Samuel at 10 months

Samuel has changed tremendously over the last month. At 10 months he...

eats 100% of what we eat (besides all of those "not until 1" foods)

pulls up on everything

is a climber

has decided he doesn't need to nurse anymore...a couple months earlier than I expected! :(

had his first ear infection

had his first bout of croup

always has a bruise on his head/face somewhere

is working on 2 more teeth

plays a bit rough sometimes...bites/pulls hair

had his first experience playing in the toilet water...we keep the lid closed now :)

switches positions from crawling to sitting to standing very easily

continues to army crawl like a pro

signs all done

loves balloons

only fusses when he's hungry or sleepy

waves consistently

LOVES Maggie (our dog)

always has a huge smile for you

continues to take a morning and afternoon nap

is exhausted and in bed around 7:15 and sleeps until 6:15

is hard to get a good picture of because he's always on the move! :)

Cupcakes

I had my first baking gig this weekend. A lady that Steve teaches with wanted several dozen cupcakes for a baptism. I made chocolate buttermilk filled cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and pink lemonade cupcakes with lemonade buttercream frosting. They all tasted great but the pink lemonade cupcakes were a bit too sweet for me. I had fun experimenting and hopefully will get to do it again sometime. :)

Preschool

Grace had her first day of preschool this morning. She was so excited last night that she was literally jumping up and down. We found a sitter for the kids less than a minute from my school (seriously-Steve timed it at 49 seconds) :) for the days that she has preschool so that I can run and take her to preschool during my planning period and then pick her up from preschool and take her back to the sitter's over my lunch break. I love that I get to do that! Steve got to come and take her in too. It's crazy how fast time goes and we each shed a few tears after we were out of the building thinking about how it seems impossible for her to be that old already! :) She had a lot of fun and has talked about it MANY times since we've been home. 

Samuel at 9 months

This month has been full of changes for Samuel:

he has mastered sitting up and changing positions without being wobbly

he hasn't lifted his belly off the ground yet but continues to army crawl at rapid speed (see video below)

he pulls up to his knees

he eats 90% of what we eat and is a huge fan of food in general

we've started signing with him - just the basics like more, all done, drink and food

he says dada, mama, mom and no

he gets up on all fours but then goes back down to his belly when he actually wants to move

he is starting to mimic what we do (like blowing on hot food or making sounds with our mouths) 

he waves bye-bye

At his 9 month check-up he was in the 90th percentile for height (29 1/2 inches) and 25th percentile for weight (18 pounds 14 ounces.) The doctor was excited because he had such a nice growth spurt. He was in the 50th percentile in height and 10th percentile in weight at his 6 month check-up. He was amazed at the comeback he's made after how sick he was when he had pneumonia. That was exciting to hear. He's such a busy, happy little boy!

Summer Projects

Jill and I decided it was time to attempt canning. We really had no clue what we were doing but ended up with these beautiful canned peaches...all of which sealed! 

This is our first can of peaches...notice the glistening foreheads. We look pretty good for it being 2 a.m. :)

Jill has also been busy canning salsa and pasta sauce. I plan on attempting those as well now that we're back from vacation. Here is our first jar of peaches. Hopefully there will be many more summers of canning together to come. 

Another summer project was a family cookbook. I was so excited when they were delivered yesterday! We wanted a place to keep all of our favorite recipes and a place to save a lot of our grandma's recipes. Here's a quick preview of it.

