The Blanch Herd: June 2016

Friday, June 17, 2016

It's Fine to Be Nine (Months)

Sammy has officially hit the "milestone" of being out longer than he was in (me, that is). (And I must say that the past 39.5 weeks has gone a lot faster than the 39.5 weeks before that!) Here's what he's up to these days:

Crawling machine - he's got some speed! And to watch his little bum move back and forth as he cruises is probably my favorite thing ever.
Starting to pull up to standing on things - lower things are easier (my legs when I'm sitting on the floor, the dishwasher door when it is open, etc), but he has also stood up next to the couch and Cal's bed and has been trying next to the coffee table and in his pack 'n' play. (We've lowered the crib mattress in response, though we haven't seen him trying or standing in there just yet.)
Claps like a champ - and knows what it means when I say "clap" or "pat-a-cake" because he goes to town with his fat little hands.
Loves to feed himself - he'll eat much better what we are trying to feed him in a spoon if he also has something on his tray to distract/keep his fingers busy. With Cal I did the wait-three-days-between-new-foods thing religiously, and I started out that way with Sam, but it quickly gave way to here-try-a-bite-of-this and that has been working just fine.
He'll eat pretty much anything we put in front of him, but he especially loves green veggies, mac 'n' cheese, peas, cheese, blueberries, watermelon, bbq chicken, french fries, bread/rolls/buns, tomatoes, cheerios. (Yeah, basically anything he's tried, he loves.)
He's got a super open-door sensor built in - if I open a door (to outside, a closet, a cupboard, the fridge, the bathroom) he can tell from across the house and puts on the rocket boosters to crawl over to it before I have time to shut it.
He's already a little dishwasher "helper" - he can pull things out as fast as I put them in.
Still absolutely loves his sister - if she gives him an ounce of affection, he just lights up with the biggest grin or giggle ever.
LOVES to be outside - this one hasn't changed, except for maybe gotten stronger. I can't keep him in if the door happens to be open to the deck, and if I walk by an open-to-the-outside door while holding him but don't go out, he let's me know he's not pleased. (He also understands the word "outside" and gets super excited if I ask him if he wants to go out.)
His favorite diversion is the shoe pile - he'll crawl all over it and chew on the shoes (so gross, I know!)
Big time water-lover - bath time, pool time, it doesn't matter as long as he gets to splash.
Sleep - blah. We have our good days and our bad days and nothing seems to be consistent. Same old, same old.
Back to one nighttime diaper change (even in size 4 diapers) because sleeping on his stomach (also a new feature of his sleeping that took some time to get used to and contributed to some long bad stretches) doesn't evenly distribute the wetness and he often ends up soaked through if we don't.
No more sleep suit! (I think this was a major part of one of the bad stretches - weaning from the sleep suit - but it's done and that is good.)
Jabbers and goos and babbles all the time: mamamama, da-da-da, Oh! Oh! Oh!
Has started lifting his arms to beg to be picked up.
Always exploring and dumping and pulling and eating and grabbing and patting.
Sometimes waves or something similar (both arms going crazy).
Oh, and we have some stats! weight: 18 lbs 11.5 oz (31st percentile!), height: 29 inches (74th percentile), head circumference: 45.5 cm (63rd percentile). He's growing and healthy and quite the happy little guy and we are sure grateful for that.

And now, here's the photo shoot:

(He didn't actually get here by himself,
but he did stay there for a little while
before crashing to his bum.)

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Three Year Old Cal

She's three! How did that happen? I mean, really. A month or so ago Gregg said to her, "Callie, you're getting so old!" She replied, "No, Dad, I'm still new." And how fun it is to enjoy her newness and zest for life. Here's a little update on this bundle of drama and cleverness:

She still loves Minnie (aka "Min") - sleeps with her, feeds her a bottle (or sometimes nurses her, too), gives her rides in the shopping cart, brings her to Grandma's . . . Min is the 5th member of our family, for sure. I told Cal she was a good mom to Minnie and she said, "You're a good mom, too."
We recently finished our first ever chapter book together - she sat (mostly) through Charlotte's Web and loved it. I loved reading something other than Curious George for the umpteenth time. We're working on Homer Price currently, and while I don't think she's quite as into that one, she does ask for a chapter every day, so that is something!
She's the best kitchen helper - so eager to "do it myself!" on everything lately. She's become especially adept at egg cracking, grape picking and washing, dough mixing (as ling as it's not too stiff), dough "pinking" (her word for patting/poking the dough into a circle before rolling it out for pizza), dough rolling, liquid whisking, and ingredient dumping.
She's a bit (probably an understatement) of a drama queen - default response to pretty much anything is shooting crocodile tears. Disappointment, anger, hurt feelings, hurt fingers, you name it. And then she "needs a tissue for my tears" to make her feel better.
She says phrases that she's heard but don't completely fit the current context (for example, riding her bike to the neighbor's mailbox on a totally typical, normal, boring afternoon she says, "I can't believe my eyes!" Or maybe it really is magical and I just need to be more observant.)
Best bedtime staller ever.
Absolutely loves Daniel Tiger - would watch him non-stop if I'd let her. And she can work the roku remote to turn him on all by herself. (Luckily she only does so with permission.)
She's got the bossy big sister gig down - a lot of squawking and screeching at Sam if he gets too close to her things. (We're working on changing the default of pushing and hitting him to something less physical.)
She's totally rocked the potty thing - I don't even have to worry or wonder or think about accidents anymore (except yesterday? what the heck was that fluke?)
She knows all the days of the week and loves to discuss what is coming up on specific days before bed (I have to limit it to two days; she picks which ones) and then we recite all the days in order. (This was something she came up with pretty much on her own and now it's part of the routine.)
"Yesterday" or "last week" means anytime in the past.
"I fink" ends many of her sentences. "I need a drink of water I fink." "I want to blow bubbles I fink." "Let's go to the park I fink."
Loves getting the mail (gets that from her mom!) and is extra excited to see mail with her name on it in the box. "A letter for me! My very own name! My very own letter!"
She loves to be outside - playing at the park, walking through the cemetery, going for a bike ride in the burley, riding her own bike down the street to the neighbors' mailboxes and back, making fires in the backyard, playing on the hammock, watering the garden
She is an amazing little hiker (she is a champion and will just keep going and going and going, even on steep uphills: "I fink I can! I can hear my muscles! This is a steep steep hill!")
Still naps every day after lunch for usually a couple hours - looks forward to it, even. (Hoorah!)
Adores nursery - skip-hop-jogs down the hall every week and into the door. She's a dream.
Her word for anyone who helps us in any way is "nurse" - could be an actual nurse or a ranger, waitress, librarian, etc.
Loves story time and music makers, though it may not look like she's totally into them in the moment. Usually she just sits there and soaks everything in rather than recite the poems or sing the songs along with the leader and other kids. BUT - she knows every word and will sing them or recite them all at home.
My favorite thing is to find her "reading" to herself and/or reciting parts of stories or poems or songs from memory as she's playing alone.
She can finally open the fridge by herself and thinks she's so big!
Can read/recognize the words no, not, now and will point them out to me on the page as we read a book or on a sign we encounter somewhere out and about.
Knows the sounds of all the letters (at least the most common ones) and can name words that start with every letter.
Can tell which way is right or left by looking at her hands (nope, not for the letter L made by the left hand finger and thumb trick; because her right palm has a freckle!).
Becoming very independent - "I don't want that choice" is a common phrase heard around here in response to something we've told her to do (usually it's something that doesn't even have a choice associated with it.)
She's a picker - nose, chapped lips, crayon papers, little plastic ribs on her sippy cup . . . anything that can be picked is. She is her mother's daughter after all.
Well check stats: weight: 25.0 lbs (3rd percentile), height: 35.75 inches (21st percentile) - still small, but her sass more than makes up for it.

Here's a video Gregg took while hiking with her last weekend:

Three Minutes with Three-Year-Old Callie

2 months | birth

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Birthday Bowling Bash

Saturday June 4th was our Big Birthday Bowling Bash to celebrate Gregg's thirty-third and Cal's third birthdays. We were so happy to have our parents and siblings and friends come celebrate with us. The little bowling alley at Weber State has become our go-to the past couple of years, and I think we'll be keeping this tradition for a good long while. It's nice to have the whole place to ourselves for an hour and it's a steal of a deal! We even got the black lights which was festive and groovy.

Sam - not impressed.

Happy to have the Wihongis with us!

Cal used the ramp like a champ.

Stee-riiiike!

Totally unprompted hand-holding with the cousins.

Brought back memories from last year - same story!

After bowling we came home to a feast of deli sandwiches, potato salad, pasta salad, watermelon, chips, grapes, baked beans and soda. Opening of presents followed dinner and then we had dessert. Cal had asked for a "fruit snack cake" which we further fine-tuned to a Lemon-Blueberry Cake Decorated with Fruit Snacks. Delish! And Gregg opted for a Caramel-Apple-Cobbler-Crisp Cheesecake. Oh man!