CELEBRATION

Our little girl has turned one, hooray! My sister asked me if I would cry, and I said probably not and I didn't. I have thought why and it is because I look forward to the 1 year mark for so many wonderful reasons. I love the 1 year to 5 year age, so many exciting milestones. Walking, talking, personality coming out. It is really exciting.

Also, she is sleeping through the night FINALLY! Hooray for 1 year old!

Just like anything else, we never seem to celebrate once. Party with Grandma & Papa a week early, birthday lunch with Jack's friend and her mom, cousins coming over for a second lunch with play/party, and then dinner & cake with Grandma Diane who was visiting from NC.

A couple of picture highlights.


cake #1 (too tired)

Clothes & blocks


Leap Frog purple dog and her very first baby doll, which she loves

And big blocks! Obviously both kids LOVE these!


Lasagna for dinner and Birthday Cake

I guess they are learning to share...


Birthday Bath and a family picture

Jack wanted to sing happy birthday all by himself, probably just so he could blow out Nora's candle all by himself.

TYPE A

That's me. Many see that as a negative label, but I don't mind and am kind of proud of some of my TYPE A personality traits. being organized, in control/controlling, proactive are just some of the positives.

Our latest task at hand- Jack is wearing an eye patch for 2 hours each day to help strengthen his weaker eye. Yes, he still wears glasses and that corrects his eye-crossing for focus, but the patch will help there be no residual crossing due to one eye being "lazy" or weaker than the other.

The Dr. prescribed this last Friday, and I had to determine how we were going to make this happen. I was not thrilled with my kid being "that kid with the weird patch on his eye" so I had to get geared up for this too. We decided to start on Monday.

After all of the effort, the hype, the pirate storybooks and tv show, Monday was not so great- we got it on for only 30 min. after pain and suffering on both of our parts, but by Tuesday it was smooth sailing. Yes, it's only been 3 days, but he is ready & excited for tomorrow already!


He has a fire truck or racecar patch to choose from. And his pirate chart for the week.


See, the weird kid with the patch is still SUPER CUTE!

Winter Fun

Yes- Winter is OVER here in Wisconsin. I know I am jinxing ourselves by packing up our winter clothes and bringing out the warm weather stuff, but oh well.

Here are a couple pictures from the fun we've had this winter!

Mom & Jacks snowman. Dan & Jack's snowmen- Jack built his all by himself. :)


Yes, she is still in her carseat so she rarely needed the whole snowsuit jazz when we went out to run errands. We were working the HAT. :)

And a little fun with friends!

In case "You Don't Know Jack"

In celebration of our little boy turning into a BIG KID, here are a few things-good and bad- that make him who he is.

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

He is a picky eater. His staples include mac & cheese, pizza, quesadilla, and hot dog.

He loves to sing songs of his TV shows. We know the Thomas Song, Mickey Mouse, Jake and the Pirates. Lately he is requesting "Fireman Sam" and Dan and I spent 5 min playing & replaying the theme song so we could get it right, just for him.

HE LOVES Papa's I-Pad

He asks for Mom to snuggle every night. It is really hard to say no.

He just finished his first set of swimming lessons. HE IS A PRO-well for a 3 year old. He even goes off of the diving board!


He cannot live without his McQueen Hat. We bought him McQueen shoes (he needed new tennis shoes) only so we could give him the choice of wearing his McQueen hat or shoes, potentially that could get him down to 50% of hat time. FAIL.

He is very helpful. Will help set the table, empty garbages, and put laundry away.

Asks for piano lessons, and we sing and play piano together. Also likes to play the violin.

Is potty-trained and will always choose to go outside, if given the choice.

LOVES chocolate.

Likes to play Mom, Dad, and baby with animals, people, cars. Mostly they kiss eachother and say "I Love You" but once in a while he talks to them like his kids and tells them it's bedtime, gives them choices, and puts them on the toy dollhouse toilet. hmmm...

Lately he has been sad if we leave him places- like at a friend's house. After we pick him up he says "Mom, you lost me."

Loves kisses goodbye from his Dad.

He says funny things like...
"You Want to come to?"
"That makes you happy!"
"I want to go to the Dr., feel me so good."
"No, first _________" when I want him to do something.

Is that enough... I could go on forever!

He is a good kid, and we are so glad that he is ours!

