His vocabulary is growing every day. It is really amazing how he has developed into talking overnight. He is starting to repeat more and more of what we say and started saying more two word sentences/phrases during these months. He says "oh" when I explain things to him... man he understands so much more than I can explain. We went to the beach October 9-12 and he picked up on so many new words because of the new environment as well as being with Patton and Micah much of the day. He loves spending time with them. Everything he does, he does so in order to make them laugh. It's too cute. I was worried he wouldn't enjoy the sand this year because he's shown a distaste for sand the past couple times we've been near a sandbox, but he proved me wrong. He loved it. He played with the sand toys, knocked down castles people made, chased and fed seagulls, and played in the ocean and pool. At meals, he did pretty well too. He missed his nap one day due to them working on the hotel roof. The next day we decided we'd go to the zoo during his nap time since we knew he wouldn't sleep again with the noise. He got to pet a kangaroo (and hopped like them when he was in their pin) and now he hops like them around the house. It's so cute. We even went to see the Blue Angels practice. The air show was so cool! He loved it. It was a 55 minute show and he sat on the bleachers for most of the time and was amazed. He now loves to look at the "lines" and "drawings" in the sky from jets. The trip there and back was actually pretty great too. He's such a good rider. He just sleeps, plays, and sucks his paci (which he loves since he doesn't get it unless he's sleeping or in the car).
He seems to be getting used to H more and we've been getting into a rhythm each day which has cut down on his tantrums. Many days we will sit and read books for at least an hour so he feels like I'm spending time with him. The weather has also been nice/not cold (70s and 80s most every day) so we will go outside to play, which also helps him since he'd live outside if he could. Sometimes H is in my arms and he is getting more comfortable with her being apart of our time together. There have been a few days where he wants my complete attention (or lap) and so sometimes he has to wait for me to rock H to sleep before he can have that. He's loved her from the beginning and wants to help out all the time, but he's learning to be gentle. There are days she may get a little slap on the chest/face/head, a finger stuck in her mouth, a nice hug where he lays on her, or a kiss that leave some teeth marks behind. Other days he's so sweet to her all day and puts her paci in her mouth repeatedly, turns on her swing, gives her toys, talks to her, pats her, hugs her, kisses her, and wants to hold her.
On October 25th, he fell while he was taking a walk with CiCi. He screamed and screamed for a few hours. He wouldn't eat anywhere other than in my lap, he couldn't nap, he didn't want to walk, and he didn't want to do anything other than cry. All afternoon I tried to get his mind off his leg to keep him from crying and we made it through the day until he fell the next day and opened the scrapes back up. Oh man. He talked about that incident daily for over a week until the scab went away. He'd say, "CiCi" and then "boo boo" and I'd retell the story and he would nod in agreement to what happened.
He made a crown at church one Wednesday night and wanted to wear it every day for about a week. Then he decided to take the foam stickers (jewels) off the side of it but still wanted to wear it months later. He's getting better at coloring too and will actually color more than a few seconds. We've been practicing the letters A, B, C and what words start with those letters as well as colors and shapes. I don't know how much he's learning, but we are trying.
I love it that L loves to sleep just like me! He still goes to bed about 7 (unless we are out and about or if he's at church on a Sunday or Wednesday night). Then he sleeps until about 8. We've had some days where his diaper filled up and it leaked onto his bed. Those are days he gets sad and is embarrassed. On October 31st/November 1st, this happened and he decided to take off his pajama pants and diaper then tear off little pieces of the diaper. He just said, "uh oh" when I went to get him up that day. It continues to happen on and off and he will wet in the bed once he takes off his diaper.
November 2- It was the first time L said "Bible" and he said it over and over. Then he went to his bookshelf and pulled off both of his storybook Bibles and said, "Bible." I don't know if I say the word lots for him to know what those books were, but he started saying it on Wednesday night when he came home from church so maybe they had those Bibles in his room there. It's the sweetest thing to hear him say. He asks for us to read stories to him out of it every night now. He knows he only gets 3 books at night and it's so hard to say no to him when he wants to read out of it plus other books.
