Bo's official first day of pre-school

Here is a picture from last week when we were there and the teacher said it was time to go outside. You can see that Bo was very excited

This past Tuesday was Bo's official first day of pre-school. "Bo goes to school, all by himself." as he likes to say. "No Daddy, No Mommy, and No Emmy" Needless to say he was very excited. I'm not sure he realized that we really weren't going to stay with him. We all went with him to drop him off. He was very proud to wear his backpack like Dora and couldn't run fast enough inside the building, down the steps and to his classroom. I don't think he even looked back twice to see if we were following him. We said good bye but not sure he heard us because he was too busy playing in the room with the other kids.

Here is Bo wearing his Manchester United uniform that Daddy bought him so he could match his school.

Here is Bo running down the hall to his classroom with his backpack on.

He was very excited to finally make it into the room with Will there.

Here is his little nook where he hangs his backpack.

From what we were told, he had a great day except after about the first 10mins he realized we weren't there. He apparently started crying so good thing Will was there to comfort him. I think he got over that fast and was off to playing.

Only Mommy and Emmy were there to pick him up so I was told he was very sad because Daddy didn't come too to pick him up. However, they called me at work and he was very excited to tell me about it. He said "teacher said I could bang on the drums". "only babies cry" so we aren't sure if he really heard that one at school or not.

He went again on Thursday and think he had a much better day. No crying or any incidents of notice. The teachers always tell Mommy that he had a great day. All in all, he loves school and asks every day if he can go. I think all the Moms have already organized a lunch play date after the next class.


Here is a picture of the kids after Daddy went to work in the morning. They both either didn't want me to go or wanted to go with me. Bo always asked whenever I take a shower or get dressed, "daddy go to work?"

Here are 2 pictures of Miss Emily very happy as usual.

Bo's First Rams Game

Thanks to Pa-Pa, Bo was able to attend his first Rams game this past weekend. On the way down to the dome, he kept saying he was going to the baseball game. He did hear them mention Rams on the radio and then said "rams, touchdown." We saw the arch, "big" river, school buses, bridges, and a cho-cho just in the car down there so it was a big night already.

Since it was a pre-season game, the dome was more than half empty and there was plenty of empty seats around this. We probably only sat in our seats for about 10-15mins. Enough time, to eat a pretzel, nachos or chips as he called them, and a sody (wonder where he gets that Mommy). We spent most of the time out in the halls running all the way around the dome, watching the TV of the game, and jumping on couches. He had a blast. We left at halftime b/c he was wiped out. I think he was sleeping before we were even on the highway.

Here is Pa-Pa showing Bo how to check out the cheerleaders or "papa's girlfriends."

Here is a picture of my photogenic Emmy. She was just going about her business eating some food until she saw the camera. She had to make sure we got her good side.

Emmy's 9 months & walking plus Bo's starting pre-school

Emmy had her nine month check-up this week. She is 28.5 inches tall which puts her in the 75 percentile. She weighed 16lb 7oz which was the 10 percentile so we have a tall skinny future model on our hands. The doc says she needs to fatten up a little. She still does not have her first tooth yet which is odd because it seemed like Bo had all his teeth by this age.
The doc asked if she could do the pincer motion with her fingers and she isn't quite there yet but close. She still tends to scoop and shove in her mouth still. She really isn't saying words consistently yet but we've definitely heard Da-Da and Mom-ma. We also think she may have said Bo once or twice and believe she is saying Mmmmore, mmmore now when she is eating something she likes and wants more.
She does a few hand motions like "raising the roof" with one arm when dance music comes on.

She is moving around really well and has taken a few steps on her own. She doesn't stop very gracefully but is practicing every day. She likes to go from a squat to standing up. She just stands there talking/babbling and looking around. She'll hold that for a good 10-20 seconds. She is very proud of her self. She walks really well when I hold her hands (one or two). She'll just keep going with that trademark grin.

We also went to the allergy specialist on Friday. They went through her whole history. She definitely has eczema. No one is really sure what causes it except it is genetics. Young people with eczema tend to develop food allergies so we are to be very careful especially at this young age. The doctor said there is a thing called the "Allergic March" that we read about. Given all of this, they ran a skin pricking test on her back. They have 6 things on it, one is just water (negative control) and one is a histamine (positive control) so you can see what they should look like. The other four were milk, eggs, peanuts, and fish mixture. She was definitely positive for eggs and fish. The peanuts was undetermined but the doctor warned us to be very careful of peanuts because they usually don't show up until 10-14 months. With all the stories in the news lately, these can be very serious.

