All Packed Up and Ready to Move!

The packers came this morning and packed up most of our stuff in just 3 hours today. Can't believe it. The movers will be here Monday morning to finish packing up the remainder and to load up the van. After they leave, we will head out for our LONG (approximately 1400 miles) drive to Arkansas!

As you can see from the pics above, the kids had fun playing with and in the boxes left behind by the packers.

Pittsburgh is Going to the Pa Bol?

Go Steelers!!! Our two little Roethlisbergers cheered on the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday as they won the AFC championships, sending them on their way to their 7th Super Bowl! After the win, Dada started singing "Here we go! Pittsburgh is going to the Super Bowl" over and over. Soon we all started singing it, including Desmond. If you sing to Des, "here we go, Pittsburgh is going to the...", he will chime in and say "pa bol" for "Super Bowl" and that just makes his Dada very proud!

Shhh!

Desmond has recently taken a liking to screaming at the top of his lungs for no reason other than the fact that he thinks it is funny. Well Mama and Dada don't think it's funny at all and often say "no" and "shhh" to him. Well, this morning, he was screaming as Mama was changing his diaper while Stella was still sleeping. Des started screaming and Mama said "no screaming" and Des looked at Mama and put his index finger to his mouth and said "shhh". He would scream and then shhhsh himself over and over, laughing in between. It was soo cute that Mama couldn't help but laugh as well. He is turning out to be quite a handful and a jokester these days!!!

Desmond's 15 Month Checkup

Desmond had his 15 month checkup today, 10 days before he actually turns 15 months old. All is well with our little guy. His stats are as follows:

Height = 32.75 inches (90th %)
Weight = 23 lbs, 10.5 oz (50th %)
Head Circumference = 19.5 in (95th %)

In other news, Desmond has been consistently telling us when he poops by saying "poop" after he does the deed. He has been doing this ever since Christmas. Let's hope that this trend continues all the way to potty training!

Suit Up! Go Steelers!

The kids donned their Roethlisberger jerseys today in an effort to root on Dada's favorite hometown team...the Pittsburgh Steelers! It worked b/c the Steelers won. Now all they have to do is win next week against the Ravens and the Steelers will be going to their seventh Super Bowl!

P.S. This is the first time Stella is wearing her Steelers jersey (she always refused before) since Dada got it for her this past summer. It is still way too big on her (it comes down to her knees) but is the smallest kid's size jersey they sell.

All the Songs He Knows

Desmond seems to have a propensity for music and singing. And why not, his Dada is an accomplished musician. The following are all of the songs he knows. Even though he doesn't know all the words to all of these songs, he definitely knows their tune and will definitely sing it in the right tune, using his language. He will sing these songs sometimes when he is put down for a nap, or if he hears it in the car, or if he hears us singing it around the house.

Wheels on the bus go
This old Man
Ring around the rosies
Old McDonald had a farm
Row row your boat
Where is Thumbkin?
BINGO

Mama thinks his favorite is "The Wheels on the Bus" and he will do some of the motions for this song [i.e., "the babies on the bus go wha wha wha" (he will rub his eyes with his fist and say "wha wha wha"; the mommies on the bus go hush hush hush (he will put his index finger to his mouth and say "shhh, shhh, shhh"].

He also loves to sing "This Old Man" because that is the song we sing to him anytime we put him down to sleep...so he's heard that song everyday of his life thus far =;)

P.S. How do you like them cheeks in the above picture?!?!

Mr. Manners!

Desmond said thank you to Mama yesterday when she gave him a piece of cheese. It sounded like "thunk ooo". It was totally unprompted and so very sweet. This is not something we have been teaching him to say...so he just picked it up by observation.

Stella Still Loves to Read

Stella has been getting better and better at reading at a very fast pace and can read 10-12 page books all by herself on the first try. When we were driving back from NJ after the holidays, we had stopped to get some food from Wendy's and was eating our meal in the car. Across from the Wendy's was a Texaco station and from the view from our car, the "C" in TEXACO was partially covered, making it look like a "G" to her. Stella looks over at the sign and says "Texago"!

Before that, when we were getting ready to exit off of the freeway, Stella looked at the road sign and read out aloud "exit" perfectly. Mind you, these are not words that we have taught her or have come across in our Hooked on Phonics or BOB books. She is learning to sound out the words in her head.

The most recent example that amazed us occurred at the Home Depot. We were there to buy new door knobs for our house and were stopped in the aisle deciding which ones to buy. Stella was in her stroller and looked at the door knobs that was at her eye level and says out loud, "Mama, that says Kwikset." And she was indeed correct. Kwikset was the brand name of the door knobs she was looking at. How she knew how to pronounce this without even sounding it out aloud is beyond us. But we are more than happy with her excitement for reading and so very proud of her accomplishments!

Boys Will Be Boys

What has Desmond been up to? He's been a mischievous little boy lately. He thinks that since Xmas is over, he doesn't have to be a good little boy anymore =;)
His favorite thing to do right now is to go into the bathroom and shred toilet paper and place them into the toilet. For this reason we keep our bathroom doors closed at all times. If, at any time, the bathroom door is opened, no matter where he is, Desmond's sensors go off and he will drop whatever he is doing to follow right behind you into the bathroom. Some how Mama telling him "no" or "stop it" doesn't seem to have any effect on him.
He also loves to draw with crayons and will say "dwaw" pointing to the crayons over and over. Mama has found him drawing on the kitchen floor and on the fridge with crayons at which point, Mama quickly takes the crayons away from the little man. That often leads to tears. Poor little baby, life is so unfair=;)