Three.

I remember all the waiting and the anticipation and the "please come out already!" I remember the anxiety that crept in when they said it was finally time to start pushing. I remember how excited I was when I found out she was a "she". I remember how big she looked yet how light she felt when I finally got to hold her. I remember being overwhelmed by the sudden pressure I felt to make the right decisions and take care of her in the right way. More than anything, I remember the pride I felt when I introduced her to our family as our daughter, Brooke Mary Reeder.

Three. We can't even believe it. Our hilarious, sassy, stubborn, adorable firstborn is three years old today. These 3 years have been magical. Exhausting, but magical :)

Happy birthday, lady. As you always say, you're my best girl ever.

Brooke's Birthday Interview: Year 3
1. What is your favorite animal? A hippo, like Hallie (from Doc McStuffins.)
2. What is your favorite food? Broccoli, cereal, &, um, yogurt.
3. What is your favorite show? One of the princess shows. Can you guess what it is? Belle! Because she's on my boots. (She was wearing her princess snow boots at the time. When prompted for an actual TV show, she chose Fresh Beat Band.)
4. What is your favorite color? Pink & purple.
5. Who is your best friend? Claire & Molly.
6. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Waffles.
7. What is your favorite restaurant? Skyline, DaRosa's, & barbecue sauce.
8. What is your favorite book? Frosty. (The song was playing.) And Princess books & Dora & Strawberry Shortcake.
9. What is your favorite song? Frosty! And Fresh Beat Band! And Princess!
10. What is your favorite toy? My guitar that Abby & Max gave me. And I like to play with my best buddy Joe.
11. What is your favorite snack? Animal crackers.
12. What do you like to sleep with at night? My best buddy Belle, Honey Bunny, Bunny, & Seahorse.
13. What kind of birthday party are you going to have? A Pinkalicious party!

Blessed.

Happy kids, blessed parents, successful holiday :)

Hope your Christmas was as magical as ours this year!

José.

Joe, at 15.5 months:

- knows & can point out lots of body parts. Current list: ears, nose, head, teeth, mouth, eyes, belly, legs, feet, & hands.
- can do "shhhh!"
- uses a fork and spoon pretty well. He can eat an entire bowl of yogurt/applesauce with surprising accuracy. He loves to have utensils at meals, even though 1/2 the time he holds it with one hand and eats with the other.
- has been using a few 2-word phrases for a while, namely things like "Thank you, ____!" or "Bye ____!"
- has mastered the following sounds: cow, cat, dog, horse, goat, lion, duck, car, train, & Santa.
- talks all the time. He's adding new words to his vocabulary daily. His favorite & most used words: no, pappy, cracker, & "nack" (snack)
- has 12 teeth, thanks to the recent addition of 4 new ones. Those darn molars have been "coming in" for months and they finally broke through this month!
- favorite toys: balls (any size, color, sport, doesn't matter - he loves them all!,) Legos, beads, bowl & spoon, cars
- is wearing (mostly) size 18M clothes and size 6 shoes. Not nearly as big as his sister was at his age.
- loves to put shoes on, but ALWAYS kicks off the right shoe within 6 seconds of being in his carseat or a high chair. No matter how tight the shoe is on his foot, he manages to get it off.
- is a major monkey! He can climb up onto the couch by himself, which is actually quite helpful. Not so helpful is when he climbs up onto kitchen chairs (ours are bar-height) or onto the kiddie table in the playroom (I've caught him standing on it multiple times.)
- is very much a mama's boy, and it seems to be getting worse. Daddy is having an increasingly harder time soothing him, especially if Joe knows I'm nearby or in the middle of the night. He also seems to be doing a lot more crying lately, though that is likely due to his teeth & the stomach bug he's had for about 2 weeks now.
- would live his life holding someone's hand/finger at all times if he could. If he is even the least bit tired or sad, holding (and playing with) someone's hand is what calms him. It is the most bizarre thing. His hand of choice is certainly mine, but will latch on to the hand of whoever is holding him. We've recently made 4 10-hour car trips, & I spent a significant amount of time each trip leaning into the back seat so Joe could hold my hand when he was sad. As cute and endearing as it sounds, it's getting really old really fast. And he doesn't just hold your hand/finger; he plays with it. He likes to scratch the pad of your finger with his nail or squeeze the cartilage by your thumb. So random, I know (and sometimes painful.)

October fun.

