Christmas Season

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was the best picture I could get.  Then, it turned into this...... 

 

 

Thankful Thursday

1.  Thanksgiving dinner - my mother-in-law's food is delicious!!
2.  Black Friday shopping with my mom and sister - We rarely spend time together without the kiddos, so it was a nice break.  We got some great deals.  We waited in lines.  We ate a midnight snack at McDonalds.  We laughed. 
3.  Christmas lights
4.  family date night - Mexican food and WalMart
5.  potty training - It didn't happen overnight or even in a week, but I'll take what I can get.  We're on week two, but it is getting better everyday.
6.  potty training underwear - saves a mess! 
7.  my grandparents - I love that I get to see them almost every time we're back home.  Very thankful my kids get to spend time with their great grandparents.
8.  baby babble
9.  my friend's grandpa went to heaven this week and is now at peace

Mara - 2 1/2 years old

Our Sister Bear is 2 1/2 and on her way to turning 3! 

What I love most about Mara is her personality.  She's spunky and full of life.  She's constantly busy, and needs to be kept constantly busy.  It's a tough job most days, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  She definitely loves a schedule and routine.  And if her schedule gets changed, she's not always so happy about it. 

She is becoming much more independent.  She gets very upset if I try to help her put her clothes on.  "Do it self!"  In the last month, she has started to string more words together.  Although she's still very good at getting across anything she needs to using one word sentences.  Her latest phrase is: "Love you more, again!"  Not exactly sure what that means, but she thinks she wins our "Love you more" contest when she says that. 

Mara loves food; she eats just about anything.  She frequently asks for seconds, and she always saves room for dessert. 

Mara used to be the best sleeper.  It wasn't normal.  Sometimes she would ask to go to bed.  She never cried or got upset before naps or bedtime.  She never got out of her bed.  She never woke in the night.  We knew it wouldn't last forever.  And it didn't.  The last couple of months have been quite the opposite.  Sometimes she's up several times a night crying.  She still doesn't get out of her bed, so we have to get out of ours to go check on her.  Most nights she ends up sleeping on our floor.  We have learned to do whatever it takes to maximize the amount of sleep we get.  Like they say, she won't graduate from high school and still be sleeping in our room. 

Mara loves music.  The music is usually on if we're home.  Lately, she has been requesting "Tomlin!" (Chris Tomlin).  She is even getting good at picking out his songs on the radio.  She loves to dance.  Mara enjoys being outside.  She learned how to pedal her trike this fall, and she is very proud of that accomplishment.   

Mara loves to do her school "tivities" (activities) and crafts.  She's always very anxious for Micah to take his morning nap, so we can get started.  She seems to remember if we haven't done them in a few days because she will ask to do them at night.  I have been using the two-year-old curriculum from Hubbards Cupboard and Pre-K packs from Over The Big Moon.  Her favorite activities are those that require a glue stick.  We've attempted scissors, but cutting string is about all we've accomplished.

Mara is THE BEST big sister. It's just amazes me how much she loves her brother. She's always looking out for him. If Micah never gets a little brother, I don't think he'll mind. Mara has already stepped into the brother role. You should see these two wrestle. Or maybe you shouldn't. It looks dangerous and it probably is. But they both laugh the entire time, so we let it go on and continue to be spectators!

Unbelievable November Weather

When it's November 21st, and you see this in your car.....

You hop in and do this through town.....

And drive to the.....

 

Thankful Thursday - Thanksgiving Style

Happy Thanksgiving!  Here are a few things we are each so very thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Nicole
1.  a healthy family
2.  God's love - Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1
3.  friends
4.  New Hope Church
5.  Lance's job
6.  staying at home with my kids - I am very thankful to be the one who influences them throughout the day. 

If Micah could talk, I'm sure he'd say...
1.  bread - his favorite
2.  his big sister, not sure what he'd do without her
3.  books - he's really into turning pages, so cute!

