Art – 3 ways, 1 day

Learning Inspired

 

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Chloe Inspired

4 months and counting

Devon has hit the 4-month mark – this happened a few weeks ago, but we just had his check-up at the doctor’s office this week.  Here are his official 4-month stats:

17 lbs, 10 oz (80%)
26″ long (75%)
45cm head circumference (95%)

4 months - and thrilled to be photographed

He’s a pinhead compared to his sister, whose head circumference has been in the 99th percentile since she was this age.  He’s also a bit more proportionate since his height and weight are in highter percentiles.  That doesn’t, however, mean getting shirts over his head is any easier 🙂

He’s rolled from his tummy to back a few times (because he hates being on his tummy) and loves playing with his left foot and rolling onto his left side when he’s on his back.  I think he’d be rolling by now if it wasn’t for his diaper-induce-ghetto-booty.  By this point with Chloe, we were dying for her to start rolling, then crawling and walking…  This time around, we’re more content to have him stationary.  We like knowing where at least one of our children is at any given moment!

We haven’t started him on solid foods yet, but he’s definitely interested in what happens at meal time.  I’ve given him the tiniest little tastes (barely bigger than a grain of rice) of banana and sweet potato within the last week or so and he’s loved both.  Given his weight, he’s obviously doing okay without solids at this point.  I think, again, it’s a second kid thing.  I know how quickly he’ll grow up, so I don’t feel the need to rush it.

Devon’s still not sleeping well, but I’m going to blame it on being sick for about a month now.  He got a nasty cold which turned into an ear infection.  The antibiotics to treat the infection did a number on his tummy and he was miserable for about a week until we got the all-clear from the doctor to take him off the medicine early.  Almost immediately, he got another cold that he’s still fighting.  After a few hours of sleep at night, he’s up every hour or so the rest of the night, because he’s so congested.  He only eats once a night though, so if we can just get him healthy again, there might be hope for sleep for this Mama!!  Chloe Mae was a horrible sleeper and didn’t consistently sleep through the night until she was a year old, but it happened eventually, so I know it will again 🙂

And I think I say this pretty much every time I update on the life of Devon, but I have to mention again that he has an amazing big sister.  She’s thrilled to see him when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap.  When he’s upset, she’ll try to get him a toy or sing or read to him to make him happy.  She’s anxiously awaiting the day when she can share her food with him and she loves to hang out while he gets his diaper changed – even if they are “yucky poopy.”

Valentine’s Day, in pictures

Our most amazing, fantastic Valentine’s Day!!

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Valentine’s Day

Devon is growing up so fast, but still a snuggly little baby (most of the time) and I’m working on soaking up every minute of it.  I am also loving the wonderful little girl that Chloe Mae is becoming.  And one of my favorite things about her getting older is that we get to do fun things together for holidays, which makes them so much more fun!!  For Valentine’s Day, DaddyMort and I have decided to make heart shaped meals for breakfast and dinner.  Well, I won’t actually be making anything, but I helped come up with the ideas and married a man with the skills to execute 🙂

For breakfast tomorrow, we’re having heart-shaped Red Velvet Pancakes  and heart-shaped Bacon.

For dinner, we’ll be dining on heart-shaped homemade chicken nuggets, heart-shaped roasted sweet potatoes (because our girl won’t eat french fries, but loves sweet potatoes – go figure!) and heart-shaped pineapple.  I think we’ll puree some strawberries and make pink milk for her to enjoy with dinner as well.

Other Valentine’s notes:

Chloe’s already had the pleasure of making some Valentine’s for us and some friends and decorating some heart cookies at MissK’s last week.  When MissK explained the concept of Valentine’s Day to the girls – that you make things for the people you love – she asked who they loved.  Chloe’s answer – Jesus.  Good answer, kiddo, but we’re not going to be decorating any cookies for Him.

And my wonderful husband didn’t want me to be left out when it comes to special Valentine’s meals, so he’s making mine tonight – complete with a caramel cake with chocoalte ganache and caramel frosting for dessert.  Yum!!

