10 months!

Wow – Mitch is another month old already!  He’s getting so big – he weighs about 22lbs (85^th percentile) and is around 28.5 inches long (45^th percentile).  Our little short and stout teapot!  Our boy is right on track developmentally according the pediatrician.  In fact, he’s a little ahead of the game in some ways.  The doctor asked us if Mitch could sit on his own and stand with assistance. Not only is he doing that, he can stand up completely unassisted and walk!  

That’s right… our big boy took his first steps just before he turned 10 months old.  We knew he was close, but it still caught Pat and I a little off-guard.  Evie was 15 months old before she walked and we kind of assumed we had a little more time.  Not that we mind (much)!  We really do take a lot of joy in seeing Mitchell grow and learn new things.  But we’ve learned very quickly that Mitchell is very different from his sister.  Evie took her time learning to walk and was much more timid about it.  She was content to hold onto our hands and have use walk with her.  Mitch doesn’t really like to do this.  He prefers to walk by himself and he will only do it when he feels like it.  He’s still much faster at crawling so he’ll sometime walk a few steps, fall down and then speed-crawl the rest of the way.  He’s still doing that funny little crawl where he gets up on his hands and feet.  He looks like some kind of wild animal and it’s hilarious!  

Anyway, back to Mitch walking.  He’s not very timid about it.  If he feels like doing it, he will and not much will stop him from trying to get what he wants.  He doesn’t usually cry when he falls – he just gets back up and tries again. He already loves to climb – something that fills me with just a little bit of dread.  Many parents of boys have told us stories about scrapes and falls and ER visits, and it seems that Mitchell is fitting right into that stereotypical rough-and-tumble boy persona.  He climbs on everything – people, furniture, stairs, toys.  Evie never climbed out of her crib, but I see that in our future with Mitch (assuming we can ever get him to sleep in his crib).  Climbing = falling and falling = getting hurt.  Not what you want to think about as a parent.  I’m trying to find a balance between hovering over him to make sure that he doesn’t get even the tiniest bruise, and letting him go so he can learn and be confident in his own abilities. 

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Mitchell is eating more and more table foods.  He still only has two bottom teeth (although we’re almost sure he’s working on more), but he manages small bites of food very well.  I’m still a little hesitate to try too many types of food at once, but we are trying to give him as much variety (one at a time) as possible until we know his reactions.  So far so good! 

Verbally, Mitchell is advancing too.  He’s babbles a lot.  He squeals and screeches loudly.  He doesn't say any words with meaning other than Mama and Dada (that we can tell anyway).  He’s started mimicking us a little more and he understands that word ‘no’.  He will actually stop and shake his head when we say no to him (while grinning at us and going right back to doing whatever it is that he’s not supposed to be doing).  Mitchell does not like to be alone AT ALL and he doesn't like to be confined.  He hates his crib and will not sleep in there for more than a few hours.  He’s figured out how to open the door on the baby gate if we don’t lock it down so he can follow us.  I had him in the stroller in the driveway the other day and I walked away from him – just a few steps – to get something for Evie and he started crying and reaching for me.  He’s the sweetest, most easy-going baby most of the time unless he wants you to pick him up.  Then he will not leave you alone until you hold him.  These days I often have a little rugrat holding onto my cast while I get ready for work in the morning. :)

Can you tell this was a difficult photo shoot?  

Overall, Mitch is just a joy for family.  We all adore him and feel incredibly blessed to call him ours.  Can’t wait to see what next month brings!!

Springtime is finally here!

This past weekend was fun, relaxing and family-filled.   We had dinner with Tim and Katharine on Friday night at a pizza place called Pies and Pints.  After dinner, Pat drove us home and then he and Tim went to some kind of a baseball film at OSU.  The films were old footage of baseball from way back in the 50s and 60s (I think).  Apparently it was pretty cool, and Pat and Tim really enjoyed it.  Saturday we had the kids’ doctor appts at 10.  Evie had her three-year checkup and Mitch had his 9 month checkup.  Both kids did great!  Evie was very brave when they took blood from her finger.  She didn’t like it, but she didn’t create a big scene either.  We went to the library after that.  I was excited to find out that there was a Baby Storytime at 11:00.  I never get to do stuff like that with just Mitch so I took him while Pat hung out with Evie (although she came in for the 2nd half of the story time).  I think Mitchell enjoyed the songs and stories, but getting him to sit still was a challenge.  I was in good company though.  It seemed like all of the little boys there were full of energy and unable to sit still!  After the library, we took Evie to McDonald’s as a reward for being so good at the doctor.  This one has a Playplace… and Evie was in heaven.  It was the first time we have ever taken her and I was a tad bit nervous to let her go in by herself, but she did great and had a ball.  She was a little bit scared at first since you have to climb kind of high and some of the tunnels are made of ropes so they swing.  But she was brave and conquered her fears – and made some friends in the process.  It’s always a little bit hard for me to stand back and let her do it herself.  My instinct is to protect her and help make things easier for her.  But common sense tells me to let her go so that she is confident in her own abilities.  She knows that we will always be there for her, but she also has to learn that she is strong and capable and can do it herself.  Seems kind of stupid to say this in regards to a McDonald’s play area, but hey – you have to start somewhere right?  

Both kids took a pretty good naps later (halleluiah!) so Pat and I got a little bit of downtime.  And by downtime I mean time to clean a little without kids hanging all over us and messing it up again immediately. We had another issue with water in basement from the rain so Pat cleaned up a bit and found some old VHS home videos down there.  We popped them in and watched Pat as little boy!  I think it blew Evie’s mind.  I said “Look that's Daddy when he was your age!  And there’s Grandpa Tim and Grandma Rita too!”  Her response “I don’t believe you Mama”.  We ended up inviting Rita over to watch too.  She brought dinner and we ate, drank wine and watched home videos for a few hours.  I think we all got a huge kick of it!

