bingo bottles

here's otto enjoying some of the art supplies that greta got for her birthday. these have been a big hit with both kids!

big boy seat

in preparation for the arrival of baby #3, we moved otto from the highchair to a booster seat at the table. both kids thought this was pretty fun. we also realized that once this new baby outgrows the highchair, we will need a bigger table with more chairs!!

gymnastics

here are a few photos from greta's gymnastics class. we starting taking greta to cincinnati gymnastics academy (CGA) last winter, and she LOVED it. we took the summer off and started back at CGA this fall. the first class back was ROUGH. i mean, rough. new class, new teacher, new friends in the class. not to mention we previously went on friday mornings, so the gym was pretty much empty except for greta's class. now that she's in the 3 year old class, her class is on saturday mornings. and the gym is PACKED. there are so many classes going on, and many of the elite gymnasts are there too, which is neat to see. anyway, that first class was rough, but after that greta adjusted and now she loves going. it's pretty cool to see how she has improved over the course of a year. not only in the physical skills (she is pretty good at walking the balance beam), but she does great following directions and following a circuit. her teacher (miss candace) often has greta go first and then tells the other girls to "watch greta. do what greta does". here are just a few pictures of greta jumping and squatting on and off the mats. go greta!

christmas shopping

greta writes otto

greta wrote "otto" with her legos the other morning. we thought that was pretty cool. can you see it?

turkey day

we love turkey day! we spent most of thanksgiving day at grandma and grandpa hansbauers, gorging on caramel corn and cheese doodles and buckeyes. the kids had such a good time. i got greta all nicely dressed in a dress and tights and had her hair just perfect. she got to grandma's and immediately took her ponytails out so she could play beauty parlor and changed from one dress up outfit to the next. check out all her wardrobe changes in the slideshow pictures above. the kids both enjoyed sitting at the "kids table"...otto kept looking over at me as if to say, "really? i'm sitting here without an adult? cool!" both kids were so excited/distracted that they didn't eat too much dinner. after the hansbauers we headed over to grandma joan's and grandpa bill's to round out the turkey day fun!!

counting

greta has been really into counting lately. in the car, she'll often ask me to count to 100 or ask me to listen while she counts. here is a video of her counting at lunch this week. the video is long, but afterall, she DOES count to 105 million. :) enjoy!

playing

i love to watch our kids play. it's not too often yet that they play together. mostly they want to either involve joe or me in their play, or they play alone. either that, or otto trys to "play" with greta by destroying what she has built/lined up/put together. today after naptime, otto and greta played in greta's room for a bit. when i came back upstairs, each of them was totally engrossed in what they were doing. otto has taken an interest in blocks lately. and greta still likes to line all her toys up. she played in her room by herself for quite a while the other afternoon, and practically every piece to every toy was lined up in a line around the room. :)

otto weighs in

i took otto to see dr. bird this week for his 18 month check up. at his 15 month checkup, we were told to "bulk up" our little otto boy after seeing that his weight was off the bottom of the growth chart. well, he gained 2 pounds in 2 and a half months, which puts him not quite on the chart, but much closer. way to go otto!! the boy really does love to eat, he's just so darn active!

not only is he active physically, but his verbal skills have really exploded in the past 2 months or so. it is AMAZING the words he can say and remember. the video above is a short one we took while waiting for the doctor. the nurse "miss ida" had said, "hey there fella" to otto when she came in the room, and he must have repeated "fella" 30 or so times while we were there. it was hilarious. even dr. bird got a kick out of it. around this age we made a list of words that greta could say because we were so amazed....we need to do the same for otto. it's awesome. my favorite is when he picks something up and says, "heavy!" while grunting and straining. and he's putting words together, like, "move please greta" or "otto walk please". he doesn't do much babbling or nonsense words....when he talks it's usually pretty clear what he's trying to say.
happy 18 months to our otto boy!

behind the scenes

this is how much fun it was to take the pictures of the kids in their costumes at the burkholders. can you see how hard we (especially scott, meg, and i) are laughing?! it was that hilarious. this picture makes me smile almost as much as the ones of our kiddos. and it also makes me feel very grateful that we (and our kids) have such great friends to share these moments with.

halloween eve

pictured: greta (the green light "GO"), owen (the pirate), gavin (the dog), addie (elmo), caroline (the cat...see how she's crawling like a cat!), otto (the stop sign), and trevor (the doggy's bone).

twas the night before halloween.....
and our friends the burkholders invited us over for a halloween get-together. i have to say, it was the most fun i've had in a long while. it was so cute to see all the kids in their costumes. the food was delicious. and the company was by far the best part. the "bigger" kids played in the basement almost the entire time, which was a fun change for all of us i think. thanks so much holly and jesse for hosting us....we all had a really fun time!