On November 3rd, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast and he said "Da-da" and then I said "we can't have da-da." He then said he wanted me (and other family members), but I told him that we don't eat people. Then he said, "Moonwalk. Ball." His taste in breakfast foods sure is strange! He ended up deciding he wanted a muffin (or the blueberries off the muffin) and nuts/raisins ("nutch"). We had a tomato one day and he asked to have it. Another day he ate pickles. He doesn't know what makes a breakfast food, a breakfast food though so anything is fair game right?
We've been operating on one car since Jeremy's car was totaled. Some days we get to go places because Jeremy borrows a car here and there, but other days we stay at home all day and read or play outside. When we get to leave, we go to the park (and go about once a week). He's getting so good at climbing. He even started going down the slide by himself at the end of October.
I could write for days about this boy. Every day he is learning so much.
He's so helpful (when he wants to be of course). He always makes sure the doors are closed ("dah-be"-- is what he says when he's talking about a door that is open that needs to be closed). We got used to closing the doors because Maverick would sometimes go in rooms, but that was before most of our house was carpeted. If Jeremy leaves his shoes in the living room, L gets concerned and puts them in the closet. He also knows when things are trash and will go take them to the trashcan or recycle bin. He will also take diapers to the diaper gene. One day I searched the garage high and low just to make sure he didn't get distracted and put it somewhere else instead of in the pail. He did stick his whole hand down there and it ended up pulling out more of the trash bag than needed which made it jam a little, but he didn't realize he didn't need to push the diaper in that far. Now, I am not going to say his helpfulness is "immediate" because there are days where he will throw the diaper around in the air before taking it out there.
We've been practicing our ABCs and he will repeat me as I say the letters if he's in a pleasant mood. Other times he gets mad at me for taking a picture of him or videoing him doing things. He has a refrigerator magnet that sings the ABC song and he "sings" along with it. He seems to know the tune but says random sounds as it plays. It's cute! He "sings" other songs too like "The Wheels on the Bus" and other ones his toys play.
He finally ate a pizza roll "pee-ka" (Nov. 9) and chicken nuggets (Nov. 11). Oh I'm so drained of trying to figure out what to give the boy because he doesn't eat much. I'm glad we are finally starting to expand our menu. He wouldn't eat a CFA nugget though... still just a fry and rice guy out in public. I'll be a little happy when I don't have to pack him a food bag every time we go out though.
November 10- His new phrase is "shoot ball" for basketball. He started saying it all the time after this.
November 11- He has started telling me when he goes potty in his diaper. Sometimes he does a little dance and hits his diaper, but I don't know if that is for the same reasons. He now loves to sit on the toilet. Today he went in the guest bathroom and his seat wasn't on the toilet so he fell in. I found him and his pjs were soaking wet around the bottom area. He said "see you later" to Jeff.
November 13- He told me he needed to go potty and actually to go "poo poo" and so I took off his diaper carefully just in case he had already gone. He had gone a little but not a ton, so I carefully put the diaper on the mat and sat him on the toilet. I accidentally knocked the diaper and some poop came out on the mat. I walked away for a few seconds to put the mat in the laundry room and came back and he had gone a little in the toilet! YAHOO! He kept pointing to the corner of the room (in the book) and saying "boon" while we were reading Goodnight Moon. I kept giving him the name of things in the corner of the room because I didn't see a balloon on the page. He was trying to tell me that there is a balloon on the other pages in the corner but it's not on that page. It also rained for the first time in a few months. He was so excited (2 days before Cindy thought it was raining and told him it was and he got sad when it wasn't). He's been talking about rain for a few days now. He stared out the window all morning. However, he was really concerned about his bubble mower being out in the rain. I told him it was getting a bath. We also got out the playmat and he tried to teach H how to press the keys on the keyboard and how to play with the toys hanging on the toy-bar.
