She's growing up

My four year old has recently learned to write her name. I am a proud mommy for sure. She came up to me a couple of weeks ago and said, look Mommy, I wrote Natalya.

(It's a tough one to spell. lots of letters.)

*sniff* My baby's growing up on me.

Zachary is ONE!!

I mean, seriously. Can you believe it?? Time has FLOWN by!!

He turned one a week+ ago, but we had his birthday party yesterday. He was so funny. He loved everyone singing to him but didn't know what to make of his own cake (we got a "smash" cake with the big cake) he bit his fingers in it and I finally cut a piece out and put it up to his mouth and he took a nibble, but that was it. I think he was shy to eat in front of everyone. :)

He just started pointing to things he wants. He is still signing milk, but now he signs it for everything! LOL! If I have shown him a sign for a work, he uses the sign for milk. So he understands and remembers that I showed him a sign, he just can't remember it or figure out how to do it, so he signs milk (like for dog, more, thank you, bird) he just signs milk. hehe.

He is a crawling madman. He is fast too! He isn't showing interest in walking yet, which is fine by me. He is saying Mama, Dada and Nana (natalya) ocassoinally and Uh-oh. Not talking nearly as much as Natalya was but he does like to squeal. Oh boy can he squeal. I guess he wants to make sure he is heard because he is LOUD and high-pitched. !!

He loves balls. Any ball he is obsessed with. He got lots of ball toys for his birthday and he is in ball-hog-heaven. He carries them everywhere, although it's pretty funny to watch him try to figure out how to carry the balls and crawl simultaneously. He has also suddenly become obsessed with balloons! He had one we got at Publix last week and he would NOT let go of the string. I mean, I had to pry it loose to get him to go to sleep. When I take it out of one hand, he sticks the other out and grabs it with the other hand. Smart kid. lol. So for his birthday party, my grandmother went to dollar tree and got like 12 helium balloons and the strings were long enough to reach the floor- he was loving it- crawling around and grabbing all the strings. He would crawl past you with them all trailing behind him! hahahaha! I have all these pics of him clutching onto the balloon strings.

He is a pretty smart cookie too. He was in the bathroom with me the other day and picked up a roll of toilet paper that had not made it onto the actual roll yet and he looked at me and pointed to the roll like, Mommy, this goes over there.

He also loves putting things in and taking things out. Especiall balls. hehe. Anything he can put in and out makes him happy. To occupy him, I will sometimes give him a plastic cup and a couple of small-ish balls. In out, in, out.

I can't believe he's already one!! He's my baby! He's not supposed to be this old!

A few new pics of the kids

I snapped a few pics today of the kids. I have been lax on the picture taking. I am still pretty bummed about my camera, and have been using mom's old camera (thanks!). And it needs the battery to be recharged a LOT. We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend and had a LOT of fun- when we got there... battery died on the camera. I think I took one picture. They had fun though- and Natalya picked out a pumpkin that needs to be carved, so perhaps that will be the plan for this weekend. We always carve a big one and paint some small ones. (Speaking of which...I need to find the paint!).

Kids are getting big. I can barely even lift Natalya anymore and Zachary is no tiny thing himself. :) Natalya is doing great at gymnastics. She's in a pre-competition class and loves it. She can do bunny hops on the balance beam now by herself without holding onto a coach! She is also doing simple math. She'll say something like, "Mommy, I have four crayons!" And I'll say, "If I take one, how many do you have?" And she'll say "THREE!!" And she can do it quickly too, with very little hesitation.

Zachary is out of his "dada" kick and into "Mama" kick. Everything is "Mama". My new favorite? He will say "uh-oh Mama" when something falls. :) His top two teeth are in, barely poking through- finally! He was working on those forever it seems like. He is crawling everywhere- and he's FAST! If he knows you're after him, he'll hit high ghear and laugh the whole time he's beelining away at top speed. Very cute. He also started "kissing". He does the sweet open-mouth baby kisses, but also, if you say "Zachary, kisses!" He will make a kissy sound by sucking his tongue through his lips. It makes the same sound you'd make if you were puckering and making the "kissing" noise. It is REALLY stinking cute!

Both kids are balls of energy and I can't wear them out fast enough!

Without further ado, here's some pics... Not great, but better than nothing, right?
These are from a few weeks ago at the park


And here is one from earlier this week

And then some from today

Zachary's first sign!

I've been signing with Z just like with N. We started with him at around 3 months, just like with N. She picked up her first sign, "milk" at 7 months. I haven't given up on Z yet, but it's taking a lot longer! (That boy thing and communication thing).

He tried to sign dog once a bit ago, but hasn't really attempted anything since.

Today he signed milk to his sister, then has been signing it all day! He is so excited to have put it together he is very exuberant with his signing. He gets the biggest smile when he signs it and you say, you want "milk"?

Of course, I've been nursing him a lot more today than in the past few weeks as a result since I want him to appreciate that asking for milk will actually result in him getting milk. kwim?
LOL

Communication begins! I love it!

Awww- poor Zachary

He is finally getting the top two front teeth in and it is taking forever! Poor baby- the front right one is protruding down, but the gums haven't popped over it yet, so it looks like the tooth is "in" but it's the gum poking down. You can tell it hurts. I was trying to let him chew on my finger, and rub the gum to help it pop through, but he was resisting. The gum was bleeding some too. I have tried giving him cold things to chew on, wet/cold washcloth, etc, and he's having none of it.

I guess time will be the only thing to help. I don't remember Natalya having any trouble cutting her teeth.

Another reason to breastfeed

We're sick. It started with natalya. She has a cough that has been lingering for ages. I finally took her to the dr last week and they diagnosed her with bronchitis and gave her an inhaler and albuterol. Meanwhile, Doug picked up a cough, but he seems to be better now.
Then Zachary started with the runny nose, but no cough.

Now I have a horrible cough and congestion. I feel like i am coughing up junk from my lungs, not just out of my sinuses.

I am thrilled that Zachary has only got a runny nose. I am so thankful for breastfeeding, as I know he would have gotten all this other crap if he wasn't getting the immunities from me.

*whew*

We're crawling and sick

Well, it was bound to happen. Once he started crawling he wants down. Everywhere. Trying to keep him off of nasty, filthy, germ-covered floors is just about nearly impossible. So we've been sick a bit.
Actually, Natalya is the one sick right now. She's got a horrid cough that is just really hanging in there- now it's congestion-filled. Poor kid.

Zachary is a crawling fiend. He is FAST too!! When he puts something in his mouth he's not supposed to (which would be ANYTHING he finds on the floor), he will crawl as fast as he can (picture warp speed) in the opposite direction, laughing the whole time you're after him.
He loves balls. Any balls. And he can throw pretty well already! He will throw you the ball if you ask him to. He is getting pretty big. He was at the dr a few weeks ago for his 9 month well baby (had to be postponed b/c he had a fever and rash- random kid bug). And he was 20.5lb and 28" long! My tall kiddos.

(How a 5'3" woman and 5'9" man had two such tall kids is beyond me).

Overall we're doing great. Sorry for the delay in posting. I'll try to have some pics up soon. :)