Giggles

January 24th is officially the first time Nathan and I heard Maura laugh, but yesterday, we were able to catch her adorable giggles on film.

While we are still clueless on how to encourage Maura to sleep through the night and, more importantly, eat nice full meals, God is so good to give us such encouragement through her little milestones. Maura's smiles are so big and contagious and, as you will hear, her laugh never fails to make me laugh and smile along with her.

Friends

Holden, Maura and I were blessed to have our great friends, Crystal and Ava, come over for a playdate this week.

Holden and Ava play very well together. They share toys, make each other laugh and all-in-all have a good time. Even today, Holden is looking at the door and saying, "A-Wa." 

I also get a great benefit because I truly enjoy and cherish my friendship with Crystal. Her heart is on fire for God, she is a great wife, and a truly amazing mother. I always walk away refreshed after spending time with her. 

Hopefully our families can get together again soon! 

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's day this year - Maura's first, Holden's second and Nathan and my's NINTH!

Holden, Maura and I started the day by going to our Mothering Matters group and decorating sugar cookies (thanks Jenny for baking!). Maura also got some new (used) clothes from Jenny's daughter Rachel.

After we arrived home, Nathan had a dozen red roses and chocolates waiting for me. He also had a beautiful card for me, and one from Holden as well. But, the best card Nathan had was for Maura. In it he wrote to her, "I want to try my best to be the man in your life from now until you find a Godly man of your own." Those words still bring tears to my eyes.

In our mailbox, Maura and Holden received Valentine's from their Great-Nana, G-Pa and G-Ma. Holden LOVED the stickers and immediately started putting them all over his body.

We ended our night with a nice, romantic dinner at our table, from Panera. Clean-up was a breeze.

The past nine Valentine's days have made my life - and I cannot wait to celebrate more and more with my perfect-for-me husband, and my best-for-me children.

Valentine Sunshine

I saw this craft on another blog and thought it would be cute to try with Holden. Basically, I cut out a heart frame from construction paper, attached it to some contact paper and let Holden stick on pieces of tissue paper. After he was finished, I attached another piece of contact paper, cut out the heart, put a hole punch in at the top and looped a piece of ribbon.

Holden really loved his heart and every morning enjoys putting it on and off of the hook. Our first craft together!

Holden's Signs

Back in October, for Holden's 18-month check-up, our doctor told us he was behind schedule for talking. He encouraged us to start Holden in speech therapy. Nathan and I knew this would be a positive thing to start Holden in, and no matter what, the speech therapist could at least help us to help Holden speak correctly.

There was just the one slight distraction we had in our lives - a new baby girl! I resolved to give myself a few months with Maura before embarking on enrolling Holden into speech therapy.

Come January, I began the task of contacting the county and setting up appointments to have Holden analyzed and assessed. Our service coordinator, Janise, came out to the house and observed Holden, and spent two hours with Nathan and me asking questions about his development, his speech, etc. While we all walked away noting that Holden does have a speech delay, Janise was ever so graceful in also pointing out how advanced he is in fine and gross motor skills.

Our next step is to have Holden evaluated by actual speech and occupational therapists on March 1st, and to formulate an action plan. I'm very excited about this because I cannot wait to give Holden the gift of speech. It is a very powerful tool, after all.

While we wait for our March 1st appointment, Nathan and I were tasked with writing down the words Holden actual says (Mama, Dada, Outside, Apple, Ball, Bubble) and also all of the signs Holden knows. We were surprised at how many signs Holden has picked up in a year. While we have taught him a few, Holden has learned most of them from "Signing Time" - his absolute favorite show. Thank you Rachel, Alex and Leah for teaching our son one form of communication!

Here are all of the signs Holden uses and understands:
Again
Airplane
All-Done
Apple
Awake
Ball
Banana
Bath
Bear
Bike
Bird
Block
Book
Boots
Bug
Build
Bus
Car
Cat
Caterpillar
Cereal
Chair
Cheese
Clean
Climb
Cold
Cracker
Dirty
Drink
Fish
Football
Fork
Friends
Go
Grapes
Hat
Helicopter
Hot
Hurt
Knife
Light
Mail
Milk
More
Napkin
One
Open
Peas
Pillow
Playground
Please
Rain
Sandwich
Shoes
Sleep
Socks
Sorry
Star
Starfish
Store
Thank You
Tomato
Train
Trash
Tree
Up
Water
Work
Yes

Party Girl

Maura and I had the privilege to attend Laura's baby shower over the MLK holiday weekend. She is due very soon with baby James!

While I did not get to take many pictures of the fabulous party, I was able to get a quick shot of my little girl dressed up in her pretty party outfit (thanks Andie and Ellie!). Maura was the only baby there, but she was the perfect guest and didn't cry once.

Maura is looking forward to many playdates at St. Mary's with James!

Kiss, Kiss

Everyday we try and encourage Holden to hug, kiss, share or play with Maura. After a feeding for Maura one evening, we encouraged Holden to give Maura a kiss. At first, Lambie gave her a kiss, but pretty soon he decided to give her one, too.

Warm & Cozy

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here in the Washington DC area. So much so, that I could not deny taking Holden and Maura outside. While Holden might have been able to shed a few layers, I still wanted to make sure Maura was warm and cozy in a jacket and some new boots (thanks Christy-Ann!).

We all made it to the playground and while Holden ran around, went down some slides and swung on the swings, Maura kept me company in the Ergo.

Maura says, "Six more weeks of winter!"

Little Artist

The other day, Holden painted for the first time. We used the fun dot paint that Ms. Crystal and Ava Jolie gave Holden for his first birthday!

After painting, our little artist continued to color and then craft with Play-Doh.

Happy 21 months, Holden! Your new skills amaze us everyday.