Saturday, October 5, 2013

Sophie's Development [2.5 Years]


Sophie is 2 and a half!!! That means I’ve been a mommy for two and a half years- no wonder it’s hard to remember what life was like before.



Words: She talks all the time and continues to amaze me with words she picks up on. She still says some pronouns wrong. For instance, tonight she said, “Her figured it out” instead of “She figured it out.” Another thing she says quite a bit that makes me smile is, “It’s actually mine” or “it’s actually Brielle’s.”

Learning: She’s been learning new songs in childcare. She’s learned “I’m in the Lord’s Army” and “My God is so big” and “Zaccheus.” I’ve started working on memorizing verses with her, and she’s a fast learner! She’s also learned how to pedal on tricycles.

Sleep: She is going to sleep better at night. She usually doesn’t put up a fight anymore, but occasionally she still will. She goes to bed between 8:30 and 9pm and sleeps until 7 or 7:30am (usually the earlier though). She naps for 2-2 ½ hours, usually laying down between 1:30 and 2pm.

Potty Training: Same… Still doing great during the daytime. Still wears diapers for naps and night.

Funny Things: 
1.    Ben was explaining to Sophie that our neighbor’s name is Gordan. When he told her this, she said, “He the little man on your shorts, Daddy!” Ben was confused for a second and asked her what she meant, and she said, “The little man who plays basketball on your shorts!” Ben laughed and explained to her that, in fact, our neighbor and Michael Jordan are not the same.
2.   She does things, like put on her shoes, and then says, “You so proud of me, Mommy?”
3.   She thinks it’s funny to do something to herself (like run into a trash can) and then say, “Sorry Sophie”… and then giggle really loud
4.   She puts her hand over her mouth and laughs really loud when she thinks something is funny (or knows something is supposed to be funny)
5.    She knows Ben and I call each other Babe, so sometimes she will call us Babe or play with her toys and call them Babe.
6.   Ben will ask her, “Am I your favorite daddy?” And she’ll say, “Noooo.” Then he’ll ask, “Well who’s your favorite daddy then?” And she’ll say, “The other one!”
7.   Some poop stories because they're too funny not to share: “Bye, bye poop!” “It’s fun saying bye-bye to my poop” -and- "My poop is sleeping. I need to wake it up... with my butt!" (I don't know where she comes up with these things)
8.   After picking up a spider by its leg and throwing it outside (all on her own accord, I should add): “We gonna pick Brielle up and put her outside so she can crawl? Just like a spider?”
9.   “Please can I may have a banana?” … the polite way for a 2 year old whose mama was an English major to ask for a banana

Sweet Things
1.    While eating spaghetti “Thanks, Mom for making food. I like this food!” No prompting or anything. So sweet J
2.   She calls Brielle “hunnie” and she’ll say, “aw, hunnie.”

Bible Knowledge: She has learned a few more Bible stories and really likes her Bible storybook. She always wants to look at pictures of Noah and Jesus. She understands praying and thanks Jesus for lots of things/people. She has started memorizing verses.

Foods: She’s really slowed down on eating lately! Her favorites are fruit snacks, capri suns, cheese, yogurt, hot dogs, fruit, and goldfish. She also loves Ranch (thanks to her daddy).

Likes: Playing at the playgrounds with her friends, playing in the water, pretending, reading books, singing, her teddy bear, wagon/stroller rides, Nemo, making Brielle laugh, her class

Dislikes: Having to share, bedtime, messiness, hurting herself












Brielle's Development [8 Months]



This past month, Brielle has continued to be a good eater. She can easily eat small chunks of food now, and she really likes all foods that we’ve tried, though she does like some more than others.

She can get up on all 4s now and rocks back and forth, and she pushes herself backwards well. She’s still not crawling, but she is trying!

She got her first tooth this past month! She got the bottom right tooth.

We’ve also begun teaching her some sign language (more and please) and how to wave hi and bye. She raised her hand up a few times to wave “hi.” J

Her schedule has been changing lately. She now nurses between 4 and 5 times a day and has finally started sleeping longer in the night in the last week! She now sleeps from 8pm-6:00am fairly consistently. She usually goes to sleep after this until 8am. She takes a nap at 9:30 or 10am (sleep is usually shorter in child care and longer at home) and nurses at 12pm. Her second nap starts between 1 and 2pm, depending on the day. She nurses again at 3:30 or 4pm and usually takes one more small nap around 6pm, and then she nurses at 7:30pm before bed. She eats food 3 times a day- sweet potatoes or squash that I made, banana chunks, baby oatmeal, or baby food.



Loves: stroller and wagon rides, her blanky and paci, being outside, bananas, cheerios, being held, baths, people, chewing on things, sitting in her crib with Sophie

Dislikes: Mommy leaving the room, short naps, being on her belly for long, being alone









Thursday, August 29, 2013

Brielle's Development [7 Months]

7 months! I can't believe Brielle is 7 months! 


This past month, Brielle has begun eating solid foods consistently. She eats store-bought baby foods as well as tiny banana chunks and other homemade purrees that I have made for her.

