7 Months

7 Months! Past the halfway mark, so its now ok to start thinking about the 1 year birthday party right?...Ok I’ve been thinking about it for awhile now…

Stats:

No Dr visit this month, so I don’t know exactly what she weighs, but I do know she’s still a little peanut. Emma is still in 6 month clothes, and really can squeeze into some 3-6 month size! She is almost exactly what her big brother weighed at 6 months though, and he chunked up over the next few months, so I’m trying not to worry J

Emma was up to 3-4 cubes of solid food every meal a few weeks ago, and then the last couple weeks has been hating her solids – I’m really hoping its just a phase related to that stubborn bottom tooth that we can FINALLY see juuuust poking out!

Miss Emmalyn is working hard to keep up with her big brother! She's up on her hands and knees and rocking, and will be full-out crawling any day now...and her favorite position is standing -- if you are anywhere near her on the floor she scoots over and pulls herself up, smiling and giggling...maybe we will have another early walker! 

Emma and Caleb are still the best of friends -- here they are having a "coffee party" with Henna, Ellie, and me

 I'm so looking forward to when they can play organized games together...and when Caleb is less of a danger to her!

 Oh.Those.Eyes.

Here's a picture of both our sweet blue eyed kiddos at 7 months:

Yep, definitely siblings! BUT, overall Caleb is a mini-Garrett, and Emma is a mini-me:

Thats me on the left and Emma on the right! My mom and I took the kiddos to Urbana to see my grandparents this month, and my grandma had dug out some old pictures of me to show the similarities. We had a blast that day playing with alot of toys that I grew up playing with, and just spending time with all four of my wonderful grandparents:

Four Generations: my beautiful Grandma Grace, my mom, me, and Emma!

I was so thankful that we went on that visit, because less than a week later, my grandfather passed away. Here is he and Caleb a few months ago:

And this is the first time he met Emma:

While I will definitely miss my Grandpa Jim, I am so thankful that both my littles got to meet him! When my mom called to tell me the news, my most overwhelming feeling was peace. How different death is when eternity is certain! My grandpa was ready to meet his Savior, and I am so thankful to know that he is in the presence of Christ and that I will get to see him again someday! His pastor said at the funeral that he felt that the Lord and kept him from Glory this long to pray for his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren -- so he did. On the nights he didn't sleep much, he prayed, and during the day when he spent time in his massage chair, he prayed. I am so thankful for that conviction he had. He "finished well", and is now in heaven for "10,000 years and then forevermore"!

One more:

6 Months!!

Well Miss Emmalyn had her half birthday! This past 6 months has gone by so much faster, it seems, than Caleb’s first 6 months -- does time just go faster with each successive kid??

Measurements:

Emma has slowed her growth a little this month. She’s 27inches (80^th percentile) and 14lbs 10oz (25^th percentile). 

Even though she has dropped pretty significantly on the curve in weight, our awesomely laid-back pediatrician (you know this PICU mom NEEDS a laid-back pedi!!) is not concerned, especially since we have started solids. She will probably be like her big brother and pick up her weight gain in a few months!

Sleep:

Oh dear. Princess girl does NOT like to sleep. Really she’s all over the place…and we are TRYING to roll with it. Never thought I’d say that she is worse in the sleep department than big brother, but she is. She still wakes up most nights at least once and the times are all over the place, and then at least once a week shes up and ready to play around 4am, whiiiich of course throws her nap times all out of whack. If she wasn’t SO sweet… J

Likes and Dislikes:

 LOVES sitting on her blanket with her toys.

 Miss Emma can sit like a champ now, and her favorite activity is just sitting in the middle of her blanket exploring toy after toy and watching big brother’s antics. Not the explorer that Caleb was, shes our little observer insteadJ 

She LOVES to just look and look – seriously don’t get into a staring contest with this one because you’ll probably lose (Garrett has tested this). LOVES to chew and grab – still working on those two bottom teeth, and shes always looking for something to chew. Shes a grabber too and doesn’t hesitate to launch her whole body towards something she thinks might be good to chew! Only thing she doesn’t like right now…SLEEP!

Milestones:

Doing great sitting and scooching! She is doing much better in the nursery now – the nursery workers said that she is very intent about getting to a certain toy she wants, and she seems to have lots of fun figuring out what combination of rolling, launching, and scooching she needs to get to it! 

