We started a new blog page because we can automatically send updates (either pictures or stories via email) - much more convenient!
Please save this address to your bookmarks:
www.brandon722a.blogspot.com
Thanks!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Sunday, February 21, 2010
So, it's been a month and a half...
Can't believe it's been so long since I wrote anything in here...it has been busy around here.
After our trip back east we got settled back into our routine. We had a few weeks where presents arrived from Martin Christmas which just kept the celebration going. Unfortunately Zach ended up getting really sick mid-January and was admitted to the hospital for 2 nights and sent home with oxygen for a week. He's now made a full recovery and is back to his happy self.
He's not signing more words but is definitely understanding the spoken words much better. He nods his head yes too which is so cute because it's like a total body nod. He's currently attached to any of his blankets - just has to have one nearby since the hospital. I guess it's similar to a pacifier for some kids and he doesn't use one of those. I signed him up for tumbling and he really enjoys the chance to climb up on top of things and does really well walking across the balance beam kicking yarn-balls off. He still loves to sit and read books too which is cute and now he can point out a few of the ojects in the books when asked "where's the truck? the dog? the bananas?", etc.
Avi is doing great too. She still loves school and is very excited to start kindergarten. She's very proud to tell people she's now 4 1/2. The other night she came into our room at 3am and said she'd had a sleep story - all I can think is that she had a dream and most likely in the movies "land before time" they refer to them as sleep stories. It was really cute and she fell right back to sleep. She's really starting to recognize more of her letters. We have flash cards and she has trouble with 5-6 letters - usually G, U, R, W, M and Q. She'll try to spell out signs when we're stopped at red lights too. She's very into drawing pictures of people and houses. I keep taking pictures of the drawings and can see a difference in her abilities. I just heard that her school decided on the modified schedule for her next year. This means she'll start school on August 4. We haven't heard yet whether she'll have morning or afternoon session. We head back east for our beach week August 6 so she'll get 2 or 3 days of school in before we leave. So she'll get a true "first day of kindergarten" before she misses a week. She'll get 2 weeks off in October, 2 weeks at Christmas and 2 weeks in March and then the year ends June 3. Seems like a nice schedule and better than the track system when she could have had 3-5 weeks off at a time and a really long summer. It'll be a change but we're all excited for it.
My mom and John come to visit next month. Just a quick weekend trip but Avi is so excited and wants to draw with them and read books each morning. We've booked our trip to Florida in May. Heading to Jupiter/West Palm for a party for B's mom and uncle. We'll have a nice long weekend to play in the sand and hang out a the pool. I'm sure we'll spend most of the weekends in June and July camping and it will be so much fun this year since Zach will be into exploring and be able to do some hiking this year.
After our trip back east we got settled back into our routine. We had a few weeks where presents arrived from Martin Christmas which just kept the celebration going. Unfortunately Zach ended up getting really sick mid-January and was admitted to the hospital for 2 nights and sent home with oxygen for a week. He's now made a full recovery and is back to his happy self.
He's not signing more words but is definitely understanding the spoken words much better. He nods his head yes too which is so cute because it's like a total body nod. He's currently attached to any of his blankets - just has to have one nearby since the hospital. I guess it's similar to a pacifier for some kids and he doesn't use one of those. I signed him up for tumbling and he really enjoys the chance to climb up on top of things and does really well walking across the balance beam kicking yarn-balls off. He still loves to sit and read books too which is cute and now he can point out a few of the ojects in the books when asked "where's the truck? the dog? the bananas?", etc.