She started sitting right at 6 months and has been perfecting this newly-learned skill ever since.

She's also become super whiny whenever I leave the room or if she can see me from a distance while someone else is holding her.

Otherwise, it's been a fairly uneventful month.




Her schedule has been crazy this past month. The first two weeks, we spent living in other homes as we prepared to transition from our home in Indiana to our new home in Missouri. This always disrupts baby schedules. As soon as we moved, she got back on schedule, but then she started waking up an extra time in the night again when she got a fever, and that lasted for a week (maybe teething?). It's always frustrating guessing what babies are up to. She still is nursing 6 times in a 24 hour period, but now we've added baby food in as well. Her morning nap thankfully has not been too disrupted as a result of going to childcare every morning, but it also isn't as long as it was before either.

Speaking of moving, Brielle did AMAZING in the car! It's an 8 1/2 hour car ride, and we made it in 10 hours- with a baby and a newly potty trained child! I was SO thankful!

Loves: stroller rides, spitting, sitting up, Sophie the giraffe, baths, people, being held, being outside, chewing on things, her blanky, her paci

Dislikes: Mommy leaving the room, short naps, being on her belly for long

Childcare picture:


Thursday, August 1, 2013

Brielle's Development [6 Months]



This sweet baby is half a year old!! 6 months came so much faster with Brielle than it did with Sophie! Happy half birthday, sweet baby girl!



This past month (so when she was 5 months old), she's been rolling a lot. If I place her on her back, she almost immediately rolls to her belly. The downside is that she doesn't really like being on her belly for long.

She has began to push herself backwards and right at 6 months began sitting up on her own.

She also has began babbling this past month and said "dada" once, although I don't think she really knows what she's saying yet :).

She finally took a bottle this past month- twice! She's also been more "needy" this past month. She whines when I leave the room and is more needy of attention.

Her schedule is fairly similar to last month's, but she stays up a little later now. She typically nurses at 6am, 8am, 11:30/12am, 2/3pm, 5pm, and 7:30/8pm. She takes one long nap every day (2.5 hours, on average) and then 2 shorter naps (somewhere between 45 min and 1.5 hours). Typically the long nap is in the morning. Occasionally she needs a fourth nap still.

Loves: Stroller rides, people, chewing on things, being held (especially by mommy), sitting up, swinging outside, being outside in general, baths, jenny jump up

Dislikes: When mommy walks away, being on her belly for very long





Photos below by Carrie Weaver Photography.






Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sophie's Development [2 Years, 4 Months]

In nine days, Sophie will be 2 years and 4 months... we're going to be in the middle of moving craziness then, so I'll do her update now!

Words: She amazes me often by words and phrases that she picks up on and uses appropriately. Some examples: awesome, firefly, "this will be fun," "what time is it?", scarf, toilet paper, remember, proud, thunder, high five, Cinderella, swim tube, brownie, grumpy, "It too bright outside,""I dizzy" (This part was really hard for me to remember... I really should write down things when she says them so that I can remember... I'm sure I'm forgetting some of my favorite things that she says, so if I remember, I'll just have to come back and add them). She really does repeat pretty much everything now, but I'm mostly just amazed at how quickly she picks up on the correct context of the word. The one thing she just can't seem to get is "bought/made." She always says, "Grandma made me this!" When talking about something that Grandma bought her. A couple of times lately she's corrected herself, but for some reason, this one always confuses her!

Learning: She now can count to 16, although she doesn't do so very often. She also remembers the number 3 now- yay! She also knows all of the letters in her ABCs now. The biggest thing is that she almost has all of her colors down now. There are a few that are still tricky for her that she'll sometimes get wrong, but she's pretty good with colors now!

Sleep: Blah! Last time I wrote great. Since summer has come and it stays light longer, it's been hard to get her to go to sleep, no matter how short or how long her nap is (or even if she has none!) We've been putting her down at 9 instead of 8, which is fine, but even then she still struggles to fall asleep and fights it! Thankfully, she sleeps in until at least 7, and usually closer to 7:30, and then she will come and just lay next to me in bed if I'm still sleeping. Nap time is good. She usually naps for at least 2 hours, and I often wake her up at 2 1/2 hours because she's still sleeping. I've been laying her down at around 1:30 for naps right now.

Potty Training: Great! She no longer has accidents. Still wears diapers for naps and night.

