Mika at 7 Months

• My highly unreliable scale says she is 18 pounds. She measures 27 inches long. 
• She sleeps about 11 hours at night, 1 hour in the morning, and 2 hours in the afternoon.
• She still can't crawl, but she is soooooo close. She gets in the crawling position and rocks back and forth. If she wants to get to something she will roll to it. She tries to pull herself up on stuff but can't really do it yet.
• I have fed her apple slices, orange slices, pear slices, squash, grapes, steak, cornish hen, salmon, bananas, strawberries, and that oh-so-good organic tomato soup from Costco.
• She uses the palmar/ulnar grasp (when fingers close against the palm), and she's working really hard to use the pincer grasp (thumb and index finger) to pick up her food. 
• She started babbling, but it's mainly wawawa and yayaya. She "talks" all the time with really loud, forceful cooing.
• Her stranger anxiety is getting really bad.
• No teeth yet.

First time eating- spaghetti squash

Having fun at a playdate!

Not having fun at a playdate.

This is what happens when you shop with Jackson.

Lumberjack Jackson

Mika at 6 Months and Jackson at 2 1/2 Years

I know I'm two weeks late (had two papers due), I'm just writing about the kids up until their half birthday and not up til now.

All about Mika:

• She weighs 16.5 pounds and is 26" tall, so hardly grew this month, but I'm not sweating it. She's still fat :) 
• She doesn't crawl yet, but she scoots backwards and in circles and she rolls around a lot. She can sit for a long time and play with her toys.
• I didn't give her real food before she turned 6 months.
• I know she knows her name and Jackson's name. She coos a lot but doesn't babble yet.
• She loves blowing raspberries, and I think it's the cutest thing in the world to see her tiny tongue poking out of her mouth doing it.
• She's so sweet and smiley and just an overall happy baby. I just love taking care of this girl!

I had just taken out her hair tie.

Her favorite things to do are

• going for a ride in the stroller
• watching Jackson
• watching the vacuum cleaner go
• sitting and playing with toys
• standing while holding on to my hands
• chewing on everything
• listening to me attempt to sing
• nursing
• flying in the air
• tickles
• peekaboo and this little piggy

My big girl in her cheerleading outfit!

I wanted a picture of how long her hair is when wet.

tons of curls

All about Jackson:

this kid loves painting

The terrible twos are killlliiiiiiiiing me. His whining is so annoying, but it's getting better since we taught him to say "please." I pretend like I don't know what he wants and ask him to show me or use his words, which (most of the time) instantly stops the whining. I know most of his problems stem from having a younger sibling, so I try so hard to be patient and give him extra hugs. He has regressed a lot and wants to be carried around like a baby.

His verbal skills are a lot better. He's been saying 1-5 new words a day for the past two or three months. I don't know how many words he can say, but ballpark it's about 150-200. His favorite word is, of course, "No!" He is also using two-word sentences more often.

He is almost potty trained! He only wears diapers at night, during naptime, and when we leave the house, so about 80% potty trained. It's probably better to go cold turkey, but I'm too lazy to clean up night-time messes. When he understands that he can take off his diaper after waking up and go in the potty, I'll stop using diapers for sleeping. As for being out in public, he has used a public potty before. If he's been to the store/restaurant before and knows there's a bathroom, he'll ask to use it instead of going in his diaper.  He really started going diaperless in the house a few weeks ago. He would go in the potty sometimes, and we would give him a gummy bear and let him wear underwear for a few minutes and then put him back in a diaper. I think one day it just dawned on him that he got a gummy bear for going potty every. single. time. and he just started going in the potty all the time after that. I think he could've been at this point six months ago if it weren't for Mika and moving. He's been showing signs of readiness for a long time, but

potty training + new baby + moving = 

Other random tidbits:
His favorite book is The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton.
He has started biting, but it's not that bad.
He knows most of his letters and likes to point out letters on everything. He just started trying to spell.
He still only knows numbers 1-5.
His favorite activities are watching TV, making tall Mega Bloks towers, reading, puzzles, and painting.
He loves doing what Mika does. If I'm kissing her feet, he'll run over and stick his feet in my face for me to kiss. Or if I'm playing baby games with Mika, he'll run over and stick his feet in my face so I can wiggle his toes too.

I was informed that "41T80O-q2" spells "sister" (he thought the 2 looked like an S and he was spelling backwards?). And then he told me "vH1PyA1t5Jj9I312KmnWwfhD" spells "Dad."

A Wedding, a Business Trip, and a Fall Festival

Because I'm too lazy to do a post for each one.

The Wedding

One of my college friends was married in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Mika and I went and left Paul and Jackson in Denver. I think this was the first time I was away from Jackson for a whole weekend. It was kind of nice to have a break, but every time I heard a small kid jabbering it made me miss him. Also, funny how when you're a first-time mom and flying alone with a baby it's so stressful. When you're a second-time mom flying alone with a baby, it's a piece of cake.

