18 months

Stella is 18 months going on 18 years. She is possibly already smarter than her parents and brother put together. Anything Elliot can do, she can - and will - also do. Running around the house, jumping on couches, climbing stairs and chairs, digging in dirt, riding a bike...

(not actually riding it, but she looks good, right?)

She loves learning new words and songs. The most recent example: when I change her diaper now we have to discuss whether or not she has pee or poop. I have also had to wipe the butt of a stuffed animal because she insisted that it had pooped.  Her new favorite song is Happy Birthday, which she requests by saying "happy to you?". We sing it several times a day now. Stella also loves to color/draw, have books read to her, and brush her teeth.

Stella is our little entertainer, trying to tell knock-knock jokes, peeking around a corner to say boo, anything for a giggle. She gets the most laughs when she uses a very deep, growly, voice and says "cooookieee".

18 months seemed like the right time to get Stella "off the bottle"... Apparently I am the only one who thought that was a good idea because now she will not drink any milk! She will drink any other beverage from any other dispenser, but milk can only come from a bottle. We're going to keep trying to get her to drink it from a cup, but in the meantime calcium will have to come from yogurt. This is the last picture I took of her with a bottle...

baby : milk

big girl : yogurt

And finally, the stats from the doctor visit:
weight: 22.5 lbs, 25%
length: 32.5 in, 75%

She is growing up fast and we are having a great time watching her learn and develop her fun little personality!

Hair Fun

The barrettes are my favorite but they don't last long before they are pulled out and politely handed back to me, so pony tails are our new thing. Now someone just needs to convince Stella that she could rock a headband. Girls are so fun!

Swimming update

Elliot has been getting much more comfortable with the water and has been having a lot of fun in class. Some days it is hard to talk him into getting in the pool, but once he's in, he has a great time.

he loves the song that the teacher sings when they do the backfloat

discovering the joy of goggles

running the teacher over with a raft

Today was safety day - the kids learned what it would feel like if they fell in the water with clothes on. Putting wet sweaters on preschoolers might have to be in the next Lawson Family Relay Race... it did not look easy.

Spring?

Sun, rain, snow - it's hard to convince E that Spring is here. But we've had a couple of nice days mixed in with the wintery ones...

On the days when the sun does come out, Elliot says "I think Spring is here today"; when it rains or snows, he says "the weather is playing tricks on us"... I feel the same way!

Room Improvements

We made a couple of improvements to Elliot's room this past weekend. First, we had Grandpa Mark help install a book ledge around Elliot's bed so that he can better see his choices for storytime. Reading three books before bed has been a favorite routine of his ever since he was little(er).

the book shelf also has enough room to hold several super heros and cars

Second, I decided to try and make the most of the laundry chute that is in his room. Rather than nailing it shut in hopes of keeping out surprise attacks from flying toys while doing laundry, we found a cardboard box that fit in it like a glove. That was all we needed to turn it into a Super Hero Hideout! 

new and improved laundry chute 

super heros... and all toys within reach

Swimming

Elliot had his first swimming lesson this week! Recently, he had been playing a new game at home which consisted of him taking off his shirt and then "diving" onto one end of the couch and "swimming" (crawling) as fast as he could to the other end. I figured we should take advantage of his interest in this while we could.
I was expecting some hesitation even though we had talked a lot about it so we went to the pool early so he could see other kids having their lessons. When it was time for his class to start, the teacher asked him to come sit on the edge of the pool, which he did very tentatively. Then she asked him to come in a little further and sit on the first step. He said No. She asked him to see how big of a splash he could make while kicking. He said No. She asked him to try to squirt the other teacher with a water toy. He said NO. He wouldn't do anything! I figured it would take a lesson or two for him to warm up to this.

BUT THEN... after class the instructor hung around and played with Elliot until she got him to warm up to her a little more. And then somehow she got him to finally get in the water. And THEN somehow convinced him that he should swim out to the middle of the pool with her to help retrieve a toy he had just thrown in!

Stella, on the other hand, would have given up all her pacifiers to be in Elliot's shoes/swimsuit that day. She wanted to get into that giant bath tub sooooo bad! I had to spend most of the time there carrying her around because when I set her down she'd head straight for the water, like a turtle!

More Snow Fun

We took advantage of some nice weather again a couple of weeks ago. This time Stella got to join the fun and she was ready to dive right into the snowbanks!

Stella's favorite part of the day seemed to be the snowballs. I suppose next year she'll be more interested in throwing them at her brother than eating them :)

And a little bit of sliding fun...

Elliot said that he was climbing Mt. Everest. He then switched to Pirate Elliot and started burying treasures - like his hat, his shovel, his snowball maker - and made an X to mark the spot. I hope we don't find any surprises when all the snow melts!

Skiing

In preparation for a trip to Steamboat to see Grandma Linda, Matt took Elliot for his first skiing lesson last weekend. I think we did a darn good job of preparing him for it (parent hi-five) so he was excited to go and seemed to really like it. He told me beforehand that he "already knows how to ski fast, but they can teach me how to ski slow".

Look out Steamboat!

Monopoly

E's first time playing Monopoly...

Little Tigers

Elliot has been taking a beginner's martial arts/self-defense class through Parks and Recreation, called "Little Tigers". It is for 3-5 year olds and is just 30 minutes once a week. The first class was spent mainly on which way is Right and which is Left... he's learned some pretty sweet moves since then.

Showing Stella a "chop" (his term)

Kicking and punching practice

Don't worry, your children are not in danger - the instructors remind the kids every week that they can't practice the moves on other children, or pets :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had fun making our own Valentine's Cards for some very lucky recipients this year.

And Elliot made a special Valentine painting for Matt's new office.

We celebrated Vday by having a nice dinner together, although not all of us loved the mandatory vegetable eating part of dinner. Then Elliot, Matt and I had Game Night. We played Monopoly since Elliot had seen it on a shelf a few weeks ago and really wanted to play. He did great at first - counted the dots on the dice, counted out the squares on the board - but didn't like having to pay taxes, or rent, or go to jail... who does? (Video of this will be coming soon). We also have started playing a digital version of Checkers on Matt's ipad, which Elliot loves. I'm all for playing games in real-life, but this has been a good exception because the game doesn't let him make illegal moves, which would be every time he takes a turn :) We're having a lot of fun with games lately, but I'm desperately looking forward to the time when we no longer have to let him win!

I hope everyone had a love-filled day!

Snow Fun

While in Perham for the Holiday we made sure to get out and make the most of the cold weather and snow.

Why walk when you can be pulled on a sled?

Stella's first visit to the fish house. She was mesmerized by the bait... and my camera.

We found perfect snowman making snow

And did some sledding - down the driveway!