Being a bit behind, Celia has now turned 3 and one third years old! She has taken a delightful turn from being 2 and now is three and has a bit more self control, moderation and patience. A bit anyway. She is still a super big ball of energy and love and hams it up for the camera for me with lots of emotion. Lots of emotion is always her thing actually! Lots of love, and lots of intensity. Winter has been tough being inside all the time, she’s missing out on riding her bike and playing in the sand. We are trying to get out more into the snow when it’s available but with the early darkness and school there isn’t a ton of time to be out there.

One of Celia’s most requested activities when she gets to pick are board games. She plays high-ho cherry oh, sequence for kids, busytown, plus uno and go fish as well as others I’m not remembering right now. She’s gotten the hang of counting out spaces and following the rules. We’re still working on being a good sport when losing, but she actually wins a good percentage of the time, at least when there’s a good amount of luck involved.

Academically she’s doing fantastically learning her letters and numbers. She can recognize most of the letters, definitely the most common ones. She also knows the numbers up to 20. Beyond that has been a challenge so far, we’ve been using the ‘i have, who has’ games with her that they do in Josie’s classroom. (Yes I take the Kindergarten work and use it on my three year old, more on that later) She ‘reads’ us books, like Red Hat, Green Hat and other things she’s memorized. She also wants me to make her ‘homework’ which involves tracing letters and words that I print out from the computer. She’s very good with her horizontal, vertical lines and circles, but the slants come out straight unless she’s tracing right on something.

Most every morning she’ll ask me if today is a gymnastics day. She loves her gymnastics classes and is progressing well in them. Wearing a leotard is mandatory, even in the local rec classes, she pretty much refused to do class the one day she didn’t have a leotard to wear. She says her favorite is the beam and being up high. She doesn’t get that from me.

As for her siblings. She’s been known to hug Ewan so hard he spits up all the food he just ate. She always wants to help out with him as well, bringing me diapers and toys. At the same time she can verbalize that she’s mad and jealous of him, all perfectly normal. It’s tough being a middle child I think. She loves Josie but gets a bit sick of being bossed around. She’s doing better standing up for herself lately and changing the games, but for now Celia always insists on being the baby and making Josie be the mommy. I’ve got my ears peeled for when she’ll allow a role reversal at playtime. Josie is definitely her favorite playmate though.

• Size/weight: 4T’s, 33lbs
• Favorite foods: cheese, tomatoes, pasta
• Favorite toy: dress up and pretend
• Favorite book: Arthur series
• Favorite activity: playing pretend
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:45; gets up about 6:30
• New skill: memorizing books, using her words when she’s upset
• Teeth: holding steady with all 20
• Literacy: reading us books that she’s memorized

At six months we let the kids start eating! Ewan has been no exception, except that he isn’t particularly interested. He’s taken each food and tried a small bite, but really has barely swallowed anything. Broccoli has been the most liked so far, he’s taken a few bites. But mostly he just wiggles the food around before throwing or dropping it on the floor. He’s got the fine manual control even to pick up peas. We’ve tried sweet potatos, carrots, broccoli, peas and bananas so far.

Compare to last years shot.

A bit over a week ago we celebrated Jordi’s birthday! Now before the kids were born Jordi used to go regularly rock climbing with a friend and he enjoyed it. Then we had kids, and him spending an entire weekend morning disappearing and then being super-tired after wasn’t exactly working for us, and his friend moved away. But no more! The girls wanted to give Jordi a chance to go rock climbing with them for his birthday. So on his birthday morning we went to Quebrada and then off we went to the local rock climbing wall. Where it was strangely super-parked up. We went inside and found out that they were having a competition and were all disappointed. But Jordi took the girls in to show them the walls and the competition, where he found out that they were only using the bouldering walls and that the climbing walls were completely empty. So it was even better than normal actually! They had a few self-belay setups as well that would retract the line automatically so Jordi could climb too. We all had a good time, Ewan was napping and then watching from my back. Josie made it almost up the whole wall! Celia enjoyed giving it a go too.

Then we hit up Costco for a cheap nearby pizza lunch. We relaxed in the afternoon for a while before going out to dinner in Davis Square with my parents at a burger place before returning home for some yummy ice cream cake. Happy late birthday Jordi!

He only had two a week ago. Mommy is tired.

So nice, she’s owned it twice. (once when she was a baby and this outfit was Josies)

Two weeks ago almost now Ewan turned 6 months old! Already a half year of babyhood is gone. The time is going by faster and faster now as the days just keep flying by. His major new accomplishment this month is definitely crawling! He also now has two teeth with more coming any day now. Those have been major sleep disruptors as he tries to wake up and crawl away. He chases me around the house now when he wants me which is cute but sad when I can’t immediately get to him (cleaning up someone elses bodily fluids for instance). He’s also pulling himself up on a lot of things, can stand for a few seconds before falling over and has just started to cruise barely. He definitely has learned where he is not allowed to go and makes a bee-line right for them if they aren’t blocked or gated.

He loves to be out and about doing things throughout the day. He wants to be carried, not in the car or in the stroller, just like the other two! Ewan loves to go out and see other people and watch other kids. He watches Josie and Celia intently and loves it when they play with him. Peekaboo is a favorite right now, he also loves clapping and for us to sing to him, especially hand movement songs. He’s friendly with strangers while he’s in my arms, but doesn’t particularly want to be handed over to anyone. He’ll reach out but then immediately reach back for me if he gets handed over.

Some of the most fun is getting him to do some great giggles. He’ll laugh very easily with some tickles and silly voices. He likes to give the cats pets and George will put up with some rough baby snuggles.

We try to read, but he just wants to eat the books with his sore teeth. He hears a lot of stories while I nurse him and read to the girls. He likes the library, touching all the toys and watching the other kids. He also finds gymnastics fairly entertaining watching all the amazing gymnasts flip all over the floor.

• Size/weight: some 9 month, some 12 month, 14 lbs 7 oz
• Favorite food: breastmilk
• Favorite toy: xylophone dog, metal ikea ladel
• Favorite book: peek-a-moo
• Favorite activity: crawling and getting into new stuff
• Sleeping: 8pm bedtime, ~7am wakeup, bad days he’s awake up to 6 times a night, good nights is 3
• New skill: crawling!
• Teeth: two, bottom middle
• Vocalizations: whining from teeth, lots of da da, gutteral noises and great giggles