Jackie's Birthday 2014

Two amazing things happened! First, Jackie's birthday oftentimes falls during Thanksgiving and/or when I am super pregnant. Neither of these things were true this year so I was super excited to celebrate her birthday!

Me, Jackie, unicorn balloon, and invisible fairy that ruined the picture

Jackie's nieces are child models! Really!

The second thing is that I actually went out at all! It's been tough going out because Miranda relies heavily on me. She takes a bottle now, but she also still nurses and she prefers the latter at night. Kevin was brave, so I left at dinner time so I could pick up a little gift for Jackie. She's been photographing "Lego Jackie" and "Lego Rob" around town so I went to the Lego store to get her some Lego hair that looks like her real hair.

The Lego Store is amazing.

New Lego Jackie head

Lego Rob and Jackie left on their honeymoon!

Miranda is 7 Months 2014

Seven months!

Sleep: Her sleeping has gotten even worse. I hold her for all her naps. We used to be able to put her down from 7:30-11 pm but she doesn't always tolerate that. She sleeps in the bed with us, we don't even pretend to put her in the co-sleeper crib anymore, and disassembled it. We're planning on maybe moving her to the crib after Thanksgiving, cutting night feedings, and sleep training her. We'll see!

Food: She nurses, drinks formula, and eats baby food every day now. She likes: oatmeal. apple sauce, bananas, yogurt, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, and she kind of hates green beans but still eats it because it's better than just milk all the time. She sort of like apples in the little mesh baby feeder.

What I do when I have to cook. She doesn't feed herself, but
entertains herself trying for a while.

Growth: She's still in 6-month clothing. I think she's 18 or 19 pounds.

She's still not interested in rolling. When James was this age, he'd roll anywhere he wanted to go. She sits somewhat dubiously and we put little pillows behind her in case she falls. On her 7-month birthday she started scooting forward from her sitting position to get to toys (usually James's toys that she shouldn't have). We have nicknamed her "Scooty."

She still likes us to hold her so that she can stand, and she can stand leaning for a few seconds on her own.

She's teething so she spends all day chewing on things. The two bottom teeth have made holes in her gums but so far the teeth can't be seen.

Personality: She's very inquisitive. She likes going through her little toy box and struggles to reach for James's toys, but also things that belong to me and Kevin like our phones, laptops and remotes.

She's also pretty grumpy except for right after her first two naps of the day. She takes a third nap still but she's never really that cheerful after that one. Although in her defense, she's easy to soothe- she just wants to be held constantly.

She's been having some stranger-danger reactions to our friends and to the babysitter but usually gets over it shortly. What she doesn't get over is her mama-preference. If she's with anyone else and I walk out of the room, or in and out, she gets really upset.

Kissing her favorite baby.


Going through her toy box.

Catching up on a little reading.

Likes:
Eating everything
Me, Kevin, James
Putting everything in her mouth
Looking at herself in the mirror
Having her picture taken
Sleeping in our bed snuggled with me
Her favorite song is "Do your ears hang low?" Runner up: Twinkle, Twinkle

Doesn't hate:
Walks

Hates:
Sitting in the bath (we have to stand her up like she's taking a shower)
Driving in the car in the daytime
Being ignored, like at all, even for a second

Me: I'm back to pre-Miranda weight! Hooray! But I'm not back to pre-James weight, which was itself not so great. So 5 more pounds to pre-James weight, then I set my new goal. I think breastfeeding is actually helping, though I was dubious for a long time. I think the trick for me was to keep nursing past the 6-month mark. Work was crazy again this month, though it was really helpful to have a babysitter. I was hoping my work would slow down a bit after our big hearing but it has not.

I still like to rock my maternity wear though because it's comfy.

Kevin: Kevin didn't volunteer anything this month but he's totally wrapped around Miranda's little finger. That's probably what he's doing right now actually, holding her while she sleeps or something similar. The other day he was smooching her, and I walked into the room. She whipped around comically like she'd been caught red-handed.

Hugs

The look of love.

James: James and Miranda are starting to experience a little tension over sharing or not sharing toys. He's really in love with her though, and seems convinced that she's some kind of pet of his, so that smooths over their difficulties. Plus James has a lot going on in his world! With school and the babysitter, he has an active social calendar. He's teaching himself to spell all sorts of words (he already spells James, mama, and dada on his own), counting past ten (they might be doing that at school?), addition, and reading the clock. Seriously, these are James-led activities. I am not tiger-momming him, I swear. I am trying to get him to understand a little Spanish now but it's slow going. The phrases he understands are: me gusta, muy bien, por favor, de nada, ten cuidado, ven.

