Archive for May, 2012

Serenity in May

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

May was an amazing month, so I think I should break up this post a bit.  Here’s Serenity’s update, but I have more to write about our family vacation to Branson and our Cali visit!  And then I’ll be updating for Donovan’s birthday so we may have a post a day for a while!!!

5/11

Some more quirks I thought I should record:

 

Serenity likes to answer questions in the most obscure way she can.  I ask, do you want Froot Loops for breakfast or Mama’s cereal with craisins?  She says something like, “I’d really like a cereal that’s round.”  Do you want to wear your purple dress or your pink dress?  “I want to look just like June!”  She likes to keep me on my toes. =)

 

Another phrase she says all the time is, “I’ve never done that before.” or “I’ve never seen that before!”  It’s so cute, the way she says before.  Tonight it was, “I’ve never danced in pajamas before!” (I’m pretty sure she has though =)  Hard to describe, but she says this a LOT so I had to try and record it.

 

She likes to win races.  A lot.  She has this way of making sure she’s in the front, by dodging and weaving right and left to keep you from passing her.  Annoying, yes, but also effective.  When I went to school I saw her playing with her friends on the playground, and I finally got to see how this maneuver could come in really handy. =)

 

Twirling in her skirt =)

They enjoy each other so much! Serenity's starting to wrestle with him, which sometimes leads to fussing and biting, but also lots of giggling!

We read Ladybug Girl recently and Serenity has been wearing her rainbow wings so she can be Dragonfly Girl! (And breathe fire)

Serenity had her last days of her first year of school!  They were a delightful whirlwind of activities.  They had a little performance at school where they sang their time period song.  They sang about Egyptians and Medieval times.  Then she got her yearbook which her classmates signed (some with teacher help).  That evening was her music performance.  They sang so well!  I got to finally hear what I’d just gotten tantalizing tidbits of before.  My favorite was This Land is My Land and the Grand Old Flag.  Whenever she sees a flag when we’re driving it’s not just a flag, it’s a Grand Old Flag. =)  They sang Ebeneezer Sneezer which had really cute motions.  She looked like she was swaying and really into the music.

 

Serenity at her locker on the last day of school

 

Serenity with her friends Rachel and Emerson =) At the concert

 

Today was field day.  Eric went to help set up at 6am, and took charge of sack races, egg races, and capture the flag.  We got SO many compliments about how helpful and wonderful he was with the kids.  One teacher just gushed that he did such a good job with capture the flag, he made it fun for the kids, easy for the teachers, and she called him Coach Wainright.

 

Serenity seemed to enjoy a lot of flag day, although some of the group activities ended in tears for her.  Tug of war, not her thing.  Neither was it fun getting bumped by the gigantic ball.  She loved jumping in the sack race, and she told me her favorite thing was hula hoops and the inflatables.  I loved seeing her launch frogs in the air, balance on the crazy balance toys, and shoot baskets.  She also got to bounce on the big bouncy balls that have handles.  I got to see Rae, and Casey do that too, which was cool.  It was a great end to a fabulous first year.  I’m so glad she loved it so much, and I hope she always does!

 

Donovan is Eleven Months Old!

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

 

4/27

Donovan is standing!  He can just stand up from anywhere, without even pulling up on things.  And he stands for long periods of time too.  Sometimes he’ll take a tiny little step, but then he almost immediately drops to his hands and knees to crawl like lightning.  It’s just faster that way, and who can blame him?  He sometimes walks just holding one hand, off to my side now, which is SO nice.  Sometimes he doesn’t like that, but he doesn’t really need the help for anything but speed.

 

He’s added more words to his vocabulary!  Donovan said touch very clearly when we were doing one of his texture board books and hat when he picked up Serenity’s princess crown. Two more words to the list.

Which starts with 1.) Ball  2.) Roll 3.) Baf (bath) and 4.) Vrooom

Plus Mama and Dada.  Although half the time when he sees Eric he says Ball.  He’s said Papa a few times too =)

 

He’s pretty happy to go to Papa whenever he sees him.  And the other day Jen and I were chatting in the parking lot.  He didn’t want to go to her at first, but then he didn’t want to come back to Mama!  It was too funny, he really pushed my hands away when I tried to take him.  Jen said he was being so sweet to her, and then he cried when she left.

 

He’s started vrooming cars around the room.  I got it on video, it’s so cute!

 

4/29

So, this is one story Donovan may be embarrassed about having in his book.  When Little Casey was a toddler, he used to want to hold Jen’s nose whenever she was carrying him.  I thought at the time that it was probably a little awkward.  Well, Donovan likes to have his hand in my cleavage.  Yeah, may have issues weaning him, we’ll see. =)

 

5/1

I feel like he’s really trying to talk the last few days.  He repeats so many sounds we say.  Yesterday I swear he was trying to say Serenity.  It sounded like “ssssss tee” but he said it several times as his sister was jumping around trying to get his attention, so it was obvious he was trying to say her name.  Or I guess sister.  Today Eric asked if he wanted a drink and he piped right back with “dink!” He’s also getting fluent in dog, as his says “Daw!” for dog and repeats sounds that sound like “woof,” and “bow wow” when we’re reading those animal books.  It’s so much fun!  He’ll say all done and more now, which is a relief as mealtime is still an ongoing issue.

 

5/9

I think I’ve finally figured out why Donovan has turned into such a wiggle monster when I’m trying to change his diaper.  He sits still and calm while I take off the old diaper and then wipe him.  And then suddenly, wham!  He flips and starts crawling like lightning.  Today he was so deceptive I wasn’t even trying to hold onto him, and he made it all the way into the bathroom chanting “Baf baf baf!”  Evidently anytime he’s naked it’s time to get in the tub.

