Anna is 3!

Sweet Anna Banana is 3! Woah, that sounds old!
Anna is really transitioning to a little girl these days.  She's definitely not a toddler anymore. 

For Anna's birthday, she got a bike helmet, and she loves to wear it while riding up and down and up and down the driveway!

On her birthday, we had a fun lunch date with daddy! Anna LOVED it. 

 

We had a fun party/cookout for her birthday at our house.  We had our community group friends come, some BSF friends and some ISCA friends.  It was a sweet day.  Afterwards, we watched world cup with some of our friends and Josh's dad while kids napped.

Anna is such a talker! She is super chatty and sometimes just starts talking even though she doesn't really have anything to say.  She will try to think of something after she starts talking! She loves to talk at dinner and we've taught her to say "excuse me".  Otherwise, she will interrupt a lot. Our conversations have gotten interesting, and it has been neat helping her figure out the world through so much talking. 

She is getting better at getting herself dressed and going to the bathroom/washing hands alone.  We are almost there!

She loves swinging outside and playing things like "candy house" where she pretends to be in a house making candy.  Her imagination is getting pretty developed!

I'm really loving how helpful she is becoming.  Just this past weekend, Anna helped me make the laundry soap.  She used the funnel and cup to pour the liquid into the jugs.  She did great and never got tired! Also, today, she helped me make a strawberry pie.  Her jobs were poking holes in the pie crust before baking, washing strawberries, stirring the mashed strawberries, and putting the whole strawberries in the pie crust.  She did so well and had so much fun!

Lately, we've been using a sticker chart to help her master things like staying in her bed at night (she has a really hard time falling asleep at night) and going poo poo without being told.  It's amazing how much this helps!! Just this weekend she got a new toy for filling up her sticker chart. 

About the whole falling asleep business - sometime in April, we had a bad storm right at Anna's bedtime.  She got really scared and we let her stay up with us until it was over.  Well, since that night, she has had a really hard time staying in bed.  It was like a "fear" switch got turned on in her little brain, and she isn't quite past it. We now leave her lamp on and her door open to help her feel safe.  We also say lots of prayers and talk about God's promises to keep us safe and never leave us.  She is doing so much better now, although it still takes a while for her to fall asleep. 

Anna really loves people, but also needs her down time.  We recently went to Michigan (whole post about that later) and had a great time, but I could tell Anna was happy to be home.  It's neat to see her little personality developing.  I think it's too soon to tell if she is an extrovert or introvert, but I'm guessing extrovert. 

The princess phase and pink phase are in full blast in our home! She loves dressing like a princess or ballerina and dancing/twirling around the house.  Her favorite color is definitely pink and she tells me her favorite animals are "pink bunnies and kitty cats".  She also says her favorite vegetable is pumpkins, probably because we have pumpkins growing in our garden.  Such a funny little person.

That's Anna at the age of 3!

Caleb 12-16 months

Well, life with child number 2 has proven much busier than expected! Also, having a larger house to clean has taken up a lot more of my time! But, here is a post about my sweet boy Caleb. 

This boy is pretty strong! He's basically running now.  He started walking the week of his first birthday and has been speeding up ever since.  He loves pushing around the stroller that Anna used at this age.  He and Anna push their toys around the house and have the best time!

Just this week, Caleb started using a spoon to eat.  He did really well, but still needs more practice.

He is saying a lot of words lately.  Here is a rough list: ball, car, NO, down, please, mama, dada, papa, dog, fish, chex, bottle (baba), cup, dig, plane.  He is becoming a little parrot already. 

And with all these fun milestones comes some not-so fun ones! He is definitely testing limits and won't usually come to me when I ask.  He gets frustrated when things don't go his way and usually throws something.  We're working on it! Table manners are my big focus right now, and teaching him to come to me when I call him.  He does really great when I tell him to get his shoes or to throw something in the trash.  O yeah, he can say "trash", too.

Caleb really loves Anna and they have the best time playing together.  Of course, sometimes Anna pushes his buttons by taking toys away, but for the most part, they have a good time. 

He's a big cuddler. I love it!!!

Caleb is still taking 2 naps and goes to bed around 7:30.  We've recently stopped nursing.  His favorite foods are noodles, carrots, sweet potatoes, corn and MEAT.  The boy loves meat! He isn't a huge fan of milk, but manages to get it down.  LOVES yogurt too.  Allergies don't seem to be a problem with Caleb.  He is more picky than Anna though. 

That's Caleb from 12 - 16 months!

A break from Winter - Caleb eats dirt

Today there is snow on the ground after yet another "winter storm".  This has been a record breaking year for snow accumulation and school shut downs due to weather.  We've been inside more than we would like!

BUT, we had a few nice days the last two weeks and have taken advantage of the opportunity to get outdoors.  Here are a few pics from our days outside!

CALEB eats dirt!

Anna helps Daddy with his projects and has a friend over!



All bundled up on a snowy day:

Anna is 2.5 years old!

Anna is two and half!! What??? She has been changing so much, and deserves a whole post about it!

