April is 9 months old

My baby is 9 months old - how did that happen?  She is having so much fun exploring her world now that this is extra mobile.  Her favorite thing right now is to climb stairs - yikes!  She laughes and laughes when you run after her and swoop in to pluck her mid-climb.  She is also pulling up on everything and even walks with a few walking toys or when holding onto hands.  She loves to swim and with the lake being so warm it probably feels just like her bath.  At her 9 month Dr apt she showed off by dropping her toys from my lap and saying uh-oh to the Dr.  The pediatrician was very impressed and also that April says mama and dada appropriately to us!  April responds to so many verbal things, like if we say yay to Bethany she immediately starts clapping!  Bye or hi results in waving and how big is April leads to big stretches above her head.  You are such a joy April and we love you so much!

9 month stats:
height 28 1/2 in - 80%
weight 18 lbs 6 oz - 50%
head 45 cm - 80%

April is 8 months old

This is a few weeks late, but April is now 8 months old!  Shortly after she started crawling so I definitely have my hands full trying to remember all the things we need to baby proof before she gets to them.  Already she has been opening drawers into her face, crawling under our chairs and getting stuck under the bed and coffee tables!  You are such a sweet, loveable, laid-back little cutie.  You love to shake your head no when you don't want something or when you're just trying to be silly and wave hi or bye-bye to people on command.  Even when we leave a room you start waving to whoever is still in there!  You bring so much joy to our lives, April Faith, we love you so much!

Look who's a big girl!

Bethany is!  Last weekend we tried the 3 day potty training method after cousin Charlie did so well with it a few weeks ago.  I had my doubts mainly because Bethany was "too busy" to go potty" and that "she'd do it later" or "tomorrow".  The book said that 22 months is a perfect age to potty train and since we were about ready to have April at that time we didn't get that done. 

Basically the plan was to throw all her diapers away (or in our case save them for April, but Bethany doesn't know that), give her the control to tell us when she needed to go, and stick it out the whole 3 days with a positive attitude.  Day 1 she thought it was funny to throw away her diapers but an hour later asked for them back.  It was an ok day with a couple of accidents.  Day 2 was worse, she was trying to dig her feet in and see if this was for real.  At one point we were both almost in tears and Bethany said, "mommy do you need a pacifier?"  I kind of did.  Monday I took the day off and as Day 3 it actually seemed to click that morning.  She wanted to keep her new underwear dry and started telling me when she needed to go.  The rest of the week also went surprisingly well and even with Koala Bear's and Grandma she only had 1 accident the entire week.  Even at night she was staying dry.  Now they say that some accidents will continue to happen once in awhile, but I'm impressed that it worked so well.  It is so nice to only have one kid in diapers now, yay for everyone!!

Bethany is so proud to be a big girl now and this coincided with her moving to the preschool room too.  She will ask us if we kept our underwear dry all day and once asked to see if we had Dora underwear too.  Alas, we did not, but it is so cute to hear her little mind work and be so excited that she can be just like Charlie wearing underwear!

Summer fun!

Me and my girls

April started crawling at 8 months, 5 days old!

Cutie pie out on the boat today 6/9/12

Checking out big island

Sisters!

Bethany and Charlie - cousins!

loving the look Bethany!

Chocolate covered strawberries for Mother's Day

Daddy and Bethany swimming 6/9/12

April and Mommy staying in the shade 6/9/12

We've been having a blast so far this summer!  I have lots of videos to upload but am having difficulties getting them to finalize so I guess we'll have to stick with pictures until I can get it to work.  With April crawling, and Bethany potty trained as of last weekend, things have been quite eventful around here!

Happy summer!

Bethany and the spider story

Bethany loves to tell stories, especially ones that didn't happen to her!  One day I was working on my computer and stopped to take a sip of water from my water bottle.  A spider had crawled into the straw so when I took a drink it went into my mouth!  At first I didn't know what it was, but then it bit my tongue so I spit it and the water all over my computer.  When I retold the story to Bethany later she kept repeating it to everyone for a week.  I just had to videotape it along with her adorable look with swimsuit, pigtails, hat and upside down sunglasses.  Enjoy!

Bethany 2.5 years - spring 2012

Bethany you are growing up so much!  I've been transitioning 2T clothes to 3T and the bigger clothes make you look so much older.  I can barely remember when you didn't talk anymore, we carry on so many full conversations and I wish I could capture all of the funny things you say.  We measured you on the post in your room and you are 36.5 inches tall!  Lots of people think that you are already 3 because of how tall you are and old you look and how well you talk to others - interacting with adults is completely comfortable for you.

