Mrs. Kohl Is Having A BABY!!

Today I told my stars that I'm having a baby! I told them in their morning message (for those of you who don't know what that is in Kindergarten they read a message and edit it/fill it in/etc). The questions and comments were among the funniest I have ever heard! I had one little girl as when I would bring her in to school... from there we went to the issue of where the baby is... then my favorite (NOT) how the baby gets out... then to the issue of where I would get the baby out! One little girl suggested I have the baby at the mall play area and another boy commented it would be nice to have her at Chuck E Cheese! It just goes to show you how literal they are, they are still so little and don't know alot! We celebrated with little pink cupcakes which they LOVED! I have pictures I'll be posting soon, I hope! 

House for SALE... Funny BOY!

This morning on our way to my school Jacob was sooooo very talkative.  He talked the whole way there about the houses Pa is building... Mr. Jim & his bobcat... and the doors! Both he & Grace went for a visit to the houses with Daddy yesterday (Mommy was visiting the quads!) and they loved the door handles there! Jacob told me that Pa was working on the houses and Mr. Jim helps Pa.  He went on and on with the WHY questions about why Mr. Jim has a bobcat and Pa doesn't! They were endless!

Then he said to me "Mom we can sell our house and go live in that house!"  I told him that is what we want to do but we have to find someone to buy our house.  He then told me "Mom, we can just give it to somebody." Yeah... you funny boy you! 

On a side note about talking... WOAH... Grace is gaining vocabulary daily.  She is saying so many things and repeating everything! Today she said penguin, I try, I did it, and Poop dog! Those are all new things just today... I can't believe how much she is growing, language wise! She also must be growing in size... last night we celebrated Aunt Cathy's birthday and she ate three pieces of pizza (not totally out of the ordinary for her) Uncle said she is 1/10 his size and eats as much as him (well not quite UNCLE!).  Tonight for dinner she had FOUR bowls of spaghetti, a large dish of pineapple, and yogurt! HUNGRY GIRL!!

Counting, ABC's & More!

Grace is now beginning to count she counts objects on her own... so far I have only heard her go up to 2 but its a start! She also loves to sing the wheels on the bus.  She chimes in with round and round and town!! Jacob gets a big kick out of that.  

I have been meaning to upload the video I have of Jacob singing his ABC's... although most of the time he still says ABCDEFG know I know my ABC's! He can make it all the way through by himself occasionally! YEAH JACOB. Grace loves hearing her big brother sing this... almost as much as she loves wearing his boots!!

Jacob's bed and other furniture have been ordered. I'm so excited to get it....:) 

"Pome" is Dead... well almost!

Anyone who has been around Jacob knows that he says "pome" instead of "come".  Well yesterday he we started telling him to say "come" and he DID!! So now, even though occasionally he goes back and forth, he can say "COME"! 

I was just talking with Miss. Katie (his speech pathologist) today about how far he has come in just one years time.  Last January (the 15th) he started his speech classes at the MISD.  He was only saying one - two word phrase (anoone... aka... another one).  Miss. Katie was beyond amazed... she said that is absolutely amazing that he has come that far in just one year.  She mentioned she never had seen growth like that.  We talked about how much was developmental as well as how much his early intervention helped him.  I cannot thank everyone who helped us out with that enough!! Now he speaks, and speaks, and speaks, and speaks! Two word phrases are a thing of the past... Miss. Katie said "Now Jacob has 20 word sentences!" He just continues to work so hard and become so much more social... he is a miracle! 

I swear I wish I could advocate for the MISD and early intervention... Jacob is a total poster child! If anyone ever doubted getting help... DON'T! It is the best thing you can do for a child who may need it! 

His main hang-ups in speech currently are ones that he has become accustomed to saying.... mainly switching beginning sounds like the p/come example.  He also continues to have disfluencies... which are totally age appropriate as I'm told.  Especially for children who have such a large vocabulary coming in or exhibit anxiety.  

He is just growing so fast... getting so tall and becoming such a helper. He doesn't want anyone to feel sad or have hurt feelings and he is always ready to go out of his way to help out. He is "growing" everyday as he tells us.  He now can use the potty (for number 1) all by himself... as he use to require a little help getting on and off.  Now he wants his "privacy".  

