3 Year old Wren

Wren at 3 years old:

• Is such a little mother.  She loves to treat any and all of her toys as babies and will use anything as a blanket (towels, toilet paper, tissues, socks, clothes).  It is a daily occurrence for her to line up all of her babies on the floor and then cover them with tissues (blankets) for their naps.  She means business and will get so upset if you move anything.  
• Wren loves ice cream.  She is a a pretty picky eater, but is always up for some "nilla".
• She is a little sugar fiend.  She LOVES candy, cookies, donuts, cupcakes (but only the frosting), and on and on. Getting her to eat anything that isn't sugar or fruit is a challenge.
• She loves princesses (She IS one after all), and will never stay in the same outfit all day.  She loves to dress-up and comment on how beautiful she is. 
• She is still a hater of bed time and sleep in general. She's started getting night terrors, which is just the most awful thing!  Dave seems to be the only one who can calm her down when she has a nightmare.  
• She adores books and loves to read with dad at night.  She has started to memorize them and loves to "read" them to us.  Her favorite book is called "John James Audubon Painted Birds".  Hearing her recite that book word for word is just about the sweetest thing. 
• Wren is funny.  She says the funniest things and has the best delivery.  She really does make us laugh every day.  
• She is a pretty independent person, and is perfectly content playing by herself.

We love our Roo Bear!  She adds just the right amount of spunk, sass and sweetness to our family.   

Trey is 5!

Trey is 5 and we can't believe it!  Here are a few things about Trey at 5 years old!

• Trey loves preschool and has learned how to read!  He is so proud of himself and we enjoy watching him learn and grow.  He loves to spell out 3 letter words with the alphabet magnets.
• Trey is amazing at puzzles!  He will diligently work on 300+ piece puzzles by himself for weeks and loves to work on them a little bit each day.
• As always, Trey is a little helper.  He loves to be included in household chores and tasks.  He is always willing to help and feel like a "big kid".  
• Trey plays soccer and is really great at it!  We joke that he is the best player on his team (really!), and we have so much fun watching him excel.  The whole family comes to cheer him on and he just loves it!
• Trey loves to garden.  He always takes such special care with his plants.  He very carefully chooses what he wants to plant and is so responsible for making sure that they are cared for.  His favorite time is harvest time.  He gets so excited and asks each day if something is ready to be picked.  He is notorious for waking up early and sneaking out into the backyard to pick raspberries for his breakfast.  
• Trey is a morning person.  He is usually one of the first people awake each morning and is always so happy.
• Trey loves to play video games.  We recently got a Nintendo Switch console and he is obsessed with it.  He loves anything that has to do with gaming.  Nintendo games, computer games, apps..you name it, he loves it!
• Trey is a great big brother.  He has loved having Wren get a little bit older.  Wren adores him and it is fun to hear them play. 

Trey has grown so much, but is still our sweet little boy.  (And I still call him Treybies from time to time).  We love you buddy!  

2 year old Wren

A little bit about our Roo Bear at 2 years old...

• Her vocabulary is crazy. She shocks us daily with how many words she knows.  She's to the point now where we can sit and have a little conversation and it's so fun!  She loves to talk and sing and is rarely quiet. 
• Sleep is still her arch nemesis.  She still usually wakes up at least once, but has gotten better about self soothing.  She IS stubborn, though, haha.  When she isn't happy, she lets you know!
• Wren loves her "babies" and is a girly girl.  She requests daily to wear her princess dress ups and insists on walking around the house in her dress up shoes and "pretties" (bracelets, necklaces).  She will often say "I'm a princess!" "Pretty, pretty princess!" "Oh, that's lovely!"  "So beautiful!"  
• She is obsessed with Monster's Inc. and Cinderella and has both memorized.  She quotes them incessantly and can sing every song.  
• She loves music and will often sing to herself while playing.  She has the sweetest little voice.  We love to listen to her sing along to songs in the car.  Her current favorite is "Sing, Sweet Nightingale" from Cinderella.  
• She is a picky eater and would live off of chocolate milk if we allowed it. 
• She loves her grandmas and grandpas and many aunts and uncles.  Fun fact: she knows most everyone's names, but insists on calling aunt Beth "guys". :)
• She loves fruit leathers and calls them "neeboys".  We have no idea how she came up with that word, but it most definitely means "fruit leather", so naturally we all use that word now.  
• We often remark that Wren can be the sweetest little thing but then turn into a holy terror.  And as rude as that sounds, it's true!  Haha.  She melts our hearts everyday, but is not easily coerced, lol.  She is tough and definitely sticks up for herself.  Being a toddler has made her strong personality shine!  
• She loves books and enjoys having dad read to her at night.  
• She is pretty independent and can easily entertain herself with books, babies, cars, stickers, etc.  She also loves to play with Trey and copycat whatever he does.  

