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...

https://www.facebook.com/scottsboyd/media_set?set=a.10201181116322716.1073741831.1614600407&type=3

A rundown

Man, I wrote a whole blog last week meaning to post it as soon as I uploaded some pictures, but that took longer than I anticipated and after reading what I wrote, it is best to just start over.  It's getting harder to write about them. I'm having to make a switch from just documenting milestones (weights, heights, first words, first steps...) to having to describe specific moments with them.I find I lack  the ability to really illustrate moments through writing. The event is there, but not the frustration, sweetness, cuteness, or sadness of it.  I'll write it out and find myself just wanting to finish each post with, "you just had to be there to understand". Hopefully with time I get better. For now here's a rundown on the kids...

Gemma has become quite a little swimmer. It seems like she spends more time under water than above.
She has a new found love in painting. Over the span of two days she painted for 5.5 hrs. Her paints didn't last more than a weekend.
She's officially enrolled in both preschool and dance for this Fall, and she could not be more excited. She has started earning her keep around the house :) by doing "chores". It's pretty cute to watch her and it always makes me chuckle when she wants to spend her hard earned quarters on candy. It's a nice reminder that she's still little.  I'm definitely going to cry the day she wants me to take her to "Abercrombie" instead.
She got her first hair cut last week (by yours truly). All I can say is wow...good news is, she doesn't really care what her hair looks like yet, and it's still long enough to pull back in a pony tail.

Makael is a 2 year old...well not really, he's still two months away from that, but he has majorly grown up in the last few weeks.  He's no longer a sweet quiet momma's boy, he's very much a highly energetic and vocal little guy, not to mention he's now in a twin bed :)  It seems like over night he turned a corner in his vocabulary and is now using words instead of grunts to communicate. Some of those words are still only understood by me, but still, it counts.
Getting him to like the pool wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  He loves it now! The moment we get there he asks for a "pup" (cup) and spends his entire time filling it up and pouring it out.
His current "thing" is climbing and then jumping off of anything and everything.  He usually let's me know he's climbing while he's in the process, "I climbing!", and then proceeds to say, "I okay", after he has jumped off.  He's definitely the acrobat in the family.

When there's a long time between posts, I typically have lots of pictures to post....

Playing in the rain

Someone was fighting his bedtime.  

A very small portion of Gemma's paintings...or as she calls them "her artists".

She wanted to pose with the painting Grandpa did for her.

I think he's pretty photogenic

This boy will sleep anywhere!

A little summer update

Success! Makael has actually liked the pool the last two times we've gone. I've decided the only thing he doesn't like is that initial coldness of the water.  Once he's in, he seems to like it like every kid should. He threw a major fit last time when we said it was time to go, and although I did my motherly duty of making sure he knew it wasn't okay to act like that...I was smiling on the inside.

No surprise Gemma loves the pool. Besides being comfortable with putting her head underwater and wanting to show everyone her kicks (even complete strangers who couldn't care less), she hasn't carried over much from her swimming lessons. I'm still so glad she took them though. It was worth it.

So the kids have started manipulating us during bed time.  It's amazing how they get along so well right about the time we start saying it's "time for bed".  Sure they have proven how tired they are with all the afternoon wining and bickering, but miraculously, right around 7:30 they become best friends. They typically wrestle, play chase, or race around the house laughing hysterically. They've realized that the second they start fighting or someone gets hurt we usually send them to bed. I'm okay with being manipulated in this way though...seriously it's the cutest thing you've ever seen.
Unfortunately they've also started coming into our room in the middle of the night.  They like to crawl into bed with us, which I of course love, but David hates. Gemma isn't so bad since she rarely comes in to begin with, but she's also a pretty mellow sleeper.  Makael on the other hand, has been coming in almost every night and is a mover (a.k.a. kicker) in his sleep.  Actually, he likes to cuddle with me and save his kicks for David.  As much as I love hearing his little footsteps coming down the hall, and then cuddling with him until we're both fast asleep, I know I'll have to put an end to it if it goes on for much longer.

To add to this topic...Gemma did come in last night, not to lay down with us, but to tell me she wanted kiss. So what do you do when your three year old wakes you up at 2:00 a.m. wanting a kiss?  You give her a kiss that's what! Gosh I love her!

Some pictures...

This boy will climb or swing on anything.

So frustrating when he can't get over to the other side.

M got into my make-up kit and gave himself a uni-brow.

The sprinkler can be an afternoon babysitter.  She spent two hours one day playing on her own in the back yard.

Nothing like a good cup of (whatever) and your favorite chair.

Perpetual goofball.

Like I said...

Yes...that's Makael actually sitting in water!

Sweetness

One of the most precious pictures! Gemma's first time fishing with Papa.