Lance
1.  God's grace and love

Mara
1.  Daddy
2.  Mommy
3.  Micah

Animal Homes

The Dallas County Conservation had a special presentation during story time at the library.  The topic was animal homes.  The conservationist brought in several different animal homes for the kids to see and touch.

Then they got to make nests with real nest materials!

Thankful Thursday

1.  Mara's independence
2.  grilling in November
3.  the latest helmet news - Micah's right ear has gone from being shifted forward 5mm to 2 mm.  We were told this is usually permanent damage, so it's unusual it changed at all.  He is also halfway on the rest of his measurements, so we're on the downhill slide!!
4.  My parents took our kids overnight last weekend.  It was a much needed and appreciated break.  I got several projects done around the house, and we finally got a date night.  Thanks Mom and Dad!
5.  the generosity of our home group
6.  one uninterrupted night of sleep - our kids haven't been sleeping the best lately
7.  warm cookies delivered to our door
8.  Lance's new job - everything is going smoothly! 
9.  the Bible - All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. 2 Timothy 3:16

Good Eaters

So far it looks as if Micah is going to follow in his sister's footsteps with his love for food.  He eats just about anything.  He has completely transferred to finger foods, mainly because of my lack of enthusiasm and time to make baby food.  When I gave him a whole cracker for the first time, his face just lit up!

 

Mara still enjoys feeding Micah, but he has started pushing her hand away.  Lance thinks this is because sometimes she shoves toys at him, so he's defending himself.  She gets so frustrated when he does this.

after effects of being fed by sister

Mara only ate cottage cheese by being fed with a spoon.  Micah is served cottage cheese on his tray and he eats it by fistfuls.  Oh how much a second kid teaches and changes us.   

This girl thought she had won lottery when I asked her if she wanted to lick the mashed potato beater.  It wasn't even cookie dough!

 Food isn't so much fun for me when it becomes a game - the "drop it over the edge and see where it goes" game.

Or when a toddler hasn't quite perfected her fine motor eating skills.  No, this isn't a week's worth.  Just one meal.

Or when there's a Cheerio war.

 

But, I know someday my kids will be all grown up, and I'll wish I had food messes to clean up.  So I'll do my best to be thankful to be on my hands and knees after every meal. 

Stickers

Mara has always loved stickers.  I have set up a sticker station for her, so she can stick away whenever she feels like it.  I still have quite a collection of stickers from when I was teaching.

 Micah was just waiting for her to drop some on the floor, so he could help out.

Our school theme this month is the five senses, so one of her activities was to look in a mirror and put stickers on different parts of her face.  She thought this was pretty funny. 

Pizza Night

Mara loves to help in the kitchen, and I know we don't let her do it enough.  Mara's help equals more time and more clean up.  But it's worth it because of the fun she has.  I thought mini pizzas would be a great meal for her to help with.

This girl loves black olives.  Weird, I know.  I didn't acquire a taste for them until my 20's.  We can finish off a can together pretty quickly!

And how did we keep Micah occupied during our pizza making session?

With Cheerios of course!

 

 

Thankful Thursday

1.  play date
2.  the mild weather - love that we can still get our wiggles out outside!
3.  Lance's safe return from out of town after leaving early in the morning and arriving home late - driving and sleepy isn't a good combo
4.  girls night out
5.  quiet time
6.  a room full of babies and toddlers in the church nursery
7.  Mara's determination to pedal her trike
8.  our library's large selection of picture books
9.  Mara's "Amelia Bedelia" moments - that girl makes me chuckle!
10.  Micah's need for his mommy
11.  eating lunch with my kids everyday

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22

Helmet Update - 8 weeks

We've hit the 8 week mark for Micah's helmet.  Here are some pictures of the improvement.

I was very encouraged by the improvement in these two pictures.  It's really hard to see his left ear in the first picture, but you can see how his right ear is further forward compared to the left.  In the recent picture, to me it doesn't appear that this is an issue anymore.  Hooray!

