Living large in CO: July And August Catch-up

Well we have certainly had a busy summer. Big Trips, Little Trips, Day trips, play dates, appointments, appointments, appointments . . . You can see more about all our daily adventures in the pictures in the previous posts (there should be 3 new ones as of today), but I thought I would use this one to tell you about all the milestones we've hit this summer. So much has changed in the last month in our little family.

Riley. Wow, where do I start! He is such an awesome big brother! He is definitely maturing quickly. Just like I thought he would, he loves making Amara Laugh! He makes funny faces, laughs at her, tickles her, and jumps around to entertain her. He keeps her happy for me when I'm busy attending to something else (usually meals or Jayce) and he's a pro at it. He is also more confident about handling her. She's not as fragile, and he's stronger so I let him pick her up and carry her to me. Still not up or down the stairs, or out of her crib (he tried this one day and I was not happy about it!) He's also doing really good with Jayce. Holding his hand to cross the street or parking lot, help him get breakfast, or drinks, or anything else I ask him to help with. He's getting better at sports, just tonight watching him hit a ball with a bat he has so much more coordination. His swimming is getting better too, and I think a lot of all this has to do with confidence. I can't believe he will start first grade in a couple weeks!!! Yep, only 2 more weeks until school starts for him. My big First Grader!!! :_( Today he marked another milestone too - First Cavities Filled. After taking his semi-annual trip to the dentist last week we discovered that he has 5 cavities!!! 5!!!! Two on the bottom next to each other (from not flossing) Two right above those two, and one more on top on the opposite side. So today we went in for round one of Fillings. The dentist wanted to do two today to see how he does, then do the rest in a separate visit. And he did awesome!! He sat really still (for a 6 year old boy), didn't complain about anything, and let the doc do his job! It helps that I prepared him the best I could, and the dentist did an excellent job telling him what he was doing and letting him check everything out before hand. So next Monday we go in for round two. I'm just hoping today will better prepare him for what's coming next, rather than make him scared that he's going to go through it again.

Jayce. Jayce certainly keeps me on my toes! He is every bit as much of a 2 year old as anyone could be!! His fits are slowly getting better. Or at least shorter. I've learned how to handle them pretty well, and I'm getting better at preventing them sometimes too. Not it just takes Riley understanding not to fight with him to help cut them back even more. He still loves to snuggle, and nap time is "our time" for snuggling up and reading a story. He loves this time, and doesn't fight me on naptimes (a blessing!) I will be sorely disappointed when this time ends. He also likes to curl up in bed with me frequently in the mornings. I usually bring Amara into bed with me in the morning, and when I do it doesn't take long for him to find his way up there too. I also find it interesting that he sleeps in the weirdest places. As a baby he could not and WOULD not sleep anywhere other than his crib or my arms, and occasionally his carseat. But now he falls asleep just about anywhere. And will wake up in the middle of the night to go sleep somewhere else - the floor in the hall, the closet, the couch, the rocker in his sisters room, once even in the bathroom! it cracks me up where all we find him in the morning! (in fact I've thrown the idea of sleepwalking around in my head before because of it.) He's doing so much better with potty training now. I think he's finally getting the hang of it. For about a week now he's been almost entirely in undies, with very few accidents. No wet accidents in the last couple days, (only poopy ones) and he's even now starting to poop on the potty on a semi-regular basis! YAY!!! this makes mommy so happy!!! I can't wait for the day that we only have one in diapers again! Another thing we're working with him on is bike riding! Up until just recently he's been too short to reach the pedals on any kind of bike, trike, etc. But he's now big enough that he can barely reach them enough to learn to pedal, so that's what we are working on. I'm looking forward to the day he can ride his bike all the way to pick up Riley from school!

And Last, Amara. My little Sweetheart is growing up way too fast!! This week she has started doing a TON of new stuff!!! She is now crawling, well, scooting really. She "crawls" like Jayce did, by pushing with her toes and lifting on her elbows. More of an Army crawl really. But she still prefers walking! If she's sitting near you she wants to pull herself up on you. She would be happy if you held her hands and let her walk around all day! I have a feeling she would be cruising already if she was tall enough to reach anything. She's still tiny, like Jayce is. She is slightly bigger than he was at this age, but her percentiles are falling, so I see her dropping to his level in the next few months. She is talking already too! She now babbles about "Da-da" all day long! ;) and it's not garbled da da da-da doo da like the boys did. it's a very clear Da-da. And Clapping. She can now clap too. All this in a week!! Ugh. She is a princess through and through!! She's still very particular about her food. Still no bottles. We even tried a cup recently like my sister in law suggested, and she isn't having that either. But we keep trying, as with finger foods too. Cheerios, cut up bananas, rice, etc. She will pick it up, bring it to her mouth (once) and then spit it back out. No finger foods for her. So we've started thickening up her baby food to help her with chewing and textures. I'll leave the skin on fruit that I'm pureeing, or we'll add tiny little "pastatini" to it. She can't stand it and will spit it out. (after gagging on it of course). I know that the high maintenance thing comes with girls, but I definitely wasn't expecting it this early! Ugh! But she's a cutie that's for sure. She smiles a lot, and I can carry her around anywhere with little to no fussing (as long as she's being carried). She sleeps well, and pretty laid back, so I can't complain too much!

Things are going good for Cameron and I. He's still grinding away at the work horse. Things are getting touchy for him at work. He's not meshing well with the new management they brought onto work last fall, so he's weighing his options. He's also still running . . . a lot! There's a few races this fall he wants to do, including the Blue Sky Marathon that he's run before. So training for that is taking up a lot of his time. I'm just getting back into the swing of things with Baby Bear Designs again. End of summer starts all the festivals and fairs that I do shows at, and the beginning of fall the cold weather and Christmas orders start in. So business has picked up significantly in the last couple weeks! It's a nice change! I have about 6 orders on the docket right now, some for Christmas, some for friends, but it's nice to feel like I can be productive again! Well, that about covers it for the Louie's. We've had a busy summer, and it's about to come to an end. Hopefully I can keep up a little better this school year with the updates. Get into more of a routine again. ;) Thanks for bearing with me during this busy time! Check out all the other posts I did recently, and enjoy all these pictures of the last few weeks!