Busy weeks

Our weeks have seemed busy lately, we don't seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary, but we seem to get home late from work and daycare, eat dinner, play a bit and then bed time.

January 18- E ALWAYS wants to help with her sister, usually feeding her. Last night she got her chance. We switched our "name spots" (something they have at daycare which says where each kid sits) so she was sitting in my spot, and I was in hers. Apparently, once she was in my spot, it also meant that she was in charge of feeding M. Dinner went fairly well despite this.

January 17- M's favorite activity is walking around and carrying things. It doesn't matter what the thing is, she's got to be holding something while she walks. She loves carrying this teapot because there are lots of things to take in and out.

January 16- M loves to climb up stairs, she can't stay away from them! She and I spend a lot of time going up and down. Here, she just made it up the first step, and has a little way to go to get to the rest of them.

January 15- Walking and carrying again! Generally, she likes to carry paper, since when you get tired of carrying it, you can take a little bit!

January 14- M is wearing her PJs here, because we tried, and failed, to put her to bed. We took her downstairs to play so she wouldn't wake her sister, and she played with her videogame controller, and then tried to eat this book.

January 13- We've been having dance parties lately, E dressed up as the butterfly queen (wings, Snow White costume), I wear a beautiful long dress, and M doesn't need to dress up. We dance to "Call Me Maybe" several times per night.

January 12- Today was one of those divide and conquer days, of which we seem to have many with two kids. In the morning, M and I went to have her 9 month pictures taken, it was quite an experience. She did great at first, but for the end of the session she needed to have Cheerios between each shot (and sometimes during the shot!). We came home for some playtime, before E and I headed out to try ice skating, we skated for 6 minutes (they didn't even charge us for skate rental) before she was done. We played in the snow, before getting a snack. Back at home, there was more playtime, and Miss M got to spend some quality time with E's lunch box. At this point, each girl seems to think that the other's toys are the most fun. M is too little to be bothered by it, except when E rips something out of her hand, but in a few months, I don't think that is going to fly!

January 11- M has been teething something fierce lately, she will chew on anything! One of her favorites is the puff can. Today was a little bit of E focused since she was invited to two birthday parties, but it was nice for M, since she got one-on-one time with each parent.

January 10- You can see M's rock and roll hair, its the result of tubby time! The highlight of the day by far was playing in the tub with both girls, E was splashing in a way that M found hilarious, and M was cracking up. At one point E paused and said "M, you are the best sister ever."

January 9- Accidental co-sleepers, M has started waking several times at night and we are just too tired to keep sitting up with her, so she sleeps with us for part of the night, but in truth, we all love it.

January 8- another case of someone else's toys being better then your own. She loves E's baby's bottle, and once E started carrying her bat around like a crutch, M had to have it. Once E was in bed, she was all over it.

January 7- I thought it was so funny that M and Daddy are sitting pretty much the same. It was program time, which is the time when E gets to watch TV. We try pretty hard to limit how much she gets to watch, so program time is pretty exciting, she is very into Bubble Guppies right now.

Baby its cold outside

January 6- Just like big Sissy, Miss M likes to do everything that her sister does, all the time. E is still young enough to think that this is fun, most of the time. Sometimes M can be distracted with an age appropriate toy to play with, but once E is up to something, M isn't far behind.

January 5- E was calling us the Packer Family. M finished opening her Christmas gifts today (she fell asleep when we celebrated with Ama and Ada, and we had a nice breakfast with them. We had a Football Party later at our house, but sadly the Packers lost. M was wearing our family's lucky Packer outfit (they never lost when E wore it) but I guess it doesn't have the same luck for M!

January 4- One of M's favorite activities was taking her favorite toys and "giving" them to the Christmas tree (which was inside the playpen). We would regularly find puff containers and other small toys in near the tree. After awhile, as M got more confident standing, she'd try to eat the pine needles, which is why the tree had to go early this year!

On this day M got sick in the middle of the night, but fortunately it was a one time thing. After a slow morning, she was back to her usual self. She went shopping with Ama and momma, while E went sledding with Ada.

January 3- Along with wanting to do everything her sister does, M hates it when she know where E is, and can't get to her. Here she is crying outside the bathroom door, while E is inside. M had her 9 month check up today, it was a bit traumatic, because she saw the Dr. so often when she was young, she now starts screaming when he enters the room. She screamed through the visit, screamed through getting her blood drawn, and screamed through her hip x-ray. The good news was that her hips look good, and we shouldn't have to worry about them any more.

