Delaney Alina is Fifteen Months Old - 10.31.2020

Delaney Alina is fifteen months old!

This past month, Delaney has started walking like a pro! She's been able to stand herself up from sitting for a while now, and she's able to bend down and pick things up and keep walking.

Delaney has picked up a few new words like "wow," "bubba" (refers to her bear and her belly button and pretty much anything else she points to), "Coco" (not sure what use that has!), "da-duh" (Daniel Tiger), "wah muh" (Walmart?), "ah puh" (apple and any other fruit), and probably some others. She certainly babbles a lot!

Delaney's teeth on the top next to the middle ones are starting to poke through as well. 

Delaney can do a little wiggly dance and bend her knees in response to the question: Can you jump? She can also take off her shirt if it's too big!

Delaney has a favorite bear she calls Bubba and has stolen him from the other two kids who also love him. We tried to offer a brand new, super soft koala, but there's a clear favorite!

We are excited to see how this girl continues to blossom in the months to come!

Everett Matthew is Three Years Old

Everett Matthew is three years old!

We're so grateful that this wonderful boy joined our family 3 years ago today!

Everett is a sweet, gentle boy. He loves to be a helper and sit close to mommy. He likes playing with his sisters. 

Everett knows all his letters upper and lower case. He can read and spell "no," "open," "break," "dog," and "cat." He can often guess other words like "Happy birthday" (on a birthday card) and remembers words in books we've read lots of times (he loves to read certain books over and over!). He's currently into Piggie and Gerald books and we read them over and over. And over! He loves Daniel Tiger, Mickey Mouse, and The Wiggles. He likes to play minesweeper and thinks the goal of the game is to find the mines (actually, we have it set on garden mode, so they're ladybugs!)

Everett is starting to understand adding numbers, particularly if he can add on his fingers. He seems to be good at memorizing addition facts. He can count to 40 or so, but he skips 17 and 18. He knows them both, but forgets them in order. He just started saying eleven correctly, instead of "we-weh-ben." So sad. He also started saying the letter "L" correctly instead of a "W" sound. And he corrected his pronunciation of the "F" sound (instead of "B"). It's great that he's able to correct himself, but his wrong pronunciations are so so cute! 

Now that he's three, Everett gets to start going to preschool a few hours a week! We're hoping for some fun play time instead of sitting all morning while mommy works.

Being at home so much in the past several months, potty training has been great. Everett has no more issues and we've liked not having to be out in public places while potty training, so there's that!

Everett likes getting the mail and really enjoys collecting coupons and envelopes. He likes waterfalls - or even just the rushing parts of a river or creek. Everett likes game shows like Floor is Lava, Minute to Win It, and Game of Games. He still likes all sports too. He loves to know the names of the competitors and cheer for them to win. 

What a great kid!

We planned to meet at a park today, but the local forest fire is making the air yucky and smoky. So we had some fun at our house. 

Delaney Alina is Fourteen Months Old - 09.30.2020

Delaney Alina is fourteen months old!

At this time last week, Delaney was only up to 5 to 7 steps at a time, But just in this past week, she has started taking lots of steps at a time and even recovering when she starts to lose her balance. She seems increasingly eager to practice her walking skills now that it gets her (mostly) where she wants to go.

Delaney's front two teeth on the top are nearly all the way in, and she has at least one molar poking through on the top right.

Delaney says a lot of sounds but not yet many distinguishable words. She's added to the things she understands: she points to her nose (where's your nose?), chomps her teeth (where are your teeth?), sticks out her tongue (where is your tongue?), touches her hair (where is your hair?), lifts her foot (where is your foot? - I don't use "feet" because she'll get that mixed up with "teeth"), sings (can you sing?), bops up and down (can you dance?), claps and cheers (can you clap? or copying applause on tv), covers her eyes (peekaboo), gives hugs (can I have a hug? or awwww), blows kisses (can you blow kisses?). She can sign "more" but refuses to use it. She says "nigh nigh" (night night), "ah gah" (all gone), "ah duh" (all done), "eh deh" (Everett), "ah dah" (Emery), "dah" (yeah), "hah" (hi), dada, and mama. 

