Fall Update

 Here is a little about what each of our kids have been up to in the last 6 months or so...

Rebekah:

• Recently started a once-a-week, two-hour pre-school class through the Columbus rec center. She loves it, although Andrew sorely misses her while she is gone for those two hours. All he does is ask for her. He looks so relieved when we pick her up. I think each time he doubts whether or not he'll see her again.
• Starting to read, write simple words. She also does some basic addition and counting. She can draw simple people too, which usually consists of arms and legs growing out of a face (the toddler classic)
• Loves to cook (or watch mommy cook). Right now she can't do much else other than stir, but she is so fascinated. Sometimes she even narrates what is going on and makes small talk to an imaginary audience. I really have no idea where she picked this up from--I have never watched a cooking show in my life and don't think she has either, but that is exactly what it sounds like.
• Since she will be turning four in December, we switched her to underwear in the beginning of September. For the first month, it was basically all accidents all the time. Did not seem to bother her, and she refused to use the potty unless it got her out of something, like sitting through church or going to bed. Finally she got to the point where she was (mostly) pee-trained (as long as we take her for 3 potty breaks in a 24 hour period, and at least now she is pretty okay with this). Still not poop-trained, mostly goes in her underwear.  So we've have had a total of one accident-free day since September.(And, yes, whatever you're thinking of suggesting, we've tried it. And we've also tried not doing anything at all, for extended periods of time.) She definitely has a little mind of her own But at least mom is no longer worried that she will have to start kindergarten a year late due to potty-training, as it seems there is an end in sight.
• She loves riding her little tricycle and has gotten really good a pedaling, especially around the park.
• Very good at making friends. When she sees a kid her age at the park, she will go up to them and say "Hi, my name is Rebekah.What's your name?" Sometimes they run away, sometimes they reply. She will say "Nice to meet you. How old are you?" Its really cute, although a little sad when they run away.  But Rebekah doesn't mind. She just runs after them, repeating her question. ("Hey, girl, what's your name?...")
• One of my favorite Rebekah quotes:  Me: "When you get bigger, you will be a mommy."  Rebekah: "When you get smaller, you will be a Rebekah"

 Andrew:

• Since summer, has basically made a complete switch from being a mommy's boy to a daddy's boy. First thing he wants to do in the morning is see Daddy. Daddy has to give him breakfast and get him dressed. All day long while he's at school, he asks about Daddy, talks about Daddy, points to Daddy's things and says "Daddy". When he comes home he runs from whatever he is doing to Daddy. It is adorable (although can be difficult on the two days a week where Scott's classes run until 9:00 or 10:00 at night so he doesn't get to see him...).
• Has gotten into reading lately, although it is hard for him to sit through a whole book.
• Loves his cars. He almost always has one or two in his hand. But, since he still likes to hide things, our car supply is being depleted (we don't salvage the cars that go down the sewer). 
• Great napper. He has about 2 hours or more a day, although we did go through a scare a little while back where he dropped his nap almost every day for about two weeks. But now he seems back on schedule. 
• Very intense little boy. Not sure how else to describe his personality. Can be very demanding but can also play on his own, but he is always very intense on what he is doing.
• He has mastered quite a few words (more than Rebekah at this age), although there are a lot of consonants he cannot make yet, so, while we know what he is saying, its not clear to anyone else.
• Super picky eater. Lots of things he used to like he doesn't like anymore. He will turn away even kid-friendly foods like animal crackers, yogurt, bananas, ICE CREAM, etc. In fact, there is nothing I can always count on him to eat (most kids seem to have at least one thing they will always eat).  What he likes depends on the day, and some days he doesn't eat much of anything. I mean that quite literally. I would be a little less worried if he weren't 3 percentile for weight (and average for height)....

Now for some Halloween costumes: Rebekah was Rapunzel...

And Andrew was a pumpkin, although we couldn't get him to stay in his outfit long enough to get a picture, much less go trick or treating in it. This despite the fact that we picked out the least intrusive costume for him that we could (it was basically just a vest that he wore over his orange shirt). When we went trick-or-treating, since he wouldn't keep his pumpkin on, Rebekah decided that Andrew must be going as a "shirt". And that is what she told everyone (I"m Rapunzel, and Andrew is a shirt")

 Here is a picture from apple-picking, more are on facebook.

