Well, at least one =) Anna loves the water! Even though she’s swallowed about a half-dozen mouthfuls of water in two days, she loves the pool and seems to be a natural. She even has a great kicking style (looks like a butterfly kick, rather than the typical splashing kick most kids have at first).
Daniel, on the other hand, is still pretty unsure about the water. But he did manage to get in past his belly button today, so we’re making progress =)
My cutie pies =)
Per Grandma and Grandpa’s request, here are some updated pics of the kids . . . =)
Just wanted to share . . . =)
Gil officially started his own business this year. Colman Engineering, PLC. We’re excited to see what God has in store for us . . .
I love seeing Daniel and Anna holding hands . . . they are so sweet together.
(A little fuzzy, but I still love it!)
It was a beautiful day yesterday, so we enjoyed some time outside at EMU and got some pictures. We are SO ready for spring!!
Daniel (3 1/2 yrs)
Is an absolute joy to be around! Loves to sing and dance and make up new lyrics to songs. Loves to play with his Cars vehicles. Is very sweet with Anna, even though they fight over toys (we’re working on that part!) He has a strong sense of right and wrong. Has a great memory (even mundane details he can recall with specificity). Has excellent grammar and a large vocabulary, but he speaks so quickly that sometimes I’m the only one who understands. He can read / sound out words phonetically, but he isn’t ready to read sentences yet. Understands how to add two numbers together. Can name 26 different types of dinosaurs (thanks to Dinosaur Train—our kids’ favorite show). Loves his grandma and grandpa.
Anna (1 1/2 yrs)
Is also an absolute joy to be around! Also loves to dance (she has great rhythm!) Also loves to play with Daniel’s Cars vehicles. She’s very strong, but also very sweet. She’s particularly strong willed when it comes to her likes and dislikes of certain foods. Her vocabulary has really taken off in the past few months. She says some words very clearly—like “clock,” “Elmo,” “mommy” (although, it really comes out at “ommy,” which I LOVE), and “So” (apparently I say that a lot)—but she says lots of things that only Gil and I recognize, like “All Aboard!” (Again, thanks to Dinosaur Train!), and “Lightning McQueen.” She also loves her grandma and grandpa—very much!
We joined some friends at the JMU Arboretum last week—it was beautiful! Got some pics of the kids . . . =)
Just two more pics of the kids. Gotta keep the grandparents happy with new pictures as often as I can =)
Just wanted to post some recent pictures of the kiddos =)
Daniel (38 mo) and Anna (14 mo)
Anna started taking some steps earlier this month, but she's made a lot of progress this week. She can make it across the room, but she still prefers to crawl most of the time.
Also, she’s started waving and saying “bye bye.” She didn’t wave in this video, but at least I captured the words =)
We are so pleased to announce that Gil has passed his PE exam and is now officially a Licensed Professional Engineer in Virginia. Woo hoo!
We had a great time at Nags Head this week with our friends, Roger and Holly, and their sweetie pie, Emma. Daniel and Anna had so much fun—I don’t think their smiles could have gotten any bigger =)
We took so many pictures, but here are my favorites . . .
Anna turned One Year Old today!! Wow! She’s such a joy. We love this little girlie!!
Our kids are so blessed to have such a great daddy. =)
Well, long story short, I had to put baking powder in Anna’s hair this weekend. A shining moment for me (cough cough), but what a cutie!
Our little boy is 3 years old! Wow! We had a great time celebrating this weekend . . .
On Saturday, we went to the Safari Park in Natural Bridge. We were really impressed (thanks for the idea, Lindsay!), and Daniel and Anna had a great time. Though Daniel enjoyed the zebras, giraffes, monkeys, etc., his favorite thing was “those cutout things” (meaning these things with the cutouts for your face—we didn’t know what to call them.) =)
For his birthday today, we gave him a Radio Flyer scooter. He’s pretty happy with it. We had a special dinner outside with our good friends, Bill, Ellen, and Hannah. It was a beautiful evening celebrating our little boy’s big day. And it blessed my heart tonight when he told me, “I liked my birthday!”
Poor Anna usually doesn’t get to play on the deck because she gets splinters when she crawls on the wood. But, last Sunday, Gil tried something new . . . he put a blanket inside our empty pool and filled it with toys. It worked great! She had fun with it for hours!
We’ve been having lots of beautiful rainy days. It’s been great for our garden and our yard. Everything’s thriving!
Even Anna’s enjoying the rainy days. She loves watching from the back door.
There are pictures of me and Gil wearing them, too—but I won’t share those! We (well, I, for sure) look particularly unattractive in them =)
Gil took this picture of Anna yesterday. What a sweet girl!
