Random pictures

I was looking through some pictures from the past few months and ran across a few I wanted to share. They are old but I like them.

Back in mid November we got a tricycle from our friends with kids who had grown out of it. Donovan loves it and so do we as it has a handle we can push him around with (without crouching) and also steer with. We even got him to wear his helmet with it the day of these pictures too! (He had only worn it once before, when we got the helmet, and even then he was done after 1 minute).

Rocking the helmet. Safety first.

I love this picture. Leaning back like he is going SO fast.
Looking at me and saying "Cheese" (unprompted) instead of watching where he was going. He forgot to turn.
This is one of my favorite pj's he has ever had. I love everything about them.

One night after a bath Donovan was running around the house naked while I ate a snack. He then requested to have some of my pretzels too. Then he wanted some bread. Then he wanted to make a pretzel sandwich so he put pretzels on his bread and ate it like that. I asked him to put his head near the sandwich for the picture and this was what I got.
In the early part of December when Donovan was having a rough few days we had a disagreement about something (I think it was how much juice he should be having that day and that particular moment) and he threw an epic fit right before nap time. I stayed in his room with him because I was worried if I left him alone he would go so crazy that he would have pulled the dresser over on himself since we still haven't anchored it to the wall (these are the things that keep me up at night people). Anywhos... he was so mad at me he went in his closet and tried to shut the door. He couldn't so I did it for him. He stayed in there, screaming, for 10 minutes before I finally cracked it enough to scratch his back until he fell asleep. So this is how Donovan started his nap that day. Look hard at the first picture. He is there.

Oh did I forget to mention he threw this whole fit while pantsless? Tom helped me hold him down to put his diaper on during his fit and then 4 seconds later he had already ripped it off. So I just waited til he fell asleep, then put his diaper on and put him in bed. It is tough to be 2.

She's been good

Reese just wanted me to take a few pictures of her in this onsie in case Santa was looking at the blog to see how the kids had been. She is right. She has been a very good girl. Her brother on the other hand...

Super belated 7 month post

Ok so I found a few minutes so I will try to crank this post out before Reese turns 8 months old.





Eating: Reese is still doing well with bottles and is still breastfeeding when I am here. She is so inquisitive (I restrained myself from saying nosy) so breastfeeding is increasingly becoming a challenge. She is just like her brother was. Eats for a few seconds, pops off and looks around. So annoying. I might have to start feeding her in her room when Tom is here to entertain Donovan. She is eating two solid meals a day. One stage 2 tub of food (or two baby bullets of food, usually veggies) for lunch with some cereal mixed in and one stage 2 tub of fruit with about a table spoon of cereal mixed in as well as a tablespoon plus of cereal and milk for dinner. She does pretty well and is usually a very good and quick eater. She also eats puffs and yogurt melts and is pretty good at getting those in her own mouth. I have too much going on to make all her food so we are doing a little of both, right now she is eating the majority of store bought but I will get streaky and make a bunch of food when I have time and then she will eat a lot of that. Hopefully when the holidays are over and things calm down around here I can start making more again, it was just getting to stressful to try and worry about making all of her food.

Sleep: She is only taking 2 naps most days now. Usually one of them is at least an hour and a half, sometimes 2 and a half. Every day is different. She goes longer between sleeping too, sometimes 5 hours or more. She is still swaddled and sleeps in her crib. Sometimes she has a hard time putting herself to sleep and fusses and cries for 15 min, sometimes she goes to bed wide awake and you don't hear a peep, you just never know what way it is going to be til it happens. She is also still sleeping through the night. Seems like it doesn't matter if she goes to bed at 7:45 or 10, either way she is going to be up at 6-6:30 for a feeding, which she then goes back to bed after until 8:30 or 9 usually. She is usually in bed between 8:15-9:15 at night, depending on what time she got up from her last nap.

Development: This was a big month for Reese as far as she is now sitting! She can't get to a sitting position herself and is kind of stuck there once she is placed in the sitting position so it's kinda nice as it is the only way to keep her stationary for now. When she is down she just jets off, army crawling after you. It is so funny how fast and determined she is. She gets mad if I put her down and walk away so she will chase me into whatever room I have walked too. It is so funny to see her little head peeking around the corner, looking for me. Also, her newest news (as in she started doing this about 3 days before her month bday) is that she is doing a modified pulling up. It is more like pushing up. She needs something about mid body height for her and then she crawls over to it, pushes up, then totally stands up. She loves to stand! So she is practicing standing and trying to walk while holding on to your hands. She is so proud of herself too. (See below pictures). She has yet to do any typical crawling but gets on her hands and knees fairly often. That is how I find her in her crib 90% of the time. She is just so efficient at the army crawl I think the regular crawling is a non-issue. Her newest skill has left our playing on the ground time mostly her fussing until you lay on the ground so she can crawl over to you and push up on you and stand up. So play time with Reese is a lot less of independent Reese time and more you down there with her the whole time.

