Indie {49 Weeks}

Wow, what a week for our Miss Indie!  First, she learned to push up to sitting from her tummy.  The first time she did it, she was under the buffet and I heard a bonk, bonk, bonk from the other room.  She had gotten to sitting position, but she couldn't straighten up without hitting her head, so I moved her into the middle of the living room and threw a party for her accomplishment!!!  Ever since, she has started army crawling longer distances, pulling up to kneeling when she wants access to a toy bin or basket, and really thinking about 4-point crawling.  She is much more motivated when we have something she wants and she doesn't think we're paying attention to her.  The other day I was playing a card game with the girls and she was relentless about getting some cards to suck on.  I can't wait until the right motivator gets her crawling for real!  

AND, she has started saying mama and dada with meaning.  Several times she has said mama while signing it.  She also says dada in a different tone when she sees dad for real.  Both of these are inconsistent, but they have happened enough times that we know she is figuring out language and it makes me so so so excited!  

Whirlwind Fall

Fall has been an amazing and busy season for our family.  We've already got the 4 kids while in dental school program going, but for some reason I decided to add a ton of photo sessions and Dave decided to use his relaxing break time to tackle a massive tree cutting project.  I think that we are completely crazy, but somehow things are all working out and we are having fun along the way.  

Miss Cora was being my "light tester" for a photo session with friends.  Did I mention that she dresses herself?  She almost always picks out dresses because she likes them and because I do her hang-ups when it's time to put away laundry.  This one's a smart cookie.  

 Now that Cora is in morning preschool, she comes with me to pick up the older girls from school.  It's a short walk, but I love our conversations and commentary along the way.  Today we both pushed the stroller and played red light-green light there and back.  

This is what face painting at Girl Scouts looks like.  Pretty professional if you ask me and they moved the meetings to Bertha Barber this year which is quite perfect for us!  Eden's smile looks a little forced in the next one haha.  

 We got a slot car track set from Grandpa Bob and it had been a huge hit around here!  I remember getting a similar set from Santa when I was kid and playing for hours so it's special to watch our girls making the same memories.  The gifts have been rolling in from Grandpa Bob so I might just have to dedicate an entire post to all the fun surprises......

 This time, Milan was my "light tester" and huge helper for another photo session.  She is really a huge helper in general!  

My friend Jen from way back in the day brought her family to Omaha for pictures and some time together at our house and the zoo.  We all enjoyed their visit and Cora especially loved that they had a "little Cora."  

 Yesterday we had "Ice Cream with Emery" to celebrate an online friend whose baby girl returned home after nearly a year in the hospital.  I cannot even imagine.  Sharing these celebrations makes me appreciate that we are so blessed with these healthy, happy, smart, fun little ladies!   

Drum Roll Please......

Big, big, big news around here!  After 7 years, 2 months of finger sucking, Eden has overcome her habit!!  It all started when Dave ordered some yucky tasting stuff to paint on her nails.  I applied it during the middle of the night and Eden woke up an hour later saying that her mouth tasted really really bad.  I explained to her that we were going to help her stop sucking on her fingers, and brought out her grand prize Kindle.  This explanation could have gone either way and I honestly thought she would freak out, especially since it was the middle of the night, but she didn't.  Eden made a chart with 21 boxes, we had random prizes along the way, and kept that Kindle out in clear sight.  It took her about a month to check off all her boxes then that Kindle was all hers!  I still find her sucking on her fingers while sleeping once in a while, but I would say we are about 90% of the way there and that is a huge accomplishment for this awesome lady!  Proud mom right here!

Indie {48 Weeks}

Last week, Kim invited us to start attending Little Leaf Preschool Classes once a week.  Kim has all of her students, with Down Syndrome, speaking and reading before kindergarten so this is amazing! I am so excited for Indie to get a head start with language and cognitive development and I get to learn from Kim.  The first class, Indie used the "ba-ba" sound when we got out bubbles and the second class said "ma-ma" at the appropriate time.  Both of those could be coincidences, but that's how babies begin the motor pathways for learning so either way, it's exciting! 

This preschool opportunity required a new schedule and all the different components worked out perfectly.  I am so grateful for the community of people in our lives!  

I couldn't let my 10 month old start preschool without a tiny backpack and "first day of school" photos!

Indie {47 Weeks}

We have a little game that Indie loves!  She sits on her handy dandy duct-taped-phone-book, grabs my fingers, pulls up to standing by herself, wobbles around for a bit in the standing position, then sits down to do it all over again. Indie loves standing, I love playing with her, and it's making her stronger.  Win, win, win!

This week, Kim from Little Leaf Preschool contacted me about Indie's eating.  I thought Indie was doing AWESOME with self feeding and eating, but agreed to meet with Kim anyway because I think she is an excellent resource.  Good thing I did because it turned out that Indie was eating all wrong :(. Indie had been slurping her food and using her tongue to smash her food against the roof of her mouth, but she needs to be moving it side to side with tongue and chewing with her gums.  I am so so so glad that Kim invited us to meet with her and has shown us how to establish good eating habits.  Kim also made us an offer I couldn't turn down, but you'll have to wait until next week..... 

Fontenelle Forest

This past weekend, I knew that I wanted to spend time together as family to enjoy the beautiful weather and fall colors. After all, this is the midwest's glory season!  But, our schedules were crazy and family time was feeling like a chore, especially when Eden proclaimed she wasn't interested before I even finished my suggestion.  I deemed our outing "forced family fun," busted out my cheeriest attitude and you know what, it was wonderful!  Dave and I got a chance to chat, the girls loved walking the crunchy trails, and we spent the last minutes of daylight at the playground.  These hours together were just what we needed to tackle another busy week.   

Indie {46 Weeks}

This week Indie has figured out how to get from sitting to her tummy (she's doing it the "wrong" way, but it works for her).  She's getting stronger with pushing up on her arms too, but doesn't always love working so hard.  And most importantly, she has learned the "ma" sound!  She's not saying it with meaning, yet, but it's just a matter of time!  

We had beautiful weather, gorgeous morning light, and this beautiful dress Becca Sorenson bought for Eden back in the day so I HAD to take some pictures of this cutie!  I even threw a sad tummy time picture because even her sad face is cute!