Fun in the Snow

Celia's birthday presents

I assembled Celia's birthday toy from Grandma & Grandpa Breheny last night, a big truck that can be reconfigured as a push toy, a pull toy, or something to ride on. Celia got a little impatient during assembly that she couldn't eat the screws, but loved it once assembled, walking back and forth around the basement with a big smile on her face for the rest of the night.

In a related story, Nyla wanted to take another one of Celia's birthday presents, a set of musical instruments, up to her bedroom at bedtime. My conversation with her went like this:

Nyla: I want to take the drum up to my bedroom.
Me: No, the drum is a downstairs toy. It's too loud for upstairs. Everyone needs to sleep.
Nyla: I never sleep!
Me: Okay, but the rest of us need to sleep.
Nyla: I'll bring this horn instead.
Me: No, the horn is loud too. All the musical instruments need to stay downstairs.
Nyla: (Furious) NO!

(Minutes later, after she simmered down)

Nyla: I'm going to put the drum right here, and play with it in the morning!
Me: Okay.
Nyla: But I'm going to take these dress-up shoes to bed.
Nyla: (As we are walking upstairs) See, I make some decisions.

Ah, the diplomatic relations and power struggles of the four-year old mind.

Nyla quote of the day

We were playing in the back yard yesterday afternoon, and Nyla climbed halfway up the slide and balanced there (the slide is wavy, and she was at its most horizontal point). Her take on the underlying physics of the situation: "I'm not falling down because gravity doesn't know where I am!"

Nyla's first chapter book

I wasn't sure she was old enough to appreciate such long books (~75 pages), but we went ahead and bought Nyla her first chapter books: the first four books from the Magic Tree House series. Well, not only did she not get bored, she is hooked! She appreciates the mystery and suspense, remembers important plot details from several nights ago, and even anticipates possible revelations in future chapters. Once we finished the first book, I mentioned that we'd start book #2 the following night. She ran over to get book #2 and put her bookmark in it at Chapter 1. Then she wanted to go to sleep clutching the book to her chest: "I'm going to sleep with this book tonight. I love it."

Nyla's quote of the day

We were teasing Nyla by insinuating that Wyndee was pregnant with a boy (which is not true, by the way). She looked very concerned, then said: "He can be Celia's brother. I won't pay any attention to him."

Celia's new skills

Celia has developed three adorable and impressive skills over the last two weeks:

• Standing up all by herself, without holding onto anything
• Climbing up stairs
• Turning the pages of a book as you read it to her

Halloween 3

Nyla as Word Girl.

Word Girl and her sidekick, Captain Huggy Face (a.k.a. Nyla and Celia):

More Halloween

Celia, in her monkey costume, waiting for trick-or-treaters:



Aaaaaah!!!!!

Fall Fun Festival

The church where I go to MOPS was having a Fall Festival. We went and Nyla got to do lots of cool stuff. Here she is taking a pony ride.



And here she is bouncing 20 feet into the air on a trampoline:


She also got to go down a huge inflatable slide, and there was a bouncy house and an obstacle course. And it was all free.

Our little geologist

Last night at bedtime, Nyla requested a book called "Planet Earth: Inside Out". I was quite impressed by her enthusiasm for the book and her understanding of its concepts. Before we even opened the book, she pointed to a cross-sectional diagram of Earth on the cover and said, "That's the crust. That the part we live on." She was rather concerned, yet optimistic, about volcanoes: "If you lived by a volcano, the hot lava would destroy your house! [a look of worried panic, then relief] But then you could build a new house. That's my idea. We used to live in a condo, but then we moved to Kentucky and now I have a pink bedroom. Pink's my favorite color." Nyla was concerned that Wyndee was missing all this fascinating information. When story time was over, she ran into our bedroom and said, "Wyndee, I have to tell you about the Earth! If there was a volcano, but it didn't have a hole for the hot lava to come out, then it would just be a mountain, and people could live near it!" Wyndee promised to read her the book tomorrow so that she could learn all about the Earth.

Corn maze

We went to the Lexington Corn Maze this afternoon. Nyla got to climb to the top of a huge hay bale pyramid, Wyndee and I got to throw a lasso (we both sucked at it), and Celia went on her first hay rack ride. The highlight, of course, was the corn maze. Here's an aerial photo:
(this is in reference to the World Equestrian Games, in case you don't keep up with current equine events). It was a harrowing experience in the maize, but we finally found where we left Celia and rescued her from two strangers heading her way:

Zoo

We went to the Louisville Zoo last weekend. We had a really good time, although for blog purposes, we really didn't come away with many good pictures. The highlight (at least for me) was probably the orangutan, who was very active and entertaining while we were watching him/her. The tiger was also very prowly. Here's me and Celia in the petting zoo:

And Wyndee and Nyla in front of the Lions den:

Celia is into everything

Celia has reached the age of "constantly getting into trouble." You take your eyes off of her for two seconds, she's into something: dumping out all the cookie cutters, eating paper, pulling things off of the table and throwing them onto the floor (she broke a bowl the other day), getting into the pantry and eating cans of tuna:


She will stop at nothing!

