We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus at our house tonight. Warren has not vocalized his wish list to us, but we're sure Santa will be bringing him some fun toys! Veronica, on the other hand, has written her list for the first time this year and has not budged on what she wants Santa to bring her. For her fourth Christmas, Veronica has asked for three things: a big doll house, three big apples, and a big airplane. We're sure Santa can fulfill this wish list for this little good girl on his list!
Despite what I typed on the littlebots blog (thanks to the readers that noticed), Warren is not shrinking. For Warren's 9 month update, I typed he was 26 and 1/2 inches long; however, at his 6 months appointment he was 27 inches long. No, he is indeed not shrinking. I just didn't realize that I typed the wrong number! He is actually 29 and 1/2 inches long, and growing as quick as a weed. And speaking of quick, he is the quickest crawler we've ever seen and he is into everything.
Just a brief update on Warren's 9 month stats. He weighs 20.8 lbs and is 29 and 1/2 inches long (corrected height), both measurements are in the 50th to 75th percentiles. I was a little surprised that he is not in the 90th to 95th like his sister! Warren really enjoys the new found freedom he has discovered in "real" crawling (not the army crawl he used for the past two months) and he loves to pull up on anything--from couches, tables, walls, to your leg when you are trying to make dinner in the kitchen--and walk around while holding on. We didn't get any vaccinations today because he is fighting a viral infection and had a fever of 103.7! So we'll go back next week to get those. He did get his finger pricked today for an anemia test. Veronica failed that test, but since we were a little more diligent in making sure Warren took his vitamins WITH iron, we're hoping he gets better results.
We have lots of great Thanksgiving pictures, but haven't had time to post them yet. We promise to do it soon...we'll most likely get to it once Daniel has finished his round of law school exams. The whole family will be finished with school on December 19, and we are looking forward to the quiet time together!
I spend most of the year waiting for this season to arrive! I absolutely love the colors and smells of fall, as well as all the wonderful things you can do..pumpkin patch, fall festivals, Keeneland, football games, family get-togethers, bonfires & smores, Halloween parties, trick-or-treating just to name a few. It's a great way to kickoff the Holiday season. It's nothing but fun between now and Christmas!
To celebrate our beloved Autumn, we partook in several of these "fall" activities this weekend. We made our trip to the pumpkin patch and Veronica picked out a couple of pumpkins for the family. We had a blast playing on all the straw bales and other activities the orchard had to offer. We got some great pictures, so be sure to visit our Flickr account. We also took the kids to the UK Homecoming football tailgate, which by the way, our old Alma mater thankfully won their homecoming game! Since Dan is one of the very few law students with children, Veronica and Warren get all the attention when we take them to hang out with his law buddies (and well, because they are just so darn cute!). We have even more fun fall activities planned for the next few weekends, so check back for more pics and stories! I just love this time of year!
Our world changed in unimaginable ways three years ago today. It's hard to believe Veronica is "old" enough to even be three, especially when I go back and read one of our first posts, The birth of Baby V, to Littlebots. She has grown so much since that wonderful day Dan and I became parents. We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful, intelligent, humorous, and beautiful daughter. She challenges us, and sometimes we even wonder what we have gotten ourselves into as parents, yet at the end of the day we are thankful to be a part of her life.
Veronica took part in a very beautiful birthday tradition in her Montessori class today. We were given a birthday folder about a week ago and charged with the homework assignment of writing her "Celebration of Life" story. In this story, we tell about Veronica and what she can do, or her milestones, at birth, one year old, two years old, three years old, etc. As the mom or dad reads the story to the entire Montessori class, the child takes a picture of that corresponding age around the circle. Afterward, the teacher lights a candle and the child carries a globe around the circle for each year of life, followed by a singing of "Happy Birthday" and then the child blows out the candle. The entire ceremony is followed by a birthday snack. Veronica really enjoyed showing her pictures to everyone, and I enjoyed seeing her interact with her classmates.
