Between the White Lines: August 2016

Cooper is 4 months old. He turned 4 months on the 5th, but since we were pairing his appointment with Maddie's 2 year appointment, today was the first available date they had two appointments back to back. He's still a very big boy weighing in at 16.88 pounds (71st percentile) and 26.75 inches long (94th percentile). He wears 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. I'm thinking his 9 month clothes will soon make it out of storage, but he hasn't really needed them yet.

He is still bottle fed, but now he's doing half formula and half breastmilk. For whatever reason, my breastmilk decided to dry up so now I'm having to use my stash in the freezer. I ended up having around 800 ounces stored up before I stopped pumping, so that should last around 2 1/2 to 3 months. He is doing five 6 ounce bottles during the day, sometimes he only does 4 (just depends on how well he sleeps at night). He is given rice cereal once a day, and he absolutely loves it. In fact, he cries if you don't give it to him fast enough.

His sleeping hasn't been that great lately. He was only waking up once a night and making it through the night some, but now he's waking up twice. After speaking with the pediatrician, she may think it's because of his reflux. So we took a look at his dosage and I actually wasn't giving him a full dose. So, hopefully bumping it up will help him (and me) out. It's still not terrible because the first time he wakes up, I'm still awake, but I know what he can do. He actually has slept through the night quite a few times, so I know something must be up.

He is still working on sitting straight up and down on his own. When he sits, he kinda just leans forward and looks like a little turtle with his head poking up. But he's getting there and doing well. He loves his jumperoo and the exersaucer -- I love them too ;) He does really well in his bumbo seat and high chair, he is even beginning to play with toys while he sits in them. He rolls consistently from belly to back and can roll from back to belly but doesn't do it consistent yet.

His most favorite thing to do is to blow raspberries and then laugh about it. His big brother has caught onto this and has picked up spitting (biggest eye roll ever). So now when he spits, I have to say "Now, Cooper, we don't spit!" Not like he knows what I'm saying or even cares... but it's starting to help.

It is so hard to believe that my little Maddie girl is already two years old -- so hard that I cried on and off for three days (I'm a baby, I know). She is such a sweet little girl, but she also has her sassy moments. Luckily those moments are very few. They tend to happen more when she hasn't slept well or if she is hungry.

We had her appointment today (we were pairing it with Cooper's 4 month appointment so that's why it's so late). She is 26.81 pounds which puts her in the 50th percentile, and is 35.25 inches tall (88th percentile). She has finally started to thin out, although I'm not quite sure they measured her height accurately (Connor was measured that tall at his 3 year appointment and he towers over her... so something is off). Her BMI is in the 17th percentile. So, she's growing quite nicely and the pediatrician is super pleased with it.

She is beginning to become super picky about her food. She likes some veggies, and loves all fruits. She doesn't really like a variety of food, but I'm trying to get her to expand her horizon with what she's willing to eat. I make it a rule that if she doesn't eat her dinner, I leave it on the table so if she's hungry later she can eat it then (the same goes with Connor).

She's doing well developmentally. She's counting, saying all of her colors, learning her shapes (she knows triangle and circle), saying all of her animals sounds (and loves to be quizzed), and she loves to sing. Her new favorite song is "I Know You" from Sleeping Beauty. She still sings the Frozen soundtrack on a regular basis, and she likes to sing some Ariel songs, but she's learning more and more songs.

Her potty training is going extremely well. She still has accidents every now and then but we've gone a few days without them and then she will have a couple in one day. So, as long as we are home or have easy access to a bathroom, we're good. She's doing really well with initiating her need to go (in fact, she went twice today at the pediatricians office). Her accidents tend to come when she's really tired and when she's had a lot of tea to drink. I have to make sure to keep track of how much she's had to drink.

So now about her birthday party. I went with the theme "Under the Sea." I was thinking of how hot it was going to be so doing some water activities would be fun for the kids. I spent a lot of time making the decorations, which I always say I'm not doing it again but end up doing because of the vision I have in my head.

To eat, we had peanut butter and jellyfish (pb&j sandwiches in the shape of stars and fish), coral reef (cheetos), octopus (hot dogs that were cut to look like they had legs), seaweed (grapes on skewers), fish and chips (potato chips and goldfish), crab legs (carrot sticks), sea cucumber (cucumber slices), and sea snails (cocktail weenies in crescent rolls). To drink we had ocean water (copycat recipe of Sonic's ocean water -- so good!), fresh water, and sweet tea. I also made the cake again. I made it in the shape of a fish using cake and cupcakes. It was super late when I made it (like 2am) so it wasn't as polished as I would have liked for it to be, but it looked cute.

For the activities I had water guns, water balloons, Maddie's water table, and this mermaid lagoon blow up pool thing. I was right, it was HOT, but the water activities were perfect for the kids. They all looked like they were having fun. I also found these stamps that were sea creatures, so I pulled out some paint and construction paper and let the kids have at it.

Here are some pictures from her party: