A New Year's Eve Milestone!

Trevor has taken his first "real" steps! Yippee Bear!

I say "real" steps because he had taken many small sets of steps this past month...but they were all the ~super encouraged, come to me, here's a toy, "my head is so heavy that my feet must follow" ~sorts of steps. In order to qualify for a milestone in my book, it must be the real thing. Not encouraged by outside rewards, but by self desire. ;)

So, I was sitting on one couch, Emma on the other, and Trevor was crawling all around playing. We were just sort of relaxing mid morning. Trevor crawled over to me to "talk". He turned around to see the room. Then, without any encouragement, he *walked* to the middle of the room, flopped to his bottom, and began to play with a toy. I looked at Emma, and she looked at me. I asked her, "Emma, did Bear just walk all by himself?" and she replied, "Yep, Mommy, I think he did!" LOL We had a good giggle, then both went to him to give him lots of claps and hugs.

So, my little man can officially say that he was born and learned to walk all in the same year! Not many kiddos can say that! ;)

Talk about getting it in under the wire! Yay for you little Bear!

Christmas Day 2007

Christmas morning came early in our home...Trevor did not sleep in as I had wished for, and we were up around 7am. Blech...we let Emma sleep in a bit, but she woke up at around a 7:45...then the festivities began! The worst part about having a video camera? We've got video and only a few pictures. :( Boo hoo...
These sock monkeys were a huge hit! A friend of mine made these for Emma and Trevor, and they are already super loved!

I'm pretty sure this is a crochet oreo cookie Trevor is chewing on...he's teething, so everything is for chewing on. (Nope...I just looked again, and it's a wooden burger patty! lol)

Emma's getting pretty serious about opening packages!

See? This one is for chewing too! lol

Emma trying out her new doll bed...looks comfy!

After bedtime...this is not all of it either! Wow...these are some lucky kiddos, huh?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2007

This was Trevor's first Christmas Eve, and Emma showed him the ropes. As this is her 3rd go at it...she's quite the expert! ;)

Having two children this year ~ who are both in toddlerhood ~ proved to be full of lessons for me too. :)

1. There will be *too* many presents. lol




2. Taking pictures of both kids smiling at one time-not gonna happen. :)




3. Watching them is a joy I can't even set to words.

So, here are some snap shots of the evening....they both had a blast!

Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas! We went to see Santa yesterday, and neither Emma nor Trevor were too sure about the man in red. See the candy cane in Emma's hand? It was a bribe to smile! lol

We've been so busy! August is looking pretty good so far!

Trevor's New Teeth!

"Check out my new chompers!" They were not too bad coming in. (Trevor doesn't sleep anyway, so maybe I just didn't notice. lol) If you look closely, you can see them in this picture. They're small, but they're there.






Trevor is eating solid food now too...rice, oatmeal, peaches, peas and sweet potato. He's not too fond of peaches, but sweet potatoes are his favorite!

Emma's New Play Silks

What is a play silk, you ask? It's simply a square of silk material that has been dyed a vibrant color. They are such a fun toy that encourages lots of imagination. They can be a cape, a dress, a peek-a-boo cover, a pool of water for your animals to drink from...anything at all that can be imagined. And...boy oh boy, does Emma have an imagination!

Today Emma decided to "plant some flowers" in "dirt" and water them. The funniest part is that she filled her watering can from her kitchen sink with imaginary water about a dozen times.

In reality, Emma loves to go outside and water her flowers. It's really one of her favoirite things to do right now. She uses the hose and will make sure each plant gets a good drink. Between each plant, Emma takes a drink too. There is just *something* about drinking from the hose.

But, it was a rainy day in Washington...so Emma made do with her silky flowers. Thank goodness for an imagination.

Trevor really likes Emma's new playsilks too! Peek-a-boo! I see you!!

Trevor's Big Day!

Our "I'm six months old" day.

Trevor had such a big day today! Although he turned 6 months old on the 19th, he had his six month pictures taken and had his six month well baby visit today.

Ok, so the resolution is not the best, but hey, it's off the Sears preview website. ;) Trevor was such a little flirt! Sarah took his pictures and he was all smiles. He was happy laying down, sitting up (he's doing that on his own now) and even standing up! See that silver star rattle? That's Trevor's special sterling rattle from Grandma Lynda. It's one of his favorite possesions. Between shots, he would chew on it with all his might. Then, when it was time to smile, he'd drop his hands to his lap. I love that it's in these photos.