Another 365 project!

On E's first new year, I started a project to document a year of her life, so with Miss M's first new year, I have the same goal, a picture a day for the entire year. As the second child, I try to make sure that she doesn't miss out in terms of memories, but since I just tried to recap our year, and it appears as though we didn't take many pictures this summer, clearly I am missing some things.

My goal with this project is to focus on M, while I'm sure that E will be in some pictures and stories of things we do with her will appear, the goal is to record the life and times of M, or as we will to call her Matter-Tatter-Tastic!

January 1

Already a day late! M turned 9 months old on New Year's Eve, but after celebrating at US Bank Eve, she was too tired for pictures, so here she is one day late

January 2

Sometimes we joke that M is the smiliest baby in the world, somehow she knows to smile while the camera is on her! Its a huge change from her sister, who hardly smiled at all when she was a baby. E is still really hard to get to smile in pictures!

A new baby?

Last night, E asked "can we get a new baby sister when this one is grown?"

I'm going to remind her of this question when she is 13 and her "baby" is 10!

Fall fun

We've been busy packing in the fall fun lately. On Friday (10/4) E left daycare early to march in the Homecoming parade. Sadly, it was rainy so the parade was cancelled. She got to go the pep rally, which she was really forward to however, it was loud and she got a little scared.

M and I got to spend the afternoon together which was lots of fun. She is getting really close to crawling, which is both exciting and terrifying, she can get up on all fours, and sometimes even gets up on her hands and feet, which is pretty funny looking. Right now, she mostly goes backwards, but once in a while she gets some forward momentum.

On Saturday, E and I went to swimming lessons, she was very brave and put on her float belt with no problem (last week she had a tantrum about the belt) and hopped. After swimming she came to my office to play for a bit, although wasn't as interested as she usually is. After working, we went to the Memorial Union for lunch. With E, when you do something one time, you'd better be prepared to do it EVERY time. So, last time she visited, we had lunch on the terrace, and this time, she assumed the same thing would happen (with the same food). So we did, although it was too cold to eat outside.

Sunday we headed to Heck's and Peck's markets. Its our fall tradition. E picked out a huge pumpkin, and we looked as all the animals.

 

After the farms, it was parent watch day at E's dance class. We all went, and E did a great job. She usually gets nervous on watch day, and won't participate, but today, she danced. She did occasionally take a detour for a hug or kiss, but mostly she did what the teacher asked.

Finally, one cute phrase, when I tried to tell her good night, she didn't respond. Her dad asked "what do you say to your momma?" and E said "thank you, sorry, goodnight" I guess we ask her to say sorry and thank you quite a bit!

A big weekend

We had a big weekend, for some big things, and some little things. On Saturday (9/21) E had swimming lessons. I signed her up for lessons where she swims without a parent for the first time. Last week, she refused to wear a float belt, and had to swim with the teacher. This week however, she wore the float belt and was even brave enough to jump in when the teacher asked her to.

E also got new shoes, no small accomplishment when she has been wearing Crocs all summer, and shoes and socks feel funny. She went with Momma and, to Daddy's horror, was able to get Aerial light up shoes. Momma had forgotten that he is totally opposed to light up shoes, but it was too late, E was in love, and had worn them out of the store!

In less great news, both E and M decided not to sleep on Saturday night, E woke up at 5 while M was up till 12, woke at 3, and again at 7. That makes for tired parents. I don't know what woke E, but M is busy teething and figuring out how to roll to get what she wants, so I think between the two, her brain is busy.

Today (9/22) was M's first trip to the apple orchard. We went to the Eplegarden again this year, and had a great time picking raspberries and apples. E's friend R and her parents came too, it was nice having another family along with us. E had a great time picking apples and pretending to be Apple Jack from My Little Pony's. She helped fill a quite impressive bag of apples. Although picking raspberries was her favorite, she eats quite a few as she goes.

Miss M wasn't too impressed with her trip to the orchard, she stayed awake for most of the trip, and was totally content in her stroller and later in the Bjorn. But, some of the magic is lost when you can't pick or eat any apples!

Because it had already been such a great weekend, we continued the fun with a trip to the Grumpy restaurant (as E calls it) for lunch. Both girls did great.

Our last big event for the weekend was M's first helping of "smushy" food. E has been longing for this day for a long time. So we each took a turn giving M some rice cereal. She wasn't too impressed, but I'm sure it will grow on her.

Next weekend it E's first running race, she spent the evening getting sips of water for her "training" I hope she is still excited as the race gets closer.