Six months old

Half a year!  Are you kidding me!?  I can't believe it.  The last few months he has really been soaking up his title of "baby."  But this last month, he has really been changing.

He is now rolling over and sitting up.  He can say Dada and the other night, he actually reached for me when I went to pick him up.  He plays with toys more and interacts with people and laughs more.  And he is no longer "legally blind" since he's hit the six-month mark.

He is still breastfed, which is quite honestly, a chore sometimes.  It makes night feedings great though.  He hates to be covered and since we are staying with my parents, I'm always sneaking off to other rooms to feed him and leaving Penelope with someone else to watch her.  I've tried locking us all in her room, but she is such a distraction and so loud that he doesn't usually eat well with her around.  If we go to church, or dinner, I bring a bottle with me but he still doesn't really seem to know what to do with it.  He has a hard time getting it in his mouth the right way and a lot of times, he just chews on the nipple.  I can usually fight him to get down 3 ounces.

His sleeping is pretty awful.  He takes short naps during the day when his sister isn't running around.  It seems like at night he doesn't sleep for more than two hours.  Lately at least.  Last night, I didn't get him laid down until midnight and he woke up 40 minutes later. After a short feeding he fell back asleep and woke up probably an hour later screaming.  That's how the last three nights have been.   Usually, he wakes up and falls asleep while eating.  But the last few nights when he wakes up, he is tired so he fusses and doesn't want to eat.  Last night, I'm sure he was up every hour between midnight and 6 am.  At 6:30, I was so tired and frustrated, So I took him upstairs to my mom who had 20 minutes until she left for work.  She didn't have any luck either.  I did get him back to sleep at 7:30 and he woke at 8:10.  I fed him and we both went back to sleep for two hours.  Two glorious hours.  Penelope is also sleeping less and less and waking up at night too.  Last night my sister heard her wake at 2 am and put her in bed with my parents, where she slept until 8. I don't know what's wrong with Oliver though.  He doesn't seem to be teething, although he did cut two teeth recently.  When he wakes up for the day, he is happy.  He isn't sick or anything.  My family has asked me a few times if I think he is colic, but I don't think so.  I just have two kids who have always been bad sleepers and I can't figure out why they don't want me to sleep. But it's hard to stay mad at them.

Oliver has had baby food a few times.  Probably 3 jars of sweet potatoes, 1 jar of green beans and 1 of squash. I only give him baby food after he has a good feeding and a lot of times during the day he doesn't eat for very long until 5pm. 

He is already 20 pounds.  Penelope didn't weigh that until she was nearly 1.  But he was also born over 9 pounds, and a boy.  He is wearing 6-9, 6-12 and 9 month clothes right now. 

Our goal for next month is to sleep more!  And also more tummy time to work on crawling.

Merry Christmas everyone!

5 months old

 

I cannot believe that Oliver is really 5 months old already!  Nearly half a year!  The time really is going by fast.  I wish I had more to update about him.  It doesn't seem like much has changed since last month.  And this past month went by very quickly.  He still doesn't like being on his belly, so he is not very motivated to roll over from back to belly.

 

Penelope can always make him laugh and smile.  He loves watching her play and run around the room.  They went Trick or Treating a few weeks ago.  Penelope was a turkey and Oliver was a chicken.  They went two different days and Oliver was great hanging out in the stroller and napping most of the time.

 

 

He is quickly growing out of his 3-6 month clothes and I'll move him up just as soon as I get enough stocked up.  I ordered him a few things from Target and Old Navy that should be here soon.  Shopping online is so much easier than going out with two children!

 

He always tries to grab my food if he is sitting on my lap during dinner.  So I bought a jar of sweet potatoes to see how he liked it.  It was quite the mess, but he gobbled it up.  It was only about 1/3 of the jar.  Of course I had a white shirt on him and that is now stained.  He kept grabbing the jar and rubbing his hands all over the tray.  He hasn't really taken a bottle for a few weeks now and that makes me kind of nervous.  Maybe he just doesn't like the nipple on the bottle anymore, but I've tried two different ones.  It could just be the fact that he only has a bottle a few times a month and he gets confused.

 

We have been house hunting a lot and found a fixer-upper down the street from my parents.  If it all works out, I'll start a new blog just for that.  It would be so exciting to renovate a house! I really can't think of any more updates.  We have been staying in the house and out of the cold.  Until we run out of food and have to go to the grocery store.  It hopefully going to warm up this weekend though!

 

 

Well, Oliver is in his jumper, screaming because he is tired and Penelope is saying, "Don't worry, Oli, don't worry!"  So I better go!

 

 

Weight: 19.5 pounds
Height: not sure
Size Clothes:  3-6 months
Size Diapers: 3

Sleeping Habits: Still wakes up multiple times a night 

Eating Habits: Every 3 hours for 30-40 minutes.



