all over the place- he has signs for everything of makes them up. Like moving his feet really fast for a walk, or shivering as in “brrr” for cold. We have been working on 2-3 word sentences, and we can get Mommy drive, Mommy please, Daddy Please, Mommy Nemo Please, Tent please, etc. This is great news! He seems to be able to count to 3, (1 – with a finger, then 2 and then 3)… but can’t say any other numbers yet. Although I think he recognizes some of them. He knows the following letters of the alphabet: A, B, D, E, G, I, O, P, R, and T. And can say them. He likes to push Sophie and gets mad when she is playing with his toys.  So we started time out. So he started chest bumping her. Um, no, Jack. But yes, you did get us on that “technicality”. Jack likes to steal extra attention by pretending to learn to walk like Sophie, taking baby steps, and then “falling” over just like her. “Oh jack!” we exclaim! Jack is learning to walk just like Sophie! Mommy and Jack also have lots of little special things we do, like wink at each other to say we love you, and Jack gets to stay up an extra hour after Sophie to spend special one on one time with Mommy. What do you think he wants to watch? Nemo!!!!! Nemoooo! (Just keep swimming just keep swimming… Ah hoo wah hoo, ah ah ah!)

Sophie, 11 mths

Sophie is walking all over the place. She goes up and down the stairs and can get around any object or obstacle we use to block the stairs. She is jabbering- she says uh oh, baaaaall, mama, baba, na na, hello and she is trying to say Tree (ee). I love her little tricks of, How big is Sophie (So big!) and she answers phone calls on her hand- but holding her hand up to her ear and saying Eh-o! (Hello!). Sophie is still a Mama’s girl. I hold her about 100% of the time, unless she is trying to walk. Up and down. Up and down. Hold me. No let me walk. No hold me. OK, let me walk. Sophie is so beautiful these days. Although she has no hair, I think it lets me focus on her adorable little face. I cannot believe my baby is turning one!!! Just 2.5 weeks! Where did the time go? It feels like I was just rocking and cradling a crying baby for 3 hours every evening, and never setting her down. Then suddenly, she was crawling, and now walking and now I have two toddlers. I am excited about her language development. It is much faster than Jack’s and seems to be taking off. She asked pointed to a tree this week and asked, ehh? Like she wanted to know what it was. Then she pointed to every tree on the walk after that. Then a day later, she was trying to say it. EE? She can point to my nose on command. She points to the dogs on command. And she is interested in the airplanes (and kites) just like her brother. Pointing and pointing.

Wow. The kids have grown so much. I am so proud of both of them. Looking forward to Sophie’s BIG day in just 2.5 weeks! I have a feeling she will do well with her smash cake… because she loves all food and especially cake and ice cream. J

Easter Money for Jack

Cute story. Last night when I got home from work, Jack was crying because Sophie had run over his toes with her walker. So I picked him up and asked if he wanted to go outside with me to check the mail. Of course he did! And he instantly stopped crying. So we go out to check the mail, and what a lucky day... Jack has mail. My grandma had sent him an Easter card. So I tell him... This is YOUR card. :) He is VERY excited about this. So we take it inside and open it (upstairs, im changing)... and there is a $5 bill in it. Jack is fascinated with money and "paying" for things, so naturally this is VERY exciting. I say, This is YOUR money Jack and you can use it to buy something and then you pay. He slowly shakes his head yes as if he understands. Then I say... go show Daddy. He goes RUSHING out the door to go show Daddy his money. He gets to the top of the stairs, and Daddy says... "what do you have?" and He makes the sound for an elephant. Could he have really remembered that we needed money to ride the elephants, and now he has some and wants to ride? We think so, maybe? I kept saying, I'm so sorry honey, Mommy doesn't have any money. And could he possibly know that now he has money?! Seems so. Tom asked him, oh... so now you have money to ride the elephants? And he shakes his head yes. Cute little kid. And sorry the elephants won't be back for another year. So we put his money somewhere "safe" and out of Sophie's reach and told him that he can take it to the store and buy whatever he wants with it. And then he will "pay". And he was extremely excited about this. :)

