the boy turns one

first cupcake...he didn't really know what to do with it at first!! his very own daddy bear...it was a big hit!

on 12.18.10, the boy turned one.

it is hard to believe.

his birthday was on tuesday. on saturday took his first few steps. he's only taken a few since then, never more than 5 at one time. he's a deliberate lil thing. drops to the ground & crawls when he realizes he's getting shaky.

we celebrated on sunday the 26th before clay went back to work & grandma & grandpa pierse went home to indiana. just a small celebration in he afternoon with cupcakes. no 1st birhtday plates or anything of that nature. he didn't seem to mind, but i do wonder if this much more laid back approach with #2 will make him mad someday. after cupcakes we opened gifts & he was delighted with more cars, trucks, and a daddy bear.

other notes...

-still taking 2 naps a day, anywhere from 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours. 90 minutes a piece is average. he does well skipping the afternoon nap, but if i try to skip the am nap he usually just literally falls asleep on the go & is impossible to wake (forget about him sitting up in the cart at Target).

-he's usually an early riser...pre 7a.

-size 4 huggies lil movers.

-still in 12-18 month pants, 12-18 month or 18-24 month shirts. 18 month pjs...he's about to graduate to the 24M though. sniff, sniff.

-just got his first pair of big boy shoes. they open up really wide because the diameter of his foot makes most shoes impossible. size 4.5.

-he's still drinking 3 bottles, 6 oz each. i thought i'd have him off of this by now, but man i'm lazy these days.

-he happily drinks water out of a cup, but looks at me like i have 6 heads if i give him cow's milk in a cup. the exception is if the cup is luci's....he'll drink anything out of luci's cup.

-he loves, loves, loves his sissy.

-he claps, he waves, he dances. i think he's shaking his head no, but i'm not 100% sure of that. he also signs 'all done' and 'more' about 80% of the time.

-i declare "hi" to be his first official word. he makes lots of sounds (mamamama, dadadada), but he says "hi" appropriately with the wave very often. his "hi" sounds more like "haa", but it is definitely hi.

-bath night is every other night for both kids. after that he gets a bottle, reads a book, and goes down without much trouble.

-he's still on prevacid, but i'm thinking about giving it ago without it once this month's supply is gone.

-still anemic, but just iron deficiency based. after 3 months of iron supplements 2x per day he's supposed to be good to go.

-loves to rough house with his dad & big sis.

-if he's crying & you start to bark like a dog or meow or make animal noises he'll usually stop.

-he's still the snuggliest, sweetest lil guy. not unusual at all for me to sit down on the floor & have him just randomly crawl over & wrap both arms around my neck for a nuzzle. sweet boy has captured my heart...that is for sure.

happy birthday big boy. we sure do love you!!!

a year ago tonight

our family looked like this.

my boy is one tomorrow.

the shortest year of my life has been filled with the longest days.

some were better than others.

sometimes the beauty & joy of it all overwhelmed me with gratitude.

sometimes the sheer volume of 'giving' that two small children require exhausted me to ugliness.

we struggled. we persisted. we prevailed.

we are closer than ever because of it.

to quote Ben Hie Hei from my current read (thanks brooke),

"The reward is in proportion to the exertion."

and without question,

the greatest exertion of my life has yielded the greatest reward.

creating a family with my husband for our children.
thank you husband, for creating our family with me.

it's not perfect, but it's ours. and i wouldn't trade it for anything.

Christmas 2010

was FUN. grandma & grandpa pierse came down which seemed to elevate the whole holiday...everything seems more special when you share it with family.

so thanks again grandma & grandpa.

as the lu would say, "we very miss you already."

clay & i stuck to our plan of 3 gifts from us (including santa) since baby Jesus received 3 gifts. the kids get one big gift from santa, one book about Christmas from santa, and one gift from mom & dad. then they get spoiled by their cousins, aunts & uncles & grandparents.

the before...post santa, pre-wake up.

the boy got a chair of his own. he has been fighting with luci over her chair for months now.

but no longer!

and the girl got her purple bike.

she was happy, i swear.
a bit overwhelmed i think, but happy.

and another favorite gift...the scooter from grammy & grampy that is in that big box.

and one of the boy's favorite gifts...a big, giant, super soft dog from cousin austyn, uncle ben & aunt chelsi. he puts his head down on it as if to hug it often. sometimes he plops right down on the whole thing & moves his whole body so that it looks like he's swimming!