Firefighter day at preschool

The Lexington firefighters came to preschool last week, and Nyla got to sit in the fire truck. She was very excited:

New horse swing

Nyla got a new swing for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa -- one of those two-person swings with spots for your feet to push against. Here's a picture of Nyla swinging on it wearing her tutu from ballet class and her pink cowgirl boots:

Celia and Nyla Doctor Appointments

Celia and Nyla had doctor appointments today. Celia is 9 mo old, she weighs 18 lbs, 6oz (50%); is 28 1/2 in tall (80%) and head size 43cm (50%). Nyla weighs 35 lbs, and is 40 inches tall (50% for both). Celia had to get one shot, she cried for a second until I picked her up, then she was okay. Nyla had to get FOUR shots. I prepared her for her visit by reading books about going to the doctor. I told her ahead of time that she would be getting shots, she was a little scared but she did very good and only cried a little.

The cake

Motor development update

Celia's most newly acquired motor development skill: the ability to stand next to things using only one hand for balance. This leaves her other hand free to, for example, chew on toy cattle:

Happy Birthday, Nyla!

Nyla turned 4 yesterday! She got a balloon and flowers:

She got to play in the mud:
And she got to eat a beautiful and delicious strawberry checkerboard cake (great work, Wyndee!):
She also got a Mulan doll, a Pocahontas doll, the movie Cinderella, a really fun computer game (which Wyndee and I enjoy just as much as she does), and a DVD of Disney Princess Sing-Along-Songs ("My favorite movie ever!"). What a great day!

Nyla's funny quote of the day.

Nyla, while playing in her fort with her stuffed animal monkeys, says "I'm not a very good princess I just keep birthing out these monkeys".

Celia has been pulling herself up and standing next to things. Here she is in her favorite place to stand

Nyla will be taking dance classes on Tuesday mornings this year. Then, I believe, they have a dance recital sometime at the end of May or beginning of June. Nyla had her first dance class today. She thought it was fun. She got to get all dressed up in her ballet outfit and wear her ballet and tap shoes.
Celia has been crawling for a while now and is into everything. Her favorite thing to do is to try to eat paper. She has four teeth now. She loves feeding herself Cheerios. She has been a very bad sleeper and wakes up 2-3 times a night. I thought babies were supposed to be sleeping through the night by now.

FYI

Celia has been crawling for a few days now.

Celia's Baptism

Iowa Trip 2

Celia trying her first finger food: Cheerios.















Pat and Nyla on her favorite ride at Adventureland:
The Frog Hopper.

Iowa trip 1

Celia, after her first night in the tent. She slept very well that night.













Here is Nyla on the slip and slide.

Yay, we finally sold the condo! They closed on it today. It was hard to get too excited about it before today since someone made an offer and then couldn't get a loan back in May. Anyway we are very excited. Maybe now we can start planning that trip to Disney World.

pictures

what other 6 mo old can wear pigtails?

Where's the N?

Nyla knows her ABC's, but when she sings them she often forgets the N. I asked her where the N goes in the alphabet, hoping to get her realize she forgot it and then put it in there. She told me it goes at the end right before Z. She Thinks it's Y N Z instead of Y and Z. I guess she doesn't think the N needs to be in there twice.

We have been reading Fancy Nancy books with Nyla lately. The books teach vocabulary by saying that something is a fancy word for something else. She has learned all kinds of fancy words. Yesterday at Kohl's she asked me, while holding out a dress " Mommy, what do you think of this dazzling gown?"

Celia's 6-month appointment

Celia went to the doctor today, and received compliments on her long blond hair from the nurse. Weight: 16 pounds, 3 ounces (75th percentile); length: 27 inches (90th percentile); head circumference: 44 cm (75th percentile).

So apparently she's a tall baby. She also had to get three shots, which she was not fond of.

Go Reds

We went to a Cincinnati Reds game yesterday, courtesy of our friends, the Fardos, who had extra tickets to a luxury box. I can say with certainty that taking two small children to a baseball game would not have been nearly so pleasurable if we had sat in regular seats. Here's us at the game:



The kids also got souvenirs: Nyla got a Brandon Phillips jersey (which she is wearing above), and Celia got a monkey (below).


Nyla put her jersey on and wore it the rest of the game, all through the evening, wore it to bed, and then most of the next day. Then she took it off in favor of her flower girl dress.

First tooth!

Celia got her first tooth today! The front right bottom one.

Celia is mobile

Celia has started to move. While lying on her back, she will push off with her legs and scoot upwards along her back. Not exactly crawling, but she can cover a surprising amount of ground this way.

Nyla passes a psychological test

She didn't eat the marshmallow. Wyndee's version used chocolate chips, but the principle is the same.

xyz

Our new Phillies Gnome.


















Celia in her high chair. She has been eating some solid food now. So far she has only eaten oatmeal and peas.


















Nyla in her swimming pool. It has been pretty hot here the last week so we got out her pool. She doesn't actually have a head injury. There was a bug bite on her forehead and she insisted she needed a bandaid.