Making Strides

So, obviously I have been trying to catch up my blog.  I have several posts yet to go in my effort to cover all the things that I want to, including Ostia Antica, Rome and Mother's Day. 

This post is one of the longer ones, lots of pictures, not necessarily in any order, mostly trying to capture the kids growing and doing and some of our pre-summer and summer activities.

 Grandma Leslie was perturbed when she found out that Noah had reached the ripe old age of 4 or so without ever having an ice cream cone.  (She took him and Ian out that very day to remedy the situation.)  Perhaps rightly so.  I didn't feel like I could wrong all my other children in such a way.  So here it is.  Sage's first ice cream cone.  And she is not quite 2!

Noah's interests are varied.  He will go long stretches without saying much and then he will come out with a question that usually requires research to answer-at least for me.  Google is my friend.

Sometimes, though, the conversation goes something like this:
N: What is water made of?
Me: Oxygen and hydrogen.
N: But how does oxygen and hydrogen make water?
Me: You have exhausted my knowledge of chemistry.
N: Ok.  I'll ask dad when he comes home.  He knows everything.
Me: Sounds like a good plan.

We love the train at the zoo.  It would be better if you could see more exhibits from the train but it is a fun little ride.  Chris and the boys especially appreciate that it is a coal burning steam engine.

She used to get her "fa-fier," as she calls it now, whenever she wanted.  Now we are down to nap and bedtime.  I think it will go the way of the dinosaur before she is three, though. 

Sage went in for her two year check up and pretty much hadn't started talking (she had maybe 10 words), exactly like her brothers.  We agreed that if her language didn't "blossom" in the next few months that I would consider evaluation for speech therapy.  I was not really worried. 

Sure enough, a few short weeks after that appointment she really started to talk.  I love her baby talk. It totally charms me and I keep looking around for someone else besides me who thinks she is the cutest thing ever.

These guys are really getting to be good friends.  Ian is helpful and encouraging to Sage.  Ian seems to have a wonderful knack of playing and enjoying his older brother and his younger sister separately and at the same time. 

This darling coat/jacket was in a bag of clothes we were gifted with.  The dress underneath was equally darling but we were late for church so we only got a few not great pictures of the yellow jacket/coat that she only fit in once!

Oh, the concentration!

She went from a few little wispy curls at the back of her head to this mane of wildness in a matter of months!  It is long and curly.  I am afraid to cut it off. 

This bunny was a gift from Grandma Leslie, found on sale after Easter.  It has turned into a lovey required for bedtime.  Lately, she loves to make her bunny dance to music and do all the actions to her action songs at bedtime.

My little natural helper!  Is it because she is a girl or just herself?  She wipes up her messes and even some that aren't hers.

"Wap, wap, wap" she will ask.  This one took me awhile.  I finally figured out she wanted a clorox wipe for cleaning.

Talking on her phone while waiting Noah after school last school year.

 

Ian and Mrs. Johnson, his preschool teacher.  He provided her some challenges but it was a fun year for both of them in the end.

Alas, she is not potty trained yet.  She just got a hankering for her brother's underwear and knows where to find it in his closet:) One day she was up to six pairs over her diaper!

Only four and already reading like a...first grader?  Second grader?  Self taught and loving it!

Totally unposed but totally heartwarming.  Actually, I was a little scared.  I was sitting in a seat by some other tables, but suddenly I couldn't see any of my children!

Waiting outside Ian's school last school year.

This is a common sight out my kitchen window.  I love it!

She likes to do all that everyone else does, including tools!

Noah really wanted to earn some money to buy some more Pokemon cards.  We went through several ideas.  This was one of them. They made about $10. 

We measured the kids at that beginning of September.  Sage is 33 3/4 inches tall (26th percentile) and weighs 26.4 lbs (32nd percentile.) 

"eight, ten, eleven, bast off!"

We did two sessions of swimming this year.  Noah finally progressed into Level 2.  He is still not super confident but he loves the water!

Ian is taking swim lessons under duress.  He does not love the water. I consider it a matter of safety.  He made super progress.  While he did not move up a level in his two sessions he went from being terrified to get in (he couldn't touch, the kids have to hang off the wall) and crying the whole time to being brave (doing it even though he was scared and no crying) and doing everything that the teacher asked as well as he could bring himself to do it. 

The park and rec swim program allows parents to stay and watch on the first day, observation day, and the last day.  This is really kind of a blessing since occupying Sage for all that time, on the bleachers and by the pool is no mean feat.

The unreasonably hot summer weather left the indoor pool area hot and humid.  Sage's curls couldn't help themselves-the went super springy.  I found a spare barrette in my purse and put her hair up in the back.  That was the first time that she let me put her hair up and left it alone, she was that hot!

This was another day.  She was checking her pigtails out in the mirror and she liked them but they only lasted about 3 minutes before she wanted them down.  Tangles or not, (and it is usually not), she cries pitifully anytime I try and comb her hair except after baths.

We got to eat dinner with Paul, my brother-in-law.  We snapped this picture for primary but I really like it.

Noah measured in a 50 3/4 inches tall (97th percentile) and weighs 58.2 lbs (90th percentile). Just for kicks and giggles we did a height predictor online and Noah is predicted to hit 6'3" or 6'4".

Ian is 44 1/2 inches tall (93rd percentile) and weighs 45.6 lbs (88th percentile for weight).  His predicted height is 6"2.  

We didn't go to the zoo quite as often as we had planned because it was too stinkin' hot this summer.  But it has been a fun time every time that we have gone.

I came home from my Saturday shopping to find Chris measuring out some pieces of wood.  He told me he was bored and was going to make Sage a swing.  

And he worries that he isn't the coolest dad around-can you believe it?