Liberty's 4 year old photoshoot and interview

4 years old!  I took these pictures on her birthday 4/7/2014...and we did our traditional birthday interview video at dinnertime.



STATS:  Weight: 40.6 pounds, Height: 43.5 inches.  98% height.  Predictor website say she'll be 5 10 or 5 11 when she's grown up!

Henry is 15 months old!

Henry's interview:

Favorite books: Anything Elmo, anything FROZEN, Brown Bear, Where's Spot, Moo Baa LaLaLa.
Favorite shows: Mickey Mouse clubhouse and FROZEN.
Favorite foods: Chipotle, crockpot shredded chicken chili, salsa, blackberries/rasberries,
Best words: mama, dada, uh oh, bye bye, cheese, juice, night night, book, ball, please, thank you, animal sounds (cow, dog, cat, sheep, lion, tiger, horse, alligator (cutest teeth chomp!), etc)
Best signs: milk, more, all done, no, yes head shake, please,
Personality: just this: https://plus.google.com/photos/113950548607099469105/albums/5994481955677047665?authkey=CPWw96LS0ouiCA
Quirks: calls his binkies "diddle diddle", Frozen books are his version of a security blanket, loves to ask me to roll down the window so he can wave bye bye to random people, when I ask him to "go wake up Liberty" from her nap - he runs down the hallway, opens her door, climbs up on her bed and they have the best time rolling/jumping around - reunited at last. He isn't as big of an eater as Liberty was...he still likes baby food pouches and milk in bottles. Goes down slides on his tummy by himself (backwards or face first)
Sleep: naps 10am and 2pm for 1.5 hours each. As soon as school ends for Liberty we'll drop that first nap - but right now I have him nap while she's at preschool!
Misc: Music class with Mrs. Colleen

STATS (16 months): Weight 23.5 pounds, Length 34 inches - 50% weight, 95th% height, first ever ear infection 16 months old.

Henry's early walking and Liberty reading

Here is a random album with some of Henry's early walking attempts in late December/early Jan I think. He's gotten a lot more confident with walking in the past 3 weeks - but still doesn't do it full-time. Also, I ordered Liberty these level 2 BOB books that have a story SHE CAN READ by sounding out simple words...amazon delivered them, we opened them, and she just started reading one! It was pretty amazing! It's not a great video, but I still wanted to capture her first attempt at reading a book solo - a pretty special moment for a parent I guess.

Henry is 1 year old!!

Henry is 1 year old!

He's an angel baby.

His favorite things:

• talking on a play phone
• dancing/singing with Elmo Rocks.
• Wrestling on a bed with Liberty
• Bottles - he doesn't do sippy cups as well as Liberty did at this age.
• Sounds - dog, cow, LION!, panting dog, airplane, car
• Foods - loves beans and tortilla soup (shredded chicken) and stick pretzles
• He really only signs "all done" - he prefers to squawk at us.
• Words - will say mama, dada if you really force him to - but he can totally say water (wawa!) and ball (ba!)
• First steps walking on 12/16 a bit after his birthday.  I write this on new years eve and he's taken 4 steps, stopped and taken 2 more - but then he collapses in a fit of giggles and prefers to be the fastest crawler we know.
• 7 teeth
• WEIGHS - 21.6 pounds LENGTH - 31.5 inches.
• Sleeps 7-7am, naps 9:30-11 and 1:30-3.

This album is video heavy - and they aren't that great and I can't figure out how to only post the best stuff....so for anyone other than Grandma, I'd just watch the first video because it's SUPER SUPER CUTE!

Henry is 10 months old!

