What's Up with Huck... and the Science Fair

Sooo much! He is now 10 months old. It seems as if Huck is learning something new everyday. He has been walking for about a week now. We noticed yesterday that he spent most of his time walking as opposed to crawling. He seems to walk better when he has something in his hands and still has plenty of falls, but he is definitely on the move! Because of this constant desire for motion the high chair is now akin to a torture device. He twists and spins and can almost get himself out. He is eating 2-3 jars of baby food a day (favorites are plum-banana-brown rice, apple-blueberry, and sweet potatoes) a few finger foods and still nursing just as much as ever. He had his 9 month check-up this week and is 21.7 lbs and 31 inches tall. He got a finger poke to check his iron level and 1 immunization- and he didn't even cry. He claps his hands, can play peek-a-boo and give high fives. He has been playing with the toy kitchen and toy food, golf balls and Duplo blocks. He has a great belly laugh when you tickle him, a great big smile when he is happy and a great big cry when he is not. He makes lots of noises and babbles mamama and dadada but not real words yet. Nothing is safe if it is within his reach- cell phones, remotes, Lego people, chapstick, sippy cups... It is fun to see his determination! He is a joy!
























Bubba entered a project in the Science Fair. It was an optional project for 1st grade and he said he wanted to do it. His Investigation Question was "How are fossils exposed?" The experiment involved clay and shells and simulating the Earth's movement. He made an impressive poster display. It was a tricky line for The Hubby and I to figure out how much to help him. We wanted him to do as much as he could on his own, but he is 6 after all. So we did everything together in whatever way we thought was appropriate for him. He did some of the typing, but that would have taken two weeks if we had him do it all himself so we had him read the words to us for the rest of it. And he doesn't know how to format pages for printing so I did that for him. He learned some things and it was fun, so that is what is important to us. I think he gets a ribbon for participation.

I'm Calling Out the Hubby!

This little gem came home from school with Bubba.






Upon seeing it the Hubby said he will quit on Leap Day. We're holding you to it, Daddy. It's out there for all the blogosphere to see now, so no turning back! You can do it! We know you can! We are proud of you!

In other Hubby news, he just finished 3 days of jury duty. He actually got picked to be on a jury. He said it wasn't all that interesting of a case. But he did say he doesn't have a lot of faith in the concept of a "fair" jury since one of the jurors said to an attorney on the jury "you just tell us what to do and we'll do it." Fortunately someone spoke up and told her she was off her rocker. It got me an extra day at home, which was nice. Huck and I laid on the couch and I watched Seabiscuit.

Pshew!

I love the winter holidays but it is always nice when we can get back to "normal!" To catch up I think I'll go person by person...

Huck- He is growing so fast! He has all sorts of new tricks. He can clap his hands, raise his arm when one of the big kids says "raise your hand if..." (which happens about every 10 minutes), lift his arms over his head when asked "How big is Huckleberry?", cruise the furniture like a race car driver, stand up unassisted and... he took two steps on his own! He got his first tooth on New Years Day and a second followed shortly after. He loves to pull things out of baskets and drawers (laundry, clean clothes, dish towels...) He blows raspberries often and babbles "mamamama" and "dadadad". He fake coughs when he hears me cough. Daddy said the other day while I was at work he crawled around the house searching for me until he broke down in tears when he was not able to find me. He cries when Daddy leaves the house for work, too. When in his highchair he does this twist maneuver to try to get out and I am afraid one day he will be successful so we can't leave him unattended in the highchair anymore. He is eating 2-3 jars of baby food a day and has had a few bites of table food- I believe he is ready for more. He still does not sleep great, but generally is a happy guy with an infectious laugh.
His reaction to Christmas was interesting. I thought he would enjoy pulling tissue paper out of a bag so I put most of his gifts in gifts bags. He seemed pretty overwhelmed by the whole thing- he kept crawling out of the family room into the playroom. He didn't show much interest in the new toys (or wrapping paper or tissue) and instead kept going back to the familiar. But now that things are more normal he does play with his new toys. He loves to play with Duplo blocks as well. And Tinker Toys. And would love to get his hands on big brother's Legos.

Duchess- Where to start... hmmmm... Until talking to several friends with daughters I never knew that 3-4 year old girls were reputed to be such a challenge. Twos were nothing! She is a sweet girl at heart and can be so kind and loving, but when she is not- she soooo is not. She is so independent- always has been since she was tiny- and I think her desire to be independent is greater than her ability and much of the conflict comes from that. She has a tendency to dig her heels in just for the sake of it- like she will insist that she does not need to go to the bathroom even though she is dancing around and can't stay still and just told me 5 minutes ago she had to go- just because I told her she needs to go. She needs much attention from me these days and struggles with sharing it with her brothers. I try to find small ways to spend time with her alone, like taking her with me grocery shopping, and she eats it up. She loves all things fancy- tutu skirts, dresses over pants every day, french braids in her hair, and of course all things pink/purple. She is doing well in school and has a good group of friends. She can write her name clearly and many of the other letters. She is working on writing numbers. She has been doing lots of imaginary play and sings to herself as she plays. She is great at making Huck laugh and his face lights up when he sees her. Christmas was good for her. Some favorites were her Barbie roller skates (the kind that go over shoes), a Hello Kitty house, Tinkerbell story collection, and Lalaloopsy dolls. She also had a lot of fun playing with Huck's Weeble Wobbles.

Bubba- What a big kid! Sometimes I look at him and expect him to still be 2 playing with his Lightning McQueen can and riding on his dump truck. But no, instead he is playing Wii and reading chapter books. We have had a Wii for awhile and until Christmas had only played it a couple of times a month. But Santa brought Lego Star Wars and now that all has changed. Daddy is just as addicted to it as son, so there ya go. It is fun to watch the two of them bond over it, but when Bubba tries to give me all the details my eyes start to glass over... I have played with him as well but prefer to play Tangled :-) or Phineas and Ferb. I can't believe how well he is reading. For Christmas he got a boxed set of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and while they are not my favorite I am okay with anything that has him reading for an hour at a time. He also got some roller blades and has been practicing away. And of course there has been lots of Lego building going on:-)