We've got a crawler

Well after months of army crawling (which was more like swimming) Jett is finally doing a normal crawl, and boy is he fast!  He's walking around the room using whatever piece of furniture is available to hold on to.  In the kitchen he pushes the little chairs from Lila's table around the room to get from place to place.  Lila started walking around 11 months, so Jett will surely be walking later than she did, as he's 11 months today.  That's perfectly fine with us though.  He already gets into so much that once he starts walking he's really going to get himself into trouble.  His favorite toys continue to be things that aren't toys at all...the remote control tops the list.  He will fight you and cry histerically if he can see the remote and you keep him from getting to it.  He also loves the fireplace.  Luckily we've never used it. 

He certainly has his own distinct personality.  He's been babbling a lot..mama, dada, baba (though we gave up long ago trying to get him to take a bottle), nana, etc. and adores playing peek-a-boo.  If you watch the video below you'll see it.  He will get anything he can find to hide his face behind then pull it down and wait for you to say "peek-a-boo".  If there's nothing in sight to hold infront of his face he'll simply bury it in the couch cushion and then pop up and wait for you to say "peek-a-boo".  Some days he'll laugh and laugh and others he'll just smile, but he continues it over and over. 

He's also just recently started kissing.  Those big, open-mouth, slobbery kisses.  The best baby kisses.  It's so sweet, though many times I wonder if he's trying to bite me rather than kiss me.  He seems so much more like a little boy than a baby lately.  He's been eating A LOT lately and enjoys it when we put Cherrios or peas on his tray so he can feed himself. 

At the top of the list of things he dislikes is having his teeth brushed.  He screams, screeches, and cries.  You'd think we were torturing the poor boy every time we brush.  He does the same thing frequently when we tell him no, or when any of us take something away from him.  As mentioned before, he will find anything he's not supposed to have and chew on it. 

As for little miss Lila, she is obessed with letters and spelling now.  She can spell a couple words and anytime she sees words, be it on a painting in the house or sign when we're out, she'll tell us the letters.  She is particularly interested in spelling out "Stop" when she sees a stop sign.  She really likes games too.  She got Hi Ho Cherrie-O from my friend Becky for xmas and we just recently got her Memory.  The very second after Jett goes to sleep she gets out her games and wants us to play with her.  She's really good at Memory, surprisingly so. 

As far as other random things go, I'm supremely ready for this cold and flu season to be over!!  It feels as though one or the other of the kids, or us, has been sick for months now.  I am finally on the upside of an awful cold that's plagued me for two weeks now.  My friend Erika says the first year with two kids is the worst when it comes to illness and I pray she's right.

Here's the onslaught of pictures.

Lila and Caroline watching a show.  I love Jett's little head peaking out in this picture

Lila wrote her name on her chalk board

Lila loved our friend's little dog, Mimi

I don't know why, but she's frequently waking up with crazy, crazy hair.  And it wasn't even wet when she went to bed.

Jett points the remote at the TV and presses the buttons to see what happens.

He can see himself in the lamp.  Another of his favs.

He pushes the book table out of the way to get to the fireplace.

Lila dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood, and her friend Izzy

Video of Jett talking and playing peek-a-boo.  I had to post it to You Tube and then upload, so some of you might have trouble viewing this if you have a work firewall.

Happy (belated) New Year

The first post of 2010. I feel like it should be something amazing and eventful. Unfortunately for you, it won't be. We had a very quite new year, and the days since have followed suit. We did have quite a cold snap down here for a good week. Below freezing at night and not much above freezing during the day. We had fun bundling up with scarves, hat, and gloves though.

Lila and Jett have both been sick several times in the last month. Things always seem to be worse for him than for her. It's somewhat troubling as she'll get a little cold and be over it in a couple days. He'll get the same cold and have it for at least a week. Since he still wants his pacifier to sleep it's particularly problematic at night. When he can't breath through his nose, he can't suck on his paci, and he gets really upset. Lila just got over a cold and now Jett has it BAD! He slept well last night, but today he has a 102 fever, been really congested, and having a lot of breathing issues. The good news is it seems he's not in any respiratory distress, as defined by the nurse practitioner. If he still has that same temp fever, or higher, tomorrow the pediatrician wants me to bring him in. And of course, Roman's out of town.

Jett is still mostly army crawling, but he's really trying to do a regular crawl. He gets up on his hands and knees all the time and rocks back and forth, trying to propel himself forward. He's crawled a couple times, just a little bit, but his legs go out from under him and then he just army crawls. He's also pulling himself up on anything and everything. He loves to crawl over to the oven and use the broiler drawer handle to pull up and look in the glass. He won't stay away from it, as much as I try. When we use the oven we have to completely keep him out of the kitchen. He's also started waving, backwards, just like Lila did. He's been saying mama too, but it's more like ma ma ma ma. I don't think he's associated "Mama" with me just yet.

