August updates

Georgie is really cute and is a really good talker, but he is starting to say some things grammatically wrong – like mixed up it, instead of mix it up. I can't think of others right now but some of them are really cute! Greta is still sleeping in the front room and occasionally napping in there too, although pretty consistently their naps are alternating right now which is fairly difficult for me. I don't have very much time to do quiet time because I'm never alone. Greta is crawling fast and furious everywhere, sometimes she'll crab crawl – usually if she's on a hardwood floor. If she's on carpet or a rug, she will often times do a regular call. Also, right when she started crawling she pretty much immediately started pulling up on furniture and now she is pretty pretty fission at walking along furniture sideways like the coffee table. She has become so much more aware and conscious of us lately. She is definitely developing a conscience and starting to give me more complicated looks like she really does understand what I'm saying. She is still doing two naps a day – her first one is usually about 2 1/2 hours after she wakes up in the morning, which is usually between 630 and 715. Then she'll do her second afternoon nap about 3 1/2 to 4 hours after her morning nap. Then she usually goes to bed some Time between 745 and 815 realistically. I aim for 730 or 745 though! Dirty usually goes down around the same time, maybe a little later, but he pretty much has been laying in his bed talking or getting in and out of bed or saying he has to go to the bathroom or Poopoo etc. for usually at least an hour before he actually falls sleep. I think that he possibly could drop his nap, if we were to put him to bed really early if he could get used to it. Although I'm just not sure because some days I just think there is no way that he could not nap and make it the whole day. But if we were consistently putting him down to bed earlier, it could work. But I just really need that time when he naps even though Gretta's awake. I'm thinking when the days start getting shorter and darker earlier we might attempt to remove his nap and put him to bed earlier, and then maybe we could put them to bed in the same room at the same time. But right now it's nice because we can keep him up a little later and even though the days are starting to get shorter, it still stays light fairly late. So it works right now.

Regarding food, Greta doesn't seem to love meat. It's so funny – I have tried many many times as I do with all foods very determined to make her like them – but she just doesn't seem to acquire a taste for meat. If it's puréed I can sometimes mix it in with vegetables that are puréed and she'll eat it, but she just doesn't seem to like the taste of chicken or beef – I think it's the texture too. She loves cheese, and I feed her a lot of 100% whole wheat bread, and she likes eggs for breakfast. We all eat eggs for breakfast scrambled, as well as toast or just bred for her, and then usually some kind of fruit. It's been so nice for the last month and a half because I haven't bought baby food – I finally realized (duh) that I could give her whatever we are eating, just in very very small bites. And since she's over a year now she can have pretty much anything. I don't think she has any allergies that we are aware of. I've been trying to give her some cold milk in her new Lola cup, and we couldn't decide between almond milk or cows milk, so we bought both and we kind of alternate which one we get her. And sometimes I will mix in like half breast breast milk with almond milk or half breastmilk with cows milk. I still have quite a few bags of pumped milk from the last six months, and I'd like to go ahead and give them to her and have her use them, because she can still benefit from my breast milk. Just as of the last few days I have more consistently dropped the mid day feeding because I was doing three feedings a day, but I just ran out of the don't baritone which I weaned off of very slowly, and so my supply has definitely been less. But since she is over a year now, I'm not stressed out – I am just slowly weaning her – very slowly though. As long as I'm producing some sort of milk, I'd like to give it to her. So now I'm just doing mornings and evenings, and eventually will probably only do mornings. But it's working fine. Oh – she also does not seem to like cold milk very well. She will drink it if she's hungry or sip on it if she's thirsty, but she definitely does not down it. I think she's going to be like Georgie – she just doesn't really like milk. And it's hard to tell if she has a preference between the cows or the almond milk. I think she might slightly prefer the almond milk because it's not as thick.
Back to sleep – she has been sleeping through the night for the last few nights, though she does seem to go through periods where she'll regress and start waking at an early morning hour – like around 5 AM – and so I'll just go ahead and feed her because it will calm her down and put her back to sleep, and then she'll sleep until her regular time usually. But even without doing anything she usually stops doing that after a few nights.