Avi is doing great too. She still loves school and is very excited to start kindergarten. She's very proud to tell people she's now 4 1/2. The other night she came into our room at 3am and said she'd had a sleep story - all I can think is that she had a dream and most likely in the movies "land before time" they refer to them as sleep stories. It was really cute and she fell right back to sleep. She's really starting to recognize more of her letters. We have flash cards and she has trouble with 5-6 letters - usually G, U, R, W, M and Q. She'll try to spell out signs when we're stopped at red lights too. She's very into drawing pictures of people and houses. I keep taking pictures of the drawings and can see a difference in her abilities. I just heard that her school decided on the modified schedule for her next year. This means she'll start school on August 4. We haven't heard yet whether she'll have morning or afternoon session. We head back east for our beach week August 6 so she'll get 2 or 3 days of school in before we leave. So she'll get a true "first day of kindergarten" before she misses a week. She'll get 2 weeks off in October, 2 weeks at Christmas and 2 weeks in March and then the year ends June 3. Seems like a nice schedule and better than the track system when she could have had 3-5 weeks off at a time and a really long summer. It'll be a change but we're all excited for it.
My mom and John come to visit next month. Just a quick weekend trip but Avi is so excited and wants to draw with them and read books each morning. We've booked our trip to Florida in May. Heading to Jupiter/West Palm for a party for B's mom and uncle. We'll have a nice long weekend to play in the sand and hang out a the pool. I'm sure we'll spend most of the weekends in June and July camping and it will be so much fun this year since Zach will be into exploring and be able to do some hiking this year.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Happy New Year!
Well, we made it through our vacation back east. We had an uneventful week just prior to our trip which was nice. We were a bit worried about the weather because we got some rain/snow which turned to ice but luckily our flight went out on time.
We made it to Boston and met up with mom and John. Mom let us borrow her car which was awesome! We drove from Logan up to Kennebunk to Hillary and Dale's home. I don't remember much about that afternoon other than the time went by fast and before we knew it we were in bed and asleep. Zach slept until about 6 and everyone else woke up about 30-45 minutes later but he was happy in his chair eating fruit and drinking milk.
It was Christmas morning so of course once the kids realized this all chaos broke loose and we started opening presents. Everyone enjoyed themselves and by the time we were done it was near noon. Brandon, the kids and I took off for a while to explore Kennebunk and the coastline. We hadn't been to Maine in over 10 years and the kids have only seen the beach in the summer. We got a few quick photos and then headed back to the house for dinner. The food was delicious and Dale's mom and stepdad were there too which was nice. When Zach took his afternoon nap I took the opportunity to crash along with him. When we woke up it was night and everyone was hanging out around the house. It was a nice quiet Christmas night but it was great to be around family.
The next morning we had to take off for Boston. We headed to see poppy and visited with him for a while before heading to our friend Laura's. We visited with her for a bit and then back in the car to head to Alan and Karen's home. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening visiting and watching Jeffrey tackle Avi and Zach with his karate moves. Brandon's dad and stepmom were there too and it was great to visit with them and I'm sure they enjoyed watching all of their grandchildren playing together.
Last stop for the night was mom and John's so we drove right past Palmer which was strange and kept going to Agawam. Luke had come to MA with my mom and John and was waiting to play with Avi when we got there. They played for a bit and we ate some dinner and put the kids to bed. The next morning we woke up and got ready to head to CT for Megan and Adam's wedding. It was a bit hectic getting ready in the morning but we managed to leave on time and arrived early enough to say hello to Megan and visit with family.
The ceremony was short and sweet since it was a vow renewal. After the ceremony everyone walked across the street to the reception. It was in the old Meriden library. The buffet was open right away so we found our table and got plates for the kids before the party started. Zach ate like an animal and Avi did a good job concentrating enough to eat enough. Once the wedding party was announced the party started - we pretty much didn't see Avi the rest of the night as she was out on the dance floor dancing with anyone and everyone. She was in full bloom for her party personality and couldn't help herself posing for any camera aimed in her vicinity. Zach took a nap part-way through which was nice to keep him happy.
After the party we headed back to Shirley and Jim's. We got there first and it was where the girls had started getting ready so as my aunt Shirley best described it - "it was a curler explosion". We tidied up a bit and waited for the rest of the family to arrive. We hung out and visited with everyone until about 8 then needed to head back to Agawam.
