What a little PIP!!!

The Pip Squeak is changing fast! It never gets old, watching baby turn into a toddler.

It melts me.

Some new things she is doing the last few days...


She walks on her tip toes when she's dancing.  Spins faster and faster every day!

She puts her finger up to her mouth and says "Shhhhh!" with a serious little look on her face.

She announces loudly "UUUH OOOOH!!!" when ever she is doing some thing she shouldn't be (standing on a chair, the table, about to (attempt) to jump off the couch.

Or moments like this:

Rocking on the rocker standing "no hands". This girl is seriously adventurous, even more than Friendly was at this age.

Don't worry, she has to get off if she stands...And then she climbs back up and rocks nicely.

Oh yeah: THAT face any time she see's the camera and hears "cheeeese" she makes this face. It is too much!!

She also loves to climb up in the little rocker and rocking her baby dolls while patting their backs. Melt worthy, for real!!

She has a new tooth! and several more sharp on the gums (but this one is really- o-truly-o honest to goodness IN) But that has been a bit miserable for her, she has needed lots of snuggles.

She loooves to play any thing with her sisters, tea party is definitely a fave.


She loves to make her sisters laugh...As I've been typing this she has been doing summersaults (they turn to the side quite dramatically but she has got the start down pat! Friendly is dyyyying of laughter which makes Pip do it more! And now they have started a game where Pip climbs up on the coffee table (not encouraged) and starts SPINNING up there (I grab her off mid turn and try to redirect) but she caught on that Friendly finds it hilarious so now we've got a game on our hands. Ridiculous. She is such a little buddy!

And with that I close...Oh and she also figured out how to climb out of her highchair...This girl is a serious monkey!!

friendly-isms

Friendly has the cuuutest 3 yearold ways if talking she has a super strong way of saying her R's More is mer water is waterr Door is der floor is fler She says things like "I will haf to go find anoderr one because I losted the otherr one!" This morning she sidled up to Ryan and said "Daddy, I need to ask you some querstions. Ya know, I like toast?! And I like dancin' and I like snow...and I love..." She is in the endearing (and infuriating) stage where her mouth moves faster than her brain and she stutters and restarts sentences over and over again. 3 is a tough age but she makes it so funny.

really actually small

Roo has been processing a lot of spiritual things lately...Ryan has been reading through the Bible (with the 365 Day Children's Bible) with her and Roo has been putting some things together. One evening last week the girls were watching "The New Super Book" trailers with Ryan...The next morning while I was getting breakfast together Roo comes into the kitchen and says, "You know Mommy, Satan is actually REALLY REALLY small."

I agreed but asked her to explain. and then she said, "Yeah, I mean he's so small (giggling) he could fit into a little tiny snake!! You have to be super small to fit into a snake."

She came up with that idea all on her own. Pretty apt. :0)

Sand fun!!

We made ourselves a little sand table for the patio... I'm always looking for more sensory play and this has definitely been a hit!! It is just an under the bed storage container set on top of our picnic table...I hope to make a "water table" with similar materials when it warms up as well...Hoping to utilize the contained area of the porch this summer with a busy sensory seeking 1 year old in the house!

Cleans up quite nicely!!

Pip ....Belated 13mos!

Our Pip Squeak has held the title well! She is our tinest 1 year old to date...By a slim margin- but the Pip holds the title none the less!

At her 1 year appointment she was 20lbs 2oz and 30inches tall. She did great! I love our pediatricians so much..She is so kind, and thorough... Sadly Pip has been breaking out in allergy rashes and the doctor agreed with me that corn is a big issue for her. So both Mommy and Pip are corn free (on top of being gluten and dairy free- oiye!) now and hopefully the worst of her itchy rashes will clear soon.

The day of her doctors appointment was a Tuesday and it was a BUSY day- we had Roo's Vision Therapy in the morning and then had Pip's doctor appointment in the afternoon...

By 6:30 p.m. Pip was exhausted ...She crawled up on the couch next to Daddy and passed out...He woke up an hour later...She stayed asleep...Moved to her bed and stayed in sleep mode through the night! One exhausted baby for sure!

She slept there for nearly 2 hours before we moved her to her bed- she looked like this little doll just laying there on the couch.

"Diddle diddle dumping my son john...went to bed with his trousers on...one sock off and one sock on...diddle diddle dumpling my son John!"

We're seeing more and more of Pip's *extremely* determined side. She makes it known loud and clear when some one is NOT following the rules (whatever they may be!)

While she definitely does not sleep through the night (at all, yawn) she has got a pretty nice little routine down. After 12 mos of being a night owl and keeping Mommy and Daddy up until 11pm -1am nightly (despite some attempts to nudge it earlier-it has been a long year) she finally dropped her second nap (which was what was killing bedtimes) and is usually asleep by 8p.m. and sleeps until 7 or 8 in the morning...She takes a 1-3 hour nap in the mid-day around 12:30/1 and it all works nicely...Unless it's a day where it doesn't.

This is last Sunday... She apparently "wasn't tired" AT ALL. :0D

She is doing fantastic- walking, starting to get VERY fast...climbing all things...She spins or bobs her head when ever music is playing. She gets adorably coy and sweet whenever she notices some one is watching her.

She is making more and more sounds that I know in a few more weeks will be recognizable as words... She has been trying to say: diapers, sisters, and several other words that I just can't make out, but I know in a few weeks they'll suddenly make sense. She signs "milk" and "more".

She LOVES to color like her sisters and has been trying to figure out how to get old of those pesky sticks to decorate paper too!

