And heres a quick update on whats been going on:
First we spent about a week in Washington for Lowe
Christmas:
Great times with family made up for some pretty looong plane
rides:
Caleb had a 2 year birthday party in Washington, complete
with helium balloons and a Thomas the Train cake (boy do Gampa Ken and Gamma
Yin know how to speak “two year old!”):
Then we spent about a week in Upland for Biehl Christmas:
More great times with family, although we were missing
Justin and MeganL
Next year they will be back for good – yay!
Annnnd Caleb had birthday party #2, this time with a “big
truck bus” cake made by Grandma Carole!
After all the craziness of Christmas/New Years, we had a
record-breaking snowstorm here in Indy, which kept Garrett home from work for
another day...so, of course he built an awesome snow fort for Caleb!
Poor Emma got sick just after Christmas and couldn’t go outsideL
Along with the ridiculous amounts of snow came
record-breaking cold weather – the windchill was -44!! The night that it got so
cold, our power went out…along with our heat! They finally got the power back
on around 2:30am, but the kids had to
spend the night with us in our bed…which made for a pretty sleepless night for
all involved, and Garrett stayed home from work again. We spent the morning upstairs, too since it
took almost all day to get the house back to normal temp – breakfast in bed
anyone??
Well, since then we have been trying to get back to normal.
It keeps snowing and dipping way down into the negative temps, and Emma is
juuuust starting to finally get over being sick, so the cabin fever is finally
starting to let up! You know its bad when you are counting the days until the
kids COMBINED doctor appointment because YAY it will be a time to get out of
the house! They actually did pretty well though, both having their appointments
together – the only time Caleb had a meltdown was when they had to measure his
head. Silly boy freaks out during haircuts too.
Measurements:
Both kiddos are off the charts (literally) in height! Emma
is 13 lbs (50th percentile) and
Caleb is 29 lbs (70th
percentile)
Sleep:
We are still trying to recover from Christmas, honestly.
Before Christmas she was sleeping 12 hours at night, with two 2 hour naps
during the day and a catnap in the evening – amazing. But over Christmas with
all the craziness, plus being sick, plus learning to roll to her tummy (but not
back to her back), she got all confused. There were a few pretty rough weeks
there (Mommy not getting sleep does NOT
do good things for cabin fever…), because we had to go cold turkey with her
swaddle. She can roll to her tummy, but not back to her back, and she HATED being
on her tummy, so she had to “learn” how to sleep on her tummy. Doing better
now, although she’s still not back to sleeping the full 12 hours.
Likes and Dislikes:
LOVES anything chewable. She’s working on 2 bottom teeth, so
she’s always gnawing on something! LOVES being talked to, especially by big
brother J
HATES being left alone without Mommy or Daddy – some early separation anxiety
going on here. I got called out of church on Sunday to the nursery because she
was inconsolable, which NEVER happened with Mr. Independent, so I was honestly
at a loss as to what to do – she was fine when I was holding her, but dissolved
when I passed her off to a nursery worker. Hoping this works itself out
quickly!
Milestones:
Rolling like a little champ, and she’s found her toes! She
can’t quite get them to her mouth, but she loves to grab them! She also can
straighten her arms and lift up pretty high from her blanket, and she has
scooched forward a few times!
AND we started solids this week – hoping maybe it will help her
sleep longer at night! She wasn’t totally sure what was going on, but I think
she will pick it up faster than Caleb did. He spent her first dinner time leaning as close to her face as possible saying "see Emma, AHHHH!" and trying to demonstrate how to eat.
As for Caleb, his imagination and his vocabulary grow every day. He is adding adverbs and pronouns to his sentences (a new favorite is "mys" which quite logically means "mine" -- as in, not yours). His animals (especially Henna) now have minds of their own and "do things" themselves, which is very adorable and sometimes time consuming (like when Henna has to climb each stair himself), but ALWAYS entertaining:)
Sibling Love:
I just can’t get over how sweet they are together – still no
jealousy issues, Caleb just adores his little sissy, and she loves him tooJ He still gets a little
too excited and accidently hurts her fairly often
What We’ve Learned:
These two are so much fun together! In this last month (or rather last 2 months...) Caleb has grown more and more attached to his little sister. I'm pretty sure "Caleb" will be Emma's first word. Caleb insists on having his chair as close to Emma as possible during meals, and wants to hold her hand the whole time she eats. He loves just talking with her (usually while laying on her tummy so he's an inch from her face), "helping" her sit, and squeezing her "yiddle tiny fingews". Individually these two are the most adorable things I've ever seen --- together? I just can't even stand how blessed I am:)