 

He is walking more every day!  Today he made it all the way across the living room all by himself.  He’s still toddling and unstable, but he’s getting secure enough that he tries to walk without fear.  He has no problems walking holding just one hand, which is awesome.  It’s so much easier to walk around with him holding one hand to the side than two hands right in front of you.

 

I’m starting to work on his birthday party, and I think it’s going to be fun!  Water and sprinklers, (since he loves the bath) and lots and lots of balls!

 

We’ve turned a corner with eating solid foods.  Now he’ll eat pretty much any chunk of fruit I put in front of him.  He adores grapes, strawberries, and bananas.  He loves pretty much any bread product, especially crackers and pizza crusts.  He’ll take small tastes of protein, like hamburger if we’re eating it, spaghetti sauce, and bits of chicken.  I still haven’t managed to find a vegetable he’ll eat!  And he still has almost zero tolerance for purees.  He’ll let me do a spoonful or two and then he wants control of the spoon.  So far he won’t do peas, edamame, carrot chunks, green beans, or broccoli.  He will do sweet potato fries but that doesn’t really count.  So I have a feeling I’m going to have to start researching ways to sneak vegetables and different ways to prepare them.  In the meantime I’ll just keep offering them and sweeping them up off the floor.

 

Parents too cheap to buy me a walker? I'll just use this basket to walk. **ETA Papa has gotten me a walker now, thanks =)

 

He gives big smiles to everyone! He just loves people, and his face lights up when he smiles. =) He smiles so big his eyes scrunch up now.

 

VROOOOOM. Cars are a big deal now. He loves to say vroom and roll them around already. Who even taught him that?

 

This is Donovan's favorite book, "Have You Ever Tickled a Tiger." He loves to feel the different textures, and he says "Touch!"

 

 

Serenity in April =)

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

Egg Hunt Map!

5/1

April!  Serenity is just so much fun.  I love all the funny things she says and does.  She is still narrating her story.  She says things like, “Serenity ran and twirled as she said “I looooove you!”  And then the other day, “According to my legend, I jumped into the pond with all the other fishies!”  She also uses the word “certainly” a lot.  I ask her if she can take something to her brother, and she’ll respond cheerfully, “I certainly will!”  =)  It’s so cute when she says it.

 

We had a lot of fun with our Easter traditions this year.  We colored eggs.  Serenity chose her own egg kit, and she picked on with lots of glitter!  We colored the eggs and then hid them repeatedly in the backyard.  It’s getting fun as she’s at the age where she can actually find them when they’re in difficult spots.  Although, if it takes her too long to find them, she asks for clues.  This led to our newest Easter game, the Easter Egg Map.  I drew up three maps of our upstairs, downstairs, and yard.  I put them in page protectors and put little egg stickers where I hid the eggs.  This was AWESOME.  We could hide things in really evil spots and she had clues right in front of her to find them.  Eric hid one behind all the books on her bookshelf.  We put one between the mattresses of her bed.  So much fun!  She loved it and wanted to play it again right away.  She’s still so addicted to maps and her atlas, this was just the perfect game for her.  Inside the eggs she had some gummy snacks along with some awesome coupons that we had a blast redeeming.  So very light on the sugar =)  The coupons included “stay up past bedtime” which meant we had a sleepover downstairs. We went all out, had makeovers, danced, watched movies, and snuggled on the couch as late as she wanted.  Which was later than me, I fell asleep by midnight.  Amazingly, she was really pretty good the next day, so we can maybe do this again sometime.  She also got to go out for ice cream, choose what we had for dinner, have 30 minutes of Undivided Attention, and a few other treats.  I love the coupons, and will probably do this every year.
We also did our traditional Easter Bunny scavenger hunt.  We hid all the bunnies in the house and wrote clues for her to find and rescue them.  She managed it easily, and asked me to write more clues for her again later in the month.

 

She got a bike from John and Ann when they came to visit.  She’s actually riding it!  She had a little tricycle before but never really showed much interest in it, possibly because she couldn’t really do much just riding in circles around our yard.  Now we go for walks together and she rides her bike around the neighborhood!  She has had one major wipeout, but was wearing a helmet.  She went pretty slow the next few times but is now back to going “moderato.”  Yeah, she’s been watching little Einsteins so her speed is either adagio, moderato, allegro and presto.  The bike has wonderful fairy sounds (it’s a Tinkerbell bike) so she pushes one to make her go whatever speed she chooses.  It means she loses her momentum a lot as she has to push the buttons while she’s riding, but it’s fun and we’re able to keep up with her on foot for now.
These days Serenity only wants to wear purple clothes.  She pretends she’s June from the little Einsteins, and dances all over the house.  She has one dress that Patricia got her that  I barely have time to wash before she wants to wear it again.  It’s a fun stage =)  I signed her up for dancing in the summer.  Dad is also taping her episodes of Sid the Science Kid, which I am also enjoying.  They do fun science stuff!

 

She loves climbing on that bucket =)

Bump on the nose and forehead from the wipeout

After our makeovers, getting ready for "Stay Up Past Bedtime" night

 

Finding the next clue for the Bunny Scavenger Hunt

 

 

Twirl! This is the best twirly dress, and it's purple just like June's

 

Earth Day Crafting with Daddy (coffee filter maps)

 

Wearing her newest twirly skirt, purchased in the hopes that I could cycle the laundry a little better. Playing with her cool new play-doh tool, the cake decorator thingy.