I tried to get an action shot of her playing with the table but every time I did she would look up and smile like this. She is just so darn proud of herself for being able to stand like this. She is pretty steady too. You can walk away from her and she will be up like this for 10 minutes or more before she falls over. (But man is she unhappy when she falls. Oh the drama.)




All in all another fun month on the books with Reese. Sorry it took me a week plus to get this posted. Life is busy!

One last side note: It has become clear that Donovan thinks Reese's name is "Reesie Poo". That is the only thing he calls her. Even when he is mad at her. He'll yell at her "Don't eat my blanket Reesie Poo!!!!!" or say "Mommy, put Reesie Poo down on the ground". I guess maybe we were using that nickname too often. Poor girl is going to be picked up for a date in highschool and Donovan is going to yell "Have a nice time Reesie Poo!".

More pics

Ok so Thurs and Fri came and went and I still didn't do the post on Reese and I got news for you, I may actually be busier now than I was then so it ain't happening tonight either. But here are some cute pictures of Reese from the other day when I thought we were going to go see Santa but then Donovan had a monster melt down.
The fit thrower taking a pause to get in the way of the camera. (Reese is directly behind him)
Showing off her underoos.
"No more pictures!!!!!!"
"Ok fine, one more"

Happy 7 months Reesie!

Dang you are adorable. Even when you are just eating puffs with no shirt on. I don't have time to write about what she is up to tonight so that will have to wait for Thursday or Friday. This will have to hold you over until then. (In that third picture she is dropping a puff over the edge to Petey. Man kids learn fast!)

Two peas in a pod

Or monkeys on the bed would be more appropriate. Donovan and his best friend Ian. (Although the other day I asked Donovan who his best friend was and instead of saying Ian like I had expected him to he said "Daddy" Awwwww. Tear.)


My favorite one of these two.


They are at such a great age. They play really well together now. Watching them interact is so funny. It is also nice because they entertain each other so well that us adults get to (GASP!) actually talk and enjoy each other. It's been a long time in the making for that.

Two things I forgot

Two more little sayings/stories from Dono I want to document:

-Donovan:(Sliding down the stairs, backwards, on his belly, laughing) "How funny is that?"

-And a story that kinda breaks my heart: A couple weeks ago Donovan was playing with this helium balloon we got from my parents before Halloween. It was losing air slowly so it was low enough he could grab it. He brought it over to me and asked me to help him tie it around his waist. As I was doing it he kept saying, "Help me get up. Help me get up, mommy." So I was like, "Ok" even though I had no idea what he was talking about. When I finished tying it around his waist he straightened up, looked up in the air so proud and excited and said "Help me get up in the sky" and it was suddenly clear he was expecting that balloon to lift him into the air like the balloons did in the movie "Up" which we had seen the week prior. It broke my heart it was so sweet. I told Tom, I couldn't stand the fact that he was so happy and so excited that he was going to get to float around and it wasn't going to happen. For a few minutes I was really thinking about getting on google and seeing how fast I could get mass quantities of large balloons and helium tanks because if that is what my baby wants, that is what he gets. But really, it is kind of heart breaking to realize there are things that your child will want to do that you can't make happen for them. But instead of focusing on that, I am trying to focus on the adorableness of child innocence. God bless that kid for thinking that half dead helium balloon was going to lift him up into the sky. So sweet.

Conversation with Dono from today

Donovan: "I want to hold hands with Reese"
Me: "Ok"
Donovan offers his had to Reese, she reaches out and grabs it and they lay on their tummies facing in each other on the ground, holding hands.
Donovan: (turns to me and smiles real big) "This is adorable!"

.....

Me: "Donovan, do you want to make a fort?"
Donovan: "Ok"
1 minute later
Donovan: "This is gonna be so much fun!"

.....

Dono:(setting his crackers and water cup on the ottoman instead of throwing them on the ground) "Mommy, this is a good idea."

