My Precious Allura,
You are TWO!!!! So far the two's have been anything but terrible. You are blossoming.
We took you two your two year old well child check and you amazed the doctor with your vocabulary. She told us that you are "quite a bit smarter than average" -what a proud set of parents we are! Your height is 34.5 inches (50-75%), your weight is 26.5 lbs (50%), and your head size is 48 cm (50-75%). You know all of your colors, can get through most of the ABC song, the Barney "I Love You" song that we sing together as a family each night when you go to bed, and you can follow directions for the songs "If You're Happy and You Know it" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". You ask me "s'at" a million times a day in your quest to learn words for everything. Your sense of curiosity is wonderful. You LOVE to find airplanes in the sky and your are putting together really good sentances. "I see a red car!" and "I want to dance" and "I need dada home" and "dada, mommy has oowie" are some that I have heard recently.
We took you to the Ferrian's wedding last weekend and you were the bell of the ball! You stole the show with your adorable dancing on the dance floor. All the adults were pointing at you and giggling and telling us how cute you are. You are fearless! Totally comfortable out there on the dance floor in the front of the room, in front of everyone! You danced with Brian Oxborough, with Carter and with some other little girls that were there. You also ran around in the halls with Carter and you two giggled non-stop the whole time.
Lulu, you are such a friendly and outgoing little girl. You amaze me with your sweetness and confidence. You are exactly the little girl I have always dreamed of having. You are so good with people and other kids. You are a bright and colorful light in a sometimes dreary world. You shine.
I am babysitting a little boy the same age as Wilder and you are so sweet to him, you love to pet his head and give him hugs and kisses. You show such sweet affection for anyone and everyone. You love Wilder with all your heart and you are so good to him. You are always quick with a huge and a kiss, you bring him toys when he accidentally pushes them all out of his range, you try to hold his bottle for him, you bring me diapers and wipes to help me. You are such a wonderfully mommy in the making!
You and I have so much fun spending our days together. I love eating a meal with you at the table and listening to all you have to say about the world. You love to point out the colors of things and I love to chat with you. I am so thankful that I get to be home with you and spend so much time with you, I could ask for a better best friend. You still love Elmo, and now thankfully you have expanded your horizons a bit to include all the Sesame Street characters. Ernie is also a favorite. We took you to meet Bert and Ernie at the Children's Museum...they has a special B&E themed party and we drove you to St. Paul to go to it. I love finding things like that to make your day special. You marched right up to them and hugged their legs and took a picture with them, there is not a shy bone in your body:)
Your second birthday was wonderful. We had a party for the grandparents on your actual birthday. I made you an Elmo cake which took me hours and multiple trips to the grocery store to complete. I was up until 2am the night before perfecting that cake just to make you smile...and you did and it was worth every minute of sleeplessness:) Amy also brought you an Elmo ice cream cake so you were very sugared out that day!
On the 30th we hosted about 40 friends and family members for your sesame street themed party. You had a WONDERFUL time seeing your friends and playing outside with them. We got you an Elmo cupcake cake and with all your friends around you were more interested in playing than eating so we didn't push it. It was a really enjoyable day and I'm glad you had so much fun.
I'm already thinking of ideas to make your 3rd birthday even more fun...you will finally be old enough for games and party activites so we will make sure you have a blast!
We are leaving for TN to visit the Lipinskis in a few weeks, and in August we are going to SD to visit great grandma and grandpa Harris. Both trips are 10+ hours so I have been scouring stores and websites looking for toys and activities for you to do in the car to keep you entertained. I am hoping to make the trip as enjoyable as possible for a 2 year old that would rather not spend a day in the car seat. We will make frequent stops to stretch and we are going to leave very early in the morning so that you will sleep through the beginning and the middle for a nap. My fingers are crossed for the trip, I know you will have a blast playing with AJ and Ryan once we get there, and Lori told me the whole family is looking forward to see you and meeting Wilder. I am counting down the days!
