Monday, July 25, 2016

Birthday Shenanigans

July sure is a busy birthday month for our family.
We have 5 birthdays in two week!
That's a whole lotta birthday cake but a whole lotta fun :)


We kicked off the festivities with Dave's birthday first. We celebrated a week early since his uncle Mike was coming in town early. We had a birthday dinner at his parents house with Dave's traditional birthday cookie for both him and Madden.



Part of Dave's birthday gift was going to Chicago for a Cubs game with a couple of his bowling buddies, so when we returned from his weekend away Madden and I had balloons and cupcakes waiting. Both kids were super excited for mini cupcakes, they couldn't take their little eyes off them!



Both Dave and I took the Friday before Madden's birthday off with the intentions of spending the day having a "big kid" celebration just the three of us. Somehow Dave got caught up in getting some yard work around the house last minute so it was done for MJ's birthday party. So Madden and I dropped of little sister at daycare then went to breakfast just the two of us. He chose McDonald's, he really wanted a cheeseburger for breakfast but compromised with pancakes and ALL the syrup. He really loved the old school McD's characters they had there.

We took Madden to an afternoon movie to see the Secret Life of Pets, which we loved. Madden loved the pooping bunny. Then we took the kids for their first Chuck E. Cheese experience!!!
   

Madden was so excited when we pulled up to the parking lot, I wish I would have gotten it on video. You would have thought we were at Disney World or had won the lottery. He was literally bouncing off the walls, running from one game to the next nonstop the entire time we were there. 


He just loved all the games and even the rides, which he never use to like. His favorite games were basketball, shooting a duck with a water gun, any that involved shooting a gun, and the wack a mole type games. Harper even had a good time, she was mesmerized by the Chuck E Cheese show on the stage and when they sang Happy Birthday for one of the kids parties. She even loved the pizza, people watching and all the flashing lights. 


Can't believe my baby is FOUR! 

Friday, July 15, 2016

Harper 8 Months

I can't believe this girl is 8 months old already!
Granted I'm just over a week late in finally finishing this and getting it up. #secondchildproblems


Age: Eight Months Old

Weight: 17ish lbs (15lbs 12 ounces at 6 month appt)

Length:  Bot sure current length (26 ¼ inches at 6 month appt)



Size: Harper has moved up to size 3 diapers, still wearing a few 6 month clothes but mostly in all 9 month clothes and pajamas.

Hair: Light brown/blonde and filling in nicely

Eyes: She has the most beautiful big blue eyes with long eyelashes. Everyone always compliments her on those gorgeous eyes of hers and she sure knows how to work them already. 



    Health:  Another great month of health!! We have been really lucky so far with this one and       hoping it continues. 

Teeth:  Two teeth still but I am certain she is getting close to her top two coming soon.

Sleeping:  Do I dare say it…..Harper has been officially sleeping through the night!! (knock on wood) Dave and I went out of town for just one night the weekend right before she turned 7 months and that Sunday night when we came back she blessed me with sleeping the entire night through. She has continued to sleep through the night since then and has only woke up maybe a handful of times but has been able to easily go back to sleep with just a short backrub and pacifier if she does wake. Now that she doesn’t wake in the night she tend to never sleep past 6:30am on weekends and usually is up between 6-6:30am. She still goes to sleep between 7-7:30pm. Her morning nap is still typically 2.5 hours. Afternoon nap varies from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, usually always on the shorter side. 


Eating:  This month new foods we tried out were pasta, eggs, blueberries, peaches, whole wheat toast, shredded cheese, chicken, canned green beans, watermelon, cherries, Stage 2 baby purees, black beans. She seems to like the Stage 2 foods much better than the Stage 1, or maybe she’s just getting accustomed to food and the texture more. So far her favorite foods appear to be Puffs by a long shot, dried yogurt melts, banana chunks, sweet potatoes, cheese, chicken with apples, pasta, watermelon and sucking spaghetti.  

Harper is still breastfeeding like a champ. Definitely prefers mom over bottles, won't take one if I try to feed her one which is pretty rare and won't take one from daddy either. She usually eats about 5 times a day, two bottles at daycare. The past few weeks she has been drinking slightly less at daycare, she has come home with an ounce or two still left in one of her bottles. 


Movement:  She is not full on crawling just yet but she is doing what I call the Worm. On all fours she will take one or two steps then drop to her belly and push in the direction she wants to go then gets back up onto her hands/knees takes 1-2 steps and drops back down to her belly to push off and repeats. A half regular crawl/half army crawl. She gets around pretty well this way and gets to what she wants. She still stays relatively around the area I put her down but usually never in the same spot. She is awesome at holding plank and downward dog!! My little yoga baby :)

Milestones: Sleeping through the night!! Getting up on all fours. Sitting up on her own from tummy. Army crawling. Reaching out to be picked up or held. Doing better and better at self-feeding.I call those all big wins! 




