Ready for a Warm Vacation?

Yep! We've got our toenails painted!

Look at those little chicken legs; so cute and petite!

Elmo Birthday Party

Goodie bags for the kiddos...yeah for the Cricut machine and Dawn letting me borrow it!

And double yeah for Target's dollar section being full of Sesame Street coloring books!

The yummies...cookies made by Jennie. Delish. Cupcakes and cake decorated by Jodi and I.

4 Months Old and Swinging Fun on an 80 Degree Day!

Our baby boy is four months old and growing so, so fast. He had his 4 month checkup at 3 and a half months though because of Dr Solberg's knee surgery. At that time he weighed in at 15 lbs 15 and 1/2 ounces! He was also 26 and 1/2 inches. That put him in the 83% for weight and 95% for height...he's a big healthy boy. He is wearing 3-6 and 6 month clothing plus a size 3 diaper. At that time he was hitting all of his developmental milestones on track. He has excellent head support, is starting to tolerate tummy time (so hopefully we'll be rolling soon), usually wakes up once a night for a bottle, is drinking 6 ounces at a time, is a smiley talkative little boy (this morning he went nonstop for 1/2 hour), loves to have people talk to him, is grabbing onto strings, hitting and batting at toys, enjoys the bathtub, still is a sweating machine, loves to be cuddled and held, is a ticklish little guy, sits in his bumpo and high chair, and continues to be patient with Josie's constant attention and hugs and kisses. Can't wait to see what he does in the next month...rolling?

First Foods

We started Collin on solids on Friday, April 15th! He has been really good about eating them. So far he has had squash, then sweet potatoes, and now carrots. His favorite of the three are carrots; he smiled the whole time he ate them. He also really likes sweet potatoes and is so/so with the squash. Next we start the green vegetables.

Wait you might say! Aren't you supposed to start with cereal? That's the typical plan of action but because of Collin's diaper issue and only having one every 2-3 days the doctor suggested starting with vegetables to see if that would help him. This first week it has made a positive difference; I hope it can continue for the guys little belly.

After the veggies then we will try cereal and end with fruits. I might start trying prunes too.

Here he is in action! Fun fact: Miss Josie Rose fed him his first bite of solids!

Birthday Fun!

For Josie's birthday we took Josie to Chuck E Cheese for dinner and games. Well dinner for us and fun for Josie. Her favorite was the skee-ball; here you see Anita and her moving close to earn their points. Helped; but not that much :) She also loved the huge playground that you could crawl around the tubes high above us.

TWO YEARS!

My baby girl is two years old! Turning one was hard for me; I was very sad about it all. Turning two has been a lot easier. I've been much more nostalgic about her than sad about the growing up. It's funny because her "birth day" does not seem two years ago and I remember all those feelings so clearly still.

Must knows about Josie:

She wants to be a vegetarian when she grows up. She still is a champion vegetable and fruit eater. We are going to plant a garden again for her this summer but add in more strawberries this time. Favorite foods are apples, strawberries, french fries, and chocolate.

Josie loves TV...mainly Dora, Elmo, and Diego. She can zone in on the TV and tune out the world around you. While I'm glad she can focus...she likes that TV too, too much.

Josie is A-C-T-I-V-E! The aforementioined TV is the only thing that can slow her down. She is a master climber, jumper, runner, rider.

She loves to be outside...she willingly goes on walks in the stroller and quite often will yell no when upon returning home. She loves sticks, rocks, and leaves. New to this is the sandbox she got from her uncle Mike for her birthday. It's a great addition to our backyard.

Josie is an AMAZING big sister with the best patience and love for her brother. She does not get jealous of the little man and loves to mother him as well. She actually fed him his first spoonful of baby food. I'm sure people don't believe me when I say she's not been jealous once; but she hasn't. If she wants me when I'm feeding him she will usually wait or sometimes will touch the swing and tell me baby because she wants me to put him down so I can help her.

Josie's two year appt is in June because of her doctor's knee surgery in April and then our schedules. I'll put her stats up then but she's a peanut wearing 18 month clothing best and size 4 or 5 shoes.

She is strong willed. She knows what she wants and when she wants it. She knows when she wants to play with you and when she wants to be alone. I hope she keeps this self-recognition about herself because she will never be led astray then.

Josie is a problem solver; she is smart. She wanted to get out of the pack n play so she pushed all her pillows and blankets to the corner to make a step and catapulted herself out. Goes along with that master climber comment too. She is great at matching and doing basic peg puzzles.

She loves to help. Any time I come to the door carrying bags she will grab them and try to carry them to the kitchen for me. Melts my heart everytime because those bags are as big as her!

Her favorite toys right now are to color and to play on her zebra. She goes in spurts with her books so we need to start a better routine for that.

Josie has way over 100 words...I stopped keeping track months ago. She says two word sentences all the time and goes up to four and five word sentences at least once a day. She still babbles a lot more than talks but she is usually able to communicate her needs. Josie does not like to play the copying game. You know Josie say "elephant" or "brother"; she doesn't usually try but looks at you with a really face? She does say new words all the time though and I'm usually like when did you start saying that. Denise lets me know when she hears new ones too.

Josie loves to go places. If she sees us putting on our coat/shoes she is usually running for hers. She picks out matching shoes but not always matching to her outfit. She is very good about wearning shoes, hats, etc to go places. She usually lets me leave without a fuss too. She's well adjusted with her routine babysitters.

Josie can put on her own hat, can get at least one arm in her sleeve but that's about all she attempts for dressing. She can get off shoes, socks, pants, skirts, diapers, coats. She knows how to do a zipper if you start it. Josie actually is very content to let me dress and undress her. Sometimes the diaper change is a battle if she wants to be moving and shaking; which you can guess it often.

Overall, Josie is a pretty low maitenance girl; well as much as one can be for two years old :)

She does like to get her way and have her space but her tantrums are typically short lived, she will take a time-out, and will usually readjust her behavior for you without a lot of effort on your part. Of course there are her days and moments but in general...we are on our way to TREMENDOUS TWOS; nothing terrible about them!