Thursday Tidbits #2

This past week has been a busy one, as usual. We are pretty much into our routine now but of course, next month will bring more changes to it.

• Michael will take a 3 month break from physical therapy during December, January and February. His therapist thinks that he is getting burnt out since he has been going every week for 18 months. His progress has plateaued a bit and we will continue to work on the exercises at home.


• I can't believe that it's only one week until Thanksgiving. We are going to Todd's brother's for the weekend so I won't have to do any cooking. I normally bring some pies so I will work on those next week.


• This week brought a few more rainy days. I know this is bringing SC out of the drought that we have had for several years but it makes the days seem cold and dreary. Even Michael is feeling it a bit as he commented that he didn't feel so happy with all the rain :)


• I continued with my unfortunate cycle of flat tires. I don't know how it always seems to happen to me but I have had at least 7 flat tires in the past 3 years! That's more than anyone should have in 20 years. At least we have AAA.....


• Katie turned 8 months and Michael turned 3.5 on Monday. I think it's pretty neat that Katie, Michael and Todd are all born on the 16th of the month.


• I am thinking about coming up with an invention that helps to keep socks on baby feet. I put Katie's back on at least 10 times a day and she takes them right back off. I would leave socks all altogether but that might be a little strange for November. Oh, wait, we live in SC.


• Katie ate her first meats this week. She had roast beef on Monday and ham on Tuesday. She ate every last piece that I put on her tray and didn't fall onto her chair. Katie hasn't met a food she doesn't like yet!

Wordless Wednesday

8 months old

Katie turned 8 months old today! She is growing up right before our eyes. Before we know it, she will be 1. I am amazed at the things she is learning and it's so much fun to watch her learn new things.

Tonight for dinner, she tried roast beef and loved it. There is no food that she won't touch. She has recently tried zucchini, squash and blueberry applesauce. She really enjoys eating banana puffs and can pick them up and put them in her mouth now. We have also given her the biter biscuits and she can spend at least 15 minutes just gnawing on it.

She is still toothless. It's really cute to see her. Even though she is getting bigger and looking less like a baby, this gives her a sweet look. And it's so fun to watch her try to eat everything. One of her favorite things to eat is her socks. She will pull her feet up to her mouth, suck on the sock for a while and then pull it off. Afterwards, she stuffs it down beside her in the carseat.

Katie isn't crawling yet but that doesn't mean that she doesn't get around. If you put her on the floor, she will sit there for a few minutes before moving her arms forward to reach something that she probably shouldn't have! Then she gets on her stomach and just rolls to wherever she wants to go. In the past few days, she has started trying to pull up on various things, like Michael's table and the toddler rocker. She got pretty frustrated the other day as she pulled up but could only get on her knees.

She has been going through a bit of a phase with going to bed. For a week or so, she didn't want to go to sleep at night. I have been trying to limit her late afternoon/early evening snooze between 5 and 6 and this has seemed to help. Sleeping during the daytime is hit or miss as we have a different schedule almost every day of the week with Michael's school or appointments. Typically, she will take 2 daytime naps and sleep between 10-12 hours per night. I'll take it!

I can't wait to see how much she has grown at her 9 month checkup in December. She is wearing some 9 month clothes already and seems to have big feet like Michael. Katie has a good bit of hair and I put a bow in it today. She has enough hair that it could hold it in. I think she is going to take after both Todd and myself in that area.

We are enjoying every minute of her time with us. Michael still gets the biggest laughs from her, although she appears to be serious to most people if she doesn't know them well. She can be tough to get a smile on cue but I think that's just a baby trait. Here are a few photos that I took of her today:

Thursday Tidbits

Since I started staying at home with Michael and Katie, it seems like the days are busier than when I was working. I have much less free time during the day. Michael has school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and physical therapy on Tuesday. So Thursday is the only day of the week that we can stay at home all day.

Today brought another cold, windy and rainy day. When Michael wakes up in the morning, he asks me or Todd where he is going that day. Today I told him that we didn't have to go anywhere today. He told me he wanted to stay home. So we all got dressed in warm cozy clothes and stayed in for the day. It was nice.

