Where did September go?

Wow, September was a crazy month. We started swimming lessons, had two weddings, Mabel’s birthday and her birthday party, and Mabel’s one year pictures. Our weekends have been packed full and unfortunately, October is looking the same. We had Mabel’s one year pictures at Minnehaha Falls. A colleague from work just started a side photography business. I highly recommend her! Here is a link to her blog (Mabel is Miss M). http://blog.tentinytoesphoto.com/. Those are just a sampling of 5 pictures, I can’t wait to see the rest!!

We held a wonderful birthday party for Mabel. Again, she loved her cupcake - this time a gigantic one! I am amazed at how quickly she got the hang of opening presents! We had all the local family down for the party. It was a quick 2 hour party, busy but fun! You are one, Mabel!! Way to go!

I mentioned we started swimming lessons. Louis is in the Turtle class and Mabel is in the Tadpole class. Both Brad and I are in the water with the kids and it is at the same time with the same teacher (hmm). Louis has come along so far in swimming. He takes instruction so well! We likes jumping off the diving board, but doesn’t yet like dunking his head. Mabel gets better and better each week. The water is pretty cold, so she likes to curl up as high on my shoulder as possible. But this week she lounged back and enjoyed the water. She even let me hold her back away from my body!

Lastly, at Mabel’s one year appt, her pediatrician was concerned that Mabel is not yet pulling herself up on furniture or cruising. (She did finally start truly crawling the day of her Dr. appt.) To be honest, I was a little concerned as well, but I just thought she would be a slow walker like Louis. Well, at her appt we did end up doing some x-rays to be sure her hips we aligned okay…and they were. But it was pretty emotional for both mom and baby! Now we are seeing a physical therapist. We are told she is definitely fine, she just has low muscle tone and super mobile joints. So, she truly doesn’t yet feel safe standing. The PT is pretty confident that we will have her walking in six months if we work on the various exercises…Mabel now has a workout routine! Overall I am not overly anxious, I just want to be sure we are doing what we can to help her out. She is such a sweet girl, and right now loves to cuddle more than anything – so I have to learn to put her down and work for it!

Even Jesus needs to sleep Louis

A few weeks ago we put Louis to bed at his typical 8:00pm bedtime. Lately he has been turning his light on and playing for awhile, but b/t Brad and I, we usually catch it pretty early and he then goes to sleep without incident. However on this particular night, both Brad and I forgot to run upstairs to be sure the lights were off. Around 9:30pm, I decided to get ready for bed. As I got to the top of the stairs, I saw that Louis’ light was on. I couldn’t believe that he was still up! I was hoping that maybe he played for a little bit and had now fallen asleep with the light on.

I opened the door very quietly but quickly. There was Louis sitting at the foot of his bed reading a book. His eyes were super big – knowing he had been caught. In my not-so-happy voice, I asked him “Louis, what are you doing?”. He quickly lifted his book in the air and said, “Reading my Jesus book mommy”. He had been reading his children’s bible!

I then heard Brad come up the stairs and open the door further. He also asked Louis in his not-so-happy voice, “Dude, what are you doing”. Louis then proceeded to point to his two books he had been reading: his children’s bible and a book on the 50 greatest sports endings in history.

Brad and I were both speechless. What do you say to a 2 year old who is reading and on top of that, reading a bible and a sports book? How do you tell him that what he is doing is wrong? Well, after we got done smiling at our very sweet son and staring at each other with “now what?” eyes, we told Louis that it was very good that he was reading, but now it was late and he needed to go to sleep. He could read this bible and sports book a different day. He more than happily obliged by crawling under the covers and going to sleep. We turned off the lights and they stayed off until the next morning.

Happy Birthday Mabel!

Mabel turned one on Friday night! We are hosting a party for her next week, but I wanted to be sure her actual birthday went well too! It was more about making Louis excited for her birthday than Mabel since she doesn’t have a clue. She got her favorite foods for her birthday (waffles, pears, yogurt) and from what you can see below she loved her cupcake!!

She got the hang of opening presents pretty quickly…but not fast enough for Lou. However, every time he tried to help, she made it clear very quickly that he was not welcome to her presents. It was like she turned 13 rather than 1!!
She is just a blast right now. We turned her car seat around and she is now so happy in the car! She isn’t walking yet, or standing for that matter – she has zero interest in it. She does the army crawl and started crawling a little bit tonight. But like her brother – what she lacks in gross motor skills, she makes up in the fine motor skills and talking. She loves to use a spoon and feed herself. It is messy, but she actually gets quite a bit of food in her mouth. She is talking a lot, and loves saying “up, come, hi-lo, all done”. She really does feel like she is conversing with you. Tonight Louis was playing with a fire truck and making fire truck noises. Pretty soon Mabel was mimicking him and doing her own fire truck sounds. I am amazed at how quickly she picks that stuff up! She also loves dancing. The minute she hears a tune, she starts head bobbing and rocking back and forth. Like her father – she loves rock music!
Happy Birthday Baby Mabey! You have brought a lot of smiles and love into our home! You are such a joy to wake up to each morning and are so cuddly when we put you down to sleep each night. You love action and you don’t miss a thing. We all love you very much.

Last days of Summer

August was a fun month in the Budde household. In early August we had the Budde family campout. On the way there we needed to stop and get passports for both the children. Louis was super excited to get it and take his picture. It has since arrived and he is very proud of his “pass-i-port”.

The Budde family campout was a good time. Nearly all the Budde aunts, uncles and cousins were there. We were lucky this year in that the “campout” was held at Brad’s dad’s place. That meant that we got to sleep in the house, in beds and had running water. My idea of camping.

