I'm a big boy now!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and you are all safe and healthy! We had a great Christmas despite the fact that Benjamin wants nothing to do with Santa! Every time we mentioned his name, he would say, "Santa leave now!" and "No Santa either!" He didn't even want Santa to bring presents! We celebrated Christmas Eve at Bum Bum's this year and for the first 15 minutes of the gift opening, Ben refused to come out of the bedroom to join us. I even brought him a present to open and at first, he wanted nothing to do with it. I opened it for him and showed him what a present is and two minutes later, he joined us for..."more presents, Mommy, more!" He was very impressed with the concept and I was happy that he finally had some new toys to play with!

It's been an exciting couple weeks around the Nehmer household. Emma started sitting up on her own over a month ago and about 2 weeks ago, she just started rolling all over the house, no one can stop her now! Emma's bottom two teeth are also now poking through. And Mr. Benjamin has finally started potty training!! We are almost 2 weeks in and he goes #1 potty at least once a day before or after bed and naps and has gone #2 a couple of times too. I don't push it but I am just getting him familiar with it until he really starts recognizing when he wants/needs to go. I have also started teaching him how to undress himself so he can start to go to the bathroom on his own. He is very proud of what he can do! We are doing all kinds of growing up around here!

Well, our little guy is now a big 3 years old as of January 5th!! We had a small pizza party to celebrate with a Thomas the Train cake and he was so excited to sing Happy Birthday louder than anyone! He has finally gotten the concept of opening presents but now he wants to open presents every day! He is growing so fast and I am sad to say that I think it might be about time to look into pre-school for next year. I don't know if we can afford it but I will see what we can find. He had his 3 year doctor appointment three weeks ago and when the nurse came in and sat down, Ben said proudly, "I'm a big boy now!" He is such my little sweetheart! He did so good at the appointment. As the doctor was asking me questions about where he is at and where he should be, I was able to top everything she said he should be doing in the future and every time I spoke about him, he had a huge grin on his face. She said that by 4 he should be able to count to 5 and I told her that he has been able to count to 15 for about 6 months now. She said by 4 he should know all or most of the alphabet, I said that he has been able to sing the alphabet for a couple months now. She said that he should start to learn his colors by 4, I said that he already knows the colors of the rainbow and can name them and associate them. He was grinning from ear to ear! And as he got his shot, he didn't even flinch and he proudly showed off his Buzz Lightyear bandaid to daddy when he got home!

Ben has discovered "being scared" lately. a couple months back, he started to say that there was a monster in certain parts of the house, typically the back hall and the back of the dining room. I am assuming it is because those are some of the darkest parts of the house. He still runs to me here and there after walking by or being in those areas and says that he is scared. He is also mentioning to us when he is scared of an object so I really think he is just discovering this new emotion and testing it out. I am glad that he has not been "scared" at bedtime yet because I am not prepared to deal with handling that quite yet.

Little Emma is now 8 1/2 months old! I cannot believe that in just over 3 months, she will be a year old already. She is so sweet but I have to say, she is not as smiley as my Benjamin was as a baby. She does smile alot but Ben used to smile at everything, even a lamp, and still does. Emma is a bit more serious and inspects and explores everything with her eyes and hands. She is very verbal, independent, doesn't like me in her face as much as Ben did, and she does not sit still for a second! Now that she can roll around, she does not like to be held for long. After we sit her on the floor to play with her toys, she pretty quickly "falls" backwards so she can be on her way to navigating. And since she puts everything in her mouth (which Ben never did), we have to really watch all the toddler toys laying around! Emma's favorite things to do are to clap her hands and say, "yay" in baby talk, pet the cat and grab his tail, and pet the dog to whom she whispers, "daw daw" whenever the dog walks past. Emma also loves to watch her brother and herself on home movies on TV and clap at them as much as she can. She also loves to snuggle and be held.

