Evie - 4 Months!

Miss Evie, what an absolute joy you are! Your smile is infectious, and people comment all the time on how much you smile with your eyes. I love how you sometimes scrunch your nose when you smile too. You often get so excited when you smile that your whole body is involved in it--you'll rotate your shoulders forward, pull your hands to your mouth and either pull your legs up toward you or kick them back and forth.

You have still only let out short giggles, and I can't wait to hear you in your first laughing fit!

Evie, I'm so thankful that you still love to give me kisses. You will open up your mouth wide, smile with your eyes, scrunch your nose and lean toward me. Sometimes you'll even grab either side of my head or face and pull me toward you. Your kisses are a bit slobbery, but I would gladly get those kisses all day long.

You love to jabber away and went through a phase this month where you were babbling in this deep voice that sounded nothing like it was coming out of a tiny little girl. We affectionately called you "Gizmo" because you sounded a bit like a (cute) gremlin.

At this point, you're wearing Size 1-2 diapers, and mostly 3 Month clothes, though some are 3-6 Month.

You are still often difficult to burp. You'll usually burp some right away, but it seems that there's always at least one burp that's hard to get out of you. If you need to burp, then you'll refuse to eat, which can make things a little difficult.

You usually eat around 8:30, 11:30, 2:30, 5:30 and 8:30, though I'm guessing we'll go down to 4 feedings a day pretty soon. Unfortunately, you still haven't taken a bottle, but I also haven't worked with you on it either.

For the last couple months, you've gotten patches of eczema on your elbows. I can't figure out if it's from rubbing against your car seat or what, but it makes me sad. You'll also sometimes get some irritation underneath your jawbone, but I think that's mostly from you drooling.

You are constantly chewing on your hands, and I'm guessing some pearly whites are in your near future. This month you also discovered how to blow raspberries and make somewhat high-pitched motorboat noises with your mouth.

We still swaddle you every night, but when I went in to get you on the morning of your 4 Month birthday, I came in to see that you had broken free of your SwaddleMe blanket. I couldn't believe it, because those things keep you bound up pretty tight.

You have still only rolled over from your tummy to your back. You often straighten out your legs and back while sitting, which results in you sliding down until you’re laying on your back.


You still like sitting in both your Bumbo and your bouncer, though I've had to keep a close watch on you because you're getting closer to being able to push yourself out of both of them (at least when not buckled into your bouncer). We'll often set both you (in your Bumbo) and Caleb on the island in our kitchen (supervised, of course) so that you can be our helpers while we cook. I have a feeling that many precious memories will be formed with you two sitting on that island.


This month you got to ride in our double jogging stroller for the first time. You were so alert as you checked everything out. Other fun things this month included a pep rally, football games, a soccer game and your first drive-in movie.

You love to grab at toys now. I think your favorite is laying on your back on your playmat and batting at the toys that hang down above you. You also like your pink and green rattle doll and the toys on your bouncer. Caleb often wants to share his toys with you and doesn't understand why you sometimes can't or won't hold them when he gives them to you.

At your 4 Month checkup, you weighed 14 lb 13 oz (putting you in the 75.75 percentile for weight), were 25.5” long (89.61%) and your head circumference was 16 cm (40.16%). Interestingly enough, Caleb’s stats at his 4 Month checkup were 14 lb 14 oz and 25.75”, so y’all are almost exactly the same size at 4 months! After getting your vaccinations at your 4 Month checkup, you were fussy and developed a mild fever for a day and a half. This wasn't a big deal at all, but it was the first time either you or Caleb had any type of reaction to your vaccinations.

We love you, precious Evie, and are blessed beyond measure to be your parents!

Click here to see more pictures of Evie.

Caleb - 21 Months (LATE)

As of 20 months, the vocabulary that you use regularly includes: apuh (apple), chsss (cheese), beduh (bread), di (dip), che-io (cheerio), shss (shoes), ockie (sockie), mama, dada, mo (more), keys, eye, nos (nose), ed (head), at (hat), ot (hot), shet (shirt), nigh night, bye bye, ba (ball), backeba (basketball), cak (pancake or rice cake), nana (banana), ide (slide), side (outside), guhma (Grandma), gamie (Gamgy), muck or mmmmuck (milk), boo (spoon), boom (when fall down or when banging on something), uck (rock), duck (chapstick), stick, book, tuck (truck), bo (phone), ight (light), dar (star), moo (moon), dock (dark), God, Jesa (Jesus) anen (amen), cuh (color), bock (block, box), bit (boat or boot) and tash (trash).

