Friday, September 30, 2011

Outwitted

Naomi cannot wait to grow up. A sure fire way to get into an argument with her to tell her that she is too small for something, or that someone is bigger than her...or heaven forbid, call her a baby. Austin and I constantly call her baby, not maliciously, but as a pet name. We're constantly telling her that even when she is a grown up, she will always be our baby, to which she'll respond, "no I'm not a baby, I'm a big girl"

The other night, she was tired and didn't want to walk up the stairs, so she asked Austin to pick her up. Austin responded, "what!!? you're not a baby, you can walk"
To which Naomi responded, "but Daddy, even though I'm a big girl, I'll always be your baby right? So you CAN carry me!"

=)

Standing



Mikaela is starting to pull herself into a standing position. She'll climb up on me, tables, pillows, you name it. She always gets into a position where her legs are spread wide apart, then gets stuck and has to call out to be rescued. (notice naomi NOT rescuing her in that pic)

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Naomi-isms

Naomi (on a recent walk with some friends to the park): "Hey Hey!! If we take our clothes off, we'll be NAKED!"

Homework

Naomi's daycare class has been running a "School Readiness" program. The goal is to prepare the preschoolers and pre-k kids for when they enter Kindergarten. One of the activities for the program is once a week homework. They got their first assignment this week, and Naomi sat down to work on it yesterday while I heated dinner up. When we talked about what homework was, she was so excited. It's an optional assignment, but if you do it, you get a sticker at school. It took her all of 5 minutes to complete, and involved coloring, so totally right up her alley. Here's her completed assignment (the task was to color the matching shoes in)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

House of Sick

Everyone in the family has pretty much come down with some sort of cold. I was out of work on Thursday and Friday cause I felt sick. Over the weekend Austin and Naomi felt pretty bad. And on Monday Mikaela got a fever, so Austin had to stay home with her and I stayed home with the girls today. Not that I'm complaining, I do hate when the girls get sick, but it just means extra time I get to spend with them...OH and Mikaela now says MAMA!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Mikaela 8 months.

Going to work each morning is always tough, but going back after a long weekend, especially an incredibly fun one spent on the beach with family and good friends, is even tougher. We came back yesterday afternoon from 4 days at Clearwater Beach. It was easily the nicest beach I’ve been to in the US. The girls both had fun, we got to spend time with good friends, and Naomi’s “best friend”. We’re completely exhausted, but it was so worth it. Naomi and Mikaela were also having a hard time getting back to the daily grind. Naomi was reluctant to go back to daycare today, and Mikaela had a hard time sleeping in her own room last night. Anyway, on to milestones. Today is Mikaela’s 8th month birthday!! She’s reached so many new milestones since I’ve last blogged. Literally if you blink for too long, you could miss something new.
Part of her difficulty in sleeping last night, was that she’s learned to pull herself into a sitting position. Last night she’d roll all over the place, get into a sitting position, and then just cry and cry. She was pulling on the railing of the crib, and half hoisting her body up, to the point where I was afraid she’d pull herself into a standing position, and with the crib mattress not yet lowered, manage to flip herself over the crib railing. We ended up ending that cry it out session and Austin rocked her back to sleep =)
She can clap her hands, and cracks up hysterically when you cheer her on.
Just today she’s learned how to wave bye bye.
She’s still an expert at saying DA-DA
She’s started eating Cheerios
She’s the world’s fastest army crawler under the age of 9 months
She’s still adores her big sister, and laughs easily whenever Naomi does anything silly
She loves her baby music class and loves to beat along with her music teacher
Despite her tiny body, she has a voracious appetite, and can easily finish several servings of solid food
She’s learning to hold her own bottle
She’s learning to drink from a sippy cup
She has the best smile, and is quick to smile at anyone that talks to her, strangers and familiar faces alike, therefore melts hearts all around her.
Oh and she makes a pretty cute pirate:

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Growing Up

The girls are growing up. Mikaela is expected to change daily. While it makes me sad to see how she’s no longer a newborn, I realize that within the first year of life, a baby goes through so many changes that if you blink for too long, you could literally miss a major milestone. Naomi, on the other hand, ever since Mikaela was born, seems to be growing and changing at lightning speed. She’s at an age where I myself have memories of, albeit small ones. It’s scary.
Sometimes I allow myself to get bogged down in the daily grind, rolling my eyes when Naomi refuses to walk and wants to be carried, groaning when Mikaela needs another diaper change. Austin and savor the times when we’re off of bath duty, getting the night off from having to wash the girls up, while groaning when it’s our turn to read Dora great adventure, for the umpteenth time before the girls go to bed. Then there are days when I get smacked in the face with the realization that they are growing up, and they’re growing up fast. Did I miss anything? Was there anything that I didn’t miss?
This weekend we went to Speculator, NY for a church retreat. By the time we had checked in and unloaded all of our bags, it was near midnight, and both girls had awoken and were in this hyper alert state. We hadn’t really read up much on the facilities, so we weren’t expecting to have two rooms for our family, much less, a room with a bunk bed. When we got into the other room, Naomi immediately climbed up to the top bunk, by herself, refusing any assistance, and jumped into her bed for the weekend. She was so excited and declared, “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever saw!!!” (ok grammar might not be her strong point). She was so excited to have MIkaela share a room with her, and to have Austin and I in the next room. It really hit me that night that by baby was growing up into a big girl.
We also spent quite a bit of time on the beach front of the lake, as well as at the playground. At the beach, she entertained herself for hours, digging, building sand castles, wading in water, filling bucket after bucket of water to pour into her moat. She was fearless as she entered deeper and deeper into the water. I can see myself in her. Her love of the water, love of the beach. I had to remind her to only go in waist deep since she didn’t have any floaties on. At the playground, I watched her climb up to the top of the slides, hang on the monkey bars, and even advance to the big kid swing. As Naomi said, “mommy, since I’m a big girl now, I don’t need to sit in the baby swing anymore”. Nevermind the fact that she fell flat on her butt, and then whacked her head as she tried to leap off the swing. Not that that phased her. After a few tears, she announced that when she came back, she’d try again and probably land it the next time. Yea. Fearless I tell you. She’s growing up. My baby, she hates being called a baby. But I keep calling her my baby. Finally, the other day she said, “mommy, I’ll always be your baby”. Sob.

(ps, did I tell you she’ll wear pants without a fight now!!)