35 months

So I've decided that her 36 month/3 year post will be the last monthly post and after that I'll do a long, detailed post every 3 months (along with other random posts in the middle). I feel like at this age, most of the content in these posts are in the "nothing has changed" category, and all people are really interested in reading are the funny sayings :)

Everything is still great in the eating and sleeping departments. She has done a fabulous job during our trip to Texas. She is in bed from roughly 8-8 and sleeps for probably 11 hours on a normal day. On a very active day, she will fall asleep sooner. She takes a two hour nap from about 1:45-3:45. She had one day this month where she talked through her nap, but other than that, she has slept great and I usually have to wake her up. She still wears a pull up at night and pretends there is a potty in it when she sleeps. She loves her crib but sometime in the next few months I think we will convert it to a toddler bed. I don't remember if I put this on the blog or not, but Elise basically stopped drinking milk a few months ago and only drinks water. She'd had a perpetual runny nose for probably a year (maybe since we started cow's milk, maybe not... we can't remember but we know it started when we lived in Texas), which we kept blaming on moves and climate changes. For a few days in September, she was sick and we didn't give her milk during that time, and we noticed that her runny nose went away. We experimented a little bit and determined that the nose running was in fact associated with milk. She still eats yogurt and cheese but usually only has milk when we get it as part of her meal at Chipotle, or if I buy it for part of a recipe (Mike and I are not milk drinkers).

She's been such a pleasant person to be around the last few weeks. She has been much less challenging and less clingy. The hardest part of the day for us is probably getting ready to go somewhere. She doesn't like to get dressed and she especially doesn't like wearing a coat/hat/mittens, to the point that she won't want to play outside because she doesn't want to put them on. Newsflash, sweetheart... it's about to get really cold in Maryland! When we get back home, we're going to finish organizing the basement and bring in her slide/climber so that we'll have a nice indoor place to be active. She'a also getting a Schwinn Roadster for her birthday that we will keep down there.

Her vocabulary, pronunciation, memory, and conceptual knowledge continue to develop so rapidly. It is quite amazing what a toddler can understand and learn. Here are some funny sayings from the last week:


(the Saturday before we left to go to Texas)
E: "Today is Saturday and we are going to the zoo. Tomorrow is Sunday and we will go to church. After that is Monday and we will go to Texas!"
(a few minutes later)
E: "We will not take naps [while in Texas], we will just play."


(while eating breakfast and wearing her pajama shirt with her sweatshirt and sweatpants because she was being difficult and we were late leaving the house...first time she's worn any part of her pajamas out of the house)
E: "You can't see my shirt. It's hiding."
Mimi: "It is?"
E: "Yeah... 'cause I'm wearing my sweatshirt!"
(pause)
E: "When you wear your pajama shirt all day long, that's what you have to do!"


Mimi: (walks in the bathroom to find Elise, arms folded, sitting on a stool in front of the open cabinets)
E: I'm not going to touch anything. I'm just looking.


(after going to many places to see many people in the days leading up to Christmas)
Pop: "Elise, what are you going to do today?"
E: "I'm going to play with... somebody."


Mimi: "Is your nose running?"
E: "Yes... I don't know why it's running. I think it's running from my cold I got when I went to the Baltimore Zoo but I don't know why it's running... I think it's 'cause I think too much."


E: "When I cough, I have to cover my arm so I don't get dirt on everybody."


E: "I just went potty all by myself. And I pooped. That was my option."


(I accidentally cut Jack's finger when I was using inferior nail clippers a few weeks ago)
Mommy: "Thank you for cooperating while I cut your nails, sweetie. Jack doesn't cooperate that well, because he's a baby."
E: "Is that because you cut his little finger?"


(We met some friends to eat at Chick Fil A today and she was staring at the logo and shocked me by saying this...)
E: "Chh Chh Chh. C H says Chh, like Chick Fil A!"