And this little video of the two of them dancing, which by the way they totally initiated. And I managed to only video the tale end of the whole thing, which, of course was the least cute portion, but at least you can see Rebekah spinning Andrew to the ground.
What an adorable pair!

Pictured above are our two little cuties at Easter time. Update on their cuteness:
Andrew loves taking things out of containers, shelves, buckets, and he also loves putting things in places, although usually not where they originally belong. Sometimes he has climbed into the kitchen cupboard so far that we could close the door on him. Every once in a while we'll find his pants in the blender, or a sandal in the broiler. This last week he did an Easter egg hunt with the blocks--he was being very high maintenance/clingy all morning, to the point where I could not even walk around without him pinning himself to my leg, and then all of the sudden he got quiet for a while. I could hear him moving around, and he sounded busy, but I was enjoying the quiet so I didn't bother him. When I finally looked to see what he was doing, he had been taking his Mega Blocks and hiding them in various places around the house. GOOD hiding places too. I kept finding them in strange places. By the next day, there were some I still hadn't found so Andrew just went and found them all for me. Smart little guy.
He also likes playing soccer. Not just playing with the soccer ball, but kicking it. Just kicking--he never touches it. Even if it gets stuck somewhere, he doesn't grab it with his hands, just tries to get it free with his foot.

Rebekah continues her fascination with Disney princesses. For a while Rapunzel was all she could think about. She likes to act out various scenes, particularly when we are playing the soundtrack we got from the library. I'm not sure how she does this, but when she is listening to the background instrumental peices in the soundtrack, she actually knows what section of the movie they are from. One time while we were listening to the soundtrack, she found me in the kitchen and covered my mouth with the sash from a white bathrobe and tried to tie it around my head. Of course, this is the part where Flynn Ryder climbs up the tree and sees Rapunzel gagged. She also likes to act out the part where Rapunzel realizes she's the lost princess (first she lies down on the floor, looks up in amazement at the ceiling, stands up and staggers around, then hits the dresser. All right on cue with the music).
She also likes to assign us different characters from Disney movies. For instance, she is Ariel, Andrew is Flounder, Daddy is King Triton. Or she is Meg and Daddy is Hercules. And who am I? Take your pick of the villains. In case you hadn't noticed, the mother figures in the Disney movies are all either psycopaths or dead. Lately, I've been "Mother Knows Best" (which is what she calls Mother Gothel from Tangled) and I unfairly keep her from letting her life begin. Thank you, Disney.
The two of them are at a precious stage right now--one of my favorite things is watching them play together. Rebekah likes to hold Andrew's hand and walk him around the house, play peek-a-boo with him, etc. Andrew just loves following Rebekah around and playing with whatever she is playing with. They can entertain each other for quite a long time, and they get each other giggling and squealing so easily.
As for us, we are still planning on all heading out to Arizona on June 1, where we will be for Scott's internship with Intel. Not exactly looking forward to the plane ride with Andrew, but at least it is a non-stop flight! We will keep you all posted.