Right now your routine at night is to take a bath with April, get into pj's (after your bath you say you are "so shibery"), brush your hair and teeth and crawl into mommy and daddy's bed for snuggle time while April eats.  We talk about what we are going to "go up to bed as" which we started a few months ago.  It is always a challenge to get you to go up the stairs willingly, so we made a big deal out of walking up the stairs like Kevin Love one night.  Recently you've told us you are going up to bed like a porcupine, April is a polar bear, daddy is an ant and mommy is a spider.  Who knows where you got all of these random animals together, but it was over 4 nights in a row you had this line up!  We all sit on your bed while you grab your Bible (if we try to set it out for you, you start over in the process).  You stop at the easel to draw a little (practice your B's) and then jump on the box spring on the floor so you can get on the bed and choose a Bible story.  You have been wanting to read Noah's ark so many times that I pretty much have it memorized now.  You pray (Dear Jesus, thank you for the food, amen (only prayer you do!)), Daddy prays about the day and the next day and you give us all kisses and crawl under the covers.  We are so proud of you that you fall right asleep and wake up after 7 (more mornings) - we hope the trend continues!

You have such a joyful spirit and get excited for whatever we have going on.  You look forward to seeing cousin Charlie, friends at church and Koala Bear, family, whenever we talk about what we're going to be doing.  You say "oh, thank you!" for everything... very cute and nice that it comes so naturally for you to thank people (please, please continue!)

You love to talk to April, and sometimes if I'm busy doing something around the house I hear you sit down next to her and tell her a story "April, I had a good nap today.  Now we are going to Carson's birthday party."  or "April, I hurt my finger.  Yeah, it is owie, can you kiss it and make it feel better?"  I just love how cute they are together and how April adores Bethany.  We play peek-a-boo with April and Bethany puts a blanket over her head and April slowly pulls it down and we all say peek-a-boo while April belly laughs.  She thinks it is funny when Bethany puts the blanket over her head too.

When we are driving you really enjoy looking out the window for buses, cranes and "dark bridges".  It took me awhile to understand what you were talking about, and you would tell me "oh, it is a baby bridge, what is next mommy?"  Then we'd come to a slightly bigger bridge, "oh, it is a mommy bridge, is the daddy bridge next?"  Then in her low voice, "It is a BIG one mommy, its a daddy bridge!".  I think it is so cute that you do this almost every time we are in the care - you love repetition.

You can count to almost 20 now and are working on drawing a few letters.  You can name all the letters and numbers too when you see them.  We have been teaching you our address and today you told daddy where we lived perfectly!

I'm not sure why, but you say "my mommy daddy" when you don't know what else to say.  People will talk to you, or around you and you'll just enter in by saying that.  I think it just makes you comfortable to talk about us.  We know you pay a lot of attention to what we say, because I'll hear you tell others about not wanting a "time out" or that you had a good day and you were nice to your friends (share, not bite etc).

You care so much about others though, and still get concerned if someone is hurt, sad etc.  I love your empathy Bethany!

We love you so much and can't wait for summer to long days together with you.

April 7 months

Hi, pretty girl, I can't believe you are already 7 months old (and as I write this 7.5 months!).  You had a big week this week while I was on my work trip.... you slept in your crib and daddy didn't come and get you when you cried!  Crying it out is never fun, but you did well and after a few long spells the first night, each night after that you've been doing better and better.  I'm so proud of you and it is nice to get more sleep through the night!  It is also nice that you are out of our closet so we can stop whispering now in the evening!

You are doing so many funny things.  You shake your head "no" all the time and think you are silly.  You nod too, but prefer to shake your head no.  You also wave - mostly with both hands, but repeat with one hand if someone waves to you.  You have been enjoying eating cheerios in addition to your baby food and look at each piece curiously before chewing.  Right now you have 6 teeth coming in and so your poor gums are in a lot of pain.  Anything you can chew on relieves the pressure so we are careful to be sure you have lots of chew toys around.  You like to repeat things we say like da da, ma ma, ba ba etc.  Sometimes when you say da da, I tell you "no, say mama" and you shake your head no and smile!

Even though you aren't officially crawling, you creep around and can get pretty much anything you want in a few foot area.  You roll to get places too.  We stand you up at a play table and you stand and play on it for long stretches of time.  Pulling yourself up to stand is preferred to crawling so far I think.

 Need to chew on things with 6 teeth coming in at the same time!

 Anything can be used as a drum