Henry at 10 months old:

- MY FAVORITE - he gives KISSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Cutest thing ever, I will get it on film if it kills me.
- crawls "for real"
- cruises furniture
- can walk with the radio flyer push wagon
- finally chilling it with putting absolutely everything in his mouth
- obsessed with remotes
- yelling when he wants something
- loving the outside swing
- LOVES playing the piano - he can reach it while standing.
- interested in everything that is not a toy (closing doors, soup cans, the monitor, cords)
- finger foods galore - chipotle, beans, salasa, bananas, rasberries, green beans, mixed veggies, steamed broccoli, shredded chicken, pasta.....still hates "puffs" though.  Loves stick pretzles.
- snuggles my shoulder before nap time
- touch and go with waving/clapping/mama - these days he's into singing, barking/panting like a dog, imitating any sound you make.
- JUST started using any useful sign-language like "more" "all done" (10/17/2013)
- THE WORST during diaper changes - rolls, refuses to cooperate.
- Liberty is obsessed with caressing his cold feet and taking care of any toe jam he may have. weirdo. lovable weirdo.
- sleeps 7-7, naps 9-10:30 and 1-3
- won't sit still for photoshoots anymore.......

Henry's 9 month old photoshoot!

Henry is 9 months....and since I'm writing this a bit late it's hard to remember exactly what he was up to - but I'll try:

- weight - 19.2
- length - 30 inches
- pulling up to stand
- clapping, saying mama, waving - but not the greatest at doing these consistently!
- 1 tooth on bottom, 4 on top!
- likes drums and throwing a ball with daddy.
- does his "singing" - (hand over mouth call)
- crazy about Liberty
- his scooting - 1 elbow and 1 toe drag  (he actually stopped his scooting and started real crawling 2 weeks before he turned 10 months and I miss his fast scoot)
- sleeps 7pm to 7am and naps 9-10:30 and 1-3.
- hates grass (see attempt at photoshoot below) - the chair works much better.

I'm so behind!! - some videos of Henry doing new things at 8 months old -

some videos ahead that quite possibly only blood relatives will be the only ones to bear the first 30 seconds of these 2:50 long home movies...

(These videos are from AUGUST when he was 8 months - I'm so behind at blogging!)

Clapping!

From 2013_8_23  Henry and Liberty (8 months and 3 years)

Saying Mama!

From 2013_8_23  Henry and Liberty (8 months and 3 years)

Scooting & sitting & dancing (kinda old news for him) -

From 2013_8_23  Henry and Liberty (8 months and 3 years)

Henry is 8 months! Photoshoot!

Henry at 8 months...this is HIS MONTH.  I'm writing this a bit late but I'm glad I am because there wasn't too much of a change from 7-8 months for him but now at 8.5 months old he is doing lots more!

• 1st tooth - the day he turned 8 months!
• His scooting is very fast and distinct - 1 foot and 1 elbow shove off...
• Can finally get into a sitting position after crawling around by himself.
• Exploring a lot now (find him in the pantry, under chairs, touching outlets - all babyproofed, but still)
• He is pulling up to stand in his crib and pulling up to on his knees and trying to bounce up on his feet on other stuff - so close!
• When you help him stand at the music table, etc he LOVES it and can stay up pretty well on his own.
• A few days ago he started WAVING when we asked him to.
• A few days ago he started DANCING when we asked him to.
• He's becoming a big copy cat - splashes when Liberty does. Yells when she does. Bangs when she does. 
• He can't get enough of the pool or baths.  We do baths in shallow water and he sits, scoots, crawls, and doesn't mind laying all the way back and rolling and getting a face full of water.  He laughs and laughs.
• Sleeps 7pm-7am and naps 9-11am and 1-3pm and 50% of the time he takes a short 40 min nap around 5pm.
• Trying more finger food like strawberries/blueberries/graham crackers.

Henry at 6 months

My baby angel turned 6 months old on June 5th.

Weight: 16 pounds 10 ounces (25%) (liberty was 19 pounds 7.5 ounces)
Length: 28 inches (95%)  (liberty was 28.25)

Likes:
sister - no one makes him grin/laugh like her.
bathtime - holy splasher.
tv - sorry American Academy of Pediatrics.
drinking out of my water cup - he goes crazy for it
smiling at anyone that looks at him.

Doesn't Like:
ummm...nothing!

