Devon: April

Devon has definitely become a climbing climber. He is outgoing at the playground, "jumping class" (gym class) as well as furniture. I have to trust his coordination, but I still keep a tight watch on him so we don't have to go to the hospital for stitches ;)

This is Roman.

He's adorable and out going and Devon loves him. His Mama is one of my closest friends. We met at story time when the boys were just starting to crawl.

We were pregnant together with our second kids and Audrey and her son Lincoln are about a month apart.
High five!

You have eyebrows!

Fist bump!

Hugs.

Cutie booties!

Just a couple 'a guys hangin' out and holdin' hands.

Devon LOVES his cousin Sadie. We see them at least once a week at "jumping class". It's a gym class where the kids get to just run around and use the equipment. In this picture she was teaching him how to slow dance. "Hold my hand and put your arm around me!" The giggling between these two kids is hysterical.

We are so lucky to have so much family live in town. I can just call up my parents and go out to dinner .... and we did. These two kept cracking each other up.





He loves to give "fumbs up". Look at how far back he curls his little thumb!

His new obsession is Clifford and LITERALLY memorized an entire book. It's called Clifford's first Halloween, but Devon calls it the "hand book" because there is a hand wiggling on the wall. His memory is staggering. He will read other Clifford books as well, but also loves to watch him on TV.

Devon is a totally different kid this month. He has come out of his shell even more and is so out going. He speaks very well and has a few phrases that he has latched onto. Some of the classics include:

"I love you so much."
"Wanna see cool trick?"

"Um, so, how's your day, Mom?"
"I'm Spiderman/Woody/Mr. Incrediboy/Prince Charming."
"Probly wanna clip it."

He had a hang nail and once I clipped it off and it stopped hurting. "Clipping it" is his standard solution for all types of pain. Sun burn? Probly wanna clip it. Headache? Probly wanna clip it. Stubbed your toe? Probly wannt clip it.

Devon loves lizards (geckos specifically), snakes, and birds. Somehow a Bull snake got into our house and I caught it so show to him. He was so brave and wanted to touch it. He is very gentle and without being told, only used one finger to pet it's tail. He is fearless with that kind of stuff. Can you see the snake?

I was worried about Devon loosing some weight so I took him to the pediatrician. He had, in fact, lost a couple of pounds so the doctor told me to mix ice cream into his milk, cut back on milk to two sippy cups a day, pizza twice a week, regular hot dogs (not the turkey ones I usually give him), dessert, ranch dressing on his veggies and let him basically eat whatever he asks for (with in reason). I have to say for the first week it seemed like allowing him to have fattening foods seemed to have "primed" his appetite "pump", but after a couple of weeks he went back to not really wanted to eat and now asking for cake, ice cream and cookies ;) I hate that I am now reduced to getting him to eat dinner with promising him dessert afterwards.

Look at that happy face!

Devon will show you his happy, pouty, funny and fierce face. The fierce face is my favorite because it comes with sound effects and hand gestures. Devon is such a fun little kid and has a truly sweet personality. He is very tough, but at the same time very sensitive and doesn't like for us to see him cry. If he gets hurt, he will turn his head so we can't see his face and won't look at us until he has calmed down. We tell him all the time that it's OK to cry when you get hurt, but he still doesn't like for us to see him cry. He readily shares his toys with other kids (this does not include his sister at the moment, but we're working on it ;)and is an all around fun kid to hang out with. His new bed time routine includes reading books, kiss on the lips, monkey kiss (eskimo kiss), butterfly kiss and a hug.

Audrey: April (9 months)

Audrey has quite a lot of personality for not even being a year old yet. She has selected "her" blankie and won't sleep without it. I tried to get her to use one that could be used year round since the one she likes is a little warm for summer, but she wouldn't have it. They really do know what they like don't they?

She is doing great at sitting up and I don't have to sit and hover around her to make sure she doesn't fall. She loves to play with her chewy, crinkly toys, a slinky, a ball and has some sort of baby radar for finding things that she could choke on.

Devon opened a plastic egg from Easter and dumped out M & M's. Before anyone saw her, she scooped up an orange one and ate it. We didn't notice she had something in her mouth until there was orange drool dripping down her chin followed by chocolate. I am super vigilant with that sort of thing, but when she and Devon are playing all bets are off.

Her official first trick is clapping. It. Is. Adorable. She sort of holds her right hand still and claps her left hand into it. I say,"Yeah!" very enthusiastically and she claps and giggles. It is so sweet, genuine and innocent happiness it just warms my heart. She is such a sweet baby.

