6 Months

I am 6 MONTHS OLD!!! (2.27.12)

Here I am hanging out in my bouncy.  End of Feb and such NICE weather!  Do you think they realize that if they don't buckle me in with both sides these days I will wiggle right out of this thing?  They sure are silly!

Alayna is such a great big sister.  She loves to help feed me.  Mommy had to help her so she didn't gag me with the spoon, but she seems to get it pretty good now.  She even knows that if I don't open my mouth to take another bite - if she starts to sing the ABC's - I will open for her.  (kinda odd I know, but it's what I do).

What am I up to at 6 months:

- Wearing 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes

- Size 3 diapers (I tend to wet through at night lately - kind of a pain.  We've tried Huggies, Pampers and Babies r us brand...happens in them all and I'm not even sleeping through the night for 10 or 12 hrs.)

- My two bottom teeth have popped through

- I'm waking up TWICE in the middle of the night wanting to eat.  

- I got to bed about 6:30/7, wake up between 10 and midnight and again between 2 and 4.  Mommy says this has to stop...at least the first one!

- I am loving my exersaucer

- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to watch tv with my brother and sister - especially Wild Kratts!  :)

- Eat rice cereal twice a day along with a fruit/veggie.  So far I've liked everything I have tried.  Even prunes!

- Roll both ways - not a ton though going front to back.  

- Sleep on my belly.  Mommy puts me in bed on my back and I typically immediately roll to my belly.

- not a huge fan of hats

- my brother and sister make me laugh - big belly laughs - by doing really silly things like jump in front of me

- favorite game - Peek-A-Boo!  Love it!  I can do it all by myself and LOVE to play it when changing my diaper.  I will take my pants and put them on top of my face while you change me.  It's a great game!

- Not sitting by myself.  Mommy hasn't been practicing a whole lot with me.

Sippy Cup

Determined to get the hang of this sippy cup, but while I am learning I make a HUGE, wet mess all over myself by taking the water in and drooling it back out.  What does "swallow" exactly mean? (2.27.12)

Trying New Things

Today I tried carrots...

 and sitting :)  (2.24.12)

Carrots are OK, but this sitting thing is so cool!  Why hasn't anybody helped me do this before?

First and only snowman we made at our new house this year.  This was a beautiful snow! (2/23/12)

 Great teamwork!

Complete with scarf and hat, eyes and buttons made out of left over cake pops from Alayna's birthday party, Christmas taffy candy for a mouth, I'm not sure what we used for his nose and sticks for arms

 Grant helped shovel the driveway while Alayna pushed her baby

Bathtub

5.5 mos old and Mommy finally got rid of the sling in the bathtub.  (2/23/12)

Highchair Drama

This is how I feel about my high chair.  75% of the time I am put in here - I cry.  I could be perfectly happy prior to, but get set in here and tear start rolling.  I usually stop once there have been several bites of food stuck in my mouth - but Mommy still thinks I'm being silly.  (We can't make this gig too easy on her!)

Waving

2-21-12 - Mommy thought I was getting pretty smart and learning how to wave.  She would wave like a crazy woman in the kitchen and I put my arm up a couple times.  Now it's 2 mos later and I still don't wave consistently - so I think it was just a fluke (or maybe the fact that she looked like a crazy lady!)

PB&J

Grant's FAVORITE thing to eat - Peanut Butter & Jelly (grape) with honey.  He eats it for lunch probably 4-5 out of 7 days in a week.  

How is Grant's eating going?  It has improved a million times over the past 6 months or so.  He is still EXTREMELY slow ans often times has to be asked "Grant, please eat" to finish a meal in a reasonable amount of time, but he does eat everything on his plate about 90% of the time.  He does pretty well - especially when he picks what goes on his plate.  If he picks it - he generally eats it all.
Next question - is he growing?  Well - I think he's maybe grown a bit in the upward direction, however his weight has stayed the same I think.  The last time we had him on the scale (about 2 weeks ago) he weighed 29.5 lbs.  That's the same as what he weighed about 5 mos ago when he turned 4.  Alayna's out-weighing him by about a pound these days and is about 2 inches shorter.  How often do I get asked if they are twins???

Food Faces

I am a bit sad I'm so far behind on blogging to remember what it is Landon is eating in the silly faces pictures.  He didn't make a lot of funny ones.  He ate most things with no problem.  I believe this was a fruit - looks like apples or peaches...I'm guessing peaches.  He's not a HUGE fan of them, but will eat them if hungry.  (2/19/12)

One last picture of the kiddos at the old house (2-18-12).  We planned to be there a "couple" years and were there for 7.5.  It served us well.  Lots of memories - big family moments.  Brian starting his own business, 4 pregnancies, Shana leaving work to stay at home, 3 healthy babies coming home from the hospital...and I could go on!  

Will I miss it?  Not really - it was time to go - we outgrew it!  I will however miss the laundry shoot!  :)

Alayna's First Haircut

Thursday, Feb 16, 2012 Alayna received her very FIRST haircut EVER!  

 We were excited to get rid of the snarly ends.  

 First a wash...

 Then, because Alayna's hair was long and she is small - it worked better if she stood on the floor

 She did a great job following the directions

 Time for a dry...

She even got some curls!  What a pretty girl!

Birthday Celebration Day

Crazy!  Our little girl is really 3!  Well - Thursday (Feb 16) was our family celebration day!  Sometimes it seems crazy that we spend the whole day celebrating their birthday when they are turning 2, 3, 4, etc - but then I think about it and realize this won't last too long!  Pretty soon their birthdays will be filled with "friend" parties, school days, outings without mom and dad...  Right now celebrating their birthdays is just as much for me as it is for them!

