Visiting with Nana and Papa

It was nice that Nana and Papa got to watch Julia at ballet on Wednesday. She did a great job and enjoyed having them there. While we were watching we passed Andrew around since he's such a Wiggle Bug.

Julia did a great job at doing the cat walk...definitely using those arm and leg muscles.

One quick photo once class was over. Nana needs to watch out since Andrew is about to grab her hair.

Big blue eyes!

Papa and Andrew hanging out at home!

It was pretty sunny and windy but it's still nice to have a photo taken with Nana and Papa.

Warmer Days

Enjoying the nice weather with Nana and Papa was lots of fun for the Brown family and a special treat for them since February is typically a cold month in New York. We were able to get outside for some walks around the neighborhood, a walk at the Greenway, and some fun at Fowler Park. Julia LOVED having her Nana and Papa in town and stayed up late waiting for them to get to our house on Saturday night. She said, 'Me can't wait' and stayed up until 10:00pm when they got here and visited for a bit and went to sleep after 11:00. She was definitely excited to see them!

Julia loves playing outside and going for walks. Such a cute and fun little girl.

Andrew and his big blue eyes. I love those big blue eyes!

Andrew's Crawling

Andrew is no longer a stationary baby...he's on the move! A few weeks ago Andrew starting crawling so I thought I'd post a video of our little guy moving around. He crawls on his belly for now which is how Julia started crawling too. I'm sure he'll be crawling on his hands and knees and really getting into things before we know it. He really likes to crawl and knock over towers we build for him. Way to go Andrew...we're so proud of you!

Cheerios

The other night was the first time we gave Andrew Cheerios and he loved them! He had no trouble picking them up and getting them in his mouth. He definitely dropped some but many landed in his mouth. Now he sits in the highchair while we eat dinner and munches on some Cheerios while we eat. We really enjoy having him at the table eating with us too! Now that he's sitting in the highchair while we eat it's easier for him to be included in the circle of our family blessing each night...it's so cute to see Julia hold onto his leg since he's moving his hands so much. We're really enjoying life with this little guy!

Pete the Cat Show

This morning we went to see Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes show. Pete the Cat is a book that Julia and Andrew got from Santa and I saw the author was doing a show so I thought it would be fun to check it out. It was the first time Julia has gone to a theatre and she really enjoyed it. She was very excited and when it was over she wanted more. Here she is patiently waiting to go in and get our seats.

The author of Pete the Cat, Eric Litwin, did a great job of getting everyone involved (both kids and parents). He's coming out with a new book in May which he read to us during the show. We're going to have to get his two other books and add them to our collection...they're very cute!

Andrew did great during the show which lasted 45 minutes! At the end when everyone was clapping he clapped too - the first time he has ever clapped! Here he is smiling at someone who was sitting in front of us who was saying hello...such a social little boy!

Letters & Numbers

Lately we've been doing some more work with letters and numbers. I guess the colder weather has been a great opportunity for us to do some learning activities. I just started having her practice writing the letters. She did such a great job writing the letter Aa, I was so impressed!

Using pompoms to represent the numbers 1-5 and then she took them off and we put stickers there instead.

Julia loves the do-a-dot markers! This is a picture of a palm tree with all 26 capital letters. I called out a letter and Julia found it and stamped it...she knew all of them! Way to go Julia! She used all of the colors but mostly pink since that's her favorite color. Then she carried it around for a few days. So cute!

Then we used stickers to go over the numbers. I did the green number zero to show Julia and then she made a pink and orange pattern for the number two. She continued to use stickers for the rest of the numbers up to nine. We're going to use the numbers to play some games but we haven't done that yet. She's been carrying her numbers around too, she even brought them with us to the grocery store the other day. She's always so proud of her work and we are too!

Julia's 3 Year Well Visit

On Tuesday we had Julia's 3 year well visit with Dr. Bleekrode. Julia weighs 31 pounds (50th percentile) and 38 inches tall (75th percentile). One of our concerns has to do with her gross motor skills due to her low muscle tone but Dr. Bleekrode assured us she's fine. It will probably take her a little longer to do things which involve those muscles but she'll get there. Just last weekend she was doing some peddling on her own on her tricycle. We discussed her nap/sleep schedule as well and Julia was very happy since she didn't have to get any shots. The night before she told me she was worried about going to the doctor because she didn't want to get a shot...I think she remembers the time she had to give blood (3 vials) back in November when she had a fever for 11 days. I still can't believe our little girl is 3 years old...I remember going to see Dr. Bleekrode almost everyday the first week we were home since she was so little and not gaining weight. My goodness - time flies when you're having fun. We love you Julia!

Happy Birthday Thomas

Last Friday we celebrated Thomas' birthday. Julia and I made him a key lime pie...I know not a traditional birthday cake but key lime pie is so good. Thomas actually wanted pie as compared to a cake. Julia insisted on getting Daddy some balloons too. I mean what's a birthday without balloons? Happy Birthday Thomas...we love you!

Andrew 8 months old

Andrew turned 8 months old on February 3rd which happens to be Thomas' birthday. He's teething and even had a few rough nights of sleep since it was bothering him but sure enough a tooth showed up...hence waking up a few times a night. Nowadays Andrew is nursing at around 5am and goes back to bed until around 7am and nurses again, at around 10:30am he eats oatmeal and a fruit, nurses at 1:30, eats oatmeal and a vegetable at 5:00 and then nurses at 7pm and it's off to bed. He isn't crawling yet but pivots around and moves backward and forward a tiny bit. He likes watching Julia and she can really get him laughing. He loves playing with the basketball that Julia got him for Christmas. When playing with him he'll 'roll' it back to you and he likes to hit the ball and pick it up.

Such a cutie...we're very lucky to be his parents!

So Tired

Lately we've been trying to figure out if Julia needs a nap and if so how long should we let her sleep or is she ready to do without a nap. If her nap is too long she's up until 10 or later. Well it hasn't been easy trying to figure out how much sleep she needs. Maybe she needs a nap but not everyday..who knows. The other day I walked upstairs at 4:50 to get Andrew from his nap and when I came back down...2 minutes later...she was fast asleep on the kitchen floor. Obviously our little love bug still needs some kind of nap.