So independent

Symeon is getting more independent everyday.  Today he put on his own shoes. 

Lady Gaga and Sunday School?

If you don't know who I am talking about I don't believe you are missing much.  She is a singer that I am not to fond of and really the only reason I even know who she is is because Shawn buys and sells tickets for her show.  Since he brokers some tickets from her shows he receives some free stuff from "her" so in the mail there was a picture of her on these silly little stars.  Symeon found one and showed it to me and off the cuff I said yah that is Lady Gaga she is silly.  As soon as I said it I regretted it because he looked at me and said Gaga and laughed and I knew he was an instant fan.  Gaga has become one of his favorites.  He picked her out in one of Shawn's Rolling Stones magazines and her picture was up on the computer the other day and Symeon yelled out Gaga.  He will carry the star around saying Gaga.  Shawn encourages him since Laday Gaga annoys me.  I like to think it has to do with the funny costumes she wears more than anything else.  I feel okay about Gaga being one of his favorite words because his other favorite is Sunday School so I think that trumps Lady Gaga.

 

Toes

Marin has a thing for toes that I really hope she outgrows.  I hate feet so this really grosses me out. 

 

A wild outfit

This is one of Symeon's better outfit choices. 

He basically wore the Eagles apron and the mittens my Mom made him most of the day.  I did get him to take the mittens off to eat lunch which was helpful.     

8 months old

Marin turned 8 months old on January 16th.  She had a busy month cutting two teeth, learning to say Da Da, standing on her own, pulling herself up on everything, and finally taking two steps.  She eats very little baby food that is pureed because she hates to be fed unless it is Symeon giving her the food.  She eats almost everything we eat and she loves it.  She has begun to scream at the top of her lungs just to hear what it sounds like.  She is in love with Symeon's stuffed Curious George monkey that Austin and Clover bought.  She has begun sleeping with it and it is so cute to go in her room and see her snuggling George.  She wakes us up in the morning by "talking" to George.

She has also begun going to other people willingly and will even allow me to leave the room while she is being held.  We were able to leave her with a babysitter for the first time and she did great.  I think having Symeon with her helps quite a bit.  Marin continues to worship her brother and she follows him everywhere.  They play hide-and-seek together although I don't think Marin knows she is playing.  Every month they get cuter and cuter with one another it is such a blessing to see them interact.  Marin continues to be such a happy baby who laughs easily and smiles at everyone.  She is such a blessing to our family. This month she had pulled over the garbage on many occasions, she pulled an entire pan of raw chicken in a marinade out of the fridge, when she is crawling across the floor anything in her way gets chucked behind her nothing impedes her progress and I mean nothing.

Here are a few pictures of some of the "trouble" she gets into on a regular basis these days.

 

She loves Shawn's computer especially if he is working on it

Enjoying a book with her brother

Let her know if you need any cleaning done

Here is the infamous picture we were taking when she took her first steps

She pulled these burrito shells off the table and I found her sitting on the floor eating them 

 

Busted Sissy Girl

A sign

One day last week I came home from work and it seemed pretty clear that it had been a rough kid day for Shawn.  Marin gave away the secret. 

 

but as any stay at home parent knows on a hard day it is a victory if they have on any pants even if they were inside out

Vacuum Cleaners

A year long volunteer where we live vacuums the hall outside our apartment every morning and no matter what Symeon is doing when he hears that vacuum in the hallway he runs to get our small vacuum and heads out to the  hall to be with his friend.  One morning last week we captured the moment of them together since Tessa will be leaving at the end of February to return to Canada we wanted to remember this dear woman in Symeon's life.

You can see how happy this makes him and I think Tessa enjoys it just as much as him.  

 

When Symeon is sleeping

Marin likes to take full advantage of things that are off limits to her when he is awake.  She had such a good time sitting in his rocking chair and she really had the thing moving.  Her little smile reveals the sweet satisfaction. 

Giving their Dad a few tips

Retro Symeon

This sweater was Shawn's when he was a kid.  His Mom had some old clothes in her attic that she gave us at Christmas time.  He looked so cute.  Thanks Mom Mom for keeping it all these years it is so fun to have for Symeon. 

Birthday Blessings

Yesterday was a monumental birthday for me since I turned 35.  I thought it would feel different but really the only thought I had all day was how blessed I am to have had so many wonderful years of life.  My life is full of blessings and yesterday I was so keenly aware of them which seems like the best birthday present I could receive.  Of course when I told my brother about these thoughts he told me that is just something you tell yourself when you are old.  Thanks Mike you can always count on a big brother to give it to you straight. Thank you all for sending me so much love in a variety of ways. 

My dear husband and children bought me a great gift this year a new pillow.  I know you might be thinking what kind of present is that  but it was exactly what I wanted.  I have been on the quest for a very special pillow and over the past year I have been upgrading slowly.  So for my birthday I received THE PILLOW of all PILLOWS a firm support goose down pillow from LL BEAN and I love it.  I kept teasing Shawn that when it came in the mail it would be like sleeping on a cloud and it is pretty close.   

