Holiday Season 2015

The absence of an update says it all...life in the Helmerich family is busy!  Although I go to bed far too late most nights and wake up still really tired, I wouldn't have it any other way.  The fall and holiday season have been so fun and magical with our two quickly growing boys.

We celebrated Anton's first birthday at the end of the summer, and since then, he has been learning and growing by leaps and bounds.  Since his first word "Ka" for Karl at about 11 months, he has added "Mommy, Daddy, shoes, moew (for kitty), bear, uh-oh, go! go!, bapple (for apple),bee-boo (for peek-a-boo)"  but his all time favorite word, that he says over and over, is "car."  Anton points out every car he sees, loves his toy cars, and looking for cars on Nana's quilt.  Since taking his first steps at 12 1/2 months, Anton spends his time now climbing in and out of big chairs, doing his stompy dance, and running everywhere, especially around the circles in the house, chasing and tackling Karl.  He's quite a physical kiddo!   It's no wonder he's already had his first trip to the emergency room for stitches on his forehead in early December, but he recovered quite nicely.  

Post ER visit for 3 stitches in the forehead

                                                              Anton chatting in the bath

Anton's stompy dance

Pumpkin picking in Delaware

Karl is becoming such a young man, more so every day.  Fourth grade has been great for him so far, and musically his world is expanding with instrumental lessons.  He is really enjoying the clarinet, but is thinking about switching to saxophone.  The return to school in the New Year will bring Karl's first ensemble practices, and we will have his very first concert band performance to look forward to in May!  He had a full fall with piano lessons (his favorite pieces by far to play are those from the score for The Lord of the Rings) and soccer.  But mostly, Karl has been busy as a terrific big brother.  He plays with and snuggles his little brother, teaches him how to build, and makes him laugh, and laugh!  Some of his other current big interests are Star Wars (of course), basketball. chemistry, and The Maze Runner Series.  

                                                               

 First day of fourth grade

At Beaver Stadium for the PSU-Rutgers Stripe-Out

Playing soccer for Penn United

Experimenting with chemistry

The holiday season has been filled with wonderful family gatherings.  Thanksgiving at Suzanne and Sam's house, along with Nana, Pop-Pop, Uncle Curt and Lauren made for a festive celebration of yummy food and family togetherness.

                                                       Karl as a werewolf for Halloween

                                               Thanksgiving dinner                                                   

Anton with Uncle Curt

      

                       

                  Football for Karl, Pop-Pop and Daddy                      

Star Wars Cut-Outs for Karl and Zuzu      

Christmas brought lots of fun decorating, baking, and spending time together as a family.  Anton loved the Christmas tree, and surprisingly did not attempt to destroy it!  Karl and Anton spent some time looking for the pickle ornaments, different animals, and pictures of themselves and other family members hanging on the tree.  The kiddos were quite happy Christmas morning, as Santa brought Star Wars delights for the super-fan, and a play kitchen for Anton.  We had a Christmas feast with a full house, including Nana, Suzanne and Sam, Lauren, Aunt Laurie and Uncle Danny, and cousins Katie and Patrick.  

Pre-Christmas Feast at Mom and Dad's

Santa's here!

Anton and his kitchen


A Star Wars Christmas for Karl

Christmas Feast (Uncle Danny didn't make the cut, next to Aunt Laurie :) )


Oh, there's Uncle Danny!

Summer Family Time

My efforts to keep up this blog on a fairly regular basis were put on the back burner over the course of a very hectic Spring in our family.  Between a very busy final few months of teaching, a new job for Steve, Springtime activities for Karl, and a newly fully mobile Anton, time to stop and record all of the happenings just seemed to evade me.  Summertime is a chance for me to really enjoy being with my children full-time, to be present for each part of their days, and to be able to take things slowly and savor them a bit.

Since my last post, Karl has turned nine (yikes...the last single digit birthday!), which was raucously celebrated with several of his buddies for laser tag.  Together, we enjoyed making a chess cake.  While I don't often find the time to do a lot of special things with the kids in the kitchen, Karl's birthday is a time when we try to do something extra special.  This year, we opted for a chess cake.  Karl has shown a lot of interest in the game over the course of this year (he is almost beating me...demonstrates some long range strategy skills, which is more than I can often say for myself), so this cake seemed like a no-brainer, thanks to the Nerdy Nummies lady on youtube.  Of course, it's never nearly as effortless as she makes it out to be, but we now have chocolate molds for chess pieces if anyone over wants to make them!    Chess Cake Youtube

Karl had a busy and full Spring.  His first season of kid-pitch baseball was terrific Daddy-Karl time.  Karl had coach Matt once again, who is so encouraging with the kids on the team.  His fielding is really making strides, he made many great plays in the inflied this season.  He had a great finish to the year of piano lessons with a recital including all of Miss Irene's students.  He played A Short Story and A Happy Farmer from Suzuki Book 2, which are pretty challenging pieces.  We are so proud of how accomplished he is with his music.  Third grade wrapped up well; it was a big growth year for Karl, as more and more responsibility and independence fell on his shoulders.  He particularly enjoyed his social studies units this year, especially learning about Africa.  This week, Karl is doing one of his favorite activities of the summer:  Shaver's Creek camp.  The weather looks good for Friday night's campout.

