Up, Up and Away

Vollen is pulling himself up on whatever he can find.

He wants to just go, go, go now that he knows how!

We tried a new place to eat tonight for Grandma Schlueter's birthday. Blue Planet Natural Grille

We got Sophie a Mango Smoothie. Everything on the menu is Organic, hormone & antibiotic free, no deep frying, etc... It was good and there is a lot of things we want to try.

Grandma with the babies.

Underfed and A Sled

I feel like a horrible parent. I just realized that I was not feeding Vollen enough milk. On the handout sheet that we got at his 9 mo. appointment it gave a breakdown of how much of each type of food he is supposed to be getting and how much milk. It said he is supposed to be getting 24 - 36 oz. of either breast milk or iron fortified formula per day. I am still nursing him, but only a couple times a day. And when I am at work and pump, I only get out 1 oz. of milk total. So, there is NO WAY he was getting enough. I decided I am going to have to start giving him WAY more formula. I don't have any breast milk stored up. I just haven't produced very much with him. Anyway, now his belly is full and he is more content. When I was thinking that he has been so hungry lately, I think he has been wanting/needing more milk/formula.
Poor thing, hasn't been getting enough to drink. He is a big boy and can hold his own bottle!
After her nap Sophie wanted to go back outside in the snow.

She ran and ran up and down and up and down the back yard. Good exercise!

Raja loving being outside.

Testing out the sled!

She loved going up and down the hill on her sled.

Bubba crawling all the way across the room.

Sledding down our little snow mound.

Snow Fun!

Grandma took Sophie outside to play in the snow when Bubby went down for a nap. Sophie had so much fun making snow angels.
This snow was not very soft and cooperative for making snow angels.

Her own shovel, just her size.

Oh, how she loved being outside today. The sun was warm and the air was cool. It was a beautiful day.

A little snowman.

Raja kept stealing the carrot nose and Sophie would chase her yelling, "No Raja, don't take that carrot nose!" Then they would put it back in and Raja would sneak back over and take it again.

Raja getting some exercise and fresh air too.

Putting the nose back in.

Y Classes

This morning we started our YMCA classes. I signed Sophie up for Wiggles & Squiggles and Marvelous Messes. The day didn't start out the greatest. About 10 minutes before we were leaving Sophie was hollerin' from the bathroom. I went in there and she had her pants and underwear around her ankles and everything was soaking wet with pee including her tennis shoes. I was L I V I D. I was so mad. I couldn't understand why she did that. This just happened the night before also. (The ONLY times she has ever had an accident is when she is not feeling good, I don't know what that is about, but I DON'T like it!!!) She does have a little cold right now, so maybe that is her excuse. So, I had to strip her down, put her in the tub and start over. I was still fuming and sweating, but finally we were ready.

Jenni and Addi signed up also as well as my cousin, Hellane, and her boy Izaac. Here was baby Cael sleeping and Bubba (who was supposed to be sleeping) next to each other hangin' out.
So, we started out at Wiggles & Squiggles, but it wasn't what we thought it would be like. On Fridays it is just playing in the Bounce House. Well, we were wanting more of a class where they dance and sing and just more structure. We weren't going to pay all that money for them just to jump in the Bouncy House. We talked to the head lady and she was more than happy to work with us and let us switch our Wiggles & Squiggles class to a different day during the week where they do more of the teacher directed play. She was super nice and understood what we wanted. So we got it worked out and will now go to the Wiggles and Squiggles classes on Thursdays and keep the Marvelous Messes on Fridays.
Soph did have fun in the bouncy house, but Addison and Izaac weren't feelin' it so much.

For today the lady put us in the tumbling class that was going on at the same time. It was really great, but it is completely full and there were a lot of kids there today. A lot of them were roaming around or running off. I am so glad Sophie wasn't. She did so good listening to the teachers and doing what they said. Here they are stretching.

More stretches.

Listening to the instructions.

Cael and Hellane.

Going down the ramp like a snake.

Somersault

Weeeeee

Addi doing her somersault. Izaac wasn't too sure about all of it in the beginning. But towards the end he was already warming up.

Handstands.

Then it was onto Marvelous Messes. This is how it started out. They just sprayed some shaving cream right on the table.

It didn't take Soph long to jump right in.

Izaac thinking this was pretty neat.

I don't think Sophie has ever been so messy! She LOVED it!!!

Addison going at it.

Look at Sophie's pile. She had it down the side of the table and getting it bigger and bigger.

Then they painted some Olympic rings. Olympics was the theme of the week, if you couldn't tell.

One thing that I learned today about Sophie is that she is very meticulous. She has always done this, but it just hit me today when she was painting the rings. When she paints she wants to paint everything where there is no white remaining. So, I think this is just part of her personality. It will be interesting to see how this manifests throughout her life.

They did each color and passed them around one at a time.

Next was painting a plaster medal. They got to pick gold, silver or bronze. Sophie chose bronze.

The last project was making a flag. She loved the glue and putting it on with a Q-tip. They could also color on it. She didn't want to leave. I had to pull her away. Marvelous Messes was a great class. She had so much fun and did so many activities.

My Buster Brown is LOVING this new freedom. He thinks he is pretty hot stuff pulling up on stuff. He gets so darn excited especially when I pull him up to standing.

We need to work a little on pulling his legs up closer!