The summer is coming to an end (what? When did summer even start, let alone end?) and one of my biggest regrets about time passing so quickly is that we didn't make time for Ocean City this year. I've ALWAYS gone to OC every summer and I want to continue that tradition with the kids, so when I woke up on Sunday I realized it was going to be our last chance to go.... needless to say, we made it happen! We left late, 10:30, and got to the beach around 1:20. The weather was perfect, we got a spot, and the beach was not crowded at all.
Eli LOVED the water. He was running all around, jumping, splashing, kicking and loving every minute of it. Seeing him SO filled with joy and having so much fun was worth every second of that drive for me. Liam also loved the water, but was more timid and wanted me to hold his hand. Brielle was scared of the water at first, but when I jumped her a few times, she was loving it, too. During part of the time, I was holding both Liam and Brielle's hands for the wave jumping, which made it very tricky when big waves snuck up!
The kids loved playing in the sand and the boys loved chasing each other and pushing each other down. We spent about 2.5 hours on the beach, got the kids showered and then headed over to Dumsers for dinner and ice cream. We then drove down the OC strip and headed out of town.
Short trip, but SO great.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Liam at 3 years, 2 months
Liam is, without a doubt, the whiniest child I have ever come across in my entire life. This makes for quite the challenging day. He prefers to communicate in a high-pitched squealing voice all day. Mike raised the excellent point that we are probably going to give him a complex about speaking if we continue telling him to "stop talking in that whiny voice" and so we are now attempting to switch over to the "please talk in your big boy voice." Sigh. If he doesn't get his way, he cries cries crieeees. He can dish it out to Kuya Eli but can't take it back. Since they fight/play fight 90% of the day, this makes for a challenging time for mommy.
He also continues to be the sweetest little guy ever. Tonight, I gave him a Toy Story bandaid for his foot and he said "Thank you, Mommy! Thanks for getting that for me!" a million times and followed it up with "Thanks again, Mommy, for getting that!" He loves cuddling and giving hugs and being tickled. He loves playing the "rockabye baby game" where I rock him like a baby and tickle him.
He continues to LOVE his stickers.
He is now really getting into reading, which is fun to see. As long as the books are simple and not too over his head, he will actually sit still and read them with me. Tonight, we read the new pigeon book three times in a row at his request! He also loves the Miss Nelson books and books about the avengers.
His newest favorite thing to do in the car (other than to ask if we need to get gas) is to say "you know what another really dangerous one is?" and name an animal... all because he recently learned what deer crossing signs mean. It's very cute and he gets really excited about his choices.
Sometimes he can be a pretty big eater, but most of the time he's not. He doesn't tend to eat much food when we go out to restaurants, which is very frustrating. His most favorite things to eat are applesauce pouches and cliff kid bars.
He loves playing Wii, especially the sword game.
He is obsessed with Darth Vader again and because we were at the playground with boys who had/shared light sabers, that's all he talks about now. He's also obsessed with Ninja Turtles, especially "Raph-be-el" and likes all things to be red because that means it's the "raph-be-el" one.
Every single day, I hear this about 20 times: "My birthday is June 15th. That's coming up fast. I want a big emperor Zurg for my birthday." Most days, that's the very first thing he tells me when he wakes up.
He puts his shoes on the wrong feet 50% of the time.
He has become terrified of bees and won't go in the pool if he sees any bugs floating in there, especially ants. Although, he has no problem picking up ants from the ground or pointing out ants that are on the ground.
He still lets me dress him in whatever I want, though most of the time he would prefer to be wearing his ninja turtle or batman shirt/jammies.
I signed him up for a karate class for 2-3 year olds called "Tiny Dragons." He starts in September and I am super excited for him to finally be able to take a class!
He also continues to be the sweetest little guy ever. Tonight, I gave him a Toy Story bandaid for his foot and he said "Thank you, Mommy! Thanks for getting that for me!" a million times and followed it up with "Thanks again, Mommy, for getting that!" He loves cuddling and giving hugs and being tickled. He loves playing the "rockabye baby game" where I rock him like a baby and tickle him.
He continues to LOVE his stickers.
