Nate at 4

1. What is your favorite color? Red
2. What is your favorite toy? Thomas the Train and Dinosaur Train
3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Dinosaur Train
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? "McDonalds, the one that Grandpa takes me to. Nuggets, fries and apples"
6. What is your favorite outfit? shark and dinosaur t-shirts
7. What is your favorite game? "My airplane game" (Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy Airport)
8. What is your favorite snack? Fruit snack and raisins
9. What is your favorite animal? Stegosaurus
10. What is your favorite song? Dinosaur Train theme song and "The Good Night song" (Glad You Came by The Wanted)
11. What is your favorite book? A Barnyard Collection: Click, Clack Moo and More by Doreen Cronin
12. Who is your best friend? Logan 
13. What is your favorite cereal? The one that has the marshmallows in it (Lucky Charms)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play, bike
15. What is your favorite drink? Orange juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Charlie and Kitty
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Fish snack (I have no idea what he's talking about with this...)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Fireman and an airplane driver

(I'm a little late, but I think most of it would have been relevant if I'd asked on time.)

15 months

Height:  31” (little more than 50th percentile)

Weight:  22lbs 13oz (little less than 50th percentile)

Big girl!

Hair: Her hair has been growing like crazy after her haircut! I noticed today that it is already back down to her eyebrows. And it is definitely getting thicker. Still red. I am very happy that we can put it up in little ponytails and barrettes.

Teeth: She is getting teeth in totally random places. They don't seem to come in symmetrical pairs like Nate's did. One on the bottom started poking out awhile ago, but hasn't progressed much. She has one next to one of her top front teeth, the one on the other side is just starting to come in. Then she has another random one on top toward the back that has come in a good amount. So, weird. No wonder she has been cranky!

Eating: After I stopped pumping in December, I was still nursing until January when I passed my first kidney stone. I wasn't sure if the drugs I was on would be good to pass onto her. So, I just stopped. There were a couple of times when it seemed like she was trying to get into position, but I just gave her something else and she was happy. Otherwise she is a very forceful eater. I thought she was slowing down a little bit, but that was just a little blip. She loves to eat and will eat anything, as evidenced in her little Buddha belly!

She's eating, so she's happy!

Sleeping: She is sleeping through the night! She still wake up occasionally right when we're getting into bed, but for the most part she is sleeping through. Actually, she really seems to kind of like sleep in general. Unlike Nate, she is generally very happy to go down - and asks for it herself a good chunk of the time. But she's also one of those early to bed, early to rise types of kids which is not always fun for us! But, I guess I shouldn't complain because she normally doesn't wake up until at least 7 or so, so I guess it could be worse!

Talking: So far she has mommy, daddy, uh-oh, bye, hi, and, sometimes, baby. She likes to talk to us a lot, but most of it sounds like gulla-gulla-gulla. She'll get there! But she is still using her signs for more and all done, and has added bed and milk. She also loves to wave and blow kisses.

Activity: The girl likse to move (thank goodness, since she also likes to eat). She went straight from walking to running. She loves to climb and explore. She is the best cleaner you've ever met! She doesn't like to sit still long enough to listen to a whole book most of the time, usually just one or two pages (that she has to turn herself) and then she walks away. Every once in awhile she will bring a book over to me in some random spot and we have to sit , cuddle and read the whole thing. Usually Sandra Boynton! She loves to dance and "sing". She likes to color (and is almost better than Nate, I'm sure that's a school thing). She likes to pretend to talk on the phone and bring me my shoes. Actually, she seems to have a thing for shoes in general!

Hey, this moves! Weeee!

Nate: Sometimes he's nice, sometimes he's not. Now that he can move more in the car he likes to play with her a little in the car. Of course, sometimes that playing turns into hitting - by both of them. And every once in awhile Mia will throw a book at him. But he still likes to take care of her like a good big brother.

In case you need something to brighten your day...

Pajama day during yellow week!

First day of shorts! (He dressed himself.)

Goodbye California

All good things must come to an end, right? Well after 10 fun days in sunny California we had to put our coats back on and say goodbye.

Bye Nonna! We love you!

The first flight wasn't too bad. We had packed sandwiches and used them to keep the kids busy for a chunk of the flight.

Mia really fought falling sleep on that first flight.
She fell asleep in this position just as we were landing.
Natch.

As we were getting off of the plane Nate saw the pilots and asked them if he could go into the cockpit.
They let him sit in the seat, hold the steering wheel and even press a button!
I don't know what it is meant for, but it made everything start shaking. Scary fun!

Remember how on the flight out we were told we were going to have a three hour delay that ended up being only 30 minutes? Well on the second flight we were not told of any delays, but after they already started loading people on the plane they decided that we needed a new one and we ended up having that three hour delay after all! This was on top of a two hour layover. When booking the tickets I chose between a 40 minute layover and a two hour layover. If you've ever traveled with two kids you probably know that 40 minutes is kind of pushing it... So I chose the two hour option figuring it would give us all the time we needed for going to the bathroom, changing diapers, getting food and finding our gate. I should have chosen 40. : / We kept them busy with food (again) and walking, or strolling, in circles around the terminal. Nate also made some friends who were delayed with us and played a rousing game of duck-duck-goose! At least he made the best of it.