That's all I can think of right now – although I'm sure there's more things! Georgie, as usual has just been so cute and smart. He loves to saying it's raining it's pouring the old man is snoring and insert his name instead of old man. And he's obsessed with playing shark – we sit on the couch or the front porch swing and pretend like we're on the boat and we see sharks. It's hilarious because he is so entertained by it – he thinks it's so funny when I am getting eaten by a shark! Laugh out loud I also try to do Safari or camper or hot air balloon with him – pretend, that is – but he doesn't like it as much because I'm not getting injured! He loves the book we are going on a bear hunt, and many others too. He loves wearing his flip-flops because they're like mommies. He has been still doing so awesome with potty training, and never has accidents at all. He likes his undies that have the little hole in them or he can stick his pee pee out! He also will sometimes make us leave the room when he is going to, and I think it's because daddy stays in the bathroom by himself for a while when he goes to the bathroom – so Georgie thinks that he should sit on the potty for a while too. So so so cute! He likes to ride his tricycle around our house too. We do that when Greta is napping sometimes. He is also getting to have quite a bit of a sweet tooth like his mommy. He is starting to request dessert more often. Dang it! Whenever I bake, which is fairly often, too often, I let him help me – and he really likes it. Also, he is really loving gymnastics so much. It has seemed to grow on him more and more, and he likes his teacher Miss Peggy. She told us last week that he was ready to move up to the next class where parents aren't involved. This makes George and I both kind of sad, because we like going with him. But he probably should move up. Usually it's daddy's job to take him to gymnastics, because I have to stay home with Greta while she naps. Though sometimes it will work out to where we can all go if Greta does a really late nap.


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Gretta Eating

It is so cute – a lot of times when Greta eats now, she poured food in her mouth before swallowing it. It is kind of scary, but kind of cute too – recall her our little chipmunk! Also, just in the last couple or three or maybe four weeks she has started to pretty much eat most all foods. We have even given her most of the allergen foods, since she is almost a year now. She hasn't really had honey, or very much of it anyway, or peanut butter, or fish. But other other than that she's had most everything. It's really fun because just lately she's at the point where she can pretty much eat whatever we are eating, as long as it is cut up very small, and obviously it isn't a choking hazard. We seem to be beyond the puréed food stage, which is really nice. She still eats. Sometimes, but I started realizing that she could pretty much eat other foods and so I stopped giving her so many purées because they weren't necessary. It's really fun that she is just growing and learning and all of a sudden now that she's almost a year, I feel that we are officially out of the really hard zone. In some ways I almost more in it a little bit, and this first year really has gone relatively very very quickly. Looking forward to her birthday party this Saturday, August 2.


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Georgie Summer 2014

Georgie is in that phase where he is constantly asking "why mommy?" About everything! So so cute and at times, a little annoying. :-) Everything is "but why?" Also, we probably say "gentle, be gentle Georgie" about 30 times every single day, in regards to him touching Greta. He does love her, and he's definitely over the initial jealousy thing, but he can just be fairly aggressive in showing his love for her. He just gets so excited and sometimes intense – he'll do that with us sometimes too. He'll clench his teeth. He's doing gymnastics right now, and really loves it. He gets really excited to go every Friday. He's getting to be quite a leader in his class, and probably needs to move up to the next class, which means no parent involvement. He's also in swimming lessons again, but this time the class is with no parents. So George or I just sit on the edge of the pool and watch him and cheer him on, and he does fairly well. He definitely doesn't love it, and will cry sometimes, but you can tell he tries to be tough and shakes it off really well. He is just not a huge fan of the water, and still gets terrified of putting his face under the water. Bathtime has been a little better now that he has discovered that he can lay on his back, like a back float, to get his hair wet so that we don't have to let it with a cup pouring it over his head. He still just really hates the rinsing part, and if he gets soap in his eyes he gets so upset, even though it is tear free. I think he just doesn't like the foam in his eyes. He loves his sandbox, and plays in it when it's cool enough outside, usually the morning time. He also likes the splash pad and just the little pool in our backyard and Grammys backyard and titis backyard. He likes running to the sprinklers and the small backyard pool. He really loves his hot wheels cars, and we have officially stopped giving them to him every time he poops, because it's so normal now. I told him that I will just try to buy him a hot wheels car every time we go to Walmart. He also just got some scissors for kids, and loves cutting up paper. He loves playing pretend, inspired by this book that we have called pretend, where we sit on the couch or the porch swing and act like we are in a boat and there are sharks around us. He thinks it is so hilarious and shouts out shark! And loves it when I get scared and pull my feet up. It's so cute! I've tried to encourage him to play other pretend games like hot air balloon, or Safari, or camper, but he is just obsessed with the boat and check thing. So cute! He pretty much loves going to Grammies house all the time, and likes going to grammar and Popoli's house too. He's probably going to do his first sleepover there pretty soon. Him and Leoney get along really relatively pretty well. He's definitely coming around to her more, and I think he really loves her and considers her kind of his partner in crime. They still get to each other occasionally well, actually fairly often, but nothing like how bad it was when Gretta was first born and Leonie started walking, all at the same time. It is a little sad sometimes because I can tell he is trying to be so big and brave, and really processing that he is not the only grandchild anymore, and my mom makes time for, and attention towards, Leoney too. Him and my mom have such a special bond, and he gets sad and sometimes jealous and ask out occasionally, though I can tell that he is really processing and trying to have self-control.


