Genevieve at 15 Months!

Another season has passed and Nev is a quarter year older! On March 18th, she turned 15 months and her personality is sure coming out! She is such a social girl and her favorite word is "Hi". She says it to everyone while waving at them and trying to get a reply. Yesterday I was walking with her past a set of bleachers and she turned to the people sitting in them and starting waving and saying "Hi, hi, hi"! So typical and so Nev!

Genevieve is also very active. She is always moving and climbing and on a mission! Last week I was at Cade's soccer practice and I watched her walk 60 yards down one end line then 80 yards down the opposite sideline to a set of stairs that led up to a playground we had visited several weeks ago. She never looked back at me and had no fear. She knew where she wanted to go and she went!

Genevieve continues to love kicking the soccer ball and also now loves sitting on and pushing herself along on riding toys. But those seem to be just about the only real toys she is interested in. Genevieve much prefers playing with shoes, strings, necklaces (she'll make anything a necklace), tupperware, paper & pencils, cell phones, keys, etc. Genevieve will put anything that even closely resembles a cell phone (such as a calculator) up to her ear and starts talking away!

Genevieve may be cute and is very sweet but she also has an opinion and isn't afraid to share it :) She has definitely entered the stage where she realizes what she wants and isn't as easily distracted. Whenever my brother David comes in the house she starts 'talking' away and pointing making it clear she wants him to take him outside (like he so graciously does most days). She has also had a few tantrums and whiney times as she works to try and get what she wants :)

Genevieve loves water now and enjoys her baths again too (she went through a couple months where she resisted taking baths). She loves to climb up to the sink (which scares me!) and play with the water and 'brush' her teeth.

Genevieve is a very happy girl. She loves to smile and laugh and interact with people. She is not shy at all and will often walk up to kids or grown-ups and start 'talking' to them and obviously craves that interaction.

More about 15 month old Genevieve...

She's started to want to take her clothes off and run around without her shirt. She figured out how to get her shirt off for the first time this weekend and fought so hard when I tried to put it back on (we were in public so I did want it back on :)!

Says more words but not consistently though she 'talks' all the time. She does say 'oow', 'hi', 'please', 'uh-oh', 'mom', 'da' consistently and we've heard 20+ other words once or twice.

Nev usually takes one 2 hour nap and sleeps from about 8:00 pm until 6:45 am most nights (though those times can vary an hour either way).

Genevieve is a good eater and loves broccoli, pancakes, eggs, milk, oatmeal, bananas, beef, chicken, muffins and much more

Nev watches about 10 minutes of TV a day, usually 'The Wiggles'!

We've stopped nursing this week except one side once a day in the morning (sometime in the 6:00 am hour) to catch a little extra rest. We stopped nursing completely at 16 months, one week.

We Love You Sweet Genevieve! Happy Year and a Quarter!

Fun on the Trampoline!

With the beautiful weather this weekend, we decided to clean off the trampoline and play! Genevieve had SO much fun running on it and being bounced by Gabrielle and me. Nev was laughing so hard and couldn't get enough. She was not at all bothered by her falls and only wanted more! I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of time on the trampoline with her this summer. 

 

OSU Gymnastics Meet

Gabrielle, Meleesa, Amber and I made our way to Corvallis to watch an OSU gymnastics meet this weekend.  OSU is currently 7th in the national rankings, so they are obviously a very good team.  They had a great meet, making very few mistakes.  It was fun to be the gym environment again and to stay a little connected to the sport I enjoyed so much as a kid.  I always loved going to OSU gymnastics meets with my mom and sisters when I was younger and am so glad Gabrielle enjoys going with me now!

Flipping and twisting during a floor routine

 Gabrielle, Amber and Meleesa

Willem's Soccer Obsession

Willem loves playing soccer, especially goalie. We joke that it is Cade's fault that Willem loves playing goalie because Cade always said he wished he had a twin that was a goalie so he could take shots on him all day; apparently the next best thing was making his little brother a goalie! I have noticed over the past month that instead of playing with his farm toys all the time, Willem has switched to going outside (or inside) to play soccer as much as he can...mostly taking shots on the goals we have outside or playing goalie when Cade is out there taking shots.

Willem is at such a fun age with regard to playing soccer because he can never get enough and he gets so excited to play every game, even counting down the hours until he gets to play. He is different than Cade was at this age in that Will has always loved soccer best and doesn't seem to really care too much about any other sport....Will liked playing basketball (we had to convince him to play this past season) but isn't crazy about it and he likes playing football but, again, not like soccer. 