Wren is all around a riot to have in our family.  She keeps us on our toes, but shows us an incredible amount of love.  She makes us laugh every day.  We love you Wren!

18 Month Old Wren

Our little miss Roo is 18 months old!  She has grown so much, and has the most fun, feisty, sweet personality.  Here's a bit about 18 month old Wren:

• Her sleep situation has improved a lot, but she still has those bad nights.  We've recently put a night light in her room, and that has seemed to help. 
• We've been slowly transitioning away from the bottle, and this has proven to make nights/nap time hard.  We finally just stopped using bottles altogether, and her stubbornness is coming through!  Haha.  As of late, whenever we hand her a sippy cup, she takes one look at it and just chucks it across the room in disgust.  
• She has a temper.  (See above, haha).  We try really hard to not give in to her tantrums, but it is really hard not to laugh.  She throws major fits (throwing her head back, kicking and screaming over seemingly insignificant things ALL THE TIME).  Sometimes we have to just look at each other and laugh.  
• She knows a lot of words, and has clearly learned everything through imitation.  She will watch your lips very closely when you speak, and will undoubtedly repeat the last word you say each time. "Hi Roo"... "Roo"    "Should we get dressed?"... "Dressed"  "Sit down to eat."..."eat".  It's such a little thing, but it makes my heart melt all day long.  
• She absolutely adores Trey and wants to do everything with him.  They don't always play very well (learning to share is hard, haha), but it's been fun to watch their relationship grow.  They play with hot wheels cars a lot, and she loves it.
• She loves loves LOVES her baby dolls. They are by far her favorite toy.  She constantly walks around with them "shushing" them and putting them down for naps.  
• We read to her each night before bed and she always asks for more. "book....book..."  We have a few touch and feel books, so she assumes that every book is, and always touches the page and looks up at me like "What is this supposed to be?  These all feel the same!"

Wren has us laughing everyday.  We joke a lot that she is a little stinker, but she really brings us so much joy.  We love you Wren, Roo, Roo Bear, Roo Babe.   

4 year old Trey

Trey has had to grow A LOT this past year as he transitioned into being a brother.  He is such a BIG BOY, and sometimes I can't even stand how fun he is!  Once turning four, I feel like he is really starting to grow out the of the "hard toddler years" and it's been fun to watch his personality grow.  Here's a little bit about our Treybies (we still call him that sometimes. I'm not sure how long he'll allow that, so I'm holding onto it as long as I can! haha).  

• His personality has exploded and he loves his independence!  Because of this, some stubbornness has started to creep in (ha), but it's been so fun to watch him grow!  
• He loves to get himself up, get himself dressed and make his own breakfast.  He is very much a morning person (obviously got that from Dave).  There has been a lot of times that we get up for the day, and he's already made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for everyone  He is always so proud of himself!
• He LOVES to cook and experiment with different "recipes"...which includes grabbing anything and everything out of the fridge and cupboard and making "meals".  
• He's recently started preschool, and he loves it!  It has been really good for him to be with other kids.  He loves to learn and is always so excited about going to school and daycare.  
• Trey really likes being able to help people, and do tasks such as unloading and loading the dishwasher, sweeping, mopping, taking out the garbage, weeding...he loves it all!  He's the best little helper and always wants to be busy doing something!  
• He loves to dance and will often request certain songs.  His current favorites are 24K Magic by Bruno Mars, Feel it Still by Portugal the Man, Wake Me Up Before you Go-GO by Wham, and Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant.  Listening to the radio is so fun with him.  He'll randomly ask "What is this?  I like it."  
• He is still very inquisitive and loves figuring things out.  He loves playing with Legos, Hot Wheels, and jigsaw puzzles.  He recently learned how to play Mario Kart, and he loves being able to "earn" games throughout the day to play with Dad before bedtime.  
• He loves any and all reasons to have a party.  All holidays are his favorite, and he looks forward to everything about them. 
• We have the best conversations, and he makes us laugh every day.  

We love you Trey! 

Wren is 1!

Our little Roo Bear is one year old!! This past year has probably been the longest in my life, and yet I can't believe she is already one!  She sure has come a long way in one year!  A little about Wren at 12 months:

• She still despises sleep and has a really hard time going to sleep, staying asleep, and waking up.  She usually gets up once a night, and is up for the day around 7:00 or 8:00.  I'm convinced that waking up is her absolute least favorite thing in the world (she got that from me), and she lets everyone know it!  
• She loves to walk with her walker, and is so proud of herself.  She has taken a couple of steps on her own here and there, but for the most part just likes to hug the walls/furniture to get around.  
• She loves to eat whatever Trey is eating.  She really likes applesauce, puffs, and noodles.  Most of the time however, everything we feed her just gets thrown on the floor, or squished in her hands.
• She has the sweetest personality, but has no problems letting you know when she is upset.  She's got a "look", and when she gives it to you, it's so hard not to laugh.  She is very weary about strangers and will always look people up and down before warming up to them.  
• She loves music.  The best way to cheer her up is through music and dancing.  She loves watching Trey dance tries to copy his moves.  
• She is so talkative and is always yammering on and on.  She very clearly has her own language and it is so cute.  She'll look at you as she's babbling on as if to say... "Hello, why aren't you understanding me!?" 

