Fun Times in August!

It’s been busy! So I apologize in advance for the abbreviated descriptions of our adventures.

A couple weekends ago we had a playdate with the Arnolds! My friend April invited us to come hang out with her, her sis-in-law, and her nieces, at Clark’s Elioak Farm. We tried our hardest to make all our kids besties… I think they are all too young to appreciate our efforts though. Haha. They did have a ton of fun though. Afterwords the girls kept talking about Sophie and Maddie. So I think we may have a future playdate in store. April took a ton of good photos (check out my facebook). Here is the one photo I took:

Fun with the Arnolds!
Frances, Maddie, Gracie, April, Sophie and Colleen

We decided to take the whole family out to the farm. It'd been a long while since Moses had been, so we thought he might enjoy it, and he did.

Moses giggled at the sheep and tried to rip the goat's hair out.

Francie, Gracie, MiMo and daddy

My in-laws stopped by last weekend! We were able to see baby Zekiah again (3 months old now). He’s definitely getting bigger and his personality is starting to show – smiling, giggling, cooing. AND I saw him roll over!

Aunt Eveck and baby Zekiah

This past weekend Aunt Amy came to visit! We hadn't seen her since maybe Moses was 3-months old or so? So we were definitely excited to see her again. I’m missing her already! Wish they still lived close by. We didn't get to do a whole lot outside the house on Saturday, I spent the morning doing Frances’ hair. But we trekked out to Wegman's and the mall with the kiddos. I got the girls some new earrings – too cute! Sunday she helped me convert the girls’ cribs to toddler beds (even Moses loved this change!). And afterword we went to the petting farm to show Aunt Amy around.

Amy, Frances and Grace feeding the sheep

We went late in the day, we usually go first thing in the morning. Grace went to hang out with her usual goat friend and I think the goat had a tough day and jabbed her in the leg with its horn. She was scared, but I calmed her down and she went right on petting the other goats. Moses had fun with a chicken – fitting since he’s always saying “bek bek bek.”

Mo and his chicken friend

The girls also liked playing with Aunt Amy’s hair!

Fixing Aunt Amy's hair

Aunt Amy and Mo

And it was fortuitous that Uncle Rawknee came to visit while Aunt Amy was here. They hadn't seen each other since being godparents at the girls' baptism! MiMo was all about Uncle Rawnee and couldn't stop crawling up onto his lap.

The girls had their 3-year checkup today (see previous post). The kids are changing a lot. Moses even more so. He’s been standing a lot on his own.

Pass me the ball, daddy!

And yesterday he stood up a bit more than a foot away from their wooden activity cube and he toddled 3 steps to get to it!!! I screamed and Amy thought somebody got hurt. Haha. Later he was by the couch holding a toy and toddled 2 steps towards me! I wasn't able to see the girls take their first steps, so it was fun to see Moses’! Hopefully, within the next month, he’ll be a full walker. And his teeth are SLOWLY coming in… he just got his 7th and 8th teeth this past week. He hasn't enjoyed them coming through, but he’s still better at teething than his sisters were – it’s just that they got their teeth (and a lot of them) much faster.

And we have a new "pet," that I've named Charlotte, because I think she's a barn spider - like in Charlotte's web (so cliche, I know). I'm just happy that, so far, she's an outdoor pet...

Charlotte and her guest/dinner

This week my brother and his family will be visiting. So even more adventures to post!

3-Year Checkup

Grace on left and Frances on right, waiting for the doctor

The girls had their 3-year checkup today. No shots! They had fun, and brought their Doc McStuffins dolls along for support.

Here are their stats:

Frances is 38.3 inches tall (73%) and 31 lbs. 4 oz. (53%)

Grace is 38.3 inches tall (73%) and 30 lbs. 4 oz. (43%)

The doc was a bit concerned about their weight gain. She said at this age kids gain an average of 5 pounds a year – but the girls only gained 3 pounds. She said their weights would be okay on average but compared to how they gained before, it’s a big difference. I told her I was a fat baby and then thinned out. And we all know Richard is skin and bones. So she said it could be genetic. We’ll just have to keep an eye on it and make sure we try our hardest to get them a more balanced diet. They are still tall for their age, so maybe they’ll take after daddy?