November 14- He went tee-tee in the potty at my parent's house! It did get on his pants but he was so proud. He's ready to be potty trained, that's probably why he fights me when I try to put a diaper on him.
November 15- He wanted to wear underwear all day. In the morning I got a diper on him after fighting with the squirmy boy. He started going "poo-poo" and so I took him to the bathroom but he was finished. The rest of the day he wanted underwear and ran to his closet to pick some out. Later, he told me he needed to go and I sat him on the toilet but he didn't go. I walked out of the room and when I came back he had accidentally gone but in the floor of the bathroom since he couldn't get on the toilet. He went the in the toilet next time!
November 17- We were listening to music on H's swing and he got his Tupperware container filled with dry noodles my mom made him when he was little. He opened it and the noodles came out. I told him it was to make music and that we needed to keep the noodles in it. He took a noodle over to the swing and put it on the control where the music plays! "Yes!" I said- "Music.. However, that's not the same music that your noodles will make." He then got all his instruments out and started making his own music.
November 18- One of his books got ripped and he was so sad. Jeremy said he'd take it to school to get it fixed but when we put L to bed we forgot to get the book out of his room. Jeremy went in L's room before he left for work in the morning and got the pages/book. When L woke up he started saying "dada" "book" "uh oh" over and over. He apparently saw Jeremy come in his room even though they didn't talk to each other and knew exactly what he was doing.
The rest of November flew by. L's milk sippy cup developed a leak a while back because he bit through the plastic spout. I replaced it and this one broke too. As a result, I changed over to a hard plastic sippy cup that he can't bite through, but this one gets extra cold. He asks for mittens "me-tins" on his hands as he drinks his milk each day and I think it's one of the cutest things ever!
We enjoyed having Daddy home for a week at Thanksgiving. We were so busy that he didn't get to see what a normal day was like. A normal day is spent being lazy (reading books all morning) as the weather started getting colder. There are days that seem super long with multiple time outs, but then other days go smoothly. The day after Thanksgiving we went to Banks County for the afternoon/evening. He thinks he's as big as his older cousins and tries to do what they do and go where they go. They were playing with flashlights when it was dark and L just followed along. Patton brought him back to me and told me he needed an adult with him because apparently it was too dangerous for him to walk around in the dark with them. haha
November 28th-he tried to put on my Boba wrap and pick H up to wear her. It was quite humorous.
November 29th- He was so excited to look outside and see the rain. I think I heard him say, "It's raining!" over a hundred times that day.
Jeremy went out of town for a few days (youth camp), which was tough, but we survived. While Jeremy was out of town I kept busy. December 1 we went to see the Clydesdale horses. The Dillards went along with me and the kids. Lincoln loved it! December 2 we went to the Lawrenceville Christmas parade. It didn't start until 7, which is Lincoln's bedtime, but he actually did really great considering we had been there since 4:30. It was super cold but lots of fun.
I can't believe how many things he says now, how many things he's repeated over the past few months, and how many times he says multiple word phrases. He has been practicing his letters and colors. He is starting to point to certain colors. There are moments he pretends to act like Holland (waving his hands around or hitting his legs/book, blowing bubbles (my least favorite), and then he imitates how she coos/whines). It's so much fun to see Christmas time through his eyes. He gets excited about things because there are so many new things to see and do. This has added to the increase of his vocabulary too. He's enjoyed Tuesday Claus and seeing family more, which is always a plus (and it gives us a reason to get out of the house).
Maverick had a seizure/stroke on December 5th and couldn't really get up the next few days before we had to put him down on December 8th. I kept telling L that Maverick was sick and might die. He was so concerned . He'd say, "awe" and love on Mav, which was the sweetest thing. I know he didn't understand what was going on, but he knew he was hurt and the empathy he shows when things/people are hurt is incredible.