Lulu, dad's friend Dan K. really summed up the last few weeks for us when he stopped at the wedding and said "Adam, she's really cute". It was a very sweet compliment coming from a single guy in his late 20's. He's right though, you are in a very cute stage. Yes, you have 40 tantrums a day (hey, you ARE two!) but those pale in comparison to how sweet and loving and curious and upbeat you are the rest of the day. Dad and I look at each other in amazement AT LEAST once a day when you say something profoundly smart that we didn't even know you could say. It's a fun time, watching you absorb so much information and process it in your special way. You brighten my whole world. Your smile is etched in my heart. I love you more than any combination of words could ever communicate. I would do anything for you, anything.
You shine.
mom
Monday, June 22, 2009
My Adorable Wilder; June 22, 2009
My Adorable Wilder,
You are almost 7 months old! I cannot believe how big you are getting! Your 6 month doctor appointment had you at 28 inches long (90-95%), your weight at 20lbs & 4 oz (90%), and your head size...well, you take after your dad with 46.3 cm (97%)!
You are starting to show such a personality and you have learned to communicate your likes and dislikes quite well. You LOVE baby food...bananas in particular, though you enjoy pears, apples, carrots, squash and sweet potatos. You sort of like peas and green beans, some days more than others. You are starting to be more difficult to nurse as you like to turn away and look at any noise or sounds you hear so it takes quite a bit longer to get a smaller amount now. Plus, it is easier to take formula and breast milk from a bottle so you do that about half the time. I am adament on continuing to nurse you until at least a year old. People always ask how long I want to nurse for and when I tell them, they ask why I would want to nurse for so long. They think it would just be easier to give you formula, and it would, but they don't understand that it is for me just as much as it is for you. It goes well beyond the nutritional benefits-it is that bond with you that I love. I adore our time each day where we get to steal away and just focus on each other. I adore our family, but those few minutes, a few times a day are like meditation for me. You and I can stare into each other's eyes while you nurse and we can communicate our love for each other the way words can never express. It's my time to just focus on you. To love you, to think about you, to smile at you.,..it's wonderful. That time with you, in peace and calm, is precious to me.
I have been monitoring your, umm..."poo" situation often since you have very stubborn bowels and only tend to go once or twice a week. This leaves us with a crampy and very upset baby many nights..one that is inconsolable and my heart breaks for you when you are upset. I have tapered back the amount of cereal that I mix into your baby food now to avoid causing more constipation issues than we would already have. I know you are probably much older when you are reading this and thinking "why is she typing all these gross details?!?!" and the answer is that nothing about you is gross to me. I want you to know as much about your life as a child as possible and these are details that I will want to remember because I love everything about you.
You also REALLY dislike being in your car seat in the car after dark. Were unsure if it is the dark you are fearful of, or being strapped into the seat and not having as much visibility as you would during the day. Either way, you are fine in the dark when you can see one of us, so being in the house at night isn't an issue...but you cry and scream and sob the whole time we are in a car after dark. It is a heart wretching experience to drive you home at night and I find myself singing as loundly as possible in the hopes that you will hear me over your crying and feel more secure. So far, it hasn't worked but I will forever keep trying. Sometimes I even try to squeeze into the middle seat between you and Lulu's car seats so that I can hold your hand and soothe you-you love that but it is a really tight and uncomfortable fit for me and I am terrified that I am pushing on your car seats and loosening them, which is a safety issue so I won't be able to do that too often. I pray you grow out of this phase soon, I feel terrible hearing you cry and not being able to swoop you up into my arms to lavish kisses on you. As you mom, I want to be able to fix everything for you-your cries break my heart into a million pieces and I hate feeling powerless to help you.