We love you Wren!!

11 month old Wren

This past month Wren has seemed to grow so much.  She's really starting to get a personality, and it's fun to see.  She sure is a feisty one, but is adored by pretty much anyone who knows her.  Here's Wren at 11 months:

• Your hair.....THAT hair.  We all love it so much.  She has far more hair than Trey did at this age, which is fun.  It's got a mind of it's own, though.  It's wild and likes to stay wild.  It's super, SUPER fine and strawberry blonde.  No amount of gel can get it to stay down. Those super fine strands love to just do their thing and it makes us laugh every day.
•  We've had a rough time with sleep lately, but I think we're finally getting better.  We've started her bedtime routine a little earlier and that has seemed to help.  She goes down at about 7:30, usually only gets up once to eat, and then up again at 7:30.  Can't complain!  She really, REALLY doesn't like waking up and screams the instant she opens her eyes.  It's really sad, and I wish I knew what was causing it.  I think she just doesn't like being alone.  Poor Roo.
• She has started imitating us.  She loves to click her tongue at us and grins wider and wider when we copy her and then she copies us.  
• She has started doing this evil laugh/shout thing that just has us in giggle fits all of the time.  It sounds like "ha HA!"  She laughs super loud and her face is so expressive when she does it.  We can't help but imitate her when she does it.  
• She spent most of this month learning to pull herself up and walk around furniture.  Now that she knows how, it's ALL she wants to do.  She got brave this week and started walking with the walker.  She loves it and is so proud of herself.  Her stubborn personality shines through when she hits into something and falls, or runs out of room.  She throws herself on the floor and throws some major temper tantrums!  We love her, but hoo boy, she's got a temper.  Haha.
• She's been eating much better since being over colds and whatnot.  She only really eats one "meal" a day along with her bottles.  Her favorite by far is mangos.  Most of the time she'll just have a few bites here and there, but she'll gobble up mangos.  She also loves chedda1r goldfish crackers.  Who doesn't?
• We've recently started reading books with her and she loves them.  She always uses her pointer finger to carefully point to everything on the page and babbles as she does: "uhda????  Babu???"
• She has several dolls and loves to sit and examine their eyes and eyelashes.  It's kind of weird, but she is just so fascinated by them.  
• She has started to show that she knows when she's doing something wrong.  She'll turn around and look at you with this mischievous grin as if to say "I know I'm not supposed to do this, but I'm going to anyway.  

She's our little Roo Bear, and we love her so much!

10 month old Wren

Wren turned 10 months old and it as been a whirlwind.  We moved into a new house and it's been so fun to watch her crawl all over the place and explore.  At 10 months....

• She has had cold after cold after cold which has just been the worst!  Dave and I also got the flu and I think she got it too....there were some hard days this month but I think we are finally over it!  Hopefully!
• Because of the sickness, sleep has been a distant memory.  Her "schedule" has gone out the window and she had a 2 week stint where she would wake up every hour.  NOT FUN.  Now that the sickness has subsided, we're all hoping to get more sleep.  Because if Wren doesn't sleep well, no one does. 
• Bathtime is her favorite time of the day, especially with Trey.  I believe it is their sole mission in life to get as much water all over their mother and the bathroom floor as possible.  Trey knows better, but how do you teach a baby to NOT splash!?
• She learned how to clap and she claps all day long.  She claps when she's happy, sad, hungry, mad...it's kind of funny actually. Sometimes when she wakes up in the middle of the night (royally pissed off, mind you), I'll pick her up and lay her down to change her and all while screaming in my face she's just clapping away.  If that doesn't put you in a good mood at 2:00 am, I don't know what would.  
• She has 6 teeth.  She got two more on top and she still has the two on the bottom.  She has the cheesiest grin and we just love it!
• She can stand, but you better old onto her and heaven help us if you let go, or she falls....she likes to stand but is terrified of the concept at the same time.  She hasn't been able to pull herself up yet, but she's content standing in one place.  As soon as you let go, even with one had, she screams and gives you a death stare as if to say "How dare you!?"
• She has vetoed pretty much any and all food.  I think being sick has really made her dislike food and she doesn't seem interested at all.  She just likes her baba's and snuggles...as always.
• She can say dada, baba, mama and a whole bunch of nonsense words. She loves to just babble on and on.  
• Her nicknames have morphed from Wrennie to Wren-a-roo, Wrennie the roo bear, Roo bear, to Roo...which is what we call her most of the time. Nicknames are so weird.  Roo doesn't even remotely resemble her given name, but it just fits.  

