Dear Brielle,
At 19 months, you are QUITE the handful. You are a very, very determined little lady and there's no stopping you when there's something you want. Your favorite things at the moment are: playing with the controllers for the TV and changing the channels, climbing the bookshelf to get the DVD cases so you can open them and run around with them, open the oven and try to climb in, take things off of the counters, open drawers in search of markers so you can run around and color on things/eat the tops off, hit/kick Liam to make him cry, carry your sheep stuffed animals ("SHEP! SHEP!") or blankie around and run as far away from me as possible when it's time to get dressed.
You love eating chicken and steak and fish sticks and pizza and pretty much throw everything else I give you.
You love your baba and ask for it every morning and night. You can hold it yourself now and it makes you happy to do that.
You still LOVE LOVE LOVE shoes. You squeal with glee when you see new shoes. You also love mommy's wallet, purses, etc. You are a girly girl, but a tough one who prefers to play with superheroes and tackle things/people.
You can say "MOMMY!" now, and I love when I come home from work on Saturdays and you come running to the door screaming it. You still can't say Liam, but you call eli "y-eye y-eye."
Monday, September 15, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Liam in August
There are lots of little things about my little guy that I don't want to forget.... here goes:
-He says "Mommy?" and waits for a response and then "know what, mommy?" about 47,000 times a day.
-He insists on getting dressed himself but still gets his shirts confused a lot and always, always puts his underwear (and sometimes pants) on backwards
-He loves wearing his firemen boots and chooses them 99% of the time. He wears them on the wrong feet. I love when he picks them because he puts them on super quick and I don't have to help him.
-He prefers red because "raph-be-el" is red
-He says the following about 25 times a day "My birthday is June 15th. I want the big emperor Zurg for my birthday.
-His favorite thing to watch is The Nightmare before Christmas... he calls it the Jack movie. He loves singing "This is Halloween, this is Halloween." He's told me numerous times that he wants to be Jack the skeleton for Halloween this year.
-He is obsessed with Star Wars. He loves Darth Vader. It would be his ultimate dream come true if we got him a light saber. (not going to happen...they would seriously injure one another.)
-He has learned how to take the top straps off on his car seat and likes to do it whenever we stop (even if it's just at red lights, etc)
-Cliff Kids chocolate chip bars are his favorite thing in the world to eat.
-He always bargains for more time the wrong way. Tonight, I told him I was going to stay with him in his room at bedtime for five minutes. "NO! MOMMY! I want FOUR MINUTES! FOUR!" ok dude, you've got yourself a deal.
-He likes to tell everyone that he's "wee-um" and he's three years old. Today, he was asking everyone "What's your name??"
-He will not sit still in the stroller in a store for more than 10 seconds.
-He is actually finally able to sit down next to me and listen to full books! He loves Berenstain Bear books like his brother.
-He likes when I sing him "you are my sunshine" and knows most of the words
-At the end of the ABC song, he always says "know my know my ABCs...next time won't you sing with me?"
-He says "Mommy?" and waits for a response and then "know what, mommy?" about 47,000 times a day.
-He insists on getting dressed himself but still gets his shirts confused a lot and always, always puts his underwear (and sometimes pants) on backwards
-He loves wearing his firemen boots and chooses them 99% of the time. He wears them on the wrong feet. I love when he picks them because he puts them on super quick and I don't have to help him.
-He prefers red because "raph-be-el" is red
-He says the following about 25 times a day "My birthday is June 15th. I want the big emperor Zurg for my birthday.
-His favorite thing to watch is The Nightmare before Christmas... he calls it the Jack movie. He loves singing "This is Halloween, this is Halloween." He's told me numerous times that he wants to be Jack the skeleton for Halloween this year.
-He is obsessed with Star Wars. He loves Darth Vader. It would be his ultimate dream come true if we got him a light saber. (not going to happen...they would seriously injure one another.)
-He has learned how to take the top straps off on his car seat and likes to do it whenever we stop (even if it's just at red lights, etc)
-Cliff Kids chocolate chip bars are his favorite thing in the world to eat.
-He always bargains for more time the wrong way. Tonight, I told him I was going to stay with him in his room at bedtime for five minutes. "NO! MOMMY! I want FOUR MINUTES! FOUR!" ok dude, you've got yourself a deal.
-He likes to tell everyone that he's "wee-um" and he's three years old. Today, he was asking everyone "What's your name??"
-He will not sit still in the stroller in a store for more than 10 seconds.
-He is actually finally able to sit down next to me and listen to full books! He loves Berenstain Bear books like his brother.
-He likes when I sing him "you are my sunshine" and knows most of the words
-At the end of the ABC song, he always says "know my know my ABCs...next time won't you sing with me?"
Monday, August 25, 2014
Eli's First Day of Kindergarten
Today was the day! Eli's first day of Kindergarten! He's in Ms. Freeman's class...she has 20+ years of teaching experience, so as one of the other parents pointed out, there's nothing that these kids can do that she hasn't seen before :)
We walked over to school and lined up on the Blacktop outside the school at 8:30. His teacher knew him right away (she said she studied the pictures over the weekend) and greeted him and put a name tag on him. All of the kids were standing so nicely in line... all with HUGE backpacks. They were excited and nervous and did a great job of staying still. (wonder how long that lasted). Then it was time to go inside. One teacher went first and then when Liam realized that they were leaving, he became frantic, yelling "KUYA ELI! KUYA ELI! BYE! BYE!" He ran over to give him a hug and it was the cutest thing ever. Liam REALLY wanted to go to school, too, and was not happy about having to go home.
We picked Eli up at 3 and I got verrrrry little info from him about how his day was. He told me he played with a boy named Blake. He said for choice time, he picked Playdough (which explained why his nails were blue). That was pretty much all I got out of him.
Throughout the day, I learned the following... his teacher is really nice. The most important thing he learned all day was not to put his mouth on the drinking fountain. He used the bathroom. He liked the cafeteria because it was really, really big. Someone read him the note I wrote (Dear Eli, I hope you are having fun on your first day of school. I love you! Love, Mommy)... he said it was one of his friends who read it. He had fun at recess and played a game (Tetherball) that was REALLY FUN where there was a large steel pole and a ball tied to it that you would hit and whoever caught it got to throw it again. They went to the library and met the librarian who read them a story (Kindergarten Rocks!). They weren't allowed to touch anything there. His teacher also read him a story, but he can't remember what it was. He had spanish class, where he learned how to say "Muchas Gracias" from his spanish teacher. He chose Blue playdough for choice time and made some letter Ds out of it.
All in all, a pretty successful day! He said he wants to go back and is excited about it, so that's a win-win!
Quick trip to Ocean City
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.
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.
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!
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