The Drought had Ended!

Ok, I realize that my blog has been very poorly maintained over the past few months...well, almost 5 months, to be exact.  Eeek!  I'm sorry!  Life has just been busy busy busy.  In my valiant effort to wear all my different hats at once...wife, mom, teacher, church volunteer...my blogger hat got trampled in the mayhem.

On the teacher end of things, it was a particularly grueling mad dash to the finish line this year.  On top of all the normal end-of-year madness of state-mandated testing, graduation, and crazy middle school students ready for summer, North Carolina is also revamping its state standards for next school year.  The new North Carolina Essential Standards are aligning with the Next Generation Science Standards, which should become national over the next few years.  What that meant for me was basically double work: prepare daily lessons for this year's classes while simultaneously rewriting all my curriculum units for next year's classes.  It was a few months of insanity, but I'm glad it's finished and I actually really like the new curriculum. 

On the home end of things, it's been almost as crazy.  We're quickly transitioning out of the toddler-and-a-baby stage into the preschooler-and-a-toddler stage, which has been very interesting.  Molly has become very verbal, talking almost nonstop throughout the day.  It's been a fun thing to watch, but along with all those words have come some VERY strong opinions.  And now that she has the words to express those opinions, the "terrible two tantrums" have been kicked up a notch.  On the flip side, her verbal skills have also opened many doors for us to really talk with her, reason with her, and help her see the consequences of her actions, which has been quite rewarding as well.

Displaying her "camera smile".

Ian, now 16 months old, has been walking (and now running) for the last 8-9 months, which is crazy to me because Molly was just starting to feel comfortable walking at 16 months.  They are SO different.  Ian does everything at lightning speed and can destroy a room in a matter of seconds if you're not on the ball.  Our countertops, mantle, and upper bookshelves have become much more crowded lately as we move everything mess-worthy out of his reach.  But he's quickly getting the hang of climbing, so we're not safe for long.

Playing on top of the music table. Oy!

So, can you forgive me for dropping the ball on blogging?  Now that I've officially caught up on all the sleep I lost in April and May, I can stay awake long enough in the evening to blog to my heart's content.  Thanks for your patience.

Ian - 11 Months Old

Perpetual Motion. That’s the best way to describe our 11-month old little boy. Sleeping, awake, morning, noon, and night---he’s moving all the time, which is exactly the way he was in utero. I used to laugh at the gymnastics he did in my belly. I remember several evenings during my pregnancy with Ian, sitting on the couch and watching my belly do the rumba, and commenting to Eric, "I know Molly was active, but she was NOTHING like this little belly dancer." He has progressed rapidly from standing to cruise (7 months), to first steps (8 months), to tentative walker (9 months), to proficient walker (10 months). At 11 months, he chooses to walk much more often than he chooses to crawl and gets pretty much anywhere in the house that he wants to go, including UP! He’s quite the observant little man and has watched Molly moving step stools and chairs around the house to reach high places. He quickly learned that he could do the same and has put us into eagle-eye parent mode. He can also pull himself up onto low shelves, tables, and chairs, which gives all new meaning to the term “childproofing”.

"Who, me?  Get into trouble?  Never!"

We received oodles of fantastic toys for Christmas this year--- brightly colored blocks, wooden play food, a play kitchen ---and yet he still chooses to play with everything else in the house that is not a toy, especially things he knows he's not supposed to play with. His favorites are the pots and pans under the stove, Molly's crayons and pencils, the diaper sprayer, electronics (remotes, computers, phones), the pasta and rice drawer in the kitchen, DVDs, and the cupboard knobs. He has actually figured out how to unscrew the knobs on our cupboard doors!

"Look, Mom.  There's another cute little baby in here playing with me too."

Another favorite is any dirt or mud that he can get to in the yard before we we catch him. If he's set down on the ground, he'll make a bee-line for the dirtiest spot he can find. Yup, he's ALL boy!  The good thing is that he likes to get clean again too.  He really loves bathtime.  He would splash and play all night if I let him.  I've learned to just cover myself up with a towel and let them go to town because those splashing little hands are like little hummingbird wings---there's no slowing them down.

Ian is still the joyful, animated, communicative, ball of energy that he's always been. He reminds me of a happy little puppy that wags his whole body when he gets excited. When I go to get him out of his crib in the morning or after a nap, he cries until he sees me and then he immediately starts smiling from ear-to-ear, jumping up and down and cooing excitedly.  It's the same story when I get home from work in the afternoon.  He drops everything he's doing, starts waving his arms and yelling, and toddles over to me as fast as those  little legs can carry him.  As a mommy, it just melts my heart to find him so excited to see my face. He loves to communicate in any way that he can---waving, clapping, high-fives, squealing. He has even started to pick up on a few baby signs (mostly "more"), but isn't using them purposefully yet. It's just so amazing how different two children from the same set of parents can be. Molly has always been such an introverted "thinker", while Ian is such an extroverted "talker". It's a lot of fun to watch them both develop their own little personalities.

