Jake hits Madtown!

Jake in the cutest pose (he chose this pose on his own, by the way) up against a very old tree just outside the Capitol building in Madison. Just after this was taken he spotted a squirrel, who allowed him to get mighty close I might add (Mom started to worry about rabies), and started to chase it. Sooo cute. He chased it right up this tree.
Outside the Capitol building.
Jake's first time in a BIG bed...a queen at that. We stayed in a hotel and he had a bed of his own in the room. We surrounded him with pillows but he sure didn't need them because I don't think he moved all night...exhausted from swimming for hours in the pool! He had a great time and sure loves his "Robby" and Omi!! Thanks for joining us LaCroix duo!!

Father's Day and more!

Daddy and the kids celebrating Father's Day. Every year Dave gets an updated page in a scrapbook with the kid's hand print, their "signature," and some themed pages which show what they are interested in that year. This year Jake's page had dinosaur, Nemo, and bug stickers. Sophie's just had some cutie baby girl stickers! Should be interesting to get the kids to do this when they are 16! I am hoping to do it every year until they are 18.
Our little girl happy to be in the high chair and happy to be eating some food! She does great with her rice cereal and has started on yellow veggies....so far so good with the squash and sweet potatoes. She LOVES to eat just like her Mommy.
Hamming it up for the camera as she shows off some of her newest skills. Sophie is rolling over like crazy now and holds herself up on her arms like a champ. She is working on sitting up now, too. She is very strong and seems to want to be going places already! We better watch out once she is on the move.
5 months old on Saturday, June 26th! Here she is taking a break from the Madison Farmer's Market on the Capitol lawn. Great place to celebrate your 5 month birthday....the best of people watching.

Memorial Day 2010

Daddy and Jake playing T-Ball. Great picnic game!
Nana and Jake showing off the nice "picnic" meal for Memorial Day. Nana did a great job on the meal and Boppa was nice to have us all at his place.

Awwww.....

Jake re-discovered blocks and "towers"....he spent such a long time building with the blocks at Boppa's house that day.





Other news...Jake has been doing GREAT with potty training this past week. He has had dry diapers at the sitter's house all week (last week) and she suggested transitioning to Pull-ups. He continued to do well at her house with Pull-ups. Friday (6/11) he had dry Pullups for me all day (we did try to hit the potty every couple of hours on schedule) then again on Saturday (6/12) even with a trip to a relative's house he had not been to in the past for a party. He went on a strange potty, traveled in the car, and still kept a dry Pull-up. He has been dry after naps and in the morning 3 days in a row! We are so proud of Jake. A couple of set backs today but overall, we are truly believers now when the experts say, "when they decide it's time, it will be time." We are realistic and expect set backs every now and then but he is doing very well!!!

It's been awhile..........part 2

The love of dinosaurs begins.....Jake is now obsessed! We visited the very realistic robotic dino display at the zoo on the 30th. Here are Jake and Dave riding an ankolosaurous (or something of the sort). Dave and I have become fast learners when it comes to dino names! A trip to the library for dinosaur books has led to a tongue-twisting bedtime routine.Just like a horror movie (that's how Dave described it)....Jake was enthralled by the dinos but scared at the same time. He would say, "Daddy, not this one" when we would pass scary dinos....the meat-eaters seemed to be the ones he passed by. Can't blame him!

A favorite everytime we come across a merry-go-round. The zoo has a great one!

The finished playset with Jake enjoying it! The landscaping company is coming tomorrow to finish the framing and pea gravel dump! We will stain next year. Jake loves it!

Sophie sitting in the chair in her room, looking out the window. June 1st.

It's been awhile..........

Sophie's first trip to the zoo-May 30th! She enjoyed checking out the animals and took a nice stroller nap half way through our trip.

Feeding the goats...a must on every trip to the zoo.

Taggie and Nuk twins! Lounging one morning. STILL working on breaking Jake's Nuk habit.

LOVE this photo. Caught Jake reading in his room one morning. A common occurance, I am proud to say.

Had to post this....the mother of a patient of mine knitted this sweater for Sophie before she was born. Such a nice gift...

4 Months Old Today!!

On the eve of her 4-Month birthday, Sophie is up at 10PM and happy as can be. She does very well up on her arms and has rolled over from tummy to back this week!! Yay!

4 Months Old today. Sophie had her 4-Month well-check with her doctor today and received her immunizations. Poor girl. She seems to be doing okay here, a couple of hours later, however. She weighed in at 14 pounds, 8 ounces (6 pounds, 1 ounce more than at birth) and measured 26 1/2 inches long (5 1/2 inches longer than at birth). She is in the 99th percentile for height (can you say basketball?) and 71st percentile for weight. To compare, Jake was 15 pounds, 1.5 ounces and 26.25 inches long at his 4 month appointment!

