First Week of November

November is going to have to really step up if it's going to beat the awesomeness that was October!

Big girl sitting by herself at Costco

When Max visits me at work, I don't want to erase what he leaves behind.  :)

I am so glad we live somewhere with a short winter.  It's great to be able to play outside without jackets in November

A girl after my own heart - LOVES spaghetti

Max was excited to eat the gum he got on Halloween.  This was the first time he's ever had gum.  He did a good job of chewing for a minute or two and then spitting it out.

A pic a friend sent me from Halloween.  Emmalyn is busy looking at her neighbor friend, Michael

Good morning Mr. Selfie

Video - Maxwell is doing so great at swimming lessons.  Here's his backstroke (Remember, he's a little over 4!)

Jumping with dad  - fun for everyone

Max still move around a ton when he sleeps and doesn't just lay with his head on the pillow.  He also ends up without a blanket on.

At night when it's time for bed, usually I cuddle with him in his bed.  Well, Peter has said told Maxwell that he loves the "Little Red Caboose" Kindermusik song.  So, when Maxwell wants Peter to come into the bedroom for something (get him socks, kiss him goodnight, etc.) he will start singing "Little Red Caboose" really loudly until Peter comes in singing it.  It's fun and it's sweet to see Max want to also connect with his Dad when he's going to bed.

We went and enjoyed dinner/dessert at my old work friend and boss, Lori.  Her kids were cute with my kids and I was able to enjoy a little break.

Emmalyn quickly warmed up to Wes and even climbed up on his lap to share his cake.

Looking at pictures with Kylie

Reading books at bedtime

Look how long her hair is getting at the back!

Ugh.  Look at that big balcony on the house behind us.  It looks directly into our yard.  We are going to have to do something to get our privacy back and have decided a new tree is probably the best option.

Video - Maxwell has some pretty good (in my opinion) gun/weapons sounds.  Not sure where he learns it from...clearly his momma doesn't have those skills!  This kid is such a BOY!

We went to a local tree farm and got to ride around in a golf cart.  Max thought it was super cool.

Walking away in anger because she didn't like what we were telling her.  Oh man...this girl!

I love her in those boots!

Having fun at the park.

There is something about this picture that makes Maxwell seem so old!  It's like that body belongs to a grown boy, not my sweet 4 year old.

always a character

playing with playdough (I think for the first time at our house)

Our neighbors invited Maxwell over to have dinner and play.  He had an awesome time.

Building a lego soccer game with Mr. Chris

Emmalyn update:

She picks her nose

She gets so upset in the morning if I leave the bed once I bring her into our bed to nurse (Sorry Peter, I know you get left to deal with it)

She loves to brush her own teeth

Her drooling seems to be starting to get better

She talks in full on sentences but you can't understand her language

She loves showering, turning on the bathtub

She's talkative and funny, lots of momma momma momma momma or daddy daddy daddy daddy.

She can say more than 60 words that I can think of...she says: Water, Shower, Bow, Teeth, Toes, Eyes, Nose, Ears, Hair, Head, Mouth, Belly, Diaper, Poopy, Dress, Shoes, Pizza, Milk, Cheese, Chips, Bite, More, Bread, Bye, Hi, Love you, Look, Daddy, Momma, Max, Maxwell, Landen, Hayden, Joe, Brittany, Banana, Book, Puppy, Kitty, Flower, Thank You, Please, Down, Up, Towel, Splash, Pumpkin, Hooray, Sleep Sack, Off, Ipad, Snack, Strawberry, Applesauce, Yogurt, Step, Walk, Door, Ball, Backpack, Bread, and more every day!!!

Emmalyn is not happy to be contained whether in the car, the stroller, the high chair, your lap, or a shopping cart.  She just wants to be doing her own thing, moving on her own.
She is singing all the time and is really into Kindermusik - sang along with the song "ram sam sam" in class.
She likes the rough/adventurous stuff like being play dropped onto the couch and bouncing up and down or going down slides.
She says cheese when taking pictures
I have started giving her my phone to play with (it's locked) when in bed, and she loves to go grab the ipad.  So, the screen time has already started with her.  I wish it hadn't but it's just too hard to fight it so instead we work to limit it.
She's great with a spoon.
She asks for milk in the morning and says, "yay yay yay" when I give in and tell her I'll nurse her.
She does 2 naps still but they are not very long sometimes.


Maxwell update:
Maxwell is enjoying his once a week Spanish class at school.  Unfortunately, having both Spanish and Chinese now has caused him to struggle more to remember what he knew from Chinese and he gets confused.
He stopped saying "good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite, I'll see you in the morning light, don't let the superheros get you" when I tuck him in at night about 2 weeks ago.  I try to get him to say it and he won't anymore.  Sad...
He says he wants to marry me but then when I tell him he can't because I'm already married he says he wants to marry Aunt Julianne.  (How cute is that)...Then this morning he said that he didn't want to get married and he wanted to keep living in the house with me.

2015! It's here!

The first week of 2015...

So 2015 started out with a hang-my-head-in-shame, so-glad-things-weren't-worse, parenting fail.  