Crashing in the terminal

Poor Nate started not feeling well on Saturday night. He had a very high fever and was complaining about his throat, head and belly hurting. So he was very happy to just take naps, listen to his iPod and watch movies for both of the flights. It ended up being strep. Again.

Mia fought sleep again on the second flight, but at least it was only two hours. We got home just after one o'clock in the morning and we were all ready to crash. And since Peter and I both had to be at work bright and early the next morning (or, no, THAT morning), we had to wake them up earlier than they would have liked, so they were ready for bed at NC time that night! Yay!

Goodbye California - we'll miss you until next time!

California - Days 9 & 10 - Easter!

It is rare that we get to spend a holiday with my side of the family, so we take advantage!

First up - dying Easter eggs. I let Nate do this while Mia was napping...

Bad vegan mom!

Then an Easter Egg Hunt led by my mom and Jerry's church.

This makes a good hat!

Mia's first hunt!  

When they let the "big kids" go Nate ran all the way to the end of the  lawn.
He had it to himself for awhile, but was too interested in what was
in the eggs to get too many of them

YAY eggs!

Checking out their loot

After this trip, I have decided that it is probably a good thing that, unless Peter switches industries, we will never be able to travel for Christmas. Luckily we don't go crazy with Easter baskets so everything we took fit in our suitcase, but what would we do at Christmas? Order stuff online and send it before us? Then how do we get it back? Order two and send one to our house and one to our destination? Try to ship it all back home? I don't know. For now I don't need to think about it!

Deconstructed Easter basket!
I couldn't' find my camera when I was filling the Easter baskets.
Books, sunglasses, socks, sippy cups, utensils, snack bowls...
Nate got a lot of Lion King stuff, Mia's was kind of random.

Easter breakfast!

Good morning!

 We left my mom and Jerry and went to a Catholic church for the Easter service. We went to a church named after St. Francis of Assisi. It was packed! Easter Catholics and the fact that the new pope chose to name himself after this Saint (who, PS, is one of my favorites!) so we ended up sitting in the fellowship hall or something with a kind of secondary service. Weird.

After church we went home and started cooking up a storm for the arrival of the rest of the family for our Easter feast!

Mia sharing with Nonna

The Shipman crew

Cousins! Kat, Mia, Sydney and Nate

Kat checks out what is inside her eggs

Fisher-Starr family - Katie, Kat and Walker

Easter fun! Nate and his "new friend" Sydney

Geez is it hard to get them both looking good at the same time!

Silly boys!

Happy Easter from the Morris family!

Calfirnia - Days 5-8

After the fast pace of the first few days of our trip, most of the rest of the time was just spent hanging roaming Bakersfield, shopping, eating all of the CA food that we miss and spending time with family.

Hanging out at Nonna's

My little adventurer

Cousins! Nate asked to play with her every single day!
But once she was there they were usually fighting. Hmm.

John's Incredible Pizza

This was train ride #2 of 3 for that day.

Ski Ball

Bust a move!

Peter taking over

Feeding the ducks

Reid Taco Night! The fake meat was fine, but the vegan cheese left something to be desired.

I went to see TWO movies with my sister (Oz: The Great and Powerful and The Host), got to sample her new favorite vegan market/lunch spot and share vegan meals at some of our old favorite restaurants.

YUMMY desserts made with love by my favorite sister

Nerds!

Peter and I went on a date night. We had sushi and I saw another movie (Admissions). Sadly, I didn't get any pics of that.

We went to CALM (California Animal Living Museum) where Nate and Kat got to ride on a real-life Dinosaur Train!

Snack time!

Daddy daughter time

Dinosaur Train, the dinosaur train...

Gonna ride, ride, ride, ride, RIDE. The dinosaur train!

Time tunnel! Time tunnel approaching!

And, of course, we can't go to California without some In'n'Out!

He got a 3x3.

Boogers aren't my favorite.

Yummy! This girl can eat!

Because he was just so excited! It had been awhile.

California - Day 4

On Saturday night, Peter went to LA with his friend Collin to spend a little time with his family and get some much needed friend time. He even got a tour of Disney on Monday, and that is where we had to pick him up.

Disney HQ

Since we were there anyway we decided to make a day of it with a trip to the La Brea Tar pits. Nate didn't like it as much as we'd hoped, I guess because the bones weren't actually "dinosaurs" just other very old things. I found it pretty ineresting though. Maybe next time we should go to the Museum of Natural History that is right next door.

Before heading inside we picked up some Baja Fresh and chowed
down on the picnic tables. What a great view of the pits!

She wants to get out!

Pretty little "park"

Looking down on the atrium

Pretty much all Peter did was chase Miss Mia around

Yay Prehistoric animals!

After hitting up the Tar Pits we went to BabyCakes NYC for some vegan treats! I think Peter saying "I couldn't even tell it was vegan!" goes a long way to tell you how good they were. He got a cookie sandwich and Nate and I split some red velvet and lemon cupcakes!

YUM!