Sunday, March 25, 2018

Picture update

These first few pictures were taken in February. I tried uploading them over a week ago but they didn't want to so here they are. I can't get enough of these faces.

    
I love my fierce Emma girl and my smiley Henry boy.


We have had a few days of beautiful weather in the past few weeks, in March. One of these beautiful days I took the kids to the playground and we couldn't get enough of our time outside. Henry had his first ride on a swing! His reaction was pretty neutral; not thrilled but also didn't object. He mostly liked watching the kid in the swing next to him.

 


She volunteered to push him without me even talking about it. She wasn't as soft as I'd have preferred but she was pretty careful for a 3-year-old.



Tuesday, February 20, 2018

My baby is half a year old

Henry is still often a happy little boy, although he was sad when he was sick earlier this month. He still looks at each member of his family like they're the best mom, dad, sister. He's very alert and attentive to what's going on around him; Emma is probably his favorite person to watch and she receives especially big grins. He's a friendly soul who loves attention from others and will give anyone a smile.

He has been rolling onto his tummy since the day after his 4-month appointment, sometimes trying to do so during diaper changes and without fail after each change. He enjoys time on his tummy when he can reach for and grab toys or try to eat a colorful play mat. Since hitting the 6 month mark he has begun almost-crawling (toe pushing, body wiggling) and is getting faster by the day. He loves this new-found skill and I continue to be dumbstruck by it.

We got him a Jumperoo (second-hand) after visiting family in Oregon where he got to use theirs and LOVED it and has loved using one at home. I set it up next to Emma's small trampoline and they are too adorable when they jump simultaneously and enthusiastically. Emma usually shouts "we're jumping!" and will jump big or little depending on how Henry is jumping.

The 4-month sleep regression that came when Henry was 4.5 months old ruined nighttime sleep for a couple months. His naps became somewhat regular, though, and he usually takes 2-3. Just in the past week or so he has started sleeping better at night which is a huge relief. He must be wearing himself out with all the moving around he does.

We sure love our Henry boy. Emma has begun playing with him more lately and seeing them together melts my mommy heart.

Pictures to come. I want to get this posted while it's still February. Ha.

Monday, January 15, 2018

We have a three-year-old

Emma's birthday was a week ago today. She is learning and understanding so much about the world around her at this age, yet often struggles to understand her own emotions and responses. It somewhat amazes me that she has the capacity to be almost cuter than I can bare but at other times is more frustrating than I can handle. I suppose that's probably just toddlers. Or children...

I love the times she and Henry just enjoy looking at each other. It's sweet when she asks me to go help him when he starts crying and it's sort of funny the times when she runs off to go help him herself and doesn't want me to come too. She often loves finding ways to help me with her brother and is an excellent big sister.

Her speech has improved so much in the past year, and particularly in the past 6 months. She often surprises me and Bry with things that she says, and has a great memory.

She still loves being out of the house and going for walks, and loves weekends when we're all together.

For Emma's birthday weekend she enjoyed a visit from her Ama and Pap, as did we. She is one lucky little girl.


She actually blew out her candles this time! Rather than blowing "fffff".

Cheeser.


She sure loves cupcakes.

In typical kid manner, she threw the clothes aside, looking at few.

Also in typical kid manner, she wanted to open the toys right away.

She likes to hug soft things.



Monday, December 25, 2017

Henry's First Christmas

Bry got his wish and it started snowing on Sunday so we had a nice layer of white outside to enjoy. It was a beautiful white Christmas.



She pulled out a Lindt truffle first which she wasted no time in opening and getting in her mouth. Thus the bulge.
Then she pulled out an apple.

She's so funny.

Both arms in.

Looking at the snow outside.

This Christmas was brought to us by Amazon (mostly). Ha.


The aftermath. Computer was set up to video California family.

Emma was so excited to go out in the snow and have daddy build a snowman.


She wanted a picture with it but only paused for one.

Henry's first Christmas!!

We're so grateful for family sending us a plethora of gifts and feel so greatly blessed. I know I can do more to share my blessings with others and hope to get better at reaching out and giving more. Emma and Henry bring me such joy and I hope to raise them to think of others and to serve others. Emma is constantly wanting to share things with us and I love the joy and kindness she exhibits. Henry freely gives of his adorable smiles and I want him to keep spreading happiness. We are grateful for Jesus Christ and the endless bounds of His love for us. As Emma likes to sing "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and want to become more like Him. 

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Four-month-old baby

Henry continues to grow, if somewhat slowly. He's tall (43rd percentile) and lean (<1st percentile) with a small-ish head (19th percentile); mainly, though, he is a happy and healthy baby. We will be able to start feeding him baby cereal/mush and pureed foods which we hope will help him fill out.

He finds his fingers to be very tasty and has them in his mouth most of the time he isn't eating. He frequently smiles at us although he seems to find less familiar people to be funnier than us since he'll laugh for other people who hold him but rarely laugh for us. His toes seem to fascinate to him and he grabs at them. Emma shows him her toys sometimes and he becomes very interested in them. Speaking of Emma, she has warmed up to him more in the past month or so. She continues to help with him as much as she can - grabbing a burp cloth, diaper, clothes, whatever for him. Very rarely does she say she's "busy" and doesn't help.

We're glad to have both our little ones who are filled with so much love and sweetness, and look forward to having Christmas as a family of four.

Here are a couple pictures from our ward Christmas party.

Emma is not a big fan of Santa so I talked with her ahead of time about taking a picture with him.
She told me she would "stand next to daddy" so here she is. She did it.

Our silly girl - she was okay without daddy the second time but still just standing by Santa.
Henry didn't cry for his first Santa photo! He is a friendly little guy.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

Emma and Henry

Emma cracks me up. Here are some pictures I took a few weeks back.

This is Emma scooting away when I put Henry close to her.


She ended up with no where left to scoot so she decided to do this instead.


I moved Henry so their heads were closer together and they just cracked me up with their expressions.



Henry likes to watch his sister.

Two month baby boy

This post is a few weeks late. I was waiting to post until his 2-month appointment which was scheduled a few days after he hit 2 months. However, at the appointment I was thrown for a loop when I found out he had gained NO weight the past month and was <1st percentile for weight. Henry's doing well in every other area so the doctor wasn't concerned but I have had to add bottles to his schedule to make sure he's getting more calories each day. He was re-weighed two weeks after his appointment which was Monday and he'd gained 12 oz! So he's back on track but still has a lot of catching up to do.

He is a smiley, happy baby and we love having him in our family. Emma is warming up to him more and is as helpful as ever - she gets diapers, wipes and a changing mat for when I need to change him, she takes bottles when he finishes them and puts them on the kitchen counter for me, she grabs burp cloths if I need them, gets his binky for him sometimes when he's upset, turns on the music on his bouncer when he's in it, and sings songs to him when he's crying (my favorite).

He's long (70th percentile for height) and lean but doing great - just needs to pack on the pounds.