Tobin Stands--9 months

He started standing up over two weeks ago, right after Christmas! Since then his stand has gotten sturdier and he walks a little bit along the couch. He is really into everything, and on the move. This is way earlier than both girls on this. He also has a tooth coming through.

I ashamedly have not varied his food too much. It has gotten chunkier, but he refused the 'puffs' so far. And because he has a bit of a cold he is not eating as well this week.

The biggest news in Tobin's life (and mine), is that I had to wean him to formula. Though you couldn't tell much by looking at him, he dropped by over 30% on his curve (from about 85 to 50), this did not concern us a whole whole lot, but I still talked to a doctor about it. He recommended adding in some solid food snacks, which we did. This really helped his sleep, especially a little later in the mornings. No more 5 a.m. wake ups! At all. He must have been hungry. Two weeks into this new regimen, nursing 4-5 times a day, he still seemed hungry. And at night time he fussed a lot, which was unlike him. One day after I nursed him and put him down for a nap, he cried for 30 minutes (very unlike him). Then I gave him a bottle. He drank 7 ounces without stopping. That is when I knew my milk was just not enough for his nutritional needs. This happened with Sophia (weaned at 8 mos). With Bella I was determined to go a year, but by 11 months she had dropped to below 5% on the weight curve, well off of hers, and I knew I should have weaned at 8-9 months. So here we are, formula filled at our house. He drinks it up! We hope we still have enough money for college, but right now he needs to eat. I went from 4-5 feedings a day to 1 feeding a day for two days and then none. I really had no milk, I never hurt and never had to pump or anything. It was time to quit.

Our chunky little monkey, he loves to smile and laugh and watch his sisters goof off. He does mimic some sounds too, and has a little wave with his hands, but he doesn't know quite what that means.

Our edible, lovable, Tobinoosky






love this photo. Big blue eyes.



And this look. Such a little man...

Our 4.5 year old

12.30.2011 (when she was officially 4.5 years old)


Tears well as I think through what to write. I am glad I am doing this today (Jan 12), because it has been a rough day for Sophia and me. Daddy has been gone two days and this evening, a very tired Sophia rebelled a lot. And by the grace, grace, grace, grace of God, I remained calm. It truly was a miracle. No details are necessary but her strong will shined through in some amazing ways.
I know I say Bella is strong willed, but Sophia is stronger still. And I also know this can be a virtue and a vice. I know this. So I just pour out prayer for it to be honed for his glory.

She is passionate.
She is a doer.
Brave.
Flexible.
A talker.
A risk-taker.
She loves thrills.
She loves a scary story.
A leader.
A daddy's girl.
A people person.
Determined (aka: strong willed)
She really is a gem, a natural jewel with some rough edges that when refined, shines brighter and brighter.


Her Dance class:

This was real hard work. From 5-6 for two days a week she danced. And they danced the whole time. This was not play time. They really learned dances, and the teacher really tried to help them get it right. She loved it. But she was tired on those days.



She eats: Food is a big love of Sophia's. Mainly sweets, and especially chocolate. But she will try almost anything, and in this culture that is a great attitude to have. She has even started to like spicier foods (and when she tried that chicken foot that her friend gave her on the playground I about gagged, but she ate it, cartilage/bone and all).

She plays: She loves to play with people, any one, any size. She does still love her kitchen and having tea parties and playing dress up. She loves princessy things but also loves the whole good v. evil genre. So a scary story is her cup of tea too. She is daring, and will love roller coasters one day we are sure. She cannot quite swim on her own yet (this summer), but loves the water. Most recently she loves the 'boom' of a loud firecracker, and can't wait for daddy to return so he can buy 'the big ones' (which has been my mantra lately).

She says: She is a talker for sure. And a thinker. Put those together and you get some pretty good questions and thoughts.

