Some fun kiddo updates

Earlier this fall, Joshua taught Sophia how to play a version of hide and seek.  It starts with all three of us sitting on the floor of the living room.  Joshua then asks me, "can the two children go away from you, Mama?"  Which is my cue to tell him, "yes, let's see if Sophia can find you!"  He then crawls quickly away, over to the kitchen, and calls Sophia's name.  About half the time, Sophia will take her cue and start crawling over to the kitchen to look for Joshua.  Even though he's always, always in exactly the same place, she'll look under the dining table, in the bathroom, and then make her way to the kitchen.  When she comes into view, they both start squealing with glee.  Cutest hide and seek ever!!

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Joshua has started learning how to take pictures with my cell phone camera.  He'll hold the phone, compose a shot, tap the shutter button, and then immediately hit the camera roll to see the photo he took.  And then get distracted by scrolling through the other pictures and then ask if he can find Thomas (i.e., watch YouTube videos).  :)  But in that brief moment of focus, he's actually got a pretty good eye!  Here's his first photographic attempt, an image he's titled "Purple Cadillac Needs Help."



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Words that Sophia definitely knows how to say now and uses regularly in the right context:

- hi
- please ("peesss")
- thank you ("hmm-ooo" with a glottal stop in the middle)
- no
- no touch (usually said when she's trying to touch something she knows she shouldn't!)
- no hit (usually said indignantly to her big brother)
- bye-bye
- dada
- mama
- yum yum
- cheese
- bless you

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We had our first snow last week, and Joshua woke up super excited to see it falling.  He came into our bedroom and glued himself to the window to watch the snow.  Sophia was still asleep at first, so it was just the three of us and the snowfall.  Then Sophia started stirring, which drew Joshua's attention to the video monitor on my nightstand.  He immediately picked up the monitor, and following the principle of "if I can see you, you can see me," he pressed the monitor to the window, saying earnestly, "Sophia! Look at the snow!!"
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More snowy fun: when David goes out to clear the car, Joshua insists on getting his boots, coat, and mittens "just like Papa," so he can "wipe the snow" alongside him.  :)


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(This was posted verbatim on FB, but it's too good not to share here!)

Sophia: *indeterminate screaming*
Me: *holding her, rocking her, walking her around*
S: *more indeterminate screaming*
Me: Sweetheart, what do you need?
S: *deep breath* Chzzz.
Me: Cheese? OK, we can get you cheese!
S: Peessss ["please"].
Me: *handing her cheese*
S: Hmm-ooh ["thank you"] *happy and quiet snacking*

Communication, y'all. It works wonders!

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The kiddos' favorite part of Stone Hill Church?  The food!

Random Instagrammy goodness

Just some fun Instagram shots from this fall, to record these memories for posterity.  :)


I can't get over how cute Sophia is when she plays peekaboo!  Her chubby wee hands are juuuust barely big enough to cover her eyes!


He asked me to build a tower with his cars.  I told him it wasn't possible, and tried to steer him to other toys.  Minutes later, I see this.


Fifi's first pigtail!


"I make a big tower!  And now I make a big smile!"


A lazy Saturday morning playing in the window seat.


Joshua's first field trip -- to a farm!  With a bus, and a hayride!


Sophia loves wiping up, and will try to help clean any time you give her a napkin or cloth.


With Shaddai on Ms. Angela's birthday, at small group.


Sophia's pumpkin butt sleeping position (deeply asleep on a Monday morning, just before I have to wake her so we can pick Joshua up from school...)


Playing with friends' water bottles during Wednesday small group!

Halloween 2013

One of Joshua's favorite books this year has been "The Story of Ferdinand," so we decided together that he would be Ferdinand for Halloween this year.  And since Ferdinand loves to "sit just quietly and smell the flowers," we thought it would be appropriate for Sophia to be a little pink flower!


And Joshua is old enough this year to get into the acting part of being in a costume -- I asked him to smell the flower like Ferdinand does, and he fully complied!