(while trying to get her to say long words, like 'anethesiologist')
Daddy: "Can you say 'arachnaphobia'?"
E: "Is that an animal?"


E: "Donkey Donkey duh duh duh... It starts with a 'd'! Is that similar to a 'k'?"
(going to the potty and asking Pop to leave because she likes her privacy)
E: "Leave, Pop. You can go play with the old people."


(randomly pondering the logistics of airport travel)
E: "Who is going to pick us up when we fly back to Maryland and Baltimore?"
Mommy: "Nobody is going to pick us up because we left our car there. We'll drive our car home from the airport."
E: "How are we going to get to the airport if we don't have our car? Are we going to take Mimi's car?"


E: "Mom, go wait in Mimi's bathroom while I go potty."
(pause)
E: "Do you have any questions for me?"


(reading with Daddy and not wanting The Night Before Christmas)
E: "I will crawl under the bed so I can't hear you."


(talking to Daddy)
E: "Go check on your son, Jack. You know, the one in the other room."

E: "Look at Mommy because she's your family."

E: "I misplaced Jack. I don't know where I put him!"


She also will say anything to prolong going to bed, like "Pop, you have pretty hair!" and "We forgot to do somethin'... what did we forget to do? We forgot to do SOMEthin'!"


I can't believe she's almost 3!! We love you, sweet girl!

Happy 30th Birthday, Mike!

I love you more than ever, old man :)

Conversation from dinner last night... we wer:

Elise: "I got you a birthday present."
Mike: "What is it?"
Elise: "A surprise!" (we've been working on this! little lady is not good at keeping secrets)
Mike: "What kind of surprise?"
Elise: "A surprise football and a surprise frisbee!"

First haircut

Well, I think Mike cried a little inside when he saw Jack with less hair, but at least the little man won't be getting hair in his eyes anymore :)

Jack is 7 months old!

Happy 7 months, sweet boy!

Stats: I haven't weighed or measured him yet, but I don't think he's grown that much since his 6 month appointment. His 6-12 month clothes fit well, but most of his winter clothes are 12-18 months because I only wanted to buy long sleeved clothes in one size. I have to roll the sleeves up, but that is fine. I hear it is still cold in April so we're going to make the long sleeves last as long as we can. He has the two bottom teeth now. The second tooth popped through last week.

Sleeping: Still a great sleeper, even with teeth! I'm so grateful. He goes to bed around 7 and wakes up between 7 and 7:45. We successfully transitioned to 2 naps during the second half of this month, and he's done great. He takes his first nap from 9-10:30 and then his second nap from 1:30-4 or 4:30. This falls in the window of Elise's nap, which is super for Mommy! He's usually a little fussy between 1 and 1:30, so that is often jumperoo time. Once or twice a week, he wakes up a little early (during the 6:00 hour) and I either feed him and put him back to bed or leave him in his bed until 7, depending on the time.

Eating: He still nurses 5 times a day, at roughly 7:30, 10:30 (after nap #1), 1:30 (before nap #2), 4:30 (after nap #2) and 6:45 (before bed). He eats 2-4 oz of something at dinner. He's not a fan of fruit, but he really likes the yellow/orange vegetables. I haven't added the lunch meal yet, but I plan to this month. His favorite food so far is pumpkin.

Playing and other random stuff: He's such a happy, silly, sweet baby. He still enjoys his activity mat, jumperoo, and exersaucer. He spends most of his time playing on the floor or sitting and playing with toys, but he usually gets a little time in the exersaucer right before dinner and in the jumperoo right before his second nap. He's very easy to take places and loves to flirt with everyone. He enjoys sitting with a bucket of toys and pulling everything out. He also loves knocking down towers of cups. He LOVES to stand up and either hold on to the toy box or to someone's fingers. He also tries to walk and jump while holding onto our hands, sometimes taking up to 10 little "steps". He's still trying very hard to scoot on his belly, and can make it about 1/2 inch at a time. He still likes the "b" sound, and often says "ba", "bee", and "buh". I've caught him on all fours a few times, and he can stay up there for a while if he's in the mood.