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Greta is getting better and better at calling! Once she figured it out, she has been progressing quickly. She still does a crab crawl but then will usually go to both knees or alternate between the two. It's so fun, although I am finding myself really having to start baby proofing more and I can't just leave her in a room alone anymore since she is mobile. Also, I have to make sure to vacuum more often, and make sure there is nothing that she can put in her mouth and choke on. She is totally at that age where she is trying to put absolutely everything in her mouth, and doesn't know that it's not food. So cute! Also, when we read books – she will often times touch them and feel them on the pages because he started out reading her a lot of touch and feel books. So even if it's not a touch and feel book, she'll reach out and touch the pages thinking that there should be some sort of texture on them. So cute! For a long time before bedtime we read the going to bed book by Sandra Boynton, but now I have started to read Chicka Chicka boom boom and good night Moon a lot more, like we did with Georgie. I'm hoping this will instill in her an interest in letters and learning the alphabet song. She's just getting so much more fun! I am working on starting to plan her first birthday.


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Location:More Crawling, Touching Books, Nighttime Books

Almost Crawling! Pulling Up! Sitting Up after Sleep, Separation Anxiety

So a lot has seems to happen in the last few days – probably week and a half to two weeks. Credit is almost crab crawling, and is suddenly progressing very quickly finally! She just pretty much did it for the first time just now in front of me. It's so exciting because I can tell she's just frustrated because she wants to be mobile. She is 11 months and one week approximately. Also, last week she learned to sit up after her nap and then after sleeping at night also. She has a newfound freedom! It's so cute! She literally went from sleeping on her back only, probably feeling pretty trapped, to being all over her crib now and usually sleeping on her stomach, sometimes with her niece up underneath her. The other day we actually found her sleeping like she had fallen asleep sitting up and her face was had planted into her niece – it was a little scary but hilarious! She is always setting up and reaches up for me when I get her in the morning now – so so so cute! We haven't moved her crib down yet because she hasn't really been able to pull herself up to a standing position, nor had any desire to, until the last few days, when she is suddenly starting to try to kill herself up on everything. Like I said, it's been progressing pretty rapidly. So who knows, maybe she will be one of those babies that doesn't call for very long before she walks. Also, she doesn't really like to be rocked before bedtime for naps anymore, very recently as well. It's like now that she knows how to set up by herself, she doesn't want to be on her back for me to rock her. In some ways it's been pretty nice because I've been not rocking her for as long before I lay her down in her bed, because she just squirms anyway. But on the other hand, I kind of miss rocking her and it makes me a little sad. So different then Georgie was! Georgie pretty much always loved being rocked, even when he was quite old, even though he was in a particularly touchy-feely baby. Also, Greta has been starting to get some separation anxiety for the first time. I was a little worried because she didn't really have it up to this point, but now she really likes to have me in her site, especially if she's not feeling good. She is just getting so fun, and I can see in her eyes that she is starting to understand a lot more of what we are saying. I am so thankful that she is getting to be more responsive and starting to develop a little bit of a personality. I think she is actually a little bit spunky, even though she is been a very laid-back easy baby other than all her health issues. I think she may be the baby that tries to get out of her crib. And despite not officially calling it, she actually gets around really well, bye just trial and error and slowly scooting herself, especially on the tile floor, she will get from point a to point B really pretty quickly.


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Gretta Sitting in Crib, Almost Crawling!

Just put Greta down for a nap if you minutes ago, and she was talking for a little while and I looked on the monitor and she was sitting up playing with her pillow! This is the first time she has set up by herself in the crib. Up to this point she has been sleeping just on her back, the last night I noticed in the pack and play that she was laying on her side. So cute, and so exciting. Guess we'll have to start thinking about lowering the crib, although she isn't pulling herself up to a standing position yet, so we may be able to wait a little while. She's getting closer and closer to crawling, though still not there yet. She's quite mobile for not calling though, and she will stay on her belly for long periods of time moving around in circles, and if she's sitting up she can scoop herself backwards and forwards fairly far, especially if she is on the tile. So hoping that she'll be crawling by her first birthday! I think she will be happier when she is more mobile.


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Georgie Poo!!!

Before I forget, Georgie went to in the potty I think about two weeks ago, and has never turned back. He has not had one single accident and his pole! And two days ago I actually let him start wearing undies instead of his pull-ups, making him promise me that he would keep them dry all day. Yesterday he did! It is just hard when we go out in public, but he has actually gone on the big big potty A couple times now, and went through in our big potty yesterday. He is so proud and we do the boo-boo dance raise the roof! He is so adorable and proud of himself that I just can't stand it. I am so so so happy that we waited and didn't push it sooner as we have not had nearly the issues that some people have when they do it too soon.


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