We started the day at Ted's Diner in Tosa for breakfast.  It's our favorite place for a good birthday breakfast!

Filled with strawberry pancakes with candles.  The whole diner sang Happy Birthday to her!

Next we actually went to Build A Bear to make our Valentine "bears" from Mommy and Daddy.  But after that...

I got my FIRST HAIRCUT EVER!!!!  I did awesome.  She washed my hair with shampoo in one of those big chairs.  I had to tip my head back into the sink.  Then because my hair was so long and I was so little, she had me stand on the floor to cut my hair.  My hair is still long, but those snarly ends were all cut off and it looks really cute.  She even curled it for me!  I did a GREAT job!

Next we were off to Kids In Motion.  It's this great indoor play place.  They have a play area in the middle with slides and things to climb on and then around the walls of the room are all little rooms with different themes - shopping, trains, dinosaurs, trucks, etc  It's great!

I opened my presents here from Mommy and Daddy.  Tinker Bell Rollerblades, some soft socks, new tennis shoe crocs and a Finding Nemo movie.

There was also an air hockey table.  When I scored a goal - I made sure everyone knew :)

Poor Landon didn't get to eat Old Mc Donalds - he had apples or something that made him make this silly face!

Grant's working on his ping pong skills.  He may just get it pretty soon :)

It was a really fun day celebrating!

Been a while

WOW!  Thank goodness for "back dating".  It's been a while!  Crazy how adding another little life to our lives and moving throws a wrench in something like keeping up with our blog!  :)  It does make me a bit sad though - it is like our kids' baby books - so now I am incredibly behind on Landon's and I'm likely going to forget to put some things down I will wish I could remember later.  Well - I'll do my best to catch us up from the last two months in the order things actually happened.

Happy 3rd Birthday Alayna!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Alayna! We are so blessed to have this little girl in our lives! She's captured our hearts. What is Alayna up to as she turns 3? Well - I'll put a few things here and as I think of more I can add them to the blog later.

- We have her doctor appt the beginning of March to find out exactly how big she is, but she's starting to move into 3T clothes. Some 2T shirts are to small and pants are getting short.

- She's been potty trained for a long while 8-10 mos or so ...however accidents still happen. I must say though since we've moved I notice they are not really happening anymore (knock on wood!) She used to have them all the time - not full out accidents, but just not getting there on time. Well - that still leads to changing underwear, more laundry, etc. Just not needed! So - thankfully that has taken a turn for the better! Night time though is still a battle. Since we've moved we have started taking her before we go to bed and if she gets that break she has been dry in the morning when she wakes up 3 out of 4 times. So - we will keep up with it and see where it goes!

- LOVES the color blue

- yet to have a haircut (but that will change soon) It's getting pretty snarly at the ends way too often

- enjoys wearing "comfy" clothes more than dresses - however is coming around to it more

- does enjoy a little bit of "girly" fun - painting finger and toe nails, sponge curlers in her hair, twirling when wearing a dress, etc

- she can get sassy though. Sometimes thinks she needs to get the last word in. A bit strong willed perhaps? We are currently working on breaking this (hopefully it doesn't take all of year 3...or worse yet years 3-18)

- recognizes letters A and G (Alayna and Grant) and can spell her name

- LOVES LOVES LOVES to sing - especially Daddy's favorite song - Knee Deep (Zach Brown Band). Other songs commonly being sung: Mary Had A Baby, B-I-B-L-E, Jesus Loves the Little Children

- is a VERY good big sister - she is great with Landon. When he was really little and would start to cry she would run out of the room, I'd ask where she was going and she'd say "I'm getting Wandon's (Landon's) nuk fo him cuz he's cwying" :) It always helped. Then when he started drooling she started running for burp rags...never did she go for the one that was sitting on the arm of the couch...nope - she went all out and got a new one each time it was needed :) What a girl!

Well - on to some birth-day pictures:

It's the Best Day Ever....Now that I'm 3 - I get to have GUM!!!!!

.....AND SILLY PUTTY!!!!!!
(they kept telling me when I was 3 I would get to have all these things...so glad it came true)

AND a tent! I also got a headband, some counting cards and my card was a Tinker Bell book

Mommy made me pancakes for breakfast and I ate them on my birthday plate. Then I remembered one other thing I've been told I get to do when I'm 3. "Mommy, I get to go to preschool" She said - sorry honey you have to wait til after summer. MAN!!!!

Grant had preschool today and Mommy had Coffee Break, so I went to Little Lambs. It was a fun day.

Daddy came home from work on my birthday sorta sick - so we had to have cake pops without him that night. 3 candles for me!

It was a great day!

Eating Snow

Mommy says eating snow is ok as long as it is NOT yellow!

Bananas!

For Valentine's Day I got try a FRUIT! Bananas it was!

Well....it is a bit of a strange taste at first

I guess it's getting a little better...

Turns out I actually loved them! Yay for fruit!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for our special valentine's

We went out for dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day. Mommy and Daddy gave us CD Read Along books - we listen to them a lot!

From Mommy and Daddy Grant and I got our first ever trip to Build A Bear Workshop. It was a lot of fun. We got to pick out a "bear" (we picked dogs) and help make them.

Here we are giving them baths. Then we picked an outfit - we each picked jammies and slippers

Grant's "Skippy" - however he wanted to name him Jumpy and we talked him into Skippy...he now calls him Jumpy...what were we thinking :)

And Alayna's Puddles.

Sorry Landon - when you actually care about it - you can go to Build A Bear too :) We LOVE you! :)