Graecyn Nicole ~ 7.0

Happy 7th Birthday, Baby Girl!  I can’t believe my oldest baby is 7 years old. Where does the time go?  It seems like just yesterday you were my little baby snuggled up on my chest and now you barely fit on my lap.  You are turning into such a beautiful girl. At 7 years old, you...

• Love to sing and dance, draw, do crafts, play Barbies and American Girl dolls
• Want to be a fashion/dress designer when you grow up
• Love school - you are in a 1st/2nd grade split class and love being with the older kids.  You love to read and really enjoy reading chapter books.  Your favorites are Junie B. Jones, Ramona, Candy Fairies, and are now getting into Dork Diaries.  You still love riding the school bus and will blow kisses to me and give me air hugs from the bus window.
• You're in Daisies this year and enjoying it.  You got to sell Girl Scout cookies and were the top seller for your troop!
• You love gymnastics and are in Developmental 1 this year.  You have practice twice a week for a total of 5 hours.  On Saturdays, after your 3-hour practice, you usually ask to stay for an extra hour of open gym, and then come home and do more gymnastics!  Your favorite event is bars and you love practicing double hip circles and stride circles and making up your own bar routines.  You're now able to do a bridge kick over, back walk over, and can do a back handspring! (we only let you do back handsprings at practice though to be safe).  You had your first "mock" competition and got a blue ribbon for bars and red ribbons for floor, beam, and vault.
• You finished swimming lessons and moved up to "Swim Force" - the Goldfish swim team.  You love to swim and have gotten so strong.  Your back stroke is so fun to watch and your favorite.  You've decided you want a break for it though, so you only have a few more practices left.  Maybe this summer, you'll get back into swimming.
• You LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to be fancy!  You love to accessorize with jewelry, hairbows, etc.  If we would let you, you would wear makeup every day! You love to style your own hair each day and will put it up in pig tails, a pony tail, or with a bow.
• You've now lost three teeth (including one in the top middle).  You have at least 2 more that are loose.  Your adult teeth are pretty slow to come in, so you've had a gap in your front teeth for a few months now.
• At your 7 year check up, you weighed 47 pounds and were 4' tall.
• You love having mama time and are still such a snuggler!  You are definitely still a mama's girl!
• You are such a kind soul and have so many friends.  Callie is still your BFF and it is so fun when you get together with her.  This year is definitely a year of learning how to navigate friendships though.  You're learning what it means to be a good friend and how to stand up for your friends.
• You have always been independent, but are even more so this year.  You use an alarm clock to wake up on school days and get ready all by yourself.  Once you're dressed, you come into my bathroom to sit on my lap and snuggle for a few minutes before heading downstairs for breakfast.
• You like to help Daddy cook.  You'll get your little stool out and stand next to him waiting for him to tell you what you can do to help.

We celebrated your 7th birthday with a small family party in Iowa over New Years (you picked a "Decendents" themed cake).  On your actual birthday, Daddy made you a special "G" and "7" pancake with sprinkles.  We spent the day ice skating (something you had been asking to do), supper at Red Robin (where the waitstaff sang "Happy Birthday" to you and gave you a special ice cream sundae), and then home for more cake (you picked a "Monster High" themed cake) and presents.

We waited a few weeks after your birthday before having your "friends" party.  You asked to have a unicorn-themed pajama party at our house and invited 9 friends.  We made it an evening party and started off with a craft (each girl modpodged fancy paper to wooden trinket boxes), played "pin the horn and tail on the unicorn", and ate pizza.  After supper, we played the saran wrap game (instead of a piñata, you wrap up candy and toys into a big saran wrap ball.  Each girl gets 10 seconds to try to unwrap the saran wrap and get the prizes inside); the girls loved the game and everyone got something.  After that game it was time for cake and then a dance party with glow sticks and a disco light.  The girls all had a blast!  You then got to have your first sleepover at our house with Callie spending the night.  You had no troubles falling asleep and were sound asleep by 10 p.m. (I hope that's how all of your future slumber parties go..ha!).  You had a great birthday party!

I'm so proud to be your mama and so proud of the young girl you are becoming!  I can't wait to watch you grow and look forward to what the next year has in store for you!!

Love,

Mama

Cody Landen 3.5

Where have the last 3 1/2 years gone?  The baby in you has disappeared and you are such a little boy now in how you look, act, and talk. You are such a busy body and are always on the go.  You have a bit of a pesty streak in you and certainly know how to push buttons, especially with your sister.  But you also are such a sweet, caring boy.  You hate to see people sad and think babies and puppies are the cutest things, saying "awwwww" anytime you see one.  You are so funny and will probably be the class clown - always doing things to make people laugh.