Monday was Luke's birthday so we ate breakfast and once Michelle arrived we opened presents and had dinner and cake. Hillary and Dale still had to drive back to Maine so they left around 3 or 4. Michelle stayed to visit and went in the hot tub with Avi for a while. Later that night mom and John took Avi and Zach to see Bright Nights at Forest Park - it's a drive through lights display. While they were out Brandon and I went to dinner. We came across Lattitude in W Springfield. It was amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone who lives in W. Mass. It's right across the street from the Big E fairgrounds. We had fried brussel sprouts to start and knew we were in for wonderful food because of how good they were. We weren't disappointed either!
The rest of the week we hung out at mom's. Mom and John took Avi to Friendly's for a cone head sundae which she thoroughly enjoyed. Mom and I took the kids to the Westfield Children's Museum which was nice and then stopped to visit my aunt Pam. She was so surprised to see us and had so much fun watching their antics. On Thursday we headed back to Boston to spend some more time with poppy. We went out to eat at Kelly's and then visited with our friend Christie. We were back to poppy's by 8 and put the kids to bed and then us shortly thereafter.
We were up at 6:30 to head to the airport to meet mom and John to give mom her car back and get on our flight. Our flight left on time and we were back in CO by 1pm New Year's Day. It was a fantastic visit - we did a lot, saw a lot of people, and the kids had a blast too - but it's good to be home.
The kids woke up at 6am today - not horrible considering the time change. We took down the rest of Christmas and then went to Costco and King Soopers. Avi spent most of the afternoon at Emma's house and came home to eat dinner basically. They are both in bed and that's where I'm headed once I finish this post. I have to work tomorrow - ugh!
So what's the latest with Avi and Zach:
Zach - since he's now 1 we've weaned him off formula - hurray! it was painless actually, he's also off the bottle and solely on a sippy cup now - hurray!, he had some words/sounds that make sense in context - when he sees a santa doll or figure he says "dan-dah" and when Cabo came home yesterday he was so excited and said "da-bo", his favorite book right now is an animal book that has colorful paper in some of the animal cutouts - he'll actually go into the other room and come back carrying it, he's using his signs more accurately too - mostly milk, eat, more and all done, he's taking bites off a banana but isn't yet able to hold it on his own without squishing it, he starts dancing and bouncing up/down when he hears music and it's just the cutest thing ever
Avi - she's really starting to recognize her letters and wants to try to spell out any words that she finds - she was quite pleased with herself for spelling STOP on the sign today - she also spelled COSTCO and NORDSTROM - she needs help usually with 1 or 2 letters but gets the rest, she loves her curriculum workbooks too (like trace the numbers/letters, circle the opposites, etc), she'll sit quietly and read through a book on her own but loves to be read to too, she's still very much into pretend play and lately she's usually a dinosaur or a horse, she's been going to day care 4 days a week for about a month and I don't think that's the reason she's doing so well but I also know it's not hurting :)
Avi's signed up for swim lessons through March and Zach starts tumbling next week which goes through May. We've got our white board color coded for each of their "events".
Happy New Year to all!
We made it to Boston and met up with mom and John. Mom let us borrow her car which was awesome! We drove from Logan up to Kennebunk to Hillary and Dale's home. I don't remember much about that afternoon other than the time went by fast and before we knew it we were in bed and asleep. Zach slept until about 6 and everyone else woke up about 30-45 minutes later but he was happy in his chair eating fruit and drinking milk.
It was Christmas morning so of course once the kids realized this all chaos broke loose and we started opening presents. Everyone enjoyed themselves and by the time we were done it was near noon. Brandon, the kids and I took off for a while to explore Kennebunk and the coastline. We hadn't been to Maine in over 10 years and the kids have only seen the beach in the summer. We got a few quick photos and then headed back to the house for dinner. The food was delicious and Dale's mom and stepdad were there too which was nice. When Zach took his afternoon nap I took the opportunity to crash along with him. When we woke up it was night and everyone was hanging out around the house. It was a nice quiet Christmas night but it was great to be around family.
The next morning we had to take off for Boston. We headed to see poppy and visited with him for a while before heading to our friend Laura's. We visited with her for a bit and then back in the car to head to Alan and Karen's home. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening visiting and watching Jeffrey tackle Avi and Zach with his karate moves. Brandon's dad and stepmom were there too and it was great to visit with them and I'm sure they enjoyed watching all of their grandchildren playing together.