luci named the dog fred.

gus got up first, but grandma got up with him before clay or i heard him (thanks grandma). later (7ish?!?!) luci came in our room and said, "we got presents! i got a bike!!". clay & i jumped up, put on our glasses & headed downstairs. we/santa were just as excited to give her the bike than she was to receive it. she loved it, but really just seemed sort of overwhelmed by it all. and in true baby/toddler fashion, gus just seemed happy to be along for the ride.

it was a blessed day, for sure.

a few firsts

playing outside with sidewalk chalk, at 9am,

she in her bare feet & he in his pjs...

ON THE SECOND DAY OF WINTER. we've made sugar cookies lots of times,

but this was the first time that she wanted to roll out the dough.
g's first whole cookie. with frosting to boot!
see the frosting on his teeth?

marked with a G...so we knew it was his...
and today, the big boy had his first pb&j for lunch.
and lived to tell :)

********

UPDATE

********

and tonight, for the first time ever, the girl told me she didn't want a book.

"no book. just prayers."

what?

many nights i'm beat by book time & would welcome a break.

but tonight she was sad...missin her dad.

and anxiously looking forward to her grandparent's arrival.

she's super excited & a little overwhelmed i think about Christmas.

and just i wanted to snuggle & comfort her.

and she said no thanks.

the first...but sadly i'm sure, not the last.

****************

FINAL UPDATE

****************

sweet girl came down at 8:45p...still awake.

i asked her if it would help if i went to lie down with her for a bit.

she said "thanks mom."

i put my hand on her cheek to help her relax.

she reached up & held my hand in hers.

and fell asleep in less than 5 minutes.

feeling so, so blessed tonight.

did you know

that my baby is almost one?

seriously...how can it be that nearly an entire year has gone by...

it's hard to wrap my head around it.

dad is trying to convince him that boys don't wear headbands.

even if it IS snow white's headband.

he begs to differ.

first ever photo with santa

this is the first year the lu would sit on santa's lap...or at least stand by him. we tried last year but could only get close enough to wave without a meltdown. and while i think photos of children hysterically crying on santa's lap are precious (i might be sick & twisted?!?!?), i didn't pick that battle (you know, the one where we spend $20 to make our child cry at Christmas) with my ever practical dear husband.

but this year she was up for it. sorta. it's totally off center because clay was on the other side of santa, convincing luci that santa was, in fact, safe...

she told him she wanted a purple bike. and we were about a half a block away when she said, "silly luci! i forgot to tell him i wanted roller skates!" we went roller skating for the first time two days later for a birthday party...and she hasn't mentioned wanting skates since (see future yet-to-be written post on ice & roller skating this year for the first time).

gus didn't cry...he was just skeptical. but he'll pretty much do anything that luci will do...he definitely takes his cues from sissy!
and here is my attempt to create a frame for under $5 to house said santa photo each year. this paper is a bit too busy i think...but it'll do for this year.

Luci's First Christmas Performance

1. the camcorder function on a camera does not replace an actual camcorder.
2. i do not have a steady hand.
3. our girl is T.I.R.E.D. as noted by the big ole yawn captured just as i started recording. i think she's still catching up from last week (5 days of 101+ fever).
4. i'm very proud of myself for keeping it together & not turning into a sobbing mess. (in the dictionary my photo is next to 'easy cry'). if a room full of small, joyful children singing Happy Birthday to Jesus at Christmas time doesn't make you tear up you must not have any Halvorson blood in ya. ;) luckily g served as a good distraction (you can hear him fussin in the beginning).
5. i am SOO blessed.

lu is the one leaning on the railing...ya know, the one with the giant open mouth yawn? so tired she couldn't be bothered to stand up apparently! she was really worked up about the show this morning before school. scared was the word she used...but during the actual performance she looked fairly apathetic! she didn't do any of the hand movements but did sing all of the words...to songs i hadn't heard her utter a word of before today. maybe they learned the movements last week (she missed both wed & fri cause of the fever)? maybe she had stage fright? who knows. regardless, as i told her over & over today, seeing her up there singing about Jesus & Christmas made my heart SUPER happy...

she comes by it naturally,

i'm afraid. just ask my nhhs girls.

