Guess what I am doing!!!

GUESS WHAT I STARTED DOING????

I am starting to eat solid foods. Well, sort of solid foods. It is rice cereal. So it is still pretty liquidy. Mommy started feeding me this just before Thanksgiving. At first it was a little hard getting the food to go down. I kept pushing it out of my mouth with my tongue. Now I am opening my mouth as the spoon gets closer and eating like a champ.

I can polish off a few ounces of rice cereal and then almost a whole container of carrots.

I also did the most amazing thing today. I rolled over on my tummy for the first time. I have been really trying for the last couple of weeks, cut couldn't quite get all the way over. I wasn't strong enough to get my body over my arm that was underneath me. Today, I was laying in the hallway while Mommy was working and I did it. I rolled over to my tummy.

Apple Spider

At the beginning of November, Daddy, Evan, and I made the trip up to the farm because Mommy had a Spanish paper to write. It is much easier for her to write her papers if we are not around, and it gave us a good opportunity to see PaPa and Grandma. Our main focus of the trip was to make apple spider (apple cider). PaPa made an apple press a couple of years ago and we have never seen it in use. I got to hold the container that the cider ran into when it was being squeezed out of the apples.

Every once in a while, I would accidentally put my hand under the stream of cider. Of course I had to lick it off.

Halloween 2008

A few weeks ago, was Halloween. This was my first Halloween as I was only born in June. Halloween is this funny holiday that you dress up in goofy outfits and go door to door and say "Trick-or-Treat". Then the people at the house give you candy.

Since this was my first trick or treat, Mommy bought my this cool bear outfit. It was soft and fuzzy and everyone loved it. Unfortunately I didn't make it very far thru trick-or-treat because I fell asleep in the van when we were driving from house to house. It was still fun. We went to see our friends and family that are in the area.

I am on a perfect 4 hour schedule now. I wake up from my nap and eat, then I am awake for about 2 hours and then take a nap again for 2 hours. WHAT A LIFE!!! How can it get any better than this.

This year, I got to be a beautiful pink and purple butterfly. Since Mommy bought my brother Evan's outfit, Daddy got to pick out my outfit. He looked a few different stores until he found the perfect butterfly outift.

We made our usual trip to Uncle Ryan and Aunt Megan's to see Colin. This year he was a monkey. We took lots of pictures at their house and visited for a while before we were off to the rest of our stops. We are going to make it a tradition that every year we take pictures, so everyone will be able to see us as we grow up.

Not much has been happening. The weather is getting colder so I don't spend as much time outside, but I still bundle up and go out and swing and go for walks and drive my jeep around.

An Update from Evan

Hi, this is Evan. I thought that I would give you a quick update on what has been happening around here. My big sister has been teaching me to read. Just kidding. She was spending tummy time with me in our bedroom. We were playing with toys on the floor.

Mommy and Daddy are starting to use this new toy, now that my legs are getting stronger. I still can't spend a long time in it, but it occupies me for a while. There a lot of cool things to play with on it. I spend a few minutes a day in it. Usually when Mommy or Daddy is making supper and can't play with me.

I was at the doctor's the other day for my 4 month checkup. Luckily there were no pokies this day. I have dropped off on my weight a little bit. I am only in the 50th percentile now. Last time I was around the 75th percentile. The doctor said that there was no need to worry. I am 26 1/4 inches long and I weigh 15 lbs. I can roll over to my side, although I haven't figured out how to roll over on my tummy yet. I also found something else new. I stick my tongue out a little past my lips and blow air out of my mouth and guess what, all this liquid stuff comes out. It is so much fun, I tend to end up with a very wet chin.

A Warm Fall Weekend

A couple of week ago, we went to an apple orchard. It was really busy that day. Probably because the sun was shining and it was warm out. When we were there, we went thru a barn that had pigs, chickens, lamas, and an ostrich. We also got to see them make donutes and apple spider (cider). Of course we had to sample it. We bought three donuts and 1/2 gallon of spider and sat down on a picnic table and ate our donut and drank a few cup's of apple spider. It was a great day to spend with my Mommy, Daddy, and Evan. We also when for a hay ride around the apple orchard. That is were the apples are grown.... On trees... When we got done with the hay ride a nice lady offered to take our picture so we could all be in it.

We also washed the van that weekend. I got to help. I was the rinse girl. Daddy would wash the van and get it all soapy and then I would come along and rinse all the suds off. Now you can just image the kind of fun that we had that afternoon. I am only two years old and my Dad let me have the hose all by myself. The hose with water running thru it...........and sometimes, he would kneel down to wash the bottom of the van.........in a position that he could not get away very fast.....and I was standing behind him.....with the hose....that has water running thru it.......are you getting my drift here. Needless to say, we were both wet by the end.

