4 Years!

Dee is 4 now. Not quite used to that yet!

She's 40.25" (63%ile) and 31.8# (23%ile). Still tall and skinny, that feisty girl!

Oh, my, my, Delilah.

I was working late on Wednesday, and my mom was watching the kids. I got a phone call that essentially said "Delilah is fine, but she lost a tooth..."

Of course she did. My rambunctious little crazy girl was running down the hall with her brother, slipped, and fell right on her face. The dentist said it's healing fine, she's just going to have a gappy grin for a few years. We will be watching her other incisor, because it's a wee bit loose, but she'll be fine. And hey, the tooth fairy is coming early! Maybe even for both kids in one night, since James has one that is about to fall out (and the dentist said he needed to work on getting it out...).

Delilah is 3!!!

 We had a Fairy Party for Miss Delilah's 3rd birthday at my mom's house. She was thrilled, but apparently not in the mood to keep her wings on for any pictures. I'll eventually get one of her with her wings so I can show you guys.

 

Sitting in front of the Fairy Treats Table

 

The food table had the following (with labels, of course!): Fairy Cakes (vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream frosting), fruits and veggies "From the Fairies' Garden" (raspberries, strawberries, purple cauliflower, baby carrots, and sugar snap peas); Toadstools (Baby Bell Cheese); Shooting Stars (yogurt star cookies); Magic Wands (yogurt star cookies attached to breasticks); Fairy Pillows (vanilla cupcake kettle corn); Kelpie Treats (seaweed and veggie straws). It was all a big hit!!

Dragon Riding, naturally

James proudly wearing his "Poison dragon" wings

My fairy child

Dragons on the trampoline

3 year stats: 37" and 28ish pounds. She was 50% for height and 17 for weight.

Happy New Year!

The kids were practicing their evil laughs and also wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

This was after we went on a 1.5 mile walk (the kids and me plus the dogs, though Delilah was in the stroller). As we got home and returned to our garage (the door of which is not functioning as intended due to a busted gear in the opener, yay, but we can manually open and close it), one of the front wheels on the stroller broke off (like, the plastic snapped). So glad *that* didn't happen on our walk. Then about a minute after we got everyone inside, it started snowing. So what I'm saying is we had absolutely perfect timing.

Delilah-isms, age 28 months

To Chris:
"Daddy, those helicopters are way high. You can't even reach them." (Apparently in her world, things that are just high are things Daddy can reach.)

Cowboy boots = cow boots

She asked my pregnant friend how there was a baby in her belly button... close enough?

She loves smoothies (yogurt w/fruit) and necklaces. She enjoys taking care of her baby dolls, changing their diapers and feeding them. Sometimes they get bottles, sometimes they get her paci, and sometimes she nurses two of them at once. Sometimes she lifts up her shirt and tells the baby she "needs to get her boob out" first.

My Little Ponies are a big thing for her right now (especially her Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie undies). So are dresses. If you ask her what she wants to wear, she will say "a dress!" and probably request her cow boots to go with it. Hair accessories are also important. She still loves dinosaurs, kitties, puppies, and being fierce. She's not so into owls as she was a few months ago.

She can count to 10 without help, and has occasionally decided that "I Lilah today."

Pooping on Cows, and Other Silliness

James lost tooth #2 at his cousin Drew's 4th birthday party on Saturday. There was a bouncy castle with a slide inside, and he somehow bit it (haha) on the way down and knocked out his tooth. He came running up to Chris and said "Daddy!! I went down the slide, and hit my face, and here's my tooth!" For the record, the tooth was already loose and nearly ready to fall out, so he wasn't actually hurt by the ordeal.

The tooth is in the baggie. I made him get out of the piñata line to get his picture. I'm so mean.


The bouncy castle was a big deal for Delilah, too. She had lots of fun, as long as nobody bigger than her was in there at the same time.

 

Now, I bet you want to know about the pooping on cows. I mean, surely, I would never have included it if I didn't mean for you to find out about it, right?

On the way home today, Delilah informed us that she needed to poop. This is a big deal, as she is potty trained now and we weren't quite home yet. So I asked if she needed to go right now, and she said "No, I need to poop on a cow."

This inspired an entire discussion about the uh...technical details of pooping on cows. We asked what she thought would happen if she pooped on a cow. She reiterated the stinky part, and said it would stick to the cow. James chimed in, wiser older brother that he is, and pointed out that it would depend on what *kind* of poop was going on the cow. At this point I was laughing pretty hard. Then Delilah said "Moo" and I laughed so hard I cried. It was one of those moments you never expect, and then BAM, you look like an insane person riding in a car while your children discuss the finer points of livestock defilement. 

Moo.

Delilah Goes to Space

The other night, Delilah was climbing in and out of her high chair playing that it was her space ship. Her destination? A hat shop. The hats were lovely and after she purchased each one, she showed it off and then ate it. Repeat. This went on close to an hour, and it was delightful.