Roller Coaster: Up and Down

Roller Coaster: Up and Down - Jack 23.5 mths, Sophie 9.5 mths

As a mother, or parent, you know the day goes up and down. There are moments of, “Oh, I couldn’t possibly love this child anymore, she is SO beautiful!” to “Seriously? Is this child mine? What has possessed you this instant!?” My mom told me early on… it’s a roller coaster. Makes sense right? But as a new mom, and a friend to many “soon to be moms”, its funny that no one tells you the details about this roller coaster ride. Like that it starts instantly- like day 1 home from the hospital when the reality hits you at 3am that you don’t know how to make a formula bottle. Or that you will go over about 100 hills in one day… or in one dinner out with the family. I love to have my kids with me. Even if its miserable for all of us, dammit. We are a family and we are all going to be miserable together. I can’t count the number of times I have the “best” idea for us to do as a family… only to realize it was probably the worst idea. How many times have I looked at Tom from across the dinner table at a restaurant, begging, please? Make them stop? Or how many times has he shot back the look that either says, “Told you so. I didn’t want to bring them”. Or, “Well their your kids too”.  Isn’t it funny what your eyes can say, without saying anything?!

Well, we’ve had a few interesting weeks, and some ups and downs. We went on vacation. The kids were great actually. They did great on the airplanes, swam in the pools, napped well (for them), went out to dinner and played with their cousins. We went to the circus, where Sophie squealed both in delight and boredom, grabbed the ladies hair in front of me and oodled with a lady behind us. Jack stared intently at the tigers, was bored and jitterish through the clown moments, and then about died when the elephants came out. I had promised him for 3 weeks, that we would ride the elephants together… and he saw the other kids doing it, and he remembered. He was pointing and trying to walk to them. Dammit. No cash. Seriously Lindsey? (and it was 20 bucks, 10 a person by the way) And of course. The ATM’s are out. And crashing down the hill. Tantrum ensues. Jack is repeatedly pointing at those elephants. Ehh? Ehhh? And pointing at himself. I’m sorry honey. L And Sophie is passed bedtime. So she starts crying… so we leave. Within a few seconds, two beautiful peaceful sleeping babes in the back.

JACK, 23 mths

Jack’s language is starting to take off. He says about 30 words, Mama, dada, toash, go away, hot, brown, gigi, papa, pappy, mimi, poop, pee pee, ee ee, two, three, uh oh and down. He says the following letters, A, B, D, E, O, U, T, P and I. Last night we were watching a documentary about Alaska.. and I asked what color are the polar bears. “Whiiii” he says! YAY! And later I ask what an owl says, “who who!” he hollers! Heck yah! He also is very very good with sign language. He signs Dog, Hat, Car, Bus, Airplane (which he constantly reminds us that he road in one… with pappy), bird, bug, more, please, thank you, milk, bike.  He has also learned to “wink”. Half the time he blinks, but a lot of the time he lands a real wink. Melts my heart. Its our little secret “I love you”. I just look over and wink at him. And he winks right back and keeps on trucking. He has developed a huge love for cars, and the iron board ramp, and pockets. He loves to put his cars in his pockets.

Sophie, 9.5 mths

Wow. Where to start on this one? She is walking with help. Jack LOVES to help his sister walk, although he pushes her a little too fast. J She can walk well in the walker. She said, Mama one night… but lately her babbles sound more like Da da! She has waved a few times. She gives baby high fives. And she plays pat a cake. She climbs anything and everything. She climbs stairs. She has climbed out of the walker onto her head. She smiles and coos, and is just absolutely beautiful. Everyone comments on how beautiful she is. At the grocery store on Saturday, Sophie must have had 5 comments on how adorable she is. Equally as common, she gets comments about how tiny she is. I don’t know what she weighs… but I guess around 16. I think she is smaller than Jack… but I am not sure.   And our little peanut just took her first steps yesterday night!! About five to eight little steps... guess she wants to be walking at Big Brothers birthday party! 9 mths, and 1 week. Yep. She's got some Ater in her. ;) She gets her balance from her Mama.