But, I am not tall enough to rinse the top of the van so he did help me out with that part of it. We made a good team that day. Mommy enjoyed watching us so much that she snapped a few shots of us. I even tried to get her wet, but she could move a little faster than I could drag the big hose....with water running thru it.

The End of Summer

Sorry it has been so long since our last update. It has been really busy. There has been a lot going on. But now everything has calmed down and Mommy and Daddy are in the full swing of their fall college schedule and work. That means that Evan and I get to go to Miss Cindy's house two days a week, while Mommy and Daddy are working.

I still get to go for walks with Mommy during the day and Daddy in the evenings, when it is warm outside. On this particular occasion, I took little Elmo for a walk with us. Usually I am riding my bike to the end of the side walk. We go down the street, past the scary house and the poky tree (pine tree), around the corner to the end of the side walk. There used to be flowers growing in an open lot there, but someone mowed them down.

When Aunt Mindy comes over, we terrorize the neighborhood in my Power Wheels Jeep Hurricane. We remove the safety screw that only allows us to use the slowest speed (don't tell Daddy) and then we race down the side walk and back home again. I am getting really good at driving it. I have only ran into the garage once and smashed the downspout. Daddy didn't get mad, he just laughed.

At night it is mostly the same ritual. Evan or I get a bath, depending on which night it is, and then for me it is a nice sippy full of Leche Chocolate (that one is for you Uncle Dave and Aunt Monika) or Chocolate Milk. Sometimes I also get a snack depending on when we ate supper.

I am getting stronger. I can stand up on my own legs if someone holds me so I don't fall over. I can grab at things if they are in my sight. I can follow people as they walk past me. I can turn my head to whichever way the voice is coming from. I can roll over on my side, but not all the way onto my belly yet.

As you can see, by hair is filling in nicely. Mommy and Daddy trimmed it a while ago just to even everything out. I smile alot, and I mean alot. Especially at my big sister. She is fun to watch. she does silly things to make me smile.

I did find this little friend that helps me go to sleep. It is my thumb, and the best part is...........I have two of them. So when I get tired of the right one, I just stick the left one in my mouth and work on that one for a while. Daddy is glad that I found my thumb. He said that way they won't have to try to take a paci away when I get older.

My doctors visit

Ok, someone could have warned me about this. It isn't fare. I had to to have two shots today at the doctor. Oh sure, they butter you by taking your weight, which by the way is 13 lbs 12 oz, and your height, 26 in.

They check you all over, talking to you in that sweet, high pitch voice, which makes me smile and then....

WHAM!!!

it hit me in one leg. I let out a yell and...

WHAM!!!

it hit me in the other leg. I thought "what is going on, we were having so much fun". Did you not like the way I was smiling at you? I thought we made a connection?

I didn't know what going to happen next.

I got my Pokies

Today, I had to go to the doctor for my 2 year check up and get some of my pokies. I don't like getting pokes (immunizations), they hurt. The doctor gave it to me in my leg. I only had to have one poky, my poor little brother had to have 2 pokes, one in each leg.

They also weighed me while we were there. I weigh 30 lbs and 8 oz. I am 38" tall which the doctor said was off the charts for my age.

A few more vacation pictures

This was actually a bug. It hung out on our screen tent for most of a day. I was really cool because it looked like a branch. Daddy had to look twice at it because the first time he didn't think it was alive. Its head is over on the left.

Here is Evan in his car seat. We were packed in the van pretty good. If there was any available space, we put something in it.

This is my big sister and my Uncle Tracey (family friends). She was sitting on his lap eating popcorn one night.

Here are our tents. The campsite was a little unlevel, but we dealt with it. It wasn't to bad
although we did tend to slide a little bit in our sleeping bags.

Summer Vacation 2008 (Evan's Perspective)

This was my first summer vacation, and my first time sleeping in the tent. It was really cool. We got to spend all day outside for a whole week. We had campfires, and roasted marshmallows, and made our food over an open fire. Although, I slept thru most of it and I am on a pretty strict diet. We also got to go for a hike in the woods at the campground. It was so neat. I stayed awake for most of that. Mommy front packed me for a while and Daddy backpacked my big sister Maya. We got to see trees, and leaves, and bugs, and toads, and ferns and all sorts of stuff.

