E - 5 months old!

 Baby Girl is 5 months old today!

After being sick for so long last month, this past month, she has really been wonderful!

She has discovered her feet, and likes to play with them.

She loves to laugh and smile at her big brother.

She says, "Mama" occasionally when she is fussing.  Yes, I know it's not intentional, but it's music to my ears!

She loves to drink her formula.  She eats between 32 and 36 ounces a day!

She loves to sit and play anywhere.

She hasn't rolled over yet, but gets SO close!  It will be any day now!

She loves to make high pitch squeals like she's talking.  

She likes to pull my hair when I'm holding her.

She likes to hold my finger or pinch my arm when she's eating.

She lights up when her Daddy gets her attention.

She used to not like riding in the car, but she doesn't seem to mind it now!

She is a very happy girl!

So after she got sick and wasn't sleeping so well, she went back to sleeping well for a couple nights... but then started waking once or twice, and then it got to four or five times.  We did move her into the nursery a couple weeks ago, but still in her rock n play and still swaddled.  When she kept waking up 4-5 times a night just to be rocked and put back down, or sometimes staying up for an hour, we decided it was time to sleep train!

Our sleep training consisted of moving her into her crib, no more swaddling, and no more putting her down asleep.

So, tonight is the fifth night, and it is going great! The first night was the hardest, and it was awful! But the second night was much better.  Starting the second night, after crying, she fell asleep and slept the whole night.  She did wake a couple times, but put herself right back to sleep.  Last night, she slept from 7-5:10.  She woke up and played for about 45 minutes, and then I went in, changed her, fed her a bottle and laid her back down, and she slept until 8:35!  I'm so glad we did this.  We waited until six months with her brother, and we wished we had done it sooner.  She is taking pretty good naps too!  A couple cat naps in the morning, and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon.  

We are enjoying her so much, and she is the cutest thing in the world!  We constantly thank God for blessing us with our sweet baby girl!

W-31 months old!

 While I will continue to post monthly pictures, the updates are most likely going to be funny or amusing things Little Man has said or done in the past month.

Here's pictures from the day he turned 31 months old... closer to 3 than 2 now! AH!

2 days after this picture... his Daddy used his clippers and cut his hair the shortest it's ever been cut!! He looks adorable... so much older, and I know it will grow back really fast.  Although he still didn't like getting it cut, it was much easier having his dad do it, then going somewhere to get it done!

Baby Girl - 4 months old (3/25/12)

 I am getting so behind on these blog posts, but we have been SO busy! So better late than never.

You can see her "sickness" really well in this picture :(

When Baby E turned 4 months, she had been sick for awhile! (You can tell it in a few pictures, but her big brother could still make her smile!)  I got a really bad flu bug, and quarantined myself upstairs, while my husband took care of both kids.  Unfortunately, I had already given it to E and it just hadn't hit her yet.  The flu bug turned into an awful cold and cough which laster f.o.r.e.v.e.r!  She had been sleeping through the night, still in our room, in the rock n play and swaddled.  But she was sleeping 12+ hours!  While she was sick, she was up multiple times a night.  It was awful and sad.

Fortunately, after she finally got over being sick, she slept through the night a couple time, but then started waking once or twice.  Still not so bad!

She is such a wonderful baby!  She still loves to smile and laugh, and she loves her family.  

Everyone comments on how she looks like a porcelain doll, and they love her cheeks!

Her 4 month stats:

Weight: 16 pounds, 5 ounces (99%)

Head: 19 inches (99%)

Height: 25 1/2 inches (95%)

She's a big girl, and I love every bit of her!!

2 1/2 years old! (3/19/12)

 It's official! Little Man is 2 1/2 years old! This happened almost a month ago...but I've gotten pretty behind after the kids and I were sick for awhile!  We are all better now, and we are looking forward to a busy and fun summer!

Little Man is such a wonderful boy.  He is very independent, yet very sociable.  He loves to dance and sing, and he is the best big brother in the world! He loves his baby sister so much!

Here are photos from the day he turned 2 1/2:

This month he has done some really cute things:

One of our favorite places to eat right now is Moe's.  And if you have ever eaten there, you know that they say, "Welcome to Moe's!" whenever a new customer walks in the door.  Well, when we went to eat there the other week, we walked in, and before the staff had the chance to say anything, Little Man yells out, "Welcome to Moe's!"  Everyone laughed, and he continued to say it to every person he saw in the restaurant.  While I was filling up my drink, he climbed up in a booth with a man eating alone, and said, "Hey!"  He then proceeded to grab the salt and pepper shakers and pour it on the man's food!  I told him to stop, but the man didn't seem to mind. (Thank goodness!)

I also still watch him when he's taking naps and going to bed on the baby monitor.  He is usually telling his stuffed animals to go to time-out or to stop it, but sometimes he is really sweet.  One day he took his blanket and wrapped up his Eeyore and bunny and gave them hugs over and over.  Too sweet!