In mid-August we had a bunch of my college girlfriends down for an afternoon while the guys went golfing. There were a lot of little kids there and while it was quick different than our get togethers of years past, it was fun for all the girl’s and the kids to hang out and catch up.

Lastly we made a family outing to a Twins game…one last one in the metrodome. Louis was super excited to go to the game. He marched into the dome chanting “base…ball…game, base…ball…game”. Once we got there he did get bored pretty quickly. Both kids got pretty tired after about six innings and we needed to leave.

The summer ended with a great labor day weekend at the cabin. We only went up for one night but it was a busy two days. Louis fell in love with raspberry pie and Mabel further proved her love for sweets as well. We left the cabin at 6:00pm Sunday night…and both kids were sleeping by 6:10 and slept until 7:30 the next morning. They were truly wiped out.

Summer Fun

Summer continues to be a blast. Both kids love being outside. Whether we are splashing in the water, playing in the sandbox , finger painting or going for walks - we are having a great time. Louis loves hanging out with his papa. They have great conversations with each other and love to have lego or block building contests. Brad truly has just as much fun as Louis does. At night now he loves to hear "stories". He is quite creative in what he wants to hear about, but many times it includes stories about papa, mama, basketball, or airplanes.
Mabel is moving everywhere. Although she is not officially crawling, she scoots, rolls over and inches to everything. She pulls down books, toys - it seems that suddenly everything is within her reach. I forgot about this part of early toddlerhood. She continues to babble and talk. Like her brother she loves books. There are a lot of smiles around our house right now and that is great.

Independence day, overly Dependent kids

Overall we had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We went to the Budde Cabin and enjoyed a nice long weekend there. Unfortunately, both kids had a fever for at least a day, so there was lots of neediness and whining occurring throughout the weekend. Both Thursday night and Friday night included lots of getting up and comforting both kids. By Saturday night the kids either felt better or were so tired from getting up the previous nights and hardly napping that both slept amazingly well. Both kids got to play in the kiddie pool, Mabel especially thought it was very enjoyable! She loves splashing in the water. Mabel also got her first oreo cookie. As you can tell from the pictures – she loved every minute of it!

On Friday morning, Louis and Mabel got into their first verbal argument. All four of us were hanging out in bed (as it was only 6:20am). Mabel tried to grab a book from Louis. He responded with a “No”. Mabel in turn responded with a “ya”. Louis then repeated his “No” and Mabel her “ya”. It went on like this back and forth about 5 times, much to the amusement of Brad and myself. Finally, Louis ended it with a “No, Mabel” and turned away. Poor Louis, he doesn’t know what he is in for. Suddenly his “baby sista” from 10 months ago that just laid there sleeping, is now a talking, grabbing, pulling 10-month-old who is starting to invade his space. He has found ways to get back at her however. He knows that if he roars loud like a lion, dinosaur, tiger, shark (they all make the same noise), that Mabel will cry – he is enjoying his power. Overall though they get along great and we can always count on Louis to sing songs to Mabel to make her stop crying or play peek-a-boo to make her laugh.

Early Summer Catch-Up

Wow, it has been a long time since my last update. A lot has happened in the last six weeks, both good and bad, and I am finally feeling like I can get the chance to sit down and write.

So looking back over the last six weeks: I had a great mother's day weekend, we have spent some great time with friends and family, and had a wonderful memorial weekend at the cabin. The children love to be outside. Louis had a great time in the sand and is super excited to be going back soon. Nearly all the Budde aunts and uncles and cousins were there, so there was lots of food, drink and fun. Here is Louis wearing uncle Jordan's sweatshirt.

Unfortunately that was followed by a couple of funerals. It gave us all of us time to be together and take care of each other. It really reminded all of us about the importance of family, friends and loving what you have. There was a great weekend trip to Chicago for Brad and me. We missed the children, but it was nice to catch up with friends and get some time for just the two of us. The next thing I really remember was Father’s Day weekend. We had a great time hanging out as a family, going on picnics, having fun with our neighbors and also celebrating the day with extended family.

Last weekend we made the trip to Melrose for some a family celebration and took in the parade. Louis had a ton of fun collecting candy and seeing the police cars. He has a hard time differentiating between the words parade and prayed. So every time we prepped him for the parade he would fold his hands like he was praying or try to make the sign of the cross. I guess Mommy and Papa need to learn to enunciate better!

About the children:
Louis is as charming and as challenging as ever. He is an independent player and is very good at making up his own games to play. He has been going into “time out” a little bit more lately and it is very amusing to seem his discipline his toys (LegoMan and his friends) and put them into time out as well. He seems to really enjoy playing with Barbies right now, dressing them and coming their hair. Somewhere along the way he has learned the word "boobies". We are doing are best to ignore it and hope it ends before he says it in front of the wrong person.

Mabel continues to grow and learn every day. She is rolling around and can move so quickly across the floor. We are waiting for her her to officially start crawling and to start pulling herself up. She has started clapping, waving and talking, "Papa", "Mama", "Hi", "Uh oh" and "cracker" (I know it is hard to believe, but even her pediatrician heard it!). Mabel is also preparing us for adolesence with her mood swings. She goes from being a mommy's girl one second to wanting to be on the floor by herself, doing her own thing. But she has the sweetest smile and loves to give kisses, so it is hard to resist her.

The children take their baths together now. It is a lot of fun to see them take turns splashing. Getting water in your eyes is okay if it is from splashing vs. getting your hair washed. It has gone very well and they both seem to be enjoying it. Every now and then Louis likes to cause trouble and pour water on Mabel or squirt her with a water toy. It is only a matter of time before Mabel fights back!Again, sorry for the lengthy absence. I hope to get back on track with a new post every two to three weeks.