10 Months

Anna's last couple of weeks have been full of fun new tricks and surprises. She has two more teeth on the top, she kinda crawls AND the most notable change is her ability to say "Dada"! In fact, the first time she said it she looked straight at Peter and said "Hi Dada" clear as day and repeated it for two hours (probably because we were all going nuts! :)

Her "Hi", "Bye-Bye" and wave have all come together this month. Anna totally gets peek-a-boo. I throw a towel on her head (not recommended) and she pulls it off and on every time waiting for "Peek-a-Boo!". She also seems to know who Kate and Max are because we will ask where is _____? she will looks for _______ and then gives a big grin.

We have tried a few new foods this month including prunes, cucumber, bread, tofu, watermelon, grapes, broccoli :( and graham crackers.

She continues to roll everywhere with a little push off her toes, wall, or furniture to help her along a little. She has just started something that resembles a crawl/wiggle/worm that does move her forward. She loves it when we hold her in a standing position and she dances like crazy!

We started physical therapy this month because she was not sitting.  Fortunately, we have concluded that there is nothing physically or neurologically wrong; therefore, with a little extra work (Rx: play time with larger toys), we should be able to help her figure out this skill...  Thanks to sitting boot camp with Kate and Max, Anna was sitting in three days.

In the pool, she has started experimenting a little with dipping her head in the water. Our pool has a zero entry area for the kids and she will roll across the part with a couple inches of water and VERY carefully dips the top of her head in the water and lets the water roll down her face.

Paint + Bird Houses

= Two Seriously Focused Kids!

Bookworms

The kids were entertaining Anna while I folded laundry. When I went to check on them (b/c it was too quiet) I found them like this...

 Anna's got her nose right in this book!

Strawberry Shortcake

We got to celebrate Riley's 3rd Birthday with her at the Tumble Gym.  The kids had a BLAST!!! There was a perfect combination of free play and fun little games. Yelena used her creative magic to create a selection of sweet treats that were perfectly decorated to reflect the Strawberry Shortcake characters - a Strawberry cake, Strawberry Cupcakes, Lemon Meringue, and Blueberry Muffins.

Happy Birthday Riley!

Water!!!

The kids and I enjoyed a free movie, Happy Feet, at the theater.  After the movie we had a picnic by the water fountain.  The water fountain was probably the hit of the day!

New Favorite Family Park

We explored a different park this weekend - Kids Together Cary.  I am pretty sure it is our new favorite.  This park had three separate areas with tons of opportunity for running, jumping, climbing, sliding, hanging, crawling, pretending...  Oh my, it was pure fun for the entire family.

 

 

Max George Kranz - 3.5 Years Old

Max is so compassionate toward Anna and Kate.  It just melts my heart when I see and hear him do things like ask Kate what she wants to do or lets her choose where they are going to play or he kisses Anna randomly or makes silly noises just to get her to giggle.  It is all so genuine and sweet.


Max is very serious about all play time whether he is Kate's prince, fighting fires, building car washes, digging in the dirt, gymnastics, soccer or swimming - he plays hard and loves every minute.

In the pool he is fearless in the shallow areas but more reserved in the deep end.  He loves his goggles and is not afraid to hold his breath and dive for things on the bottom or jump in and touch the bottom. He pretends to be a scuba diver, shark or Buzz Light Year.

He has no shortage of words or explanations for anything.  He loves to explain things in great detail repeatedly, or sing a song over and over.

He would let us read to him the entire day if we had the time.  It is fun when he memorizes a story and chimes in or "reads" back-n-forth with us. He is constantly asking how to spell words or he spells words he sees and asks what it says - so fascinating.  Max loves his Leapfrog TAG reader - it starts and ends each day.

Catherine Sophia Kranz - 3.5 Years Old

Kate is quite a dynamic little girl full of charisma, passion, imagination and energy.  While her language, feelings, emotions and imagination can be complex she is pretty much focused on one of three things - her baby animals, being a princess or organizing stuff - often it is all three at once.

Kate has a spectacular spell over her Daddy. She even has a nickname for him - Peterbilt. Just a tilt of her head and a little smile gets all her requests granted - I love seeing this in action!

She plays so hard every waking moment.  Always begging me for five more minutes to play, organize, do her work, take care of her animals, have a party... in their playroom or the bonus room or the guest room...  I am thankful she likes her play spaces so much. She is just as excited to play outside, at the park, in the pool, at gymnastics and on the soccer field.

 She loves her brother and sister and is constantly looking out for them. She loves getting Anna's attention and entertaining her with silly songs and dances. Her and Max spend so much time together simply playing.  Kate declares the activity and Max does what he is told.  Kate does make sure Max is taken care of, following all directions and cheers him on.

Kate is always up for trying something new whether it be a book, game, activity, adventure, or food.  We love Kate's spirit and innovative ways of caring for her animals and playing with her siblings.

Barnyard Animals

We finished our last week of gymnastics camp today.  The theme this week was barnyard animals and the kids loved bringing a stuffed animal of their choice to do gymnastics with them. A few highlights included our neighbors being there, the pit, special projects (crafts), the trampoline, hide and find, the bars, story time, the rings and the final team cheer that ended each day. Every day when I picked up the kids Max would say, "I'm going to miss my best friends."