New Toys

With all the new toys, we have very nearly been missing meals because we're playing so hard.

Helping Daddy saw

Josh's spatial reasoning skills were put to the test with Luca's new fort building kit. And he was very happy to do it. The picture is of sort of connecting igloo's. Now it's a super huge igloo that all of us could fit in. If I was willing to go in more than just laying in the opening.

The perfect place to read. No need to wait for the blankets go over the top.

Luca got a whole bunch of new stuff for his kitchen, pots and pans and a kettle, and an apron and chef hat. Here he models how very chef-like they make him.

He has been a very happy little boy playing with all his new things, and we have been very happy parents because he keeps stretching his imagination while giving us quiet time!

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had the very merriest of Christmases! We had a lot of fun visiting family and opening so many presents. Once again, we were all exceptionally blessed/spoiled rotten. =)

So many new toys and books and clothes!

Dr. Luca trying out his new stethoscope

Luca had a lot of fun unwrapping. Once he finished with his, he helped us open Tessa's. Then he helped us open our own, then he helped Oma and Pa...

Using his new tools to help fix Oma's chairs

Tessa spent part of the time in another room eating, and part of the time being passed from person to person. I'm pretty sure she had fun too =)

Luca was sure to leave out cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer, and he told me what to write in the note to Santa. Did you know Santa prefers water with his cookies? Good thing Luca knew!

He asked me to draw two reindeer, Santa, Santa's boots and a Christmas tree

Here's to spending time with the family at the holidays and every day =) Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

You guys. Gone through your 4th roll of wrapping paper? Resorted to using masking tape because you're all out of scotch tape? Forgot to add the chocolate chips before you baked the chocolate chip cookies? Slip on the solid sheet of ice outside? Just in need of a little holiday cheer? Our little man delivers.

Click here for some Holiday Cheer!

Ah. Maze. Ing.

3 months

I thought this last month would never end, it really dragged on. Yeah, right. Christmas is in the 10 day weather forecast! Whoa!


She tries so hard to sit up. I joke that she is going to have a six pack to go with her Michelin baby legs. =)

There must have been a growth spurt a week or so ago because I was feeding her at least every two hours morning and night. *yaaawn* But the last couple days she's back to just getting up a couple times at night.

Luca shared his puppy with her

If I didn't know better I would think she was teething, she's so drooly and loves chewing fingers (hers and anyone else's that get close to her mouth). Yesterday she drooled through 2 bibs and was on her third one by dinner time. I mean, really, drool monster. But Luca was a late teether so we're guessing she will be too.

Genetics are a funny thing. As mom plays with Tessa it seems she is often saying "Reminds me of you when you were little." I liked to be held but not cuddled. Tessa is the same. I had (and still have) long skinny piano playing fingers. Tessa does too. I had skinny feet that would not keep on shoes. Tessa is the same. I sucked my thumb. Despite my best efforts, Tessa does too. I wouldn't take a bottle. Tessa isn't a fan of them either.

There for a while she was getting the hiccups 2-3 times a day. They've slowly tapered off until now she gets them once every other day or so.

Her next doctor's appointment isn't until 4 months, but I'm confident she's growing. She has entirely outgrown 3 month size sleepers and the 3mo onesies and pants *fit.* Expect she'll be out of them before too much longer too. I was a little bummed that she and Luca are 6 months apart because it meant all his old clothes would be for the opposite season and not work as a hand me down. But with as fast as she's growing and as slow as he did, I think a lot of stuff will probably fit at the right time!

Next month also starts her eating cereal! Gotta bring up the high chair and find the baby spoons. Jude will be so excited =) And the vet will be so disappointed, he was finally losing his high chair gut...

She has a new screechy noise and we've got a couple giggles out of her. Can't wait until she starts doing the real belly laugh!

Snow, snow, snow!

With the first measurable snow of the season, there was no way I was going to be able to keep Luca inside. Luckily, he was okay with being outside by himself until Tessa fell asleep and didn't seem to mind the cold.

Shoveling 6's on the patio

Finally Tessa fell asleep and I could bundle up and go help him shovel. Not that he needed it. He even found a convenient place to dump the shovel. In the middle of the fire pit frame on the patio. He's a good helper, he told me so.

He took a shovelful of snow over to the swingset and tried to climb the ladder with it. It did not work out well. So he just climbed the ladder and brushed all the snow off with his hands. I tried to build a snow man but it was not good packing snow. I did manage a little one though. He wanted to bring out the sandcastle molds, so the snowman also got a castle.

