10 Months

Well Boo just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I guess that's only natural. I wonder why I expect her to stay small? :) She is really moving these days. She can crawl across the house in a matter of seconds and is quick to get into things before we can stop her. She loves to crawl over to something and pull herself up.

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She's not too interested in standing b/c there is usually something she wants to grab on the floor but she has stood several times on her own for a few seconds. My mom actually got a picture of her standing the other day!

She is such a little busy bee. I had hoped that since we already have a VERY active child that we would get a more mellow second baby, but so far it looks like I am out of luck. :)

She loves her sister so much. It is so sweet to watch them interact.

Peek-a-boo!

And the biggest news of all...she said "Ma-ma" yesterday! For the first time! I was SO excited! She has been saying, "Da-da" for months. Bug did the same thing. But it was worth the wait. There is no sweeter sound to a mother's ears than a little voice calling for Mama. Love it.

She is so fun at 10 months. I can't wait to see what she is like at a year!

Today I am Thankful For:

Little pilgrims.

Good food and three-year-old prayers.

Sweet Potatoes.

Great-grandmas and Playdoh.

Made up games.

Squiggly tongues.

8 teeth!

Learning new things.

Sisters.

Snuggles.

Forts under the pool table and happy grins.

Tickle Fights.

Working puzzles.

Decorating the tree.

Bedtime kisses.

Bundled babies.

Snow angels.

Building a snowman.

And snow slides.

Family.

Being daring.

Laughter.

Big smiles, happy girls, and snow.

And too many other things to count!

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Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wordless Wednesday

My Favorites

Okay, I don't know why I've been going crazy with the videos lately but yesterday afternoon I got what is now my favorite video of all Boo Bear time! I was intending to get her clapping since we think she is so cute when she does it, and I unintentionally got the video right when K woke up from her nap. If you listen carefully you can hear the squeak of the door when it opens from upstairs and then you can hear her talking as she starts walking downstairs. I love the expression on Boo's face when she hears the door and her eagerness to see her sister come into view. And then she calls to her. So sweet. I knew they were interacting more but I guess I haven't really stopped to see how much Boo is interacting with Bug. I thought it was mostly the other way around. This video proves that she is quite enthralled with her sister. :)

And since we're talking about favorite videos, here is my favorite video of all Buggy time. It is really poor quality, taken on T's cell phone at the time, but it remains my favorite. I love it. She is about 16 months in this video, when we lived at our old house.
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Here is the original post that went with it:

We were walking by our neighbors, a few houses down, the other day and stopped to look at their garage sale stuff. They had this dog that is obnoxiously loud and sings the Hokey Pokey. They have a little girl around K's age, but apparently she is terrified of the thing. So when someone turned it on and K started dancing around they said to please just take it and get it off their hands. It's actually kind of cute, but it is just so LOUD! We can't figure out a way to turn it down, and I tried to get in there to put a piece of tape over the speaker, but I can't without ripping it. We would have ditched it a long time ago except that K absolutely loves it and loves to dance around to it. She knows how to turn it on and does so with abandon. Here's a little footage of K with her own version of the Hokey Pokey. :)

"What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?"

Happy Birthday Grandpa

We got to see the cousins this weekend! Bug was very excited to say the least. Since it's Thanksgiving with my family this year/Christmas with T's, we aren't going to be able to gather for Grandpa's birthday, so we celebrated a little bit early and all went "home" for the weekend.

We attempted to let the girls have a sleepover in Grandma's bed. They went to bed at 8:30. They were reprimanded at 9:00. All was quiet after that so we left them alone. When I went to check on them at 10:30 I found them whispering. Separation ensued. Bug was left in Grandma's bed. After 11:00 when we all turned in, Grandma was greeted with a "Hi Gramma!" when she went into her room. Needless to say, Bug didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Compound that with getting up over an hour earlier than usual and we had a very sleepy girl on our hands the next day. :P

We wanted to do something practical for a birthday present and since the guys enjoy working together we decided to do a little work on Grandpa's pickup. They changed the shocks, changed the belts, replaced a seat belt, and cleaned the interior.

And Grandma had them take the bench seat out so she could re-cover it. Ever wondered what the inside of a farm truck would like without the seat?

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Dirty.

But, as we hoped, they all had fun working together and they were finished very quickly. By lunch everything but the seat was done.
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The babies enjoyed their time together too. We brought their walkers and let them play together.

Waylon thought it was all fun and games.

But Boo Bear had her game face on.

When she saw me taking pictures she assumed a sly innocent expression.

Here's a little video of the action.

