Evie - 7 Months!

Oh my goodness, sweet Evie, you are growing up too fast!! I feel like this month you became much more independent. This is largely because you started army crawling on 12/28--just 4 days after you turned 6 months old! You now roll and army crawl everywhere! Your army crawl consists of you putting your left forearm on the ground perpendicular to your body and pulling your body as you use your right hand and right foot to push off as well. You'll occasionally get a little frustrated when you can't keep up with your brother.

It amazes me how quickly you can crawl across the house, even though you don't do it on all fours! You often will come play with my feet while I'm in the kitchen cooking or cleaning and will still sometimes manage to get yourself stuck under the bed.

This month, you started eating green beans (Initially you didn't like them, but you seemed to love them the third time you ate them.), squash, peas, sweet potatoes, carrots and bananas. I think your least favorite food at this point is peas; you'll still eat them--just not as quickly as the others. You're so cute when you are eating because you're constantly kicking your feet. You still won't drink out of a bottle or a sippy cup, but I'm hoping you will soon. For the last month or two, you've gotten in the habit of drinking your milk for 10 minutes, and then you want to take a 20-30 minute break before you finish eating.

A new habit you started this month is often sucking your left thumb as soon as I lay you down to sleep. Your thumb doesn't stay in your mouth very long, but it's pretty cute! You often also let out this short, excited giggle as I cover you with your blanket. Your right hand usually reaches out from under the blanket and grabs the side of it.

We loved our first Christmas with you! You enjoyed eating the wrapping paper as you helped open your first presents.

This month, we also went on your first vacation--to Branson. We didn't do much of anything while we were there except to spend time together as a family.

You now say, "ba ba ba", "da da da" and "ruh ruh ruh". You are getting much noisier as you experiment with your voice. I sometimes wonder if you're loud just because your brother is loud too.








Your favorite toys right now are your dinosaur with the bouncing balls, blue octopus, pink puppy, monkey, rattle ball, butterfly teether, teething ring with balls all around it and your bird that hangs from your car seat. Everything goes in your mouth these days, but you still don't have any teeth. More than any of your toys, though, you love to play with Caleb. It's so sweet how much you love your brother and how quickly he can make you laugh.

You still nap 3 times a day--the first two are 1.5-2 hours each, and the last one is around 45 minutes. You wear 6 Month clothes and Size 2 diapers.


I love how you have started sticking out your tongue when you smile more. Words can't describe how much your smile warms our hearts, precious Evangeline! I'm so thankful for your joyful spirit and pray that your joy is rooted in the Lord one day soon!

Click here to see more pictures of Evie.

Ruidoso

This is super late, but we were so incredibly blessed by some dear friends who allowed us to stay for free in their house in Ruidoso last March/April. The time we spent together as a family--relaxing and being out in God's creation was priceless! Click here for pictures of our precious getaway.

Evie - 6 Months!

Sweet Evie, my, oh my was this a big month for you! It started out when you rolled over from your back to your tummy (while swaddled) on November 27. From that night on, you have slept on your tummy. You rolled from your back to your tummy unswaddled on December 9.

You have been rolling all over the place and scooting. It's amazing how much you can move around the room without actually crawling--maybe you're just trying to keep up with your brother! A couple of times you've even scooted your whole body (except your head) under the pack 'n play or under our bed.

You're now sitting up on your own pretty well.

With all your developmental growth this month, we're no longer able to use your Bumbo seat or bouncer because you can fall out of them. You still enjoy your jumperoo, but not quite as much now that you're more mobile.


When you're upset, you'll get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Sometimes you'll also make a motorboat sound when you're upset.

When you get really excited, you get a huge smile and breath in and out through your nose really fast.

You're ticklish on your tummy, and especially on the sides of your neck under each cheek.


You wear Size 2 diapers and mostly 6 Month clothes.

You wouldn't take the only bottle I offered you this month, so I'm guessing we'll just bypass bottles and move straight to sippy cups.