Since he's been teething, he has really enjoyed the pacifier again (this is after over two months without it). He doesn't use it to sleep, but I will let him have it when we're out somewhere or if he's fussy while he's playing. He likes to suck on it and chew on it. He also loves his Sophie the Giraffe toy and his Haba rattle/teether toys. Thankfully, he spits up a lot less now and I bet he will have outgrown it altogether by 8 months old. Elise was also 8 months when she stopped spitting up. I am about to attempt his first hair cut. The long hair has gotten less curly except when it's wet, and now it hangs down over his little eyes. Sorry about the complete randomness of the last two paragraphs.

Happy 7 months, Jack! We love you to pieces!

Nice try, Mom.

So I've tried many times to get a cute picture of both kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time... and I have failed miserably.

Don't they look happy to be sitting in front of the camera together?

Joint update - 34 months and 6.5 months

Jack - 6.5 months

The little man has done a lot of new things in the last 2 weeks. On November 20, he started saying "bee", "buh", and "bah" and doing a little babbling that sounds like "buh buh buh". He already knows the sound of the letter b! He also makes the "mmmm" and "ma" sound occasionally, but mostly when he is fussing. I remember Elise doing the same thing at this age. On November 23, he started gradually "scooting" around on his belly. He pushes up with his arms and drags his body about 1/2 inch at a time :) He's mostly moving side to side with a little bit of forward, but I know it won't be long until he is everywhere. He always gets off the mat. He can push up and get his little belly button off the floor. Once he gets those knees under him, he'll be gone. Slow down, little buddy!

I'm trying to transition him from 3 naps to 2 naps. Some days it works, and some days he's so cranky at 12:30 that I have to lay him down early for nap #2 and give him another short nap right before dinner. If I can make him wait until 1:30 for the nap, then he and Elise sleep at the same time :)

We've gone to the park quite a bit lately and he LOVES to swing while watching Elise play on the playground.

(notice in the sequence of pictures that he scooted to the cup and then picked it up with his left hand)

Elise - 34 months

Several things have happened with Elise this month as well. At the beginning of November, she asked if she could use the downstairs potty (which doesn't have a potty seat on it) and since then, she will use any potty without needing the seat! This is big, people. This means that I no longer have to carry around the wet bag with the potty seat in it. Yippee! She's still scared of toilets that flush automatically, but thankfully, the places we frequent don't seem to have those.

She's still napping well for 1.5-2 hours (talked through 2 naps earlier this month, but none in the past few weeks) and still sleeps well at night. We normally have to wake her up from her nap and in the morning, but if we don't, she'll take forever to fall asleep at night. Lately, we have had to go in about 15-30 minutes after putting her to bed at night to lay her down again (or take her to the potty or give her another drink of water) but I think it's just a phase that will go away soon. It's possible that she's going to bed too late (8-8:15 pm) but we don't want it to be too early before our trip to CST in a few weeks. She normally falls asleep around 9 and wakes up by 8.

She's such a sweet and caring little girl when she isn't having a tantrum :) I get many compliments from her every day. Yesterday, Mike was getting ready to leave for school and had dressed up for a presentation that he gave. Elise complimented him on his shirt as soon as she saw him. About a minute later, she also told me that she liked my Turkey Trot t-shirt. Haha. When Mike put her to bed last night, she put both hands on his cheeks, gazed into his eyes and said "I like your tall big face, Daddy!" She also likes to tell me how proud she is when I do something, like getting dressed by myself, fixing dinner, playing with toys, etc.

