Fall 2009 Happenings

In additon to Disney, family pictures and checkups we stayed pretty busy this past fall. The holidays (posts forthcoming), packing up the old house, working on new house plans and actually moving took up quite a bit of our time, but try explaining that to a 3 and 1 year old! So, we continued on in our normal day-to-day, and I tried to snap a few pictures along the way!

Parker spent the rest of 2009 enjoying popcorn balls! Long story short, he ate a popcorn ball at a Halloween party and fell in love with this new food. He's always liked popcorn, but these balls had a sweet coating on them and came in the perfect hand-held size for him. So naturally, the day after Halloween I headed over to WalMart and bought two big cases (50% off) for him and he enjoyed them throughout the end of the year!

We also spent some time outside painting with our favorite gal-pals, Kinsley and her little sister Leah, and their great Mommy, Melissa! Tristan and Kinsley go to Mom's Day Out together and have been friends since they were about 6/7 months old (we met in Water Babies swim class). Kinsley is a tad bit more reserved (it's a girl thing) than Tristan, but he loves to hang out with her and I think she likes playing with him too, lol! The funniest thing about them is that Kinsley is the ONLY person that Tristan has never hit/kicked/punched...I don't know what it is, he's always so sweet to her! And, he's pretty good with her little sister Leah, always giving her sweet kisses...I'll have to remember to get a picture of that next time!

All 4 kids LOVED the painting and it actually kept their attention for quite some time. Tristan and Parker mostly worked on one masterpiece together while Kinsley created her own, and little Leah watched and crawled over to the paints as fast as she could, but she couldn't quite get there before Mommy! I saved Tristan and Parker's masterpeice and am thinking about framing it to put up in the playroom at the new house...

Please excuse Tristan's "plumber crack", lol!

Of course we had to get some sleep in between all that was going on in the fall and I couldn't resist taking a few quick shots of my very own "sleeping beauties".

Oh, what can I really say about this picture??

Now this picture, one word: SWEET!

Parker got creative with his toys since we seemed to be stuck at home a lot, working on this or that. He kind of has an obsession about putting any and everything on his head and then looking at you and saying "hat"...seriosuly, forks, cups, anything is a "hat" to him!

Tristan and Parker also got pretty close over the last few months and LOVE To play together. They chase ach other around the house, on foot and on their cars, until one of them poops out and needs a break. There are plenty of fights over toys that Mommy gets to break up, but they are pretty good in general and seems to like having each other as a playmate!

And finally, Parker spent some time in the refrigerator!

He actually decided to try out a new foods, specifically waffles! Which have now become a favorite breakfast food ! He refused to eat them until some time in early December and now he wants them all the time.

I started out one morning by asking him if he wanted to help make waffles and got him the stepstool to stand on at the kitchen island...he was quite excited! We made the batter and put them in waffle iron and voila, he decided to give it a little taste, but not without being complicated! There was a lot of clapping and cheering after bites, by me and him. And, he had to have two plates, one with a plain waffle to take bites from and another with a waffle with syrup to stick his fingers in lick from...this waffle was not eaten, it was simply used for dipping fingers into. He has just recently decided he can eat the one with syrup and now only needs one plate of waffles, and he lets me cut it up now! Silly boy!

Well, those were a few of the "other" things that kept us busy, next up, some holiday posts. Guess I am slowly getting back on track!

Checkups

The day after we returned from Disney we had family pics and then the day after that, we had checkups! So, yes, I tortured my children with pictures and shots after a week full of fun at "Mickey's house"!

Both of their check-ups went great and both kids are growing like weeds, and full of energy. They were all over the doctor's office and into everything...I swear they are worse when they are together. Individually they really aren't too bad, but together, oh boy, let me tell you, they are a handful, to say the least!

I really couldn't believe I was taking Tristan in for his 3 year check-up, he has grown up so much...no more baby or toddler, he is definitely a little boy now, 100 percent! He has so much energy, all the time and is so animated in his facial expressions, actions and words. Everything is an exciting story to him and he acts out all his emotions...he has quite the dramatic talent! He's on the go 24/7 and I feel like he never sleeps since he doesn't nap and then still fights bedtime at 10 p.m. During the checkup he was up and down, pretending to hit and kick, throwing balls and any other thing you can think of to get some energy out! The doctor even asked if we have looked into sports for him so that he can get some of that energy out. And yes, I've just been waiting for him to be old enough, which now he is...just signed him up for spring soccer!

