Wrapping things up for the year. Here's what the kiddos have been up to.
Maggie
Can you believe this sweet thing is over 7 months old? Wow. Okay, so at her 6 month check-up she weighted in at 19lbs 11 oz, or 97th%. That's no joke people. She's deliciously huge (yes, I said it again Mom). She's also long - 90th %.
That doctor's visit was eventful for another reason. Just as her pediatrician and I were discussing her mobility, she rolled over (tummy to back) for the first time - right there on the exam table. I joke that she wanted to make sure she had an audience - something she can't always get at home!
She's got her first two teeth - on the bottom. And you can't tell from this picture (where I so artistically cut the top of her head off) - but she has the greatest spikey hair. It's just on top. She still spends enough time on her back that the hair on the back of her head is still pretty fine/short. But the top. Wow. Striaght. Spikey. And reddish???
One day Rebecca was rubbing on Maggie's head and saying "Momma, Ahnnie i(s) bikey. Ahnnie i(s) bikey." I finally figured out she was saying that Maggie has spikey hair. So true.
My mom says she's never met a smiley-er baby and even though she's biased I think she may be right.
Rebecca
Rebecca continues to make us laugh with her evolving language skills. This is such a fun age - probably one of my favorites. Favorites right now include:
- My instead of I'm: My cold, My hundry, My ready, My go pee pee in potty
- All the new potty-related language. We're not officially training her yet. Actually it sort of feels like she's training us. Content to be in a wet diaper ("botter") most of the time if she's playing, but she knows its a great stall tactic (Ont go pee pee in potty) if we're trying to get ready for bed or need to go somewhere.
- Talking to and about Ahnnie (No cry, Ahnnie!), and Baby Bear (cousin Blair)
- These sibling relationships are so special. The other night Owen successfully convinced Rebecca to eat the meat we were having for dinner when we had given up. (We have meal time issues - we know.) He said it, she did it. That simple.
- We saw a really big squirrel in our yard not too long ago - she pointed and yelled - A cow-woty! We continue to talk about said cow-woty.
- Favorite toys and things to do: a basket of empty plastic Easter eggs that was suposed to be hidden (so it could be reused at Easter), painting w/ real paint, her "basket of babies," whatever Owen is playing with...
- About a week ago we were tired (so tired) of being called into her room at night because she wanted a new diaper or she wanted us to "cuddle me" - which means to cover her up with her (too small) baby blankets. So we took the plunge and moved her into her toddler bed. She got a great new blanket and pillow from Bee for Christmas - so that was part of the deal too. No more baby blankies (you're a big girl now). She gets a sticker if she stays in bed all night (unless its to get up because she needs to go potty or wants a fresh diaper - at least she's coming to us now and not yelling). We're probably batting about 50% on her staying in bed. Poor Owen handles the distraction soooooo well. Anybody else's 2 and 4 year olds stay up until 9:30 or 10??? (We put them down at 8:30.) We'll keep you posted on this is 2012...
Owen
I don't have a photo of Owen that you didn't see in one of the December/Christmas posts, so this will have to do - Owen is totally into the solar system. He got a remote control solar system that is attached to the ceiling over his bed (thanks Dahdo and Pam) for Christmas and love it. Kyle has been on a teaching kick with him - he can name all of Jupiter's moons (the Galilean moons), tell you the story of Copernicus (and about how people used to think the Earth was at the center of the universe), etc. It's good times. Kyle definitely encourages it. But Owen is genuinely interested. He can work the "StarWalk" iPad app better than I can.
The other day he asked me where in the Bible God talks about creating the dinosaurs. We went to Genesis and had a really interesting discussion about what the Creation story does and does not tell us. He curious little brain is so much fun.
His favorite new word is skeptical - it's our favorite because for the first few days or so it came out "skeptible". Kyle (teaching him the definition by using examples): Owen - we're going to eat some alligator for dinner. Owen: Daddy - I'm a little skeptible about that. :)
No preschool the past few weeks means we've had to get creative with ways to fill up our days (the four days of Christmas celebrations were a big help)! Owen and Rebecca have done a great job of coming up with all sorts of (weird?!) imaginative little adventures. One afternoon while Maggie was napping and I had some time with just the bigguns, we pretended (at Owen's direction) that we all lived in a cave in the woods (my bed) and we'd occasionally get up (when it stopped raining) to go gather berries and hunt for squirrels (to which Rebecca would yell - cow-woty!). There was a rooster that woke us up when the rain stopped. And after we were done hunting, Owen would make us smootheis with his blender. I guess we had electricity in the cave.
Oh, did I mention we have entered the Lego age? Yes, Owen got his first Lego's for Christmas. They're awesome and he loves them but I feel like our house has entered a dangerously tiny-toy era and our floor will never again be the same...
Guess that's it for the kids in 2011! Looking forward to 2012!