She continues to do a lot of pretend play. She loves to play teacher, store, and mommy to her dolls and stuffed animals. She also loves to organize her things. All of her purses and bags are packed full of smaller toys, and she can tell you exactly what is in each one. She's also enjoying her "It's a Match!" game from Discovery Toys. She has an incredible memory and still talks about things that happened in Alabama versus things that happened in Baltimore versus things that she's done in Texas during her summer visit and last Christmas. Whenever we go to the zoo or Costco, she always remembers what the animals were doing last time we saw them and which samples were available at Costco the previous week. She's always disappointed that the pickle lady hasn't been at Costco in about 2 months :)

Here are a few funny sayings:

(while watching Mike play in a flag football game)

E: "Is it okay to take the football away from someone else?"

(when Mike went to get her in the morning after she'd been coughing)

Mike: "Do you want some water to help your cough?"

E: "No... well... I think a pumpkin muffin would help!"

(after we both went on the big potty)

Me: "Good job, big girl!"

E: "Good job, taller big girl!"

(while chasing Boss around the backyard)

E: "Boss, Miss Elise is coming to get you now. You are not cooperating. You need to have some room time behind that tree over there."

(while laying in our bed one morning... our room has a fan but hers doesn't)

E: "My room in Alabama had a ceiling fan with four lights on it."

Yay for Tiny Prints!

I LOVE Tiny Prints. They have the cutest designs for photo cards, announcements, invitations, stationary, and even photo books! I picked coordinating birth announcements for Elise and Jack from Tiny Prints and received so many compliments on them. This year, I get to participate in the Tiny Prints Holiday Campaign and I am so excited to order Christmas cards from them for the first time! If you are interested in participating, click the previous link for more information. Posts must be up by November 29.

Since having children, I've started a tradition of giving a photo calendar to parents and grandparents for Christmas. For each month of the calendar, I insert favorite pictures that were taken during the same month of the previous year and it is fun for everyone to look back at how much the kids have grown. Since I just found out that Tiny Prints also offers calendars, I will order from them this year. I'm sure that the quality of the calendars will be much better than the companies that I have used in years past. If you are looking for a meaningful gift for parents or grandparents, click here and start making your calendar!

Now it's time for the fun part. How do I decide which card to use? Flat or folded? Traditional or modern? Click here to check out their new Christmas card lineup. I love the filter on the left hand side so that I can immediately narrow down my selection to a card with 3+ pictures and a Christmas theme. These are my favorites so far...

This trifold card would be great for including many pictures to fully tell our story from this past year.

This one is so colorful and fun... and it would be easier to display on the refrigerator!

I will probably spend too much time deciding which card to use, but I know I will be thrilled with the final result. Thanks, Tiny Prints!

Cutest little guy ever!

Jack had his 6 month appointment earlier this week and weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs, 12 oz (between 10th and 25th percentiles) and measured 26.25 inches (between 25th and 50th percentiles). I don't remember the exact head measurement, but it was in the 75th percentile. The doctor says he looks great and was impressed at how interactive he is with people (smiling, laughing, making eye contact, and "talking").

Happy Friday!

6 month update

(Since I haven't started his baby book yet, I need to record this here!)

Well, Jack completely surprised us with a tooth today! Aside from drooling for months, he never gave any indication that a tooth was on the way. He doesn't even chew on toys very much. This explains why he was uncharacteristically fussy yesterday afternoon. If one fussy afternoon is all it takes to pop a tooth, I'll take it!

Jack - 6 months

Stats: Jack is definitely our little buddy! He is 15.5 lbs and 26 inches long (by comparison, Elise was 18 lbs 10 oz and 27.5 inches at this age!). His 6 month appointment is next week, so maybe he'll encounter a major growth spurt this weekend :) We love our happy little man.

Sleeping: Jack is still a really good sleeper. He goes to bed around 7:15 and wakes around 7:15 or 7:30 (take that, daylight savings time!). He takes two 1.5-2 hour naps and one 45-60 minute nap. He goes down very easily unless he is overtired, and then he might fuss or cry for a minute or two before falling asleep. Sometimes he rolls onto his tummy to sleep and other times he sleeps on his side. I try very hard to be home when it is time for him to sleep. If we're running late and he falls asleep in the car then he will transfer to the crib just fine. When I put him in the crib, he immediately puts his thumb in his mouth and rolls on his side.