When Josh got home they played in the snow some more. He taught Luca how to make a snow angel and Luca taught him how to make a snowman. Neither one needed any help learning how to throw the snow at each other ;) When I was little I remember jumping off the Eagle's Nest into big piles of snow. Think maybe I should hold off on teaching that one to Luca... Maybe put a mound of snow at the bottom of the slide!

Two and Three Quarters

There's no way it's possible my sweet baby boy is this close to turning three! Jeez. I will only accept that if it means that the terrible two's are this close to being over.

He made it past the clingy phase that he was in a month or so ago. (Thank goodness!) I thought for a while he was going to replace it with a refusing-to-put-a-shirt-on phase, but thankfully that only lasted a couple days. It's sort of understandable. He's always had a giant head (80 something percentile to his 10 percentile weight) so things that are "his size" don't always go easily over the head. So during his fragile state I tried to put a sort of turtle neck sweater on him. It did not fit. After that as soon as fabric touched the top of his head he freaked out that it was going to get stuck. He's mostly good now though.

Picking Oma's green tomatoes, wearing his red cowboy boots

We turned the guest bedroom into a playroom a little while ago and it is going so well. It's wonderful having the toys corralled in one room, and he seems to enjoy being in there. Plus now he can use the desk that was already in there for coloring, and we can sit on the bed all comfy-like while he plays. He loves using his tools to fix everything. If it moves it probably shouldn't and if it doesn't move it probably should.

Reading to Tessa

He is still cooking up a storm in his little kitchen. Most recent food additions were some peanut butter and jelly blobs. Not because he eats it, but because we do and he likes to cook for us. =) He brought me a sandwich the other day saying it was pb&j, and it was a ravioli and a chip between two slices of bread. Clearly he needed something a little more pb&j-y.

Painting the model airplane he and Daddy built

Some of his current go-to phrases include:
"Luca's excited to... (fill in the blank)" (anything from 'eat snack,' to 'do laundry'),
"Cause Luca likes to." (when asked why he does anything from jumping to crying),
"Are you gonna (do something)? Right Now?" (This one drives me crazy, but it's slowly changing to add "Puh-wease!" on the end so it's not so awful.)
"You're being a pickle!" (Usually it's Pa that is being a pickle)
"Why you say... (fill in the blank)"

I guess I should start planning his birthday. When I asked him what kind of party he wanted he said "happy birthday" so he will be having a happy birthday birthday party. Shouldn't be too hard ;)

Start 'em Young

We are Doctor Who fans in this house. Which means Tessa and Luca are also DW fans. Luca fell in love with the theme song (the acapella version anyway) ages ago. And he got a Tardis last year for Christmas.

The angels have the phone box!

He calls it a "targus." Whenever he sees a picture of it he yells that out. So we've got him hooked.

It makes noise and lights up!

And Uncle Dan was kind enough to get Tessa in on the fandom.

Happy little Whovian!

Of course they haven't actually watched any of the episodes, they're scary! In several years though, when he's on his 18th regeneration, they will learn to love it even more. =)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I made cookies again! Of course it's not an original idea (are there any?) but it's still a great idea and easy and cute.

Little slices of pumpkin pie!

In case you forgot what pumpkin pie looks like

This year, as every year, we are thankful for the simple things: our health, family and friends. I am also more thankful than normal for cocoa butter lotion, sound machines, and Curious George. I wish I was thankful for the ability to get eight people and two dogs to look at the camera at the same time.

Yikes, Simon...

Happy Thanksgiving just the same!

Cups

In case anyone has been living under a rock, Pitch Perfect is an awesome movie. In it Anna Kendrick does this really catchy clap/cup game. Am I the only one who remembers doing it in high school? We watched the music video one day at lunch and Luca loved it. Then when Brittany was in town she wanted to learn it, so I taught her while Luca watched and played along. Now every so often Luca brings out a pile of plastic cups and asks us to play cups. And he plays when the song comes on. Like this:

Our Little Artist

We introduced Luca to hand print turkeys for this Thanksgiving. We have not yet broached the concept of coloring in the lines. If you look closely, you can see the (upside down) hand tracing. When I was coloring in Tessa's I said I was drawing the "body." So when Luca was coloring in his, he added the "booty."