Last stop for the night was mom and John's so we drove right past Palmer which was strange and kept going to Agawam. Luke had come to MA with my mom and John and was waiting to play with Avi when we got there. They played for a bit and we ate some dinner and put the kids to bed. The next morning we woke up and got ready to head to CT for Megan and Adam's wedding. It was a bit hectic getting ready in the morning but we managed to leave on time and arrived early enough to say hello to Megan and visit with family.
The ceremony was short and sweet since it was a vow renewal. After the ceremony everyone walked across the street to the reception. It was in the old Meriden library. The buffet was open right away so we found our table and got plates for the kids before the party started. Zach ate like an animal and Avi did a good job concentrating enough to eat enough. Once the wedding party was announced the party started - we pretty much didn't see Avi the rest of the night as she was out on the dance floor dancing with anyone and everyone. She was in full bloom for her party personality and couldn't help herself posing for any camera aimed in her vicinity. Zach took a nap part-way through which was nice to keep him happy.
After the party we headed back to Shirley and Jim's. We got there first and it was where the girls had started getting ready so as my aunt Shirley best described it - "it was a curler explosion". We tidied up a bit and waited for the rest of the family to arrive. We hung out and visited with everyone until about 8 then needed to head back to Agawam.
Monday was Luke's birthday so we ate breakfast and once Michelle arrived we opened presents and had dinner and cake. Hillary and Dale still had to drive back to Maine so they left around 3 or 4. Michelle stayed to visit and went in the hot tub with Avi for a while. Later that night mom and John took Avi and Zach to see Bright Nights at Forest Park - it's a drive through lights display. While they were out Brandon and I went to dinner. We came across Lattitude in W Springfield. It was amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone who lives in W. Mass. It's right across the street from the Big E fairgrounds. We had fried brussel sprouts to start and knew we were in for wonderful food because of how good they were. We weren't disappointed either!
The rest of the week we hung out at mom's. Mom and John took Avi to Friendly's for a cone head sundae which she thoroughly enjoyed. Mom and I took the kids to the Westfield Children's Museum which was nice and then stopped to visit my aunt Pam. She was so surprised to see us and had so much fun watching their antics. On Thursday we headed back to Boston to spend some more time with poppy. We went out to eat at Kelly's and then visited with our friend Christie. We were back to poppy's by 8 and put the kids to bed and then us shortly thereafter.
We were up at 6:30 to head to the airport to meet mom and John to give mom her car back and get on our flight. Our flight left on time and we were back in CO by 1pm New Year's Day. It was a fantastic visit - we did a lot, saw a lot of people, and the kids had a blast too - but it's good to be home.
The kids woke up at 6am today - not horrible considering the time change. We took down the rest of Christmas and then went to Costco and King Soopers. Avi spent most of the afternoon at Emma's house and came home to eat dinner basically. They are both in bed and that's where I'm headed once I finish this post. I have to work tomorrow - ugh!
So what's the latest with Avi and Zach:
Zach - since he's now 1 we've weaned him off formula - hurray! it was painless actually, he's also off the bottle and solely on a sippy cup now - hurray!, he had some words/sounds that make sense in context - when he sees a santa doll or figure he says "dan-dah" and when Cabo came home yesterday he was so excited and said "da-bo", his favorite book right now is an animal book that has colorful paper in some of the animal cutouts - he'll actually go into the other room and come back carrying it, he's using his signs more accurately too - mostly milk, eat, more and all done, he's taking bites off a banana but isn't yet able to hold it on his own without squishing it, he starts dancing and bouncing up/down when he hears music and it's just the cutest thing ever
Avi - she's really starting to recognize her letters and wants to try to spell out any words that she finds - she was quite pleased with herself for spelling STOP on the sign today - she also spelled COSTCO and NORDSTROM - she needs help usually with 1 or 2 letters but gets the rest, she loves her curriculum workbooks too (like trace the numbers/letters, circle the opposites, etc), she'll sit quietly and read through a book on her own but loves to be read to too, she's still very much into pretend play and lately she's usually a dinosaur or a horse, she's been going to day care 4 days a week for about a month and I don't think that's the reason she's doing so well but I also know it's not hurting :)
Avi's signed up for swim lessons through March and Zach starts tumbling next week which goes through May. We've got our white board color coded for each of their "events".
