"I shirt"

A couple of cute Makael phrases/words these days...

Borgen-open: (garage door opener)
Puita: Lita (what we call grandma Yarbrough)
Pipa: Grandpa
A-cha-milk-too: chocolate milk
Out: elephant (he just recently actually started saying elephant right, but last week it was still "out").

He has no problem saying his name, but when he was first learning, we would point at him and ask him what his name was.  Confused he would grab his shirt and say, "my shirt".  So of course that quickly became a game.  Although he knows very well what we are asking and has no problem saying Makael now, he still likes to play the "shirt" card.  I don't blame him.  He gets a laugh out of us every time!

Fall Fun

As much as I love fall, the change in seasons usually means an increase in sickness.  We've all taken turns fighting off colds, and Gemma and Makael both had a pretty nasty stomach bug last week. Because of that bug, Gemma missed a day of school last Tuesday. You would have thought the world was coming to an end.  She was devastated!  Come Thursday she was beyond excited to go, and to make things even better, it was picture day!  I'll admit I spent a little extra time doing her hair but I went ahead and let her pick out her outfit.  She always has such an opinion about her clothes that I thought it might be fun to capture her personality and "tastes" in her first school pictures. It's only preschool right? I highly doubt her 3 and 4 year old classmates are really "that" in tune with fashion to even know if her clothes match or not, so it's not like she was going to be embarrassed. Oddly enough, she picked an outfit I would have probably picked out for her. A cute dark purple shirt, jeans, and her pink shoes.  She looked pretty cute if I do say so myself :)

Makael is getting used to our one on one outings during the time Gemma is at school. Sometimes I wish I could go home, turn on a movie for him, and get all of my cleaning done before we go pick Gemma back up. Unfortunately Makael doesn't approve one bit of that idea. I've tried it a couple of times, but the second I pull into our neighborhood he starts crying and yelling "go back, go bye bye". He's definitely not a home body. So we find other things to do, even if it's just going to the mall to play on the jumpy toys.  I had NO idea how many mall walkers there are at 9 o'clock  in the morning.

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch this week. It was so much fun! The last time I was there, Gemma was only 10 months old and I didn't think it was that memorable.  Well, going with a two and an almost 4 year old is a completely different experience.  The LOVED it.  Makael ran around most of the time just yelling and wanting to get up on the tall straw horses.  I'm surprised he didn't lose his voice given how cold and windy it was. Gemma was all about feeding the animals and picking out a pumpkin.  Pretty sure she picked one of the uglier pumking out there, but whatever. It was fun regardless.

10 weeks today with baby #3  and I'm feeling hopeful that my days of morning sickness are behind me. I might have an hour or two throughout the day that I feel crummy, but as long as I don't wait too long between meals I usually feel okay. My mind is already racing and keeping me up at night. What names do we like? Should we find out the gender this time? What color should I paint the nursery? David has been leaning towards finding out the sex of the baby this time, but I haven't been able to fully commit to that idea yet...don't know why.  I know we still have some time to decide, but knowing me, the decision won't be made until we are at the ultrasound and the Dr. asks us if we want to know.  Regardless, I'm crazy excited about this little guy/gal.  I'm pretty sure this is our last baby so I'm doing my best to enjoy every moment, but I am more than happy to say goodbye to the nausea and dry heaving.

 

Makael's favorite 

 

Feeding the goats

You would have thought they climbed a mountain.

And again...he could have spent the whole time here.  

Not ready to end the fun at the end of the night. 

Party of 5!

Fall is here! Well sort of...it's still a little warm for my taste, but colder weather is on it's way  There's a tree in my back yard that has a pretty large patch of orange and red leaves and it makes me giddy to look at it.

Gemma is absolutely loving preschool. I wish she was actually going more than twice a week. She gets impatient on days she's home, and I currently don't have the energy to get us out of the house as much as she would like. Tuesday is by far her favorite day of the week, not only does she get to go to school, but she also gets to go to dance class.  So far, three of her teachers have mentioned to me how good of a student she is. I don't know what that means exactly in a preschool setting, isn't it mainly organized play time? I'm proud of her none the less and grateful she is doing so well.
She continues to be a coloring machine.  I thought it would be fun for her if I taped up her "art projects" on her bedroom wall, but I've quickly realized I have to be extremely choosy on which ones make it to the wall. Otherwise her entire room would be filled up by now.
Today she wanted to write out the whole alphabet, but she started on the right side of the page instead of the left. What was interesting to me is that all of her letters were backwards, perfectly written, but facing the wrong way. Once she ran out of room she continued her letters directly below the last one she had written (starting on the left side of the page) and as long as she was going in that direction the letters were facing the right way.  Doesn't that seem weird? Is she dyslexic? Genius? Weird? Who knows.

