Half birthday man!

Happy half birthday to our favorite little buddy!

Time seems to be racing on by with our clan, & Joe is just growing like a weed! He's getting heavier & taller right before our eyes (which is slightly problematic considering his winter clothes are getting tight/short but spring just doesn't seem to be on the way quite yet.) We have his 18 month check-up on Friday so we'll get the official stats then, but I think he's just shy of 30 lbs right now.

Here's the lowdown on our new one-&-a-half-year-old:

- He loves to sing! Some of his favorites are "Ginkle Ginkle", "Row Row", "Bumblebee", & the ABCs. Oh, and anything by Taylor Swift. (Kidding! Well, kind of... He can sing along to Never Ever Getting Back Together. "Evuh evuh evuh back gether".) He recently became a fan of Gangnam Style as well, singing "whoop whoop whoop Gang-um Sty!" anytime he hears it. He's like a little musical sponge these days, soaking in any tunes he hears!
- He blew me away one day about a month ago by saying "six, seven, eight, nine" completely out of nowhere (Brooke did the exact same thing with the exact same numbers at this age.) We've been working hard on #'s 1-3 to go along with it.
- He is addicted to his pacifier. All day long I hear "I pappy? I pappy?", to which my response is usually no. I'm trying desperately to restrict the pacifier to naptime/bedtime only, but I seem to be failing. There's been so much whining lately that I often give in just to give my ears a break from all the noise! Why so much whining? Because...

- We've dropped the morning nap. And I'm in deep mourning about it, let me tell ya. And, quite frankly, so is Joe. He is soooooo tired allllll the time. The pediatrician recommended it several weeks ago when we were getting his ears checked. She made it sound like we were well past the time when he should have dropped it. So we're currently 2.5 weeks in and his little body has still not adjusted. He's exhausted by lunchtime, often laying his head down on his high chair tray while he eats or falling asleep on the couch just after. You'd think his afternoon naps would be so much better b/c of all this, but no dice. He only sleeps about 1.5-2 hours (unless I'm holding him, in which case he could probably sleep through dinner.) The time between his too-short afternoon nap & dinner is my least favorite time of the day!! He is a super crab, often found crying at my feet while I cook b/c I won't give him another snack. You might also think that because he's so tired all day he'd sleep longer at night, right? No sir. He still gets up every morning between 5:00-6:30 & refuses to go back to sleep unless we bring him to our bed. (This is changing SOON, my friends. Mean Mom over here is on Day 2 of making him cry it out in the mornings. He cried from 6:15-6:50 this morning, then slept another hour.) To sum up, we're all VERY VERY TIRED.
- On a much lighter, less woe-is-me note, Joe is still 184% obsessed with "bat-ket-ball!" He loves loves loves it. It's the first thing he does after breakfast in the morning & often the last thing he does before story time at night. He's really good, you guys. He can sink it from 3-4 ft away and has a "perfect chest pass", according to his godfather. He will happily play by himself forever, especially now that Daddy taught him to play catch with himself by throwing the ball up against the wall so it bounces back to him. Mom is thrilled about this little trick. (That was sarcasm.) He loves when we play with him & always wants us to shoot so he can chase after the ball. He also loves to watch basketball, which is absolutely fantastic b/c now he can be his Daddy's basketball wingman so I don't have to. This very boyish thing is, hands-down, his most favorite thing in the world at this moment, which is a great thing because....

