Kierstead Family

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Corbin J.

11/18/2010

Pack Meeting

The skit...

Corbin on the left.

Corbin on the right sweeping.

Corbin in the middle.

Receiving his first award as a Cub Scout. He completed his requirements for his Bobcat in just one week but it took him two months to get it. (Our October Pack Meeting was at the corn maze so they didn't do awards that night.)

Corbin pinning my Bobcat pin on me. How cool, the mom gets a pin! :)

Squeezin'.

He's a Bobcat!! Now on to the Wolf...

I'm so proud of this kid. He LOVES scouts! It helps that he has a great leader, Sister Larsen.

Emma Girl

I love this girl. Her personality has grown so much since not having her binky. It's really surprised me how much she has changed. A few things about Emma...

Emma loves, LOVES SHREK.

She likes junk food - chips, candy, pop, gum...

She likes her hair done, super strange, but I don't complain.

Emma loves to play with her baby dolls.

She enjoys coloring and drawing.

Emma LOVES it when her Daddy grabs her by the ankles and swings her side to side. This used to terrify her but now she can't get enough of it.

Grove Girls

11/18/2010

We have the opportunity to have two of my GREAT nieces in our home during the week. It's so much fun having them here. I like to watch Emma interact and play with these girls. She is such a huge helper with Tessa and she can hold her own and play well with a three year old... She doesn't play with very many three year olds. It's fun and crazy thinking that Emma and Brooklyn will be in the same grade - NUTS!!

Corbin adores these girls (especially the baby that adores him back), Marley loves to help with Tessa but mostly play house with Brooklyn, and Emma goes where she's wanted and needed. It's so much fun to watch them play.

Colt and I adore these girls, too. We love to listen to Brooklyn's stories. Just the other day she SO excitedly told Uncle Colt "I'm getting roller blades!" Then of course Tessa loves him back, they've bonded already. Such a huge step from the first week when he didn't dare hold her. ;) His reasoning? Because when it's his baby it's OK if he makes it cry but when it's someone else's it's not good. Men. I think he was surprised to find out that he has a calming effect on Tessa. She has him wrapped around her finger.

Here are some pictures...

Tessa lookin cute, what she does best!

Emma, Tessa, Brooklyn

Tessa smiling at Corbin.

This picture makes me smile. Her face is all blurry because Corbin is movin her around. Obviously she doesn't mind.

She loves Corbin!

Thanks Britt for letting your girls be with us. We love them!

Monday, November 15, 2010

bye bye binky!!

We have a wonderful puppy who loves to chew binkies and I've decided that I'm done buying them. I made this threat a couple of months ago but me and Emma weren't ready.

This is the binky that she has been using for the last week or so. Gross, I know, but I was hoping she'd decide herself that it was nasty. No such luck.

Night One

On Saturday (Nov. 13) I decided it was time. The binky was nasty, she's getting older, I was tired of Tinker Bell chewing them up, and she was getting little scratches by her mouth (you can kind of see them in the pics below). That day I took the crappy sides of the binky and "scratched" Emma on the arm - not bad - just so she could see for herself that the binky was giving her owies. Then I showed herself in the mirror and pointed to the little red spots on her cheeks. She didn't like that they were there.

Emma didn't take a nap on Saturday, which helped her be extra tired that night. On our way home from Uncle Jon's she fell asleep which was a huge bonus. We got home and I took the two older kids inside and got them quiet and into bed while Colt went for a little extra ride with Emma. When he got home he put her into bed. Of course she started to cry.

I went in, after a minute, to lay by her. She was pointing to her shelf in her closet (where sometimes the binkies are kept). I told her that her binky was gone because Tink ate it. She settled down and fell asleep. She only woke up once that night and after I told her it was gone, again, she went back to sleep pretty well. Night one, success!

Day & Night Two

The one thing that I was nervous for was nap time. She cried in her room for quite a while but happy day, she eventually fell asleep on her own!! I was so proud of her.

As far as bed time goes... It took her an hour and a half before she fell asleep. I pretended to sleep by her for a few minutes but I snuck a peak and watched her sweet little eyes shut. I am so sad that my baby isn't such a baby anymore but I'm so proud of her. She didn't wake up once last night and - because she didn't fall asleep until 10:30 - she didn't wake up until almost 8:00.