I love my children

 

It’s a daily occurrence where I have to just stop and stare at my children.

 

 

Sometimes they’re just super cute.

 

 

Adorable.

 

 

Hilarious.

 

 

Smart.

 

 

Creative.

 

 

Of course, we have our ugly moments too. But I try to really take in these precious little snapshots of who they are right now. As a mom I want to live in the moment—to embrace the now rather than wish it away for a future stage. And it’s especially fun when they take joy in experiencing the moment as well.

Seven Months!

 

This girl is BUSY! Taking these pictures made me sweat. She has recently discovered how fun it is to be mobile and can’t stop exploring. Keeping her on the chair proved to be very difficult since she just couldn’t resist trying to crawl onto the ottoman.

 

 

We constantly find ourselves marveling over how beautiful she is. Grandma Steiner was here for a visit and asked if I find myself just watching her all the time. And that is exactly why it’s so hard to get anything done around here. Reese is captivating.

 

 

She is an incredibly happy baby—almost always smiling and charming. We say that she is happy 95% of the time, and that other 5% is intense!

 

 

I feel like she has a very peaceful personality. She has a contentedness that shows in her eyes. When she’s all played out, feeling sad or just needing some extra love, all you have to do is pick her up and the thumb goes in her mouth and she settles right down and relaxes into your arms.

 

 

On the opposite side of that peacefulness she is BUSY. She loves to jump and can turn anyone holding her into a jumperoo. It’s pretty funny to watch someone hold her for the first time and get surprised by the way she instantly goes from holding herself in a steady standing position to dropping to her knees only to jump back up again.

 

 

Nothing is out of her reach. She will wiggle, reach, pull, “swim”, hit at, lunge and stretch for anything she wants and not give up until she gets it or you completely relocate her. Taking a tumble off the chair (luckily I caught her and cheered her on so she didn’t realize it was scary) won’t even stop her from trying to get onto the ottoman over and over and over again while getting her picture taken.

 

 

She and Jace love each other! It’s so sweet how much they both light up when they see one another. Every morning Jace asks about where she is. I can count on him to keep her happy after loading her in her car seat. He also keeps me updated in the car, “Mommy, Reese is asleep.” “Oh hi Reese! Mom! Reese woke up!”

 

 

He loves to make her happy but isn’t so thrilled that she’s starting to get into his toys. The other day she scooted to a basket of his blocks and dumped it over, so he picked them back up and moved the basket to the entryway. A few minutes later she got to another tub of his toys, so he moved it to the entryway. Within a half hour we had quite the collection of his toys moved safely out of her reach.

 

 

When you lay her down on her back she flips over as quickly as possible. It took So.Many.Tries to get this picture. She now confidently can roll both ways, but really only flips from tummy to back in her bed, because anywhere else she just wants to be on her tummy and moving!

 

 

She isn’t actually crawling yet, but she sure can get herself around. She can scoot and maneuver herself around to get anywhere she wants to go. She pops herself up into this plank/push up position all the time. It’s hilarious to watch! The first time she did it she had this look on her face like, “whoa, what just happened?” and now does it and holds it for quite a while.

 

 

She pushes herself up on hands and knees and rocks, and her arms seem to know what needs to happen because they’ll walk forward quickly, but her little legs just aren’t sure how to follow yet.

 

 

She keeps us laughing and smiling and we are so happy she’s a part of our family!

 

 

Six Months [A little late]

***I kept forgetting to get this post written right after Reese turned six months, then I figured I’d wait until she had her check up and I could share her stats, and then she turned seven months. Oops!***

 

 

At six months this little girl sparkles all the time! She loves to smile and her eyes light up so much when she does! At her six month check up (which was actually closer to 7 months), she was 26” long, 15.4 pounds and her head 17” around. This means she’s a petite little lady with a big head!

 

 

She’s a great sleeper at night! Desperate to eat dinner by 7:30 so she can be put to bed right after. She sleeps 12 hours straight through and then wakes up DESPERATE to eat. Naps are getting pretty consistent—a morning nap that’s 45-60 minutes and an afternoon nap that’s 1-2 hours, and sometimes a late afternoon nap as well.

 

 

She loves everything we feed her—veggies, squash and fruit.

 

 

She LOVES to play with her toys—rattles being her favorite. If it shakes and makes noise, you can guarantee she’ll love it. Although these toys get tossed to the side the second she spots what her brother is holding and she starts frantically reaching for it.

 

 

She can sit up all by herself now and is so proud of the skill. She skipped tri-pod sitting and went straight to balancing upright.

 

 

This child can make some noise! She loves to happily scream and yell, but will only laugh for her brother, and even then he has to work hard for it.

 

 

Her doctor described her as a chubby skinny baby—she has some adorable rolls although she’s definitely a lightweight.

 

 

Her thumb is her best friend and we’re pretty thankful for it!

We love this little lady!

Five Months!

I’m a little late in getting this posted, but we did take these pictures on the day she turned 5 months!

I’m not quite sure how this little lady has become five months so quickly! While it feels like she’s been in our family longer than that, I don’t feel like she should be any older or larger than a one month old yet. She’s is growing and changing so quickly these days!

She LOVES her feet! It was almost impossible to get a picture of her on her back without those little chubby hands grabbing for those little chubby feet. She also loves to flip over onto her tummy. She’s very capable of rolling back over, but would rather get mad and have us flip her over.

She is still an incredible sleeper—waking 12 hours after we put her to bed. She has settled into the routine of an 8 pm bedtime and if I dare hesitate a few minutes past that to start our routine she lets us know that she is not happy! She’s pretty good at naps too—we’ve just settled into a nap routine of a 30-40 minute nap about an hour after she gets up in the morning, a 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon, and an evening catnap if the afternoon nap is early or short.

