August 23 - Frankie turns 1!

Frankie had two birthday parties. My parents (Grandma and Grandpa) came to visit in August and had to leave a few days before her actual birthday, so we had a party while they were here. Then we had a birthday party on her day with Nana and Papa (Dave's parents).

Pretty girl!

Birthday cupcakes!

Thanks for the presents Mama!

Such love!

Micah gets a birthday crown when they celebrate his birthday at school, so he made a birthday crown for Frankie. It said "Francess is 1" and also "Happy Birthday"

Grandpa was hoping to have Frankie walk while they were here. He claimed she took a few steps between the chair and ottoman, but she wasn't very stable. She started walking between Dave and I at the doctor's office 2 days after her birthday.

Frankie is 11 Months

11 Months - where has the time gone? In just four short weeks we will be celebrating this little one's birthday!

Frankie has been eating everything and she really wants to feed herself with her spoon or hands, no matter what she is being served, whether it's jarred baby food, yogurt, or cut up fruits, veggies and meat. She loves to eat like her brother did (and still does) and she is most content when she's got her snack trap or a graham cracker or some kind of food in her hand. She has even snuck a few sips of her big brother's chocolate milk or raspberry lemonade. The second child always gets away with more than the first ever did, right?

Funny that I cleaned the tray before I thought to get a picture.

The tray and the floor got it even worse than her face!

I can't resist sleeping shots, but I hate waking a sleeping baby.

I just love the butt-up sleeping position!

Francess loves to walk using her little pusher. She is very proud of herself when she walks along. She loves holding our hands to walk also. I've noticed a bit of a blister on her big toes from crawling, so that's probably why she likes to walk with help. She also gets up onto all fours to move forward instead of her hands and knees, which is usually when she is outside because the ground hurts her knees or when she has a dress on that gets caught under her. Just in the last couple of days she has been standing for a few seconds without holding on to anything, so I'm sure very soon we'll be chasing her around the house. Actually, she already loves to be chased, she just crawls as fast as she can away from us!

She is really trying to talk. Her voice is super cute right now. She's using her high pitched scream less and less (which is FABULOUS) and stringing together cute babbling sounds that sometimes makes her sound underwater. She still gets very excited to see the cat and always very happy to see Micah. She loves looking at books, especially the ones with texture for her to feel. She likes to put things in places. She is pretty good at putting the toy coins into the piggy bank and she loves "working" in the kitchen with me, moving the lids from the container into the bowls.

Chelan 2011

Dave's family has a few condo units on Wapato Point for use four times a year. Sometimes the whole family is able to go but other times no one but our family can make it. This was one of those times. We made it for a long weekend. We left Thursday afternoon after Micah was done with preschool. He had to miss the last day and the class pizza party, but the final day he did have at preschool was at a jump house with large blowup slides, an obstacle course, and a boxing ring, so he had a blast there and he was super excited about going to Chelan. Also, the day we left for Chelan was David's birthday so Micah was especially excited about everything happening that day. We had a few friends come and enjoy the weekend with us.

Micah and I playing mini golf

Brooke and I with Cece and Frankie, who had similar strawberry suits

The whole gang, Wolfroms, Pearsons and Smees

Micah loves swimming!

Emma, Heidi, and Braden

Micah and Braden reading from Micah's toddler Bible

Cheering on the dad's shuffleboard game

Preschool Program

Early in June Micah had a preschool performance at the end of the school year. He was the star of the show! His teachers were hoping that he didn't have T-ball or some other sport that would take him away that evening. They wanted to make sure that he was going to be there because he knew all the songs and sang loudly and did all the hand motions. His teacher told me she knew if he were watching she could count on him to start the group singing. He took it very seriously and loved every minute of it! We got a video of each song but for some reason I can't upload the videos onto this blog. I'll work on that when I have time, but for now, here are some pictures.

He walked the June sign across the front.

How better to end the performance than to get the kids hyped up on ice cream sundaes right before they go home to bed!

10 Months

Frankie is crawling all over, pulling herself up to cruise a little bit along furniture, playing peekaboo, waving bye-bye and trying to do signs ("more" is done like clapping right now). She gets very proud of herself with a sheepish grin when we cheer her on with her signs. She takes a big delighted intake of breath when she sees our cat. And she tries to call out for Micah in her own way ("MA DA" or some variation) whenever he's not around. She's climbing the stairs, which we only let her if we're right behind her because she has no sense of falling if she wants to take a break and plop her bottom down! She gets up to crawl on her hands and feet (instead of her knees) if something doesn't feel good on her knees or if she has a dress on that gets caught under her.