Can SCOOT! army crawls when he wants to get a toy.
Can sit for about a minute before tipping over.
Had his first babyfoods - bananas, carrots, apples, etc
no teeth - I'm still shocked.
sleeps 7pm - 7am
naps 9-10:30 and 1-3pm

Liberty (3) Henry (4 months)

We took both kiddos for their Dr. well-visits and came home with these stats:

Henry:  15 pounds and 27 inches - - 97% in height and 46% in weight.
Liberty: 34.8 pounds and 40 inches - - 96% in height and 86% in weight.

*readers beware, annoying mommy bragging to follow...

In other milestone news Henry is enjoying tummytime, grabs at toys and puts them in his mouth and is the smiliest/laughiest boy on the planet.  He rolls and drools. He naps 2-4 times a day (usually 3 - 9am, 1:30pm and a snooze during dinner or in between those big 2 hour naps).  We are trying to consistently get him to nap in his crib but it's touch and go.  Some days he does, and some days we give up and put him in the swing.  He still sleeps 7:30pm to 6:30am with the occasional wake up at 4am to cutely coo like a bird until I pop a binky in his mouth because I am not a nice mommy at 4am.  We talk daily about wanting to move him to his room.  He loves bathtime with Liberty, the TV, Sophie the Giraffe and when Daddy makes him dance to techno music.

Liberty is so bright.  Her vocabulary is insane and she is a sponge for learning new things (dog breeds, types of rocks, flowers, presidents, every name of all my friends, and their husbands and babies and dogs and everyone's favorite color and favorite princess...) She knows simple addition/subtraction and can count to 25 but her real love is letters.  She's known the sounds of the alphabet for over a year and she can tell us what almost any word starts and ends with and loves figuring out what is also in the word (spelling).  She can write her name and mommy.  She can sound out simple words.  She CANNOT rhyme worth a damn and she is the most uncoordinated kid ever (she has just figured out a 3 wheeled scooter).  She doesn't like scary things (this includes villains, tall slides/roller coasters, alligators, etc). She loves cats, the color blue (royal blue to be precise, followed by green, then pink, then purple), princesses (Cinderella), her cat blankie named StrawberryRose, arts & crafts, Henry and bratwurst.  She asks me for a baby sister almost every day. "When you are pregnant some other time can we get a girl baby with a blue and green dress? That would be adorable.  But. You never know what you are going to get, a girl baby or a boy baby. It's a mystery."  I hear this speech often.  Naps 2 hours a day, wonder how long this blessing will last...

Henry 3 months old!

Henry...
...cheerful as can be.  This photo shoot sums this kid up.

Other notes:
Finally some routine and predictability to the day.  4oz bottles usually at 7am, 10, 1, 4 and 7pm.
Still sleeping during the day in a bouncy seat and nights in our room.
Goals for April: get him napping in his crib and move him to his room. Because ...HE'S SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!  *angels sing*  We are talking 8pm-6:30am!  IF he ever wakes around 3am we just give him a bottle and he goes right back down and will probably sleep until 7:30am that way!
He's trying so hard to suck his thumb but isn't quite there yet.
He rolled over for the first time on March 14th. Belly to Back.  Once he figured it out he did it all day long - like 8 times!

Conversation with Henry

Once a day, usually during Liberty's naptime, Henry gets real chatty.

BIG GIRL BED, Peaches, Wyatts - Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend we went to pick apples and peaches at The Farm at Agritopia. This is right next door to our favorite - The Coffee Shop and it was 75 out! Glorious! We had a scone on the patio and Liberty went around to pet all the doggies at The Coffee Shop. After that, the Wyatt's came for a visit and we got a mattress for Liberty's new bed, build the bed, and played at the park. It was a great great visit on our last cool temp weekend. p.s. She slept through the night in her bed bed!!! Naptime the next day was rough since she kept messing with the window shutters and playing with her stuffed animals. Daddy worked on the windows (blackout and keeping closed) so hopefully today's nap goes better! It took her 1.5 hours to fall asleep last nap - but she never did get out of the bed at least:)

Our 2 year old

Some family notes in lieu of writing in the baby book...

