Six Months

Well, he's moving right along. I can't believe Joshua is already 6 months old...7 months next week! It feels like these six months have gone by so much faster than they did with Audrey. I like it because he is at the point where he can sit and play with us, laugh, talk, etc. He's out of the newborn stage, we have a good routine, and we're all enjoying ourselves. Can't ask for more than that!

  
                             
At his check the day after his 6 month birthday, he weighed 20 lbs 1oz and was 27.6 inches tall. His carseat goes up to 22lbs and 29 inches, so he'll be moving into the big convertible seat here pretty soon. He's sitting up really well now and he's way too heavy for me to be carrying him around in that seat all the time, so I'm READY for it to be gone. We have an extra car seat that is in Josh's car that JJ will now use in my car, so the question is whether or not we should buy two more car seats for Josh's car or just move them back and forth whenever we need to. That would be a pain in the butt...but car seats aren't cheap. We'll see.

We started giving Joshua solid foods (purees) a few weeks ago because he is very interested in food. But he won't take the purees. I waited a few more weeks and I've been trying and trying but he literally gags at the sight of the spoon. What to do?! I've started giving him cracker and puffs and toast so he can feed himself and he likes that better. Maybe we will just skip baby food altogether because he is not into it and I don't feel like wasting a bowl of food twice a day. 

                                 

We have started packing up the big baby things recently, really since he started sitting up a few weeks ago. The bouncer and the swing are both put away, the bumbo is gone (he never actually used it, was too chunky), the play mat is packed up, the pack and play....really all that's left is the high chair and the exersaucer. We ordered a space saver high chair today and I plan to take the big full size one over to the consignment shop this week. I have to be honest and say I am very happy to see these things go. They are so big and clunky and in the way.

As of today, he is scooting. He went 5 feet across the floor by doing the army crawl where he pulls himself with his arms, plus the occasional push from his feet. I suspect real crawling isn't far off. The thing he wanted to get to? The ipad. Of course. I guess the bright colors are really tempting. time to babyproof the house...again!

Best Friend

Sitting with Audrey the other day, I told her "You're my best friend". To which she replied, "No. Chloe my best friend". Ouch! And so it begins. She already wants her friends over her mama!?

Chloe is the daughter of my friend, Natania. She's Audrey's age (2 months older) and they've been playing together for a few months now (maybe a year?). Up until recently, they didn't actually play together, though. They would just play on their own but not really interact with one another. Now that they're a little older and especially since they both are talking so much, they finally have started playing more like friends do. I babysat Chloe for a few hours one day and they had a blast. The funniest thing was listening to them trying to take turns and share. The day went like this:

"Its my turn!" "No its MY turn" "No ITS MY TURN NOW!" "No Audrey now its MY TURN!" back and forth over and over again....until...
"I broke that" "No I BROKE THAT!" "No Chloe I BROKE THAT!" It wasn't even broken (totally fixable) but they both wanted to take full credit for whoever broke it....
until....
...silence...followed by..."Awwwww. Uh oh. That's bad". I came around the corner and found Audrey writing on the bathroom since with a dry erase marker while Chloe stood outside the bathroom with a very serious look on her face.

But although they argued, as soon as Chloe left Audrey was asking about her and wanted to play with her again. Its so funny to watch and listen to Audrey as she plays with others..what she says to them and how she follows their lead or takes the lead herself. I am so excited for her to start school this fall (with Chloe!) and see how she blossoms in a fun, social environment!

Reading

Two nights ago, we were all in Audrey's room getting ready for bed and Josh told Audrey we would continue reading the next chapter of "James and the Giant Peach". She didn't want to read that though, she wanted to read "Peter Pan", even though we've already read the whole book twice. So Josh told her she could read Peter Pan if she wanted, and he'd read James and the Giant Peach. When he started reading, she held up her book and said, "blah blah gooblah blah blah blah". When he stopped reading, she stopped. When he started up again, she started reading again. This went on for a while and then he stopped reading entirely and she kept on until finally she closed the book and declared, "THE END". It was such a funny and new thing.

She has memorized a few of her favorite books, too. One night, after reading "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" twice, Audrey asked me to read it again and I told her she should try to read it on her own. So she turned to the first page and said the words. Flipped to page two, recited the story...and on for about 6 pages into the book! I was so surprised! She's also memorized "Brown Bear Brown Bear" and a couple others. I love hearing her "read" and I can't wait until she really sees the words and knows what they mean. I guess all this reading we do has been good for her after all! I hope we can instill the same love of books in JJ that Audrey already has.

Thumb Sucker

I realized the other day that I don't think I've ever shared with you all that JJ is a thumb sucker. Have I? It really is the sweetest thing...

He also has a security blanket addiction. When he falls asleep, he likes to clutch a blanket in one hand while sucking his thumb on his other hand. If he doesn't have a blanket, he'll hold on to our shirt and do the same. Reminds me of Linus from Charlie Brown.

People have already told me to break the habit now, but I'm not planning to do that. I think it is sweet and if it makes him happy and feel comforted, then he can suck away! Josh Sr sucked his thumb until he was 8 and he's cool! ...Right? I'm OK with it as long as it is a habit that stays a sleep habit. Audrey used (er...still uses) a pacifier to sleep but we never allowed it out of her bed. The problem with thumb sucking is that I can't really tell him to leave it in his bed like I did with Audrey, haha. So far it hasn't been an issue, he never sucks his thumb when he's awake so I guess I'll just figure something out when (if) he starts sucking his thumb all day long. 