One nickname that we have for Ian around here is "the bottomless pit". He just eats and eats and eats some more! When Molly was this age, I was still making purees for most of her meals, but Ian has never been crazy about baby food. He'd much rather have "the real thing" from Mommy or Daddy's plate. He's loved pretty much anything we've given him---chicken, fish, potatoes, rice, beans and all kinds of fruits and vegetables. And of course, he's still a big fan of mama's milk. His pattern has been to load up on food all day and then milk all night. But you wouldn't know it when you put him on the scale; at his last appointment, he weighed 18 lbs. 9oz., which puts him in the 25th percentile. However, it makes sense when you consider that the boy NEVER stops moving! He's burning calories like a marathoner with all the moving he does!

I can't believe that my little boy will be ONE this month!!! This year is certainly flying by and the wild ride with this wild little man has only just begun.

Snapshot Update

Life seems to be moving at warp speed and both Molly and Ian are growing and changing so quickly that it's tough to keep up.  Sometimes I try to take a mental photograph in an attempt to remember what they're doing and what they're like at a given instant in time.  Here's your snapshot update for the day:

Molly -
Favorite Foods: Cereal, Oatmeal, Apples, PB&J, Yogurt, Chicken Noodle Soup, Whatever Mommy or Daddy is trying to enjoy for themselves
Favorite Books: "Where's Puppy?" (When she finds the puppy on every page she shouts, "PUPPY!!!" as if she's just discovered the New World, followed by the most precious giggles) and "The Big Book for Toddlers", which means I read or sing nearly every famous nursery rhyme, fairy tale, and classic toddler song at least once, but usually several times each day.
Favorite Songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Ants Go Marching, Little Bunny Foo Foo
Favorite Activities: Reading (one of her most oft-repeated 2-word phrases is a very demanding, "Read Books!!!"), Helping in the kitchen or with yardwork, Feeding Ian, Playing outside, Building block towers (although she usually spends more time sorting the blocks by color or shape than actually building).

"Open up, Ian."

Aren't they precious?  Molly has recently started smiling this adorable little smile when she sees the camera.

Helping Daddy rake the leaves.

'Side (outside) is MoJo's favorite place to be.

 Molly is well on her way to mastering potty-learning.  We've had the Number Ones down pat for quite some time now.  She's even been accident-free in many unfamiliar situations, including long-distance traveling, friends' houses, shopping, and hiking.  She has even mastered pulling off her own stickers from the sticker sheet and putting them on her potty chart.  As soon as she's finished, she shouts "Sigga!!!!" (translation: "sticker") to celebrate her accomplishment.  The Number Twos are a different story, although I'm optimistic with the system we just started.  I bought about 20 small prizes at the dollar store, wrapped them up in brightly colored wrapping or tissue paper, and placed them in a big basket on the back of the toilet.  These are "poop prizes" and she gets to open one if she uses the potty for Number Two.  So far she's opened 2 poop prizes (a bouncy ball and strawberry Minnie Mouse chapstick) and they were both HUGE hits!  I'm hoping she catches on pretty soon.

Attempting to earn a prize from the basket.

Molly has become such a child of routine, I've taken to calling her my little "Monk" (after the famously OCD television detective).  Her blankets need to be laid on her bed in a certain order; mealtimes, bath time, and bedtime need to be conducted by a specific formula; she greets me in the exact same way every day when I arrive home from work and then ushers our babysitter out the door.  Every daily activity has its own routine and she's not keen on changing any of them.  She really cracks me up!

Her "monk-like" tendencies at work while playing with blocks.

Molly starts each day with what I call her word flood, the deluge of language that narrates the first 30 minutes of her day.  I usually only get to experience it on Saturdays and Sundays, but it goes something like this, "Mommy! Daddy! Eeee! (Ian), bed, woobie, wet diaper, poop diaper, lights off, bunny, baby, Get up!  Get out!  News Two!!! (our local news channel)  Eat! Drink!"  And repeat, repeat, repeat.  It makes me smile every time.  After waiting for two years to hear what her little voice would sound like, we now can't shut her up.

