Catie is 9 months!!!!!!!!!

Catie turned 9 months the day after Christmas.  She could possibly be my favorite as she did start sleeping through the night all by herself.  I thought that was just a myth!! :)  She's turned into an awesome eater!  Once we realized that she doesn't like pureed food and started giving her solids she started eating it up.  I'm sure it's because she's the 3rd child, but we are pretty much giving her whatever we are eating and have already started giving her bites of chicken, turkey and ham.  It's amazing what she can eat with only her 2 bottom teeth.  Yes, she still only has her 2 bottom teeth and it doesn't look like her top ones are coming in any time soon.  She does look so cute with her teeth.

Catie is getting better crawling and is starting to crawl properly more than army crawling.  She's also starting to take steps if you hold her hands.  I even watched her hold on the couch and take a couple of steps holding on to it.  I'm not going to get my hopes up about her walking early, though.  Everyone thought Alex would walk early to keep up with Robbie, but he didn't.

I also decided to take away Catie's baby bath tub and am just bathing her in the big tub.  She loves it!  But she is definitely one we will have to keep an eye on when there's water in the tub because she's fallen face first reaching for toys and has tried to pull up on the side of the tub.  Who knows, maybe she'll even be a bigger daredevil than her brothers!  (Lord help me!)

I don't know if it's because Catie is older or because Alex is older, but Alex is definitely giving Catie more attention than he used to.  He'll give her hugs and kisses and bring her toys.  Of course, now that she's more mobile and grabby he's not always her biggest fan.  He has acted like she's a 10-ton boulder when she's crawled on his legs and he can't get them out from under her.  And she does want to look at whatever book he might be reading.  But both boys are so sweet with her and are great big brothers.

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Visit with Santa

Robbie said a while ago that he wanted to see Santa.  This is a complete 180 from previous years when he would barely even look at Santa when we walked by (though he still wanted to keep his eye on him!).  Alex and Robbie are both out of school now and Matthew was able to meet us at the mall.  The wait wasn't too bad and it helped that my friend Amber and Robbie's best friend Xavier were there, too.  (That was a totally unplanned surprise!)

I feel like these pictures sum up our kids pretty nicely.  Robbie was super excited to see Santa.  Alex is shy and we had to carry him up to sit with Santa.  And Catie is in the beginning stages of separation anxiety.

Robbie - Yay, I'm so excited to see Santa!
Alex - Do I have to sit here?
Catie - Where'd you go, Mommy?

Alex - Am I done yet?

Yes, yes you are, Alex!

Robbie's Christmas Chapel

Today was Robbie's school Christmas chapel.  Matthew was able to take some time off to join me.  Alex and Catie were in Mom to Mom childcare.  It was nice not having to worry about them.

I asked Robbie a few times in the last couple of days if he was going to sing with his friends on stage.  He said he was and that they practiced being on stage.  I couldn't help but remember the last time we were on stage, for Catie's dedication, and he said it was scary.  Robbie did great!  After he was done he was able to come sit with us for the rest of the chapel.

Here are the 3 songs they did:

I love that Robbie looks right at the camera.  And the smile on his face at the end is priceless!  I really didn't know I was such a bad camera-person, though



I scanned the stage just to see all of the kids.  There are 4 PK3 classes.

Catie is 8 months!!!!!!!!

No one believes me when I tell them how old Catie is.  I can hardly believe it myself!!  She is such a happy baby and smiles at EVERYONE.  She still prefers the army crawl to actual crawling, but she's starting to go farther and farther on her hands and knees.  Either way, Catie gets around!  I'm always surprised when I find her in a different room than I leave her in.  She is trying to pull up, now, and successfully did it once on a toy.  And one way she has developed quicker than the boys: she has 2 teeth!  Robbie and Alex both got their first tooth at 8 months and she already had 2 when she turned 8 months.  It's hard to know when she's teething, though.  The night before her first tooth came through she slept through the night (or, I did anyway).  The second tooth came through when I was in Tallahassee and Matt was home with the kids.  It's funny because she has started sucking on her lips and I think it's because she's feeling her new teeth.  I'm sure it must be a strange feeling!

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Feeling her teeth...looking like an old man!

Can you see them?

Robbie's 4 year check up

Robbie had his 4 year check up November 4th.  He was looking forward to it and it's nice that he likes the doctor.  He even said "I like when he tickles me!"  I'm not sure when that happens, but, whatever!  Robbie is 42 inches tall and 43 lb, 6.4 oz.  The nurse checked his vision, which I wasn't worried about and they did a vision test at school a couple weeks earlier and tried to check his hearing, but Robbie didn't hear or didn't know he heard what he was supposed to hear.  We aren't concerned with his hearing, either. :)

The doctor did his usual check up and had Robbie do some things like jump on one foot and trace shapes with his fingers.  He did great.

Then came the shots.  I had Catie with me so she could get her flu shot.  Robbie asked what a shot was like and said he wanted Catie to go first.  (He didn't get shots at his 3 year check up, so it had been a while since he had one.)  Naturally, she cried, but calmed down quickly.  First the nurse did the flu mist with Robbie.  Then he had to get 2 shots.  Robbie screamed.  I remember him saying "Why did she do that to me?  Why did she poke me?"  I really wish I had a video of his reaction, which probably isn't very motherly of me, but it was kind of funny.  For a few days he asked about his shot and why he had to get one and why it hurt.  I don't think he's going to be as excited for his 5 year check up.