One of her favorite games is chasing her sisters with the toy knitted snake and "ssssssssing" them. She adores them and is thrilled to be treated like a "big kid" and be in on their games. Nothing insults her more than being left out.

Oh and here is a first, she is TERRIFIED of bubbles- and she has recently decided she hates rain as well (falling on her in any way shape or form).

I can't believe she's going to be 14mos old this month! Time...Time can thankfully move us through the rough weeks so quickly. The dark days after the long nights fly by...But the bitter side of it is that it holds true for the sweet days too... These girls are growing so fast...With Pip I am learning more to savor even the ugly times- or at least take a deep breath it will practically be gone by the time I breath in again. 

Other spring happenings coming soon!

EYE Doctors!

As you may have noticed in a few of Roo's pictures her eyes sometimes have had the tendency to turn out a bit, or look a bit off center. We had them checked by an ophthalmologist back when she was 2, we took her back every few months but kept hearing "looks fine, we'll keep an eye on it...see you in a few months." After 3 traumatic visits (poor scared little tiny 2-3yo Roo, gruff doctor, lack of communication/questions answered)...We set the intention to see if she outgrew it over the next year or so and to definitely get them checked out again when she was five, and for sure to get a second opinion.

 Well, she turned 5 in December and her eyes were still turning out, not all the time- but it was quite noticeable if she was low on sleep, tired, or had been working hard with her school work. And as she put it "her eyes kept cramping." So off to the Eye Doctor we went.

This time an optometrist who specializes in Vision Therapy. Roo did a fantastic job! The exam took about 40 minutes and he did more testing than I've ever seen an optometrist do...

After all the testing the doctor concluded that she has not been using her right eye, that she is near sighted, and that because she doesn't have binocular vision she struggles to see more than one large shape at a time. He said it is great that we're doing this now because she is starting to read (she can sound out most 3 letter words- go Roo!) and as the words get longer and smaller she would be having to work so much harder to figure it all out.
 At this point he is not recommending glasses for her because he wants to focus on getting her eyes stronger through therapy/exercises. They focus on healing the eyes, not just putting a band aide on it. Yay!

We're excited about the Vision Therapy Center (10 minutes from home!), we love that they don't just slap glasses on you and start the traditional "patching x hours a day" to fix the problem. Their therapy program is full body with a focus on  strengthening your eyes, brain, really your WHOLE body to work together correctly. When an eye is weak the other eye works harder, which means that side of the body works harder, which makes the whole body works harder. In her therapy sessions Roo is given "games" and challenges that work her entire body.

So Roo goes every Tuesday morning for 30 minute therapy with a vision therapist (who is so sweet and Roo loves!) and she will also be doing "at home therapy" daily once we get the last bit of money together to buy the program (we don't have vision coverage and this was an unexpected thing) - hopefully in the next week we'll be good to go with that and we'll see more and more improvements in Roo's eye functions.

She is such a bright and extremely smart person, I can't even imagine how far she'll go with her vision issues healed and nothing holding her back!

 Watch out world!

Oh and Ryan saw Dr. F too and he got new glasses...LOVE them!!!

So classy!

Winters End...Around the Home...

This winter has been so very long. I feel like from November when Day Light Savings Time ends until it begins again in March we live in...the dark. 

Pip "playing baby" first week in March

All 3 "babies"

The littler babies...

The days are too short, too cold...Life is waiting for better weather. And battling the bugs and viruses that tend to hit every other week or so when you have small children in the house.

It was a long winter. especially this year with a busy toddler-baby in the house- the girl is BUSY, but does not like the cold or wind. While there were a few days I could have bundled the big kids to go out for some fun, the baby would not have made it fun or pleasant, at all. So we did our best to keep busy inside...Lots of forts...Lots of movies...lots of enjoying the quiet season of hibernation- time goes a bit slower...Which can be nice, it feels like it goes at a break neck speed the rest of the year! 

Seriously, I blinked and we've been in this apartment TWO years now! Wow! And HOW?!

Ryan and I bought this tea kettle to celebrate our 7 year anniversary: My best friend sent me a "spring is coming, cheer up!" package- with tea and this mug: unbeknownst to her it MATCHES my new tea kettle! <3 Definitely cheered me up!

Yes, Spring is just around the corner...And we couldn't be more excited!!

March 5, 2013

These two together <3 too much, they are such buddies...But then again, Friendly just IS a buddy- it's hard not to be her buddy...The girl refuses to be un-buddied!!!!

 Ryan's brother Shane visited this past weekend- he took some beautiful pictures of the girls- which are one Ryan's computer. Hopefully I will be able to get caught up enough on blogging to share them...But here are a few that I snapped on my phone:

 Pip is 13 mos and walking well, she dances too which is adorable...But my goodness- you never can appreciate the amount of energy and will they have until you take them to the park and let them go- oh my goodness! This baby WALKED AN ENTIRE MILE!!!! She refused to be carried- for one quarter of the mile she stopped every 3 feet to pick up a treasure and bring it to me "shee?" she says. She is a treasure. And my goodness, I still can't believe how determined she is- another strong little person in our family!

 Yes we're excited for spring!!! These girls have lots of energy...We've been seeing more of this lately:

Wrestling! Friendly is usually (read, always) the instigator she needs more physical outlets for sure... We've been trying to decide what to enroll her in in the next year that will exhaust her - I don't think there really *is* any thing that will exhaust her- but we'd like to try! I'm thinking maybe soccer- some thing that requires tons of running would be good.

Yes, spring is in the air! And we can't wait.. Another post coming shortly- I have updates on Pip's 1 year Doctor visit and Roo has recently gotten to do some doctor trips too!