I wouldn't be surprised if both babies were walking by Christmas. It's going to be fun to watch them unwrapping presents!

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Happy (early) Birthday Grandpa!

Mmm Mmm Good

Usually the only way I can tell if Boo likes something is by whether or not she will open her mouth for more. When she doesn't like something she clamps her mouth shut and there is no way it is getting in. Yesterday when I gave her some home-grown carrots she surprised me by smacking her lips together. She must have thought they were pretty tasty! :)

Huge

This weekend T and the girls were playing in the living room. K had thrown a blanket over one of the toy bins to make herself a tent. She called me in and the following conversation occurred...

K: "Mommy! Come in to my tent!"

Me: "I can't honey, I'm too big."

K: "Oh, ok."

A few minutes later. She calls again.

K: "Mommy! You can come in my tent now! I made it HUUUUUGE! Now you will fit."

Me: "Wow. Thanks."

(definite blow to the ego)

I came further into the living room and saw her "huge" tent. And felt a little vindicated. I can't be that HUUUUGE if she thinks I will fit in there.

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Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

~ Psalm 139:14

A Monster

So technically this is a "laugh with me" but it deserved it's own post. Although it could have been one of those you-had-to-be-there moments it is probably the most I have laughed in months.

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So...it all started when the beloved Koala was left at Noni's house accidentally. Bug made it until naptime and then she cried so pitifully that we agreed to meet my mom at a halfway point so we could get him back before bedtime.

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We met at a little diner and got hamburgers. It is a small restaurant...probably 20 x 30 feet...so everything is in hearing distance. We were all happily eating when the door chimed. I didn't pay much attention but I noticed that Bug started to rise from her seat. When she was fully standing in the booth, a look of wonder started spreading across her face. She stretched out her little hand, pointed (quite rudely) to something behind us, and said, "LOOK MOMMY! A HUUUGE MONSTER!" Brain reeling. What did she just say??? Turn to look.

Oh.

My.

Word.

Probably one of the biggest people I have seen since watching the Power Team ten years ago. WELL over 6 feet, easily 350 pounds. Dark. Hairy. Yes, I'm sure to a three year old he did, indeed, look like a monster. T got a glimpse of him and whipped his head in the other direction. Under his breath I could hear him saying, "Oh crap." He turned to me, "He's not going to hit a three year old or two ladies, especially the one holding the baby, but I'm dead!"

(He was mostly joking:)

Thankfully, the guy played it cool and acted like he didn't hear even though there was NO possible way he didn't hear. And heaven help me, I got the giggles. I could. Not. Stop. Laughing.

Could.

Not.

My side felt like it was splitting as I tried to hold it in. I'm sure my face was as red as a tomato. We should have made her go apologize, but that could have opened a big can of worms... and I was laughing too hard to do anything at that point.

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Thankfully we all recovered and no one got punched out. We even got ice cream at the end...mostly to celebrate life, and not getting punched, and the innocence of a three year old...a three year old that ate her ice cream too fast and soon experienced her first ice cream headache. Maybe that was her just desserts. :)

Whatever the case we were just happy to walk out of there...and laugh all the way home.

9 Months

I can't believe my baby is 9 months old already! Well, by now she is already 9 1/2 months. There is a two week old baby at our church right now and he looks impossibly small, like there is no way either of my girls were ever that size...even if nine months ago one of them really was. It's amazing how fast they grow and change during the first year. Amazing.

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This little one is trying to stand on her own! She gets up on one knee like this and tries her darnedest to stand up. She always ends up falling forward and catching herself, but one of these days will be the day she actually makes it.

She knows she is doing something big and she loves it!

