Cooperation

 Sometimes it happens...and when it does it's so cute!

 These two were playing so nice together with the farm this past weekend so I tiptoed over to the camera to get a couple of shots.

 Normally is I move out of the room Kieran notices and follows me right away.  We had some precious moments this past weekend.  Dan had one of those weekends where he had to work 90% of the weekend and it was cold so we just stayed in and played.  We did make it out for church on Sunday, but that was it:)

 Here's Kieran again.  Up on the chair before church all by himself.  It took him about three seconds and there he sat and looked at me like, "What...is this dangerous or something"?

There might have been some cooperation gone bad after this shot was snapped!  Ha!

If things go according to plan we are spending some time this weekend with my cousin Joe, his wife Andrea, and their two kids Owen, and Lydia!  Should be fun....it's these little things that are helping us get through the cold winter months!  blah!

Little Fashionista!

 Svea has been enjoying dressing herself these days.  Most mornings we hear her get up in her room and start rummaging in her dresser right away.

 Sometimes she turns on the lights, others not.  Sometimes she gets undressed and dressed right in her room, and other times she just comes out with the clothes she would like to wear that day. It seems so weird how grown up she is to be making all kinds of choices for herself, but it's fun too to see her choices and opinions of the world.

 I love this outfit she picked out the other day.  At first she would not even tough her leapord boots because they were not pink.  She seems to be getting over that a little bit because the other day she wore blue pants and today she put on a yellow shirt and brown pants.  She even let me put her hair up with a YELLOW pony tail tie.  UNHEARD of:)

Such a silly girl!  I hope she never loses her confident spunk, desire to express herself, or her goofy and fun personality!

A Boy And His Dog!

Kieran LOVES this puppy and this is how he reacts EVERY single time we bring him out to hang out in the living room.

Pure joy and silliness!

He looks SO grown-up.  Our little guy is getting big:(

His favorite thing to do is get close enough to him that Riker will sniff him and nuzzle him with his nose.

Then he does this:)

It's quite hilarious and fun! I'm so glad I got some pictures of his reaction because they make me laugh every time I look at them.

Svea, on the other hand likes the dog, but doesn't venture that close to him.

 

On other notes Kieran this weekend just continues to take off in the department of talking and showing us he understands things.  One funny thing he started doing is running into the kitchen (if he catches the gate open) and he hides behind a cupboard door.  Then he waits for us to come walking in and bursts out to surprise us.  He giggles and smiles and gives hugs and then does it again.  He is also climbing up on those chairs like crazy.  I was washing dishes and he was playing in the living room. What felt like two seconds later and I look over and he's on the chair (which is next to the counter) and he's attempting to finish Svea's cereal.  He looked at me like, "what's up Mom, just a little hungry with a huge grin of satisfaction".  He's too little to be doing this stuff:)  It was a really fun weekend with him and experiencing his little personality coming out. 

Our Past Week

Daddy reading to a very tired little boy! 

 Svea received a paint smock from Grandma and Grandpa D and she immediately wanted to paint...so here she is painting her beautiful picture:)

 A few weeks ago I posted Kieran's 18 month post about what he is learning.  I didn't have a lot of new things to write about, but we do now.  He has now learned how to climb up on our dining room chairs. Yikes....he did this the other day in about 5 seconds and then just sat there like this:)  He also likes to throw things away in the garbage and is really quite good about knowing what goes in there.  When he gets undressed for his bath and we take his diaper off he has to run into his room and throw the diaper away in his diaper pail.  It is really fun to see his understanding exploding.

 Svea picks out her own clothes on the majority of days.  She has been stuck on the fact that girls wear pink and boys wear blue, but we have been working on this and now she is incorporating some other colors into her wardrobe!

The kids helped me wash the floor the other day!  That was great.  It got a little wet and slippery so they both played in Kieran's crib while I finished it up:)

Dan and I went out on Valentine's Day for a couple of hours and had a great time!  We ate at a fun restaurant and then went shopping for a quick hour.  When we got home Kieran was ready for bed. 

 He is so zoning out here!

 Another new thing Kieran is doing is opening doors on his own.  He loves to open the closet and then close himself in for a few seconds before busting out and running at full speed.