Liberty - 97% height at 36.5 inches, 87% weight at 30.4 pounds. Wears 3T-4T.
Cameron used a height prediction website and came up with this: "Your girl will likely be 5'11". This prediction is a "best guess" but it's still just that -- a guess. Based on the formula we used* there is a 50 percent chance that your girl's full-grown height will be within 0.7 inches (above or below) of this prediction, and a 90 percent chance that it will be within 1.7 inches. (That means shortest she could be is 5'9"!)

Food dislikes: mushrooms, tamales, bell peppers.

Has just started singing songs! Favs: 5 little monkey's jumping on the bed, Hey Lolly Lolly & Zoom-e-o (from music class), twinkle twinkle, rockabybaby, happy birthday, a very funny version of the ABCs, and a few others.

95% potty trained. She tells us, she goes on any type of potty (very familiar with Chipotle, Target, Home Depot and Trader Joe's potties), and she has earned all 24 poop in potty rewards (dogs/cat figurines). It was a 3 month process for us - but now she only has maybe 1 accident a week and has been keeping her nap/night pull up dry too.

Into: Elmo, caring for babydolls, her dog/cat poop on potty toys, building tall towers, drinking out of a "real, big girl cup", playing in the sand at the park (making sand birthday cakes), the neighbor girls, Kindermusik weekly class, borrowing from the library, the alphabet.

Best party tricks: counting to 14, knows all letters (upper and lowercase) and the sounds, "reads" 17 sight words (Mommy, Daddy, Elmo, Baby, Cat, Dog, Go, Milk, Car, Murphy, Rusty, Jump, Hi, Bye, Mom-Mom, Grandma Jo, Poppa, Pipa, Andy)

Sleeps 1:30-3:30pm and 8-7:15am.

Talks so much - 6+ word sentences - but still pronounces her own name as YENNY. ? What's your name? "YENNY ANN IAT"

From 2012_4_8 - Easter

Liberty at 21 months old.

just some family notes to remember our growing toddler by...



Potty training. She's been in panties since Jan 1 (diaper for nap/bedtime - although she's surprised us with waking dry and going pee right away too!). She stays dry and only pees in her potty, with the occasional accident (maybe 1-2 per week). She poops almost everyday in her panties, with the occasional miracle (maybe 1-2 per week). haha. She tells us the second she is pooping so I hope we are really close to getting that resolved soon. Otherwise she gets an A+ and was (pee) trained in the 3 day bootcamp method.

Decided to wake at night for a couple weeks in a row to snuggle. Mommy only. Not cute.

Is nuts for her pillow pet puppy which she has named HENRY (from the Daddy & Me lift the flap book where they build a doghouse for Henry) lol. This is the first item she has named.

Is taking MESSY MONSTERS art class via Gilbert Rec. Friday is our day to stain our clothes and get glitter in our eye.

Is OBSESSED with the alphabet. If I threatened to shoot Elmo in the head, or throw her ABC's overboard she would plead for mercy for the ABCs. If you ask her to identify or find any letter - she can. (capital only). She can also do the sound of about half of all the letters. Mainly thanks to this DVD from our neighbor.

Knows colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, white, grey).

Can count to 3. Can identify 1,2,3,4,8,9

Thinks "going out to dinner" means going to Chipotle. She says "RICE! BEANS! MEAT! APPLE JUICE!"

Her memory is out of control. If I tell her we can go to the park when she wakes up - the first thing she tells me when I fetch her from her naps is "AWAKE! PARK. WALK." followed by other instructions such as "SHOES. ON. GO. WALK. PARK. RACE. AWAKE!" This happens with a lot of different topics. It takes both Cameron and I to swing her in a blanket like she likes to do so she'll bring me the blanket and say "SWING. DADDY. HOME. NO. WORK." Yea, when he comes home from work. Or the boat cruise with Gpa... "AWAKE! BOAT! LAKE. WATER. RUSTY" (gpa's dog).

