isla - 7 months & 8 months

now that isla is back to a normal sleeping schedule, dave & i are sleeping again too.  everyone is happy.  this girl still refuses to nap- i don't know how an almost 9 month old can stay awake from anywhere from 7-10am all the way until 10pm, but this girl has mastered that skill.  isla turned 7 months old on january 17  and 8 months old february 17.  here's what she's been up to.

isla celebrated her first christmas- it was pretty non-eventful as she was just 6 months old.  she got plenty of books, clothes and toys- but she was more concerned about being held and loved on.  check.  we left the the warmness of atlanta once again to return to the frozen wasteland we now call our home.  for the love... it is now mid-march and we are still facing sub-freezing temperatures and snow.  we're only 10" away from the all-time snow record, and we are not going to get a repeat of the 80 degree st. patty's day from 2012.  i really just want to leave my house, but it's too cold.  while we were in atlanta, both of the kids were sick and a call to our dr. was asking us to take them to urgent care.  of course, none of the urgent care facilities around there would see isla, so we were able to find a dr to see them that afternoon.  that was an unusual experience as we left with no explanations and a bunch of prescriptions.  after seeing dr. nick, we decided to schedule an appt. to see our regular dr. a few hours after arriving home- the kids had just caught colds and we were able to toss the prescriptions.  sigh. 

we celebrated ian's 4th birthday in january- and isla enjoyed that because it was more time for her to be held and cuddled.  i took both of the kids (with dave's help) to the pediatrician and isla had her 6 month check up.  the ped told us that she sounded like she had maybe had a touch of rsv at some point, but was sounding really good.  she was weighing in at 12 lbs 7 oz, and i am unsure of the length.  weight is less than 2% and height was less than 5%.  she also had her shots and caught up on some others.  i've decided that while i'll probably keep her up to date on them- that i will not do that many shots again.  my doctor is willing to let me space them out how i choose.  there is no telling what caused the craziness the last 2 months- but a lot of it started shortly after...  we decided to start solids shortly after this and that was met with zero success.  after the first 10-15 attempts, i was beginning to think she wasn't going to be interested in eating.  she was nursing well though, so i wasn't as worried.  we had tried oatmeal, avocados and sweet potatoes with no luck!   sometime in february, i took her to see the pediatrician again because she kept coughing and throwing up- and although her check up came back as "perfect", it was her weight that had me a little nervous- she weighed in at 12 lbs 10 oz- only 3 oz gained in 3 weeks.  the ped told me that i should try a fruit with her, and they would re-check her weight at her 9 month appointment.  we decided to try applesauce for her- and she loves it.  i have learned that what they say about 2nd children and so on is true.  with ian, we tried all the fruits and veggies to schedule and i had made all of them.  with isla- we're still eating applesauce- if i remember to feed it to her... oh, boy.

on february 1, isla went from daily yoga to movement!  she had been pushing up on her arms, and then her hands and knees since late december... and finally she crawled!  it really doesn't take long to really get moving- now she is so fast, you can't turn your back for a minute!  later that week she started sitting unassisted as well.  the doctor at her sick visit said she though she would be walking by 10 months- we'll see!  time has just flown too fast!

 plank!

 celebrating christmas in georgia

 giving me the stink eye

 opening christmas presents!

 christmas planking!

 4 generations 

 my heart = bursting

 nap time with gg

 ooh, new toys!

 with gg & pop

 playing nice!

 sunday best!

 brother's birthday

 hanging with dad

 all smiles!

  valentine's day!

what ian's been up to

seriously, thank you all for your (gentle) opinions.  honestly, dave would tell me i looked good wearing a burlap sack and it's refreshing to hear some opinions.  i may try that again with everything else in my closet...

it's been 2 months since ian turned 2 and i stopped doing monthly updates, but i started this blog while journeying through his baking process and i do love to drone on talk about him- so i figure that i can update you guys!

