4 Month Pictures

I took Maggie to Portrait Innovations while Gene kept Mena at home. Maggie really didn't like the photographer, but luckily he brought in a woman who got some really good smiles out of Maggie. We got a package of the head and shoulders shot and bought one print each of the other two pictures.

Chuck E. Cheese

Our first visit to Chuck E Cheese.  Mena was mesmerized by the "band" on stage.  She started dancing after awhile.  She enjoyed the rides that just rocked her gently back and forth, but freaked out in the ladybug, on the horse, and on the roller coaster rides.  Jake will definitely be more of a roller coaster person than Mena; he took it all in stride while she was trying to figure out how to get off before the ride was done.

Smiles!

Just more pictures of Maggie being her cute self!

4 Months Old

Maggie is 4 months old! My how the time has flown! She's now old enough to be in the exersaucer but she only likes to be in it for a couple minutes at a time. Our home scale shows that Maggie weighs 16 pounds. We've moved her to her crib and sold the bassinet so there's no coming back to our room now! We've also stopped swaddling her because she kept wiggling out of it at night. She's now in a sleep sack to stay warm. She's sleeping about 9:30 pm to 5 am, but we're having to go into her room a couple times a night to give her back the binkie. I'm guessing she's drinking around 25 ounces a day but believe it or not, I actually quit writing everything down. First, I stopped writing down every diaper I changed; then I quit writing down her naps and then I quit writing down what she ate. She's still alive so I'm guessing I don't need to be so anal in keeping track of everything! Gene laughed and said he was proud of me! Maggie is still in 3-6 month clothes. Maggie rolled over that one time, but we're still waiting to see her do it again.

Flower from Church

March 20th, St. Paul UMC recognized all the babies born in November, December, January, and February. This is Maggie's flower that we got to bring home. Unfortunately, we think Maggie has my allergies. Right around the time we brought this flower home, we'd also been spending a lot of time in the backyard. Maggie, Mena, and I were all stuffed up from the spring weather. Mena's allergies seem less than mine, but Maggie's seem about as bad as mine. She took the longest to get back to breathing nicely. We'll see how her nose does the rest of this spring. The flower is currently in the garage since we weren't breathing very well and I thought it might be adding to our troubles. I think I'll dry the rose petals for her to keep.

Sweet and Innocent? Ha!

Little Miss Mena may be cute and adorable, but she's also got an onery side. On March 17th, Gene gave her his cell phone to play with. He'd locked it so she couldn't do anything, or so we thought. Somehow she dialed 911. Gene heard the phone start dialing so without looking at it, he pressed end. 911 called back to make sure everything was ok. Nice job, Mena! Then on March 18th, I was sitting at the table doing some work while Mena sat at the table with me using her scissors, glue, and paper. I stepped into the kitchen to look at the calendar and heard the snip of the scissors. It some how sounded different. I came back into the room to find a pile of hair on the table. My guess is that the hair that had come out of her ponytail was in her face so she just cut it off. Luckily, it isn't very noticable since she cut right above her right ear and the hair above it covers the short hairs up.

Choo Choo!

Mena is ready to drive the train in the dress up clothes that Ruth brought to our house during one of her visits. Her favorite pieces were the walkie talkie and the watch.

Maggie's Hat

I just love the little red hat we have for Maggie! Maggie enjoys the swing, or laying on a blanket, or being in the carrier while we're in the backyard.

Daycare Days

1--sorting pots of gold with their M's and T's. Mena and Traven can find and lable both M's and T's. Great start to their preschool years.

2--chasing balls is a lot more fun now that Mena's balance and running have improved.

3--without the winter coats the kids can fit beside each other on the glider.

4--painting a dinosaur. Mena has a very cute "roar" when we ask her what dinosaurs say!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

EHS Art Show

Grandma and Grandpa Frye came to Lincoln to see Mena's art work that was in the Early Head Start Art Show. We saw Mena's teacher Ruth at the art show but Mena was so overwhelmed from all the people around us that she wouldn't talk to Ruth! This is Mena standing next to her art at the show.

