9 months

Elly at nine months.  This is at the beginning of nine months, when she was so close to crawling, but not quite.  

This is a good picture to talk about Elly's hatred of books.  It is so weird, but ever since she was a tiny baby, she has been vehemently opposed to books, and has arched her back whenever we tried to read to her.  Don't know what it's about, but I hope she gets over it, because Chris, Peter and I all LOVE to read.  

I still am not getting any sleep this month, with her.  For a couple weeks, she has been waking up every hour and a half.  Not cool.  My body finally gave up and I got shingles.  Shingles at 29!!  It was a very stressful time because the doctor said I couldn't nurse Elly through the meds.  Turns out she was wrong, so that is good, because Elly only took 4 ounces in 18 hours of trying to get her to take a bottle.  She has always been so strong willed since she was a newborn.  Makes me kind of scared of what she will be when she's a toddler...

Not sure why Peter is missing pants in this.  Probably, he had a little accident because I didn't remember to take him potty.  He rarely makes a huge mess, but he always goes just enough to get a little wet spot on his otherwise clean pants.  

We had a lovely visit from Chris's parents when I had shingles.  They were total lifesavers.  Cozy helped me with cleaning, and laundry, and the kids, and she even went bought us groceries.  So nice to have help when you are a sick mamma.  It hardly ever happens that somebody takes care of you when you are sick and a mom, so this was a dream come true!

Peter just LOVES his Nana and Papa.  They are great with him and he gets so excited whenever he sees them.

Love these pictures!

And Elly is CRAWLING!  

Post bath hair.  Major pouf!

Peter loves to pose for the camera lately and is always wanting to look at pictures of himself.  Funny boy!

My family makes me smile.  

Our kiddos

Elly at 8 months.  My baby girl is starting to smile consistently for the camera.  She has such a cute little smile, I think.  And I love the hair that sticks up in all directions.  I need to get a picture right after her bath, because it all goes, POUF!  :)

This sweater hoodie is something my mom had in her dresser that I found when we were cleaning out her things.  I think it may have been mine from when I was a baby, and it is fun to think that she is wearing something of mine.

Elly has finally started to jabber this month.  Not much, but it's there.  She doesn't say much unless it is to voice her displeasure at something.  Which is often.  She is a little lady who knows what she wants and how to get it!  But she is also very sweet and cute too. 

She has not wanted to have solids, so much.  Ever since both kids had double ear infections and we had to hold her down to give her the meds, she has wanted NOTHING to do with being fed.  But she seems to be getting plenty to eat, by the looks of her.

Her sleeping is making me very, very tired.  She wakes at least 4 times a night, but more often five or six times.  She basically wakes up as much as a newborn.  It is not fun.  I am so ready for this phase to be over.  I cannot let her cry it out because she screams and chokes.  And we cannot let her sleep in our room, as she is a light sleeper and Chris snores.  Patience is so hard sometimes...

Peter in his woodland creature jammies, as we call them.  They are some of his favorites. 

Peter is a very sweet and affectionate little boy, who tries our patience often with his surprisingly strong will.  Sometimes I am not sure how to discipline, but I did stumble across this awesome book, "Setting Limits with Your Strong-Willed Child," which I find to be very effective.  Before I had kids, I really thought that I had most of the know-how on discipline down.  After Peter entered toddler-hood, I knew I was wrong.  Anyway, I don't want to do a book review, but I highly recommend this book for kids who test the limits constantly, as Peter does. 

We are teaching Peter his ABC's now, and he has them down, mostly.  We are trying to teach him the sounds of the letters.  If he is willing, I want to teach him to start reading by the time he turns three.  I know he is smart enough, but I'm not sure he is really interested, and I don't want to push him.  He has always LOVED books.  When he was eighteen months, he and I would sit and read all 30 of the books we had in a row until my voice was raw.  He gets so excited when Chris takes him to the library and he gets to check out books.  I hope his love of books will encourage him to learn to read early, but we'll see.

He has been potty trained for a few months by now, but he kind of refuses to take himself potty for number one during the daytime, for some reason.  I think it is because he does not want to stop playing.  Oh well.  It beats paying for diapers for two kids! 