There are days when Mara really wishes she had a helmet, too.  After she tries and tries to ram his helmet on her head, she finally decides a headband or hat will have to do.  She is so sweet.

 

 

Black Out

Our lights flickered a couple of times one night and then went out completely a few minutes later.  Mara was really upset and kept flipping the light switches.  I tried to explain to her that the lights wouldn't be back on for awhile, but she kept yelling, "Fix light, Mom!"  Lance was out of town and wouldn't be home until midnight.  I wasn't going to get a break that I so badly needed AND the lights were out.  Dairy Queen here we come! 



 There even happened to be a clown at DQ making balloon creations.

I love living in a small town but appreciate the convenience of living close to a bigger town.  I may have gone crazy in my dark house with two crying kids and no french silk pie blizzard.

Boxes and Bacon

We're a little slow on blog news around here, so here's a couple random things.

Isn't it nice to get something besides bills in the mail?  It's especially nice to get boxes in the mail.  Lance would probably disagree.  The picture below is what greeted me when I opened our front door one afternoon.

Lance would say it's not fun to get boxes in the mail because a bill in the mail quickly follows!  I have been doing quite a bit of online shopping.  Sometimes for a better selection and sometimes for cheaper prices.  But mainly for the convenience.  It's not fun shopping with two kiddos and it's hard to find time to go without them.  Plus, I can search multiple stores in minutes, and it would take much longer if I had to drive to multiple stores.  I can't even say this is early Christmas shopping.  If I'm buying clothes, I usually get a couple different sizes and colors.  I've ordered several comforters and still haven't found one I like.  This creates quite a bit of return inventory and lots of receipts to keep track of since everything seems to get shipped separately.  Lance suggested I hire a secretary to manage my online buying. 

That's bacon on top of our garbage can.  How did it get there?  We're not sure.  Lance threw away some old bacon in the garbage.  The next morning, it was on top of the recyling bin, and the bacon package was sticking out of the garbage lid.  Hmm.....

Micah - 9 months

Can't believe I will be planning a 1st birthday in less than 3 months.  Craziness. 

 Here's what this guy has been up to in the last month.

Good bye baby toys.  Hello toddler toys. 

He loves his new freedom of crawling and getting into everything!

It was kind of nice when he didn't know how to crawl up this step, so I could keep an eye on him in the living room.  But, after a few days of crawling, he quickly mastered this step.  And now he can go everywhere in the house!

I do love to peek around the corner and see him peeking back at me.

He has started pulling himself up to things, but he's not real steady yet.  It seems like he's doing physical tasks much more quickly than Mara did.  I think she crawled for quite awhile before she started pulling herself up. 

I didn't even THINK about letting Mara finger paint before she was a year old.  Guess that's a perk of being the second kid!

 

Things are still going well with the helmet.  I take pictures every 1-2 weeks, so we can see the progress.  He currently has some red, irritated spots on his forehead and back of his neck, so the clinic suggested we leave the helmet off until it clears up.  It actually cleared up quite a bit within a few hours of the helmet being off, so hopefully he won't have to have it off too long.  It has been a nice break having it off.  I miss his head.  I know that sounds weird.  But he looks so differet with it off.  We don't have to worry about him throwing his head back and hitting us with it, and I can kiss his cheeks.  He really likes to have his head rubbed.  It makes me sad he doesn't get that.  We'll keep plugging away, and it will be off soon.  But not soon enough. 

 

We went to a new pediatrician for his 9 month well baby check up.  I really liked her.  They use a screening called Ages and Stages.  I was really impressed with it.  The questions were detailed and covered all areas of development from developmental to social.  After I completed the screening questions, they scored it and showed me how he ranks on the charts.  It will be interesting to see his scores at the next appointment.

 

9 month stats:

Height - 29 inches - 77th percentile

Weight - 19 pounds, 8 ounces - 48th percentile