7 & 8 Months

I slacked off too long this time so Ella Girl gets a combined 7 & 8 month post :)

Well, let me just say I feel like this teensy baby of mine does not want to stay that way. She is learning new things so quickly I feel like she is speeding past her babyhood!

I mentioned in her 6 month post that she started army crawling but by 7 months she was up on her knees moving around and now she speeds all over the place on her hands and knees. She is very curious and investigates anything new in her path. 

She also started pulling up on everything. The first time she did it was in her crib which I saw through the monitor and it scared me to death since the mattress was still on the highest level. Needless to say Daddy lowered the mattress that night. She was very proud of herself though and was grinning ear to ear when I came in to get her. 

At first it would take her a little bit of effort to pull up but she quickly figured out how it worked so she can immediately pull up on things now. She loves the little musical baby table that we had of Preston's. It's the perfect height for her and she will stand up and bang on it for a long time. 

She also found the stairs (yipee!) but thankfully she doesn't head straight for them yet. She knows where they are but she doesn't always head for them. It took her just a few days from finding them and pulling up on the first step to now climbing them. These particular stairs are two wooden stairs that open to a landing with carpet and then carpet up the remaining stairs. She loves them so I just sit behind her and let her go. She climbed up 6 of the carpeted steps the other night and then pooped out, lol. 

She is such a squirmy little thing - always bouncing in our arms and she also bangs her head backwards a lot, like against her high chair or against our chest when we hold her outwards. Not a clue on that one. She also likes to tap her foot. When she is laying in the floor on her tummy, one foot is almost always tapping. She will tap her hand on stuff too. It's very sweet. I just love her tiny hands and feet. And they are definitely tiny. She can still wear size 3 month shoes. 

She is always squealing and smiling at us. She really is a happy girl. She is starting to get clingy though and she likes to look for Mommy. 

She loves for her Daddy to snort at her and tickle her tummy. She gets all squeal-y laughing at him.

She also has this funny breathe-through-her-nose thing she does when gets excited. Its kind of like the "hee-hee" sound from lamaze breathing. She does it when she sees one of us or herself in the mirror. She loves to see herself.

As far as eating goes, she nurses about 4 times a day and eats baby food 3 times a day. It's usually a fruit mixed with baby oatmeal for breakfast, a veggie for lunch and a combo food with fruit for dinner. She seem to have a sweet tooth as she much prefers the fruits and sweet baby foods. She also started eating the puffs and yogurt melts. It took her a little while to get the hang of putting them in her mouth but she does well with it now. I usually end up cleaning a bunch of puffs out of the highchair seat but 5 out of 10 isn't too bad :)

She is still learning to use her sippy cup. She would rather just chew on it since she seems to be teething (no teeth yet though). 

She loves her baths. She has a pink bath seat and she and Preston have the best time taking a bath together. She squeals and splashes and laughs at her brother while he hogs the toys. Santa is bringing Ella some of her own bath toys...

She is sleeping pretty good now. Over the last few weeks she has had more nights of sleeping all night (around 9:00 p.m. to 6 or 7:00 a.m.). But honestly I never know what to expect from her. She can sleep all night and then the next night be up a few times. A few nights ago she was asleep two hours and then I saw her on the monitor standing up and talking, ready to get out of the bed and play at 11:00 p.m. No ma'am, I don't think so. 

She takes at least one good nap a day if we are at home and sometimes two, depending on how long she sleeps with her first nap. If we are on the go she will snooze in and out of the carseat. She doesn't like to fall asleep just anywhere. She definitely wants her bed or carseat. Preston has always been that way too. They like routine. 

I'm not sure on weight or length since we don't go back to the doctor until 9 months but she is pretty much the same as she has been, petite and chunky :) She has the cutest chubby wubby legs. I heart them. She is wearing 6-9 month clothes and a few 12 months. 

