18 Months

Our big girl is a year and a half! So crazy...

She has 10 teeth: four in the front on top, two in the front on bottom, and four molars. Usually the other two bottom teeth come before molars, she just wanted to mix things up a little bit.

She says nigh-nigh, dadad and momom, except I think that she's not talking about me, it means more. Pretty much the only time she says it is in the kitchen with her hand out.

She loves Bell!

It used to be that she said pigs made this phlemy sound, then it was every animal that said it. Now dogs say "woof woof" and every animal still makes that piggy sound. I'm working on getting her to say that lions Roar.

She loves her stuffed animals fiercely. She gives big, BIG, squishy hugs to them all and eats their noses. And then pushes them at you to give them big hugs and trying-to-avoid-the-slobbery-mess kisses. And it doesn't matter what the animal is: stuffed animals, duplo animals, dogs from Luca's doll house, she tucks it under her arm and hugs hard. And loves carrying them around.

She's really good at understanding us and following directions without assistance, if we just say to pick a toy up, or put her clothes in the dirty clothes basket she will usually do exactly what we asked for. Sometimes there's a bit of an issue with distraction, but she can usually be guided back on task.

Scab on her eyebrow courtesy of the baseboard.

Meal times are relatively easy. She is such a good eater, will try just about anything you put in front of her. We found out that she loves radishes (yuck!). Josh (who loves them) says it makes up for her liking black olives. She also likes to suck on pickles :) That's my girl! The only problem at meals is that she will not stay seated in her chair. Always leaning off the edge of the chair trying to see what's on the floor, or reach something else on the table. Straps can't even restrain her. We're still looking for a solution to it.

There is no more hesitation in her walking, she's running all over the place. Of course she's still a smidge unsteady and has the bruises and scratches that go along with that. Clearly. She is also super speedy coming down the stairs. Slides down on her belly like it's a flat slide, just zips along.

That's our delicate little flower ;)

She takes two naps, an hour in the morning and then a couple hours or more in the afternoon. Always with a nuk, blankie, and an animal. Often this one teddy bear, but just about any will work. She wishes it was Bell, the dog that Santa gave her, but she just pushes her ear and makes her talk again and again and again instead of sleeping so she's not allowed to have that in bed with her anymore.

Four Already!

Seriously, I can't believe it. I just can't. Maybe one year I'll say "Jeez this year dragged on, is he really only one year older" but I'm guessing that will be on his 27th birthday... At any rate, not any time soon.

He can be just the sweetest fella, bringing toys for his sister and giving Jude itches because he knows it will make them happy. Warms my heart.

Baby Luca

He has an incredible imagination, always playing games of make believe. With elaborate stories. Right now we're playing Pirate Ship and the ship is full of animals trying to find their homes. There's a cow driving a duplo truck and he's going to help them.

He's also really creative with duplo's and legos. Clearly he got his father's Master Builder genes. He passed my ability when he was about 2 I think. Big elaborate houses, cars with homes on them complete with slides. Josh comes home from work and Luca explains the things he built and you can just see the awe on Josh's face. It's impressive!

One!

He's still a pretty picky eater. Anything he doesn't like (or thinks he won't like and doesn't want to try) he says he's allergic to. In the beginning he had so many random allergies that there was a huge list of things he couldn't have. Now he's grown out of most of them, but it's like we missed the window on some foods. Like ketchup. He will have nothing to do with ketchup or any other dips. They're all "too saucy". Slowly he's expanding his palate, and I guess any progress is good!

Two

He is loving school, asks most every morning if it's a school day. The three days a week that are neither school nor the weekend are just huge bummers to him. Next year he'll move up from 2 mornings to 3 mornings a week, and I think about half of his class is continuing with him. I'm so glad that he's having a positive experience and hope it continues!

We should be starting tae kwon do in a couple weeks. I showed him a youtube video of a young class and he seemed pretty excited about it, it's just 7 classes--an introduction--and if he has fun we'll look at something longer. Maybe he'll follow in Bai's footsteps! I know it was a wonderful experience for her. 

Three

He loves Christmas music, specifically Jingle Bells. So he sings it all the time. All. The. Time. It's a little funny, because he sings it "Bells that like to ring, making sure it's bright" which is entertaining. But not quite entertaining enough to make it okay to listen to in July on repeat. So we tried to teach him new songs to sing. The Ants Go Marching sort of stuck. At least Jingle Bells is down to just a couple times a week, thank goodness. Until next holiday season, anyway.

