Sunday, April 24, 2005

Shoe Police and Bananas

Abby, you have been nominated chief of the shoe police. Mom came home today after Church and took her shoes off by the door. You saw what she had done and immediately started crying, ran over and picked up her shoes and chased her into the kitchen to make her put them back on.

Alex, you like to stuff you mouth full of bananas. That’s what you had for breakfast today. You filled your cheeks up like a chipmunk. It turned out to be a good thing, because you had to breathe out of your nose so all of your snot came out and got wiped away.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Walking and Door Knobs

Alex, you started walking today. You have taken as many as 3 or 4 steps during the past couple weeks, but today you have been walking all the way across the room. Last night you were having a lot of fun running back and forth along the couch, laughing all the way. Your sister beat you by walking three days earlier (or younger) than you did. She walked 7 days after her birthday, on April 4th. Today is 10 days after your birthday.

Abby, your learned how to open the front door yesterday. You had a lot of fun going in and out. One time you went out and didn’t come back in. I went out after you to find you going down the sidewalk with your stroller. We spent awhile outside while you walked up and down the street. We went across the street and met up with Curtis Peterson and Johnny. Johnny was pushing his lawn mower and you and he went walking off down the sidewalk.

Mommy gets in bug to re-arrange furniture every now and again. She decided to rearrange your room, but you were not too happy about that. When she would move something you would go after it and try to move it back to where it was saying, “NO, Mom!”. You were very adamant when mom tried to put your bed underneath the window. You wouldn’t be pacified until she moved your bed into the corner. Then you jumped into bed and kicked your legs, excited that you got your way.

Monday, April 11, 2005

Cute Kids

Your mom brought you home a lip stick. You loved it. You like to suck on lids, which you did with your lipstick lid, until you lost it. The lipstick worked like a large ball point pen. You sucked on the lipstick until the ball came off. Next thing I know, you came over to me with your finger in your mouth trying to reach down your throat. You opened your mouth to show me and pointed down your throat. You grabbed my hand and wanted me to try and get it for you. Of course, it didn’t work, but you were pretty funny for being the first time that you swallowed something.

You can now say, “let’s go”, “pillow”, “all done”, and “shoe”.

You like to take off your diaper even if it’s just wet. You made a mess on your floor. On the 10th, which is Mom’s B-day, we went up to Dan and Stephanie Saxey’s for Elli’s baby blessing. You took your diaper off there in Brayden’s bedroom. You were trying to put on one of Ellie’s newborn diapers. Thankfully you didn’t get anything on the floor, especially since their carpet is so white.

You and Alex have both discovered that there is water in the toilet and likely you have both enjoyed playing in it as well as putting things in it, like Mom’s jewelry. She had to reach in the toilet to get it.

You like to jump now. Most of the time you don’t get off the ground, but just yesterday you got at least an inch.

Alex. You haven’t walked yet. Your sister walked one week after her first birthday. That means you have until the 14th to beat your sister. You can stand really well. You can even dance. You can take about 3 steps before you fall over, or before you get so excited that you lose your balance. After that, you think it’s a game and when we try and stand you up, you bounce up and down.

Abby, you are really particular. You like to put you shoes on yourself. You like to walk by yourself and go down the stairs by yourself (meaning that you don’t like us to hold your hand). You like to do as much as possible by yourself. And you love to help out. You like to help do the dishes or anything else that your Mom is doing.

Alex, you are very easy going. You are usually content to just sit, watch and enjoy. You are quick to smile. You like to have fun. You like to yell and jump around. You also like to throw your head into the couch. Or if you sitting on the floor and you get upset you like to bang your head on the floor. Once, when you were playing on our bed, you hit your head on the wall. We thought you might be hurt. Instead, you just banged your head again. You like to be held when you have just woken up. You are a lot more cuddly than you sister. You like to be held and lay your head on our shoulders.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Notes from Mommy

Abby:

1. I told Abby she was a princess the other day, and she said, “no, I’m Abby”
2. Whenever we ask Abby to do something she doesn’t want to do, she always uses the phrase, “I can’t want to”, or “I can’t like that”, its so cute.
3. Abby’s favorite books right now are the birthday book (I think she is dreaming about having her own birthday with a pink cake), and the Thomas Engine book. She and Alex just love everything about trains.
4. Abby is potty trained mostly, but once in awhile she has an accident, and I tell her that it makes me sad when she doesn’t go in the potty, so she has tried harder to make me very happy and when she goes potty, she exclaims, “mommy, I made you happy”, it’s so sweet. Whenever Alex does something he’s not supposed to, Abby will say, “oh no Alex, you made mommy so sad”