Audrey loves to eat lunch meat, scrambled eggs, peas, sweet potatoes and Ritz crackers with her brother while they watch cartoons on the couch. She doesn't really like to be spoon fed and much prefers to feed herself. She will sit happily in her high chair, but doesn't like the tray pulled up too close to her.

Audrey loves to see her Daddy and interact with him. She reaches out to touch his face and then gets shy and buries her head into my chest to snuggle. It is a special, tender bond that they share.

I only leave the kids once a week on Sunday when I teach yoga for an hour so they are not used to me leaving or being gone for that matter. Even though I am only gone two hours (teaching and driving time), it is sort of fun for me to come home and Audrey kicks her legs and waves her arms in excitement when she sees me. You would think I had been gone for a week!

Audrey and her little, dimpled friend, Lincoln, at a picnic lunch.

This little baby gets so many kisses, hugs and love from so much family it is amazing. Aunt Jane snuggles and plays with Audrey every time I see her and Audrey is just smitten with her. All my nieces and nephews (all 18 of them) love this little girl and always give her attention. I am so grateful for grandparents, aunts and uncles who help, hold and love my children.

I can't believe in just a few months she will be one! What?!? HOW does it go so fast? It feels like just the other day I said to Joe,"Not to alarm you, but I think I'm in labor." What fun we are having with with sweet, sweet baby girl.

Dear god of infants and toddlers,
I would like to make it through today without being projectile vomited on, pooped on, diapers exploding in cribs, or mysterious-liquid-from-the-garbage-leaked-on. Just for today. Seriously, this has gone on since Sunday and my washing machine has been brought to it's knees. I did 12 loads of laundry on Wednesday and took 3 comforters to the dry cleaners. Enough already.

Thanks,
Annie

OK. Apparently it will have to wait til tomorrow, but tomorrow would be great. Gotta go now. I have to wash Audrey's sheets, change her clothes, give her her a bath and air out her room. Ugh.

It's not always about the kids

Daffodils.

Daffodils are officially my favorite flower.

Joe brought these home for me yesterday and when I saw them .... I decided they were my favorite.

They are so happy and yellow and beautiful and interesting.

Daffodils.

Devon: March

Devon, Devon, Devon.

Sigh.

Where do I begin?

Let's start with this .... the terrible two's are in full swing at our house. Even though Devon is still his sweet, little self most of the time, it would appear that periodically throughout the day a demon takes over his mind and body and he has crying tantrums, dangerously climbs on furniture, says "no" to everything, gets up from sleeping 5-6 times at night and sits on the floor by the stairs yelling,"Annie, get up here now!" and refusing to ingest anything except milk and candy. Thankfully, he is not like this all the time.

In fact most of the time he's well behaved and when we go to my parents' house or on an outing he does really well, but I think he just gets tired of keeping all the energy bottled up in his tiny, polite little body all day that it all comes out when we get home. It is a lesson in patience that I work on everyday.

The upside to his latest "personality shift" ;) is his language skills have improved dramatically from last month. Total strangers comment on how well he speaks and can carry on conversations with him. When he is open to listening, it is possible to reason with him. Like, when I had to explain that I had to put a gate on his bedroom door so he wouldn't climb on top of the dresser at night and turn the TV on and off and scare me half to death because Mama thinks someone is in the house ;)

I hate to gender generalize, but Devon loves all things that a typical boy would love. Tools, rocks, hanging out in the garage, building stuff, swords, spraying the water hose, digging in the dirt, guns, robots, super heroes, space, astronauts, rocket boots, transformers, spitting, burping and farting.

To his two-year-old credit, when he does burp/fart he says,"I burped/farted. Excuse me." At least he's polite about it ;) He will turn anything into a gun or sword. My hair dryer, a butter knife, a plastic pipe, a screwdriver, you name it and he will fight you with it. And watch out because he seems to have some natural ability with fighting. He has drawn blood more that once.

I love this picture. It's me, Audrey in the pouch and Devon out for a mid day walk. Devon was pointing at the moon with his stick sword.

I am continually amazed at the imagination of this little guy.

He can walk by a pile of gravel and say,"I want to go look at that pyramid." and then proceeds to tell me everything he knows about Egypt.

I read him a book about space and told him about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon and planting an American flag. 15 minutes later we were taking a walk through our neighborhood and the gas company had marked the ground for some work that was going to be done in the next few days. He walked over to this flag and said,"This is a flag from the moon."