She is starting to cruise a little bit on the furniture and several times we've seen her stand on her own for 3-4 seconds before falling. I think she will walk a little earlier than her sister did.
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She had her 9 month check up last Thursday and the doctor said she is looking great! Thankfully she didn't have to have any shots this time, but the doctor did find a "nasty" ear infection in her left ear. Poor baby! She gave no hint whatsoever! No pulling, fussiness, poor sleeping, nothing. She was as happy as ever. So now she is on amoxycillain (sp?) for four more days, but thankfully, she likes it so its no trouble to give it to her.
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She is 17 pounds -25% and 29 inches - 90% but since her head circumference is keeping up with her height they aren't worried that she dropped to the 25th for weight.
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She is doing pretty well on eating...still very opinionated about what she likes and dislikes but the dislikes are getting fewer and farther between. Some of it is about temperature. I thought she hated yogurt, but then I tried warming it up a tad and she ate the whole container. Bread is by far the favorite and she loves anything she can feed herself. She had a lot of fun with some green beans at Noni and Papa's the other day. :)
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One of my favorite new things she is doing is turning the pages when we read books. I think it is so sweet. She waits for me to pause and then turns it over and gives the page a slap. She LOVES to slap things. She slaps her highchair tray over and over once it is empty...we are working on not slapping faces. I think she mostly likes the noise b/c she also loves to bang toys together.
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One of my least favorite things she does right now is that she finds bits. It doesn't matter if I have just swept and vacuumed she can still manage to find the tiniest bit of fuzz or whatever is there and brings it to her mouth. I dig things out of her mouth ten times a day. :P
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One great thing is how snuggly she is. Bug was NOT a snuggler, and I love the way this one will snuggle into my neck when she wakes up and right before she goes to bed. So sweet.
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She is such a happy baby. She has started laughing like a big girl lately, and it is so cute. She smiles her way through each day and brings much joy to our household. What a little angel. She can also be a little stinker...she has learned to scream her head off if we try to make her do something she doesn't want to...b/c when that happens with her sister we come rescue her. But for the most part she is our little ray of sunshine and we are thankful for each day with her.

The Silver Lining

Okay, so last night I was a bit out of sorts with the whole daylight saving thing, but this morning it has won me over. I found the silver lining. This morning...before 10:30am I:

*did a workout before the kids woke up

*had everybody done and cleaned up from breakfast by 9:00am

(never happens!)

*had three loads of laundry washed and two dried and folded

*unloaded the dishwasher and then reloaded it w/the dirty dishes

*cleaned out the fridge from top to bottom

(quite a task, believe me!)

*disposed of all the moldy nastiness that resulted

(and salvaged the affected containers)

*put a batch of garden carrots in the steamer

(to make into babyfood)

* and put away the rest of our stuff from the weekend

Coming from someone who usually doesn't get the kids (and herself) dressed and ready until a few minutes before noon (right when Daddy comes home for lunch) that is a lot!

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So Daylight Saving and I are definitely back on happy terms! I'm sure you were all worried about the relationship. :)

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Anyway...we had another busy weekend around here. Well, we weren't "around here" which was why it was busy. T was asked to be a groomsman in the wedding of one of his college roommates so we took a little road trip. We were planning to stay two nights, but I'm not sure what we were thinking b/c hotel sleeping never works out very well for us. I guess we were being idealistic. Reality hit about 3:00am when K started sleep talking for the third time, waking her sister up, which resulted in about 30 seconds of screaming that felt like 30 minutes. Thankfully the hotel was really nice about canceling our second night without any penalty (maybe they just wanted to get rid of us and our midnight screamers) and we headed for home as soon as the wedding was over.

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But it actually worked out pretty well b/c since we were planning to stay all weekend it felt like we had an extra day off. We ended up spending Sunday at my parents house, and then after dinner we all went to Walmart and bought presents for our shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. I love that program. I think it is very "real" for Bug to pick out presents for a little girl who is her age and think about what she might be like and where she might live. We are having a shoebox packing party at our church next Saturday and I'm looking forward to seeing how many we can fill this year!

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Well, this post has gotten kind of random so I will wrap it up...maybe I'm still off-balance from all that daylight saving trouble yesterday. :) Have a happy Monday!

Schedule Schmedule

Did you get to sleep in this morning? If you did, you probably don't have children b/c kids don't care one whit about sleeping in so you can get an extra hour of sleep on Daylight Saving morning. They only know that they are hungry and Mommy won't feed them, and they are tired and Mommy won't put them to bed.

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Or is that just my kids? I have my kids so scheduled that you can pretty much find us doing the same thing at any given time of day that we did at that time of day one week previous and will be doing a week from then. Wow, that was a confusing sentence...I think I'm just tired b/c even though the clock says it's quarter to ten, my body says it's quarter to eleven and to go get into bed.

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Yes, I'm rambling.

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Anyway...the point I was trying to make is that daylight saving is not so fun for those of us who are big on schedules. I love schedules and routines. It's just my Type A personality. I think that is why I love Babywise so much, b/c it is all about routine. Boo eats 4 times a day 8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm. She naps from 10:30am-12pm and again from 2pm-4pm, which happens to be the same time her sister naps. That gives Mommy and nice long two hour break everyday. My girls are winding down by 7:30pm, Boo is in bed by 8:15, Bug by 8:30. It makes for a very happy (or is that just me?), tightly-run ship.