Can you tell we are having a much better day today? Thank the Lord for new days with 2 year olds.

.....

Other things Donovan says that crack me up:
-"I don't want to put my neighborhood on" (he was referring to his hood on his jacket)
-"I love you too mommy!" when he is the first one to say it. I guess he doesn't realize "too" means you are saying something back to someone.
-"I have-a be right back" - Instead of "I'm gonna be right back"
-"Reese is a fish. Reese is a pumpkin. Reese is a grammie Q." -naming random things and saying that is what Reese is
-"I have-a say sorry" When he does something naughty, purposeful or otherwise he runs away immediately when we scold him, then he says he wants to say sorry on his own accord, and then sweetly does so. As in "I'm sorry for peeing on your pack-pack (back pack) daddy"
-"This is the biggest hammer ever seen!" There are a lot of ordinary things that are the "best" or "biggest" thing Donovan's ever seen.

One last story. The other day Donovan and I were in his bed looking at the pictures on my cell phone. One picture was of the Sydney Opera house and he pointed at the different size scallops of the opera house and was telling me all about their sizes. Donovan: "This one is sooooooo huge, and this one is sooooooo little, and this one is soooooo tiny, and this one is sooooooo medium." Man I love that kid.

Big girl bath

Tonight Reese had her first bath in the big girl blow up tub. Since she can sit and all now. She really liked it until she did a face plant into the water right at the same time I was turning back around from reaching for her towel so she learned inhaling water is not so fun. Donovan was trying to be a helper but really he just got in my way and stressed me way out by throwing every toy in with Reese and just being a pest in general. He is VERY 2 right now. Some moment's he is sweet, and then there's the rest of the day. But that's for another post. Oh well. Hopefully it's just a phase. Thank the lord for angel, almost 7 month old babies though.

Guess what

Reese is sitting!

It was bizarre. Yesterday, she was still resisting bending at the waist. Not much practice at sitting. Today, bending just fine. Sitting by herself. For 15 plus minutes at a time. Weird. I guess she just decided today was the day since she is officially 6 1/2 months old now.

Also, she is eating solids like a champ now. For the past couple days she eats a tub of fruit or veggies twice a day with at least 2 tsp rice cereal mixed in. 3 days ago you could barely talk her into opening her mouth wide enough to get much food in. Now, eating expert. We even gave her some finger foods yesterday. She got 2 yogurt melts in on her own. She liked them (we think).

And in other random, surprising news, after brushing Donovan's teeth today before his nap I discovered he has 2 new molars, which from the feel of them, have been in for a few weeks now. Huh. Who knew.

So weird how they just grow up before your very eyes.

Hanging Christmas Lights

Our little helper.




My favorite supervisor.

Spikes

6 month stats, some pics and a video

We had Reese's 6 month dr's visit on Friday. It went well all save for the double melt down at the end when Dono had to get a drop in his nose (flu mist) and Reese had to get 2 shots. Overall the Dr had no concerns for us and he felt around on her neck and said he thought the lymph nodes felt smaller and less hard, which is what I think too so that is good. Hopefully we won't have to see him again until our well visit at 9 months. Here are the stats for this month:

Weight: 15lbs 8oz- 37%
Height: 27 and 1/4 inches- 92%
Head Circumference: 17 1/4 inches- 83%

So, long and skinny with a good sized noggin. That's 'cus she's so smart. I hope she starts fattening up now that she likes bottles but I don't think that's likely given her activity level and the fact that she is only going to get more active.

Here are some pictures of Reese from yesterday with her new hat I got her to replace the one that is 2 years too big. In some of the pictures the tag was still on because I just plopped it on her to try out the size and then it was too cute to take off.





Here is a short video of Reese scooting tonight.

We have a 6 month old!

Happy belated 6 month birthday to Reese! It feels like she has been with us forever so it is hard to believe it was really only 6 months ago that she officially joined our family. Here is her latest:

Eating: Thank the lord, as of last Monday we have had a bottle break through! That day Tom's mom watched her, and we switched her to level 3 nipples and the first bottle she took 8 oz!!!! Then she took 6oz and then 8oz for the rest of the day and since that day she has never looked back. No more wimpy 2-3oz bottles. The least amount of milk she has drank since then at one feeding is 5 oz. And she is making up for lost time too. Sometimes drinking 5 or 6 oz and then another 5 or 6 oz less than 2 hours later. Such a relief. Now we can give her bottles without fear of her fighting us and not getting enough milk when I am working all day. I think switching the nipples had a little to do with it but I think she just finally decided it was ok to like bottles too. One less stress in our lives. She also eats solids once or twice a day and sometimes eats a lot and sometimes eats just a little, just depends. She has had pears, apples, banana's and sweet potatoes so far in addition to rice cereal. So far pears is the winner for favorite food.