Family Pictures

Long Overdue Update

So we are finally getting to updating our blog for the first time since Thanksgiving (and yes, that was a lame entry). Feel free to peruse all the pictures below and make some educated guesses about the content: gingerbread house making, cookie-making, etc. If I am feeling particularly ambitious tonight we might get around to adding little captions, but I think most of them pretty much speak for themselves (unless any of you are wondering why Rebekah, age 3, was allowed to go to a Valentine's Day Sock Hop. Answer: it was at the library, she went with her dad, and they did the hokey-pokey).
So now we get on to the important stuff. Here's a little about what our kids have been up to lately:
Andrew:
*Walking: After months of his unique, patented "monkey walk" (in which he would "crawl" on his hands and feet, no knees touching), he is starting to walk more like a biped. Right now its about 60%/40% (human walking/monkey walking), but I think that is mostly because he can basically run when he does his monkey walk and thus get to his destination faster. As soon as he figures out how to run like a humanoid, he'll be at 80/20 (running/walking).
*As you can imagine, he's quite active. Always into something, always frantically grabbing for something or trying to climb on something, whatever. Except that when you put him in a stroller and take him outside, he is eerily calm. Just sits back and soaks it all in.
*Trying to potty train himself (or something like that): we are not sure what is going on, but often he will go all day (ALL DAY) without a single wet diaper, depsite drinking quite a bit. Then we put him down for the night, and when we go get him in the morning, he is soaked, as is his bed, sheets, blankets, etc. His diaper is literally disintegrating and little diaper remnants are all over his body. I thought that maybe he just doesn't like having a wet diaper on so, under that theory, I once tried putting him on the potty before we put him to bed; he just squirmed and twisted around.
*He has got a high tolerance for pain (and low tolerance for not getting what he wants). He will bonk his head (sometimes pretty hard) and the kid cries for maybe 10 seconds. I once took him to the doctor for a routine checkup and the doctor informed me he had an ear infection (although I hadn't noticed anything unusual). Teeth coming in? Not a problem. But you try to change his diaper and he wails. Open the front door but don't take him outside, game over. It takes a while to get him to calm down. Whenever I change his diaper, he contorts and twists his body around, right now I can still pin him down and get the diaper on somehow, but not sure how much longer that will last... (my ability to pin him down, that is. He gets stronger every day).
*Taking one nap a day: which is anywhere from two to three hours. I love it.
*Adores his sister: follows her around, laughs at her when she's being silly. Whenever she is not around, I ask him where Rebekah is, and he bolts to the stairs and goes right up to her room.
*Eating exclusively from one of the following basic food groups: bread with cheese, vegetables with cheese, cheese, and fruit. But he will not drink whole milk, not with chocolate in it, or sugar in it, or vanilla, we've tried everything. He will drink a little strawberry milk if it is warmed up, but only in small sips. Doesn't matter how thirsty he is. If he doesn't like it, he won't drink it. Same thing with food: he went from eating basically any solid food I gave him to refusing all baby food almost overnight; then he went from eating any table food I gave him to refusing anything other than the aforementioned food groups.
He is a quirky little guy with a lot of personality. So easy to get him to smile and he has such an infectious giggle. His monkey walk cracks everyone up at church. I think I am going to miss it.
And now a little on what Rebekah is up to these days:
*Princesses (Ariel, Belle, Rapunzel, Jasmine, Tiana, Cinderella, Aurora): this is her current obsession du jour. I am not sure exactly how she got hooked on them, but kudos to the Disney marketing team. You start with a Cinderella toothbrush (gateway drug) and the next thing you know you've got a shelf full of princess DVDs, soundtracks, the piano music, the books and the figurines.
*She is a very polite little girl. She says "excuse me", "thank you" (sometimes "thank you very much"), "bless you". My favorite is when she talks to inanimate objects (Rebekah while trying to move a kitchen chair past the trash can: "excuse me, trash, excuse me" or while rummaging through the drawer looking for a flashlight: "excuse me, tape; excuse me, markers")
*You scared? She is always asking everyone around her if they are scared of things. "Mommy, you scared of fire?" "Daddy, you scared of the Beast?" or my favorite "Mommy, you scared of butter?" Then we say, "no I'm not scared. Are you scared?" Rebekah's answer: "Yes, I'm scared of butter".
*She is very concerned when others get hurt or are crying. She always wants to comfort whoever it is. I also love when Andrew is crying and we can't get him to calm down. Once our usual efforts fail, she'll say "Andrew needs a nap".
*Potty training: she is still in pull-ups (princess pull-ups, of course!), but is down to about one "accident" a day. She ocassionally even goes all day without any accidents. Its taken her some time to start to get it but she's made a lot of progress. She still will only go when we take her and has trouble telling us when she has to go, but she's improving.

As far as the rest of the family is concerned, Scott is going to Intel for an internship this summer, and after some back and forth between Arizona and Oregon, it looks like we will be in Arizona. But we want to make sure its final before we arrange anything in terms of housing.

And now for some more pictures:
Andrew's cuteness:



Andrew's birthday:


And for Scott's birthday, here was my first attempt at a "real" cake (nothing from a box or a can): chocolate raspberry cake with ganache. Andrew got the same one since I had so much left over ganache from Scott's cake.

Valentine's Day Sock Hop

Valentine's Day Cookie Making

For Valentine's Day me and Rebekah decorated cookies for daddy and our friends. Here is her happy face when we were all finished

Here are the cookies.

Here is the messy part