Sleeping in a tent was a lot of fun. At night, it was really dark and a little chilly. Mommy and Daddy would bundle me so I wouldn't get cold, although my little nose got cold by morning.

The weather was beautiful all week long. We spent a couple of days at the beach next to the water. I had to stay in the shade, out of the wind and in my car seat. That way I didn't get sand in all my places that you don't want sand. Mommy and Daddy both took turns playing with me to keep me occupied.

This was the sunset across Saginaw Bay. We camped at the tip of the thumb at Port Crescent State Park. It was a nice little park with a big beach and we only had to walk for about 3 minutes to get to the water.

What a week. It is very exhausting getting carried around. Daddy snapped this picture of me one evening before supper. Mommy and Daddy have a canopy tent with screen sides that we put over the picnic table. It kept the bugs out while we ate, and made perfect place for me to take a nap.

Summer Vacation 2008 (Maya's Perspective)

This summer we traveled to the tip of the thumb for vacation. We stayed at a state park there that was right on the water. Our campsite wasn't directly on the water like last year, but it was only a short walk to get there. One morning, Mommy, Daddy, Evan and I loaded ourselves in the van and traveled down the road from the campground to the day use area and did some hiking. I found a log that had ants living in it. It was neat. They were red and they were crawling in and out of these little holes that they had made in the log.

Daddy backpacked me at first and Mommy was front packing Evan, my little brother. Then about half way thru, they switched and I got to ride on Mommy's back. Along the trail, there were places that you could see the water from on top of a sand dune. Here the trail went down the dune and back up the other side. Daddy decided to snap a quick picture while we were out in the sun.

On this day, at the beach, it was a little breezy. The wind was blowing toward the shore, which I learned was called an "On Shore Breeze". It was a little chilly so I just played in the warm sand. We built sand castles and dug holes, and then I would knock down the sand castles and have Daddy build them all over again. The sand felt funny between my toes.

Mommy and Daddy took my bike that Grandma Lisa (Gena's family friend) got me for my birthday last year. We did many laps back and forth past the camp site. When cars or truck would come, we would take my bike off the road and wait for them to pass.

I TURNED TWO YEARS OLD

On July 17th, I turned 2 years old. It was a Thursday this year. It was pretty low key since Mommy and Daddy were both in school. On Thursday morning, Mommy and I went to my buddy Collin's house where him and Aunt Megan had balloons for me.

Then we met Daddy for lunch. We went to the park and I got to go down the slide and swing. Swinging is my favorite thing to do. I can spend hours swinging. After lunch, Mommy and I went to see Grandma (Gena's Mom). We spent the rest of the afternoon there. That night, when Daddy got home from school Grandpa (Gena's Dad) was at our house.

He helped Daddy put up this swing in our back yard so I can swing any time that I want. I can go really high. It is a comfortable seat also. I think that Mommy and Daddy will wear themselves out pushing me before I get tired.

Then on Friday night, Mommy, Daddy, Evan celebrated my birthday with the cake in the first picture. It was a white cake with pink frosting.



On Saturday night. Aunt Megan and Collin, Uncle Jerry, Aunt Sheri, Jordan, Josh, and Uncle Tracey, Aunt Michelle, Christian, and Anthony came over for cake and ice cream. After I blew out my candles, Uncle Jerry got me to bite the edge of my cake. I think that he wanted me to smash my face in the cake, but I wouldn't do that.

On Sunday, we went up north to Papa and Grandma's (Steve's parents) where Aunt Wellie came all the way from Grand Rapids and brought Great Grandpa and Great Grandma. Uncle Chris, Aunt Sarah and all my cousins, Jessica, Taylor, Makenna, and Elizabeth were there. Of course I got to swing some more on Papa and Grandma's swing. We also had cake and ice cream again.



I got some clothes and some really cool toys to play with in the bath tub. This is my favorite picture of the weekend. It is of my Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. This also happened to be the first time that they met Evan, my little brother. He was just over 1 month old at this point. Since they live in Grand Rapids, I don't get to see them very often.

The fun wasn't over on Sunday. Monday morning, we met Uncle Will and Aunt Heather in a near by town and played all morning on the play scape at the park. The had a lot of fun things to play with, and of course, there were swings. Then on Monday night, when we sat down for supper, I fell asleep at the dinner table. I just couldn't hold my eyes open any more.

I guess looking back on the weekend, I was partying every night around my birthday. It wasn't such a low key birthday after all.

2 Months

It has been a very busy month. Mommy and Daddy are finally done with their summer classes and now we have a jam packed August ahead of us. First of all. I turned two months old on August 2. I weight around 13 lbs. I will get my official measurements at my check up which will be Friday.

