It's All About Miss E & Wee A

Sunday, September 15, 2013

New Digs

Hello again!

night before preschool at TeddyBear's--9/20ish/12

As you likely know, we are now fully ensconced into Michigan. O yes, the peninsular state. Here for opportunity, schools, and family! And a home.

last view before we locked the apartment

We have a home. Wow, after over 15 years renting in Chicago in many many addresses, and renting in this state prior to that for about 5 years, it's a hard one to wrap my simple little mind around.
The girls are loving the weekly, if not more, visits with the grands, and that is priceless. No joke, we love that too of course. The hardest part is making new friends for us, the big kids. Work is full of friendly people for both of us, but for D there is a distance thing and for me there is the varied-job-location thing. We know this won't be for long before we meet more lovely people (we have made a few friends of course) and feel like we really belong. I think summer will do it.

Emelia drew us in our living room. those are the windows and stairs

Both girls are now in the same daycare, a wonderful in-home place where they play together and with all ages, as well as still get their learnin' on. It's a special home and walkable distance. I LOVE seeing folks from the daycare in and about, like when E was on her bike in a brief bout of warmer weather last weekend and miss C drove by and stopped to say hello.

our yard!

Whenever it snows, D meets up with the neighborhood fellows, all snow-remodeling and bonding and discussing future BBQ events. We really got in a nice hood, we think.

our new home, xmas time. Moved in 12-23ish

Emelia is just super fab at everything these days--her writing and story-telling skills know no bounds! She paints and draws and collaborates and...it's pretty cool. Just last week, a "big girl" at the daycare taught her how to do somersaults, so she spent the evening doing like a million of em around the first floor! We didn't sign her up for anything yet, as she had the change so soon from our mid-move daycare, and didn't want to make her HAVE to do anything yet. Kindergarten starts in just a few months, and for the rest of her foreseeable life, she'll HAVE to do a lot of things! We have to make a family decision on dance v. swimming v. tumble-something. She'll rock at anything she puts her mind to do. Miss E has come a far way on confidence, with some daily struggles of "I can't do-its" but that is pretty much to be expected, I think. I am the first one to get ticked off, but we work through it and she does great.

hot dog and mustard

sadly, Alexia was sick so much of the winter, we rarely let her play out. Pneumonia wot?!

Granny Bunny for Alexia

Pasta!

harassing geese at Milford park

just around Thanksgiving 2012

bath time living at the Grands

Ah, yes. "coffee" with me :)

the Hair Begins.

suburbia: benefits at Krogers

daily kisses as Pop-pop sends us off to work and school
during our 3 months' living there. Priceless.

Halloween--super cold. E went as the Ice Princess. Her idea! 9-2012

park on Spencer

Alexia is amazing, if she would just STOP GETTING SICK. Since our family nasty-gross experience, and scary too, of all of us getting a super horrid flu, A has decided that breast-is-best. Sure, honey, but not at a year! So to celebrate her 1st year, she gave up solids completely for a couple weeks. She's gone up and down, having had pneumonia in January, and a current/recent bad ear infection (any good ones? didn't think so), she's not the best eater any more. A has shown a preference for protein when she DOES eat, so between her and her sister, they can share a plate at any meal! A is of course doing what all 15 monthers should, which is surprising us daily.

She has about 7 words, with a new one every couple days that floats up and then is ignored (current: ow/owie, mama/dada, peek [a boo], HI HI HI HI HI, hewo/hello, done/all done, baby~!, and today UP). She climbs like a monkey (drunk one, however, that falls a lot), runs/wobbles, does stairs inconsistently (forgets, stops, and tries to turn around standing), and even fell into the tub last month when dad turned around for a millisecond! I think our wee A is going to be a swimmer, given her LOVE for water and bubbles (opposite of E). Given her many colds this season, A has mastered wiping her own nose. Tonight she even HELPED me to do the nose/brain sucker! whoa, kid, you're scaring me. Big fan of the baby-massage too haha. Trying to teach her to do my feet. Give me time...

our sleep arrangements at the Grands

For now, the sleeping has reversed: E is in bed at bedtime and OUT, whilst A is currently playing and jabbering to herself while she is flinging toys out of the picnic basket. And I'm typing. So there.
Time will tell what comes next!!

(note--this is so belatedly posted, my apologies to anyone/all. Had to add photos and forgot.--KAS 9-15-13)

Monday, January 7, 2013

If you feed/hug/love them, they will grow

(er, um, this post was brought to you by August, 2012 and a few edits since then. I'mma gonna post it and add pix later!)

