Number 5!

Lily welcomed tooth number 5 sometime last week. It was on the bottom left, right next to one of her first front bottom teeth. Her vocabulary is expanding, altho we are the ones who understand it. I have been able to pull her bangs up into a tiny hair rubber band, which has been helpful in keeping them out of her eyes. She has begun shaking her head up and down in order to answer yes to something. Very funny to watch, it's as if her bottom jaw is in control instead of her head.

Austin is coming along in preschool. He can write most letters and numbers w/o to many problems. He can say most of his address (working on the zip code). The phone number is still a work in progress.

Justin, is, well, still Justin. Altho he is completely potty trained, including naps and night time. However, he has pooped in a friends back yard and our back yard. Maybe he thinks he's part puppy?

#3 and #4

I'm a little behind (shocking, I know!). Lily got tooth #3 (front top right) a little over a week ago, and then tooth #4 two days ago (front top left). She is very facially expressive. She tries to repeat a lot of things. She tries to keep up with the boys. She hits me several times on the legs when I tell her "No, I can't pick you up right now." She is starting to get into 'real' trouble. Gone are the days of many many warnings, stern voices, and light taps on the hands or behind.

Austin is still practicing writing his letters and numbers most days. He likes getting a silly band for his hard efforts.

Justin is still, well, Justin. And he only cares about a silly band for a minute. Gummy bears tho, that's an entirely different story. I think they have helped us potty train him. He does GREAt at home, goes almost all the time by himself, and still no diapers at night or nap. The problem still remains that he doesn't know how to ask someone to go...like at church where that ability is necessary.

Potty training update....'No, Mommy'.....name

Justin has been in underwear and shorts this week. He does just fine getting them down (if he'll let go of his Buzz toy), he just has trouble getting them back up correctly, if at all :) He goes whenever he wants w/o being asked (altho I still ask), no pooh accidents, and he is still keeping a diaper dry during nap time and night time. He is still using the potty chair at home and at church. He will use a regular toilet when we are away from home. Next week we'll work on one of two things: either he learns how to open the bathroom door, or he learns to tell me he has to go so that I can open the door for him. Maybe then we can ditch the potty chair. All in all I think he is doing great. Harder than Austin, but better than I expected.


Lily started saying 'No', which was quickly followed by 'Mommy'. Not 2 words I would have chosen to be understandable together, and in that order.

Austin can spell his first name if you ask him. We are working on putting it on paper. He is very eager to learn, but is just as eager to give up when he doesn't get it right the first time.

Happy 4th of July AND Happy Potty Training!!

Happy belated 4th of July!!















AND....Happy Potty Training!
Things are going well with Justin. He has been in underwear during the day for the past 2 days and stayed dry all day today (Tuesday) until evening right before bath/bed when he poo'd in them. I am so proud of him! During his 2 naps he also kept the diaper dry.


AND, Austin is doing well practicing his letters and spelling his name.

Very exciting!!

I hope the excitement and enthusiasm continue tomorrow, and for many days to come. I decided to spend as much of this week as I could potty training Justin. Wasn't real sure what to expect. It went GREAT! He only used the kitchen floor 2x to potty, but used the potty chair to potty 6x, and 2x to poo. The last time he pottied in the potty chair was at bedtime after he had been in the pool for a couple of hours and then in the bath. Not bad! We have had a 3 Muskateers bar in the kitchen, up high where he could see it, for months, for when he decided he was ready to start going on the potty. He finally got it today, and was very proud of himself.

Things I forgot about Lily: She knows where her nose is. She will clean, with a wet wipe, her feet or face or diaper if you tell her too. She was 21.6# and 30" at her 1 year well-check. She can get off the couch by herself, which means she thinks she can get off of the bed and down the stairs too, which she CAN'T! She will hug and kiss on request, usually. She thinks her brothers are a riot, usually.

Austin has been able to write an 'A' for quite awhile, and for some time now has been doing an 'i' and 'n'(which looks like an 'm'). So, we have been working on the other letters, putting them in the right order, and recognizing them. It's a work in progress. He is such a big help. He loves to help cook or clean (altho he doesn't get to do much cooking since I hate messes).

They all love the pool, mostly Austin.

A little late...

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY LILY, our July 4th baby!


Outfit #1 provided by the Steven's Clan.









Outfit #2 supplied by Grandma Paula.











The only pic of her w/her brownie flag cake and candle. Too many people to mess with a visit to the high chair.












Great-Grandma Sue made a beautiful brownie flag-cake.











Grandma Barbie made 2 great dessert pizzas.












Her very first doll baby, given to her by Grandma Paula.











She is easily amused by Uncle Josh and her new toy puppy from Grandpa Fritz and Grandma barbie.


