Miller Family Blog

THE KIDDIES

Hi family and friends. I thought I'd make this entry all about the kids since they are up to so many new tricks lately!!! Hmmm.... lets do this in alphabetical order this time, shall we?

ANDREW
...aka "The Little Beast" aka "B" aka "The Nudge" aka "Holy Terror" aka "Budrick" aka "Beatrix" (don't ask)

Andrew is 6 months old (well, 6 months and about 10 days now!) and weighing in at almost the same as his big sister! At our last doctor's visit, he was in the 90th% for both height and weight: 28" tall and 19.5 lbs. I would venture to say he has reached the 20 pound mark since that doctor's visit was over 2 weeks ago. He is teething like mad! biting everything in site, drooling all over and spitting up on every inch of carpet and couch, giving me something to clean & scrub down every single night (thanks Buddy!) Vinny jokes with him that "normal" children teeth on toys, blankie and rings. Our little monster? Well, his favorite is to RIP the baby gate OFF the wall and teethe on that. LOL! If that isn't available, he will happily grab his rocking chair, practically lift it with one hand to his face and gnaw on that for a bit. We suspect teeth will be popping in anyday now! (the first two showed up for Emily at the 6.5 month mark).

As far as activities go, he is definitely getting more and more active with each passing day! We are at a 90% crawl I'd say. he can get around all over the room and get up on his hands and knees but it's a half-crawl, half-scoot. I would definitely say he is mobile however. He also spends time in the walker. Not as much as his sister did because all he does is run her over. Try explaining to a 20 month old why her little brother keeps barreling into her with his walker.... she doesn't get it. It's hard enough trying to get her to understand he "doesn't mean it" when he yanks a chunk of her hair. teehee Emily took her time in the walker - first she stood still, then she slowly moved back and then she quietly explored her room surroundings. Andrew? From the very first time he used the thing, he started hauling ass down the hallway, knocking everything over in his path! Yup - he's our little beast. ;)

He loves to watch videos with his sister - they watch everything together. I would say one of his favorites is Bear in the Big Blue House - he usually cracks a smile at the music. He also loves Baby Newton, which teaches all about shapes.

Food-wise, we've been exploring some more options with Andy. At 6 months old, Emily was eating fruit puffs that dissolve quickly, plain pancakes, jelly sandwiches, etc. For some reason, I don't feel "ready" to do that with Andrew yet. I think it's because he's my allergy kid. I have dug out the mesh feeding net however and he has been getting fresh fruit chunks in that. He LOVES banana (it's a total PITA to clean out of the net though!) and peaches in there. He also has had a few tastes of pastina swirled into baby fruit or veggies. He can polish off a Stage 2 jar with the best of them. i think his record-breaking time today was about 2.4 minutes. He downed a whole apple-sweet potato mix. He can eat all of the baby blends except I don't give him straight applesauce because that tends to bother him and he had a mix with strawberry in it a few weeks ago and that gave him a rash. So no more berries for this kid just yet.

My tiny son has managed to kick me out of my bedroom. I have officially taken up residence on my couch (which really bites when Vinny is home b/c then I get the smaller couch and it's all downhill from there!) Vinny can sleep through a tornado if given the chance. Me? I wake up if you breath funny. So does "B". So him and I are constantly waking each other up all night; wether it be because I turned on the light to read a magazine or he rolled over and sighed. God forbid one of my bones crack or I have to sneeze. Then we are both wide-eyed and staring at each other. Cute - but not really at 4am. So it is just easier for me to sleep in a different room with the TV on. And he has been waking on and off all night because if teething pain so if we slept in the same room, I'd think it would be fair to say I'd get about 3 hours of good sleep each night. if you know me, you know I'd never be able to function on that piddly amount!

Overall, Andrew is growing up to be an awesome little boy! He is becoming so much fun because he is interacting with us more. He interacts with his sister daily - he stares at her and gets up on his hands and knees and tries to crawl over to her and her toys (or he tears into her with the walker but we visited this scenario already). He loves the fresh air so we go for lots of walks. He loves car rides. He still is pretty good about sleeping "on the go" so we don't have to plan much around his nap times (3 small naps a day).

EMILY
aka "Hollywood" aka "The Diva" aka "Brat" aka "Emmie Pie "aka "Little Lady" aka "Missy Moo"

Emmie is turning 20 months old (sniff sniff.... isn't she still a baby?!?!) on the 22nd of this month. She is actually quite the little peanut. She tips the scales at 23.5 lbs and is 31.5" tall (50th% for both). She has really gotten taller lately because while everything is still big on her skinny waist, she needs larger clothing for the length in her legs.

Her sleep schedule has been kind of odd lately. She is still an awesome sleeper at night (gives me the same old 11-12 hour stretch) but every few days, she decides she doesn't want/need her nap. Some days, it's a 2 hour nap and some days it is non-existent. Weird. I wonder if she is going to cut out napping anytime soon? It doesn't matter one way or the other to me really because she is pretty independent in the house so it isn't like I need to entertain her during every waking moment.