Sleeping: A couple weekends ago Tom went out of town for a day/night and the week before it I was about to have a mental breakdown just thinking about having no Reese relief and help for 24 hours, and it was all because I was tired of living my life with only short increments of sleep between feedings. So I decided it was time to sleep train her and "Ferberize" her and she has done so well. After not even a week we had her going at least 9 hours between feedings at night. We worked really hard on putting her down awake and letting her comfort herself and also not picking her up or feeding her overnight. (oh and we cut out the swing. Don't use it at all anymore). She still wakes up and cries at some point over night most nights, but depending on how long and hard she cries, we either just let her cry it out or we go comfort her and re-wrap her in her bed. Yes, she still is a swaddle baby. Who knows how long she will keep that up. It calms her down and she likes it really tight. Also, if she is fussy, she gets catatonically calm if I blow zerberts on her neck. Calms her right down and she closes her eyes and just grins. I love it. She usually takes 3-4 naps a day, usually 3. One is usually a long one, anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours. The short ones are 30-40 min. Today all she had was 3 30 min ones but yesterday she took two 2 hours ones so you just never know. Overall though, we are in such a better place with sleeping so I cannot complain. I am starting to feel human again.

Development: Reese is no where near sitting, which months ago I thought she would be doing for sure at this point. Since she refuses (mostly) to bend at the waist it really puts a damper on learning that skill. In actuality she does ok at it when you force her to bend but we don't practice as much as we should. She'll get there eventually. She just does not see how that is a skill that will be useful to her. She would much rather skip right on to walking. She wants so badly to be able to stand at her brother's train table and play with his stuff. She is Tom Hanks in the movie "Big". She is mobile now. She has this army crawl/scoot that gets her from here to there. She is actually pretty fast and man does she have quite the determined face when she see's something she wants. Which is usually one of her brother's toys/things which leads to sibling rivalry since Dono does not appreciate the fact that Reese is a baby and does not follow his orders. A quote from Sunday morning, "Don't pull my shirt Reese! That makes me not so happy!" She is also talking. Some mamas, dadas, yiyis and what nots. So fun!

This past month Reese gave me a health scare. Tom noticed a lump on her neck and I felt a couple hard, immovable lymph nodes that really scared me. The next day we saw the pediatrician and he said they were a little harder than he would like to feel so he sent us for blood work. Sad to see your little 5ish month old getting blood drawn from her. Of course my mind went to the worst place possible. It was the scariest 5 days of my life. After the lab results got back I had to call him for the interpretation and got to talk to the nurse instead of him (awesome. actually the exact opposite of that) and through her he said it looked indicative of a virus but he wanted us to go see a Pediatric surgeon anyways. What he was thinking behind this, I don't know, I didn't get to talk to him. So we went and that surgeon was a saint and took lots of time looking and feeling all over her and asking me questions. He thinks they are either just weird lymph nodes or dermatoid cysts and he reassured me and dampened all my crazy mom thoughts. He wants to see us back if they get worse or in 6-8 weeks from our appointment, whichever comes first so hopefully it is the latter. So anyways, hopefully it remains no big deal and we don't have to have him take them out, which is still a possibility. I'll keep you posted. Suffice to say that I hope this is the biggest health scare my children have for a long, long time. Being a parent is too scary.

I bought this adorable hat for Reese on Etsy last week. Ordered a size 6-12 months so it would last her all winter. We got it and it was WAY to big. The sizing is totally off. So to illustrate that, I had Dono try it on and what do you know, it fits my 2 1/2 year old boy perfectly. (excuse Dono's pink teeth, he was slamming some juice).



Donovan wanted me to put Reese in his hiding spot yesterday (the cool spot under his bed). I said I would put her in there if he went too. I got about 5 pics of the two of them in there and this is the best.

Reese was playing with her toys and brothers bag (actually it was originally Petey's dog bag) and it ended up on her arm just like a little purse. Little lady is accessorizing already.


All in all, such a fun month and I can't wait to see what is in store for us this month. Hopefully a happy and healthy baby girl that continues to light up our life! We love you Reesie Poo!