Sunday, August 28, 2011

Note to Self

Houston, we have a thumb sucker! Okay, well, when I got Ollie out of the last night, he was sucking his thumb, but it hasn't seemed to be a habit quite yet. Unlike many other parents, Marshal and I have been praying for our babies to find their thumbs so we can stop playing the pacifier games. You know, the constant dropping , cleaning, replacing of pacifiers can get really old. Quincy sucked her thumb and it was so wonderful. We "broke" her of it in one night for good, so it never became an issue. Anyway, I am hoping he continues to use his little 'ole thumb for some time. Miley has found hers too, but she prefers to chew on them :)

We also have some roll overs finally, for better or worse. Ollie has been working on it for the past few days and finally has it down. He automatically flops over now. Miley is a little less interested although she did it three times in a row next to Grammy on the couch last night. Grammy swore she was doing it completely on her own, but I'm not convinced. There seemed to be a little help from the decline on the couch cushion :)

Lastly, Quincy hit a milestone as well. Tonight, she decided to pull out her ruled tablet and write the entire alphabet (on her own) both upper and lower case letters as well as numbers 1-9. Until lately it has been like pulling teeth to try to get her to practice her letters, so we were very enthusiastic about it.

All these things happened when we were at my parent's rental cabin in Sedona for the weekend. More pictures/stories to follow about that weekend (which was fun of course) but I had to make sure to note these things before I forgot. Oh yeah, and all 3 kids slept past 7 am today as well! That was a miracle in itself!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Quincy's FOURTH!

Our baby's all grown up now! Okay, well, maybe not totally, but she sure is getting too big, too fast for us. Four year's ago and it feels like only yesterday that we were so blessed to finally get our baby. She is definitely in a hurry to get big. With life being so hectic as a result of the two new little monsters, I decided not to totally stress myself out with an at home party this year. We opted for the hands-off approach and went with Makutu's Island although I still did the invitations of course. :)

Here is the birthday girl before we left for the party. She had a little attitude because she was so jazzed up about the party (and about being "older"!)




















Here are the invitations. I made them look like old treasure maps by tearing the edges, soaking then in coffee, wrinkling them and baking them until crisp. SO fun!









Lastly, here are some random at home pics from bath time. Just took the camera out for some slice of life moments :)







Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Note to self

Well, it's about time for me to post something... I just can't find five free minutes to do anything that I want to do these days. My good 'ole "me time" is few and far between and if I find it nowadays, I choose sleep over basically anything else. Right now, all four of my babes are sleeping. Yep, I said four. My fourth (Marshal) seems to have caught my 24 hour bug and is home in bed as well, so I am stealing these five free minutes I have to make note of a few things I have been meaning to record in the Wood Family history book (aka this blog). As I've said before, the purpose of this blog is mainly for my own usage to serve as our family photo album/baby books, so some of the info here will definitely be a real snoozer to most everyone else.

Let's see, Quincy has recently celebrated her 4th birthday. I have photos to post eventually of her party at Makutu's Island with all her favorite girlfriends. She had been so excited to turn four for months. Basically since we began to talk it up so she'd start getting a little more independent like a "big four-year-old". It seemed to have worked too well because now she's a little too big for her britches. She had a big summer in terms of swimming. She finished her ISR refresher at the beginning of the summer. She made huge strides during those two weeks. A huge improvement over last year when she hated the lessons and cried the whole time. Since her lessons ended Marshal has been swimming with her weekly and they have SO MUCH FUN together in the pool. She is now fearless (which is good and bad of course). She was so proud of herself this past weekend for jumping in off the side. It's so nice to see her try new things and not be afraid. That's our biggest frustration as parents. She has a habit of not wanting to try things even though we know she can do them, she just has no desire to try sometimes. Anyway, we are so proud of her and she is a real swimmer now.

She also moved up from the "Butterflies" to the "Grasshoppers" in Preschool. I think her teachers had a rougher time with it than she did. Once the day came it was time to move she didn't look back. She loves being "big". Now she won't stop talking about being five and going to kindergarten. Slow down kiddo!!!

Let's see, what else about Q... she is just coming into her own. She's developing her own idea and opinions lately, proving to be a bit more challenging but it's fun to be able to have real conversations with her. She's a quirky, funny kid. She still loves her princesses but seems to have moved more into the Barbie scene :) It's been so hot that we've been indoors all summer. Our goal for the Fall is to get the family outdoors more and get her more active outside. She has been fighting going to dance class lately so we think it's time for a break from dance. We'll try something else soon.

Now, for the babies' development... Let's see, they are now about 15 weeks. We finally moved them into their beds in their room about three weeks ago. It's going okay so far. They sleep from about 7 pm - 11pm, I wake them to eat and then put them back in bed. They wake religiously at 5am which is not very fun for me! I hope that eventually stretches out. They are not on a good schedule during the day at all. My fault for being so active. I haven't been able to dedicate myself to staying home during the days. I have too much going on! It's been a hinderence in developing a schedule for the little ones but it's been working okay for us so far. We are surviving I guess!

They have begun to love their Bumbo seats and like to sit and stare at each other. I put them facing each other with toes touching. They keep each other occupied for a little bit gooing and gawing. They have become quite chatty in just the past week, trying to talk back to us as we talk to them. They are becoming more "grabby" too. Especially Ollie. He grabs onto clothes and blankets now whereas a few weeks ago, neither really grabbed onto much other than maybe our fingers. They smile a ton and laugh. Ollie has laughed a lot but I have yet to hear Miley really let loose. She just gives super goofy grins all the time. Marshal says she has his dad's half smile. We call her "Smiley". Overall, they are just much more aware and interactive than ever. They've gotten so big so fast and we're looking forward to the progression.

So, only this week and next and I am supposed to be returning to work after being off for now 6 months. Can't believe it's been that long. Feels like yesterday that I was put on bed rest. It will be a new chapter since our routine will change again but it will be good. Now, I've got to go try to get some photos posted while I have the time!