Saturday, February 14, 2015

Charlotte's 2nd Month

Firsts: smile!, cooing noise, trip to visit GG and Big D, first time out of Alabama, meeting Mimi and D-Daddy, celebrating mommy and daddy’s birthday, Valentine’s day

News Headlines: Gay marriage legalized in Alabama. Many probate judges are refusing to do them or any marriages all together now.

Mommy and Daddy’s Favorites: Your smiles and soft fuzzy head

Milestones: smiling and cooing noises

Measurements Weight and length clothes and diapers: all 0-3/3 months clothing, size 1 diapers (contemplating size 2!)

Like Aubrey: You finally like your bath and it calms you at night

Sweetest Moment: Aubrey loves helping! Especially when you’re in the bath. She likes to make sure you have a paci if you’re crying (even if you don’t want it) and she always comes to tell me if you’re crying so we can get you up from your nap.

Memorable moment: When you first smiled at Daddy. You’d be giving a smile here and there a few days before, but when he looked at you, you gave him a huge grin. This was the first time you smiled enough to get a picture of it!

Challenges: You’ve been crying a bit more than last month. Nothing too bad really thankfully!! You really like to be held during the day and don’t normally have a good nap when we put you down.

How we spend the day: You spend the day eating, sleeping, pooping and crying. We hang out while Aubrey plays.

Feedings/sleeping: You wake up about 6:30 (give or take 30 min. or so) and eat. You aren’t constantly eating as much as you did last month. We are really working on an eat, play sleep schedule as opposed to an exact amount of time in between feedings. You do pretty well and only occasionally need to be nursed to sleep. You are becoming much for interactive during your awake time, but it isn’t long before you become pretty fussy and are ready for another little snooze. We give you a bath or wash you off and put your pj’s on around the same time we get Aubrey ready for bed. I feed you around this time and we swaddle you and you normally fall asleep either nursing or with a little bouncing and then we put you down around 9ish. You are waking up about once now, although occasionally twice. Lately its been about 4:30 or 5 and then you’ll go back to sleep. A few times you haven’t fallen right back to sleep while nursing and I’ll still put you down and you’ll go back to sleep on your own…awake!! Yay!!

Personality: You are such a happy and pleasant baby most of the time. Unless you are tired, hungry, or your tummy hurtsJ But thankfully those things can all be fixed! When you are awake you’ve started smiling more and making little noises. You are content to sit and look around for a few minutes. You seem to like people and have given all of us a smile a few times this month…even Aubrey!

Likes: Your bath, finally!, eating, being swaddled, sleeping in the car while it is moving, being held, eating, your paci sometimes, sleeping on mommy’s chest, white noise-especially the microwave vent (it calms you every time), eating your hands
Dislikes: when the car stops (this is the time you spaz out the most), when your tummy hurts, getting out of the bath, the dreaded tummy time

Mobility: You’re getting better at holding your head up, you can lift it up a little for a few seconds during tummy time…we really need to work on this a little more:/, you are constantly kicking and wiggling your arms, you’ve found your little hands and love to slurp on them. I love seeing your little tongue sticking out while you are trying to find your mouth.

Favorite toy: Honestly your hands, you’ll take a paci every once in a while-its sweet when you hold on to the wubbanub animal while you suck on your paci.

Upcoming Events: Your 2 month check up (and shots…boo L) a visit from mommy and daddy’s friends, Keith and Paige, and their little girl Ruth.

New Explorations: We’ve tried out the play mat a few times. You seem to like looking at the animals and yourself in the mirror for a few seconds before you want to be picked up.

Sounds: Along with your crying and noisy grunting in your sleep you’ve started talking to us with sweet little coos and the occasionally squeel!

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Charlotte's 1st Month


Firsts: Everything! First trip to the doctor, bath in your tub, meeting your sister Aubrey, time daddy went out of town, trip out to eat, First Christmas and new years!

News Headlines:

Mommy and Daddy’s Favorites: seeing you for the first time and hearing your sweet cry. Also seeing your big sister meet you for the first time and say “she came out! She’s not in your tummy any more!”

