Hayley Ann Mae: Nine Months

Nine months in and this little girl is not slowing down any. She loves to stand whenever she gets the chance, whether it be looking out the back door or up to the play kitchen. She wants to be a big girl, much to my disappointment. She is still the happiest baby I've ever known, except for when she sees the car, then she pulls out this fake cry/scream and arches are back so you can't get her in the carseat. Umm I thought 9 months was too young for that kind of behavior, apparently I'm wrong.
Our girl just is pure joy and I still kiss her cheeks every single moment I get, every single day.

Stats: weighs 20lbs 4oz (84th percentile) and 27 inches long.

Sleep: She's back to being our fantastic little sleeper, whew! We put her down around 7:30pm and wakes around 7:30am. If we are home, she takes 2 naps but most days we are out and about in the mornings and so will take one long afternoon nap.

Social: She is constantly surrounded by Chase and Asher's friends and looooves watching them. She gets so excited when they are running around and going crazy. Lately if she is excited she bounces up and down, flapping her arms around and it us the cutest thing ever. She has started getting some separation anxiety when we leave her in child watch.

Diet: I love when they start eating whatever we are. She will down quesadillas with the boys for lunch, share a soup with me, loves any kind of pasta and is still nuts for yogurt and bananas. She has fully mastered the sippy cup so will have one with her lunch and dinner, though she find it hilarious to spit it out.

Skills/Milestones: Our girl just wants to move and would stand all day if she could. She loves to stand up next to the play kitchen and chew on the pretend food. One of her other favorite spots is the back door looking out to the yard, she will stand just watching the world go by. Climbing is another favorite of hers, whether it be the stairs, toys or people. One new thing this past month is if she is standing and there is music playing she will start bobbing around. I can't even handle it!!!

Favorites: Mummy, Daddy, Chase, Asher, Cisco looooves music and being sung to, enjoys bath time, giving kisses.

THREE

Just, as Chase had his special day, Asher did too. He looks up to his big brother so much that he decided he wanted his birthday celebrations to be just like Chase. We spent the morning at Sky Zone, bouncing around and the foam block pit was his favorite part. On the way home he requested "we go to eat at the dinner place where we watch the airplanes." I love spending time with just him, getting to hear his own thoughts on things. We had a great time watching the planes take off and land while we ate, even better was seeing the excitement on his little face!!! Every birthday needs cake of course, and Asher loves his cake.
To round out all of the birthday celebrations we had Asher's birthday dinner at Buffalo Wild Things, like I said he really looks up to Chase. Here's to 3 Asher!!

FIVE

Though the boys have a joint birthday party with their friends and our family, we like to do something a little special for each of them on their own birthdays, because birthday!! 

With Chase being in school every morning this year, our one on one time is next to never, which I'm not going to lie, that makes me a little sad. So, on his birthday, with Asher in school and Hayley in the care of Mom Mom and Pop Berry, I let Chase play hooky from school and he got to pick what the two of us would do. He picked a trip to Skyzone. We had the.best.time. THE BEST TIME!! It was so so nice to enjoy uninterrupted time with him. We bounced, and jumped into foam pits, and jumped some more. We also enjoyed some ice cream before heading home to the others. The festivities went on throughout the day with lunch at McDonalds and ending the day with cake. 

The day of his birthday, he had soccer practice so we went out for his birthday dinner the following day. Again, he got to pick his choice of restaurant and so we ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. Now, lets be clear he did not choose it for the food, but rather the video games he gets to play while there. 

We had such a fun time celebrating our FIVE year old!!!

First Day of School 2017-2018

So we are now just over a full month into school now and both the boys are really enjoying it. Sure, we have some mornings where they don't want to get up, but once they are at school and see their friends, they leave me in the dust.

This is Chase's third year at his preschool. He is repeating Pre-K (as he missed the cutoff for Kindergarten by a couple of weeks), in addition he is also in the Tuesday/Thursday Kindergarten enrichment class. I was curious to see how he would handle being in school 5 mornings a week, and I can safely say it hasn't. He hasn't said it's too much, or been extra tired. That makes me happy and proves to me that we made the right decision to send him those 5 days.
He was so excited on his first day to see all of his buddies and he loves his teachers Miss Donna & Miss Talitha. It is crazy what a difference a year makes, this year on his first day, he ran into the class, hung up his backpack and got to playing, not an ounce of hesitation in him. It just makes me so proud to see him mature the way he has.

Asher was sooo excited to have Chase's school, finally, be his school too!! His first day was very different from Chase's first first day of preschool. Obviously for the past 2 years Asher has been with me to drop off and pick up Chase and so he has come to know Miss Donna, Miss Talitha and the classroom. It also helped that he knew Chase would be at school while he was, and his friend Noah is in his class. All of that made for an extremely pleasant first day drop off. He loves having a backpack and wears it even when he isn't going to school lol.
While he enjoys class, the first few weeks he would tell his teachers, "I do my artwork at home, not in school." While it's hilarious he came out with that, we had a few words and he is now participating in that area;)

It's crazy to think I have 2 out of my 3 kids in preschool! Even though I thoroughly enjoy dropping them both off and having some one of one time with Hayley twice a week, I am just as eager to get back to school and hear about how their days went. What they had for snack is always a big discussion on the way home, as well as who they played with and what story they read. I just love these 2 boys to pieces and all the ways in that they are growing up.

Radiator Springs Birthday

For birthday party 3 & 5 for Asher and Chase, there was no choice more obvious than a Lightning McQueen party, seeing he has taken over the playroom and at least 2 travel in the car with us wherever we go.
We decided to turn the backyard into Radiator Springs with tattoos at Ramone's Body Shop of Art, food at Flo's Cafe and races at the raceway. The boys so badly wanted a pinata so I found of course a Lightning McQueen one, and we introduced an English game to the party called 'pass the parcel.' Of course the big hit were the cardboard box race cars, made to look just like a few of the characters, that Jen made. They had so much fun racing on the race track. The cars are now also conveniently the boys Halloween costumes!! Of course no party is completely without cake and cake pops!!
The boys had the best time celebrating with their friends and our family. I'm really not sure how I'm going to top any future birthday party for them after this...