You guys, let's discuss the last few months, shall we? They flippin' flew by. I mean, it's mid-December and I swear Brooke's first day of preschool was, like, 2 days ago. We must have been busy, because I had no time to sit down & blog about it. But I hardly remember what we did that made it so busy and brief.

I know we celebrated the you-know-what out of Halloween. Because, well, that's what you do when you have kids; you celebrate stuff. Thankfully, I've got pictures to prove that we did something. And I took a lot of them, so prepare yourselves for a photographic smorgasbord of October fun. And go.

First up: the pumpkin patch. We made our photo-op trip to Iron's Fruit Farm to get our pumpkins towards the beginning of the month. We rode the hay ride out to the field, chose our pumpkins, ate some yummy apple cider donuts - you know, all the activities that just scream Fall. (p.s. I'm obsessed with the pics of them sitting on the pumpkins!)

Next was the Halloweenfest at the Rec Center. This adorable event is one of my favorites, as it is 100% catered to the munchkins. Lots of snacks, kiddie games, s'mores, a hay maze, a bonfire - lots of ways to hype up kids and fill them with sugar right before bedtime. (We skipped the hay ride because horses smell it was too cold.) The kids had a blast hanging out with their grandparents and taking part in all of the activities, all the while avoiding all the things that scare them (which is a growing list these days, but this night included scary costumes, giant stuffed chipmunks, and - apparently - sitting on hay.)

Of course it wouldn't be Halloween without grossing out our children with the insides of a pumpkin. (i.e. pumpkin carving.)

Halloween day was filled with lots of festive fun, including orange milk & ghost pancakes, making chocolate sugar cookies with my favorite baking assistant, & ballet in a Halloween tutu (cutest thing of my life.) 

Just days before, the sun was hot and we were in short sleeve shirts. On Halloween? Freezing. Of course. So we bundled up our adorable little fireman & princess and headed out to just a half dozen houses in the neighborhood. Brooke totally got the idea this year, saying "Trick or Treat" and taking the appropriate amount of candy. Joe very kindly said his version of "thank you" as he grabbed as much as his chubby little hand could hold.

Next up? November. Stay tuned :)

Free time.

So many things to tell you. So many memories that haven't been documented properly. So little time to fit it all in.

Free time. That's the one thing I always need & never seem to have. It's in that time that I get to sit here and tell all of you about the insanity happening around me. But it's been scarce lately, as I've been shuffling preschool, trips to the pediatrician, ballet, getting ready for a craft show, Christmas shopping, getting ready for vacation...

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. I'm writing this from here:

Ok, well not actually from the beach. My laptop would get sandy. But we are on vacation. And, for the record, I am 100% in love with vacation. Mostly because the little free time I do have can be filled with whatever the hell I want. So this may work in your favor, because filling you all in on my cute kiddos is high on my "whatever the hell I want" list.

Trick or Treat.

Happy Halloween, friends!

Love, Snow White & Fire Chief Joe

Pumpkin Carving

Because last year's pumpkin carving video was such a hit, I thought you all might like a glimpse into Pumpkin Carving 2012. Once again, our prissy little girl was very apprehensive about the whole thing. Once we talked her into using the big spoon, she was pretty adamant on getting every single seed out of that giant (and I do mean giant) pumpkin. Then she made several drawings of what she thought the pumpkin should look like; she wanted a "happy face jack-o-lantern". In the end, she was quite pleased with the finished products :)

Joe was napping when we started this whole project, so he woke up to the mayhem of seeds and pumpkin flesh flying everywhere. I was sure he would dive right in when given the chance to clean out a pumpkin, but he was just as prissy as his sister! He adores spoons, though, so he was thrilled to "mix" his pumpkin.

Once it got dark out, we lit the pumpkins and let the kids stand in awe of our creations.

They look like "happy" pumpkins to me :)

Who dey!

One of the few words he knows. His Daddy is so proud :)

Five girls.

This exchange happened in the car this morning. I don't remember how the topic came up, but it was quite entertaining. (It's important to remember that this child is not even 3 yet. Sigh.)