We have been on a mission to "eat healthier", as far as Emily's menus go. She has always loved a variety of things; veggies and fresh fruits being some of those things. But the constant asking for "cookies!" and "cake"! was getting a little overwhelming. I brought her to the food store the other day and we picked up a bunch of new things that she has been enjoying. Plus with the nice weather, we are getting more fruit in season so that is always a plus. I came home and right away I washed, cleaned and Tupperware-d everything for easy access in the fridge. It's so much better that way and now when she wants a snack, we reach for a fruit instead of a cookie. Here are some foods that are frequent players in our house: (as stated before, this is mainly for my August moms since I know distant cousin Ned isn't interested in this cr.a.p LOL)

...Breakfast: pancakes, yogurt, chocolate chip waffle sticks, french toast, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes

...Lunch: Lunchables, bologna & cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese

...Dinner: chicken & cheese taquitos, whatever I am making for me and Vinny, Lipton noodles sides, soups, pastina and other pastas......

...Snacks: she loves oreos but ONLY the cream in the center (typical kid LOL), Goldfish, fruit puffs, fresh fruit (bananas, grapes, berries, cantaloupe, apples, pears, yadda yadda yadda......)

...Drinks: water, milk, orange juice & any of the following watered down: fruit punch, lemonade, apple juice, cranberry and grapefruit juices

.........she really will eat anything. I'd say there is one day a week that is a "non-eating" day where she picks like a bird. The other 6 days she chows down all day. With every main entree (for lunch or dinner), she always gets veggies on the side (beans, corn, carrots, etc) and a starch (rice, pasta, crackers, potatoes, etc).

A few new items I picked up the other day that we haven't tried yet are Oatmeal Express (those flavored oatmeals in the little travel containers), turkey meatballs (for a quick, nutritious lunch or dinner meat) and a quick risotto blend (in a little travel-soup kind of container where you just add boiling water).

Emily has a complete obsession with the outdoors! You can have her outside for 2 hours and she still throws a hissy fit when it's time to come in! We go for walks in the stroller with Andrew, in the single stroller if he isn't with us, in the pink buggy, we play outside with Disney, go to the park, swing in the tree swing, go up and down Nanny's steps a bazillion times......... as long as she has fresh air in her face, my little Emmie is happy. :)

I know this next section with totally sound like I am bragging but.....oh well! That is one of the rights to being a Mom! If you don't like it, kindly skip this and visit this webiste (http://pixyland.org/peterpan/) and tell me what on Earth this man is doing?!?!!!?????????

I just found out, unbeknownst to me, that Emily can count to 6!! It was sheer accident that this even came out. Her and I were using the phone to call her Daddy at work the other day. His cell phone number is all 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s in a row. So I had Emily press each button and we said them out loud as we hit them. After the final 4 numbers of "4 4 4 5", Emily said "6". I said "did you just say 6??!!?!!!" and she laughed. So then we scratched the call to Vince and sat at the table with some counting objects. She hates the number one but loves 2. If you say "and what comes next"? she will say 3. Then 4. She kind of breezes right past 5 and then goes for 6. And then I get another 6 again so i think she knows that 7 is there, because of the "s" sound but she isn't quite at that point yet. But anyway, my little lady can count to the number 6!!!!!! And here I am thinking she can only count to 2 this whole time! LOL!!

Emily loves my computer. It was cute at first but now she is so into it that I can't even sit at it during the day (which really, is only my fault alone b/c she sees me sitting here all day, everyday!) Anyway, she will say "E...go?" at that means she wants to play Journey to Ernie on the PBS Kids website (she calls her Ernie dolls "E"). So we do that and one part is a memory card game. Emily can repeat all the objects she sees. After we play that for a while, she gets off my lap, onto the floor and says "Barney?" and then we have to visit the Barney section of the website where we play "If You're Happy And You Know It". She sings and dances the whole songs, complete with hand movements. Ahhhhh my little computer nerd. :)

When we go next door, she goes into Papa's (my Dad) office and turned on his CD player (she knows how to work that, plus our VHS and DVD players at home!) and after song #5 comes on from the Mama Mia soundtrack, she dances. At the chorus where they say "Mama Mia, I must really know, why why, did I ever let you go?" she sings right along and says "Mommy!" (for Mama Mia!) Apparently, she is a mathematical computer nerd who should be spending her free time auditioning on Broadway. :)

Lastly, Emily will talk your ear off. No joke - it's one of the first things people who see her comment on. She might babble a bunch of words but the last 1 or 2 words always make sense. I can have complete conversations with her and people are amazed I understand (I am sure all of you Moms know it isn't that hard though. When you talk to these little people all day long, it becomes second nature!) A lot of things she says are "go for a walk" (like in this sentence, "go" and "walk" are clearly pronounced) "where did they go" "are they coming back" (she might say "Daddy, back?" for "Is Daddy coming back?), she can ask for her three meals, she mumbles this whole big long sentence with "binky" at the end so that means she needs to find her binky. She will look at her brother and say "B...do?" and that usually means he spit up on the rug somewhere. haha She can tell you when she went to the bathroom, she'll go get you her socks, shoes, coat and/or hat if you ask for them, she will ask to "go for a walk", she puts her utensil on the empty bowl or plate and will tell you she is "done" and can she "get up" after dinner and then hand you said plate...... if she hears her brother crying, she will pick up a toy or teething ring, show it to me and say "B?" like "can I get B?" and when I say "ok" she will open the door, go into my room and hand her brother the toy through the crib slats.

Well, I think that's enough reading material for everyone for now!!!!! It's been fun sharing my kids with you...... until we meet again! :)

posted by Gina M @ 10:53 PM