Other favorites: House/Dance music, especially featuring Uncle Andy (see post below). Trains with Daddy only, her "Elmo Poop Movie" (Elmo in Grouchland - Cameron's least favorite movie) which she got for a rare poop success, water painting on the driveway with the neighbor girls, lollipops, petting Cheetah, brushing her teeth and Dr. Seuss/PD Eastman books.

20 months - 16 pictures of her doing the same thing

Liberty is 20 months old and is not only the most joyful baby on the planet, but she loves learning, music and art.

Some of her favorites at the moment:

Kindermusik - her music class is the highlight of her week. Every single day we play the CDs and she has such a memory for all the motions to the songs and all the fun stuff at music class (parachute, hulahoops, balls, sandblocks, bells, ribbons, instruments, leaves, hand puppets, and on and on and on)
Crafts with Mommy - in addition to coloring with crayons daily, she loves to do water color paints and markers. She's been doing some handprint and Christmas ornament crafts too. Oh and stickers. Haven't quite gotten into glitter, etc but very soon we will.
Chalk and Painting with Water Outside - When the weather is nice (and when it isn't) she asks to do chalk and loves to paint with water. She paints the driveway, the house, rocks, her chair...
Hunting for bugs - Everyday she wants to go on a walk to find Ants, worms, bees, geckos, spiders, rolly-pollies, etc. So far I have succeeded in putting the fear of God in her when it comes to TOUCHING bugs - so we do a lot of "looking with our eyes" and pointing.
ABCs and COLORS - Liberty loves to have you quiz her about her ABCs and colors more than anything. She can identify A,B,I,M,O,P,S - don't know why. She isn't as interested in counting - but if she has two of something in her hands she will yell "TWO!"

And now if you don't believe how much she loves Arts & Crafts - here are pictures from a simple marker project today...JOY I tell ya - JOY.

COLORS!

These past couple weeks Liberty has made huge strides in knowing her COLORS! She knows Blue, Pink, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Black and Brown - Red/Green are the most difficult for her. We've been doing a lot of art with paints/markers/crayons/chalk and I think this has helped with her colors.

From 2011_12_7 - Arts & Crafts Videos

First Steps!! WALKING!!!

One night before bedtime Liberty took her first steps!! We couldn't wait to wake her the next morning and film THIS!!!!!!! 2 days before 11 months old and she's can waddle like a penguin!!

6 months old

This post is a little tardy...but for those of you tracking my beautiful daughter - here are your Dr. apt stats!

Weight: 19 pounds 7.5 ounces (95th percentile)

Height: 28.25 inches (99th percentile!)

No teeth yet.

Sleeping: 7:30pm-8:00am and 2 naps (1.5 hours long)

She got her first cold last week.

Dr. Z said she's measuring like an 11 month old!?!?! Dear God. Liberty is a growing girl - she can sit independently, and has started scooting (inchworm crawl) - and a few times she has gotten up on all fours and rocked back and forth...so crawling is right around the corner for us. I'm excited one minute and sabotaging her the next - stop growing up baby girl! Or at least slow down please, I'm having so much fun with you just the way you are!

Isn't she so so so pretty?

Rice Cereal

We fed Liberty her first food, rice cereal. Her first experience with a spoon was a mess as we expected. But we didn't expect that she would HATE it! hahaha. She made a yucky face for almost every bite! I feed her a little bit once a day now and she has warmed up to the idea. No more totally revolting faces...now she is more fascinated with the spoon/bowl and rubbing the cereal everywhere with her hands. Sorry for so many photos. I'm still trying to figure out my camera and the best setting for a wiggly baby. There is a cute little video within the photo album. Click below.

(to skip right to the video click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4B0W6x_3mItqirktoY0cDpmqpSegpurWDKHPW2zoGY8?feat=directlink)