Brooke: When I become a Mommy ("become a Mommy" means "grow up" to her), I'll have a baby.
Me: Oh yeah? How many babies are you going to have?
Brooke: One, two, three, four, five. Five babies. I like girls, so I'm going to pick girls.
Me: Just girls?
Brooke: Yep.
Me: Don't you want to have a boy so your daughters can have a brother?
Brooke: Um, no thank you.
Me: 5 girls. Well, that should be fun. What will their names be?
Brooke: Dora, Doc McStuffins, Lambie, & Hallie (characters in Doc McStuffins). [laughs] Will that be so silly?
Me: It sure will, especially the girl named Doc McStuffins. But that's only 4. You need one more name.
Brooke: Hmmm.... Well, Stuffy & Chilly (more DM characters) are boys. So are Daddy & Joe. Maybe Aunt Nicole in Dayton? Or maybe I'll pick Claire, because she's my best girl ever.
Me: Those are good choices. Who are you going to marry? Because you have to get married before you can have babies, that's our rule.
Brooke: Right. I'll marry a boy. I think I'll marry Daddy.
Me: Sorry, friend, but Daddy's already married to me so you can't marry him. Plus, you can't marry someone in your family. Maybe you could marry a boy from school.
Brooke: Ok, I'll pick Henry. When Henry becomes a Daddy, I'll marry him.

Ay dios mio. We're in trouble with this one. Poor Henry won't know what hit him.

13 months.

At 13 months, our little Joe...

- has made destroying our house his daily agenda and is remarkably efficient at it. Homeboy can tear a room apart faster than I ever knew possible. He gets into a lot of things he knows are off-limits and does it with a smirk on his face and that daredevil spark in his eye. His favorite off-limits parts of our house: the toilet, the garbage can, the stairs, my baking cabinet (for unknown reasons, he loves to take the bottle of vanilla), and the pantry.
- would eat all day long if I'd let him. For real. The boy is a snacker, just like his mama. He tries to break into the pantry. And if we accidentally leave it open, he'll grab a snack and bring it to us. He is ready for breakfast the moment we get downstairs in the morning and just asks for food nonstop from that point on.
- had his first real haircut this month. His barber? Me. The hair at the back of his neck was getting out of control and the top was looking unruly. With all of my knowledge of boy hair cuts (read: none), I snipped away one night after baths. Considering no one has even noticed I did anything, I'd say I did a good enough job!
- throws stuff out of his bed when he's mad. It's kinda funny, actually. If you let him cry for a few minutes in his crib, he'll start chucking everything out of his bed: pillow, bear, seahorse, blankets, pacifiers, even his clothes sometimes. The other night at 3 a.m., after deciding that picking him up and rocking him back to sleep was a terrible habit that I was so sick of doing, I began the dreaded cry-it-out routine. (How did we acquire that bad habit, you ask? It's something all parents of 2+ kids can attest to. You slowly give up all of those ideological philosophies you read in the "perfect parent books" in exchange for just a little extra sleep/quiet because you know your older children will be ready for breakfast at 7 a.m. whether you slept or not. Hence the rocking while one of us falls asleep in the rocker.) After the 3rd or 4th 5-minute meltdown session, I could hear the loud thump indicating that he'd heaved the seahorse overboard. Knowing that he gets even angrier once he sees all of his beloved things on the ground, I headed for his room, only to find him bare-legged, stamping his sockless feet in a rage. He was so exhausted from the tantrums that he was asleep before I could get his pants all the way up.
- is in the middle of a sleep strike. It hasn't broken me yet, but we're getting close. Remember when I said he was up at 3 a.m.? Yeah, that was after the 11:00, midnight, and 1:30 wake-ups...to be followed by 6:15 at which time the husband held him for a while because I did not need an awake toddler on top of a screaming baby if we had tried more cry-it-out (it's impossible to be consistent with multiple children. Whatever works, that's my motto.) Not sure what has been keeping him up lately, whether it's teeth or ears or something else. I've been freezing lately, so in case being cold is the culprit, we've started putting an extra layer on him at bedtime and jacking up the heat. I'm hoping it's just teeth and not ears again.
- is still in the "may need tubes in his ears" danger zone. He's had 2 double ear infections and lots of fluid in his ears in the last 3 months; if he continues on this path, tubes might be in our future.
- is completely bottle- and formula-free. And, to limit the amount of milk he has, he now gets it ice cold out of the fridge. We were warming it up for him because we're suckers to those adorable brown eyes. But those high-maintenance days are over. He can't suck down the cold milk quite as fast, which has reduced his milk consumption. (Doctor says no more than 24 oz of dairy a day, and he gets yogurt and cheese daily, too.)
- loves to play with his sister's stuff. And she is less than thrilled about it. He follows her around and tries to take whatever she's playing with. Unfortunately, it's hard to explain to a not-quite-3-year-old that 1-year-olds are even worse sharers than not-quite-3-year-olds. There have been a few fights. Okay, many. But no serious injuries, so that's good.
- is wearing size 12 or 18 month pants and 18M shirts. At this age, his sister was in 2T everything. At 1 year, he was 1.5 inches shorter (he was 31 inches) and 3 lbs lighter than she was at the same age. Makes guessing sizes for him for upcoming seasons almost impossible since he's growing at a normal rate and I'm used to superhuman growth rates. It still baffles me that my kids are different.
- is a chatterbox! His speech has exploded in the past month. It's so much fun to listen to him repeat words. He has entered my favorite mimic stage where you can say, "Joe, can you say ___ ?" and he does it. He has a huge list of words already (I'm only including ones that sound pretty darn close to the real thing. There's another list of words that are getting close, but only we really understand them right now.)