He's hilarious when it comes to running out of a food item. If we run out of bananas, he says, "Dada. Home. Nana." They go to the store together each week so he knows he needs to tell Jeremy what they need to get at the store. Often he has a grocery list ready in his head when asked. Pears are usually called apples though so we have to know which one we really need.
Potty training: My next blog post may be all about the adventures of potty training. We started on January 3rd. We had some success, but he didn't really want to sit on the toilet. The next day (4th) was a bust because we had plans with friends after his nap so he was in a diaper from nap until bed. The 5th was wonderful. He went 7 times during the day, held it through his nap, and we even went to a friends house for dinner. The 6th was SUPER hard. He didn't want out of his diaper in the morning, then he had an accident when he got on underwear... then he went on the potty. After that he pooped and had another accident. I was exhausted after the first few days and thought about how many parents have daycares to help with this process. We went from stickers to M&Ms, to graham crackers/teddy grahams, and now we have M&M cookies that have been the best motivator. We went from little potty seat, to his own potty, then to standing up to get him to go, but now we know what motivates him and how he feels comfortable, we are doing well!
We got a double stroller and he often sits in it (inside the house) and makes me push him around. Then he wants me to put "bebe" in it too so she can ride around with us. Quite a few snacks and treats (for potty training) have been eaten it it already. We actually took it out for it's debut push/ride on January 12 because it was in the 60s.
My favorite words he says: dump bumk (dump truck), ohm (home), fa (water), no potty go or no potty no (that means he doesn't need to go to the potty), shoot ball (that means he wants to play basketball), sites (lights), ello (hello), beak (speaker-portable one), musee (music), sessy (alexa-Amazon's echo dot to play his music), fahm book (farm book-one with lots of stories)
Words he says most often: up, paci, ball, mum, dada, potty, 'side, milk, cheese
His memory is still amazing. He will recall things and I will retell him the story or about the event. If a nursery rhyme song comes on, he will go get his book with nursery rhymes. Oh, he knows his books inside and out. Sometimes he will walk around quoting Dr. Seuss books, "ball, all fall" "boom, boom boom" and a few others. It's fun to play a rhyming game with him. I say a word and he says another that rhymes. He's actually fairly good at it. He seems to even get when things are funny (in books) even though I feel like he still shouldn't be old enough to understand what makes something funny with something like that. He knows how to show off and be cute, as well as be loud/crazy wild, but he is also super shy/quiet when I'm on the phone or talking to someone he doesn't know well. His personality is one of my favorite things about him because there are so many great qualities.
His dancing skills are still quite amazing. He's always making up his own moves to songs and loves to spin in circles. He has a few favorite songs/songs he will sing or ask to hear. Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, the Spongebob Squarepants theme song, Wheels on the Bus, the ABC song, and some popular songs that are pretty repetitive.
1 month
We had her one month appointment on October 21st and she's up to 11 lbs 1 oz and is 21 inches long. She got the Hep-B shot and even got some blood drawn (long process because the blood didn't want to come out) to look at her white blood cell count. They did this because she seems to have an ear infection due to the cold L gave her. If she ends up with a fever over the next little bit of time, they wanted to have a starter number for her white blood cells.
She's been sad the past few weeks due to her sniffly nose and ear hurting (even though it didn't seem to be a problem before we went to the doctor--it must have been the early stages of an ear infection). She has also had some pretty bad gas so we've started giving her gas drops here and there. It makes me sad to hear/see her cry. However, she usually calms down when I hold her or after she gets medicine.
She doesn't like getting baths and has screamed each time, which doesn't make me want to give her one often. That has probably caused her to get a little cradle cap. She also has a little bit of acne like L did at this age. His went away around 2 months though so I'm hoping that will clear up soon. Back to the crying...when she cries she SWEATS so she gets stinky (especially when she's hungry and Lincoln is already in need of me)!!! Screaming the entire way home from the hair salon about made me and Lincoln crazy, but he's been so good in the car when she cries (the two or three times we've experienced it). This time she was just super hungry and when I pulled over to feed her she couldn't calm down because she was exhausted from crying. She gets hangry just like me and Lincoln.
