Mera's Head

I feel like I owe a bit of a Mera update to the blog since she is over 18-months now and her development has not gotten much attention. I feel like I have expressed how sweet she is and not only that but she is content. It is so nice to finally have a content baby. I feel like I deserve it after the first two. She is content to play by herself and content to sit in her car seat for long periods and content to feed herself alone at the table (I still have to sit with Darby most meals and sometimes physically feed her to get her to eat). What I have not mentioned is how smart she is. It is funny because while I was running today I was thinking how happy I am that my blog has not become one big brag about my children. I think it is more a good illustration of the fun we have as a family and now here I am talking about how smart Mera is.

Alas, I digress. At this point Mera has surpassed a 50-word vocabulary and is combining two words into little phrases. "My water" My bite" "Dog treat" "Hi Georgia" are a few examples. She responds to one and two step commands and understands everything I say. She love her sisters and Georgia has a real novelty about her (probably because she is at school most days). We finally took down the crib from her room since she has never slept in it and the mattress on her floor will remain her bed for the future. This is weird for me since both the other girls were in a crib until the age of 3 and G until 4 (I know, weird). I am not used to laying in bad and having a little person come and climb in with me but this is what she does. My favorite part of it is when she wakes up from naps, she flings her door open, stumbles down the hall, and then looks at me and says, "Hi." Too cute.

She knows exactly what she want and will get it at all costs. I have a hard time saying no to her and she has eaten way more sugar in her life than either of the other two had at this point. She loves to climb and her favorite activity as of late is climbing on her stool and falling off. She enjoys giving the dogs treats and loves being outside. and most importantly she love to put things on her head and body. She has a pair of shorts she consistently wants to put on over her PJs and ends up sleeping that way. If she finds underwear laying around, straight on her they go.

Peek-A.....

BOO!

Allergy Testing

We had Darby allergy tested this last week because I have a mother instinct about her and feel like something is going on that needs to be addressed. I have been saying for a while that I am worried she has a citrus intolerance and I just wanted to get it checked out. They tested her for 30 foods and the only one she had a reaction to was lemon. Granted it was a very mild little reaction but it is interesting that that was the one. I have not spoken with the Dr. since but hope to hear from her this week to see what this means.

For those who have never had a "scratch test" the name is a little misleading. It's really a poke test and Darby was a real trooper. The lady doing it said she was being really brave an that it does hurt. The lady stuck her about 32 time and Darby sat there and let her do it. Here is a picture of her little arm afterwards. You can only see 2 rows but there are actually 3 and them some more sticks on the other arm.

January...Really?

Last weekend was so mild the kids were able to go out in the yard in their swim suits and play. I wouldn't let them get full-on wet but they made mud pies and taught Mera how to get dirty.

Darby loves dirty play adn would be dirty 24/7 if I would let her. The way it stands, I let her be dirty about 20/7.

Mera had her first taste (not literally) of mud and I would like to caption the following pictures now (note, I though it was a little too cold for a baby to be in a swim suit so she wore hers over her clothes):

"My sisters are doing this so I guess I should try it out."

"What the...it stuck to my hands. I don't know about all this."

"Let me just take a look at this, maybe it's not so bad."

"Hey mom look, it's not so bad. I can do this like my sisters."

"I can do it but I am not so sure I really like it."

"Okay, yea, can we get this stuff off my hands now."

Georgia is not afraid.

The Twins Turn 1!

My brother's baby girls turned one on Jan. 6th. Thier Mom threw a great little family party for them an it was such a special day to be able to celebrate. They are so precious an really turning into fun little people. Her is Analiese on the left and Genevieve on the right.

The cake Christy made for them.

Little G diggin' in.

Little A showin' us what she's got.

New Year's Eve

We spent NYE at my good friend Eva's house. We ate and talked and watched the kids play. G got into some dress up clothes.

She also lost her 3rd tooth the week between Christmas and New Year's.

After much playing we let the kids settle into a movie. FYI all of our kids are within 2 months of age of their closest peer so they really play well together.

Christmas Nanue/Big Papa Style 2011

Christmas Morning 2011

I didn't take too many pictures of Christmas morning but Santa did come and brought lots of bath stuff and a trampoline for the yard as well as some suckers. Mera LOVES suckers.

G made this awesome art at school so I framed and matted it for my mom because it has her colors in it.

After presents at my parent's house, we went home and played in the bath with our fun new foam soap.

The Desk

So I took on an incredibly stupid and time consuming project three weeks before Christmas. I really wanted to get G an old school desk and I looked around on craigslist but to no avail. I spent a whole Saturday looking at the flea market and antique shops and just as I was ready to give up I found the perfect thing. Only it was in bad shape. It was a 3-piece desk set and here is the before picture of the chair.

I only got 2 of the pieces re-finished and the other will have to wait until spring but here is a picture of what I got finished. They turned out really great and later when I asked what her favorite part of Christmas was she said, "Getting my desk." Makes a Momma happy.

Darby and her buddy Matt.

Christmas Eve 2011

So this is just a bunch of pictures of me and my kids and our family on Christmas Eve so feel free to skip it if you want.

This is Mera's little friend from playgroup. They both love to point out babies and this is what they are doing here. (photo credit to Eva Garringer.)