We're famous!

Last week, I took the kids to Rockville Town Square, a shopping area that also has some fountains in the summer where we can cool off. A local newspaper reporter asked if he could snap some shots of the kiddos, so I agreed. Ironically, the title of the article was "As temperatures rise, residents urged to stay inside." Which we didn't do--oops :) Here's a link to the article: http://www.gazette.net/article/20110720/NEWS/799999842&template=gazette

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So, I lied.

I promised more posts, didn't I? Sorry :(

So little Cole, at 16.5 months, is a crazy crazy talker. When Cole was young, I brazenly decided that he would be more active than his sister, less talkative, and more laid back. I was right, right, wrong. He is definitely more active than Addie was--he's handling stairs much better and can climb better than Addie could, but he's way more cautious than I assumed he would be, for a boy, I guess. And he has what feels like a gazillion words and has already started to put two words together like "Hi Daddy" and "Mommy Up" and "Addie sad" (sadly, he says that one a lot, because--well, she is cranky a lot ;). Today we were at Barnes and Noble and they have a train table there. He took one of the trains and pushed it into a tunnel and said "Bye Bye Choo Choo" and then looked at me and said "Choo Choo Seep (sleep)" and did the sign for sleep. So sweet! I love play pretend!

He can also answer questions:

When you ask him "How are you?" he always says "Goo(d)" and if you ask him how something tastes he will respond with the same.

When you ask "Who wants yogurt?!" or anything really, he will answer "I do!!!"

When you ask him where something is, he says "I no no (I don't know)" or if he's looking for something he will say "I no no no pashee" (aka I don't know where my pacifier is and I have a slight addiction and I want it RIGHT NOW--sigh, more on that another time). And while he has known "NO" forever, he now answers in the affirmative with a "Mm Hm"or an "Uh Huh"--too funny.

He wants to know what everything is by saying "Dat" as in "What's that?" and is a good parrot, which I think is how he learns so many words. Also that he has an older sister that NEVER STOPS TALKING :)

I'm proud to report that he knows one color now--Black! We have a What Color book and we've gone through it a bunch. He's repeated the colors, and black and white were first, but hadn't identified a color outside of that book until today at the bookstore. He first pointed to a black part of a train and said "back" and then found a Mickey Mouse book (he's kind of obsessed with Mickey) and the front had a picture of Mickey's head in a felt material. He pointed to the ear and said "B(l)ack" and then "sof(t)" SO fun watching these kiddos learn.

He's also very empathetic. When Addie hurts herself, he rushes over to kiss whatever it is that she hurt. If she's whining/complaining/crying about something, he will often just randomly give her a hug and half the time, it stops her! It's so sweet :)

He's also very stubborn. Oh man, I also thought he would be more easy-going than Addie, and he is to a degree, but he's not a laid back kid. He doesn't get what he wants and he has tantrums already, screaming, walking to a wall and facing the wall as if to say "I don't like you."

After reading all I wrote (and no, I'm not editing, you get my thoughts as they come out), I realize I am breaking the cardinal rule of NOT COMPARING YOUR CHILDREN. I like to say that this rule should read "DONT COMPARE YOUR CHILDREN....IN FRONT OF THEM" Okay?

So onto my Addie. She is reading...like a lot. Like a whole sentence like "The red hen sat on the fat cat." She has these BOB books that are awesome and of course she stumbles sometimes and needs help others, she's only 3.5 but she really really can read them! She remembers words and phrases as a whole, so once she asked on a catalog "what does this say?" and I said "Back to School" and 3-4 weeks later she saw it on a sign at Target and said "look, Mommy, that says "Back to School!" Yes, my dear, you are right, it does. She'll also randomly surprise me, like we'll look on the On Demand listings as I'm flipping through and say "let's watch Bob the Builder, I see it at the top" or "Oh look, Super Why is on" Um...okay?????? Soon the days will be over when we can spell things around her to avoid her understanding :)

She's also quite sassy....the other day we were in the basement cleaning up and I said "I'm going to put the blocks away, what are you going to do to help? and she replied "I'm going to DANCE in case you get bored" Nice try, girlfriend. And the only reason that Cole gets more airtime on this post than Addie is because at this age he's developing so much that SO much is new. We love them both equally and are equally amazed and in awe of these amazingly adorable and sweet children that we have in our lives!