• "When it was all dark and void, I wonder what it looked like?" (after reading the Bible one day"
• "I wish I had two mouths, one to eat with, and one to keep talking with" (LOL)
• "I can't do it mommy!" (Can't do what? Mommy asks) "I can't stop sinning" (said matter-of-factly with a little angst after I separated the girls for fighting over a piggy bank)
• "Even mommy needs help doing this (self control with anger, etc) I fail a lot." (mommy speaking) "yes, and when you fail it teaches me and I do it" then we discussed blaming others for our own sin, and how she sounded like Adam, but the truth in her words cut deep)

On Sophia's last day of dance class I took Bella with me to play and then sneak in early to watch and try to get video and pics. When we went in and sat down (about 15 minutes before it was over), there was a crowd around Sophia with the teacher in the mix too. One girl came up to me (she always reports to me every day what Sophia is up to), and said "Sophia cried" others started chiming in, but I just let the teacher move on. Sophia did look a little sad, but it wasn't a fit or anything. She looked like she was holding it together pretty well. Little did I know I had just missed her first fight, in dance class no less (go ahead and laugh out loud, did I tell you this girl was strong willed, she won't back down). Apparently, and this is what the teacher and Sophia both said (the teachers won't always tell the truth about your kid, especially if it is 'bad' the whole 'face-saving' culture thing), Sophia accidentally bumped into/hit a girl, who then turned around and hit Sophia in the upper lip, she proceeded to cry and hit the girl back. I do believe this because when I asked Sophia if she meant to hit the girl, she said: 'which time?' and also, Sophia usually is not a real hitter, she can be rough with Bella, but Bella will hit hard and Sophia never hits back, but then, that is her sis! What a little treasure of an anecdote for our little 4.5 year old.

I will post a 'last day of school' post. But here she is on her last day!

Daddy is away but...

Yes, David has been away for oh...how many days now? I am not sure. Maybe four, including the day he left. I am not doing the 'daddy is away' post series really because I am quite behind in posting and it gets a little old (probably not to him, but my brain is mush trying to document a day with nuances he would appreciate).

All of that said so far we have had:

• many, many instances of discipline,
• S trying to sleep at school for the first time: nope.
  
• digging of LOTS of toilet paper out of the toilet put there by B, in the middle of my talking, praying, crying out to God for the heart of S (discipline session) who threw the whopper of all fits, and then my friends came over to pray with me and they sat there for 30 minutes (the session with S lasted 45 minutes at least) before I said, pray FOR me PLEASE, and they did!
• Sophia's last day of school
• delicious coffee cake
• a wonderful, fully enjoyed tea party
• S trying and praying for a heart of love toward her sister
• giggles at bedtime
• B falling IN the toilet when I let her try to go potty and wipe all by herself while I was in the shower (note to self: what were you thinking?)
• orange window paint stuff squirting in a beautiful arch across the living room (by me), in seeming slow motion, across the couch and onto the floor (10 feet no lie). I did pull off the couch cushion and wash it a little, but got distracted. I read later you are supposed to wash immediately! The girls and I just laughed when this happened because it was quite a beautiful little disaster we had on our hands.
• the never ending calls of B at night time, and middle of the night calls because of...wait for it...firecrackers
• firecrackers all through out the day but most prominent during our rest times.
• lots of outdoor fun
• all the neighborhood kids out playing is lots of fun (no more books for weeks!)
• We all had a blast lighting the sparklers that you can throw and they squirm on the ground, we did this for over an hour one night with ten other kids, and me the only adult, I about burnt my thumb off lighting them all.
  
• Tobin's first tooth!!! (i will highlight more of him in his very own post)
• B cruising with the potty training thing, she rarely goes in her pull-up, but the 5:30 a.m. wake up to potty woke S too and she did not really go back to sleep.
• I drank a little of your caffeinated coffee, honey, oh so needed this morning.
• saturday bath, movie night, popcorn.
  

New Year's Eve outing

12.31.2011

The girls knew a party was going to take place in our school on New Year's eve and kept asking if they could go. The word was the 'performance' would start at 7:30-8ish. I volunteered to take them down for a little while, but bring them up by 9ish.

It was an okay performance mainly highlighting a minority group around here and many different students got rewards and prizes, so the beginning was quite boring. Finally some dancing and singing started happening and we enjoyed it.


trying to maneuver their phone to take a picture of the white kid.


this lady decided to just hug and kiss the white kid (Sophia would not have had that!)