Christmas 2012

Christmas was a fun time.  The kids are in their Christmas jammies above.  Somehow, I think Peter's pajamas were mislabeled as 3T when they were really 4T.  Oh well.  I guess he can wear these for another year.   

This is one of the few Christmases that we have spent at home.  For the first time, Peter really understood Christmas, and it was very fun for him.  For Elly, it seemed like just an ordinary day. 

Santa brought Peter some new tracks and a Thomas train and made a fancy track for him.  Peter didn't really seem to notice, but he did enjoy the new Thomas train.  

We went ridiculously overboard for Peter this year.  Will have to pull back a LOT next year.  We think it's funny that the presents he enjoyed the most were his matchbox cars from his stocking.  

Very excited about the cool and very beautiful looking instrument that Papa made for him and Elly.  Thanks Papa, for being an awesome wood carver!  We are the grateful recipients of a few of his carvings, including a very fun ark set.  

7 months

Well, here is Elly at 7 months.  She is sitting up very well and hardly ever falls over, but I still like to have the boppy behind her just in case.  Now if we can ever get to crawling.  Whenever I put her on her belly to practice, she immediately rolls over.  She hates being on her belly.  I hope she learns to crawl soon, though, because she's not very good at entertaining herself lately.  She is bored with her usual toys. 

 

It is hard getting this girl to smile at me for pictures.  She smiles much more readily at Peter and Chris.

 

 

 

I recall trying to get her to smile in this picture, but she was clearly done with the picture taking.

Here's a big smile for Daddy.

She just lights up with Chris in the room.

And this one was when Peter was doing something she found amusing.  She smiles at Peter often.

She is a cute little 7 month old.  Now we wish she would start jabbering.  Still nothing.  Little coos, but mostly just silence.  I know she can hear really well because she's very responsive to sound, just not very vocal.  And she's oddly good at expressing her wishes, despite her lack of jabber, but she doesn't seem to want to experiment with sounds yet.  Although in the past few days she has been doing some raspberries.  We are a little impatient I think because Peter was saying all kinds of consonants and combining syllables at 5 months. 

She is doing crazy things with her sleep.  Sometimes she is up several times, and sometimes just once.  It was so easy to sleep train Peter because he was bottle fed.  Not proving so easy with a particular breast fed baby.  Hopefully she will adjust to a schedule sooner rather than later.     

Elly, five and six months

Here is our cute little angel at five months.  She started to get super interactive around this time.  She especially loves her daddy and Peter.  She smiles whenever Peter gets close to her or whenever he is also smiling.  So fun to see..  Although it has only been recent that he has taken an interest in her.  

She has not been babbling at all, which worries us a little, but she coos and is very social in every other way.  It's probably too bad that she has an older brother that was super advanced with his speech, thereby causing us to compare Elly with Peter all the time. 

She started rolling over at five months, but hates being on her tummy.  In fact, only at the end of six months did she learn to sit up.  We worried about that because she always hated when we would try to have her sit anywhere.  She always wanted to be standing or be held.  She has been a very particular baby so far. 

Chris and I have noticed that she is polar opposite from Peter in every way.  Girl.  Not a great night sleeper.  Great nurser.  Very sensitive and gets feelings hurt very easily.  Cries easily.  Won't take to solids.  Slow to speak.  Even though Peter is in his terrible twos, he is still fairly mellow, which does not describe Elly AT ALL.  I have a feeling I might understand what karma is when she gets old enough to be a dramatic young lady...

At six months she finally learned to sit up.  At the very end of six months.  She was just too stubborn to practice it.  She would always arch her back whenever you tried to sit her down, making it impossible for her to be sitting.  Thank goodness for the bumbo to give her some practice.  She couldn't arch her back out of that thing.  :)  But strangely, she didn't seem to mind sitting in it.   

She is chewing on everything, all the time.  At six months, she was content to chew on her teething toys, but now she is getting moody if we don't let her chew on non-teething items.  I guess she is bored.

Also I feel I should mention she transitioned from 3-6 clothes to 6-9 clothes at 5 months, and then just a month later to 9-12 clothes.  Somebody had a little growth spurt!  So now she is back on target with her growth from when she was two months. 

