Resolutions

I'm big on resolutions. I set them faithfully every year and usually accomplish about 75% of them. Not too shabby, eh? I'm beginning to think Liv may have inherited my goal-orientedness (is that even a word??), because she has totally jumped on board with the two resolutions I set on her behalf:

1) Go potty all by herself
2) Eat whatever mommy and daddy are eating for dinner.

The first one is simply because she has been able to do it all on her own for some time, but always asks for my help anyway. At the risk of sharing too many details, I did tell her I would help her when she went no. 2, and for a week or so she trained herself to go a little bit every.single.time.she.went.to.the.bathroom, so that I'd have to help her. Kids are kind of amazing. But luckily that little phase seems to be over, and she's doing great.

And now for the second goal. Oh, Livia. Possibly the strangest eater on the face of the planet. I've mentioned before how she LOVES fruits and veggies but won't touch virtually every entree. For the past 3 1/2 years of her life, she's lived on bread, plain pasta noodles, chicken nuggets, and rice for dinner. And, oh boy, was I getting tired of it.

I am pleased to report that she is doing so well!! Case in point, tonight she had spaghetti noodles with sauce. And the other night she ate a taco. Granted, she made the taco herself and it only included veggies and sour cream. But still, progress! She has tried soup, stew, steak, potatoes, and a host of other things that she would never even taste before. She hasn't liked everything, and I've had to make sure I have bread and butter available at every meal so she can fill up on something besides vegetables, but I am so proud of what she's accomplished! Here's hoping she continues to do well, and that by the end of the year she will have a short list of foods she does not like, instead of a short list of things that she does. 


She also now drinks milk out of a regular cup, instead of a sippy cup, and somehow that makes her seem so incredibly grown up.

9 months

It's hard to believe, but Miss Jane is already 9 months old! She is such a joy right now--SO cheerful and full of smiles.

At 9 months old Jane...

• weighs 19 lbs. 6 oz. (around the 70th percentile)
• is 28 inches long (60th percentile)
• gets comments on her largeness all the time, and for good reason! Not only is she a big, tubby baby, but she's got a pipsqueak of a mama as her backdrop.
• Army crawls and will rock back and forth on her knees
• Says "mama," "dada" and recognizes her name and "no."
• Takes two 2-hour naps most days, and sleeps from 7pm to 7am, waking up twice during the night.
• LOVES food. Holy cow, her aversion to all food passed quickly! This little girl will eat anything you put in front of her, and eats more than twice as much as what Livia ate at 9 months.
• Got her first two teeth last week (and I'm glad that's over with!)

Here's a video of her crawling:

Any faults?? Jane pinches. And scratches. A lot. Now that she has teeth I'm a little worried that biting may soon follow. Also, hair pulling. Yowza.

8 months

Jane is 8.5 months old now. She is a joy! Almost always happy, a decent sleeper, and now an excellent eater.

Jane is scooting all over the place now, a bittersweet achievement. She also has called out "mama" a few times when I've left the room. It could be coincidence, but let's just call that her first word, shall we?

She and Livia are becoming better friends, and I'm looking forward to the day when they can really play together.

Jane still doesn't have any teeth, which is just fine by me. She still manages to eat plenty, and out-eats Livia at pretty much every meal. I'm curious to see just how big she is at her next appointment. From all appearances, she's BIG.

5th anniversary

On December 29th we celebrated our 5th anniversary! Rich and Cheryl were kind enough to watch our girls for the night so we could go out for a nice dinner.

It was a wonderful evening. If only we hadn't both come down with the flu the next day...

Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we acted out the nativity story. Livia was an angel with pink fairy wings, and Chase was a sheep. Oh, what a sheep.

Rich was kind enough to play the donkey, but I didn't get any pictures of Ella (as Mary) riding on him.

Then we got the girls in their pajamas and read The Polar Express

 Christmas morning!!!

 Learning to ride her new bike:

I love Christmas. Ü

A few randoms

Livia helped me make sugar cookies, and did a remarkably tasteful job on the sprinkles.

 We said goodbye to yet another friend. We miss you, Harmans!

I made Livia a felt tree and some felt ornaments that she had fun decorating over and over...and over again.

Christmas activities

Just before Christmas I took Livia to her very first ballet. 

 The Nutcracker! We met Tyler, Joelle, and Ella there, as well as Rich and Cheryl.

 We went to an abbreviated version that's supposed to be more kid-friendly, but it was still nearly two hours long. Livia was very excited and engaged for the first hour, and then started fading fast. She started asking me to leave, and then during the last scene suddenly leaped up and yelled "STOP!!!" at the ballerinas on stage!
I quickly clamped my hand over her mouth and furiously whispered some reminders about ballet etiquette. Very embarrassing. But pretty funny, too.

On Christmas Eve we sent off some Chinese flying lanterns into the sky. They were gorgeous. And probably totally illegal. Shh, don't tell.

 You can't really hear it in the video, but Livia's Christmas wish was for Santa to come.

Ella and Livia also made gingerbread houses one day.

 And we went to the Winter Wonderland light display in Santa Clara.

 Livia was very excited when she saw Ella. I guess a few hours of separation was too much for her??

 Janie even left her car seat for a few minutes to get a picture with her grandma and grandpa.

I love all the fun, festive things you can do around the holidays!