Laughing

Mena gets the best laughs out of Maggie!  Here's a 3 minute video of the girls playing together.

30 months old (2 years 6 months)

Last Friday, Mena laid quietly in her bed for 30 minutes and hadn't fallen asleep so I let her get up. At 5 pm we drove to pick up Gene from work and go out to eat. Mena fell asleep in the car on the way to his office. She seemed to do just fine the rest of the night after her little 15 minute nap. As you can also see, Mena has moved up into the big kid booster seat since she weighs enough and is tall enough. We'll need her old carseat for Maggie in a few short months so I was glad she was big enough to move up.

Mena still weighs 31 pounds and is in size 3 tops, size 24 month pants, size 7 shoes, and size 2 undies!!!! Yep, we've started potty training. I tried leaving her in a diaper and taking her potty every hour and it didn't work. Then someone suggested undies with diapers over so she'd feel it but not leave a mess when she had an accident. That didn't really phase her. Then this weekend we tried the undies with plastic covers. She did not like the feel of her wet undies and wanted to be changed. We set the "potty timer" for 1 hour and Mena runs to the bathroom when it goes off. She's keeping her undies dry and going in the potty chair nearly every time. We're still having a few accidents but we're on our way to no more diapers!

Mena is learning lots of new words but the cutest to hear are "yep" and "nope." It's hard to be a stern parent when your toddler so cutely says "nope" when refusing to listen to her parents! Mena has also learned to recognize the letter "T" and say "T" when she finds one. I've been working on "T for Traven" and "M for Mena" but the letter M is more difficult to say so while she can find it she isn't naming the letter yet.

Cute Smiles!

Maggie's personality is coming out with lots of babbling and smiles!

Fun Times

1st picture: Mena sponge painting
2nd picture: Mena pretending to be Zacchaeus
3rd picture: Ah, nicer weather finally! Just when we think spring is here, another snow storm hits. Hopefully that snow is really behind us this time!

Rolled Over!

March 9th, Maggie rolled over for the first time. I was sitting on the floor next to her and saw her move from her back to her right side and return to her back a number of times. Then I looked over and she was on her tummy! She wasn't angry when she flipped herself over but I don't think she really knows what or how she did it because she hasn't repeated it since. She seemed pretty proud of herself when I noticed what she'd done!

Business Trip

Gene took his first business trip since Maggie's birth. Mommy, Mena, and Maggie survived but we really missed Daddy!

Yes, I did It!

Mena is turning 30 months old so we did some testing to see where her development is compared to 6 months ago.

Communication Comprehension--30 months
Communication Expressive--22 months
Gross Motor--27 months
Fine Motor--30 months
Problem Solving--27 months
Personal Social--30 months

Most categories have stayed close to her age as they tested last time. Communication shows the biggest improvement with comprehension now age appropriate and Expressive has improved from the 18 month level to the 22 month level. We're very happy with her growth!

Bedtime Binkie-Free

Mena is now binkie free. One day while she wasn't looking I snipped the end off the binkie. When she found it she brought it to me and said, "broke." I asked if she wanted to keep it or throw it away. She threw it away. A couple times she asked, "new?" but I told her that was the last binkie and there were no more. She seemed ok with it. She took a look at Maggie's binkie later that day but I reminded her that it was Maggie's and not hers. She seemed to understand since it looked different than her binkies. The only adjustment we've noticed is that she is not a quiet kid in bed anymore since the binkie isn't plugging her mouth any more :) We've started reading bedtime stories in bed to help her calm down and we're working on adjusting her naps so she'll be more ready for bed at night. Her bedtime is 8 pm but some nights she's staying awake in her bed until 9 or 10 pm.

Smiles!

I hope the girls always smile this much at each other and always share so easily with each other, but being one of three girls myself, I know they will have days where they fight like cats and dogs. I'm going to appriciate these days while I can!