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I know scheduling is not for everyone. I have some friends who have absolutely no routine at all, and while that would drive me crazy it works for them and their families. They probably adjusted to the daylight saving without even noticing it happened. Me on the other hand...my whole day was out of whack. I bumped our schedule back by half an hour, and it just seemed wrong, but thankfully my kids are more resilient than me and will probably be back on track by tomorrow...we'll see. For now I'd better go to bed before I fall asleep at the computer.

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If anyone is still reading by the end of this post (who is not thinking I am a total weirdo) goodnight. :)

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Oh, and here is a picture, just to redeem this rambling post to the extent that that is possible.

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Taken by Bug

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And I have no makeup on.

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Okay, I'm done now.

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Really.

Goodnight.

3 1/2

Our big little girl is now three and a half! I can't believe she is halfway to four. The time continues to escape faster than I could ever have imagined. She is such a ray of sunshine in our lives. What a fun little girl. They made piggy cupcakes at Awana last night (thanks to Noni, and Aunt Karen's creativity!) so we put a candle in one and sang Happy Birthday to her...three times. She would have insisted on a fourth but Daddy gave up. :)

She did blow out the candle several times. :)

Love that sweet face.

Height: 40 1/4 inches
Weight: 32 1/2 pounds

Some of my favorite things she says right now:
"retend" - pretend
"nola bar" - granola bar
"ham-bur-bur-ger" - hamburger
"Pri Sun" - Capri Sun
"yo-gut" - yogurt
"ax-ih-didn't" - accident
"later day" - yesterday, earlier today, or later today
"Wa-mirt" - Walmart (sounds like varmint with a w)
"fumb" - thumb...I don't understand why she can say thank, three, this, that, but she still says, "fumb", but it's so cute I don't correct her
"Don't argue me!" - she says this when she gets frustrated that we aren't letting her do something. When she argues with us we say, "K, please don't argue with me." It's hard to explain to her that there are some things that a parent can say to a child but not vice versa. We also have this problem with, "Can you sit down and be quiet now please?" :)
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Some of our favorite things she does:
The other day she started doing pelvic thrusts while dancing...I know for a FACT that she has never seen anyone do that so I must assume it is a natural thing, haha, and when I looked at her funny she said, "I'm pumping my booty!"
She also thinks it's funny to spank herself and, heaven help us, it looks so funny that we can't help but laugh, which, of course makes her do it even more. What a nut!
Whenever she does something bad, or accidently breaks/spills something (which pretty much happens every day) she says quietly, "I'm sorry, Mommy. Do you forgive me?"
If she does something for us, cleaning up her room, doing a chore, etc. she will look up with such a joyful smile and say, "I'm a blessing!"
Throughout the day I hear her making up songs, and often times they are just the words, "I love you Jesus!" sang to different tunes. When I hear her I think her little voice must sound better than the most famous singer in the world, to Him.
She will randomly stop whatever she is doing and say, "I love you Mommy! (Daddy or Boo)" It is so sweet. And often times if we are playing or coloring next to her she will just lean over and kiss our cheek, hand, or arm.
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She may be off-the-wall hyper, neverstopsmoving, and very intense/dramatic at times...okay most of the time :) but she is such a sweet little girl and we are so thankful for each day we have with her. She is definitely a blessing that we thank God for everyday!

Our Little Cubbie

K started Cubbies this fall! T did AWANA when he was younger, and although I didn't, I'm a big fan of the program. She was so excited that she is old enough to go to Cubbies and she has the added bonus of her Noni being her Cubbie teacher!

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I have been meaning to take my camera in and get some pictures b/c the Cubbies are so darn cute! T is working with T&T boys and I am working with T&T girls, so after being with the "big" kids all night these little guys look so tiny and adorable!

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Boo rides around in the hiking backpack all night and she and I skip out on the last session so I can bring her home a little early. It's definitely not easy to work with her squirming around all the time, but it's not too bad...so far...she's getting increasingly unhappy about being confined for 1.5 hours. :P

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Here's K with one of her little friends. My mom said he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek tonight when they were coloring! So funny.

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It was bible character night. K, of course, wanted to be Jesus since He is her all time favorite hero of the bible. I put my sweater on her with tights and a pillowcase around her head.

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My mom had to take her to the bathroom and I guess she was having trouble getting a hold of the sweater so she could go and said, "Ugh! WHY did Jesus wear this??"

She LOVES the circle and is SO proud of herself when she runs so fast.

Giving it all she's got!

She was about to bust when she was through and came back to the line listening to the praise of her group.

But the best thing about Awana is that she is learning more and more about God and how much He loves us.

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We can't wait to see how the rest of the year turns out!

But I think her Daddy is going to have to keep a closer eye on those Blue-Cubbie vest wearing boys! :)