 

 

Knives

Symeon is obsessed with the knife block on our counter.  If we are using a knife to cut up something he will say MaMa and point to the knife and then to the knife block and basically he wants you to put it away immediately without using it or washing it.  I think today I realized he has a problem when he brought me the butter knife from his looking cooking set and insisted I put it in the knife block. 

And she walks

I have hesitated to post about this milestone in Marin's life first because I am still in denial and second because I don't want to be one of those parents that acts like because their kids does something early it must be because of their amazing parenting style.  But believe me I am under no misconception that my "amazing parenting" has anything to do with Marin taking her first steps.  Shawn and I have not been practicing with her because she is a baby and we are happy having her that way but she is quite determined and it seems her main goal in life right now is to keep up with her brother so walking seems logical I guess. 

One day after Marin turned 8 months old she took two steps out of the blue.  Shawn was trying to get a picture of her standing in the middle of the room on her own because she looks so cute.  We were both watching her and the next thing we knew she took two steps.  We both looked at each other and after the shock wore off we decided it didn't count that some sort of fluke took over her body for a brief moment.  That was about a week ago and since then she has begun to hone her skills.  She took two more steps this weekend and now she will take several steps in a row then she will stop remain standing and take a couple more.  It is silly to see because she is just so small.  Shawn and I have both pleaded with her to remain a crawling baby a little longer but it seems our pleas have fallen on deaf ears. 

One thing that does not surprise us is that if you prop her up and try to get her to walk she won't but if you leave her alone she will do it when she wants so getting her on video is pretty difficult but we will keep trying. 

Right now while I am posting about her walking she walked from a chair to her little walker she pushes around.  She will walk all over the apartment with the walker and at the rate she is going she might be walking everywhere without it sooner than we would like.

 

Sesame Street Live

We took Symeon and Marin to see Sesame Street Live for Christmas and they both loved it.  Symeon was awe struck and Marin was more engaged than we could have guessed.  Overall it was tons of fun for the family. 

Marin engrossed in Elmo

One dumb thing they did was sell these big Elmo balloon heads during the intermission and due to a miscommunication between Shawn and I Symeon ended up with one.  Then when the show began they asked everyone to put them under their seats.  Well kids everywhere were upset that Elmo had to be stuffed under the seats and luckily the seat next to us was open so Elmo "sat" there for the rest of the show.

  At the end of show they shot tons of confetti out of canons which showered the audience.  Symeon loved it he is a bit obsessed with confetti since we read a Sesame Street book about the letter "J" and in it Zoe and Elmo play jests and jokes that involve confetti.  We had great seats in the second row so confetti was all over us. 

A Little Brother Sister Love

Symeon has wanted to feed Marin these days and she loves it.  They both laugh and usually she gets a bite and then he gives himself a bite.  The other day I laughed because he gave her a bite of peas and brown rice and then he took one and he wasn't thrilled but since Sissy was eating it he was going to as well. 

 

I love that his mouth is open

A very happy baby sister

Symeon loves to have Marin join him in  most things and I would like to say that all of their interactions with each other end in loving moments of hugs and kisses but ...

Starts good

Everyone is still smiling

And it's over

Mommy's Little Baker

Symeon loves to bake with me.  Here he is sporting "his" Eagles apron which use to be his Dad's and licking a beater, a special treat for us all really.  Since Marin can't lick a beater yet I indulged with the other one. 

Managed Chaos or not so managed most days...

In general I am very neat and love a clean house but I have had to accept that at times our home looks like two small children live here and that they know how to have a good time.  Every night before bed we get all cleaned up but in general as one of my friends who came over said it looks like Romper Room in here and I guess it does.  I try to see all the blessings in this chaos one is that we have two healthy children that can play and make a mess, second we have a home, and third we are blessed beyond belief.  On my enlightened deep thinking days I see the beauty in this on my not so great days, when living in a small place gets to me, I want to throw it all out the window because for the 100th time a triangle shaped block laying on the floor that I step on has brought me to my knees in tears. 

Eagles

Even though the Eagles let us down this year we continue to support our team.  This outfit is a hand-me-down  from Symeon.

Oh so sick

One reason my Christmas posts were so late was that Marin was really sick after Christmas.  She had a really nasty cold that turned into a sinus infection.  Her face was so swollen and her sinuses were so full snot was coming out of her eyes.  I thought she had pink eye because there was so much mucus I guess if snot does not drain out their noses it has to come out somewhere.  It was so gross and she was so sad.  She is much better now and she was surprisingly content for as sick as she was. She also gave it to Symeon so we spent New Year's Eve with two really sick children.  I welcomed the New Year rocking one of my sick babies.

Carrot Anyone?

Whatever Symeon has Marin must also have, large Carrots included