Park Fun

A local elementary park is only 2 blocks from our house. We have spent MANY afternoons/evenings this summer at the park! If we let her, Adelyn would go everyday! Kyle and I get off work at 4 instead of 5 in the summers and that hour makes such a huge difference!

At the beginning of the summer Adelyn wasn’t too interested in swinging, but now she has discovered the joy of swinging and LOVES it! I think it helps that she found one at the park where her feet touch the ground. Daddy also lowered the swing on our swing set at home too.

Avery is a good sport, usually, when we go to the park. Most of the time, he will just nap in the stroller. Even when he isn’t napping he is usually fairly content. I think the boy just loves the outdoors!

And of course the slide is a hit with this little girl as well! Pretty sure she goes down the slides 132 times each time we visit the park! I love watching her enjoy all the fun the park has to offer! Mommy & Daddy even join her in the fun!

Adelyn has also discovered the rock climbing walls at the playground. She does really well, but it sure does make this mama nervous!!

Most recently we haven’t been able to enjoy the park as much because it’s been 90+ degree (even in the evenings when we get home). Hopefully the temps even out and we can enjoy our afternoons at the park before summer is gone.

New Year’s Eve

So I just found this post…and just had to get it posted because this is what I use to scrapbook! Only 8+ months late! ha!

For New Year’s Eve we hung out with Mindi & Preston and Preston’s brother, Nate & his wife Kylie at Preston’s parents’ house. Nate & Kylie used to live in town and we had a weekly Wednesday night of 50 cent tacos! It was fun to hang out again!

Deb, Preston’s Mom, made a great meal! We enjoyed the evening chatting and catching up. Thankfully Adelyn went down for the night really well in the pack n play and the rest of us broke out the games! I was surprised she slept through all our commotion of catch phrase! The girls won, btw!

Staying up till midnight isn’t easy for this Mama these days, but I made it! I’m pretty sure we called it a night at 12:05 though!

And thankfully despite Adelyn going to bed past her normal time she slept till 7:30am the next morning.

Avery: 5 Months

Dear Avery,

August 8th you turned 5 months old! I can hardly believe you are 1 month away(really only a few days since I’m getting this posted so late) from being 1/2 a year old, where has the time gone?!? You continue to grow, change, & learn and with each of those steps we love you more & more!

You moved from 5oz to 6oz bottles of pumped breast milk at daycare. You will have 3 of these throughout the day, usually every 3 – 3 1/2 hours. We tried cereal during your 5th month, but you weren’t ready for it yet. You weren’t sure what to do with it and most just ended up falling out of your mouth. More on this in your six month post next month!

We have kept the same bedtime routine the same: bath, nurse, {Mommy gives you a small too, just to make sure you are full!}, snuggle, white noise machine, and then bedtime. You continue to sleep about 7:30am-ish till 6am-ish. Mommy loves her quiet times with you snuggled in the glider in your room!

Mommy has come to the conclusion that you like to be entertained. If we are on the go running errands, visiting friends, at church, out to eat, etc you are completely happy & content. No one believes that you have your fussy moments because you are always happy & smiling when we are out & about! But some of those normal evenings where we are just home hanging out you want to be held or entertained constantly. There is no setting you in your bouncy seat or jumper, for very long anyway!

This month you rolled tummy to back for the first time and you are close to rolling back to tummy! I think you actually had done it a few times before Mommy got to see it, little stinker! We were at Mark & Kathy’s house and you were on the floor playing and you rolled from your tummy to your back. Mommy was excited to see your “first” roll over, but Daddy informed he had witnessed it the day before!

You aren’t quite doing the the “tripod” yet. You really want to sit up, but just aren’t quite strong enough yet. You will fall to the side or backwards fairly quickly!

You continue to put everything & anything in your mouth! And you are reaching for anything within your grasp! In the evenings we put you in the bumbo on the kitchen table while we eat supper and you are constantly looking for the next thing you can reach and put in your mouth!

You are still wearing size 2 diapers. And mostly 3-6 month clothes and just a couple 9 month summer outfits I wanted you to be able to wear before it got cool out. I’m pretty sure you won’t be in these much longer! You are such a big boy!

Your big smile & giggle can completely turn anyone’s day around. Mommy loves your roly poly thighs and soft kissable cheeks! We are so blessed with you, our sweet boy and your Daddy, big sister, and I all love you very much!