 scalp treatments for eczema

"big boy" transitioning is under way- although he's far from being a big boy.  we moved him out of his high chair into a booster seat- mainly b\c i was tired of the high chair taking up half my kitchen.  he really likes being at the table and being able to sit in between us.  he's been a pretty decent eater lately- although he's on a bagel dog kick, and he insists on putting "sketchups" on everything.  eww.  there really is no telling what he'll eat- he still refuses to eat most vegetables too- but he still eats the baby food pouches "couches" which are full of veggies, so whatevs.

new big boy seat.  notice sketchups on the plate.

my child still uses a binky.  if you take issue with that, feel free to accompany us on our next 800 mile trip from illinois to georgia- it's in 2 weeks.  no really, feel free to join us.  i have no time table for getting rid of it.  before 3.  i have 10 months.  i figure that it's only used for "sleepy times" so it hopefully won't be a major issue.  i have so many other things going on right now that i figure that's still ok.

 giving eleanor a hug on valentine's day

ian is still in his crib too.  we have a super cool idea for his big boy bed if we can execute it.  it's going to take some work though- so we'll just leave him in the crib for now.  there have been no jail break attempts either, so we're safe for now.  he'll be out of it before we have the next one.

 wearing his dj lance glasses and totally "shredding" on his guitar

gosh, he's so big- it's scary.  i just want to remember every expression, every nuance.  he just lights up my life.  his giggles, his smile.  i don't want to get all sappy- but i just want to bottle it all up.  sometimes i just look at him and i cry because i just want to remember it all forever.  a lot of times he just laughs at me while i'm crying, or says "you ok?" 

 this is a typical reaction to the words "it's time to get ready for bed"

he loves movies- toy story is the favorite right now- we usually don't watch movies w\ him, so he picked that one up at the gym.  he mostly enjoys tv shows with me- gabba is the all-time favorite, but he's also really into curious george & chuggington.  he's also a big fan of music or "songs" as he likes to call it.  he's gotten to the point where he only wants to listen to certain things and has a complete fit if he doesn't listen.  for us right now that is the "brudders" or the "sons" (avett brothers & mumford & sons).  if we try to listen to something else in dave's car- a temper tantrum follows until we're listening to one of those two cds.  i won't make that mistake again.  he also likes to sing along with the songs and sometimes play the drums.  the other night he sang himself to sleep singing a mumford song.

 so glad this snowsuit was purchased last year on clearance considering this is the ONLY time he got to wear it all winter.  he is singing frosty the snowman to his snowman. 

he's also really into sports.  he got a hockey net for his birthday and was all about hockey, but we went to a friend's house a few times and she had a basketball goal, so he got some late birthday money a couple weeks ago and we bought him a goal set and now it's "bassetball" all the time.  he shoots, he scores!  is a favorite line uttered in this house!  favorite toys- trains & cars.  don't act so surprised...

 playing hockey and watching hockey

i'm so excited that warmer weather is just around the bend b\c he loves playing outside and we have a neighborhood playground just across the street.  ian also got a little balance bike for his birthday and he has a lot of fun riding that. 

ian still has a milk allergy & a mild egg allergy- we will have those checked yearly- i'm really hoping he outgrows it in the next couple of years b\c sometimes i let him have little bites of things and that kid loves cheese (and who wouldn't).

 sometimes we like to lock ourselves in our room and squeeze half a tube of vaseline in our hair.  oh joy!

oh, and i almost forgot- and i won't expand on it a lot b\c i don't want to be one of those moms, but we are potty training.  it's going really well and he's going at least once or twice a day, but we're not quite ready to move out of diapers.  we have a system that's working really well for us, and maybe once he's trained i'll go a little more in depth, but i'm hoping that he'll be fully trained by this summer- but we'll see. 

 who me?

as you can see, there's always a lot going on at our house.  sometimes fun, sometimes crazy.  oh boy.

