Update!

Well my last few posts have all been older, catch up posts, so how about something current?!
Here is an update of my family and what's new with us (as of April 9th- TODAY!!) :)

Jayden

Jayden is about 10 1/2 months... I can't believe I almost have a 1 year old! Where did the time go?! Here are his 9 month stats... Height: 29.5 inches long (87%), Weight: 18.1 lbs (14%), Head: 17.7 inches (42%). He is just like his big sis- TALL and SKINNY! Since birth he has always been in between 76% and 91% for height. And His weight continues to go down... started at 49%, then 42%, then 35%, then 29%, and now 14%! I promise I feed him! :) Hopefully next time he won't be off the charts!

At 10 months... here is a little about Jayden and what he is doing:
-Crawling lots! He started crawling at just over 9 1/2 months. He had been scooting around forever, and he'd sit on his bum and pivot all the way around, but now he's officially mobile! Good and bad :) He can also climb stairs really good. The first time we ever saw him do it he crawled over to my parents staircase and climbed all the way to the top without any help (tho I was standing right behind him).
-Cruising! Jayden has always been a stander/walker, and has never been a big fan of long tummy time. So I actually thought he'd just go straight to walking and skip the crawling phase. He actually could cruise before he could crawl. He won't move too far, but he can take a few steps and definitely move around while holding onto the couch, ottoman or someone's legs. He's got great balance, and has been able to stand independently holding onto something or someone, since for sure 7 months old.
-Loves TAGS!!! Jayden is a lil thumb sucker and will suck anytime he gets ahold of any tag!! He has a little tag blanky, but pretty much any blanket, bib or burp cloth with a tag will be his blanky and he'll snuggle it and suck his thumb when he's tired or hungry. Loves to hold it and rub it between his fingers when he's nursing. So sweet! He is such a cuddly baby too, love it!
-Drinks from a straw!... He LOVES to drink out of straws, and will drink way more than he will from a sippy cup. He started drinking from a sippy cup independently (holding on to it and chugging it!) by 8 months old. But now that I'm weaning him, I can't get him to drink much milk from a cup, so we put a straw in his cup and then magically he wants it! Madison didn't catch on to drinking out of a straw til she was about 15 months, so I was very surprised when the first time we put a straw to his lips at 9 months he knew just what to do at! (Might have been the chocolate milk Papa had in his cup!) :)
-Has 7 teeth. Started teething at the early age of 3 months (uggh!), got his first tooth at 6 months, and now has 7 super cute teeth and a big cheesy grin!
-Some things he loves: baths, his toothbrush! (dread taking that away from him!), horses (must be his favorite animal because he flips out anytime he sees a picture of one, toy, stuffed animal etc and he'll go crazy and do the sign for it), my glasses (always tries to take them off to play with!), lately been so into balls! Loves to roll his whole basket of balls down the stairs and watch them one by one. Then just started saying ball really good a few days ago.... , Loves being outside and getting fresh air! Always happy outside!.... MUSIC! Jayden loves music! He's a little dancer, it's kind of funny. Anytime he hears any type of music he will start shakin his head and torso and start grooving! It's the best!.... Jayden also loves BOOKS! (Just like his sister! When he was younger he didn't care as much for them as Madison did as a baby, but the last few months he has been kind of obsessed! Especially before bedtime, sometimes a book is the only thing that will calm him down... but then he's also not so happy when we are done reading!) ... Loves to suck on his socks and take them off! (usually when in crib or carseat) he frequently has one soggy foot :)
-His first word was "mama" (of course! :) ) Then he can also say a few others words: moon ("moo"), bath, bubbles ("buh buh"), balloon, ball (baaw) ... A Lot of "B" words- which all kind of sound alike, but no doubt that he uses them for those objects. He's also said dad a few times and Papa (says it perfectly) :) ... So I guess that makes 8 words at 10 months...
-Lots of signing! Like Madison, we are also doing baby signs with Jayden, starting at just a few weeks old. He signed back for the first time when he was for sure 7 1/2 months (but possibly 6 1/2 months, kinda vague then). Now he has quite the vocabulary in signs, and will usually do them when he sees the object or when we ask him the sign. Here are the signs Jayden knows and most of them does often:
-Fan
-Light
- Nurse
-Dog
-Eat
-All done
-More
-Out
-Balloon
-Horse
-Plane
-Bunny
-Butterfly
-Tree
-Bib
-Fish
-Stars
-Moon
-Slide
-Sleep
-Ball
-Hurt
-Bib
-Flag
-Cereal
-Hat
-Love (so cute!)

That's 26 signs!! Yay Jayden! So nice to have him be able to "communicate" with us even though he can't say many words yet! I'm a big believer in signing; it's great! :)

Animal sounds he makes: Horse (which is the sign for horse as well), Lion (he growls so cute!), and duck ("gack gack"), cow ("mahh"), snake ("ssss")