Joe was showing Devon how to dig for sand rubies and they collected them in a little cup. I had a little cup of beads that I left on the table that Devon dumped onto the floor and I had to literally dig each one out of the carpet. Devon called them "mama's sand rubies."

When Joe lets him get on the computer Devon asks to see happy faces. Like, pages of smiley faces. How sweet is that?

He loves to "show you a good trick" and have you show him one in return. Balancing a spoon on your nose, handstands, curling your tongue and fish faces are very good tricks. His cool trick is to take a plastic/paper sword and spin it in the air. And when I say "spins it" he throws it in the air and it spins like a propeller on a plane. It's so fast! It's a pretty good trick.

He loves to make cookies on a weekly basis and I even taught him how to make home made noodles. He was more interested in swinging the handle around like a sword than the noodles, but he did like it for a few minutes. I like how he stopped putting the noodles on the rack and just globed on dough.

Devon loves to watch Monster's Inc (he calls it Monster's name fink), Bolt, Transformers, Tangled, Yo Gaba Gaba and The Incredibles. He frequently asks to be referred to as: Incrediboy, Mr. Incredible, Prince Charming, and when he's carrying a sucker like a magic wand ... Fairy Godmother. He asks to watch the History channel so he can watch shows on Egypt and "mommies".

Devon loves to eat nectarines, Pokey, marshmallows, apples, cheese, suckers, broccoli, noodles, pizza, fish and watermelon. His new favorite condiment is steak sauce. Move over ketchup!

If you ask him what he thinks about smoking he will give you various answers:
"It's grossy."
"It's disgusting."
"It gives you cancers."
"It's only for the fireplace."
"It could burn you. Blah!" (sticking out his tongue)

That last one he came up with on his own.

Devon is starting to be helpful around the house and will often tell me that he needs to pick up his toys before bed. He will empty the silverware from the dishwasher to the drawer and picks up food that he spills on the floor. He is very good at calming Audrey and they are genuinely interested in playing together. Except in this picture where she swatted at his sample of peanut butter pretzels and he was devastated that they spilled onto his shorts. He is quite a tender kid.

Devon constantly says,"I love you so much" and gives out hugs, kisses and monkey kisses. A monkey kiss is an Eskimo kiss, but he calls it a monkey kiss. He loves to snuggle up with his blanket, papash (pacifier) and his sock monkey when he goes to sleep and insists that mama and daddy lay down with him each night.

Audrey: March (8 months)

Little Miss Audrey is such a fun little girl. She can sit on her own now, but I can't put her down and walk away since she's not 100% steady 100% of the time. I leave a pillow behind her just in case she tips backwards. She loves to play with Devon's toys and wants to be included in all the fun. Devon would not have it any other way. He brings her toys and tries to soothe her when she fusses.

She has started to "worm" her way across the floor, but mostly spins around in circles. It's startling to set her down, leave and come back and she's in a different spot. She's too little to be so mobile!

She has started eating real food like cooked carrots, sweet potatoes, apples and bananas. She attacks Cheerios. I'm not kidding. I put them on the tray and she goes at them with both fists spraying cereal everywhere. She puts handfuls in her mouth at once and I have to sweep the floor after every meal. She loves to crunch them in her tiny, front teeth,

I definitely call her by her name, but her nicknames include beauty, lady girl, la la and little squishy. She has settled into her 9-12 month clothes and even some 18 month stuff since pants tend to be short on her because she has gotten so tall.

She takes a nice long nap in the middle of the day and is in bed for the night by 7:00. She is a dream sleeper.

I never have to rock her to sleep, which is sort of sad, but nice that I can just put her in her bed when she's wide awake, give her her blanket and she just goes to sleep. If she cries for more than two minutes that means that she's not ready and I'll keep her up an extra half hour.

Although she hates to be put in her car seat she is a sweet little girl to run errands with.

It is so fun for me to take her shopping with me or to the grocery store and have that one-on-one time that I cherish.

Audrey loves to laugh, watch cartoons with her brother, sing and click her tongue. Since her teeth are really starting to descend, she is doing lots of raspberries and sucking on her lips.

She sits while I do her hair and style it into little curls. I have started making little hair clips for her and I'm sure in a few months she will have a clip for every outfit ;)

It delights me to no end to go into her room after she has been sleeping. When she sees me she kicks her legs and waves her arms wildly all the while she is giggling and cooing. It makes me happy that she is happy to see me. I adore this little lady and I live to make her smile.