Happy New Year to all!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Early Christmas
This was a fun week - Avi had her school holiday party and we opened presents from Santa this morning.
Avi's school holiday party was fun. She did a good job with both the dancing and the singing. She did ballet to the Nutcracker Suite and a tap routine to Santa Baby. She's only been taking the lessons for 4 weeks so she did a good job considering that and the fact the teacher was in the crowd showing them the moves. However, when we were at Cost Plus yesterday Santa Baby came on the radio and sure enough she was twisting her hips to the refrain of "hurry down the chimney tonight". Too cute.
The singing program was great. She knows all the songs by heart because we would sing them on the way to school and the way home so she belted them out loud and clear over the other voices. First was "boots, mittens, scarf and hat" to the tune of "head, shoulders, knees and toes", then "i'm opening a present" to the tune of "have you ever seen a lassie", then "up on the housetop", then "jingle bells", then "i'm a little dradle" to the tune of "i'm a little teapot", then rudolph the red nosed reindeer" and the big finale of "we wish you a merry christmas". She had a great time!
Yesterday she got a letter in the mail from Santa telling her he would visit her early since we'll be at Luke's on Christmas Day. She was very excited and opened her new pajamas last night and slept until about 7 this morning. We opened presents and had a nice morning. She seemed to respond great to everything we got her which is always nice...the only thing she was initially bummed about was not getting "spike the dinosaur" but when we pointed out that Santa still brought her a spiky dinosaur she was happy.
She played with Emma a bit outside later this afternoon and kept wanting to bring Emma in but we couldn't let her since there were new presents everywhere. Only one more day to the weekend and then we have school the rest of the week and head to the airport Thursday morning for a 7:45am flight to Boston. Can't wait to be with family and see everyone but not sure about a day flight with 2 kids.
Happy Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Avi's school holiday party was fun. She did a good job with both the dancing and the singing. She did ballet to the Nutcracker Suite and a tap routine to Santa Baby. She's only been taking the lessons for 4 weeks so she did a good job considering that and the fact the teacher was in the crowd showing them the moves. However, when we were at Cost Plus yesterday Santa Baby came on the radio and sure enough she was twisting her hips to the refrain of "hurry down the chimney tonight". Too cute.
The singing program was great. She knows all the songs by heart because we would sing them on the way to school and the way home so she belted them out loud and clear over the other voices. First was "boots, mittens, scarf and hat" to the tune of "head, shoulders, knees and toes", then "i'm opening a present" to the tune of "have you ever seen a lassie", then "up on the housetop", then "jingle bells", then "i'm a little dradle" to the tune of "i'm a little teapot", then rudolph the red nosed reindeer" and the big finale of "we wish you a merry christmas". She had a great time!
Yesterday she got a letter in the mail from Santa telling her he would visit her early since we'll be at Luke's on Christmas Day. She was very excited and opened her new pajamas last night and slept until about 7 this morning. We opened presents and had a nice morning. She seemed to respond great to everything we got her which is always nice...the only thing she was initially bummed about was not getting "spike the dinosaur" but when we pointed out that Santa still brought her a spiky dinosaur she was happy.
She played with Emma a bit outside later this afternoon and kept wanting to bring Emma in but we couldn't let her since there were new presents everywhere. Only one more day to the weekend and then we have school the rest of the week and head to the airport Thursday morning for a 7:45am flight to Boston. Can't wait to be with family and see everyone but not sure about a day flight with 2 kids.
Happy Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Through November, early December
So it's now December so I'll back up a bit and try to remember everything...
