The Kings: April 2013

april, where to start? in addition to the normal chaos we call life, we celebrated ray and sarah's birthdays and matt had his wisdom teeth removed -- something that was apparently long overdue and he is still recovering from. as for the kids, they are both amazing and wonderful. they grow and change so very much....

samantha got her first two teeth this month! the first broke through on april 10th, sticking up as the bottom right front tooth. and the second (the bottom left front tooth) on april 25th, ironically the day that matt had his 4 wisdom teeth pulled! her once completely gummy grin now has two cute little pearly whites sticking up every time she flashes her amazing smile -- which is still very often. she is still scooting around, and has gotten much more proficient at going places to get her toys, but only if we aren't looking. if we are watching her she is smart enough to pout and whimper and know that (historically) we will give her what she might be pining for. now that i've realized this i'm trying to encourage her efforts more and enable her less ;)

she's also eating solids 3x a day and we added cheerios at the beginning of the month. she absolutely *loves* the activity of eating them, and over the course of the month has improved her proficiency at actually getting them to her mouth as some sort of food intake. she gets incredibly excited when she sees the box and when they are placed in the high chair in front of her. she will methodically pick them up and place them in her mouth until they are all gone -- and several still go missing from falling out of her mouth or being dropped en route. she actually prefers this method of feeding herself over being fed babyfood, unless she is really hungry. it's made feeding her somewhat of a challenge on certain days, but she's so stinkin' cute, i just can't be frustrated for very long. samantha also learned to drink from a cup with a straw this month, another step towards her feeding independence. she does a decent job, but occasionally will take a big drink, only to have it fall from her mouth the moment she stops sipping from the straw. fortunately, it's just water and she's typically wearing a bib when she's drinking something.

cheerios for the first time

drinking from a straw!

we are also trying to encourage her to crawl more and stand holding on to the furniture. unlike noah, who was always wanting to move somewhere, samantha seems perfectly content to sit and play with her toys and not venture too far from where she has been set down. now we can get her to stand for several seconds holding onto the ottoman or some of her table-like toys, so hopefully she will see the new sense of freedom this gives her and eventually want to "cruise" around the place. she's also started getting onto all fours, sitting there and rocking for a little while before ultimately deciding she doesn't really know what to do from there to get into a full-on crawl and then laying out on her stomach to scoot around.

samantha has also started expressing a huge interest in music. that little girl *loves* to dance, just like her big brother did at the same age (and still does!). she's also started "talking" more and now "sings" along when we play music over the ipod or in the car.
overall, she continues to be a super-happy, super-lovey baby girl, who has the same inquisitive nature as her big brother. not sure what i'll do when they are both able to walk around this place... but i bet it only gets more interesting from here!

a skinned knee, some rocks, and a dump truck outside...

perfect.

as for noah...where to start? the kid talks all day long and i *love* to hear his conversations -- with himself, with us, with his toys, with his sister -- he makes me smile all day. recently he's started explaining everything with "really, really." the majority of the time this makes sense, as in "i really, really want some pancakes, mommy!" but occasionally, he uses it for emphasis in the wrong context, "daddy's really, really at work, mommy" or, "we are really, really eating grapes!" :)
we've also started practicing saying prayers with him before dinner, so now we tell him, "say your prayers before you eat" and he'll start chanting," God is great! God is great! God is great! ..." occasionally he'll say the next line, too ("God is good") but we never hear any more than that.
we also learned this month that noah really (really!) enjoys singing. he has started singing nursery rhyme songs; his favorites are the wheels on the bus and it's raining, it's pouring. the latter song he actually knows all the words to, which surprised the heck out of me the first time he sang it. no matter how hard i try to hold them to high standards, the kids continually exceed my expectations! he will also sing the first part of the alphabet, usually along the lines of "A, B, C, D, F and G...." and then there are some random other letters. his counting has improved, also, and he can now count from 1-10, but usually leaves out the number 4 for some reason. we're still working on associating counting with actual objects, though.
he is still taking naps in the afternoons, which as a night shift worker i appreciate immensely and can only pray he continues for a while longer. he's gotten to the point now where after lunch he will often tell me, "noah take a nap?" in a half-statement, half-question kind of way. then we run up the stairs (yes, we run) and he tells me it's time for a clean diaper and time to read a book. and as for sleeping, i'm happy to report that, for the most part, he has been sleeping in his bed again! as i mentioned last month, he had gotten pretty good about us moving him after he fell asleep, but now most nights when i check on him he is sleeping soundly on his bed, snuggled up with his lovey and his blanket.
my favorite noah story for the month...
we were playing on the floor and the conversation went like this:
noah: an ant, mommy! an ant! get it, mommy!
me: no, noah, i think that's just a piece of dirt. it's not an ant, i'll get it with the vacuum later.

...at this point noah runs from the room shouting something, it takes me a minute, but i figure out what he's saying....

noah: the bulldozer will get the dirt! bulldozers get dirt, mommy! i'll get the dirt, mommy, with the bulldozer!!!
(and, after bringing the bulldozer in) that's better!!!

there are a billion other cute things and stories and scenes i could try to relay, but i should probably stop for this post. check back with us soon for more about our kiddos and the crazy schedule we keep.

puzzles on the floor

playing soccer with eli frey

our first skinned knee :(

enjoying some playtime outside

a pic of those baby blues and that sweet smile

enjoying some PBS kids with noah (and lexi) after a night at work

playdate with eli

practicing standing (and check out that hair!)

"dumper truck" + outside = 1 happy boy

my growing girl :)

what a good daddy looks like....

after celebrating the march birthdays we started making preparations for easter, which fell on march 31st this year, and we had agreed to host at our house. this meant big spring-time yard work, repairing landscape lights that hadn't worked properly since we moved in in august, and doing other general maintenance and spring-cleaning type things. when the day arrived we had a great turn-out and a great time, despite the fact that my grandmother had been admitted to the hospital the night before. she is doing well now, but we were all very sad that she and my grandpa couldn't make the trip up to celebrate the holiday with us. and while sammy didn't seem too interested in hunting eggs for her very first easter, noah had *such* a great time that we started throwing the eggs back on the ground once they were collected just so he could pick them up again. i think it helped that the day before we had attended the neighborhood easter egg hunt in the park, so he had a chance to practice and understand what this egg-hunting thing was all about :)
so, enough words, here are a *ton* of pictures for this post from easter

"eggs!!!"