Happy Birthday, Delilah!

Delilah turned 2 today. TWO. Although, if you ask her, she'll tell you she's three. I think that 3 may be her favorite number. She can count to 3, even, and knows how many things add up to 3. Smarty pants.

The stats:
Still tall and skinny!
Height: 34.75" (72ish percentile)
Weight: 22 pounds, 11 oz (20th percentile!)

Growing Up!

We moved both kids to big/bigger kid beds last night. Delilah still woke up twice, but no worse than normal! She *loves* that she can get in and out of her bed by herself. James still slept like a rockstar, as he always does. He loves his big bed! We got his bedding and bed from Ikea (bed frame, duvet cover, sheets). Delilah has her old mattress and moved into the toddler bed that Papa made for James when he turned two.

           

James' bed is sort of temporary. I will (this summer) be making him this bed (from Ana White's website) so that he and Delilah will have more room in their shared room. He will be keeping his mattress since it's brand new. I figure he's going to be using it til he moves out, so it was worth the investment. He said it's a little too "hard" but it should soften a bit with use, and if it's still too firm we can always get a topper. Although the way he's been jumping on it, it might get softer really fast...

Humor and Delilah

Having two kids is great fun. Especially when your almost-5-year-old teaches your 19-month-old a knock-knock joke. Or two.

Delilah: Na na.
James: Who's there?
Delilah: Doggy.
James: Doggy who?
Delilah: Woof woof woof!

Variant:
Delilah: Na na.
James: Who's there?
Delilah: Daaaaah. (Dinosaur)
James: Dinosaur who?
Delilah: RAWR.


On a vaguely related note, Delilah has gotten good at denying that she's pooped. Although if you tell her she's stinky, she will say "Poop. Peeeoh." and wave her hand in front of her nose. Hee hee. 

Eleven Blissful Hours

Guess who I had to actually *wake up* this morning? (and boy, was she hungry...)

Also, happy birthday to my nephew Seth!! I don't know how is is14 already. That's crazy. I remember when he was just Delilah's age!

Delilah, 18 months

Height: 32.5" (77th Percentile)
Weight: 19lb, 15oz (15th Percentile)
She has all her incisors, her 4 1-year molars, and one canine tooth. The other canines are working on coming through and boy are they making her cranky.

She's slept through the night *all night* one time, which was last night! From 10 til 6:30. Wohoo!
Other than a cold, she's perfectly healthy and smart. She loves to dance, color, brush her hair, snuggle her babies, and read books. We don't know if she's right-handed or left-handed, as she likes to color with both hands. Delilah really loves her brother and her dog (MacGuyver) and she likes Athena fine as long as she's not getting licked. Her favorite food is cheese, followed closely by scrambled eggs, apples, tomatoes, and lunch meat. She also really likes chocolate.

Current words (50ish):
What she says:          What she means (if not obvious):
gog                           Dog
Magogog                  MacGuyver
Afea                          Athena
NO!
get
down                      
baby
brotha                       brother
Jeems                       James
Mama
Daddy
eyes
noh                          nose
booger
nuh                          nurse
seetsh                     switch (to switch sides when nursing)
ny ny                      Night night/ I'm tired
hug                         arm or hug
hat
feet
toes
shoes
boots
cheese
Doodle                  baby doll named Doodle
moo                      (what a cow says)
boo
ruff ruff                 (what some dogs say)
woof                    (what some other dogs say)
hoo                      (what an owl says)
raaaahr                 (what a dinosaur says, or, if louder, what a Delilah says)
keeeey                  kitty
bowl                     bowl or spoon
bahw                     ball
wess                     dress
peepee
poo
ow
thanks
hi
bye
liggle                  tickle
G'pa                  Grandpa
G'ma                 Grandma
beow                 bear
booh                  book
bottow               bottle/sippy cup/drink
loooh!                look
beer
light
puppy

A Girl and Her Dog

MacGuyver is "my" dog. He's been very loyal to me ever since we adopted him when he was 11 months old, to the point where he sniffs me good morning every day and waits outside the bathroom for me. When James was a baby, he was pretty indifferent. He didn't want hugs or kisses from the baby, and would just walk away when James came too close for comfort (though he was a big fan of the high chair and its associated leavings). When Delilah showed up, though, everything changed. "My" dog suddenly had a new girl in his life. He sits patiently waiting for her to finish eating every meal (which, considering he's a hound, is only notable for the fact that he's patient about it) and he has never gotten snippy when she got close to him while he cleans up after meals. He waits outside the kids' room while she is napping or while we are putting her to bed , and if he can he'll sneak in to sniff her and make sure everything is okay (regardless of which of us is in there, so it's not just about him checking on me). He lets her crawl on him and pet him and kiss him, and it is absolutely adorable. In her turn, she loves her "gog" and frequently wants to go "liggle" (tickle/pet) him.

