March 2013

March has just flown by!  The winter continued to bring snow and cold weather!  We went to Jack's very first friend birthday party (for Grady) at a waterpark in Des Moines, built a snowman together, saw some deer running in our backyard, celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the Sampsons, had a Mommy/Jack day after a long week of conferences, had a visit from the Steens for a quick day trip, went to Honeycreek for spring break with the McGinnis', decorated Easter eggs with Grandma Joyce, did some St. Patrick's Day crafts with Grandma Mary, and went to the Science Center!

Jack has started to put things into groups.  Here, he is sorting his letters by color.  He then said, "Look Mommy!"  I didn't even ask him to do it!  He's also started noticing words that start with the same letter or word part.  "Mommy...sandal goes with Sander!"  He always says 'goes with'.  So cute.

Jack's picture he colored on Jack/Mommy day at Barnes and Noble.  After we hung this up, we noticed the nice typo....and no apostrophe!

"Leprechaun drinks"

Socks on the hands.  Jack's newest obsession before he turns into some sort of a super hero.

February/March 2013

Hanna-14/15 months old

March 18, 2013

Hanna, we love you!  We love to see how much you grow and mature every single day!  Here are some stories:

-“No.”  If you get told ‘No’, you look at me very shocked, get a HUGE pouty lip, and in slow motion start bawling.  The bawling leads you to do one of two things: want nothing more than me to hold you so you know we still love you, or you flop backwards onto the ground, stiffen up, and throwing a huge temper tantrum!

-“Go get a book Hanna!” You follow small directions now.  I was shocked to see that you actually knew what I meant when I asked you to get me a book.  It was so cute to see you look at me, cock your head to process it, then waddle over to the book shelf.  You usually choose the biggest book (Fisher Price big book Animals All Around Us with flaps), and then try to carry it to me across the room.  You then fall down, then maneuver to pick it up  yet again, and carry it the rest of the way.  Hanna, you have a spunky, ‘I’m not gonna give up’ attitude about yourself and I love it!  You will then take the book and hand it to me, plop in my lap, and sit down to actually pay attention to the story.  You even help to turn the page.

-“Uh..ohhhhhh”.  This is your next word!  You love to drop things and say this over and over.  So cute!

-You still say ‘Da-da’, ‘Ma-Ma’, you hiss when you see Zoey or a picture of a cat, you growl like a lion, you love tractors and call it a ‘tra-tra’.  All things that you point to or say have 2 syllables and you convince yourself that you are pronouncing things very clearly!  It’s so sweet!

-Bedtime: You still go to bed about 6:30.  You get antsy to eat dinner right about 5:00…right when we get home!  You will plow through your meal, and then get fussy pointing to the bathroom from your high chair signaling bath time.  In bath, you love to play in there so usually you are content.  We know you’re done when you stand up.  You listen so well if we ask you to sit on your bottom.  You have to hold one toy when we pull you out, then we put on your towel hood and carry you to your changing table.  You just lay there and LOVE to get lotion put on and have your legs massaged.  You get your hair combed, look at yourself in the mirror, then play in the living room for a couple of minutes before I ask you to get me a book.  I read you 1-2 books in the rocking chair in the living room, sing you a song, and Daddy puts you to sleep.  You usually are so exhausted that you don’t fight it.  A couple of times you have cried and cried so we will come get you and read you a book or sing you a song, and then put you back down.  You like routine like your brother!  Now you have a blankie that you sleep with every night, and a new elephant ‘Ellie’ from Jack! 

-Wake-up:  You usually wake up at 6:30 or 7.  On the weekends, you will sleep in sometimes, waking up every 30 minutes, playing a little bit with your hands or staring, then lay back down.  This morning I actually found you with your zippy pajamas completely over your shoulders down to your waist!  You love to pull one arm out and “nook” by smelling your sleeve, but I have never see you get this far.  You then waddled like a penguin while I watched you in your crib go back and forth giggling the whole way.  After you’d had enough, you just took off your pajamas the rest of the way.  Such a big girl!

-Walking!  You started walking right at about 14 months!  You swing your arms, and move so fast!  You like to try to run too! 

-Bucket.  Your favorite thing to do is to dump out the blocks right after we pick them up, you then put the bucket on your head and giggle.  Your brother loves to do this too!  You are such a goofy girl, loving to make us laugh with your cheesy smile face during eating, and playing chase or sneaking up behind us so we say, “Boo!” 

-Food: You still. Eat. Everything.  You are rarely full.  You keep us busy chopping away while you devour your first course!  I think you eat 6-7 times/day.  3 meals and lots of snacking.  At least you like veggies and fruit because you are full of it!

-Teeth: You have 5-6 teeth now!!  Two on the bottom, and 3-4 on top!  I was brave and tried to see if you could eat a whole goldfish cracker without me having to break it up.  You shoveled a whole handful in and handled it just fine!  We may be able to stop cutting everything up into eraser-sized niblets!  Yay!

