Ringing in 2013

 After Ephram's birthday festivities were over, we donned our pajamas and got ready to celebrate the other holiday that takes place on December 31st.

Charlie fell asleep almost immediately - and Macie was soon behind.

So it was Ephram, the birthday boy, with Mom and Dad for a couple of hours.
This boy was not tired.  Not tired at all.
But he was really, really stoked about his new LeapPad.

We had such a great time playing with him and talking about our roller coaster of a year.  Then, ten minutes to midnight, my little princess woke up screaming.

Since she was making so much noise, I figured she could come downstairs and join in with us.  So I equipped her with her best rattle.

Meanwhile, Ephram chose which "New Year 2013" necklace and which noisemaker each of us should have and passed them out.  Because I was entertaining Macie, I decided to forego the big camera and relied on the iPhone to take a few pictures.

Ephram was hyper, marching around, making noise, doing dances.... right up until the moment we started to watch the ball drop.  Once he hit the couch and paid attention to the TV, he quickly changed to a tired three-year-old boy.

By the time the ball dropped, he was laying down in our laps.

His little eyes closed on the best birthday he's had yet by 12:04am.  And then the three of us remained to speculate on what 2013 will bring.

I really am not one for resolutions.  I don't believe that I can solve all of my problems by writing down a list of things to accomplish.  Instead I like to choose one personal goal to work on for the year.

2012 was an intense, revealing, dramatic, fulfilling, challenging, rewarding learning experience for me. I learned so much about myself, about what matters, about what doesn't matter ...  My perspective on so many things changed.  I learned about miracles, the grace of God, the power of prayer, how to find strength in community.  I learned how to face down depression, how to breathe through anxiety, how to let myself feel and experience without being lost in an abyss.  I was far from perfect, yet I feel that 2012 was my year of greatest self improvement.  In 2013 my goal is just to have fun.  I want to incorporate fun into our family life.  Movie nights, more board games, more outside time, more family outings.  Also, more me time... more squeezing in the hobbies (photography, piano, writing, crocheting,) more caring for my body... I must find a way to squeeze back in the walking/running.  If I am able to do these things and feel that I am at least a little better in a year, I will feel successful.

We woke up on January 1st and enjoyed the Rose Parade.  The kids were all tired, but happy!

January 1st was our last day of vacation.  On January 2nd, Charlie would go back to school.  We spent the last day relaxing, playing and enjoying each other's company.  We had a great New Year's this year... a fantastic holiday break.  And, a great start to 2013.

Ephram Turns Three

My New Year's Eve baby had a nice, fun-filled birthday.  He was so very excited to be three.  In his mind, he was convinced that he would instantly grow taller to be three.  I didn't realize this until he came running into my room on the morning of December 31st.  So proud of himself, holding up the number three and stretching his arms up to the sky to show me just how tall he was.  It was one of the happiest moments I have seen him have.

We came downstairs to have Ephram's favorite breakfast - Entenmann's donuts - and he ate three of them, since he's three.  Then he snuck a peek at his presents in the dining room.

But it wasn't present time yet, so the boys played.

And played.

And played.

As was our pastime from Christmas through New Year's Day.

Then we went for an early dinner at Ephram's restaurant of choice - Red Robin.

Ephram ordered his favorite food - Macaroni and Cheese.

He ate all of it.

And about half of the french fries.

But he didn't touch his sundae.  For some reason, he was scared of it.

I tried to show him that it was perfectly good, but he was still scared of it.

So I had five bites.

And then he scored the best part of all, the balloon.

And we went home to .... presents!

Ephram did quite well this year.

His favorites included art supplies from Grandma and Grandpa Boyce.

He was so excited when he opened that package.

He recognized it right away, before even opening it to look at the contents, from Charlie's birthday.

Grandma and Grandpa Boyce also sent him a very cool stunt car set.

He was so excited for this toddler Karaoke machine.

He has really enjoyed singing lately, and I think it helps his enunciation/articulation.

I have no idea what this package was, but I just think his smile is so cute here.

We believe that kids deserve the fun of opening lots of presents, but many of our presents are either inexpensive or every day things that we needed to buy anyway.

Like a carton of goldfish.

Which happened to be the very first present that he wanted to open after the unwrapping.

Ephram saw a commercial for a Matchbox Big Boots product in November and lusted after them.

He was beyond excited to get this Dinosaur Hunter set.

(And it has lived up to the expectation as well.)

And then there was the LeapPad.

His very own tablet?

So excited.

(Mom and Dad also were excited at the potential of seeing more of their own tablets.)

While he unwrapped, he passed all of the bows to his brother.  

Charlie turned himself into another present for his brother.

Then it was cake time.

We'd already had a big birthday cake at his party.

So on his birthday we had birthday cupcakes.

(He did not hide when we sang to him this time.)

Ephram really enjoyed his day, and then it was time to start in on the New Year's Eve festivities!

Macie at Nine Months

Macie hit her nine month milestone on the day of Ephram's birthday party.  December was such a busy month for our family, and we saw quite a bit of development in Macie too.  She showed more familiarity with us as she started to reach for the person she wanted to pick her up, gave us giant waves that turned to controlled movements by the end of the month, and could identify each of us by name.  Her reflux symptoms finally started to back-off, but teething was a constant pain for her.  She showed us her musicality as I found that she would happily listen to me play the piano anytime for 15-30 minutes, and then she started dancing and drumming to music everywhere.  She became more clear in her preferences and had so much fun with everything that Christmas entailed.

Stats:
Chronological Age - 9 Months
Adjusted Age - 7 Months

Weight: 17 pounds 3 ounces (30th percentile)
Height: 25.75 inches
Head Circumference: 46 centimeters (91st percentile)

At her nine month appointment the doctor was happy with her progress, as was I.  We were not provided with the percentile information for height this time.

