Shark Attack!

Peter giving Nick a bath + Rachel playing in the bathroom = SHARK!

Thanks for the cool do Dad!

Sippy Cup Rachel?

Rachel got a new sippy cup yesterday and Nick LOVES to try to feed her. She isn't really in to it but thinks its funny when Nick is helping out.

When Rachel starts goofing around Nick is so determined to get her focused to drink that water!

In other news, Rachel had her 9 month appointment earlier this week. She was 18 lbs 14 oz (50th %) and 28 1/2 inches tall (83rd %). The doctor said her lower weight percentile (she was at the 75th % when she was 6 months old) is a good indication that she is very active (yep, I knew she was a busy girl). He also said she will most likely walk before she is a year old! Yikes!

Blueberries for Nick

Finding a left over blueberry from lunch on the table Nick came running across the house...

Nick: "Look Mommy look! Is this my blueberry?"

Me: "Yes Nick. Its your blueberry"

Nick: "I eat it? Its all mines?"

Me: "Yes"

Nick: "Okay Mommy!"

(shoves it in his mouth)

Nick: "Thanks Mommy thanks!!!"

Later...more blueberries...

Me: "Nick are you going to eat your blueberries?"

Nick: "No, they are Grandpa's blueberries"

Me: "Grandpa Jerry in California?"

Nick: "Yes! He come here and eat them! NOW!"

(maybe a 30 second pause)

Nick: "Nick will eat them all up!" (guess Grandpa took to long)

(Nick plays with the empty bowl)

Nick: "Look Mommy! The bowl is dancing! I want to show Grandpa! I NEED him."

Note: Its totally random who Nick talks about. I guess he is thinking about his Grandpa Jerry today. :)

Baby Hummer

Who needs a baby doll when you've got a Hummer to take care of?

Here he is all diapered up!

Of coarse the Hummer is potty training (just like Nick) and needs to sit on the potty sometimes too.

Just for the record. Nick's idea was to put the Hummer where Big Boys sit but I thought it was best for the Hummer to sit on top of the potty so he didn't fall in. :) Nick agreed to the idea.

Rachel is 9 Months Old

I can't believe our little Rachel is 9 months old! This last month we have started sign language, listened to her constant cheerful babble and enjoyed seeing her bounce on her knees and begin to find toys in every day objects. Here are a few random and fun things about Rachel...

She absolutely loves all paper products (including wipes, diapers, scrap paper, paper towels, playing cards etc.)

As I mentioned above she talks A LOT! She has imitated several sounds and words this month including "yucky", "yeah" and "daddy". Her favorite "word" is daddy. She almost uses it correctly and I'm sure in a month or two I'll be officially marking it down as her first word!

Her favorite food is anything she can feed to herself including bread, cheerios and cheese!

She also loves to sit on her knees and bounce.

She is starting to wave by moving her whole arm in a crazy sort of way. Its her way of saying "hey, look at me over here!".

Her curiosity is starting to get the best of her as she has found the joys of kitchen cupboards, and drawers and the danger of cords under our computer desk. I'm looking out for her!

A big "project" we've been working on this month has been sleep. She had not responded to any sleep method I'd tried and was getting worse and worse so I found another method online and its been working great! We are still working towards sleeping through the night but she has made BIG progress in just a few short weeks!

She finally got a front top tooth a couple of days ago.

She is much more cautious than Nick. For example, she will crawl like a speedy spider all through the house and the stop right at the edge of our sunken living room and then look up at me or wait for me to help.

Just Rachel

I have so many fun things to share about Nick. That kid is crazy! But for today...just a cute picture of my sweet little Rachel.

Helpatopter

Peter and Nick have been enjoying Peter's helicopter he got from my Dad for Christmas. Nick calls them hel-pa-topters and has been fascinated with them for some time so he is thrilled that one lives at our house now.

The helicopter is super fragile (the box should say "beward! keep far far way from two year olds") but Peter has been patient in teaching Nick how to hold it.

After a few days Nick has been successfully trained on how to hold it for a perfect take off!

Every time it goes he laughs and laughs.

He has even mastered take off from his head!

Another Trip to the ER

Nick took a trip to the ER last night after colliding into a side table at our house. Parker was over for a playdate so after we said our quick goodbyes we all jumped in the car and drove to get Nick's owie glued up. Luckly we live really close to the hospital and luckily he was only there for a couple hours.

