4 Months

Miss Emmy Rose is 4 months!

She has started waking up (usually only once) at night. I knew sleeping through the night would stop, so it is fine. I’m glad that she is getting enough food and gaining properly. (First kid to actually go up in the percentile for a checkup . . . but it could be because it was a new pediatrician, so it was a different scale.)

She has got an epic mullet. At 4 months, I think she has the most hair out of all of the kids, so that bald spot is coming in hot and heavy.

Here’s Baby Girl on her FIRST Christmas! Too tired to find a cute Christmas outfit, but at least I remembered to take a picture of her first Christmas (even though I forgot to take a pic of the other kids).

She looks terrified here, but she is usually very calm when Kenny holds her. He is so helpful by holding her whenever I need to do something really quickly with the other kids and what not. (Also, do you see that ORANGE?! We got the kitchen painted a few weeks ago, and we painted it a very, very light gray. CRAZY the difference between the two colors.)

She is able to sit in the bumbo and play with toys. She only tolerates sitting in the bumbo for like 5 minutes before she get too tired, but it has been fun for her and us that she is able to see and interact more.

And she has been somewhat enjoying her jumper. Same deal. You’ve got 5 minutes before she wants out.

But the play mat is a trusty, good friend that is your best bet if you want prolonged time (aka more than 5 minutes)

Home church with the fam.

And she went to church for the first time! It was for the first time in 10 months for the rest of us. It was SO nice to be back, and the kids didn’t lose all of their church etiquette skills (like sitting, whispering, etc.) like I thought would happen.

And the most exciting thing for her this month was that she got her baby blessing! We did it in conjunction with Kenny’s baptism, and it was perfect. Ken’s mom made her blessing dress, and it is BEAUTIFUL!

And I recognize that this is bare bones and written 1 week shy of her turning 5 months, but you know, something is better than nothing. When I originally started writing this post, she was only getting up once a night, but we are now full blown sleep regression, and she is getting up more than once a night, so I am tired. It is 10:00 on a Sunday night, and I am going to try to get some sleep before I need to wake up in an hour.

3 Months

Phew! We made it to one of my favorite baby ages. Newborns are cute, but make me tired and nervous. Lots to worry about. Once they become 3 months, it typically isn’t as stressful. I understand Emmy now, and she understands us better. I know that she likes her sound machine as white noise rather than music, and she likes it loud for her naps, but only two clicks for bedtime. If she is having a hard time settling down, she likes when I say “shhh, shh, shh” over and over or “husssssshhhhh, hussssshhhhhh” while rocking her. I know that she likes to be swaddled nice and snug, and that she is notorious for peeing when her diaper is off. She also had, ahem, some very “exciting” poo encounters this month some of which landed on the wall (twice), bed, and poor Addie.

In turn, she knows that I like my sleep, and so she is an angel baby and sleeps from 9:00ish to 7:00ish nearly every night. She did have one week this last month where she got up once a night, but she has since reverted back to sleeping through the night.

Baby Girl laughed this month, and she does it often. The kids still love trying to get her to laugh. Kenny is especially good at making her laugh. I think Reed and Addie still makes her a bit nervous.

The face she made when Addie and Reed came into the room when I was taking her 3 month pictures.

Emmy discovered how to control her hands and will grab the toys on her playmat. I love watching her grab the little ring so she can suck on it and how her little feet kick. She also loves to suck her hand even when she has had a ton of milk, yet she will not take a pacifier or a bottle (though, we haven’t tried too hard to push this). When I am rocking her, and she is dead asleep, she will pout her lips and move her mouth as if she is sucking. It is adorable.

She just barely learned to control her head more. She can sit up in her bumbo by herself, though only for a little bit because it is still a workout and tiring for her to hold her head up for so long.

She moved from her bassinet to her crib this month. I gave away the bassinet to someone in the ward and it made me a little teary eyed to give it away. Having a newborn is hard, but knowing that was what she slept in for the first bit of her life also makes it sentimental. She frequently used a pink bassinet crib sheet with it, and the last time I washed the sheet, there were little tufts of her hair stuck on it from the back of her head where the bald spot had formed. It made me sad and sentimental to see those little hairs. I think every “last” for her will be harder than normal for me. She is such a sweet and good baby. She also has outgrown her swing, so we will be getting rid of that this week as well.

She has also moved from Size 1 diapers to size 2 and her 0-3 month clothes are getting too small. She has formed some little rolls on her legs, and they’re the cutest. Her little blonde hair that had mostly fallen out has started to come back and is somewhat long in some spots (1.5″). She is very finicky with nursing and will only nurse at times if I stand and rock her. She has definitely gotten spoiled with us always being home due to the pandemic.

9 Months

It has been an exciting month for Miss Addi-lady.