 

 Can you see his little fingers?  He doesn't close the door all of the way:)

 

On Sunday Dan and I took Svea down to the cities to see a play called, "The Mitten".  It was her first experience doing something like that and I'm pretty sure Mom and Dad were more excited than she was.  We read the book at home all of the time so she could follow the play quite well. She was really quite, but engaged and was like a zombie afterwards.  We aren't sure if she was overly tired (no nap) or the amount of people and the over stimulation.  It was a ballet style play so we thought she'd like that too.  It was a great experience!

 

Hearing Update

Kieran had his hearing checked again this past week.  He wasn't responding as well to his left ear so his audiologist checked his fluid and sure enough he had fluid in that ear and not the other. He was getting over (aka continuing on with the 2 month long cold he's already had) so she wasn't surprised when he had fluid and didn't hear as well out of it.  He responded to speech better than sounds and she said for now that is great.  He's meeting his speech milestones of having a handful of words, following simple directions, and imitating speech by reading books.  We'll go back at two and check him out again and then do this until he turns three.  After that whatever his loss is at that point will 95% stay what it already is.

This pic is a little blurry, but that is how 80% of the pictures I take of him are because he DOES NOT STOP moving:)

So Behind, But In A Good Way

We've been up to quite a bit lately and it's been fun and has been helping us all get through this mid-winter "stuff"! We've had an Anniversary Night away, Gaga came to visit, Church with just Svea and I, serving at Food For Kids, and lots of fun times at home.  Here are the two monkeys playing on the iPad together.

 Svea asked if she could wear her jeans the other day.  She had them on for 2 seconds and then decided they weren't comfortable, but I requested a picture because I thought she looked so darn cute in them!  Dan and I got to go to the cities for an overnight date a couple weekends ago!  We had a blast and Gaga stayed with the kids.  We shopped, ate, went out for drinks, relaxed, shopped some more, met up with my best friend Pam for lunch, shopped some more, and then came home.  It was a great way to celebrate our 6th anniversary!  Mom had a fun time with the kids too!  Thank you Mom for coming.  It's SOOOO nice to get those moments to sneak away for a bit!

 Kieran loves hats.  You might see him in more hats in the coming months because if he sees one it's his and it's going on his head;) He is REALLY starting to look like a little boy instead of a baby and I know you all have probably thought he's looked like a little boy for sometime, but he just stays my baby in my mind:)

 We watched the Superbowl.....on Dan's phone and then joked how we have a whole movie theater downstairs, but watch the Superbowl on a 4 inch screen. Ha! It's still been SO cold, but I think we are almost out of the woods.  Svea has been singing Edelweiss and when Kieran hears it when we sing to him before bed he immediately lays his head on our shoulder.  Precious moments with him. 

 " I love you".  Kieran repeated me tonight saying this.  We laughed and clapped and he probably did it ten times, but who knows if he'll do it again.  It was great! It sounded more like Aye-Wa-Ewe, but oh so cute!  Svea's new thing is she likes Dad to tell her jokes at bedtime and he makes up all of his "punny" ones for her and she loves it.  It's rubbing off on her because now she tells funny jokes for God.  "God thinks my jokes are funny, Mommy"!

 Hats....they pulled them out today with Dad while I was at work.  We think Kieran looks like a teenage mutant ninja turtle.  They are seriously going to read this someday and say, "What the h$^k is a tmninjaturlte...wwwhaaattt!!!  :)

 I don't know if I could be any more proud, but Svea is starting to take after my cousin Josh.  His kids used to name their poop and I swear, without not a single prompting she named her poop for me one day and told me they were girls.  Now after she goes she holds up her fingers and says I went this many poops MOm!  Oh man.....I forget what she named her poop that day, but I laughed until I had tears in my eyes.

There was a community service project this past Saturday that Dan helped organize.  I took the kids and they had a blast.  Kieran was very content hanging out in our arms and Svea got to help her Dad "serve".  They had the job of packaging up rice packets of food and loading them into boxes for kids in need.  On the way home she said, "I like helping get food for kids.  It makes me happy"!  She is also into pointing out nice things that people do.  We were looking for a parking place and they were plowing new spots because the lot was so full.  She said, "Mommy, that was so nice of that man to do that"!  I LOVE this age...I love their little minds.  I love having a place to write it all down so we never forget these precious times!