We discovered if you ask her to say Llama, it sounds like mama. So that's pretty cute. 

She likes splashing in the bath, looking at books, hugging stuffed animals, throwing toys/balls, cuddling, and being around people of all ages. 

We love our growing girl!

Four teeth!

Emery, Everett, and Delaney at 14 months.

Delaney Alina is Thirteen Months Old - 08.31.2020

Delaney Alina is thirteen months old!

Delaney is a busy girl! She has started taking a few wobbly steps, though it doesn't seem fast enough to get where she wants, so she usually abandons walking for her very quick crawling. She still needs a lot of practice balancing before her walking becomes steady. 

It's fun to start to see Delaney and Everett play together. She tends to take things from him and he is usually sweet enough to give them to her, but if not, she cries and may convince him anyway. It's only just the beginning of these two buddies together!

Her two teeth on the top are just about poking through. But having only two teeth on the bottom and barely two on the top does not stop her from eating just about anything. Though we've taught her "all done" and "more" and "water" in sign language and said the words over and over - she still kind of refuses to use them and shakes her head (yes or no) or turns away as a means of communication. She verbalizes and even repeats certain sounds/words, but we struggle a bit at meal time to understand what she wants. She says mama, dada, eh deh (Everett), ah dah (Emery), nigh nigh, all done (occasionally), na-na-na (banana). She will pretend to sign the alphabet if I sing and sign the letters. She loves to bop her head to music and sing along. 

Delaney is sleeping significantly better than she has been. Some nights she only cries a little in her sleep (not needing any help) and makes it from 8pm to almost 8am! She naps from about 9:30-10:30 or 11am and again from about 1:30-3pm. 

We love this sweet girl!

Emery, Everett, and Delaney at 13 months.

Delaney Alina is One Year Old - 07.31.2020

Delaney Alina is one year old!

On this day last year, Delaney Alina arrived in dramatic fashion. She has been delightfully dramatic and passionate ever since. She loves to be with us and never wants to be left behind. We are overjoyed to see her blossom in these next weeks and months!

Delaney learned to do peek-a-boo, and it's as cute as you can imagine! Sometimes she will blow kisses and sign "thank you" (which are basically the same motion). She can say "ah da" [all done] and sign it. She can wave bye-bye and clap on command (if she wants to!) She can say "nigh nigh" [night night]. She calls Emery "ah dah" and Everett "eh deh." She can say mama and dada. She seems to be as verbal as Emery was - repeating sounds and making her own verbalizations that seem to mimic us.

Within the last week, she has started not only standing when she didn't realize it (letting go of the couch, focused on playing with something), but also what seems to be intentionally practicing standing. She cruises on the furniture, gets herself steady, and lets go. We've seen her make it about 2-3 seconds before sitting down.

Delaney has two teeth on the bottom and the two on top are close to popping through.

This month she took her first plane flight to visit Gramma and Grandpa in Virginia. She did very well. She slept well at their house and enjoyed playing with them and some of our friends.

We are so grateful for this passionate, darling girl! Happy birthday, sweet Delaney!

Delaney Alina is Eleven Months Old - 06.30.2020

Delaney Alina is eleven months old!

Delaney got two teeth this month. They are the two on the bottom, and they appear to be coming in side by side at pretty much the same rate.

Delaney learned to clap and raise her hands for "touchdown." She appears to blow kisses, but doesn't seem to connect it with asking her to do it. Today when I once again showed her how to sign the word "more," she seemed to understand that I was offering more snacks. So she smiled and tried to copy me; she actually clapped, but that's a pretty good start.

Delaney learned to say, "Uh oh!" and it's pretty cute! She can imitate things we say, particularly with the tone and pitch, not so much with the letter sounds.

Delaney learned to pull up to standing on the furniture and she has gotten fast at crawling. She can also cruise many steps along the couch/ottoman. Blake said she let go and stood for a moment today too!

Delaney slept several nights in a row right after turning 10 months. It lasted about a week, then she went back to waking several times a night.

This month, Delaney will get to take her first airplane flight to go see Gramma and Grandpa.

Next up: First Birthday!