Willem talks pretty obsessively about what goalie gloves he wants next and his favorite international players. He will often say something like, "Petr Cech (Chelsea's goalie) is a Beast"! His favorite players are Cristiano Ronaldo and Casey Keller and his favorite team is Real Madrid. Willem tells me often how many days until the World Cup starts in June. Taking a line from his older brother, Willem tells me that he is NOT missing any World Cup games.

Willem just finished his 2nd indoor season of the winter and looks forward to starting spring soccer after spring break. He begged me to ask the club if he can play with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders this spring in their developmental league and he was so excited when they said he could. He loved playing U8 indoor with his team below! And we loved watching him run all over the field or yell instructions to his teammates from the goal!

Zane, Aidan, Carsten, Wyatt, Diego and Willem

Cade's State Basketball Tournament

After winning the title the last two years, Cade's team (Team Flight) walked away a little disappointed with their 4th place finish in the State AAU Basketball Championships (4th grade) in Cottage Grove this past weekend. His team just wasn't 'on' this weekend and it probably didn't help that two of the boys needed casts after the tourney (a hairline fracture in the hand for one boy and a bruised growth plate by the heel for the other). Plus we took Cade to Urgent Care on Sunday morning for an ear infection! 

That all being said, the other teams looked really good and I think a 2nd place finish is probably the best Flight could have pulled out had they played their best basketball this weekend. It'll be fun to go up against these teams again in future tournaments and it's been great seeing Flight's improvement over the winter. Team Flight will continue to play together through the spring.

Cade with the ball (#10)

Genevieve watching from atop the stands!

My Dad's Birthday & Amber's Visit

My dad turned 71 on Friday! He looks so great and is so healthy and active...I hope I have those genes! Amber, Tony & Jacoby came down for the weekend to help celebrate and we had a fun party on Friday at his house . It was another fun and busy weekend!

Opa with about half his grandkids!

Genevieve and Jacoby at Cade's basketball game

Amber captured Genevieve climbing in and out (see below) of her toy box!

And here's gorgeous Amber nearly 37 weeks pregnant!

Another Soccer Season Ends

Cade's OYSA U12 league (top U12 statewide league minus Portland teams) ended on Sunday with a game in Medford which decided the league champ. Unfortunately Cade's Boca Jr team lost but it was a great season. The Boca's were 11-2-1 which earned them second place (yes, we already watched Cade play eight outdoor games since early February; the other six games were played in the fall). Next up is the State Cup tournament throughout the month of April which will include the top 18 (or so) teams in the state for each age group. Here are some pictures from the season of Cade and some of his teammates.

Our Newest Artist!

 

Genevieve's latest favorite pastime is drawing (scribbling actually). It is very sweet to see! As you can see in the pictures below, she switches the pencil from her left to her right hand but we think she is favoring her right. (Some of the marks on the paper are from me but she did get a lot of scribbling on there herself as well!)

 

Elle's Basketball Season Ends

Gabrielle joined a new basketball team this winter and it has been great to see her enjoy the sport so much more and to see her improve so much. Most of the girls on her team have played together for several years and also play on her Athletica soccer team and most of them (including Gabrielle) have decided to continue playing basketball (along with soccer) for the spring season. Her team, comprised mostly of 4th graders, played in the 4th grade YMCA league and went undefeated. Gabrielle usually scored a basket, sometimes two, each game but where she shined was in her fantastic defense, steals and rebounds. Here she is in the last game taking (and making) a free throw. She didn't take many free throws during the season (maybe four total) and this is the first one she made in a game...

 

Here's her team enjoying Dairy Queen after their last game (missing Aliyah, Lindsay and coach Tod), notice Genevieve on the right smiling for the camera as well :)...

 

Chairs, Computers, Cows and Cries

Lately Genevieve has been loving sitting on chairs and couches, looking so proud and content when someone puts her up on them. 

 

  

Genevieve has also been wanting to play with the computer keyboard and mouse; we haven't let her much but she did manage to get on the kids' computer today. She really looks like she knows what she's doing here, I guess she's seen us all at work on the computer many times!

  

 

And Nev loves seeing the cows. It has been dry and warm enough for several days so we were able to take a walk around the dairy today and Genevieve loved getting close to the cows! 

 

 

Lastly, Nev has been having more and more tantrums lately...it has begun! I didn't get a picture this time but boy did she have a couple good frustrated cries today :)

I also had to get one shot of Willem with his now THREE missing front teeth...