Miranda stealing Legos

Hi, we're cute.

James and his mini-me.

Ta-da!

• Miranda at 6 Months
• James at 7 months

Nana Visits- November 2014

Things have been really busy at work, so last weekend when Nana visited, instead of going out on our own for a little while, we holed up in our office and worked.

Nana reading in Spanish to James

Look Miranda is entertaining herself for little periods now!

Nana dressed them up like Cubans

We let Nana have a little taste of Halloween

Group pics!

Happy pajama time!

Dinner buddies, James and...

... Miranda. Both are BIG eaters.

• Mom's last visit in September 2014
• Mom's visit in August 2014 
• Last year, Mom - November 2013

Our Friends on Halloween 2014

All of our friends looked adorable on Halloween so I thought I'd feature some here.

First, let's start with the happiest Halloween ever. Last year Owen was getting stem cell treatment for his cancer, and this year he was running down the street trick-or-treating. So this wins for awesomest happiest Halloween picture:

Owen and Hailey

I am biased in favor of awesome group costumes- so they come next!:

The Where's Waldo crew: Rachel, Tim, Eleanor and Isaac-Waldo

Wizard of Oz: Michele-Dorothy and friends

Jim and Lisa the vampires and theirs son Otto as a bat 

Family cuteness:

 

Kevin's tiny princess cousin Abigail


Kevin's cousin Mike and Mike's gf Havi

Childhood friends and their kids:

Casey's kids, Oliver and Laurel (far left)

Jon's kid Ben as Elmo

Trey and Sunny's pirate Cort and parrot Max

Neil the ape and his baby banana Bettina (and mom Ann)

College friends and kids:

Christina and Dan's superhero Hudson

Megan and Ed's Buzz Lightyear William

Princess Meghan and her knight Evan and ninja Nate

Batman-Cory and Cat Lady-Robin, although this would have 

been a perfect opportunity for Robin to be Batman's Robin 

Jeff and Inga's panda Silas

Other adorable friends:

Cathy's princesses Madison and Kennedy

Anna's kids: fairy Clara, lion Maxwell, Hogwarts student Abby, Princess Leah Lydia

 

Lina and Tiger Caleb

I only had one fur baby submission this year:

Janice and Darren's Fudgie the spider

Halloween 2014

This Halloween was awesome because two kids and two costumes means double the cuteness. James still doesn't care too much what he wears, so I picked his doctor costume based on how easy it was to buy and price, and Miranda's bunny costume too. But Miranda's costume had a little bit of extra significance since she was born on Easter, she's my little Easter bunny.

The doctor laughing at the bunny- I mean, can you handle it?

Sharing is her carrot! I can't handle it.

Pre-Trick-or-Treating picture! We quickly took off the ill-fitting cap.

Kevin looks pretty amused at the bunny. Off we go!

Trick-or-treating at Margaret and John's house!

For now, he's not too cool to trick-or-treat with Mama. I will enjoy it while it lasts.

She encouraged him to take some extra candy (because he's cute)

Figured out Mama was just slowing him down.

Miranda wonders: What's happening here? This is the weirdest day of my life so far.

Posing with the awesome street decorations.

Coming back from another successful collection.

Crockpot Vegetarian West African Peanut Soup for dinner - Delicious, easy, 

ready and waiting for us when we got back, and appropriately orange-colored

Checking out his haul

But there's more! James's school was hosting a Halloween event called Spooky Fest, and even though it ran into the kids bedtimes we decided it was pretty necessary. Plus, James had randomly fallen asleep for a 2-HOUR nap in the afternoon before trick-or-treating so instead of being crabby as he might sometimes be, he was in a great mood and totally cooperative.

James making a "scary" face outside of Spooky Fest. (Cannot handle it!)

Glow-in-the-dark dinosaur head. Does it get better than that for a kid?

Wandering around the (not-so) scary trail.

Duck or the "spider webs" will get you!

Peekaboo pumpkins!

The ghost on the right moves fast!

Haha, Miranda looks awesome.

Toddler craft area!

Make your own sticker-covered owl ornament. But why?

So excited to meet Mickey and a random wizard at Spooky Fest!

The bunny cashed out.

Luckily, all this late-night action dovetailed nicely into the end of Daylight's Savings Time so we're mostly adjusted to the new schedule already.

• Last Year's Halloween 2013- Pirate
• James's Second Halloween 2012 - Tiger
• James's First Halloween 2011- Monkey