He is now really getting into reading, which is fun to see. As long as the books are simple and not too over his head, he will actually sit still and read them with me. Tonight, we read the new pigeon book three times in a row at his request! He also loves the Miss Nelson books and books about the avengers.
His newest favorite thing to do in the car (other than to ask if we need to get gas) is to say "you know what another really dangerous one is?" and name an animal... all because he recently learned what deer crossing signs mean. It's very cute and he gets really excited about his choices.
Sometimes he can be a pretty big eater, but most of the time he's not. He doesn't tend to eat much food when we go out to restaurants, which is very frustrating. His most favorite things to eat are applesauce pouches and cliff kid bars.
He loves playing Wii, especially the sword game.
He is obsessed with Darth Vader again and because we were at the playground with boys who had/shared light sabers, that's all he talks about now. He's also obsessed with Ninja Turtles, especially "Raph-be-el" and likes all things to be red because that means it's the "raph-be-el" one.
Every single day, I hear this about 20 times: "My birthday is June 15th. That's coming up fast. I want a big emperor Zurg for my birthday." Most days, that's the very first thing he tells me when he wakes up.
He puts his shoes on the wrong feet 50% of the time.
He has become terrified of bees and won't go in the pool if he sees any bugs floating in there, especially ants. Although, he has no problem picking up ants from the ground or pointing out ants that are on the ground.
He still lets me dress him in whatever I want, though most of the time he would prefer to be wearing his ninja turtle or batman shirt/jammies.
I signed him up for a karate class for 2-3 year olds called "Tiny Dragons." He starts in September and I am super excited for him to finally be able to take a class!
Brielle at 18 months
So Brielle had her 18 month check-up last week and is doing great! She's 22 lbs, which puts her squarely in the 17th percentile (I think, anyway) for weight. She continues to be in the 74th percentile (or something like that) for height, which I think is wrong and strange... she's not very tall.
Her vocabulary is HUGE and she seriously says at least 50 words... probably closer to 100 if I were to sit down and write them all down. She LOVES singing Happy Birthday (Happa Birfday to you. Happy Birfday to DADA) and does it all. day. long. It's super cute and she cracks herself up with it. Yesterday, she was trying to put the lid on a box and couldn't do it... what did she say? "Oh shoot!" She calls Eli yay-yay (rhyming with eye-eye) but can't say Liam yet. She can say Mama but prefers to call me Dada.
She is FEISTY and determined. When she wants something, she WANTS it and will fight and scream for it. When the boys take something from her or hurt her, she SCREAMS. She can totally hold her own.
She still loves to climb and is a climbing maniac at the playground.
She loves the pool and tries to just run and jump in the water. She loves jumping and splashing and tries to put her face in the water all the time. She gets cold pretty quick and doesn't last very long, but it doesn't stop her from running around and trying to jump in. (Which obviously makes it hard for mommy, since i have to stay glued to her the entire time we are at the pool).
She loves reading "boops" though her short attention span only allows for a few pages at a time. She loves looking at animal pictures and can name cat, sheep, cow, chicken and duck.
My favorite thing she says is "wanna sit there" which she uses 50% of the time to mean that she physically wants to sit somewhere and 50% of the time to mean that she wants something that you have. I love that she doesn't understand the distinction. She also says "want chicken" and "want a cracker" to mean that she wants whatever it is that you are eating. If she hears a package opening, she has a FIT if you don't feed her immediately.
Speaking of eating, the girl can EAT. She can down 6 chicken nuggets or 2 chicken tenders, plus other stuff. She loves meat... meatballs, chicken, steak..she'll eat it all up. She's a blueberry maniac most days (and others, like today, she's an excellent blueberry thrower). She's hit or miss with yogurt... sometimes she will try a few bites and sometimes she won't let you anywhere near her with that spoon.
She loves dancing to music. She's not that into TV and definitely doesn't like to sit still for more than 5 seconds at a time. She is a lady on the MOVE.
Her favorite things to do in the new house: wake up from her nap, climb out of her crib and trash her room (she loves emptying out her hamper and filling it with all of her books), turn on and off the lamp in her brothers' room, get into her bathroom to find her toothbrush and "brush" her teeth, bust into mommy and daddy's room to climb on the bed and turn on daddy's alarm clock radio (this has been a favorite thing to do of hers for months and months), climbing the shelves to get/open the DVD boxes.