Favorite Toys/Activities: Jumping in her Jumperoo. Getting a hold of any of big brothers toys he has within close proximity. Stacker toy. Knocking down blocks or things that are stacked. Bath time and splashing in the pool. Playing peek-a-boo. Being tickled. Fascinated with the bathtub drain. Grabbing hair, necklaces, drinks, anything in front of her or within reach. Putting her toes in her mouth. Likes to touch/feel/grab faces. Still loves diaper changes and being naked. Watching big brother all of the time!


Dislikes:  Refuses to take a bottle from daddy and definitely won’t take one from me or if I’m around. Is turning into a mamas girl, in the evenings she is not a fan of mommy putting her down to make dinner or do anything else around the house without her. She is becoming more aware of unfamiliar people and strangers and not too sure about them at first. She also has started showing some separation anxiety.  

Words:  She does not technically know the sounds she is making are works yet so I don’t count it but she makes sounds similar to dada and hi


Sounds: She squeals and makes high pitched screeching noises, girlfriend knows how to get loud! She makes the sounds with ba-ba, da-da, ga-ga, ma, 


Favorite Moments
  • A few weeks ago my friend Tiffany visited us. We went out to dinner for pizza and then stopped by Whitey’s for ice cream on the way home per Tiffs request. Auntie Tiff sat in the back seat between the two kids’ car seats and on the way home with ice cream little Miss Harper could not stop staring at her ice cream cone and giving her the eyes. Harper even was sticking out her lip pouty the entire car ride home. Tiffany couldn’t take it! She asked us “How do you do this?! How do you not given it to these children!” It was killing her. Even when we got home Harper was sitting in my lap and kept grabbing for mine. Finally I decided to wait to eat mine until she was in bed. 
  • Let's just say Miss Harper has found her voice! A couple weekends ago Uncle Mike came into town because their Aunt June had a 90th birthday celebration. Dave had to work but I took the kids, we then had Mike and Dave's parents over to our house later in the evening for dinner. Well Dave got off work much later than expected so we were short on time as Mike wanted to get on the road before it got too late. We ended up all going to Culver's for dinner. The entire time while at Culver's, Harper seemed to realize she had a voice and was quite fond of hearing it. She talked and yelled, and screeched the ENTIRE time. Employees from the completely other end of the restaurant were looking over at our talk and laughing because she was so loud. I was thankful it was happy talking and yelling versus upset and crying. Girlfriend has some lungs on here. Grandpa Jim even made the comment about wondering what this means for down the road and if it if this a prediction of how loud and talkative she will be.   

Monthly Highlights
  • Went to library for Niabi Zoo day
  • Lots of play dates with Violet
  • Strawberry Festival and parade
  • Got up on all fours
  • Lots of swimming pool fun in the backyard
  • Celebrated Father’s Day
  • Made homemade Father’s Day cards
  • Learned to sit up from belly
  • Started to army crawl
  • Had her fifrst bedhead --> that means we have more hair :)
  • Aunt Tiffany visited
  • Celebrated at Stella’s 4th Birthday Party
  • Went to the Malloy’s Air Show Party
  • Celebrated Aunt June’s 90th Birthday Party
  • Met new family members she had never met before
  • Celebrated her first 4th of July
  • Went to her first Fourth of July Parade
  • Watched first fireworks?
  • Had her first bonfire
  • Went an entire day barely taking more than a 20 minute nap all day long
  • Still Breastfeeding



One extra because she's adorable. 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Fourth Weekend

Happy Birthday America!

We kicked off the holiday weekend with another play date meeting Tera and Violet at VanderVeer Park since there is lots of options to keep little ones entertained. Not only do they have a playground there is a conservatory, a children's garden, a rose garden, a large fountain that lights up at night, a small fountain, a vegetable garden, a bridge, lots of greenscape for picnics/sports/activities, and a large pond accompanied with ducks, geese, fish, turtles, and snails.   


This is real life.
Madden currently has some obsession with licking his sister. All the time! He has told me that he "likes her toes". Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine saying "Quit licking your sister" so many times a day. 

Violet and Madden were both great helpers taking turns pushing Harper in the swing. 

Saturday night sunset in Iowa, view from our deck. It was such a gorgeous night I pushed back Madden's bedtime so he could watch it with me since daddy was working. 

My little 4th of July cuties!

Sunday we watched fireworks at my brother and sister-in-laws. Their neighbor sets off their own fireworks the day before the 4th and it was an awesome show, plus we didn't have to leave the comfort of their house or fight traffic. Win-win! MJ was NOT a fan of being so close to the fireworks. He high tailed it inside the house as soon as they started for refugee from the loud noises, poor kid. It took me some good convincing to even get him to the window to look at them, then he just sat instead behind a chair to look out the window at them. :(

Best picture I could get of these two during all the festivities at the Fourth of July parade. MJ might look like he's crying but this is his hurry up I got a parade to watch and candy to fight for face while saying "Cheese". HR was a fan of people watching, crawling after grass and eating all the Puffs/yogurt melts I packed like they were going out of style. 


Halana + Madden = BFFs

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Independence Day!