3 1/2

It hit me the other day that Asher is 3 1/2 now.  He just keeps growing up!  Here is a little update on this sweet boy of mine.

(February 4th)

Little man, I really feel like you have grown up in the last six months. You try so hard to please us and I always worry that I'm a little too hard on you. You are sensitive and so smart, and such a good little boy.

First, your baby sister was born. You were so full of love and never showed any signs of jealousy. I was worried you would struggle with sharing my attention, but you always loved your sister and wanted to take the best care of her. You get her diapers, pajamas, toys and binkies. I love the high little voice you use to talk to her. I love when you lay down next to her and rub her head. You love to kiss her forehead. You go climb into her crib (after you get my permission) and lay there with her after her naps.  You are so sweet and so affectionate to her. You embraced the roll of big brother without even skipping a beat.

About a month ago we made you stop sucking your thumb. We had tried a few ways before, but nothing worked. This time, we used a very strong, horrible tasting polish that cannot be sucked off. We decided to get rid of your blankets at the same time since you usually sucked your thumb when you held onto your blanket. You were awesome, but this was such a huge challenge for you. As your mom, I hated making you go through this. I remember the second night of no blankets and thumbs, and you were lying in bed crying. This wasn't a whining cry, but such a sad, sad cry. You couldn't fall asleep and were just so sad. I'll never forget the way you said to me as you cried, 'but mom, I just can't do it! It's too hard.' I cried myself and felt just heartbroken for you. After a very long and hard week, dad wanted to stop and let you have your thumb back. It was just so hard to see how hard it was for you to sleep, stay asleep, etc. It was a huge adjustment and affected most parts of our day. I am happy to say you did it though! No more thumb sucking and you are doing awesome. I knew you could do it. You are so strong and I have so much confidence in you.

You are now attached to your teddy bear, 'doc' and sleep with him in your arms every night.  We sing Zippity Doo Dah every single night together as we put you to bed.  You still always ask if it can be dad's turn to put you to bed.

You started sunbeams in January and you absolutely love it. I love hearing all about it after church. You love your teachers and I'm pretty sure they love you. Your favorite song is I am a child of God and a child's prayer.

You have two fish-"fortress", a black goldfish and "sucker", a tiny sucker fish. You feed them every day and seem to really love them.

Your favorite thing to do is art projects. You love coloring, stickers, painting, and just creating. You color the entire page before going on to the next page, and you fill a coloring book in order.

You take about a 1-2 hour quiet time almost every day. You go in your room and (mostly) quietly play. Sometimes you play legos, color, read books, do stickers, play with your stuffed animals, or anything else to entertain yourself. You talk to yourself and I can hear you in there playing games and using your imagination. You often line your crayons up in order (smallest to biggest or by color) and sometimes you clean everything up and then yell out to me that everything is clean so quiet time can be over. :)

You still love riding your bike snd scooter and running races outside. But usually you pick your scooter. You will scooter all the way to the park and back with dad which is about three miles. You seriously cruise on that thing.

You love books and going to the library is probably your favorite place to go right now. You would have me read to you all day long if I would. You love the llama llama books, frog and toad, amelia bedelia, and the little engine that could. But there is really not a book that you don't like.  You would sit and listen to me read you books for hours and hours, and some days we do.  I love how you read the story out loud to yourself after I have read it to you a few times. 

You call dad either dad, daddy, and sometimes even Marcus.  You call me mom or mama.  It is so cute when you say mama.  You call Isla baby boo, sister, and of course Isla.

While you are usually calm and love reading and coloring, you are still very much a boy and love fighting and playing rough.  You turn sticks, golf clubs, and just about anything into swords and for some reason you are usually running away from a bear or trying to get the bear.  One of your favorite things is to play "whack a doodle" - a game you made up where you use my big foam roller to hit and fight dad.  Then you give it to him and tell him to get you with it.  You stand still and let him get you with it (he's gentle, of course!)  

You are very social and make friends pretty much everywhere we go. Strangers talk to you at the store or anywhere.  You are fiercely loyal to your friends.  You love them so much and especially look forward to seeing your friends you do joy school with.

You love with all of your heart.  You love our family - you are always wanting to see your granny and grandpa, grandma and grandpa, all of your aunts and uncles and especially your cousins.  Now that you are not the youngest cousin on both sides, you carefully watch the babies and you are starting to love them so much too.  You love your mom, dad and Isla.  Each night you ask dad if tomorrow is a 'work day.'  You love the weekends when dad gets to stay home with you and want dad to play with you each day before he goes to work.  