You are starting to be a total stinker at night in general. Somehow you have decided to live like a rock star...you want to stay up until 4 am and sleep until noon each day which really doesn't work well for the rest of the family. Lately it has been impossible to get you to go to sleep at a decent hour and I find myself laying in bed with you as you sit up and watch TV while I snooze. You sit right between dad and I, in our bed, and zone out watching whatever boring show we can find and eventually your eyelids start to get heavy and you get sleepy:) This week I am going to start waking you up at 8am so that you are nice and tired in time for 2 planned nap times, and that way you will have your last nap of the day in the early afternoon and will hopefully be tired in time for a normal bed time. A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.... this week commences "Operation Change Wilder's Sleep Schedule" and I am totally ready for whatever tantrums and crying jags you can offer me. I will meet them with love and patience and hope that it will all end up with you on a more human schedule. :)
You have started something new that is SO overwhelmingly adorable...everytime we try to take a picture of you and you see the little orange flash light go on, you give this huge beaming smile that I just love. It is a smile filled with pride and beauty and the understanding on your part that camera=smile=attention:) You love to pose for the camera and your wrinkled nose smile is one truely worth capturing forever! You have also found your voice! You love to sit on the floor with toys and just jibber jabber away...sometimes it even sounds like you are yelling. Dad and I call it "screlling" since it sounds like you are screaming and yelling at the same time. You don't screll with any particular sense of anger...you just sound like you are very passionate about whatever it is you happen to be saying. I hope to catch it on video because we lapse into fits of laughter whenever you do it. You have also started forming more sounds that are part of language development. You have started moving your lips and tongue in a way that has you making "dadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadada" sounds. You haven't connected the sound to "dad" yet...but you are well on your way to developing your language skills and I am eager to hear all that you have to say when you can talk.
You still love to zip around wildly and with great athleticism in your walker. You have actually started to hold yourself up into a standing position quite well. Between your standing, strong balance skills and your expert use of the walker your dad and I are convinced that you will walk before you crawl. You run around in that walker...actually running...and I think that since you see Lulu and us walking around, that crawling has just never been an option you have considered as of yet. Either way, walk or crawl, you are getting stronger and more balanced and one of them is a skill that I think you will have soon enough.
I love you so much Wild. You are this beautiful (okay..handsome) all-American type boy. You are growing up so fast and everyday I must say to myself "I love him so much" a million times if not more. Even at your worst I love you. Even at my worst, I love you. I love our special bond and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. I feel this overwhelming need to protect you from the world, so hopefully the future has you living with me and dad forever (and Lulu!) because I never want to part from you, even for a day. You and your sister have brough unimaginable happiness and love to my world and I am reminded of that love and happiness hundreds of times a day. Thank you.
mom
You are almost 7 months old! I cannot believe how big you are getting! Your 6 month doctor appointment had you at 28 inches long (90-95%), your weight at 20lbs & 4 oz (90%), and your head size...well, you take after your dad with 46.3 cm (97%)!
You are starting to show such a personality and you have learned to communicate your likes and dislikes quite well. You LOVE baby food...bananas in particular, though you enjoy pears, apples, carrots, squash and sweet potatos. You sort of like peas and green beans, some days more than others. You are starting to be more difficult to nurse as you like to turn away and look at any noise or sounds you hear so it takes quite a bit longer to get a smaller amount now. Plus, it is easier to take formula and breast milk from a bottle so you do that about half the time. I am adament on continuing to nurse you until at least a year old. People always ask how long I want to nurse for and when I tell them, they ask why I would want to nurse for so long. They think it would just be easier to give you formula, and it would, but they don't understand that it is for me just as much as it is for you. It goes well beyond the nutritional benefits-it is that bond with you that I love. I adore our time each day where we get to steal away and just focus on each other. I adore our family, but those few minutes, a few times a day are like meditation for me. You and I can stare into each other's eyes while you nurse and we can communicate our love for each other the way words can never express. It's my time to just focus on you. To love you, to think about you, to smile at you.,..it's wonderful. That time with you, in peace and calm, is precious to me.
I have been monitoring your, umm..."poo" situation often since you have very stubborn bowels and only tend to go once or twice a week. This leaves us with a crampy and very upset baby many nights..one that is inconsolable and my heart breaks for you when you are upset. I have tapered back the amount of cereal that I mix into your baby food now to avoid causing more constipation issues than we would already have. I know you are probably much older when you are reading this and thinking "why is she typing all these gross details?!?!" and the answer is that nothing about you is gross to me. I want you to know as much about your life as a child as possible and these are details that I will want to remember because I love everything about you.