Penelope's Second Birthday!

While both kiddos are napping, I better get a head start on her birthday post.

We all woke up early.  The main reason was because her birthday party started at 1 and she needed a nap before then.  (Her usual nap is about 12:30-2 or so.)

I woke up at 7 am and put Oliver in the living room swing to continue sleeping.  My sister and dad then headed to the bakery for birthday cupcakes.  I woke Penelope up at 7:30.  This girl wakes up fast.  As soon as you open her door she wakes up and stands up.  I always tell her to slow down because her body isn't always ready to get going as quick as she is. 

It really felt like Christmas morning because we were all so excited and it was still dark outside, haha.  Then we made a donut tower and sang happy birthday.  After that, is was time to open gifts from Mommy and Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa and Manda. She had fun playing with her new toys while we finished getting ready for her party.

 

So, onto the party details.  Her theme was pink and orange kitty cats.  My sister made her cupcake cake.  Orange frosting with pink cake. 

 

 

I made cat ear headbands with felt.  I did end up sticking my finger directly in hot glue and giving myself a pretty big blister.  But I thought it would be a cute alternative to party hats.  I only made ten, and mostly the kids wore them.  I also had glass milk bottles with raspberry lemonade.  I was going to do milk, since it is a kitty cat party, but they would get warm sitting out and not everyone likes milk.

 

I loved the backdrop I created.  The twisted crepe paper was simple and easy.  I hung yarn balls from the ceiling.  I took six foam balls and wrapped them in yarn and hot glued the end.  I cut the stings at different lengths.  They are actually still hanging up because no one has bothered to take them down. 

 

 

For food, I prepared tuna salad sandwiches, goldfish crackers...

 

...cheese cubes and cake batter puppy chow that was actually "kitty" chow.  The kitty chow was sooo sweet.  I kept going back and forth if I should make a new batch or if it was really supposed to be so sweet.  I ended up just leaving it, even though not much was eaten.

 

I made a fish banner out of yarn and construction paper and then used the fish as thank you cards after.  I had a kitty stamp and we stamped people's hands, like it was an official event.

 

 

 

 

 

After her party, my sister insisted on going to the pumpkin patch, even though it was only about 43 degrees outside.  We didn't stay long because we realized what a bad idea it was and no one was happy with the windy weather.  On the way home, Penelope was singing, "Happy birthday to you."  It was adorable. 

 

She had such a fun and busy day, and as expected, went right to bed.  I'm sure she wishes everyday was all about her. 

4 months old

"Done, Mama."

 I'm doing this post a few days late because I wanted to get the right stats from his wellness checkup today.  I can hardly believe that he is 4 months old.  I feel like I say that just about every month though.  He is very tall.   He isn't fat though.  His BMI is 16.5 which is only in the 47th percentile, despite him being in the 97th for height.  

A few days after he was three months old, he rolled over from tummy to back once, but didn't do it again until a few days ago and he did it about 4 times in a row.  He only tolerates tummy time for maybe 10 minutes then gets fussy.  Sometimes I think he forgets that he can roll over. 

Penelope is starting to play with him, which is adorable.  She will give him a toy plate or cup.  Then she will fill it up with "tea" or feed him with a spoon. Penelope's second birthday was just this Saturday and we all had lots of fun.  I will do a separate post on that when I have time.

I'm waiting for him to consistently sleep through the night.  He will only sleep 5+ hours about once or twice a month. Maybe when he starts on solids, he will be fuller longer.  I plan to start him on rice cereal next month.

He's really good at grabbing things that you hold in from of him and his fingers are always in his mouth.  He started to grab his toes when I change his diaper.  Oliver also looooves bath time.  I have him in a mesh sling, but he always kicks and tries to grab the water when I pour it on his belly.  He is great at standing and supporting his own weight on his legs.  I just have to hold him steady since he is wobbly, but he locks his knees and stands up.  He's so strong.

I feel like there isn't a lot of things to update this month.  And besides Penelope's birthday and a trip to the pumpkin patch, we really didn't do anything exciting.  Oliver usually only leaves the house once a week or so.  I'm sure there will be more next month ;)

Weight: 17 lbs, 1 oz (87%)
Height: 27 inches (97%)
Size Clothes:  3-6 months

Size Diapers: 3

Sleeping Habits: Still wakes up multiple times a night 

Eating Habits: Every 3 hours for 30-40 minutes.

Penelope is almost two!

 

I realized that with all of Oliver's monthly updates, I haven't updated about Penelope in a long time.
 

She is learning so many things everyday.  She can say just about anything you ask her to.  She even said "competition" on her first try. It's amazing how fast she picks up on things. I'll say, "go push your baby stroller." And she will run around saying, "Push stroller! Push stroller!"  There was a commercial on TV for Doodle Bear and she said doodle bear for about two minutes straight. Her brain goes a mile a minute. We were outside and one of the cats walked under my dad's truck. She said, "Mom, kitty! Kitty! Car. Pop Pop car. Bye kitty! Dada? Bye Dada! Bye!" Because Josh had left for class about 20 minutes before.
 