Wow, so it's been awhile. woopsidoodliodoo! My theme these past few posts, eh?
Anyway, on to the important stuff: what have the girls been up to? Well, I am happy to say they are BOTH showing a good appetite. That may not sound weird to most of you, but we have had our issues in the past not with the type of foods chosen my ME, but rather her decisions to just...not eat much at all.
Hilarilously enough, school officials state "but E is our BEST eater!!" That's because, apparently, no one else eats the vegetables and E just goes to town on them. Now, tho, she is like any other 4 year old, eating more when she's hungry, and getting dessert for doing so. Yay us! And she is sprouting away like a beanstalk.

Where E is learning how to do the neatio-est things on the trampoline we got her (big enough for us to join in), A has gone from rolling over, to really really rolling over, to sitting up, to bridging to now alllllllllllllmost crawling. A manages to scoot around, making clean spots on the floor by first drooling in front, then rubbing with her belly. It's like an opposite trail of slime that one can find with bugs (forgot the type). She has been focused on pulling up on ev.ery.thing to the point of squeals when she is denied her current Everests.

Emelia has learned all about butterflies, their life cycles and stuff, to flowers growing, to naming things she sees in the clouds, to ---ooooooooooo get this!!--SHE IS READING. Yes, folks, this is so friggin coolbeans. Teh weirdness of the English language makes hurdles that cannot be sounded out, but for many words she is getting the idea down. D and I are super excited about this, as is she.

Alexia, well, she has discovered her tongue and its ability to poke out ALL the time. She is also a laugh track for whatever her hero, Big Sister, is doing. Her laugh is not quite the genteel giggle, more like a hurr hurr hurr. Which is hilarious in its own right.

We've gone back to Michigan a few more times than normal, and both girls seem to love to trash out Gram and Pop-Pop's house. We are like a tornado of drool and footprints! I also do a lot of laundry. Emelia has had a blast with discovering nature with Gram and destroying the grass with both her Daddy and Pop-Pop on the Gator (to her chagrin, she does not get to drive it yet). She can tell you about hummingbirds, and tree frogs, and moths, and Corky. I had a guided tour of Gram's garden as well, and we learned how to avoid nasty "squirrel mushrooms" (my idea as she's suddenly agreed to eat the "kitchen mushrooms". Tragic, I know).

We have taken advantage of the uber sticky summer to visit Chase Pool a lot. We keep trying to meet up with friends and their lovely kids (Sahana and Rehan) but it's hard since we are on opposite schedules it seems. E is jumping into the pool now as well as letting go with one deathgrip at a time to try to get her in a swimming-type motion. Her fear remains overall and we will keep working on it. Meanwhile, A thinks water is sooooooooper and tries to smash it with delight.
Did I mention biking?? E is getting so much better at it, even though we took off a couple months as it was too hot. So relearning it now. She has also mastered the swing and can do it all by herself!!

In the hopes of finally publishing this and updating sooner, I'll stop here!
hugs, love, zerbertz xo

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

everything oldish is newer again

...or so it seems.

Well, it is definite that Miss Alex can create quite a fussy scream like her big sister did, but she really doesn't have the staying power overall. This is nice. I mean, of course we would prefer her to never have crazy screaming fits, but then would we really be earning our keep?

We went to visit Nana CC and had a really nice stay with our good friends, the Thedaker family. Except for the part where Miss E had a raging cold and Miss A was trying on colicky behavior for a few weeks. Both have resolved, thankfully, leaving behind a lasting cough on D (almost gone with only a few ack-phhts here and there). Emelia proved herself to travel like a teenager, given the proper devices, and Alexia snored and nursed interchangeably. The ringsling helped immensely for negotiating an airport with a newborn.

As a family of 4, we explored the tidepools off Dana Point. Took E awhile to get her feet wet, then wow she ended up chasing the ocean. It was very cool.

During leave, lots of Aunt Kristy visits were enjoyable. There were a few nice visits from Gram, and Pop pop came as well. I think we end each visit waiting for their next one really. Making cupcakes with both of them, and a wonderful long walk (complete with hot chocolate milk I hear) with Pop Pop gets E all happily set for a few days.

Been spending extra time focusing on our big sister pride, helping E understand that although she loves her wee one to bits, she needs to be gentle. Tough on an active, physical girl, but she does mean well and wants to care for her :) Some rough spots in school, but we've all been working together to have a more settled girl

Miss A has been fulfilling her 'chubbette' role as dubbed by Dr Fred--adorably putting on weight and starting to smile, coos like a champ, and is so engaging. Still anticipating her first laugh and more smiles. Loves to cuddle and sleeeeeeeeeeep...trust me, I'm getting the most of the sleeping part! Never know when one sudden day she'll switch gears. She's not yet rolling much, or even working on her sitting too much. Guess we will see that with time!

cousin Colleen

grabs on

dance class - 1st day 1-28

been extra-cinderella-princess-y

Back to work a few days, and our sitter and her mom-in-law are going great with Miss A. They've even worn her in the RS one day. Still, it's all hard but hopefully will be doable as time goes on.
Enjoy the pix xo