I am proud to say that I am still breastfeeding Emma 4 times a day! With Ben, at 6 months he was down to two feeds a day plus bottles. At exactly 6 months, he refused his morning breastfeed. I pumped the rest of the day. At 9 months with Ben, he then refused his bedtime breastfeed. At that point, the doctor had told me to give him formula but I was so close to being able to give him cow's milk. I was able to increase my milk and pump for another 5 months! This time around, since I am not planning on leaving the kids with daycare like I was planning with Ben, I was able to keep her breastfeeding going and skip the bottle altogether. Since Ben is 3 and still taking his bottle so he gets his milk, I want to avoid that with Emma. We are only giving her milk either from me or in a sippy cup. She doesn't mind it but probably takes less from a sippy than she would from a bottle. I am glad she still likes to breastfeed for most of the day. She has cut out one feed after her second nap which she then gets a sippy. I hate the fact that I feel like I am not producing enough milk for her to get full feeds but she doesn't seem to mind and still eats about every two hours.

We have also been very lucky with two very good sleepers still! Thank goodness! Emma goes down around 7pm and doesn't get up until about 7 or 7:30am. At this point, she takes 2-3 naps a day and still sleeps 12 hours at night. Ben goes down between 7:30 and 8 and doesn't wake up until 7:30 or 8:30am. He also takes about a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. I hope the nap god's continue to shine on us for a very long time!

Emma was baptized yesterday at St. Mary's Lutheran church in Kenosha, the same place Jared and I were both baptized and married. It was a very small gathering and the kids did pretty well in church even though Emma started eating the baptism pamphlet while we were up at the alter. I had to dig my finger into her mouth and pull the corner of paper out while we were up in front of the whole congregation!

Well, I am sure you would love for me to go on and on...but, I'll save it for next post! Be sure to scroll down as I have put in a couple smaller posts since November. Thanks for checking in! Stay warm!


Pushing Ulises Gonzalez around in the Big Red Car!


Our buddy Aiden Witt borrowing some toys.


Can you tell who decorated the Christmas tree?? Check out the ornaments.

Peek-a-boo! We see you!

Emma and our new friend Parke Fisher. What a cutie!

Feeling pretty in my Christmas dress!

Merry Christmas 2010!

Our handsome boy!

Showing off my new hat!

Playing with baby sister.

I will never tell my true age!

Okay...7 months old on December 11th.

Jammin on my new guitar!

Opening my first Christmas present!

Nothing like powdered doughnuts!

Beautiful cousin Alaina and Emma!

Thanks Nana Rosemary for the awesome walk on piano!

Playing with baby sister's new microwave.

Playing and clapping, clapping and playing...

Our first snowman with a carrot nose and cookie eyes!!

All dolled up in our winter gear for the first time ever! He finally wore it!

So talented! Playing big brother's bongos and my piano at the same time!

Yay! Ben's 3rd birthday pizza party!! Dig in!

The girls wearing our party hats!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR BENJAMIN.....

.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Puttin on a show for all my fans!

Enjoying big brother's concert.

Ben's 3rd birthday party guest list...

Santa's little elves!

Emma's loves hanging out with cousin Alaina!

Nothing like a little drum solo in the morning.

On the potty with a good magazine.


Emma 8 months January 11th



Cheerios in my fists!!



Click on the picture to watch Emma "talking"




Click on this picture to hear Ben's PU song!

Click on the picture to see Ben jam to some music.

6 month check up

Emma had her 6 month check up today. She is still off the charts in her height and weight measurements. She weighs 20 lbs 6 ozs. and her height is at 28 1/4 inches. She did ok with her shots but was actually more upset about having to drink one of the medicines. She is terrible at forced drinking with medicines, always has been. Thank goodness I don't have to do it often. We did find out that she somehow got ringworm on her right collarbone. It doesn't bother her and Ben doesn't have it and I have NO idea how she got it but I am sure it is sticking around because it's in an area where she spits up and drools and it stays wet all the time. I was told to put Lotrimin AF on it for 4-6 weeks and I thought it was funny because when I purchased it, the reciept labeled it as jock itch!
Anyway, my big baby wears 9 and 12 month clothes already and at 6 months is already wearing #4 diapers! Ben is almost 3 years old and wears #5 diapers! No wonder she sleeps so much, she just keeps on growing!

All bundled up for a walk!

My little curly Q!


The family pyramid.

Kisses for sister.

Thanks for the kiss, now give me my toy back please!

Spooky!

