One of the nice features Daniel's preschool offers is the chance for the kids to participate in sports programs. Mondays he does soccer lessons with Soccer Shots and Tuesday is basketball with Teams of Tomorrow (TOT). Given the kids' ages the lessons are pretty low-level and focused more on teaching ball-handling skills, sportsmanship, and balance than on the finer points of the game, but Daniel consistently enjoys them. They're a nice outlet for my active little guy to burn off some energy.
Every fall and spring TOT arranges for their kids to have the opportunity to perform during or before a local basketball game. In December they were the halftime entertainment for a TCU women's basketball game and last Saturday they were the pregame show before a Harlem Globetrotters game at the American Airlines Center.
Daniel enjoyed both performances but seemed much more comfortable and confident the second time. He had a loud cheering section both times. Our friends the Millwees met us at the TCU game and he got to play with their kids Natalie and Justin, plus his friend William who was also in TOT. And for the performance last weekend my parents came to visit. He was quite excited to have "Mimi" and "Baba" here.
Here's a picture of him with SuperFrog, the TCU mascot:
And some pictures from the Harlem Globetrotters performance:
And a video of him in action. My favorite part: "playing the piano!"
I was really impressed to see the difference in just over a month's time. I know he enjoys the lessons during the week so it was fun for us to get to see him in action.
Now that we've gotten settled into 2014 a bit it's time for a bit of blog housekeeping as I clear out my 2013 reading list and start 2014's. Here's everything I read in 2013:
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Chip and Dan Heath
Calico Joe, John Grisham
The Associate, John Grisham
Sycamore Row, John Grisham
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck
Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts On Life Unarmed, Glennon Doyle Melton
Man In White, Johnny Cash
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath
And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, Michael Pollan
Bossypants, Tina Fey
Solo By Choice: Carolyn Elefant
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, Chip and Dan Heath
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, Sheryl Sandberg
The Emotional Life of the Toddler, Alice Lieberman
Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children, Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman (r)
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't, Nate Silver
How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character, Paul Tough
My favorites this year were Lean In, Decisive, and David and Goliath. I've already reread the first 2 and will doubtless reread the Gladwell book as well (also, nerd alert: I bought tickets to see him speak in Dallas next month and super-excited about that). Gladwell is my favorite author so no surprise I enjoyed that one. His books always make me think and stick with me. Lean In and Decisive were both just what I needed to be thinking about as I contemplated the decision to leave the cozy confines of the SBA and strike out into solo practice.
Disappointments included The Emotional Life of the Toddlers (good information, but kind of boring) and the Associate (it's like Grisham was just going through the motions on that one). An unexpected surprise was Man in White, Johnny Cash's historical novel about St. Paul. It helped bring stories I already knew into better focus and made me think. I wish he had written more Biblical historical fiction, he was obviously gifted in that regard.
22 books in 12 months...I stayed busy. It was a good year. And with that list now cleaned out I'm motivated to get moving on this year's list.
Kevin's car is in the shop this week for some minor repairs so he's got a loaner car in the meantime. The loaner is a Toyota Camry which, being neither too big nor too small, Daniel has dubbed the "medium car." He's very excited about the medium car and looks forward to being driven to school in it in the morning and to play in it in the garage in the evening. Who knew something so minor would be so exciting to a preschooler? Alas for him, the repairs probably won't take more than a few more days. I suspect there will be many tears when we bid the medium car adieu and bring Kevin's car back home. Till then, the medium car is being thoroughly enjoyed at this house!
Hard as it is for me to believe my baby is less than a month from her first birthday. Is she a year old yet? As Daniel would say "not yet, but almost."
She's still enjoying crawling around the house and pulls up to standing. She isn't really cruising yet but I've seen her stand unsupported a few times. Walking is coming soon, but whether "soon" is next week or in 3 months I don't know. It'll happen in due time.
One interesting difference I see between her and Daniel is that as he'd reach a few mobility milestone he'd take advantage of the ability to explore the house, while Rebecca uses it primarily to reach me. She does explore too but it isn't her primary motivation. She does however enjoy "dancing" to music:
And climbing the stairs:
She also likes to walk by pushing her dino toy. Daniel loved it when he was that age too. When he got bigger we turned it into a scooter and between his use and hers it's lived in our living room for the past 2 1/2 years.
All that moving around gives her quite an appetite. She nurses 3-4 times a day and gobbles up plates full of solid food. Sweet potatoes and peas are still favorites but over the past week she has enthusiastically eaten ravioli, roasted radishes, rutabaga fries, Brussels sprouts, pineapple, salmon, and pinto beans. Dinner time is easy-I just make a plate for her of whatever we're eating and cut it up into smaller bites.
We had a 2-day nursing strike recently that worried me but fortunately was short-lived. I think teething was to blame. Whatever it was about, it's over now and all is once again well. Between that and her waking at night for 2 nights in a room it was an unusually difficult week for her. Before that I literally can't recall the last time she had woken up during the night. Fortunately it wasn't the start of a trend.
In general she's still an excellent sleeper. She usually sleeps from around 8:30PM-8:30AM and takes 2 naps a day. Her first is usually late morning/early afternoon for about 2 hours and the second if it happens is around an hour-90 minutes in the late afternoon/early evening. I suspect in the next few months we'll drop the later nap but we'll do that on her schedule.
