Happy 1st Birthday, Jake!

Oh glorious day! I figured out what my picture posting problem was!!!! So now you get pictures! Which means I have a lot to catch up on :)

Happy Birthday little stinker! I can't believe my baby is one!!!! He is such a big boy now! He is walking, climbing, signing and developing quite the personality. I'm calling his official walk date 6/13, just a few days before his birthday. But he has made serious progress in the last 2 weeks. He walks laps around the kitchen, chasing his balls. Balls are probably his favorite toy. But he still loves things that light up and make sound too. He climbs on everything and is seriously Evil Kinevil (how do you spell that?). I have to watch him constantly because the second I turn my back he is climbing on something he should be. He signs "all done," and he uses the sign for "milk" when he wants something - but not necessarily milk. He has started clapping for "more." He claps, waves hi and bye, and does "hooray" in songs and he is starting to get really good at imitating things I do. And things his sister does. Which isn't always a good thing... He is super fun, but super opinionated and he is not fun to take shopping. It is so awesome watching him grow and this is such a fun age because I feel like he changes every day.

We celebrated his birthday in style :) Nautical theme/beach theme. I liked the anchors and the little crabs and then the navy/lime green together so I just kind of combined everything. I got some cute ideas off pinterest but I had a few original ones too. My favorite was the donuts - I wrapped fruit roll-up around them to look like life rafts. I tied lifesavers to lots of things, made deviled egg "sailboats" and a sand castle out of brown sugar. It was fun to plan.

Summer Already?

Wow, I can't believe it is summer already and my baby is almost a year old! Where does the time go? Well it is full blown HOT here. I keep thinking that it's "too early" in the year for it to be hot because I have been thinking that since February, but now it's almost June. Now it's supposed to be hot. But I will say the evenings have still been pretty nice.


I am still having major fights with my computer - it needs to be reinstalled but I just haven't taken the time to do it. I can't get any pics to post. Sorry - I know that's the whole reason anyone looks at this in the first place. But I am back on facebook so maybe I will put a few up there...


Lots to report since February. Wow. I'm really just going to hit on the major things:


Jake:
-Crawling 3/30 (9.5 months) Pulling himself up on things a week later. I seriously thought he was never going to move, but one day he just decided, "let's do this." He had spent the night at my parents and when my mom went to get him in the morning he was sitting up in the crib (first time ever) and that night he decided to crawl.
-Between 10-11 months it seemed like he really formed a personality. He is changing a lot every day and that seemed to really start when he began crawling.
-Taking steps. Started around 10mos. This week he walked across Aurora's room (I counted 16 steps). I still wouldn't say he's walking though. He won't just stand up in the middle of the floor yet - he still always pulls up on something. Seems like he should be walking soon though. He walks holding on to one hand and he pushes everything across the floor (chairs, toys, etc.)
-Such a climber! Crawls into the bathtub, on step-stools, into cabinets, stands up on chairs - if he can reach it he's on it. Very dangerous!
-Loves toys that make music and balls
-Favorite place to play is Aurora's play kitchen
-Still VERY attached to mommy
-Teeth! Bottom 2 middle 3/13 (9 months). 3 more on 5/14 (11 months) the top on either side of the middle and the bottom on the left side of the middle. Looks like the one on the right is not far behind.
-Loves food. Has gotten less picky which is good. He went through a phase for a little bit where he was very opinionated, but now as long as it's not spicy he will eat it. The slightest spice sets him off screaming.
-Aurora is still his favorite person. He loves any attention from her, even negative attention. The other day she was playing a game on the iPad while he was taking a bath and he just started doing short screams. Every time he did she would yell at him and he would laugh and keep doing it. Finally she left and he got the biggest smile and did a little bounce thing - you could tell he was very proud of himself.
-He grabs toys out of Aurora's hands and will not let go when she tries to take them. If she doesn't let go he reaches up and pulls her hair. He does not let her push him around.  
-Music makes him dance - he shakes his head back and forth and wiggles some :)


Aurora:


-Still says "laster-day" (any day before today)
-Loves movies and pretending. She wants to be whoever it was that she just watched.
-Wants to be chased constantly. Jake has always enjoyed being held while we chase her but yesterday he was "running" while he held my hands and he started squealing every time we got near her and would change directions - like he wanted to be chased. Hilarious.
-Likes girls - doesn't want to play with boys right now. The one exception to that is a little boy named Dexter - one of my friend's sons. He is 5, wears glasses and is adorable. All the little boys we know are adorable but I think Aurora may have a little crush on him :)
-Started napping again - half the time. She gave up naps in November-ish but in the past month has been getting up so early (thank you, Jake) that she just can't go the whole day. So about every other day she has been napping.
-Still very into princesses, pretty shoes, dresses
-Likes pink and purple because they are "girl colors"
-Wants to help with EVERYTHING. She is baking, cleaning, crafting - you name it. She did all the gluing for Jake's birthday invites. She has a chore chart now and her room is always clean (I am constantly told "Don't let Jake mess it up!!!!!!")
-LOVES singing. Favorite song right now - Carly Rae Jepson "Good Time." I am told to turn it on and turn it up every time we get in the car
-Wants to play with whatever toy Jake is playing with
-Wants to be a "rock star" when she grows up. Oh, boy... She asked me if she could be. I gave her that "you can be whatever you want to be" line. Seemed to be good for now.
-Starting pre-school in August :(


We've been up to some fun stuff - we took a trip to CA in March for my nephew Isaac's 1st birthday and did Disney and the beach with the kids. Nick didn't come with us and that was a little hard, but the rest of my family was there to help. The kids LOVED the beach. Aurora was freezing but she just wanted to stay in the water. We are hoping to make a trip to the beach this summer and plan to go to the lake. They just LOVE water. But Jake was actually more into the sand - I set him down in it and he just dove in and kept digging and playing with it - and never tried to put it in his mouth which was surprising.