It is possible we watch too much Curious George, but it is also equally possible he's seen his too-lazy-to-bend-over Mama pick up things with my toes, but one day Luca decided to show off his monkey toe skills

We couldn't be more proud!

By the numbers

First, shout out to all the marching band geeks who hear "by the numbers" and think about going through a facing step by step. Just me?

Anyway, Tessa's two month well-baby appointment was Monday. We've been weighing her occasionally on my parents' scale, but didn't know how accurate it was. So we were guessing somewhere between 11 and 13 pounds.

It's funny, every time I go to the pediatrician, no matter what kind of visit it is, he reminisces about Luca's early visits. He kept losing weight in the beginning and we couldn't figure out why. To the point the doc was worried he had some condition that was preventing him from gaining weight. We were in every third day doing weight checks. He didn't get back up to his birth weight until he was a month old. As can be expected, the whole thing stressed Josh and I out. I guess it was one of the biggest unexplainable weight losses the doc had seen, and it stuck with him.

How's that for scale... she's getting big!

So when we brought Tessa in when she was a couple days old and she had only lost two ounces, and when we brought her at 2 weeks and she had gained, he said he was so glad that we weren't going through the same thing again. (Us too!)

On to the numbers... Our little miss is 12 and a half pounds and two feet tall! That's the 98th percentile for height! Think she got the same genes as her cousin Adrienne! =) She's in the 74th percentile for weight. She was a sweetheart during the appointment. While the doc was checking her eyes out, he waved the instrument in front of her face and said to me "She's tracking some." I nodded. When he was done he looked at me surprised and said, "She tracked the whole time." I nodded again--I knew that was a skill she had. I didn't know that it's most commonly a skill for 4 month olds. =) He was also impressed with her leg rolls and her tiny feet. Three shots (poor thing!) and we were headed home.

2 months

Just like that, two months have gone by. Crazy stuff.

She is such a sweet little smiley girl! Likes being held, likes being in her swing, likes being on her play mat. We haven't really done tummy time, so don't know her opinion of that yet. She's serious about eating. In the beginning I was so nervous about her getting enough and growing that I paid a lot of attention to the clock, making sure she was eating every 1.5-2 hours like she's "supposed" to. And then she grew. And grew. And is growing so well. So I've eased off the stressing about it. Now I just feed her when she acts hungry. Sometimes it's hourly, sometimes it's 3 or 4 hours apart (during the day!). So, I'm afraid if I put her on her tummy she'll explode. Which is why no real tummy time.

Reading with Daddy and Luca

She's still a wonderful sleeper. She usually goes to bed around 9, sleeps until midnight or 1, wakes up again around 5, and then about 7 or 8. She'll go back to sleep after that, so during the week Luca and I have breakfast just the two of us. During the day she's usually awake for an hour or an hour and half, and sleeps for an hour or two at a time. I don't know if Luca was an especially tricky baby or if she is just crazy easy. I'd always heard that the jump from one kid to two was hard, and having more after that is pretty easy. Aside from some logistical issues (lifting Luca on the potty while nursing) it's been not so bad at all. She fits right into our little family! =)

All bundled up so Luca and I could play in the leaves

Her eyes are still a really pretty blue, who knows if they will stay that way! Luca's eyes just recently started turning browner, so we'll see how long Tessa can hold onto the blue. My mom would be tickled if she kept it!
We are excited for Thanksgiving, it will be her opportunity to meet a bunch of family members for the first time. I'm sure she'll be smiling at everyone! Like in the video the other day, she loves talking and smiling at you. And if you get up in her face and make kissy noises she'll give kisses. I don't know how, but I forgot how babies give open mouth kisses... Love it!

Tessa likes her room

How do I know the opinions of my not quite two month old, you ask? I'll present the facts and see if you draw the same conclusion.

Fact: When I'm going to be in her room for a while I lay her in her crib instead of on the floor. (Luca and I are allergic to Jude, we're not sure about her yet.) And naturally I turn on her mobile. Every time (every time!) she smiles while she's watching it turn.

Fact: In the video yesterday I was trying to get her to talk while we were at the kitchen table. I got a yawn. But, on her changing table we have entire conversations. Let me tell you, at two in the morning when I am all bleary eyed changing her, that big ol' grin is downright awesome. "Sure," you say, "yesterday you said she talks and all we got was a yawn. But we totally believe you today..."

Fact: Video proof

The only logical conclusion is that Tessa likes her room!