Okay, more updates to come. We went to the Jersey Shore (and yes, saw Snooki) so I need to post the pictures before Halloween comes....love you all!

15 Month Cole Update

Coley hit 15 months recently and he's just getting....more. More what? Sweet. Stubborn. Talkative. Goofy. Cranky. Hilarious. All good things (well, I could do with less cranky, but we can't be picky now, can we? Oh wait...add that to the list--picky).

At his 15 month doctor's appointment all looked well. He weighed 24.6 lbs (75%) and I forget his height but it was about 90% and so was his head circumference. Big boy!!

As for words, he's got a gazillion. Well, we lost count around 60, he's got way more than that. He's even hinted at putting two words together. Today I said "Daddy's here!" as we drove in the driveway and then as we walked up to the house several minutes later he repeated the same thing. He also said "Elmo ook" (Elmo book) the other night while he was taking story requests (And shaking his head and saying Nooooooo to the other books I offered).

Cute things he's done/said lately:

• In addition to "uh-oh" he now says "oh NOOOOO" when he drops something
• "Ummm" everytime he looks inside the fridge (reflecting my indecisiveness at what to feed my family, apparently)
  
• He says Mama? Dada? Ah-dee? in question marks when he wants us. Addie and Cole can go on forever. Ah-dee? What? Ah-dee? What? Ah-dee? WHAT?? But the cutest is how he will want to tell us something. "Mama? (T)ruck." (I just saw a truck) "Mama? Up." (Pick me up!) Dada? Elmo" (Yo dad, let's getting moving on reading this Elmo book, kay?)
  

• He recognizes and can say the following character's names: Elmo, Big Bird, Abby, Grover, Bert, Oscar; Dora, Boots, and Map; Wow Wow Wubzy (it's adorable to hear him say this), and Mickey (still dik-dee). Mickey and Elmo are big faves.
• He can say please (peez), thank you (dahdoo), and bless you (behoo). How polite! It's the cutest when he does them umprompted (some of the time)
  
• We listen to Pandora (internet radio that you can set to themed channels) and after listening to the Lion King channel a lot, Cole can now identify a Lion King song after the first line and will make his "what does a lion say?" sound (kind of a TV-static little raspy roar thing) to let you know he knows it's from the Lion King
• Speaking of animals, he knows the sounds for (and uses daily) a cow, sheep, elephant, monkey, lion, owl, cat, dog, bird, mouse and horse. And Uncle Dan gets just as much of a kick out of asking him to do them all over the phone as he used to do when Addie was this age.
  
• Speaking of animals (yes, again), the other day Cole went from walking to down his hands and knees and started crawling on the floor saying "woof woof woof woof" then stood up and looked at me and said "dog" :) I love that he can pretend now! And yesterday he started saying "hoo hoo hoo (as he was walking towards us)" stops and says "Owl" then walks away. Thanks for the info, dude.
  
• Speaking of yesterday (am I boring you yet?), we were at Rockville Town Square playing in the fountains and Cole would play for a minute or two then come back and give me a kiss, play, kiss, play, play, kiss. I melted each and every time.

• Speaking of potty (oops, we weren't, but go with me on this one)...Cole has now sat on the potty a total of 3 times, though no deposits were made and I have NO intention on potty training him early even if his big sister is a promoter of all things potty. He's been able to tell us "boop" as he is pooping for awhile now. Then he started saying "bee bee" when Addie or one of us goes to the bathroom. Since his big sister holds her self MichaelJackson-style when she has to use the restroom (We're working on breaking that habit--ideas welcome), he's started grabbing the front of his diaper and saying "Bee bee" anytime one of uses the restroom. This led to Addie insisting that he needed to go to the bathroom so we got out the potty insert for the toilet that Addie used to use. It's cute, but yeah--no rush on my end for him to start using the "pobby" exclusively.
• He's known "up" and "down" for awhile now but now he knows the difference between hot and cold. He prefers water with ICE thankyouverymuch. Because it's "brrrrr"
  
• He's gone from having a trucker's appetite to being a lot more picky. Sigh. At least he liked the ribs!
  