Love, Mommy

*FIVEMONTH STATS*

weight 18.8lbs

length didn’t measure

eating 100% breastfeeding

clothes 3-6 months & a few 9 month outfits

diapers size 2

Look how you’ve changed in your little five month life!

Adelyn at 5 months & Avery at 5 months!

Avery: 4 Months

Dear Avery,

July 7th you turned 4 months old! There were a lot of changes in your fourth month and Daddy, big sister, & I grew even more in love with you!

You started 4 1/2 & then moved to 5oz bottles when you’re at daycare. You still continue to eat about every 3 hours. Sometimes you’ll go 3 1/2-4 hours between feedings, but that’s rare. I don’t think you’re quite ready for that 4 hour schedule yet. You are also spitting up a lot less. I said this out loud to Daddy one day and the next morning when we were ready to walk out the door you projectile puked all over Daddy! Jinx! A change of clothes was in order for both boys!

Over the 4th of July weekend we took advantage of a four day weekend and decided to stop swaddling you at night. I was nervous that you would wake yourself, but you surprised us and slept just like any other night (about 10 hours) and have done so every since! WTG Avery! We still have kept the same bedtime routine of bath, nurse, {Mommy gives you a small too, just to make sure you are full!}, snuggle, white noise machine, and then bedtime.

You have the sweetest giggle! In the words of your Doctor, “Your 4 months, everyone is your friend!”. If we talk to you, tickle you, or sing you give us the biggest smile and also a some very sweet giggles! You especially love your big sister. Anytime you hear or see her your eyes are 100% glued on her to see what she’s up to! I love watching your relationship grow!

Despite those wonderful smiles and sweet giggles (and all these smiley pictures!), you have your moments where you aren’t too happy as well (gotta keep it real). In those moments there isn’t much we can do to soothe you. You must just need some time! Mommy is chalking it up to teething right now. We haven’t seen any pearly whites yet, but you sure are gnawing and biting on anything you can get yours hands on, including your own fingers & hands!

(you were “talking” to mama in this picture!)

Speaking up of your hands, you are grabbing and reaching for everything & anything these days. Its so fun to watch you explore and play with toys you find! You still aren’t rolling yet, but you sure do roll from side to side (when you’re on you’re back) with your feet up in the air.

You still aren’t the best in the nap department. We’ve had a few weekends where you’ve given us a 1 1/2-2 hour nap, but those aren’t comment. And at daycare you usually don’t nap more than 20-30 minutes at a time. Hopefully you will continue to improve in this department!

You went through a big growth spurt this month. Some days when I would pick you up after work, I would have sworn you grew from the time I dropped you off that morning! You are now wearing size 2 diapers. And Mommy switched over your closet & put away your 0-3 month clothes, so you are now wearing 3-6 months. I’m pretty sure you won’t be in these much longer! You are such a big boy!

We are so blessed to have you sweet boy! Its so fun watching you grow and change, but can you slow down, just a bit? Your Daddy, big sister, and I all love you very much!

Love, Mommy

*FOUR MONTH STATS*

weight 16lbs,13oz

length 26 1/2 in

eating 100% breastfeeding

clothes 3-6 months

diapers size 2

Look how you’ve changed in your little four month life!

Adelyn at 4 months & Avery at 4 months! (Its crazy how much my kids look nothing alike!) You guys are almost the same length at this age, but little brother Avery is almost 2lbs bigger!

Sleepy Boy

I think daycare must have worn Avery out! He just couldn’t make it through bath time the other night! Sweet boy!

This is girl was anything, but tired! I’m so glad that it works to bathe them at the same time now.

He did wake up when I took him out of his tub and he was as happy as could be! Love this little boy SO much!

Wordless Wednesday

(personalized towels courtesy of the wonderful Hillary)

Potty Training

Saturday May 25th we went cold turkey on diapers with Adelyn. All big girl panties here! I’m doing this post more for me more than anything, I want to remember this process (hopefully it will go as smoothly for baby brother in a few years!). I waited for this weekend ‘cause I needed Kyle there to take care of Avery so I could give Adelyn 100% of my attention and it was a 3 day weekend {it was also Kyle’s birthday…sorry hun!}.

This is the post that got most of the tips from. I read quite a few different things about potty training and I liked that this way went cold turkey on diapers and that the child seems to learn fairly quickly. I didn’t want to be buying pull ups for the next 6 months.