Your biggest challenge is that you are so sensitive and learning to control your emotions. If you are having a hard day, so many things can make you cry. Just today you ate something you didn't like and burst into tears over it. Sometimes you keep crying and tell us that you just can't stop. You have big blue eyes and cry beautiful crocodile tears.

I am trying so hard to be patient with your sweet little emotions.  Sometimes when I get upset or frustrated I will apologize to you and you always tell me it's ok and apologize too.  We are really working on this together and you are teaching me so much everyday.  

I love you to the moon and back little buddy.

5 Months

(February 11th)

At Five Months Isla:

-Has recently dropped one of her feedings and eats 5 times a day.  Usually around 5 in the morning, then back to sleep and then 4 times during the day.

-Takes three naps a day.

-Has the most sensitive skin.  Sometimes it is rough and patchy and it must itch because the second we take her clothes off she starts scratching her tummy and legs.  

-Loves grabbing her feet.

-Constantly rolls from her back to her tummy, but then she is stuck on her tummy.  She still doesn't know how to roll that direction.

-Seems to be chunking up.  She still is so long, but her thighs are really starting to get big!

-Her size 2 diapers are starting to get too tight (mostly because of her length, not weight...) and we just need to use up a few more before we can move her up to size 3.

-Loves her toys and her exersaucer.  She loves her chewy baby banana toothbrush thing.

-Gives the best, juiciest kisses! She just opens her mouth wide and presses it onto our cheeks.

-Is so happy and smiley and will pretty much smile at anyone if they talk to her.

Isla and Asher have the sweetest relationship right now.  He is so willing to help her with just about anything and loves to hold her, hug her, and kiss her.  He does not want any of her kisses though because he says they are too slobbery.  He begs to let Isla sleep in his bed with him, and when I told him that she would fall out he said that he would keep her from falling out.  He wants to protect her already and I can see that she senses that from him as well.  She lights up when she sees him and giggles and giggles at his crazy antics.   

You are just the best, baby boo.

4 Months Old

Well, Isla keeps getting bigger and bigger.  It's hard to believe and I really wish I could somehow just freeze time.

(January 11th)

At four months old Isla:

-Recently dropped her late night feeding - she now eats for the last time around 8:30 and then goes to bed for the night.  She eats 6 times a day. 

-Started sleeping for shorter amounts of time at night, so we had her cry it out for a few nights.  She did great and after 3 nights she was right back to sleeping for a good chunk of time - around 7-9 hours or so.  She got a cold around Christmas which has kinda messed her up a little bit and sometimes she wakes up twice now before she is up for the day around 8:30.

-Is a kicker!  She lays on her back and just kicks and kicks.  She brings both legs up into the air and then thumps them down onto the ground.  When we put her to bed you can just hear her up there, 'thump, thump, thump!'

-Likes her binky, but is starting to want it less and less.  She doesn't use it to fall asleep anymore but will take it when she is awake if she is a little fussy.

-Sucks on her hands like crazy.  They are all red and chapped from all of her sucking.

-Is sooo happy and smiles and giggles all the time.  You can especially get her to giggle by tickling her or singing her a song.  She loves when Marcus sings 'up on the housetop' or chants little cheers with her.  She giggles and giggles.

-Still takes a bottle like a champ.  She usually gets breastmilk but we still have continued giving her formula a few times now and then.

-Loves laying on her playmat and just reaching up and playing with the little toys.  She is completely content there and will lay and play for an hour at a time.

-Enjoys sitting in her bumbo.  She is really good at it and will usually sit in it on the table with us while we eat dinner together.  

-She is really good at church. She'll lay on the ground and sleep in her carseat.

-Is getting really good at slowly reaching up and holding onto things like little rattles.  She grabs it and then immediately puts it into her mouth.

-Sometimes takes three naps and other times four.  She seems like she is ready to not take her last nap of the day, but if we go anywhere in the carseat she is likely to fall asleep.

-Usually sleeps on her side.  Pretty much as soon as I lay her on her back she rolls onto her side.  With all of her leg kicking she gets herself all moved around in her crib.  She'll change directions or move to the other side of her crib.  I'm never surprised where I find her in there anymore.

Four Month Stats:

Weight: 13 pounds 3 ounces (45 percentile)

Height: 25.5 inches (90 percentile)

Head: 15.7 inches (20 percentile)

We love you baby girl!

