Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Matthew's 8th month

Matthew is 8 months old!


Movement: If I picked one word to sum up this past month for Matthew, "movement" would be it.  He has been rolling places for a few months now and started scooting a little over a month ago but now he is really moving.  He rolls, he scoots, he army crawls, he regular crawls.  He'll do them in succession, too, so it's fun to watch.  For instance, he'll take a couple regular crawls, roll over, scoot a bit, then army crawl to his final destination.  He is getting better at regular crawling all the time, which is great, although it will be a little sad if he stops doing all the other forms of movement. He can get places pretty quickly these days and will go anywhere that Megan does.  He has also started pulling to standing.

Scooting like an inch worm

On his hands and knees

Yogurt: Matthew got yogurt a few weeks ago.  It was actually Megan's yogurt, but the spoon went to him instead.  He liked it.  He liked it a lot.  Since at that point in time he wasn't eating solids well, we decided to give him a little bit more.  He ate it right up.  And then we noticed the hives.  Everywhere the yogurt touched his skin, he got hives.  And Matthew did a good job of spreading it all over his arms, his face, his head.  Poor kid!  Needless to say, he got a quick bath, some hydro cortisone cream and Benadryl and hasn't had yogurt since.

Eating solids: Since the yogurt experience, Matthew has decided that eating solids is ok.  In fact sometimes he quite likes it.  He often likes to feed himself--we give him the spoon and he puts it in his mouth.  This makes a really big mess!  He has also started eating Cheerios a bit.  He'll grab them and try to put them in his mouth although they don't always end up there.
Messy eating

With his spoon

Teeth: Matthew is now the proud owner of two teeth.  The bottom front two.  

Showing off his first tooth

Running: I think this should just be a standing entry in any blog post about Matthew.  His running legs are still running.  This month, he has figured out that when they kick into something it makes a cool noise.  He'll basically kick anything around him--the walls, couch, car seat, people (this doesn't feel good although U says if he kicks your back it is a nice massage....).

Bottles: Matthew loves bottles.  I don't think I've ever seen him move as fast as I have when he's crawled to get one of Megan's bottles.  He likes playing with it and chewing on it.  He'll make funny faces when he gets a taste of formula.  He has forgotten, however, how to suck from it.  Guess 5 months is too long to go between bottles.....

Babbling: Matthew continues to babble a lot.  It seems like he is giving a running commentary on what is going on in his world.  Now if we could only translate I'm sure we'd learn a lot.

A few other random things:  Matthew is still super flexible.  He seems to enjoy being all scrunched up and having his legs over his head.  When he sits, he has a very small footprint--his legs are often right up along his body.  Sometimes when he starts crawling, he puts his hands forward from this position and his legs are still crossed.  Looks pretty funny but he manages to make it work.  He has started doing scrunch nose smiles, which are really cute.  He is also a pretty sensitive kid.  If one of the girls starts crying for some reason, he'll often join in.

Scrunch nose smile

Playing with rings

Sitting at the counter--why is it they look so much bigger right at the counter/table?

Playing with shark in the bath

Remember, fish are friends, not food (guess he'd been taking lessons from above-pictured shark)

Hmmmmmm

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Megan's 11th Month

Megan has had a fun month.  Hard to believe she's 11 months already!

Games: Megan has started playing a few games.  One is peekaboo with her hiding from us and then popping up or out.  It's cute when you see her head start coming up above the side of the chair or from behind the blanket.  Another game she likes is chase.  She'll crawl away a bit and then stop and look to see if we are going to come after her.  Then she'll crawl a bit more and look back again.  She laughs a lot when she is finally caught.  Yet another is "ET"--she'll stick her index finger out and touch ours.  She's such a fun happy girl!

Moving: Megan continues to crawl all over.  What freedom she has:)  She will sometimes push up onto her feet and stick her head between her hands--kind of looks like downward dog.  She enjoys opening and closing doors and cabinets.  She also pulls up to standing on just about anything she can (couches, cabinets, sisters, stools, car seats, etc). One thing that is nice is that along with the skill of standing up, she's also mastered sitting down so we don't have to rescue her when she decided she is done standing.  She loves cruising around and has also started climbing up stairs.  This is nice for me as sometimes I'll have her crawl up the stairs with me carrying Matthew behind (versus carrying them both together).

