Thursday, March 31, 2016

Easter

We had a fun and relaxing Easter which started with church in the morning, BBQ for lunch, and an Easter egg hunt in our house.  I didn't get a picture of the kids together, but here's Mary ready for church:
I put together some small Easter baskets for each of the kids.  Grammy Nichols got Mary her first Fisher Price dollhouse and a Jake and the Neverland Pirates play ship for the boys.  My parents ordered us donuts and pastries from a local bakery that we had for breakfast.  
After church we hid eggs in the house.  Some of the eggs had coins and others had little notes with clues on where they could find a small gift.  They boys had so much fun listening to the clue and then running to see what the surprise was.  Every time Owen found a prize he would come back screaming "Daddy!" in a high pitched squeal.

Mary's 18-Month Update

Mary turned 18-months on March 5th.  We had her wellness visit a few days later.  Her stats are:

Appointment Date: 3/9/16

Weight- 25 lbs. (60th %)
Height- 31.4 inches (42nd %)
Head Circ.- 48.1 cm (87th %)

I was pretty happy about her weight, because back at her 9 month appointment she had lost weight from the prior appointment and was in the 3rd percentile.  She has come a long way slowly working her way up the curve into a range similar to her brothers at the same age.
Mary is definitively our pickiest eater.  She won't even try most things including the majority of fruits and vegetables.  It would be one thing if she would try it and didn't like it, but she won't even put it in her mouth.  I'm so thankful for Happy Tot fruit and veggie packs, because they have been a lifesaver, along with smoothies, to make sure she gets what she needs.  She DOES like any form of carbs (all potatoes, bread, puffs, Pirates Booty) and most forms of dairy (yogurt and cheese primarily).  Jonathan gave her a chunk of milk chocolate last night, and the look in her eyes was like her life had been changed forever!  I really can't blame her for the foods she loves as they are the foods that I love the most, but who doesn't like fresh fruit??!!  She does like guacamole and olives, so that helps with getting some healthy fats in.

She's still the best sleeper of all 3 kids, so I guess she has to be difficult in another way just to make things exciting :).

Special Daily Moments

I haven't posted in two months, and I was trying to figure out what we did that was special in that time. There haven't been any major events, but that's kind of been the beauty of the past couple months.  We've just been having fun in our daily routine.  Now that Mary is 18-months she has integrated into activities with the boys more often.  It's fun to see the dynamics between them when they pair off versus when they all play together.
These two get irritated with each other, but they have their special moments as well.
Jackson is so sweet with Mary.  He loves playing chase with her, he does whatever it takes to make her laugh, and he likes to do underdogs for her on the swing.
I think they could live on the trampoline.  This was one of the best outdoor purchases that we've made.
Mary's a pretty tough little cookie.  She does not take anything from her brothers.  She loves to wrestle with them, and they're both pretty gentle with her.  Owen sometimes forgets that he's bigger, though.
This is one of the tricks the boys like to do with Jonathan.  They just started doing it on the trampoline and jumping off of his hands.
I love this picture from one of our zoo trips.  Jack makes a great statue, and Owen dances to the beat of his own drum :).
Jackson came home from school one day and said that his friend got a love note from his mom, and he wanted me to send one in his lunch.  It's so sweet!  He made me a similar note to my heart note, and I keep it in my wallet. 
Jackson is becoming a really strong reader and writer for his age.  It's almost shocking how quickly he's picking up on everything, and he's really learned a lot of it on his own.  If we try to help him he tends to get frustrated, but he will sit on his own working to sound things out.  We were driving to dinner one night, and he wrote this little story all by himself on the way.  It says, "This was the rocket.  I at the moon.  Today is a great day."
We had some box corners at the house from another project, and he created a ball track with them one morning.  This is one of them, but he made about 10 different configurations using elevated couch cushions.
Mary is one of the perkiest little people that I know.  She's full of energy, and she runs all over the house trying to find any way she can be mischievous.  
She makes me laugh so hard on the trampoline, because her running and jumping looks hilarious.  She also gets crazy hair static.  If we leave the back door open she bolts out to climb the ladder up to the trampoline.


 I just love this picture of her wearing Jackson's sunglasses.
This week is Teacher Appreciation week.  Jackson made a note for his teacher and teacher's assistant.
Owen's school crafts continue to be adorable.  Here are just a few:
Owen is also newly potty trained, and I use the word 'trained' loosely.  I was planning to do it over Spring Break, but he woke up one morning before the Spring Break with a dry diaper so I asked him if he wanted to sit on the toilet.  He peed on the toilet when I sat him down, and he's been going on the toilet ever since.  He's only had two accidents, and they were when he was just busy having fun and the urge struck too quickly.  It was basically a non-event switching over to underwear.  That was totally my kind of potty training.  I hope Mary took notes!