We had two Halloween-related parties with Joshua's preschool class this year.  The first was a fun little gathering at Thomas' house, where the kids dressed up in their costumes and had lots of fun unstructured playtime and Halloween treats.  (For days afterward, Joshua asked if we could go back to Thomas' house so he could have lollipops!)





And then there was a costume parade and celebration at Joshua's school.  The kids went one by one across a low balance beam, stopped in the middle, and announced to the crowd of parents what they were for Halloween.  Joshua marched out happily when it was his turn, and proudly shouted out "Ferdinand!!"  I was so proud!



The kids finished up by singing some fall-themed songs and gleefully showing all of us parents their favorite hand motions.



So, so absurdly cute.  :)  And so much fun, now that Joshua is getting old enough to really enjoy holiday traditions like this!

On the eve of preschool...

Tomorrow is Joshua's first day of preschool.

We've ironed name labels on all his clothes, given him a fun new firetruck backpack to carry to school, met his teachers, taken him to visit his classroom, and given him a rundown of the schedule for tomorrow, which he's been repeating to himself occasionally over the last few days: "On Monday, just Mama and Joshua will go in the blue car, and go to Joshua's school, and Mama will stay for a little bit, and then we'll say bye-bye to Mama, and then play with the trucks and toys and new friends, and then go to the playground, and then Mama will pick me up!"

I have no idea where he gets his need for controlled expectations.  ;)

I've been making lists and detailed plans for myself as well.  Though the kids typically wake up before 7, they sometimes sleep in as late as 8, so I'm setting an alarm for myself for the morning, just in case.  I've got breakfast planned out.  David has no scheduled activities for the morning, so he's on Sophia duty.  I've printed out a super cute "first day of preschool" sign and I'm hoping Joshua will be cool with me taking some photos of him holding it tomorrow morning.  Then I'll put him in the car, drive over while continuing to talk up how exciting and fun preschool will be, park in the designated section as close to the school as possible, walk in with Joshua (probably holding his backpack for him, since he's still got an irrational aversion to actually wearing the thing, much though he loves it), sign in on the attendance form, stay in the room for a few minutes to try to get him acclimated, and then walk out.

Leaving my big boy in his first classroom.

Thankfully, I have more tasks that will immediately need to get done -- I have to get a prox card for the building, turn in this month's tuition check, and then come home and make some work phone calls.

But ack, I'm feeling all nervous and weepy and nostalgic.

Funnily enough, David doesn't feel that way at all.  We talked about that some this morning -- David is really excited about Joshua's school, and his bent is more towards anticipation for the next stages of Joshua's life.  Which of course I share, but right now, any thoughts of the future beyond tomorrow morning make me even weepier -- before we know it, we'll be moving Joshua into his college dorm room and he'll be leaving home and, and, and...

We laugh about how I'm being the stereotypical clingy mother here, but yeah, it's really true.

I'm really hoping that Joshua will love his new school.  And I'm also hoping that I'll be able to make this transition gracefully and well!

But in the spirit of nostalgia and clinginess -- the kids and I enjoyed one final summer hurrah the other day, by playing outside in swimsuits.  :)  It's September, and the pools are closed, and it's already too chilly for playing with water toys, but I hadn't had a chance to get pictures of them in their cute swimsuits all summer, so I dressed them up anyways!




Looking for Joshua, who's off in the distance picking his beloved "teeny tiny pinecones":



How big is Sophia?  SO BIG!!


I wanted to get a shot of the two of them together, but Joshua was too busy running back and forth.  So this is the only one I got:





And Sophia thought her hooded coverup was hilarious:



(Or maybe she just thought I was hilarious -- check out the reflection of me all sprawled out in her eyes!)


I'm going to miss having both kids home with me all the time.  But it's obviously a good thing that they're growing and thriving, and we really are looking forward to this new stage of our lives.  (Three mornings a week, it'll be just me and Fifi!  And with her weaned and Joshua going to school, I'll actually have time for myself, for work and rest and non-kid-related endeavors...)

