Thursday, January 26, 2017

Wilder and Felicity January 2017

**Special note** 2017 has been a year of a lot of changes for our family. Zach changed jobs which means less time at home for him, I've stepped up my work a lot, and I launched a new podcast called The Freelance Remuda with a friend of mine. These factors pretty much eliminated the time I had to blog about the kids. It makes me so sad, but I have continued to take monthly photos and written down little notes. I'm just going to make the best of it, but I won't be able to do such long blog updates. :-/ For this post, I wrote it months ago but I'm just now putting in photos. (It's July. AH! But I'm writing it for January. Thanks for your understanding!)

Wilder and Felicity, January 2017

Felicity, 15 months

Wilder, January 2017
January was a month of big leaps for Felicity and changes for Wilder.

Wilder has started interacting with Felicity more and more. I went to grab a pouch for Wilder and left them sitting together in the high chair and booster seat, and came back in the kitchen to see Felicity trying to "feed" Wilder something. But she didn't know how, so she pulled it back away before he could actually eat it. Wilder was so sweet-- he said "MMM That's good felicity. Thank you!"

Another time, I asked Wilder to keep an eye on his sister while I did something, and I came back to see Felicity digging in the toy shopping cart. Wilder was showing her all the foods and told her what each of them were.

Wilder had a huge blueberry at dinner one night. He sang to it softly, "happybirthday." But when he realized we noticed him singing, he started crying with embarrassment.

The first week of January, Wilder started an early learning preschool twice a week. It was quite a change, being around 6 other kids his age all day, and napping on a nap mat with them around. I was most worried about him eating, because we were almost like short order cooks at meals and you can't do that at school. But he and I pack his lunch together, so he really looks forward to eating it and he has started eating more in general. Still a vegetarian, but he eats a ton of cheese and yogurt. He was so tired after school those first few times. He still naps most days for up to 3 hours, so 90 minutes at school -- if he naps at all-- was not long enough. But he sleeps well at home still, thank goodness. He is pretty tired when he gets home from school, and sometimes emotional at drop off and pick up. But he talks about the things he does at school and he seems to be learning a lot!

These two have been chasing each other around the house with their push toys round and round. It's a little bit demolition derby, but Wilder is careful with Felicity. He wants her to chase him!

One big thing from Wilder that was really cool - he randomly told Zach "I love you" without any prompting. Just out of the blue!

I ran an errand with Wilder, and played the song "Oceans" for him. I explained that we listened to it while I was in labor with him, waiting to meed him, so the song always reminds me of when he was a little tiny baby. We listened quietly, and afterward I asked him what he thought about the song. He said "I love it. It's my favorite song." So matter of fact. He's just a doll.

Felicity took her first few steps this month, while trying to decorate the tree (It stayed up for a little while. Don't judge!). She really got into taking all the ornaments off and on the bottom of the tree the last few weeks we had it up. We had purposefully put unbreakable ornaments down there and she liked that.

We took the kids to San Antonio, and they got to play at Grandma Sara's assisted living home and explore--it was a lot of fun for them. We also took them out to my Dad's, and it was neat to see him and Wilder run around and play "chase." We've brought them out before, but I think Felicity being more mobile makes it a lot more fun for all of them. Wilder also slept on a twin bed on the floor--a first for him! He did great.

On January 29, Felicity was in the living room, and she just decided to walk. She got up holding her little book and just walked off. She walked laps around the house and little tiny circles for seriously 20 minutes. She would fall over and get back up--in a lunge position, still holding books. It was amazing!

She is still teething, and waking up multiple times a night in January. It was exhausting! (It's now February, and she's sleeping better, but I don't want to forget that season.).

We are still doing homeschool work with the kids, and they are loving it. Felicity really likes to color, and Wilder likes to assemble crafts and line up tactile letters.

