Thursday, February 26, 2015

Four Year Olds

I can't believe tomorrow morning we are going to have two four year olds!  Four!  Four-years old!  [Still trying to let that sink in a bit]  I love birthdays and I'm so excited to celebrate with them tomorrow, but this birthday is hitting me harder than any of them yet.  I didn't get emotional at all when they turned 1, 2, and 3.  Those ages seemed like my little babies and toddlers.  But 4.  It's starting to get into the big kid age.  Only one more year of Pre-K next school year and then off to Kindergarten.  I know you're probably thinking I'm crazy because four is still young.  It's just that the time has gone by so fast.  I can't believe that it has been four years already since they entered our world and made us parents for the first time.  A family of four. 

I love these two goof-balls.  They do make our lives so much better! 




And they are the best big brother and big sister to Caroline!  Always so sweet and gentle with her.  Just want to protect her already.


Together they are quite the duo.  Truly {best friends} who love doing everything together.


Tonight I snuggled with Matthew and Katherine a little longer when we put them to bed.  Soaking in the last little moments as 3-year olds.  Talking with them and really listening to their sweet little voices and conversations.  They are both excited to wake up and finally be their birthday!  We've been counting down since January pretty much. ;)

This morning they celebrated their birthday at preschool.  Got to bring birthday treats and be the special helper this week.

Happy 4th Birthday Katherine Ilene and Matthew Edward!  
May your day be ever so special and wonderful as you are to all of us around you!

Monday, February 23, 2015

{Caroline Joy} 7 Months

Well, better late than never.  It's already the end of February and I'm just now getting to writing Caroline's 7th Month blog post.  Which she turned 7 months back on February 7th.  So I guess I'll write this post with all the things she currently is doing in her 7th month...drawing close to 8 months.  Wowza!

Caroline Joy
7 Months


At SEVEN MONTHS you weigh approx. 17 pounds.  This past month you moved to size 3 diapers both day and night.  You are wearing size 6 month and 6-9 month clothing.  


You are still eating 5 times a day usually every 3-4 hours.  In the morning when you wake up around 6:50-7:30 you have your first bottle with either 5 or 6 oz.  You have three more 5 oz bottles during the day around 10/11:00, 1/2:00 and 4/5:00.  You drink your last bottle at bedtime which as been anywhere in the 7:00 o'clock hour.  We can tell you start getting sleepy and a little fussy around that time.  Time to lay you down for bed.  This last bottle you have been drinking 6 oz.


At SEVEN MONTHS you have tried a variety of baby foods.  You still remain indifferent to eating it.  You don't get overly excited when you see the spoon coming towards your mouth or are waiting for the next bite.  Usually the food ends up all over your mouth instead of being swallowed, but you have gotten better at figure out the texture in your mouth.  I think you're more interested in wanting to play with the spoon and put it up to your own mouth.

The past two weeks I started giving you the different fruit kinds of baby food in hopes of sparking your interest.  So far you seem to like bananas the best.  You actually seem to eat it!  You also started eating baby puffs.  I break them into smaller pieces so you can try feeding yourself.  You seem to like that as well.  Most of them end up in your lap, but I think your hand/eye coordination for 7 months seems pretty darn good!  We'll keep working on practicing eating.  I can already tell you're doing so much better than when we first started!



You sleep schedule is starting to finally come around.  We have been putting you to bed at night sleepy, but still awake.  Sometimes you go down without much fight, and some nights we have to let you cry it out more.  But you soon give up and crash.  You've been waking up a few times at night - usually around 2:00 and 5:00.  Sometimes it can be hard to get you to go back down to sleep without too much fuss or fight from you.  I think you've been waking up from either your on-going cold or teething.  You don't have any teeth yet, but I think your two bottom teeth are close to coming through.  You then wake up in the morning anywhere between 6:30-7:30.  Lately it has been on the earlier side.  Not a fan of the 6 o'clock hour, Caroline.  Not a fan. ;)


Your napping schedule can be a bit all over the place.  Depends a lot on what we have going on that day.  You usually take your first nap around 9/9:30 and that can last anywhere from 45 mins to an hour.  Then you'll take a longer afternoon nap around 1/2:00 for an hour or two.  (Maybe longer if the twins don't wake you with their loud playing).  You then you still take a quick pre-bedtime nap around 4:30/5ish.  Just a quick 25-30 minute nap to hold you over until bedtime around 7:00ish.  

When you sleep you must have your muslin security blanket.  You love to rub the satin trim on your fingers and on your face as you fall asleep.  You also love to sleep in the car or car seat.  When I take you shopping you'll fall right asleep either in the car or while I push you around a store.

You're silly face as you buzz with your lips.

You are talking/babbling so much!  You definitely like to make noises and like hearing how loud your voice goes.  The best is when you get excited and start kicking your legs up and down and babble away as you play or 'talk' to your toys.



At SEVEN MONTHS you have started to become mobile.  At the beginning of the month you were log rolling and scooting backwards around the room.  But just now within this past week you've starting army crawling!  You use your arms and belly to scoot yourself towards a toy or anything you want.  You are up on all fours trying to lift your arms and legs, so I know any day you're going to take off crawling!  


At SEVEN MONTHS you can sit up on your own, with some support, but don't choose to do that.  Your favorite is to play on your back and tummy - so you can work on trying to crawl.  Sometimes you get very frustrated that you aren't moving anywhere while up on all fours.  You try so hard!



At SEVEN MONTHS we introduced you to the jumperoo.  YOU LOVE IT!!!  Bouncing is your favorite!  You love to have us stand you up so you can bounce while we hold onto you as well.  The first time you jumped in the jumperoo you went so excited and jumped non-stop.  You love having us watch you while you jump.  The kids and I will stand in front of you and say, "Jump Caroline, Jump!" and you will start start going with more excitement and power the more we cheer you on.


At SEVEN MONTHS you love: playing peek-a-boo, watching everybody around you - especially Kate and Matthew, getting into your brother and sister's toys, your mommy, snuggling, investigating anything you can get to, being held, talking a bath - you get those legs a kicking to splash the water everywhere, and being around people.


The best way to get you to start giggling is playing peek-a-boo!  That is your favorite game!  You will take your blanket and put it over your face and wait for us to take it off and say, "Peek!"  Then you giggle and put the blanket right back over your face.  

Your nicknames are: Caroliners, Liney, Liner, Liney-bears, Freight-Liner, Freight, The Captain, and Liney-biney.  You seem to know your name and turn we when start talking to you.  Once you know you have someone's attention you give the biggest smile!


At SEVEN MONTHS you continue to be such a happy, smiley baby, who observes everything.  I guess there is a lot to watch around our house with a big sister and big brother running around.  Kate really loves talking to you (sometime really into your personal space) and Matthew loves to be a big helper for you.  

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Caroline's 6 Month Photos

These are some of my favorites from Caroline's 6 month photo shoot.  Bobbe Corpstein Photography did an amazing job.  [thank you!]  There were so many I loved! It was hard to narrow it down to just these ones. :)  Thankfully Caroline was in a very, very happy mood during the pictures! I drove around an hour before the photo shot so I could make sure Caroline got in a good nap.  And Caroline loved her little doggie.  She was sure to smile anytime she saw her. 
 


















{love}