One day, Megan crawled into her car seat where her back usually is.  It tipped forward and she stood up inside of it.  It then tipped all the way forward and out went Megan.  Mom was a little concerned about this, but Megan was just fine--she crawled away from the scene with no tears and no injuries.

Megan demonstrating how car seats tip

Teeth: Megan started the month with one tooth.  She ended it with six.  Three came in at the same time.  Ouch!  (We've been having lots of teething action going on between Megan and Matthew getting teeth and Sarah losing them.)

Eating: Megan still enjoys eating most of the time and her diet is varied enough that she can often eat our dinner with us.  When we give her something she wants, she'll often say "Oooooo" and shake her legs excitedly.  So much fun!  She really likes meat.  There are a few foods that she actually has not liked on first try--yogurt and apricot.  (She has since decided that yogurt is ok.)


Noises:  Megan doesn't talk all the time but when she does talk, she talks to be heard (i.e., LOUD!).  She has started babbling a few words like "mama."  She has a few expressions that sound like words although I'm not sure if they are.  One is "hi" which she'll say when she first sees someone.  Megan has also started clicking her tongue (her brother must have taught her how much fun this can be).  She really likes it when we click back at her and have clicking conversations.  When Megan is upset, she talks really loud and fast.  It sounds pretty funny!

Big sister: Megan likes her little brother.  She'll do things like pat him on the head and hold his hand.  It's cute.  She's even taken to giving him toys lately.  What a nice big sister:)

Tinkering: Megan still tinkers a lot.  One day she handed me a part of a baby gate.  I had no idea what it was at first.  I figured out what it was and how to get it back on--good thing since my baby could figure out how to get it off. (U later told me Sarah had figured out how the part came off while Megan was watching.  Apparently Megan was watching carefully.)  One thing she likes to tinker with a lot is the stick we have in the sliding glass door.  She'll pick it up, chew on it, swing it around.  It's pretty funny to see this little girl with a long broom stick.
How does it taste?


Other pictures:

Where is Megan???

Yummy toys!

One of Megan's favorite toys at my parents'--a hammer.  And what could be better than a hammer?  You can pound it, you can eat it, you can poke somebody's eye out....




Sarah's World

Sarah's world these days consists of a lot of school which she likes.  Recess is still her favorite part.  She does manage to squeeze in a fair bit of playing at home which is good.  Here are some recent highlights:

Playing Operation (she doesn't like the buzzing, hence U's hands over her ears)

Doing things the babies do (she really likes their toys, too)

Playing dress up (Matthew was very nice to go along with it!)

Biting her toe nails

Losing teeth (Megan is wiggling Sarah's remaining front tooth here; it came out later that day)

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Colorado Trip: The Rest of the Trip

We spent a bunch of time at my parents' house doing lots of different things.  Here are some of the happenings.

Playing the piano with grandma; Sarah learned how to play "Hot Cross Buns" (aka "Please turn green" the song we sing to stoplights when they are red)

Three kids in a chair

Sunday walk

Babies a bit later on the walk (I love how Megan is standing on the stroller)

Matthew tuning up a chair

Tea party with grandma (there were many of these; this one was complete with presents and a cake)


Megan's 1st Train Ride

Grandma and the three kids

Sarah washing the dishes

Flying Sarah!

Matthew demonstrating that no matter how hard you push, you can't move a brick wall! He did this demonstration a lot.

Horse built for two

Megan contemplating her food

Sarah's toothless smile

Grandpa and Matthew

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Colorado Trip: Fishing with Grandpa

Sarah and Grandpa went fishing one morning.  They had a good time together even though they didn't catch any fish.  Sarah says it was "fun" and "nice." We don't have any pictures from the trip, but we took a couple of them at the house.



Colorado Trip: Hudson Gardens

We went to Hudson Gardens one morning.  It has reciprocity with our Botanic Gardens and is about 5 minutes from my parents' home so we decided to check it out.  We enjoyed the nice weather, beautiful flowers and other vegetation.  We saw a neat water garden where there were lots of little fish and tadpoles/frogs.  We were serenaded by a string quartet while we ate our snack on a little island. (Ok, so there may have been a wedding going on close by, but there weren't signs telling us not to go on the island and we weren't obnoxious or anything. Dad says we were the wildlife. And the music was really nice!)

Grandma, Grandpa, Sarah and very beautiful flowers

Sarah dancing with the natives

Megan's and Matthew's experience

Enjoying our picnic and the island





Megan liked crawling around (and under)!