9 month old Wren

Wren is growing SO FAST!  We can't believe how big she is.  Here are a few things about our 9 month old Wrenny-Roo:

• She is FINALLY getting over her colds and is sleeping much better.  She usually goes down by 7:30-8:00 and only gets ups once throughout the night and then she's up and ready to go at 7:00. 
• As always, she is happiest in the mornings.  She is starting to talk so much and we love it!  She says "da-da" over and over and over again. 
• She crawls super fast and likes to get herself into trouble.  She loves door stops and any and all cords.  She's also loves looking down the stairs and gets so mad when I put the gate up.
• She has three teeth...soon to be four.  Teething has not been her favorite thing, but they sure are cute!
• She loves bath time and still loves to splash.  It's kind of surprising just how much water she gets all over the bathroom floor.  She'll splash water all over face and get it into her eyes, but she just LOVES it. Every time she splashes she cracks herself up and laughs and laughs.
• She adores Trey and wants to do whatever he is doing.  Trey gets the most smiles by far.
• She loves snuggles, as always and prefers to be held most of the time. 
• She can feed herself but pretty much refuses to at night.  You don't mess with her nighttime snuggle time.  Haha
• She does  this thing with her hands all the time.  She holds them out and then waves them around.  It's hard to explain, but if you know her at all, you know what I'm talking about.  It's like she waves her hands in circles as if she's stretching her wrists.  Super random, but she does it a lot when she's eating. 
• She has a lot of nicknames, but the current favorite is Roo-Bear.  Or just simply Roo.

She is so sweet and we just adore her!  Love you Roo!

Wren at 8 Months

Wren is getting so big and it's breaking this mama's heart.  At 8 months....

• She has never been a great sleeper, but at the moment she loathes it!  She has been battling cold after cold for the past few weeks and her sleep has pretty much become nonexistent.  Poor thing.  Back are the days of getting up several times a night.  She typically goes down at 8:00 and wakes up at 12:00, 4:00 and then 7:00....Hoping those 12 hour stretches come back soon!  She's also a pretty terrible napper.  20 minutes and she seems to think she's done!  It's a good thing she's so cute because she is NOT a happy camper when waking up.  We've tried to buckle down on routines and create good sleeping habits, but she's just not having it.  It doesn't help that she is the worlds lightest sleeper!
• She has two bottom teeth, and they are pretty much the cutest things ever.  I think now that she has teeth, she's convinced that she is ready for big people food, because she has pretty much refused to eat any and all baby food for the past few weeks.  She'll have maybe 2-3 spoonfuls and then refuse to open her mouth for anymore.  She does however love to gnaw on oranges, crackers, etc.  She always stares at Trey while he's eating as if to say "HEY! I want that!"
• She has started to crawl and it's been so fun.  She kind of sways back and forth on her tummy to get to where she wants to be.
• She can sit up and likes to just sit and put her toys in and out of buckets.
• She LOVES our phones and is constantly trying to grab them and eat them!
• She learned how to splash and it's all she ever wants to do during her bath.  She will get water all over her face and not even flinch.  She loves when Trey starts splashing with her and thinks it's the funniest thing in the world.  
• She can hold her bottle, but most of the time wants to be held to eat.  As always, she would be content being held every waking minute of her life.  She loves to snuggle.
• She is pretty happy in the mornings and gives the cutest little smiles.  But honestly after that, you'd be pretty hard pressed to get a smile out of her.  Haha.  We often refer to her as having RBBF (Resting Baby Bitch Face)...it sounds horrible, I know, but it's so true!  We love you Wren-a-Roo but you're kind of a cranky pants.  Family will often do anything in their power to make her smile and she'll just stare at them with this "Are you kidding?" face and look at us like we're crazy.  
• She has the cutest little voice and babbles on and on.  She says "dada" quite a bit, but I'm not sure if it means anything to her.  My favorite is when she talks to us in the morning.  Oftentimes after picking her up out of her crib first thing in the morning she'll babble really REALLY quietly so you can barely hear her.  It's so sweet and just melts my heart each time.  
• I feel likes shes's grown so much, but strangers will often comment on how small she is for her age.  I'm intrigued to see how much she has grown when we take her in for her 9 month check up.  Either way, she's perfect!
• She has the thinnest hair ever (maybe even thinner than mine!) and it shoots straight up on top of her head.  She has one strand that is about 2-3 inches longer than the rest and I just love it.  Her hair is always just a little poof ball and refuses to stay down.

She is so cute and it's been fun to see her little personality come through.  We love you Wren-a-Roo! (her most common nickname).