Avi did karate. She did well and it was mostly about safety and listening skills - they called the program "safe side kids" so parents are safe side adults, the instructors were "kinda knows" and strangers are "don't knows". The concept was still a bit over her head but she had fun with the skills they would do like averting someone coming after them or listening for our commands in a noisy crowd - like hearing me say "get on the ground, crawl forward, stand up, turn around, etc". We'll probably try it again in another year.
She's now doing dance class at school once a week and like that a lot. She has a recital for the Holiday program at her school this week which should be interesting. She's also doing swim lessons - she has made such progress and is now starting to do strokes with a kick to get where she wants to go and does really well with her floating. She'll do swimming through the winter and will be a great swimmer by the summer so I can focus on Z when we go to the pool.
We started Avi at school an extra day last week. She now goes M-Th. It'll be good for her since she'll still be 4 when she starts kindergarten next year. It helps her to have another day of structure and since all of her friends on our street are already in school she has someone to play with besides me and Z. It also gives me some 1:1 time with Zach now that he loves to play and is so mobile.
I'm signing Zach up for tumbling to start in January on Mondays when Avi is at school. It'll be nice to have him do tumbling since he's a boy and Avi loved it so much.
I had to work on Thanksgiving but got out early enough to rest a bit and then get ready to head to Susie and Bruce's for dinner. Leslie picked Avi up at noon so she could play with Aubrie before Aubrie had to head to Cory's for the night. We had a great dinner and were home around 8. We spent Friday putting up our Christmas decorations. Avi has rearranged our tree ornaments multiple times but it keeps her busy and makes her feel like a big girl so we let her.
I took Avi to Disney on Ice last weekend as a surprise. She had a blast...loved every minute of it. It started with Mickey and Minnie then Cars, then Little Mermaid and Lion King and after the break it was Tinkerbell. It was a great day out.
This weekend we had Z's birthday party. It was a fun party and thoroughly enjoyed his cupcake plus another piece of cake since most of his cupcake ended up on him. :) His face was a mess but he was so adorable. We cannot believe he's one already! This year has gone by so quickly it's amazing. He's using his signs for milk and more consistently. He'll also walk to his chair with his booster seat when we ask him where his chair is and he'll walk to the fridge if we ask him where his milk is. He's now blowing kisses when he goes off to bed which is too cute! If he picks up a brush he'll brush his own hair or pretend to. He also puts his hand up to his ear when B or I are talking on the phone. It's amazing to me how much more he's doing now at 12 months vs last month. It's a great reminder of how fast they pick things up.
We went to see Santa today. Zach sat really well on his lap and Brandon got a great picture of him looking up at Santa - it was too cute. Avi told him she wanted "Spike the dinosaur" which is this huge, red, automated dinosaur. We'll see what Santa brings her. We're going to do Christmas next weekend for the kids since we'll be in ME for Christmas Day. I think Santa will bring things for her stocking to Hillary's but we'll do the big presents next weekend.
I'll write more after our trip back east - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Avi did karate. She did well and it was mostly about safety and listening skills - they called the program "safe side kids" so parents are safe side adults, the instructors were "kinda knows" and strangers are "don't knows". The concept was still a bit over her head but she had fun with the skills they would do like averting someone coming after them or listening for our commands in a noisy crowd - like hearing me say "get on the ground, crawl forward, stand up, turn around, etc". We'll probably try it again in another year.
She's now doing dance class at school once a week and like that a lot. She has a recital for the Holiday program at her school this week which should be interesting. She's also doing swim lessons - she has made such progress and is now starting to do strokes with a kick to get where she wants to go and does really well with her floating. She'll do swimming through the winter and will be a great swimmer by the summer so I can focus on Z when we go to the pool.
We started Avi at school an extra day last week. She now goes M-Th. It'll be good for her since she'll still be 4 when she starts kindergarten next year. It helps her to have another day of structure and since all of her friends on our street are already in school she has someone to play with besides me and Z. It also gives me some 1:1 time with Zach now that he loves to play and is so mobile.
I'm signing Zach up for tumbling to start in January on Mondays when Avi is at school. It'll be nice to have him do tumbling since he's a boy and Avi loved it so much.