- ...he's kinda girly otherwise. I think the husband is getting a little nervous. Evidence: he thinks everything is "pink" (we're working hard on green & blue, but not happening), he loves to get "dancy" in Brooke's dress-ups, he can identify several of the Disney princesses (in his defense, he can also ID many of them male characters - Mickey, Donald, etc.), the movie Tangled holds his attention much longer than any other movie we've tried (outside of Elmo). It all adds up to one pretty girly guy.
- Joe wants to eat all day long. Like, every 12 minutes. As soon as he finishes one snack, I hear "empty" or "all gone" and then "more pease?" We have so many fights about this each day; he's big enough - I refuse to let him snack all day! He's a great eater at mealtime. He loves all fruits - they are the first thing to disappear from his plate & often with unsettling quickness. "Mananas" are his faves, with apples a close second. Other food favorites: hot dogs, raisins, peas, "pretbulls" (pretzels), cereal, "mellows" (marshmallows), and frosting. The only things I can think of that he won't eat are asparagus & cake.
- He blows kisses, which is such a warm & fuzzy thing to see. He kisses his hand, complete with the smooch sound, and then sends it your way!
- When he doesn't have a basketball in his hand, he can often be found holding a crayon & notebook. He loves to scribble! Unfortunately, the kitchen floor, playroom wall, table, and even his plastic basketball hoop have all become his canvases. Don't get me wrong, this is a great motor skill to have & we're so glad he has an interest in the arts (how sophisticated!) But I spend a quarter of my day searching the playroom for rogue crayons so I don't have to wipe Joe's masterpieces off of any more surfaces.
- His vocabulary is growing rapidly. He pulls out a new word we haven't heard every day. And he's starting to string words and phrases together. For example, when I brush his teeth, this very independent little boy constantly grabs for his Elmo toothbrush saying "No, I try." When he can't find me, he will walk around the house yelling "Mommy, are you? Arrrrre you?" (Brooke did this, too. One of my most favorite things ever.) After my Grandma treated us to lunch today, I said to him "Joe, what do you say to Grandma Faye?" In his sweet little voice, he said "Thank you...for dinna." Who cares that he got the meal wrong, I can't even handle how awesome that is.
- I know I've said it before, but this child is a major Mama's Boy! It seems to be getting even worse when we're at home, preferring to be in my arms/on my lap/at my feet most of the day. He has finally gotten to the point where he realizes that I've left him; it's not always right away, but after a while he figures it out and gets upset. I bet I hear the word "Mommy" 1000 times a day from this little guy. When he cries out in his crib, it's "Mommy!" When I won't give him a snack, it's an angry "Mommy!" When he's tired, it's a much whinier "Mommy!" It's all. day. long. Though, I must say,  when I get home from running errands or being out of his sight for a minute, the very sweet and excited "Mommy!" I get makes my heart melt a little. Ok, a lot.

With the exception of the past few rough weeks, Joe really is such a happy guy! He greets everyone with a giant smile. He shows so much compassion & empathy for a boy his age. He's pretty good at sharing (he's had a lot of practice...) & playing with others. He seems to be more of a follower at the moment, preferring to mimic others over playing solo. He's finally old enough to go to the Mother Goose class at the Rec in a few weeks, & I know he's just going to adore it! I can't wait to see him thrive outside of his sister's shadow!

As has become our family tradition, we had a little 1/2 bday celebration for him to honor the big day!

He loved being sung to, even sang along at one point. (p.s. I'm so bummed this is blurry!)

 He was admiring his new Magna Doodle for a minute. He is obsessed with his sister's & we're sick of the fights, so this was an easy choice for his 1 little gift! (And now they're fighting over this one....sigh.)

 

6 months until 2! Time to start planning his party! (I kid, I kid.)

Brooke fun facts.

Fun facts about Brooke at 3 years & 2 months:

