October 27 = Hold Your Own Bottle Day

Look at this big girl holding her own bottle!

September 29 = Put Your Shoes On Day

I don't have photo evidence but Malia put her brown shoes on today all by herself!  Since she's getting to be such a big girl look what I did:

She sat so still and let me paint her tiny little toenails a really pretty purple.  Such a good girl!

January 6 = Malia's a Big Girl Day

We went to the gym tonight- like most nights.  I really want to figure out my schedule so that I can take the kids to the gym during the day and we can all be at home at night and have some good quality family time.  But we're not there yet so we went tonight.  Usually when we come to pick them up, Liam gets super excited and gives us big hugs and Miss Malia isn't far behind.  But when I came in today, Malia was sitting at the table coloring like such a big girl!

September 8 = We Have a Walker Day!

Malia's walking!

August 31 = Pouch Day

I tried giving Malia a pouch before but it didn't go to well.  Zachary gave her one today after dinner and it went much better!  Go Malia!

August 13 = Help Mommy Day

Zachary had to go in early today to cover his chief who wanted to spend time with his family before they left for a week.  We had a playdate planned and for some reason I wasn't feeling well.  I thought about cancelling but when I don't feel well, I'd rather do something to distract myself than to sit around and do nothing so we went to the playdate and then I went to yoga.  In yoga, I nearly left class because I just felt so weird- I was achy and nauseous- it was so weird.  So when we got home, Liam made a big mess with dinner and so I asked him to help me clean it up and added "Mommy doesn't feel good."  Well he proceeded to clean other areas of the house too- such a sweetheart.

Then we had story/singing time in Liam's room and Malia climbed up on the bed all by herself!  She's so talented.

July 2 = Climb All The Stairs By Myself Day

Well Malia is now a stair climbing pro.  Liam stayed with her for the first half and then sped off:

 But she made it to the top!  Go Malia!

June 28 = Malia Tries New Things Day

Today Malia tried two new things: Liam's sippy cup and eating directly from a fruit pouch!

The fruit pouch had a promising start...

...but this is how it ended up:

June 25 = Daddy's Last Day Home Day

Today is the last day before Plebe Summer kicks in so we made the most of it!  Zachary went with us to Liam's appointments today so Malia got lots of individual attention!  She even pushed a walker toy in the playroom back and forth and sat in this big girl chair.

We also had a chick-fil-a date and just spent lots of good quality time together.  Later, Liam got to help Daddy make a homemade pizza- he helped put the pepperonis in place!

June 14 = Church Day

One of the best parts of visiting Zachary's family is going to church together on Sundays.  One day, it will be awesome to have Liam and Malia sit with us during church but for now it is better for everyone involved if they hang out in the nursery.  When we came to pick Malia up at the end she was doing this:

Later, we went shopping- we tried to find some shoes for Liam that will fit around his little braces but we didn't have a lot of luck.  Grandma found the cutest overalls and a shirt to match for Ms. Malia and we went to toys-r-us to find this broom set for Liam.  He is so cute- always wanting to help whether it be sweeping or putting the dishes in the dishwasher.  So this is a nice clean broom he can use to help!  We gave him the choice between orange and green and he chose green- that's my boy!

I think Liam's second favorite part of coming to Smithfield (the first being spending time with his grandparents of course) is getting to play in the fenced in back yard.  Mo and I were chatting while Liam roamed around:

Then he decided he should join the conversation and had a seat:

Later, Zachary found some bubble and Malia was fascinated!

June 9 = Big Girl Day

Malia is doing so well pulling up to stand- she pulls up on everything- furniture, walls, people, everything!

Also- plant update!

March 10 = Photo Evidence Day

I excitedly announced Malia's new skill but at the time didn't have any photographic evidence- here we go!