I'm not sure where to begin with Makael.  Oh Makael....and we thought his older sister was stubborn.  Wow! We have yet to have a full blown battle of wills, but when we do, David better be around as a reinforcement, otherwise I might not win.
I can't keep up with his vocabulary anymore. He's continually learning new words and actually using them appropriately, as well as using 4-5 word sentences.  My favorite little phrase right now is "work it".  He tells me to "work it" whenever he needs me to fix something for him.  I laugh every time.

So we are going to be a party of 5 come May!! I'm crazy excited. I'll be even more excited once the morning sickness is gone.  It's probably because I'm in the thick of it right now, but it seems to be so much worse this time than it was with the other two.  
Last week was an emotional one. It seemed like we might lose the baby and for five days I rode a non stop emotional roller coaster.  Thankfully we were able to get an early ultrasound and everything looks great. It's hard to put into words the relief I felt when I saw and heard the heart beat. I felt like I was able to breath for the first time in days, and as I laid there and enjoyed watching the little heart beat, I teared up thinking about how many people were praying for us and hoping for a positive outcome.  So thank you...everyone! I am so incredibly grateful for you.

As you might guess, life has been somewhat overwhelming recently so I don't have pictures to post, but I'll get some up soon. :)  

Makael is 2!

We had a pretty laid back celebration for Makael this year.  A couple of balloons, some presents, and a cupcake with a candle.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the candles I could have sworn I had in my kitchen, so we had to reuse his candle from last year...which is a huge #1. He may wonder why it looks like he turned one twice when he looks back at pictures, but I'll just let him know he didn't care one bit on the actual day.  He was fascinated by the attention, presents, and the single lit candle on top of his cupcake.  Definitely enjoyed the whole event much more than his first birthday.  I still can't believe he's two!

He had his two year check up this morning. The little peanut will NOT move up in his percentile for weight! He's in the 4th percentile for weight, 30th for height, and above average in everything else developmentally. I guess I don't need to worry too much. His pediatrician still wants me to bring him in for weight checks every three to six months just to keep on eye on him though.  He wasn't too cooperative during his appointment though.  He knows all too well what goes on in that office, and he doesn't forget, no matter how many stickers they give him! So our appointments was pretty quick, and thankfully there were no shots this time.

We spent the rest of the morning at the mall killing time until Gemma got out of preschool.  He's pretty obsessed with the carousel (horsies) so we made a pit stop there before going to buy him some new shoes.  He got his first pair of light up tennis shoes!  He wore them out of the store, and made the entire trek back to the car staring at his feet and saying, "a light", over and over and over...

A few pictures of his 2nd birthday :)

Our first week

What a week! It's been a fun one, but a busy one. Gemma and Makael are officially sharing a bedroom now. We decided to get bunk beds for Makael's room for the purpose of having an extra bed for Gemma when guests were staying in her room. I knew we would get a lot of good use out of bunk beds, but I had no idea how excited Gemma would be about them.  So, per Gemma's request, we decided to let them share a room.  Last weekend the bedroom got a full make over.  I cleaned out anything and everything that Makael didn't need, painted the room, took out all of his furniture, went through both of their clothes, put the bunk bed together with David, and put the room back together (Gemma's things included).
It has been somewhat of a transition at bed time, but other than that, I love that they're sharing a room. They spend a lot of time in there playing together, and Makael especially likes climbing up and down... pretty sure he's quicker at it than Gemma.  I love walking in to kiss them good night and having them both there.

Playing on the top bunk.

Gemma had her first day of preschool last Tuesday. I was a little emotional the night before, but Gemma and I were both troopers on the first day.  No tears!  She loved it!  After I picked her up, we immediately headed to dance class.  She did remarkably well with such a long day, but then fell asleep on our bedroom floor at 3:30 in the afternoon.  David and I both tried really hard to wake her up a couple of times, but it just wasn't going to happen.  So we put her to bed and hoped she wouldn't be up all night from sleeping all afternoon.  Not an issue...she didn't wake up until 7:00 a.m. the next day!! She wasn't the only one worn out... Makael fell asleep at 5:30, and I was in bed by 8:00.  We're clearly rookies at this whole preschool thing.
Her second day went well too.  She got to be the "leader" for the day and boy was she excited about it (imagine that). She got to be the leader for various activities, and the rest of her classmates got to line up behind her anytime they were asked to stand in a line.  And guess what? The leader for the day also gets to provide snacks for the rest of the class. How nice to include the parents right? The pressure!! I think we did okay though. :)

I promise she was excited...just not so much about all the pictures.