He still sleeps in his crib, but that will probably not last much longer.  Baby girl was taking a nap in my room, and Little Man had just woken up from his.  I needed to dry my hair.  I took my hairdryer to the bathroom next to Little Man's room and opened his door.  I asked him if he would stay in his crib while I dried my hair and he said yes.  I could hear him calling my name while I was drying my hair, and I would step out in the hallway and smile at him.  Well, near the end, I stopped looking at him, and the next thing I know, I hear, "Hey Mama!"  Little Man had climbed out and was standing right next to me!  He doesn't really try it unless he knows one of us is nearby though...so we will try to keep him in the crib as long as we can! :)

Looking forward to seeing what he has in store for us in the coming months!

Missing My Grandmother...

 Today, we remembered my wonderful grandmother who left the world for a better place on Wednesday night.  We were so blessed to have her as a grandmother.  She was the portrait of love.  She and my grandfather shared a wonderful marriage of nearly 58 years after knowing each other a short 10 weeks!  They eloped!  Their marriage stayed strong, and they were truly best friends.  I spoke at her service today, and this is what I shared...

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My grandmother was an amazing woman.

She and Ray-Ray love their grandkids so much.  When we were little, they let us stay with them overnight when our parents were out of town, and took us to ride the train, or on little hikes in the mountains.  We would meet halfway at a McDonald's.  One time we were meeting halfway for my older sister to go spend a couple nights with them, and when it was time to go, I hopped into Effie and Ray-Ray's car and buckled my seatbelt.  They told my mom it was okay and I borrowed my sister's clothes while we were there.

Effie used to tell me the story of one time when we were walking around the mountains.  I was holding her hand, and she and I heard singing.  We were curious as to where it was coming from, so we walked toward the singing, and there was a lake.  One man was dunking people into the lake and bringing them back up.  I asked Effie, "What are they doing?"  She said, "They are getting baptized."  I replied, "I never want to get baptized!"

Another time when I was staying with them, I remember sitting in the floor of their kitchen with my "Katie" doll.  Effie was refusing to give me something that I wanted, and I told her she was as mean as a snake.  I remember her laughing at me and me getting mad at her laughing.  She liked to refer to that story whenever I visited when I was older.

She was always very active, and even in her 60s and 70s, she would wake up in the mornings and go down to her basement to exercise!  When I was in college, trying to lose weight, she let me have one of her resistance bands, and I let her have one of my work-out videos that I had finished using.  Not many people can say that they used exercise tips from their grandmother!  

She also loved to play golf with my grandfather and their friends.  On my birthday one year, she called to tell me happy birthday, but also to say that she had just got a hole-in-one!

  

Over the past few years, I have been blessed to live only an hour or so away from my grandparents.  I love to bring my son and daughter to visit.   Effie loved to hold her great-grandkids, and she could always get my son (who wasn't the happiest of babies) to smile and laugh.  During my pregnancies, I would call Effie to get advice because I knew she had lots of experience through being a nurse and having four children of her own.  She was obviously a wonderful mother, and a terrific grandmother... even if she laughed at you when you were hurt.

Isn't it mean to laugh at someone when they are hurt?  Well, that was one thing Effie did and that rubbed off onto my mom.  When my mom fell off her bike and busted her teeth and mouth, she said the first thing Effie did when she saw her was laugh.  So when my mom laughed at me after falling or getting hurt, I would get so mad and ask her why she was laughing.  She would tell that story about Effie and say, "I guess we are just so glad to know that you aren't hurt severely...that everything is going to be okay... so we laugh instead of get mad."  While the laugh would surely be followed with a hug and words of comfort, this story is so true today.  While right now, it's okay for us to cry and miss our grandmother...our mother, sister, wife and best friend, Effie is in heaven probably smiling and laughing right now.

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I truly hope that I stay as active as my grandmother did, and that my marriage is as wonderful and genuine as hers was to my grandfather.  She will be greatly missed.

Skip Hop Tote Giveaway from ModParent!

Go to ModParent.com and enter to win a Skip Hop Tote Bag!! I have one already, but you can never have enough! :)

Zucchini Pizzas!

So, I have been pinning lots of ideas for zucchini.  I love eating it, but usually just put it on my roasted veggie sandwich.  I had some leftover this week and decided to create my own zucchini snack.  These were delicious!

I am currently doing Weight Watchers on-line to lose the last of this baby weight, and these were an easy two point snack!

I cut the zucchini into little rounds and put them on aluminum foil on a baking sheet.  I sprinkled them with salt.  Next, I put a little bit of marinara on each round. (Total: 1/8 cup of marinara).  Then I sprinkled mozzarella cheese on each one (Total: 1/3 cup of mozzarella cheese).  Then I put them in the oven on 450 (it really hadn't heated up all the way, but I was anxious).  They stayed for about 4 minutes then I switched it over to broil for a minute or less.  They came out great and were the perfect bite-size snack!

Yum! Let me know if you try it!