Milestones: You’re making some eye contact and working on holding your head up

Measurements: You were 7lbs. 9oz. at birth and dropped to 7lbs. 2 oz. At two weeks you were already up to 8lbs. 2oz. and at your month check up you were??? And were ???in. long You are growing out of your newborn diapers and we will move up to size 1 as soon as we use up this box. You are moving up to mostly 0-3month clothes because you are so long!

Like Mommy & Daddy: People say you look more like Daddy. You have both of our cowlicks so that should make for some interesting hair woes as you get older.

Like/no like Aubrey: You are very different babies already! You sleep much better and nursed well as soon as you were born. You love to be swaddled and seem to take a paci much more than she did. You both have cute little cowlicks and both loves snacks!

Funniest Moment: You shot poop out so far it hit your lamp!

Memorable moment: The moment you came out and I got to see you and when you met Aubrey for the first time!

Challenges: Your big sister Aubrey got the flu when you were only a week and a half old. We had to be VERY careful and keep you away from her for several days to keep you from getting it.

How we spend the day: We don’t really have schedule yet because we’ve had so many things come up. We’ve had a lot of family in town because of Christmas and Daddy going out of town so hopefully we will get on a better schedule this month. We basically spend the day just trying to get by with a 2 year old and a newborn;)

Feedings/Eating: I let you nurse on demand throughout the day. You eat a lot when you are awake, especially first thing in the morning and at night before you go to bed. I’m completely ok with this because you are doing so well and only normally wake up twice at night to eat.  This isn’t every night, but you normally wake up sometime around 1 and 4 and then for the day about 6-7 something.

Sleeping: You are doing such a good job sleeping! Most days you still sleep a lot throughout the day. Some days you are up more and some you still sleep almost all day unless you are eating. At night we give you your bath or wipe you off about 8 (the same time as Aubrey) and then you eat while we put her to bed. After that we swaddle you and I feed you and normally you are out for the night by 9 or 10. Sometimes you wake up right before we go to bed and sometimes not until about 1 or so. Then you wake about 4-5 and then sleep again until 6-7. It is nice because we haven’t had a time yet where you wouldn’t go back to sleep at night time. Fingers crossed you keep doing this at night!! We only had a few days at the beginning where you would only sleep while being held. Now you sleep all night in your rock n’ play sleeper and take at least one nap in it during the day.

Personality: You seem to be a big more laid back than Aubrey was, but seem to have a bit of a temper. Daddy calls you an angry elf sometimes because you get such a mad look on your face if you don’t get picked up or fed right away.

Likes/Dislikes: You like sleeping, the car when its moving, being held, nursing, a paci, mommy, being worn in the k’tan (it puts you to sleep), being swaddled, looking at fans
You dislike your carseat when we aren’t moving, when you wake up and we don’t immediately pick you up and feed you,

Mobility: You are able to pick your head up and move it from side to side when we have you on our chest or upright. We started working on tummy time and you seem to be doing ok, but its hard to tell because you got kind of mad.

Favorite toy: You like your Wubbanub sheep paci

Upcoming Events: Your 1 month appointment tomorrow. You’re able to get out of the house more at 6 weeks (we broke the rules a little early this time), but because it is the winter and cold/flu season, I’ll still probably limit the places we go to where people aren’t touching or passing you around.

Sounds, words, and communication: right now you are pretty much just grunting and crying. You do make a cute “mmm” sound when you are nursing.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

15 Months Old

Firsts: Birthday party, trip to the beach with Daddy and trip to Hilton Head, antibiotic, meeting your great grandma (Daddy's Grandma Sharon),

Our Favorites: You’ve gotten really “lovey” recently and will give hugs and kisses. Sometimes when I hold you, you wrap your legs and arms around me so tight and pat my back. When we put you to bed at night you will blow kisses and wave and tell us bye!
            You’ve also started this new thing where me and your daddy will give each other a hug or will be sitting on the couch together and you’ll all of a sudden realize you aren’t being included. You’ll run over and want to join in. We started saying “family, family” because you wanted to be a part of the family, too, and not get left out. Now we do it and wait for you to run over and you say “mamily, mamily!” with a huge smile on your face.

