12.30.2011

Tucker Monthly

Tucker is 38 months old. "Old" is the key word. He seems like such a big boy these days which is of course, bittersweet. I love his independence, curiosity to learn new things, and the way he is in conversations... but I am seeing my "little boy" fade away a little too quickly.

Tucker LOVES to help Daddy cook. A few times a week, he helps Brad cook an "egg in the hole". He loves to get his "rapron" and stool and get down to business. I love to watch these two :)This was Tucker enjoying a treat at Kilwin's - a yummy store that sells fudge, chocolates, and other candy treats. This has become known as "the treat store". We've noticed right now that Tucker names stores by what we buy there. For example, if we buy a bib at a store, it's automatically the "bib store".
Christmas has been so sweet with Tucker this year. It was fun to get out all of our Christmas decorations including the beloved Little People nativity scene. This was one of several creative additions this holiday season :)
Tucker went to his buddy, Carter's 2nd birthday party. Carter loves firetrucks and he actually had a real firetruck visit the party. All of the kids loved it! They had hats, masks, and were able to crawl all around the truck.
This month there were a few fun firsts. First school performance and first church performance (more in another post). This officially made him seems so old and I had several flashbacks of doing this as a child. As predicted, he was pretty shy--not singing the songs as well as he did so loudly at home :) But, during both performances, he eventually warmed up a little which I was happy to see!
Church performance... in Christmas PJ's!
I wish I wrote down all the funny things that come out of Tucker's mouth. This age is hilarious--he's so great at communicating what he's thinking, constantly giving us the play by play of what he's doing, what he's thinking, or what questions he has. He's still so observant and curious of everything around him. He remembers the most random things and it truly is hard to get anything past him.

He still loves diggers but anything from the CARS movie is coming in at a close second these days. He is using his imagination a lot these days and he's content to play with his cars. He likes to watch Mickey Mouse and Handy Mandy and this month, lots of Christmas shows. He loves to sing and I catch him singing songs he's learning at school and church.

Speaking of school, he loves it! I feel like he has learned a lot and seems better socially from being there. We are THRILLED with how this Fall has gone there.

And Tucker is still pretty sweet to Hadley. This month as Hadley became more and more active, she was much more into his stuff which was not popular with Tucker! We've had to talk about sharing and "keeping your hands to yourself" daily and sometimes hourly. But, outside of those moments, he seems to genuinely enjoy being around her and constantly wants to give her hugs. It's sweet to watch them interact more and more now that she's getting older.
We love you Tucker man! Life is better, busier, more entertaining, and more funny with you in it!

Hadley Weekly!

Hadley is 49 weeks old. It's hard to believe she''ll be ONE in less than a month! I'm terribly behind on updating (it's been about a month) so I'm sure a lot has been happening these last few weeks.

BUSY and DETERMINED. These are the words that come out of our mouths daily as we describe our little girl (this sounds nothing like her mother of course). She is into EVERYTHING and you can't turn your back for a few minutes or she'll be climbing the stairs, pulling something off a counter, or putting a "choky" in her mouth.

She still loves Tucker's toys the best - especially the ones he's holding. He is pretty annoyed with her these days for this reason but we're trying to teach him to go where she can't reach :)

She's still not walking but she'll stand for a bit without holding on and it seems like she doesn't feel the need since she can scoot along the furniture so easily and crawl so efficiently.
A few weeks ago we had her first sickness. She seemed pretty fussy for a few days and we started to hear the "barking cough" so I headed to the dr. Turns out she had a double ear infection and the early signs of croup. She went on an antibiotic and a steroid for the croup. The croup never got too bad and cleared up after 24 hours, thankfully. But, about 3 days after she was finished with the 10 day antibiotic, she broke out into a rash ALL over her body. After a little bit of time, we started to wonder if it was an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin. After watching for about 24 hours, we took her to the doctor because it had gotten worse (see icky picture below). They did diagnose it as a reaction to the medicine and told us to let it run its' course. Thankfully, it didn't seem to bother her at all. It's actually still faintly there so it's still working it's way out of her body slowly. We won't be doing anymore medicines in the "cilin" family so hopefully no sickness anytime soon!
She's still taking 2 2-hourish naps and sleeps like a champ at night. Things are in a good rhythm and this age makes things begin to feel much more manageable. BUSY, but manageable.

She's started dancing to music, "talking" much louder, and turning anything into a drum. She likes to make noise :)

She got to hang out with her first cousin, Scarlett over Thanksgiving. These two are going to be sweet friends as they get older!
This "first" Christmas season with her has been sweet. The lights provide entertainment for her, she has left the Christmas tree alone much more than I though she would and she enjoys our Little People Nativity scene.

Picking out her first Christmas tree!
Life with our little girl is nonstop and "on our toes" but we wouldn't trade it!

11.24.2011

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

Tucker's Thanksgiving Feast at school was on Monday. His class dressed as pilgrims (CUTE!) and even better--Tucker got to be the line leader when they walked into the gym for all the parents to see. (I don't know about your kid, but mine talks about wanting to be the line leader everyday :)
Adorable!
Cutie sister tagged along...
Miss Ann!
Miles and Tucker
Miss Becky!
We LOVE preschool!

11.23.2011

Hadley Weekly!

Hadley is 45 weeks old.

This cute scrunchy nose smile is her new face and it's adorable!

She seems to be thinning out and looking more and more like a girl...not a baby. :(

She is saying more syllables but still saying "DaDa" the most.

She's letting go of furniture and standing on her own for a few seconds on her own.

She is eating a lot of different table food. She loves black beans, CHEESE, bagels, turkey, steamed broccoli, sweet potatoes, apples, and the beloved puffs.

Her 8th tooth start peeking through this week (it's her 4th one on the bottom).
She's pretty much dropped her cat nap around dinner but takes 2 naps throughout the day.

Her hair is growing, which is one of the reasons I think she is looking older these days.

She loves to snuggle and a few weeks ago when we were out in public, she fell asleep in my arms for a solid 30 minutes--Tucker would have never done that at 10 months!

She still sucks her index finger instead of her thumb...it's pretty adorable.

We are enjoying Hadley at this fun, busy stage. She keeps up with big brother pretty well and a sweet relationship is budding between those two.

Love you Hadley girl!

11.20.2011

10 months old!

Happy girl!

Life Lessons from Friday Night Lights

Brad recently stumbled across the website, The Art of Manliness. He has shared a few different things with me from this site but this article stands out because of my love for the show, Friday Night Lights. This read is worth your time!

Enjoy the article. And if you haven't already seen the best TV series ever, go rent the DVD's NOW!

11.19.2011

Smitten Favs

We were captured by the photog skills of Sharon Clark {Smitten Photography} once again and I'm so grateful for these images that capture our family of 4! Enjoy some of our favorites!

11.18.2011

Fall Days