Halloween 2014

It's Halloween and we celebrated by dressing the kids up and passing out candy. We still think Connor is a bit young to go trick or treating this year, but maybe next year we will take him. Connor was a fireman and Maddie was a dalmatian. They were both so cute. Connor did a really good job greeting all of the kids and passing out candy. He hung out by the candy bowl a lot of the night, and put the candy back when we asked him to. Below are some pictures from today.

Cameron carved our pumpkin and I painted milk cartons to look like ghosts

Two more ghosts

I made and hung three of these spiders on our front porch. They're made of an egg carton and black straws

Have you ever seen such a cute dalmatian??

Had to show off her little tail

My little fireman

Even though Maddie's looking down, this is still cute

Connor was not a fan of taking pictures

Kissing his sister

Maddie doesn't mind taking pictures

She really got into character

Waving bye to the trick or treaters

We found him around the bowl most of the night

He has discovered kit-kats, or as he calls them "di-tat"

Maddie is 3 months old

The diva, Maddie, is now 3 months old. She's definitely grown a bunch this month. We had her weighed today (for Zantac purposes) and she weighed in at a whopping 13 pounds 13 ounces. Holy cow!!

She is still in 3 month clothing, which will probably change soon since she's growing like a weed. She's in size 1 diapers and size 2 at night. When we finish this pack of size 1's, we are moving her up to size 2. The diapers aren't leaking, her legs are just too fat to fit comfortably in the size 1's. I love her little, fat legs!

She is now up to five 6 ounce bottles a day. She eats pretty consistently at 7:45am, 10:45am, 2pm, 5pm, and again at 7:30pm. She still spits up a lot due to her acid reflux, but with the help of Zantac, she no longer fusses about it. I just have to keep on top of her medicine.

She had a rough week of sleeping at night. I'm almost 100% positive it was due to her stomach because when she would wake up, I'd give her gas drops or gripe water and she would go back to sleep. The first two nights she woke up, she wanted more to eat. I then upped her bottles to 6 ounces during the day and that fixed that. She was still waking up at night with tummy troubles. Yesterday, I increased her dose of Zantac (will be confirmed today if I was right) and she slept the full 12 hours last night. She takes five -1 1/2 hour naps during the day and is up the rest of the time. She wakes up to eat, plays around some, and then falls back asleep.

This month she really enjoys sitting up, standing on our laps, the exersaucer, and laying on her tummy. It took a little while for her to actually like tummy time, but she handles it a lot better now. She actually is rolling from her tummy to her back on her own. She was doing it on the bed a lot, but I figured it was just a fluke because the bed is so soft. I put her down on her play mat and she kept doing it over and over. She loves sitting on my hip and letting me walk her around. She is not fond of laying down on her back without having toys to look at.

She absolutely loves and adores Connor. Every time she sees him, she smiles at him. He's very good with her and acknowledges her. He gives her kisses, fist bumps, high fives, and will fetch her and try to give her a paci. He even tries to help burp her. She loves having him around her.

Here are some pictures of her this morning, a video of her rolling over, and a picture of her and Connor at 3 months side by side.

Such a diva!

So much sass

The evil eye at her momma has already started

But she's still very sweet :)

I think they have the same nose, lips, and hair color, but their eye shapes are completely different

Connor is 19 Months

Connor is now 19 months old, which is hard to believe. He has one huge personality! Still wearing his 18 month clothes and size 4 diapers. He's mixing shoe sizes; he wears some 5's, 5,5's, and 6's (just depends on the brand).

He is still eating and sleeping the same. Some days he skips his early nap and just takes the long one in the afternoon (3-4 hours). He's starting to climb on his crib some, so a toddler bed is probably in our near future (seriously, kid??).

We are now paci free!! Ever since Maddie was born, Connor started taking his paci more often during the day. I thought this day would never come, especially since she has a paci when she's sleeping. We were having him throw it in his crib when he woke up in the morning, and he really looked forward to throwing it in the crib. During nap time I wouldn't give it to him just to see how he would do without it. He did just fine. I then moved onto not giving it to him at night. The first two or three nights he would search his crib for one, but he would eventually give it up and fall asleep. He's done really well with not having one.

He's still a great talker. He has picked up on a bunch of words lately, and he remembers what things are. We ask him questions and a lot of the time he comes up with legit answers. For example: I will ask him "what would you like to eat?" and he will reply with "apple" or "nit-nack" (fruit snacks).

He also has started saying what sounds animals make. He knows what a duck is and now we can ask him "what does the duck say?" and he will reply with "quack quack." He knows puppy (he says ruff ruff in a really deep and loud voice), kitty (sounds like "ow" most of the time but sometimes he gets the full "meow"), duck, cow, car (obviously not an animal but he says "beep beep!!"), and a bird.