She has been walking consistently for a month. She has been trying to run the past week or so, I suppose to keep up with the boys. Her new word is 'Uh-oh." Any 'B' word is fairly common: baby, bubby, balloon, bear. She says puppy, and "hi" to everyone and everything. She can tell you that puppies, bears, kittys, and pretty much everything, growles. She is very expressive, which makes for some drama. She looks more like a girl now with longer hair. She eats pretty much anything. She saw her first movie at a theatre today, as did the boys. It was Toy Story 3. She didn't much care, but the boys loved it, especially Justin.

Lily's tooth to teeth and step to steps.

In the past 3 weeks Lily has gone from a step or two to six or more. She also went from 1 tooth to 2 teeth, and soon a 3rd will be in full view.



Various pics....

Grandpa Fritz 'the Snowbird" has returned from Florida.












Austin's 4th b-day a few weeks ago.











Lily sooo exhausted she fell asleep in her jumpy chair. If you know Lily, this seems almost impossible!










My little "helper".












First day this year in the pool. They had a blast. Lily was able to get in and out herself. Pretty good for never having been in it before.

Hello??

I already posted about Lily picking up my cell phone or the house phone and putting it to her ear. Now she uses the remote, or just her hand, as well. In fact, if you say to her, "Hello", she will put her hand to her ear and say something to the effect of 'hello' or 'hi'.

I have said to her so many times, "Lily, what's in your mouth? Show mommy." And then I open my mouth and say "ahhh". Now when I say it she opens her mouth and sticks out her tongue for me.

I forgot to post last week that Justin slept in his own bed all night, one night.

It's re-official (is that a word?)

Lily's first tooth went away after it showed up a couple of months ago. It is back today. We figured it was coming because she has been very cranky and chewing her fist. She was a different kids today.

She has also been putting my cell phone and the home phone up to her ear.

And I swear she nodded her head 'yes' when I asked her if she wanted a cheerio yesterday.

She has spent all day standing, bouncing while standing, picking things up and standing.

And she's up!

Today was the big day for Lily to stand up w/o holding onto anything. She did it first for Grandma Sue in the living room. But during the course of the evening she did it many more times, some of them even on beds. She recognizes this is new for her, and she seems very tickled. It also appears that the tooth she cut a couple of months ago went back under the gum. However, this week also seems to be a big teething week as she has been very cranky and chewing on her fist.

Spit bubbles and standing alone.

Lily has realized she can make spit bubbles these past couple of days. Great timing when she also has a cold. yuck Today she has regularly been pulling up with the help of something, and then letting go to stand alone. Big girl!

Overheard....

Lsat night, while I was in another room finishing up with Lily after her bath, I heard the boys in the bathtub...(Justin had just gotten a spanking for getting a lot of water on the floor)....Austin to Justin, "Okay, turn over and I will spank you." spank spank Justin to Austin, "Okay, now I spank you. Bad boy." spank spank spank This went on for several minutes, back and forth. Then I heard Austin telling Justin he would wash the red off of his hiney.

Justin funny...

I will never be able to write this down as funny as it happened, but here goes nothin.....Set up the scene; The kids and I were all outside Saturday (over a month ago now)enjoying the great weather in the backyard. We had a visitor (one of Matt's co-workers child) who was playing w/my kids. I had given them a bowl of grapes to share. While the 2 older boys were playing on the batter operated jeep, Justin was stuffing himself w/grapes on the patio. I was sitting in the middle of the yard on a blanket w/Lily. I called out to Justin to please bring me 1 grape to feed the baby. He looked up, chewing, looked back down at the bowl of grapes, picked 1, looked back at me, looked back at the grape, and proceeded to eat it. This went on for a couple of minutes until I called out to him again. This time, he filled his mouth w/ grapes, and began walking towards me w/1 in his hand. But by the time he got to me, it was 1/2 eaten. I had to giggle, asked him why it was half eaten, he looked at me as if I was speaking Swaheelee, and went back to the grapes. I peeled the grape for Lily, fed it to her in pieces, and then asked Justin for another one. Here we go again. Finally he comes out to me, again w/a half eaten grape. Stifling ,my giggles, I asked him to bring me a whole grape. After some time, he returned, chewing. I asked him for the grape, and he graciously opened his mouth and began to pull out the partially chewed up grape. I was quick to encourage him to put it back in his mouth and return for another. This time, after he picked it and began walking with it, I verbally encouraged him to bring it to me w/o eating it or biting it.

9 month check-up

Lily had her 9 month check-up Thursday, and all is well. She is 18#11oz and 29" long. We still aren't doing any vaccines until 18 months, and the boys never had their iron checked while I was nursing, so Lily didn't either. So, it was uneventful....my favorite kind of doctor visit.