Vacation

We decided to head down to Cincinnati again this summer. We stayed at a hotel in Kentucky. The kids enjoyed the indoor pool - we ended up using it quite a bit since it was so flaming hot outside. We left Monday morning and went to the Newport Aquarium. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and went swimming. Tuesday morning we woke up and went to the Cincinnati Zoo. We took the afternoon easy and napped and went swimming.  That evening we went out for ice cream and walked around to some different shops. Wednesday we went to the Reds game. We ended up leaving early because it was too hot for the kids. Live and learn - next year maybe we'll go to a night game and probably not in August. :) That night we went to Coney Island. Luckily it had rained and cooled off. We had a blast at the park. It wasn't busy - I think the rain must have scared a lot of people away. There was a kiddie pool that covered more than an acre. I love water parks and slides...so I was pumped to go down the slide in the middle of the pool a couple of times. The second time I was waiting to go up the stairs this 10 year old kid came up and asked me if he could go in front of me. He even called me miss, which I suppose is better than ma'am. I had to laugh inside because before I went to the slide Steve had told me not to shove any kids out of my way. I was a nice, mature mother and let him go in front of me, although I really wanted to tell him to go to the back of the line! :) Thursday morning we got up and left as early as possible. Poor Samuel was working on one of his top teeth the whole week and slept pretty horribly. Thursday morning he was up at 3...for the day. Not screaming, not even crying, just up. Monday night and Tuesday night went similarly. I'm ready for that tooth to pop through, although I'm sure he's looking forward to it way more! Unfortunately I didn't take a bunch of pictures. I forgot the camera in the hotel several times and was busy having fun (or pushing kids out of my way) the rest of the time. Despite the lack of sleep and extreme heat we had a great time.

Grace is 3!

Grace at age 1

Grace at age 2

Grace at age 3

Grace turning 3 was a bit emotional (for me). I believe it hit me because I suddenly realized how fast 3 years flew by. I found myself thinking back and laughing at certain memories and rolling my eyes at others. Remembering how she had that toothless grin until she was over a year old. Remembering her strong gag reflex...even baby food wouldn't go down easily for awhile. Remembering her baby chub and super soft skin. Remembering how she laughed silently until she was 18 months old. Remembering all of the "fights" that we've had...stubborn versus stubborn-er. :) And so many more. There is no doubt that Grace is a genuinely sweet child and a true blessing to our family. 

Several Grace Quotes and Grace-isms:

• Where'd the fever go? Did it fly up in the sky? (after I told Steve her fever was gone)
  
• Did the thunder go back in the woods? (after it stopped thundering)
  
• My leg has a fever! (after she dropped some Lego's on it - a bit dramatic)
  
• Mom, look at what your son is doing! (he had gotten one of his diapers out and was chewing on it)
  
• I think I'm going to need my butterfly wings to fly to Florida. (we're flying to Florida in December - obviously it will be Grace's first flight) :)
  
• Is a tornado kind of like a tomato? 
• I want relugar milk. (when asked if she wanted regular or chocolate milk)
• Mom, I don't remember this book. (when she doesn't have a book memorized)
• I went to bed at 2:30, slept for a half hour, got up and drank my water for 2 hours and went back to sleep and got up at 6:45. (hasn't quite got the time thing down yet) :)
• I need some privacy please! (when going to the bathroom)
• Is Sam going to sleep in the plak-n-play? 

Grace is very excited to start preschool next month. She's been talking about it since last year. We just got her backpack this week, but it still seems a bit surreal.

Grace (at age 3) loves to:

play outside on her bike and swing set

golf with Steve

bake with me

entertain Samuel

play with her dollhouse

go to Wendy's and McDonald's (and points them out when we drive by...how sad)

play with play-doh

go to the library each week to pick out new books and DVDs

go grocery shopping or shopping of any kind

watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Elmo's World and Word World

read and be read to

color and cut 

go to Kindermusik

eat ice cream, peanut butter and jelly, pancakes, bananas, peaches, mandarin oranges, and gum

"help" do whatever you're doing

play with helium balloons...and is always concerned they are going to blow away

go to the park

go to swim lessons

floss and brush her teeth (she recently had her teeth polished at the dentist and has been obsessed ever since)

listen to "her" CDs

go to Sunday School

sing

play in the bathtub

play with her cousins

see her grandparents and aunts and uncles

play with her dolls

Grace and I made cupcakes for her party today. She wanted zoo animals so in case you can't tell what they are here you go: tigers, zebras, lions and monkeys. We had a good time. :)