Milestones:

• Reach up to be picked-up (36 Weeks)
• Recognizes family names (36 Weeks)
• Dances to music (37 Weeks)
• Starts to wave (38 Weeks)
• First complete roll without stopping (38 Weeks)
• Drums to music (39 Weeks)

At nine months, Macie still wore 6-9 month clothing and size 3 diapers.

Feeding:

Macie continued to nurse on demand for her milk.  Foods introduced during this month included: 

• Carrots
• Applesauce

We did not add more foods because Macie was having digestive issues through the month that we were working through.

Macie got much better with the sippy cup during the month.  We tried three brands until we found one that worked best for her.  (Nuk)

We continued to give Macie Zantac to treat her reflux, but reduced the dose to .3 ml twice per day.

Sleeping:

Macie's sleep patterns during the month continued to fluctuate greatly.  She took two naps during the day, one 1-2 hours in length and one 2-3 hours in length.  Her naps were primarily taken in the swing.  I had the swing moving and a noise machine playing water noise in the background, which helped lengthen her naps.  

At night she continued to struggle because of teething pain.  She woke to nurse 2-3 times a night.  Every now and then, she would wake and cry for 30 minutes - 2 hours, with or without requesting milk.  Unlike Ephram, Macie would not breastfeed as a soothing mechanism.  We did a lot of rocking, bouncing, and I did a lot of singing.  I introduced her to my rotation of songs that Ephram gave me good practice on: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Tell Me Why, Little Drop of Dew, Skidamarink, God Gave Me You, Baa Baa Black Sheep and I am a Child of God.  For Macie I added Would You Like to Swing on a Star, and Snuggle Puppy.  If she wasn't asleep by the end of that rotation we worked our way into Beatles tunes.  Her favorite seemed to be In My Life.  Macie did stop sleeping in the swing at night and moved into our bed.  Her reflux had improved enough that she could sleep flat and that allowed me to take care of her without losing too much sleep.

I was much more tired in December then any previous month with Macie.  But still, it was nothing compared to the first 12 months of Ephram's life.  I was positive the teeth would break through and we would sleep again.

Teething:

Macie cut two more teeth in December, making a grand total of six teeth by the end of the month - four on top and two on bottom.

Favorite Things:

• Eating (pears were still her favorite)
• Playing (the baby computer and My Pal Violet were her favorite toys)
• Grabbing any piece of technology anyone near her was using (tablets and phones preferred)
• Flipping through books on her own (The Night Before Christmas was her favorite)
• Dancing
• Drumming
• Waving to everyone.  Over and over.
• Riding in the car (as long as it doesn't stop)
• Wrapping paper
• Taking baths
• Singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and If You're Happy and You Know It
• The blanket her mommy crocheted for her

Least Favorite Things:

• Getting teeth.
• Getting teeth.
• Getting teeth.

Here are some pictures from her ninth month!

Ephram's Third Birthday Party

With Ephram's third birthday approaching, we decided that it was time to give him a "friend" birthday party.  When he turned one we were in California, so he had a family only party.  When he turned two he was a bit shy and overwhelmed easily, so we opted for a special play date with his best friend.  But now, with three on the horizon, Ephram felt that he was ready for his own party.

He knew exactly what theme the party should be - Cars.  Until the day we were buying things, at which point he spent a small period of time upset that it wasn't going to be an Angry Birds or a Bad Piggies party.  And then he briefly gravitated to the Mickey Mouse section.  But, in the end, he was thrilled with the Lightening McQueen and Mater theme.

We invited people of all ages to Ephram's party, so we had it set-up to reflect that.  We took out his car rug with a bunch of Hot Wheels, set-up one of the boy's Hot Wheels tracks (they have 3 sets),  and took out about half of our Duplo Legos, which include quite the selection of Cars-themed bricks, for the little kids.  For the big kids we had a few tables set-up with regular sized Legos, sorted out by parts so that they could make cars and other creations.  Then there was coloring for all kids and adults alike.  Add in some room decorations and lots of balloons, and we had one super-excited boy before the party started.

Then the people started arriving, and everyone started playing.

 

After awhile, it was time to sit down and open presents.  This is when Ephram's stage fright came out in full force.  He really doesn't appreciate the center of attention.  (In this way he is more Andy's son then mine.)  He started crying and it took awhile to recover.  Even when we were unwrapping, he was timid and overwhelmed.  In the end he had fun, and some of the older kids were good at getting smiles out of him.  He got a lot of very nice presents from everyone.

Then we had cake.  Somehow I managed not to get any pictures of him sitting down with it, but I do have before pictures.

His performance before presents was just a precursor for the cake.  He had a big smile on his face until everyone started singing.  Then he ducked under the table in embarrassment for the song.  He did resurface to blow out his candles.

Once everyone was gone, Ephram opened right back up and started playing with everything.  Some of the kids left behind some pretty neat Lego creations.  And Charlie and Ephram had fun building more.  For Ephram, I think the fun was mostly in the sorting.  He loves to categorize things.

Then we headed back over to the kitchen table, which still held his cakes.  Ephram ran around gathering his favorite balloons, and then we pulled off the Lightening McQueen and other car off of his cake and played cars while eating some more.

At the end of the night, Andy helped Ephram with an experiment.  They wanted to see how many helium balloons it would take to get a Lego car with a Lego man to float.  Six.  And the six balloons floated up to the top of our vaulted ceiling to usher Ephram to bed that night. 

Ephram had a great birthday party.  He felt so special and so big.  Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate it with him.