Friday, October 19, 2012

9 Month Close Ups

In just a couple days, sweet Tatum will be 9 months old.

I love this age.  She lights up with joy when she sees us or her brother.

Now eating solid foods with her 2 bottom front teeth.  A top tooth is on its way in and it has given her a bit of trouble this week.  High temps and a sore bottom but she smiled her way through it.
On the menu these days: cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, yogurt, black beans, oatmeal, nutrigrain bars, avocados and of course pureed baby food like peas and peaches and pears.   


She still takes a 6 ounce bottle every 3 hours and now she is on Zantac for her spitting up.  She is by no means cured, but it seems to be helping quite a bit.
She is in bed around 7 and sleeps until 7 or so in the morning.  Naps are getting better.  When the house is quiet, I can usually get an hour out of her both in the morning and afternoon.


Her fiesty little personality is emerging!  She is still so so sweet.  But its fun to see her exuding some spunk.  She tackled Bennett to the ground the other day in an effort to steal away his sippy cup.  He just kept saying "No Ta-um, No Ta-um".  But she held on and would have emerged the victor had I not stepped in to mediate.  Her days are spent with Bennett and her 3 older cousins (all boys) so I think she can hold her own.  The only things she seems to be afraid of these days is the vacuum and the blender.  She wants nothing to do with either of those.


She is such a busy girl.  She crawls and climbs on everything.  And bathtime is very interesting.  She stands up about every 5 seconds so we pretty much have to hold on to her the whole time to prevent her from slipping and crashing in the tub.  She speed crawls when she sees something she wants and she can now crawl up the step from our living room to our kitchen, but she still doesn't know how to crawl down gracefully.  She has tried a couple times and has taken a spill, so it seems like she is getting close to having it figured out.

She is the perfect combination of sweetness and spunk and its been so much fun to watch her grow into her personality .  It is bittersweet as I think that in 3 short months she will be 1.  How quickly these months have gone.  We love you so much pumpkin noodle!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Swimming Lessons

The kids started swimming lessons this fall at the Blaine Community Pool
Monday Nights at 6pm
Both kids and both parents in the pool
(although you would not know it from the pictures)

They both have a blast and are tuckered out by the end of it.



Tatum is just happy to splash around
 and has even learned how to dip her face in the water.

Benny gets to do more advanced skills...like jumping off the diving board with some help from dad.
Monday nights are a hard night as he is usually worn out from the weekend and by the time lessons are over it is close to bedtime.  So sometimes there is some bribery involved in getting him to listen to the teacher's instruction.  But overall, he shows no fear of the water and has come a long way since his last swimming lessons 18 months ago.

Next week is the last lesson.  And it's probably the last time they will be able to be in the same class. Together time in the pool on Monday nights is coming to a close.
Moving on to bigger things.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

And just because she is so cute...

Gotta share a preview of Lil' Miss too.


Just because she is so darn cute!

Daddy's Puppet

We got in on my parent's vineyard photo shoot this weekend.  We have not seen all the pictures yet, but this one cracked me up. 

Ben and Pat are such troopers...both of them will do anything for a good laugh.

With his feet dangling the way they are, he really does look like a doll.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Over the Hump

 
 

1 week ago Bennett moved into his Toddler bed and left the crib as a thing of the past.  The week was not without some bedtime drama, but overall the transition was smoother than expected and I think we are over the hump.  His new bed is now feeling like home to him and the bedtime routine seems to be back to normal.  He loves that we can sit next to his bed on the floor to read stories while he lays in his bed and in the morning we hear him in there singing and talking. But he really has not ventured out by himself yet.  I am sure as he figures out the freedom that comes with a big boy bed, he will start to do that. 

We could hear him up there the first couple nights having a little party with his books and toys but that has since passed...thanks to it getting darker earlier...whoot whoot!

So grown up.
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Sunday, September 16, 2012

Harvest Time

2012 brought another harvest celebration at GG and Grandpa's vineyard. 


From Gramma Toots, Benny got a model tractor that looks exactly like Grandpa's real tractor and he just loves it!  If it were not for his disdain of having dirty hands, I might start to think we have a future farmer on our hands:)


Kaylee joined us for another harvest and she was the vineyard chauffeur, driving folks around on the 5 wheeler wherever they needed to go. Drivers Ed will be nothing for this girl!


Dan and Amy joined in the harvest this year and the boys were excited to see Randa Panda's grapes!

By the time we were done, Benny's hands and mouth were completely stained blue showing the evidence that he did much more eating of the grapes than he did picking.  And let's just say I hope he is potty trained by next year's harvest because that after harvest diaper was the WORST!

 Tatum got to take a turn on the grape scale and she weighed in at a whoppin' 16.4.  Way to go big girl!


Tatum also had fun pretending to drive grandpa's cart.  She had a blast hanging out with my Grandpa and he just ate her up.



Pat started a new trend amongst the farmers by sporting his golf shoes at the harvest.  He claimed that they were water proof and had good treads...but I know the truth...he really just forgot his work boots:)  I wonder what my extended family thought..."Can you believe that city slicker wore his golf shoes to work out here???!"


And the Master of it all.  Grandpa Grape himself.  You done good dad.  You have put your blood, sweat and tears into this place and it shows.  The place is beautiful and the harvest was plentiful.
Until next year!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

The 763 Olympics

This is what people in the north metro do for fun. It's good to be 763.


I wonder how many corn kernels I will find in the washing machine?