We have a walker!!!

William has been taking a step here and there for a couple of weeks now, but today he walked across the room at Mimi’s house.  We have a walker at 9 months old!

William is NINE months old!

William’s nine month stats:
Weight: 26 lbs (98%tile)
Height: 29.5 in. (86%tile)
Head Circumference: 18.9 in (98%tile)
This kid is growing fast!
At nine months old William is:

• crawling
• pulling to a stand
• taking a few unassisted steps (took his first steps on 7/22/13 and loves to push his walker toy
• climbs stairs (time for a gate!)
• has bottom two teeth and top two are coming in
• starting to eat more table food, but still prefer pureed foods
• sleeps through the night most every night
• drinks four bottles/day and drinks water and juice from a sippy cup

William is a great baby and has a good, easy-going disposition, but is ALL BOY!  He gets into everything!

Catching up!

So much to catch up on.  We have stayed really busy lately.  I am officially a minivan mama and loving it!  Having a van has been truly life changing for us as a family!!

Maddie just finished her first year of preschool a couple weeks ago.  I just can’t believe that her first year is already over.  Remember when I posted about her first day???  She has changed so much!  She will be going a few days over in June and July for their summer program and then school will start again the end of August!
                         First day vs. Last Day

Maddie also just finished up soccer!  It was once a week for an hour.  They mostly did exercise drills and ran around.  Watching three and four year olds trying to play was pretty funny. She participated for the most part with some coaxing and bribing from us.  Although she picked her nose and carried the ball around more than anything else She didn’t really enjoy it too much, but we stuck with it.  Probably won’t do it again, unless she shows interest in it in the future.

She also just finished up her first week of swim lessons (the minivan really has come in handy lately).  She seems to like it, but she has a long way to go before she is swimming on her own!  We have gone to the pool quite a few times already this summer and she is doing great wearing her puddlejumpers and swimming in the water.  She loves when there are other kids her age to play with, because they will just go all over the pool together!  I was brave a couple of days ago when I took both kids by myself.  William is such a good baby, that it was pretty easy.  He just floated in the raft or sat on the blanket and played. 
{Maddie listening to her teachers at her first swim lesson}

and a few others….

William is six months old!

Half way to one-yikes!  Took the little guy to the doctor this morning and here are his stats:

20.91 lbs (94%tile)

27.5 inches (84%tile)

18.21 in. head circumference (97%tile)

At six months William is learning new things every day!  He can sit up on his own (he started doing this at five months old), he loves to play with toys and manipulate them in his hands, he is rolling over both ways, loves to stand up and jump, and loves to eat! 

I am feeding him three meals a day and he gets four bottles.  There isn’t anything he won’t eat!  He is mostly sleeping through the night with the occasional wake up.  He is a great baby-we are very lucky!!

Hello Spring!

It is officially spring time around here.  So excited for warmer weather.  It seems like we have had some yuck weather lately, so sunshine and high 70’s are perfect for us!  I have pretty much packed away all the fall/winter clothes for both kids.  William and Maddie are now sporting some adorable dresses, polos, and shorts.  Big Boy William is wearing mostly 12 month clothes and he is not quite six months old yet! Our tall girl is wearing 4-5 this season. 

The neighborhood pool is being prepped for its opening next month.  I will be putting Maddie in swimming lessons in June at the YMCA.  When I take both kids to the pool by myself I need her to be a little more independent.  We bought a water table for the back deck and Maddie is loving it.  She has already been naked twice in the backyard.  I asked Gabe what was too old to be running around naked outside?  I am thinking we are almost at that age where it is.  Oh well…

William’s first tooth just popped through this morning (4/9/13).  I think Maddie had her first tooth come in at eight months!  He started sitting up a couple weeks ago on his own and he is still trying to master it.  He was sleeping through the night, but then he learned a new skill of rolling from his back to his tummy and he thinks it is fun to practice at night!   It seems like the second time around all the milestones are getting hit much quicker.  William has also been eating solids since he was just over four months old.  I just added a second solid feeding at breakfast time last week.  For breakfast he eats oatmeal and a fruit (bananas, apples, peaches, pears) and for dinner he eats rice and a vegetable (sweet potatoes, squash, green beans).  He is doing great and loves to eat.