In a "big tutu" for Joel's wedding

Physical changes:
-LONG hair.  We need to get a haircut.  She is also thinning out!! She has a long torso and long legs.  I'm expecting her to definitely tower over me!!
-She can jump now, like really jump.  For the longest time, she would just skip and think it was jumping!
-She loves to run, but has been doing that for a while.  She can also throw balls pretty well & can catch sometimes (thanks to JOSH).
- Volume level has increased.  She is LOUD, but I think this is normal for her age :). 
- Fine motor skills: she is getting really good at coloring pages.  She can mostly stay in the lines.
-She is totally potty trained.  It happened late November, but took a while for her to really get it.
-She's been taking great naps lately, like 2-3 hours.  She also sleeps in more often, usually til 7am.

Anna and Papa

Lots of snow!!

Other changes:
- For the first time in a while, Anna cried when we left her with a sitter.  I think it was because it was so close to bedtime. Not sure!
- She follows Caleb around EVERYWHERE.  If he is crawling, she is crawling.  He gets a toy, she wants it, etc.  I'm learning that she needs to have activities of her own to keep her busy throughout the day and give an outlet for her energy. 
-She took a shower by herself the other day!! This isn't normal, but I sat in the bathroom and let her do it, to help her sinuses clear out. She loved it. 
-Attitude: she can be the sweetest, best little helper in the world.  She is compliant by nature (I think).  Yet, she is really in a stage of wanting to do her own thing.  Example:  washing hands in the bathroom.  She can't yet do it by herself, but doesn't want me to help.  She can throw a pretty good fit ;) 
-We have recently been having battles over her arguing with me.  I thought it would be a long time until we had to deal with that, but not so!! I will say "Caleb loves that toy, Anna" and she will say "He doesn't love that toy"... and she does this all day.  It's one area that I'm really working on with her!

The two pics above were from Christmas (obviously).  We made ornaments for the tree and Anna did a GREAT job making the shapes and painting them.  It was so much fun to do together.  Anna loved Christmas this year- especially Christmas lights and having people in our home.  I think we had 10-12 people at our house in the span of a week.  Lots of fun for her and us! She also really enjoyed talking about "Jesus' Birthday", and understood the Christmas story pretty well.  For another day: I tried explaining that we wouldn't see Jesus on His birthday, and totally butchered some theology!! Not sure why I brought it up, but I was trying to anticipate her being upset by not seeing Jesus...

She really likes to watch Daniel Tiger on PBS.  It's the only show she really likes, other than veggie tales sing along. 

Daddy's Girl:  Anna is still Daddy's Girl, of course.  When we had a lot of snow days, Anna was in heaven with Josh working from home (roads were awful).  He would take breaks and play with her and even let her sit in his lap while he worked.  She just LOVED it.  Now, most mornings before Josh leaves, Anna tells him "I want you to stay home with me".  It's so sweet, and I can see Josh's heart melting before my eyes!!! When Josh is home on weekends, Anna is usually "helping" him with projects around the house.  She really loves to be a helper and learn about his tools. 

She is a big talker now, and we can understand just about everything she says.  Some sounds she just cant do yet.  Here are a few of her funny words:
"poothie" = smoothie
"quantry"= pantry
"strower"=stroller
Also, one of her favorite phrases is "We did that yestaday" or "I ate that yestaday", regardless of how long ago in the past the activity occurred.  Everything in the past happened "yestaday".  It's really neat that she is getting a concept of time and how to communicate that. 

I could go on and on, but I think I've written enough.  It's so wonderful to watch Anna growing up, yet I find myself missing the days when she was Caleb's size.  I think that's how all mothers feel, though!!

Caleb 8 -10 months!

Poor second child! I'm never on time with these posts, but I want to journal some milestones nonetheless!

Caleb is a busy little bee! He loves chasing Anna around and playing with anything he can get his hands on.  He is an expert crumb-finder.  He will eat anything off the ground, just like Anna (and most babies, I'm sure).  He was especially fond of the Christmas tree needles.

Here are some pictures of Caleb from the past couple months.

Bath Boy!

The three pictures above were from Joel and Claire's wedding.  We had a blast with family that weekend! I could write a whole post on it...

 

 

 

What's in there Grandma??

He is quite a climber!

Blackmail picture for the future!

Dinner at the Hastings during Christmas time.

Sandy and Caleb

 

 

I mean, really people.  Can he get any cuter?  I'm afraid he gets away with things I would have never let Anna do, just because he is second child and so cute and chubby.  HOWEVER, I'm working on it!!! I recently started "disciplining" him for trying to pull out the night lights in various rooms.  He also tries to play with the hallway air intake cover, get in my kitchen drawers, and play with cords. 

 

Recently, he has started putting smaller objects into containers.  This has been fun to watch.  He also tries to put tops on containers. 

 

About sleeping through the night... Well, sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.  It's the weirdest thing! I've done sleep training several times with him at night, only to have him start waking again.  He has been sick the past 2 weeks, so I'm hoping that's the cause of early waking.  I'll get back to you on this...

 

He's eating great - veggies, fruits, meats, carbs.  He nurses 5-6 times a day, about every 3-3.5 hours. 

 

He takes a short morning nap, a longer afternoon nap, and sometimes still an early evening nap.  He goes to bed around 7pm and wakes around 5am to eat, but then goes back to bed til 7am.

 

 During meals, he is learning signs for "more", "please", and "thank you".  He tries to say "more" and does a pretty good job! He also makes the sounds "ma" "da" and "puh". 

 

Still only two teeth! More coming soon, I think, judging from the drool. 

 

So that's Caleb from the last couple of months!!