Alex:

1. Waddle Butt- Alex runs kind of with a slant, and likes to take his own sweet time. He’s a lot like his dad in that way- a lollygagger .
2. Whenever we ask Alex if he is poopy, he always says, “no, abba”, to try and get us to think its Abby.
3. Alex is so cute at bedtime, he has to have his back rubbed and has to talk about the things he did that day, and the people he saw, then when I try to leave, he holds on to my neck and pulls me back down and asks me to sing to him or listen to music. It’s really my favorite time of the day.
4. Alex has a really hard time pronouncing full words, he only does one syllable, so its really tricky to figure out what he’s trying to say, it’s kind of cute though.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Spilling, Jumping and Wiggling

Sometime last week you (Abby) spilled a whole container of Cheerios on the floor. You had surrounded your self with them and couldn’t get out without stepping on them and crushing them. You were frustrated every time you stepped on one and picked up your foot and tried to brush it off. Once you finally got out of the Cheerio maze you ran to your room and put your shoes on then came right back and walked all over the Cheerios, now happy that you couldn’t feel them on your feet.

You are getting some air now when you jump. You can get off the ground about ½ inch. You go down stairs standing up now, but you won’t let us help you. You need to do it by yourself. You are getting quicker as you get more confident. You are a pretty fast runner, and since it has been warm now for spring you just love to be outside. And you shoe fetish continues. You even wore you shoes to bed last night. If you don’t wear them to bed you put them on as soon as you get up. If your mother or I take our shoes off, you go and get them or us and make us put them on.

Alex, you are quite a wiggle worm. You like to throw your body around. You seem to have a lot of fun shaking you head back and forth when you are in your high chair. Abby joins you and you both laugh. The last week you have been waking up earlier, usually around 8 a.m. You stand up and walk along the couch and even stand up in the middle of the room, but you haven’t actually started walking yet. You like to talk and you have a cute voice. I think you weight more than your sister now. We all went on a hike up to Battle creek falls and it definitely seemed that you were heavier than your sister. You two really look like twins.

Swallowing the lid – Abby was sucking on the top of a lip gloss – the lid came off and she swallowed it – she came over to me and opened her mouth pointing down her throat and trying to reach in and grab it out.

Words

Taking off diapers – it best if we put shorts or pants on you when we put you to bed or else you would talk your diapers off.

Playing in the toilet
Jumping
Walking
Personality – Particular, easy going

Saturday, March 5, 2005

Abby's Art

Common Words...Up All Night with Alex

It was a couple weeks ago that Melinda came out from the bedroom to find you, Abby, sitting on the time out bench. Surprised, she said, “You don’t need to be in time out. You haven’t done anything wrong.” Seeming disappointed, you got up, went over and hit your brother, then came back and sat down in timeout, seeming content to be there with a reason.

You are singing a lot lately. It’s really cute. Your most common words now are:
No
Mommy
Daddy
Shoe
Aley (Alex)
Hello/Hi
Bye

You really like shoes. (This might be a sign of things to come) You like to put shoes on when you just have your diaper on, or your pajamas. You are still really consistent at putting them on the wrong feet.

Alex, you now have 4 teeth: the two on top and the two on bottom. When you sit in your high chair you pull your legs up underneath you. It looks like it just your waist up sitting in the high chair.

You like to smack your lips when you eat and you do so very loudly. You are really good at clapping your hands. You are very much a little boy.

When you and I wrestle you charge like a bull, putting your head down and crawling full speed into me, trying to push me over.

You have done a good job at being a pestering little brother. You sometimes pull your sister’s hair, or try and take her books. She becomes very upset when she is trying to color, or read and you come over next to her to see what she’s doing and try to get involved. You have quite a temper yourself.

You like to open up and yell sometimes when you don’t get your way. Once, in the middle of the night, you woke up very upset. You wouldn’t let either of us hold you because you pushed away and threw yourself back. If we set you down, you kicked your legs and threw up your arms and yelled some more. The only thing that finally calmed you down was when I took you out in the cold garage.

When you are happy or upset, you hold your hands up in the air then bring them down slapping your knee, your leg or your stomach. You really are a good looking boy. You still have your kissable cheeks and you are a favorite with the aunts and uncles. Nanna said that you always have a smile just for her.

Oh, I have to add a note about your first time being babysat. Your mom and I went out for the evening and stayed overnight at a hotel for Valentine’s Day. You stayed and Rob and LaDena’s house. You and Abby both played well and had a good time, but when it came time to go to bed it was a different story. Rob stayed up with Alex all night long. And Abby woke up and ended up taking Rob’s place in bed with LaDena.