One more photo!!

Week of 5/15 Part Two (soon I will upload differently and get more photos on each post...sorry)

Jake with Daddy and Uncle Keith taking the first trip down the slide on his new playset. The playset is only partially done here....much more to come but Dave, Keith, and Boppa have been working very hard all weekend!!

Jake helping out today! Note the goggles (on the ground and not on his face...have to work on safety, I guess) and the toy drill in his hand. He was thrilled to be helping out Daddy and Boppa today!

Week of May 15th

Nana's Birthday on May 15th! Jake helping her celebrate and open her gifts. He doesn't look too happy but he was...I just can't get a good photo of him lately. He insists on saying "cheese" which makes him display a goofy face and then he is obsessed with seeing the image on the back of the camera....the one disadvantage of a digital camera.

16 weeks old this week!! Look how big Sophie is getting!! Her first dolly in the photo, too.

Jake was learning about North American animals all week at daycare. He's proud of his moose antlers here!

Jake taking a ride on his new scooter....a rummage sale find from Nana. Had to purchase his first helmet to go along with it (that cost a lot more than the rummage scooter but can't skimp on safety!) He's pretty good at the thing already!!

Week of May 9th-Part 3! Whew....

Well, I always post photos of the kids but I had to post this photo! This morning we had a little visitor-a male Baltimore Oriole!! He was at the hummingbird feeder. Guess I'll have to put an orange out for him although I am sure he is just migrating through. He truly was the most beautiful, vibrant shade of orange!!

Week of May 9-Part 2

Mother's Day! My gift from Jake-a handmade stepping stone with his name, the date, and his handprint. He did a great job with some help from Daddy! I love it!

This one is for Mary! See....I try to instill some creativity into our little artist! Painting on Monday the 10th. He painted then drew with crayons then markers then colored pencils for well over an hour! We are starting to see his mind develop through his drawings and projects now-he can write a "J" for his name; he drew a dolphin the other day that, honestly, looked better than a dolphin that I could draw and there was NO question that it was a dolphin; and we are starting to see a face every now and then instead of just circles. So fun to watch.

Sophie's first time in the Exer-Saucer! Wednesday the 12th. She likes it quite a bit and reaches/plays with the toys more than I thought she would. We decided to try the Exer-Saucer because she was trying so hard to sit up all the time. Thought this would help with her interest in being upright and satisfy her need to explore! So far so good.

Now, how could I NOT post a potty shot? Jake has been doing GREAT at daycare with using the potty. He has been going 3-4 times per day and even pooped on the potty! (More than you wanted to know?) He is not as interested at home but we have been trying. We think that daycare provides some natural and built-in peer pressure as he watches everyone going on the big potty. Here is what I found after I gave him a few moments of privacy to go without me staring him down!

Week of May 9th-Part 1

Here is Jake playing with his tools. He has yet to grasp the concept of how the safety goggles work!! Oh, and he is obsessed with wearing his Crocs!

Awww....a little brother/sister time. Jake loves talking to Sophie (or Dopey as he calls her and then giggles), helping by bringing her a toy/blanket/Nuk, and seeing her smile back at him. He is a good big brother and is proud to say that he is the big brother!

Our big girl! Sophie at 15 weeks old! She is getting so big, is very happy (most of the time) and LOVES to sit up! When she is lying in her swing or car seat she pulls herself forward trying to sit up.

Second time trying cereal. Sophie has been displaying some of those initial signs that they tell you to watch for: she watches us with such interest when we eat, she licks her lips when she sees us eating, etc. We decided to give the cereal a try, and was told to "go ahead" before her 4 month well-check by her MD if she showed the signs. She didn't quite know what to do with the cereal but didn't seem to dislike it! We'll keep trying every now and then.

Failed video

Okay...so that didn't work. Guess I'll go with Dana's suggestions from a couple of months ago. So much for trying to figure it out myself. Suzanne, I am up for your hints, too! I went back to using our old camara to capture some video and thought if I uploaded it to Picasa then to the blog that it would work. No such luck. It posts to Picasa as video (and stores it that way) but then it doesn't transfer over as video. HELP bloggers!

This is a test to see if I can post video! Not sure if it will work or not so if it's just a photo, I'll work on doing something different. If you all actually see video, I just wanted to post a short clip of Sophie's talking. She is quite the talker...gets it from her father!