We bring Emmalyn into our bed early in the morning when she wakes up to nurse.  We then have her sleep between us.  Well, as you can imagine we were up late for New Years Eve so I was super tired when I brought her into bed.  We both slept for awhile and Peter had gotten up and was letting us sleep.  Then, later in the morning, she was up and moving around and I was trying to stay conscious since she was up.   But I dozed off and next thing I know, I hear her screaming and I jolt awake.  She had fallen off my bed.  My blood was pumping and I moved so fast to grab her and was so worried that I was going to find her seriously hurt - my bed is so far off the ground for a little baby!  Luckily, she was absolutely fine, just scared (like her Momma).  I felt soooooooo awful about it and still do.  I was shaken up for quite awhile.

Making some cool colored goo with Uncle Peter

Mashing all the colors together before making it foam

Perfectly precious.  I can't help but love these sweet times with her snuggled up against me.

Ahhhh - - "family time" - everyone on their phones.  :)  We try to avoid it but at some point it still happens.

The kids were hanging out in Maxwell's room and when they came out, Kaity had dressed them up.  :)

These cousins had so much fun being together.  One of the benefits of Britt living here was that it was nice having everyone in the same house.

Playing games 

Old-man-bitter-beer-face

Movie night

Synchronized eating

Maxwell and Aunt Kimi

Maxwell and his Shelly Belly - we hated seeing her and Kimberly go.  We LOVE having them here.

Playdo animals - I think an elephant?

Maxwell really loves playing with playdo

Out for a walk to the park - all bundled up in her pretty pink coat

Maxwell all bundled up too

Pic courtesy of Maxwell

video - Brittany playing boo with Emmalyn

Playing together

Dipping pretzels with dad

My house all lit up and festive

Video - Emmalyn can clap!

We were sad to have Kimberly leave but we soon had more visitors come to town!  My Aunt Sue and Aunt Leanne came to town.  I really appreciate, from the bottom of my heart, them taking the time to drive all the way here and spend time with me and my family.  I feel their efforts to stay close even after my mom's passing.  I appreciate the way they keep me and my siblings in their hearts.

Emmalyn's first time in a high chair (I think!)

We went out for yummy Mexican when my aunts were here

Aunt Leanne, Maxwell, and Aunt Sue

Video  - Maxwell playing hide n seek with daddy (daddy's way of hiding is pretty funny)

Here's a big update on Emmalyn lately -

• As you could see from the video, she's clapping now
• She loves her Uncle Joe and will imitate him when he purses his lips and when he moves his hands
• I swear that she says "Hi" and has for awhile
• She's starting to do more sounds like "muh" and "buh" and instead of talking through her coos it's more babbling
• She screams which is not an awesome development
• If I set her down and she doesn't want me to she will cry - - WITH TEARS! :(
• She's definitely a Momma's girl
• She goes everywhere and finds everything on the floor
• She gets mad when she's done eating her food
• She struggles to stay focused when she's nursing which is not very fun for me and then she wants to nurse to sleep (Not gonna happen - that's one bad habit I don't want forming)
• She has been struggling to sleep from 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm if we aren't in the room with her or she's not in our bed.  We have to keep putting her binky in to get her back to sleep.  After she gets past that, she will sleep until 4 or 5 when she wakes up to nurse quickly and then will go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8:00 am.
• She loves getting in the shower with Momma and Max and would stay in there forever if we'd let her
• Maxwell hugs and kisses her more and talks about trying to calm her down when she's upset and will do things like giving her the binky.  I love seeing him be increasingly more brotherly with her
• She really wiggly!!
• She is teething and incredibly drooly.

Update on Maxwell - 

• Maxwell amazing me with the things he notices in the world
• I'm also amazed with how well Maxwell is reading - he's expanding his ability so fast
• He's such a polite boy - - he shares well on his own and will also share when we prompt him to
• I am trying to involve him in as many tasks as possible to expand what he gets to do (cooking tasks, cleaning tasks, etc)
• We've had a major change in the bedtime routine - - -!  MOMMA is now his choice when we ask him who he wants to tuck him in at night.  It's forever been daddy (or Peter) so I'm pretty excited.  :)  When I tuck him in and then go to leave, he tells me "don't let the bed bugs bite" as I walk out
• When I went to get him up once this week in the morning, (he still call for us to come get him in the morning and doesn't get out of bed until we do) he wanted me to get into his bed and cuddle with him.  He tucked me into his bed and put blankets on me.  He then gave me his stuffed animals, patted my back (they pat his back at Montessori if he's struggling to go to sleep during nap time), and turned his sound machine on to the lullaby setting.  It was incredible sweet and of course it worked, and I fell asleep.  He is so kind and loving.  I adore him.
• He's been talking a lot lately about his tummy hurting and also his bottom hurting.  I'm not quite sure what it going on but we are trying to figure it out.  He's had a fever so I know that he's sick somehow but he doesn't have any other symptoms so I'm not sure if anything more serious is going on.  It's so hard as a parent to know something is wrong with your child but not know what, or not know if it's something that a visit to the doctor could help with.