Birthdays: 2, 4, & 6

Aspen turned 4 on January 9. We invited a couple friends over for a playdate to celebrate. She is still very animated and quite the cutie. It's been different having Avery gone at school; Aspen and Tristan don't play together nearly as easily so Aspen often asks me to play barbies or pretend with her. She likes to "read" books to me. Thankfully they both play very well in the backyard as weather permits. We try to go on walks often, mostly to our neighbor's house to jump on the tramp (thanks Sandy and Gary!). We also have a tradition to ride the town bus every Thursday for music and story time at the library (she and Tristan LOVE to ride the town bus!) Aspen frequently gets growing pains at night (or uses it as an excuse to get out of bed because she's not tired after taking an afternoon nap). Aspen loves to climb up on the kitchen counters, color, cut, tape, and help me make dinner. She attends preschool with Ms. Julia (our friend) twice a week and we carpool with her friend, Naomi. Aspen can write her name and is an intelligent girl, often surprising us with little bits of knowledge she's picked up at school, church, home, or wherever, without us realizing. She can still be spacey, but mostly when she is tired. She is a great daughter!

Avery turned 6 on February 19. We let her have some friends from school over for a little party (impromptu). Good thing it was just warm enough to play in the backyard some! Avery is such a helpful, obedient, and responsible girl. She just thrives at school and has plenty of friends. She is not necessarily outgoing, but she's not shy either, and is a friend to all. She likes to be silly and is such a kindergartener, influenced by all these other little kids and their silliness. ;-) She loves to ride the school bus. She has lost 2 teeth (front bottom) and has the adult ones coming in. She suffers from allergies and has to take medicine everyday. Sweet, loving Avery.

Tristan turned 2 on April 9. He is stinkin' adorable! He weighs 31 lbs, just a few pounds under Aspen currently. He is also 3 feet tall which is the same height as Aspen was when she was THREE. He is in the 80% for height and I think 70% for weight. He is quite a mess maker at the table still. He has really come a long way with the vocabulary. I guess he'll say around 100 different words? His favorite phrase is "nee hep" (need help) or "hep pees" (help please). His favorite word is "kah-tee" which is his own version of "truck" (I guess switching the consonants?). He also loves "bus!!!" and will keep repeating it until we acknowledge that we also saw the bus. He will say "maaww" (meow) whenever he sees any dog or cat. When he has something important to tell you, we will get in your face, and stick out his neck as he whispers it to you (i.e. "mama, uhn, kah-tee"). He loves to step on rocks and jump off. We're weaning him off his bottle so much but he still loves his binkis with a passion! He even likes to have 2 in his hand and switches them back and forth into his mouth. That kid. We switched him to a toddler bed on his B-day! Wow, it has gone great! Still naps and sleeps just fine. (Yay!). He loves balls, cars, and "choo-choo"s. You should have seen how excited he was for his Thomas the train balloon. He has a problem throwing things at other people and hitting. It's not terribly bad; he just doesn't have another outlet to express his frustrations without words or the ability to control his sister's actions. Tristan is a fun little boy and still a cuddler. Love that!