She was a little clingy to me the past few weeks, probably because Kevin was unavailable for about a week between having the flu (and thus being quarantined away from the rest of us by me) and then traveling for a few days. It's possible the nursing strike and night waking were related to that as well. But then, I'm sure her newfound mobility is both exciting and scary too so it could well be related to that.
She hasn't been weighed since her 9 month checkup but it's safe to assume she's still on the light end of the growth chart. She still fits 9 month clothes pretty well. She's got 6 teeth now-2 bottom, 4 top, and just cut a 3rd on the bottom too.
She looks a lot like Daniel did at this age. I thought she had a little more hair than he did at that point but on closer look maybe it's just that hers is a little redder and his was more blonde. Here's her latest car seat picture:
And here she is in her Christmas outfit:
It's been a fun first 11 months with her. I can't believe that by the time we unpack our Christmas decorations again we'll have a 4 1/2 year old and an almost 2 year old. Time to start putting bricks on their heads to keep them from growing up ;)
Daniel says and does all these funny things and I need to be better about capturing them before the phase passes and I forget.
Lately Daniel likes to find something he has in common with Kevin or me. For example: "I'm brushing my teeth and you're brushing your teeth. We match!" He notices "matches" on hair and eye color, food we're eating, even the position our feet are in. It's cute how proud he is to notice things like that.
Here he is on a recent Friday when everything was closed down because of the ice storm, aka "Icepocalypse." I knew he'd be home from school that day and that Kevin might be at work so I woke up early to get a little time-sensitive work done before the kids woke up. Alas, Daniel bounded downstairs right after I turned on my computer, so he grabbed his "laptop" and sat down next to me so we could match!
This last month has been an eventful one for Rebecca. It occurred to me recently that she's now at least 41 weeks old so I've known her longer on the outside than the inside.
She's graduated from the scooting "army-crawl" she was doing last month to the faster hands-and-knees crawling. She's pretty proficient at it but unlike Daniel, she isn't really eager to use her newfound mobility to explore. She crawls to get to a toy, book, or person that catches her attention but doesn't often crawl just to check out her surroundings. She's just as curious as he was but expresses it by being a careful observer of the people around her. She really studies faces closely and is especially interested in people who wear glasses.
Shortly after she started crawling on hands and knees she also started pulling up to standing. I first saw her do it at the kitchen toy she and Daniel play so often with. It's perfect for that-heavy and low to the ground, so it can easily support her weight and keep her balance. She also started doing it in her crib, leading us to adjust her mattress height to the lowest setting. She's not really cruising yet but she keeps herself balanced well on two legs.
Speaking of the crib, she's still a great sleeper and napper. Sometimes getting to sleep takes a back seat to testing out her newfound crawling and standing skills though!
She loves to eat too. She still nurses 3-4 times a day and also eats about 3 solid meals a day. She's a bottomless pit of hunger and enthusiastically enjoys sweet potatoes, fish, pureed spinach, turkey, and oatmeal.
And as we discovered thanks to Daniel's eagerness to help, she also eats Goldfish. I had just given him a cup of Goldfish then when I turned around he was standing by Rebecca saying "here you go!" I went to help thinking she might choke on it but to my surprise she was happily chomping away. (Though I did warn him to ask Mommy and Daddy before feeding her anything else!)
She's got 2 new little top teeth to do that eating with now. As with the bottom teeth, these broke through fairly uneventfully. She was fussier than usual but still pretty mellow and amazingly, no drooling. Daniel was such a drooler I feel like he had to wear a bib almost constantly through the second half of his baby year but Rebecca has never needed one. If you didn't know how easy she usually is I don't even think you'd pick up on the fussiness.
You'd think all that food would be plumping her up but she weighed in at a light 13lb 3oz at her 9 month check-up and is still firmly anchoring the low end of the growth chart. Her pediatrician is satisfied though, as I am, that Rebecca is a healthy size for her. She eats well and is perfectly healthy and it seems that small babies just run in our family. Fine by me, as it means they're lighter to carry around ;)
She's not super chatty, preferring to observe rather than talk, but she does babble a fair bit. She also likes to communicate by happy little squawks and enjoys making a game out of taking turns doing it. She'll play with me but her favorite playmate for that game (and just about anything else) is Daniel. She adores her brother and watches him with fascination. For the most part the feeling is mutual and he seems happy to have an increasingly interactive playmate, though he isn't always eager to share his toys.
9 months in our sweet baby girl is such a fun, easygoing little personality. We love our "Baby Rebecca" and the joy she brings to our house!
Whenever something doesn't work Daniel says it's because it needs new batteries. Even if the thing in question doesn't even use batteries, like a toilet or the garage door. And after bathtime one of his favorite games to play is for Daddy to lay on him like he's a pillow then act surprised when the pillow starts wriggling around. The broken pillow then needs new batteries so Kevin makes a big show of "unscrewing" the battery cover on Daniel's hip and putting new batteries in.
A few weeks ago I asked him to give me a goodnight hug and kiss and he said he couldn't because his hugger and kisser were broken and needed new batteries. So now every night we have to put new batteries in him before we get our hugs and kisses. Also needing batteries in order to function: his "good morning" and "goodnight."
I have to write these little funny things down to capture them so I don't forget them as he gets older. Daniel is such a clever, entertaining little guy. It's hard to imagine our little Energizer bunny needing batteries though!