One tragic thing that happened was that my hair fell out. Just around the sides where it rubbs when I am moving my head. Daddy said not to get all upset about it because it will most likely happen when I get older anyway.


When Mommy or Daddy are not holding me, I like to lay on the floor and look out the window. Or swing in my swing at look at that handsome dude looking back at me in mirror. I also sit my bouncy seat, or lay on my lounge pillow. Yeah, I pretty much just lay around.

I am almost sleeping thru the night. Mommy feeds me around 12:00am and then just lets me sleep. Sometimes I will wake up at 4:30am because my little belly is empty and I need something to eat. Lately she has been waking me up at 6:00am to eat. So I am almost making it thru the night. It won't be long and Mommy will finally be getting a full nights rest. Which I am sure that she will enjoy.

I smile alot. Daddy can always get me to smile. Once in a while he will make funny noises or just tickle my belly a little and I get this big grin on my face. I am also starting to talk, or at least make some sort of sound. Daddy and Mommy call it "Cooing". I don't know what "Cooing" is, but Mommy and Daddy get a kick out of it.

Stay tuned. There will be alot of updates this month. My sister Maya turned 2 in July. We are going camping next week and we also went to a petting farm. There will be blogs on all of these. I just don't know for sure when it will happen.

I went POO-POO in the potty!!!

Daddy and Mommy recently instituted a new rule for me. If I go pee-pee in the potty, then I get 1 M&M. If the flowers on my pull up are still there, which means that I am dry and didn't go in my pull up, then I get another M&M.

If I go poo-poo in the potty, then I get 5 M&M's.

Needless to say, last night I got 6 M&M's at one time.

YES!!!!

I went PEE-PEE, and then I went POO-POO in the potty. Then this morning, I went POO-POO in the potty again.

Mommy and Daddy are going to have to buy another bag of M&M's.

Firewurks Again!

Last night was the annual Taylor City firewurks at the park in Taylor. This year Uncle Tracey, Aunt Michelle, Christian, Anthony, Daddy, Mommy, Evan, and I packed up snacks and blankets and wen to see them. There are always lots of people that go to these, so we got there a couple hours before they started in order to get a good seat.

Since we had some time before the firwurks started, we ate snacks and played in the grass until it got dark enough to start them. The firwurks are set off at one end of the park, so it looks like they are going off right over your head. They were really pretty. There were pink ones, and red ones, and blue ones. I sat on Daddy's lap when they first started.

Then I moved over to Aunt Chelle's lap so I could be closer to my buddy Anthony. He didn't like the loud BOOMS as much. He still like to see the firewurks. Aunt Chelle bought glow sticks, so Anthony and I put them around our wrists, ankles and necks. That is the red and yellow thing around my neck.

Here is one of the firewurks. It was really big with a million sparkles in it. It looked like the sparkles made it all the way to the ground. They started around 10:00pm and didn't get over with until about 10:30. The grand finally was great. There were so many firwurks that it light up the whole sky. Then when we got back home, I got to stay up until 12:30am before I went to bed.

The 4th of July Weekend

This was a great weekend. Not only was Daddy home for 4 straight days, we got to build a shed together. He bought one a few weeks ago so we can store our yard stuff in. That way, there is more room in the garage. I was his little helper. I played outside all day long for two days while he put the shed up.

Sometimes when he wasn't looking, I would climb up on the stool that he was using. Most of the time, I would walk around and make sure that he was putting it together right. I also kept him cool with my squirt gun. I would come up behind him and squirt him in the back or in the legs with water. Sometimes it was when he least expected it. Then I would give him the squirt gun and he would squirt me with it or we would chase each other around the yard getting each other wet.

Later in the afternoon when it got hot, I put on my "daving soup" (bathing suit) and Daddy hooked the sprinkler up to the hose and we all ran thru it. Even Mommy and Evan came outside to run thru the sprinkler. The water was really cold, but it felt good. I ended up soaking wet.

The sun was really hot today. When I didn't have my hat on during the day, I carried this umbrella to keep the sun off me. That way I wouldn't get a sunburn.

Then when it got dark, we drove to Dearborn and watched the fireworks over Greenfield Village. We went to this same spot the night before with Grandma, Aunt Mindy and Uncle Mike (Mommy's family) and watched the fireworks. They were really cool. Every time that I saw one, I yelled "FIREWORKS, FIREWORKS!" I was so excited to see them. I have never seen fireworks before.