So Sick!

What a week! Unfortunately. our poor Leo has been so sick. He has the flu and this is the most discomfort we have seen him experience. This has been a very difficult time and to make matters worse, he passed the sickness alomg to me and Joe. We are parying Somerset is spared this pain.

On a happier note, Somerset has picked up a few more words. She definitely now understand "ut-oh" and uses it frequently, as she seems to have many mishaps. She also now says "nah, nah, nah, nah, nah" for no.

She also gets around in the most adorable way and is getting very proficient at it. She scoots around on her little bum and uses her her feet to propel herself forward. She can get around very fast this way. I have heard about babies doing this instead of crawling, but to see her in action is hilarious. ( video soon to follow).

Leo has become much more aware of his emotions. He has told me a few times recently that he is sad. This always makes me sad in turn, but it is encouraging to see him develop in this way. Also, he expresses happiness often by saying, "I love everyone in the world!"

Baldy

I made this for Somerset's room

Joe went a little crazy with the clippers and now Leo is nearly bald. It's a good thing Leo is so handsome and can pull off this look. Also, if summer ever arrives in Oregon, he will enjoy the coolness of his new hairstyle.

Joe and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. We were able to go on a real date because my mom watched the kids. It is so good to know that after 7 years together, we are still so in love.

Somerset nearly has her 4 top teeth. The fangs have poked through and the 2 center teeth are ready to come through. She also has started saying "ut-oh." She says it in a very apprehensive, girly way. It is the cutest.

She also is still not crawling. The way she gets around is hilarious!!! She sits on her bottom and scoots around that way. I really don't think she will crawl because she is so into scooting around. It does make me a bit nervous that she is making little effort in her physical milestones, but she is doing so well in other areas (eating, communication), that I am trying not to be too concerned.

She is getting more confident with waving to strangers and loves to interact with other children. She especially loves her brother and thinks that he is hilarious! The often makes noises back and forth to each other and laugh and laugh.

Bragging Rights

Just a heads up for this post: I am going to brag. I posted a few photos of Leo's amazing star ship creations. All of these ships he makes are completely on his own and he is very intentional about them. He knows exactly what ship he is trying to make and executes it as well as he can using Duplo blocks.

Also, Leo not only knows all the planets in our solar system and their correct order, but he also can name the moons too. he is our little genius!

Teeth!

The big news in the house is that Summy has teeth! She has her 2 bottom teeth now and the fangs are pointing through, with the 2 front, top ones close behind. Poor Somerset is sensitive as it is, but this added pain is no good for her. At least we are getting this teething all out of the way at once. In the meantime, her smile looks a little goofy, but is still so beautiful.

Somerset might have added the word ball to her vocabulary. It is still undecided if she really know what this word means when she says it.

She continues to wave and often turns her hand in towards herself as she opens and shuts her fingers...it is the cutest thing ever. She also loves to sign for milk when she is about to be fed.

Somerset loves eating. She likes puffs, mangos, strawberries, peanut butter ( not allergic), Cheerios, yogurt and smoothies. She is a good eater, but prefers to feed herself.

We think Somerset might be left handed. At this early stage, she favors it. Also, she may be a future drummer. She is much more musical than Leo ever was and loves drumming away with her toys. She also claps her hands now too.

Leo is now really interested in Astronomy. This seems like a natural transition since he still loves Star Wars. He loves to look at the photos in Joe's college Astronomy book and ask questions. After I explained the different sizes of the planets he declared that, "Summy is small like Pluto." (Shhh, we still haven't told him that Pluto is not considered a planet anymore).

Leo has also expressed interest in various career choices including Airplane Pilot, Doctor, Dentist and Gas Station Attendant. I told him that he would be very good at any of these things and he can do anything in life he sets his mind to.

As you can see by the photos, we spent part of our 4th of July weekend at the kiddy pool. It was fun and the kids both loved it. I did get stung by a bee on the bottom of my foot as we entered the pool. That hurt so much. It was worse than any part of my c-section. Ouch!!!

