Baseball On The Brain

Ryan has baseball on the brain, as you can see.  These are drawings of baseball games on paper.  He sat down and did a verbal play by play as he drew. You can see how he properly set the square paper up like a baseball diamond, with the pitchers mound in the middle.

This one is my favorite.  Lots of home runs in this game!

Nose Dive

Kendall took a nose dive into the dirt the other day as we were digging in the garden.  Poor girl.  Then as Ryan is snapping pictures, he captures her picking her nose.  It was just a nosy kind of day!

Happy 2 1/2 to Kendall!

I have never celebrated 1/2 birthdays.  I've always thought it was a fun idea, I just never got myself organized enough to do it!  Ryan's class has been big on 1/2 birthdays this year since this is when his classmates have been having their "Special Day".  It has inspired me to get my act together and do something fun on the kid's 1/2 birthdays.

So, last Tuesday we made rainbow cupcakes to celebrate Kendall turning 2 1/2!  She was so excited to eat her cupcake and blow out her candle, and we had so much fun singing to her.

I love this one.  She kept blowing up at her bangs instead of blowing at the candle!

It's hard to believe she's well on her way to 3.  She's growing up way too fast.

Joyful

Natalie is so bright eyed and smiley these days.

The Earth

Ryan's class has been learning about the solar system and Earth this month.  He's been coming up with all sorts of intuitive questions about our planet.  At dinner tonight he asked, "Mom, when did the world begin?".  He caught me a little off guard with that big question out of the blue, then followed it up with, "Well, when will it end?".  These are definitely the days I wish David was home to help me think of an insightful answer for our little thinker.  When I did tell David his response was, "You should have told him that since the world revolves around him it began the day he was born"!

And the other day when we were out digging for worms he started narrating, "I'm digging in the earth, it's getting hotter, and hotter, and hotter, now I'm burning up, Oh My Goodness, Kendall, I've hit the core!".

These are the moments I love!

A Break in the Weather

While the rest of the country has been experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures, Seattle has been having cold, rainy weather.  It's definitely getting old.  We've been taking every opportunity we get to be outside so we don't go crazy inside.

The kids have been having a blast riding their cars down the driveway.  Ryan decided they needed a jump the other day.  Good gracious!  He and Kendall got out the shovels and started piling sand on the driveway to make a jump.  Thankfully it works more like a speed bump than a jump!

Natalie is content to sit in her exersaucer and take it all in.  Kendall does this sweet little drive by as she comes down the drive way and stops her car right in front of Natalie and says, "hello, baby".

Lock Down

This is what we do with Natalie when she's being bad.  Ha!  This is actually her favorite place to play.  Instead of  going under the bar, so climbs right over!

Kendall's New Do

Ryan was long overdue for a haircut so I took him to get one, and decided Kendall needed one too.  I did a really good hack job on her bangs so wanted to fix that first and foremost, but also wanted to even it the rest of it up a bit, too.  Her sides have finally started to grow so I had the gal trim the back to even everything up.  I wasn't too crazy about it at first, but I like it more and more everyday.  It's starting to look like a little bob now!  So cute.  David doesn't like that I cut all her curls off, but it still curls up after she has her bath.  And it is hair, after all, so will grow back.

Don't Ask Me

Ryan does these random things on a daily basis that just crack me up!  Glow sticks in the peep hole on the front door...hmmm.  Not sure what he was up to.

Baseball has Begun

Trying to figure out batting instruction.  Very confusing for a lefty when the coach is demonstrating right handed.

Ryan started T-ball a few weeks ago, and no surprise he LOVES it!  He has practice on Wednesday and Saturdays for now. Starting in April they will play games on Saturdays.  We're working on getting him to pay a little closer attention to his coach.  He's easily distracted by his surroundings!  There are 3 other teams that practice on the same field, so there is lots for our little observer to take in.

Fittingly his team name is the Twins.  Thankfully he has 2 Twins t-shirts that he pulls out of his drawer everyday and asks if today is the day he gets to go to baseball.  He is so excited when the response is YES and he can put on one of his Twins shirts!

Unfortunately, it's not really baseball weather yet so practices are bit chilly (for mom and the girls), but Ryan has a great time!

Sweet Little Monkey

I see you!

St. Patrick's Day

Those silly little Leprechauns visited us again this year.  They made a HUGE mess in the house, made our dining room light green and left us green apples, green necklaces, green oreos and Lucky Charms!

