Kid Update

It is time for a kid update, so we will start with...

Daniel

Dan the Man is 5.5 month now. "What?" you say. "You didn't do a 5 month post?!?" I know, I'm the worst, lets move on.

Dan is my funny happy boy, he is always smiling and being my happy little man. His favorite things right now are:

• Jumping in the exersaucer.
• Watching Nicole play.
• Eating solid foods.
• Punching Daddy in the face. (every time Dan is on the bed with us, he punches Matt in the face, don't know why.)
• Thumbing things (this is when he sticks out his thumb and sticks it on any surface and then rocks his hand back and forth. I don't really understand this action, but he does it to everything.)
• Sucking on his hands, his pacifier, his burp cloth, his bib, his clothes, his toys, pretty much anything thing he can get a hold of (so different from Nicole who did not like to put foreign objects in her mouth.
• Touching Daddy's fuzzy face.

Dan is now 17.5 pounds (same size as his 1-year-old cousin Olivia) and I don't know how tall, but short enough to still fit in his baby car seat.

Dan is now wearing 9 month clothes even though he is not even 6 months and he has almost grown out of the 9 month clothes that he is in right now. Not because he has long legs, but because he has a long and fatty torso. The onsies are getting harder and harder to button. He doesn't have any sleepers that fit him because I couldn't get the buttons to snap around his rolly polly belly. 

Dan was/is borrowing clothes from his cousin Damon, but it seems that Dan has caught up to him. I need to go shopping for more clothes.

Nicole

Nicole is so smart. She gets smarter all the time and I am proud but then I also fear because the smarter she gets the sooner that she will be able to out-smart me. Here are Nicole's recent "smart" enhancements:

• Coloring objects on a page. Nicole doesn't just scribble across the page any more, but she deliberately colors objects on a page and tries her best to stay in the lines. We aren't there yet, but she loves to color and does it better than any one else in her nursery class (not that it is a competition, just something that her teachers tell me.) We are still working on how to hold a crayon. Right now it is in a fist.
• Nicole can identify all the letters and 3 of the numbers (1,2, and 3). We are now working on sounds that letters make. She remembers a few of the sounds, but we still have a lot of work to do. We want her reading before kindergarten, so we are starting with letters now. Once she learns how to hold a pencil, we will work on writing the letters.
• Singing songs. Nicole LOVES to sing. She is the only child in her nursery who joins in and sings songs during singing time. She knows all the little kid primary songs. She also loves to make up her own songs and it makes my heart happy.
• She is starting to identify flavors by herself. Last night I made Key Lime cupcakes. Nicole tasted hers and said, "Mommy, is it lemons?" I said that it was kinda like lemons. She thought about it and said, "Is it limes?" So smart! Then she told me it was a little spicy. She was trying to say it was a little sour, but just didn't know the word.

Nicole also just does and says the funniest things. I can't get enough of this funny kid. 

A couple days ago, we were at Marie's house and Damon was going to bed. Nicole announced that she needed to go to bed too. So, she went up to the kids bedroom and climbed into bed, then she said to me, "I'm going to sleep Mama, leave me alone." Hilarious! What 2 year old says that?

Yesterday, she showed me a big zebra toy and a little zebra toy and she said, "A baby zebra and his daddy." I thought this was funny because she related the big zebra to daddy and not mommy because she is with her daddy all day long. So, of course the big zebra would be a daddy.

Matt likes to ask Nicole, "Nicole are cows yummy?" Nicole responds with, "No, they are cows."

When Dan starts to fuss, Nicole goes to him and says, "It's all right little man, I'm here. I'm here." Probably because this is what I say to Dan to try and calm him. It doesn't really work for him whether it is me or Nicole.

Last night I gave Nicole a choice to watch her cartoons or to watch Wipe Out. She chose Wipe Out.

This morning she woke up before I went to work. I told her I had to go to work and she said, "I love you mama." I said, "I love you too Nicoley. I've got to go." Then she ran after me and said, "But, I love you!" Apparently, love should be enough to make me stay home from work. If only.

There are a ton of funny things that she does, but I forget to write them down, and then I forget them. But I love this little girl so much! I love her even more when she isn't crying at my face. Which is her favorite past time.