9m & 3y5m

 mya:
she has been getting noticeably taller and leaner. growing vertically! i'm sad because she's looking less like a baby and more like a little girl.. officially. she's growing into her bed (it looked gigantic when we first got it). GAH. she still has her moments of doing baby-ish things but she is just SO INTELLIGENT and says so many interesting things and always surprises us with what she says/asks/remembers. it makes sense that toddlers are up to 3 years old T__T i think i will really miss this stage. i've previously said that "every age has been the age so far" but i think 3-4 is going to be peak cuteness, though love always evolves and it will be so cool to really see her learning and continuing to be more of her own person, forming her own thoughts and opinions.

still loves recognizing and reciting letters in books and getting really good at it. she messes up B & P sometimes and I for L (understandably so)
new absolute fav show is COCOMELON. IDK what it is with cocomelon and kids...
favorite food is still bouncy noodles (ramen).. requests for it all the time
her fav fruit seems to be strawberries (it's been watermelon & peach season but she doesnt request for those very often)
she ate TWO bananas in one sitting this month.. lol. kind of on a banana phase. i actually never really offer it to her so she must think of it as a treat.
loves the library and goes 2-3x a week with dad. we read the same books over n over so they do get kinda old after a week and its nice to have a refresh
getting better at playing in playgrounds when there's kids around and acknowledging/talking to strangers
she actually says bye to her teachers sometimes now
still afraid of thunder (WELL, IT IS REALLY LOUD!)
had her first marshmallow (and of course she liked it!). after going to the july 4th bbq shes been requesting for oreos, but we're definitely not going to keep those in our household!
snack-wise, she's been getting more adventurous too. she gets bored of things fast so i just buy small bags of things nowadays. seems like she's into pretzels the most so far
LOVES muffins & donuts! specifically strawberry donuts w/ sprinkles
MAN she does so much cute stuff I haven't had the time to write them down like i used to :( going to try to be better about that!
sings "there was 5 in the bed and the little one said roll over" and then counts between each number going down. SO CUTE. the best when she's at 1 and at the end she sings "and the little one said IM LOOOOONELLLYYYY"
shrugs her shoulders and says "iono" sometimes
she's going through another major mommy phase. SHE LOVES ME SO MUCH. i feel bad for carlo bc at night she will say "i dont want daddy" and she just wants me to read to her in the room and there's no ifs and buts about it so poor dad has to leave.
we were playing in the small bedroom and it was so cute bc she kept saying "SNUGGLE ME" and i thought it was gonna be a one or two time thing but she did that like ten times and it was so cute snuggling with her and her not fighting it at all
picked up a rosie revere doll at the library and she loves playing with it! she loves pretend play and specifically laying down her blanket as a picnic blanket pretty often

jackson:
jackson! such a growing boi and also looking longer and bigger nowadays! he's filling out the pack n play and i feel like we will have to have a new bed for him when he turns 1. I can't believe mya was pretty much in there til she was 2.5 years old lol. we always get surprised at how long he looks when we put him down or when we change his diaper.

HALLELUJAH he started finally sleeping through the night!! (0-1 wakeups)though i still wake up at 4 AM (I think bc my body isn't used to so much sleep) so i spend that time pumping in the morning to keep my supply up.
def increased his intake of solids!
able to eat much better now. he's STARTING on his pincer grasp. and he's also able to munch and eat certain things on his own that i didn't expect to - like i gave him a steamed snap pea and he actually chewed it off and digested it. i was so surprised and almost convinced that he just threw it on the floor and lost it somewhere but i think he actually ate it!!
seems to have visibly grown a lot the last 2 weeks. already getting taller and semi-losing his baby fat ahhh
no third ear infection (knock on wood)
first two teeth came out
recent phase of his tongue just always hanging out of his mouth (mb cuz of teething too)
expert sitting unassisted
back ok with tummytime but still doesn't lift his hips off the floor to crawl
raises his arms when we go to pick him up
still chews on everything
not afraid of people :)
saw fireworks for the first time and was not startled or anything!!
can definitely see him interacting with things more in depth now.. like playing with certain toys i can tell he's really analyzing the diff parts of it and looking at it, vs just stuffing it in his mouth mindlessly lol though he still puts EVERYTHING in his mouth
loves grabbing strings & wires
first time sleeping through the night (FOR ONCE!). finally able to put him down drowsy but awake. previously when we'd do that he would just cry almost instantaneously

things this month:
we went to the zoo and it was my first time seeing a lion like SUPER up close. we got lucky and a lion just HAPPENED to walk into the pen literally 5-10 feet away from us and it was one of the most majestic things EVER. also i think my first time seeing a cheetah up close. it was pacing back and forth near the front of its cage and it was cute cuz mya was following it too, hehe.
july 4th bbq @ uncle john's! she took a while to warm up but she did end up playing water guns with me and carlo and it was so cute to see her have fun and shooting us. her dexterity is so much better than last year, i don't think she would have even been able to hold up a super soaker last year and she was doing so well with it this year! other cute things: the big kids were playing downstairs and she went to happily spy on them from a distance behind the stair railings. we were at uncle john's house and after we gave her a quick bath, she saw some blankets on the bed and i think she thought we were going to sleep there and said "i want MY blanket and bear bear". ahh so cute. the other day she also said "bear bear wants to hug you" and she had the doll pretend to hug me :3

i still love seeing the mya/jackson interactions. it's the cutest when mya tries to reassure jackson when he's crying like "don't worry! i'm here! it's okay, baby." just parroting how me and carlo interact with him - hehe even things like "hi chubby baby!! hi sweetie"! she likes holding his hand in the car too (even when he doesn't want to). she always asks if she can feed whatever she's eating to him and verifies like "is it smooshy enough?" "is this soft?" "can i give it to him?"