Oh! A nice big window with a great view!

Except not.

Not bad for a $2 thrift store dress, eh?

The bride and groom!

The Business Trip- Steamboat Springs

Paul had to go to Steamboat Springs again, and I was NOT going to sit in the house with the kids Sunday through Thursday alone. Paul almost disinvited us because we were trying to get out the door at 1 so we could check in the hotel and make it to dinner at 6, both kids were crying, Jackson was doing something terrible-twoish, I wasn't done packing at 1, etc. But both kids were good on the drive there and back. The kids and I didn't really do much except window shop.

Steak with crab meat, covered in bearnaise sauce. They grated the potatoes, deep fried the ball, and covered it with cheese. One of the best steaks we've ever eaten.

Downtown Steamboat with the mountains in the background.

Jackson at the bus stop.

We also had elk steaks, but they put a ton of pepper on it so I couldn't really taste the meat.

Fall Festival

In typical Micaela fashion, I didn't really realize that this weekend was the last one to go to a fall festival until Friday, so we scrambled to find one and go. Of course we went to one with free admission and free parking and were too cheap to buy a pumpkin.

Reason #87 of why I love having a daughter: Halloween tutus! 

"Jackson, smile!"

Jackson in the middle of falling down.

I really wanted $3.50 pumpkin bread and only had two dollar bills. So Paul was mean and took a picture of me counting out dimes so I could buy it :)

Mika at 5 Months

I weighed her on our scale and it claims she is 16.5 pounds (85th percentile), but I'm kind of skeptical, I think it'd be closer to 16 if weighed on an infant scale. She is 26 inches long (90th percentile). I just broke out the nine-month sizes, but she still fits the sixes. She sleeps through the night, sometimes there is a wake-up call, sometimes not. She still takes three naps. She rolls over both ways. She can sit for several minutes and does half tripod stance, half regular sitting. She continues to hate tummy time, and I think it's because she wants to crawl so badly but can't, so she gets angry and wants to be picked up. I haven't given her any food yet, but I think I'll start after I get back from another trip in a week and a half. She seems really interested in food, and I think I'm going 100% real adult food and no processed baby crap/purees this time (Jackson ate a lot of baby crap, but I'm going to try a lot harder with Mika to give her better food). I plan on taking what we're eating and shredding/mashing it for her.

The first time I tied her hair back. I waited four months to do it and then realized it 

would've been long enough to do it two months ago.

the aftermath

I feel sorry for her having to put up with Jackson's shenanigans. This stage is so frustrating because he can't understand why it's not ok to play rough with her. He doesn't understand how it's ok to play a certain way by himself or with mommy and daddy but not Mika. For example, he loves to play hide-and-seek with blankets, so he thinks if he puts blankets on Mika, she can play too. 

I thought he was sleeping and I walked in on this.

And he doesn't understand how he can crawl all over us but not her. He is a pretty rough little dude, and I have caught him putting blankets and pillows on her face, crawling on her, sitting on her, etc. I have to either make bathroom breaks last mere seconds or put her in her car seat and put her in the bathroom doorway to make sure Jackson isn't hurting her. I showered with both of them in the house without Paul, and that went alright, but I probably won't do that again. On the flip side, he can be very helpful and go get toys for her to play with if I'm busy cooking or something. And they love playing together.

Montessori-style tummy time when Mommy's in charge (no commercial tummy-time contraption with wild prints, just a plain towel and one wooden toy).

Tummy time when Jackson's in charge- bring anything that can roll to her towel.

Jackson loves playing with "nka" (Mika), cooking, washing dishes in his "sink," trying to dress himself, helping with Mika. I am reading some Montessori books and he loves the activities I make him.

practicing pouring

This kid LOVES cooking. 

shredding cheese

He loves setting the table with his new place mat that shows where everything goes.

practicing scooping beans from bowl to carton and carton to bowl

sorting shapes

*Disclaimer- I'll be totally honest that while it looks like I'm doing lots of nice activities with the kids, the TV is still on a lot. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance these two kids.

Florida Vacation 2013

The kids have one great-grandparent in Florida, so we wanted to take Mika there to meet her GG and let Jackson see her again.

At least half the family was happy at 6:30 AM.

J's an expert traveler by now.

We shared an awesome condo with Paul's sister and her bf. I meant to take pictures before we messed the place up, but I forgot until the last minute.

My MIL threw her hands up because I told her I was putting this picture in the 

blog with this Onion article posted with it.

Aaaaaaaand the best pictures-

4 generations!!

LSU game

The great-granddaughter holding her great-grandmother's hand. Now that is one to frame!

Mika helping Daddy through security.

I am proud to say I was not the annoying person with the crying child. Mika loved looking out the window.