Tonight, while I was laying on my back in bed w/Lily to my right and Justin to my left, I was telling them the 3 Bears story. Lily has always had a funny fascination w/that story, but tonight it got really funny. As I told the story, she got closer and closer to me (which isn't saying much since she was already right beside me where she can nurse). I was almost at the end (and she was right in my face) and I had just said, "...and the baby bear said, "somebody's been sleeping in my bed..." when Lily popped me in the nose. It caught me so off guard that when I was finally able to react, all I could do was laugh hysterically. Guess you had to be there :)

A little more....

Justin lasted 4 hours that 1st night in his bunk bed. He hasn't been back again, until tonight. We bought him a Toy Story bed set. His choice. It was between that and Spiderman. Toy Story colors go better in his room, so I'm glad Spidey lost.

Lily stood by herself, for probably 10 seconds, on the spare-room bed this past Saturday. Tonight she did it for a couple of seconds on the basement floor after she let go of the couch to mess with a toy. Last night she nearly sent me into cardiac arrest. I had taken the kids into the basement and had gone back upstairs to make myself dinner (they had already eaten). I was upstairs 15 min., and Lily was at the bottom of the stairs crying the entire time. I was almost done when her crying, all of a sudden, sounded closer. I thought, "Oh no! She's trying to climb the stairs!" I turned around to walk toward the stairs and there she was! She was on the last top step w/her hands on the kitchen floor. I nearly died! Not only had she never climbed 1 step up to this point, but here she had climbed the entire set of stairs (12) w/o falling....THANK YOU GOD! It is time to put the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs now.

Breaking News!!!

As you can see we have new-used bunk beds for the boys. We have had them for over a week, and Austin has been sleeping up top, and really likes it. Justin has still been sleeping with us, knowing that I plan to buy him "special" sheets for his bottom bed. However, tonight he said he was sleeping on the bunk bed, and he is! I 'll let you know later if he stays there all night.















Lily info: her first tooth is the lower right. And she showed today that she understands peek-a-boo. I tossed a pair of pants on her head while I was changing her, and she pulled them off. I said "peek a boo" and she put them back on her head, and then pulled them off...you get the idea.

Lily updates....

Ok, I'll work from most recent milestones to older ones, as best as I can remember. She has her first tooth (a couple of days ago (3/21) it finally broke through), she sat in a stroller like a big girl yesterday (3/18) when we went to the zoo for the first time this year (And then we went today (3/19) also because it was soooo nice!!). She has been waving for the past few days, she will sometimes 'silly' blink if she's asked to (that started Monday when Shelli came over to take some pics), she has been bear crawling regularly, clapping like a cheerleader, holding onto things and walking since she turned 8 months, she eats lots of different things, baby talks a lot, and loves to be played silly-with by her brothers.

2nd zoo visit











2nd zoo visit was w/Aunt Therese &Savannah











1st zoo visit of 2010 was with Great-Grandma Sue












What was left of the construction snowman early last week. So sad....














Lily's BFF!











Lily playing at Eastland Mall play area.

To binky, or not to binky? That is/was the question. And stuff....

As you can see by the picture, Lily has taken up the binky. She is only 7.5 months old in the picture, so I suppose it's never to late to start. My dilema; the boys never used one and I have never been a fan of them. I didn't really try much with Austin. I felt a little guilty that maybe I had short-changed him so I tried a smidge harder with Justin (and he was VERY fussy at night his first 3 weeks). Lily became very fussy heading into week 3, so I tried more often, and she would take it for 1-2 min. and then out it would come, and then she wouldn't want to nurse because she thought I was trying to fake her out again. So, altho I tried more often with her early on, she still wasn't a binky baby. So, a couple of weeks ago she was being unusually quiet, and when I went to check on her, I found her asleep w/Matt with a binky in her mouth. The rest, as they say, is history. She doesn't take it at night since she sleeps with me and nurses when she wants. She won't take it if she is already really upset. But it seems it holds off the meltdowns.












Oh so pretty! (Lily, not mommy!)











Winter 2010













A few pics of the kids trying to play in the deep snow we had a couple of weeks ago. It was soooo funny that I never went back inside. I just watched, laughed, and occasionally rescued.





















Austin was insistent on making a snow man this year. So, after we had some rain that reduced the amount in the backyard, it was easier to work with. Justin watched from the dining room window. After he had such a difficult time walking in it several days earlier (see above pics), he decided he had no interest in going back out.








Only in a construction household does the snowman have a safety harness and hard hat!

Where is my......

Are you familiar with the feel & learn books that go something like, "That's not my penguin (or puppy, or monster, etc.), his beak is too smooth." After several pages of that type of interaction, the last page says something like, "That's my puppy (or whatever)! His nose is sooo squashy!" You get the idea. Well, I have a story of my own. Here goes:



Where are my Eamon and Austin? That couch and that cushion are too empty.












Where are my Eamon and Austin? That bed is too cold.














Where are my Eamon and Austin? That bed is too small.