She is very good at saying please and thank you and bless you. When she hands you something, she also says thank you.
 

 

I talk to her like an adult sometimes, thinking she doesn't understand me. But she does. Just today I was working on her party plans and went in the hallway to look at a table and said, "I don't think there's going to be enough room on this table for all the food." She grabs the front of the table which folds down and pulled it up to make the take bigger. She's so smart! Problem solved, Mommy!

She is such a great big sister!  With her being so young, I was sure she would be jealous, especially since I hold Oliver so much to nurse him. When he cries she says, "Oli sad!" and will run over and kiss  him. Sometimes I catch her trying to shove a pacifier in his mouth.  Earlier I was walking Oliver and trying to get him to sleep and she ran up next to me with a doll in her arms and started rocking it saying, "Shhh!" She's adorable!  When she sees me without him, she always asks where he is.

We are entering the terrible two stage where she's always saying no and mine. Her tantrums don't last long and usually she just throws herself on the floor and covers her face.

 

 

 She is still in her crib and still in diapers.  I have no problem keeping her in her crib as long as possible. Her toddler bed is right next to her crib though. She isn't easy to get to bed without a pacifier, so I know at this point, if we move her to a toddler bed, she would be running around her room until midnight.  I haven't tried to really potty train her yet. I was waiting for Oliver to get a little older and more independent.  Sometimes she asks for her diapers to be changed and when she had a dirty diaper I always tell her it goes in the potty and not in her diaper and she understand but doesn't tell us first.

 

She is small for her age. A few months ago, she was in the 6th percentile for height. She weighs 25 pounds, which is a little on the skinny side, but fitting for her height.  She still wears 18 month clothes for now, but is slowly moving to 2T.  Some fit her well, and some she is swimming in. But I haven't bought her any 18 month clothes in a while, so she mostly is stuck in summer clothes. I'm just going to have to cuff all of her 2T pants.

 

 

Her second birthday is in less than three weeks!  We have already started practicing saying, "I'm two!" and holding up her fingers.
 

I can't believe how big and smart she is and she is so funny and such a joy to be around! :)

 

 

 

3 months old

 

Oliver is three months old already!  He really is growing up quickly and it's sad.  But at three months, he is still a little baby that can't do much.  I kind of want him to stay little forever and not get any bigger.  I look at pictures of Penelope when she was little and it makes me want to cry that she will never be that little anymore.  Especially when I go through her old clothes, looking for gender neutral outfits for Oliver. 

 

 

 

He is still all over with his sleeping schedule.  I think it has actually gotten worst.  Since the beginning of the month, I think he has only slept in twice.  And by that I mean 4 or 5 am.  Other than that, he will wake up between 12-2 am.  And a few other times in the night, but I don't check the time after he first wakes up.  But he does sleep until 8 or 9am.  I've been working getting him in the crib and sleeping on a flat surface.  It's not going well.  The first time, he kept jerking like he was falling.  He did this probably every 20 seconds for 5 minutes until it ultimately woke him up.  I tried swaddling him, but he was still jerking.  It's hard to swaddle an already sleeping baby without waking him up.  I dug out Penelope's old sleeping wedge and he slept on that in the crib for 30 minutes before waking up.  I'll count that as a win. After I put him in the crib, all I do is go downstairs and sit next to the video monitor until he wakes up.  I'm too nervous to do anything else.  It also doesn't help that he shares a wall with Penelope, who looooves to scream.  So sometimes I don't even try to put him in the crib if Penelope will be upstairs.  It's a work in progress. 

 

 

 

This month's goal is rolling over.  He really hates being on his belly, so that makes it difficult to practice rolling over.  But maybe he will start liking tummy time the more we work on it. 

 

 

He doesn't have a doctor's appointment until next month so I don't know exactly how much he weighs or how long he is.  I did move him up to 3-6 month clothes and that's bittersweet.  I have to get him in his cute 0-3 outfits one last time. 

 

My goal was to breastfeed him for 3 months.  And we have succeeded.  I thought about stopping after 3 months because it does get difficult with a toddler running around.  She knows she can get away with things when I'm feeding him.  But I think I'll stop when I have a real reason to stop.  It would be silly to stop when things are going well, aside from the inconveniences.  

 

I really wonder what I will say in his 4 month update! :)

Weight: 13.7+ pounds (last month)
Height: 23.8+ inches (last month)

Size Clothes:  3-6 months

Size Diapers: 2

Sleeping Habits: Still wakes up multiple times a night 

Eating Habits: Every 2 or 3 hours for 30 minutes.

