Moving on up!

Look who graduated!

More to see in the graduation album on SmugMug. There are also recent pictures in our summer adventures album. You don't need to be logged in to view the pictures, but let me know if you need the password. (And if you want to sign up yourself, you can use this link to get a discount on your first year.)

Who Is Going To Learn Spanish Next Year?

This guy!

Peter got into Dos Cominos, the district's dual language program, and we couldn't be happier.

The End of an Era

So this afternoon, the boys "helped" while I took the railing off of the crib and turned it into a toddler bed. I would have much prefered to leave him in the crib, contained, for at least as long as I did Peter but he has been trying to climb out recently, as well as climb in. So tonight is the first night of Charles sleeping in a big boy bed.

Bedtime went pretty well. He only got up when he would follow Peter out of the room (and tell us that Peter was going potty), and it only took a few tuck-ins before he was good for the night. The big test will be seeing how the morning goes. Fingers crossed it isn't an early morning.

I have been terrible about posting recently, I am going to try to be better. There are some recent photos in our winter adventures album on SmugMug. You don't need to be logged in to view the pictures, but let me know if you need the password. (And if you want to sign up yourself, you can use this link to get a discount on your first year.)

Happy Eighteen Months!

With summer and moving, I have really fallen off with blogging here. Which I'm not happy about, as this is probably the closest that the boys will get to a baby book (because, let's face it, I'm just not that organized).

A lot has happened in the past three months, and Charles has been growing well. He is now 35 inches and 23 pounds 3 ounces, which is the 95th and 25th percentiles respectively. He is so very vocal, but his only real words are "Daddee" and "ByeBye", which is usually combined to "ByeBye Daddee!!!" while standing at the window in the morning. He loves to point out trucks, buses and planes, wants to do everything that his big brother is doing. He is up to twelve teeth, as he got his molars about a month ago. We are not looking forward to when the other eight teeth come in. He loves to sing, especially "Open Door" from Frozen, and will dance along to familiar songs.

Eighteen months!

And from BabyCenter.com:

At eighteen months, most children:
Will "read" board books on their own - While he used to want nothing to do with books, now he grabs and pretends to read all the time. He will point to objects and "tell" me what they are.
Scribbles well - He has started to scribble, but we don't let him have crayons too often, since he still tries to eat them.

At eighteen months, half the children:
Will string to words together to make phrases - He is not doing this yet, there is not a lot of English going on.
Brush teeth with help - He is more sucking on the toothbrush than brushing, although he really doesn't want any help at all.
Stack four blocks - He does this, and then says "Oooooh" when he knocks them over.

At eighteen months, a few children:
Throws a ball overhand - He will do this every once in a while, but is more likely to kick the ball than throw it.
Takes toys apart and puts them back together - He has been working on this, and is getting better.
Shows signs of toilet training readiness - Not really, but they say that younger siblings potty train earlier, so fingers crossed.

We're trying out a new photo sharing site, and are slowly moving our photos over. Check out our summer adventures album on SmugMug to see the past three months of photos. (The albums are password protected, send me a message if you need the password.)

Seventeen Months!

Sixteen Months!

Better Late Than Never

FIVE new milestones and no posts to show for it. I did want to get this up before tomorrow, and they all get overshadowed by the posts that I probably will not get up for few days (since tomorrow will be very busy).

The first four are the four new teeth that Charles has gotten in a matter of days. They are the four on top, and I have be unable to get a photo of them as Charles tries to eat the camera every time.

But the big one is that Charles is now walking. Full on walking. This video is from last week, and he has much improved since then. He can now change direction mid-walk, and doesn't need to pull up to stand anymore. I cannot believe that this time as already come (and a little earlier than it did with Peter).

Please excuse the extreme mess, as I was in the middle of folding an epic amount of laundry (because things like this don't happen when everything is neat and clean).

I know that I haven't been updating here as often as I would like, and I hope to start doing better. There are a lot of changes coming up for both boys, and I want to use this space to keep a record of everything.