She LOVES stuffed animals and is carrying one around for most of the day. She especially loves her pink elephant, a fuzzy brown bear she has and a variety of baby dolls. She also loves the taggies blanket I bought her. She loves to cuddle with the tags/ribbons on any stuffed animal she has and it usually makes her pop her thumb in her mouth when she feels one.
She continues to love shoes and my wallet...her two most favorite things in the world. We realize we are in serious trouble here.
She HATES sitting in carts and no matter how tight I make the strap, this little Houdini can get out. She is a tough little person to be shopping with. Very, very tough.
Her vocabulary is HUGE and she seriously says at least 50 words... probably closer to 100 if I were to sit down and write them all down. She LOVES singing Happy Birthday (Happa Birfday to you. Happy Birfday to DADA) and does it all. day. long. It's super cute and she cracks herself up with it. Yesterday, she was trying to put the lid on a box and couldn't do it... what did she say? "Oh shoot!" She calls Eli yay-yay (rhyming with eye-eye) but can't say Liam yet. She can say Mama but prefers to call me Dada.
She is FEISTY and determined. When she wants something, she WANTS it and will fight and scream for it. When the boys take something from her or hurt her, she SCREAMS. She can totally hold her own.
She still loves to climb and is a climbing maniac at the playground.
She loves the pool and tries to just run and jump in the water. She loves jumping and splashing and tries to put her face in the water all the time. She gets cold pretty quick and doesn't last very long, but it doesn't stop her from running around and trying to jump in. (Which obviously makes it hard for mommy, since i have to stay glued to her the entire time we are at the pool).
She loves reading "boops" though her short attention span only allows for a few pages at a time. She loves looking at animal pictures and can name cat, sheep, cow, chicken and duck.
My favorite thing she says is "wanna sit there" which she uses 50% of the time to mean that she physically wants to sit somewhere and 50% of the time to mean that she wants something that you have. I love that she doesn't understand the distinction. She also says "want chicken" and "want a cracker" to mean that she wants whatever it is that you are eating. If she hears a package opening, she has a FIT if you don't feed her immediately.
Speaking of eating, the girl can EAT. She can down 6 chicken nuggets or 2 chicken tenders, plus other stuff. She loves meat... meatballs, chicken, steak..she'll eat it all up. She's a blueberry maniac most days (and others, like today, she's an excellent blueberry thrower). She's hit or miss with yogurt... sometimes she will try a few bites and sometimes she won't let you anywhere near her with that spoon.
She loves dancing to music. She's not that into TV and definitely doesn't like to sit still for more than 5 seconds at a time. She is a lady on the MOVE.
Her favorite things to do in the new house: wake up from her nap, climb out of her crib and trash her room (she loves emptying out her hamper and filling it with all of her books), turn on and off the lamp in her brothers' room, get into her bathroom to find her toothbrush and "brush" her teeth, bust into mommy and daddy's room to climb on the bed and turn on daddy's alarm clock radio (this has been a favorite thing to do of hers for months and months), climbing the shelves to get/open the DVD boxes.
She LOVES stuffed animals and is carrying one around for most of the day. She especially loves her pink elephant, a fuzzy brown bear she has and a variety of baby dolls. She also loves the taggies blanket I bought her. She loves to cuddle with the tags/ribbons on any stuffed animal she has and it usually makes her pop her thumb in her mouth when she feels one.
She continues to love shoes and my wallet...her two most favorite things in the world. We realize we are in serious trouble here.
She HATES sitting in carts and no matter how tight I make the strap, this little Houdini can get out. She is a tough little person to be shopping with. Very, very tough.
Our new life in MD
I am waaaaay behind on this blog... but for a good reason... we've MOVED from NYC to Columbia, MD!!!! We went from the 5 of us living in an 800 square foot apartment in NYC to a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom townhouse in Columbia. I couldn't be more thrilled. We have a small backyard (complete with a little picnic table for the kiddos and a grill so we can BBQ!), an unfinished basement (that will soon, hopefully, be transformed to a huge playspace/art area for the kiddos) and amaaaaazing community access nearby.... behind our house is a new park complete with three large enclosed soccer/football fields and huge playground. We are a 5 minute walk from the high school track. We are a minutes's drive away from basketball/tennis courts, an ice skating rink, baseball fields, etc. We have access to 23 outdoor pools, 3 amazing gyms, a mini golf course... it just goes on and on and on. Every day, we're discovering new and fun things to do.
