They grow so fast!

It is always amazing to see how fast babies grow in the first 12 months, and Drew is no exception. At 8 months old, he can army crawl, pull up & cruise, babble and feed himself finger foods. He can also wave and give high fives. He is turning into a real sweetheart and mama's boy. We have all been enjoying his expressions and developing personality. Drew and Leah also take their baths at the same time now, another mile stone.

Leah is a lot of fun and we have fun teasing each other about whether I'm going to let her grow up or not. She also likes to "whisper" in my ear that I should change all the poopy diapers. She's a crack up and your ear is usually hot when she's done telling you her secret. She is still WAY into Star Wars. I keep asking myself what it is going to be like when she gets into Lord of the Rings. At least that might take a while for her to get into because she won't be able to sit through the movies.

The patio is pretty much finished. I'd take a picture of it but 1) I'm having trouble uploading pictures tonight and 2) The snow would have to melt. Yes, I just said SNOW. I like the way the news put it, this is the winter that just keeps giving. We are all ready to move on to spring, hopefully this will be our last stint of cold weather.

Spring is near!

Ready for the ball at daycare.

Drew is really mobile now.

Pete, Cooper and Elaine sledding.

Leah and Cooper showing off how they jammed the ball popper.

Drew has been crawling for about a month now. He still doesn't have the form down, it's more of an army crawl. For a while I was starting to think he'd never do it right but he's been getting up on all fours & rocking now. Drew has also decided to eat! Yay! That has been such a battle. This weekend he has really gotten into a rhythm, we're thinking he might be going through a growth spurt.

Leah is a lot of fun. Her latest interest has been if an animal's baby comes out as a baby or an egg. Dinosaurs is another interest. We took her to see Sea Rex at the OmniMax, Leah liked it and she did well in the theater.

Pete, Alex and Cooper came in for another visit the first week in February! It was a lot of fun and we had plenty of snow for them to play in.

Drew is 7 months old now, and I was beginning to think Leah's regression was over. After Drew was born I was very thankful that Leah continued making it to the bathroom and she didn't go backwards in that regard. Last week she had 4 accidents and went in her pull-up before bed twice. I am hoping that is a short lived stint. She was ok this weekend, and we've gone back to reminding her to go and making her go if it has been too long.

I keep reminding myself of all the fun we will have this summer. We are all tired of the cold weather, Drew will be a little older and we will be able to spend so much time outdoors! Only a week more weeks!!

6 months already!

6 months already? Really? Where has the time gone? Drew was 6 months old on the 19th & is turning into such an older baby. Our pediatrician recommends starting baby food at 5 months, so Drew has had sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, avocado and pears. At 6 months she recommends starting table food, we have given Drew a little bread & banana. He did ok, but overall I think we can say Drew still isn't a big fan of solids so far and the squash is his favorite. Last Friday we went in for Drew's check-up and it turned out he had a double ear infection (his first) and a bad cold but overall he was in good spirits.

This weekend Drew started to army crawl!! Now we have to watch out and start using the baby gate again. My biggest fear is we aren't going to remember to put some little piece of Polly Pocket or something else of Leah's away and Drew will choke. Hopefully this fear will make me extra diligent.

We had about 10" of snow! Leah and I were able to get out & play in it before it got too cold. Leah loves the snow but she is only good until she gets snow in her boots or her hands get cold.

The Good Life

Last week was the first week of our new routine. Joe working from home, me working three days a week and home with the kids for the other two. It feels like the future is going to be so much more relaxed for us, even though Joe will still be traveling some. Drew did about as well as you can expect with starting daycare. He took his bottles just fine but naps are a challenge. The nursery is noisier than his quiet room he has all to himself at home. Leah moved up to the preschool room. She's told me three times now that she doesn't like her new teacher because she doesn't like her hair. Any advice on that one? I've told her she might not like the way her hair looks but that doesn't mean she is not a nice person. Leah does like the other teacher in the room.

Joe is settling into his new job and learning his way around the new company's systems and databases, who's who and what's what. I feel like I've really been able to hit the ground running with my job. 16 of the 17 people there are from my old company and I quickly found out that not much has changed in the way they operate. It is a great environment and I am going to enjoy it, my only concern is that it is an upstart company so they are starting from scratch trying to establish a customer base.

Drew is really close to so many milestones. He can sit up pretty well with the boppy or if you sit behind him. He is still a little sporadic so we stay close. Drew is also getting closer to crawling. He can swivel around on his belly to see what is going on around him, or roll to toys. This weekend we saw him get his belly off the ground a few times. I know there is a lot between where he is and crawling but it feels like it won't be long now.

Caribbean Black Bean Couscous

Caribbean Black Bean Couscous from The Flexitarian Diet by Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, LDN

This recipe is per serving, so multiply the ingredients as needed. It is meant to be served as the main course but would make a good side dish as well. And, this is couscous, so just realize the mess you might be getting into when serving this to kids, but Leah loves this.
1/4 cup uncooked whole wheat couscous
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup canned black beans, rinsed & drained
1/2 mango, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
3 green onions, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, minced without veins or seeds
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon olive oil

Bring couscous and water to a boil. Take off from heat, cover for 15 minutes, and then fluff with fork. Warm beans in microwave for 1 to 2 minutes. Toss all ingredients with warm couscous.

495 calories, 6g total fat, 1g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 20mg sodium, 96g carbohydrates, 14g fiber, 19g protein

Kids Photo Shoot

Sweet kids.

I should have seen this coming.

Goofy little boy!

Barbie had to join the mix.

Leah's Super Tight Squeeze

Really? You're going to let her hold me?

How cute is he?!?

End of 2010

Leah's letters.

We have a roller! Now we have to watch where he goes.

This is the sweet closed lipped smile I get most often from Drew. What a sweet boy!

First bite of sweet potatoes.

You could say our patio has turned into a tripping hazard. Joe and Bob were walking on it New Year's Eve, while it was wet and still warm outside. We will be talking to them about this on Monday.

Patio - Day 9, an improvement!

So...

Someone once told me that if your marriage can make it through building a house it can make it through anything. I'm starting to understand what he meant. We are only adding a patio to the house & it is frustrating and stressful.

I'm not sure how well it has shown up in the pictures, but the pavers are crooked. The first set of steps are flush with the house, but the second set of steps are out of square by 2" apparently. When they set the pavers they lined them up with the second set of steps, so in the end it made the steps by the house look off. Then, to make things worse the pavers on the lower patio are at a slightly different angle. All these slight angles confuse the eye. On top of that, the arcs on the top patio are different. You probably wouldn't be able to tell once you got the barbecue pit and a table & chairs on it but it just adds to our dissatisfaction.

I spoke with the owner today and he came out to look at things (that is when we figured out the 2" out of square). We decided to have them re-lay the top patio and reset the second set of stairs to make the square. This should eliminate all the different angles we're seeing. They are making no promises about the arcs being the same. I want to give them a piece of string and a geometry lesson. Hopefully one of us will be here when they cut the stones.

Overall, the plants are a lot smaller than what we were lead to believe they would be and the spacing on some things were off. I talked to him today about it and hopefully it will all work out. I just hate hearing that the reason the plants are smaller is because they didn't have any larger ones in stock.

All in all this is a big investment for us and something we will have to look at for a very long time, so we just want it done right. Hopefully the rest of the process will go smoothly.

Patio - Day 8

Patio - Day 7

I will post my rant later after Princess Leia gives me a minute...

Patio - Day 6

Does this look crooked to anyone else?

Patio - Day 5

Next week, they will start on the lower patio!

Patio - Day 4

It's like Christmas. What's under the frost blankets?!?

Patio - Day 3