Practice.

6 months! Yay!!

pottytime

I love when I sit down to go to the bathroom and Ben comes in, hands me a magazine and says, "here ya go mama!"
Priceless.

Where Oh Where Have the Nehmer's Been??

Forgive me friends for I have slacked. It has been 3 months since my last update!
I guess I have just been too busy, too tired, and a bit too lazy! I have been enjoying watching the relationship between Ben and Emma flourish these past few months. Ben has become my right hand man!
So much going on since August 2nd of my last update. Where do I begin? Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When we read we begin with A B C, when we sing we begin with Do Re Mi (do re mi) the first three notes just happen to be... Do Re Mi... Sorry, I just had to do it....
Let's start with Emma. As of my last update, it was the first night I had put her in her crib for the night. I laid her down that night while I put Ben to bed and she fell asleep. She didn't wake up for about 5 hours. This was 8 days shy of her turning 3 months old. I was initially going to start putting her in her crib at 3 months but as of that night I figured, why wait? So for about 10 days, she would go down around 9:30 and not wake up until about 4am. Then I would feed her and lay her right back down and she would sleep for about another 3-4 hours. 9 days later, she started to sleep through the night and has ever since. Now she goes down around 8 or 8:30 and doesn't wake up until about 7am! Not too shabby to have a 3 month old sleeping about 11 hours straight every night. She also sleeps most of the first half of the day alternating between long and short naps and feedings with a little play time with big brother! My kids are such good sleepers!
I am still adjusting to sleeping in a bed rather than the couch. I will say that my body feels so much better after this 2nd c-section than after the first. It's almost as if the 2nd one reversed all of the problems I had after the first one. I had numb butt for almost 2 1/2 years and now it's gone! It really proves what a terrible spinal I got with Ben!
Well, now at almost 6 months old, Emma loves to smile, giggle, watch her brother, talk to daddy, put EVERYTHING in her mouth, screech and squeal when not getting attention (thata girl!), sit up assisted and play, roll to her side, and suck her thumb! Yep, I said it, she is an Emma suck-a-thumb, taking after her momma, a former Jeni suck-a-thumb. Daddy was a thumb sucker too! So, after Ben being a Nuk kid, it's kind of a relief to not have to wash and stick that Nuk in her mouth every 30 seconds but I wonder how long she will suck her thumb for. It took me at least 5 years and a lot of threats from my mother to quit. I don't know how many times I was told that my mom was going to put this terrible tasting mediciny stuff on my thumb to make me quit! It's so nice to have a self-pacifying child. That means no pictures with a goofy Nuk in the mouth for this child. I couldn't stand that with Ben, every picture his Nuk covered up his beautiful smile! Emma is still growing fast and is still off the charts in height and weight. She is now wearing mostly 9 month clothes and some 12 month. I am constantly going through her closet and trying things on her one last time before packing it up for being too small. So sad to see such beautiful clothes only being worn once!
It's funny to see the differences between Ben and Emma during babyhood. Emma will put anything possible in her mouth whereas Ben never put anything really in his mouth but his Nuk. We never had to worry about the small things laying around because he never attempted to mouth them. Emma is very verbal and Ben was always pretty laid back. She screeches so loud and piercing that the dog has to run out of the room and Ben ends up looking at me with his head cocked and one eyebrow raised. I swear that either my eardrum or my eyeballs are going to pop at any second! Also, I used to have to nurse Ben for like an hour at a time because he would constantly fall asleep after a few minutes of nursing and Emma doesn't fall asleep until she is totally done (I love that, it's so much quicker!). Ben took to eating cereal like an old pro and Emma is taking her sweet time figuring it out. I always thought that we were going to be too spoiled by how easy Ben was and I was right. Emma is much more high maintainance but she is still a fairly easy baby. She is very independent but loves alot of attention (hmm, sound familiar?). Another difference is that Ben always has and still loves to be face to face with mommy. He is still very touchy with me in that way. Emma on the other hand kind of pulls away if I touch her face with my face too much...like I said, independent!
Emma is now discovering her fingers and their movement. I love to watch her wave at herself with her little chubby fingers in front of her face as she contently follows the movement with her eyes and her mouth is open with intensity. She loves when mommy sniffs her feet and tummy and when I tickle her armpits and sides. Sometimes she just starts cracking up when I am changing her and not even touching her! She just has such a good sense of humor! She is a good eater, sometimes too good, and I can breastfeed her anywhere to keep her content. The other day, I breastfed her standing up and holding her in the International House of Pancakes bathroom stall. I have become a pro at feeding on the go! We also started giving her cereal a couple weeks ago. She loves to eat! I can't give it to her fast enough and I am anticipating giving her veggies and fruits when she turns 6 months. She watches us so intently when we eat as she licks her lips and gawks with her mouth open!
She just started rolling over on to her stomach about 2 weeks ago. Both my kids have been late rollers, crawlers, and walkers and I am fine with her being a little less mobile for a little longer! The difference this time is that she has a big brother that she wants to try to keep up with!
Emma's happiest moments are when her brother is around. Did you ever hear the saying that you choose your parents and your brothers and sisters before you are born? I believe it. Emma's face lights up the second she lays her eyes on Ben. She giggles at him for no reason and she will not take her eyes off of him. It's as if Brad Pitt just walked into the room! The other day we were all going upstairs and Ben walked up in front of us and she watched him and giggled the entire way. All he was doing was walking up the stairs! If he comes any where near her, she reaches out her arms and hands and wants so badly to touch him. She wraps her fingers around his face and head or grabs his clothes if that's the closest thing to her, whatever she can do to be in contact with him. He always giggles because it tickles, which makes her giggle and touch him more. It's quite the giggle fest! They are either going to be the best of friends or teasing siblings (picture the older brother who points his finger one inch from her body as she says, "Mooommmm, Ben's touching me," and he says honestly, "I'm not touching her!" because technically he's not...just teasing!