February in a Nutshell

February is busy...

All in one week we celebrated...
Jack's birthday (previous post)
Dan and my anniversary-7 years: We went out to dinner at Mitchell's Fish Market. They have DELICIOUS food, and their carrot cake is WONDERFUL!
Valentine's Day: This year we celebrated by having a board full of Valentine cards, each having a special activity for us to do in the evenings. Most activities took 5 min. or less, and Jack LOVED choosing a valentine every night. Some of his favorites: Play mario, fly helicopters, swing, take a bubble bath, and blowing bubbles in chocolate milk.

We watched a special valentines movie with a friend, and this is what I saw.

And an attempt at valentines pictures of the kids for a little project.And if all of that wasn't enough, Nora had ear tubes put in. The worst part was her not eating since 5 in the morning, but she was a trooper.
The nurses/anesthesiologist told us that it is good if kids sleep a little after the procedure, so we shouldn't be worried if they don't call us back to recovery for a while. Nora was out of our sight about 20 minutes and she was not happy when we made it back to recovery. She wouldn't take her pacifier or a bottle of juice, so I fed her and then she happily took the bottle too.



I must say- things are much better since the tubes. She is not nearly as clingy, loves to wander around the house and play, and our sleeping habits are much more appropriate for an almost 1 year old. (No, she doesn't magically sleep through the night, that would have been a miracle.)

Jack had a birthday... Shout HOORAY!

Here goes... A week of celebrating, presents, cakes, play. We had a great time, and Jack is still asking for presents. We have created a MONSTER! We LOVE him nonetheless.
Party #1 at Grandma & Grandpa's. Cupcakes, homemade party hats (Jack can't have a party without), and presents.
It was all about CARS this year. Here is is his shake & go Francesco & McQueen. He loves it, and does a great job sharing Francesco. McQueen is HIS.



Party #2 Presents with Mom & Dad. He got a car rug, shirt/tie for church, a book, and a marble track-Jack calls it a Track-Coaster

Party #3 with friends- we played games
Stacked tires (chocolate donuts)
And had cake/cupcakes.
Here is his cake. Not so bad huh?

And Party #4: with Grandma & Grandpa Boston
And the last present from our friends who come to our house for piano. They got Jack some cookie cutter/molds. They are AWESOME!
The party was of course making them together.
Awesome cookies.
Jack loved the cookies, the presents, the cupcakes, ice cream, movies, playdates, and EVERYTHING. It was all about CARS the movie this year. Hopefully by next year we will ditch the McQueen hat, and move on to more mature things. But for now we will enjoy the multiple McQueen t-shirts, CARS soup/mac & cheese/crackers, movies, and toys. He will only be 3 once so we will enjoy everything that comes with it.

10 months

10 months... that is how long our little princess has been part of our lives. We love everything about her (except that she is not a fabulous sleeper, so almost everything.)

Here are our top ten!
1. She is so happy! Loves to giggle, smile, and play.

2. She loves to eat! Her favorites are noodles, pizza, fruit cut up and corn. She will eat anything we give her.

This is Jack's macaroni from Applebee's. He didn't like it, but she at the WHOLE BOWL. She is a BIG EATER too!

3. She can find her way into lots of messes. Throwing toys out of buckets, opening wipes containers (and pulling them out), and she is not the cleanest eater. She is not the only guilty one.

4. Loves attention from her big brother
5. And when he is too busy, or doesn't want to play, she loves his things. Bouncing on his bed and drinking his water cup is one of her guilty pleasures.
6. Loves to climb things, crawl under things, and cruise along things.
7. Knows "No." We don't use it often, but she seems to need extra reminders when trying to pull the plug out of the bathtub. (She likes to put it in her mouth, like a pacifier. GROSS!)
8. Still kind-of enjoys her carrier/carseat. It is getting heavy, yes, but it is easy to carry her in it when you're chasing after a 2, almost 3, year old.
9. Loves to be naked. Crawling around or in the bathtub, it is all the same to her.
10. She is still a little peanut, and seems to enjoy snuggles and even a nap with Dad and mom (if mom is lucky.)

There she is! She's had a rough go with ear infections the last couple of months, and that puts a damper on our fun but we are on the mend and looking forward to a happy, healthy, and SAFE springtime! Happy 10 months NORA!