Do you have any fun traditions or new ideas to try for Valentine’s Day this year??

Real Conversations With My Girl

-DaddyMort stayed home with the kids for a couple days when MissK and her kids were sick (after our kids had also been sick.)  Before I left for work, DaddyMort mentioned to Chloe that they would go to the library that morning.  I have rarely seen this girl so excited.  I needed to feed Devon before I went to work, so I was feeding him while DaddyMort and Chloe got ready to go and put the dogs away – all at record speed.  I could hear Chloe running up the stairs, then as she scurried around the corner she was yelling, “Mommy – give Devon to Daddy! We need to go to the library!”  I explained that he was still eating and would be ready to go in just a couple minutes.  She then spent those couple minutes dancing around his room, anxiously waiting for him to be done.  At least she didn’t want to leave him at home for the sake of time 🙂

-Chloe and I were downstairs in her playroom on Saturday playing with a magnet book (or as she calls them – a magna-doodle book) that she got for Christmas.  She got 3 books, but we decided to only leave 1 out at a time, in hopes that not as many pieces would get lost that way.  At one point, at her request, I went upstairs and got her a different magnet book.  She knew she’d gotten 3 though, so she eventually asked for the third.  I was starting a load of laundry (or something – who can remember something that happened a few days ago?!?) so I told Chloe I’d get it in a minute.  Instead, she decided to go upstairs on her own and tell DaddyMort that, “Mommy said you should get my magna-doodle book for me.”  When I came up, I was surprised to see that she had the book already and DaddyMort told me what she’d said.  When I asked her if that’s what I really said, she just batted her cute little eyelashes, smiled and said no.  Seriously, we’re done for when this kid becomes a teenager!!

-On Friday, when I was picking the kids up from MissK’s and talking about the pizza we would be eating for dinner that night, Chloe said, “MissK is having rice and chicken from China for dinner tonight.”  It took me a second to figure out they were having Chinese food.

-A few weeks ago, DaddyMort touched something hot and (very proudly) said “Ha-chi-mama!!” instead of something a bit more colorful in our daughter’s presence.  Chloe thought that was hilarious and started saying “Ha-chi-Chloe!” when her food was hot.  Then last week, Chloe was in the bathroom right after my shower and touched our towel warmer while it was still hot.  She commented that it was hot and I apologized for not telling her it was hot.  Then she touched it again and I told her not to touch it anymore, because it was hot and I didn’t want her to get hurt – although it really wasn’t hot enough to burn her, but it was more the general idea that she shouldn’t touch hot things.  She responded, “Just one more time mommy. I want to say, ‘Ha-chi-Chloe.'”  So then she quickly touched it and proclaimed, “Ha-chi-Chloe!” with a giant grin on her face.

I love, love, love  this little girl.  There isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t amaze be or bring a smile to my face.  She’s growing up far too quickly though- does any parent not feel this way?!? – so I feel the need to record and try to remember all of her adorableness!!

Preschool

As a totally unbiased observer, I have to say, Chloe Mae is one smart cookie!!  🙂  Not only is she smart, but she absorbs and remembers everything  we say or do – for better or worse – and is always asking questions, counting, “writing” people’s names, etc…  I want to take advantage of her sponge-like brain and desire to learn by working on her letters, number recognition, shapes and anything else that her 2 1/2 year old brain is interested in learning about. 

I have no desire to send her to preschool at this point.  We’re happy with where she’s at during the day right now.  At this age, I don’t think she needs a classroom setting to learn.    With a little work, I’m fairly confident I can do a perfectly acceptable job of teaching her the basics.  With that in mind, I harnessed the power of Google and came across the Brightly Beaming Resources.  Their preparatory curriculum is 26 weeks long and features a weekly theme and letter of the week, along with a  color, number or shape.  There are suggested activities and books to read to fit the theme. 

The lesson plans are all laid out on the website for free, (which is totally in my price range) so I think I’m going to try to get the first few weeks put together and give it a try.  For all of the seasoned mama’s out there, what did you do for preschool??  Any suggestions for me??