Faux hawk

This guy has crazy hair

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Love

The love is strong between these two.  It's a perfect symbiotic relationship.  She loves to be bossy, and he loves nothing more than to please her.

Week 43

Week 42

Big Helper

Last Saturday, we had a friend over and, per usual, I waited until the last minute to clean the apartment.  So, I was running around like a crazy person cursing that I left it all to the last minute when Little Miss decided to feed Baby.  I had to take a break to film it.  It kept them both busy for 15 minutes or so while I finished up.  So very helpful.  I did realize I had the sound option turned off for Vine, but I turned it on this time.  I'm not sure it'll work, but you can always follow me on Vine or go to that website to see/hear in all its glory.

Everything is Awesome

Ever since Little Miss and I watched the Golden Globe Red Carpet, she's been asking when the next Carpet is.  So, she's been looking forward to the Oscars.  She got dressed up in a lace dress I own and put on some crystal jewelry.  She drank her milk out of a crystal champagne flute.  It was a big, fancy night for her.  Also, and I may regret this, we let her stay up WAY too late.  She put in her picks for the Oscar pool and got a respectable number correct considering she had never heard of most of the movies and kept trying to vote for "The Theory of Whiplash".  She chose a couple of categories correct that we didn't guess correctly.  She was absolutely entertained by The Lego Movie's performance and was super happy Big Hero 6 won.  It was a lot of fun watching the awards with her, and I look forward to award season with her next year.

Food Update

So, I've been feeding Baby pretty much anything (within the pediatrician guidelines).  I've been buying him the purees because he prefers them - prunes, bananas, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes.  I've also made him butternut squash, peas, and sweet potato.  Now that he's a little older, I've shared a baked potato, sweet potato, baked chicken, and fruit.  I've given him the veggies from my chicken soup (which he loves).  He thoroughly enjoyed the chicken last night.  Fruit can go either way.  He prefers that pureed over chewing.  I have a few recipes I'd like to try so I can get a leg up on freezing him some real food while he's transitioning to eating dinner with us.  Yesterday, I gave him some small pieces of mandarin orange.  He kept eating it, but he did not enjoy it.  Then, to get back at me, he threw up all over the place.  So, lesson learned.  No to mandarin oranges.  

Kiddie Update

Little Miss received her second quarter report card (though I think, at this age, it's still more of a progress report).  We should have our parent/teacher conference soon.  It was rescheduled to the middle of March.  She has done so well.  Based on how the grading is done at this age, she has the highest marks she could earn.  She's reading at far above her grade level, and excelling in math.  She also gets high praise from her Spanish teacher.  

She had a growth spurt so she's just shy of wearing size 8 clothes already.  Her feet grew 2 sizes.  She has stayed the same weight though so she is so super skinny.  

Her self-esteem is still the highest I've ever seen on a person.  She values intelligence, but she's also still very logical and a very concrete thinker.  She's a wonderful mix of "types".  She's so girly in some aspects yet so not in other areas.  She likes being active, but she also likes arts and crafts.  She likes reading, but she also likes randomly jumping (sometimes naked jumping for whatever reason).  She's brave in that she loves roller coasters and rides and trying new things, but she hates trying new food and is scared of the dark.  

Baby is 9 months now.  He's not nearly the chub that his sister was, but he's in the 65th percentile in length and still in the teeny tiny percentile in weight.  He is very clingy and cuddly.  He doesn't have stranger danger so much as he prefers his mommy and then sometimes his daddy.  He has 4 teeth and we believe he's getting more in everyday.  Between his teething and a little head cold, he's had a lot of trouble sleeping, but I feel we turned a corner last night.  He slept on his own just shy of all night (he woke at 6:30AM which, for some kids, is all night).  At that time, he wanted to cuddle only, no food.

He can sit up, crawl and pull himself up to standing.  He can feed himself small pieces of food with his fingers though he prefers you to feed him.  He loves eating solid food.  He has tried almost everything we've given him.  I'm guilty of sneaking him table food on top of his baby food.  Nothing elaborate or anything he can't eat yet but simple foods like bread, veggies/fruit, rice or pasta.  He's not a huge fan of his bottles anymore, but he drinks them.  I think he'll be happy when that's over with and he's all onto solid food.  I hate to break it to him, but he's got a bit of time left with the bottle.

