Lilah, 18 Months

Lilah turned 18 months old this month.  Her doctor's visit was standard.  She cried because they made her get on the baby scale.  It's the last time she will have to though.  She's a big girl now and can be weighed on the adult scale. 

Her stats are as follows:

Height:  33inches, 85th percentile
Weight: 25 lbs 13.5 oz, 85th percentile

She has almost all of her teeth.  Her pointy ones are on their way in...ouch!  And two year molars will be next.  I scheduled her first visit with the dentist for July.  I was making Brian's appointment, so I just scheduled them both.  She's getting so big!

She talks a lot.  She can repeat nearly everything.  She says several 2-3 word sentences.  She knows lots of animal sounds and body parts.

She is still a smiley, happy girl who demands attention and gets it from just about everyone she meets.  She is bossy and knows how to get what she wants.  She still gives those looks that could kill.  I imagine she always will.  She reeks of attitude!  She can be so, so sweet too when she wants to be.   Oh how I love that baby girl!

Lilah with her two new favorite "babies."  My old (much loved) dolls-Pinky and Phyllis!

Brian's Progress and Running in Circles

Before Christmas we met with Brian's teachers to discuss his IEP.  We knew it was going to be a good meeting because his teacher kept saying how well he was doing.  We could tell too.  He was coming home each week telling us all about what they were doing in school.  He has learned most of the alphabet since school began this past fall-how to recognize the letters, phonetic sounds and how to write them. 

We found out at the meeting that he had surpassed all of his IEP goals. These goals were supposed to last him until May of this school year.  We wrote new goals at the meeting and found out that he has been released from occupational therapy at school.  The therapist at the meeting said (and I am paraphrasing obviously to some extent), he was supposed to be working on pre writing shapes according to his goals.  Obviously, he has those mastered.  I came into today to check and make sure he could still do those and he did.  Then he drew a Christmas tree for me.  Hahahaha!  You go, Brian Thomas!!

We discussed the FM system that was introduced about halfway though the semester.  Based on the data collected by the teacher, he was just as likely to stay on task without the system as he was with the system.  The best news, though?  He does stay on task.  Just like he's supposed to!

Then we talked about next year.  Before Brian was born, we talked about how we would likely hold him back due his birthday and gender.  When he was born with hearing loss, we said we definitely would.  So we have been tossing around how to make this happen, when to do it, etc.  Since he's in state preschool, he can't be held back this year and stay in the public system.  But, as it turns out his teacher said it would be a disservice to Brian to hold him back at this point.  She said he is more than ready for Kindergarten.  She said he is at or above where the other kids in the class are.  Ahhhh!  Great news right?  Well I thought so when I heard it.  But then I realized.  My baby has to go to kindergarten next year!  AHHHHH!!


More on that later, I'm sure.  For now, I will just be happy that he's doing so well.  Progress is a wonderful thing.  A few days after the meeting, I was chatting with one of the classroom aides.  She said that Brian is a leader in the classroom.  That he has about 8 little friends that follow his lead.  Wow!  I'm not sure I thought I would ever hear that.  He has just come leaps and bounds in such a short amount of time.  I couldn't be more proud of him!

Changing gears... for those of you who think a post is not a post without pictures, there are some below.  Brian and Lilah think it is hilarious to run in circles around the kitchen table.  I captured some shots of them doing just that the other night.  I think they are pretty great if I do say so myself!

New Year's For the Kids

The last two years on New Year's Eve, we have visited our zoo for their Happy Zoo Year Celebration.  We have always tried to include our kids in all celebrations and to center the celebrations around them when possible.  This year was no different.  We planned a New Year's Party at our house that was kid centered.  We decided our "ball drop" would be at 8p.m.  We made kid friendly sandwiches shaped like animals.  We got plenty of horns and even a red carpet for the kids to walk in on!  We even had a "milk toast" instead of champagne.  Thanks to Aunt Teri's pinterest account, we found cute idea where you fill a fake champagne glass with milk and put an oreo on the edge.  Too cute!   And to top it all off we had a bowl filled with hershey kisses labeled "midnight kisses." 

The kids were soooo excited!  We got all dressed up, had lots of good food and enjoyed a night with friends.  It was hard to get Brian and Lilah to calm down after all the fun.

At "midnight" the kids blew out 10 candles after we counted down.  They enjoyed their "champagne" and blew their horns.  I even set the clocks to midnight just in case!  One of our kid guests is a first grader, so I was afraid of getting caught!

 And here are my little worn out babies after everyone headed home.  Too much fun!

Christmas 2012

Brian is at such a fun age for Christmas fun.  I feel like we started celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and didn't stop until yesterday!

Advent was a huge excitement builder in our house.  Brian so looked forward to opening his Advent train each morning and putting a new ornament on his tree.  If he could catch his Daddy at home in the morning, he would insist on opening his Lego Advent calendar too.  If not, he would wait (im)patiently for his Daddy to get home in the evening so they could assemble whatever ship or "mini-fig" awaited them!

We went to the zoo for the Festival of Lights, saw Santa  few times, built a gingerbread house, baked cookies, visited with friends, went to an ugly Christmas sweater party...the whole nine yards!  Lilah fed off of Brian's excitement.  What a fun season!

I volunteered to plan Brian's class Christmas party.  The planning was fun, but the party was a whirlwind!  15 three and four year olds-oh my!  And I'm a teacher!! Thank you to Aunt Teri for coming to my rescue!!

