Life updates and Easter

Happy Easter!  We had a wonderful weekend with gorgeous weather, so we were able to spend some time outside, work in the yard, have an egg hunt, etc.  Katie (my sister) and her boyfriend Lorenzo were in town last week, and we spent a lot of time sightseeing around the area and even spent a couple days out at the ocean, which both of the kids loved.  

As most of you know, we are making a big life change and moving to Eugene, Oregon.  Mario has started his new job down there (Eugene is 4 hours south of us) and will be going back and forth throughout April and May.  In June, the kids and I will move (along with all of our household goods) down to Eugene and join Mario.  Our plan is to sell our house here in Tacoma and buy a house in Eugene, so we've been busy looking at houses and trying to get a feel for different areas and neighborhoods.  We are very excited about the move, even though we know the next couple months will be very full and busy.

Mathias will be 18 months at the end of this month and he is such a light and joy in our lives.  He's started talking and saying more words, including up, mama, dada, banana ("nana"), and bubbles.  He runs away from us, loves to play chase (if we are chasing him), and is always giving us huge grins and smiles.  He always wants to be involved in whatever is going on, always tries to play with Miriam, and recently has started to really love reading books.  It is the only time he'll stay still and sit quietly, but he'll sit with us for a good bit of time if we are reading to him!  He especially loves baby picture books where he can point to things he knows (mostly cat/dog/banana/etc.).  It is nice to be able to snuggle and enjoy some quiet time with him, and of course we love that he is showing a love of books and reading!

Miriam celebrated her 4th birthday almost a month ago and is also a joy in our lives.  She's going through a bit of an independent phase (she wants to do everything herself!) but luckily, she's pretty capable and independent, so we usually let her get herself ready, get food out of the fridge, etc.  We had her spring conference at preschool a couple weeks ago and her teacher reported that she can already "see the little teacher in Miriam."  Apparently, if two classmates are not taking turns/sharing, Miriam goes up to them and says something like "Ok...first you have a turn and then after, she can have a turn."  I had to laugh, because I'm sure she hears me say things like that to her and Mathias, and then she takes them to school and says them to her friends.  Her teacher also said that she's grown a lot this year with regards to interacting with peers and being social, which we were so happy to hear.  We are proud that she's made so much progress and we hope that will help her with the transition to a new preschool in the fall.

Here are some pictures from Miriam's "friend party" for her birthday, the beach, and Easter.

Miriam is 4 years old!

Our sweet, energetic, funny girl is 4 years old!  We've spent the last couple weeks asking each other "how did she get so big?"  She's a big girl (tall - see her stats later in this paragraph) and so grown up, having deep conversations with us and being so independent!  I was waiting until Miriam's doctor's appointment yesterday for her 4 year stats.  She is 42.5" tall (90th percentile) and 38 pounds (73rd percentile).

These days, Miriam's favorite activities are doing art projects, running around outside (literally - running...she loves to run in circles around our cul-de-sac), playing with her toys/stuffed animals, and playing anything with Mario...mainly some combination of doctor/dentist/school.  She goes to preschool 3 days a week this year and has grown so much through her experiences there; she interacts with her teachers and friends (she used to be shy and not talk to anyone!), has learned a lot about her preschool "themes" (healthy foods, winter, etc.) and is working on writing her letters and her name.

Miriam continues to work on a good balance of playtime with her brother.  She sometimes loves to play with him, but other times his "attention" (meaning, grabbing everything from her hands/knocking down what she's playing with) gets a bit tiring for her, and she escapes by taking her toys to her bedroom or doing art projects at our dining room table.

Miriam is in the "why?" and "how?" and "what?" stage right now, and has been for a while.  She's constantly talking and asking questions and although sometimes a bit of quiet is nice, we are very conscious to answer her questions seriously, since she really soaks in everything we say and remembers so much of it!

Miriam wanted to have a friend party this year for her birthday, so we are having that this coming weekend.  We also opened presents on various days with different family members, had a special breakfast and dinner for her...we called it her "birthday week," which was actually a misnomer...her birthday was last week and her party isn't until this weekend, so I guess we are still celebrating it!

We feel so lucky and blessed to have Miriam as our daughter.  She's funny, smart, curious, loving, sweet, sassy, and shares her sweet smiles and laughter with us every day.  She's a joy and light in our lives, this sweet 4 year old girl.

Without further ado, here are some recent pictures of Miriam.  She (and her brother) are constantly on the go, so we don't have many chances to take pictures these days, but we do have some from her birthday and the last few weeks.

Dr. Seuss day at preschool (outfit made by Grandma Jan)

Big sister, helping Mathias get his pants on

She wants chores now that she's 4, and she loves vacuuming! 

New matching PJs for her and her doll

Birthday treats for preschool

I'm 4!

Birthday cake for Miriam and her cousin Charlize...their birthdays are 11 days apart in March (although Charlize is 3 years older.)

Update on our sweet Boo!

This is a long overdue update on our sweet boy, who is almost 16 months old.  At his 15 month checkup, he was 32.5" tall (85th percentile) and 22 lbs, 11 oz. (25th percentile).  The doctor said "Well, he's not too skinny, but you'll definitely see a lot of toddlers chunkier than he is."  Ha!  He continues to be busy...running, climbing, jumping, digging in the dirt, riding his toys, etc.  He is finally feeling better and getting back to being his happy self; we've had quite the rough last month with him.  First he was teething his molars, which made him very cranky, and then he got really sick, poor boy.  And then when he was finally feeling better, he has been getting two more teeth.  Needless to say, we are more than happy to have our joyful, fun, sleeping-through-the-night little guy back!

Mathias has been starting to talk and communicate more and for words he can't completely say, he mimics a similar sound and makes up a motion to go along.  He says "aw" for hot, "ma" for more, "om om" for yummy (and he says it while rubbing his tummy!), and a couple more things.  He's recently discovered he loves putting my scarves on and off, he likes wearing oven mitts, he's started to show an interest in coloring, and he still loves to try anything that Miriam is doing.  Last weekend, we went to an indoor gym nearby where they set out trikes, balls, riding toys, and even a bounce house, and he LOVED it.  He just ran around and was riding and climbing and playing contentedly the whole time - it was interesting to see how much less shy he is than Miriam in those settings, especially comparing to when she was the same age.  I'm happy he had a lot of fun though, and we'll definitely be visiting that place again!

A couple weeks after we got back from Germany, Mathias had a medium-severe reaction to some peanut butter we fed him on toast.  He'd had peanut butter before (baked into things, mostly) so we didn't think that it may be an issue, but his reaction made us start to think otherwise.  We mentioned it to his doctor and he wanted some blood work done, since peanut allergies can be serious.  We got the blood work back and for now, Mathias has an epi pen for his peanut allergy because it seems fairly severe.  We are hoping he eventually grows out of it, but we'd rather be safe than sorry!

We don't have a ton of recent pictures because he's been so sick and cranky, but here are a few!