My "little boy" I guess will always be my "little boy"... he just amazes me everyday.  When I'm with him he just makes me so happy (or as I tell him... he puts a smile on my face!). 

Grace is 21 Months Old!

On January 5th Grace turned 21 months old!! It seems weird that our "baby" is now approaching 2!! She has gotten so big and as Greg says she gets "funnier" every day.  She definitely has a totally different personality than Jacob.  She is so outgoing, funny, love able, kind, curious, spunky, flirty, happy, talkative, brother-idolizing, adorable and we just love her more and more EVERY day! She continues to amaze us with all the little things she does and how quickly she is growing into a "little lady".

Grace has really started to "talk" alot more.  She says almost anything... and has quite a few two words phrases.  Some of her favorite (and ours too) are "Bye Dog",  " I  can't", "I did it/I do", "Mommy, Me", "Brother ___ (boots, shoes, coat)", "Dog Out" and "More ____ (any type of food/drink)".  Some of her newest funny words are "Shalom" (she learned this from the wiggles!), tie, teeth, min (vitamin), getti (spaghetti), and any family member's name.  She has names for all of her family (immediate and extended)... and says them very well. 

She still LOVES babies... and are convinced they all need buh's (pacifiers).  Another love of hers is her brothers clothing or shoes... she just cannot get enough of wearing his stuff.  I told her today she should have been a boy as she put on his hat, mittens and boots and then had a fit as I took them off.  She did get her way tonight when we went to Babies R Us... she got to wear Jacob's boots there.  I keep saying I'm not buying her anymore shoes! I REALLY hope she'll outgrow this phase... only time will tell! Another cute little thing she does with her brother is... usually if you ask her whose girl she is she says MAMA! Occasionally she says Daddy, Doe, or even brother.  Jacob loves when she says that, and he often asks her... "Sister, you my girl?". It just cracks me up.

Grace is such an awesome eater... she will eat anything.  Over the last month she has tried vegetable lasagna, spinach stuffed shells, apples and peanut butter (she loves dipping her fingers in the peanut butter), real cooked carrots, and cheesy potatoes (all of which she LOVED).  She still likes her sweets and goodies, but she always eats so good we don't mind.

She has continued to be smaller... most of her 18-24 month clothing is still too big.  As far as shoes go... we have her in a 5.5 or 6 depending on the shoe.  And so unlike Jacob her hats are 12-24 months.... she doesn't have that big old head her brother has! Speaking of heads... her hair is thickening up but still not growing much.  We started to be able to do pigtails... but that requires a longer amount of time and energy so most of the time we still just have one ponytail on top.  

Her favorite toys continue to be babies, phones, keys, strollers, the kitchen (food), and anything Jacob has.  As far as television goes... she is a wiggles fan.  Not much else entertains her. 

Grace is such an outdoor girl... she is always asking to go outside and when she gets there she always wants to "walk" as opposed to being carried and will just walk around aimlessly as long as you let her.  I know she'll be a blast this year at the cottage and I'm sure she'll really enjoy it.

Alot of people have asked about her eye color... I can tell you that I call it hazel.  It isn't a real brown yet not quite green either, somewhere of a mix and I think that is called hazel.  They are very pretty and I often hear that she has my Dad's eyes (well the shape not color).  :)

She loves to be sung too and loves music... she "head bangs" every night when we turn on her white noise CD.  She is now sleeping with her plastic baby doll (from Andy, Andrea & Conrad), her blanky and buh.  She loves going "nighty" and you can tell when she's ready because she starts asking for her baby or buh. 

She runs pretty fast now and has even jumped with two feet a handful of times. She is quite the little dancer! Although she still likes to shovel her food in she is very good at using a "poon" (spoon) or "fork".  She has also mastered drinking from a water bottle all by herself, which I find amazing as I know Jacob still has a hard time doing that.  Straws are very easy for her as well. 

Potty training is still a little ways off for her although she continues to show an interest and often tells us when she is going or has to go potty.  She loves sitting on her little potty. 

I think I covered it all... 

Just as a quick note... our server is being fixed so the picture links on the side are "down".  Greg says it won't be long until they are "up" again. 

Jacob NEEDS A Wife!