39 Weeks 2 Days

Charles has now officially been an outside baby longer than an inside baby. The past nine months have gone by so quickly, I feel that it was much faster than last time. Charles really has started to develop his own personality. He loves attention, he wants me to hold him most of the time, but when Geoff gets home he goes racing to the door. He loves to play and can hold his own with his brother (who loves to play with him).

So very much looking forward to what the future brings.

We're In Trouble Now

Charles has started to pull himself up. So far he has only done it on Peter's little table, but he's trying on other things (like the couch). This means we are that much closer to standing and then walking.

Help us now.

Working on it

All the way up

Time for School

Last Thursday was Peter's first day of school.

He is now in the three's program at the nursery school at church, and he is loving it. Unlike camp, I actually remembered to take pictures of his first day, and got a few of his second day as well.

Last week was shortened days to get the children used to being there, but he started his regular Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule this week and has been doing great.

I am late in posting as I have been slow getting the pictures online. And I probably won't have many more of Peter in school since he doesn't need or want me to stay. I cannot believe how fast he is growing up.

And One More

I'm late in posting this, but last week a second tooth came through next to the first. I'm having a hard time getting pictures of the teeth, he likes to try to eat the camera (just like his big brother did). So here is a slightly blurry shot. Hopefully I'll get some better ones soon.

We have a tooth!

Yesterday morning, Charles woke up from his nap with a tooth that he did not have when he fell asleep. It is the bottom tooth on the left when you are looking at him. I cannot believe that this has happened already, Peter didn't get his until he was just about seven months. I was just thinking how I had to get a few more gummy pictures before his teeth start to come in. Once again, this is a hard picture to take, but I was able to get one where you can see the tooth. More pictures to come as it continues to grow.

Baby's Gotta Eat

I'm behind on posting, mostly because I've been slow getting the pictures off the camera. Here are a couple of pictures of Charles' first taste of banana, as assisted by the ever helpful big brother. He has since had sweet potato and avocado, and he really seems to be enjoying eating. He grabs for the spoon and "helps" put the food in his mouth. We have a couple of new fruits to try over the next few days, so I will hopefully have some new pictures soon.

Mobile Baby!

I know I owe a bunch of updates, and I (hopefully) will post them over the next few days, but I caught this video today and I wanted to share. Not quite yet crawling, but scooting. Crawling won't be too long now. Funny enough, the things that usually motivates him to scoot are his brother's toys.

Happy Five Months!

Charles continues to grow longer, but didn't put on as much weight as we would have thought. He is now 27 inches and 15 pounds, which puts him into the 90th and the 30th percentiles. The doctor isn't too concerned yet since he didn't loose any weight and breastfed babies take what they need, but we are going to be starting solids a littler earlier than originally planned. In fact, as soon as we bring up the high chair from storage, we should have cute pictures to share. In other food related news, he is starting to show symptoms of the dairy allergy but for now we are just keeping an eye on it and not making any changes.

One of the reasons that he may not be gaining as much weight is that he is constantly on the move. He has mastered rolling over and now it is hard to keep him on his back. He is trying very hard to stand, and seems to want to skip sitting entirely. He also seems to be eagerly trying to crawl, but not quite able to do so yet. He has found his feet and is much more interactive with us. He loves when we have dance parties, and loves it even more when Peter pays attention to him. He is playing with his toys, passing them between his hands. He loves Sophie, but anything that crinkles or makes bell like noises holds his attention. Right now his favorite toy is his moose, which he plays with in his car seat as we walk Peter to camp in the mornings.

And he has found his voice. He is mostly saying vowels, but tonight he did say "Mama" more than once. I don't have video, but both Geoff and Peter heard him say it. Not that he knows what it means yet, but yay! He is definitely a laugher, Peter can get him to laugh more than anyone else, but he has big belly laughs for all of us.

From BabyCenter.com:

At five months, most children can:
Distinguish between bold colors – Don't know how to determine this.
Play with his hands and feet – Like I said, he has found his feet. Also, sometimes it seems like he has found his hands again and they are the most interesting toys to him. It is so very cute.