Milestones: You are walking really well now and have been for a while. You now how a little bounce to your step and almost run when you’re really on the go. You’ve learned to go up and down the little playschool slide all by yourself. You can push and pull your shopping cart all over the house, and are getting better at riding on your little cars. You go backwards most of the time but occasionally can go forward.

Measurements: At the doctor for your 15 month check up you were 19lbs 2oz. and 31inches. You’re wearing all 6-12/12 month clothing and are in size 3 diapers during the day and 4 at night.

Funniest Moments: Aunt Caitlin moved in with us in September. You LOVE her and run through the house all day yelling “Aya” (what you call her for some reason). When she’s not here you look for her and knock on her door…you love your new bathroom buddy! She had some, uh, feminine items in her room and you kept going in there looking for them and calling them cheese and crackers. I guess they looked like packs of crackers and string cheese! You then went and hid some in your closet!! Silly kid!

Memorable moment: One night right when I was about to drop your last feeding before bed and we’d changed up your regular routine to help with that, I was having a little “sad, my baby is growing up too fast and doesn’t need me anymore” mommy moment. You’d been sleeping through the night pretty regularly, but for some reason woke up that night and wouldn’t go back to sleep on your own. I quickly wiped by tears and tiptoed out because Daddy was still sleeping (of course hehe). I went in and nursed you for the last time in the middle of the night. It was such a sweet and special time to have with you. You kept looking up at me with your sweet eyes and I held you and prayed for you and thanked God for such a precious time and for such a wonderful blessing. Right before I put you back to sleep I propped you up on my shoulder and you wrapped your arms around me tightly and rested your head on my shoulder. Then you sat up and gave me a little kiss on the cheek! Oh my goodness, my heart melted!! You knew just what mommy needed.

Challenges: Right after your 12-month checkup you got a really bad fever. We thought it was from the shots, but it didn’t go away for a while. It turned out you had a virus. A week after you finally got better, you ended up with another fever! You had it for almost a week and we’d been to the doctor several times. It turned out to be a UTI. As soon as you got antibiotics in your system you finally did better. It was terrible seeing you so sick. You got to the point that you wouldn’t even take medicine. It was awful. Thankfully you’ve been well since then and did so good with your 15-month shots!
            Another and very different kind of challenge is your little temper starting to form. You have learned the word ‘no’ and use it quite frequently. If we have to take something away or stop you from doing something you get really mad. You will say “no, no, no” and “top” (stop). Its really awkward if it happens in public. Thankfully you are fine after a few seconds.

Feedings/Eating: You are officially weaned!! We had a good runJ Between your one year shots, getting sick, and molars coming in we stretched it to 15 months! I am one proud mommy!
You are a pretty good eater some days, and other days you aren’t. I’ve heard this is pretty typical of toddlers. One of the first things you say when you get up in the morning is “waffe”…you love breakfast! Some of your favorite foods are graham crackers (caka’s), cookies/nutri-grain bars (coocoos), and cheese. You ask for each of them a MILLION times a day. You make little smacking noises when you see something you want to eat. We’ve let you feed yourself a little more lately with a spoon and it basically gets everywhere!! But if you can pick it up by yourself, you are eating by yourself. Your newest thing is dipping food in sauces…especially ketchup. You will eat all kinds of things as long as there is something to dip it in. You also love Mexican because you can dip tortillas in the cheese dip. You drink from a sippy cup all the time and do really well with it. You’re doing better with milk, but would prefer water.

Sleeping: You still take 2 naps most days. That’s our goal anyways. It all depends on when you wake up though. If you sleep in later you normally only take one nap. You’ve been pretty consistently sleeping through the night.