Her head control is continuing to get better and better. A difference we've already seen is that she doesn't mind tummy time and L couldn't stand it. Sometimes she will fall asleep on her playmat when she's doing tummy time. I've had to move her playmat into her crib because L likes to mess with her if she's where he can reach her. We've definitely cut down on the number of times he takes her paci, but it still happens almost every day.
At about 6 weeks, she started sleeping through the night!!! I don't know if I felt rested when I got up, but it sure was nice not to wake up to use the bathroom or feed her. Man, it's been a long time since I've done that! We try to have her fed and asleep by 9 or so. Then she will sleep until about 7. After a quick meal, she will go back to sleep.
She loves to be warm to sleep. She loves her pacifier. She loves to be held.
We participated in the baby dedication service at church right before she was 2 months.
2 months
She started really enjoying baths in November. I'm thankful for that because no one likes to wash a screaming baby!
She did well on Thanksgiving too, which made hosting a lot easier.
November 27th was her first time in the nursery at church. They said she fought sleep but was good.
She still loves to be held and some days my arm feels like it will fall off. It's difficult at times because L also wants to have my full attention (and lap) but when I'm holding H, she gets my lap. She can tell if you lay her down and doesn't always enjoy that. She is super observant like L was and wants to be in all the action. She sits in my lap most days as I read book after book to L and she's usually quite content. She has FOMO (fear of missing out) for sure. At our friend Christmas party (Dec 10), she didn't want to go to bed until everyone left. Instead, she just wanted people to hold her so she could look around and interact. She loves to be held close and put her nose/head under your armpit. It's an interesting thing and sometimes people make a comment about whether or not she can breathe. She also likes to be held up straight so she can look at everything around. Jeremy had a night with her and L and got to see how much she likes to be held. He was a little frustrated that she didn't want to take her bottle or go to sleep too. Both my mom and Cindy got to keep both kids all by themselves this month too. They enjoyed their time but saw how H loves to be held or would cry. That seems to be her thing right now.
She coos and smiles at people and thinks L is just the best. He taught her all about how to work his old play mat as well as how he loved his activity tray/seat. One day I got it out for her to sit in while we played, and he took it over instead even though he's a little too big for it (he even insisted on eating dinner in it).
She's still sleeping through the night (7-8 hours) and takes a few naps during the day. The naps are usually in my arms and not in a bed or swing though (unless I get her happy and wrapped up really tight).
3 months
She's particular on how she likes to be held, which is sometimes troublesome if someone holding her has her in a position she doesn't like. She loves looking around and being carried so she can see things. However, she still likes her head under your armpit (in the dark) if she's being held horizontally. Unlike L, she seems to be fine with laying on her stomach. She still likes to nap being held for at least one nap (or cat nap) during the day. If she starts to whine in the arms of others, I usually come to their aide since she is a little picky. I'm hoping she will get over this as she can hold herself up and be held on people's hips. I'm not wishing her to grow up too fast, but some days are exhausting because my arms feel like jello at the end of the day. This is so different from L. He could lay in his swing and sleep for hours. We'd even have to make him eat at times. This girl eats as often as she can and seems to have an aversion to the swing. It also seems impossible some day to put her down if she's happy in your arms because she knows if she's not being held! One day momma tried to put her down and propped a blanket around her to make her think she was being held, but H wasn't tricked at all. She may tolerate it for a minute but then she decides it's just not for her. If she's crying for no reason (due to the previous mentioned things), she will cry without opening her eyes. It's as if she thinks the world is going to end because we've just done something horrible to her.