Here are some photos from January!











































Monday, December 26, 2016

Wilder and Felicity December 16




For the first time since I was pregnant with Wilder, I've really dropped the ball on monthly updates. The holiday season was hectic and neither of the kids slept well--lots of wakings throughout the night, early mornings, trouble with naps--it was tiring and we had a hard time getting anything done. I think we're on the flip side now on all of that (hopefully!) but I'm still trying to catch up on life. I don't want to skip the updates for December and January because both kids have been growing and developing so much. I want to remember this season in their lives, and this is how I do it. So if you'll indulge me, I'm going to take a look back at Wilder and Felicity's December! 

Felicity - 14 months (December 2016)
Felicity's personality is growing as fast as her hair. Such opinions, so many smiles. She's cruising everywhere and occasionally letting go to stand up without assistance for a few seconds. She likes to carry things around while crawling, which is difficult, but she's determined. Just this month, Felicity has figured out push toys and she gamely toddles along after Wilder as he runs a loop around the house pushing a different toy.

Felicity is our little cheez-it, she beams at family and acquaintances. I also call her my little Nugget, and after hearing me sing "nuggie nuggie nuggie" in the super Mario brothers tune, Wilder calls her "nuggie nuggie nuggie" all the time right now. She likes to pick off stickers and grab things with her strong little fingers. Daily she gets into my purse, pulls out everything and starts picking out the credit cards from the slots in my wallet. For Christmas she got a toy purse with a phone, keys, credit card, mirror and a bracelet and she's been taking things out and putting them back in, then holding it and crawling off toward the door like she's going to go somewhere. Right now she wants anything that's mine: makeup, food, phone, comb, drink... she is my little copycat!

She has two new molars this month and some swollen gums so I think more teeth are coming. She's just gotten over being sick, teething, leap 9--it's been a rough and clingy month. But I know in my heart that this little girl is not going to my cuddle bug like Wilder. When she hurts herself, she wants to be held for about 2 seconds and then she gets mad and tells me in Felicity language exactly what happened. No sympathy wanted. She is tough! So when she is clingy, it's out of the ordinary for her. It's just this stage! It's been a tough few weeks with illness and travel in our house. Last week several nights both kids were up needing us 6 times in all. 

She's baby talking up a storm. It's ALMOST words. You can actually understand what she's trying to communicate a lot of times. She says the sounds and tones of words, but not quite the actual words, for a lot of words.

Felicity takes 1-2 naps a day. Still only adding up to maybe 2 hours each day. So a lot less than Wilder. 

She eats most anything, and loves protein like meatballs, bacon, chicken--you name it!

Wilder 3 years and a month
It was neat to see Wilder take in the Christmas season as a three-year-old. We worked on our advent tree craft every morning, and our advent calendar. He played with our toy nativity set all the time. We discussed Jesus' birth. He understood presents REAL quick, as we have multiple occasions with family to open presents. He seemed to enjoy each and every gift. My favorite thing about Wilder this month was his reaction to opening gifts. When it was his turn, he had to hide because he couldn't handle the anticipation. He wanted Zach to open his gift and then he would come running to check it out. It was just too much excitement to open it himself. So so so cute.

Wilder had so much fun with family over the holidays. Christmas Eve at Jashley and Grant's, Wilder played with the myriad of second and third cousins his age. They had so much fun and it definitely has changed the atmosphere of the holidays :-). 

When we were playing a game at Zach's Aunt Jan and Uncle Tom's house, he got really into the rolling of the dice. He got to participate. When Tom rolled a particularly fancy roll, Wilder exclaimed "Good JOB Tom!" hahahaha. 

When I tell him I love him, he's started saying "Awww, so cute." I would respond with "So cute YOU are!" and now I have a little Yoda. He tells me "Aw, so cute you are!" all the time. It makes my heart happy. :-)

Anyway, here is a big load of photos of the two of them from two days in December. Hope you enjoy!







THOSE CURLS






















I have  photos of me looking like this at her age!




















hahahaha



he's saying "aw, so cute you are."













dainty