On Christmas Eve we went to Mass where Brian played a wise man in the children's skit.  He did a great job!  I know how nervous he was...that place was packed!  After Mass, we went out to dinner with the family...yum!  When we got home, we put out the reindeer food and the cookies and milk for Santa just before bath time.  I can't even describe how excited Brian was!

Luckily, with the late night, both kids slept until about 8:30.  Before presents, I made them pose for a Christmas morning pj picture!

Both kids really enjoyed opening presents.  After the chaos, we ate some breakfast and got ready to head to Nana and Pappy's for more food and more presents.  Here are the kiddos just before we left.

We spent the day opening presents and eating! 

After Nana and Pappy's, we headed to Bibber and Billy's house. The kids were exhausted by the end of the day.  We felt bad putting them to bed knowing they really just wanted to play with all of their new toys, but knowing there would be plenty of time over the next several days.

To add to the Christmas excitement, we finally got a good snow Christmas night and throughout the next day.  Brian and Lilah were more than ready to get outside and play.  It was COLD though, so we had to limit the snow time.  We got a few more inches later in the week and took the kids out again to play.  Brian got an extra snow play date with his Daddy while Lilah and mommy went to work out one day too. 

Now the snow is melting and the presents are all opened.  Brian has moved on to telling us all the things he wants for his birthday-haha!  Good thing we planned well...summer birthdays are perfect...you only have to wait 6 months for more presents!  

The Two of Them

Him

Oh my sweet Brian boy.  My first born.  He made me a mommy.  He is so incredibly handsome.  Hi smile can melt me in an instant.   His heart is fierce.  He is brave and he overcomes.  He is tough.  He is compassionate.  He loves to learn, to "read," and to be read to.  He is smart and so very stubborn.  He loves to laugh and to make others laugh.  He loves to sing.  Oh and those big, big galaxy eyes.  He can stare right through you.  He is silly.  He jumps in puddles and loves to be tickled.  He is so, so sensitive and can be very shy.   He is quite creative and loves to "make something."   He is all boy...he loves to run and play.

Her

My sweet baby LuLu.  My baby girl.  She is just so beautiful with her soft red curls and dimples.  She is a precocious little imp.  She is outgoing and happy.  She is funny and she enjoys it.  Her little voice makes me smile.  She is tough.  She loves to cuddle. She loves to be read to just like him.  She loves her babies and all of his toys!  She loves to shop and she loves shoes.  She is my sleeper and my eater.  It's hard to find a food she will not try.  Her big, blue, dazzling eyes and easy smile make me smile.  Just watching her figure things out makes me smile.  She has a whole heck of a lot of attitude and boy is she stubborn.

The Two of Them

Watching the two of them together is absolutely amazing.  I love when they make each other laugh.  I love when he tries to explain things to her.  I love that she wants to be big like him.  I love when they talk to each other.  Especially when they "argue."   She just keeps saying "yeah" to make him mad and he'll shout, "no, Lilah, no!"  too funny.  I love when they read together.  I love when one of them is upset or hurt and they other is concerned and wants to fix it.  I love it when someone captures a picture of the two of them and it's good of them both.  This was what I wanted for Christmas, and I got it!

 Merry Christmas!  I hope yours was as full and blessed as ours.  Now LET IT SNOW!

November

Thought I should post a few random November pictures before the holiday posts begin!  We were lucky to have a pre-Thanksgiving meal at Shawn's aunt Bibber's house early in the month.  Lilah and Gavin and too cute together!

I tried three different times to get a fall picture of the kids by our big tree out back.  It's much harder now that Lilah is so active.  These are a few of the good ones.

 And just some random fall pictures...

We also celebrated my birthday with a national holiday.  Yep, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year!  Good food, good friends and good family = great birthday and holiday!

A Love for Reading

It is very important to me that my kids love to read.  I was a reader growing up and still would be if I could ever find the time...haha!  I'm a teacher for goodness sakes so of course I am going to promote reading!

Brian was easy.  I read to him when I was pregnant.  Often.  Shawn recorded "Where the Wild Things Are" and I played that to Brian in my belly.  Over and over.  He loved to be read to from a very young age.  As soon as he was able he would go get books for us to read to him.  He would sit and look at books for hours.  Now that he's in preschool, he comes home each week so proud of the new letter/sound he has learned.  And I cannot wait for him to be able to put them all together and read to himself.  For real.  He's going to LOVE it!

Lilah was a different story.  Let's face it, there just isn't time to read to the 2nd baby while pregnant when there is a toddler running around.  I tried to read to Lilah in my belly...and did...some.  But not nearly as much as with Brian.  I played "Where the Wild Things Are" read by Shawn to her...once....maybe twice.  I honestly didn't read to her when she was very young.  Not much anyway.  I just couldn't find the time.  I would read to Brian with her around, but his books her too advanced for her really.  I started to get worried when she became mobile and her idea of "reading" was chewing on the books.  I mean, the girl loves to eat, but books?!  So Shawn and I made more of an effort to read to her.  But she really wasn't too interested.  She would tolerate it for awhile, but eventually she would find something else to do.

Recently that has all changed.  Lilah is finally into books.  She brings them to us and says "books" in her sweet little baby voice.  Brian "reads" to her often.  He has several of her books memorized and it's so cute to see them reading together.  They even fight over the toy catalogs that come in the mail.  And demand that I hand them over as soon and I bring one in the house!  They read in the car pretty much all the time.  Last night Lilah even wanted to take a book into the bathtub.  Luckily I remembered we had a bath book of Brian's so she took that into the tub.  I love my little readers!

Brian reading to his cars!

Not sure why they like to read on the steps!

We pulled out the basket of Christmas books which sparked a reading frenzy before bath time!