Ian-

Favorite Foods: Mommy Milk (He's a big fan!), peaches, bananas, bread, noodles, carrots, black beans, really pretty much any food we put in front of him.  Typical guy.
Favorite activities: Banging on anything that will make noise, Grabbing items off the coffee table (especially things he's not supposed to have), Knocking down Molly's block towers, Playing at his music table, Wrestling with Molly, Sticking his hands in the toilet while I spray out dirty diapers (I LOVE this one), Climbing into the refrigerator at every opportunity, Going for walks in the stroller, Playing in the tub, Creating as many messes as possible in a 24-hour period ;-)

Unlike his older sister, Ian has always loved the stroller.

Another day, another mess to be made.

"BLOCKS!!!  This is how I'm supposed to play with them, right?"

They give the appearance of innocence, don't they?  Really I just caught a smile in the midst of a monster leaf-pile wrestling match :-)

Mobility notes: Crawls at the speed of light, which makes this his preferred method of getting around because it gives him the greatest chance of getting into something fun before an adult can stop him; Walking behind a support device (laundry basket, box, push-toy); Taking a few independent steps here and there, usually just one or two before plopping down.  Climbing is his new thing.  I caught him the other day in quite the devilish little plan.  He had pushed Molly's shopping cart over on its side and used it as a step stool to climb on top of the music table, which then became a step stool to get his hands on the kitchen counter!!  Yikes!!!  We're in trouble now.

A man on the go!

They're here!

Back at the beginning of September, the mom of one of my students graciously gave of her time and talent to take our family photos as a teacher appreciation gift to me.  After a month of crazy rain and hurricanes we ended up with a gorgeous day for photos.  Unfortunately, Molly had gotten quite scraped up a few days before and Ian had scratched his face too, but the photos show the honesty of real life with real kids.  Many thanks to Tami for the amazing gift.  Enjoy!

You can find the entire album here:

Ayr Mount Family Photos

Overdue Update

I've been meaning to post an update forever, but time just keeps getting away from me.  Between grading, lesson-planning, and spending time with my babies and sweet husband, the moments in the day fill up quickly.  And both Molly and Ian have been growing and changing so much lately, it's hard to keep up.  By the way, this will be my 100th post!!!  Can't believe it!  So I'll try to make it extra-good ;-)

We'll start with Molly.  If I could pick one word to describe the last few weeks with Molly, it would be her middle name: JOY!  She has been such a joy to spend time with lately.  I've been waiting for the "terrible twos" to hit, but we've seen nothing of the sort.  I'm hoping we had the the "terrible 18-months" and we've paid our dues, but I'm not holding my breath.  Every day when I get home from school, I'm met with a beaming  face shouting, "Mommy!  Mommy!", running up to me to give me a big hug.  If all goes as planned, Ian is taking his second nap, so Molly and I get a little one-on-one time.  We share a snack and snuggle up on the couch with a big ol' pile of books.  She loves to snuggle and she LOVES to read!  Sometimes we work our way through the whole pile of books that she picks out, but more often than not I hear the common refrain, "Iggy!  Iggy!" (translation: "Again!  Again!"), especially if it's a favorite book like Eric Carle's "Pancakes, Pancakes!" or Sam Lloyd's "Mr. Pusskins".  We go to the library ("yabba") once every week or two and the library books she picks out are always at the top of the pile.  She loves to learn new stories, songs, and words from her library books.

After listening for months for Molly's first words, we now can't shut her up.  She's in the "Polly Parrot" stage of repeating just about every word that we say.  It's pretty adorable to hear her attempt crazy big words when she's parroting us, but it's also dangerous.  We're trying to be very careful about not saying things that we don't want repeated in public because she has a way of latching on to certain words or phrases and repeating them over and over again.  We've stayed safe so far, but I know it's only a matter of time before she shouts out something embarrassing at church or life group.

I have been absolutely amazed at the speed at which Molly has picked up so many things.  You always hear that the mind of a child is like a sponge, soaking up everything around them.  It is definitely true!  I can't believe all the things that she has learned in such a short period of time!  Here's a small sampling:

• Her numbers 1 through 5.
• All of the letters A through Z by sight.  She has even started picking out favorite letters in the middle of words in the middle of text on a page.  Every time we go out for errands, she picks out the letters on the store signs.  At Wal-Mart, she excitedly shouts, "Dub-ooo" (W); at Zaxby's, it's "Zeeee!"; at the library, it's "Emmm, Peeee, Ellll!" for Mebane Public Library.
• A few sight words: "No", "Zzzzzz", "Boo", and "Roar".  I'm sure that, for the most part, she recognizes them because we read the same books over and over again, but it's a start.
• Most of the colors: pink ("peek"), purple ("purp-pooool"), blue ("boo"), green ("geeen"), yellow ("yeyow"), red ("waaa"), black ("bic") and orange ("orrr").
• A few shapes: heart ("hhhhhart"), star ("saaar"), circle ("cir-cooo"), square ("squa"), triangle ("tra"), and rectangle ("rec").