Sunday we just hung out and played outside.  We love this warmer weather!  Evie entertained herself for at least an hour by digging in the dirt.  She said hi to everyone who walked by and told them that she was digging for worms, but worms don’t like sun – only rain – so she couldn’t find any.  We drew with side walk chalk, blew bubbles and played some tee ball.  It was a beautiful day and it made me really look forward to summertime!  

A bit of Randomness

Life has been rolling right along lately.  We’ve gotten used to our new routine and we are enjoying the warmer temperatures.  Pat and I were able to go out to dinner for my birthday and then go to brunch with friends the next day too – all kid-free!  Easter weekend was fun, full of visits with friends and family, egg hunts and candy.   I’m in a walking cast now so I’m able to get around a little more easily, but it’s still been a challenge.  I won’t be able to drive for at least a few more weeks and I can’t overdo it or my foot starts to ache.  We are incredibly grateful to our families for all of the help they have given us lately.

I think Mitchell’s days with baby food are numbered.  We’ve given him tiny bites of so many things and now he’s starting to reject baby food unless with jazz it up

with something. He loved eat scrambled eggs the other night and he really seemed to enjoy the bites of avocado I gave him last night.  I then tried to feed him some baby food butternut squash and he turned his nose up.  So I added some tiny bits of broccoli to it and showed him.  Once he saw the broccoli, he would open his mouth.  He likes the change in texture and he likes to chew.  So far he hasn’t had a reaction to anything which thrills us!  We’re still being careful not to give him any honey or peanut butter.  I’d be very surprised if he had a peanut allergy though.  We eat it all the time and then kiss all over him and he’s fine. 

 Evie continues to amaze us with how smart she is (yes I know I’m biased – but she is really smart!).  She talks constantly and will tell me all about her day and what she did at the sitter’s house.  She soak up information like a sponge and we have to be very careful about what we say around her.  You may not think she’s listening, but she always is and she will repeat stuff that you said.  She still loves her books, but she watches a lot (probably too much) TV.   She has a list of shows that she likes and I have to say that I’m impressed at how fun and educational they are.  She loves the Octonauts and that show is really teaching her a lot about animals and sea life.  I can’t wait to take her back to the zoo this summer to see some of the things from the show!  She is learning so many news things each day.  She was telling us the other day how bee keepers wear a net on their head so that the bees can’t get in and how honey comes from the bee hive.  She is excited to be growing her own flower and she checks the flowerpot multiple times a day to see if it grew.  She loves sitting at her easel and being an artist, and of course she still loves dressing up like a princess.

We had a fun time last night after dinner.  Pat wasn’t feeling well so I tried to get the kids to leave him alone.  We built block walls and Mitch destroyed them.  Then we made a pillow road in the family room.  We took turns walking, and jumping on the road and giggled like crazy if we fell off.  I didn’t do much jumping, but Mitch and I had fun crawling down the road.  We then turned our pillow road into a pillow boat.  Evie kept ‘falling’ off the boat and saying “Save me Mama!” and I’d toss her a blanket and pull her back.  Crosby-shark got in on the fun too and we had fun hiding from him in our boat (under a blanket).  Mitch and Evie were giggling like crazy and I was glad that we were able to do something a little more ‘active’.  I like to take the kids to the park and on walks this time of year, but between the rain and my broken foot, I haven’t been able to do much.  I am very much looking forward to getting back to a little bit of normalcy.

Meeting Baby Avram

We finally got to meet our sweet new nephew Avram (or Baby Avi as Evie likes to call him).  He’s cute as a button and absolutely precious!  Evie got to hold the baby three times and she was absolutely thrilled.  She told Kiki and Pops later that he was “so sweet” and his head was “just so tiny”.  That made me laugh - Evie is used to her big boy Mitchell-Man!  We are so happy that Avi is doing so well and we can’t wait until we get to see him again!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL!

It’s so hard for me to believe that my baby big girl is three!  From the second we knew she was coming, she had our hearts and that loves just continues to grow.  Evie is super sweet, but super stubborn.  I see so much of myself in her at times and more than once I’ve felt the need to call my parents up and say “How in the world did you deal with me?!”  Three is not an easy age, but it is a pretty amazing one.  She is learning and growing so quickly.  She asking questions about the world and learning how to work out situations for herself.  She fully potty-trained now and we are about to start letting her go to bed without a pull-up.  She wakes up completely dry and we told her that once she used up all of the Pull-ups, we wouldn’t buy anymore and she could be a full-fledged big girl at night.  I have to admit, I’m a little bit wary about what the morning could bring, but I think we can trust her.  If she has an accident, we’ll deal with it.

Evelyn is an extremely verbal, expressive child.  She talks almost non-stop and picks up words and phrases quickly.  She’s started using phrases like “you’re freaking me out” and “are you kidding me?”.  She also started rolling her eyes when she annoyed or exasperated with us.  I have turn away because it’s kind of funny, but it is definitely not a behavior we encourage or allow.  Evelyn loves to sing and dance and she can really get into a song with someone hands her a microphone.  She closes her eyes, sways to the beat and really belts out the tune with a lot of emotion.  Evie has always been sensitive.  She gets her feelings hurt easily and is prone to pouting.  But she has huge, caring heart and hates to see anyone hurt or crying.  She adores her little brother and is usually absolutely wonderful with him.

Evie is our smart, caring, funny, sensitive, temperamental, stubbornly amazing little girl and we love her!

Happy 3^rd Birthday Sweets!