Benjamin has gone through quite a few changes in the past few months. He started with his baby sister being extremely jealous. He is now only moderately jealous with a bit of interest and intrigue. He is still very concerned when, "baby sister cry" as he puts it. I just ask him to go talk to her and he slowly kneels down in front of her within inches of her face and says, "baby sister" and starts talking softly to her, showing her things and trying to get her attention. He can be so sweet with her...when she is no threat with mommy and daddy. He does like to give her big hugs now and he likes it when "she" chases him around to tickle him.
Ben has really become mommy's little angel again...for the most part. His language has really taken off, he loves to talk. Sometimes I have to ask him to STOP! He repeats almost everything we say to him over and over until we say, "Yes, Benjamin," and he replies with, "Yes, Momma." He has become very polite, in his own way. He will pretend to burp and say, "Scuse me." Or if he walks past you he will say, "Scuse me momma." And if you give him something, he covers both sides of the manners by saying, "Thank you welcome Momma." Although his speech definitely needs a little tune up, his language has become much more recognizable by others. I pretty much always know what he's saying because I am with him all day. Some of his sayings crack me up though and I much prefer his version to the real version. He loves to hold a candle up in front of him and sing Happy Birthday, or as his version goes, "Happy Tursday to you...". Ben can already count to 13 and then he goes right to 17 and he is very good with color relations and matching. He knows names of colors and recognizes that a red apple is the same as a red shirt but sometimes forgets that that color is called red. He can group things of the same color together and actually prefers things that look the same to be together. We recently purchased a Wiggles Memory Matching Card game and he sits and studies the pictures over and over. He can put the two matching pictures together but doesn't get the memory game part of it yet. If you are familiar with The Wiggles at all, you know that there are four main guys and each of them wears a different colored shirt. Since Ben is such a Wiggles extremist right now, he associates everything with the Wiggles and their shirt colors. If he sees anything red, he says, "that's Murray" because Murray wears the red shirt. Or if he sees something purple, he says, "that's Jeff" because Jeff wears the purple shirt. He does that for EVERYTHING! Everything in our house is named after a character based off of it's color! He also likes to line things up in a row like lining the cards up (all facing the same direction) across the living room. He will line puzzle pieces all in a row along with other toys too and everything has to be in a straight line. He is still so OCD!! He is very good at puzzles too and is fairly patient to keep trying until he gets it right.
Benjamin did real Trick or Treating for the first time this year and he was a pro at it! Although he refused to wear his costume, he was so enchanted by all of the costume wearing kids around him. His favorite was a boy dressed up as a grandfather clock! We passed him a couple times around the neighborhood and he had to stop and watch him until he was out of site and then he looked for him the rest of the day. What is it with little kids and clocks?? After the very first house that cousin's Charlie and Alaina went up to and he just kept walking, I had to show him the ropes by taking his hand, following his cousins up to the door, telling him to say Trick or Treat (which sounded more like "tricker drink!) and to say Thank You to everyone. I thought for sure he would yell no and run away but he went house after house running up to the door. I would tell him to say Trick or Treat and then say Thank You and he continued to say it each time. I was amazed that he didn't give up after awhile. He just kept going with his nose running and licking the snot off his face, his hands and cheeks were cold and he kept going! Now I have a nice little mommy stash of candy!
We have been trying to keep the busy boy occupied. We have filled our last few months with trips to Monkey Joe's so he can bounce and go down slides with daddy, a trip to Grandma and Grandpa Nehmer's up north (he still talks about that trip daily!), an afternoon at Great America, and lots of trips to Grandma Karin's to run around and play with the dogs. We have had a couple visits with our friend Payton Mansukhani (Kathie Kopitzke's son) who has become Ben's best friend in only 2 short play dates. Payton lives in California but that hasn't stopped Ben from talking about him constantly! I had to print some pictures of him playing with Payton just to satisfy his longing to be with him. It just seems surreal that Kathie and I have known eachother since we were newborns and now our little boys are playing together! What a special blessing.
So we took a chance and brought Ben to Great America back in August to see how he would handle it. We were disappointed that some of the major attractions that I thought he would love were closed like the old fashioned cars and the train that rides around the park. We were lucky that they had The Wiggles play area. He lasted a good 4 hours at Great America and we were lucky that Emma slept about 3 1/2 hours of it! That made it so much more enjoyable. We can't wait to try it again next year!
Well, we are excited about the upcoming months. By Christmas, Emma will be 7 1/2 months and Ben will be turning 3 shortly after the new year. Ben is at the perfect age where he now understands presents and the excitement that comes with it. I am excited to celebrate the holidays with my two wonderful children, even as hectic as it is with both of them wanting constant attention! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and are ready for some cold weather ahead. I hope Ben will let us put his snowsuit on this year so he can get outside and play!
Thanks for checking in and putting up with my long updates! I had a lot to catch up on!
Happy Fall!!