I had to work on Thanksgiving but got out early enough to rest a bit and then get ready to head to Susie and Bruce's for dinner. Leslie picked Avi up at noon so she could play with Aubrie before Aubrie had to head to Cory's for the night. We had a great dinner and were home around 8. We spent Friday putting up our Christmas decorations. Avi has rearranged our tree ornaments multiple times but it keeps her busy and makes her feel like a big girl so we let her.
I took Avi to Disney on Ice last weekend as a surprise. She had a blast...loved every minute of it. It started with Mickey and Minnie then Cars, then Little Mermaid and Lion King and after the break it was Tinkerbell. It was a great day out.
This weekend we had Z's birthday party. It was a fun party and thoroughly enjoyed his cupcake plus another piece of cake since most of his cupcake ended up on him. :) His face was a mess but he was so adorable. We cannot believe he's one already! This year has gone by so quickly it's amazing. He's using his signs for milk and more consistently. He'll also walk to his chair with his booster seat when we ask him where his chair is and he'll walk to the fridge if we ask him where his milk is. He's now blowing kisses when he goes off to bed which is too cute! If he picks up a brush he'll brush his own hair or pretend to. He also puts his hand up to his ear when B or I are talking on the phone. It's amazing to me how much more he's doing now at 12 months vs last month. It's a great reminder of how fast they pick things up.
We went to see Santa today. Zach sat really well on his lap and Brandon got a great picture of him looking up at Santa - it was too cute. Avi told him she wanted "Spike the dinosaur" which is this huge, red, automated dinosaur. We'll see what Santa brings her. We're going to do Christmas next weekend for the kids since we'll be in ME for Christmas Day. I think Santa will bring things for her stocking to Hillary's but we'll do the big presents next weekend.
I'll write more after our trip back east - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Friday, November 6, 2009
It's November...
The night before Halloween, Brandon and I got dressed up and went to a party at Scott and Kelly's. B was MacGyver and I was Britney Spears' school girl. We had a great time at the party and met a lot of new people. It was a great turnout considering 2-3 feet of snow had fallen in the 2 days before the party. B was my designated driver for the night so I took full advantage of that and drank like I was back in college - I had at least 10 White Russians. My world was spinning a bit on the way home but by the next morning I was good as new and ready to go - I did take a nap when Zach did which helped too.
Halloween day was fun. B and Avi built a snow tower in the backyard with all of our snow. That night Avi was Snow White and Zach was a cow. Avi had more fun getting dressed to trick-or-treat than actually getting the candy. After about 30 minutes she decided she was done and we headed home. She had a lot of fun standing in the door passing out the candy instead. After the treats were passed out Emma and Tom came over so Emma and Avi could play until bed time. They play really well together and are very agreeable about taking turns for each other's ideas, etc. Z was already in bed so I had some nice down time for the rest of the night.
I had to work Sunday which was a bummer but only one weekend day a month isn't bad at all! Monday we finished making Avi's bird balloon projects and then went shopping for a cabinet for her room. She plays in there a lot these days and we needed something she could put her toys away on. She loves her jewelry box and ponytailers, etc which can make a big mess so we got a 3 shelf bookshelf. She puts her box of My Little Pony's on top and the other shelves are full of the rest of the stuff. She feels very big when she cleans her own room! We love that.
Zach has decided he wants to walk everywhere. I had guessed early on when he started crawling with the crab crawl that he would start walking at Halloween and I was right. He still occasionally crab crawls but it's mostly when he's tired or if he's trying to escape from Avi. It's so cute to see him wobbling around so proud of himself! He's eating on his own now. Doesn't like to be spoon fed anything except cottage cheese (I started him on it early so that someone else in this family will like it with me). He loves strawberries and any fruit too. He's had some chicken but meats are still a bit too tough for him.
Avi starts karate tomorrow. It should be interesting to see how she does as an individual vs a team. I'm sure at this level it's more about listening and obeying the instructor than doing punches/kicks. We'll see how it goes...
Project for the day is rice krispie treats....yummy!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Early October...