She is a tough little girl (probably because of what Caleb has put her through…) and isn’t phased easily – in fact, to get from a sitting to crawling position she just throws herself forwards on her face. Silly girlJ Definitely on the move now, but not quite the explorer Caleb was. 

She is laughing a lot more now, too, although Caleb is still best at getting her to belly laugh, which is adorable. 

Sibling Love:

The only wrinkle in these two’s friendship so far is that Emma actually cares when Caleb steals a toy from her now. It used to be that if she was playing with something that he (suddenly) wanted, he could take it, give her something else, and she wouldn’t care. Not so now. Emma actually has an opinion **GASP** and Caleb is very frustrated by this development. He is slowly learning that ALL his toys are actually not HIS ONLY. 

Honestly its hard not to laugh when he suddenly desperately wants the colored cups that she is gumming and no other toy in this house is as good as those. Tears. Wailing. Drama. Sin nature. However, overall Caleb and Emma are still the best of friends. Caleb is, for the most part, a great help.

 If Emma is fussing, he is very good about going and finding her a toy if I ask, or even just stopping his play and going over to entertain her when asked. Sweet boyJ

What We’ve Learned:

We are READY for spring. So very ready. This winter has been record-breaking in length, snowfall, and cold, and that is not a good recipe for sanity with a high-energy toddler and a 6 month old! 

Caleb has resorted to driving his car inside (did you know we have a grocery store in this house? And a donut store?), and we have planned many playdates. 

BUT we are so ready to be able to go outside, to the park, and for walks! Looking forward to taking long walks with both littles and getting some much needed Vitamin D soon!!!

Sneaky Veggies

Caleb has always been an excellent eater -- between 9 and 12 months he gained 6lbs. Seriously he's always loved food! And he wasn't picky --  he would eat almost anything, including vegetables. So, of course, I was all "yea this is why I made all his baby food; its supposed to help him be more open to things like vegetables...awesome job me!" Annnd then as he hit 2 yrs he started getting picky. Most of the time he is still a pretty good eater, but we have had some epic battles at meals. During The Oatmeal Standoff of 2013 we stared at each other for 2.5 hours before he finally took the required ONE BITE of oatmeal. The ridiculous part is that most of the things he doesn't want to eat are things I know he likes and has eaten many times before. In the Chicken Cheese Soup battle of 2014 once Garrett finally got him to eat one bite, he finished the whole bowl. So, we know that most of his refusal to eat certain things is really just his stubborn little sin nature coming out :) Because of that, I've always been kind of resistant to the whole hiding vegetables in another recipe kind of thing -- like putting carrots or zucchini in pancakes. It seems like he should just learn to eat them. And he does have to eat veggies at every meal. But spinach and carrots, for example, he just will not eat, and I get that. I HATED carrots as a kid, but I like them now. SO lately I have been making a ton of recipes with somewhat hidden veggies. And they are delicious! Caleb's favorite, I think, are chicken nuggets. Mikey D's nuggets are a typical kid favorite, but I really don't want to know what's in them! These that I found on pinterest not only have no additives and processed junk in them, but they also have spinach and carrots IN them!

Toddler Chicken Nuggets
I make a batch of these, freeze them, and pull some out for lunch. Caleb will eat about 6 in a sitting, which is definitely a serving of veggies.

One of Caleb's favorite activities is "helping" mommy bake. Actually, lately, its been Henna helping too (which means Caleb holds Henna's paw on the measuring cup as we all three pour something in...it does take awhile...). So my good friend gave me a list of recipes for muffins with "hidden" veggies -- AND they are very healthy too! These that have applesauce in them taste like apple streusel muffins

These are whole wheat but the shredded carrots make them really moist -- delicious!

And a batch of these muffins lasts about a week -- good for snacks too!

Of course, Caleb by no means always eats healthy...its all about moderation right???

5 (and 4) Months!

Yes, I know I basically skipped month 4 – it was Christmas Day…and its been a really crazy month! Here’s Emma’s 4 Month picture:

 

And heres a quick update on whats been going on:

First we spent about a week in Washington for Lowe Christmas:

 

Great times with family made up for some pretty looong plane rides:

Caleb had a 2 year birthday party in Washington, complete with helium balloons and a Thomas the Train cake (boy do Gampa Ken and Gamma Yin know how to speak “two year old!”):

 

 

Then we spent about a week in Upland for Biehl Christmas:

 

 

More great times with family, although we were missing Justin and MeganL Next year they will be back for good – yay!