She also does a bunch of cutesie little things that we've taught her, either purposefully or inadvertently.

• When she hears any kind of rock music, she starts playing her "air guitar" and head-banging.
• When she hears the local news theme music, she immediately starts shouting, "TWO! TWO! TWO!" while holding up 2 fingers (our local news is on Channel Two).
• Anytime Ian is within arm's reach of her, she immediately hugs and kisses him.  No exceptions.  No questions asked.  Just a hug and a kiss, every single time.
• She loves to help feed Ian and really loves to finish his leftovers when he's done.  I wonder if she's aware that the pureed peas she finds so fascinating in his bowl are the exact same peas I struggle to get her to eat off her own dinner plate.

• She walks around the house and identifies all the things we've warned her about that can hurt her (pliers, scissors, knives, hot water) by saying and signing "hurt".
• If we're out and about on a walk or errands and Ian starts getting cranky, she points to him and says, "Nap!  Home!"  (pretty adorable, aye?)
• She loves to help in the kitchen.  If I'm cooking, she has to be the one to dump the ingredients into the bowl.  If Eric is doing dishes, she wants to be the one putting the rinsed dishes into the other sink.

Molly and her "doin' dishes apron".

Another on-going project with Molly has been potty-training.  We started this summer with marginal success and we're still working on it.  I would not necessarily say that she is "potty trained", but I would say that she is trained to not "go in her pants".  During the day, she wears big-girl underpants or goes bottomless with very few accidents.  However, she does not use the potty very often.  Instead, she waits until naptime or bedtime (when she knows she'll have a diaper and she goes then).

Now it's Ian's turn.  If I could pick one word to describe the last few weeks with Ian, it would be MOBILE!  This kid wants to move!  It started with pushing himself to a sitting position.  No big deal, right?  Except that it then escalated to crawling...and then pulling up on things...and then to cruising between furniture...and then to standing alone...and then to walking behind supports (like the music table or laundry basket) ALL within a month!  He's not even 8 months old yet!  This is crazy, right?  My mom likes to laugh at our current plight, as she believes I'm being paid back for all the angst I caused her by learning to walk and climb by 9 months.  I was under the age of one when she walked into the kitchen to find me trying to climb onto the refrigerator (floor to chair to countertop to microwave to fridge).  She likes to remind me that my favorite place to sit was directly in the middle of the kitchen table.  What goes around comes around, I suppose.  Here's a photo-progression of his mobility over the last few weeks:

Sitting himself up.

Climbing.

Really climbing!

Pulling to stand.

Pounding on the music table.

Free-standing!!!

Pushing the bib box across the house.

 Ian is still the cutest little bugger ever.  He is just such a happy, smiling, content, cooing, laughing, ticklish, silly little boy.  I can't imagine a baby more pleased with just being alive.  I think back to my mindset in the month before he was born when Molly was in the midst of one of her "challenging" phases.  I believe the correct terminology for what I was experiencing would be "freaking out".  I just couldn't imagine parenting Molly AND a newborn.  Well, God knows exactly what each person can handle and what will happen in every moment.  And He sent me Ian.  If anything, Ian has taught me to be more relaxed, loving, mellow, and happy...because that's what he is ALL the time!

Other Ian news:

• He now has 4 teeth (2 bottom and 2 top).  He is eating solids like a champ.  Favorites seem to be mangoes, peaches, yogurt, asparagus, and potatoes (although the potatoes were perfectly seasoned with oodles of roasted garlic as I pureed them from a dinner Eric prepared for us, so who wouldn't love them :-).  

• He has dropped the 2am feeding (finally!), which means we're down to 2 wake-ups per night on a good night (yay!).  
• Ian has become very vocal and loves the sound of his own voice.  He has lots of adorable cooing sounds, but his favorite syllable to shout is "DaDaDaDa!".  (I'm sure we'll get to "MaMa" soon enough).  

• He has really started to play with Molly, which is pretty stinkin' adorable.  I love to see them sharing toys, wrestling, building (Molly) and knocking down (Ian) towers of blocks, and just being together.  Once you add my third child (Eric) to the mix, there's usually a whole lot of fun happening in our house.

Do you think Daddy had anything to do with this set-up?  If you can't tell, Molly is pants-less, as she often is at home during this potty-training stage.

I thank God every day for the blessings He has rained down upon us.  I feel privileged and blessed to be allowed to enjoy these two amazing little people that He has given us.  They are more than I ever could have asked for or imagined.  I am trying to soak up every second that we have together and just enjoy the short little stages they seem to be passing through on a weekly (sometimes daily!) basis.