I cannot believe it's October already. This year is going by so fast and before we know it, Zach will be 1!
Zach is still working on mastering a narrow base of support. He will sometimes take a step on his own but isn't ready to walk yet. He loves to get around crawling and is really quite fast on his hands and feet - not the traditional hands/knees. He's still waving bye-bye and occasionally to say hi. We're working on blowing kisses and he'll bring his hand to his mouth when we say "blow kisses" but doesn't have the release down yet. It's very cute though! He'll also give a mouth kiss sometimes when I ask for a kiss - he usually doesn't stop at one though which gets a bit messy. He's doing really well eating - he loves strawberries and bananas this week. He's had chicken, cottage cheese, sliced cheese, broccoli, deli turkey, eggplant, rice, canteloupe, pancakes, waffles, peaches, mandarin oranges, yogurt...I think we're doing a better job giving him a mixture of food than we did with Avelyn. She loves all of the above so we have it in the house where I don't think we did when she was just learning to eat.
Avelyn continues to do well with her writing letters and numbers. She tried her homework on her own on the way to the dentist yesterday and completed it but instead of a 3 she did B's. It's hard to know how much to correct her and push her since she's only 4 and has a whole year to work on writing and really will still work on it in kindergarten too. For now I'm just glad she enjoys it and likes to write her name on everything. We've taken books out of the library for her to "read" - we only need to read them to her once and then she reads them on her own pretty accurately using the pictures and recall of our storytelling. She still loves to play dress-up and her latest activity is to play in her room. She brings up her bucket of "my little ponies" and her doll house and just plays and plays and plays. She'd stay up there all day if we'd let her! Right now she's working on what she wants to be for Halloween - it changes daily - yesterday it was a dragon, this morning it was bat girl and tonight she told me a butterfly. We'll make a decision this weekend so I can start making it!
I went out with Jessica and Rebecca Monday night for girls' night. It was a blast and it felt good to be out without chasing after our monkeys. Of course most of our conversation was about our monkeys but we still had a great time and vowed to go out at least once a month.
That's all for now...
Zach is still working on mastering a narrow base of support. He will sometimes take a step on his own but isn't ready to walk yet. He loves to get around crawling and is really quite fast on his hands and feet - not the traditional hands/knees. He's still waving bye-bye and occasionally to say hi. We're working on blowing kisses and he'll bring his hand to his mouth when we say "blow kisses" but doesn't have the release down yet. It's very cute though! He'll also give a mouth kiss sometimes when I ask for a kiss - he usually doesn't stop at one though which gets a bit messy. He's doing really well eating - he loves strawberries and bananas this week. He's had chicken, cottage cheese, sliced cheese, broccoli, deli turkey, eggplant, rice, canteloupe, pancakes, waffles, peaches, mandarin oranges, yogurt...I think we're doing a better job giving him a mixture of food than we did with Avelyn. She loves all of the above so we have it in the house where I don't think we did when she was just learning to eat.
Avelyn continues to do well with her writing letters and numbers. She tried her homework on her own on the way to the dentist yesterday and completed it but instead of a 3 she did B's. It's hard to know how much to correct her and push her since she's only 4 and has a whole year to work on writing and really will still work on it in kindergarten too. For now I'm just glad she enjoys it and likes to write her name on everything. We've taken books out of the library for her to "read" - we only need to read them to her once and then she reads them on her own pretty accurately using the pictures and recall of our storytelling. She still loves to play dress-up and her latest activity is to play in her room. She brings up her bucket of "my little ponies" and her doll house and just plays and plays and plays. She'd stay up there all day if we'd let her! Right now she's working on what she wants to be for Halloween - it changes daily - yesterday it was a dragon, this morning it was bat girl and tonight she told me a butterfly. We'll make a decision this weekend so I can start making it!
I went out with Jessica and Rebecca Monday night for girls' night. It was a blast and it felt good to be out without chasing after our monkeys. Of course most of our conversation was about our monkeys but we still had a great time and vowed to go out at least once a month.
That's all for now...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