Ryan walked around the house trying to figure it all out and saying, "hmmm...there's something peculiar going on here".  Needless to say it was an exciting morning around here!

Enjoying their Lucky Charms.  They are magically delicious indeed!

This girl cracks me up!  She couldn't quite figure out the headband.  Or perhaps she's setting a new trend!

One of the best things the Leprechauns did for us was unearth this recorded story book that Michael and Jenn gave us.  I haven't been able to get it to work for awhile, but after the Leprechauns took all the books off our shelves Kendall picked this one up and got it working!  It must have been the Leprechaun magic. They have listened to it over and over and over again!

Nine Months

And just like that nine months have passed us by.  Natalie has changed quite a bit over the last month.  She is one mobile little girl!  Quick as a wink she gets whatever she wants on all fours.  And she definitely knows what she wants.  If she spots something, she is there in seconds.  She started head butting doors to get into certain rooms. We are now at the point where the bathroom doors and the door to the cat food need to be closed at all times, or else we pay!

In general, though, she has been so much more content to play independently.  She loves her new found freedom, and is more confident everyday. She loves to stand and move along the furniture.  Moving up in the world definitely suits her style!

I caught her getting frustrated this afternoon because she couldn't get what she wanted. She was grunting and making these super funny noises.  When I peeked to see what she was up to she was mad because she couldn't get at Ryan's mini helmet set.  Apparently, she loves it as much as he does!

We've been testing out lots of new foods with her.  She can now eat table food, but we're moving slow with this.  Her tummy has been so sensitive since day one, so don't want to move too quickly and cause her any discomfort.  She's got a pretty bad gag reflex too, so we don't feel comfortable giving her small chunks of food yet.  She's doing great with rice cereal, oatmeal, veggies, fruit and her puffs.  She can feed herself the puffs and drink from a sippy cup.

Her sleeping habits are okay.  I won't lie they could be better, but it comes and goes in waves.  We typically have a few nights of good sleep, then a few nights of bad sleep.  The bad nights are when her teeth are bugging her which has been quite a bit this past month.  She currently has 4 shiny white teeth and from what we can tell there are 4 more super close to coming in.

We visited the doctor yesterday for her nine month check up.  She was so smiley and happy the entire time, and loved checking herself out in the mirror.  Not having any shots probably helped her mood!

A few of her other tricks include: babbling, waving and clapping.  She's really getting "Pat-a-Cake" down!

9 Month Stats:
Weight: 20 pounds, 1 ounce (80%) - she peed on the scale right after being weighed so I think we should really count it as an even 20!
Height: 29 inches (90-95%)
Head: 45 cm (75%)
Hair: Fading in color, and growing slowly
Clothing: 12-18 months

Playdates

Ryan loves having his friends over to play or going to his friends house.  Lately they've been into playing Star Wars.  Not sure where this comes from since Ryan has never watched Star Wars, but some of his classmates must have.  David and I are trying not to get annoyed with the lightsaber noises, as they are constant background noise most days.  Kendall has even started making them.

All of Ryan's friends are so nice, and like so many of the same things Ryan does which makes for a good old rowdy time!

Ryan and Harrison.

Bye Bye Nukie

Kendall officially said bye, bye to her Nukie last Tuesday.  After another rough bedtime routine I said enough was enough.  Let me define rough bedtime routine:  I am flying solo because David is working.  Natalie doesn't want to go to sleep before the big kids like she usually does.  This means that I'm trying to get the Ryan and Kendall down while keeping an eye on Natalie.  This usually isn't hard, but Kendall has a really hard time calming down and going to sleep when her sister is there to distract her, then Kendall starts screaming because I can't snuggle as long as she would like me to because I need to tend to Natalie.  In a fit of rage she throws her Nuk and proceeds to scream until she gets it back.  In order for her to get it back I have to track down a flashlight to look for it under her bed. The flashlights are usually not where I left them (I have 3) because Ryan has moved a chair to reach them to use them for one of his games and can't remember where he put them.  Please note that I now I have a secret hiding place for one, which is really mood point since I won't be needing to find the damn Nuk any more!  Anyway, after getting on my hands and knees with the now found flashlight to look under her bed, Kendall finally gets her Nuk back and stops crying.  You would think that would be the end of it, but it is not.  Because even though she has her Nuk back it doesn't mean I am able to snuggle with her.  We typically start the entire routine over - she tosses her Nuk (and my final bit of patience), and I have to search for it again. By this time Natalie is screaming because she wants her bottle and is ready for bed.  And if you think Ryan is sitting back taking this all in from the comfort of his bed you would be mistaken.  He is usually in his bed, but he is whining up a storm because Kendall "woke him up", even though he was never asleep in the first place.  So, in a nutshell! that is my definition of a rough bedtime routine.

