1/2 a Year!

Our sweet Baby J is 6 months old!  It's amazing how quickly the months have gone by.  She's starting to do some kid things now, but thankfully she's still very much our little baby.  

Thankfully I wrote a lot in her baby book at 6 months, because she's actually approaching 7 months now.  She is honestly still one of the happiest, most content babies I can imagine.  She cries when she's hungry, if she really needs her diaper change and occasionally to get somebody to pick her up. 

Her favorite thing right now is her big sister.  She gives Little A more smiles than anyone else.  Little A is having more fun playing with her now too... reading her books and giving her toys.  Baby J squeals and laughs when her toys come "get her" and Little A likes to make the animals get her.  It's super cute to watch the two of them together.  She's also playing with toys more now.  She has a little blue elephant with the crinkle paper in it that she loves, and she likes Sophie too.

Baby J's big milestone this month was sitting up by herself.  She started sitting up in mid-May, and now that's all she wants to do.  Sometimes when she reaches for a toy that's out of her reach she'll end up on her tummy, but most of the time now she's sitting.

Baby J has continued to be a good eater.  She's a big baby now, weighing 17 pounds, 12 ounces and she's 26.75 inches long.  That puts her in the 80th percentile for both height and weight. 

We introduced oatmeal cereal just a few days before 6 months, but Baby J had a bit of a reaction (eczema rash on her bottom and legs) to the cereal, so took a break and then switched to rice cereal and haven't had any more problems.  We're hoping she outgrows the oatmeal reaction.

One area that hasn't been going as well is sleep.  She rarely sleeps more than 4 hours at a time at night.  Which makes for a tired Mama.  But it's summer now, so that certainly helps!  Hopefully she'll be sleeping through the night before I have to go back to work in the fall.  One cute thing about her sleeping (well, I think my burrito baby is always super cute when she's sleeping) is that sometimes she snores.  It's not loud, just a sweet little baby snore.

Baby J is 5 Months!

One more month has flown by with Baby J.  She is much less of my snuggly little baby each day.  She is SO active.  Those little legs are always kicking, and she's constantly rolling.  She rolls from her back to her tummy and then lets out a little yell to let us know that she doesn't enjoy tummy time.  When she sits with E or me she loves to stand or sit up big to see the action. J at day care says Baby J just wants to be with the big kids.  We've gotten out our exersaucer and borrowed a door jumper so Baby J can really be our little jumping bean (as we like to call her). 

She still has such a happy, easy going personality.  She is so very, very smiley.  I love seeing those happy smiles, especially early in the morning and when I pick her up from day care.  We have seen a few pouty looks come out recently, and you can see her serious face in the picture below, but there aren't too many crying faces, which makes everyone at our house happy.  She's really starting to "talk" to us this month, which is a lovely little sound.

I don't have any official stats on Baby J's height or weight this month, but I can say she's getting bigger all the time.  She's still fitting in most of her 6 month outfits, but they're starting to get a little tight, and a little short.  We moved to size 3 diapers for both day and night.  They're not that much smaller than Little A's (though I remember Little A stayed in the size 3 diapers for about a year, so I'm not too worried that my baby is turning in to a big girl).  



Baby J is 4 Months Old!

Quick, before she reaches the 5 month mark, a few updates about my 4 month old, Baby J! First, the stats. At 4 months, Baby J was 14 pounds, 2 ounces! That's a big baby (81st percentile). She was 24.75 inches long and her head was 40.4 centimeters. She's in almost all 6 month clothes, but it seems like even some of those are getting to be too small. (Mommy says, slow down on the growing Baby J! SLOW DOWN!!)

Baby J is still just a sweet baby girl. Daddy and I love to see her big, gummy smiles. We also love how you try to "attack" us when we give you kisses. It's just the sweetest thing!! It's also pretty adorable to listen to you have little chats with yourself.

You had been trying to roll over for a few weeks, and right on your 4 month birthday you finally made it all the way over (and got that silly arm out of your way). We were all very proud of you getting your rollies. I think you're happy you can move a little bit. Her little legs are constantly kicking. Keeping socks and shoes on her is nearly impossible.

I should also mention a few of Baby J's nicknames. We call her just about everything but her full name. Some of our favorites are Jophajean (Little A), Jumping Bean, Phenom, JoJo Bean (Grandpa R), JJ (Papa), Smiley.