You like to make animal sounds too. Your favorites are: aah aah aah (monkey), mooo (cow), laughing (horse--I guess my neh sounds like a laugh to you), baa (sheep), sss (snake), zzz (bee), hard to explain the sound, but it's accompanied by you putting your straight arm out in front of you like an elephant's trunk (elephant), oof oof (puppy). You usually start laughing when I ask you what a bee says because I'll often say, "Bzz" as I quickly tickle at your side, tummy, neck, etc.

Your favorite toys are your Noah's Ark books, Good Night Moon book, Animals book, balls, sticks, blocks, riding fire truck and your Little People barn and animals. Your barn can play music to the tune of "Old MacDonald had a Farm", and when it does, you like to hit the side of your leg like you're keeping the beat. This was something I started doing on your leg a couple months ago, and you loved it and have been doing it yourself. When playing with your barn, yoYou love to play with things that aren't toys too, such as spoons, or anything else you can pull out of bathroom, kitchen or nightstand drawers. The closer you've gotten to 21 months, though, tools have really shot up toward the top of your favorites list.

We've been doing lots of home renovations over the last few months, and you've really come to love it all. You've developed such a love for tools and always want to help. It's cute to hear that tiny little voice call out for your "hamma" (hammer) or "driw" (drill). We've been knocking out walls, putting in windows, painting, etc., so at the early stages of our renovations, it was ok for you to pound on the walls with your tools, but now that we've made some progress on our renovations, I'm having to retrain you that you can't pound on the walls anymore.

We talk lots about babies in an effort to prepare you for your sister's arrival, but I'm sure you don't really have a clue what's about to happen in this house. You're so sweet and often kiss my tummy. You'll also say, "Ebee", which is how you say Evie's name. When I installed her car seat in our car, it only took me telling you a couple of times that that was where Evie was going to sit before you started pointing to her car seat every time we were in the car and saying, "Ebee." I know you're going to be such a wonderful big brother!

You have 16 teeth (8 on both top and bottom). You're wearing Size 4 diapers, Size 5 shoes, and your clothes range from 12-24 Months. You're a bit of a bean pole, so we sometimes have to roll the waistband of your shorts to get them to stay up.

You crawled out of your crib once at 18 months but didn't do it again until about 20 months. At 20 months we had moved to our new house and hadn't gotten a rug yet, so you fell onto the wood floor. We contemplated a crib tent (in fact i ordered one, but got the wrong one), but in the end decided that with the upcoming arrival of your sister that it would be best just to put you in your pack 'n play. So, that's where you sleep at night and take both of your naps each day. That's right, you're still taking 2 naps a day! You usually wake up around 8 or 8:30, go down for naps around 10:30 or 11 and 2:30 or 3 and then back to bed around 8:30 (depending on what we have going on that night).

During your nap time (before you go to sleep), you'll often take off your shorts and throw them out of your crib/pack 'n play. I can't remember for sure, but I think you started doing this around 16 months and have continued to do it ever since.

You will eat pretty much anything except lettuce, though your favorite things are fruit, bread and cheese.

You LOVE your boots and will often ask to wear them with shorts, which makes for a pretty cute look. Speaking of boots, you went to your first rodeo. You loved seeing the horses and cows, but I'm not sure how much you enjoyed the calf roping. You liked seeing the calf running, but every time a calf was lassoed and pulled backward, you said, "Uh oh!"

We were so incredibly blessed to be able to visit Ruidoso, New Mexico right after you turned 18 months. It was such a precious time to spend together as a family. You and your daddy were so sweet traipsing through the woods together. Your favorite, though, seemed to be playing on the putting green outside of the house we were staying in (thank you, Hasslers!!) You loved kicking the balls and hitting them with the "sticks" (golf clubs). We also went on a couple hikes. You had been on one when you were 17 months, but you did so much better this time. You loved it and weren't quite as distracted by all the sticks and rocks as you were a few months ago (though there was still plenty of that this time too).























Caleb, I can't tell you what a joy you are. We love watching your personality develop more and more. It's so much fun, too, to hear you talking so much now. I love hearing what you're thinking as you narrate everything that goes on around you. You are a happy, happy little boy with a smile that warms my heart to no end.

Click here to see more pictures of Caleb from 18-21 months.

Ah-yee-yuh

This is how Caleb says Hallelujah, and oh my goodness, what a sweet sound this is!! I pray that our children will always sing the praise of their maker! Happy Sunday!