Birthday Celebrations

Saturday we celebrated the September and October birthdays in the Cather family. I got a few pictures of the cousins but failed to get one of the October birthday boys, Robbie and my dad.

Pumpkins

We are hoping to make it to a pumpkin patch at some point this month but thought today would be a good day to take a trip down to Andy’s Creekside Nursery and pick up some pumpkins for our front porch. It’s really just as fun as the pumpkin patch. There are ponds with fish, a playhouse and slide, lots of pumpkins, and it’s a beautiful background for photos. Plus they have the prettiest pumpkins around. It was hard to choose and I may have to go back solo to pick up a few of the fairytale pumpkins I was eyeing.

I also may have to go back with the kids and get some better pictures. My handy helper Ryan was not such a help getting the kiddos to smile and look at the camera. I got a few pictures before we checked out and headed to eat Mexican for lunch. YUM-O!

Clearly they did not want to have their pictures taken and I’m sure handy helper Ryan was wondering around looking at something else trying to act like he doesn’t know the crazy lady with the camera at the plant store. I do have very cute fall outfits for them but it is 87 degrees out today and they would have been a bit warm. So, we decided on our Auburn outfits instead. And, yes, I know William is in desperate need of a haircut. It’s on the list of things to do this week.

William

I cannot believe that he is 2 1/2!!! His vocabulary exploded overnight. We are amazed every day at the things he says. He is sleeping well  (11 1/2-12 hours at night) He was waking up at night for a while but I think we are past that. Last week I noticed his two year molars were almost in so I think that might have been the reason for waking up. He naps from 1-4. He loves Virginia and can’t wait for the day that she can run around and play with him.  He is an amazing little boy and rarely gets in trouble although we do have days where he visits time-out a couple of times, usually for throwing things.  I have also started to realize that those days are also usually days where I am either really tired or giving more attention to things other than him. I am probably the one who needs the time-out. Time out is also not something he really cares about. If you ask him if he wants to go to time out he usually answers yes. I used to put him in his crib and close the door. He likes to play in his bed so that wasn’t working. He also is very easy to put to bed and I didn’t want him associating being in trouble with going to bed. I now put him on a small stool in a corner.  He almost always puts things away when we ask him to and is great at sharing. If he gets himself a juice, he will also get one for everyone in the room.

William can count to 10 and occasionally will keep going until about 15 and can somewhat make it to 20 skipping a few numbers. He knows a lot of shapes but is very confused by colors. He is familiar with most letters in the alphabet but can’t identify any letters except maybe the W. He sings a lot of songs.

He is still not a great eater. The only meat he eats is bacon and occasionally a chicken nugget if it comes out of a McDonald’s bag. He doesn’t eat veggies and he loves muffins. On Saturday I asked him what he wanted for dinner and he told me he wanted ice cream so I got him ice cream (an M&M Jr. Blizzard from Dairy Queen- Daddy was out of town and I was sick and tired). He took one look and decided he did NOT want that. I think he was really thinking he wanted a popsicle because that is what he gets from the ice cream truck. He has probably had ice cream a total of 3 other times in his life. I literally forced a bite of it into his mouth and he instantly wanted more and has been asking for it everyday ( I have not given in) . If he would just try things I know he would like them! We might have to start holding him down and forcing food in his mouth. I do always serve him a little of what we are eating, making sure there is one thing on his plate that I know he will eat. He usually picks the one item I knew he would eat and leaves the rest.

William’s Favorite Foods: Waffles, bacon, Jammy Sammy (organic packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwich), raisins, cheerios, crackers, yogurt (he calls it yo yo), apple sauce, muffins, buddy fruits (pureed fruit), french fries, and chips.

William’s favorite toys: Trains, Trucks (specifically dump trucks), and Tractors. Little people, blocks and legos, musical instruments, play kitchen (especially when I give him water to cook with), riding toys outside

William also loves tv. He would watch all day if we let him. He usually starts his day with Mickey Mouse clubhouse. His newest favorites are Little Einsteins and Babar.

He is enjoying school more and more. He gets a little upset at home while we get ready to go and again while we sit in the carpool line. But, once his teacher opens the door he is usually okay and ends up having a great day. He always has a smile on his face when I pick him up.

This little guy is hard to catch on camera these days but I have managed to snap a few.