mama (used sparingly)
dada (used all the time b/c he's still obsessed) 
grandma ("mawmaw")
grandpa ("papa")
baby
pappy
thank you ("dank you")
please ("peese")
more
cookie
Elmo ("Melmo")
bye bye
no
ball
snack ("nack")
cracker

- is slowly learning manners. Yes, we expect him to start using manners at this age. We believe that if you have zero expectations for your kids, you get nothing out of them. Gotta start early. There are very few things our kids get from us without a "please" and "thank you". (Hugs, kisses, the occasional drink refill; that's about it.) He knows to say "peese" when he wants something and then follows it up immediately with "dank you" (which really impresses people when we're out, btw.) The first time he actually said "thank you" instead of just signing it, he got a few extra handfuls of puffs because I thought it was so cute. The cuteness is still there, but I'm immune to its extra-snack-inducing powers now.
- has started cramming as much food as possible into his mouth at one time. This morning, he had 1/2 a banana in there at once. If I give it to him in pieces, he just shoves 7 in. That banana was gone in 90 seconds, I'm not kidding. Then he took his waffle, which I gave him 1/3 at a time, and did the exact same thing. I just looked back and realized Brooke did the same thing as this age. What's the deal, 13-month-olds? Worried we're going to take it away?
- had a bad reaction after eating a quarter of an M&M cookie at the mall one day a couple weeks ago, a reaction we assume was due to the eggs. So it's looking more and more like baked goods are going to be off the table for him. Saddest. News. Ever.
- is so in love with the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Easiest way to calm him down? Start singing. He does the motions and even tries to sing along. It's just too cute for words, so I'll have to catch it on video soon.
- when sleepy, will come up to us, grab our hand, and rest his head on it. Sometimes he'll even climb up & lay his head on my shoulder. And, in those moments, I remember that this walking, talking, full-of-life toddler is still my sweet baby boy :)

Quickly captured.

All too often, the only camera I have around is the one on my phone. While I adore my big fancy DSLR camera, I've been able to capture some pretty sweet moments with my little iPhone. It's always nearby (although the husband would strongly disagree with this statement as I often lose it), so it's easy to grab it quickly before an adorable moment passes. They may not be the sharpest in quality, but the memories are clear as day.

Here are some of my favorites from the past couple of months, with the captions I used on Twitter for each. (If you follow me on Twitter, you've seen all of these. But they're cute enough to look at again, in my opinion. Also, all photos have been filtered with Instagram, the golden child of my phone.) Enjoy!

"World's Unhappiest Baby. #sarcasm #lovehim"

"Bathtubs make great time-fillers sometimes. Two happy babes = a happy mama."

"Check out her form. There are scholarships in her future."

"It was a 'play outside on the swingset but only for 8 mins b/c it's incredibly hot out' kind of day."

"There's just something so adorable about toddler lunches."

"Thanks, Today Show, you just made their week. And now we can watch it on repeat for weeks. #callmemaybe"

"My current view. Hurry home, Daddy."

"This is what a double ear infection looks like."

"He was feeling good & hungry...@ Skyline Chili."

"Sprinkle sharing, sibling love, perfect night."

"Starting him early..."

"Pretty much the perfect day for hopscotch & rainbows."

"Feeling extra safe this morning."

"Cool evening walks might just become a habit. #embracingfall"

Prima ballerina.

Want to spend 45 minutes with a giant smile on your face, repeating the phrase "Holy crap, this is the cutest thing I've ever seen."? Enroll your child in ballet class.