Funny Things: 
1. Sophie knows we're moving. The other day our neighbor watched her so I could run out real quick, and when I came back she told me that she was asking her about moving, and Sophie said, "Yeah, I'm moving to a new house!" And then she got a concerned face and said, "Grandma is gonna be sad." My mom told her the other day that she would be sad when we moved, and Sophie is concerned now, haha! It was cute.
2. My mom was talking to my Aunt Dawn on the phone the other day and gave the phone to Sophie. Sophie told Aunt Dawn that she was 2, and Aunt Dawn said, "You're getting so old!" Sophie said, "I two! I not old!"
3. Sophie's conversation in the bathtub: "Hello Grandma! Can you get me some toys? I just need you to get some new toys for me. Please get me some new toys." Pause. "Hello Grandma? You callin' me back? I got some new toys? Thank you for my new toys."
4. We've been having her try new foods. Or sometimes old foods that she just doesn't remember liking before. Once she eats them, she gets this little smile and says, "That not yucky! That yummy!"
5. She says, "I need a break" or "I takin' a break" when she has been carrying things around and sets them down or when she is playing something and stops.
6. Our neighbor dog died. At first I told her that he was gone. Then after saying that a lot, I realized that I could explain to her about death. So I told her he got old and died. So she was playing with a little toy dog at our friend's house and did this little screech, and I asked her what was wrong and she said, "Oh no! The dog died!" (ok, so maybe this one is more morbid than funny)
7. She calls people "somenabody" (somebody) when she doesn't know their name. This isn't funny until she's looking at a picture and listing everyone: "Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, Somenabody, Becca, Katie..." and she just says Somenabody like it's the person's name. Or when she's been hanging out with a little kid her age for a couple of hours and keeps calling them Somenabody.
8. The other day Sophie was playing with Owen outside. She pushed him and I told her that she needed to be nice or she was going to have to go inside (she had already gotten a spanking for being mean earlier). So she heads to the door and says, "I can't go inside." I told her she would have to wait until I could come help and asked her if she wanted to stay outside for now. She says, "No. I don't want to be nice." Sigh. Since then I asked her to sit on the couch one time when she was being too rough with Brielle. Same thing, "I not getting down. I don't wanna be nice." Apparently time outs don't work as punishment for Sophie. She's not the least bit upset to have to sit on a couch or on a chair. Good thing we believe in spanking.
9. She LOVES to play pretend. She'll scream and say "Oh no! Swiper coming!" and come jump in my lap (Swiper is the bad guy from Dora). She also likes to pretend there's a lion outside, and sometimes we go get him with a "rope" and "pull" him down our driveway, and sometimes she just yells on the porch, "LION! GO AWAY, LION!" and I just smile and think that our single neighbors must think my child is crazy.

Bible Knowledge: She knows some more stories now. Her favorite is the story of David and Goliath- she just knows Goliath as the Giant though. She also knows who Jesus is now... I had to teach her that he was a boy because she was confused since he had long hair. We just recently read through the story of Joseph, and she likes his colorful coat and says, "Oh no! His coat!" when it's not on Joseph anymore. She's getting better at praying. She usually will just pray for the things I pray for ("Thank for you today. Help me sleep good. And mommy. And Bee-elle. And daddy" I always tell her daddy doesn't need prayers to help him sleep good), but sometimes she prays for things that she thinks of on her own... yesterday she thanked Jesus for her babies after she played with them all morning :). I really want to start teaching her some Bible verses but have been slacking, and so now I'm planning on waiting until after our move. She's definitely ready to start learning some. She has a great memory.

Foods: Waffles, yogurt, applesauce, hot dogs (this girl can eat THREE in one sitting!), marshmallows, chips, pretzels, oranges

Likes: Babies, playing with water, pretending, seeing family, wagon and stroller rides, Dora, Nemo, Cinderella, swinging,  play-doh, lining things up, making Brielle laugh, putting money in her piggy bank, bubbles, songs, books

Dislikes: Bedtime, leaving family, messiness, big slides









Monday, July 1, 2013

Brielle's Development: 5 Months

 

Five months already! Being a mother causes such a war to go on in your heart. In one part of your heart, you want this sweet baby to never get bigger or older and to stay little and tiny and in your arms forever. In the other part, your heart soars and leaps with each new development, each "first," every additional arm and thigh roll. And it certainly is amazing how fast those developments and "firsts" and rolls come!


This past month, Brielle has learned to roll from her back to her belly. She does it quite a bit, too!

She also has found her feet and likes to grab for them and sometimes can get them to her mouth. :)

She's getting better at grabbing and holding things as well.

This past month we struggled and tried everything to get Brielle to take a bottle, but she has made it evident that she's going to be the winner in this :)

We also no longer swaddle her arms! I still use the swaddle for her body, but it's nice that she can sleep just as well now without her arms swaddled, since she is rolling more!

Her schedule has changed a little. I completely dropped her "dreamfeed" at 10pm about a month ago, and she slept in just as long in the morning without it. She now typically nurses at 5 or 6am, 8am (I always wake her at this time to start her day), 11am, 2pm, 5pm, and 7pm. The times she nurses can vary, but she needs all 6 nursing sessions usually. She's usually awake for between 70 minutes up to 90 minutes. After her last nap of the day, she sometimes is up for 2 hours straight. I have been much more strict about her routine than I was with Sophie's, and I believe this has resulted in her being a much better sleeper. It's also easier for me to read her cues and to know what she needs. She's nearly always happy as long as I can keep her routine.

Loves: Baths, chewing on my thumb (and really anything that she can get to her mouth), playmat, bumbo, exersaucer, being talked to, going on walks

Dislikes: Bottles, being buckled into her carseat (but she does good once in it), being ignored for too long, not getting good naps (she likes her naps)