She recommended Pre-K since the girls are in-home and not interacting with other kids as much – and separate classes, so they learn to function independently. She said it will probably help their language development as well. Not sure how we’ll swing that one since we don’t qualify for the public pre-K (stupid Maryland). So cross fingers money starts growing on trees so we can get into private pre-K. Or we’ll just have to wing it and hope all goes well for Kindergarten.

Happy One Year Old, Moses!

One year old!

Moses officially turned ONE on August 1st. The girls eagerly helped me make him some allergy-free cupcakes and frosting. And they were more than willing to help him blow out his candle. I got him a balloon from the store, but it was defective, only lasted about an hour. Ah well. Fortunately he has short term memory and forgot all about it.

I called the allergist’s office to see what we can try now that he’s a year old. We were told we could try meats, black beans, white beans, red beans, and oats (last). Well, we started with black beans and he broke out with a rash in the diaper area. So we’ll give the beans a bit more time. So far he seems to be doing okay with chicken. We’ll try beef and fish next, and then oats. He’s to stay on his EleCare infant formula until his December check up with the allergist.

My parents both came down on July 19. We had the joint birthday party for all 3 kiddos that Saturday (see previous post) and then my dad headed back up to NB, while my mom stayed for the week to help watch the kids with our neighbor, Jas. Oh the girls had fun to arts and crafts all week with grandma and Jas. And MiMo had fun too! My dad came back down last Sunday and, at my mom’s urging, installed a nice new tile backsplash for our kitchen. We went with large cream subway-style tiles (neutral and easier for re-sale down the road). They took the girls to the farm. And the girls road the Cow Train for the first time! My folks left the morning of Moses’ birthday so they could give him his birthday greeting in person before they left! Oh we had so much fun with grandma and grandpa, wish they could have stayed longer.

Oh and last week, in the chaos of having my folks here, and my dad doing some tiling in the kitchen, along with the introduction of a new, more powerful microwave, Moses suffered an unfortunate accident. He got burned with some hot food, because he’s a strong kid and able to knock things out of your hands fairly easy. As a result he got a blister on his cheek and 3 blister on his fingers on his left hand. I took him to the doctor’s office since one was close to his knuckle. Fortunately, while “huge and nasty” [the nurse’s words], it was just shy of his knuckle! So he “lucked” out. We put the Neosporin on right away so no infection so far. His blisters popped last week, but skin broke open over the weekend, and he didn’t like that too much. Richard gained more blood stains on his shirts. Poor little dude. But he moves around like nothing ever happened, which is a good sign, the doc says.

I took him for his 1-year well checkup today.

Here are his stats:
Height: 30.8 inches (82nd percentile)
Weight: 25 lbs. 8 oz. (95th percentile)
Head circumference: 48.5 cm (97th percentile)

Comparatively, at a year old, his sisters were about 2 lbs lighter, 0.8 inches shorter, and their heads were about 2 cm smaller.

He cried the whole time. So I knew the shots would be a disaster. He got 3 shots MMR, Chicken Pox, and something else. And he got his finger pricked for anemia test – which came back fine. Poor little dude hated everything. Even getting his head measured.

She said his burns are looking okay. Just keep the Neosporin 3x/day. And she said to put sunscreen or a band aid on them when we go outside or they will burn more (and scar).

He’s doing well. Has a bit of a breakout on his chest. Probably allergy to something new or residual from the beans? Who knows. He’s doing well. He still only has 6 teeth. He says, “Mama”, “dada”, “baba”, “baby” and various animal noises. He can stand up and get down in the middle of the floor with no help, but only on occasion – he’s not making a real habit of it yet. He LOVES playing peek-a-boo with his sisters around furniture. My gosh, they are all so cute when they enjoy playing games with each other. He loves playing with his toy vehicles and pushing them around, he also makes a “mrrrroomm, mrrrooommm” sound too. He loves throwing balls too. He thinks it’s hilarious.

His next appointment is in November.

And the latest Wacha Sayin’?
Frances, upon observing Moses naked, and pulling on his “boy parts”: “Oh no! MiMo gonna pull off his tail!”