Zay's 6 month Update

Zay Bear (Jude Dude didn't really stick as a nick name. This is his new nickname!) turned 6 months about a week and a half ago. I can't believe it! His first year is half over! He is growing up WAY faster than I want him too. We've enjoyed all of our children thus far, but I feel like we have been able to enjoy him so much as an infant.

We had his check up and here are his latest stats:
Weight: 19 lbs and 12 oz. 75th percentile
Height: 27 3/4 in 90th

Just to get it down, here are some of his milestones:
- started rice cereal and solids
- he's tried and loves sweet potato, butternut squash, green pea, asian pear and banana
- sitting up by himself occasionally teetering over
- grabbing and sucking EVERYTHING!
- shaking toys
- dropping toys on purpose to see us pick them up
- rolling over both ways
- scooting and rotating on his tummy (still rocking on all fours too, but not quiet crawling yet)
* EDIT: A few days after this post, Zay Bear started crawling. He gets around quite well, usually motivated by something he wants to play with. I have found him under our dining room table a few times!
- gets into push up position on his hands and feet
- turns when we call his name
- babbling

He's so fun, and he's really interactive with us, and especially with his brother and sister. He is by far our most laid back baby. He's is content most of the time just to sit in his hippo chair or exersaucer or just play on the floor. He's still sleeping in our room in a pack n play, and in the morning, I often hear him "singing" and pound both legs at the same time. As soon as I put him down on his back, he tries to roll to his tummy, so diaper changes feel like a wrestling match. And boy is he strong! In fact, he's so big, that he's two years behind his big brother in age, but I just started pulling out clothes from T-Max's clothing bin from last winter!

Chicago and Michigan

For those of you who don't follow my hubbies blog, you can read a recap of our trip to Chicago here. And more pics from my sister-in-law here.

Also, on way home, we visited a very dear friend my mine from college. Peter was able to do a short photo session with them. They braved the cold outdoors for these photos. Check it out here.

Zay bear turned 6 months this week. Hope to get a post up soon about his stats and milestones!

Our little ballerina

From this almost 2 years ago...


to this grown up little ballerina.



You can see pics of her visitor's day at ballet from December and her ballet journey since April 2008 here.

N love Christmas!

I asked the kids to help me put back our nativity advent calendar, and N was so sad. She just kept saying, "But I love Christmas season. I don't want it to be over." I love the N loves Christmas so much because it's also my favorite holiday of the year. I'm even more grateful that when she thinks of Christmas, that getting lots of presents isn't the reason why she loves it. She loves the music and enjoys all of the traditions that we do to make it a memorable time of year, so that Jesus' birth will be marked with specialness.

Ever since she was little, we played The Nutcracker music for her, and she loved it from the moment she first heard it. This year, she requested The Nutcracker daily, and couldn't resist putting on her ballet slippers to dance. My brother wanted to bless her this year with seeing the ballet at a local theatre, so N, myself, and my mom went together just after Christmas. She is even more enthralled with everything Nutcracker than before. During intermission, my mom bought her a real nutcracker that the theatre was selling. She had asked for one since a couple of years ago, but I was never able to find one that we liked. The night we came home with it, she was putting it to sleep in her baby crib. The next morning she woke up and brought him down for breakfast, setting him right beside her plate, and even giving him "food" to eat.



N loves singing too, and instead of singing the usual gospel song before bedtime, we spent the month singing Christmas carols. I had planned on singing a different one every couple of days, so that she could learn several, but the first night I remembered how much she loved hearing me sing "Silent Night" in Korean. So I decided to teach her. She learned it in a matter of a couple of nights of singing it before bed. After learning it, she wanted to sing it every night, so we didn't get through many other carols. She enjoyed learning the Korean so much, we started working on "Angels We Have Heard on High" in Korean, since that's been her favorite carol so far. She's pretty much learned it, although she needs a few reminders.

Can't wait for Christmas next year!

Christmas

We had a busy but great holiday with the kiddos. We watched our church's Christmas drama presentations on the 23rd with our dear cousins. Christmas Eve was spent at home - me, baking for the next day, and preparing food for our Christmas brunch with my parents.

It was nice to continue some "old" traditions and start some new ones. N really enjoyed helping me decorate the house, and especially putting up ornaments on the tree. It's so fun to see her delight as she recalled specific memories triggered by the different ornaments. Ever since we were married we got an ornament to represent a special event/memory from that year. Once we added kids, I got an ornament for each kiddo, so that when they get older and have their own tree, they'll have an ornament for every year as they grew up. For N, her first ornament is a picture of her in utero. Her latest one from this year was a fairy from the Nutcracker performance we saw. More on that later!

The kids enjoyed putting up the different parts of our nativity advent. They loved playing with our Little People Nativity. They especially loved the moment when the Christmas lights turned on each day (we the lights on automatic timer). Somehow T-Max would always seem to catch the moment they would switch on, and yell, "Nights, umma, nights! Hooray!" (He says "nights" instead of lights!). They loved eating pretzel yummies (only made at Christmas time!). We enjoyed listening to Christmas music every day. N's favorites so far as Point of Grace Christmas, Avalon Christmas and The Nutcracker.

We started a new tradition with the kids of watching "The Nativity" and sleeping downstairs in the living room. Jude Dude slept upstairs, and we ended up just putting T-Max down too since he had been up late the night before and proved that a late night makes for a cranky next day. We wanted him to be bright and cheery for Christmas Day, so he slept in his own bed. But we hope to include him in this tradition next year! N LOVED it! She was SO hyper and ecstatic, jumping on the mattresses and squealing in delight. I think she also loved the idea of sleeping with mommy and daddy and having us all to herself.

Christmas morning we had brunch with my parents. I've made the same menu for the past 2 or 3 years. Cranberry orange scones, baked sausage omelet (minus the sausage this year), baked home fries, sausage, and fruit graced our table.

After brunch, the kids opened their gifts. N was most excited about her princess scooter that she's been wanting for a while. And T-Max was so funny because he was done at the first gift. Part of my parents gift to him were some new characters from the Disney Cars movie, and after he opened those, he was barely interested in anything after that.

Later on Christmas Day, we went to my cousin's house to celebrate with my mom's extended family; something we've done for the past couple of years now. Lots of yummy food, and even more gifts for the kiddos. They were SO blessed, just as in years passed!