Her hair is really starting to grow and thicken up and she can even wear a few bows without a headband. I can't wait for her hair to grow long. I'm thinking her hair will be about the same color as Preston's but we'll see once she gets more of it. It's very light right now but Preston's was too. Her eyes are still bright blue and I think they might stay that way. Preston's eyes were blue until close to a year old but they were a darker blue. Now his are a grayish brownish color (very unique). Hers are so light that I would be surprised if they darkened up. 

Well I guess that's all for now. I'm doing pretty good. She turned 8 months yesterday so hopefully I can keep on track and update timely!

Here's a few pics from the last two months although they are definitely not in order. 

Wearing one of my dresses as a baby

My dress again with the bonnet :)

My Big 3 Year Old

Making birthday pancakes and out for birthday lunch

My beautiful boy

After his first big boy short haircut

Birthday party fun!

Disclaimer: This post has been in the works for about 3 weeks so any "present time talk" could be a few weeks old.

I just can't believe my baby boy is three years old. Oh it makes my heart clench to think how fast he is growing and I am just so thankful the Lord gave us this precious child.

I was just looking through some photos of him at a year old and it seems like it was just the other day.

All this time I have been thinking of him as a baby and now I'm forced to realize that the chubby legs have become slender and baby babble has become full communicative sentences. I now have this talkative, loving little boy who I love so much it hurts. Ugh, it's late at night and I'm feeling emotional. I need to stop being sappy.

He's just so lovable. Not trying to be the annoying mom who thinks her kid is better than anyone else's but I do think he is fantastic :) Perfect? Of course not. But he is pretty darn special :) No matter what happens in Preston's life, I want him to always know that Mom & Dad are absolutely crazy about him and will always be there for him.

Preston is so fun and entertaining. Just since we moved in our new house in February his vocabulary blossomed and he is constantly spouting off things that just leave us laughing. As sad as it makes me to see his babyhood leaving, it makes me equally as happy and joyful to see this fun age.

He is very smart, loves to count all the time. He counts his food, each step up the stairs, pretty much anything. He counts to 12 correctly and then mixes up the rest to 20 but he's getting there. He knows his letters and we sing the ABC's together...although he doesn't have the order down pat. 

His imagination has taken off and he loves to pretend to be Buzz Lightyear or Woody. He is always running around saying, "To infinity and beyond!" or if we leave a room to do something else he likes to run off and say "to the rescue!" Makes me laugh.

Some big news from the summer is he learned to use the potty and finally gave up the paci (which was for sleeping only). Both terrified me but he did so much better than I ever anticipated. Once he finally "tee-teed" in his little potty and realized what he was actual supposed to do in there, he was trained in just a few days, honestly. He did #2 all by himself when I was in the shower. I was a bit shocked when he told me and sure enough he did! He's had maybe 3 accidents during the day since the summer but he sleeps in Pull-ups at night. He usually stays dry but every now and then he will wet in them. As for the paci, or "blah-blah" as he always called it, we explained that he was a big boy now and pacis were for babies. He was definitely upset but within a day or two it wasn't even a big deal. 

He loves to dance. I guess he gets it from his crazy mama who dances around to random music. I'm just happy that he wants to dance with me. One of our favorite songs to dance to is the Route 66 song that John Mayer sings at the end of the movie Cars. It's our favorite.

And speaking of cars, those are still our current obsession. His birthday party was Cars themed. He began his interest after watching the movie soon after we moved into our new house. We have been collecting the cars ever since then and they are his absolute favorite things to play with. Mommy might share in the collecting obsession too but I think that's okay :) His best friend Carter has the same love for Cars so that's always fun. Carter's mommy shares the collecting obsession with me so that makes me feel better, ha ha, Kim! Who knew two adult women could get so excited about finding a new toy car at the store?!?! Okay, enough Cars talk.

Another thing I love about P is his trying-to-be-serious face. If he's mad or just feeling silly he will get that serious look and look away from us. We always stare back at him with a goofy face and he just busts out laughing despite his best attempts to keep a straight face.

