Some things don't change...

I have been reading back over the Blog from Aaron's first year. In July of 2009, I posted this: Aaron's favorite 'toy' right now is a burp cloth. He loves burp cloths and they make him very happy. They are essential to decent car rides and quiet mornings. If he has a burp cloth in his hand you will be unable to get it away from him. You may try. You will fail.

Over two years later, burp cloths are still on of Aaron's favorite things - in fact, he takes one to school with him to sleep with and he covers up with them for his Night Nights. We are certain to have them with us wherever we may go!

Aaron's School

Aaron is absolutely loving school! He gets very excited to go and he runs into his classroom now without a second thought to me! He comes home and tells me all about it. It is amazing to me what he retains. One of his teachers is leaving and her replacement has been working alongside her until next week when she will take over. He came home and explained that to me. One day his music teacher came in late so she didn't teach his class, but she taught the ones later in the day. He explained that to me, too. I get a pretty good play-by-play of life at MDO.

He is napping very well there. As soon as he eats he goes to lay down and they say he's the first asleep and he sleeps until I come to get him.

He is learning a lot there. He has been singing his ABCs at home!

It's also funny to me the words he picks up from being there. He has started saying 'Boo Boo' when someone's hurt. That's something we've never said here so it's funny to me. He also starting calling trains 'Choo Choo Trains' which is what they are called at school.

His teachers say he is so sweet and happy. They seem to really enjoy him and we love to hear that!

Wordless Wednesday

What Abby's Doing...

She is still loving her veggies. We have added pumpkin and zucchini to the mix and re-added broccoli, which she is doing great with now. She really loves all of the vegetables. She has also had chicken and turkey. We started fruit and she likes applesauce and she does not like pears. The fact that she likes applesauce reminded us of how much Aaron did not like it when he was a baby (he loves it now). We have some funny pictures of that here. She pulls/pushes to a standing position quite a bit, but she's not stable on her feet. She doesn't stand alone and even when you hold her arms she can't get enough balance. I don't think she will be an early walker though most people disagree with me. She is also trying to climb - watch out world!

She's into everything and everything is in her mouth. I'm not kidding.

She's still smiley, smiley, smiley! I call her Smiles or Smiley Sue a lot. People stop me often to comment on her smile - and her Big Blue Eyes! She takes everything as a reason to smile!

Dressing her is like wrestling a well-oiled pig. It could be an Olympic event and only the smartest and swiftest would survive. And don't even tell me how one of your kids was a wiggle worm, too. Oh, no. I challenge you to dress this child.

We love you, Abby!

More memories of Abby...

When you want something, you pant

You LOVE to watch your brother. He mesmerizes you. I can't get you to focus on anything else if he is anywhere nearby.

You don't pull up, you push up. Instead of finding high things you can pull on, you find low things (a small stool, a toy, the dishwasher door when it is open) and lean on them and push yourself to a standing position. You get in the downward dog position a lot.

You dive bomb your food. Instead of waiting for a spoon to come to you, you open your mouth and lean forward, attacking the spoon with your mouth. You then proceed to 'mouth' the spoon the way that babies mouth cheerios to soften them. You don't just eat the food off the spoon, you try to eat the spoon, too!

You seem to always be smiling. You are full of such pure joy!

Monkeys

This was one of my favorite outfits when Aaron was little.

This is him at almost 5 months. When he turned a year we had a Monkey Birthday Party...

And this picture was on his cake.

These pictures are of Abby in the outfit at a little over seven months.

I still love it!

And I love my little Monkeys!

Fun Pictures

MOM! This bib is bigger than I am!

I took these pictures of Abby in this Cute Noah's Ark PJ set that Kim had gotten when I was pregnant with Aaron. I took cute pictures of him in them when he was 4 1/2 months old. I thought I would post them as comparison pictures but I don't think they look at all alike! Maybe it's because they are three months apart in them?

You can see Aaron's pictures here.

We're playing, Mama!

This short set is about the cutest thing. Grandma Sheri got it - it's a Life is Good outfit which I am a big fan of. The front has a giraffe and says 'Life is Wild' and the read says 'Life is Good'.

The Cutest Ranger

Everyone at Aaron's school wore Rangers shirts on Thursday to honor the Music Teacher, Ms. Stacey, who is singing the National Anthem at the Rangers Game tonight! I have never met Ms. Stacey, but I have heard a lot about her. She sings Row, Row, Row Your Boat AND The Wheels on the Bus!

Aaron has a Rangers T-Shirt that Papa John bought him when the Rangers went to the World Series, but I wanted him to have a jersey so Kim went on the Hunt! As, always, she succeeded!

And while we are on the subject of Kim, she has had an official Name Change. We are no longer attempting to call her Kimmie. Aaron named her 'Dee' quite a while ago and we've all held on to the Kimmie moniker thinking he would pick it up. Not so much. He told me recently that he can say Kimmie, but that's not her name. She's Dee. Well, alright. Last week Kim sent him a card and signed it Dee so I guess it's final. HA!

So that I remember...

I have done a lot of picture posts lately, but not a lot of updates on the kids. There are so many things that I don't want to forget.

Abby, you are such a ray of sunshine. I hope that you always are. You think everything is funny (even when your brother cries - we'll have to work on empathy).When you were a smaller baby you squeaked when you were tired. When we would tell people this they thought we meant you fussed. You didn't. You actually squeaked.

You have always been the absolutely messiest eater I have ever seen. When we would give you a bottle it took bibs and burp cloths galore. I had never seen anything like it. Then we started you on cereal and, I swear to you, you would have cereal from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes. You would put your feet in your mouth while I fed you. You would knock the spoon out of my hand. You would blow bubbles with the cereal in your mouth. OH! And baby cereal is like glue! Feeding you was such a long event when you counted clean up. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse we started vegetables. We have vegetables everywhere. All the time.

You have always had the kickiest feet on the planet. Before you could control them they just kicked all of the time. Even when you were sleeping. When we changed your diaper we got kicked in the head. Aaron thought this was funny so he would always put his head where ever your legs were and just laugh as you kicked him in the head. Now you can control your movements and you still kick a lot. And you put your feet in your mouth a lot. Whenever you are riding in the car you seem to have a foot in your mouth. When someone holds you so that you are standing you bounce and kick your legs like your dancing. It's a little like a puppet.

You are a big, big eater. You love your vegetables. We've tried most of them now. We've added sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts and peas since my last update. You have also had chicken (I didn't make this one - I bought it) and you really like it.

Daddy's Helper

I thought this was cute. When we went to have our pictures done last weekend we took the wagon to use in the pictures. We filled it up with changes of clothes and other things we would need and Jory started to pull it to the gardens from his truck. Aaron immediately saw Jory's need for help and starting pushing the wagon! He helped Jory by pushing the wagon while Jory was pulling it the entire way from the parking lot and it was a long way!

Some Catch Up Pictures

These first two pictures were taken Friday. John and Kim had just gotten back from a trip to Jackson Hole and they had lots of fun stuff for the kids. John was about to leave for a long work trip so they came over and spent the morning with Aaron, Abby and I.
Abby's shirt says Little Aggie

This is an outfit Kim got Abby for Halloween, but I had to put it on her. It has a cat on the rear...

And says My Daddy Thinks I'm Purrfect on the front

This was taken when John's sister visited from D.C. We SO enjoy Anne!

Wordless Wednesday