my sweet kiddos are now 5 months and 23 months....how on earth did we get to this point so quickly?! while it will only last one more month, i've taken to calling them my "two-under-two crowd," which i think has a nice ring to it. we are back into the full swing of things -- managing lives as two full-time employees, homeowners, parents, dog owners and more. while this keeps us *very* busy, i can say that each one of these things is a blessing and offers us enjoyment nearly every day. the kids continue to grow and change and we are loving watching their little personalities shine through more and more every day.
after a few weeks of attempts, sweet sammy grace learned (on january 11th) to roll from back to tummy! she was already proficient at rolling from tummy to back, so now she is fully mobile when it comes to rolling side-to-side. while this is wonderful news and a great milestone, with it came a few night-time interruptions because she will flip herself over during the night and be too scared or surprised to keep sleeping. so she wakes, and cries until someone comes upstairs to turn her back over. of course, once you get upstairs she is *so* happy to see you, even if she knows you are just going to change her diaper and put her back down in the crib. now we are practicing sitting up, which she can only manage for a few short seconds unassisted.
she also started solids last month after her pediatrician appointment and is now eating anywhere from 2-4 Tbsp in the morning and evening. she does a great job with them, but because i wasn't as good about proactively making baby food this time around, so far she has only tried applesauce and pears. don't worry, the peas and carrots are already made and just waiting their turn.
samantha continues to be a super-happy baby, loving to talk, squeal, and laugh. she loves to see people when she wakes up in the morning, greeting whoever is picking her up out of her crib with big gummy grins. she also enjoys playing in her exersaucer for long stretches of time, and continues to be a fan of the activity mat. the best part, though, is seeing how she has learned to interact with her big brother. she will now watch him with fascination and laugh with big belly laughs when he interacts with her. he does a great job of including her, bringing her toys or explaining to her what he is playing with, "green car, sammy. ambulance, sammy." :)
speaking of our growing boy, noah has done so much and said so much this past month there is no way to potentially document it all. his vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds, and he now speaks proficiently in sentences and speaks from the minute he wakes up until we lay him down in bed at night. morning conversations are about toys and breakfast, then we talk about whatever we are playing with that day or things we want to do, and then we have more conversations about eating, nap time, bed time. he loves to list foods he wants for breakfast, "bagel, sausage, grapes!" and then while he's sitting at the table remind us of the rules (of gravity, mostly), "don' fall! chair breaks, noah cries." he also does a great job of telling us what sammy is doing, "sammy talkin'" or "sammy crying, she sad." his favorite thing to talk about, though, are his toy cars, and especially the ones that have required some tune-ups with glue. "geen car broken, wheel come off, daddy fix it." and "mustanging broken, daddy fix it." :) he also loves to talk about his new favorite series,
the magic school bus, which we only recently started watching after getting some DVDs from my sister. after one short episode noah was hooked, and now he loves to watch them. while we try to limit his TV time, i am at least okay with him watching these movies that are all about science (and the fact that i used to watch these growing up, too -- my favorites were about the human body, go figure).
i'm also happy to report that noah can now correctly identify every letter of the alphabet without assistance. while he is still not able to sing the song in order, he will readily tell you what letters he sees without prompting and loves to ID the letters on college sweatshirts. in other big news, noah has gotten 4 new teeth this month! for some reason noah has been slower to get his teeth than the average child, with only his four front teeth at the beginning of this year (two top and two bottom). within a few days after the beginning of the new year we noticed noah sprouting all four of the rest of his front teeth (the cuspids and maxillary laterals). this was only after we thought he had caught a cold because of his drippy nose and low-grade fevers. fortunately he was a little trooper and kept his happy attitude through it all.
the only other quirky thing noah has started doing is sleeping on the floor of his room. despite having his own queen-sized bed (a hand-me-down, yes, but still his), he chooses to grab his blanket and lovey and sleep in the smaller hall-like area next to his door. after moving him back to his bed numerous time only to have him wake and then deal with tired-toddler drama, we've pretty much decided to let him sleep there and hope that this phase will eventually pass. we've attempted other things too: nightlights, conversations with him about sleeping in his bed, etc. but nothing has deterred him from choosing to snooze next to his door. he seems happy with it, though, and so for now we will let it be.
i think that's all the big updates for now, although i'm sure i missed things about both kids. check my other post about our trip with the freys to the new perot museum earlier this month!
