A Joy video montage

Joy in May

Joy brings so much laughter into our house. She says the funniest things and is becoming a sweet big sister. It is so fun to see Joy and Simon playing together in the living room. It doesn't last long but it is a taste of our not so distant future.

Favorite foods: oatmeal, ice cream, pineapple, sausage

Favorite book: anything to do with Franklin the turtle

Favorite activity: bathing with a whole bunch of animals!

Favorite sayings:
"Mommy Simon is crying crying... No he is sobbing!"
"What is that smell on my nose?" 

stickers are fun!

Joy loves dinosaurs!

She gets to watch a 10 minute show while I shower in the morning....she loves TV (just like her dad and Aunt Julie)

9 months!

What Simon is doing

• Can do the bum scoot around the house (funniest thing ever!)
• Making more sounds (other than screeching noises): maamaa, baabaa
• feed himself finger food
• always keeping an eye on what Joy is doing and really would love to join in 
• pulling Joy's hair if she gets close :-)
• starting to get the hang of the sippy cup

Teeth: 2 bottom teeth

Eats:
Nursing: Nurses every 3 hours. Still super fast
Solid food: Simon loves to eat solid food and would much rather do that than nurse.

• Loves: pumpkin, green beans, rice, oatmeal, rice, plain yogurt, pears, apples, egg yolk, avocado, potato, zucchini, lentils, carrots, cheese, tortilla, plums, teething biscuits, chicken, corn 
• Verdict is still out on: broccoli 
• Introducing this week: might try whole eggs and see if he is ok with it since egg yolk prep is a pain
• Need to try again: broccoli

Sleeps: Simon is a very happy baby most of the time and but is a terrible sleeper. We have pretty much tried every form of sleep training possible and nothing works. I caved a couple weeks ago and started feeding him at night again and he quickly regressed to wanting to nurse 2-3 times in the night again. We are letting him cry for the first wake up (extinction method) and then I have been feeding him for the other two. Feeding him is easier because we are so tired, Brad has been away this week and simon's crying was waking up Joy. When Brad gets back we are going to go for full on extinction and hope that Brad can get Joy back to sleep. I am very content with the size of my tiny house....except during this sleep training when all our bedrooms are about a foot apart. A few things are have been trying this week
* Naps at 9am and 1pm (hopefully making his nap later will not have it be a continuation of his night sleep).
* Bedtime between 6:30-7pm in hopes to delay his really early mornings. He would love to wake up at 5:30am if we let him.

Naps: He is taking two naps at 9am and 1pm and they are each between 30min to 1hour. The kid will only sleep a total of 2 hours in the day...if his morning nap is short then his afternoon nap is a little longer to make up for it. It is crazy how he wakes up when he has reached two hours. 

Weighs: still 16 lbs (he is our lean machine...for all the high fat foods I feed him I can't get him to gain much weight)

Likes:
*loves when Joy plays peek a bo with him in the car,
*Taking showers with Joy (the bathtub is for babies!),
* emptying out containers filled with toys, kitchen utensils and/or books
*stroller rides, being in the ergo
*green blanket when he sleeps (he sucks or chews on it...I can't really tell)
*loves being outside

Dislikes: reading books...would rather play with them, exosaucer, when mommy walks about a foot away from him

Favorite event this month: Mommy can't think of a specific exciting event!

Dear Simon,
You have been out in the world for as long as you were inside me. These 9 months have really flown by. We can't imagine our family without you. We love learning more about your little personality with each passing day. You are such a mellow little person (except at night when you would rather cuddle with mommy instead of sleep). You love to play by yourself and so easily entertained.  Everyone who interacts with you starts to smile right away because of your infectious smile. You love to see how things work and love to make a lot of noise! Joy loves you and is already bossing you around. Don't worry we will try and help her not be so bossy once you start caring. You make our family complete. We are so happy that God chose us to take care of you.
love, mommy and daddy

Mother's Day pictures

A professional photographer goes to our moms group. She generously gabe of her time and talents and took pictures of each of us and our kids. I love how they turned out. My kids are so adorable!!

http://www.hjselchphotography.com/

Our cute little family

We just got some new family pictures taken. Aren't Joy and Simon adorable! 

Joy's answer to: " Joy are you adorable?" is " no I'm not adorable I'm a girl. (Short pause) daddy is a boy, Simon is a boy, mommy is a girl And Rudy is a dog !" 

Brad leaves for a student trip today and is gone for 7 nights/ 8 days. I have not been looking forward to a whole week as a single parent. Since I have the car all week I'm trying to plan fun stuff so the time goes by quickly. Pray that I have patience and grave for my kids all week. 

Happy Mother's Day

Brad has gone above and beyond this Mother's Day. He has made it a few days long with flowers on Friday, sushi dinner on Saturday, breakfast, pedicure and dinner out on Sunday. The guy know how to make a girl feel special.

First Mother's Day- May 2012. ( Joy 3 months old) 

Second Mother's Day - May 2013  (Joy  15 months, 5 months pregnant with Simon) 

Third Mother's Day- May 2014 (Joy 2 years old an Simon 8 Months)

I have to give a shout out to my mom. I love her so much and wish we lived closer. I'm thankful for Skype. I'm also thankful that she came to Hong Kong for a month each time a grand baby was born. We couldn't have survived without her. Thanks for the love, advice and support all these years ! 

Twinkle twinkle

This week has been rainy (and abnormally cool hight 60s!) so we have been at home trying to keep our sanity.

I made some baked cotton balls for Joy to smash. She played in the shower with the flour, water, food coloring mixture. What a mess but she had fun 

The video is Joy stuck in a twinkle twinkle loop. The girl cracks us up all day long.