Madeline's first Dance Recital

Christmas

Christmas was great this year despite my ruptured ear drum and then one sick kid followed by another sick kid...here are the pictures that prove it! We start our Christmas each year with Tyler's family and then return to our home Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is spent at home in the morning and then with my family in the afternoon. Thanks to our wonderful families and friends for making it such a special year!


Tucker eating (his favorite thing) and Sasha waiting for Tucker to drop something (her favorite thing).


Our Christmas Eve dinner was a pizza buffet and Tucker and I really enjoyed it!


Madeline's first Christmas gift to open this year (from Nan). She loved it!


Tucker would have been happy with a box for Christmas!

My favorite gifts!

Madeline and I always make Christmas cookies for Santa.

Madeline asked Santa for Handy Manny's repair shop, "big barbie princess Jasmine," and "big barbie purple Tiana."

Tucker got trucks and enjoyed (eating) Madeline's tools.

I think he is just the prettiest boy!

Madeline's fever finally caught up with her Christmas Day and she spent a while resting.

And running into furniture wearing her Mamie's glasses.

Santa used to bring me Unicorns. Giant Unicorns. Madeline isn't into Unicorns so Santa wanted to find a giant princess for her. She loves "big princess Cinderella." She dances with her and reads her stories and watches cartoons with her. Santa is so happy.

Big Cedar

I love this picture. This was Thursday night while we were trying to pack and get ready to go. Madeline wanted to try out her new DVD player and headphones and she was so engrossed in this experience that she didn't notice me slip her new hat on her.

This is the gang with sweaty Santa. Me, Mom, Deborah, Tyler, Matthew, Tucker and Madeline.

Tucker hated sweaty Santa. I wasn't a fan either. He was kind of bossy.

We have been going to Big Cedar every year right before Christmas since I was pregnant with Madeline. It is one of my favorite traditions. Madeline had a blast this year. The funniest thing is that she can't understand why we keep talking about presents and asking Santa for presents but none of the presents she has asked for have come yet. She just asked me again last night why she keeps asking for things but Santa hasn't brought them yet. I realized that I hadn't taken the time to explain Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to her. That this was the Christmas season and that we don't actually get our presents until next week. Anyway- at Big Cedar the elf "Rainbow" came to visit us and read the kids a story and tuck them in and she brought Madeline a stuffed dog. Madeline looked at her like- "HUH?!" when Rainbow said Santa had sent it for her. Madeline was about to get M-A-D if that was what Santa had sent her! Mom explained to her that that was just a fun gift the elf had brought her for her to have until Christmas. And don't worry- we are talking every night about Jesus and the real Christmas gift.

Tucker does have pupils...my red eye editing is not the greatest.

We went for a carriage ride after breakfast with Santa. We love the Belgian horses.

Elf tuck in Saturday night.

Worman House which now will forever be known as "the place where I had brunch 2 tables over from Vince Vaughn."

Madeline forgot to ask Santa for Handy Manny's repair shop "to fix princess Thumbelina with one leg." So we dropped a letter to him in his mailbox.

All done!

Madeline on the carriage ride.

Tucker decorating stockings.

Madeline's stocking.

Tucker's Ninth Month

Tucker went for his 9 month check up yesterday. Tomorrow he will be 10 months old. He is 30" long which put him in the 87th percentile. His head is 18 and 3/4" which puts his giant noggin in the 93rd percentile and he weighs 21 pounds and one ounce which puts him in the 47th percentile for weight.

We are working on signs. I sign to him mostly when he is eating and in the highchair contained. I sign for milk, more, eat, and thank you. This morning I loaded him back in his car seat after we dropped off Madeline and I said- do you want to go home and get some milk? And he signed for milk! It looks more like "roll it" from patty cake then it does milk but every time I say milk he makes the same motion so I think he really is signing.

He loves to give kisses. In the mornings after we have dropped off Madeline and had breakfast we play for an hour or so and I always get out this little Dora puppet of Madeline's and ask Tucker to give it hugs and kisses. He slobbers all over Dora hugging and kissing her. We usually have The View on and whenever the audience claps he claps too.

I don't know if I have mentioned it but he barks with the dog. He loves Sasha. Whenever he hears her barking he crawls as fast as he can to the back door to stand and look out barking at whatever she is barking at. Tyler and I always thought it would be a good social experiment to turn our kids out to be raised by the dog so they could be "free range children." Looks like it won't be necessary for Tucker. He already thinks he's a dog.

He has started letting go of whatever he is holding on to when he is standing and standing on his own for a couple of seconds. He stands and then will lower himself down to crawl so easy and carefully.

He tears through Madeline's room at any given opportunity with wild abandon. He loves to grab her things and throw them or crumple them or rub them on his face and toss them aside. He is possessed when he is in there- like he knows it is so forbidden and he just can't get to everything fast enough before he gets caught or kicked out by his sister.

He thinks "no" is hilarious. He grabs at wires and plugs and when I say "no" he turns around to look at me and laughs so hard before turning around again to do exactly what I just told him not to. Madeline was so easy. I could say no in a loud tone one time and then she wouldn't do whatever it was that she had been doing. She would crawl to outlets and point to them saying "na na, na na," and never touch them.