Sleep has been a real issue.  She was so great at five months, but lately she has been getting up at least three times a night.  I tried doing the cry-it-out thing, but that was disastrous and she just screamed.  The girl really likes to nurse for comfort.  I always put her down for naps and sleep when she's still awake, and she is able to fall asleep without any drama.  So I can't understand why she feels the need to nurse every time she wakes up at night.  I'm really hoping she gets better with her sleep, but I am feeling at the end of my rope sometimes.  SO TIRED!   

Whenever I try to take a picture of Elly, Peter always wants to be front and center in the picture.  Such a funny boy.  He has taken to giving cute little smiles for pictures again, so that is fun. 

It is also nice that he acknowledges his little sister now.  Although he doesn't like to get to close to her if she is in a grab everything mood.  She can scratch pretty well if I don't keep her nails trimmed.

Fun picture of the three of them.  Oh how I love my sweet little family.  I'll have to update more on Peter and Elly at 7 months later.  I need to get more pictures.  With two kids on my own, I am so very bad at remembering to take pictures. 

Elly at 4 months

Wow, I think I completely missed Elly's 3 month mark for the blog.  Probably because we were packing up and moving to Virginia.  Yes, it was kind of nightmare packing up our little apartment with Peter and a 3 month old baby, but with Dad's help, we managed.  It was a very stressful last day of loading and cleaning and driving a very old, huge diesel truck with bad breaks.  Glad it's over!  We love our new little townhome that we are renting.  I'll have to get some pictures soon. 

In the mean time, here are some pictures of Elly at 4 months.  She has grown, but has not kept up with her height growth.  She dropped from the 74th percentile to the 49th percentile.  Part of me wonders if this is because I can't get her to sleep during the day for more than two or three hours on a typical day.  Peter proves just too noisy to get a good rest.  Two to three hours for a 4 month old is not enough! Especially when said 4 month old requires being held and walked around for her waking hours to be happy.  Yes, Elly is proving to be kind of a fussy baby.  But with the constant teething and constant sleep deprivation, I can't say I blame her.  I just hope she learns to sleep a little bit better so that she can stay healthy! 

 This is how Elly looks whenever she is put down.  She gets all tense and wide-eyed and nervous looking and wiggles her arms and legs and calls out until she is picked up.  This girl does not make it easy to raise two kids 2 and under.  Thank goodness for Dad's help of late, otherwise Elly and I might both go crazy.

 Elly with Grandpa.  I've decided that Elly just prefers men.  She loves Dad and Chris.  She likes me, but I suspect this is because I am her food source.  :) 

I love how sweet her countenance becomes when her face lights up in a smile.  She can be such a sweet little angel sometimes.  I hope she gets a little more satisfied with life when she can sit up on her own and crawl around.  I feel badly when I have Peter and Elly with just me, because inevitably Peter is very demanding of my attention, and Elly gets the short end of the stick occasionally. 

Grandpa's and Peter's birthdays

 Dad's birthday was on the 27th. This would have been a much more fun birthday if Dad hadn't had a strange salivary gland infection that made chewing and swallowing excruciatingly painful.  Poor Dad.  He could only eat soft food, so I made him a tuna cheese grilled sandwich and tomato soup for his birthday dinner.  Not too exciting, but this is one of his favorite comfort foods. 

 And Peter's birthday on the 28th.  He was very spoiled this year and got lots of toys and a tricycle.  He has not figured out how to pedal consistently, so this trike has not proved very exciting.  Oh well.  Maybe a few more months.

 Peter requested pasta for his birthday dinner over pizza and Baja Fresh taquitos, which he also loves.  I love that a home-cooked meal makes him happy on his birthday.  And I love his messy face in this photo.  Don't so much love to clean up his messy face, but it's pretty funny nonetheless.

 And we splurged and got him an ice cream oreo cake.  I love the excitement in his eyes in this photo.  Very fun.

And another messy face picture post-ice cream cake.  Yes, he was a happy boy this year as he turned two.  Yikes!  I can't believe my baby boy turned two!  He has been such a sweet little guy and it has been fun watching him grow this past year and hearing him take off with his talking.  He has started singing a lot, which is so fun to hear.  Oh how we love our little Peter!