-Jayden waves hi and bye really good! And gives kisses! If you say, "Jayden can I have kisses?" He will open his mouth and lean forward! So cute, love those slobbery, wet kisses!
-Jayden's at the dropping everything stage to see cause and effect. You are holding him, you hand him a toy, he drops it on the tile... over and over again! This is where patience comes in handy... :)
-Another one of those fun stages..."separation anxiety!" The last like two months he has been a mama's boy even more, and will let me know if I leave him! Depending on what he's playing with he can stay entertained for a bit, but if he can't see me for a few minutes, or he sees me walk away he will usually start whining and try to follow me! :) Luckily he doesn't have stranger anxiety (yet) though. He will happily go to pretty much anyone and be pretty social, smiley and cuddly.
-Jayden is pretty much weaned from nursing. I had to stop a little early to be done before we take a vacation end of May, so he is down to just one feeding a day now. He is not the greatest eater, nor was he the greatest nurser (just like his big sis!) so meal times are a bit exhausting, but hey he is a pretty good and content baby otherwise so I'm not complaining! He naps twice a day, only for about an hour each (also like his big sis! ha) so I don't have too much daytime freedom, but he is finally sleeping better at night after a long streak of on and off night awakenings. But Jayden is a little stud with such a fun personality! He's definitely not passive; I have 2 very active and animated kids and I love it! Now on to my sweet daughter...


Madison

• Potty trained! We put her in a "big girl" bed end of January, then started potty training end of February ( 32 months). She'd seemed ready for awhile but I kept putting it off because I didn't feel ready with another baby too. But finally we set a date and just did it. I had prepped myself for the worse but it was WAY easier than I expected. She had quite a few accidents the first day, then just a few the next 3 days and that was it! She was completely potty trained both day and night in just 4 days!! It was great. And she has not had a single accident (day or night) since! (been almost 2 months now) After the first 2 days I could tell she was going to be pretty independent about it. I don't even have to ask her or prompt her (except when we are going somewhere and I need her to go before)... she will just get up and go when she needs to and can do all the steps independently. it has definitely been a stress relief to have that done and to have it go so unexpectidly smooth! I am grateful! :) Good for her for picking it up so quick, guess she was really ready! Glad I waited.
• Starting Joyschool in the fall with about 6 other kids from our neighborhood. I'm excited! Can't believe I will have a kid in pre-school already.
• March 30th- Got her ears pierced! The brave little girl didn't even cry! Nick and I were so nervous and had bribed her with ice cream and a carousel ride after at the mall, but found out we didn't even need to. She just flinched and said "ouch" and that was it. Easy enough. She looks soo pretty with her little diamond studs. :)
• Well Maddie has been able to sing the whole alphabet song since she was at least 2o months old, but recently she started drawing some letters all on her own. I've never practiced with her or anything but out of nowhere she has drawn a few letters. She drew a perfect X on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk and since then likes to draw it frequently, or will make an 'X' with sticks, pretzels etc. Pretty clever. Then one day she drew a perfect C out of nowhere on the magna doodle and has drawn it a few times since on there or her drawing board.She can also draw a pretty good 'M' and 'O' (a circle- not that hard I guess :)
  
• Rhyming! Another thing I haven't specifically been teaching Maddie, but the other day she was being silly and was pretending to sled on my bed. Then she stopped and thought for a minute and said, "Hey! That rhymes, sled and bed!" I was very impressed! She has put together more rhyming words a few times since- "socks" and "crocs" and some others. Very smart!
• Spanish! Nick speaks Spanish and I wish I still did ;) but Maddie has learned some words and phrases from both Nick and Dora/Diego- her fav shows! She has a vocabulary of about 30ish words, including counting to 10 in spanish and singing 3 short Spanish songs. She frequently uses both english and spanish words for certain things, and it's funny that she'll naturally say both like it's second nature, no matter who she's with. Like she'll be playing outside with the neighbor kids and say, "Espera! Espera!" ("wait, wait!") and they're probably thinking, what are you talking about?! She also always says "Corre, corre!!" ("run") when she's running outside. It's pretty funny. One of my favorite phrases is "Al rescate amigos!" ("to the rescue my friend!") - From diego. She likes to pretend she's an animal rescuer like Diego. If something is wrong, like I can't find something or Jayden gets hurt etc, she will say, "It's ok mom, I can help you. I'm an animal rescuer!" haha And EVERY time she goes to bed she will say her little spanish phrases to us as we leave the room, "Buenos noches! Te amo! Calma!" ("Good night! I love you! Calm down!"- totally out of context but a random word she learned in one Diego episode that she just loves :) ) I love that she can speak some Spanish and enjoys it, it's quite entertaining to hear her little accent!
• Well this is kinda old but Madison used to come up with the most random, funny names for Jayden when he was first born. She did it for months and would actually rarely call him his right name. It's been a few months since she consistently called him her made up nick names, but since this is my "journal" i gotta write them down. Here are some that i remember... Jaydes, Jaybulee, Jay-prais, Jay- cakes, Chay-chase, Shaylee and Shay Shay (not even close to Jayden, don't know why she'd call him that but had to keep telling her to stop calling him that cuz he wasn't a girl! ha), Jorge (yes that's right, 'hor hay!' ahaha), Jason, goody guy (what? :) ) Well now that she actually calls her brother Jayden again, I kinda miss all these random silly names! hehe
  

Nick and I

• We started doing the Insanity workout program mid March. It's a 60 day high intensity exercise program and we're about half way through. It's very intense and kicks our butts every night, but it's nice to be doing it together to keep each other going! I still have pregnancy weight to lose so hopefully this is gonna get me back to my pre-Jayden self! I've started seeing results but still have a long way to go! It's fun and feels great to be getting in such great shape and getting stronger!
• Other than that we are just keepin busy with the kids, doing more house projects, and getting ready for a nice week long cruise next month!! Definitely need a vacation... can't wait!! :)