Happy Birthday Little Snowmen!

As most (if not all) of you reading this know, my kiddos have their birthdays just two days apart. So, last Thursday Lydia turned one, and on Saturday Joshua celebrated number three. Most of the time it seems impossible to believe that they're that old already, yet I can't really fully remember my life before kids!
In addition to being close together on the calendar, the kids birthdays are also really close to the holidays and it becomes difficult (or impossible) for our families to join us for a celebration here in Wisconsin around the actual birthdays, so we usually celebrate with them when we see them for Christmas.
So, by the time the kids' party rolled around on Saturday, Lydia was quite the seasoned veteran of the singing and candle-blowing routine. I'm continually amazed by how rapidly connections are forming for her these days and usually amused in the process. For instance, whenever she sees cake or cupcakes (or objects that resemble them) she's coined her own "baby sign" and quickly starts making a blowing noise she used to put out her candle!
Joshua, of course, fully understands all that birthdays entail a bit more, so each day since Christmas he's been asking us how many days until his birthday. He was SO excited to have a party with all of his friends, and talked about it for days before it actually happened. He helped pick out items to put into treat bags and also helped me assemble them. He had imput on the food served and dreamed about what might come in his presents. Before having kids I had no idea that three year olds were such interactive, aware, and opinionated little people!
Saturday, the big day FINALLY rolled around and we were joined by quite a few of our closest friends to celebrate with the kids. Snowmen were the theme and I was quite pleased with how their cake turned out. I always see these great (and supposedly easy to re-create) cakes on parenting magazine websites, etc. and yet when I've tried them in the past, they've turned out poorly. So, I was pleasantly surprised at how true-to-plan this one went together. :) Also a bonus, this close to Christmast time you can get a great deal on snowman themed partywear, too! I could write more, but I have a feeling that most of my readership was either at one of the family celebrations or at the party itself, so I'll just go ahead and post some pictures of my favorite new 1 and 3 year olds!

Busy little artists creating snowman masterpieces

Joshua and some friends in the 'snowcave'

So Excited!

Apparently the idea that the cradle is for the baby-doll is lost on her

Getting ready to frosting coat Aunt Laura

Blowing out the candles at Gigi and Poppas


Getting ready to frosting coat Aunt Angie

Helping Uncle Matt decorate the cake at Marmie and Gramps'

My Baby Girl, the Chatterbox

Lydia is so expressive these days. She's just such a little girl all of a sudden. I'm missing my baby, but so excited to see her little personality emerge. She's had a language explosion over the past couple of weeks, so I thought I'd post them here and hopefully have a record of the cute new words, instead of forgetting them like I told myself I never would and promptly did with Joshua!

"Noo!"

"Baw" (Ball)

"Hi!"

"Ot" (Hot)

"Gup" (Cup)

"Bom" (Boom)

"Boo-poo" (Poo-Poo)

"Mo" (More)

"A Dun" (All Done)

"Dad-dee" (Daddy)

"Mama"

"Sha-Sha" (Joshua)

"Bye-Bye"

"Kaka" (Cracker)

"Wuv-oo" (Love you)

"Dat" or "Dat-un" (That or That one)

"Uh-oh"

"Ni-ni" (good-night or nurse)

"Bee" (baby)

"Ba" (bath)

"Woh-Woh" (Hello, hello-- said when she finds anything that is or resembles a phone)

"Na-Na" (Banana)

Our Princess, On Her Throne

Lydia is obsessed, seriously! I feel like she spends about oh, one day, mastering a skill and it's on to the next. She's defintely our little miss Independence. The world better watch out because here she comes. Currently, she loves sitting on the potty. For the record, I'm not even interested in trying to potty train her, I don't think there's any use for at least another 6 months, and in all reality probably more like 18. However, that fact does not in the least diminish her enthusiasm. Every time she's in the bathroom she begs to sit on the potty. If she doesn't think you're getting the message she goes to the side of the toilet, reaches down and picks up the jr. potty seat and tries to lift the lid to place it on the rim. She then proceeds to sit there for several minutes and look around like she's the coolest thing since, well, ever. As you can see from the pictures it doesn't matter one bit to her whether she's clothed or unclothed, and she's never had any "successes" but you better not deprive her of her right ahem, opportunity to have a turn! She's also very into her toothbrush. Again, not that she really has need of a toothbrush. She'll be 11 months old tomorrow and still doesn't have even a single tooth poking through--but you know, that's no reason to miss out on toothbrushing fun. Basically, anything that Joshua does, Lydia wants to do too.
A final indicator of how our little princess thinks she is almost-1 going on 3: Yesterday James was watching Lydia while I was running errands and Joshua was napping. He had her on the main level with him and turned around to pick something up and found her on her way down the 4-stair drop to the family room STANDING UP. So, apparently she's decided she's way too cool for going-down-backwards-on-her-knees, she's now on to the oh so safe walking down the stairs. This truly makes me uneasy, but she's pretty resilient and when she tumbles, trips, or otherwise fails at whatever she's trying to accomplish she picks herself up and tries again. And really, who can resist this face!
Look out my fellow Americans when Election 2044 rolls around, this one has spunk!
And, just because it's cute--here's a picture of Joshua all snuggled up right after his nap and his new haircut. Also a bonus, finally a picture that is horizontally oriented. We seem to have almost all vertical shots these days, they just seem to capture action better!

