So my blog gets pretty neglected these days. I NEED to make sure to put it on my to-do list once a week so I can write about what we have been up to! If nothing else, than for a journal for myself to go back to and remember what we have done with our lives. As I was trying to come up with a recap of our year for a Christmas letter, I was thinking about how easy it would be if I could just go back to my blog to remenisce. Now, I just need to remember to actually post things that I can go back and read!! I guess I will add that to my list of New Years Resolutions. I never make resolutions, but I actually have 3 things on it already!
1. Blog more (goal of once a week)
2. Take more videos and pictures
3. Get on a consistent routine at the Y
Anyway, this is what we've been up to lately (and a few kiddo updates!). I know I posted about our Halloween fun, but I don't think I had even put much before that about our fall. So, I think I will go back and recap our entire fall (more for my future benefit!). :)
September: Had all of our college friends come for a Husker party, Went to Wichita for my cousin Holly's wedding to Jeremy, Went to West Point for a weekend with Paul's family, took all of the grandkids to Omaha for pictures, Paul helped shingle Gma Bert & Gpa Ben's roof, started Toddler Team-up at the Children's Museum (a once a week play group).
October: The Deaver's came to visit for a weekend, went to the Roca Berry Farm to the pumpkin patch, went to Vala's pumpkin patch, went to the Omaha Zoo (Gradyn's favorite place ever, the zoo!), Went to Fairbury for my Gma Marlene's 80th birthday party, all of us were sick (Paul the worse) and we got everyone who came to our house that weekend sick too!, Went to Boo at the Zoo, Went to the Children's Museum's trick or treating, went trick or treating to our family in Lincoln.
November: Went to Holdrege to visit the Deaver's for a weekend! Also got to meet up with some NP friends in Kearney, which was awesome!, cleaned out our storage room (took a whole weekend), decorated for Christmas!, went to Lawrence to visit Paul's brother Mike with the whole family, went to Fairbury to my Gma Marlene's on Thanksgiving noon, went to my Aunt Lori's in Lincoln for Thanksgiving night, went Black Friday shopping with Ashley for 16 hours (3 hours sleep...), went to West Point for the weekend for Isaac's 4th birthday party!
The first weekend in December: Ashley and her friend Amanda came to stay with the kids and Paul and I had a "weekend away" in Omaha! It was so awesome to just have time to relax, eat out, sleep in, go to a movie, have no responsibilities!! I haven't even been away from Brynlee until then, and it had been probably about a year, or more, since I had been away from Gradyn (except for when Brynlee was born) so it was well past due to have some kid-less time! Of course I missed them like crazy and couldn't wait to get back to see them, but it just makes everything better when you can have a break. We need to do it more often. I am just SO not used to having help so I have a hard time asking for it. And, I need to let go a little more I decided.... Maybe that should be my 4th resolution..... hmm...
Brynlee Update:
*She turned 8 Months on December 1st.
*She is quite the little mover! Always up jumping, bouncing, cruising around furniture, walking while we hold her hands, starting to push the push-toys, always moving. She crawls around very fast now and will follow all 3 of us around the house until we stop and she can pull herself up on our legs. Even Grady! He, of course, doesn't stand still long enough for her to get up, so then she falls to the ground. It doesn't even phase her, she just keeps on going, following him wherever he goes next! We are looking for her to start walking in the very near future! Crazy! She is only 8 months old!
*She LOVES puffs. The Gerber kind, any flavor. She gets super excited when she sees the can! She also loves most any cracker. She is STILL a stubborn little turkey about eating her baby food. We are STILL mixing it with oatmeal cereal to get her to eat it. Although last night I did get her to eat some squash/pear mix by itself!! It was a stage 2 food, which I think she will eat better since it is thicker. Hopefully we can continue on that path b/c it is a pain in the butt to make cereal to mix with food at every meal! She does awesome with any table food we give her too and LOVES meal time!
*She is still an awesome sleeper! 11-12 hours a night, straight!! Naps at home are awesome. Naps at daycare are hit or miss. She is a very light sleeper, so sometimes she won't nap very long at daycare.
*She is usually very very happy and smiley! She has a low-key temperment and is just SUCH a good baby! We always say how we were owed her after her brother.....
