Milestones

This week has been busy.  Eme had her end of school party and celebration marking the end of preschool.  She has had a great experience at Benson and we will miss it terribly. Hopefully, Tyce will be able to attend Benson as well.  They had a swim party for their end of year party and a really cute singing program for the end of year celebration.

It was also warm enough this week to make the swimming pool fun.  Her stroke is coming along and I feel confident that she will be able to swim in the meets this year.

Tyce is doing great too.  He is a smiley, laughing little boy who pretty much only cries when he is hungry or tired.  He sleeps fairly well at night getting up only once. He has also started to grab things and put them in his mouth. I understand this is a developmental milestone, so we can check that one off the list.  Overall, he is just a joy to be around.

Too Cold

This week the theme has been cold.  Jeff, Eme, Taty, and I have had colds.  Yuck.  Thank goodness Tyce has thus far escaped the illness. 

Also, the pool opened last weekend and it is COLD.  Here is a picture of Eme at swim practice.  She swam twice and then decided it was too darn cold to swim.  Hopefully, she will be more interested in swimming when it warms up. 

I'll try to get some more and better quality pictures for next week's blog.  This is all I could manage this week.

Olympics Here We Come

We made it through the first week back to work with flying colors thanks to a lot of help.  We are very lucky to have a great family, wonderful neighbors and friends. 

Eme received her medal for participating in gymnastics for the whole year. She is really quite good and even though she did not try out for the specialty team, she has been asked to join the team. That would mean three hours of practice per week.  We are still trying to decide if she would be happiest doing gymnastics more or trying something else like soccer or girl scouts.  More to come on that one.  We also had a fun Muffins for Moms breakfast at Eme's school on Friday.  It's sad that this is her last month at Benson.  She has been going there since she was 18 months old, and we have had such great teachers and she has made some fantastic friends.

Eme also received her first love note from one of her classmates this past week.  Apparently the little boy was at home supposedly making birthday cards for his dad when he emerged from his room with this.  His mother said that he was quite adamant that he had to put it in Eme's cubby.  Too cute.

Tyce-a-roni is growing like a weed and is teasing us with the idea that he just might sleep through the night sometime soon.  He is really a pretty good sleeper, regularly sleeping 5+ hours at a time at night.  Not too bad for a three month old.

Daddy, Eme and Tyce-a-roni on the couch.

 Tyce all clean at 3 months.  Eme was probably closer to 6 months in the following picture.  Do you think they look alike? 

I should also say that I had a great Mother's Day.  It's fun to be a mom when you have two great kids.  It's the hardest, most rewarding job I've ever had.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho It's Back to Work We Go

Today was my first day back at work.  I figured that if I could make it out the door with all of our parts and pieces that we would be doing well and the day would go well.  We made it out the door with no issues at all (except for a catastrophic dropped resin dolphin we bought at the beach that shattered when it met the garage floor as we were headed out to the car.)  Otherwise, the plan was flawless.

Eme was a rock star.  She dressed herself, went potty and brushed her hair all before she even came downstairs to say good morning.  Tyce, who had been sleeping through the night, picked last night to wake up every hour, but then slept until 7:45 allowing Eme and me to get ready and have breakfast.

Mom survived her first day taking care of Tyce (Thanks Taty!)  Our neighbor delivered Eme from school to Taty's house.  I got to work and actually remembered what I did for a living and got a few things accomplished.  All in all a pretty good day.

Here are a couple of pictures for your enjoyment.

It's hard to get pictures of smiles due to the fact that you need to look right at him to get smiles and the camera sort of gets in the way of that.  Anyhow, here's a cute smile picture minus the red eye  ; )

Eme is constantly collecting things.  Bugs, rocks, seashells, etc.  Everything she collects has to have its own bucket, plastic container or bag. I can't tell you how many pebbles she currently has in plastic containers waiting for the "silipede eggs" to hatch.  Needless to say we will be waiting a while.

Springtime Photo Shoots

Eme and Tyce have both had good weeks and this week promises to be as busy with Eme's 5 year old check up and kindergarten orientation! 

Tyce grew out of his 0-3 month outfits and they have now been replaced with 3-6 month right on schedule.  His daily schedule goes a bit like this - wake, eat, smile/laugh for about 10 to 15 minutes, cry a little, fall asleep for an hour or so; repeat.

Eme's day is like this...Wake, hit the ground running wanting to play, have mom ask her what she wants to eat for breakfast 6,000 times, then mom asks her to get dressed 10,000 times, then we brush teeth, whine a little about brushing our hair, go to the potty and barely make it to school by 9 am.  Then she comes home at 1 has a playdate with one of the neighborhood girls or plays outside by herself making mud pies, soup, robber traps, etc. Around 6 she eats dinner, takes a bath, watches a show, reads up to 6 books and falls into bed. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I start back to work next week, so I will do my best to keep updating this blog.  Dad & Qing, if you are reading this I hope you are having fun in China.

Sweet notes written in soap crayon in our shower.

 
Look, I'm as talented as daddy and can put my whole fist in my mouth.  Tyce loves to kick around in the tub each night.

 Eme in the Crepe Myrtle out front.  We got some really fun shots on a Monday afternoon.

Silly shots too.

New Addition

On Feb 9 2012 Eme Kate's life changed forever with the addition of an awesome baby brother - Tyce.  So, from now on this blog will be about the adventures of Eme and Tyce.

Tyce Theodore is the newest member of the Monackey family. Now three months old, he and Eme are doing great. In fact, the whole family seems to be in the groove.

Eme has adjusted well to being a big sister although it has been tough since Tyce doesn't play the games she wants him to play and he was quite fussy for the first 10 weeks of his life. Then, all of a sudden he started smiling, cooing and laughing more than crying - thank goodness. Eme is a big help and is excited to teach Tyce everything she knows which is a lot. She is starting to learn to read at school and is excited about kindergarten. Her teachers all love her and have commented that if they had a room full of Eme's then they would be out of a job because she has mastered everything in the curriculum (except for the letter V. her teacher takes credit for teaching her the letter V.) Eme is a rock star at gymnastics and can do almost everything except a bridge (back bend). She is also exceptionally strong and can climb to the top of the rope attached to the ceiling. She has been asked to tryout for the specialty team, but she has opted to try soccer next year instead of committing to more gymnastics.

Tyce was 7 lbs 13 oz when he was born. Now, he weighs close to 12 lbs.  He is a very sweet baby despite the screaming episodes in his first 10 weeks . He intently watches your mouth when you speak or eat and tries to imitate with no sound. He is just now starting to reach for objects. His favorite place to be is car seat, which is good since we spend a lot of time toting Eme to and from school, gymnastics, etc. He also seems to really recognize his people and lights up when he sees Eme. We are all very excited about seeing him grow and develop.

Here are a few pictures, and I promise to try to update the blog each week.

Eme just before her very first sleep over birthday party at her friend McKenna's house.

Eme on Christmas morning.  She asked Santa to bring her a remote controlled robot.

Me on the day Tyce was born.

Nana and Gramps with new baby Tyce.

Tyce a few hours old.

Eme meeting her new brother.

Pawpaw with Tyce.

Eme and Tyce at the hospital.

Taty at the hospital with Tyce.

The PR babies.  Hayes, Tyce and Charlotte all lined up.  These three babies were all due the same week. 

Eme and Tyce in the backyard.

Tyce chilling on the couch.

Tyce started smiling at the end of his 6th week. It is so cool to see that there really is somebody in there!

Eme and Tyce.  Aren't they cute together!