The music during my day

We've had a rough week or so. Luca has been nonstop clingy. Even at midnight. And 1am. And 3:30am. And 5am. And 6am. Which wouldn't necessarily be the end of the world, except it seems to be that Tessa is then hungry at 11pm. And 2am. And 7am. Which makes for a very crabby mommy and a very whiny Luca. This morning I was trying to get a video of Tessa talking. (She talks! Well, she makes noises with the most expressive face!) Luca came around the table to see what I was doing. And then this:

Repeat ad nauseam. All day long. And at midnight, and 1am.....

He asked me to

First, you should know that out of all the holidays, Thanksgiving is my favorite. Friends and family all getting together to share a giant delicious meal, without any of the gift giving/receiving pressure of Christmas. Hands down, far and away, I love Thanksgiving.

But the Thanksgiving decorations are pretty 'meh.' Christmas decorations, however, are wonderful. Lights and greenery and ornaments that I made in preschool. So there's always a little bit of a struggle in this house with when it is appropriate to put up decorations. We have generally settled on the day after Thanksgiving for the tree, and it isn't the end of the world if some little stuff goes up earlier.

So we were all watching TV and a Christmas commercial came on. (Josh's "Are you kidding me!?" face went on too). I jokingly told Luca to tell him that he wanted to put up the tree and sing Jingle Bells. Josh said it was too early. I laughed a little, and Luca started crying. He apparently felt quite passionately about putting up the tree. Since I don't disagree with him, we compromised and put up a little tree in his bedroom. And let him hang some ornaments from my Grandma. He was so happy! He wants to use it as his nightlight now.

Josh and I also have an understanding that as long as I don't expect him to help, I can kind of put stuff up whenever (within reason). So since I took down the Halloween garland from the banisters upstairs, it's looked pretty naked. Totally planning on bringing up the greenery, lights and ornaments for them soon!

It's autumn!

Even though it's fall, the weather has been so crazy that it seems our trees haven't noticed yet. We have maybe 5 leaves in the yard. Mom's trees are the same way. Mom's neighbor, however, has trees that can read a calendar! He was outside mowing to mulch them, but mom ran over and asked him to stop so Luca could play. And because Luca is sort of the grandson to many of mom's neighbors, he stopped. =)

First Luca helped rake. Tines down this year! But he would put the rake in the middle of the pile and pull out, spreading the leaves out.

He jumped in the pile and asked to get right back out again. More raking and he would jump once again. As with all new experiences, once he warmed up to what was going on he had a blast! Jumping in the leaves, throwing them, running through them, and then raking them back together again. He played for at least an hour!

I love his face! =)

Our trees are just starting to turn, so he might get to play in the leaves some more!

Happy Halloween!

When we carved the pumpkin last year Luca wasn't really interested. He helped scrape out some of the insides and then had fun putting the cut outs back in like a shape sorter toy. This year he was even less interested.

Building a duplo train is way more fun than carving a pumpkin

So Josh cut it open, I scooped out the insides and drew on the face, and Josh carved it. Tessa slept.

Playing games on my phone is also more fun than carving a pumpkin

But Luca really liked it when it was done!

And of course, we tried trick-or-treating. I say "tried" because we made it to all of 6 houses--neighbors and family and the fire station. And just doing that was a fight. For whatever reason, Luca is happy to wear his costume around the house but had epic meltdowns when we asked him to wear it for trick or treating.

Still he got candy and saw some friendly faces, so it wasn't bad. The weather was yucky anyway, so we wouldn't have gone to many houses even if he wanted to. There's always next year!
 

Little Pumpkin

Second Pumpkin Farm, Take Two

We wanted to go to the other pumpkin farm from last year and decided to go on the 14th. The weather was nice, it seemed like a great day to go. When we got there there were so many more cars than normal. Then it occured to us, it was a holiday and kids were off school. So they came to the pumpkin patch. And shy little Luca was not enthused about playing with any one. He and mom went on a horse drawn hay ride around the fields and we walked around, but decided it would be better to come back another day.

The next time we went there were a half dozen cars in the lot so we figured it was going to be a much more fun experience for Luca. We climbed in and out of the houses, fed the animals, and took pictures in the pumpkins. He had a blast and we stayed for quite a while.

I've also been putting the finishing touches on his costume! He did decide to be a firefighter, just hoping he'll still want to come the actual day.

We picked up a big ol' pumpkin at the first pumpkin farm, so we'll be carving a pumpkin pretty soon too.

