Friday, October 30, 2009

Fall Fun, And Not So Fun



We have been enjoying the last few days of fall weather this week. Taking walks and going to the park. Rebecca loves to collect leaves. We have also been enjoying our fun Halloween treat bag from Aunt Sara! We made a foam candy corn, put fall stickers on paper, played with play-do, wore fun rings and tasted M&Ms :) Today we are looking forward to visiting Justin at work for a Halloween party. We'll see what Rebecca thinks of all the costumes and candy this year :) On the not so fun side, Rebecca seems to be teething again. Although all 4 of her molars are at least poking through, they still have a ways to go. Wed. night she was up a lot in the night. And Thurs. afternoon she hardly napped. Hopefully this round is short lived :P

Monday, October 26, 2009

Feed the Fish, Feed the Poor


We are approaching World Hunger Sunday. So we are filling our Peter Fish. Yesterday Rebecca helped Daddy fill it. She did a great job! We were so impressed with how easily she could get the coins in the little slot. She thought it was fun. And it's great to start teaching her at such a young age how important it is to help those in need.Rebecca is already becoming a "foodie." She enjoys reading the Food Network magazine while she eats. And she can pick out a good portion of the chefs! She points to them and says their names.Rebecca also had fun over the weekend visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Voogt. And she got creative with stickers :)

Thursday, October 22, 2009

18 Month Check Up

Rebecca turned 18m old on Saturday and had her check up yesterday. We feel very blessed to have such a smart, healthy little girl. Rebecca's check up went well...meaning she's healthy. In terms of dealing with the check up, not so well. At least we now know she has a very good memory. The moment we stepped into the room to get her undressed she started screaming and crying. She knew exactly where she was :P She clung to Mommy for dear life. Mary could hardly get her undressed. We managed to get her weighed and measured. Then with some distractions from toys she settled down. Until the doctor came in. And it started all over. After the exam was over she got settled again. Then the really bad part...the shots. Poor thing. Rebecca had 4 shots! It took a bit to get her settled and dressed after that. But we finally made it out. A couple of stickers at the check out helped :) And once we were in the car she was fine. Now we don't have to go back until she turns 2! And no more shots until about kindergarten!!!Rebecca is growing well. She weighs 24 lbs. 12 oz. (50-60%) and is 31 3/4 in. tall (50%). If the trend continues with her height she will be taller than Mommy :) The doctor was very impressed with her verbal skills. And says she is at a 2-3 year old level developmentally with that stuff. She is meeting or exceeding all of her milestones. The doctor was also impressed that she had such a mouth full of teeth :) We are happy the 2-year molars are poking through. And will be glad when they are done coming in. We don't need to take her to the dentist until she is 3. But Mary might bring her along to her next cleaning just so Rebecca can see what it's like at the dentist (it helps that our hygienist is a good friend...she'll let Rebecca check things out:).We are starting to work harder at self-feeding. Rebecca uses her spoon and fork once in a while. But she's got a ways to go. She does love to eat, though! Once in a while there will be something she doesn't like or isn't in the mood for. But in general she eats whatever you give her. And lately she's been eating a ton! Some days it seems like she spends half of her day in her high chair because she never stops eating :P Rebecca still loves avocado, broccoli and cauliflower. But she loves pretty much all veggies. She'll even say "veggies, mmmm" while she's eating :) She also loves beef! Especially if it is accompanied by ketchup :P "Ket-chup, beef." And she likes toast or tortillas (or anything really) with peanut butter. She calls it butter.
Rebecca is getting good at her alphabet. She can pretty much do the whole alphabet song by herself now. A few letters get slurred together. But other than that she does the whole thing! She does well with just saying the alphabet too. And she is starting to recognize her letters. She points out just about every "A" she sees :) She is really interested in looking at the words in books, on boxes, etc. now so she can pick out letters. Her vocabulary is limitless. The doctor asked how many words she knew. I almost laughed. You mean count them? I said infinite :) She repeats and understands everything we say. When I told the doctor she says sentences he seemed shocked. Rebecca is very good at communication. She is a little chatter box. Rebecca can also do a little simple spelling. She can say "e-g-g, egg."The music is always on in our house. From the moment she gets up Rebecca is asking for "mu-gek." She goes over to the CD player and tries to push the buttons herself. And she lets you know exactly what CD/songs she wants to hear too :) She has most of her CDs memorized. She knows what song is next before it starts. Rebecca LOVES Kindermusik. Every time we go away she thinks were on our way there. When we get to our destination she'll ask about sticks or shake or dance. She wishes we could go every day. She is known as the dancing girl in class. And she even has her own signature move. Rebecca is getting better at trying all different types of movement, like jump, squat, spin, stomp, march, tip-toe, rock. Maybe we'll have to put her in dance someday :)Rebecca also loves to go to MOPS and church. Anywhere that she gets to see other kids. She still doesn't interact with other kids a lot. But she loves to be around them and watch them. She just takes everything in. She's very contemplative :) Even one of the other KM moms yesterday noticed that. She commented how you could tell she was always thinking and watching.Rebecca is still our little mommy. She takes care of her dolls very well. And she loves to cook. Especially for Mommy. She makes Mommy ice cream all day ;) She knows it's my favorite :P I think it's Rebecca's favorite too. She asks for ice cream with chocolate all the time. She also enjoys helping Mommy in the kitchen with real cooking and baking.