Easter

I know this is a late post, but we had a lovely Easter with Dave's family at his parents house.

On the Saturday of Easter weekend we went to Micah's preschool for an egg hunt. They had eggs to gather, but they didn't stuff them so that it could be fair for all the kids. The kids collected all their eggs and then traded them in for a goody bag. They were also entered into a raffle for a number of different baskets. Last year Micah wasn't really sure what to do, so he didn't hustle out to collect a lot of eggs but this year he knew what he was doing and was determined to get as many as he could. Unfortunately he and another kid were going for a bunch of eggs on the ground at the same time and he got knocked over, which made his basket of eggs spill out on the ground and then a bunch of other kids came and picked up his eggs. He handled it really well, but when it was over he was sad because he only collected about 5 eggs. We assured him it didn't matter and had him pick up a goody bag and we also reminded him he'd have an egg hunt with his cousins the next day.

At preschool, ready to start!

Right before he got knocked over

Nana and Papa have the perfect yard for egg hunting!

The cousins

Frankie found the stash (after all the goodies had been taken out)!

Mother's Day

Micah really likes to "wash" the dishes. One day he asked if he could watch TV and I said "No, but you can wash some dishes!" and he said "Oh! OK!" and ran into the kitchen to pull a chair over to the sink. He washed the sink and did the dishes for me on Mother's day because Dave had told him to think of something nice he could do for me on that special day. What a sweetheart!

At preschool, Micah had made a card and brought home a huge cupcake that he had decorated to share with me. The card was really sweet and the cupcake was delicious! If you can't read the picture, the part that he told his teacher to type up says "I love you because you make me chocolate chip cookies, and hug me and read me a story at bedtime!" So cute.

9 Months

I had every intention of keeping up with this blog. I wrote every day in December to try to get myself into a habit of sorts, but since then my habit has been once a month to keep up with the first year of my baby girl. Now I'm starting to miss the monthly updates, too. I have lots of things to write about but I'm going to start forgetting them if I don't get to it!

Frankie had her nine month appointment on the 24th and she was 16 lbs 9 oz (15th percentile); height was 26 3/8 (15th percentile) and her head was 18 in (90th percentile). She is crawling along best using her army crawl but once in awhile she gets her belly off the ground and crawls forward on her hands and knees. She is even starting to get up on her feet, pulling herself up on furniture. She is starting to cruise a little around the furniture once she gets herself up. She can get herself down but sometimes I think she is a little afraid and doesn't quite remember that she really can get herself down after pulling herself up to standing. It is quite a scary thing to figure out when you're that small I guess! She is still always very happy, but she likes to shriek at the highest pitch she can find when she's in her highchair and we haven't fed her quick enough. :)

8 Months

Francess is 8 months. She is delightful. She cut her first tooth a couple days ago - her bottom right front tooth. She is getting around pretty well with her army crawl, and she gets so excited when she sees the cat that she does a little jump with her toes propelling her whole body forward. She loves when Micah enters the room and watches him intently. She must be carried facing out so she can see what's going on. She gets a big cute smile on her face when she is told No. She is starting to show lots of personality, which is so fun to see. Sadly (for Dave) she prefers her Mama, so when he tries to comfort her at night she cries pretty hard when she realizes it's him and she watches the door for me to come. She eventually calms down with him rocking her... it usually doesn't take too long.

This Easter weekend I am so thankful for a healthy family, beautiful growing children, and most importantly I am thankful for the love of Christ that gives me life.

Spring Sing

Last Sunday we went to Micah's preschool church for a special presentation from him and his classmates. They had painted t-shirts and wore them for the song they did. Micah's shirt had a bumblebee on it. Some of the other kids had a butterfly and some had an octopus on their shirts. They sang the song "If I were a butterfly." One of the verses went like this: "If I were an octopus I'd thank the Lord for my good looks." Micah practiced singing it a couple times at home and on the way to church that morning. I thought it was very cute.

What a loving big brother :)

Happy girl!