We have moved over almost exclusively to formula. When I was pregnant my milk supply dropped dramatically and I was asked to wean Tucker. After I lost the baby my milk came back but still not enough to satisfy him. He was crying at night and having a hard time going to sleep so I started giving him a bottle in addition to nursing him. We went from 4 ounces to 8 ounces and I bet now he is taking around 16 ounces of formula or more daily. Once your brain starts to think in ounces it is hard to go back to breast feeding uncertainty. You never know how much milk they are getting when nursing and I have never felt secure in my supply so I am content to give him formula and feed him whatever milk I have until his first birthday. Which is two months away. Crazy.

He is so healthy and strong and we are so fortunate and blessed.

PICTURES!

I mean, what can you say?!


Giddy up!


My children look so different from one another! I am always telling Madeline not to suck on the washcloth in the tub. Now that Tucker is bathing with her I tell her that he probably peed in the water so she definitely should NOT suck on the washcloth. I think I broke her of it!


Our fancy party night.

Madeline at her Christmas program. I had a knot in my throat throughout the entire thing. Too sweet.

The most important milestone

I need to write down some "by the book" milestones that Tucker has met over the last couple of months but the most important milestone in my opinion is one that I have never read about in a book...responding to a "give mamma a kiss" request.

Tucker loves his reflection in the mirror. He has for a long time. He smiles and reaches out to touch his face in the mirror. One day I said- can you kiss the baby? And he opened his mouth and gave the mirror baby a huge wet kiss. There's a slobber kiss on the mirror in the kids' bathroom that needs to be cleaned off right now...I keep meaning to do that...anyway-

So, once I knew he understood "kiss" I started asking him to kiss me all the time. He kisses me by leaning his head over to me and letting me kiss him. BUT, last night, after hours of neglect (I had been cooking and doing some baby shower projects with a friend) Tyler handed Tucker over to me and he lunged for my face with his mouth open wide and just slobbed my face up! It was wonderful. I could feel his excitement to get into my arms. He did it again and I couldn't quit laughing. It was the sweetest thing.

Other less important milestones-
He is walking behind a walker. He loves it. Eventually his little legs get tired but he doesn't want to stop so he will keep trying to get up and go again and then fall out in the floor frustrated with his little body's limitations.

He is throwing fits. When Madeline takes her princesses away from him he either flails his hands wildly hitting his lap or falls out in the floor on his belly kicking and whining. It's hilarious.

He plays patty cake. He's really good at the clapping part, the "roll it" part, and the "pat it" part. Tyler says the way I demonstrate the "throw in the oven for the baby and me" part is way too flamboyant and is trying to teach him a more masculine hand gesture. Whatever. Tucker is going to have crazy baby jazz hands if I have any say in it.

He's been pulling up for a while now and "cruising" down the couch. Yesterday I asked him "where's the baby" on his yo baby yogurt cup and he touched the baby. I also asked him to give mommy a bite of his lunch and he handed me a cracker bite after much goading.

He's just the best. Still not much of a day time sleeper but it is getting better. Most days he'll take one hour and a half nap. I'll take it.

My Madeline is doing so good. She is so funny. Every day she'll come up with a new phrase or story that cracks us up. The other day she said, "I hate to tell you this but..." More and more I find myself mustering up the strength to remain calm during her fits. I don't take them so personally now. I just breathe and try to go to a happy place and just love her. We are still using a star chart and a "family movie night" each week as her reward for good behavior. We love family movie night. We all pile in the bed and watch a good movie and then pass out. Madeline is a sidewinder. I have to remove her head or feet from my back at least three times throughout the night.

She is becoming more of a nurturing big sister lately. She has gotten wise to Tucker and loves to run through the house trying to out run his crawling to shut her door when he is headed for her toys. She has allowed him to play with her tag teddy several times- this is a teddy bear that goes everywhere with Madeline and the one thing that Tucker has always wanted to get a hold of. She will give him some less significant character in her princess collection to pacify him so that we can continue our pretending. She is developing empathy- the single most important trait I want to instill in my children. Last night she took a book away from her friend and I asked her if Mary Claire looked happy or sad. She said that Mary Claire looked sad and gave her back the book. I was SO proud.

Tucker is holding his own with Madeline and giving her a dose of her own medicine. He pesters her and just laughs and laughs. Every morning after I have fed him we sit on the couch for a few minutes before play and every morning he goes after her blankie. Every morning he just grins and giggles while trying to snatch it and every morning she freaks out and screams "NO TUCKER!" It's great.

They love entertaining each other in the back seat. Madeline spits sometimes. I don't know why or how it started but Tucker thinks it is great and just dies laughing every time. I don't encourage the behavior but I do quietly crack up in the front seat. Madeline loves to make him laugh. He also loves it when she kicks his car seat. She's not being mean she just knows it will make him laugh. Silly kids. I hope they keep making each other laugh.

That's all for now. My mucinex woke me up at 3:30 but now it is 5:30 and I think I might be able to sleep for a bit. I should seize the opportunity and exercise but I'm not going to. Tyler and I get to go to a fancy Christmas party tonight and the dress is already bought and fits perfect. I'd hate to lose any weight between now and 6 p.m. and have an ill fitting dress.

I'm back

This was our perfect day. The Sunday before we lost the baby when I thought that our family could certainly make room for another blessing. I felt so good on this day. Tyler and I are doing better now. I really appreciate the kind words I have received from so many of you and your prayers. Thank you.




My tiny dancer



Tucker is so hilarious now. He holds his own with Madeline and has started to torment her. He pesters her and just giggles the entire time she gripes.




My monkey

Tucker and the candy corn monster tattoo