Easter was fun this year - lots of egg hunting and Aurora loved dying the eggs. We accidentally left them out after we dyed them so we smashed them - threw them around - since we couldn't eat them and I think that was even more fun than coloring them. We may have a new tradition.


We've been hanging out at home, swimming at my parents, doing the zoo, the gym, the library - the usual. Anything to keep busy. Days are long when we don't go somewhere and Jake is in that "get into everything" mode right now so he spends a lot of time screaming at me when I say "no." Like he will sit on the floor, put his head to the floor (like fold in half), take a deep breath, and scream like the world is going to end. VERY dramatic.


That's the update for now. At least now I have it documented for later. Even though I know I have missed so much :(

6, 7, 8...

Wow, such a blur! Time is flying and I am trying to keep up with it but it gets away from me. I say this every year and it is never more true - September hits and life gets crazy. Although it seemed that this year June hit, Jake was born, and life got crazy. This was all compounded by Aurora giving up naps for good in November/December, her birthday in January, and me over committing to things. I have a little bit of calm before the next storm so now I am trying to catch up. I am way behind on a lot of posts. Believe it or not I've actually started several and just never finished... So I'm hoping to get one out right after another this week, but I'm having some issues posting pictures, so we will see. And we will see how chronologically in order they are...


So starting with the kids and updates. Jake is now 8 months! He is such a big kid already! He started sitting up about 2 weeks before his 6 month birthday and loves playing like that as long as mommy is not around. He is such a momma's boy and constantly wants to be held. He definitely recognizes the word "mama" and he does say it when someone else is holding him and he's reaching for me. Not sure if I'm going to call it his first word yet, but it's pretty consistently the only time he makes those sounds, so it seems like he knows what it means. He is such a talker too! He is constantly talking to his toys and to Aurora. He still loves Aurora to pieces. She can be yelling at him and he giggles at her. He is such a little giggler. LOVE IT!

Jake has 2 teeth! And it looks like more are on the way. The left front bottom tooth (sorry - don't know technical terms) came in 12/27 and the right just a few days later on 1/3. I joked that he was so close to getting his 2 front teeth for Christmas.

Jake is rolling around like crazy. He is not crawling yet and I think it will probably be at least another month. He gets up on his hands and knees and scoots backwards, but that's it so far. He will take steps when we hold his hands, but it's only when he's trying to get to me :) It doesn't seem like he enjoys it.

Jake is actually a super happy baby now. The first 5-6 months he was pretty temperamental, but now he is all smiles. He still throws fits and I think he might be even more strong willed than Aurora, but he's mostly happy. I think a lot of that may have to do with the fact that he is FINALLY sleeping decently. But that has only happened in the last 3-4 weeks. He was hard to figure out and I can't say what one thing we did to finally get him on a schedule, but it was a lot of hard work and trying to be consistent and I think now he is a reasonable sleeper. He seems to be converting to one nap pretty quickly - probably a  result of our crazy schedule. I'm not complaining though. One long nap is much easier to plan for.


He LOVES food and eats everything. Except peas. He seriously gags on peas. Everything else goes straight in the mouth and he gets very excited about food. He is eating all the baby solids. Pears seem to be his favorite along with the chicken/apples combo. But he is a pretty good eater no matter what. He eats at least 3 stage 2 foods a day, sometimes more. He loves snacking on crackers, toast, cheerios, puffs, and celery (weirdo). He just really loves food. LOVES food. He is so my kid.

Aurora on the other hand... while extremely passionate about food she has a definite preference and is extremely picky. Mealtimes are a battle and I am very done. 3 times a day fighting her to eat something healthy is exhausting. All she wants to eat is ice cream, brownies, cake pops, chips, and spongebob mac and cheese. And toast. I can at least get her to eat whole grain toast. But if its a fruit or a vegetable it's like pulling teeth. It's terrible. I really don't enjoy meal times with her. She will sit there for an hour and whine at me and not touch her food. I have to give her the fruit first and not let her have anything else until she eats it. And it takes forever. The pediatrician gave me a flier for a support group for parents of picky eaters.... Tempted to go and see if they have any ideas. I feel like I've tried everything! I hide the fruits and veggies and she still finds them in things. She won't eat it if she doesn't like the way it looks and she won't give anything a chance. She puts it in her mouth and then gags on it and throws up. I'm totally not exaggerating. It's terrible. Hopefully something she will out grow... At least she is growing and "healthy" according to the doctor. She had her 3 year check up a few weeks ago and she is now 30lbs and 37." Apparently very average so I guess that's good. She looks healthy to me and seems to have more than enough energy, so I'm not worried, its just frustrating to fight her on it every time she eats.

Aurora is so hard to get a picture of. She likes making silly faces :( And half the time the pictures are a total blur.