Crazy days and Supermom

Sometimes I wonder how I even get out the door or manage to get anything done. Sometimes I AMAZE myself at what I accomplish in one day. This Monday was one of those crazy days. Wake up 630ish, and carefully try to get ready without disturbing the kids or waking them. It’s so much faster when they are asleep.  Usually I can get a shower in, but that’s about it. Dry hair, Jack sits on Mommy’s lap. Make up time? Jack wants to help. Watch out Soph- don’t pull the straighener down. Where’s Daddy? AGH. Late again. 9ish- make it to work. Lunch with a gf (Andi). Car won’t start. Awesome. Jump. It starts. Mail a package of baby clothes to some Mom friends. Lose blank checks. Lose work on computer. Redo work (awesome set back). Grocery shop at walmart (shoot me). Come home. Find blank checks on garage floor. Sophie tired of Daddy (read: screaming!) Dad hands Soph to Mommy like she’s the plague and takes off. No worries, I got this. Supermom mode. Nurse Sophie. Unpack groceries. Prep food for the week. Pack lunch for Mommy. Feed Sophie. Feed Jack. Jack needs a drink. Bake cookies for sale. Feed Mommy. Second round of cookies. Bath time. PJ time. Iphone games for Jack. Daddy home. Rock Sophie to sleep. Daddy to sit with Jack while mommy ices cookies. Whew. Come upstairs… Put Jack to sleep.  Mommy sleeps. J

Family Movie Night

All week I was looking forward to the Lion King. Jack LOVES animals. He knows all the animals and animal sounds on my iphone and the iphone games. We are going to order pizza, and picnic on the floor. We are going to pop popcorn, sitting by the fire, and watch the movie as a family and cuddle in sleeping bags on the floor. So. Not. How. It. Went. Jack is kicking his pizza and spilling his sippy cup. Sophie is crawling to the pizza trying to eat what we are. Walker time kiddo. Maya is trying to eat Jack’s pizza, so Jack swats at her. The movie starts and the only person watching it is Tom. I prep some food for Sophie and feed her. I pop the popcorn, of which Jack eats some and throws some to the dogs. Then I have to keep Sophie from sprint crawling to the popcorn.  She won’t eat baby food… but anything on the floor she’s not allowed to have… well she’ll take that! Jack is not watching the movie at all. Running around like a crazed man. Rolling his cars down the ramp that daddy made out of an ironing board. Dad’s still watching though… and Mom wants to but is too busy. And, I forgot to light the fireplace. So it wasn’t how I expected- at all. But it was fun. We were all together and all hanging out. The kids were pleasant and having fun. Sophie wants to do everything Jack is doing, and its cute to watch him run out of patience with her, even though you can tell hes trying so hard to be nice.

Jack

Wow. This kid is SMART! He knows all his colors, shapes and north American animals. Yep. Animals I didn’t even know (like a gila monster and a spoonbill). We play insects sometimes. But he REALLY likes his animals. He can do the fishy puzzle, where he places the red fish in the red fish spot, the brown fish in the brown fish spot, etc. Whenever he does the pink fish, we say – “Pink, pink like sophie!” And he holds up the pink fish to her. Last night, he held the pink fish up to her and shook his head no. Then he grabbed the green fish and held it up to her… because she was wearing green!! Excellent! He also has starting showing an interest in letters. He can say, “B”, “D”, “E”, “T”, “P”, and “O”. His vocab is growing quickly too! The sign language really seemed to help. He signs, Milk, Please, Thank you, 1 more, drink and downstairs. I feel like he is starting to answer questions- like what letter is this? And he will say the letter. Or I asked what color the fish was and he said “Brooowww” like he was trying to say Brown. And I’ve heard white. I love it when he says Soph- he calls her Toash. Haha.  He also is calling us Mama and Dada to us.

Sophie

Sophie is the fastest crawler I have ever seen! She can get across the room in NO time. Sprint crawling to whatever she is not allowed to have.  Sophie pulled herself to a stand and 7 mths, 1 week. She is lots of standing with objects, but she is not interested in balancing without an object, or furniture surfing. If she wants to get from one end of the furniture to another, she simply drops to the floor, crawls over, and then stands back up. She wants to be like Jack. She is always watching him and trying to play with whatever he is playing with.  She is making consonant sounds- such as ma ma and ba ba ba. She says Maaaa when she sees me and I leave. For example, when I come home from work but have to pee right away. I run to the bathroom and I can hear her sprint crawling and whailing maaa maaaa maaa. So maybe one of my kids will call me Ma Ma. J

Is Jack ever going to TALK? And Sophie is mobile…

So yes, its time to blog again. It’s been awhile I know. And the kids are changing so much….

