Brittany: Besides my class (and may I say, taking one class versus two a trimester REALLY helps with my personal/family balance!) I also took an embroidery class at Crafty Planet last month and it was so much fun. I'm now almost done with my first project, a tea towel with a really awesome design - you'll see soon when I post pictures. I've kept up on my sewing, too. My goal was 2 projects a month and in January I sewed Kieran a pair of pants and sewed a burp cloth & bib for my friend's new baby boy. So far for February I have made an adorable skirt for Maia with Hello Kitty fabric that she picked out, and next up are some curtains for our side door. I love having crafts to turn to when I need a break, and being able to embroider things now is great because it's portable, plus I can do it with the kids around.
Kieran modeling his fleece mama-made pants
Speaking of my friend's new baby boy, I was blessed to be able to attend that little fella's birth - a beautiful, gentle home waterbirth. It's such a blessing to be able to witness birth as it's truly supposed to be. Lastly, I joined BeautiControl (again, as I used to be a consultant) because I am absolutely in love with their mineral makeup and brand new skin care (it's paraben-free, gluten-free and without artificial fragrances & dyes!) and I'm hoping to do 2-3 in-home spa parties a month for extra cash. If you see this and you're interested in having a party or checking out the spa goodies (seriously, their skin care & makeup is to die for!) let me know!
Josh: Josh has been busy playing guitar in a new band called Mainland. He's also going to be having another surgery in April on his injured foot (this makes #5 since I've known him, I think?) Speaking of his foot (which, if you didn't know, he injured in a work accident in 11/2005, breaking I-don't-know-how-many-bones in a fall) my friend suggested that Josh look into using an amber bracelet around his ankle to help with swelling and inflammation, and guess what? It's totally working! Yep, amber rocks. He's been wearing it about 3-4 weeks now and has noticed that while there is still foot pain, his swelling has decreased to barely anything, which means less pain. Yay! Now that everyone in my family has one, I want one, too....hmm.
Maia: Maia has grown a TON lately. She's super tall and in 4T clothes now. She started a tumbling class at the rec center down the street and she likes that a lot, especially the "animal crawls" she learned and somersaults - she's so good at them! We recently signed her up for preschool - yes, my baby girl is going to PRESCHOOL this September! We hope to visit the school soon as a family. I've been there before, as my 2 youngest brothers attended there, but Josh has never been. Maia's been going through some developmental growth as well. Recently she started to do many new things herself, things that we previously did for her like getting toothpaste out and on her brush, helping her get dressed, etc. She can now fully get dressed and undressed except for buttons and she needs help getting her shirts off. She does her full night-time routine on her own in the bathroom alone (her preference) with us just guiding and reminding her what to do. I am so proud of her!
She loves finger painting.
Kieran: This little dude has gone through a TON since the last time I posted about him! A few weeks ago he weighed in at 23 lbs & 29 inches. Yes, 23 lbs!!!!! That means that he is bigger than Maia was at this age, because Maia was 22lbs from 6 months to about 2 years. That's just insane to me. He is now 11 months old and just about 9 months adjusted - we're so close to 1 year old, what the heck!? In January he got his first teeth - the front two bottom, and in February he got his top front two teeth with nary a side effect. Seriously, the amber teething necklace rocks!!! He looks so stinking cute with the two front teeth, and looking more grown up. He's mostly wearing 24 month now, save for 18 month bottoms. He is a hefty boy but oh well, it's worth it :) We worked hard for those rolls!
Also - he is CRAWLING! He started officially crawling on Valentine's Day - he crawled from one room to me in the next room. Then the next day I found him standing next to his toy box - he learned to pull up in the same week! He thinks it's really funny to pull things off our coffee table and just learned how to pull up in his crib last night. What a silly boy. The funny thing is, Kieran's started crawling the exact same"age" as Maia! Maia crawled at 8.5 months and Kieran crawled at 8.5 months adjusted. Pretty cool, huh? I think my kids just crawl a tad it later because they are so dang chubby, ha! Kieran's also vocalizing more - I hear "mama" occasionally, as well as "dada," and we hear gee, kee, yeah, etc. He seems to be spot on with his adjusted age for that. And he's signing "more" now! We use "more" a lot when it comes to his food - he is a very voracious eater, especially when it comes to meat & cheese, so we're constantly giving him more and more and more! Favorite foods right now are: any kind of meat, steamed broccoli and blueberries (but I am NOT giving him those again for awhile, the diapers are HORRID!) He is such a fantastic eater and we've loved letting him lead the way using the baby-led weaning method.