-Music: You love music.   If you are sad or angry, we can sing or turn on your ‘Hanna’ CD in your room, and you get so excited!  You will stop fussing and smile and dance!

We love you so much baby girl!  You are such a spunky, determined, cuddly sweetheart!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

February/March 2013

Jack 3 years/2 months old

March 18, 2013

Jack, you are much fun!!  Here are some funny stories about you lately.

-Jack, you have started to try to test the water of talking inappropriately.  You tend to throw in the terms poopy, poo-poo, doo-doo, doody, pee-pee and then end it with ‘head’ sometimes just to see our reaction.  Now one conversation we had this month, I’m not sure you knew that you were being inappropriate.  It all started with you telling me (while you were going potty), that boys have a pee-pee.  I agreed and then you repeated, “Boys have a pee-pee, girls have a ucky.”  I wanted to just ignore you or agree, but I tried to be a grown-up Mommy, and corrected you by using the correct term (which I DREAD).  I said, “Jack, it’s not called an ucky.”  “What is it called Mom?”  (Me….stalling……noticing you’re not going to forget about this) I say, “vagina.”  I assume the conversation is over, but then you take it to the next level and say, “Pachiinnnnaaaa????” “Pachina Pachina…I loooooooove pachinas!”

Oh. Dear.

-Looking at scissors, “We don’t cut our arms with dose.”  Yes, you are correct, Jack.

-Socks on hands.  Socks on your hands have become your superhero gear outfit.  You got some new superhero hand me down socks from Benny, and you are obsessed.  You put on your Spiderman costume, superhero socks on your hands, and you are ready to go!  You take your roles VERY seriously and like others to take part. 

-Role play.  The most recent game you have loved is ‘stuck in the mud.’  You are a superhero, I am “Superman Batman Baby”, and I have to pretend I’m stuck in the mud (ottoman).  You then find a long stick or toy to come save the day and pull me out of the mud. 

-Balloons.  You love them!  We kept them for a long time after your birthday parties, and you loved running around with them.  You made me hold you up in the air while you held onto the balloon bouquet, then said, “Let go Mommy!”  When I told you I couldn’t, and that you wouldn’t float, you got very mad!!!  Poor buddy!  Wouldn’t that be fun?  I’m guessing you got this from the movie Up.

-Dodger Roger.  You like to use this term when you are being the boss.  It’s your way of hanging up your fake phone, or closing a conversation.  So cute!

-Car ride after daycare.  Sometimes, I drive around with you and Hanna for a couple minutes to wind down from daycare before Daddy gets home.  The other day, we were in town and you looked at the trees and said, “Trees are naked.”  I then pointed out an American flag to which you responded, “That’s a rock n. roll flag!”  Two seconds later, “I’m gonna be a bald eagle when I grow up.”  Never a dull moment Jackie!

-After bath.  You love to run naked (gumby) from the tub to the living room since we’ve been doing tubbies upstairs lately.  The other night, you had your towel around you, ran to the living room, and said, “Guess what I don’t have?! “  Then you whipped off your towel, and said, “Ta-daaaaah!”

-You tell us often that you are going to preschool.  When we ask you where you’ll go after preschool, you say high school.

-On the way to cardiologist to check out your hear murmur (which was just fine!!!), we saw some artwork.  I said, “Look at that Jackie!”  You thought it was cool, and I asked you, “Do you want to be an artist when you grow up?”  You responded, “No, I wanna be a bad guy.”  Oh.  Okay then.

-Daddy’s protector.  Since you see Mommy always saying things like, “You okay?”  “Be careful!” to Daddy, you now do it when Mommy doesn’t.  When Daddy was walking you down to bed, you said, “Check the monitor Daddy.” (Just want to protect your sister and makes sure she’s sleeping sound.)  When Daddy is making a fire, you say, “You okay Daddy??” 

-Mommy/Jack day!  This was so fun yesterday.  I noticed that you have been very attached to Daddy lately, and I was missing our Mommy/Son time, so we went to Jordan Creek to spend time together!  We went to buy some jammies for you and Hanna, you picked out a new elephant for Hanna to sleep with, and we bought Mommy some new sunglasses.  You didn’t want to play at the indoor park, so we just walked around and went to Barnes and Noble.  I read you a book, Llama Llama Learns to Share, you colored a St. Patrick’s Day picture, and you played with the train table!  Then we went and got a Happy Meal for the ride home.  It was a great day.  I loved how confident you were walking through the mall.  If you were walking, you crossed your arms the whole time to show just how big you were.  If I asked you to (with a little prompting), you would hold my hand or hold the stroller.  You loved the escalator and elevator and even go to push the buttons!  You are such a fun buddy to spend time with, and I love that when I ask you who your best friend is, you still say, “You.”  That will never get old. 

I love you so much buddy!!!! 

Love, Mommy and Daddy