You can see why I said enough was enough.  Actually, you are probably wondering why I let this go on so long.  Let me tell you.

I knew that once we said bye, bye to that dear old Nuk I would have an even harder time getting my girl to bed and I wasn't quite up to the task since her sister has been sleeping horrible thanks to 4 new teeth coming in.  And as it turns out, I was not proven wrong, it HAS been a rough week of extra long bedtime routines, and sleepless nights because that Nuk was such a comfort in the middle of the night too.  However, after almost a week without the Nuk Kendall is doing better at bedtime and I think she's almost forgotten about it.  AND I don't have to get on my hands and knees and look for that Nuk ever again!

Big Bro

Ryan has stepped up his big brother duties lately.  He's been such a good helper when we need him to be.  Natalie can find the tiniest piece of paper on the floor, and puts it in her mouth.  Ryan alerts us to her every move.  He's also good to pick things up when we see paper on the floor.

Another thing he's been doing is picking Natalie up and putting her where he wants her to be.  This usually happens when Kendall isn't following his demands and he wants a playmate!  He is something else, but it it pretty sweet how he interacts with Natalie and he can make her giggle like no other!

Stair Master

Why do children gravitate to stairs?  That is one question I will never be able to answer.  When we were in Minnesota, we stopped to visit my friend Sarah.  Sarah happens to have stairs in her house.  Natalie gravitated to the stairs right away.  It took her awhile but she eventually figured them out.  Thank goodness we don't have stairs in our house.

Miss Organized

Kendall loves to have things in their proper place (most of the time!).  One of her favorite things to do is organize the cars in this case.  I love to watch how focused she is. 

Mileage

I looked at this picture and couldn't believe how big Ryan looked on his car, and then it got me thinking about how many miles that little car must have on it.  He has taken that thing down the driveway at lightning speed a zillion times.  Too bad we didn't think to put an odometer on it, I would really love to know the mileage on it.

Drama

I've been quoting the book "Llama Llama Red Pajama" a lot lately.  There is a lot of drama in the book, and there has been a lot of drama at our house.  We're used to seeing drama from Ryan, but lately it's been coming from Miss Kendall.

The little episode above took place because Kendall wanted to ride her car down the driveway, BUT she didn't want to wear her helmet.  The rule is you have to wear your helmet to ride down the driveway.  Poor Kendall.

Moving On Up

This is Natalie's favorite spot these days...standing up by the coffee table.  She is so happy she has moved up in the world.

My View

We had a beautiful day on Thursday so David moved the lawn.  While Ryan followed David on his car, Natalie watched from her exersaucer.  I snapped this picture from the kitchen window.  I was inside making dinner, and enjoyed my view so much.  Natalie was so content to sit and watch and take in her surroundings.  She loves to be outside as much as her brother and sister.

Grandma Evelyn

My Grandma Evelyn passed away on February 21st.  She was 95 years old so lived a long, beautiful life.  She left a legacy of 4 children, 7 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren (all under the age of 9!).  She was a wonderful lady and will be greatly missed, but we were so blessed to have her in our lives for so long.

I will always be grateful that she was able to meet all three of my children.

Grandma Evelyn with Natalie in September.

Natalie and I flew to Minnesota to attend her funeral.  I was so thankful I could be there with my family and celebrate Granmda's life.  It was so great to see everyone, especially my new nephew Zachary who was born on December 27th.

Me and Baby Z.

Zachary Kenneth.  He is SOOO Sweet.

One of the things I loved most about the day was that the kids played Bingo.  My Grandma LOVED Bingo.  She would never miss the Tuesday Bingo game at the Home where she lived.  It was such a fitting tribute to her.

Grace was the winner of the last game so got to call the numbers this game. 

 Everyone was thrilled to see Natalie, too.  Gina and her family hadn't seen her since September so it was especially fun for them.

Natalie and Andrew.

A Sister Picture.

She's so easy to kiss!

Jack and Natalie.  Jack is so good with her!

Evie and Smiley Natalie...well maybe not in this photo!

The Girls.

The Boys.