Krista's Regional Competition

So we had a full weekend with gym. Krista had her Regional Competition and I'm happy to say that she'll be competing in Paris in mid December for the Zone Competition. She had two nice performances (freestyle and hoop). Our goal was to be in the top 10 and she did it!!! (10th place). Her coach was very happy with her because she was really set back by being penalized for her music in the first competition (she placed 6th in the local competition). The judges are a bit biased that she hasn't joined the local elite club so the took the opportunity to take points away on her music!!! Amazing. Especially since they had no problem with this SAME music last year. Really incredible. SO she had to redo her routine completely with new music in 3 weeks! I'm very proud of her and I'm excited for her going to Paris in 4 weeks! Our big goal for this season is to make it to the Nationals. This will be tough, but I think she can do it. Once we are out of Alsace we might get some breaks :) Nothing like local judges to drag down the scores when you are not part of the elite local school.

Krista looked wonderful for her first time performing with the new music (and only 3 weeks to train). She also sported a completely NEW look. She looked so gorgeous! She had been due for a bigger hoop for some time now so we took advantage of the "changing" time to upgrade her. Her old hoop was only 75 cm and she is allowed to use 80 so we ordered her a new hoop (by Pastorelli which makes hoops for the Italian national team). Her trainer decorated it with the colored sparkly tape that we picked out... and since she was changing hoops she had the opportunity to change leotard colors. We thought that with the music change she should change her look also. Our trainer suggested a gymnastics sports tailor and we had her measured for a custom competion leotard. It is beautiful and arrived JUST in the nick of time. The tailor only had 3 weeks to make the leotard. It arrived on Friday (with the competition on Sunday). I also added some sparkly sequence to her old red and black competition leotard for a change also. She used the new leotard with her hoop exercise and her old red and black leotard for the freestyle exercise.

Here are the videos of her 2 routines. ENJOY!

Evan's 9th Month Update

Some of my photographic endeavors from this month. (Yes, I've been playing photographer more or less constantly these last few months). I have to start a photo blog soon. I've been shooting exclusively in manual too (yea for me!). I've learned so much and am having such a good time with my pictures. Enjoy!








Today is my last "legal" day to post the 9 month report so I better get cracking! Yes, my little man has now officially been in this world for as long as he was in utero! Amazing! He has progressed so much this month too. His big acheivement this month was pulling to stand. He is now on his feet most of the time when he is playing. He pulls up to stand on anything he can get his hands on, and can now even free stand for a few seconds. He stands easily with just one arm so I'm sure his first steps will be before his 1st birthday! He just flies when crawling now too, although I HATE him crawling on our hard tile floor. I'm so afriad of him hurting himself.

So in a nutshell, the big news this month is his standing. Some other big firsts---WAVING! I love this! When you wave to him he will wave back--either by folding his hand or by waving his whole arm! It is just absolutely adorable and melts my heart! He has become such a social little man lately. He smiles at everyone at the kids' school and loves to make his little scrunched grimace face at people as well. A little ham!

Evan has 8 teeth now and I THINK we are done with teeth for awhile. He sure had a hard time with those teeth. I'm hoping the molars are easier. He had 7 teeth for SO long and now finally got his 8th this month. And on the weight front, I weighed him tonight and he is 11,200 grams (24 pounds something). ONE BIG GUY!

Other firsts...NEW FOODS. Evan has learned to self feed and practically wants to feed himself all of the time. He loves bread, bananas, salmon, green beans, saltine crackers etc. This month he took a big leap into solid foods and will FINALLY eat 1/2a jar of baby food. He mostly wants to feed himself bits of food and really doesn't show a big interest in the spoon, but this month he will FINALLY tolerate it. He does love yogurt and fruit and opens willingly for that! I gave him his first juice a few days ago and he LOVED it. I used a regular adult cup. I'm not a big juice pusher, but he certainly loved it so I won't hold it back from him. He does drink water from a sippy cup also. He finally figured that out too this month. He won't drink more than an ounce at a time but at least he has learned how to work the sippy cup!

Breastfeeding is still going well, although I'm afraid he is drinking MOST of his milk at night. This happened with the other kids at this age as well. It was hard for them to slow down during the day so they caught up on mother's milk at night. It makes it really difficult for me because he is still waking 2-3 times a night, but I know that this will soon pass! I'm trying to savor every moment of his littleness.

Naps...are mostly are on the go. I hate this but it is a reality. He usually falls asleep in the car when we take the kids to or from school, so he ends up taking naps in his baby seat. I just carry his seat into the bedroom and he continues napping, but I don't like him learning to nap this way. I'm not fighting it right now though since I just can't seem to keep him awake in the car and I can use the break from monitoring him. I need time to get the big kids lunch or clean up so I just go with the flow and let him catnap. Hopefully when he turns 1 he will just need one long nap that can be scheduled.

I guess that it now for the basic update. I hope to post some more in the coming days. We had Toomas sister visit from Sweden and I got some great shots of the kids that I will share soon!

Halloween Portraits of Evan

Some of my favs from our Halloween portrait shoot. I've been playing photog very intensively over the last month or two. I have many, many more to share. I hope I'll have some time to upload them.

A few bits of news...Toomas sister visited this past week from Sweden. We had a great time and I took some great pictures. I'll get those up soon.

Evan can stand now for a few seconds without support! He is learning so quickly. He is sleeping terribly at night still but that is not new news!!! He has also learned to wave and make a silly face at the same time. It is just ADORABLE!!!

The kids head back to school soon (Thursday) and I'm looking forward to that. For now enjoy the pics!