Christmas

Christmas was so much fun this year with the kids. Mia, of course, loved opening her presents. "Look at all the rips!" she kept saying as she was tearing apart wrapping paper. It was so cute. We took lots of video, but I don't have a ton of pictures. Here are a few of them...

In the car again?!

Poor guy got so hot at Christmas, we had to take his clothes off! Look at those thighs!

Mia with my cousin's puppy

It was so much fun seeing everyone at Christmas, and Mia just loved playing with all the kids! I wish I had gotten more pictures, but at least we got a few! Also, Drake gave us a Christmas present - he slept through the night on Christmas Eve night! From 10 pm to 6 am, everyone in our house was asleep - such a nice surprise on Christmas morning!

More pictures...

Just a few more pictures to share...

When Mia is watching a movie with her Papa and her dollies, she doesn't let ANYONE else down in the basement...

Yes, Mia's old chair

Don't let this innocent face fool you...


Celebrating her birthday at Nana and Papa's...

Mia's party, checkup update

As I'm sure any 2-year-old does, Mia had a blast at her party! She is such a people-person. She was actually mean to us the next day, I think it was such a let-down just having Brock and I around instead of a crowd of people! She loved all her gifts, but of course her favorite things were the crazy balloons we got at the last minute to tie on her chair! Go figure. Here are some pictures from her party:

Mia and Auntie Katie

Surveying the loot




Blowing out her candles

Cousins sleeping at the party with their ugly, green pacifiers :)

Both the kids had checkups yesterday, Mia's 2 year and Drake's 2 month. I am so thankful for healthy kids! We were cracking up because all along we've been saying Drake seems huge to us, and he was 13.5 pounds! Mia didn't weigh that until she was almost 6 months! Granted, she was always petite, but now I know why Drake seems so big to me! He's in the 82nd percentile for weight and 80th for height. My little chunkster. :)

A couple funny stories real quick... the night of her birthday we went to my parents for dinner and had cake, and Mia got to open a few presents. When we got home that night, Mia walked in the house and said, "What a good nice day!" It was hilarious.

Then yesterday, she had a blowout diaper (still not potty trained, trying to be patient on that one...), and I had to give her a bath and wash out all her clothes. I was ticked off because Drake hadn't slept at all during the day, he had just pooped, and here I am washing REAL PEOPLE poop off my 2-year-old and her clothes. Disgusting. Anyways, I hadn't said anything for probably 10 minutes, I was just trying to clean everyone and everything up. Mia clearly sensed the tension, because after I got her all dressed again, she stood up and said, "So, um, anyways..." like she wanted me to start talking again but didn't know what to say. Man it was funny. It just seems so funny to me that she knows socially appropriate things to say now. Little stinker.

I'd like to say I'll have videos posted soon, but I can't make any promises. It's much harder nowadays to find time to post videos! But if I do get a chance, I'll post some. We've been racking up lots of footage lately! Until next time!

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is Mia's 2nd birthday, I just cannot believe it! How fast time flies. We are having a party for her tomorrow, but this morning Brock and I gave her a present when she woke up (ok, so I might have broken down and given her another one this afternoon, too...). She loves her new pets - just wait until she sees the rest of them at her party tomorrow!

A quick funny story... yesterday Brock and I were getting ready in our bathroom, and Mia was playing in our closet as usual, but she had the door closed. We opened the door to check on her, and she had all my velcro rollers lined up. She was so proud of herself! The funniest thing is what she said when we opened the door: "Hey guys! This is awesome! How cute is that?!" Here is her 'artwork'...

One more quick funny thing - for some reason she thinks snowmen are owls. She keeps pointing to them on the Christmas tree and telling me they are owls. Well today we were driving to my mom and dad's, and this house has a huge blow up snowman in their front yard. She said, "Yook, Mommy! Did you see the big owl?!" Hilarious. :)

It's Christmastime!

Hello, ladies!

Precious profile

This time of year is so much fun with Mia! She helped Brock put the ornaments on the tree the other morning and had the best time. She was so proud of her work, she kept taking my hand and bringing me over to the tree to show me what she had done. Precious! Also, she loves to cook and has been helping me make Christmas cookies over the past few days. She LOVES to eat the dough, though, so I have to make sure she doesn't overdo it! Yesterday, I had to keep moving the bowl away from her so she wouldn't keep eating it. But every time I wasn't looking, she was scootching the chair she was standing on around the kitchen to get to the bowl so she could eat the dough or lick the beaters! It was hilarious. I can't say I blame her though - the dough is my favorite part, too!