• Learned to crawl

• Waves hi to people

• Is thinning out now that she is mobile, so she joined the operation “fatten up child” that all my kids go through.

• Kicks her feet and gets super excited when she sees Ken. She also does this if she hears his voice but can’t see him. She also understands the word “dada” and makes the same reaction when you say it. She sure loves him!

• Is so mild mannered. I told the doctor how she was just so calm and quiet. The doctor didn’t seem concerned. She proceeded to look into Addie’s ears. Addie didn’t want her to look in her ears, so she kept pushing the doctor’s hand away. It was very cute to see. The doctor said “wow, even as mad she isn’t making noise!” And then Addie got so frustrated she started crying.
• She has also taken a strong desire for Reed’s stuffed animal called “Pengy” aka penguin. She gets SO excited when she sees it. She will pull that penguin around the living room to explore, and if she sees something else she wants to play with, she gets confused and it becomes a huge debate whether she should put Pengy down and explore that other toy or keep holding Pengy.

We sure love this little girl! She is such a joy in our lives. ❤️

7 Months

^That grin!

^These two have actually been getting along better. She will laugh and giggle at him and gets excited to see him.

^And lest you think she never cries.

 

This month will mostly be described through pictures. In writing this post, I went back and looked at old pictures of her as a newborn, and it made me sad that she has grown so much! Where is my little baby? (Even though she is still a baby.) Gah she needs to stop growing.

^And the big thing from this month is that we survived a week of girls camp! It was a high of 94 degrees (gah!), and so we wore these green cooling rags to help each of us since I was holding her most of the time. She was a champ! Seriously. She was so good. (And I am glad that we survived camp and that it is over.)

^She had a really bad diaper rash this last week. Baby girl wanted to be held a lot. Especially liked snuggling in with her daddy . . . but had to be held funny because the rash was so bad.

^When Addie and I got home from girls camp, Kenny said, “I missed Ade…. I missed you two so much”. I asked him who he missed more- me or Addie. He said, “… well, mostly Addie because I don’t get to see her as much because she has to take naps and stuff.”

^This is a new favorite game the three of them like to play. It involves the boys fighting over who gets to lay down in front of Adelaide, and then Adelaide pulls their hair, eyes, cheeks, etc. Super fun game.

^Is a champ at eating now. Hardly gags and can pound some crackers down.

^Reed’s idea. He concocts the ideas, and Adelaide patiently endures.

^Sitting up for the first time in a shopping cart. It was like a whole new world for her! (Also, she probably could have done this for quite some time now. It just never crossed my mind to take her out of the carseat. #thirdkidproblems)

She is quite the roller now and uses rolling as a means of transportation. She is very fast with it, and now the boys have to be extra careful with keeping their legos in their room only.

We love you Ade-lady! (As Kenny now likes to call her.)

 

6 Months

^The little tongue! I could die.

^Such a cute smile.

^I love this picture of her.

Little Miss is six months! Some highlights of the month:

• She can sit. And she enjoys being able to be in the action more.

• She has eaten peas, banana, sweet potato, and applesauce. She gagged on the first three but seemed to do better on applesauce.
• Will give kisses when requested. She gave Ken the first kissy.
• Rode an airplane for the first time since I went and visited friends in Utah. She did awesome on the plane.

• She is very mild mannered.
• Attended her first wedding. A couple of people commented that we were brave for bringing a baby to a wedding. Not much choice when they don’t take a bottle. But we had multiple strangers come up to us at the end and say “I don’t know you, but that is the best baby I have ever seen!” ❤️ (And I wish we had taken a picture! She looked adorable!)

• The boys started swim lessons this past week. She just kicks and makes noise the whole time in excitement. It echoes so much on the pool deck, and I think she likes all the excitement.

This was Reed’s teacher, Josh. I will sing Josh’s praises all day. He was so good with Reed!

• She tried out swimming again, and it was a success this time. She really enjoyed it!

• She loves playing with water bottles, crinkly wipe cases, and a specific book that crinkles really well.
• She gets upset if she can’t see me, the boys, or Ken. She likes to be in on the action.

We love you Adelaide!

Kenny Update

I realized that I forgot one of Kenny’s sabotage tactics that happened a couple of weeks ago (Future Kenny: and I wasn’t going to document it for future embarrassing stories, but I just underwent an epic 2 hour battle with you today over sleep. You can thank your 3-year-old self when I tell this at your wedding).

Typically during lunch time, I fix the kids’ food, and then make mine while they’re eating theirs. By the time they finish, I usually have just sat down to eat. So typically they go upstairs to the play room and play. Then they come downstairs, and we do nap time. One day after nap time, we went upstairs and found this-

As you can see, Kenny hit the heat button, so it got up to 98 degrees upstairs. (This was after I changed the “system” back to cool.)