You also REALLY dislike being in your car seat in the car after dark. Were unsure if it is the dark you are fearful of, or being strapped into the seat and not having as much visibility as you would during the day. Either way, you are fine in the dark when you can see one of us, so being in the house at night isn't an issue...but you cry and scream and sob the whole time we are in a car after dark. It is a heart wretching experience to drive you home at night and I find myself singing as loundly as possible in the hopes that you will hear me over your crying and feel more secure. So far, it hasn't worked but I will forever keep trying. Sometimes I even try to squeeze into the middle seat between you and Lulu's car seats so that I can hold your hand and soothe you-you love that but it is a really tight and uncomfortable fit for me and I am terrified that I am pushing on your car seats and loosening them, which is a safety issue so I won't be able to do that too often. I pray you grow out of this phase soon, I feel terrible hearing you cry and not being able to swoop you up into my arms to lavish kisses on you. As you mom, I want to be able to fix everything for you-your cries break my heart into a million pieces and I hate feeling powerless to help you.
You are starting to be a total stinker at night in general. Somehow you have decided to live like a rock star...you want to stay up until 4 am and sleep until noon each day which really doesn't work well for the rest of the family. Lately it has been impossible to get you to go to sleep at a decent hour and I find myself laying in bed with you as you sit up and watch TV while I snooze. You sit right between dad and I, in our bed, and zone out watching whatever boring show we can find and eventually your eyelids start to get heavy and you get sleepy:) This week I am going to start waking you up at 8am so that you are nice and tired in time for 2 planned nap times, and that way you will have your last nap of the day in the early afternoon and will hopefully be tired in time for a normal bed time. A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.... this week commences "Operation Change Wilder's Sleep Schedule" and I am totally ready for whatever tantrums and crying jags you can offer me. I will meet them with love and patience and hope that it will all end up with you on a more human schedule. :)
You have started something new that is SO overwhelmingly adorable...everytime we try to take a picture of you and you see the little orange flash light go on, you give this huge beaming smile that I just love. It is a smile filled with pride and beauty and the understanding on your part that camera=smile=attention:) You love to pose for the camera and your wrinkled nose smile is one truely worth capturing forever! You have also found your voice! You love to sit on the floor with toys and just jibber jabber away...sometimes it even sounds like you are yelling. Dad and I call it "screlling" since it sounds like you are screaming and yelling at the same time. You don't screll with any particular sense of anger...you just sound like you are very passionate about whatever it is you happen to be saying. I hope to catch it on video because we lapse into fits of laughter whenever you do it. You have also started forming more sounds that are part of language development. You have started moving your lips and tongue in a way that has you making "dadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadadada" sounds. You haven't connected the sound to "dad" yet...but you are well on your way to developing your language skills and I am eager to hear all that you have to say when you can talk.
You still love to zip around wildly and with great athleticism in your walker. You have actually started to hold yourself up into a standing position quite well. Between your standing, strong balance skills and your expert use of the walker your dad and I are convinced that you will walk before you crawl. You run around in that walker...actually running...and I think that since you see Lulu and us walking around, that crawling has just never been an option you have considered as of yet. Either way, walk or crawl, you are getting stronger and more balanced and one of them is a skill that I think you will have soon enough.
I love you so much Wild. You are this beautiful (okay..handsome) all-American type boy. You are growing up so fast and everyday I must say to myself "I love him so much" a million times if not more. Even at your worst I love you. Even at my worst, I love you. I love our special bond and I can't wait to see what the future holds for you. I feel this overwhelming need to protect you from the world, so hopefully the future has you living with me and dad forever (and Lulu!) because I never want to part from you, even for a day. You and your sister have brough unimaginable happiness and love to my world and I am reminded of that love and happiness hundreds of times a day. Thank you.
mom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)