Nick had to lay down for 20 minutes as the numbing medicine took effect and then had to put up with the doctors wiping and squeezing his cut together to figure out how to minimize the scar. Nick was a great patient and just lay there quietly as everyone stared at him and glued him back together.

For those keeping track or who are just curious this was Nick's 3rd trip to the ER. Once for sever dehydration after the Flu, once for Nurse's Elbow and now this. His first head wound was fixed at the Pediatricians office during normal business hours.

Up The Stairs

Rachel decided to make her way up our stairs a few days ago.

Unlike Nick (who went all the way up the stairs) she went up a few, banged on them like a drum, then came back down.

Rachel is 8 Months Old

Note: Rachel is now actually 8 months and 1 week old. These pics are from the day she turned 8 months but I'm just now getting around to posting them.

During Rachel's 8th month she perfected crawling. She can now chase Nick around the house with glee, find random pieces of fuzz and tiny specs on the carpet (giving her the nickname Roomba) and most importantly get to where she wants to be.

She loves pulling up and standing on nearly anything and has just started to cruise along anything she can pull up on.

More fun first this month include saying "ma", eating puff snacks all by herself and clapping!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Here are few pics for our family Christmas this morning.

Nick is totally over photographed and over blogged. I can't get him to look at the camera for even a second!

After a quick morning with the four of us, my family came over to celebrate the rest of the morning and afternoon. The kids had a great time playing, enjoyed opening and playing with their gifts and surprisingly barely touched any of their lunch. ;)

Hey Santa!

We drove all the way up North (to Bellingham) to see Santa this year. My favorite photographer, Aaron, was taking Santa pics so I couldn't miss out!

We were talking up Santa to Nick all day hoping that he'd have a fun experience. When we were walking through the parking lot to see Santa we saw a white Hummer. Since Nick is Hummer obsessed I said "Look Nick! Its Santa's Hummer!". Boy was he excited that Santa's car is a Hummer! :)

Nick accepted good Old Saint Nick but he didn't want to talk to him.

Rachel was sure we'd given her away to a scary man in a red suit.

Then Nick got some alone time with Santa but he still wouldn't talk to him.

Then as we were walking away Nick yelled to Santa...."Santa, I want a bear!". We later asked him what kind of bear he would like from Santa and he said "a white polar bear". Hm, guess Santa has some shopping left to do! :)

First Face

Nick drew his very first face yesterday. Up until this point his expertise was in circles, roads and dots but when we were all playing in his room I heard him saying "eye, eye, mouth" so I looked over and much to my surprise he was very carefully drawing a face!

I asked him what it was and he told me it was a rock with a face. I have no idea how he came up with that but I like it!

Tree Farm

A few weekends ago we went to the tree farm with my brother Adam and his family to help them find the perfect tree.

Nick was so excited that the farm had their very own fire truck!
This tree is the perfect Nick size!

Peter, Nick, Rachel and Lucy went way up on the hill. Those funny kids (well Lucy and Nick) ran through the trees, over the stumps and even dusted the water off of several of the trees.

Here it is! Their tree!

Lucy holds Nick's hand as we walk back to get some warm apple cider.

More play time in the firetruck!

Me and Rachel trying to stay warm! :)

Fun, fun day!!!

All Aboard!

We went to a train expo this past weekend. It was like train heaven for Nick. He was completely overstimulated but enjoyed every minute of it.

Here he is watching one of the many displays. He would laugh everytime the trains would come around the bend or pop out of a tunnel.

This train was going super fast on circle track. We could have stayed here all day.

They had one track set up for kids to run. Nick got to push a lever to make Thomas go!

As you can imagine the Thomas ride was a hit. Nick was so serious but he did really well and wanted to go a second time.

Days after this ride he is still talking about it! "Thomas pulllllls Nick", "Ride with boys and girls", "Round and round".

Rachel loved the show too!

Rachel is 7 Months Old AND ...

...Crawling! Yep, she decided to start crawling at exactly 7 months! I was just looking up when Nick started crawling yesterday because I knew she was almost there. He was 7 1/2 months old so they are pretty close. The exact moment happened when we were all getting ready in our master bathroom this morning. I didn't believe my eyes at first and then she did it several more times through out the day!

