February Pictures

My little kids are growing up so fast. It is finally getting easier these days. They can almost play together. They are definitely siblings, you can tell by looking at them, but in many ways they act a lot alike. Although they definitely have personalities unique to them. Take Bella for instance. She loves to eat, she used to be a great eater, she still loves to eat, but she doesn't seem to eat as much anymore because her stubborn independence gets in the way. She refuses any type of assistance. If you come at her with a spoon she starts flapping her arms in distress. She hasn't mastered the spoon yet either, so I've learned if it isn't finger food, don't bother, cause she wont let you feed her. She also has a tendency to cram her mouth completely full of food before she starts chewing and swallowing.

The other day I bought bowls that suction to the table in hopes to teach her how to eat with a spoon, but she was smarter than me cause she ate the spaghetti O's with her fingers, and then picked up the bowl and dumped it when she was done. So much for suction!
She makes such a mess when she eats, and then she puts her hands all over her face and hair. Look how sticky her hair is in this picture taken right after breakfast. Todd says we need to put a helmet on her when she eats, and it's best to strip her down first too, otherwise the whole outfit has to be dunked in shout before washing.
Tony always sits like this when he plays.
Bella is such a happy girl, just like her brother. They both also loved this toy, Tony still gets in it sometimes. Mostly whenever Bella is in it, he wants her to get out so he can get in.
Bella doesn't suck her thumb, I don't know why she is in the picture but it's so cute!
In case anyone was wondering, cribs are strong enough to hold adults too.
One day, I was busy doing something and Tony wanted my attention, so to distract him, I handed him the bag of trail mix and told him to pick out some M&M's. He quietly disappeared and I forgot about it until a few minutes later when I hear him in Bella's room (who was supposed to be napping). Oh and you can't see it in the picture, but Bella had chocolate all over her face, so he must have been feeding her M&M's too.
How could you be mad at this face though? He was only doing what I told him to do. And he was sharing with his sister!
His grandpa got him a new John Deere hat at a farm show... Looks like he will need to grow into it a bit.
They play together almost, more like side by side play.
They finally got too big to put in the kitchen sink. Bella started trying to stand up and it was getting to be to hard to contain them, so they now get to bathed like normal kids... in a tub.

They like to be in each others cribs together too.
And yes, Tony still has his pacifier, but only in the bed. It's a lot harder to get rid of than I thought. I'm just glad I took it away during the day early on before he could talk, I should have just gotten rid of it all together then. Oh well. Bella doesn't use one, so I only have to break one kid of the habit.
"Mom what happened to my cake???"

Katya was not happy when she found out that while she and her friends were busy playing at her birthday party, Tony spotted the cake, pulled up a chair and then demanded a fork. "Fork mama!" he yelled louder and louder and more persistently each time. Finally Rachael decided we could sneak a piece from the back that wouldn't show in the pictures when Katya blew out her candles.
Here he is getting his way.
Bella in the foam pit with me. Katya's birthday party was at a gymnastics gym.
Bella looking at herself in the mirror.
Monkey see, Monkey do.

Today I did something crazy. I woke up at 5:00 am to go to an early morning step class at the YMCA. With Bella's upcoming first birthday and me still having a few or more pregnancy pounds to lose (which I am determined to do before she turns one) drastic measures have to be taken. I am not a morning person, but on the bright side, I got home shortly after 7 and the whole house was still asleep. Ahh, some quality quiet time to myself. What to do... well I really should have cleaned out the fridge cause something in there stinks, but I could probably do that later with kids awake, computer time is much more difficult with awake kids. Plus it's my mom's birthday, and she loves it when we (my sisters and I) blog, and since I didn't get her birthday gift to her on time, this will might brighten her day. Happy Birthday Mom!