He loves bath time.  He will push his face into the water.  He doesn't mind getting water in his face when you rinse him off.  He likes to crawl all over and play with his bath toys.  Surprisingly, when we were at my parents' house, he also didn't mind the snow and the cold.  He laughed when he was in his snowsuit and placed in a snow drift.  He didn't try to move, but he gave me big smiles.  He loves his toys.  He received many for Christmas.  I put them all down low or in drawers, and he can help himself to them.  He is very playful.

He's still not into his pacifier and only finds self-soothing with his fingers (specifically the third and fourth ones on his left hand).  He doesn't seem to rely on his fingers unless he's tired so it shouldn't be that bad of a habit at least.  He has no interest in drinking with a sippy cup yet, but we try.  He'll drink if we hold it.  He doesn't have an issue with water, just doesn't care for the cup yet.  

That's pretty much the latest.  We anticipate Little Miss will get more into some activity.  We took some time off, but she wants to go back to skating as soon as possible.  We also believe Baby will be an early walker.  I suspect in the next month or so which will put him around the time Little Miss took her first steps, but then she took another 3 months to walk.  I think he's going to take his first steps early and then go straight to running and jumping off of things.  Only time will tell...

Week 41

Movies Watched in January 2015

1. The Imitation Game
2. The Theory of Everything
3. Togetherness
4. The Other Woman
5. Wild
6. Into the Woods

It was a good movie month. I wanted to catch some before the Oscars. I went with friends and family and basically anyone who would go with me. I enjoyed all of them to some degree. This will probably balance out with February during which I'll be lucky if I rent a movie. I also counted Togetherness even though it is a series on HBO. I won passes to see the first two episodes in the theater so it counts as a movie - a short movie that is later viewed on television, but it still counts if I got to sit in a movie theater and smell popcorn.

Books Read in January 2015

1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (NOTE: This is part of the Outlander series. The order of which can be found here.)
2. Turn and Burn by Lorelei James (NOTE: This is part of the Blacktop Cowboys series. The order of which can be found here.)
3. Broken Open by Lauren Dane (NOTE: This is part of the Hurley Boys series. The order of which can be found here.)
4. Hillbilly Rockstar by Lorelei James (NOTE: This is part of the Blacktop Cowboys series. The order of which can be found here.)

Once I got past reading the enormous Outlander, I got a good number of books in there. I enjoyed Outlander. It helped that I watched most of the series on Starz before reading. The others were all good books, too.

January 2015 Weekend Update

The first weekend in January, we hosted a sleepover with Nephew.  He and Little Miss ate some junk food, played loudly and then crashed together - in an air mattress built for one.  They were really great, and they had a lot of fun.  That next day, Little Miss had a playdate with a classmate which thoroughly knocked her out for the evening.  The next day, my mom and I went out to lunch and to a movie.  We kicked off January right!

The second weekend in January, Husband had to go out of town.  So, the kids and I laid low.  We had a blast, cleaned a bit.  I cooked some new recipes.  It was nice and low-key.

The third weekend in January was ridiculously busy.  We started by having the In-Laws over Friday night for Mother-in-Law's birthday.  The next morning, Little Miss had a birthday party and painted some pottery.  Straight after, we drove to the trampoline park where Little Miss had a blast, and I felt every single year of my life.  We then met up with friends for frozen yogurt.  When we got home, I immediately fell asleep.

The fourth weekend in January was another classmate's birthday.  Little Miss played laser tag for the first time.  She had a blast despite no natural talent.  She did not come in last though!  The next day, I met Sister-in-Law for a movie and then went to my mom's house in the afternoon.  Before we made it to my mom's, we took a brief detour though.  Little Miss got her haircut!  She also donated it.  I don't have a great after photo, but I have the photo below showing the length.  They had a special day where the kids dressed like their favorite character, and Little Miss dressed like Mo Willems's character, Piggy.  Her classmate dressed like Gerard, and they were the cutest things ever.

The last weekend of January we did very little.  Friday night was First Grade Readathon at school so Little Miss got to hear a lot of books read, and I got to learn a lot about the first grade reading program.  Saturday, we cleaned.  Sunday, Little Miss's friend came over to play, and then we watched the Superbowl (and ate too much).

Week 40

Valentine's Day

We bought Little Miss Big Hero 6 for Valentine's Day.  On Valentine's Day, she asked Husband what he bought her.  He said he bought her Big Hero 6.

Little Miss:  No, Mommy bought me the movie.  What did you get me?

Husband:  (crickets)

So, when we went to dinner, there was a gift shop.  Husband bought her (and Baby) a stuffed bear so she wouldn't be scarred for life that he never bought her a Valentine's Day present.