The kids handled the photos well this year. Considering their ages and different personalities, we managed to get a decent family photo, and some good photos of each of them individually.
***Andrea went to her first birthday party at a friend's house on the 20th. It was her best friend Emily's 5th birthday, and the party had a princess theme. It was Andrea's dream come true. They even had a Princess there to entertain the girls at the party. She was so excited to go!
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Andrea has developed a passion for putting on puppet shows. The puppets are usually paper bag puppets she makes, or she uses some of her small dolls. However, she kept complaining because she didn't have a good puppet theatre to present her shows. Mommy, who is not at all talented in the craft area but was tired of the whining, finally found some big cardboard packaging and voila--puppet theatre! Andrea added on the poster she won at school to give it some visual interest.
Her first puppet show in the new theatre was a great success. It was about Andrea and Emily having a party (big surprise there).
We brought the puppet theatre down to show Kevin and Daddy. Kevin wanted his turn to put on a show, too.
In typical Kevin fashion, a minor disaster ensued. Conveniently, I was snapping a photo of his puppet show just as he knocked over the theatre. I love the genuine reaction of shock and mischievous laughter on his face.
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A day or two later, Andrea lost her third tooth. This one was a big front tooth, so the gap is quite noticeable. Daddy loves it. He calls it her "hockey player" smile. It's too cute.
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Ryan loves remote controls, just like his Daddy. Whenever Ryan sees one in my hand or within reach, he grabs for it . . . typical little man. I told Santa about this, so I'm pretty sure Ryan will be getting a toy TV remote this year.
In other Ryan news, he is making some progress. He rolls all over the place now, so the safety gate has officially gone up at the stairs. He also sits unsupported more steadily now. He's really building strength in his arms, and pushes his upper body up well. In fact, he's started to scoot/crawl backwards a bit. Now he just needs to figure out how to lift his bum and get his back legs going, to go forward. I think he'll be crawling soon. He still puts good weight on his legs, but is not making any attempt to take steps yet. He isn't pulling himself up yet, but he's getting stronger when I hold him by the arms/fingers.
In terms of communication, be says "Dada," "Mum/Mumma," "Baba" and makes a lot of other word-like sounds. I think he's said "all done" a few times ("ah dunnn") and we've even caught him saying something like "Aya" for Andrea once or twice. He loves to hum, especially when he's falling asleep (probably because I hum to him when I rock him).
His eating and sleeping habits are still fairly infant-ish, which is frustrating. He does not tolerate lumpy foods well; he always gags and/or spits them out. This concerns me because he's starting daycare in 3 weeks, and it's much easier for everyone if he's on regular solids by then. At this point, he won't even eat lumpy baby food, though. We're working on it. As for sleeping, his naps are still irregular, and he's still up once or twice a night. This was also something I had hoped would be settled before I go back to work. My other two kids started sleeping through the night around 5 months old, when they started on solids (baby cereal). I'm not sure why Ryan isn't doing this yet.
Generally, though, Ryan is a happy baby and I just love cuddling him. His eyes are beautiful, his smile sweet, and I love his giggles. I am not looking forward to returning to work in January!
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