Toothless Joe

That's what I've been calling Grant for the last couple of weeks since he lost his second top front tooth. Good thing too, because one had fallen out and the other was wiggling for weeks, and it had migrated to the center of his mouth. He looked quite goofy...and we have a school picture to prove it. :) His tooth fell out at school, so Nona put it in a bag but forgot to give it back to Grant, so we got it back the next day. I put it on the counter so Grant could put it under his pillow that night. Well, every once in a while, Matt goes into a cleaning frenzy, and mistakenly threw out the bag, that he thought was empty. You can imagine how sad Grant was. Well we made Matt "pay" Grant for his mistake, and believe me, Grant got way more than the tooth fairy would have given him!

Mom Hog at 18 Months

Charley is 18 months already! Can you believe it? Me neither. We just had her 18m check-up and here are her stats:

Height: 32 5/8 inches (70%) - seriously...tall girls...who would have thought it could happen?

Weight: 24 pounds 10 ounces (55%)

She, as stated before, is a bit of a walking disaster....mostly because she has no fear. She will climb on anything and jump off of anything. It's a little scary at times. She is kind of a tornado leaving a path of destruction behind her. She is still so super smiley though. She is mischievous but so happy. She is still napping in the afternoons, but gives me a run for my money getting her into her crib. She is cuddling less and less, which I hate, but hopefully it's just a phase. She wants to do everything that Grant and Molly do, which is hard, because she cries and screams when she can't. She is a bit frustrated right now because she has so much she wants to say, and she probably says about 30 words. Some include juice, shoes, snack, all gone, Molly, Nona, Papa, Mama, Dada, bye-bye, please, ball, baby, bubble, bath, doggy, duck, no. We have been able to spend some time just the two of us since Molly is in preschool two mornings a week. Unfortunately, this has made her a bit of a mom hog when her siblings come back around. She has always been my most attached one, but now she won't share me with anyone. If Molly is sitting on my lap, she will scream and cry and try to push her off. If I'm holding Grant's hand, she squeezes her way in. If I'm hugging Matt, she wants in too. What can I say, she loves me a whole bunch, and I get can't enough of her either. I keep squeezing her as I watch her grow out of her cute baby-ness. Here are some pics of the big girl at a play-date at Koetsiers.

To the Gardens with Friends

It has been such beautiful fall weather, that we had to head to Meijer Gardens with our very good friends, the DeKorne ladies. Molly and Ava are a few months apart, and Kaiya and Charley are about five months apart. They have to be friends. They have no choice. Good thing they really do like each other. (Not pictured...sweet baby Reese and big first grader Grant.) So fun to be able to hang out with great friends on a beautiful day.

Molly and Ava

Kaiya, Charley, Molly, Ava

And they're off!

Miracle Girl Kaiya!

Hanging with the scarecrows

Mols and Me

Ava

Friends

Cheeeese!

Big Pumpkins

Waving to the trolley passing by

My little tomboy

Making wishes

Walking Disaster

As you may remember from an earlier post, Charley is a walking disaster. She falls ALL the time. I don't know what it is...poorly fitting shoes...lack of shoes...heavy head...wobbly knees...got me. But she literally falls numerous times a day. Unfortunately this means she is also constantly disfiguring her face. This specific day, she fell and cut up her nose...again. And then about five minutes later, Matt tripped over Grant's scooter and took a chunk out of his foot, a big chunk, ick. I do not do well with blood. I get quite faint actually. Good thing I'm not a nurse. But in case you are ever watching my daughter when she falls, give her a wet paper towel to suck on, and she'll be fine.

Time for a Haircut

Just had to post what Molly's hair looks like if we brush it out. It gets so snarly sometimes, that I just can't take it anymore and have to actually brush it. Usually I just do my best to get the knots out with my fingers and water. It was time for another haircut. It seems to be helping a little bit, but you just don't realize how long her hair is when it's so curly. And this isn't even completely straight.

Tradition

I love traditions. And I especially love our family tradition of heading to Robinette's in the fall. The wagon slide, waiting in line for warm pumpkin spice donuts (but not his year because we got there early!), getting lost in the corn maze, enjoying a horse drawn hay ride through the orchard...it's a great way to start out the fall!