An Angel, A Baby, and A Two Year Old

A red angel - Grace had her Christmas play at preschool recently. I missed it due to my pesky gallbladder but Brian was able to record it. Of course in typical Grace fashion, she refused to put on her costume. She was to be an angel and wear a white robe. I guess I told her too much before they left how pretty her red dress was that she was wearing. She didn't want to cover up her dress with the costume so Grace was the red angel in the middle of the pack of angels. That's my Grace! (At least, she wasn't the one who shouted out they needed to go potty in the middle of the play! Take what you can get, right?=P)

A baby moment - With three kids, we had to hit the odds, right? Matthew has become our pacifier baby. This is probably good for his sake as he was really hurting his hand by sucking on it. At first, I only found pink and purple pacifiers but I did scrounge up a green one finally! He is happy sucking it but gets upset when he spits it out. I am not liking this spit it out, get upset game much. The girls are thumb suckers and the ONLY good thing about that is they don't lose their thumb. I am hoping this is a short lived habit for him but I guess time will tell.

Two at last - Sophie turned 2 on December 11th. At times, it was hard for us to remember she wasn't even two yet. She did so much so early because of her big sister leading the way for her. Sophie can run really fast. She completely runs like a girl but that is OK because she is a girl!;) She talks in complete sentences. She eats just about thing you give her. She listens really well and tries her best to help when you ask her to do something like throw something away or get a tissue. At the same time, we now have another two year old. No matter how far along she is in everything else, she is two and it is starting to show! Happy Birthday, my Sophie!

ABCs ... oatmeal ... and a teacher all swirled together!

Sophie's New Thing: Sophie has started to say the ABCs. Well she only gets to D so it is "ABCD" ... "ABCD" ... "ABCD". It is very cute but after about the twentieth ABCD, you wonder when she will get a few more letters in the alphabet!

Matthew's New Thing: Matthew got his first taste of Oatmeal on Thanksgiving day. My mom got the privilege of being the first one to feed him a solid. He didn't eat much because it is hard to figure out the swallowing thing for all babies but he did get some of it down. At this point, it is just practice eating off a spoon and practice swallowing something besides milk. He will get it. The way he eyes our food, I know he will catch on fast!

Grace's New Thing: Grace has become a teacher to Sophie and Matthew. She has started sharing some of her "lessons" that she learns at school with Sophie and Matthew. My favorite is the "good morning song". I don't know the song and only hear the parts she sings. They must hold hands when they sing this at school because she makes a point to hold Sophie and Matthew's hands and starts singing "good morning to you, good morning to you" ... "good morning to you, good morning to you". Maybe one day we will get hear the full song but for now, I enjoy the part she is teaching Sophie and Matthew while she holds their hands.

Small updates and missing sleep

Small update but updates none the less.

Grace is loves school and singing songs. She loves the "good morning song" they sing at preschool. She has taught it to Sophie and will sing it to Sophie and Matthew. They hold hands when they sing it at school so she has to hold hands when she sings it here at home. It is beyond cute.

Sophie has a lot of new phrases right now. "There ya are." "Where are ya, ___?" They all have ya or y'all in them. We are raising a good Southern girl here! Her other favorite phrase right now is "I don't want it!!" ha. I wonder how she learned that one so fast!

Matthew is still growing and growing. He loves to smile and laugh. He wants to look around and is trying his best to move around. He can turn around in a circle on his belly. He hasn't rolled over again yet. I think he is too busy trying to crawl. Stay put baby boy!


This past week is the first time all three kids were sick at the same time. Brian and I then got part of what they had too. The kids are thankfully starting to feel better but Brian and I want to go crawl in a cave and sleep for a week. There is no cave here to do that, besides it would be awfully darn cold in there right now so we will just have to make due on missing sleep. You think after three years of training, we would be used it by now but we aren't!

Rolling over and Happy Halloween!

Matthew's New Thing ... Matthew rolled over the first time tonight and everyone was watching him. I put him on the floor and the girls came running over thinking he was finally going to play with them. Brian and I were telling the girls to give him space. He was pushing up on his arms to look around and then rolled himself over. He of course screamed when he did this but it was fun that we all got to watch it!