One of my favorite expressions is his closed mouth smile that shows off his dimples. It's just the sweetest little smile and absolutely melts my heart. Those dimples are one of the few physical traits that he got from me. Funny how I used to be embarrassed of my dimples but I'm proud to have them now and I love that my boy and I have them together.

He still loves to eat. His favorites are chicken nuggets, pizza, pancakes aka "panpakes" and waffles, grilled cheese, yogurt, pb&j or pb & banana sandwiches. He LOVES fruit, just about anything. In the summertime we devour watermelon and he also loves strawberries, grapes and bananas. As far as veggies, he likes black eyed peas, corn and green beans. And of course he has a sweet tooth like me and loves doughnuts or "dun-dunts" and anything chocolate..."chock-it". His favorite go-to candy treat is a sucker. Any kind or flavor. Loves them. He still drinks milk daily but he also likes gatorade or sweet tea.

He's so cute when he sits down to eat and says his prayer, "Thank you, Jesus, food, Amen". He will even do it alone if nobody is eating with him and it warms my soul to hear it. We're working on more detailed blessings :)

I want to list of a few more things he says to always remember so here goes.

gone gone - "jone jone"

grocery store - "food store"

spit up - "pits up"

band aid - "and baid"

motorcycle - "motorsucker"

anything that starts with a "c" is pronounced with a "t" (come here - "tum here")  

If we are out somewhere and you ask him what he wants to eat, it's ALWAYS "chicken, fry, ketchup, drink". We sometimes get a "milkshake" tacked onto the end but not every time. Geez...

I know there are more but I can't think of them right now. I'll try to update if I think of them.

He is truly one of the most thankful children. Anything he gets he always runs to Blake or I and says "I love it! Thank you Mommy/Daddy!!!" And it's no exaggeration on the excitement. He kept telling me thank you today when we put up his Christmas tree in his room.

He is such a good big brother. He loves Ella so much and tells us all the time, "I love my little sister." If she cries, he mimics me and tells her "It's okay, little baby" or "Ella, it's okay sweet girl." He usually gets up in the morning before her so when he hears her on the monitor, its "Ella's awake! Let's go get her!" I like to let him go first and watch on the monitor (video) to see what he does and he climbs up on the side so he can peek in and talk to her. It's so precious because she is just as equally excited to see him. This is what happened the other day when I took my eyes off the monitor for a few minutes...

He loves to play with her but he is getting possessive of his toys so we are working on sharing with sister. She is a big fan of his cars so I am constantly telling him to let Ella have one since he tries to sneak them all out of her reach.

And of course it's not a perfect world in our house and meltdowns and temper tantrums do take place and sometimes we want to pull our hair out...just the normal life with a preschooler :)

I wouldn't trade him for anything though.

Well, I guess that's all right now on my boy. I hope to update more often but goodness these babies keep me busy :) Ella's 7 month post is past due so hopefully I will have that one soon!

Happy Half Birthday - 6 Months!!!

Little Sweetie Pie is six months old already. I can't believe how quickly she is growing.

She is reaching milestones so much faster than Preston. I'm sure it has a lot to do with keeping up with her big brother. She wants to be around him all the time. She laughs and squeals at him and she always laughs when he cries. It cracks me up.

At her six month check up she weighed in at 17 lbs 4 oz and measured 25 3/4 inches. She's 65th percentile in weight and between 35th and 40th in length. She's a pretty tiny girl but she's got some big ole drumstick legs :) I love them! The doctor said she is very healthy. They pricked her toe for blood and said she was slightly anemic. We just have to be sure she gets her vitamin daily and takes in cereal once a day.

Moving into food, she is enjoying her solid foods very much. We tried sweet potatoes first, like I did with Preston. She wasn't a fan at first but now she loves them. Not a big fan of squash or peas. She gags at the peas. I tried to mix it with a fruit so she doesn't notice as much. She loves bananas and prunes so I tried to do those together to help balance out her little system. The bananas by themselves seem to make her a little constipated. She also likes apples, pears and carrots. She is doing well with these Stage 1 foods so next trip to the store I will be getting some Stage 2 foods. The doctor says she can have Stage 2 plus some table foods like mashed potatoes or pureed soup. We haven't tried them yet but hopefully we will soon. She gets baby food three times a day, usually about half an hour after she nurses.