- She loves with a capital L to play Hide & Seek. Homegirl asks 50 bajillion times a day if we want to play with her. Luckily for her, she has been able to teach her brother to play (though he's not a very good hider.)
- She can write 80% of her ABC's & is starting to spell words on her own by sounding them out. (See the pic above. She called into me "Look, Mommy, I made a cat." I fully expected to see a picture of a cat.) She gets really frustrated with the few letters hasn't mastered just yet. Just tonight we heard "I can't make a G. I'm giving up on my alphabet! I'm just gonna walk away!" (Soooo much drama, you guys. She is my mini-me.)
- She's becoming more of a picky eater, which makes us sad. Don't get me wrong; she's still a rockstar eater for a 3 year old. She's still eating plenty of fruits & veggies, just not the variety she used to eat. We don't have a Clean Plate Club in our house, though we do insist she eats her vegetables if she wants dessert. Speaking of dessert, she asks for it after every single meal without fail. She doesn't always get it, but when she does, it's often something very small but seems very big & exciting to her (for example, tonight's was 16 mini M&M's.)
- She is 100% potty trained, even at night. Which is 100% awesome in so, so, so many ways!
- She has become a pro at making excuses to get out of bed at night. Almost nightly we hear her going to the bathroom about 20 minutes after we put her to bed, even though she always goes just before heading upstairs. Most of her excuses are typical ("I can't find my bunny!") but sometimes we get a few gems like "My sheets almost fell off the bed" or "My socks are all crazy!"
- School is going great; she loves it, never fights it. We have parent-teacher conferences next week (yes, a parent-teacher conference for the 2 year old class...kills me) so we'll find out how she's really doing. She also started a new class down at the Rec now that she's 3. It's a class of 3 & 4 year olds, so she's certainly the youngest, but she seems to be holding her own! Up until last week, she was taking baby ballet, too. She loves it, but my sanity (and wallet, yikes!) needed a 6-week break. She hasn't mentioned missing it, so we'll see if the interest returns in the Spring.
- Her memory is insane. She forgets NOTHING, people. I'm often saying "How do you remember that?!" about things she brings up from months ago. She can tell you what kind of backpack each of the 13 other kids in her class has, including the old backpacks of the kids that got new ones at Christmas.
- One of her most favorite things to do lately is to "make cards", i.e. play with scissors & tape. She makes cuts in the side of the paper making a fringe, if you will, & then puts a large piece of tape in the middle of the page. She'll sign her name and call it a card.
- Words she still butchers so adorably: "wiper towel" (paper towel), "lasterday" (a combo of last night & yesterday, but really used to discuss any previous period of time), "rice kissme treats".
- I am so impressed by her imagination! She uses voices, you guys, & it cracks me up. She also has an imaginary sister named Lolo (have I mentioned this before? I couldn't remember...) that pops in & out every so often. Oh, and she makes up songs on the fly.
- She passed her 3 year well-child visit with flying colors. She weighed 38.5 lbs and was 40 inches tall. Her BMI was in the healthy range, so we're still not worried about her size. She's slowing down dramatically in the growth department; most of the size 5 clothes I bought for her for this winter still don't fit (she's been holding steady in mostly 4's since the summer.) Everything else checked out great. She took her first eye test and passed. (BTW, she did the adult eye chart with the letters, not the shapes one for little kids. And then, as we were leaving, we passed a 5 year old doing the shapes chart. BOOM!)

My valentines.

My little sweethearts want to wish you a Happy Valentines Day :)

Nov in a nutshell.

Like October, November was a bit of a whirlwind. Here's just a tiny taste of what happened (tiny because I didn't take many pictures other than vacation pictures...)

We did lots of the usual, like starting the day by playing in jammies...

...and ending it with milk & bedtime stories.

 Joe got really messy & looked super adorable while eating lots of things, like Oreos at Skyline... 

 ...vegetables out of colander hats...

 ...and lots & lots of mac n' cheese. (You guys, I can't even explain to you how fast he ate this side of mac at City BBQ. It was both impressive & terrifying.)

 We celebrated my least favorite holiday of the year with one of my favorite holiday traditions: the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. (Honestly, if it weren't for the parade and the pie, I could completely skip over Thanksgiving.) As anticipated, Brooke was super into it. Just like her mama, she loved all the Broadway numbers.

 Our little turkeys enjoyed all the family time! Their cousins made them some awesome hats for the occasion, which Joe loved to hold but not so much wear. These were the best pics I could get because he was just too focused on his feather hat :)

Next up: December and all things CHRISTMAS!

Happy family.

When Joe turned 1, I wanted to have a new family photo taken. The last professional family picture we had taken was when Brooke turned 1. Even though Joe was technically in that picture (no one else knew it, but I was pregnant with him at the time), it was certainly time to get that little goofball's sweet smile in a new photo.

November was the soonest we could fit in a session for a few updated pics. So the day before we left on vacation, we took a break from packing & headed to Parky's Farm with fingers crossed that we'd have 2 happy, well-behaved kiddos. It ended up being the windiest day ever & neither kid was super cooperative. I left feeling pretty defeated, praying we got at least one good family picture. I was pleasantly surprised with the results and THRILLED to get a few great shots of our family of 4 :)

Charleston, part 2.