Here is a video of her in action this afternoon...

Here is our beautiful little Rachel.

This has been such a big and exciting month. I've started to realize that my little baby girl won't be a baby much longer! At the beginning of the month she started a funny little army wiggle where she pegs one arm down and pulls herself along with the other arm. Her legs weren't involved so I didn't count it towards her crawling....but she definitely could move! Then on November 11th she got her first tooth which was quickly followed by her second tooth on November 16th. Some time amongst all of that she started getting in to the sitting position all by herself and then I found her standing in her crib! Then of course she polished off the month with crawling!!! You go girl! :)

Nick has been such a good helper during my monthly photo shoots with Rachel. This month was no exception. When Rachel kept crawling out of the shoot, Nick decided to be her stand in. Really, truly, he did this on his own. So funny! This boy makes me laugh every day in such unexpected ways.

In The Tunnel

Rachel is scooting around pretty well these days. A few nights ago when Nick and I were eating dinner she wiggled all the way across the floor and in to Nick's tunnel. Nick was laughing so hard because Rachel has never been in the tunnel before.

He quickly asked for me to wash his hands so he could get down and play with her.

Rachel slowly moved through the tunnel and Nick did several fast "laps" through the tunnel, crawling over Rachel. As you can tell, they had a lot of fun!

Our Little Dragon

Nick was going to be a monkey for Halloween (like last year) but his friend Parker wasn't excited about his dragon costume so Nick stepped in and proudly put the costume to good use.

Check out this scary dragon face (the first of many). Instead of hugs he gave out growls.

Scary claws!

Roarrr!

Nick dressed up as a dragon and the pumpkin dressed up like Nick. (more on pumpkin carving in the next post)

No smiles from this dragon!

Showing off his door bell ringing skills. Peter took him out trick or treating to 15 or so houses. It didn't take him long to figure out how to scream "trick or treat! where are you?" before the door was even opened!

Thank you Heather and Dave (and Parker) for letting us borrow the costume! Hopefully this will inspire Parker to wear it next year! :)

Rachel's Check Up

Rachel had her 6 month check up today. She was 17 lbs 7 oz (75%) and 27 inches long (90%)! Its no surprise that she is a big girl. The nurse came in and said "are we here for her 9 month appointment?". Um no.

In the last couple of days she has been making BIG progress towards crawling. She now can easily army crawl across our bathroom floor and can get going pretty well on carpet too. She is also pushing up to the crawling position and trying to move forward. With all of her effort she normally ends up rolling over on her back but she is very determined and I expect she'll be fully mobile within a few weeks! Yikes!

Another first this last week was the "da" sound. I love when she gets going screaming "da da da da da da da..."

Pumpkin Farm

We had a fun afternoon at the South 47 Farm today. Nick was very excited about the pumpkins but he wasn't sure what he was suppose to do with them.

First he rolled on them.

Then he hugged them (when I showed him this pic he said "Nick Nigh Night Pumpkin")

And then he rode them like a horse.

We went with his friend Parker. Although I didn't get any good pics of them together (funny thing that two little two year old boys won't stand and pose for the camera together) they did have a fun time running through the corn maze.

Here we stopped for a photo op with the tractor.

Nick enjoyed the animals. He fed the Alpacas and Chickens grass.

Nick enjoying the "monster tire slide".

He was also excited for the opportunity to be a flower.
We got some final shots as we were heading back to the car. Nick finally decided to sit on a pumpkin so I could take his picture. (there may have been a bribe that allowed him to run through the corn) :)

Rachel woke up after a cozy nap in the Bjorn to a sea of pumpkins. Next year I expect we'll be chasing two crazy kids around the farm.

Here is Nick getting his reward for being a good boy. More running through the corn fields.

They had HUGE sunflowers. With a little help Nick could reach the top.

We had a fun muddy muddy time at with the pumpkins at the farm!

One More Hat

Another day, another hat.

6 Months Old

Rachel is 6 months old today!