Carolina Beach vacation

It's been about 3 weeks since our beach vacation, but it doesn't seem that long. 

 

The ride down was awful.  We left the day before we could check-in to the beach house.  We intended to drive half-way and get a room for the night.  It should take about six hours.  We weren't sure how a 5 week old and an almost 2 year old would do with the long ride.  On our way, there is a long tunnel that goes under a mountain, right at the West Virginia/Virginia border.  A semi-truck caught on fire in the tunnel.  We heard about this in the afternoon and were still hours away, so we thought it would be clear by the time we got there.  Wrong.  We tried to go around it, but made a wrong turn and ended up right in heavy traffic since they closed off both lanes from the tunnel.  We spent the next few hours trying to turn around.  Meanwhile, I was freaking out because Oliver had drank all the milk I pumped and we were almost out of water for formula.  It was about 10 pm now and I started calling hotels to see if they had rooms available.  I could only find one and it was very expensive, but we booked it.  Around midnight, we checked into our room.  It had taken us 11 hours to travel 6 hours.  My parents and sister left Ohio 5 hours after us and were now only an hour away.  They wanted to stop for the night too, but could not find any rooms.  I'm sure everyone caught in the heavy tunnel traffic was stopping for the night too.  We told them to crash in our room.  We had one king size bed.  Penelope did not want to go to sleep, but around 2 am, she settled down.  My mom, sister, Penelope and I shared a bed.  Oliver slept in his car seat and my dad and Josh slept on the floor.  We woke up way too early, made a stop at the Waffle House and were back on the road. The rest of the way was basically smooth sailing.  My parents ending up taking a different route, so we were spilt up the whole day.  They somehow ended up pulling into the house literally 5 seconds before we did. (We would have beat them if we didn't drive past it at first.)

 

We spend the rest of the week at the beach.  It was tricky with Penelope's nap.  We would only go for an hour or two in the morning, then take her back for lunch and a nap and usually hang around the house until dinner and head back in the evening to play at the beach.  Penelope was most happy digging in the sand and didn't find much interest in the water.  I think it scared her a little.  My sister and Josh spent their time catching waves on boogey boards.  My dad walked the surf, looking for shells.  My mom played in the sand with Penelope and I sat under the umbrella holding Oliver.  I only got IN the water once.  Then I realized how much sand you get covered with and I only got wet up to my knees after.  The sand really is ridiculous.  You try to brush it off best you can, then take an outdoor shower to rinse off, then once you get inside, have to take an actual shower and there is still sand everywhere.  One of our challenges was giving the kids a bath at night.  We didn't bring a baby tub for Oliver and our room had a giant whirlpool tub.  We ended up having one parent take a bath with both kids, then handing Oliver off to the dry parent.  It was not fun.

 

One thing that was unexpectedly fun though, was all four of us sharing a room.  In the mornings, all of us would lay in bed and cuddle.  When Penelope took her nap in the afternoon, I would lay in bed and nurse Oliver and we would end up falling asleep.  One day, towards the end of our vacation, all of us were so tired and I felt like we slept most of the day.  I kept waking up and feeling guilty, like I should do something productive, or like I was ruining my sleeping schedule, but when I saw Oliver, Penelope and Josh still sleeping, I decided I had nothing more important to do.  That day, Oliver and I got up around 10 or 11 am and we all slept from 1-4pm.  It was great. 

 

Josh and I both celebrated birthdays.  On mine, we went to the aquarium and on his, we went out at night with my sister.  It was the first time I left Oliver.  But both of the kids went to sleep shortly after we left.  We went out to dinner then to the boardwalk to a couple bars.  It was a Wednesday night and at one bar, we were the only people there.  I had a one drink limit and blew that at the first bar, so I was kind of bored the rest of the night and itching to get back to my babies.  It was still fun though. 

 

On the way home, we stopped at Charlotte, NC to see the NASCAR Hendrick's Museum.  At this point, I was already in a bad mood because Penelope had already peed though her "hippie" diapers twice and Oliver had pooped up his back.  At the short time we were there, we changed three diapers.  After, we made a WalMart stop to buy some Huggies.  In the parking lot, Oliver spit up all over himself.  I was digging though suit cases for more clothes.  We were just dying to get home, so decided to drive all the way home that night.  I sat in the back seat between the two of them for most of the way to Ohio.  Oliver went though about 4 outfits that day.  We were so tired when we got home.  We put the already sleeping Penelope to bed and waited up for my parents and sister, who were an hour behind us.  So Josh and I put in a movie while I fed Oliver.  It was about 1 am.  Josh said, "I bet you didn't think we would watch a movie tonight after traveling all day." Umm, no!  After everyone got home, we exchanged travel stories and talked about traffic and weather.  It was really surprising that everyone did not hit the sheets right away.

 

It was a great vacation, but I will think twice before I decide to take both little kids on an 11 hour road trip again ;)