A Name and a Blessing

Isla was blessed on December 7th and it was a beautiful day.  Our family and a few friends were there to celebrate with us and I couldn't help but be emotional all day as I thought about how beautiful it was to have this precious baby girl in our lives.  Marcus gave her a wonderful blessing and she was a little angel all day long.

Her beautiful dress was her cousin Stella's blessing dress that her grandma made for her.  I am so grateful to Katie for letting me use it for Isla's special day.

LA

November 19-23

We took a quick trip to California to visit Scott and Julie for Marcus's birthday this year.  It was low key and relaxing since Isla was still so new, but we still spent a lot of time at the beach and saw a few new things.

Venice Canals were gorgeous!

Asher is seriously a dream at the beach.  He is so happy and would be there all day.  It was warm, but definitely not hot...so it surprised us when Asher wanted to change into his swim suit and run around in the ocean.

We hit Santa Monica Pier and Beach (and the super cute tiny aquarium they have there), Manhattan Beach, and Redondo Beach.  It was so nice to enjoy the warm beautiful weather and so much fun to visit Scott and Julie.

3 Months Old

3 Months!  We love our little Isla baby so much.

And I am late on updating but I took these notes right around 3 months.  

(December 11th)

At three months old Isla:

-Still eats 7 times a day.  She eats every three hours, starting at 7:30 and ending at 7:30.  Then I'll wake her to feed her just before I go to bed, sometime between 10-11.  She usually wakes up around 4 to eat and back to sleep until 7:30.

-Is the best at napping.  I swaddle her up (arms out of course!), give her a kiss and lay her in her crib.  It is rare that she doesn't fall asleep.  She naps 4 times a day, about an hour after she eats.

-Just started rolling from her back to her stomach.  She always rolls onto her side, but has rolled all the way to her back several times now.

-Can't roll from her tummy.  When I put her on her tummy she usually just relaxes and only sometimes tries to even lift her head.

-Smiles and coos all the time, especially if you talk to her in a baby voice or make big facial expressions.

-Is so responsive and follows our voices.

-Loves her big brother.  Now that she is less floppy he loves to hold her and she is usually pretty happy while he holds her.
-Got her first haircut.  All the hair she had left was her grandpa mullet so we trimmed it off.
-Really likes sitting in her bumbo and being up where we are, but gets tired of holding her head up after a few minutes.
-Is so happy and content and often is the happiest when she is laying on the ground looking around and kicking her legs.

-She recently started wearing size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes.

Asher started calling her Baby Boo and it's quickly becoming his (and ours) nickname of choice.  

The other night Marcus was talking to Asher about if he loves having his baby sister around.  Asher said yes.  Marcus asked if he liked it better before she was born, or now that she is born.  (Kinda a risky question...)  Asher didn't even hesitate before saying that he likes it waaaay better now that sister is born.  It's pretty sweet because I know that he means it.

2 Months Old

At two months old Isla:

-Still loves relaxing on her tummy.  Especially if she is fussy or upset.

-Wakes up once a night.  I wake her to feed her between 10-11 before I go to bed, and then she wakes up once to eat before waking for the day around 8:00.  

-Is doing really well at taking naps in her cribs.  Right around five weeks she started doing this.  She will sometimes be fussy, or making little sounds before falling asleep.  Other times, she is louder and needs us to put her binky in a few times.  And other times she will just lie awake quietly for up to an hour.  I remember Asher doing this same thing.

-She is so pleasant and loves smiling back at you.  Asher still just loves getting her to smile.

-Prefers to nap in her crib, but will still fall asleep in other people's arms.  She rarely will fall asleep in mom's arms though.

-Will take a bottle with no problem, and has been taking about one a day with pumped breastmilk.  She has taken formula once and had no problem with it.

-She still wears size 1 diapers and is in 0-3 month clothes, although some are getting too short for her.  She is a long, skinny little thing.

Two month stats:

Weight: 10 lbs 14 oz (50 percentile)

Height: 24 inches (95 percentile)

Head Circumference: 14.8 inches (20 percentile)

She hated her shots so badly.  She cried and cried until finally falling asleep in the car.  She was pretty miserable and sad for a good day after getting them.  Poor little thing.  Asher was so sweet and nearly in tears when they gave them to her.  He kept telling me he wished they didn't have to do that. 

Time usually goes by so quickly, but I feel like I can't remember a time when you weren't a part of our family.  We love you so much and have loved these past two months so much.