He's really thinned out...maybe because in addition to never sleeping, he never eats either...somedays I think he'd be satisfied with just one meal and if I didn't force him he probably wouldn't even eat that! But I guess he's getting what he needs because he's growing taller. Hopefully, it's just a phase!

Verbally and comprehensively he is doing fantastic. He speaks in sentences now and his words are super clear. His memory is amazing and he understands so much of what I tell him...it so much easier to reason with him and explain what and why we have to do things a certain way. Now, I don't kid myself, there are a lot of times he doesn't like my explanation and let's me know he doesn't, but to me it still seems easier than the screaming, temper-tantrum throwing toddler who was just beginning to learn to communicate (because I am reminded daily of that stage since I have one of those too!).

Tristan's 3 year stats were as follows:

Weight: 36.6 pounds - 89th percentile (yes, this is slightly LESS than he weighed at 2!)
Height: right under 40 inches - 92nd percentile
Head: 19.5 inches




As far Parker, my "mischievious one", as he is lovingly referred to around our house, he's is getting SO BIG! The pediatrician was quite surprised how big Parker had gotten since she last saw him. And I think he's grown a ton more in the last 3 months since his checkup (wow, I am truly 3 months behind!).

He doesn't have a lot of "friends" around his age, most are older or younger, so I don't have a good comparison for him, but he seems really tall to me, and heavy! He still LOVES to eat, but has become picky about his foods...he wants to eat what he wants to eat and thats it, nothing else. He loves his beef, chicken and fish, which are the main staple of his diet since a lot of other things are off limits due to his allergies. But he is a huge snacker...crackers, cereal, popcorn and certain cookies are some of his favorites. For awhile all he wanted to eat was eauther oatmeal or soy yogurt for breakfast (he has only recently accepted a few other breakfast foods). I actually brought him instant oatmeal for our trip to Disney and made sure we had a microwave in the room so he could have his oatmeal every morning for breakfast!

In addition to eating, he's started talking a lot. Around 18 months and during our Disney trip it seemed like his vocabulary really took off. On our first day at Magic Kingdom we were pointing out the castle to Tristan and Parker started saying "castle"...ever since then he has been repeating words left and right, but just like the eating thing he would only say them when he wanted to, not on cue from me or Victor! He's definitely in the beginning stages of learning to fully communicate but the words he has down really make a difference and have reduced the number of crying and pointing fits where I am running around trying to figure out what he wants. Can't wait until I have two fully communicating children!

He's also become more interactive and tries so hard to keep up with his big brother. He runs all over the house following Tristan and loves to copy whatever big brother does. And he is a major jumping bean...he jumps all the time, and high, and gets both feet off the gound and back on the ground. I guess we have another very coordinated child...still don't know where that comes from!

A big accomplishment he hit at around 18 months was that he *started* to do a little better with me leaving him...for quite some time he was pretty attached to me, but he is starting to get a lot better and is accepting staying with others a little better. He still has his crying, flailing himself around fits when he's left but they are much more short-lived and he accepts it and starts to play. This is much easier for Mommy to handle!!!

His 18 month stats were as follows (although he seems to have sprouted once again in the past 3 months!)

Weight: 32 pounds - 97th percentile
Height: 34 inches - 90th persentile
Head: 19 inches - 63rd percentile




Since this post is about 3 months overdue, I know both kids have grown even more since November, but I wanted to make sure and record this stage. I can't believe in a little less than 3 more months, Parker will be 2 and Tristan 3 1/2!

2009 Family Pics

Now that it is February of 2010, I am finally going to post our 2009 family pictures we took back in November! We actually took them the day after we got back from Disney...maybe not the brightest idea in retrospect, but hey, I had to work with schedules and that was the day that worked!

Once again, I chose to use the photographer we used for our family pics last year and I think the pics came out great, even though the boys refused to wear the super-cute and carefully planned ties my Mom made for them...the ties were supposed to add a little color to our black clothed, urban look! Oh well, maybe the ties will work out next year!