I have been thinking about making this post a regular feature each Thursday since we don't have any obligations. It could be a recap about what happened in the past week and would give me a reason to blog at least once a week about things that may not be enough for their own blog post.

Some things that happened in the past week:

• Katie was sitting on the floor today and when I came back into the room, she was on her knees trying to pull up on Michael's table.
• Todd and Michael spent a nice afternoon with his dad at his parents' house in Ruby on Friday.
• We started Christmas shopping and are hoping to finish it up early this year, for once, so we can relax and enjoy the holiday season.
• We got Michael's school pictures back and they turned out great.
• Todd was able to get the H1N1 vaccine so hopefully it will stay away from our house.
• Michael continues to be concerned with what he is wearing and will only wear certain clothes, making him more difficult to dress than myself or Todd.
• Katie has been going through a bit of a rough time getting to sleep at bedtime. I hope it's just a phase and passes quickly.

Looking forward to doing this again next week. I will have to keep a written list of what is going on so I can remember to include it.

Siblings

After we had Michael, we were unsure if we were going to have another child or not, even though Todd and I both have siblings. Then we found out that we were pregnant with Katie. We expected the worst when we told Michael, even though I am not sure he understood what was going on.

When we brought Katie home from the hospital, Michael was so excited to see all of us. He was enamored by Katie and what she could or could not do. We told him that he was the big brother and could do things that Katie couldn't do yet. So he would repeat to us that Katie couldn't eat what he did because she didn't have teeth (and still doesn't).

Fast forward to now: Katie is just as enamored with Michael. He is the one who makes her laugh the loudest, as well as cry the loudest if he gets too rough. It seems like anything that he does is so entertaining to her. Their interaction is so neat and I watch them learn from each other. Michael is learning that everything is not his and how to share and be kind to his sister. Katie is learning how to laugh, cry and play with her older brother. She is always learning how to fend for herself. I have told Michael that it's only a matter of time before Katie can get into his toys.

I am so thankful that Michael and Katie will have each other as siblings as they grow up. I look forward to watching the bond develop even more. Michael tells Katie that he loves her very much. I think that's so sweet....and even sweeter will be the day that she tells him the same thing back!

Beginning of the Month

I always seem to get on a roll with blogging at the end of every month. But then, the new month starts and I take a hiatus from blogging. I am not sure why. I don't think that the beginning of the month is any busier than the end of the month. Maybe I see that the month is starting to go by and realize all of the things that I meant to blog about.

I would say that I don't think this will happen again next month, but that's quite optimistic. It will be December, a busy time of year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Maybe that can be my New Year's blogging resolution....to blog at the beginning, middle and end of the month. I know that I wanted to blog more this year and I definitely have accomplished that. It's kind of funny to be that since having Katie, I have been blogging more. I definitely don't have nearly as much free time as I used to. I think it may just be possible that there is more blogging material with 2 kids!

Michael's Halloween Celebration

We headed to his preschool yesterday morning to watch the kids in a parade. Most of the kids in each class were dressed up and they paraded around the outside of the school/church. Michael wasn't too excited about the parade but he was excited to see us there. He kept getting out of line while we were trying to take pictures of him. He did like being dressed up in his costume and did an excellent job of keeping the whole thing on, even the mask.

After the parade, we headed back to his classroom for the Halloween snack. They had cookies, pretzels, and juice boxes. Someone had made some cute cookies that looked like witches hats using fudge stripe cookies and hersheys kisses. Michael ate that cookie first. Then we headed to the "big room" for the kids to play some Halloween games. One was fishing, in which they got a big sack of treats, another was bean bag toss through Frankenstein's face and they also had pin the nose on the pumpkin. This was a bit of organized chaos as they had 17 kids running from game to game, even though they were in groups. It was almost time to leave then. We went back to the classroom and the teacher read the book for the day. They sang the goodbye song and then we left.

It was really neat to see Michael interact with his classmates and celebrate Halloween. I know he can't wait for trick or treating tonight as well as the candy. And as he let me know, "I like candy, Mom!". What kid doesn't?