Just, please pray for us as we make this transition.  Hopefully I'll have a chipper update up here on the blog sometime soon!

Video update: Party tricks with the Keddie kiddies!

Just a few snippets of the fun and funny things Joshua and Sophia are doing these days!

Some video footage of the hide and seek game they were playing during Sophia's 12-month photos:


Sophia demonstrating her ability to say "yes" in response to her very favorite question:


Sophia just chilling, standing like a boss:


Cascading giggles in the car.  I just wish I could have reached around to get a glimpse of Sophia's face!


A longer video, of Joshua "reading" one of his favorite books, "Flap Your Wings":


Reading together.  Or at least, next to each other.


Joshua, my assistant videographer, narrating a video of his baby sister:


And a short one, showing off Sophia's latest trick -- "how big is Sophia?"

Sophia Watch: Twelve Months

We did it!  We made it through twelve months of Sophia Watch!  Hurray!  Sophia's pretty psyched about it, too.  :)


I can't believe our sweet little girl is already a full year old... She's getting to be such a big girl, too!  It's just as well that I'm so late in posting this month's Sophia Watch, because she's really starting to hit so many milestones now -- so this will be a mix of Sophia's 12th and 13th months.  :)

While she's still not crawling, she *has* figured out a really cute squat/scoot combo that gets her around in a haphazard way.  :)  If you put her down on her belly, she immediately puts her legs out in a froggy split, and then pushes herself up into a sitting position.  I keep trying to get it on video, but she's so darn fast!  She's also discovered that by reversing that move and scooting her bottom over a bit, she can slowly maneuver herself around on the floor -- she goes from sitting, to froggy split on her belly, scoots herself backwards a bit, and then pushes herself back into a sitting position.  It's not the fastest or most precise method of locomotion, but it's incredibly cute.  Especially given her shrieks of triumph when she manages to get close enough to grab another toy!

Sophia has also started saying a few more words this month!  She reliably announces our names whenever we come into view, and she's added a floppy little hand wave and "hiiiii!"  The best is when we're driving somewhere, and then I come around to get her our of her carseat when we've arrived -- because she's rear-facing, she doesn't see me during the whole of the drive, and then gets super excited when she sees me again.  She starts vigorously waving both her arms, tilts her head at me, grins, and shouts "hiiiiii!  Mamamamama!"

Other words she says: milk (which she pronounced perfectly once earlier this week, but usually says more like "meh" while reaching insistently for her cup), yes (typically in response to me asking if she wants more food), no.  I, um, may have taught her that last one -- she's been in a food-throwing phase lately, and I said "no!" to her very sternly, which seems to have made a big impression on her.  Now she babbles to herself "no, no, no, no" -- as she throws her food.  Here's hoping she learns to not actually throw her food!

And Sophia and Joshua are really starting to play *with* each other more these days.  Joshua has learned that if Sophia has a toy he wants, the easiest way to get it back from her is to hold out his hand in front of her and wait.  She loves sharing with us, even more than actually playing with an object herself, and Joshua is learning to take advantage of that.  Which is much better than him grabbing things out of her hands!  They also love dancing together, particularly at the table -- Sophia will start rocking back and forth in her booster seat, and Joshua will laugh and start rocking his own chair.  They make each other laugh so hard!

And some more sweet photos from our little 12-month photo shoot -- I did at least take these right on Sophia's birthday.  :)





Big brother wanted to help, but then he got bored and started hiding under the blanket off to the side.  Which Sophia thought was absolutely hilarious!




Then Joshua wanted in on the sticker-wearing photoshoot fun.  He didn't want to sit nicely next to his sister, but I think this sequence is a sweeter representation of their relationship!  (Please excuse his jammies and Thomas underwear...  Again, a more faithful representation of how he prefers to present himself these days!)





Happy birthday, sweet Sophia!  We love you, and are so thankful for your presence in our little family!