We did let Robbie pick where he wanted to go to lunch (Pollo Tropical) and Matthew and Alex met us there.  I am just so grateful that we have a happy, healthy 4 year old!

Catie is 7 months!!!!!!!

(I know this is LONG overdue!)

Our sweet, smiley Catie is 7 months old!  She's on the downside to 1!  She's still not crawling properly, but she certainly gets around.  Definitely my favorite thing to do is get her up in the morning and from naps because she's always so happy to see me.  We are still waiting on teeth.  I know it's still early, but I really thought she was getting one at 3 months.  Now I figure I should just wait until 8 months since that's when the boys both got their first tooth.

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Catie is doing much better at sitting up, though I still stay close in case she falls over!  Matthew decided to take the sling out of her tub and let her sit up at bath time.  She loves it!

Robbie is 4 years old!!!!

Robbie sure does know how to celebrate his birthday!  It started Friday when I brought cupcakes and juice to school so he could celebrate with his friends there.  Unfortunately his good friends weren't at school Friday and I was afraid they wouldn't be able to come to his party the next day.  It was nice seeing his classmates that he talks about, though.  I bought 2 dozen mini cupcakes because there are 11 kids in the class, plus the teacher, plus I thought I was going to have Alex and Catie with me, so I wanted to make sure everyone got a cupcake.  Matthew took Friday off and ran errands with Alex and Catie and there were only 6 kids present.  Luckily for them their teacher allowed them each to have 2 since I did have plenty (and I didn't want to throw them away).  We did keep them to just 1 juice box each, though.  My favorite part was taking a birthday picture with Robbie.  When the teacher counted down Robbie gave me a kiss on the cheek!  It was so sweet and spontaneous!!

Saturday was birthday party day.  Jim drove up the night before and brought us bagels in the morning.  The kids enjoyed a chocolate chip bagel and I loved my cinnamon crunch bagel.

Matthew had the awesome idea to rent a bounce house.  Apparently the company charges the same whether you have it for 1 hour or 12.  We rented it for 9 so Robbie could have some time before and after the party to play.  We didn't tell them what we were getting, so the boys were super excited when it showed up.  We all enjoyed some bounce time before everyone else arrived.  I was a little worried that Robbie would be over it by the time the party started, but I had nothing to be afraid of.  They pretty much bounced until they came to pick it up.

We expected 16 kids for the party and all but one came (Robbie said she was coming, but her parents never RSVP's so I wasn't 100% sure anyway).  We were happy that his school friends were able to make it.  Two are twins and their mom kept them home Friday to make sure they weren't getting sick or contagious and the other kid's mom was in a car accident Friday morning.  Luckily she is ok, just very sore and stiff.  I was very impressed that she came, but she said Niko wouldn't let her not take him.  Almost all of my Mom to Mom friends came with their kids.  It's been so much fun watching them all grow up together!  And it's nice that the kids get along when we want to have play dates...for the kids, of course! :)  The 16 kids also included 5 cousins.  Jonathan and Lisa brought their kids over for the fun, too.  We didn't tell Robbie that any of the family were coming, just that he had surprise guests and since no one arrived at the same time, the surprises just kept coming! :)

I guess I should add 2 more kids to the guest list.  My parents also enjoyed time in the bounce house.  I was quite impressed they got in and went down the slide!  But the biggest big kid had to be Jonathan.  He may have had more fun than any of the kids! :)

The bounce house!

Robbie loved it!

 This present received the best wrapping award.

Matthew was the master chef grilling up hamburgers, hot dogs and ribs.  He had 2 grills going!

Proof of mom's fun

After while the kids went down every which way but on their bottoms.

Mom and dad with the youngest grandkids.

Delicious cake from Costco.

Mia and Kayleigh

And Elise

Smile, Elise!

Kayleigh and Catie

Elise loved Catie!  She kept asking to hold her.

Big kid Jonathan

Elise also helped feed Catie.

Mia

Robbie

Nathan and Matthew

 Alex

Trying one of his gifts from Lisa and Erik

Proof of my dad having fun

Mia finally got a chance to hold Catie.

The original plan was to grill some chicken for dinner, but everyone was too pooped to cook, so we ordered pizza and the kids bounced and played until they took the bounce house away.  Neither Robbie or Alex took a nap and they fell asleep before I finished reading them a book after bath time.

Even though Robbie's birthday wasn't until Sunday he insisted he turned 4 at his birthday party.  We let him open his presents from us Sunday morning.  We got him 4 Transformers and he asked me why he got so many.  I told him it was so he had plenty to share when his friends came over.  He liked that idea.  Now I'm going to have to have his friends come over! :)

I love how he says Optimus Prime! (Octimus Crime)




Alex was eating his bagel while Robbie was opening presents.  Catie barely took her eyes off the bagel and would have grabbed is if Alex ever put it down.




Patrick and Mariruth got him a stomp rocket.  Of course, the first rocket to get shot off by Matthew went on the roof!  He was able to get it down easily and there were 3 more, so we didn't have to stop the fun.



Jim had to leave early to get home and everyone else stayed until after lunch.  Of course Robbie cried when everyone left because he was sad to see them go.  Hopefully we'll get to see them again around the holidays!