Also- we have been thinking about moving recently.  Anytime the temperature goes below a certain degree marker, the heat goes out.  That's right- when we need it most, it goes out.  Our neighbors who lived here last winter said the same thing happened last winter so it'll happen again.  Also, we've been having trouble with the outlets in our kitchen.  When we first moved here and tried to use our toaster, it didn't work.  Figuring it broke on the trip up, we threw it away and got a new one.  Well the new one didn't work either.  Common denominator = outlets.  So we avoided using that outlet.  Then Zachary started charging his phone in the kitchen because that was the most convenient spot for him. A couple weeks later, his phone started going crazy.  It would randomly shut down- things that I have had phones do in the past but we're starting to think it was the outlet.  The next victim was my baby food maker.  And then a roast.  I put a roast on and made sure it was warming up before I left- I came home and it had stopped working.  So people came out and revealed there were loose wires behind the outlet plates.  Loose wires?  That makes me nervous.  Also parking is a nightmare here.  Especially with two small ones.  When we were looking for places to live up here, I wrote down all the possibilities and their numbers- I called each one and asked what the parking situation was.  First of all- I do not parallel park.  I will park half a mile away and walk but I'm not going to try to fit my car in between two other cars.  I am not okay with parking half a mile away and walking to my house every time I come home so I needed a place with a parking lot or garages.  The people at the place we chose said there was a garage in the back that you could park one car in and then space behind the garage for another car.  That sounded great but I was pregnant and aware that Liam and soon to be Malia would have some grandparents very eager to come visit them so visitor parking was important to me too.  They said there was parallel parking in the front that was first come first serve.  A couple months after we moved here, they decided to change that rule- now only one resident per apartment can park in the circle- no visitors.  Where are visitors supposed to park you may ask- well I never got an answer for that.  I'm curious what families with a driving teenager do.  But anyway- they do not enforce this rule so I don't dwell on it too much but if they did start enforcing it, that would be bad news for us.  Zachary has wanted to move for months- since the heat started going out- but we got space heaters and I thought we could tough it out but what finally drew me to the dark side was I saw two kids walking around with guns.  I'm assuming these are toy guns but they don't look like it.  Zachary followed one of them one time and discovered they are pellet guns that look very realistic and that there was a group of five of them that gather right behind our apartment and shoot each other!  We are guessing these might be the people that keyed our car- from the front to the back.  After I saw that- I said, if you want to move, you've got a short window that I'm willing to consider it so get to work.  Well tonight we looked at two townhouses- I'm pretty sure we're going to move into the first one we saw.  This one has a garage and space behind the garage and it's connected to the townhouse- you don't have to walk through a creepy dungeon-like space with narrow and dangerous stairs to get inside.  And their heat works!  And we saw girls walking their dogs instead of boys shooting each other.  And there are three floors.  So gone are the days of Liam dragging his easel, his car, other large toys, from one side of the house to the other.  There's a play room downstairs that we are going to make completely baby/toddler friendly and that's where all of their toys will be.  Their rooms will be for sleeping which I hope will encourage better sleeping habits for Liam.  I think I will be really happy about this decision once we've moved in and especially this winter when we have heat.

February 19 = Hold Your Own Bottle Day

Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!  Malia learned to hold her own bottle today.  I have no pictures of this but this is such an exciting development that it deserves its own post anyway!  Yay Malia!

February 7 = Grocery Cart

I remember the first day Liam sat in the grocery cart by himself.  Zachary was gone quite often and so I'd go grocery shopping by myself all the time.  Before he could sit in the grocery cart by himself, I had to put the car seat in the big part of the cart meaning I could only get groceries that would fit in the seat part.  That wasn't a lot.  So when he sat in the seat leaving the big part free for more groceries, it was a good day.  And now Malia has reached that point too!

On a completely unrelated note, Liam thought it would be fun to play with the salt shaker today after dinner.  I had already cleaned up the floor which held most of the salt but snapped this picture real quick to remember how proud of himself he was that he had found something to play with by himself- you can see where he was running his fingers through the salt on the table.  
 

February 3 = Mum-Mum Day

Malia ate a mum-mum today!

December 19 = Nap on the Floor Day

Liam is on the go all the time.  Yes.  All toddlers like to move and are very often on the go.  However.  Liam.  Does.  Not.  Sit.  Still.  Ever.  Except for today.  He didn't get a nap in the middle of the day so he passed out around 6:30.  I tried to wake him up to move him to his crib but he did not appreciate it and went back to sleep.  He stayed here for about an hour and a half.

Then he moved his feet, just like he does in his crib every night, to get more comfortable.

 
 Then he woke up and realized the floor wasn't the most comfortable place in the room to be.

In the meantime, Malia decided to, instead of resting, work on sitting up in her rock 'n' play.  She's growing up so fast!

October 11 = Bumbo Seat Day

We tried out the Bumbo seat today!  She liked it a lot.... until she got tired.