Big 4 Year old!

He is a big hand talker. Waving them around the whole time he's talking. And his mouth works faster than his brain, so his stories take a little longer to tell because he says the same sentence a couple times while his brain catches up. So there's a whole lot of gesturing. I have to focus hard on what he saying or I just smile at how animated the whole thing is.

Happy birthday to me!

My birthday is so relaxing now. I don't have to cook, and still I get a beautiful cake.

I don't have to pull out tissue paper, but get to keep what's inside the bag.

I don't have to tear wrapping paper, and as long as it's not too interesting I get to keep that present too.

And Oma helped Luca and Tessa go shopping for my gifts, so I got some pretty awesome surprises (that I get to share with the kids). Happy birthday to me!

Snowy Day

This morning we woke up to some impressive snow on the ground and it kept coming most of the morning.

Big, fat flakes that make for great snowmen and annoying shoveling. Thankfully, we had helpers--Luca with his shovel and the neighbor with his snow blower. After the work was done everyone got to play! We got to use the snowman kit, and the snow paint that Santa brought Luca. We started with red in the front yard, then I looked at all the spurts of red paint and decided that we should probably change colors and head to the back yard...

No one was harmed at the bottom of the stairs, it just looks a lot like it.

By this time Tessa was up from nap and wanted to join in the fun. In her snow gear--overalls, coat, hat, mittens and boots two sizes too big, she was like that kid in a Christmas Story, with added difficulty walking.

When we took her outside she stayed in one spot and would touch the snow when Josh gave her a snow ball. I tried to get her to walk around in it but she just wasn't sure. Then we went to swing and she wasn't too sure about that either. After a little bit she and we went inside and she was super mad about that.

Once we got out a pan and brought in some snow, she was happy again.

Meanwhile, the boys brought out the sled from Santa and took turns going around the backyard. Luca tried so hard to pull Josh! It went a lot smoother when Josh was pulling and Luca was riding.

By this point Jude was tired of watching from inside and wanted to join in the fun. So Luca and Josh threw snowballs, which he watched go by. But he had fun sniffing around and eating snow, stubborn little dog.

I thought they were done building the snowman, but Luca took off his scarf to put on the finishing touches: a blue shirt.

Everyone had fun on our big snowy day!

My New Adventure

I've opened an etsy shop!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleLutessa?ref=ss_profile


I'm pretty excited about it. I've been making felt food and busy books for the kids for a couple years, and since I buy felt by the yard and so have a bunch already, thought I'd try my hand at selling it. A lot of reading and research and I'm pretty happy so far!

Right now I'm hoping to make pizza money and have enough work to keep my nap times busy. Luca and Tessa are pretty happy about it too, since I need an actual item made before I can list it. So I've been sewing up a storm, taking pictures, and then the kiddo's get new toys. =)

Check out and share my hard work!

Around the house

Just some pictures of things that have been going on in our house recently

Tessa loves hats. Hers, Luca's, mine, winter hats, ball caps, it doesn't matter. Some fit relatively well, others are comically huge. Like this one.

Not sure how she knows which groceries to put in her cart, but she was happy. When she ran into something she would just back up, adjust her heading, and be back on her way. Hat firmly in place the whole time. Goofy kid.


Elsie Bloomed!

First, I've had this flower for 9 years. Longest I've kept anything alive. For real. Surpassed all pets and plants I've ever had. And now it's blooming every two years like it should. I feel like a good plant owner. :)

Josh had a Birthday!

Luca said he wanted Pirate cupcakes, so that's what he got! Some with treasure chests, some with gold coins, all delicious. Tessa also thought they were delicious and had to go directly to the bath after eating it. Yum!

A visit from the Gingerbread Man

A friend of mine from college lives a couple states away and has a kindergartener.

They had a class project to decorate a gingerbread man, mail it to someone far away to go on adventures, and then have it mailed back to the school so they can discuss where they went and what they did. My wonderful friend picked us to send the gingerbread man to. Luca was so excited.

We played with the guy for a day and took pictures of everything we did. He had breakfast with us, played a bunch of games, Luca made him lunch, and he even took a nap with Jude.

 
When Luca learned that he had to be mailed back to my friend he was disappointed. But we'll always have the memories. ;)