Sleepy Head

Max has a double ear infection, so for the past few nights he has been waking up halfway through the night once his ibuprofen wears off. Sometimes he goes right back to sleep, but sometimes he doesn't, so he is behind on sleep. He doesn't nap anymore, but Natalie got a quick nap out of him while she was reading to him this afternoon.

Cousins

Emma and Anna thought they were pretty big riding the merry-go-round at the park this afternoon.

Here are their big brothers on the same merry-go-round at almost the same age:

Eleven Months

Emma is eleven months old as of yesterday!

As you can kind of see in her pictures, last month was the month of teeth. She has six teeth now with another one or two almost through. She shows them off with her new scrunched face smile.

She is starting to act like a little toddler these days. Her new favorite activity is climbing. Once she successfully climbs on top of whatever she's trying to scale, she beams with pride and excitedly bounces around.

She also really likes to dance. She dances by bouncing and/or moving her arm up and down whenever she hears music. Natalie figured out today that she even dances on command. This afternoon Natalie said, "Dance Emma!" and Emma immediately turned on her smiles and bounces.

She is really starting to communicate with us by reaching and grunting for what she wants. She is also starting to get a bit of a toddler attitude when what she wants is not what she gets.

As always, she loves to play with the big kids. She especially loves to wrestle and tickle them. She and Max have started to play together more lately which is fun to see since they will be the only ones home during the day next year when Natalie is in Kindergarten.

I can't believe that next month I'll be posting about her birthday! She is growing so fast, and we're loving every minute of it!

Our Week

We started the week with my 30th birthday. Luckily we had celebrated with my family on Saturday because poor Emma was sick on my actual birthday.

We are having to rethink some of our storage solutions because Emma now climbs on top of every tub she sees.

Sunny park days!

Emma's smile was gone most of the day Monday while she was sick, so her smiles have seemed even brighter now that they're back!

New Shoes and the Big Slide

Emma wore her new shoes to the park for the first time today. She was so excited to walk around like the big kids!

This is her new super happy smile:

Natalie and Max spent their time going down the huge twisty slide. This thing is huge. I don't know how many times I've helped a scared kid climb back down the steps after chickening out at the top of this slide. This trip to the park was a rare one where everyone who wanted to go down the slide was big enough and brave enough to actually go down. Soon Emma will think she's big enough to climb the stairs, and I'll be back on slide rescue duty.

And, finally, no set of park pictures would be complete without Emma laughing in the swing!

Back Outside

Today's high was in the 40's, the snow started to melt, and we headed back outside!

Legos and Cinnamon Rolls

A snow day well spent

Emma

She walks everywhere these days. Crawling is a thing of the past.

She also loves to play with the big kids. Max let her go to town with this tub of Transformers, and she was as happy as can be. 

Snow!

We were so excited to see snow today! We were also excited for the "hot chocolate and cookies party" to warm us up after playing in it.

Last Day of Christmas Break

Natalie and Max's preschool takes a full month off for Christmas break because they're on the same schedule as the college. Tomorrow we start back up, so we had a fun breakfast at our local coffee shop this morning for our last day of break.

One More Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family in Kansas City yesterday, and we all had a great time visiting with family that we don't get to see very often. Emma even got to meet Grandma Betty for the first time.

All three kids had so much fun playing with my cousin's kids. Don't they look like they could all be siblings in this picture?

Max got not one but two train sets in the gift exchange. We got home too late last night to set them up, but he and Chris put them together first thing this morning, and they have been the highlight of his day.

Puzzles

Natalie and Max got lots of new puzzles for Christmas. Today we had fun putting together this map of the US. 

Berries Babies

I guess maybe side by side they don't look so much the same, but I immediately thought of this picture of Natalie eating blueberries when I took these of Emma.

Dancers

Our sister-in-law, Shawna, showed us some great kids dance videos when she was in Hesston for Christmas. Natalie and Max love to dance along with them. It's the perfect way to get energy out when it's too cold to play outside!

35 Degrees!

This afternoon the temperature got above freezing, and the sun was shining, so we headed out for a much needed walk. It felt so good to be outside again!