You are not at all bashful (so different from how Graecyn was); you will talk to anyone and love to show people whatever toy you have with you.  Your vocabulary has grown and we love to hear what new words will come out of your mouth - especially those that aren't quite what they're supposed to be.  Some of our favorites are:

"My byself" = by myself
"struckin'" = construction
any word that ends in "s" gets an extra "s" at the end (cars ss)
any word with a "v" is pronounced with a "b" (excavator = excabator)
"someping" = something
anytime you give someone a thumbs up, you touch your thumb to theirs and say "tomp"

Every night when I'm tucking you into bed, you say,
C: "Mama, I want to tell you someping."  
Me: "What Cody?"
C: "How 'bout we go on a helicopter."  
Me: "Not today"
C: "maybe tomorrow"

You HATE loud noises and instantly cover your ears with your hands if you hear a loud noise or if you think there is going to be a loud noise.  This has caused some challenges (especially when it comes to using the bathroom when we're out in public...public bathrooms are sooooo loud!); you're getting better about handling noises and we've gotten a solution for when using the potty when we're out and about (you cover your ears before we walk into the bathroom and keep them covered the entire time we are in there; I do all of the work for you - pulling down your pants, sitting you on the potty, holding your legs so you don't fall in.  For awhile it was causing a lot of stress because you would refuse to use the bathroom unless we were at home - sometimes holding it for HOURS.  Now when we use public restrooms, you say "just like at home" after you're finished.

You were in swimming lessons, but we had to take a break.  You started to hate going to swimming and throwing major tantrums.  The pool can get really noisy during lessons and I think the noise was just giving you too much anxiety.  It was becoming too much of a fight each week, so we decided it was time for a break.  Hopefully in a few months we can try it again.

You are learning your letters and numbers and can spell your name and Graecyn's.  You don't care anything about coloring or drawing right now and spend all of your time playing with your cars and trucks.  You love anything with wheels and will lay down and push it on the floor, watching the wheels turn.  You still nap, both at preschool and home; at home you'll nap for about 2 hours.  You love to be outside, even when it's cold.  We had a big snowstorm recently and you chose to help me shovel off the deck - you were in heaven and were such a good helper!

We're not sure yet if you will be right handed or left handed; you eat with your right, but do most other things with your left.  You seem to be pretty athletic and coordinated, so we're excited to get you signed up to try different sports once you're old enough.  You still have a bit of a temper, so I'm hoping to get you into karate or something similar to help you learn how to channel your temper better.

You LOVE to dance and will wiggle your bottom anytime you hear music.  You really get into it too, making different faces, trying to get laughs from people.  You love to have your back and bottom rubbed and will wiggle around if I stop rubbing to get me to start up again.

You have mastered zipping things and love to zip your coat.  You're so proud when you've done it and let everyone know you got your coat zipped all by yourself.

You are a constant source of entertainment!  Love you, buster!

New Years in Iowa

Both Graecyn and Eric had 2 full weeks off from school for winter break, so I took advantage and also took the week of Christmas and New Years off from work.  It was so nice!  Usually, we hop in the car after lunch on Christmas day to start our travels to Iowa or North Carolina.  This year, we weren't rushed for time with our vacation schedules and decided to wait a few days after Christmas before starting our travels to Iowa.  It was the first time in years we were able to stay home Christmas day and it was glorious!  The kids got to have a jammie day and play with their new toys; Eric and I relaxed all day and took our time cleaning up the Christmas day mess.  For dinner, we had a yummy prime rib with twice baked potato casserole.  Graecyn commented several times throughout the day and the days after how nice it was to be able to be home with her new toys.

A few days after Christmas we started our drive to Iowa.  The kids traveled really well.  Graecyn was happy to have the iPad and watch her movies and play her games.  Cody was happy to watch his movies on the DVD player and play with his trucks.  We made it to Moline, IL the first day which made for an easier second day.

In Iowa we had lots of cousin playtime.  It's so fun watching the kids bond with their cousins.  They only get to see each other a few times a year, but they quickly warm up to each other and have a blast!  We swam at the YMCA, celebrated Christmas, decorated a gingerbread house, and got to watch Addison at a basketball scrimmage.  The kids spent a lot of time playing in the wash bay where Grandma and Papa have just about every ride on toy!  Since it was a few days before Graecyn's birthday, we also got to celebrate her birthday with her cousins.  We had a great time and the week always goes by way too fast!