"mom! when i laugh SO HARD, i try to pee!!"

poor thing...

her daddy's sick girlie

so yesterday afternoon the lu told me REPEATEDLY she was cold. and it was in the 50s, so i figured her texan blood just found it to be quite chilly. i took her to the gym even though she didn't particularly want to go (she never does, but then always has tons of fun once there). she looked a little off when i picked her up. then at dinner she didn't eat, and asked to be covered up with a blanket while she sat at the table. and yet her dense mother still didn't get it. i just thought she was tired because she'd been getting up super early.

then came bath time. and when i went to put her very warm-to-the-touch, goose-bumped lil self in the water it dawned on me that she had a fever.

yes, 102.6. poor sweet thing.

so i gave her some tylenol. medicine, i called it. she responded, "mom, i don't need medicine. i need to go to villa (the gym)."

strange, i thought. but i let it go.

at 5a she started crying and i went & slept in her bed with her until almost 8a (amazing how much faster the morning goes by when it starts at 7:30a instead of 5:30a or 6:00a). again, i gave her tylenol. to which she again told me she needed to go to villa. i asked, "do you mean the doctor?" and she said, "no, villa...that is where you & dad go to get healthy & strong."

ah, so true sweet girl. your dad couldn't be prouder that you associate the gym with being healthy instead of medicine. you may whine for your mama when with dad, but you sure do seem to internalize dad's way of thinking as the answer to life's questions. it's a good plan...he is a smart man. he married your mama after all!

not our christmas card photos

the lu had little interest in our christmas card photo shoot this year
we saw a lot of this
and more & more of this

as the shoot went on.

special thanks to my fabulous friend amanda who humors me every year by capturing my crazy family. it's always one of the best christmas gifts i receive and probably the only one i'll cherish forever.

(unless those diamond earrings are coming this year honey. i promise i'd cherish those too ;)

g @ 11 months

g notes at 11 months...

-he waves. at every.thing. and every.one.

-he sort of claps (he bangs his hands or objects together)

-he gives the sweetest open mouth kisses. mostly to me.

-he reaches up & plays with my dry, nasty ole hair whenever i'm holding him. he rubs it between his fingers & i can hear it's nappy texture. thanks for the reminder g ;)

-he has 2 bottom front teeth, and two top teeth coming in...the two on the outside of the top two front teeth.

-he's in 12-18 month pedipedi shoes, 12-18 month pants and mostly 18-24 shirts (long torso like his sissy), and 18 month pjs (maybe 12 month if they are all stretched out)

-he sleeps in footie pjs & a medium sleep sack

-he wears size 4 huggies & still uses sensitive newborn wipes (target brand ;)

-he will stand up in the middle of the room with nothing around him and cruises with the best of them. but no independent steps as of yet. and he has no interest in walking while holding our hands. he'd rather stand by himself or crawl, thankyouverymuch.

-he loves to open cabinet doors & pull everything out and bang it against the hardwood floor

-he LOVES to pound on things & bang things together. must be a boy thing?

-he eats like a champ. chicken, turkey, beef (he LOVED grandma myrtle the great's roast beef), toast, yogurt, blueberries (we are still working on raspberries), sweet potatoes, grilled cheese...pretty much anything i give him he'll at least try. it took a few attempts at blueberries, but now he's a BIG fan.

-when given peas & carrots, he eats the carrots first, and then if i don't give him any more he'll put back the peas. but he really prefers those carrots.

-he has 6oz bottles 4x a day...Enfamil ProSobee (soy)

-he drinks water from a sippy. and ALWAYS wants lu's sippy.

-he puts play phones up to his ear like he's talking

-he loves him some sissy. he lights up when she walks into a room
-dad is officially his favorite big man pal. he LOVES to play wrestlemania, pillow fight, and baby bulldog with dad & luci. he loves rough horseplay...i'm not excited about what this might mean for the future!

-i'm not sure how much he understands. he does understand, 'where is your cup', 'wave', 'where is dad/sissy/mom' and 'shake', but doesn't seem to get lots of things we do all the time like bye bye and eat. i'm wondering how much of it is me...i'm soo less likely to use consistent easy words with him because i'm usually busy talking to luci. so maybe he does understand & i just don't take the time to notice or to haven't given him opportunities to show me he understands? not sure. but i'm going to make more of a concerted effort going forward.

-his moods are even more extreme these days. when he's happy he just radiates joy, and when he's not he screams all holy moly!

the problem with time out

lately is that more often than not she's in time out for not being kind &/or gentle to her brother. his tears from her rough behavior soon become tears of sympathy and distress that his favorite playmate has to go sit in another room. without him. i'm still not sure if he's upset that she's upset or if he's just upset that he can't go sit with her.
see her 'resting' on the time out mat? he bangs on the doors until we let her out. or let him in.
adorable, cute, and annoying...all at the same time.
sigh :)

thankful

for all sorts of things this year. m'girl, m'boy, m'man. the rest of m'family. m'friends. our health.

we had a wonderful afternoon at the oswick household. our fourth thanksgiving in a row with our local family of friends. we had a record amount of food this year, which means a record amount of leftovers. this is good.

lulu is getting to be SUCH a big girl. we didn't see her for more than a few minutes all afternoon...she was so busy off playing with her friends. it was so fun that she cried when i announced it was time to leave. when we were getting into the car at 7p she asked if we were going to open presents when we got home. we explained it wasn't Christmas yet...that today was a day to be thankful for all of the things we already had.

she seemed annoyed.

then we got home. walked in the door & she LOST it...saying we forgot her treat bag. i replied, 'no, your trick or treat bag is still on top of the fridge - we didn't take it anywhere' (we are still eating halloween candy...1 per day) and she said, "NOOO!!! the bag from eleanor's house that has my name on it!"

then i got it. she had so much fun she thought it was like a birthday party and she was asking about her goodie bag.

yep, our thanksgiving was so fun our 3 year old thought it was a party. hope your thanksgiving was a party too :)

oh come all ye faithful

in the last week lu has come home from school singing all sorts of new songs...i'm guessing they are preparing for their upcoming Christmas program.

just a sampling of her take-away from oh come all ye faithful...

at first it was: "oh come, all ye fate-ful. joyful and try-on-it."

then later, "born the burger ki-ii-iing."

and even later yet, as she even more absentmindedly sang..."oh come, all ye fate-ful, juu-uuuly and au-ugust."

should be a great program!! ;)

alarm clock

this morning i woke up to the sound of my kids, as i always do. 'cept today it was different. they were laughing. together.

i checked g's video monitor.

i saw g standing in his crib, totally cracking up at the lu...who was playing peak a boo with him...all around the crib.

giggles, smiles + squeals of delight to start my day.

talk about the best alarm clock EVER.

g back @ 10 months

m'boy. i'm so sorry. we are so close to your 11 month birthday that i can't remember back to 10 months. what i can tell you is that you've been sick since mid-september. i thought you were finally feeling better, then teething hit & now today you woke up with yet another snot crusted face. but you did sleep through the night, so thank you for that my love.

-you are still anemic. and you hate your iron supplements. but aunt brooke tells me not to worry so i'm doing my best.

-your little fingers are ALWAYS busy. seriously...so dexterous. can't wait to see what you do with those capable hands as you grow.

-you wave...sometimes in the right context, sometimes not. but super adorable regardless.

-you cruise, you stand up on your own for as long as you want to & do it with incredible balance.

-you love your sissy. and you are already starting to act like the stereotypical little brother...pulling lu's hair, taking her toys, pushing & poking her in the double stroller or cart at the grocery store when you are bored. cracks me up....not so much her.

-you also are SUCH a lover. when i put you to bed at night & we rock you reach your arms up & just hug me. you reach up & play with my hair so sweetly...i just melt. i could rock you & love on you all night. if i didn't need to sleep, that is ;)

we're back...and behind

this crazy mama & her high maintenance kids survived a trip to iowa without dad. the kids were really terrific travelers. as for their mama? not so much. i won't be traveling again without him for a few more years. maybe when our youngest is three.

i have tons of catch up posting to do. and laundry. and work. ya know, fun stuff.

g was diagnosed with his first ear infection at that 8:15a appointment last monday...two days before we left for iowa. that said, he travelled super well. i took him back today and his bad ear has cleared up but the other one now has a bit of fluid, but not enough to treat at this point. he's been a fussy boy since we got back, but between the travel craze, ears, cough, and two new teeth clay discovered poking through today (top lateral incisors...the teeth on either side of his top two front teeth...which are not out yet) i guess a bit of fussy is to be expected.

and now, despite all of the things i should do, i'm going to go to bed. 'night.