Due to being born right before all the holidays, she's gotten to experience all kinds of things lately. We've had parties/family gatherings to go to and host, we had Tuesday Claus, we went to see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, and we went to a Christmas parade. She has gotten to stay with her Mam-ma and CiCi some while we had parties, went to the FOX for a show, test drove cars, and went to a wedding. She's getting better about taking a bottle when I'm not around but sometimes she just isn't interested. Going to the Fox was the longest time I was away from her so far (about 8 hours). This was around the age when I had to go back to work with L too so I had to do that every day. It's hard to imagine doing that with her. She took the holidays like a champ! She even took some naps while gatherings were happening which made me happy.
Jeremy had to work the Christmas Eve services so he didn't get to go to Banks County with us. After I put H in the car to go home, I went back in the house to get L. When I got back to the car, H was super sad. I gave the paci to her and she calmed down after a bit and slept the whole way home. It wasn't until I got home that I realized why she might have been so upset. As I pulled the carseat out of the base of the car I noticed something dripping from the carseat. I immediately knew it was poop. It leaked out her diaper, through the carseat and was making a puddle on the base. I only had 30 minutes to change both, bathe H, feed H, clean the carseat/base and get things together to keep L occupied during the Christmas Eve service (mainly dinner). We were only 3 minutes late!
I love watching how her and L interact. I can't wait to see their relationship develop. She smiles and coos at him all the time, especially when he's being silly. She still sits so still in my lap when I'm reading him books too and will sometimes even share my lap with him.
She sleeps about 7-8 hours at night and is still in our room so she won't wake up L if she wakes up between 2:30-3:30 or 4-5 (which she seemed to enjoy doing while Jeremy was out of school). Eating is something she loves most but she will let you know if she doesn't want to eat too and cry about it, especially if her stomach hurts or if she's tired. She doesn't enjoy going to sleep if there are lights on though because then she thinks she needs to be awake. She goes to sleep about 9 PM and then gets up for the day around 8. She eats around 6:30 AM most days. Some days she just wants to be super lazy and sleep most of the morning after she eats twice. Other days she just wants to take little catnaps (when I'm holding her). Then other days, she takes a morning nap (usually in my arms) and then a good afternoon nap (sometimes also in my arms). Yeah, I know she should probably be in her crib or basinet for naps now, but I know it won't last long. She will be there soon enough. Her longest naps are definitely when she's wrapped up tight, done best by Jeremy, being rocked with a little music, and then put down.
It's so fun to see her motor skills develop. She is starting to grasp more things and "play" with things (her outfit, her animals, her blanket, and her toys on the toy bars). She can spin the ball on the activity seat and she hits the other toys as she flaps her arms. Many of her outfits and blankets go into her mouth if her fist or fingers aren't in there already. She may be a "tucker and sucker" but we've been trying to get her to stick with the paci so she doesn't rely on her thumb because I know that habit was super hard to break when I was little. She often gags herself because her fingers go so far down her throat. She also loves holding onto her feet and scratching the bassinet shade/hood-thing if she escapes out of her wrap at night.
She's so close to rolling over from her stomach to back at 3 1/2 months. Daddy practiced with her on January 1st. Although we practice this skill, she often spits up when we put pressure on her stomach (by laying her on her stomach or holding her against you even though she likes that position). She'd probably be rolling over by now if I wasn't always so cautious about the amount of time it's been since she last ate before placing her on her stomach. It's probably all because she has been starting to spit up a lot more lately. I often smell of spit up. There's even one sweater I've tried to wear multiple times this season, but it gets spit up on before I'm able to leave the house. I laugh because I have the same sweater in multiple colors so I just change colors, but it's the blue one that always gets the spit up!
We've moved to size 2 diapers and 6 month clothes (Jan. 1, 2017- 3 1/2 months).
January 4th she rolled over!!! I was taking pictures of Lincoln being sweet with her (on her tummy) and she was then on her side and then on her back! She rolled over, I can't believe it. I thought it may be a fluke and that he might have moved her but she did it again when I let her have some tummy time in her crib. Jeremy got to see her roll over that night.
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