There are my Eamon and Austin! In my big, warm, FULL bed with the rest of my sleeping family :)












And see that little white space between Lily and Justin? That is where I crawled out of to write this great story.

A quick update on Lily before she goes to college....

Lily is 7 months and 1 week old, and today she pulled herself to a standing position from the floor using the couch. Now, let's go back a little. Right around the time she was at the 7 month mark she had started trying to stand/walk by crawling in the bear stance or frog squat positions. She also went from infant babble to baby babble. Mamamama is common, along with dadadada, and many other sounds that will be words sooner than I care to think. She also started a fake whine/cry/fuss......thank you Austin & Justin for those influences. Also, thanks to Austin and Justin (and probably mommy and daddy as well....sadly) she has started a loud scream to get your attention...not the sad baby kind, the loud annoying kind. She has also been picking things up and putting them in her mouth and then crawling with them. Things like socks, small toys, and baby doll clothes. She looks like a puppy.

The boys went sledding for the first time this past Sunday afternoon. Justin never wanted to go down, but each time he did he smiled from ear to ear and said when it was all over, "That was fun." Austin wanted to go down many times, but each time he went down he cried. He did say later he wanted to do it again. Next time we'll nap them first. Lily went down w/me one time, and cried from start to finish. Again, nap needed. Hopefully pictures soon. They are on my Facebook account.

Lily crawling, and a few funnies (or not so much?)

Austin to daddy in the car one night: "Daddy, which way did we turn?" Daddy, "Left." A-- "I wanted to turn right." D-- "That's the way we go to church, but tonight we're taking the highway." A-- "But I wanted to take the low-way."

Austin to me in the living room while pretending he was going somewhere: "Bye, I am going to hell." Mommy-- "We don't pretend to go to hell, it's a very bad place." (edited version) A-- "No, I mean hell at home."

She's a big girl now!

Lily will be 7 months in less than a week. Today was her first time in the highchair. I don't put the kids in the highchairs until they can sit up mostly unassisted. This week she passed that milestone (in the bath tub, no-less). So, for lunch she had lots of Italian wedding soup that I made (mostly just the orzo, smidge of chicken and spinach...not lots to you and I of course) and probably 2 cheerios (in tincey pieces). She was quite a trooper. A couple of weeks ago when she started really getting around by army crawling, she was also doing the bear stand. I thought she might start walking before crawling or sitting up unassisted (not really, but you get my drift). This week she has been crawling on all 4's more each day. She also does a lot of a partial bear stand w/one arm off the ground, as if she is getting up (which she doesn't). Time to put the gates up! She has been crawling off of cushions onto the floor for awhile, but this past week she has made progress in climbing up....using my body to help. She may start out on her back, then roll to her belly, then crawl up onto my arm, then up to my shoulder, then up to my chest or belly or side, then she stands (while hanging on of course). I also need to move the recycling paper box, which she found, and can get into, and makes a mess, AND eats it if given time.

"Daddy, can we pleeeeease...."

Conversation between Austin & Matt last night, Austin: "Daddy, can we watch Animal Planet?" 2 seconds pass....... Austin: "Daddy, can we watch Animal Planet?" 2 more seconds pass........ Austin: "Daddy! Can we pleeeeeease watch Animal Planet?" Immediately.......Matt: "Yes, we can watch Animal Planet." 5 seconds later.... Austin: "Daddy, can we watch Animal Planet?" They were in the basement & I was in the kitchen I had to laugh, out loud. Wonder where he gets his impatience from?

Today Lily went exploring, which means it's time to put the gates up. She used to stay in the room where she was put. But today I put her in the living room and then went in the boys room to work on laundry. The boys ran between the rooms. Eventually , when I checked on her, she was headed for the front door, which was new. Then she rounded the couch and was headed for the kitchen. Then she rounded the hallway corner and headed towards the bedrooms. She eventually went into the boys room and started paying. The whole time I stayed mostly out of site because I wanted to see what she'd do. She army crawled the whole thing, pretty quickly, and only stopped 2x, to check out the desk knobs & the tri-fold standing picture frame. And, I think we're beginning to hear "ma ma ma".

100,000 miles, No more blue and on the move, and Ohhhhh

The van turned over 100,00 miles sometime this week. I don't think I have ever owned a vehicle, from new, that has done that.

Lily no longer has any blue in her eyes. She is definitely going brown like her mama. And, for the past couple of weeks she has gone from rolling and twisting everywhere to actually army crawling forward, and with pretty good speed if she has a purpose. She has been up on all 4's and rocking a lot, so we will see when the crawling goes upper level.

And Justin, he is just so stinkin' cute sometimes. When we read stories at night or for nap, he will repeat the last couple of words you say. Then, I will say "yes" and he says "ohhhhh". But it's the pitch he uses, it's so cute. And today for the first time at nap time he said "change my poopie". I can only hope this is going somewhere good.