Summer isn't over yet!

Luca is getting used to doing fun things in the mornings because of school, so now I'm trying to plan a fun activity for him to do during Tessa's morning nap. On this day, since summer weather was trying hard to stick around, we decided to play outside. With paint. And his feet for paintbrushes.

He was excited at first and had fun walking and skating up and down the paper. But pretty quickly he decided he didn't like getting dirty feet and switched to using his hands.

The patio also got a little bit painted, but it washed so easily off his hands and feet that I'm hoping the first good rain takes care of it for me. Other wise my poor lazy self will have to actually go scrub it. Either way, it was fun!

Pumpkin Patch

We have two pumpkin patches that we go to every year. Both are free, usually pretty empty, and have animals and other fun things for the kids to do. Generally it's a good way to spend a morning. This year one of our favorites had made some big updates! There was a big pirate ship and a huge castle to climb up and look around with a tunnel to climb through. Oh was that tunnel fun!

Of course we had to say hi and try to feed all the animals, including the wild cat that was not interested in being loved on. And we dodged the corn bin. I don't know why Luca dislikes it so much, but he is just not a fan.

It was a beautiful day, the water pumps were working, and everyone had fun! Wonder if there are any changes at our other pumpkin farm? Guess we'll find out in the next couple weeks!

Go duckies, go!

Party!

We were so happy that so many of Tessa's friends and family were able to come celebrate our Little Lady at her birthday party!

The birthday fairy went a smidge overboard decorating for her birthday, but everything was so cute! The number of streamers over head keep growing, we're going to run out of room soon! 

She wasn't quite sure of what to do with her cake. When she did figure out she would take a tiny pinch of frosting, daintily put it in her mouth, and get another tiny pinch. It was pretty funny!

We had fun visiting with everyone. She enjoyed alternating between being disinterested in the presents and climbing into and onto the presents. Thank you to everyone for coming and sharing in Tessa's celebration!

One Year Old

Just like that, our little lady is a year old.

She's got five and a half teeth. I think. She doesn't like us looking, but that's what it feels like. Two on the bottom, and three and a half on the top--the one to the left of the middle is just poking through. Plus her doc says that one of her molars is swollen, so there's something to look forward to.

She sleeps! We're having a little trouble adapting her nap schedule to Luca's school schedule, but we're working on it. But at night, she sleeps! From 8 til about 7. She sometimes wakes up, but most frequently puts herself back to sleep. And I think that's all about teething. It is so wonderful. Now if we could convince Luca to sleep all night long...

When we put her birthday cupcake in front of her she was interested in the flame, and then enjoyed picking the icing off. When the cupcake flipped over she decided to try the cake. By the fistful. We are excited to see her destroy her smash cake at the party!

Finally she's decided she likes shoes! We found it out because it got so cold last week and she only has one pair of socks that still fit her. I didn't feel like going through Luca's old stuff in the basement (anyway, I hate baby socks. Really. I know, it's a bizarre thing to hate, but they are the bane of my existence. So little and always getting lost and no way to tell what size they are. Ugh.) So I figured shoes would work to keep her feet warm. When one came off, she brought it over to us and lifted her foot up. Finally, cute, sparkly, baby shoes are in my future!

She does that thing when you're washing her face where she opens her mouth and sort of says "ah" and thinks it's funny when we tap the towel over her mouth. She does it with her own hand during dinner too--pretty funny.

We are trying to teach her to blow kisses, sometimes she totally gets it, other times she looks at us like we're crazy.

She says mama and dada and something kind of like uh-cah for Luca, and she says nigh-nigh. Unfortunately, I think that's her first word outside of the family. Which means we need to keep feeding her college fund account.

We are having next to no problems with her eating, pretty much anything you put in front of her she'll eat. We've started giving her whole milk and she's not really a fan. If we warm and it water it down by half she'll usually drink it. Other wise she just plays. But she's mastered the sippy cup!

In the last three months she's grown an inch and lost a half a pound. The doc says it's nothing to worry about, that a loss that small is more like maintaining. It's crazy though that she's gone down to about the 20th percentile for weight, just over 18 pounds.

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Three and a half

Oh. My. Goodness. Three and a half!

He reasons through situations and it's fun to see where he ends up. The other day he started snorting in the backseat of the car and told me that a pig was in the car and I should roll the window to let him escape. I asked how he got in with the window up. He thought for a second and said he dug a hole under the window. So I told the pig to go back out the way he came. Luca informed me that the pig was back outside and that he fixed the hole.

We are struggling with sharing. It's hard because Tessa doesn't seem to understand that a toy is Luca's and she can't play with it, and at the same time even if it's okay toy for her to play with it's not fair to make Luca give it to her just because she can screech really loud. So we're all trying to figure it out. About the time we do they will have moved on to a new piece of sibling trouble, I'm sure. We are especially anticipating trouble with Tessa's birthday coming up and Luca wanting to play with her new toys. We'll see how it goes.

He is still a picky eater though he's making huge improvements. In most cases we call meat what it actually is instead of "dinosaur" and he'll still eat it. He is even asking for foods that just a couple months ago he would refuse to eat. Still won't eat regular pizza or any kind of dip--it's "too saucy." Only three year old in the world who doesn't dip everything in either ketchup or ranch.

He is loving school, wishes he went more often. He brings home crafts every day and sings all sorts of songs. I'm glad that he's having such a positive experience!

We celebrated his half birthday with a piece of cake and dinner with Uncle Dan. He was disappointed he didn't have any presents, but excited the birthday fairy put streamers in his bedroom door. Happy Half Birthday little man!

In the kitchen

Luca wanted to make cookies using his rolling pin and spatula. Who says break and bake cookies don't need to be flattened a little bit before cooking them? And he even got to go down for nap late so that he could use his "flipper" to take them off the cookie sheet.

While he was napping I had exactly the right amount of help to make a birthday cake for Grammie and Poppie! Sprinkles sprinkles everywhere!

The best way to warm up the house is by baking =)

Neighborhood Watch

Nothing gets by my little neighborhood watch!

Unless they're hiding behind the nose prints and smeary kiss marks, then they might be able to sneak by...

Water Play

It is well established that one of Luca's favorite places in Oma's house is her kitchen sink. Tessa recently discovered how much fun it really is. While she's in the bathtub she started leaning over and trying to suck/drink the bath water. It was much easier to get it from Oma's faucet.

They both played well together, sharing the water and Tupperware--I mean toys--while we made dinner. Shockingly, they both needed dry clothes before we could eat, but it was worth it!

What fun they had!