Talia's 3rd Birthday {Curious George Party}

Talia was much more into her birthday this year--she helped with the favors and even opened all her own gifts this time! :) She really likes watching Curious George on Netflix, so we went with that theme.  It was even better since she apparently likes ice cream more than cake; banana splits seemed to go well with the monkey theme. And of course there was an Etsy shop with cute stuff to purchase and print. :)

As is the custom with a December birthday party, we kept things simple. My mom helped by making the cupcakes and my in-laws let us have the party at their house. It was sooo nice to not have to worry about cleaning!

Talia was sooo happy to have ice cream she could hold in her hand (we just never have ice cream cones!), and she loved her cupcake with pink frosting, too. She was so funny, though--after we sang Happy Birthday and told her to make a wish, she announced, "I wished for a cookie party!" :)

Big sister looking like she's trying to steal the birthday spotlight.

Miscellaneous party pics:

At 3 years old, Talia
*still has some curl to her hair
*has the cutest belly laugh
*is a very, very picky eater
*doesn't sleep well at night (she now takes melatonin...not too sure it's helping much)
*still is afraid of many things (helium balloons with strings, "smoke" coming from houses on cold days, etc)
*loves going to her Sunday School class
*has an adorable voice and is still a little hard to understand
*loves her family

We are so thankful for our Tally girl!

October, October, how are you half over?

October is a crazy month, but this time of year is my favorite! We've had appointment after appointment (physical therapy, chiropractor, dentist, eye doctor, well-baby check) and some fun mixed in between.

Let's start with the baby...Our 6-month-old baby girl is busy, busy, busy! She crawls all over the place and is, of course, putting everything in her mouth. She's a doll! She weighed 17 lb 4 oz at her checkup. Still size 3 diapers. Eating 3-4 containers of baby food a day, plus oatmeal, plus nursing. Sleeping well at night (wakes up 1-2x but sleeps 10-12 hours total).

 I love her yoga pose. :) She's so strong!!

Last Saturday we got to join my friend and her kiddos at Botanica's Halloween event, Bootanica. So clever. (Talia said, "I say 'Bootanica' really good!'")

It was really crowded there, but so much fun! The girls loved being out in the Children's Garden. I wished we could stay longer, but Nathan was home with Gemma and we needed to get back to her.

Nathan's sister had her second baby last week, the first grandson on that side of the family. We love baby Breck!

 Sophie has been drawing and writing like crazy. I am amazed at how much she can do this early in her Kdg year!! So much fun to hear her sounding out words and starting to write little stories. She does ask for help quite a bit too. I've always loved her art. Here are a few things she's worked on lately:

I LOVE this Sisters Pumpkin Patch picture. You can tell baby Gemma, curly-haired Talia, and then Sophie. :)

Otherwise we are enjoying this beautiful fall weather!

 Hope your October has been fun so far!

So much going on...

 this little stinker merits a 1/2 month update.

 She eats--a lot. Most days she already eats two containers of stage 1 baby food and some oatmeal, in addition to nursing regularly.

I got a kick out of all the faces she was making during dinner tonight.

Little ham!

She can also sit up (she sits better than this now). Her wide base is serving her well.

Sometimes I make her wear hats.

She is not lacking for love/attention.

Also...sometimes she sleeps through the night, and that really rocks.

It was the best Labor Day weekend ever.

No, not really. But we ended it with a potty-trained Talia!! Sorry, Luvs, we're only diapering one kid now. :)

wearing the Potty Queen crown that Sophie made for her

Thank goodness Nathan is an awesome Dad and he agreed--offered, even--to spend the holiday weekend helping to juggle taking care of Gemma and working with Talia. We began Saturday morning with Nathan helping Talia throw away all her diapers. The undies went on, and the accidents began. :)

Day #1--went through about 20 pairs of underwear. Hardly anything to celebrate. Exhausted and unsure this was going to work.
Day #2--about half as many accidents, and some at-least-partial successes to make a big deal out of.
Day #3--I think she only used about 4 pairs of underwear. She was telling us when she needed to go.

This whole time she stayed home. On day 2, she said "I wanna go someplace!" I asked her where she would want to go and she just said, "I don't know. Someplace." I am sooo happy that Nathan was home. We took turns staying with Talia while the other went somewhere with Sophie and Gemma. Helped us stay sane. :)

Activities while we stayed right by T's side included making chocolate chip cupcakes, playing with Magna-Tiles, playing Littlest Pet Shop, watching Curious George, reading lots of books, doing dishes, doing fashion shows, making collages, and having a tea party. (She got used to the attention and has kinda lost her ability to play alone.)

so stylish

And now, over a week later, I'm glad we did it. She still has lots of false alarms where she says she needs to go but nothing happens. (Umm, like 7 times in an hour and a half.) She is doing well with staying dry at naps/nighttime. This was shocking to me. Unfortunately, she has another stalling tactic to use at bedtime. :( She will pop out of her room every few minutes for up to an hour at night saying, "I need to go potty." This is a doozy to figure out how to handle. We don't want to make her afraid to come out to go to the bathroom and subsequently have an accident in her bed, but we also don't want her to just come out for the fun of it. Sigh. Any tips? She's not coming out as often as in the beginning, so maybe the novelty is wearing off.

I'm still a little nervous about going places with her, i.e. no grocery shopping with her yet. I don't want to go to the Target restroom a zillion times. :) She has done well at the chiropractor's office and the library though!

We had some pretty big prizes initially for her successes, but now we are doing stickers. Sophie made her a chart with tons of teeny tiny squares. One side says "We did it!" and the other says, "Oh no, that's not good."  But we don't use the negative side. ;)

I love seeing Talia proud of being a big girl. :) We are proud of her too! Way to go, sweetie!

Gemma {5 Months}

 Oh Miss Gemma...still making sure we know she's here! ;) I guess she's just cementing her place as the baby in the family.

Cute as she is, she's just not that much fun to take to places like Target, or the library, or pretty much anywhere we would love for her to just chill in her car seat or stroller. Unless we're outside, things get a bit stressful. Sophie has said that Gemma's crying is "annoying" and I go ahead and tell her she was the same way when she was a baby. I still need to hold Gemma a lot at home, and her very grabby hands are making it even more difficult to blend our agendas: Hers being to be held, and mine being to JUST GET SOMETHING DONE! ;)

Other things to remember at this age:

She is a proficient roller.

She has a special move that Nathan calls "Mission Impossible." This is the best pic I have of it.

She still cat naps during the day, which means that when I say she takes about 4 naps a day, that sounds super awesome but it's not. It also means that Talia's nap is usually sandwiched between a couple of Gemma's, meaning I am always graced with the presence of one little girl or the other. :)

Loves playing with water bottles.

Loves her Sophie the Giraffe.

 Has fantastic legs.

 Enjoys baths.

Started cheering for K-State. :)

Isn't as interested in oatmeal anymore. We'll probably start some fruits and veggies in a week or so.

She is done with the Bumbo. Hoping she'll be sitting on her own by next month! I think she'd like that a lot.

She still spits up and drools a lot.

She's almost done with the chiropractic treatments for torticollis! Hooray!

Sometimes I wish she liked our Praise Baby video. But she doesn't.

As draining as having a high maintenance baby is, I do LOVE how her face lights up when she sees me after its been awhile. She lifts up a hand to touch my face and it's just cute. :)

Happy 5 Months, Gemma Kate!