Uncle Dan teaches Luca a game

Dan came over for dinner. I guess Luca missed him a little, because all night long we heard, "Hey Dan, come mere!" "Hey Dan, watch this!" "Hey Dan, play with me!" Luckily, Dan likes Luca as much as Luca likes him, so he played along all night long. Of course playing that long with a two year old can get old and one has to make their own amusement. So Dan decided to teach Luca a game.

Fetch.

Luca loved it. =) There were giant belly laughs for at least a half hour, by the time we thought to turn the camera on it he was almost worn out, but still managed to catch a little bit.

One Month

Cue the way I start every monthly post:

It's hard to believe a month has already gone by! She's getting so big. When we went in for her two week doctor's appointment the doc was so pleased with how much she was growing and how good she looked that he told us to skip the one month appointment and come back at two months. Makes sense because sick people are starting to outnumber the healthy ones in the waiting room. But it means that we don't know her measurements. I'm guessing she's around 9 pounds by now. She's got super long legs and has outgrown most of the newborn sleepers because of that. She also has long skinny feet. I did too, and the only shoes that fit as I remember were saddle shoes. I promised Tessa I wouldn't make her wear them.

She's not a big cuddler and prefers to be stretched out across your legs. She smiles at us when we smile at her. Real big open mouth ones that melt your heart. She will also track your hand a little bit, and looks in the direction of loud noises (like Luca). The other day I was making dinner and Tessa was in her little rocker. She started fussing so Luca decided to gently rock her. He was talking the whole time, and she stopped fussing looked at Luca and smiled. So sweet!

She followed in Luca's footsteps, literally. Pa said he saw her take her first steps last week! Luca did the same thing. Walked for Pa very early, and then wouldn't do it for me for more than a year. He also said his first words to Pa: "Welcome home, Pa" so we'll see if Tessa does that too.

I never said, my Grandma won the baby pool! She had the 15th. Hopefully your got your prize in the mail already, enjoy some ice cream on us!

She likes to sleep with her hand under her face, she'll wiggle until she's comfy. She also seems to sleep best and be calmest when there's a lot of things going on. The other day she was fussing, and then Luca started crying about something. After Luca started crying she stopped and when he stopped she started up again. You can tell there was a lot of noise while she was growing! While she was growing she had the hiccups 3 or 4 times a day everyday. She still gets them all the time. And they just shake her whole body. It's not so bad except when she has them in the middle of the night because they keep her awake.

She is a champion sleeper other than that though. Has been since she was born. It's such a change from how Luca was, and I am totally loving it! Also because I'm getting longer stretches of sleep at night I'm not waking Josh up and asking him to help, so he's loving it too =) She really is the sweetest little thing!

First pumpkin patch of the season

Our first pumpkin patch of the season was one of the ones from last year. You just can't beat nearby and free! Right in the front they have hay bales and pumpkins set out for pictures, so of course we took advantage.

Last year Luca was shy about the animals and loved the corn kernel bin and the recycling water pumps. This year he was still a little leery of the animals but very interested in them. There was a llama there that kept making noises and Luca would make them back to it. It was pretty funny, but of course as soon as I started taping a video he stopped. Oma showed him that the goat wanted to have his head scratched and that if he took a little fist of hay he could feed the tiny horse. So Luca got his own little fistful of hay and offered it.

That horse really wanted Luca to get just a little closer

He also enjoyed the pigs, cows, chickens, turkey and what we're guessing is the family dog. He did not, however, enjoy the corn bin this year... I plopped him in it and he immediately started crying and shaking. I don't know if it was because he didn't expect to sink in the kernels or what, but he was terrified. Tessa, however, liked it just fine.

Little ghost sleeping on the kernels

Luckily, Luca thought the pyramid of hay was fun.  It was way too tall for him to climb himself, but when he was put up on the top he pulled out little bits and handed them to me, asking me to go feed the cow. Then he grabbed some for himself and went to do the same. As we were headed back toward the pumpkins, we happened across a chicken driving a tractor. Trying to anyway.

Silly chicken. =) So we walked among all the pumpkins, looking for just the right one. Found one to carve later. Luca picked one out for Oma, and then he found little ones for himself and for Tessa. The one for Oma was a little big and heavy for Luca, but he tried to carry it anyway.

And that was the first trip to a pumpkin patch for the season! At least one more planned, maybe even a third. Maybe this year we'll go on a weekend sometime so Josh can come too!