Enjoying the last days of summer.

Fun with cousin Charlie!

3 Months old in August!

Big boy...little chair...

Ben and Daddy in Great America's Wiggles Big Red Car!

Emma, ready for dance rehearsal.

All smiley after a 3 1/2 hour nap at Great America!

I want all of those pennies daddy!!


Click on the picture to see Ben driving and singing!

Ben and his new backpack.


Emma swinging with her dolly.

Ben and his best buddy Payton!
YOU CAN'T MAKE ME SMILE!!
Wearing Grandpa's hat.
Working the big machines!
4 months old in September.
Emma and cousin Alaina.


More sleeping at daddy's work!

So EXCITED to play with my big brother!



Ben's Big Red Car...he lives in that thing!

Why is baby sister always pickin on me??


Ready for my first cereal!

Nothing like a little beat in the morning!
Helping mommy and daddy paint the living room.
Viewing Emma napping through the monitor, she was passed out!
5 months old in October!
Whoops!
An Emma sandwich!


Move over baby sister, that's the Benjamin chair!



My favorite little curly Q!
Superman flies in the sky! I fly too!
...OK...I'll just drive...

Superman, deep in thought...hmm, cookies or candy?

Discussing what's on the menu with baby sister.

Driving Grandpa John's boat!


Yep, there's a light on my head.

I can smile and suck my thumb at the same time!

Big toes are delicious!

I'm a cowboy...

You're a cowboy!

Trying on last year's winter clothes!

Princess Daddy!

Our little ladybug!

Ben...dressed as Ben...wearing a sweatshirt...

Trick or Treat!
I can roll to my tummy now!
What are you doing here??