You usually eat around 8am, 12:00pm, 4:30pm and 8:30pm with a 1.5-2 hour nap in the morning and afternoon and a 30-45 minute nap before your last feeding. When I feed you, you often grab at my face--at my chin, at my nose, but most commonly, you'll hang your hand from my lower teeth. Caleb did the exact same thing!

At your 6 Month checkup today, you weighed 16lb 11oz (58.28%), were 26.75" long (78.66%) and your head circumference was 16.5" (28.47%).

You're such a content and joyful little girl! And, man, do you love to show affection! Though you've initiated kisses in the past, this month it's gotten really sweet. When I'm holding you, and you're facing away from me or when you're sitting in my lap with your back toward me, you'll turn your head up and around toward my face and hold your mouth open until I give you kisses. You'll often reach up and hold onto my cheek with your right hand too. I LOVE THIS!!

You usually get excited whenever someone looks at you or starts talking to you. You'll get a huge grin and kick your legs a bunch.

Oh, precious Evie, your daddy and I adore you!


Click here to see more pictures of Evie.

Christmas 2011

Evie - 5 Months!

Oh, sweet baby girl! Your daddy and I fell more in love with you again this month! It was a big month, as you had several firsts, including starting rice cereal. For the most part, you're not terribly interested in it, but some days are better than others. We had to stop giving it to you for a little bit because it made you constipated for 3 days.

This month, you were also introduced to your jumperoo, which you enjoy but it took you a little while to figure out how to jump in it. (That may have been because you were originally having to stand on a box, which your feet usually slipped on when you stood up.) You've since figured out the whole jumping thing and will happily jump and play for fairly long periods of time.

You still sit in your bouncer, but I have to buckle you in because you can just about push yourself out of by sliding down. You must have some pretty great baby abs, too, because you will basically do crunches in your bouncer as you sit upright to play with the toys in front of you. You sit in your Bumbo seat multiple times a day while I make meals, do dishes, etc. I already have such sweet memories of you and Caleb sitting on the island "helping" me cook. I know the day is quickly approaching when you can no longer safely sit in your Bumbo seat, which makes me sad because I love having both my babies in on the action.

On November 18, you did it! You drank your first bottle! Granted, I haven't worked with you on this much, but you haven't really wanted anything to do with a bottle in the past. On this day, however, you immediately started drinking it, downed 2 oz., and even held the bottle on your own...all this as if you'd been doing it for months! (I only gave you 2 oz. because we've always ended up dumping it out in the past.) I was so proud of you!

You went down to 4 feedings a day this month, eating around 8 am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm. You'll take a 2 hour morning nap, 1.5-2 hour afternoon nap and a 30-45 min evening nap before eating around 8.

For the last couple months, anytime I lay you down to go to take a nap, I put your feet at the very end of your crib because by the time you wake up, you've usually pushed yourself down to the other end. You still nap on your tummy and sleep on your back swaddled at night.

You also had your first cold this month. You looked so pitiful, but other than not being as smiley, you handled it like a champ.

You started holding your hands together and pulling them toward your mouth, then straightening your arms out in front of you (hands still clasped), and then pulling your hands back toward your mouth. You would do this over and over and over... I couldn't believe it when you started doing this, because this is something Caleb did too, and I have never seen another baby do this. (Not that they don't, I've just never seen it.) You did it for about a week, and then you stopped.

You discovered your feet this month and will often suck on your big toe.

You still sometimes make your potty face, but it's evolved slightly, and you still often drag the back of your hand over the bridge of your nose, eyes and temple while you eat.

You're fairly ticklish--your tummy and your neck, especially.

You can still wear some 3 Month clothes, but you're mostly wearing 3-6 Month or 6 Month. At the end of this month, you switched from Size 1-2 diapers to Size 2.

You still get eczema on your arms near your elbows, but hydrocortisone usually does the trick.

You are such a happy baby! Though, if you are upset or tired, you prefer for whoever is holding you to stand up, as opposed to them sitting down.

We love you, precious Evie! God has blessed us more abundantly than we could ever deserve by giving you and Caleb to us!!

Click here to see more pictures of Evie.