The processional:

This particular minority are known for the knives they carry.





not sure who this was, but apparently someone important as he couldn't get away from the phone during his part of the processional. Classy.



There is alcohol in these big bamboo made flasks. Important guests were made to drink out of them.



The band marches on.



Happy New Year!

Hot Springs

12.31.2011

We decided to take a little family outing to some Hot springs that we had not been to before. These are about 30 minutes away and we had heard were great for kids and much cleaner than the springs a lot closer to us.

Sophia had off of school for the 2nd and 3rd, which meant that they held class on Saturday, this day. We decided this would be perfect, not crowded!

He looked extra cool so I had to get a pic. Go Pack!



It was cold outside but the water was nice and warm. Sophia could stand in this pool area, which was great. She eventually took off all of her floaties and tried 'swimming' on her own. She is getting much braver. But really we haven't been in the water in ages. She just felt completely comfortable here. Bella liked staying in the inner tube. We were going to get Tobin in, but it would have been quite a hassle and we really did not stay too long anyway. We were just really checking things out, seeing if we would come back.



Tobin remained our blue-eyed content champ!

Bella's potty training

12.26.2011


The cost of doing 'bizness'

Yes, only insanity convinced me to start potty training Bella the day after Christmas! I honestly thought it would be one huge mess, but I went into with that mindset, which helped me relax, I had no idea whether she would really get it at all! She is our wildcard for sure. She has done amazing! We were so surprised. I had been saying for weeks: 'next week you are going to learn to go potty like a big girl....' and those weeks turned into months...So finally we just started. Here is what we did:

1. took a more laid back approach than the 'boot camp' we did with Sophia, which had us trying to 'force' her to go by sitting her on the potty half the day (it wasn't that bad but I remember the first day we learned what NOT to do. Sophia got it pretty quick, and never wore pull ups or anything after stopping the diapers)
2. we knew we would still put pull ups on at nap and night. the goal was to get her used to the feeling of going.
3. we juiced her up. our girls usually get juice (diluted) once a day. I gave her whatever I knew she would drink a lot of all day long for 4 days (tapering off towards the 4th day). She peed SO MUCH and got the 'feeling' very quickly.
4. we gave GOOD prizes. at first it was two M&Ms, then it was 'gummies'. She also got a sticker on her chart.
5. we pulled up the rugs, but it wasn't really necessary.
6. Our world concentrated on this but did not revolve around it, there was no way it could. We asked her a lot if she had to go and did not make her. Once she 'got the hang of it' it was just a matter of making it in time, most of the time she did.
7. Going #2 took more practice, but she now pretty much has the hang of it too. We have been accident free for many days now.
8. She now gets prizes for having a dry pull up at nap or night, which she often does. During our 'mad' week last week I forgot to put pull ups on at nap 2x and she did not have an accident.


Day one was incredible! This was by like noon, yes, her bladder was working real hard!
She only had 1-2 accidents a day (of course some of those were doosies!), and then on day 5 she had zero. She is pretty much potty trained! Whew! Congrats girl, a big milestone in the life of a two year old!

The Dollhouse

12.24-25.2011

When Poppy and CC asked for gift ideas for the girls, we offered some suggestions, and even said we could look on TaoBao for some to save on shipping, etc. A dollhouse has always gotten great 'reviews' in the toy department for long-lasting creative play through the years. We had no idea the variety. I knew we wanted a wooden/durable and not too girly house. The options were amazing and expensive. But this one was simple and not that pricy at all. But so much for 'no big gifts'! we really didn't realize how big this thing was! The girls did not have another thought about gifts after the stockings, so this was a big shocker. And we were glad. Poppy and CC got to watch them receive it via Skype!


the computer with Poppy and CC on it is to the left.


Christmas Eve construction. While David put it together, I got things prepped for Christmas breakfast. Once I started helping him a little I told him I was going to stay up all night and play with it. It is really cool.




We are very thankful for this gift, the girls do love it, I think we will get a lot of use out of it for many, many years!