JACK – 21 months

Jack  is soaking up words left and right. He can point to most animals in his animal book. He wants us to make the sounds. He is learning colors and shapes and can point them out to us in the games we play. Yet his lips remained sealed. Is this child going to talk? He repeats several words after us, and the list includes, Mama, Daddy, Sis, Hot, No, Go Away, Gigi, Papa, Grass, Wow, Hot, Oo ee, Poop, Whoa and most recently “So” for Soph. Yet only Hot is used in context (when food is hot or the water is hot). Poop he seems to get too. And I can ask, Where’s mommy? Where’s Daddy? Where’s every single dog in my moms household (yes, all five) and he can point each one out. He can point out every family member in his house. I feel like just last night he might have begun saying Dada to Tom or when Tom wasn’t where he wanted him to be… So we are starting sign language. Yesterday was the first day. He watched the video with interest in the songs, but embarrassed easily when I asked him to make the movements .  We decided to break them out when he really wanted something.. like a bubble bath. So when it was bath time, I made him sign bath (by rubbing his chest like he is washing)- and he did it! Success!!! So then later, he wanted to play games on my iphone. So I asked him to say please, and showed him the sign. And he did it! Then as I was handing it over, I asked him I showed him the sign for Thank you, and he did it again! Success. So Tom and him are working on More, and Eat and Milk today. He is repeating the signs and doing them with Tom, but has not initiated yet. I think this is an awesome break in communication! I am also so proud of him with all of his animals and colors. The colors are taking time, but he enjoys his flash cards and working with them. The iphone games are helping him identify ALL KINDS of animals and he loves playing them.

SOPHIE- 6.5 Months

Sophie has begun to independently sit… and then topples over. She is gaining more and more balance and can sit for longer periods without help. She also began scooting on 1/5/12. She can scoot to get any toy, or sock, or shoe to put in her mouth. Time to keep the floor cleaned… she will pick up anything and put it in her mouth! She is so interested in the world around her now. She loves the new view that sitting up allows her. In the restaurants, she can now sit in a high chair. This is a BIG improvement over her carrier where she couldn’t see anything. Now she can watch the world around her. I also let her sit in the top part of the grocery cart, and you would have thought she was in a whole new world. … which I guess she was!! She was looking at EVERYTHING at the grocery store! Even a lady commented how much she was looking around and taking in. This is help keep her entertained. And a little less mommy holding… for now. She has gained a little bit of independence as she explores the floor and toys and world around her. Don’t get me wrong, she’s still a momma’s girl! We went out to dinner the other night for 2 hours and they stayed with Nana and Buddy. Sophie gave Nana a run that night with lots of tears. And instantly, Mommy could fix it. Sophie also had her first sleepover with Mimi and Pappy, and I guess there were some blood curdling screams. Ah, my baby girl. I wanted her and here she is…attached to my hip.  I am proud of her for her new movements. Sophie also took formula for the first time yesterday and did fine. She does pretty good at holding her bottle. She was a big hit at the mall yesterday in her cute little leg warmers. And we are starting to sign “milk” for Sophie… so let’s see if she catches onto sign language. J

The Holidays- Christmas and New Years Eve

The holidays were good. The kids got way too much stuff including clothes, pjs and toys. They were spoiled rotten by the great grandmas and great grandpas and grandmas and grandpas. It was nice to start a new tradition in our home on xmas morning and have everyone over to our house. The xmas holiday is always crazy for us, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It was a little much for Jack and he was sick. He was then sick for 2 weeks after… until we finally diagnosed 2 ear infections in EACH kid and 2 pink eyes in EACH kid. Nice. But antibiotics and they are feeling better. Knocked mama out for a week too and cost me 3 days of work. Yikes. But everyone is feeling better today, and we are heading out to do Sophie’s 6 month pictures today. We spent New Years eve at home this year, just like any other night, since Jack was sick. We were supposed to go to a eighties party, but Jack threw up that afternoon, cancelling our hopes of getting out of the house. Poor baby. He was pretty sick for a while! The kids feel asleep at 8, and I missed the ball drop too. Oh well. Next year. ;) Our new years resolution is to try to like the dogs more… we will see how 2012 goes.

MOMS

We also held our first “Mom’s Party” on the 27^th. It was a success and so much fun. I am SO THANKFUL for my new group of moms and my wonderful new network. I am looking forward to these new relationships this year and in the future. I think I have made some new lifelong friends for myself and for the kids. Its great! J