Then, after the photographer, we went for his six month well baby check up. Trevor remains in the 99.999999% for height and weight. Dr. G even laughed and said that Trevor is much larger than many other babies who are also in the 99.99999%. :) He now weighs 25 pounds 7.5 ounces and is 29.5 inches tall. WOW! Trev had to have three shots today. He was less than impressed. But, when Mommy was able to pick him up then nurse him, life got a bit better.

With all of the excitement, I know Trevor is going to "sleep like a baby" tonight. (Who the hell came up with that saying anyway? They never met my kids. lol)

"I Already Own a Golf Club!"

"And although I can't stand up yet, I *can* swing it!"

Emma has claimed Trevor's clubs as her own. However, the other night, Trevor got a hold of one and was swinging it wildly through the air. At one point he had both hands on it and was showing quite the good grip! I'm sure that Gregg will have him out on the practice green before he's two. Emma already has a nice little swing. Maybe our kids will be the next Tiger or Anika? Wouldn't that be a nice retirement? A big family RV tooling around the US watching our kids play golf. Ahhhh....a momma can dream right?

Our Friend Jonah Came to Visit!

It was so much fun! Jonah is 18 months old and has lived in Hong Kong for most of his life. He now lives with his Mommy and Daddy in North Carolina, but he is visiting his paternal Grandparents in Washington which means he can visit us too!

Emma thinks that Jonah is great! He's smaller than she is and he wore these really neat sneakers with Velcro. She tried three or four times to get them off of him.

She finally gave up, and took him to her kitchen to cook. The two of them are too cute together, and I have a *secret* wish that they spend lots of time together in the kitchen when they're adults. ;)

Trevor's First Taste of Cereal

Well, we decided it was time. Trevor is now 6 months old and teething, so rice cereal was chosen as his first meal. We got him all set in the highchair and put on a new bib that Miss Suzie and Mr. Larry sent and went about preparing the cereal. With the video camera aimed and ready to catch the "ick" face that Emma gave us 19 months ago I gave Trevor his first bite. He *loved* it! He acted like he'd been waiting his whole life for this tasty treat! ;) He gobbled up the whole bowl then tried to lick it clean.

When he was all done with his cereal, Emma decided it was time to offer him an ice cream cone! He seems to have enjoyed this as well.
Don't worry everyone...it's play food from Emma's kitchen. :)

Ok...Bear with me! :)

I tried this once before, when Emma was just a baby, and I failed miserably. So, I've been inspired by Susan's blog for Jonah (http://www.jonahzane.blogspot.com/) and I'm going to try my best! lol Keep in mind, we've got dial-up, so that makes pictures a pita...but I'm promising to try. :) Drop me an email or a call to encourage me when this place is without updates. :)

Jump Around!

If there were a "Baby Olympics" I think Trevor would take the gold in the sustained jumping award. Whether he's in his Johny Jump-Up or his Exersaucer, he's always in jump mode. It's hysterical to watch and he even squeals with delight when he's super bouncy.

Take Time Every Day to *Water* the Flowers!

We *love* watering our flowers. Each and every day, Emma stands at the front door and begs to "water flowers"! If you've never watered flowers with a *super* independent two year old, you have no concept of how much watering really happens. The flowers do get a bit of water, but the paver blocks, the house, and mommy get most of the watering.

Emma loves to feel the water on her hands, and also loves to take sips from the hose. There is something special about drinking from a hose that every kid needs to experience. But, we all know that drinking from a hose can lead to a really wet kiddo...needless to say, often after watering, we need to change *all* of our clothes. Mommy and Emma!

The Fourth of July

I *love* the fourth of July! Not having lived in a time when I did not have the freedoms and rights that we now hold in this country, it's not about "independence" for me. It's all about the sparklers and the fireworks! :) (Should I be ashamed of this? lol)

We gave Emma a late nap because we wanted to keep her awake until dark so she could really enjoy this 4th. She was awake and happy at dark! We went out to our back yard and lit sparklers for her. She really liked them! This, of course, was no surprise since she's such a magpie! We did have to remind her over and over that they are "hot" and you can't touch the sparkles.

Trevor was not too sure what to think of the sparklers. He looks a bit confused. :)

Then, we decided to light off some mortars-the big fireworks with the beautiful burst in the sky! My absolute favorite! :) These were not Emma's favorite. She watched for a moment...then when I'd tell her to look in the sky, she'd raise her head to face the fireworks, but her eyes were squeezed tightly closed. :) She dove under the blanket on the third one, so we decided that rather than tourture her, we'd take her in to bed. Amazingly she slept through the hours of firework booms on our street. Trevor and I watched through the big window inside. He was curious, but not terribly impressed. He was nodding off so I took him to bed and missed the big fireworks towards the end. Oh well! Next year, we'll try again!