Grace loved handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters tonight. It was so cute to hear her talk about them. Of course, she also loved getting candy yesterday at my office party and tonight at the trick-or-trunk we went to!

Sophie's theory with the candy in her bag tonight was to dump it out in the middle of the living room to see what she got. She then picked through for what she deemed as the good stuff. In case you are wondering, M&Ms are good stuff!;)

Randomness in the form of Hokies, the sky, and smiles

Grace's new phrase ... We are so proud. College football was on tonight and Grace blurts out with "Go Hokies!" Now the Hokies weren't playing but she was very proud of herself for saying it and kept repeating "Go Hokies!" with a big smile!

Sophie's new phrase ... Imagine Sophie saying "High in the sky" with her hands up in the air. This phrase is said at Little Gym with the shakers during the opening circle time. We will say it at home with the bells the girls have. Tonight, Sophie said it for the first time on her own and put her hands up in the sky. Oh and Sophie's version of "Go Hokies!" sounds something like "Ho Hokies!"=P

Matthew's new thing ... Matthew has the best smile. I keep meaning to post about his smile and keep forgetting so here it is! He loves to smile at you when you talk to him. He will make sure you are worth smiling at before he gives you his full smile which is very amusing. I haven't gotten a picture of his great smile yet but I am sure there will be many opportunities for that over the years.

Two posts in one day is a record but hopefully a sign of posts coming more often!

Sleep, more sleep, and singing!

Matthew's New Thing ... SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!! YAY! Happy Dance! Whatever. Last week, Matthew slept through the night for the first time. It was amazing ... well, at least for me! He is loving sleeping in his crib and I am loving the extra sleep I am getting most nights! YAY! Thank you Mr. Matthew for loving sleep as much as your momma does!

Sophie's New Thing ... Thankfully most days Sophie admits that she still needs a nap. Some days she will even ask/request for it to be nap time. Other days, like today, she still went down screaming but was out instantly. We much prefer the requesting a nap days over the screaming days!

Grace's New Thing ... Grace loves signing songs. Brian started signing at bedtime to them but now the requests happen any time of the day. Favorites are "itsy spider", "little lamb", "abc's", "twinkle star", "rock a baby", and "patty cake".


Mommy's Thoughts ... I need to do this more often even if it isn't all three kids at the same time. I often think "this is a little moment" but then I when get here and start typing I can only seem to remember stuff for one or two of the kids. I guess I need to admit it will all balance out and not end up just about one of them which is why I kept this to being one update about each kiddo.

New, New, and New

Matthew's New Things ... yes, things. Matthew is in 9M clothes as of Oct 5th. He is growing for sure. He will now smile on a regular basis and has a smile that melts your heart. He is trying to sit up and move around. He has slept in his crib the past two nights. His first sleep time at night is 7-8 hours.

Sophie's New Things ... Sophie is getting better at warming up to people faster. She enjoyed being held by her Grandpa during their recent visit after she warmed up to him. Sophie started saying her name recently. She will say "Sugar" more than "Sophie" but she has told me her name is Sophie a couple of times. Sophie's favorite thing right now is dancing. Yesterday when I got home from work. She took me straight to the kitchen to dance with her to the music playing out there. Talk about feeling special!

Grace's New Things ... Grace is full of herself! Grace loves to color. She is loving preschool and I think she wishes she could go every day. Our helpful Grace has disappeared for now. She doesn't like to help as much as she used to so I have to beg her to let the dog in if I am busy where she used to just run and get him. She is doing good about sleeping her in own bed instead of with Sophie which means more sleep for both of them! Grace still loves apples and thinks that picking apples at the apple orchard is one of the best activities ever!

Mommy Thoughts: Coming home to three little kids is the best thing ever. It doesn't matter if they are screaming, smiling, or beating each other up. They make me laugh and smile and feel an incredible since of pride in knowing they are my kids. I can only hope and pray that I can continue to let them live up to the great potential they each have within them already!