Our little Anton isn't so little anymore, and he is acquiring new skills at every turn.  It's been so long since I've recorded an update here, so here are the major milestones that have happened since March:

• Sitting up independently as of 8 months
• The start to a pincer grasp and an insistence to feed himself by 8 1/2 months
• An army crawl just shy of 10 months
• An explosion of verbal skills at 10 months, with lots of "ch" sounds as a favorite.  He loved to say "dutch" in early June.
• An absolute love for playing with balls, which became apparent at 9 months.  He especially loves his Phillies ball.  He loves to hold a ball over his head and let it drop.  He even plays catch a little bit.  
• A possible first word tonight, when he dropped his ball from his high chair, looked at it on the floor, and said "uh-oh, uh-oh!"  (Is this wishful thinking on my part?)

At a visit to the Doctor a few weeks ago, Anton weighed in at 25 pounds.  No one believes me when I tell them he is only 10 months old, completely due to his size.  Another big one!  And, he is everywhere now.   The mobility of crawling and pulling up to his knees, coupled with his insatiable curiosity, leads him to fun expeditions exploring the nooks and crannies of the house.  He certainly needs and eye on him at all times!

Today was Steve's second day on his new fantastic job in Harrisburg.  He is now an Attorney Examiner for the Labor Relations Board, judging hearings dealing with labor issues throughout the state.  While the commute is a challenge, it is a terrific opportunity and work that he really enjoys!

While I often view Summertime as an opportunity to accomplish projects that I don't get a chance to do during the school year (headboard...bedroom painting....more to come!), I know that I need to be careful to not over-schedule this precious time with the boys.  I feel defined by the need to be constantly on the go, to multitask, to be highly productive, and part of me wants to break out of that mindset, if only for 2 months, to just forget the clock and the to-do list on some days, and simply be in the moment with my family.  

Looking forward to Spring

The last few months have been busy with the wrap up of Karl's swim team season and getting adjusted to Anton's new weekday schedule split between Mims' and Opa's and Ms. Lisa's, our extraordinary new childcare provider.  Luckily, Mom and Dad are feeling like the routine of work and home is really starting to hit an equilibrium, so much so that we jumped back on the cloth diapering wagon!  One week and one day down, and so far so good.  It helps that Anton looks amazingly adorable in them.

Karl finished up theSCAY season with a terrific trip to Clearfield for district Champs, which was also his first away meet.  It was a great culmination for him, because he achieved the goal of swimming the 25 yard freestyle in under 20 seconds, 19.54 to be exact.  He was proud of his accomplishment, and Mom and Dad were thrilled to see him having fun and taking pride in his hard work!  He's enjoying a lighter activity schedule these days, and looking forward to kid pitch Spring baseball.

Anton is now almost 6 1/2 months, just under 20 pounds, and still not mobile (in fact, we sometimes refer to him as our little slug!).  We are savoring what promises to be the last few moments free from worry of him getting into everything imaginable.  He has been known to roll from back to tummy with lots of coaxing, songs and dances, but overall he's a pretty laid back dude.  If he reaches for a toy ant can't get it, it's no big deal to him.  Something he absolutely loves to do is JUMP.  We recently got out Karl's old favorite, the Jumperoo, and he has a ball going boing, boing boing!  Miss Lisa has an old fashioned doorway jumper, which gives him some more creativity of movement, and we are currently rigging up something similar at home.  He's fueling his energy levels these days with just about anything put in front of him.  Big favorites are any pureed fruits, Mommy's beef stew and sweet potatoes.  He's even trying to drink water from a sippy cup.

Anton's First Christmas and More!

                                     

Today, our whole family is feeling a little ho-hum as we get back into the swing of things after a truly wonderful Christmastime.  The thirteen days away from school was a terrific opportunity for a lot of quality time at home with family baking, decorating, eating and playing!  Karl was in absolute heaven on Christmas morning, having received quite an addition to his Nerf arsenal from Santa..his beloved Demolisher had finally arrived!  He enjoyed helping his brother open his first Christmas gifts as well.  We hosted Mom and Dad on Christmas day, end enjoyed a duck for dinner with a new cranberry stuffing.  It as a delicious new holiday meal that I'll tuck away for the future.

The day after Christmas the Delaware clan arrived for a few days, and it was another terrifically celebratory day with a delicious meal of sirloin roast, potatoes au gratin, and roasted cauliflower.  Another terrific meal to keep in mind for special occasions. We kept this family visit going by following Aunt Zuzu, Uncle Sam, and Nana down to Delaware through New Year's Eve.  What a terrific extended family visit!

Over the past several weeks we have seen Anton grow and change before our eyes.  While no teeth have debuted, he is drooling like crazy and mouthing everything he can get his hands on.  He has begun to eat solid foods, and currently on the menu are yams, pears, apples, chicken soup, peppers, and peas.  He is a terrific eater!  This past weekend, a few new tricks appeared:  blowing raspberries, and shaking his head back and forth.  Could the latter be a sign of his strong willed defiant nature?  We'll find out!  He loves putting his legs into action, standing and bouncing on anyone's lap, and his absolute favorite workout is sitting in his bath seat while the tub fills, kicking the shower curtain.  This week marks Anton's start to daycare with Miss Lisa, which should be tons of fun.  Anton, who loves the buzz of people around, should really enjoy the other kiddos and the new environment.  This lucky boy still gets to go to Mims' and Opa's twice a week, though!