Lila has become quite the letter-lover. She's known most of her letters for a while now, but didn't know many of the letter sounds. For xmas we got her a fun letter sounds DVD and after watching it just a handful of times she now knows them all, and still asks to watch the DVD everyday. One of the other gifts she got from Santa was an easel with a dry erase board, chalk board, and paper roll. Her favorite is the chalk board and has even been drawing smiley faces and writing some letters. She loves that she can erase what she's done and start again all by herself.

At the top of the list of things she doesn't like is Jett playing with any toy she was EVER interested in. Hence L and J are having lots of conflict. When I'm not looking (or sometimes when I am) she runs up and rips the toy right out of his hands, to which he responds, "WAAAAAAAHHHHH (gasp) WAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" To which I respond, "Lila, give Jett back the toy" and she then (usually) throws the toy down, sometimes hitting him with it, and then she ends up in time out. Sigh....are you tired yet?? I am! This happens ALL. DAY. LONG. Last week I thought they were actually going to make me cry for the first time. I laid down on the floor with my two cranky, whining kids and Lila laid on my chest and said, "What hurts Mommy?" and gave me a kiss. I told her "My heart hurts Lali", and she looked at me a bit confused and said, "WHERE does it hurt Mommy?" This exchange was sweet enough that it stifled the tears. I better grow a tougher skin before too long as I'm sure things will only get more difficult as they get older.

Alright, enough of my complaining. I love my babies and wouldn't trade the life I have for anything. Being able to stay home with them every day, see them grow and change, is worth all the whining and crying......right?? Kidding! ;o)

Some of the pictures below were taken with my cell phone, so they're a little grainy.

Bundled up for the cold weather

Lots of bath time fun

My little Picasso

Jett got the paci for Lila's doll

Like father like daughter.  I had to sneak around the corner to snap the picture.

A comparison and a checkup

We took Jett for his 9 month checkup yesterday.  He's tall and skinny.  His weight has slowly been leveling out, as is common for breastfed babies.  It was in the 79th percentile at 4 months, 54th at 6 months and now in the 32nd percentile at 9 months (meaning 78% of boys his age weigh more than him).  What he's lacking in weight he's made up for in height.  He's in the 93rd percentile for height, so only 7% of boys are taller.  The pediatrician says he looks good and we don't have to go back until he's one year (sigh...it's going to come too quickly I'm sure).

I was looking at old pictures of Lila and trying to compare her and Jett at the same age. Thought it would be fun to share...

Can you tell which one's which?

The rest of December

It's obvious that I'm not doing very with my intention to update the blog more frequently.  Hence, once again, I have lots of pictures to share.  Most are from Christmas, but a few are from the weeks before.  Here's the latest...

Not a whole lot new with Lila since I lasted wrote.  She's been doing really well with her potty training.  She's still only had a handful of accidents and is even using the potty first thing in the morning instead of going in her night time diaper.  School continues to be a source of great joy and excitement for her.  This year she particpated in the Christmas program.  She and all the other young Mother's Day Out kids sang Ring Your Bells.  It was really sweet.  We were really far back in the church, so we couldn't get any decent pictures, but the video I posted here is of her singing the song. 

She continues to be very sweet to Jett, but they definitely have their moments.  The more mobile he gets the more conflict there seems to be.  You see, she's not so keen on sharing her things.  

Lila loved Christmas this year.  We went to see Santa and Lila told him what she wanted for xmas, both of which she got, plus a couple other things.  She really got a lot of great gifts!

Baby Jett is nine months old already (GASP!, where did the time go??) and is army crawling all over the house.  It's become increasing difficult to get things done as we have to watch him all the time to make sure he's not getting into things.  He's been having a bit of teething difficulty this month.  At first we thought he was getting two top teeth.  Then we figured out it was all four top teeth and just the other day we noticed two more coming on the bottom.  Yes, that's six teeth coming at one time.  Talk about cranky! Otherwise he's really interested in everything he can get to--everything but his toys of course.

Jett could really have cared less about Christmas, but that's pretty much how it goes when you're a baby.  Just like Lila at this age, all he wanted to do was chew on the bows and paper. 

Below are a whole slew of photos.  Some were taken with my phone, so not the best quality. 

Christmas morning Grana Nan and Grandpa Kent came over to open gifts with us.

This was Jett's big gifts from Santa.  It's a baby swing for the swingset in the backyard. 

She loves this little piano.

Uncle Max let Lila play his guitar

This was an awsome gift from Grana Nan.  It's a nap mat that she made for him.  It has a lightweight blanket and a pillow built in.  It rolls up and buttons closed, and she even attached a carrying strap.  It's so awesome!  Lila has already tried to claim it as her own.

We tried to get some photos of the kids.  Didn't turn out so well. 

Lila screaming....

...and Jett wondering what the heck is the matter with her

These are just random pictures from the month

Decorating the tree

At Lila's Christmas program

My friend Becky and her kids, Isabel and Dominick, came over to play

Jett and Dom

No crying on Santa's lap.  No smiles either, but no crying.

The hat and jacket she got for xmas