*She is starting to wave bye-bye and will mimic bye-bye when we say it. I'm trying REALLY hard to get her to say Ma Ma, but no luck so far! She does babble back at me, but no luck on the 'm' sound.
*She is entering a little bit of a stranger danger phase. She LOVES her daddy and lights up, yelling, kicking like crazy when she sees him. She does get excited for me too and wants to be right at my side a lot, but she especially gets excited for Paul! We are really noticing lately when we are in a big group she wants to be at our side and won't leave, which is strange for her since usually she will crawl all over. At Isaac's birthday party I had to put her down to play a game and then went back to sit down when my turn was up. She saw me go sit down and immediately took off to come over to me again.
*She LOVES her brother! Seriously, still too much. She needs to cry or learn to push him off of her! She loves to be tackled, tickeled, whatever he does to her....
*She is really starting to respond to music, will dance and sing along with it.
*Her hair is really starting to grow in thicker. It is lighter than it was when she was born, but still a dark brown. The new growth even looks darker. We need to put it behind her ears quite a bit!
*She is wearing pretty much 9 month or 12 month clothes. Some 6 month things still fit her, but most are too snug. I would say she is about average height/weight, but it's hard to tell b/c we know a lot of babies who are bigger than her that are younger, so that makes me think that she might be a little smaller than average. I think her constant movement really make her burn so many calories! :) I wish I had that happen to me!!
*We will go for her next check-up at 9 months so I'm excited to see what her 'stats' are!
Grady update:
*He will be 3 on January 27th! He has known his birthday since the summer, and always said it the right way, but now he always says "January 27th Gradyn Joseph Guenther". I guess he thinks they all need to go together..... But, at least he knows it I guess!
*He is still such a little ball of fire! So dramatic! So manipulative! So challenging! But also, SO loving! He is the light of our lives. He is so funny, smart, and talking so much that we are constantly telling him to talk quieter or slow down or just be quiet for a minute.
*He is now working on mastering all of the letters of the alphabet. I would say he only has about 10 to go. And most of those are letters that 'could' be mistaken for something else or that are close to others. He is also getting some of the letter sounds! The kindergarten teacher in me is SO proud! He still doesn't really want to sit down to practice writing them though. Mostly b/c he can't sit still for more than 5 seconds... But, he will sit still for learning activities like his letters, which is weird. He knows all of the shapes, most numbers and he does love to sit and tell us them.
*He loves to play on my iPad, and honestly that is where he has learned the most! There are so many awesome apps that he uses all the time that teach him so many things!
*He LOVES Nick Jr. He would watch it 24-7 if we let him. He knows what the order of the shows that come on at night are. He gets super mad if we shut it off. His punishment when he gets in trouble at daycare is that he can't watch TV that night. He HATES that. So, usually he only has 1 bad day at daycare a week (if that) because he definately learns his lesson when he can't watch TV. It has become a problem with how much TV he wants to watch. So, we have made it a rule that he can go in our bedroom and watch TV when Brynlee goes to bed. That has been a nice little routine for him in the evenings. Especially b/c that is the ONLY downtime we get at all.
*He is still a super picky eater, which is annoying, but I try to not be annoyed since I am also a super picky eater... :) He loves his staples of pancakes, mac & cheese, roast beef, turkey, peas, green beans, CORN(still loves!), sausage (patties with pancakes), mini-corn dogs, some noodles, spaghetti (sometimes), applesauce, and cereal.
*He LOVES the farm and going to help Gpa Ron feed the cows. He talks about it all the time and is always telling us he wants to go there. He loves to ride in the tractor with Gpa and help him. He does love to play cows/tractor/farm at home too.
*He loves trains, and will play with them sometimes at home, but mostly loves to ride on the train at the zoo and watch them in real life.
*He has also recently started loving dinosaurs and can name them all. We had no idea he could do that! Again, from TV. Dino Dan.
*He really wants to go to a Royals baseball game, the Zoo, and the park. We keep telling him that after Brynlee's birthday he can go do all of those things again. He knows that her Birthday is April 1st, so he will say aftter April 1st he can go. :)
*I know there are about a million other things I could say about him and tons of stories! Hopefully I will have time another day to post some of his funny stories!
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