The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!

Yesterday Nate was in his first Christmas pageant! When I first heard about it I was so excited. What could be cuter than a bunch of preschoolers singing Christmas songs? Then I saw the sheets they sent home with lyrics for the songs his class was supposed to learn: Feliz Navidad - that's not too bad, I mean, besides the fact that half of it is in Spanish it is pretty much just 4 lines repeated over and over again, and Fum, Fum, Fum. Ever heard of it? Yeah, me neither! Apparently it's a traditional Catalan Christmas Carol from the 16th or 17th century. SUUUUUUURE! So I downloaded both of them on iTunes so we could play them over and over and over again to make sure he wasn't the one who stunk it up.

And then strep throat hit me in full force on Tuesday, two days before the pageant. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to go, and I'm still not sure I should have, but I'm glad I did!

Waiting for the show to start - poor Miss Mia was not a happy camper.
She was ready to go home and go to bed before it even got started. But
I ended up having to pick her up from school today because she had
a fever, so something must have been going on.

They brought the kids in from oldest to youngest. Each class sang a couple songs, and as they sang the second the next group came in and both classes sang the next song. And so it went from the school age kids who go there for before/after school care down to the toddlers who go for Mother's Morning Out.

The place was packed so they ended up having to set up chairs in the back, which worked out in our favor because we were able to sit right where they walked in.

That boy right behind him is Logan his BFF. During school pictures they were mistaken for brothers (when asked if they were brothers they both said yes because they are BROTHERS - they each have a little sister.)

Singing with his class, He looks pretty angelic right? Most of the time he was fiddling with his antlers.

With everyone

After the show

The BEST Christmas pageant EVER - or at least until next year. :)

9 months in, 9 months out!

Nine month stats
Height:  28.25” (75^th percentile)
Weight:  17lbs 6oz (25^th percentile)

I was trying to get a shot of her teeth, but the quality isn't good enough, plus they're still pretty small.
Still cute though!

Hair: Still red, in fact it is pretty much the one thing guaranteed to be commented on, except how cute she is, of course! And how much she looks like her brother... Alright, maybe not the only thing then.

Teeth: I started writing this post a couple weeks ago so all I had to do when we went to the doctor was put in the height and weight stats and post, and this is what I had originally written: “Teeth? What teeth? Where are you teeth?!” Well, things change fast in a baby’s first year! She has since gotten her first two teeth, both on the bottom. One day the first one was there, the next the other popped through. I’m not sure why I was so anxious for her to get teeth because they only lead to one thing - biting!

Eating: She’s an eater, that’s for sure! She is still nursing, and I’m still pumping at work. Luckily, other than on a couple of occasions, I’ve been able to keep up with demand for milk. I say luckily because on those couple of occasions, she basically just won’t drink anything. She lifts her nose at formula… She knows good milk when she tastes it! We have also introduced a good variety of fruits and veggies and she eats them all! Her favorite stuff is anything she can feed herself. She didn’t seem to like avocado that much when I gave it to her smashed up on a spoon, but when I cut it up and put it on her tray… down the hatch!

Sleeping: She goes through spurts with sleeping. She’ll do ok for awhile, only waking up once at about 4:30, then let me put her down right away, then she goes crazy for a few days and wakes up every 45 minutes, or just won’t let me put her down. But the doctor suggested that we cut out the night feeding entirely and let her learn to go to sleep on her own. We tried this last night, and were up and down for about an hour, but… Hopefully she will learn quickly, Nate did!

Moving: She LOVES to move! She is crawling like crazy, pulling up and cruising and even climbing the stairs! She is so fast we really have to keep an eye on her. A couple times I’ve been doing something with Nate and I have to quickly get up to go grab her before she tumbles down the stairs. With her newfound movement she seems to be getting into everything. Her favorite thing is toilet paper! She’s also started shaking her little butt when music is on. Maybe that’s the problem we are having with her sleeping – who wants to sleep when you can MOVE?!

Standing: On top of pulling up and cruising, she has stood up on her own by letting go of things for a few seconds a few times, and has gotten herself into a standing position from leaning over. The first time she did it she was leaning against my legs then just stood up straight without holding onto, or leaning against anything (including me). She started to fall, but caught herself and straightened herself back up. That lasted a few seconds and she plopped down. She’s tried to take steps away from things a couple times without success.

Go Packers!

Babbling: She says "Mama" and "Dada" now. Sometimes she just babbles them, but she does seem to know what they mean. One time it even sounded like she tried to say "brother"! We might have another Bubba on our hands. She has also found her voice in other ways and likes to babble and sing along and screech! 