Annnnd Caleb had birthday party #2, this time with a “big truck bus” cake made by Grandma Carole!

 

After all the craziness of Christmas/New Years, we had a record-breaking snowstorm here in Indy, which kept Garrett home from work for another day...so, of course he built an awesome snow fort for Caleb!

 

Poor Emma got sick just after Christmas and couldn’t go outsideL

Along with the ridiculous amounts of snow came record-breaking cold weather – the windchill was -44!! The night that it got so cold, our power went out…along with our heat! They finally got the power back on  around 2:30am, but the kids had to spend the night with us in our bed…which made for a pretty sleepless night for all involved, and Garrett stayed home from work again.  We spent the morning upstairs, too since it took almost all day to get the house back to normal temp – breakfast in bed anyone??

Well, since then we have been trying to get back to normal. It keeps snowing and dipping way down into the negative temps, and Emma is juuuust starting to finally get over being sick, so the cabin fever is finally starting to let up! You know its bad when you are counting the days until the kids COMBINED doctor appointment because YAY it will be a time to get out of the house! They actually did pretty well though, both having their appointments together – the only time Caleb had a meltdown was when they had to measure his head. Silly boy freaks out during haircuts too.

Measurements:

Both kiddos are off the charts (literally) in height! Emma is 13 lbs (50^th percentile) and Caleb is 29 lbs (70^th percentile)

Sleep:

We are still trying to recover from Christmas, honestly. Before Christmas she was sleeping 12 hours at night, with two 2 hour naps during the day and a catnap in the evening – amazing. But over Christmas with all the craziness, plus being sick, plus learning to roll to her tummy (but not back to her back), she got all confused. There were a few pretty rough weeks there (Mommy  not getting sleep does NOT do good things for cabin fever…), because we had to go cold turkey with her swaddle. She can roll to her tummy, but not back to her back, and she HATED being on her tummy, so she had to “learn” how to sleep on her tummy. Doing better now, although she’s still not back to sleeping the full 12 hours.

Likes and Dislikes:

LOVES anything chewable. She’s working on 2 bottom teeth, so she’s always gnawing on something! LOVES being talked to, especially by big brother J HATES being left alone without Mommy or Daddy – some early separation anxiety going on here. I got called out of church on Sunday to the nursery because she was inconsolable, which NEVER happened with Mr. Independent, so I was honestly at a loss as to what to do – she was fine when I was holding her, but dissolved when I passed her off to a nursery worker. Hoping this works itself out quickly!

Milestones:

Rolling like a little champ, and she’s found her toes! She can’t quite get them to her mouth, but she loves to grab them! She also can straighten her arms and lift up pretty high from her blanket, and she has scooched forward a few times!

AND we started solids this week – hoping maybe it will help her sleep longer at night! She wasn’t totally sure what was going on, but I think she will pick it up faster than Caleb did. He spent her first dinner time leaning as close to her face as possible saying "see Emma, AHHHH!" and trying to demonstrate how to eat.

 

 

As for Caleb, his imagination and his vocabulary grow every day. He is adding adverbs and pronouns to his sentences (a new favorite is "mys" which quite logically means "mine" -- as in, not yours). His animals (especially Henna) now have minds of their own and "do things" themselves, which is very adorable and sometimes time consuming (like when Henna has to climb each stair himself), but ALWAYS entertaining:)

Sibling Love:

I just can’t get over how sweet they are together – still no jealousy issues, Caleb just adores his little sissy, and she loves him tooJ He still gets a little too excited and accidently hurts her fairly often

What We’ve Learned:

 

These two are so much fun together! In this last month (or rather last 2 months...) Caleb has grown more and more attached to his little sister. I'm pretty sure "Caleb" will be Emma's first word. Caleb insists on having his chair as close to Emma as possible during meals, and wants to hold her hand the whole time she eats. He loves just talking with her (usually while laying on her tummy so he's an inch from her face), "helping" her sit, and squeezing her "yiddle tiny fingews". Individually these two are the most adorable things I've ever seen --- together? I just can't even stand how blessed I am:)