After school, we took Veronica to Build-a-Bear as part of her birthday celebration. This was an iffy outing for two reasons. One, after school, Veronica is often exhausted, and two, we tried this same exact thing last year on her 2nd birthday, but she didn't really understand the process. So this year, we were curious how she would do when we got to the mall. She went straight to the store, inspected the animals to choose from, and at first started to build a black bear, but changed to a horse. She was very excited about her choice (she actually had been talking about horses at school today, maybe a new interest of hers, which makes mommy very happy!). She helped stuff it, put a heart in it, and then moved on to the washing and combing of her horse. Next, she went to the clothing items. She wanted a lead and a stable for her horse. Build-a-bear didn't have either, so we settled for a dog leash and a dog house for the horse. Lastly, she named her horse. This horse will now forever be known as Pal.
After our quick trip to the mall, we headed back to school for Fall Festival. Veronica had a blast hanging out with her classmates and participating in the festival activities. She really enjoyed the inflatable bouncing and slides, but didn't care for the cake walk since she didn't win the brownies she was eying. We spent the last few tickets we had a on a blue blowup guitar and a cookie, and then we left to head to Frankfort. Dan's youngest sister was in town for the day, and since she had yet to meet Warren, we wanted to take advantage of her visit. We had a great dinner and birthday cake to celebrate Veronica and Lorin's birthdays. Veronica also got some adorable dress up presents. We now have too many options for Halloween costumes!
We finally made it home and got the little ones, Warren, Veronica and Pal, all tucked into bed by 10 PM. It was a great, but very long day, and Veronica enjoyed her 3rd birthday; however, the celebration is not finished! We have more celebrations planned for Saturday and Sunday...so it will be a party-filled weekend in honor of our little princess!
We took family pictures in honor of Veronica's upcoming 3rd birthday. We haven't scanned the family portrait yet, but here is the one of just the two children. Veronica's smile is precious. It might even fool you into thinking she enjoyed the photo shoot and was on her best behavior. Warren was more interested in trying to pull his sister's hair than smile for the photographer. What a typical little brother thing to do!
To who? To Warren!
Warren is six months now, and we celebrated his half birthday on September 4th. Shortly after turning six months old, he was whisked off to the pediatrician for his wellness and vaccination visit. He enjoyed the yummy rotavirus serum and tolerated a total of three shots today, but because of the Hib shortage, he is not entirely "up-to-date" on his vaccinations. Supposedly the shortage was reported last December, but Warren was able to get his first round at two months; however, he was scheduled to get a second round at four months and third round at six months, but has not received either. We're not sure when he'll get back on track.
But now on to the fun part of the visit...how much has he grown? Well, Warren weighs 19 pounds and 2 ounces (75% percentile); he is 27 inches long (75% percentile); and head circumference is 44 centimeters (50% percentile). For comparison, Veronica at 6 months was 20 pounds and 10 ounces; 26 and 1/2 inches; 44.6 centimeters head circumference. Once again, Warren is slightly longer and lighter than Veronica, but not by much. Veronica will have her 3 year old visit next Wednesday! It's hard to believe that both of our darlings are hitting big milestones this month!
Veronica started preschool this year. I know...preschool...I still can't believe it myself. These past three years have went by so quickly, and I know when we start gaging the time by school years, it will go even more quickly. My precious baby girl is growing up! She had a great first day, but her "rough start" gave our admissions director a story that she said she will be telling for years!
Shh! Don't tell Dan, but I love this picture! Dan got to enjoy a few days at home with the kids while I was at school preparing for opening day. They had a great time, though I did question him on the amount of time he spent teaching our daughter about Star Wars and Transformers! He even had them dressed the parts.
If you'd like to read more of Littlebots, you're going to find yourself digging through the archives, which you'll find links for to the right. Categorical archives of links are here. You might also try the search function (also on the right) if there's something specific you're looking for.