 

This weekend we are pumped.  Dan and I are taking Svea to a play...her first ballet!  Kieran gets to spend some special time with Jackie too!  Happy Valentines Day week!

18 Months Old

Clothes: 12 month clothes.  You wear quite a few 18 month shirts, but pants and jammies are still 18 months. You were 30.75 inches at your appointment this week, which is the 7%.  You are a little guy and strong.  One thing that is nice about you being so small is it's easier to snuggle you!

Shoes: Size 3.  You grew out of one of your pairs, but still fit in another.  I tried you in size 4 shoes, but they are way too big yet.

Diapers: Size 4 diapers

Sleep: You sleep approximately 12 hours at night and anywhere from an hour to three hour nap each afternoon.  You have been down to one nap a day for a very long time. You are a good napper and quite consistent.  You have been loving your glo-worm for comfort at night.  You still haven't taken to your "puppy" all that much and your pacis are always your go to comfort object. 

Teeth: 11!  You have all four of your first year molars and now we wait.....next will be your eye teeth and it might not be so fun:( 

Traveling: We didn't go anywhere this month.  We had a great month hanging out at home though!  Gaga came to visit at the end of the month and spent the night with you and Svea while Mom and Dad went to the cities for their anniversary.

Talking:You are saying Mom, Dad, No, Hey, Gaga, and Hi more consistently.  Things we've heard you say maybe once or twice are, What's that?, Hi Kitty, and Hi Bay-ya. You still aren't a huge talker or at least we can't make out your words.  You love to sit down and "read" to yourself.  It's all different sounds that we can't make out as words.  You love to do voice inflections even.  Mom got a video of you the other day reading "Are You My Mother" sitting in our laundry basket.  It was super cute!

Favorite Activity: Reading books...hands down your favorite still.  You also enjoy playing with the play kitchen we have, sitting behind Svea's rocking chair and reading books in her room, opening cabinets and drawers and investigating, and baths.

Favorite Books: You love "The Little Red Caboose" and "You Are My Mother" the most right now.  Other books you enjoy are short board books with rhyming patterns.

Favorite Foods: Not many....you are a picky eater!  We thought Svea was, but you take the cake.  If we can get you started on something you take five bites and we get excited and then you are just DONE.  Foods you rarely pass up though are peanut butter, yogurt, dried peas, cheese, and applesauce. If we cannot get you to eat anything, which happens, we give you peanut butter bread. You weight exactly 20 lbs. and not an ounce over.  Yeah!!  We celebrated!

Foods Disliked: A LOT:)  We can't get you to eat sweet potatoes and almost every other vegetable.  You will eat broccoli if it's cooked and has cheese on it:) 

Favorite Songs: I wouldn't say you have any favorites.  Svea is singing around you all of the time and we all sing a lot, but you don't react to us too much.  At night Mommy sings you your nighttime prayer and Edelweiss. As soon as I start singing them you immediately relax and snuggle on my shoulder.  It's my favorite time with you.

Dislikes: You sister taking something away, having to go and eat when you don't want to, getting into your car seat most of the time, and diaper changes.  We use tv to get you to hold still for the few minutes we need you to.

Favorite Word: Your favorites are still No and Hey!

Things we are learning: How to follow directions.  You find garbage on the floor or when we are finished with a banana peel you like to run to the garbage and throw them away.  You are getting much better at just following what is going on.  You are learning more animal sounds and we are trying to work on body parts, but if it has something to do with words you are not hugely interested.  You continue to want to be physical and play, play, play all day long.  You also want to be doing just what your sister is doing.  You know how to work the iPad and get started on an app:)

 

 

Kieran Carter, we love you so very much.  You are a sweet boy and we are so blessed to have you with us.  We just love spending time with you and trying to make you laugh.  You love to be tickled on your neck and will hold our face closer just so we will continue.  Those are some of our best moments with you. We love you!!!