Finally... the kids have a voice!

What Is Happening At the Nebelsick House?

We know that you are wondering what keeps our mommy and daddy busy all day so we thought that maybe we could write this blog post and get some of you informed on the happenings at the Nebelsick house.

First of all, David, Aria and Levi are writing this post so that you can hear their perspective on life in this beautiful house in Iowa. Our mom and dad do a great job of keeping us safely entertained and they get quite a bit of help from a lot of outside sources, but we are really quite happy when we just get to be together as a family.

Speaking of family, did you know that we got to go to Wyoming with mommy during early June? Mommy thought that she had better get us in the car seats so we didn’t forget how to travel and off we went. Grandma and Grandpa Rigsby were SO excited to see us that Grandma and Uncle Doug drove part way into South Dakota to pick us up and get us to Wyoming. We haven’t quite figured out why they don’t just let us get all the way to Wyoming on our own, but Aria thinks it has something to do with her squawking about losing the pacifier out of her mouth while we are driving. She has kind of figured out a system... throw it over the side of the seat and then squawk and you get TONS of attention. She is the master of that between the three of us. At any rate, we had some major changes on this trip and we are still trying to figure out what is going on. Here are the changes that we noticed:

(1) Something happened to our van... there is a seat missing in the middle and now two of us sit all the way in the back and only one of us gets to ride in the middle. We rotate who gets to sit where so that everybody gets used to all of the van. Mommy seems to think it is easier to get Aria into the back seat because somebody says she is the lightest... we think it was the doctor that told us that the last time we were there.

(2) For some reason, we seem to be driving backwards now. We used to watch out the back window and see everywhere that we had been. At night when we were traveling, there would sometimes be VERY bright lights in our eyes when big trucks were following us but that all has changed. Now we seem to see them coming at us but they are a lot further away. Our Aunt Mimi says that is because we are facing forward in the van now. Crazy... it is kind of fun being able to see mom and dad drive the van though. (If we only had a DVD player we could watch Einstein DVDs while traveling across South Dakota. Our mom has figured out that her little computer does an OK job for us, but it is nowhere near the big screen that we see when we get go Grandpa Rigsby’s living room.) We do like to listen to the CDs that she plays for us while we drive down the road.

(3) We had these cool car seats that you just pulled out of the van and snapped on to our amazing stroller and now those have gone away. Momma says that she sent two of them to Aunt Jessica and Uncle James because pretty soon there will be three more little guys just like us to play with when we go to their house. At first we couldn’t figure out why she didn’t send all three of them and then we heard a rumor that we are going to have a new brother or sister right after our cousins will be born. Now we have bigger kid seats that really are pretty comfortable as we ride in the car. That must be because we are the big brothers and sister. :) We were just getting used to the last ones and then someone told our parents that we were too big for them.

We know that we are getting bigger every day for several reasons. The doctor and nurses told use we were growing at a great rate when we went to visit them last time. In fact, guess who is the tallest... it isn’t David any more. Levi and Aria are both taller than David but don’t worry... he is doing his best to keep up with us. David is so busy crawling and climbing and trying to walk that he doesn’t have time to grow taller. Levi does as well as he can to keep up with David but he always wants to do everything first. That really is okay with us because then he gets to find out what is a “no-no” and we can learn from his experiences. Our favorite time lately has been sitting out on the deck with mommy or Aunt Mimi or daddy and watching the bubble machine blow bubbles all over our back yard. It is fun to be able to crawl inside and outside on our very own. We feel so grownup. David has figured out those things called steps and he knows what everyone is saying when we hear “turn around and go backwards” when he is trying to go down the steps. Levi and Aria just find it safer to stay away from steps that are going down. Levi has figured out how to follow David up the steps but that “turn around” business is just too confusing!

Here’s something that all of us have figured out... teeth are for biting. We use them for the most part to eat grown up food... our favorite is mandarin oranges... but there are lots of other things to chew on too. We can chew on tag blankets and plastic toys and stuffed animals AND we can also chew on our brother or sister. Yep... we have all figured that out and now we are working on that phrase that everyone keeps saying... “be nice... be gentle... no bite.”

Aria has a few space issues. When David and Levi come crawling and crashing over the top of her she has figured out that crying and whining will get a little attention. Usually we have not caused any harm to her at all but she thinks we are going to and then she gets all bent out of shape. She does like her stuffed animals and that seems to bring comfort to her along with her pacifier and blankets. As her brothers we do think she is definitely a girl and just doesn’t get us sometimes.

We have some great games that we like to play together and Levi is really good at a couple of them. He loves to start the game of “patty cake” and get us all going. He does have the cutest laugh and can really enjoy a good laugh when we are playing “peek-a-boo” too. He and Aria both love to take the Easter buckets that we got and put them over their heads and then play “peek-a-boo” with anyone who will play.

Oh yeah, you probably didn’t know that we say words that everyone else says too. We kind of have our own secret communication between the three of us but we have picked up a few words to tell mommy and daddy what we want. “Banana” means that we would like to eat and if you gave us bananas we would all think that you were about the best babysitter that we have had. Levi says “ty-ty” when he is ready to sleep and the rest of us call that “nigh-nigh”. We have mastered “mama and dada” too but try not to say it when asked just to strike out and show a little independence.

We did have a check up with the Doctor before we went to Wyoming and these were the latest statistics that they would tell us about ourselves:

David weighs 23lbs 8oz. and is 31 inches tall. (That is two feet 7 inches to those of you who convert it into adult terms.)
Aria weighs 20lbs 4oz. and is 32 inches tall. (That is two feet and 8 inches to those of you who try to compare us to adult sizes.)
Levi weighs 22lbs 11 oz. and is 32 inches tall. (That is two feet and 8 inches in adult sizing.)

We are wearing 18 to 24 month clothing although it is our understanding that we are only a little over 12 months old. Some of our clothes even say 2T. We’re wondering what the T stands for unless it means “tall” like we are when we say that we are “SO BIG!” with our hands way up in the air.

Last thing on this blog is a list of things that we have heard are “no-no’s” and we are wondering if the rest of the one year olds out there are getting the same response:

(1) Playing with the buttons on the DVD/CD players and TV.
(2) Climbing up the stairs when there aren’t any adults around.
(3) Pulling the cords out of the electrical outlets.
(4) Banging on the windows or the glass cupboards at Grandma’s house.
(5) Opening the cabinets and pulling out the Canola oil and then dumping it on Aunt Donna’s kitchen floor. (Oh man, that is so fun to play in. Well, I guess David was the only one who got to go sliding around. Mommy was way too fast getting Levi and Aria away!)
(6) Biting your brother or sister.
(7) Biting your mom or dad.
(8) Throwing your food on the floor.
(9) Throwing a fit because someone said no.
Get back to us if you have any input on these … maybe you know of some other things we should steer clear of too.

Hope you have enjoyed our chat. We have so much more to tell you and will be back with more REAL soon.

Love,
David, Aria and Levi
(as told to their Aunt Mimi)


David helping Mimi pass the time at her garage sale.


Uncle Rob and Levi coming in from the rain. It was terribly cold and rainy all week in Gillette.


We got to see the fire trucks that Uncle Doug and Uncle Rob drive!


Aria, trying on her hat. It was still way too big!



Trying Mommy's chocolate muffin. Mmmmm!





Aria's FIRST time pulling up to stand! Yay Aria! (Note the new, cute hair-do. Aria holds very still to get her hair done.)


Boys playing in/with the toy box. Watch out for the lid, Levi!



Here we are in our AWESOME new chairs from our Uncle Rob and Aunt Tina. We love them and sit in them all the time!