rain man

IJ got a rain jacket from auntie S for Hanukkah.  He's been wanting one for quite a while.  The following day it rained and he got to try it out.






12.16.12

ZJ at 13 months

like brother, like sister

7.29.10


12.10.12

cute ZJ bath video

ZJ is 14 months old!

12.6.12

ZJ is talking and walking!  She says "bye" now but it's always very drawn out and loud.  She is walking all over the place and can go a pretty good distance without falling.  She also wants to climb on everything.  She has mastered the foot first position for getting down from things.  She is putting things into containers now, including one morning when I caught her removing the garbage can contents one at a time and placing them into the toilet.

ZJ is obsessed with necklaces and finds all the bead ones I have for the kids to play with and throws them over her head as quickly as possible.  She also grabs any discarded clothing she sees and tosses that onto her head or around her neck.  In contrast, she hates having socks on and will remove them as soon as they are put on.  I don't even put them on her until we get where we are going because I don't want to have to find them in the back of the car.  At every meal ZJ yells as soon as she gets in the chair until she has food to eat.  She also yells if you take a break in providing her food.  It's the only time she yells and kind of funny.  She also throws all food off the right side of her chair when she's done and sometimes before she's done for some mid meal entertainment.  She just started trying to drink the bath water when it is dripped or poured in front of her.  I may introduce a sippy cup of water soon since she seems ready.  She has only had breastmilk straight from the breast to drink thus far.

ZJ is still napping once a day anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.5 hours.  She is usually asleep around 7 pm and wakes between 6 and 7 am.  She now has almost 8 teeth (the 8th is just barely coming in).

ZJ was sick once in the past month with a mild cold and fever.

ZJ is walking

ZJ started walking last week and instead of spending a few days or weeks taking a few steps before falling she went straight to walking across rooms and hasn't looked back. She took her first steps after holding onto the same table IJ held onto to take his first steps from. She walked to me once before we got the video camera out and captured her next trips to me.

November 2012 Pics

ZJ's first (and last for a while - she ate everything) time in the sand box.














ZJ's kissy face.




ZJ's first time in the grocery cart (yes, I still wear her everywhere).




IJ's thanksgiving card he made at school.


IJ making chocolate pecan pies for thanksgiving.




IJ got to roast marshmallows and play in a tent with daddy.




We decorated our tree for Hanukkah.

videos

ZJ refused to nap one day and then started falling asleep at the table once she finished eating dinner. I of course grabbed the camera. The strange noises you hear waking her up (besides IJ) are NJ unable to keep from laughing.



IJ singing some songs for the camera.

IJ is 40 months old!

11.6.12

IJ is now 3 years and 4 months old.  He started preschool this August and enjoys it.  He goes three days a week from 8-2:45 pm.  He is in the Monkey classroom and has 3 main teachers.  The class size is much bigger this year.  He is younger than most of the kids since he has a summer birthday so it is interesting to see the difference in abilities within the class.

IJ has been doing great with using the toilet for all of his needs and we get him up once at night to pee.  In August we converted his crib into a bed and he hasn't napped in it since.  The only time he naps is in the car.  I've also asked that he not nap at school so he can stay on schedule.  He is very tired by his 7 pm bedtime without a nap and sleeps till 7 am usually.  IJ definitely loves his sister and can be very concerned and caring about her but is also often too rough when trying to play with her.  Very recently he has had more issues with sharing with her.  I think it's because she is getting older and actually playing with more of his toys.  He is very good about sharing with other kids so hopefully some of that will transfer to her soon.  I can tell he is desperate to play with her and in a few months she should be more of a play mate for him.

IJ is still very into vehicles and construction.  He loves to read books with us.  He likes to use instruments or pretend he is using instruments.  He has a huge imagination and still pretends various random things are other objects.  He is memorizing lots of songs lately and teaches me the songs he learns at school.  He is getting better with recognizing the letters in the alphabet and is more interesting in coloring lately.  He gets to use markers at school and loves those.  He enjoys cutting up paper with scissors, using glue and stickers and painting.  His favorite thing to do is to play outside and dig in the dirt.  If we go to a park with a sandbox that is all he wants to do. 

IJ has had several colds but nothing more serious.  He had a bad cough for a while after getting sick and it took a long while to go away.  He has been getting very frequent colds since starting preschool which i think is due to the large class size.

ZJ is 13 months old!

11.6.12

ZJ can now climb up into her brother’s bed. The problem is getting her to climb out legs first instead of falling out on her head. She is improving on that. She now removes the wooden rings on her stacker one at a time. She has also started dancing to music any time she hears it. She is in the knee bending dancing stage. She is talking more and babbling/mimicking speech more with a larger variety of sounds. She is also holding books up and babbling to pretend to read. She loves to walk and push chairs around the house. She is still into opening all the cabinets and drawers but most have had child locks installed now. She's also added flushing the toilet to her skills list.  She has started letting go of surfaces while standing and will stand free for a few seconds and sometimes several seconds. She has even tried to take a step a few times before falling down. She is paying a bit more attention to books now but still mostly wants to eat them.  She started making her lips into a kiss when we kiss her which is super cute.  She used to always open her mouth by the time we were actually kissing her but has started leaving her mouth in the kissing shape now.

ZJ is officially down to 1 nap a day and seemed to actually be on somewhat of a schedule for a while. She is asleep between 7 and 8 most nights and up around 7. Her one nap a day has been surprisingly short and typically only 1 hour (sometimes just a few minutes). But then we set the clocks back and she has started waking between 5 and 6 and taking her nap early instead of after lunch. I’m hoping she gets back on track soon.

ZJ is now eating at the table for 3 meals a day. I’ve started her on a few wheat products this month. She had homemade waffles and some pasta. She refused a food for the first time ever. I roasted beets and gave her small chunks. She promptly shook her head after trying them and then immediately vomited. It was quite strange. ZJ still only has 3 teeth.

ZJ has only been sick once this month but it feels like she’s been constantly sick for the last few months with her brother bringing home lots of colds and the drainage never fully going away between colds.

October 2012 Pics

Halloween 2012

This year we went to the Arboretum's Halloween festival as admission was included in our membership (usually $15/person). It included trick or treating through the woods with various nature inspired activities at each treat station.  There were lots of stations and a few are pictured below.  It was really cute and IJ had a good time. He also got to decorate a small pumpkin, have his face painted and ride a train.  As you can tell by IJ's costume, it was really cold that morning.  Sadly, it warmed up soon after and has been hot in the afternoons.





The first few stations were carnival style games.


Here he got to wear "owl eyes" and spot all the animals an owl would eat hidden in the trees.


He had to crawl through a tunnel to find a meal for the spider.


He was a mama opossum here and had to safely get his babies (stuck all over the vest) to the end of the stump path.


He climbed this rope ladder to grab some bugs.


Here he got to ride a zip line to be like a flying squirrel.





10.27.12

On Halloween, IJ carved our large pumpkin with his daddy and then we made lanterns from used jars, tissue paper and glue.  We had trick or treaters for the first time since no one came to our last house.  We gave out Halloween bracelets, rings, erasers and some leftover things we had.





10.31.12