A few weeks ago we celebrated our cousin Daniel’s 5th birthday. He had a fishing party and it was so much fun. It was William’s first time to catch a fish. He was so excited about the idea of fishing and even still excited when he and Ryan put the rod in. He was, however, not excited once the fish was on the hook and pulled out of the water. He didn’t want much to do with it.

 

He did enjoy PLAYING with all of his cousins (was not a fan of taking pictures with them )

And riding on the boat…

William loves playing outside and LOVES playing with Dora.

When he is not playing with Dora, you can usually find him with a truck or a tractor.

A few pictures of my baby girl who is now 7 1/2 months old!!!

She is getting her first tooth. It is taking forever to come in!

Virginia

Virginia is still not a fan of food. I thought she was just going to skip pureed food and move on to table food but she is now not showing much interest in anything but her mama’s milk! No worries here though. She is happy and healthy. I still offer her food several times a day (Pureed and table food). Sometimes she takes a few bites, sometimes she eats nothing.

Last week I decided to try and give her some applesauce. She wouldn’t let me feed her so I just set the bowl in front of her and let her do her own thing.

She ate a little but mostly enjoyed playing in it. I have also started giving her puffs. She hasn’t really developed her pincer-grasp yet so she tends to get them in the palm of her hand and just ends up sucking her thumb trying to get to them. When I put them in her mouth she does a great job of moving them around in her mouth and really enjoys them.

She has started crawling, kind of. She gets up on her hands and knees, rocks back and forth, and then lunges forward. She then kind of scoots around on her belly.

The first thing she goes for are William’s train tracks. This is going to be interesting. 

She can also get herself into sitting position. Her favorite time to practice this is when I put her to bed or in the middle of the night. Sometimes she even throws in a practice session at 5am.

In other news, My baby boy is 2 1/2!!! I can hardly believe it. I promise to do a William post later this weekend.

Playtime with Jennifer

We were so excited that Jennifer came to play last Saturday morning! We don’t see her enough…especially since she lives about 5 minutes away! Everyone was excited to see her but I think William was the most excited! He had big plans for her visit and  kept her busy. Unfortunately William is not real into having his picture made…

I’m sure he was showing her something very important. Lucky for me Virginia doesn’t know any better yet  

Weekend at the Beach

I LOVE the beach and when we went back in June Miss V was just 3 months old and William HATED the sand. This time around Virginia was 6 months and sitting up. I also spent the last three months trying to get William to like sand and walking barefoot. He has played in his sand table almost every day and regularly walks around the backyard barefoot. For a couple of days leading up to our trip I talked with William about the beach and what we would do when we got there. He was so excited. In fact I would say he was just about as excited as me and that’s saying a lot! For the 5 hour drive he kept asking if we were at the beach yet. When we finally got to our hotel he was so excited and could not wait to get down to the water. He RAN down the boardwalk screaming “the beach!” and then he stopped. He got to the stairs and stopped and said “I sit.”

So he didn’t like the beach as much as I had hoped but he did warm up to it a little and by Saturday afternoon he was venturing off the blanket to find seashells. There were thousands of them!

The hotel had an awesome pool!

Virginia loved the pool too but I failed to get any pictures of her in it. Here she is playing with her daddy in the shade.

Solids are going so much better now that I have started “Baby Led Weaning” with Virginia. This weekend I steamed some broccoli for her and she LOVED it. She enjoyed the carrots too but not near as much as the broccoli. 

She still doesn’t actually take any bites. She gnaws and sucks on the food. Occasionally she bites off a piece with her gum but her tongue thrust reflux pushes it right on out of her mouth.

Watching a beautiful sunset over Pensacola beach…

William slept in a big bed while we were at the beach. His naps were shorter and Ryan had to sleep in the bed with him for half the night. So for now we will keep the crib. He doesn’t seem to care that he is in a crib at home and doesn’t try to get out of it.

We went to the pier on Sunday morning. I had hoped to get some good pictures of the kiddos and our family but it didn’t work out. It was hot, we were hungry, and there were fishermen and fish guts everywhere. We walked down the pier and watched the fishermen and then headed off to get some breakfast.

And just in case there was any doubt that I was actually on this vacation, here is a picture of me and my sweet baby girl! 

We had a great trip and can’t wait to go back!