Rice Cereal: Evie's Turn

A couple weeks ago, Evie started rice cereal. Like her brother, Evie was not much of a fan of rice cereal, however she did do a little better with it than Caleb. (See Caleb's first experience with rice cereal here.)

Sweet, unsuspecting girl

What are you doing with that thing?

What is this stuff!?

Eww!

Caleb's a good distraction

She made it!

Halloween 2011

This year for Halloween Caleb went as "Woody" from the movie Toy Story, and Evie went as a bear cub (Caleb's first Halloween costume minus the pink bow). Here are a few pictures from our night of Trick or Treating.

Pitiful

I can't think of many things more pitiful than a sick baby. :(

Talking to a 2 Year Old

So, I had a conversation with Caleb a little bit ago at dinner. He looked up at the ceiling and started talking about the lights, so I took that opportunity to try and explain to him how God made the sun to give us light outside during the day, and the moon to give us light outside at night. We talked about how the sun is very, very hot and we can't touch it. Then, Caleb said, "Daddy's son?" I realized he was confused about the difference between "sun" and "son", so I started to try and explain. However, Caleb then said, "Cason?" (Cason is a friend of Caleb's.) What a gift it is to be able to know my sweet son's thoughts, but seriously, our language must seem so bizarre to a 2 year old! Sun...son...Cason. It's a wonder we ever figure it all out!

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!

Evie - 3 Months!

Baby girl, your daddy and I are so in love with you!

You rolled over for the first time on 9-20. I had laid you down on your tummy for your nap, and when I later went into your room to get you up, I found you on your back. You also scoot around quite a bit. It's not uncommon for you to push yourself halfway across your crib and then sometimes even turn yourself 90 degrees.

You are very strong and can move around on your back some by digging your heels into the ground and pushing off with your legs. You also often do the same thing when I prop you into a seated position, but somehow this results in you sliding down more onto your back.

You have let out a couple short giggles here and there but haven't yet fully laughed. I think you might be ticklish on your back like your brother. Your daddy was tickling Caleb's back when he laughed for the first time.

You are talking a ton, which Caleb is starting to think is pretty funny. He'll often repeat in an excited voice the sounds you make and then start laughing. I love, too, how you will often furrow your eyebrows a bit while talking as if you're saying something really serious.

Toward the end of this month, you started blowing raspberries and have started sticking your hands in your mouth a lot. You don't do pacifiers, but I'm starting to wonder if you're going to be a thumb sucker.

You still love when I kiss your mouth. You open up your mouth and kind of lean into it and close your eyes a little bit then smile after I kiss you.

As soon as we finish up the rest of the Size 1 diapers we have, we'll move you up to Size 1-2. You're still in some Newborn clothes, but mostly either 0-3 or 3 Month clothes.

You're still very active while eating, with your arms and/or legs usually moving around. You do this thing with your arm where you lay the back of your hand on the bridge of your nose, then pull your hand back across your eye, temple and then back to your ear. You then will stretch that arm out a bit over your head, back onto your nose and then will repeat the process over and over. You also pull on your ears a lot while eating.

I have only tried giving you a bottle 2 more times, but you did better and actually drank a little bit. I know I should be trying more if I want you to be better at it, but it just takes more time and effort than I've been willing to devote to it lately.

I dropped your late night feeding at 11.5 weeks, and you've had no problem going down to just 5 feedings a day. You are now eating around 8:30, 11:30, 2:30, 5:30 and 9 or 9:30. Those times vary, though, depending on what we have going on that day/night.

You nap on your tummy for about 1.5 hours between feedings during the day and then sleep swaddled on your back at night.

















You are still such a happy baby--people often comment on how much and how big you smile. I can't explain how much joy that big toothless grin brings me. Your eyes light up, you often scrunch your little nose, and it melts my heart! I pray that you will one day rejoice in the Lord! Life is busy, but I know God is using you right now to help me slow down a bit. When I look down at you and see you staring up at me with a huge smile, it's nearly impossible for me not to stop what I'm doing and smile back at you.

Sweet Evie, you are such a precious little girl, and we absolutely adore you!

Click here to see more pictures of Evie.