Our kids became professionals at taking 10 hour car trips this fall (to & from Charleston, and then to & from upstate NY a few weeks later.) Joe was thrilled to get to turn around in his car seat for the occasions (stop judging; it's perfectly legal, just not recommended.) He got to watch movies instead of the back window. It also made all the hand-holding he insisted on much easier for me. (That boy & his hand-holding are KILLING me. I swear my arm almost fell off on our trip to Charleston; it went numb at one point and I thought to myself "Well, at least I can't feel him digging his nails into my skin anymore.") Brooke was thrilled we got to eat at "Old McDonald's" on both car rides (What the hell does the South have against Wendy's?) Both kids had gigantic smiles on their faces any time we stopped & got out of the car, borderline giddy. They weren't super keen on napping in the car on the way down to Charleston, meaning they were awake for about 8.5 of the 10.5 hour trip. I KNOW, I can't believe the husband & I survived either. (Did I mention it also rained for a majority of the drive? Lovely.)

Thanks to the oh-so-stellar weather we had while we were there, it was tough to do much sight-seeing with the kiddos. Rather than walk around Downtown & explore, we often booked it to the first place we could reach once we hopped out of the car so we could keep them dry/warm. We managed to hit a few highlights though. One of the kids' favorites was probably the boat ride we took across the river from our hotel to the eastern side of the city. Though it was very cold & windy, the kids sat wide-eyed as we slowly trudged along in a 7-person water taxi. We had been spotting dolphins in the river from our hotel balcony all week, but they were up close & personal while we were on the boat! We even saw them jump out of the water; our taxi driver said it was only the 3rd time he'd seen it all year. Though she claims she could see them, I'm not totally convinced Brooke saw the dolphins each time we pointed them out. But it was still fun to be on the water for both Joe's first boat ride!

On this particular day, we were taking the boat into town so we could go to the Children's Museum. The kids spent a few hours running around and exploring the museum. Joe seemed most impressed by the room full of golf ball ramps (which was a tiny bit dangerous, not gonna lie...) though he also got a huge kick out painting in the art room. And Brooke's favorite was probably the grocery store, complete with a working cash register/scanner that printed out real receipts. It was a fun way to kill a few hours indoors.

We spent the better part of the morning one day at a plantation house. It wasn't quite what we expected; most of the exhibits/presentations were closed b/c it was the off season. We were able to walk around the beautiful grounds for a short time (too cold for a long time - I did not pack a warm enough jacket for this trip...) and take some cute pictures, though. The massive oaks trees lining the driveway and scattered throughout the property were incredible; they made my giant kids look tiny :)

The kids & I joined the husband & my parents for 1 of UD's 3 tournament games. Brooke remembered to bring her pom poms on the trip & we cheered extra loud! They were absolutely the cutest Flyer fans in attendance!

After flipping through my vacation pictures, I realized that Brooke really seemed to enjoy my favorite part of vacationing: the food. Like mother like daughter. We had some delicious dinners, including a very fancy meal at a steakhouse where she got to drink from a water glass and use fancy silverware "just like Fancy Nancy!" And there was certainly no absence of sweets on this trip! We made stops at ice cream & cupcake shops, as well as indulging in dessert after several dinners. She got to share her first piece of a double chocolate cake with Mommy - it was quite a hit! (And then she didn't go to sleep until after 11pm... That's what vacation is for, right?) We even managed to stop for a drink at some family friends' bar while we were in town, children in tow. Yep, we were those people that had their babies in a bar. (We happened to be the only people there; it was early on a Thursday night.) The bartenders LOVED Brooke, a sentence I imagine will be repeated in about 18 years.

The highlights of the trip for Joe were the essence of the phrase "it's the little things in life". Upon arriving, he instantly fell in love with a fish rug outside the elevators on our floor. He would sit down and point to the fish saying "Fishie!" each time we passed it. He found the suitcase full of the toys & books we had packed in the closet & managed to find a cozy little spot for himself as well.  And he absolutely loved running up and down the dock, free to roam and dance as he pleased. I can only imagine how much more time we would have spent out there with our little explorer had the weather been more cooperative. (That's our gorgeous hotel in the background. Our balcony is the one on the top left!)

We really had a great time on this family vacation, in spite of the weather! The kids didn't know we were missing out on activities because of it; they just loved spending 7 straight days with Daddy & their grandparents. And that's what it's all about, after all.

We are so appreciative of my parents for everything they did for us to make this trip possible. It was soooo good for all of us to escape reality for a week & just unwind. Thanks again, Mom & Dad. Love you!