Signing: She definitely has “more” down, although she is just starting to make it look more like “more” than a clap. She has maybe started signing “all done” as well. Now we need to start on some non-food related signs. And though it’s not an official sign, she has started to wave hi and bye. She also claps sometimes, but we aren’t sure if she’s trying to say she’s hungry (more!) when she does that, or if she’s just clapping or wanting to play patty-cake. Also, the other day at dinner we were asking her where everyone was, and when we got to Grandpa she looked straight at her Grandpa and kind of swung her arm out toward him with a flourish like, “Ta-da! Here he is!”

Nate: Now that she’s moving so much we have some good and some bad in the sibling relationship. He really doesn’t like it when she pulls his puzzles off of the top of their bookcase or chews on his cars, but he’s very good about letting us know when she’s about to start climbing the stairs or turn the volume on the radio WAY up! Sometimes he grabs her legs and tries to pull her away from whatever he doesn’t want her to be doing. But the other night he asked to hold her for the first time in awhile. It’s kind of funny because when you see them together like that they look a lot closer in size than they seem when I’m trying to hold them! And he still wants to give her a hug and a kiss before bed, so I can’t ask for more than that!

I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always

Three and a half!

3&1/2 year stats

Height: 40" (60th percentile)
Weight: 35lbs (50th percentile)

We haven’t noticed too many drastic changes since his birthday, just gradual development. He definitely recognizes numbers now and most of the letters when he’s focusing. “The ABC Song” is the song we sing every time we wash our hands. (Can you imagine how tired I am of that song?!) He was talking to my mom the other night and Peter and I both noticed how in such a short amount of time (it seemed) he went from just chatting at Nonna without her really understanding, to having a full conversation. And she said she could understand all but one thing he was trying to say!

He doesn’t watch Dinosaur Train as much anymore, he kind of jumps around a lot for his before bed "episode." But he’s recently gotten into Richard Scarry and a lot of the LeapFrog shows. He recently brought over both Where the Wild Things Are and Love You Forever  to read for the first time since I forced them on him as a baby. So those are the two new book obsessions. I’m thinking of having him dress up like Max (or a Wild Thing) for Halloween. He still loves his trips to the library with Peter and comes home with a huge pile of books each time! I need to check how old he has to be to get his own card! We’ve also recently started checking out CDs from the library, and right now he’s listening to a Halloween CD. His favorite song is their version of “Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead” from The Wizard of Oz. He’s also just recently become more interested in music in general, which is very fun.

He started “school” (half day preschool three times a week) a few weeks ago and seems to really like it! He doesn't usually tell me much about it, but today he told me all about their Camping themed day including how they got to go in the tent and play with flashlights. That was the most I’ve ever gotten out of him beyond, “we went outside” when I’ve asked him what they did at school. They told us the first week how polite he is because he said "Please" and "Thank you" when asking for more water, but today he had his handkerchief taken away for throwing…. Highs and lows!

Here’s where we stand on things we needed to work on at three:

Potty training: Mostly done! We were all done, but then he started having night time accidents for some reason, sleeping too hard I think. So, now we have him in Easy-Ups only at night. He has had a couple of daytime accidents here and there, but that’s to be expected.

Dressing himself: He has definitely gotten better! He can put his clothes ON no problem, well sometimes he does put them on backwards, but whatever. And he can get off most of his clothes, but still has some trouble with his shirt. He has recently seemed to grasp this a little better. But he does pretty well brushing his teeth, and loves brushing his hair! He always asks, "how do I look?" But the way he says look sounds like nook, so it's kind of cute.

Somehow the sleeves always end up front and back instead of side to side...

Putting toys away: Well, he’s gotten better, but not by choice. I’ve enforced a new rule that he has to put away one thing before he can start playing with another instead of letting him just trash it to clean up on Sunday. This makes ME a little less crazy, at least. We’ve started giving him an allowance for helping clean up his play area and put his laundry away, and he has bought a couple of toys for himself, so that is some incentive!

Fine motor skills: He can put beads on pipe cleaners, but he’s not really super great at coloring. He doesn't seem to care whether or not he actually makes something with the crayons, paint, markers, etc. He has recently started trying to write the letter “N” and he does it, but backwards, and definitely kind of scraggly and all over the place. But, I guess that’s better than nothing. I got him a workbook to practice. We need to get him to hold the writing utensil the right way. BUT, in typical boy fashion he does very well in gross motor skills and has recently learned how to pump on a swing!

Things to continue working on: Fine motor skills, tantrums, recognizing letters and remembering their sounds, using utensils instead of hands

Next stop: 4!!!