Lorelei's Second Birthday Party and Two Year Old Check-Up

While we were in St. Louis we had birthday party for Lorelei at Papa and Gigi's house. It ended up being on New Year's Eve, so we had lots of appetizer/finger foods along with Imo's pizza. If you've never had St. Louis style pizza such as Imos, you're missing out. After eating and visiting, Lorelei opened her presents. She did a great job tearing the wrapping paper one small piece at a time. After a few gifts, though, she decided she was done and was not happy about opening the rest of the gifts.

Christmas in St. Louis 2011

On New Years weekend we made a trip to St. Louis to celebrate Christmas with all of our family there. Our trip had many fun parts:

It's a BOY!

We are excited to announce that Julianne and Lorelei will have a baby brother. I was completely surprised when the ultrasound technician told us this news and showed us his boy parts. She showed us many of his other parts too and everything about him seems healthy and normal. He is estimated at weighing 2 pounds 3 ounces so far and is actually measuring a week ahead, although my due date hasn't changed. He just might be a little bigger than his older sisters, who both measured small. We are very excited to welcome him into our family in a few months!

Two Years Old

Here's what is happening with Lorelei at two years old.

Lorelei's Second Birthday

Today our sweet Lorelei is two years old. We started the day with a birthday breakfast of Lorelei's favorite: bananas, doughnuts, and milk. Her first reaction to the balloon tied to her chair was to say, "Boon pop"(balloon pop). This is what usually happens with balloons when Lorelei plays with them. The girls played with playdough and babies until it was time to leave to meet our friends (Mrs. Blair, Sadie Beth, Ainsley, and Melody) at the Speed Art Museum. The museum has a wonderful children's area called Art Sparks and we spent almost three hours there.

Christmas in Louisville 2011

This was our first Christmas in the nine Christmases we've spent together as a married couple without any extended family on Christmas Day. We did many fun things during December leading up to Christmas.

The Zoo in December

One of the joys of having a zoo membership is that we can go whenever we want, including an unseasonably warm day in December, which is what happened this past week. The days leading up and following this warm day were freezing, but one day this past week the temperature got up in the sixties, so the girls and I decided to head to the zoo with our long sleeves and light jackets. There was practically no one at the zoo and the animals were especially active so we all enjoyed ourselves.

Lorelei - 23 Months

Lorelei only has one more month of being a one year old. She continues to move toward independence which sometimes can end up with lots of crying and fits (from Lorelei, although sometimes her mommy feels like doing this), but overall she is at such a sweet age. She is talking so much more than she was a month ago and is speaking more clearly. She is starting to put two words together without prompting such as , "Ju-ju see", "Mommy pee(please)", "Ha buh" (have book).

Thanksgiving 2011

The two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, we did several Thanksgiving activities in Julianne's school time. We read Thanksgiving books, made hand and foot print turkeys, sorted feathers, made teepees, scooped and counted corn kernels, and learned about thankfulness. One way we showed our thankfulness to God was by making a Thankful jar. I told Julianne that if we could fill our thankful jar with things we were thankful for we could have a Thankful Party.

Reading and Writing

Julianne has recently entered the stage of a beginning reader and writer. She has known all of the letter sounds for a year or more, but now is trying to put them together to write her own words and to use what she knows to sound words out. Two weeks ago in our school time we were sorting sight words by beginning letter and she was not only able to do this but sounded every word (three-five letter words)out on her own with just a little bit of help with long and short vowels. She knows many consonant blends and word families which helps her with this.

123456789…next ›last »