Tonight Greg ran out to get pizza for dinner... while he was gone I got the kids ready to eat (in their chairs, bibs on, silverware, napkins, etc.).  Jacob & Grace were all set to go when I heard Jacob say "Mom I need a wife to cut my pizza."  For a minute I started to laugh hysterically... I was trying to figure out WHERE he could have heard this!  Then he said it again and pointed at the silverware drawer... then it clicked in my head... he wanted a knife! I just thought it was hilarious, so I thought I'd share. :) 

Some Cute Pictures From The Last Couple Of Days...

Little Lady's first time out (1.5.09)... yup! And it was actually Daddy that put her there!!! Her & Jacob were playing in their kitchen when Grace thought it would be fun to start throwing the dishes.  The best part was how hysterically she was laughing about it all.  When Daddy put her in the time out her mood quickly changed... her little lip started to quiver and she cried pretty hard.  She didn't make it to the minute and half she "should" have been there for... Daddy of course... gave in at about 30 seconds.  

Jacob's room yesterday 1.4.09 with the new paint job!! 3 walls and the ceiling are a lighter blue and one wall is a darker blue! It turned out AWESOME!! Thanks to Daddy & Pa for doing such an amazing job! Jacob loves it... the look on his face was absolutely priceless.  Now I just can't wait to get the rest of it done and in place! 

And the cute little traffic light I found online for the new room!! Jacob loves this too... the cool part is it actually blinks and flashes like a real traffic light!

Yesterday (1.4.09) while Daddy & Pa painted I took the kids to Gigi's house for our annual New Year's Poffee Cake or Pie Cake (Jacob's term for the coffee cake).

Grace diving into the coffee cake... the funny thing was EVERYTIME you asked her if she liked it she shook her head and said NOOOOOO! I'd hate to see what would have happened if she liked it! 

This picture has been cracking us up... lately Grace has been having issues with when her socks are off she pulls her little toes apart and says Boo-Boo... then she proceeds to want to pick every piece of sock fuzz from between her little toes! She could do this 10 times a day... it cracks us up! Doe says she remembers hating that too... I swear these two are cut from the same cloth! Notice her little painted toes! :)

I got out some of my old books out tonight that my Mom gave to me a while back... we are going to take them back to her for her new bookshelf.  Jacob really enjoyed looking at them and reading them to us... especially the Gingerbread Man story! 

Miseries...

My Grandma always had a term when you were having a rough day or time of it... we called it the "miseries".  I'm not sure what my deal is lately but I have a serious case of the miseries!  I've just felt like no one wants me around, no one likes me, and no one wants to includes me in things... or that everything I touch has been ruined.  I've had a rough week of it... and I don't know if its because it's true :(, or if I've just been upset about other things.  I sure hope they go away fast... because I'm thinking I may run out of tears soon!

On a uplifting note I've been feeling the baby so much lately.  Greg hasn't been able to feel her yet... it is mainly flutters I feel (nothing on the outside yet).  She must hate it when I'm on my stomach because that is when I feel her the most.  

Packing Away CHRISTMAS...

Tonight after the kids went to sleep (Greg was gaming with the boys) I decided to pack away most of my Christmas items.  I'm a bit nervous come morning when Jacob realizes what I did, although the tree is still up with some ornaments.  He has been begging me to leave our stuff up... I think he thinks that Santa might come back if we leave it up! Then tonight he asked if we were going to take it down... so I thought I'd get a jump start on it packing away the more breakable things.  I'm afraid he might not be so happy with it when he wakes up! 

As I packed away our ornaments I... once again... started to feel really sad for Grace.  Everytime I get those darn ornaments out or put them away it makes me a little sad.  Jacob has OODLES of ornaments.  Grace has a total of 5.  From the first Christmas alone Jacob has 7!!! I'm not sure why it makes me feel so badly, as a matter of fact 4/5 of Grace's ornaments are from me! Where as Jacob has about 7 from me (and he has been around a bit longer).  Anyway as I did this I decided that one of my new years resolutions for this year is to be sure number 3 doesn't have this same problem! The sad part is Grace can never have made up from her first year! 

Ok... this emotional wreck is going back to cleaning and packing. 

Pictures!

We finally got some pictures up from Christmas... working on New Year's Eve!

Check out the links on the side.