We are working on some colors now. He can say blue, green, red, and white. He only identifies blue and green without prompt, but if you tell him red is red and white is white he will identify them for the rest of the conversation. He's doing a great job though!

He now knows soccer, and knows when it's on tv. If he sees a soccer ball from a mile away, he will get really excited, point, and scream "soccer!!"" He will continue to say it at the top of his lungs until we find the soccer ball and agree with him that it is indeed a soccer ball. He finds them all over the place. One day he found a picture of one on a sticker on an empty tubberware bin. He kept saying it over and over again, until I followed him to the sticker and he pointed it out. He's extremely bright.

He loves to watch Blue's Clues, Sesame Street, Clifford, and Arthur. He will watch Max and Ruby if I put it on, but he hasn't asked to watch it yet. I've never been a fan of having him watch tv, but sometimes it's the only thing that will hold his attention while I make lunch or dinner. He also sings along with some songs now, especially Blue's Clues. He likes "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and sings "baaaaaaaaaall" while we sing the rest of the song. It's absolutely precious.

We took a day trip to Charleston and took some pictures of him. Here are some, okay quite a few, that we took.

Mid-dance

Still dancing :)

Here he is saying "cheese"

He never walks anywhere, he has to run

So over the stroller

Maddie is 2 months old

Our Maddie Louise is now 2 months old. Some days it feels like she can't be 2 months old, and other days it seems like she's been here for much longer than 2 months. She is a gem, for the most part, and then she has her "diva" moments (as Cameron likes to call it). She is growing like a weed. She weighs 11 lbs 9 oz and is 23 1/4 inches long.

She is wearing mostly 0-3 months and 3 months clothes. She can still wear some newborn stuff (mostly pants and sweaters), but it just depends on the brand and what it is.

She has five 5 ounce bottles a day. She gets her bottles at 7:30am, 10:30am, 2pm, 5pm, and 8:15pm. She is getting 2 ounces of breastmilk and 3 ounces of formula. It works and we aren't looking to switch anything up for now. She is taking her Zantac 3 times per 24 hours, and it seems to be controlling her acid reflux. We had her dosage bumped up two weeks ago because she was starting to get fussy during feeding times and she wasn't sleeping as well at night. Our pediatrician told us that it would happen at some point, and it's going to keep on happening as she continues to grow. We just need to keep on top of it.

She is now sleeping 11 hours at night, and has been for almost 2 weeks now! We start bedtime routine around 7:45-8; bedtime routine consists of medicine, bath, bottle, and bed. She is usually asleep by 8:30 and then wakes up around 7:30. I personally would love to have her sleep from 10-9, but we have this routine down and I'm not trying to mess it up one bit. She is still swaddled at night and only wants her paci when she is asleep (just like Connor was). Because she is sleeping so well at night, she is up more frequently during the day. The longest span of time she will stay awake is about 2 hours. Her wake time seems to be in the late afternoon.

She is holding her head up quite nicely. She absolutely loves the bumbo seat. She will sit in it for 15 minutes at a time. At this age, I think her older brother would only sit in it for around 5 minutes at a time. She is smiling all the time now. When we talk to her, she smiles really big. She is also starting to find her voice (lord help us!). Her usual reply to us is "agoo," and it is so sweet. She lets out huge squeals sometimes and they can be loud! 

Her favorite thing might be Connor's mobile. He was never a fan of it, so we didn't get her one. My mom laid her in his crib and turned it on for her and she just cooed and kicked watching it. So, my next project is to take his apart and re-purpose it so it matches her room. It shouldn't be too hard; finding the time to do it will be harder than the project itself. She also really likes to lay on the play mat with the toys hanging. She kicks a lot, talks to them, and hits the toys with her hands. She still loves to snuggle, and I think her favorite person to snuggle with is her daddy. Her least favorite thing is tummy time. I remember Connor didn't like it much at this age; he enjoyed it more when he could hold his head up. I'm going to keep doing tummy time as long as she will tolerate it (sometimes it's 30 seconds and other times it;s 5 minutes) and the bumbo seat will help with her head control.

Below are some pictures of her throughout this month.

Chatting up a storm on her changing pad

First time in the bumbo seat. She's a little lopsided ;)

She looks just like her daddy

Sitting up a whole lot better in the bumbo seat

Sitting at the table like a big girl

Some pictures of her this morning

My sweet, sweet girl

Connor and Maddie both at 2 months

Connor was 13lbs 4.5oz and was 24 1/4inches long in this picture