Friday, April 24, 2009

Full Circle

I have come to realize things in my life have come full-circle with now having kids. As a child 2 of the more exciting things at school were 1) School Pictures and 2) Getting Book Orders.

Well today, Mia got to experience both. She had Spring Pictures today at school and I turned in her first book order. :) She will be so excited when the books come in and she has some new ones (because we don't have that many here-ha, ha!). Now as for the pictures, I can't wait to see those. So weird to think of someone else taking her pictures while I'm not there. My baby is growing up!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Little Miss Mia

Once again, I have fallen off the blogging wagon, but here's hoping that I can get back on track!

I really have a lot of pictures/video to go through that I recently uploaded, but here are just a couple of random shots of Mia from awhile back that I found on the computer.

Mia is a busy little 2 1/2 year old. She is still VERY into books and reading and has an amazing knack for remembering titles and words in books. I often catch her "reading" her books and using some of the phrases that are in the book-too cute! She also loves to pretend and will often play by herself talking outloud, pretending and acting out different things.

Mia has continued to do great with the potty training. Every once in awhile she has an accident, but they are pretty rare which is awesome.

Mia asks about a million questions daily, and one of her favorites is "why?" The drive to and from school each day is often filled with interesting conversation. :)

Mia has really had a surge in her independence since starting school. Often times when we try to help her with something we get the "I do it" response. She has been motivated to dress and undress herself, although it is not always done sucessfully. :) This indpendence is great, but with it comes some serious stubborness which is a family trait on both sides. :) There are often some battles and tears as we try to go through our daily routines.

Mia has started swim lessons and really seems to like them (more on that in another post). She is a total water baby and reminds me of myself when I was younger (I loved the water!). Mia has no fear of the water which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Mia continues to love her brother and loves to try and make him laugh. Now that he is crawling, she crawls around too and tells him to get her. :) The other day she tried to play hide and seek with him and hid on the couch in the living room under the pillows while Cole was in another room. I tried to expain that he wasn't going to be able to find her, but it is not always easy to reason with a 2-year-old.

However, it is not all roses. If Cole goes after Mia's toys, or god-forbid a Lego castle she has built, look out-it is not pretty. We have told Mia that if she doesn't want Cole to touch something, she needs to put it up high on a table. Otherwise Captain Destructo will get it (more on that in another post!).

Mia is a loud talker. In fact everything she does is loud. I can't figure out where that came from-ha, ha! Speaking of talking, she is talking up a storm, but sometimes is a bit hard for others to decipher. I am a good translator! Mia is into princesses these days and anything girly. She always wants to wear jewelry, nailpolish, hairbows, etc. It is much simpler to get Cole ready in the morning!

In a nutshell, Mia continues to be our spunky, fun, stubborn little firecracker. I cannot believe in a few short months she will be 3-yikes!!

Onto the pictures. Here are a couple when I was testing out my new brown paper courtesy of Pam..


Isn't this hat so cute-thanks Grandma!
Terrible picture, but look how straight Mia's hair is!!

And some pics of Mia hamming it up...

I believe this is the "cheese" face


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

So Behind!!!

Aacckk!! I am so behind with updating it is not even funny! I have so many pictures sitting on my computer, but just haven't found the time to weed through them all. Spring Break was last week and was a nice mix of relaxing, doing stuff, and seeing people. I will update more about that in future posts.

So while I should be going back and sharing some older pictures, I am instead posting some from tonight. At dinner Mia asked if she could go to Ava's house. I told her it wasn't polite to invite herself over somewhere, but that I would call Sarah and see if Ava could come over and play. :)

Ava did get to come over and the girls played so well. They are at such a good age for playing and interacting together and generally do great together unless a doll stroller is involved. Then it gets rather ugly! :) Anyway, I had a little Easter craft I did with the girls and then of course I wrangled them into taking a couple of pictures. Here is my favorite.....

It seriously makes me want to cry when I see how far they have come from this...

When did they grow up so fast??? I will say that Mia is so lucky to have cousins that are so close in age. It is something my sister and I never had, and it is awesome she has built-in playmates who she gets to grow up with.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff, moving on....

The girls working on their craft-a fdecorating a foam Easter egg
I love how they are cracking up with one another
Ava and her egg
Mia adding her "jewels" on
The girls with their finished Easter eggs
And posing (color version of the one above)

Mia wanted to hug Ava
And apparently the novelty of me taking pictures of them together only lasts so long...

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Cole-8 Months

(For those just interested in pictures, scroll down-this is a long one!)

8 Months!!! I can't believe it but Cole is only 4 months shy of turning one! Actually less than that since I am a little behind on this update. :)

So what is Cole up to these days? Well first off, HE IS CRAWLING!!!! Around the time of the baptism he started tentatively crawling, and now he is pretty much full-speed ahead. He of course heads for everything he shouldn't have-Mia's small toys, the dirt in the floor plant, outlets, nightlights, etc. Don't worry, we are on him like white on rice, as is his sister, who is more than happy to take away things he shouldn't have. :) Along with the crawling, he now can sit great without having to have us nearby to catch him in case of a fall. He also gets himself into a sitting position with ease and when we go to get him out of his crib now, we will find him sitting up.

Spaking of his crib, Cole has been quite the sleeper lately. On average he goes to bed around 6:30 (although several nights recently it was as early as 5:30), will wake up around 6, have a bottle, and then go back to sleep for another 1 1/2 -2 hours. He has finally become a better napper, taking 2 naps that average from 1 1/2-2 hours (and sometimes a shorter 3rd nap of the day). I know that could probably be better, but I am just so glad he seems to have finally stopped the 45 minute nap cycle, that I am not going to complain.

Unbelievably, Cole still does not have any teeth, although we have been convinced for the last month or two that there had to be some coming in. He is a total drool machine, and constantly has a long string of drool hanging from his mouth. Mia was about 8 months when her first tooth came in, so maybe it will be sometime soon.....

Despite the fact that Cole has no teeth, he has officially decided that baby food is no longer desirable. While we can get some of it in him, he really could do without it, so we have moved to offering him some table food as well. One day he put down half a banana, we couldn't believe it! He has had chicken, noodles, fruit, crackers, etc. He seems much happier when this is offered to him rather than the pureed goodness I had been making him. I will try not to take it personally. :)

Cole is mellow with his personality, always watching and often looking a bit concerned. :) He is however in perpetual motion and is our squealy (if that is even a word!), squirmy little baby. Now that he is older, he is sitting forward facing in his stroller and will be moving into his convertible carseat. He loves to be bounced around and to play peek-a-boo, and he LOVES his sister. The two of them make each other laugh and it is just the cutest thing. He will just stare and watch her in the car, or when she is playing, and wants to be a part of what she is doing. Of course, Mia being 2 is not always crazy about that idea! :)

Anyhow, here are some pictures of our big boy...

All the pictures where he is looking off to the side, he was smiling and laughing at Mia who was next to me-she apparently is much more humorous than me!

Love the clenched fists here! He was just so excited. :)

I'm Done!