Given her history and other allergies, we are playing it safe and keeping all peanuts, peanut butter, etc. out of the house and from Emmy for the next 6 months.
The good news is she didn't show positive for Milk. The bad news is eggs. There are a lot of things made with eggs that you wouldn't think about. For the time being, we are still going to take it slow with introducing new stuff. Give every new food about 3-4 days to make sure nothing happens. Our first thing was to switch her back to regular formula. Hopefully this works because it is about half the price of the nutramagin, so far so good.

She is still young so we are being careful. They did give us a prescription for an EpiPin to carry with us just in case. We will take her back in 9-12 months to see if anything has changed. She is still the happiest princess baby you could ever meet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFqJM09KKDU

The other news this week was Bo's preschool is starting at Circle of Friends at Manchester United Methodist Church. On Wednesday night, Mommy and Daddy went to parent's night, met the teachers, and learned all about everything. Then Thursday morning, we took Bo to his first day. Since he is so young in the 2yr old class they allow the parents to attend the first time. This coming week he will go "all by himself" as he likes to say. He will go two times a week every Tuesday and Thursday. I'm not sure he realizes what he has in store but we are very confident that he is going to love it. Whenever we mention it, he always asks if "Daddy going too?" and when you say no then he asks "Mommy going too?". When you say no to that, he looks very confused. His cousin Will is in his class so that should help. When we brought him, he didn't even care if we were there or not. Playing with all the toys, puzzles, blocks, painting, music class, and going outside which are all his favorite things.

Chocolate Ice Cream and Popsicles

The past couple weeks Emmy has discovered a new treat, Popsicles. She just loves them. Of course, they are a special kind for our princess. We go to the allergy specialist on Thursday so hopefully we have some good news. Sometimes she holds on to it too long and freezes her hand. It is kinda funny because she just hasn't quite figured out to let it go. I think she is afraid she'll lose it.

Bo on the other hand likes the chocolate ones. As you can see he has to eat them outside because of the mess.

Emily discovered that if she followed him around (and yes Bo keeps running from her because he thinks she is going to eat his popsicle which she would) she can lick the side of the slide and play house.

Here is the video of the aftermath
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBtxyhJSfm4


Another game they discovered in the house is building a fort. Bo will take all the cushions and pillows off the couch and then build a fort. Emmy loves this because then she can reach the couch to climb on it. She goes up and down and over. She is real daredevil with her climbing.

Lately, Bo has been fascinated with digging in the back yard. This usually entails getting out all the beach toys and messing with the mulch or "mud" as he calls it. Since the boys had some free time Sunday afternoon, we went up to the park where they have sand volley ball courts. He was thrilled to have the "big sand box" to dig in.

potty training update & Emmy standing up

Well, potty training has been going much better than anticipated. He has really not had many accidents at all. This includes going out in public numerous times. He only runs to the bathroom on his own about half the time while the other half I think he only goes because Mommy or Daddy kindly remind him. He loves wearing his big boy pants.

Last Monday, Mommy hung up a Elmo sticker calendar so instead of getting a treat every time, he put a sticker on the board. Then after 10 stickers, we would take him to Chuckie Cheese Pizza. Well, he didn't quite understand the concept of waiting so he thought he was going to Chuckie Cheese after the first sticker. It was very hard to convince him otherwise. Since Daddy had to work late Monday, we promised him that we would go Tuesday night. He was so excited from bed time until we actually waited, he must have asked us a 100 times. He even said, "Bo so excited, Chuckie Cheeses"
Here he is playing Emmy in the water gun game

Then playing Pop-a-Shot. Daddy lifted him up on the machine so he could reach. We were calling it a basket if he made it over the cage where the actual basket was

He is still having a little trouble with going poo-poo. I'm not sure he can tell when he has to go or not. He still confuses that feeling with a hunger pain. He has had a couple accidents with pooping because he didn't recognize it was coming until it was coming so we partially make it to the toiler...not fun but we still try to encourage him. One time, he even told Mommy with a very confused look, "Bo go potty out his butt??".
At this point, I would consider him potty trained but Mommy & Daddy still keep a close eye on him and remind him all the time if he has to go to tell us.

Emmy is just everywhere with her crawling and about 2 weeks ago she started to try to stand up without holding on to anything. Every day she is getting better and better with her balance. Just this morning she even attempted to take a couple of steps. Here is our little daredevil climbing on Bo's Buzz bike

Here is also a video of her climbing around and walking behind the cart. As you can tell, she is very proud of herself and loves it when you praise her. She also loves when Daddy lies on the floor so she can use him as a climbing & standing prop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3EExyLYUyI


Here is another picture and video of a game that Bo likes to play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pf-mPE3YAw&NR=1