Today, Chris called me to tell me that MacGuyver had snuck into the room while Delilah was napping, laid down next to her crib, and took a nap with her the whole time she was in there.

1 Year!!

My baby girl is 1 year old now. It's hard to believe such a funny and sweet little girl has been in our lives for a year now!

Her measurements are from her 1 year checkup, so presumably are accurate (versus my guesses at home).

Height: 30" (77th Percentile)
Weight: 17lb 14oz (7th Percentile)

Shockingly, she's still long and skinny. Her growth pattern pretty much perfectly meets the chart for breastfed babies, though.

11 Months!

I don't know how this happened, but my baby girl is 11 months old today. Wow. She has 6 teeth, loads of personality, and she's such a stinker that she crawled today for the first time-when nobody was looking. She says Mama, Dada, Brudda, no, tickle (iggle), duck, hat, and hi.

Length: about 30 inches (90th Percentile)
Weight: 17 pounds 3 ounces (7th Percentile)

Shockingly, she's long and skinny. Her weight is less than last time because I weighed her naked versus fully clothed.

10 months!

Height: 29.25" 90th Percentile (approx)
Weight: 17lb 3oz 10th Percentile (approx)

She's still on her curves! I can't believe my baby girl is already 10 months old! Her clothing and shoe sizes are the same as at 9 months. She just got tooth #5 on Saturday and is on the mend from her most recent cold. In addition to Mama, Dada, and Brobro, she says "iggle" which means either tickle or wiggle, depending on whether she's making tickle hands or not. She also says "hi" and waves, though the word part of that isn't terribly regular. She's become a pro at spinning herself in circles, and is closer to crawling all the time.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love!

Gems from tonight:
James drew blood on the picture he made for Chris for Valentine's Day (because he has blood in his body, apparently he needed to include that?). I will try to scan it later to share it, because it's darn cute.

James asked whether, if he pulled on his penis hard enough, it would fall off and he would die. It took some convincing, but I think he understands that his penis can't fall off. My theory is that since Ian recently had a loose tooth, and a grown-up tooth grew in, and the grown-up tooth is bigger than the baby tooth was, James thought that all body parts fall off like teeth and then you grow new ones.

9 months!

Height: 28.75" 90th Percentile
Weight: 16lb 0.5oz 10th Percentile
Head Circumference: 43.25cm 25th Percentile

Happy 9 months to my little girl! You wear 9-12 month clothes (though sometimes you fit in 12-18 month things...) and size 3 shoes. You say 3 words: Mama, Dada, and Bwabwa (brother) and you absolutely adore your brother. You love toys, especially those that James gives you to play with (and those that he ends up taking away). You have just started scooting around on your butt to get places, though you're pretty slow at it. Right now you have 4 teeth (two on top and two on bottom) and you love everybody once you get to know them a little bit. You really like to turn pages in books, and you love to look at books before you chew on them.

A Growth Report on the Kiddos

Chris is seriously the bravest man ever. He took this boy

and this girl

to the pediatrician for their 4 year and 9 month (respectively) checkups. By himself. Also, during the day, wee Delilah decided that it was a good time for her 4th tooth to break through. Both kids were rockstars about getting shots. James was a big fan of the dinosaur on the eye chart, and he had a nice talk with the doctor in which he bemoaned not getting too much junk food. He's also been super into puzzles lately (good thing he got so many for his birthday!)

Here are the stats, since I know you all want to know!
James: 39 1/2" tall (40th percentile)
          34 pounds (45th percentile)
Delilah: 28.75" tall (90th percentile)
           16 pounds 1/2 ounce (10th percentile)

Delilah isn't crawling yet but she's getting closer to being mobile- mostly James just brings her things, so I don't think she's very motivated, though she will rotate and scoot a teeny bit if she's sitting somewhere.  She's also been working on talking. Yep, talking. She is a REALLY early talker and has 3 words: Mama, Dada, and Bwabwa (brother). Bwabwa was a big surprise for all of us, but she certainly seems to mean it, and she lights up and says "BWABWA!" when she sees James. Sometimes this is followed by an attack kiss. I don't expect that she'll add many more words any time soon, but who knows. Her favorite food seems to be peas- she gobbles them up like there's no tomorrow.

8 months old!

Look who finally figured out how to smile in pictures! 



Milestones: She sits up by herself for a really long time, and she is really good at feeding herself small things (like Cheerios and peas), and she's got 2 teeth. She likes to make funny noises, and say "dada" and "mama" to objects and people at random.

Length: 29"-ish; greater than the 95th percentile-ish
Weight: 16 pounds-ish; 15-20th percentile-ish

Yeah...she got a new car seat for Christmas, since the infant seat we have has a max height of 29 inches.