My/Our life has improved a MILLION percent. We live close to my mom and can call her up to meet up for lunch, drive over and hang out or have her over here. It's SO GREAT to be so close to her and LIFE CHANGING to have HEEELLLLLP. I've gone out to dinner with Mike more times in the past month than I have in the past year.
Mike started his job on Monday and I will hopefully start mine next weekend (waiting for orientation). Eli starts school on Monday the 25th. We went to orientation today and he got to meet his teacher and a few of his classmates. His room is HUGE compared to his room last year. I am so excited about his schedule. They go to the school library every monday, have music on tuesday, gym class on wed and thurs and art on friday. They have 30 minutes of complete spanish immersion every day. It'll be his first time being FULL day at school and his first time eating lunch at school. It will be very interesting carving out our new normal come Monday! I'm hoping that me, Liam and Brielle will be able to take advantage of some of the amazing programs at the library and do some other fun classes and things while Eli is in school. Because one thing is for sure... at these ages right now, I absolutely cannot take the three of them indoors inside stores or places alone. They are TOO crazy. My mom and I had the hardest time wrangling the three of them in the library today. Brielle is like a little firecracker..running here and there like a crazy person. I don't even want to attempt shopping solo with them again for a long, long time.
We still have a lot to unpack and I don't know when we're ever going to be able to do that, but so far, SO GOOD!
My/Our life has improved a MILLION percent. We live close to my mom and can call her up to meet up for lunch, drive over and hang out or have her over here. It's SO GREAT to be so close to her and LIFE CHANGING to have HEEELLLLLP. I've gone out to dinner with Mike more times in the past month than I have in the past year.
Mike started his job on Monday and I will hopefully start mine next weekend (waiting for orientation). Eli starts school on Monday the 25th. We went to orientation today and he got to meet his teacher and a few of his classmates. His room is HUGE compared to his room last year. I am so excited about his schedule. They go to the school library every monday, have music on tuesday, gym class on wed and thurs and art on friday. They have 30 minutes of complete spanish immersion every day. It'll be his first time being FULL day at school and his first time eating lunch at school. It will be very interesting carving out our new normal come Monday! I'm hoping that me, Liam and Brielle will be able to take advantage of some of the amazing programs at the library and do some other fun classes and things while Eli is in school. Because one thing is for sure... at these ages right now, I absolutely cannot take the three of them indoors inside stores or places alone. They are TOO crazy. My mom and I had the hardest time wrangling the three of them in the library today. Brielle is like a little firecracker..running here and there like a crazy person. I don't even want to attempt shopping solo with them again for a long, long time.
We still have a lot to unpack and I don't know when we're ever going to be able to do that, but so far, SO GOOD!
Sunday, July 13, 2014
No more naps?
Yesterday, July 12th, Brielle learned how to climb out of her crib. She has been climbing out of her pack n play for about a month now, but this was the first time she figured out how to get out of the crib. Mike said he put her down for her morning nap (in her crib) only to find her later, on OUR bed.
Does this mean nap time is over? Mike said he wasn't able to get her to take a first nap, but she was tired enough for a second nap. Sigh. My little escapee.
Does this mean nap time is over? Mike said he wasn't able to get her to take a first nap, but she was tired enough for a second nap. Sigh. My little escapee.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Brielle at 16 months
16 months!
Brielle's vocabulary right now is taking off! I feel like every day, she has a new word or two. The doc said that at this age, 1-3 words is pretty typical. She, at the time of her 15 month appointment, had 10 consistent words. Now, she is pretty consistent with: hi, bye, up, ow, no, two (if you say one, she will say two), dada, baby, shoe, shirt, sit, poo-poo, nap, boom, baba, backpack, apple. (She also uses apple for banana and calls Elmo "apple."). She can tell you that a cow says "mmmm" and a sheep says "baaa" and sometimes says "kak" when you ask her what a duck says. Sometimes I feel like I hear her say words but then convince myself that she didn't really say them... like today, she picked up her toy elephant and I could have SWORN she said it.
