IJ's birthday party

IJ's birthday party was held at the park across the street from our house.  Luckily we set up under a large pavilion because there was some rain during the party.  The kids still had enough time to play at the park and we had enough to do under the pavilion that it all worked out.  The party had a construction theme, complete with a real "construction combuilder man" (as IJ calls them) who played "pin the driver in the digger" with the kids.  We served fruit and pizza, followed by IJ's mama-made birthday cake.

7.8.12

IJ's 3 year pictures

IJ is 3 years old!

7.6.12

IJ now weighs 30 pounds and is 37 inches tall.  He still wears mostly 2t clothing but some is getting too small.  He wears size 7 shoes.

IJ is extremely creative, imaginative and talkative.  He goes nonstop.  He is still loving all things construction, vehicles and tools, and has recently gotten way more into his Lego's..  He uses any object to pretend he is doing construction on our house or trimming trees, blowing leaves and mowing the lawn.  He also loves to read books and we recently started visiting the library.  He loves to play in water and go to the splash park or pool.  He still enjoys school and this summer switched from twice a week to three days a week there.  He also likes dinosaurs and loves the summer dino exhibit at the zoo.

IJ talks nonstop, often discussing things and using words that I'm not sure where he picked up.  He will talk to anyone, anywhere.  He will also completely ignore you and pretend he doesn't know answers if he'd rather be doing something else.

In May I stopped putting him in diapers and he hasn't had one on since.  He was only wearing them at night but he was still only using the toilet to pee.  It took a bit of adjustment, since he clearly had somewhat of a phobia but we got him past it fairly easily and he has been using the toilet for all potty needs for about 2 months now.  We get him up every night around 1 or 2 am to pee and we've had very few accidents in bed.

IJ endured a lot of change this year when his sister came along and when we moved to a new house.  He loves his sister and for the most part treats her quite well.  We have lived in this house for over 3 months now but he still refers to it as his "new" house.

IJ often skips his naps at home but usually sleeps at school.  He can make it through the day fine without a nap and will then sleep 7 pm to 7 am (usually) if he skips his nap.  otherwise he goes to bed at 8 pm but is getting to the point where if he naps he isn't tired by a reasonable bedtime and often stays awake late.

IJ has stayed quite healthy this past year.  Right after turning two he had an issue with fluid in his ears after a cold but has not had any other ear problems all year.  All he has had is the occasional cold which he gets over remarkably quickly and they never seem to slow him down.

3rd year at a glance (see last year here):

ZJ is 9 months old!

7.6.12

ZJ is now 16 pounds and 27 inches long.

ZJ is completely mobile and getting into everything. She started getting up into a sitting position on her own and shortly after, started crawling. It changed the whole dynamic in our home. Her brother now has to keep his toys out of her reach and worries about her “getting” them. I can no longer walk out of a room and expect her in the same spot when I return. She gets more adventurous and crawls greater distances each day. She loves to grab a lamp cord in the living room and I’ve had to relocate some fragile things. She will leave the room when her brother and I are playing and just take off on her own adventure searching out things to chew. She will still fall backwards on occasion but does it less frequently each week.

ZJ has been feeding herself dinner and just having a few tastes of things at other times of day. She seems to like everything we’ve given her and I think she is starting to actually consume a bit more. She still mainly smears it all over herself and then goes straight to the tub for a bath. She likes to share our smoothies and popsicles too.

She has lost whatever sleeping schedule she had. Her morning nap keep going later and later which sometimes means she ends up with only one middle of the day nap. When she has an afternoon nap, she is waking up too early. She is generally exhausted by 4 pm. Then there are nights when she won’t go to sleep and on the tired nights where she does fall asleep early, she usually wakes throughout the evening screaming. She does at least, typically sleep until a decent time in the morning.

ZJ got one cold from her brother this month.  She spent one day sneezing and snotty and had a cranky evening, but by the following day was fine.

June 2012 pics

ZJ & her food

Smoothie mouth





June 2012