2015 Weeks 18 &19

I almost forgot about week 18, so just one picture of Baby C and her toy bucket. She loves to tip it over and let the toys fall out. 

Baby C also loves her big sisters. Little J is taking more and more interest in her as she gets more responsive. Little J likes to be a helper too, so she's happy to push Baby C in the swing. She even gives her underdogs. Luckily she's not too tall, so the swing doesn't go too high.

We've been having a gorgeous spring this year, and the big girls have already had the sprinkler out a few times. So much fun!

 Even Baby C got in on the sprinkler action, with a little help from her Daddy.

She's already got him wrapped around her little finger.

Baby C: 9 Months

Personality: Baby girl continues to have the best gummy smiles, and generally be a sweet baby. The crying is still increased, at least until someone picks her up. She's happy to be carried around by E or I, but is growing more weary of strangers. She does well when I drop her off at Kid Stuff at the Y, but once she sees me coming back to pick her up she gets very upset about being with the teachers. 

Likes: Pink elephant blankie from Nana. Playing with toys (well, taking them out of the basket). Eating big girls foods (especially blueberries). Bath time. Watching her big sisters run around. Tipping herself upside down when being held.

Dislikes: Sitting by herself for more than five minutes. Being alone in a room. Strangers. If she wants to be picked up she cries and puts her hands up by her ears. For the first couple of days she was doing this I worried that her ears were bothering her, but no, that's just her go to move when she really want to be picked up.

Eating: Baby C loves eating finger foods. Crackers, puffs, blueberries, strawberries, bananas and pretty much anything else we give her to try. Well, at least she'll try it once. 

Sleeping: Baby girl is sleeping very nice stretches at night. She likes an early bedtime, sometime around 7:30 or 8pm, then sleeps until between 5-6am. Some mornings she goes back to sleep for another hour or two, otherwise she stays up for a couple of hours, then takes a short nap. She naps again for a longer time in the afternoon, and sometimes takes another shorter nap before dinner. 

Stats: 19 lbs, .5 oz and 27 inches. Ahh... this was the hard part of the month. I took Baby C in for her 9 month check up and she really didn't grow much between 6 and 9 months. She gained just over a pound and grew just a quarter of an inch (dropping her down to the 23rd percentile in height, way off her growth curve and strange for our babies so far). Her pediatrician was a little worried about her height gain, so she did tested her thyroid. The tests came back normal, but I still can't help but worry about her a little. She's down to the  Hopefully she'll go through a growth spurt soon and I'll be able to relax.

Preschool Graduation

Last week Miss A finished up her year of preschool. First thing when we walked in to school, Miss A's best preschool buddy, Miss M ran up to her and grabbed her hand. They were so cute walking around together holding hands, and continuing to hold hands sitting on their circle time rug. It was so sweet to see how much their friendship has grown over the past nine months. I know next year will bring new adventures and new friends, but it's a little sad that so many of Miss A's preschool friends will be going to different schools next year. 

We went back to preschool later that night for Miss A's preschool "graduation." Her class sang a few songs (including the alphabet song while signing the alphabet) and then everyone had ice cream. Miss A and Little J ran around playing games with some kids from her class and then it was time to leave. As we were leaving Miss A broke down. So many tears. She was sad to be leaving her school. Her teachers. Her friends. 

When we got home from preschool earlier in the day, I had decided to do a last day of school picture. I wasn't really planning do do first day and last day pictures, but at the last minute I decided it might be a fun comparison shot to have. 

And when I put these two photos side by side, I got tears in my eyes. I was not expecting the change I saw in these photos. Wow! I say it constantly, but I can't believe how much she has grown! I remember how timid and shy she was on the first day of preschool. It was a total surprise to us, but she was nervous about starting preschool. On the last day there was non of that nervousness. There was so much joy. So much excitement to spend the day with her friends, learning and later performing.

In the fall she will go off to kindergarten. It's really, really hard for me to believe that she'll be a "school-ager." I know she's ready. She's so excited. I know she's prepared, and her teachers assure me that she's ready to go. But I'm not totally sure that I'm ready.

So this summer you'll find me here soaking up the last few months with my girl before we send her off to school.

2015 Week 17

At the end of April we visited E's family for his niece's First Communion. His brother lives on a farm and recently added a bunch of chicks! Miss A and Little J love running around on Uncle M's farm, playing with their cousins and they loved holding the chicks too. 

 Miss A would have her cousin, Miss K get a chick for her, Miss A would hold the chick for three seconds then ask Miss K to find her a different chick to hold. I think she held all 15 chicks at least 3 times.

 

Now the girls are excited to go back in a few months and get eggs from the chickens. That should make for another fun adventure!

After church on Sunday I had to get a picture of the five of us while we were all looking nice.

Easter 2015

As I mentioned in my last post, Easter did not go as planned this year, but we still managed a little bit of Easter fun. We died Easter eggs at home and at Uncle B's house, spent some time with my family and managed an Easter egg hunt. 

E calls actions like this "mommy bait." Ha! So true!

Baby C with her first Easter basket!

2015 Weeks 15 & 16

Can I just tell you how glad I am that April is over? The weather was absolutely picture perfect spring weather, but other than that is was kind of a trying month. The whole family was sick. We had colds, pink eye, a stomach bug and an infected wound. We made many trips to urgent care, including one on Easter. We also had a house guest for the month. Add in stress related to trying to find a house and get our house ready to sell, well, I'm just glad we made it through the month. 

The girls enjoyed the beautiful days by playing outside so much! We're lucky to have lots of neighbor kids (all girls!) for our girls to play with. It's so much fun to see all of the girls running around from yard to yard or buzzing by on their scooters. Baby C loves to watch all of the action.