Daredevil Climber

Lydia, the Daredevil Climber, just like her brother.

And here is a video of Lydia walking from about a week ago. She has progressed a LOT since this point, but it is always fun to see how quickly they go from one skill to another.

On the Move

It's been a busy week. Thankfully, it's been less stressful than last week, but still filled with somewhat notable happenings.

Weve enjoyed the weather, continued to watch the Olympics and spent time with friends, but mostly we've watched our kids grow up. They both seem to grow and change every day and it is hard to believe it, or keep up some of the time.

Joshua has taken up singing in the past week or so. We were shocked about a week ago when he sang, nearly perfectly no less, the "ABC" song. I knew he recognized a few letters, but didn't have any idea he knew the song and he's never really been in to singing even songs he knows well. (He loves to hear us sing and it's a big part of his routine, he just never joins in.) He's followed it up with renditions of "Jesus Loves Me" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" as well as "I'm a Little Teapot" as well as many made-up songs and snippets of TV-show themes, etc. All of our car rides recently have included hearty serenading, sometimes to the dismay of the stressed driver. All-in-all there's just nothing like your child singing almost anything in his sweet little voice. My favorite, however, came while we were walking the other night. Joshua was singing away to himself and started skipping along. Here's the conversations that ensued:

Joshua: "I'm skipping mommy"

Me: "I see that, why are you doing that?"

Joshua: "I'm skipping like 'myLou'!"

Lydia has decided that days of sitting and observing the world around her are over. And, she seems to think that one form of mobility at a time is not enough--she wants it all, and she wants it now! On Saturday she started full-blown crawling (defined by me as up on all fours, moving all limbs to locomote). On Sunday it was cruising--around the room and from item-to-item by Tuesday. Today we found out that she can climb up stairs...Yikes!

I've been instantly transformed into crazy child-proofing parent--except I've been lulled into complacency by 18 mos. of relative calm. I've gotten used to a child that knows what will support his weight or that you don't climb up if you can't get down. Now I'm trying to see things through a newly-mobile little one's eyes. Whew! It's just crazy to turn around and find Lydia someplace entirely different than where I placed her. The only time she's still is when she's sleeping...

Joshua is doing as well as can be expected with her ability to move to get the things she wants. Most of the time he's really proud of her--but when she takes something of his he's left lying around he tends to get really upset. We're trying to work on the "if you don't want her to get it put it away or up high" but he's not really gotten that concept yet. He's become quite the little boss recently and advises all of us (especially Lydia) about what we should or should not do.

It was mildly annoying at the time (but humorous in retrospect) when he decided to tell me when to pull out into an intersection the other day. Let's just say there's a reason that you have to be 16 to decide that on your own--his judgement was just a bit off, but he was very emphatic. As soon as the car in front of me pulled out, he started yelling "Go mommy--go now!" He is quite the champion on what the different light colors mean though. :)

Anyway, we're looking forward to enjoying a relaxing weekend and hopefully catching up on things around here, since we're leaving at the end of next week for an extended weekend with our extended families in Michigan. We're really looking forward to it, since we haven't seen any of them since June!

I do not like them, Lydia I am, I do not like Green Peas, no ma'am...

Lydia had her first taste of peas today. We were expecting it to be a pretty good introduction, peas were Joshua's favorite vegetable. He LOVED them, and still does to this day. James and I both enjoy peas. Well, let's just say, words are not needed to show you what Lydia thought, so without further ado:

Wow, who knew seven month olds already could make some of these faces. Hope it brought a smile to your face--it certainly did ours! We'll try peas again and keep you updated. (Update: She did eat some of them after I mixed them with one of her fruity favorites.)