We’ve decided to do a mini garden this year—just tomatoes, cucumber, basil, and maybe some peas and strawberries. A few years ago, we tried hay bale gardening (it works great!), so we’re doing it again! Since our ground is just hard clay, it’s a great option for us. The hay bales retain water well, and the roots have plenty of room to grow.
Daniel had so much fun helping us with the planting and the watering. I look forward to seeing his reaction when we get to actually eat from our garden. Nothing like it! =)
I’ve been wanting to blog about our wonderful Roomba for a while. It was my Christmas present, and I absolutely LOVE it! When the kids are downstairs playing, I set the Roomba to clean the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs; and when we’re upstairs for naptime, the Roomba cleans downstairs. It’s lightweight, does an awesome job, is easy to clean, and is so quiet I can even talk on the phone when it’s on nearby. It definitely works for me!
Daniel's Jokes
Daniel’s been learning a few jokes. (Knowing his Daddy, is it any surprise?!?) Here are two, but they require subtitles =) . . .
Why is 6 afraid of 7?? Because 7, 8, 9.
Knock knock. Who’s there? Aybe. Aybe who? A, B, C, D, E, F, G
He keeps us laughing all the time =)
Anna's Steps
And here’s a video of Anna using the walker. I love how she looks so proud of herself.
Anna’s cruising along the furniture now, and she does really well with her walker. She’s also going through an “I want Mommy, and only Mommy” phase. Daniel never did that, so it’s actually been kinda nice. I enjoy all of the cuddling.
Daniel’s doing well, too. He talks all day long, doesn’t shy away from complex sentences, and asks lots of questions. And he’s recently started enjoying jigsaw puzzles. He’s up to 35-piece puzzles, but we think he’s ready to upgrade to 50. He likes to do them over and over until he’s mastered them =) He's our little learner!
Our sweet little Anna turned 9 months old this weekend. She surprised us on Friday by saying, “Mama!” And on Saturday, she said “Dada” (only once, but I’m sure I heard it!) I haven’t been able to catch either word on video, but I did get some cute babbling. I’ll post that, for the grandparents’ sake =)
I love watching Daniel dance and sing. Here’s a little clip of his cute little If You’re Happy and You Know It, "Amen!"
Our sweet baby girl is 8 months old! She’s started pulling herself up, and yesterday she clapped her hands for the first time. She seems to understand more of what we’re saying, too—simple things like, “Look at Daniel” or “Are you ready to eat?” She’s growing up so fast!
Oh, and when I was taking these pictures, Daniel kept saying, “Queen Anna” and putting the teething ring “crown” on her head =)
This was Daniel’s mantra this morning (over and over and over!) And it’s no surprise, I suppose, considering that we’ve been snowed in since Sunday.
So, we’ve played Red Light Green Light up and down the hall. I get the easy job of sitting at one end, holding up the red/yellow/green papers, while he runs up and down the hall. Nice =) Even Anna joins in, though she mostly wants to play with the papers.
Then, I laid down some drafting paper in the kitchen and brought out all the stuff for making corn bread. I let Daniel help as much as I could manage, in between warnings of, “Don’t touch the raw egg,” “Keep the measuring spoons on the paper,” and “Don’t open that.” It was fun, though, and he did a great job following directions.
Less than an hour before Gil comes home from work, and the kids are both entertaining themselves well. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll make it out of the house, though =)
We took a quick day trip to DC today. Just for a few hours, but long enough to drive past some monuments, take the Metro, check out the Air and Space Museum (and get a nifty airplane toy for Daniel), and enjoy a beautiful afternoon walk back to Union Station to get the car. The kids are wiped out after so much activity and no naps, but it was well worth it =)
(And I'm sorry to our DC-area friends and family, for not making time to see anyone. We have some plans to be in DC soon, so we hope to do our visiting then!)
I brought a mirror upstairs from the basement today, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it!
Daniel and I were looking over our pictures from last year's trip to Uruguay. He has fun pointing out different family members. "Ah, Abuela!" "Sofia!" "Toni and Cuqui!"
In one of the pictures, he saw the great Jose Artigas, Uruguay's greatest hero. The George Washington of Uruguay. The great military leader. The victorious one who fought for Uruguay's independence from Spain and Argentina. The one who, according to Daniel, looks like he's carrying a pom-pom.
It's official! Anna started crawling on January 22nd—exactly 7 months old =) Here's the video . . .
Daniel has been gracious about giving up his "baby" things for Anna. Baby toys, crib, infant car seat, and now the high chair. Such a sweet boy and a great big brother!