He's such a happy boy!! The funnies thing is that if you look at this post, you can see JJ sucking his thumb in utero at our 20 week ultrasound. He was sucking it the whole time and Joshua and I kept commenting on whether or not we thought he'd be a thumb sucker when he came out. He did. :)

Touch a Truck

On Friday, we attended an event put on by the Town of Herndon's Public Works Department called, "Big Truck Days". They had all the city's trucks (diggers, loaders, bulldozers, police cars, etc) on display for the kids to climb in and touch the buttons and knobs and wheels. What an idea! It was packed! I'm so glad Josh ended up taking the day off work and going with us, because there's no way we could have enjoyed ourselves if it was just me.

The hardest part was waiting in line to get up to the trucks. When you're 2 and a half, "wait your turn" is hard stuff. Every time a kid would climb down off a truck, Audrey would say, "Its MY turn now!" and we had to remind her that there were still more kids in front of her. It was frustrating for her, but she did so well and was able to entertain herself while we waited.

Joshua spent most of the time sleeping happily in the Ergo carrier. I was happy to not have to push a stroller. :)

There is another similar event next weekend at the Chantilly Library put on by the Fairfax County. I'm not sure if we'll go. I know Audrey would enjoy it, but I doubt I can do it with both kids (I couldn't pick her up with JJ in the carrier, and I couldn't leave him in the stroller while I chased her around...?). We'll see. Now that we're in May, there are so many fun things starting to happen around Northern Virginia so I'm sure we'll find something to keep us busy!

4 months

Cheeksie had his four month check up a couple weeks ago and everything went over perfectly smoothly! He weighed 17lb 8oz and was 26" tall. That's just shy of 4 lbs and 2 inches growth in 2 months! He's growing even faster than Audrey did! He's now in 9-12 month clothes and I expect him to slow down a bit from here out.

 

He is starting to become slightly mobile. He is rolling back to tummy and tummy to back. The way he tucks his legs into his body when he rolls makes him look like a rolly polly. He has started moving in circles when I put him down for tummy time, and he does mini pushups, so he might be crawling soon (ish). I'm ready for him to be mobile, but also a little sad that he is growing up. Time is going by so much faster than when Audrey was this age.

His personality is becoming more evident. He is a HAPPY guy. I used to think Audrey was a happy baby simply because she was content. But now I know this is what a happy baby is. He smiles and laughs when we talk to him (he thinks Audrey is just hilarious!), he loves to be tickled, he enjoys peek a boo and other little games. He is just happy! He is still mellow as can be, content to spend hours upon hours napping in bed...this is quite different from our little lady who never slept!

 

I have uploaded some more videos onto YouTube of the kids, so go check them out to see how cute they are in real life! Pictures don't do them justice.

And finally, I got a new computer! It's been about a month since my HP died and I've been stalling on buying a new one because I wanted a deal, but I wanted something good...and I was also considering switching over to Apple and getting the MacBook Air (LOVE). Ultimately I decided not to go with Apple because of both the price and the learning curve of a new product and new operating system, etc. I found a great deal on a top of the line Dell with MS Office 2010 and I went yesterday and snatched it up. Then I got home and realized it was working on Windows 8. Ugh. So now I DO have to learn a totally new operating system because this is nothing like what I am used to...and everyone in the office talks about how much they hate it. I'm going to try my hardest to ignore all the negative comments and try to learn it and form my own opinion. Hopefully I will like it! I still need to get my hands on MS Publisher and Adobe Professional for work, but that's an expense that will have to wait for now. BUT the point is - I will be updating with some fun things we've been doing lately now that I'm not pecking it out on the iPad and have an actual keyboard to work with.

 

Thanks for reading and catching up with us! If you want to read about Audrey at four months, click here.

Two and a Half

Audrey had her 2.5 year check up last week and it went over fabulously! She weighed in at 30lbs and stands 37" tall. That puts her in the 70th and 80th percentiles, respectively. She has Josh's big head and is in the 87th percentile there. I did a height predictor the other day for fun that bases her adult height off of her height at 2 years old. It predicted she'd be 5'9", or within 1.5 inches of that. I'm 5'2". I'd love it if she were tall just like her daddy!

She started soccer on last Sunday and it was FUN! So funny to watch a bunch of 2.5 year olds running around while the adults chase them and insist they pay attention and follow directions. Audrey did very well, but during the "red light, green light" game, she fussed a bit. Maybe she didn't like everyone running across the room like that? She enjoyed kicking the ball and her favorite parts were when they pulled out the bubbles and the parachute. The parachute pretty much made every kid in the place completely lose their minds with happiness. They were going crazy over it. I wish I got that excited about something so simple! Check out my YouTube videos to see all the fun (Youtube.com/earnold14).

Since I've written a recent update about her that includes a lot of what she's been up to, I am instead including some "Audrey-isms" in this post. These are only a few, but here are some funny things she's said lately:

"Heard that? Mama heard that?"
"Yes, I did."
"I farted."
"Yes, you did."

"Mama, IPad real cute. I like iPad Yeah."

"Audrey go airplane see Gigi. Audrey go train see Mima." I know the grandma's will like that one.

Me: "Do you want something to eat? Grilled Cheese or Peanut Butter?"
Audrey: "How about.....Chex. I want chex." (thanks mom. all she ever wants is chex).

Around 11:30 every morning:
"MAILLLLL!!! MAIL HERE!!! MIMA MAIL HERE!" She expects mail or packages all the time because Grandma Maria sends her stuff so often! She loves it.

"Sunday! Monday! Tuesday! TUESDAY CHUCK E CHEESE!" Josh takes them to Chuck e Cheese on Tuesdays while I'm at work. She looks forward to it all week.

We're still here waiting anxiously for Spring to arrive and bring with it lots of outdoor activities. I'll update more once that happens! I have been working a bit more lately, and I also joined a local mom's group that meets every other week officially, with lots of playdates and other fun meetups in between. We're hoping to keep busy and make lots of new friends!