11 months

ian turned 11 months old on december 20. wow.  just one more month, and i won't have a baby anymore- i'll have a toddler. 

ian still hasn't gotten any new teeth- but it looks like he is working on at least 4 on the top.  all the signs are there- diaper rash, insane amounts of drool..  just waiting on the teeth. 

this has been a big month for ian as far as milestones!  ian did show us that he can crawl on his hands and knees- but still army crawls 99.9% of the time.  a few weeks ago i went to get him up from a nap and he was kneeling in his crib- so we lowered the mattress.  2 days after that, i went in and found him standing in his crib, so we lowered the mattress all the way.  now he's constantly standing in the crib, pulling up on furniture, will take "steps" if you're holding his hand, and tries to pull himself off the ground once on his feet.  i can't believe all this has happened in a just a few short weeks.  i know that cruising and standing and walking are right around the corner!  of course, this has brought lots of falls- poor kid seems to have bruises all the time now..

ian is still eating well, and eating more and more table foods.  we're moving towards more independent eating!  he is down to nursing only 3 times a day, has 1 bottle a day, and 3 meals a day.  we've introduced only a few more fruits and veggies- as there aren't many left (most of the ones that are have to wait until after he is 1 year).  i think the only thing we've introduced since is cantaloupe.  while we were at my mom & dad's we did jarred baby food for convenience, but he really didn't seem to care for a lot of it- i can't blame him- i tasted some of it - blech!  

we celebrated thanksgiving w\ dave's family the weekend before thanksgiving since dave's sister was going to be having a baby the week of thanksgiving.  then we headed to ft. wayne to have thanksgiving w\ dave's grandmother.  it was nice b\c we got to see a lot of dave's cousins.  i also did my first black friday- ian had no clue i was even gone! 

ian has gotten better about clapping- he just claps at random intervals and anytime you say "yay" plus he has started waving and saying "bye" and blowing kisses.  he also is now saying "uh oh" if he drops something (and he is dropping things all the time- mostly on purpose)...  he is changing so much- i just can't believe he'll be a year old!  ::sigh::

5 months old

holy crap, where does the time go?  how is it june and how do i have a 5 month old?!

so much has happened since the last weekly update which was midway through week 18 (almost 5 weeks ago)!  ian is changing every day.  it just amazes me!

as i said before ian has started rolling over- he is everywhere!  he hasn't become one of those babies who rolls from one side of the room to another- he is usually pretty content once he rolls over to his stomach.  he plays on his back for a while, and when that bores him, he just rolls himself over.  he does do the scoot in a circle thing, and if he sees something out of his reach, he can scoot himself to get it.

he's also really into everything.  his new favorite "toys" are my cell phone or the remote control.  if i put my hands on my cell phone, he stops everything he is doing and tries to reach for it!  speaking of reaching- he is still trying to develop his grasp reflexes.  he can grab at just about anything nearby, but he hasn't quite mastered the grasp, so he ends up just pushing everything away.

we're not experiencing stranger danger yet!!  of course, we will really test this out next weekend when we go back to atlanta- we'll see a lot of people we haven't seen in a couple months- so we'll see how well he responds.  we'll also see how well he deals with a 12 hour car ride now that he's older.  ugh.  gah, remember when flying was affordable?

ian's personality has really started to develop.  he loves to flirt with the ladies- the guys, he ignores.  with husband and i he is all smiles.  when we are serious, he looks at us seriouisly, and when we make jokes, or talk with funny voices to him, he laughs out loud.  it's really cute.  he gets so excited when dave gets home from work- he goes crazy kicking and smiling.  i think my favorite thing that he does happens any time i go in his room to wake him up or get him out of bed.  he's usually playing when i go in, but the second he hears my voice, he starts craning his neck to find me and he gives me the sweetest smile!  i love it!

ian is sleeping anywhere from 9-11 hours at night!!  now if only mommy would do the same.

ian has started teething.  ai yi yi!  he is one fussy boy.  thank God for teething tablets, orajel and tylenol!

well, i felt like this might have been an exciting update, but... here are a few photos

ian's church baby dedication

i love it when he falls asleep while i'm holding him.  free snuggles time!

he'll play with anything

 celebrating mommy's birthday!