Anna's finally ready for solid foods. Until recently, she wasn't really interested. So far so good! Rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, and apple sauce seem to have won her approval =) Green peas, not so much!
Just wanted to do a side-by-side comparison of the kids, to see if Anna looks like Daniel did at her age =) Plenty of similarities!
Anna was so giggly tonight! We caught some of it on video . . . =)
A tender moment we captured during our time at Grandma and Grandpa’s house over Thanksgiving . . . =)
Daniel loves to help me around the house whenever he can. He's a great little helper. But his all-time favorite “chore” is Swiffering. =)
Officially Mobile
This happened way sooner than I expected! Anna is mobile at 4 months! Today she rolled from one end of the room to the other =) Time to make sure the house is definitely baby proofed!
Big Boy Bed
We have officially transitioned Daniel from the crib to the Big Boy Bed. He loves it! And he doesn’t seem to mind that Anna is now using “Daniel’s crib”—as he likes to remind us. I’m so glad I didn’t buy a second crib (she’s been using the Pack-and-Play until now).
Just wanted to post some updated family pictures . . . =)
Since this blog is essentially our baby book for the kids, I realized I’d better post a milestone update. Otherwise, I’ll never remember when these things happened =)
Daniel—2 years and 3 months
Daniel still sleeps really well. Goes to bed around 6:30pm (without a fuss) and sleeps until around 7:30am. And he takes a good 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. Many thanks to Dr. Weissbluth, and to Heather who recommended his book! We have a well-rested little boy!
He eats pretty well. We don’t let him have sugar, so he doesn’t even know to ask for it yet =) His favorite meal is (Tyson) chicken nuggets. They’re so easy (and surprisingly healthy), that we end up eating them for lunch several times a week. He won’t drink milk (he gags whenever I try to give it to him), but thankfully he loves yogurt and cheese. To drink, I give him water with a little apple juice, and he devours it. He seriously drinks like 6+ sippy cups of it a day. He puts me to shame in my goal to drink more water!
He can recognize all of his letters (uppercase and lowercase) and numbers 1-10. Can count from 1-10 in English and Spanish (though he still forgets tres). And is starting to learn how to count items—but I think he hasn’t quite got the concept yet.
He loves his books and loves learning new words. He pretty much tries to say everything he hears, but he’s not articulate enough yet for everyone to know what he’s saying. He speaks in sentences, but doesn’t use articles yet. And, like his Daddy, he loves to play with words.
He has very good dexterity. We noticed this when he was little, when he would use his thumb to expertly spin the spinning toys on his exersaucer. He’ll be a pro with our trackball mouses before long =)
I keep his TV watching to a minimum (an hour at the most). He loves Word World and Super Why. And occasionally he gets to watch his Mighty Machines DVD.
He also loves to exercise. We’ve been going to a local indoor track, and today he walked a mile (with breaks, of course). He loved to declare to the other walkers as they passed by, “Daniel exercising!”
He loves people and other kids. I need to get better about getting him out with kids more often. It’s so easy to fill our days with errands. This fall he’ll return to the toddler music class, so that’s a start =)
He seems pretty laid back about everything, but he gets very scared when he hears unfamiliar sounds—especially from toys that make sounds. Within seconds, his whole body will start to shake. We expect he’ll outgrow it soon enough. In the meantime, we try to be accommodating.
He hasn’t learned how to jump yet (his feet don’t leave the ground), but he tries. I bet that will happen soon.
Whew—I think those are all the major milestones I wanted to cover. =) We think he’s delightful and such a pleasure for us to be around. He’s a blessing!
Anna—10 Weeks
Anna is also a good sleeper. Can put herself to sleep, which is a HUGE blessing. She already sleeps 8 hour stretches at night (started last week). And I’m learning to recognize her sleepy cues, so I can put her in bed for naps before she gets overly tired. At this age, Daniel was seriously sleep deprived—so I’m glad that we learned a lot since then, and are making sleep a priority for Anna.
She smiles a lot and laughed out loud for the first time yesterday when I was brushing her hair. She loves having her hair brushed =) She enjoys baths, but still looks at me like, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?!?” She doesn’t take her eyes off of me the whole time—haha.
She’s strong and is growing well. She’s in the 50th percentiles. That’s so different from Daniel, who is still in the 5th percentiles! She rolls over from her belly to her back and is gaining better control over her head/neck.
She has a very sweet voice. I love hearing her coos =) Our friend Holly said to her, “You have a little song in your heart, don’t you?” I loved when she said that. I’m going to claim that for her. =)
Anna is such a blessing to us. We love her so much.
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