Updates….

Miss V is 8 months old!

Her two front,bottom teeth are coming in and it’s taking FOREVER! She is crawling all over place and pulling up on everything. She has a few bumps and bruises to show for it.  She makes many different sounds and sometimes I even hear her say mama She is not a picky eater but she doesn’t eat much. Her favorites (or what I fix most for her) are sweet potatoes and green beans. She also loves turkey, crackers, and cheerios. If she can stay awake long enough I just feed her what we are eating for dinner. She is not a big fan of fruit but I’m not giving up. I have some baby food that I bought a while back at a BOGO sale at Publix so I offer her some every now and then but for the most part she doesn’t eat anything off of a spoon. She still seems to have a milk allergy (if I eat dairy she spits up…a lot!) so I have not given her any yogurt or cheese yet. I am still nursing. The time change has been hard but I think everyone is finally adjusting. Virginia can’t stay up past 5:30. She wakes once around 2 to eat (she was still taking a dream feed until last week)  and then sleeps until about 6 (until the time change she was sleeping until about 6:30). She takes a morning nap around 9 and sleeps anywhere from an hour to two hours. She goes back down around 1 and sleeps from two to three hours.

I should buy stock in Buddy Fruits and Go Go Squeeze. My children survive on them!
She has a pink blanket that my mom made that she has formed somewhat of an attachment to but has not shown much interest in any of her 10 loveys that she has. Her check-up this month was quick. She got two shots-one of them was her second flu shot. She screamed briefly but didn’t seem to have any reaction to the shots this month. She weighs 17 lbs 2 oz. although I think she weighs less because she had not pooped in about a week when we weighed her and woke up the next morning with the most poop Ryan said he had ever seen! She only falls in the 10th percentile for weight which has surprised everyone because she has some chunky legs. She is 26 1/4 inches (25th percentile). 

William is 2 years and 7 months

William goes to bed around 7 and is sleeping until about 6. (prior to the time change he was sleeping until about 7).
He has LOTS of loveys and sleeps with all of them. He is finally sleeping through the night again. We had a rough couple of months where he ended up in our bed sometime between 3 and 5 most nights. Thankfully his two year molars are in and he is back on track.
William goes down for a nap between 1 and 1:30 and most of the time sleeps about two and a half hours, sometimes 3 hours, and lately has been taking some hour and a half naps. It’s pretty clear he is adjusting his sleep habits.
While I’m not sure excited is the word I would use to describe how he feels about school, he definitely has a smile on his face most mornings when he gets out of the car.
He amazes us with his growing vocabulary every day and many days makes us double over with laughter. This morning he sat down with a Winnie the Pooh book and told me he was going to read Winnie the POOP! He has a hard time with the c sound. For example he calls his best buddy Cooper, Pooper. And he calls his other best buddy Campbell (Coopers big sister), Pampbell. He calls Virginia, B-Gia. When he
wants me to hold him he says "hold you mommy?"
  
Potty training is on the horizon. I just need to suck it up and take a few days to do it. Right now he uses the potty almost every time I change his diaper. He has yet to come and tell me he needs to go.
Tractors, trains, dump trucks, and fire trucks are his favorite toys these days. He is also obsessed with bridges and tunnels. Our sweet neighbor, Miss Wanda, gave him a DVD all about tractors. He wants to watch it all the time. He is of course loving all of Virginia’s toys too and she would rather play with his toys. They are starting to play together more and more. She thinks he is hilarious. This week he has enjoyed dressing up like a cowboy. He gets a piece of rope, his hat, and his rainboots (Santa will be bringing the cowboy boots) and calls himself a cowboy. He walks around the house swinging the rope around. He also likes to jump rope with is cowboy rope. I have no idea where he learned how to do it but he can almost really “jump rope.” He also likes to be a magician. He will get one of his hats, reach his hand in, pull it out and shout TA-DA! Most of the time he says it’s a rabbit he is pulling out of the hat. Today William got out one of my older digital cameras and has been taking pictures all day. He LOVEs taking pictures as much as his mama does.

W and V’s new favorite spot to play is under the table. Here they are eating cheerios off the floor  
He loves to help out. Sometimes it is really helpful and other times it can be frustrating. I love when he helps me vacuum or swiffer. On the other hand, the other day he decided to help by picking up dog poop in the back yard. I wish he had used the shovel. Instead he picked it up with his hand and put it in a shopping bag. He has loved raking leaves which we have been doing a lot of lately. When he wants to do something on his own he holds his hand up and says “back.” He gets that from Ryan and I giving that command to Dora. I would like to give him a few chores around the house. Right now his only chore is to feed Dora. He loves to sing along to the music in the car. He usually likes to sing it by himself. If I sing with him he will say “no mommy, my do it.” He always gives me my own turn when he is done. We hear the phrase “my do it” a lot lately (that means he wants to do it all by himself).  He is getting pretty independent.
I will leave you with some outtakes from one of our attempts at a Christmas card picture.


And my favorite ….
“Dear Santa, I can explain…”