She has plenty of rolls on her thighs and those arms are gaining chub daily. I just love it! She started on reflux meds on February 14 and they have made such a difference by reducing her spit up and making her more comfortable while she eats. I still can’t have any dairy in my diet, but I have been able to add chocolate and coffee back in which makes me happy! We started solids when she turned 5 months and she LOVES it! So far she’s had rice cereal, veggie mix, green beans and squash and loved them all. She hums while eating.

This little lady sparkles. She loves to get your attention and then smile so big. She’s still pretty reserved with the giggles, but very willing to squeal in delight. Her brother gets the most laughs from her.

She LOVES her exersaucer and treats it like a jumperoo. She’ll stand straight legged in it and then quickly tuck her legs to make herself drop and bounce in it and set everything rocking and does it over and over again like she’s jumping.

In the past week she’s become so curious—rolling toward and reaching for everything that catches her eye, quickly and easily bored if there isn’t enough around to entertain her, and wiggling non stop.

She definitely lives up to her name, which means “enthusiasm.”

Oh how quickly she’s growing up!

And for fun—a little side by side of Jace and Reese at 5 months.

Maturing…

This little boy has aged a little bit too much for me lately. Aside from being what his pediatrician describes as a “big boy,” his vocabulary, reasoning skills, physical accomplishments and over all love of learning speak to a maturing Jace. That is, as “mature” as you can call a freshly turned three year old.

He’s not only potty trained to the point of telling us when he needs to go and only had one accident since training, but he goes all by himself. Assistance is only needed with getting the bottom half of his clothing back on (and it’s pretty adorable how he comes running to me with only a shirt on, carrying his pants and underwear shouting, “I went potty!”). He loves to wash his hands “all by myself” and loves having a stool just for him in both bathrooms. The upstairs stool is also used to say, “Good morning Reese!” and watch her get her diaper changed every morning and after nap time. He thought he should be able to give her vitamins the other morning, too. Good thing I caught him before he tried to squirt them all over her face.

He graduated to a big boy chair at the dining room table. He still loved his high chair and proudly climbed in and out of the thing after we’d pull the it away from the table. But after several meals where I was in the middle of nursing Reese and he desperately needed to go potty, it was time to say farewell to the confinement. It was like he grew three inches and gained the ability to make a *little* less of a mess while eating. And he’s so proud of himself.

We said bye-bye to binkie on February 11. Nolan and I spent a lot of time talking up how he’d have to say goodbye to it soon, and while he got excited about the concept, execution was a little more difficult. So, finally, we went to Target, he threw binkie in the trash can there, and we went in and bought a toy. And there were only a few tears at nap time, and then life moved on. I think I grieved over the loss of binkie more. When he didn’t hesitate and just chucked that nasty thing in the trash, I almost got teary. Goodbye to the last piece of his babyhood. This child is officially getting older.

The way he imagines while playing, the stories he tells us and the conversations we have keep us on our toes. While he can entertain himself for hours, his favorite times of play are when Nolan and I get involved. The other day he was standing on one of the ramp pieces of his train tracks and I said, “Jace, don’t stand on your trains. They might break.” He responded, “I’m not standing on trains Mommy.” “Train tracks. Jace, don’t stand on your train tracks, they might break. [Stepping off and giggling] “Mommy you said the wrong word.”

But with all these moments that make my heart smile while wishing time would just slow down, I love the sweet affection that comes with his growing ability to articulate what he feels. I can’t count the number of times he’s smoothed my hair and said, “I yove your haircut Mommy.” And then, yesterday, I was playing with him in the entry way and as he walked by me I asked for loves. He wrapped his arms around my neck and said sweetly, “I yove you Mommy.”

(For the first times since before he learned to walk, this boy fell asleep on the couch. Helped sooth my nerves after watching him sob over getting a shot that afternoon.)

So when I’m in the middle of our latest battle over who is really in charge, helping him get dressed again after the fifth post-bedtime trip to the bathroom, or coaching in him using his words to express his feelings rather than screaming, I’ll just keep reminding myself not to wish he’d grow up any faster. He’s already doing it quickly enough on his own.

4 Months Old!

I absolutely adore this little girl! She has become such a content, happy, easy going baby. It’s rare for her to fuss for any reason other than being hungry or very sleepy.

This past month she has been very sick and very well! She got a nasty bug from Jace early in January that lead to an x-ray for pneumonia and testing for whooping cough. She finally recovered and then needed to be sleep trained again. It was hard for me to readjust to waking up during the night again. But we’re back to sleeping through the night and even better than before—she’s ready to go to sleep by 10:30 and sleeps until 9 or 10 am. 

We’ve established a good nap routine as well—cat naps downstairs in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon while Jace naps!

(Thinking her toes are pretty fun to look at)

She eats every 3-4 hours and sucks her thumb in between. She loves that thumb! Playing on the floor is her favorite thing to do, whether it’s on her ladybug or just a blanket she wiggles and squirms all over the place. We’ve finally gotten her spit up problems reduced by me completely cutting dairy from my diet. She is still spitting up quite a bit by the time evening hits, so I’m thinking we have some reflux issues as well.

Even though she giggled for the first time in December, she’s only giggled two or three times since then. But her smiles are readily given!

On February 3 she finally rolled over from back to front and has been practicing ever since.

She goes happily to the nursery at church on Sunday mornings and again in the evening when we go to FPU.

We’re so glad she’s a part of our family!

Side by side of Jace and Reese at 4 months

Our growing girl!