At five months, half the children can:
Recognize his own name – Something else I'm not sure how to tell. Is he responding to his name, or just our voices?
Turn toward new sounds – He does this.
Roll over in both directions - As of right now, he just seems to be rolling from back to front.

At five months, a few children can:
Sit momentarily without support – Yes, but he isn't all that stable.
Mouth objects – All the time. He is a big fan of his two fingers, loves to chew my fingers and tries to get all his toys into his mouth. I don't remember Peter doing this that much, but it might just be selective memory.
Separation anxiety may begin – Haven't really noticed this yet.

And finally, there are more pictures in our July album on Picasa, which I will keep adding to for the rest of the month. I also have a few more posts to come with pictures and firsts.

The Hair is Cut

Hard to believe that we made it three years, but today Peter had his first hair cut. I was hesitant, but it was getting too long to hold the curls and since he starts camp on Monday, it seemed like the best time to do it. We headed over to the local children's hairdresser, and Peter was impressed with their car seats. He did seem a little nervous at first, but soon settled in. She was great with him, and we were all happy with the results. Peter was especially happy with the balloon, bubbles and lollipop that he got and wanted to pose for pictures in the red car. He also got a certificate for completing his first haircut, and was excited to show it to Daddy when he got home from work. There are more pictures in our June album on Picasa.

A New Bedroom Look

Even though it will be a little while before we move the baby into Peter's room, I've been having a hard time getting him in and out of the crib. So this weekend we went shopping for a big boy bed.

Peter had a lot of fun testing out the beds, from toddler beds to bunk beds. In the end we decided to go with bunk beds, since the room really isn't big enough for two beds so we will need them eventually.

The delivery was scheduled for yesterday, and it was looking like it wouldn't arrive before Peter went to bed. But about ten minutes before bedtime, the doorbell rang (causing Peter to scream out "avocado sushi!" in excitement).

Of course that meant that the bed was going to be made right then, and that bedtime would be pushed back. Once it was ready, he was so happy and very ready to go right to sleep.

Big First Day

Hard to believe that this day is already here, today was Peter's first day of "school". It is a mom cooperative, and I was one of the teachers today, but Peter did very well. He had a lot of fun playing, and he already knew one of the other children. The real test will be next week when I don't stay. He looked like a little boy all dressed up this morning, he really doesn't look like a baby anymore.

Shocker of Shocks

Peter told me that he wanted to sit on the potty. He has said this to us before, but he always freaked out and ran away when we finished setting it up for him. Today, he actually sat and was so proud of himself. I didn't hold out much hope of him actually going since I had just changed his (rather full) diaper, but he insisted that he was going to pee. And he did. It was just a little, but still much better than I ever anticipated for his first attempt.

Looks like it's time to get some training pants.

Eighteen Month Stats and More

Yesterday was Peter's eighteen month well visit, and it went perfectly. The doctor was very happy with how he's doing and how he is growing. He his now 34 1/2 inches tall and weighs 26 pounds, putting him into the 90th and 50th percentiles. Next time he gets measured will be in January, hard to believe how fast time is going.

In tooth news, the two top molars started to come through yesterday, so Peter now has five teeth coming in. This explains the lack of sleep in our house recently. I don't think that I'll be getting a picture of numbers ten and eleven due to where they are in his mouth, but once his other incisor starts to come through, I'll hopefully get a picture of that.

Make that three

On Sunday I noticed that Peter is getting another new tooth. This one is on the bottom left (his, on the right if you are looking at him) in the front. I've been trying to get a picture, but I've had no luck. Hopefully, I'll be able to get one before this weekend, when I am planning on posting another update.

I am also hoping that I'll be able to get some videos posted, but first I have to get them off of the camera, which I have not been able to do since I lost the software when the computer crashed in April.

UPDATED 10.6.11: Finally got a picture this afternoon. So yay!

Two More Teeth

Peter seems to have been teething forever, but yesterday his first two molars finally started to poke through. they are both on the bottom, and are about half way in. I am thinking that this might have been part of the reason he is waking up at night. Now to wait for the rest of them to come in...