Hugs on her first day :)

Walking in like a big girl.

I don't know how Makael feels about one on one time with me for two whole mornings a week, but I'm loving it.  I forgot how much you can get done with just one kid!  We've been spending our time running errands and going to the park. We took advantage of our time last Thursday by heading to the jumpy toys at the mall and then getting his first hair cut! Boy was I nervous about it.  He doesn't sit still for me when all I'm doing is brushing out his hair after a bath. How on earth was he going to sit still for a complete stranger while they CUT his hair? Thankfully, after he refused to let the nice lady put the plastic cover over our shoulders, he did great.  He sat really still and squeezed his eyes closed the whole time.  I was so relieved when it was over and done with, and so proud of how well he did, that I didn't even care that we walked out of the mall COVERED in hair.  Those plastic covers really are useful!

So handsome!

"

Gemma has taught herself how to write her name, so she spends most of her time these days making pictures or letters for people and including her name as often as she can.  She's also super into organizing things.  Several times this week I've walked into a room and found things like this...

Meanwhile, Makael has been getting a lot of practice drinking out of the water fountain while waiting for Gemma to get out of dance class.

I think he's also a little jealous that he doesn't get to go to school too...

That's it four our first week of preschool. I'm loving our new routine!

Being a big girl

Ready or not she's a big girl!

First Ballet Class

Taking some pointers from her friend Zoey :)

Her turn!

She slipped and fell after jumping over the teddy bear. Still cute!

Notice her hands compared to everyone else's.  She kept pointing them downward.

She clearly enjoyed herself!

Preschool Orientation

A little "dot-to-dot" before heading to school.

So grown up!

She might like playing more than learning...we'll see.

She kept saying, "I can see my whole kingdom".

I think she's ready.
 

Little Miss Independent. 

Family Vacation

Summer is drawing to an end. Gosh it went by fast! We have one more week with Brielle (little girl I've been watching this summer) and a trip to Tennessee before I can officially say it's over.  Once we get back things will shift into our fall schedule with dance classes and preschool.  I know preschool is going to be so good for Gemma. She's ready and so excited for it...clearly she doesn't understand that this marks the beginning of school for the next 15+ years.  I can't help but dwell on the fact that this is the beginning of her life without me. Yes I realize that sounds dramatic. Sure, I can ask her about her day, be involved in her school, and know who her friends are, but up until now I've been the one to teach her everything she knows (at least get to watch it). I taught her how to eat solids, watched her crawl, then walk, say her first words. color inside the lines, etc...now someone else gets to take over for a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I don't even get to watch! I think that's reason enough to be a little emotional about it. I'll be sure to update you guys on how I'm  she's doing once we are a few weeks into it.

We just got back from a two day trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City.  Who knew doing nothing but kid stuff for a weekend could be so much fun? I've come to realize that I will do anything to see them having fun. Gemma was in heaven as long as she was swimming. Although she wanted nothing to do with the water slides, she did plenty of under water swimming, wrestling with anyone who would give her the time of day (daddy, uncle Matt, and Papa), jumped in off the sides, and worked on sitting at the bottom of the pool.  Makael on the other hand, wasn't a big fan of the indoor pool, but seemed to like the outside pool okay.  He kept busy by filling and emptying his bucket, jumping into the pool, and pretending to be a tiger. Good times!  It was also the first time we all stayed in a hotel room together where Makael was actually old enough to understand.  They loved it! They stayed up until 10:00 every night playing together.  They played chase, jumped on the beds, wrestled, and laughed so hard I thought they were crying. The highlight of the trip (for all of us) definitely had to be the petting zoo.  We couldn't have asked for better weather and both kids seemed to really enjoy it.  I know personally, my favorite 5 minutes of the entire trip was watching Gemma enjoy her first pony ride. Definitely one for the books.

Makael is talking like crazy these days. Out of no where! It's so fun to understand what he wants, and it's even more fun to hear Gemma trying to get him to repeat everything she says.  He plays along for the most part but eventually he let's her know when enough is enough.   He's especially interested in numbers and colors at the moment. My favorite is hearing him say "yellow". He has also started understanding when he's in trouble. Obviously he has understood that for a while now, but until recently he hasn't seemed to care.  You should see the little face he gives me when he's in trouble. It's almost enough to get me to say, "Oh it's okay buddy, I really don't mind that you just broke my favorite bottle of perfume". I haven't quite figured out if he's overly sensitive or being manipulative, all I know for sure is that it's CUTE.

Papa was the one who took all the great pictures from our mini vacation so I'll just post a link to his album...

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