Personality: You have such a strong personality. You’ve always been pretty strong willed, but it is really starting to shine! HA! You let us know what you want in all kinds of ways, good and bad. You are getting more verbal so this is very helpful and I think will prevent some tantrums in the future. You are determined to do things right and get mad when you can’t do something. However, after you get mad and yell you are quick to give hugs and are super sweet and loving. You are this way to people and to your “friends”, BaaBaa, Kitty, and Ellie. You give them kisses when you haven’t seen them, will feed them your snack and make little chewing noises, you share your cup, and even wiped their noses when you were sick. You are such a big helper and always want to be right by Mommy’s side. You bring me utensils out of the dishwasher and will help pick things up and put them where they go. You are also very friendly to people and will wave to strangers, tell people “hi” and “bye” when they leave.

Favorite toys and playtime: You love to play now! Its so cute to watch you play with all of your toys. You are getting better at putting puzzles in the right slot and stacking your stacking cups in the right order. You love to have a picnic with us. You also LOVE music and dancing. You swing your hips back and forth and it is hilarious. You love taking walks and we go for a walk almost every day. You will still sit in a stroller when we go for longer walks. You will head to the door and say “waa” (walk) and will normally be dragging us right behind you with our finger in your hand!

New Explorations: Since you’ve been walking we’ve let you wander around a little on your own in some stores and outside in the front yard. You love to explore and look at different things. It is so fun to see you explore…it gives us a little insight to what you like and what’s going on inside your little head.

Words, and communication: You have really taken off in this area. I am so proud of you for how much you are talking. You can say several words, point to many body parts when we ask, and follow directions (if you want to!). We are working on animal noises, but you seem to get hung up on the same ones. So far your favorites are a snorting sound when you see a pig, baaa for a sheep, and oofoof when you see the puppies across the street. You always get the sheep and pig out of your barn puzzle. You have really picked up sign language recently. You will sign and say “peas” (please) and “tae to” (thank you) on your own and use them correctly. You can also sign more, but only do this occasionally without prompting.

Teeth: You’ve gotten so many teeth recently you officially have 9 teeth (one is a molar) and have 3 more molars on the brink of coming. You’ve handled it like a champ for the most part.

Poor sick baby...I got her up from a nap and she passed out again. I loved it just a little though:)

She loves to dip things!

Having a picnic with Great Grandma Sharon!

Sunglasses just like Mommy:)

"CHEESE"

She also likes eating ketchup with a straw...practicing those fine motor skills...

First "baby cone" from Bruster's...you loved it just a little bit.

You love bags...

...and sunglasses.

                                       
4th of July this year and a year ago!!

15 Month check up!! You wanted to walk around so I made you put your shoes back on. 
Silly baby:)

Happy 15 Months sweet baby!!!!!!!!!






Saturday, September 7, 2013

Aubrey's 1st Birthday!!!

Oops...haven't updated in a while, but better late than never!! Here's a few one year pictures and some from her birthday party. Her one year pictures I actually took by myself!! I love them and was so excited with how they turned out:) 




Starting off slow....




She loved it!

Aubrey's 1st birthday went well for the most part. Poor baby apparently had a virus and had been running a fever the night before.  Thankfully it went down and with some Advil was able to pull through for the party. Here are a few pictures from the day!





All of her monthly photos displayed on a banner:)









She didn't really get into eating the cake too much...she hadn't had much of an appetite:(

One of the few smiles we got from her that day. Poor baby! Hopefully next year she will be well and ready to celebrate!!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Our Family Beach Trip

My family has been going to Hilton Head since I was in the second grade.  It is one of my favorite places! I've been on several family vacations there, youth trips with my youth group, we went on our honey moon there, and this year we brought Aubrey! I have so many wonderful memories from over the years! Here are a few pictures from our most recent trip and a few from the past years...

Our honey moon


2009


2011

This year:

she hated the sand...


But she rocked the attire!

Sisters!

We love our Mommy!!

She was taking off!


Just one of the girls:)


This pretty much sums up our trip...we walked up and down a bigillion stairs.









Fun with Mommy on the way home!

We had a great vacation...didn't spend a whole lot of time on the beach, but enjoyed every second we got to spend together!! So thankful for such a wonderful family:D