december 07

--we’ve had a good month. lots of visiting with friends and family, celebrating. aidan’s most special times involved present-opening.
--we had three different “christmases” (with one more to go). my dad and sister could arrange a visit to va beach for the weekend of the 14th. we had billy’s dad, stepmom, and sister in town for the week of christmas. and the kids and i drove down to alabama to visit with my family a few days after christmas. we’re still down south, and will head north again on the 8th. (billy’s mom and stepdad will be coming to see us all in va beach later in january.) with each family group, and each christmas, aidan got tons of stuff. he loved it all, but has become a bit greedy. he has trouble sharing his new toys with his sister, but has no trouble using her new toys!
--christmas day was great. aidan understood that santa had come to give him “lots o presents.” if the gifts were clothes, he moved on pretty quickly, but really enjoyed the toys. sierra enjoyed all the paper on the floor, and the ornaments on the tree. we had a good time with dinner as well. our friends stu, sandra and ella, and shadra and jody came over to join us and billy’s dad, andrea, and devlin. it was good times with good people!
--our 16hour trip to mobile went very well. apart from taking a long time, we had no issues (other than weather…it was storming in virginia and foggy in alabama…the carolinas were clear (but had the worst roads!)) my plan…that worked out well…was to stop for a potty break, change her diaper and nurse her, every time i stopped for gas. i packed food and drinks in the car, toys and books for aidan, and books on cd for me. in general, it worked well. sierra would play-nap-play before we’d stop. only once did aidan wake her up early…so we had about 40minutes of fussiness, but not crying. aidan had a little more trouble staying content. he’d play and read, but got bored being stuck in the car. he kept asking for “li-li’s house” and “let me out.” i was prepared to have to stop overnight should the trip have gotten too hard. either due to traffic, weather, or crying and having to stop too often that we weren’t making good time. but they were great, i wasn’t tired, and traffic was pretty smooth. so that we could just go straight through. i was very proud of my little travelers.
--aidan has a bunch of new phrases. some of them are: “wait for me,” “not for you,” “stop that,” “christmas presents,” “ho ho ho, merry christmas,” “mommy, where are you?” “mommy, what you doing?” “let me in,” “put me down.”
--another milestones is pretend-play (which has been going on a while) getting more involved and creative. he LOVES to be an animal or fish. i get, “mommy, look at aidan” and then, “i’m a wallrus.” then he crawls and flips around making sounds. when he’s ready for a nap, he tells me “lion sleepy.”
--i would say that aidan is pretty much potty trained now. he still has accidents occasionally, and sometimes doesn’t really want to go #2, but we’re doing much much better! yea!
--sierra’s accomplishments are a bit more physical. she’s totally mobile now. she has progressed from rocking back and forth and launching forward an inch or two, to what i call the ‘sniper creep.’ she pulls with her hands and elbows, and pushes with her knees and feet, and can get ANYWHERE. she tries to climb over my legs when i’m on the floor, or whatever might be in her way. she of course goes straight for toys aidan is playing with…much to his annoyance. she even tries to pull up to higher toys. although she most likely pulls them down onto her instead. :) either way, she's moving along pretty quickly (litteraly and figuratively). aidan never crawled, he just did the sniper creep until he was nine months, then took off running. he's never actually stopped, really.
--she’s eating more foods too. in addition to the cereal i started at 4months, she’s eating pureed veggies (has had green beans, peas, and carrots so far), and trying stuff off of my plate. she seems to want my food more than hers, so she’s tried a lot of other things as well. she’s eaten mashed potatoes, sucked the potato out of a french fry, and really likes applesauce and mashed bananas. she even tried a bit of ice cream from my birthday, and a sucked on a little piece of a hershey bar.
--she’s babbling a lot more as well, and i think she’s teething. she chews on (and has been a while) anything she can. however, the best teether that i’ve found is a baby tylenol medicine dropper. she can hold the bottle and chew on the stopper/dropper. works great!
--she turned 6months, and had her checkup. doctor, again, says she’s doing great. she now weighs 16#15oz, and is 27.5” long. that’s 62nd percentile and 92nd percentile, respectively.
--whenever i’m on the computer, aidan asks to “push one time” since i sometimes let him push a button for me. so, this is from aidan:
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