the terrible, but terrific threes!

Chances are, if you are reading this blog, that you have heard me complain about the terrible threes!  I was warned that they would be worse than the terrible twos and man, oh, man, were they right!  Yet, as much as I moan and groan about this stage, there are some pretty terrific things about it too!  He is in that wonderful age where he is straddling being my baby and being my big boy.  He still thinks that a kiss on a boo boo can make him feel better, but he is sly enough to know that if he tells us his tummy hurts then he will get lots of sympathy.  He still holds my hand when we cross the road and sometimes just because, but he does it less often.  He gives us kisses and says "I love you" without prompting, but yesterday he wiped my kiss off his cheek when I dropped him off at school.  He still will not tell me that he ate his vegetables when he didn't (even to get yogurt for dessert), but he told me this morning that his pants got wet (pee pee) when he went down the slide at school.  He still calls Jamie "Dadu," but has started to shorten mine to "Mom."  He is our baby:

 
And also our big boy:

And we think both ages are pretty terrific!

Dadu

My parents have a picture in their room that says, "Anyone can be a father but it takes someone special to be a Daddy."  Well, I think it takes someone really, REALLY special to be a Dadu!  For whatever reason, Harrison has always called Jamie "Dadu" and he still does it.  He has already started calling me "Mom" occasionally instead of Mommy but Dadu has stuck.  And, boy does Jamie love it!  I'm dreading the day when he stops but hopefully Anne will carry it on.

This post is in honor of Dadu's 40th Birthday on April 22.  I'm not sure how much the kids know it yet but they hit the daddy jackpot.  He's not just a terrific father but he is the most loving son and husband as well.  In fact, if we could get rid of his obsession with golf and professional football then he might be perfect.  And we love him very much.

yes, there are really 40 candles.

Mr. Gregarious

Socially, Harrison has always been a fairly timid child.  If we are in a new place or meeting new people, he used to hang onto my leg until about 5 minutes before it is time to leave.  This has all changed within the past few months.  I think it has to do more with his improved communication skills but maybe he has just taken a long time to come out of his shell, but BOY, has he!  He now attempts to engage almost every stranger in conversation by saying "Hi" or "what you doing guys?"  Last night we ate dinner at a restaurant with outdoor seating.  Harrison spent the majority of the time picking pansies from the ground and giving them to various people at other tables.  He even gave one to a little two year old girl who was crying - so sweet!  I had always assumed that we are each born with our personalities and that they don't tend to change too much but I'm not so sure now.  Regardless, I am eager to see what other changes we have in store for us with both Anne and Harrison!

Nine months!!

On Tuesday Anne was nine months old!  It seems like yesterday that she was born but she is growing so fast!  In celebration of her nine month birthday I decided to brag about some of her latest accomplishments.   First, her first 2 teeth (on the bottom) are finally starting to poke through but, true to form, they don't seem to bother our laid back baby too much.  Most of her accomplishments involve eating new foods:

First, she has learned to drink out of a sippy cup, and a regular cup too, 

 although she likes to promptly spit the water out everywhere.

She is beginning to throw things on the floor, especially now that she is starting to try (or rather, throw) soft solid foods such as puffs and bread and cheese.  As you can tell, Cabo is especially fond of this stage and has resumed his usual mealtime position under her seat.  You can also see the numerous toys that she promptly threw off her highchair, one by one.

 She also had her first big girl bath this week:

 and she LOVED it!  She loves to throw her arms up,

and then slam them down in the water.

She looks so happy and cute that I didn't even get sad that she can't fit in her infant bath anymore or when she pooped in the tub about 5 seconds after I took this picture.  To her credit, she had just started antibiotics for a third ear infection so she couldn't really help it.

Finally, she had her 9 month appointment today which went well.  She weighed 18 lbs, 13.5 oz (which was much smaller than the 20+ lbs that I thought she was).  She was in the 50% for weight and head circumference and in the 35% for height although the doctor said that was likely off and that she was probably above 50th% for that as well.  Other than her ear infection, we have a happy, healthy baby who loves to eat, and TALK.  She has started saying "uh oh" on top of "da da, ba ba, na na, ma, ma" and my favorite "do di do di do di".   Her teachers at school call her the class clown because she is always chatting everyone up and making funny faces and expressions.  More on those later.  


It seems that so many milestones are happening right now so I'm trying to keep track of them as they occur.  I'm sure I have forgotten a few other recent accomplishments so I will post more on those soon.  Until then, Happy Ninth Month Birthday Baby Annie!  We love you more each day, even after the incident in the tub this afternoon!  If Harrison teases you about this in the future, make sure you tell him that he actually pooped in his pants right after your bath incident occurred, so you're even. 

brothers and sisters

I imagine that every parent wants their children to have a close relationship with their siblings.  I am thankful that I am close to both my brother and my sister and and one of my greatest wishes is that Anne and Harrison are close too.  So far, it is looking pretty good. 
I've heard horror stories about big brothers and sisters who act out against their younger siblings when they first come home so I had prepared myself for the worst.  Luckily for me, Harrison has shown little to no interest in his baby sister and the little that he has shown has been very sweet.  He has never once been mean or even jealous of her, NOT ONCE!!  In fact, the one time that he accidently fell on her, he cried twice as loud as her and kept saying "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!"  I think he has held her about 4 times total (at our urging) but he sits with her in his lap while holding his arms and hands up high so that he does not actually touch her.  After about 7 seconds he says, "your turn mommy." 
She briefly caught his interest when she began sitting up and, more importantly, falling over.  One day I sat her on Harrison's bed as he helped me put away his laundry and she tipped over.  I have never heard Harrison laugh so hard.  He kept asking me to "make her fall" and he would fall into hysterics every time I sat her up and she promptly fell back over.  You could see that it took everything that he had not to put his finger out and tip her over on purpose.  The other time that she held his attention for more than 7 seconds was when he put a hat on her head and she couldn't see.

                                       That was the second funniest thing that he had ever seen.

For her part, Anne seems fascinated by Harrison and watches in amazement everything that he does.

Helping to entertain her during tummy time, her least favorite activity. 

I'm sure that there will be a lot of mutual tormenting in the future but for now I'm so thankful that they are so sweet to each other and I'm eager to see how their relationship grows.



hairbows

We passed a car this morning with one of those red Christmas bows on top of it.  I probably wouldn't have paid any attention to it had Harrison not said, "look Mommy, that car has a hairbow.  That's so silly."

Here is a pic of our little guy last month when he asked to wear one of Anne's bows.

We need your input!!

Here is the link to the photos we had made of the kids:

http://www.gretchenmathison.com/baublitzhome.html

Please let us know which ones you like!  They will be online for a week.

Enjoy!  We think they turned out great!

our little jumping bean

It's Official!

I am a soccer mom!  Harrison had his first official soccer game this weekend.  Since the time he could walk Harrison has been obsessed with kicking balls.  In our slightly biased view, we think he has incredible talent so we jumped at the chance to join a team as soon as possible.

He started off a little timid during the first 20 minutes and wanted to go home

but he slowly started to get more comfortable,

and soon he was grinning from ear to ear.

Luckily, Harrison was on the same team as Diego, who was the only one who understood what was going on.

Diego scored all 9 of the gold teams' goals.

I'm convinced that Diego is really 4 years old and in the 3 year old league illegally.

Overall, we had a great time and he said "I want to come back again!"  In Harrison's words, it was "SOOOO fun!!"  I love being a soccer mom :)