Thankfully, this happened the day in between the appraisal and the inspection and not on the day that either of those happened. Phew.

Again, sure felt like sabotage.

10 & 11 Months

^^^You can see the lion I was using to get him smile.

And our 11 month pictures. The sticker mysteriously disappeared, though.

^^^An honest after-church picture. One sock missing, no shoes, and ready for a nap.

^^^We got this bow tie/suspender set for his birthday (this month!), but I couldn’t wait, so he wore it today. :)

• Loves to cock his head to the side and smile whenever a stranger acknowledges him.

^^^Like this.

• Started crawling before the 10 month mark
• Has started to throw himself on the ground if he doesn’t get what he wants
• Is interested in climbing stairs. All. The. Time.
• Has 5 teeth
• Has mastered cruising along the couch now. Isn’t as interested in standing/walking as he used to be because he can now crawl fast.
• Will crawl over to me with a book, put it on my lap, and wait for me to read it to him. (Melts my heart)

• Likes to copy sounds others make. He likes to “scream” back and forth with Kenny. (In a non-upset way).
• Enjoys growling.
• Has a bad tendency to come up and bite you. Ouch! Hoping he grows out of this soon.
• Loves to crawl under the crib skirt and hide. He waits for you to say, “Where’s Reed?” And then he will pop out and do it again and again. Kenny will often join in if he is around.

• Has started “putting things back”, so he enjoys pulling out all the diapers from the basket, and then “putting them back”. He also enjoys lids

^^^As seen in this picture. Reed played with the lid of the corn starch and managed to get it open. Little one started it, but big one finished it.

Love this little fella and can’t believe he is almost 1!

7 Months

^^^And we can’t forget about Kenny turning 9 months too, right? ;)

• Reed can sit up on his own now.
• He cut his first tooth about 4 weeks ago. It was his canine on his right side. Just today I noticed that he also has his two front bottom teeth as well. Poor little guy.
• Because of that, he frequently gets up twice a night. (insert sleepy face emoji here)
• Now realizes when strangers hold him and/or look at him. My British friend came over the other day, and she kept on trying to talk to him, and every time she did, he would cry. Silly boy.
• Likes to “chase” Kenny by scooting after him quickly. Sometimes big brother is nice and goes slow so that Reed can catch him.

• Loves his Uncle Jake (who is now living with us for the time being)

• Gets so super excited when we give him his medicine. He flaps his arms and kicks his legs immediately once he realizes it is medicine time.
• Loves pears, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, prunes, and tolerates squash. Does not like peas. At all. He gags and makes terribly funny faces.
• Sat up in a cart for the first time a few weeks ago.

• Sat in a sit up swing for the first time (yes, I couldn’t believe he hadn’t either)

We love him so much!

Growth Spurt

So it looks like someone has been eating vegetables lately. I measured Kenny 2 days ago, and he has grown 1.5 inches in 3 months! Is that crazy or what? So all of those toddler tantrums I’m going to write off as growing pains… right? The terrible won’t morph into the terrible threes, right? Right?!

Funny side story that I can laugh at now since it has been a week-

At church last week we were sitting in the front section (soft seats!) In the middle (aka maximum visibility). Reed was sleeping in his carseat and everything was dandy. During the Sacrament, the time to be extra quiet and reverent, Kenny starts having a moment. I can’t even remember what it was about. Probably fruit snacks. Anyway, Ken picks him up to take him out, and Kenny starts kicking his legs as Ken lifts him up and over me, which ends up with me getting kicked in the face with Kenny’s big church shoes.  Ken then bumps the carseat as he is trying to take out a thrashing toddler, which wakes up. Reed starts crying (mind you, everything is fairly quiet besides my 2 screaming kids) so I grab the diaper bag to take Reed outside. As I grab my too big diaper bag, I knock the church hymnal shelf off of the back of the pew in front of me. Crash went the hymnals and wood shelf onto the ground upsetting Reed more. I frantically try to shove the shelf back into place, but the thing would not go on! Finally it snaps into place, and I made it out alive. Barely. ;)

So cheers for embarrassing church moments and growing toddlers! Happy Monday!

Hello 7 hours!

Phew… It’s been a whirlwind around here lately. Moving, newborn, owning a house, Ken’s new job. And ken just got a new calling too. (Something we joked about trying to do since we have so many new big things going on.) 

I’m hoping to get back into a rythym of posting on here regularly. (One can hope.)

Anyway, point of post. 

Reed went 8 hours between feeding a last night aka sleep for me!!! Glorious glorious sleep! It felt great. (Even though I did wake up once or twice in the night because my body is so used to waking up.)

So here are some cute pictures of the little bug:

   

   

 

I never understood people’s obsession with wanting to pinch cheeks, but I get it now. I mean, look a his cheeks! I could kiss them all day. 

Love this little fella.