Sunday, November 27, 2011

Another Children’s Museum

We never miss an opportunity to go to a children’s museum!  So on Friday, we went to the one near Paw Paw and Kacki’s house. 

The first thing we saw was this bus.  And when asked later what his favorite part was, Russell said “the city bus.”

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I intended to carry Meredith in the Ergo.  Normally she likes it.  She was in it for about 10 minutes.  I guess she wanted to be a part of the action!

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Another favorite – the red car. 

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Meredith loved playing in the baby area (for 18 months and younger)!  It was nice to put her down and not worry about her being run over.  Plus, the toys in there were perfect for her age and she was just fascinated.  It was great to have several adults there, so Meredith could get some one-on-one playtime – at places like this, she normally is kind of along for the ride since Russell runs from here to there and I have to chase him.

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Russell is at an age/stage where he loves to help or to have a job to do.  We asked him to “mow the grass” – he mowed this little patch of “grass” for 10 minutes.

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One of the last areas we went to was the basketball area – there were several hoops set up and kickballs to play basketball with (I did find it odd that there were no basketballs!)  Russell played for maybe 5 minutes.  I did get this cute picture of Russell’s slam dunk though!

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Fun morning = great afternoon naps!  Happy for everyone! Smile

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving 2011

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed to Jason’s aunt’s house (about an hour and a half(?) from us).  We did this two years ago also, and it’s really fun because Jason’s cousins have 2 little girls a little older than Russell, and his step-cousin has a son a year older than Russell.  It is definitely a bit crazy with all those kids running around!

The Thanksgiving chefs and hostesses, Aunt Nancy and Kathy:

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The guys watching football and talking:

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Poor little Meredith would.not.nap.ALL.DAY.  (Should I really say “poor Meredith,” or should I say “poor Mommy and Daddy?”)  She catnapped in the car for maybe 45 minutes total over the day.  I think the combination of too many people, unfamiliar place, lots of driving, and lots of commotion just got to her.  She was really good considering, but completely broke down around 5:30.  We went back to Jason’s parents house, where we stayed the weekend, and she was asleep by 6:30 and slept until 7 am.

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Since we got to Nancy’s house around 12:30, we put Russell down for a nap immediately.  He did great – went right to sleep and slept for 2 hours.  But that meant he didn’t eat with all of us, since we ate at 2.  So here’s the kids’ table – minus sleeping Russell:

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And then he woke up…I really like this picture of me and Russell even though it’s a phone pic!

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We had a nice time with family!  Happy Thanksgiving – I’m ready for my favorite, Christmas!

Monday, November 21, 2011

I’m sorry, Fuzzy

Each of our children has a lovey.  And each of them is very attached to their own lovey (and actually, they are both quite fond of each other’s lovey, too).  As I’ve mentioned, Russell’s lovey is named Fuzzy and Meredith’s is named Kitty. 

Fuzzy is well-loved.  He has slept with Russell for every nap and every night since he was 5 months old. 

(Russell and Fuzzy in January 2010)

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Fuzzy had to have an emergency arm amputation 4 or so months ago.  Russell used to chew on Fuzzy’s arms.  Inside each arm is a little bag of white plastic beads.  Russell had chewed a hole in one of Fuzzy’s hands, and chewed another hole in the bag, so the little white beads ended up in Russell’s mouth – not safe!  As I have somehow lost my sewing kit and time was of the essence (I couldn’t have Russell still chewing on those beads, but I couldn’t really stop him without taking away Fuzzy), I had to cut Fuzzy’s arm off.

(Russell and Fuzzy in June 2010 – better days, with 2 arms)

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I explained to Russell what I was going to do.  He was very calm about the whole thing, watched me do it, took Fuzzy’s arm to the trashcan and waved bye-bye.  No problems.

Fast-forward 3 months.  We are all in the car driving and Fuzzy is there.  Russell is talking in the backseat as he often does.  All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Russell says, “I’m sorry, Fuzzy.  Took your arm off.  Fuzzy have too many arms.”

Well, I never did explain why Fuzzy’s arm had to come off.  Apparently he thought I had to take an arm off because Fuzzy just had too many!

(Russell, Meredith and Fuzzy: Sept 2011)

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We still love Fuzzy, even with one less arm!  However, I am contemplating finding a “back up!”

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Big Boy Bed

We decided to move Russell into a big boy bed this past weekend.  I was very nervous, thinking he might be scared, or get up in the middle of the night.