First cereal feeding 2/22/13

First sweet potatoes 3/5/13

These two will be best of buds one day…I love watching their relationship develop everyday.  William loves laughing at Maddie.  She can make him laugh like nobody else! 

Time is flying and the kids are growing up.  It is before 8:00 and they are both in bed and asleep, so now it is ME TIME! 

4 Months Old

Mr. William is 4 months old.  I took him for his appointment and my poor little guy was not happy at all.  I had to wake him up, so it made for an unpleasant visit at the doctor’s.  He had to get several shots and the doctor had to dig out some ear wax, so he screamed bloody murder this go around.  The good news is, he is healthy and we got the go ahead for solids, which I know our little chunk will enjoy.
4 months old:

• 18.4 lbs (96%tile)
• 26 inches (86%tile)
• 17.13 head circumference (82%tile)
• wears size 3 diapers and mostly 6-9 month clothes
• reaches and grabs toys
• tracks objects and people side to side
• laughs & squeals
• has rolled over a few times tummy to back
• loves to stand up
• loves his bath

William is doing really well.  We moved him into his crib at 3 months old and at first he was waking up constantly searching for his pacifier.  On night #2 of crib sleeping, we decided to go cold turkey without the pacifier and we haven’t looked back since.  He cried for about 25 minutes the first night, but now he falls asleep on his own at night paci free.  No more plugging the pacifier all night long.  It feels so liberating!  He mostly sleeps anywhere from 6-9 hour stretches, eats, and goes right back to sleep.  Bedtime is usually by 7:30 and he up for the day between 6:30-7:45.  He takes three naps (mostly in the swing…we need to nip that one soon).
We started him on some rice cereal over the weekend.  He spit most of it out, but with practice he will be trying all kinds of new foods soon.
William lights up our world.  What a sweet, happy boy!

Maddie turns 3!

Our big girl is three years old.  These few years have flown by as I always say.  But geez, how can she be three?? I took her to her well child visit and oh boy was that FUN (NOT).  She is a total nightmare to take to the doctor.  She refused to complete the vision test, they didn’t attempt the hearing test, she wouldn’t let them take her blood pressure, she wouldn’t open her mouth, and I had to hold her down for the doctor to look in her ear.  NIGHTMARE!  She better be lucky that she didn’t have shots this year.  She would have definitely scared everyone away.  I am just glad it is over for now…until next month when she has another ENT appointment.  I guess I better start lifting some heavier weights to wrangle her.

At three years old:

Weight: 38 lbs (95%tile)

Height: 39.5 inches (92%tile)

• knows all colors
• can identify most simple shapes
• can identify some letters and numbers
• loves to sing and knows many songs, but she likes to make songs up as well-she sings all the time!  Her all time favorite is “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, but she also loves Christmas songs.  I catch her singing “Jingle Bells” all the time.
• can get undressed with little help and can put pants, socks, and some shoes on unassisted
• likes to help with chores around the house-folding laundry, sweeping, and wiping the table are her favorites
• favorite toys these days are her blocks, princess castle, kitchen, all books, and her doll stroller
• loves to run around naked
• loves her rainboots
• loves to play outside

Maddie still goes to school two days a week and we already signed her up for 3K for the fall.  She loves going to school and has learned a lot.  She even knows the pledge of allegiance!

At three years old, Maddie is still not completely potty trained.  We have had a bit of a regression since William was born.  It is extremely frustrating, because she is so smart.  If I take her all day long and don’t forget she will never have accidents, but if I don’t say anything to her she will just go in her panties.  She hates to be wet, so I just don’t get it   Hoping it will fall into place soon.  She has also almost given up her nap.  I hate it!  Some days she will still fall asleep, but most days she refuses and by dinner time the meltdowns begin. 

At two years old I said she could throw a “mean tantrum”, but good grief, at three years old they are intense!  But when she is sweet, she is the sweetest thing EVER.  This too shall pass I guess.

For her birthday, we had a small family party this year at our house, but you would have thought we had fifty people bring gifts after she opened all of her presents.  She got so many toys and beautiful clothes.

On her actual birthday Gabe and I took her to Columbia to visit the Riverbanks Zoo.  We left William with Mimi so we could spend the whole day with her.  Maddie loved feeding the giraffes, watching the penguins, the monkeys that hollered, and her favorite was riding the pony!  It really was a great day for the three of us.