On the 4th, we went to our friends Christy and Eben's house. Leo loves their daughter Evie and they have a newborn son named James. It was good to catch up. We were home by 7 pm and put Summy to bed and she slept through all the crazy fireworks!!! We took turns walking Leo around the neighborhood and it was great to meet neighbors and see the excitement in Leo's eyes when the fireworks went off. He loves anything that blows up, makes loud noise and lights up, so the 4th is his kind of holiday.

9 Month Dr. Appointment

Just a quick update before I lose track of all my mental notes. Our poor Summy bear is getting many teeth at once. She has the bottom right, 2 top teeth and 2 top "fangs" coming in at once. She is miserable, but at least we will get all this painful stuff out of the way. She woke up 4 times last night instead of her usual 1 wake-up.

She now does the sign for milk, which is adorable. She gets very excited and signs frantically when it is feeding time.

I have also almost given up on purees and have switched her over to finger foods. She doesn't seem to have the same issue with gagging that Leo did, I am just uncertain of how much she is eating because food ends up every where.

She also had her 9 month appointment a week ago, and her stats look great:

Weight: 18 lbs., 40%
Height: 27.6 inches, 58%
Head circumference: 17.8, 83% (big noggin' = smart girl)

Leo's behavior has been awesome. His reward scoreboard has been a great motivation for him. Ww are so proud of him!!! He is often Mommy and Daddy's helper and he is the smartest, most imaginative 3 year old boy I have ever met. I thank God daily that these kids are mine!

9 Months Old!

New bangs

9 month Portrait with Joy the Owl

It has been too long since I last posted and so much has happened. Somerset is 9 months today and in the last few weeks, a number of important developments have been made: she got her 1st tooth (bottom, left, center), I gave her bangs, she clapped, she continues to say "ma ma" and "da da", she is learning to wave etc. What a girl!!! There are still no signs of crawling, but I just don't think it is a priority for her. Also, she LOVES music...more so than Leo ever seemed to. She lights up when she hears music and she is always playing with her music toys.

Leo also had had some cool things happen. He got a new twin bed and slept the whole night through his first night. We bought him a navy comforter and some Star Wars pillows. We still have a lot of work to do to get his room looking good after the change in decor, but I know we will get there.

Leo continues to build really advanced space ships out of his Legos. His creations are amazing. Also, today he put together a 24 piece Cars puzzle by himself! Amazing. It was for ages 3-7, and in typical Leo style, he is so ahead of the curve.

Leo has been so well behaved too. We have our off days, but our reward chart really seems to have had a positive affect on him. Go Leo!

The Amazing Leo!

Yummy foot!

Leo lined up all his cars!!! There were probably about 150 cars in this line up.

We are so proud of our Leo! Leo did a trial run of preschool this week and did great! I attended with him the first day, but he wanted to go alone today. The teacher said that he did awesome and I was so proud of him taking this big step. I am not surprised that my independent little guy is so excited about being a big boy and attending school all by himself.

Leo has been such a good boy recently. We seem to really be turning a corner with him. He still has his share of temper tantrums, but Joe and I try to be sympathetic and compassionate about his uncontrollable emotions.

Leo has been building some amazing things at home. I don't think it's a coincidence that there is only one letter difference between Leo's name and Lego...he is the Lego king! Within minutes at preschool, the teacher's declared that he was a builder.

As you can see, Leo's penmanship is great for a 3 year old. I was very impressed with how well he wrote his name that I snapped a pic (for the record, I didn't help at all).

Somerset has shown quite the independent streak. Like her brother, she wants to do things by herself. As a baby, Leo focused on more physical goals: crawling, walking etc. Somerset has been declaring her independence by no longer allowing me to feed her. She loves Gerber puffs and only wants finger foods now, but she has no teeth...this is a challenge. Today we gave her baby food that she can feed to herself. The packaging has a spout at the top and she just need to squeeze the pouch to get food into her mouth.

She has been getting up once a night now, which feels like Heaven to me. Yeah sleep! (knock on wood).