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I couldn’t have been more wrong.  He loves it! 

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Now I just need to get my act together and transform his room into a big boy room!  The decorations are all still from his nursery and aren’t really suitable for a 2 1/2 year old.  The new theme will be football – hence the football toy box next to the bed!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Hiding

When I left Russell and Meredith in Russell’s room today, Russell was playing on his bed and Meredith was playing with toys in the middle of the floor. 

A few minutes later, I came back (from doing a quick chore) and found them like this:

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Hilarious! 

When I first went in, only Meredith’s little legs were poking out from underneath the table, and I didn’t even see Russell.  So I said in a surprised voice, “Oh my gosh, Meredith, what are you doing?!”  That’s when I heard lots of little giggles and Russell said, “Oh my gosh, Russell, what doing?  Hiding!”  Smile

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These two crack me up!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

7 months old!

{Photos were tough this month – she wanted to crawl right off the chair! T-R-O-U-B-L-E!}

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At 7 months, Meredith is:

  • Wearing 6-9 mo clothes and 9 month clothes
  • Wearing size 3 diapers (they are too big around, but 2s were too small lengthwise)
  • possibly transitioning to 2 naps per day
  • Sleeping from 7:30 pm to 6:30 or 7 am – through the night consistently!
  • Eating solid food for breakfast (at 8 am) and dinner (at 5:30 pm). She has gotten a little pickier and now will spit the green veggies back out at me if she has several bites in a row, so I have to trick her by giving her a bite of fruit, then a bite of veggie.
  • Nursing 5x/day - at (roughly) 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 3:30 pm, and 7 pm.

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  • Sleeps on her side or tummy, sucking 2 fingers now (instead of her thumb like last month), but still keeps Kitty right next to her face.
  • Army crawls (as I have mentioned)
  • Prefers to play with anything that is not a toy (computer cords, remotes, phones, shoes) or her brother’s Matchbox cars
  • {those two previous facts mean that I have got to find some time to better baby-proof our house! I constantly find her with something she should not have in her mouth!}
  • As of her last doctor’s appointment (Friday), she weighs 15 1/2 pounds.

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A comparison: Russell at 7 months (left) and Meredith at 7 months (right).

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Happy 7 months to our Sissy girl!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Big Kids Now

Our little ones are growing, learning, and changing so much! 

We have done a couple of family devotionals.  Russell seems to really like them, and seems to be learning.  I know there’s only so much a two-year-old can grasp, so really, we’re just setting a foundational routine in place.  But he does say the Bible verses occasionally of his own initiation, so that’s something.

Last week, our devotion was about King David, so we made a crown.  We painted a paper plate yellow, let it dry, decorated with “jewels”:

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and then cut out the points:

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This week, our devotion was on the fruits of the Spirit.  We talked about being nice instead of mean, loving instead of hateful, etc, and then put fruit stickers on a person’s heart.  I wrote a fruit of the Spirit on each fruit sticker.

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As for the “growing and changing” part – look at these two big kids!  Meredith is sitting in the high chair/booster seat to eat now (after a falling-out-of-the-Bumbo-almost-Mommy-heart-attack incident) and Russell had been asking to sit in a big chair, so:

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And now Meredith is sitting straight up in the stroller, so Russell is on the jump seat (I think that’s what it’s called)!

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And just because she’s so cute – look at this sweet girl Smile

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Now if they could just get well…we are currently working on cold, ear infection, thrush (Meredith) and cold (Russell) and a missed trip to visit family because of it.  I know in my heart that I should just be grateful that none of those are anything serious – and I truly am.  What a blessing these two children (and their (relative) health) are to us!

Friday, November 4, 2011

I guess you would call this army crawling

Meredith, stop growing!  Smile

Our little girl is on the move!  Well, she’s been on the move since she could roll at about 2 months old, but within the past few days (or maybe the last week) she’s been using a very slow army crawl as her mode of transportation.  I caught it on this video.  Like I said, very slow, but she gets where she wants to go!




Thursday, November 3, 2011

First Pics

First photos from my new Nikon D5100!

Which are also the first photos of Meredith trying out a sippy cup – big girl!

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She did great for her first time; she knew exactly which part to put in her mouth.

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Russell wanted to point out that he knows how to drink out of a sippy cup, too. 

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I love my sweet kids and my new camera!