Things to Know About Rachel:

1.) She is now an expert at sitting up

2.) She talks A LOT. Her favorite sound is Wa/Ra but we've also heard her say Ma, Blah and Ga.
3.) She loves to stand up supported

4.) She still isn't a big fan of car seats but once she is buckled in she is now somewhat tolerant
5.) She is becoming more independent and likes to play alone and with Nick
6.) She doesn't seem to have any aspirations of crawling yet but she can go small distances pushing and pulling with her arms

7.) She still is very hot and cold. Lets just say the girl knows what she wants and will tell you when she isn't getting it! :)

Silly Hats

Nick has a bag full of fun hats he has collected. He often pulls them out to play dress up. Today he decided on these two hats.

Rachel gets a kick out of playing this game too.

What silly little kids.

Laundry Basket

Rachel had her first laundry basket ride yesterday.

After her ride Nick decided to join her in the basket. :)

The Things She Loves

Rachel's personality is growing every day. She is such a funny little girl. The last few mornings she has woken up in her crib and just started happy screaming and goes on and on for at least 15 minutes. I have to rush in to get her and run downstairs so she doesn't wake up the boys. Well, today I had to bring her in our room so Peter could enjoy her beautiful singing. :)

Here are a few of her other favorite things to do right now.

1.) Being upside down. When she is laying in my lap on the couch she will push with her feet until she is dangling upside down and then will just laugh and laugh.

2. Tags. Tags on blankets, tags on toys, tags on clothes, her Taggie toy (genius invention). All the tags in our house are wet with her drool.

3.) Nick's toys. She would really rather play with all of Nick's toys than any of her baby toys. Today it was Nick's hard hat.



Love this little buddle of joy!

5 Months Old

Rachel is 5 months old today!

Things to know about Rachel:
1. She is a social and happy girl
2. She loves to be held more than anything else
3. She loves being on her tummy and hates anything to do with being on her back
4. She hates carseats and being in the car (see number 3)
5. She loves Nick and tolerates his terrible twos very well
6. She loves the grass and the sky and being outside
7. If I put her down on a blanket she'll grab it, roll and pull it over herself
7. She is most comfortable holding on to something
8. She falls alseep with her pacifier and a stuffed animal
9. She is sleeping in her crib now for about 12 hours at night waking up to eat 2-4 times
10. She can sleep through almost anything except Nick's voice
11. She takes 3 45 minute naps a day
12. She LOVES baths and prefers to be laying on her back floating with just her little face peeking through the bubbles
13. She almost always wakes up happy with a big smile on her face
14. She is just starting to sit up on her own

Busy Working

The boys were busy this weekend getting the siding ready for it to be painted in a few weeks. There was one spot that needed to be replaced from where the old deck met the house.

As Peter was pulling off the old siding Nick squatted down next to him to lend some muscle.

Nick got out his new power tools to help with the job.

Then later Nick found Peter's hammer and thought he'd pound on the house. I took advantage of this great photo op then rushed to take the hammer and put it out of reach. :)


Meanwhile Rachel and I were enjoying one of the last days of summer. She LOVES grass and will roll from the middle of her blanket to the edge so she feel it, pull it and coo at it.

Rachel's Rice

Rachel's been eyeing our food for awhile so I decided it was about time to let her try some rice.

She loved the few spoonfuls she had and I loved having a helper. :)

Not only was it good to eat it was also fun to play with!

Nick wanted in on the goodness so after a few bites of Rachel's rice I gave him his own bowl! He licked it clean! Guess baby rice still tastes good. :)

Exersaucer!

We had a fun play date with the cousins today and picked up the exersaucer that has now been in the family for four kids! I was thrilled the minute I put Rachel in it because she LOVES it!

She isn't much for playing by herself so the 30 minutes she spent exploring and playing in the exersaucer today was wonderful!

Nick's Birthday

My little man is two! He is growing up so fast (too fast)! As I l think about the last two years I am filled with joy at the little man he has become. He is funny and sweet, crazy and wild. One minute he giving everyone kisses and the next he is jumping off couches and roaring like a lion.

He is a wonderful big brother and loves his sister more than I ever could have imagined.

When we were deciding on what to get Nick for his birthday the choice was clear...a train set!
Uncle Andy helped out and got Nick a few fun train cars, a caboose and extra track pieces. So cool!

Nick LOVES his Uncle Andy. Here they are testing out the train set.

Nick got lots of great presents from his Grandma and Grandpa Marcu too! There are puzzles to play with, a rain outfit for the fall, a Seahawk fleece blanket, stuffed animal foxes and many other fun things....including a moose hat!!! How cool.