Eating: We are still nursing well 5 times a day. Jack learned how to drink from a straw cup this month, so bye bye bottles! He is still way more efficient at nursing and won't take a full feeding from anything else, but he definitely does better with a straw than he ever did with a bottle. He gets to practice this skill a few times a week. We started cereal last weekend and he LOVED it the first few days but hasn't been as excited since then. The first night, we actually had to make him a second "bowl" because he was so anxious for more. I would say that he's eating the equivalent of an ounce of milk mixed with 2 tsp of cereal, even though I fix more than that. It is possible that he's eating the solid meal too close to his 5:00 feeding, but since his primary source of nutrition should still be milk, I definitely don't want to try to drop to 4 feedings a day just so that he will eat more solids. That will come in time. I'm pretty sure Elise was just dropping from 5 to 4 around her first birthday.

Schedule (notice a lot of -ishs... this is what happens when you have 2 children!):

7:30ish - wake up, eat

8:30ish - nap

10:30ish - wake up, eat

12:30ish - nap

2:00ish - wake up, eat

4:15ish - nap

5:00ish - wake up, eat

6:15ish - solids

7:00 - eat

7:15 - bed

Playing: He's getting better and better with the tripod sit and thinks it is really funny when he falls over. He is still not rolling across the room, which is totally fine with me. If he pushes with both arms, he can get his whole chest off the ground when he's on his tummy. He is totally content playing on his mat, on a blanket, or in the exersaucer, but he ADORES the jumperoo. He laughs and coos and talks like crazy and he's already working on his vertical. The kid just loves to jump. Maybe he'll be really athletic like his daddy :) Jack also likes to stand holding onto our fingers or the toy box. He even squats down and tries to jump. He also loves his Haba rattles and Sophie the giraffe, but more for shaking than chewing.

Personality: Jack is the sweetest, happiest little boy we've ever seen and he brings our family so much joy. He smiles and laughs all the time (unless of course we're running late for a meal or a nap). Happy 1/2, little buddy!

Fall

This is my first time to experience the fall season. The colors are just beautiful and the weather has been marvelous. Mike's mom, Cindy, was visiting this week and we took the kids out to take some pictures at a college campus that is right behind our neighborhood. Jack wasn't very cooperative this time because it was as little cold but I was able to bribe Elise with some Teddy Grahams that she got for Halloween. The child HATES having her picture taken. She thinks she has to tilt her head to smile for a picture.

Taking a quick break to suck her thumb...

This isn't the best picture but I wanted to recommend this North Face Oso Hoodie. It is the perfect everyday winter jacket. My favorite part is that the hood actually stays on her head when she runs and plays. I got this one (discontinued color) for 1/2 price and we're very happy with it.

Beautiful fall scenery

Jack - onesie by Rachel at Twenty 9 Freckles... isn't it adorable?!

Kiddos were ready to walk home (notice the hood)

I tried several times to get a good picture of Cindy and the kids and this is probably the best I have...

Here they are with the dolphin that Elise got during their Elise/Gram date to the Aquarium this week. She LOVED it and has been talking about it all week.

Playing with Aunt Jennifer last week

Elise playing in the backyard

I got up early this morning to send Mike and Cindy off to the airport and now it's 8:00 and my kids are still sleeping... Yay for successfully conquering daylight savings time! It only took a week :)

Pumpkin Patch

Wow... 3 posts in one night!

Last weekend we went to a farm in Maryland to see the animals and pick a pumpkin. It was pretty cool. Elise is very hard to photograph these days but I got some candid shots.

Playing in the corn

This was right before Elise tried to give Jack some corn to hold...

Looking for the perfect pumpkin to pick

Baby pumpkins