Kid Catch Up

It's the holidays!!!  This weekend, we trekked out to the brand new Aldi to restock our fridge and pantry after a long grocery shopping hiatus due to Hurricane Sandy, Halloween, the crazy little storm that followed, and a bunch of time off school for weather and holidays, not to mention election day.  We'd stocked up pretty well before the storms (like we did for Irene), so we actually made it three weeks without needing to do any grocery shopping!  Though we had to get creative towards the end.  This new grocery store has cut our grocery spending in half, and that's AWESOME.

Reagan is knocking back all kinds of solid foods, and I'm getting pretty creative with my pseudo-baby food concoctions.  She's still primarily nursing, but solid foods are starting to replace a whole feeding or two.  It's tough to say, because I'll often nurse her, then follow up with something solid.  Her attention span during nursing sessions is practically two minutes, so I wonder how much she's getting out of it.  She's surviving (and thriving!) so I'm not too worried.

Maximilian has had some sort of language explosion.  It's fantastic!  All of a sudden he's able to put together original thoughts, tell us exactly what he wants and how he feels, and it's taken play with his siblings to a whole new level.  He can participate in games and activities of a higher complexity, and it definitely shows.  On top of that, thanks to some LeapFrog DVDs, interaction with mommy while we're out and about, and some language specific learning toys, Maximilian has picked up several letter names and sounds, as well as counting.  I'm not sure he really 'gets' numbers/quantities yet, but it's a start.  Another thing - he's hilarious.  Like, I laugh out loud multiple times a day at his silliness.

Patrick continues to be Patrick.  My sweet, big-hearted, little Patrick.  I can't believe he'll be FOUR in one month!  Seriously, where does the time go?

Karol is a little grown up now.  She's 5 going on 35, it seems, sometimes.  We're working on the whiny voice, but other than that she is just cool to be around, and wicked smart, too.  She's getting to the point where I'm starting to wonder how long Santa is going to make it, or how much time we have until Disney loses its magic and becomes just a theme park, instead of where all the princesses live.  I'm worried that it's less fun on the other side of that hill.

So that's the catch up on the kiddos!