ps. sweet boy...i'm sorry your 10 month post is going to be at the same time as your 11 month post at this rate. photos have been taken, but post has not been written.

pps. and i forgot to take my camera to iowa. awesome. luckily aunt baylee took some photos with her camera that i hope to share soon.

sick of sick & the most beautiful girl in the world+

these photos are totally unrelated to my post. but i just wanted you all to see m'girl. just before church this morning. cause she just looked so darn pretty.
she's got this new thing she's doing...constantly chewing on her fingers or clothes or hair...no idea what prompted it...maybe gus chewing on things? anyway - we're working on it. showing me her tap moves...

more tap...

i can't even begin to tell you how ready i am for this household to be well again. it's not like we've got major health concerns and for that i am very grateful. but since september 23rd it has been one thing after another...starting with g's diarrhea, moving on to the rest of us, then to a cold for clay & me, a sinus infection for me, then a stomach bug for me, then to a cough for the lu, to vomit to sinus infection for her, then last saturday g woke up with the cough and now the last couple of days he's had a low grade fever & isn't happy unless he's being held by mom or distracted watching baby einstein or his crazy sister. and he's waking at night & not napping well.

really it's been mostly manageable (except for the 8 hour barfing binge i had). really i'm just selfish...because i sooooo want to go to the gym. but the coughing fits & green snot crusted all over the faces of my precious babes aren't welcome there. i mean, i still find them adorable...but i suspect it's in the way only a mother can...

oh, and the kids & i leave this week for iowa. flying solo with the two of them. Lord please help me. clay has a long stint away so instead of missing him here we're going to go spend some time with the rosonke/halvorson clan. it's g's first time up there and our first time to meet cousin austyn, just in time for her first birthday. hopefully we won't get the sweet birthday girl sick.

luckily on friday i had enough foresight to think maybe i should make a pedi appointment for monday in case g isn't better....just to get them both checked out before we get on a plane & skip town. i called friday & scored two 8:15a sick checks for both kids with our doc. i figured i could always cancel them but if i waited till monday to call i'd never get in (the line is usually busy the first 30 minutes after they open on monday). sure enough, g woke up with a fever on saturday. but i have the appointments...so at least something is going my way!!

ramblings

clay's been home a.lot. over the last few weeks. cause that is what happens when mama barfs her brains out right before he's supposed to start a trip. it's been nice (not the barfing part, the having clay home part).

and so now that it's just me & the kiddos again, i have lots of random thoughts throughout the day that i'd like to share with another adult.

like...
"g's up. it is 6:18a. what to do? i guess we could clean under our bed...since it's been like 4 1/2 years..."

and
"it's 8am and the kids are running around the playroom like crazies. i'm too tired for this. why did i think cleaning under our bed was a good idea before coffee? seriously, the kids are bonkers. somebody is gonna get hurt."
and then 15 minutes later...
"told ya. lu just slammed g's finger in the play oven door. but she was SO, SO.SORRY." (her words)

or...
"holy cow. we went outside today after lunch & it was so nice & chilly i thought i should run in & get the kids' winter hats. then i checked the temperature & it was 70 degrees. when did we become lizards?!?!"

or...
"i don't feel like cooking. wanna go to chick-fil-a for dinner?" actually, i did say that to my 3 year old and she readily agreed.

and...
"so the lu is afraid of 'ghost-es-es' now. d*mn halloween. she wants me to stay in her room with her all night. since when did she become afraid of things!?! luckily i'm quick on my feet & told her that daddybear & Jesus will keep her safe. and that ghosts aren't real, they are just pretend. she seemed skeptical at best, but she did fall asleep."

and...
"i hate the night before the best cleaning ladies on earth come. seriously. it is so much work to pick up. ev-er-yyy-thing. but i'm not complaining...no, really, i'm not. i'm spoiled & they are great & i'm grateful. what would i do if they didn't show up at 8a? how would i keep stuff picked up throughout the day?"

and finally,
"it's after 10p. at 6a when the goo is up we are going to wish we had gone to bed at like 8p. why is this a lesson we have to keep re-learning?!?!"

so yeah, thanks for listening. er, reading. and if i'm really honest, i know why you are all here...and it's not because of my ramblings. so without further ado...i proudly present...thecutestkidsever.

he eats half of his meal once he's down & out of the chair.