Toddler Time: Sorting Activity

Here's a really easy sorting activity I put together for Little A. Something similar was set up at our ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class this winter, and I kept it in mind for a rainy day (or snowy, like it was this morning).

Supplies:
Fuzzy Craft Balls
Colored Paper
Cupcake Tin
I got rainbow colored fuzzy craft balls, and punched circles out of matching pieces of cardstock. I set the circles in the cupcake tins, and put the fuzzy craft balls in a bowl and put Little A to work. This kept her busy for a long time. I had 80 fuzzy craft balls, and after she got them all sorted, she asked for more! I call that success!!

Little A's Rainbow 2nd Birthday Party

Little A turned 2 on Sunday, and to celebrate we had a rainbow themed birthday for her a little over a week ago. I had been saving some fun rainbow party ideas for Baby J's 1st birthday party, but when we decided to have Little A's 2nd birthday party on St. Patrick's Day, I thought rainbow would be a perfect fit! Here are a few of the fun details from the day.

Pinterest was the greatest way to save ideas when planning this party! I wish I would have had an account when I was planning her 1st birthday too! I saw so many great rainbow ideas searching Pinterest. This pin (sorry I can't link to the blog, it appears to be private) gave me the idea for the balloon rainbow below, but I used big punch balloons I found at Target.
I also picked out 20 of my favorite pictures of Little A over the past year to display. It's crazy to see all of the changes, especially how her hair has grown, and curled!Of course, for the rainbow party, we had to have a fruit rainbow.And a pot of "gold" for the end of the rainbow!What would a rainbow party be without the very popular rainbow cupcakes? I set up a few rainbow activities for the kids. E blew up a bunch of rainbow colored balloons and scattered them around the floor for the little ones to play with. The balloons were a huge hit! Another fun activity was the rainbow rice. I colored the rice the weekend before the party, then filled up Little A's water table with the rice and some sandbox toys.

I also set up a coloring table inside, with rainbow printables, markers, crayons, paint dot markers and fruit loops.For party favors, we gave the little ones watercolor paints (except the baby, who got a lucky duck).

I'll be back soon with more photos, including a little 2 year old and her rainbow tutu!

3 Months!!

Baby J is now 3 months old, and while I don't know how much she weighs right now, I know she's growing, because her 3 month outfits are getting so tight. We took her to dinner with another couple and their 1 month old, and there is a HUGE size difference. Baby M made Baby J look like a monster! She's still spitting up a lot. By the time we got done taking these pictures she was soaked, and I had to find her a new outfit (or do a costume change as we like to call it). But the spitting seems to bother me more than her, so we're just waiting for her to grow out of it. As I write, she's sitting on my lap, cooing up a storm, and now I just felt a whole lot of slime hit my legs. See how smiley she is in these photos? That's how she is most of the time. She's so sweet and content. She cries when she's hungry, or sometimes when she needs her diaper changed, and occasionally we'll hear a little dinosaur noise when she needs a little more attention, but other than that she is relaxed and happy. When she sees Mommy, Daddy or Little A her whole little face lights up! She has the cutest smiles, and we even hear a few little baby giggles. She's also cooing like crazy!

Our day care provider tells me that Baby J is a "gem." She told me she's always nervous when a new baby starts, but that Baby J is super easy and sweet, and gives out her big, gummy smiles to the rest of the kids.

Baby is starting to have more control over her body now. Her neck is so strong, and she loves to watch what everyone around her is doing. She's starting to grab for the toys on her play mat too. I think it's pretty adorable to watch her try to get her pacifier back in. Sometimes her little birdy mouth even manages to get it! This month we took a big trip with Baby J to Cancun (Little A stayed with her grandmas and grandpas in Wisconsin while we were gone). She was such a good little traveler! No problems on the flights, no problems sleeping, no problems hitting the town with Mommy and Daddy (well, hitting the town to the extent you can with a baby along). She went to her first wedding (congrats, K & C!) while we were there, and dipped her little body in the Caribbean Sea.

The Sweetest Little Valentine

Our sweet littlest valentine. Our bigger valentine refused to participate in pictures this year. She did help decorate valentines though. I think Daddy got 5 valentines from Little A.