She usually takes two naps a day, a morning and afternoon. Sometimes she will take one super long nap instead of the two. Depends on her mood, I guess. She goes to bed around 9:00, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. She will usually get up once or twice by 5:00 a.m. and then sleeps until 7 ish. It was 8 ish until the time changed this week.

One huge milestone is she is crawling! Since 5 1/2 months old she has been army crawling, basically dragging herself around. At first it was short distances but now she is all over the place. She will get on her knees and rock but then flattens out to her tummy. She will also get her entire body off the ground besides hands and feet. She's got good body strength :) She has ventured off the carpeted areas and into the kitchen and hallways. I still get nervous that she will bang her head on the tile floors so I try to keep her contained in her pack and play in the kitchen when she wants a change of scenery. She likes it in there since it's full of toys.

She is sitting up pretty well too. She started out leaning forward a lot but she can completely sit up straight now and usually for several minutes. Eventually she will slump down to her tummy so she can crawl. It's not often she will fling backwards but I try to keep pillows around her just in case.

She loves to play with toys, especially Preston's. She likes to bang them around. She also loves to play with anything crunchy sounding. If she is fussing, I can just hand her a receipt and she is immediately calm and occupied.

She is very vocal. Loves to shriek and squeal and get attention. She yells at me if I leave the room and she wants my attention. Typical girl :)

She is so sweet and smiles ALL the time. You just look at her and she smiles. I love it. She's so precious. I love watching her learn and play. Her tiny hands are always so busy. Being a mama is truly the best. I love my babies so much.

Well, I have pictures to post but I can't get them edited right now and this post has been in the works for almost a week. I will post them soon :)

And Preston's 3 year old birthday update is next!

5 Months!

This month's update will be short and sweet seeing as Ella will be 6 months old on Friday. It seems no matter my intentions, I still fall behind on my posts. Oh well, let's see what we have for our little lady's 5th month of life.

She is still eating about the same, usually every four hours although she will go longer sometimes. Eating is just not the biggest priority to her. I'm sure that will change. We will be starting solids this Friday when she turns six months old. I'm so excited! I bought her a few things already, squash, sweet potatoes, pears and bananas. Preston's first food was sweet potatoes so I may go with that one first. I did give her some rice cereal, only twice though. She did fine with it but it was kind of just a messy pain.

Anyway, since her four month post, her sleeping habits have changed a good bit. She now sleeps in the crib at night and for her naps. It took some adjusting at night time but it wasn't that bad. She starting flipping over on her stomach of course but she decided she likes to sleep that way. I know they are supposed to sleep on their back but what do you do? She has excellent control of her head and moves it back and forth and can completely lift her head and chest off the ground so I'm not worried about her face getting "stuck" somewhere.

For a while she was only getting up once maybe twice between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 or 6:00 but now she usually gets up twice. Still a working progress.

Naps are going greater than I anticipated. Once she got adjusted to the crib at night I started working on daytime naps. She wasn't a big fan at first. She loved her swing and would much prefer to sleep there but I knew it was time to get her changed over. She would fuss and I would just slip in and return the paci a time or two and she would fall asleep. At first she wouldn't sleep very long but now she will take a nice long 2-3 hour nap, depending on how tired she is. She usually takes two naps a day, unless we're out and about and she gets several cat naps instead.

She started playing in her exersaucer and sitting in her highchair this month and started using the bouncy seat and swing less and less this month. She's growing up already :(

She loves Preston's toy cars. That's the first thing she goes for in the plethora of toys in my floor. Preston is learning to share. Somehow he wants the exact car that she's playing with...hmm...only the beginning.

Well I've more milestones to report but I'll put them in her six month post since technically she was over 5 months when she achieved them. Geez, I'm so behind.

