The other day, Daniel (who usually really does not like to have his picture taken) asked Amy to take some pictures of him with Aspen. These are the results:
Ever since that very first time Leslie had a good belly laugh when we said the word "gnocchi", we've been using Gnocchi as her nickname. So, yesterday, when she tried gnocchi for the first time, we had to take a couple of pictures:
Daniel had his 4-year wellness visit with his pediatrician, and Leslie had her 9-month wellness visit as well. Both kiddos are doing great!
Daniel weighed in at 35.6 lbs. (47th percentile) and measured 39.5" (32nd percentile). He gained four pounds and is up 2 3/4 inches from last year, so she was pleased and said he's right on track. He received three different vaccinations, and was so brave when he got them. We told him it would sting and pinch a little but then be over. He said, "Ouch!" and squirmed a bit, but didn't cry, even for the second and third shots to his arm. Side note: Daniel visited the allergist a couple of weeks ago. While nothing changes medication wise and we continue to do well managing his allergies, his mainly positive attitude toward shots today bodes well for him since next year he will likely begin rounds of allergy shots.
Since Daniel is a Summer baby (and right in the middle of it), we talked a bit about starting him in kindergarten next year at age five or delaying until age six. We are still really torn about what to do, but will look for guidance from his preschool teachers this Fall and Winter. On Thursday, his current preschool teacher, Miss Leslie, mentioned that Daniel is really mature for his age.
Speaking of maturity, Daniel has a new-found love of Legos. He recently got a Lego firetruck set from Uncle Matt and Aunt Heidi, and it was the Lego Junior (ages 4-7). He managed to put the whole thing together by himself. Literally, he looked at the book and with only a little guidance from Bobby, he built it and was hooked. He went to Target on Saturday, bought another Lego Junior garbage truck set with his allowance/birthday money and assembled the whole thing by himself. We were both really impressed and praised him for working so hard (even though it seemed to come easily to him). We have one smart cookie on our hands!
Daniel also had a pool party the weekend of his birthday. We invited a lot of his friends, had donuts instead of cake, and he got a few gifts. It was really low-key and fun!
There was a playground right next to the pool. Daniel enjoyed playing with his friend, Emmett!
Pre-Lego toys... he still plays with these a lot too. :)
Our little Leslie weighed in at 16 lbs., 3.5 oz. (8th percentile) and measured 26.5" (15th percentile) with a head circumference of 17" (24th percentile). The pediatrician is not worried about Leslie's growth even though she's on the small side.
Leslie sleeps through the night now (and has for about the last month) - hooray! She usually naps once in the morning and once in the afternoon and has a pretty consistent daily routine.
She usually breastfeeds four times a day (7 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 7 pm) and eats three "meals" in between. She loves to eat! AND she's a great eater! Her current favorite food is banana pancakes. She says "Num num" when she's hungry. (The pediatrician was impressed with how verbal she is already.)
She adores her big brother as much as ever. He is the best at making her laugh and smile. Yesterday, I recorded a couple of cute videos of the two of them having fun:
You've seen videos of Leslie on the move. She's perfectly content to roll around to get where she wants to go. Why crawl when you can roll to whatever you need? ;) Some babies skip the crawling stage. Maybe she'll be one of them...to be continued!
Leslie's vocabulary is starting to takeoff! She said her first official word last week, dog, but we weren't sure it was really "official" yet. Yep, it is! She also says, "Num, num" for anything related to food, "ball" and "DaDa." We're working with her on a few signs, but her vocabulary seems to shine through more than the signs.
Leslie is really taking a liking to Trixie and Aspen. She smiles and giggles when one of them walks by, and she likes to "pet" them too.
Here's a video we took of her right before bedtime last night (so she's a little grumpy in between saying "dog!").
Daniel turned 4 and Leslie turned 9-months-old yesterday. As I mentioned previously, after their pediatrician appointments on Monday, we'll post a big update.
We went out for dinner last night and Amy took a few pictures of the kids at one of Daniel's favorite local water fountains:
Daniel is very proud to be 4 and is happily telling everyone he sees how old he is.
And Leslie thinks 9-months is pretty great as well.
Daniel turns 4 tomorrow. Hard to believe. As I've done the last 4 years, I made a slideshow highlighting some of the fun and cute pictures from this past year. It can be seen here:
Both kids have pediatrician appointments on the 20th, so we'll have a big update after that. But, we'll try to post some pictures in the meantime. Happy July 13 everyone!
As Bobby mentioned in the previous post, we went to Des Moines last weekend to celebrate the Fourth of July, my grandma's birthday, and Daniel's early birthday. I think it's easiest to let the pictures and captions do the talking:
Leslie's first Fourth of July!
Daniel's birthday theme was balloons
Great-Grandma's 81st and Daniel's 4th birthdays
Opening gifts
Water balloons!
I think Papa and Daddy had the most fun with the water balloons ;)
Daniel with Papa and Nani
And here's a video of everyone singing Happy Birthday to Great-Grandma and Daniel. Bobby would like me to apologize for his singing so close to the microphone:
We just got home from a long weekend in Des Moines celebrating Daniel's birthday (a little early), Great Grandma's birthday, and the 4th of July. We'll have a longer post in a day or two with lots of pictures and videos from the weekend.
In the meantime, here's a video I recorded of Leslie (and a bit of Daniel) tonight after bath time. She wasn't completely cooperative with some of her tricks, but I thought the video was worth sharing anyway. She really loves her toothbrush:
Also, one of the toys Daniel got was a Take-Apart Crane. It's a toy crane that can be completely disassembled and put back together. It came in an Amazon box. Tonight, Daniel had an idea and asked for some help with the box. We weren't quite sure what he had in mind when he wanted Amy to cut off some of the sides and wanted me to help "drill" holes into it.
He was, using the parts from the Take-Apart Crane, building a car! Wheels and steering wheel included. He couldn't quite figure out how to build pedals that would make it go, so I had to resort to pushing him around. Regardless, we were proud of his imagination, creativity, and resourcefulness!
Leslie is rolling around all over the place. If you set her down, she immediately starts to roll (or cry). ;) She is quite the eager explorer.
She also developed new babbling sounds including "ba" and "da" as you'll hear in the video. (And there's a quick view of Daniel playing. It's fun to hear him talk and play with his toys!)
On the subject of moving around, we've been enjoying some nice weather and playing outside more. Here are some photos of our fun:
Leslie's first time playing with the water table - she really enjoyed it!