Brooke started baby ballet a few weeks ago and is loving it! She thinks dressing up in her "leotard & skirt & slippers" is just fabulous. Not at all surprising considering how girly she is! And because I think it's just heaven, I put her hair up in a bun each class. She has learned a few real ballet moves, though they use kid-friendly terms to help the kids understand. For example, to teach 1st position, they ask the girls to make their heels "kiss" and to put their arms out like they are holding a beach ball. Super cute! Brooke's favorite part of class is the Crocodile Song, where they pretend to be a crocodile as they stretch at the beginning of class. It's all just the most precious thing ever.

This class doesn't end in a recital (much to my dismay & the husband's relief,) but we wanted to be sure she'd really like it before we committed to a more serious class. After all, ballet is not exactly the cheapest hobby to begin. But I did it for 2 years when I was little and I still have vivid memories of it - I absolutely loved it! And I just knew my girly dancing queen would love it, too.

The pics below aren't the greatest quality, as the lighting was just marginal & I was juggling Joe as I took most of them. But you can see enough of the adorableness, right?

(p.s. I did not tell her to pose like this. She came up with this one all on her own.)



Whether she was trying to or not, she's dead-on 2nd position here.

Brooke & her friend Sarah Kate. (Notice Joe in the background, happy as a CLAM that he's finally allowed to get down and dance around - I literally hold him the entire class so he doesn't run off & try to join the girls.)

1st birthday :)

Joe's 1st birthday party was a fun-filled days-long celebration!

First up was lunch on his actual birthday with his cousins (the ones that don't go to school on Thursdays, that is) for a little pizza followed by ice cream cones. (Notice how little ice cream is actually in his cone? Yeah, I ended up scooping most of that out because it was in his way.)

 I forgot to mention that our little birthday boy was barely 24 hours in to an antibiotic for a double ear infection (and dealing with "terribly swollen gums", to quote the pediatrician.) So it wasn't exactly the happiest of birthdays. He woke up from his afternoon nap screaming & tugging at his ears. This was the first clear sign that it was his ears bothering him, as the fussiness leading up to his diagnosis wasn't specific to a certain pain. For 30 minutes, he was completely inconsolable. No amount of food, drink, cuddling, or Elmo helped. It was basically the saddest 3o minutes ever, as I sat here helpless, unable to make the ear pain go away.  In another attempt to calm him down, I tried taking him outside.

He was calm for about 2 minutes. And then the poor guy had had enough. Does this not just break your heart?

 Once the afternoon dose of Advil kicked in, we got a marginally happy baby back for the rest of the day, which included a trip to the park...

...dinner at Firehouse Grille (which meant getting to sit on the firetruck!)...

 ...presents...

 (...eating the darn pointy hat we kept forcing him to wear all day...)

...and dessert! He loved the singing, couldn't care less about the brownies.

On Saturday, Joe was surrounded by all of his favorite people at his big firetruck birthday party! Until very recently, he hadn't really taken a liking to any particular character or toy. So I just picked a theme that I thought was boyish but also fun & easy to do. Turned out to be the perfect choice :)

I had a ton of fun planning this party and even managed to get a lot done ahead of time (unlike Brooke's birthdays, which I usually don't start planning until Dec 26th, for obvious reasons, giving me just a few days to pull it all together.)

He had a mountain of gifts to open thanks to our very generous family and friends. He only tolerated the first half dozen or so before he started getting really antsy. Between the lingering ear infections and the fact that it was already pushing his usual bedtime at this point, I'd say he did a good job. Thankfully, everyone seemed to understand and didn't complain that I was opening all of his gifts for him :)

 It didn't help that this adorable fire truck was one of the first things he opened. Very little could pull his attention away from it after that.

 He was super crabby as we ventured outside for cake time. But the moment we started singing Happy Birthday, he perked right up!

 He was fascinated by the candle on his cake. Didn't really try to touch it, just didn't understand what was happening with it. Once again, Mommy stepped in to help out, this time with blowing out the flame.

 Not sure what it is about my kids, they just don't care for birthday treats! After taking a taste or two of the icing, he was uninterested in it. Not exactly the typical "destroy the cake as fast as you can" behavior often seen by birthday babes.

Ah, a cookie - much less intimidating, much easier to throw on the ground once he ate all the icing off of it.

Love this birthday boy :)

Thanks again to everyone who helped us celebrate the big 1st birthday with our big boy! We still can't believe we have a 1-year-old!