Once Adelyn woke up Saturday morning I put her in NEW big girl panties and a tunic (easy to pull the panties down and hop on the potty). We made a big deal about her new panties and she was excited about them. In hindsight I should have bought more than just 1 pack of panties (only 3 pair – did LOTS of laundry those few days!).

After a {somewhat} healthy breakfast I started in on the “fun”, “new” snacks. I had bought cheese crackers, pretzels, chips, and various other snacks that we don’t usually have. And then I also bought juice boxes, which is also a treat at our house! So we stuffed her full of salty snacks throughout the day to get her drinking that juice which would induce lots of trips to the potty! Throughout the day I constantly reminded her that she needed to tell Mommy & Daddy when she needed to go potty. We set the timer for 12-15 minutes and went and sat on the potty about that often. To keep her entertained while on the potty we read books, sang songs, and Mommy made up lots of silly songs/dances!

When we had a successful trip to the potty she got M&Ms and got to put cupcake stickers on a chart on the fridge {one for telling us she had to go potty, one for going pee in the potty, one for wiping, flushing, washing hands, etc}. The M&Ms and stickers worked great for Adelyn!

She had her first accident and HATED it! She cried and cried. Part of me was glad that she didn’t like it, gave me hope that this would sink in quickly for her! We went and sat her on the potty and talked about how she needed to pee in the potty, not on the floor or in her panties. Then we had one of her  babies pee on the potty {read: use a syringe to make the noise ‘cause Target didn’t have a baby that pees actually pees}. And then baby got M&Ms.

At this point Adelyn still wasn’t happy, still fusing with tears rolling. She crawled up into Daddy’s lap and essentially played possum {it was like she instantly to sleep, but really wasn’t}. I tried to put her panties on and instantly started flailing around “NO PANTIES”! But we stuck to our guns and got those panties back on her and distracted her with new coloring books and colors to play with.

We had LOTS of accidents on that first day and Adelyn HATED it! I was *this* close to throwing in the towel {especially when she was playing possum and clearly hated what we were doing to her}, but I’m SO glad that I didn’t!

But we also had a few successes that first day and then those times came along we made a HUGE deal about her peeing in the potty and danced, jumped around, and cheered for our big girl! She loved that! She also loved her “cup-ake” stickers! {come on, what kid doesn’t love stickers?!?}

For nap time we kept her in her panties and she woke up dry! I was SO surprised and proud of her! At night time we are still doing a pull up. I didn’t want to do a diaper because we keep talking to Adelyn about how diapers are for babies, like Avery and Adelyn is a big girl and doesn’t wear diapers. So at least, for her, there’s a difference between the pull up & diaper. Also she still in her crib, so we probably won’t make the transition from pull ups at night until she’s in a big girl bed.

Day 2 was Sunday. I had a hard time deciding if we should go to church or not. I ended up sending Avery with Kyle and Adelyn and I stayed home. I’m glad I did because I could tell she was really starting to “get it”. She still had a few accidents that day, but was much better. Sunday was also Kyle’s birthday so my Mom came over and watched both kids for us so we can have a little “day date” (which probably wasn’t the smartest idea with her potty training, but we needed some time together). She had 2 accidents while we were gone, BUT also went #2 in the potty! Overall day 2 was WAY easier than day 1. By day 3 Adelyn had ZERO accidents! I was so proud of her and surprised at how quickly she caught on!

We are still working on the #2 part. When she has to go #2 she says “owie bottom” and won’t go in the potty. Just last week we had 3 days in a row where she went #2 in the potty  and I thought we had it whipped, but then another accident. So besides for the #2 part, she has done AMAZING with potty training!

I think the hardest part this past month is when we are somewhere that doesn’t have potties (like the 3 parades we’ve been to) or if she gets too distracted doing something fun. We got her 2 year pictures taken the 1st weekend in June and there was a farmer’s market going on and none of the businesses would let us use their bathroom. My Mama Bear came out…come 60 year old lady (grandma age!) you really expect me to put my NEWLY trained, not yet 2 year old on the porta potty! Thankfully a nice bar owner let us use their restroom! End rant!

I highly recommend this route for any parent. I love that it doesn’t drag it out and how quickly Adelyn learned. I was NOT excited at all about potty training and kept putting it off even though I knew Adelyn was more than ready. If your child is showing signs, run with it! Don’t be afraid! Accidents aren’t that bad! {I had all my cleaning supplies stocked on the counter ready to go before we started day 1}