From Baby to Toddler

This weekend was kind of a big deal in our home!  Every time I looked at my babies, I just couldn't believe how big they were.  

Since Jake turned 10 months old, I decided it's time to introduce the sippy cup.  Here Jake is with his very first sippy cup.  He actually could not suck out of these but he sure did try.  I ended up giving him a hard plastic Playtex sippy.  He was able to drink from the cup, however they are designed for ages 12m+ and the flow was too fast so some of his milk ended up on his jammies.  I guess the search for a perfect sippy for Jake is now beginning.  My goal is to have him completely weaned off of a bottle by the end of the month (11 months old.)  Wish us luck!  Ryan was weaned completely off by the time he was 11.5 months.

After I wrote Jake's 10 month blog, I realized that I need to start letting him feed himself more often and start giving him table foods.  I need to get over my paranoia with table foods and just let him explore on his own.  I can't feed him baby food forever.  I usually feed him dinner in the Bumbo and sit on the floor with him and feed him.  I finally set up Ryan's booster seat at the table.  Okay, I guess Daddy did it.  I just watched.  Now, Jake get's to eat dinner from the high chair.

Here's Jakey exploring with eggs for the first time.  Most of the eggs ended up on the seat of the high chair and Ryan grabbed his little chair and scooted it over and stood on it to feed himself.

This is Ryan saying "cheeee."  This is his first dinner at the kitchen table.  He is such a big boy.  I put off the booster seat for too long.  It was a little bittersweet watching Ryan eat dinner across the table from me.  He can even climb into his chair by himself, and we have a high table.

When Ryan was around 9/10 months old he started pulling out all of his toys and books off of his book shelf.  Jake is more laid back and I was just thinking about how he hasn't started causing much trouble or messes yet.  & then what does he do?  He pulled out Ryan's little green basket and pulled out all the toys.  Here comes Trouble!

My babies eating snack together, I couldn't stop staring at them while they were sitting next to each other trying to steal the other ones snack.  When did they get so big?!!

Today was so much fun at work!  We called it "President's Day."  Each of the kids were assigned a president to research.  We started our day writing a mini reports about their assigned president. They then shared their research projects.  Most kids turned in a poster and a few of them turned in boxes with objects they had to talk about.  While the projects were being presented, the kids had a list of the presidents and they had to write one interesting fact they learned about each of the presidents.

When reports were shared, we read a Scholastic News telling us a few things about each of the  presidential candidates and how the voting process works.  We then read "Duck For President."  The kids wrote in their writing journals about what they would do if they were elected president.  As they were writing in their journals, I called each person up to our "Polling Place" so they could fill out a "ballot."  (A desk with two file folders on it, with 26 pieces of paper with each of the candidates' names.)  After they filled out their ballots they folded them and put them into an empty tissue box and picked out a sticker.  :)  They are so cute.  I love being able to share history with my kids at work.

Their optional homework is to fill our a chart of the US showing the electoral votes and coloring each state either red or blue.

&& Tim & the babies stopped by momma's work to give hugs!

Happy Election Day!