Mia's 2nd birthday is Friday, I just can't believe it! It has been so much fun finding birthday and Christmas presents for her this year because she just LOVES her toys! To her, anything with a face has a personality, whether it's a baby doll, stuffed animal, wooden doll, or a face in a coloring book. She loves taking all her toys and lining them up, all facing the same direction of course! This year for her birthday, my mom and I got her a ton of Littlest Pet Shop pets and a couple playhouses. I think I am becoming obsessed in finding these crazy things! There are like a million different ones, so my mom and I have been looking everywhere we go to see if we can find any different ones or a better deal on the ones we already found! It's crazy, I've even been dreaming about it! I know she will just love them, so yesterday I broke down and gave her a pack of them. I can't wait till she opens the rest of them and their playhouses on her birthday!!!

Here is a picture of her putting her dollies and their accessories on top of poor Drake...

Also new, she got her first haircut! It was really just a trim off the bottom, but she did great sitting in her pink car chair!

Drake is doing really well. My poor guy, though - he broke out in baby acne on his face like a teenage boy! Mia had the same thing, although not as bad. Hers only lasted a week or so, so I'm hoping his is short-lived as well. He has been a lot more interactive lately, smiling a lot and making the cutest sounds. And he loves it when Mia talks to him, it's adorable.

That's all for now! Stay warm in this chilly weather! :)

Thanksgiving

I know I'm a little late in posting Thanksgiving pics, but it's the first chance I've had since then! We had a great time! We traveled to NW Indiana to see our families, and thankfully the kids couldn't have been any better in the car. Mia had such a great time seeing and playing with everyone. She is such a people-person! It was so good to get to spend time with our families. Mia and Drake got to visit their great grandparents, my dad's mom and dad. Mia had such a good time playing with her great grandpa and the cat!

Mia and Drake have been doing great. Mia is definitely a 2 year old, with all the attitude that goes with it! Drake has been doing much better with his reflux. I think his medicine has finally kicked in. We're finally getting some 5 hour sleep stretches out of him at night, so we're feeling much more rested! Here are some pics from Thanksgiving... (Mia doesn't like to smile for the camera, so that's why she's always looking away! It's all part of her defiance...)

My little man (actually, he's not so little - he is a chunky monkey!)

My Miss Mia

Mia and Great Grandma

With her great grandparents

Playing with Mister Kitty!

Sound asleep :)

Mia, Drake and their cousin Cole -

I'm predicting one day soon she'll be ordering those boys around!

Are You Kiddin' Me?

I put that as the title because that is Mia's newest phrase, it's hilarious. She has been having real conversations lately, too. Yesterday Brock called on the way home from work, and while I was talking to him, she said she wanted to talk to him.

Mia: "I poopied on the potty today!"
Brock" "You did?!"
"And I got a special treat!"
"Were you with Mommy?"
"Yeah, Mommy and Nana. Are you at work?"
"I'm coming home."
"Ok, I'll see ya later! Drive safely!"

It is so funny to watch her progress and have actual conversations with people. Lately she even seems to understand verb tenses. She'll say "I breaked it" or "I waked up." She's even been saying "I'm running fastly!" Obviously those words aren't correct, but it's so neat to watch her learn!

We are still working on the potty training. She's such a stinker. She knows exactly when she has to go, but she is so defiant and strong-willed that she'll only go on the potty on her terms, not ours. So far we've used bribery to get her to go (mini M&M's, 'special treats'), but I think I may have to resort to reverse psychology! This little girl is smart!

Drake is doing really well. We started a new medicine yesterday for his reflux, and he seemed to sleep better last night. We're still just trying to figure out how to prop him up the best way at night so he can sleep well. He's gaining weight like a champ - he is getting so chubby! He's been smiling and cooing also, it is so cute! My mom and Katie think he looks like a Cabbage Patch. He kind of does! Here are some new pictures...

"My name is Merlin..."

One of Mia's favorite things to do is to talk on her phone (or anything that looks like a phone for that matter!). Today she kept saying the same thing over and over on her phone, and I finally figured it out. She was saying, "Hello. My name is Merlin. I am a clown fish," and then she would hang up - it's a line from Finding Nemo. Quoting movie lines like her daddy already! It was pretty cute. She must have had Nemo on the brain today, because then at lunch she held up a bite of her nugget and said, "This kinda looks like Nemo!"

Here are a couple goofy pictures. Here's Drake after Mia was with him (I wish I had gotten a picture from the day when he had 3 of Mia's bows on his head!)...

I can't quite explain the next few. All I can say is that she often disappears for a few minutes only to come out wearing her own "creation"...

Things are going well here, although we found out Drake has reflux. The difficult part is that he cannot lay flat on his back comfortably unless he is at a really steep angle. So nighttime has been challenging for us, and his last middle-of-the night feeding usually ends with him sleeping on one of our chests for the rest of the night just to keep him comfortable. With Mia waking up between 5:30 and 6:00 every morning, sleep is at a premium for Brock and I! If any of you reading this has any tips on managing infant reflux, I would appreciate it! Just drop me a comment or email. Thanks! :)