Tomorrow we are going to a MOPS playdate at For the Kids Gymnastics. If Rebecca enjoys it we might sign her up for a class. She is really getting into climbing and tumbling right now. Grandpa and Grandma Voogt are also visiting tomorrow. And next week Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom might be here to watch Rebecca since Mary has jury duty. Lots of fun activities and visitors.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

All Together Now, Hip Hip Hooray!!!

After 2 long months all 4 of Rebecca's 2-year molars have broken through her gums!!! Mary finally got a good look yesterday. And she could see at least part of all of them. It will still be a while before they are completely through. But at least the worst is over. We were hopeful since Rebecca has all of a sudden been sleeping really well again. Instead of getting up in the night and being up at 5 am she's been sleeping soundly and not getting up until after 8! And that's with us waking her most days :P Yesterday Mary got her up just before 8:30. And she still takes a good nap in the afternoon too. We think she's playing catch up and that she's going through a growth spurt. She's sleeping a ton and eating a lot too. We are all very happy...it means more sleep for everyone :)
Rebecca has been a busy girl. She keeps us going. Check out all the latest pics and a new video in the albums. She has her 18m check up tomorrow. We'll update more after that.

Rebecca's first attempt at high heels.
Our future drummer rocking it out.

Enjoying the fall weather.

Reading to her doll.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Time for #3...

Rebecca must be getting taller. Now she's working on bookshelf #3 :P Her favorite books today seemed to be anything by C. S. Lewis :) Seeing as a bookcase that only has one shelf holding books isn't very useful, it may be time to move it. Where? I'm not sure. Maybe now we can put a buffet or hutch in the dining room instead :) Give Rebecca something else to try to get into. The CD/DVD case may be on it's way out for a bit too. She likes to browse the CDs :)

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Baby Jonah

Yesterday we made a trip to Grand Blanc to meet Rebecca's new cousin - Jonah Daniel Poirier. He was born on Oct. 6. Rebecca had been talking about baby Jonah all week. She was excited to see him and get to hold him. But she was a little more interested in playing with Anna...she has lots of fun stuff to play with in her bedroom :) We all enjoyed visiting the Poiriers and meeting our new nephew. He hardly made a peep the whole time we were there. What a sweetheart. After our stop there we went to see Grandpa and Grandma Holleboom, have dinner and visit. Grandma made a yummy dinner. Rebecca got to try jell-o for the first time. She especially liked the chicken. That's about all she wanted to eat :) Rebecca wasn't too sure about sitting next to Uncle Dan at the table. She made sure Mom was in reach at all times :P After dinner Uncle Kevin, Aunt Sara and Carson came over (with fresh donuts and cider:). We were excited to get to see them too. It's been a while. Rebecca and Carson still didn't really play together, but they did interact more than they have in the past. We had a fun time visiting with the whole family. Hopefully we'll see them again next month. There are lots of pics in the October album.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Teething

This is how Rebecca spends most of her day.
Poor girl. We are praying her molars are through soon. It's been about 2 months now. She could use some relief. And we wouldn't mind a little less slobber on everything ;)