• The kid is STUBBORN. He has an unhealthy obsession with my iphone. He loves talking on the phone and he knows how to unlock it (two step process: press circle button, then slide button on the screen) and can scroll through pictures and has even found a few of his favorite apps. If I take it away? Hysterics. And not easily distractable either. Sigh. This happens with other less expensive items too. If he doesn't want to be picked up he will straighten his arms in not-so-passive resistance so you can't get a grip under his armpits. He knows what he wants and makes it quite known to you.
• He so wants to be a big kid.
  
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• His relationship with Addie is still really great. They are often found playing Ring-around-the Rosie together in the living room and laughing at each other's belly buttons (Cole calls his "buddy" which I think is a hybrid of "Belly" and "button"). They fight over toys and dora books, but overall they really truly love each other and they cooperate quite well together.
• OH! Addie, the drama queen, will cry over every scratch and barely a boo-boo and lately Cole will walk over to her and give her a kiss wherever she's hurting...so sweet.
  
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• They really do love each other and I am immensely grateful to how that worked out.

Coley Boley. A sweet and silly clown like his daddy :)

Hold me Closer Tiny Dancer

Addie dances all day long. If she's not sitting or lying down, she's dancing. Today she was dancing to her rendition of Hakuna Matata in the Geek Squad line at Best Buy. If she's not full-out dancing, she's often walking around on her tippy toes and/or dramatically throwing her arms here and there to make a point.

This past weekend we met up at a big park with some families, and two moms separately caught these images of her dancing to the music of a nearby carousel. I love these photos because she looks so serious and intense, but I know she's happy because she's dancing. My free spirit. My tiny dancer.

photo by L. Dunnivan

photo by E. Trigg

Two new videos

First off is a Mother's Day video Steve made with the kids for me...I love it :) (WARNING--it's 6 and a half minutes long and there's a lot of random dancing in there)

Cole LOVES looking at himself in the mirror (who can blame him, he's adorable!). So when he can see himself as I video him from my phone...he becomes quite the showoff.

Just like his momma....check out my adorable little man!

Last Day of School

So today was Addie's last day of her first year of preschool. I would be lying if I said it was a smooth road. Addie cried almost every day at drop-off and while she would often cheer up soon after I left (according to the teacher and other parents), there were times when I would pick her up at the end of the 2.5 hours to find her sitting on a chair quietly while the other kids played. She sometimes didn't participate in the art projects, which is strange because she LOVES to do art at home. But she always thrived during Mini Movers--a singing/dancing/activity thing they did once a week. The school she attended was a co-op which meant that there was one teacher and 2 parents per class day and the parents all rotated, so I was there sometimes, and not there others. This inconsistency, we feel, was not good for Addie, so we have chosen a new (non-co-op) school for next year. Crossing our fingers that next year is an easier one for her!

I took pictures on the first and last day and WOW they have both changed so much. We expected Cole to change over the 9 moths--he went from a immobile 6 month old that didn't even crawl let alone walk to a walking/running/trouble-making little toddler. But ADDIE--WOW, she went from little girl to big girl in one school year. She now insists on choosing her outfit (resulting in some solo-dress-up days at school--from Redskins Cheerleader to Snow White to Fancy Nancy) and she can dress herself, put her own shoes on, take herself to the bathroom, and she's quite the independent little girl.

Check out these pics--September 2010 to June 2011...wow what a difference!!

How does time fly so fast?????

Please don't change...

At one point Addie used to say "poothtaste" instead of toothpaste and I loved loved loved it and never wanted her to learn the real word, though of course...she did. Lately, Cole has some cute words that I know he'll grow out of

Elmo=Elbow

Blueberries=Bubble (he also calls strawberries and grapes bubbles now)

Mickey=Dikdee

Addie is pretty funny, too.

Addie: "Daddy, why do the Streets Have No Names?"
Steve: "I don't know...maybe they forgot to put street signs up."
Addie: "I think a big street sign monster came and GOBBLED them up! But that's just a guess."