Joy and her nursery rhymes

I love capturing Joy's chatting and singing on camera. This way you all get to hear the very cute nonstop chatter fills our home!

Happy Easter

He is risen....He is risen indeed!

"Jesus isn't dead anymore! he said. He's alive again!" And their heart's leapt (Jesus storybook Bible)

Simon was up bright and early this morning ensuring that we were able to watch the sunrise on this muggy Hong Kong Easter Sunday. Poor little guy is teething and not really enjoying the process. We were able to capture some Christensen kid cuteness with pictures. We read the Easter story to Joy from her Bible and made cinnamon rolls. Then we are off to church this afternoon. Happy Easter! 

The only family pic we could get since the kids started to melt down :)

Teething biscuits

I hate how messy they are but both these little munchkins like(d) them. Joy was insistent on trying one of Simon's this morning. She tried to bite it and kept saying "so hard and yucky... No like it!"  "Simon no like it". Ha 

On the subject of teeth. Simon now has two more these as of this morning. 

8 months

What Simon is doing

• Can sit up! 
• drools and chews on everything  
• always kicking his legs
• laughs, smiles all the time

Teeth:1 bottom tooth! 

The paci is a toy not an actual pacifier. 

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, 
• Verdict is still out on: 
• Introducing this week: Lentils!
• Need to try again: avocado seems to be ok now

Sleeps: Babies and sleeping really shouldn't be so difficult, but it is. 8 months later we are still trying to figure out Simon and his sleep but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have played around with bed times, nap times.....you say it and we have tried it.  I hit rock bottom last week because Simon was waking up 6-8 times a night. It was terrible. On Thursday (5 days ago) Brad decided that sleep training would start that night and he would be in charge. Although Simon cried a lot that night, I actually slept more than I had the whole week prior I think.

Tonight will be night 5 of no feeding Simon during the night. Brad goes in and consoles him at various intervals depending on the night (we followed this website). Simon's last feed is at 6pm and bedtime is now at 6:15 or 6:30 depending on the time of the last nap. Last night (night 4) was amazingly good. Simon woke and cried briefly at 3am and then woke up or the day at 6. It is kind of an early day but I will take an early day over 8 times waking up anytime!  What we have learned from the process: 1) Simon needed all his night feeds eliminated, trying to just reduce them confused him. 2) it has to be Brad who goes in to console him, if I go in he gets MAD! 3) if he is just slightly crying we don't go in or it wakes him more up and he gets more mad.

Naps: He is taking 2-3 naps a day. He naps at 8:15(for 1-1.5 hours), 12 (for 1-1.5 hours) and 3 (for 30 min). He is staying awake for 2:30 hour chunks during the day. 

Weighs: 16 lbs

Likes: loves the swings, loves splashing at bath time, sitting, playing with the wheels of Joy's stroller, watching Rudy fetch balls, green blankie, riding in the stroller or ergo, being out and about

Dislikes: is no longer sucking his fingers (which is when our night time sleep got really bad!)

Favorite event this month: First Easter egg hunt (although he just watched Joy :-)

Joy in April

Here are some memories from the past month that we never want to forget

* Joy takes her stroller on walks around the house and when she "comes back" she gives us a big hug and says she missed us! She tells us she loves us all the time. 

* She makes up words to songs and sings them. Her favorite regular song this week is "the farmer in the dell"

* Joy and Simon were dedicated at church in February...totally forgot to post pictures

* Joy lets me put braids in her hair. I love having a girl!

* On our walks Joy stops to investigate every ant, butterfly, stick, rock and poop we see.

* Joy loves to play "party". She gets out her fake food and cupcakes and eat!

* Joy loves to clean up. She cleans up her toys, wipes off her hands, and this morning she was wiping crumbs from her chair. Yesterday I spilled water and before I even came back from the other room she was wiping up the water. She is my daughter! 

Here comes the sun

It has been a beautiful couple days so a park adventure was in order! 

Easter egg hunt

Moms group had an Easter egg party today. It was rainy and muddy but we still had fun. Joy probably had more fun in the rain since there were puddles and mud!

We decorated a bucket, listened to a story and did an egg hunt. Joy was sure there would be dinosaurs in the eggs but was happy to find out they were filled with this magical thing called candy! 

Happy April

Sorry for the silence since our trip. It has been rainy (so lots of days inside) and everyone in our family has been sick (so lots of days inside trying to not infect each other) Joy and I are still coughing! 

There have been a few sunny days and we went to the park. Simon had his first swing ride and loved it! I can't wait until this summer when there won't be long lines for the swings. Simon is finally sitting up (although he sometimes falls or joy pushes him over!). 

Joy sporting her new glasses and hat. Ready for summer!!

Reading some stories and watching some tv. What a lot of our sick days looked like