Here's some fun pictures of her 5th month! A much overdue post about Preston is coming soon along with Miss Ella's 6 month post...hopefully within the next week :)

She loves her brother

Two little Auburn fans sleeping through the game lol. This is Ella and her buddy, Luke. He also happens to be her 3rd cousin :)

Trying cereal for the first time

First time playing in the exersaucer. She loves the seesaw just like her big brother did

Apparently he still does :)

Sitting straight up in her bouncy. Eyes closed but still cute

4 Months!

Geez, how I wish there were more hours in a day! The months are flying by so fast and I'm constantly trying to keep up with my posts! Oh well, I'm blessed beyond measure to have such a wonderful family to keep me busy.

Our girl is continuing to grow and change all the time. She's had a busy month learning new things!

First the stats. At her 4 month check up she weighed in at 14 lbs 8 oz and measured 24.5 in in length. Her head circumference was 15.75 inches. I forgot the percentiles that the doctor told me but research on the internet gave me 64% for weight and 45% for length. That sounds about right.

She was perfectly healthy and looked great to the doctor. She mentioned we could start cereal and even solids if we wanted too but if we could wait until 6 months for solids she might have a lesser chance of food allergies. Cereal was more of a messy pain with Preston and he didn't really care for it so I don't even know if I will try with Ella. Who knows, she may like it. I'm planning on waiting until six months for solids though.

Here is a picture of her on the scales. She was so good the whole time...until shots :( Although I will say she was a champ and calmed down pretty soon afterwards.

Eating
Ella eats about every 4 hours, sometimes sooner, sometimes later. It's still surprising to me because Preston was such a big eater and nursed all the time. She is packing on her rolls though despite her tiny frame. She's chunky and petite all at the same time :)

Sleeping
I wish I could say sleep was going great but truthfully we are still having issues. We did move Ella to her crib this month and the first night I put her in there she came right back to our room. Why, you ask? As soon as I laid her down in the crib she flipped over on her stomach and screamed until I picked her up. She hardly ever stays on her back anymore and will flip over as soon as you lay her down. She never did it in the bassinet, I guess because of it's small size, but the crib is obviously more spacious. So anyway, the next night I remembered about her sleep positioner. She did great in it and slept for about five hours the first night. Then she would wake up and wriggle her way down the positioner and then flip herself out of it. I didn't mind since she was sleeping so well but here recently she started waking after an hour or so and flipping out. Needless to say I wasn't getting very much sleep so back in our room she came. She did a little better last night but after a discussion with friends, I am thinking she might have reflux which could be causing the night issues. She has been spitting up tons and I never thought it could be reflux since it didn't bother her. My friends observed her yesterday while they were over for a football game and seem to think it still could be reflux. I'm actually calling the doctor tomorrow to discuss it and possibly try a round of meds to see if makes any difference. As for naps, she still sleeps in the swing or in the carseat while we are on the go. She might catnap on our bed but it doesn't last very long.

Personality and Fun Stuff
She is so noisy! She chatters, squeals in delight and just yells sometimes because she wants too. Typical  girl, lol. She smiles all the time and loves to observe her surroundings. She is very curious. She loves to be walked around. She started playing with toys this month. She was in the swing one night and I would hand her some of Preston's blocks with holes and she would wrap a finger in the hole and hold onto it. So sweet. We bought her a set of girly baby keys and she loves those. It's so precious to see her teeny little hands reach for something. One of her favorite things to play with is Preston's cars. They are perfect size for her to hold so she and Preston can already play together :) Another favorite toy is her toes. She loves to hold onto them and study them. She also loves to lay on her playmat and play with the crunchy flaps. Like I said earlier, she immediately flips to her stomach when we lay her down so we just stick a toy in front of her and she's content for a while. She can move around some on her belly, more of a making a full circle as opposed to scooting or crawling.

Here's a picture of her holding the blocks for the first time...along with her toes. She is a multi-tasker :)

And some more fun favorites of our girl from her fourth month.