She continues to be a very adventurous little girly and there's nothing that really scares her. Climbing remains her favorite thing to do. Yesterday, she figured out how to scale the barrier we have been using to keep her out of the kitchen...and also learned how to climb the stove and open the fridge. If you ever yell at her, she puts both of her hands over her mouth, like "Oh no!" It's very cute.
She loves dancing to the theme songs of the shows her brothers like to watch, especially Dora and Wild Kratts. She loves it when I sing anything to her and always laughs and laughs and laughs.
She's SO easy to put down for naps now. I tell her to say bye to her brothers....and since saying Bye to anyone is her most favorite thing in the world, she gets really excited and starts off with "BYE! BYE! BYE!" They give her a kiss and then I take her to her room, with us both saying "n-n-n-n-n nap!" I start singing Twinkle Twinkle and then lay her in her crib. when I hand her the pink elephant, she finds the tag, puts her thumb in her mouth and lays right down. I sing a few more words and then she waves and says "BYE!" Done. It's great.
She continues to love eating, but she loves throwing her food on the floor even more. She loves drinking out of her new big girl water bottle but also loves spitting it out all over herself so that she soaks her shirt.
She loves walking around with her backpack and freaks out with joy when the backpack song from Dora comes on.
She continues to be a very adventurous little girly and there's nothing that really scares her. Climbing remains her favorite thing to do. Yesterday, she figured out how to scale the barrier we have been using to keep her out of the kitchen...and also learned how to climb the stove and open the fridge. If you ever yell at her, she puts both of her hands over her mouth, like "Oh no!" It's very cute.
She loves dancing to the theme songs of the shows her brothers like to watch, especially Dora and Wild Kratts. She loves it when I sing anything to her and always laughs and laughs and laughs.
She's SO easy to put down for naps now. I tell her to say bye to her brothers....and since saying Bye to anyone is her most favorite thing in the world, she gets really excited and starts off with "BYE! BYE! BYE!" They give her a kiss and then I take her to her room, with us both saying "n-n-n-n-n nap!" I start singing Twinkle Twinkle and then lay her in her crib. when I hand her the pink elephant, she finds the tag, puts her thumb in her mouth and lays right down. I sing a few more words and then she waves and says "BYE!" Done. It's great.
She continues to love eating, but she loves throwing her food on the floor even more. She loves drinking out of her new big girl water bottle but also loves spitting it out all over herself so that she soaks her shirt.
She loves walking around with her backpack and freaks out with joy when the backpack song from Dora comes on.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Liam at age 3
It took me a little while to get all of the answers for this one... he doesn't like to sit still and would only ever answer about 5 at a time. Here are Liam's answers at age 3:
Liam, Age 3
How old are you? I’m three!
What makes you happy? Getting toys/guys
What is your favorite animal? Allosaurus
What is your favorite thing to eat? Chicken nuggets and french fries and apples
What is your least favorite thing to eat? Worms
What is your favorite thing to do? Do homework
What is your favorite TV show? Dinosaurs
What are you really good at? Playing with Buzz and Woody
What is your favorite movie? Toy Story
What is your favorite color? Blue
What is your favorite song? Frosty the Snowman
Who is your best friend? Kuya Eli
What do you and your mom do together? Blocks
What do you and your dad do together? Draw
What is your favorite sport? Basketball
Where is your favorite place to go? Ice Cream
What is your favorite book? Toy Story
What do you want to be when you grow up? Playing basketball
What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Chicken Nuggets
What is your favorite place you visited this year? Grandma’s house
If you had a lot of money, what would you do with it? Get bad guys to defeat ninja turtles
If you had a whole day to do anything you wanted, what would you do? I going to playground
What is your favorite dessert? Ice cream
What are you scared of? Monsters
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Scare pigeons
What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
What is your favorite snack? birthday cake
What is your favorite cereal? strawberry (shredded wheat, strawberry flavor)
What is your favorite drink? strawberry lemonade
What is the most important thing you've learned in life so far? Cake.
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