Ten months

In keeping with tradition of posting my monthly updates late, here we go. I didn't want to disappoint anyone.

Caroline at 10 months is so much fun and very active! I think this might be my favorite time with her so far as she is exploring and learning so much.

Skills: Crawling. Waving. Signing more and all done. Saying all done (sometimes). Saying Dadda, Momma and pointing at everything. Standing up while holding onto a toy with no assistance.  Doing a controlled sit when she is tired of standing up. Clapping her hands and playing Pat-a-cake.

Caroline has become quite skilled with eating and will eat pretty much everything we put in front of her. She loves yogurt and has even changed her mind about peas and green beans. As long as there is plenty of butter mixed in to the veggies. She is great at drinking from her sippy cups and whatever milk she doesn't drink from the bottle she will now drink the rest from her cup.  We no longer have a baby who chokes and throws up while eating...yay!

Caroline still nurses 4 times a day and 0 times during the night. WooHoo!!!! She has always been a fast nurser and still nurses for 3-5 minutes a side. I can tell she won't be like Liam where I will hold onto the nursing stage. She has things to do and places to go. I will insist that we continue nursing until at least one year of age but we probably won't go as long as the 16 months like I did with Liam. And I am very ok with that.

Caroline sleeps from 7:30-8 pm until 6:45-7ish am. She still takes 2 naps during the day at about 9:30 am and then again at 2ish. Each one lasting about 1 1/2-2 hours.

Likes:  Caroline is really a very pleasant baby. She still loves bathtime and she has begun to take an interest in a lot of Liam's toys now that she is very mobile. I can tell that Liam is conflicted about this. One moment he is ecstatic that he now has a little person who will play with him and in the next moment he is upset that she is trying to eat his Lego Spiderman. (we really do not allow Caroline to play Legos with Liam but she is very fast)

She also loves to crawl to the doors and to the dog bowls.

Dislikes: Being taken away from the dog bowls. Having her diaper changed if she is busy. Not having any food while in her highchair.

Health: In the middle of April we had our 3 month check-up on her hips. (due to her hip dysplasia at birth) Her physical exam is still great as the Dr does not feel her hips moving out of socket. However, she did have xrays again and things are not really looking that great. Her left hip is the worse with an angle of about 43 degrees. Her right hip has an angle of about 36 degrees. By the age of 2 her hips should have an angle of 25 degrees. When I asked Dr. Akeson about the xray from December and if there was any improvement, he confirmed that the right hip has improved by a few degrees but the left hip remains the same. She is to now wear a harness at night while she sleeps. This one is slightly different from the one she wore as an infant. It is much more rigid and we were warned that some babies cry and scream when it is put on.

In true Caroline fashion, she does fabulously with it on. I actually think it helps her sleep at night. She no longer wakes in the middle of the night because of the velcro strap that goes around her waist. (my opinion) She will continue to wear this until our next appointment in August.

If she will need surgery to fix her hips Dr. Akeson said it will not be until she is 3 or 4 years old. So we will continue to pray that God will heal her and remember that he is in control of the situation.

If we don't do surgery and her hips do not line up correctly she will have issues with early onset arthritis in her hips that could start in her late 20's or 30's. The doctor didn't tell me but since I work with many middle aged people in my profession I know that this will lead to hip replacements at a very early age. We ask for your continued prayers for Caroline in this area.

On that note, we are really enjoying having Caroline in our lives. She is a blessing to our family and we all adore her!

Truth and being brutally honest

During prayers last night:

"Mom! Do you know why we can't see Jesus?"

"No, Liam, why?"

"Because he's in our hearts!"

I love that he knows this and I love that we have an amazing family and an amazing church who are committed to teaching my children about the love of Jesus.

One minute later:

"Mom! Your arm kinda stinks."

"My arm????"

"Well, maybe it's just your robe."

And that would be my cue to throw my old stinky robe into the wash. Such revelations happening in the few minutes before he shuts those little eyes!

Busy girl

Not only was Easter a crazy but fun filled weekend,it was a very big weekend for Caroline as well. 

Crawling. Check!

Waving. Check!

Signing all done. Check!

Signing more. Check!

Saying all done. Check!

She's not slowing down for anything!

Waving at me and Liam 

Kinda

Caroline can do lots of things....kinda

She can say "da-da"......directed towards Evan but only sometimes and definitely not all of the time. So is it a first word? Kinda

She can say "momma".....directed towards me but only sometimes and definitely not all of the time. So is it a second word? Kinda

She can clap.....her belly. Is it really clapping her hands if she's just patting her belly? Kinda

She can crawl....kinda. She gets on her hands and knees will then rock for a couple of seconds and then lunge herself forward doing a belly flop. Does she move? Yes. Does she get to where she wants to go? Yes. Is it a variation of traditional crawling? Kinda

Has she begun to bond with the dog? Kinda. But only if she is in her highchair and only if she sneaks her hand off to the side and lets the dog lick the toast out of her hand. Otherwise she's still too slow to grab Butters and explore and Butters has a great memory of what Liam was like at Caroline's age and dismisses herself from the room very quickly.

She can wave...kinda. Once in awhile and whenever she feels like it.

She transitions herself into a sit from being on her belly and from sitting to a crawl. That one is a yes!

But there's one thing that we have no doubt about. This sweet little girl has stolen our hearts!

Nine months

Wow! Sweet Caroline is 9 months old! This month she has accomplished so many things!

Caroline is weighing in at 14 lbs 14 oz (still hanging out in the 6%)
and her length is   27 1/2 (47% percentile)

At our 9 month wellness visit with our pediatrician we were given many "assignments" to take on.
1. Try to stop feeding her at night.
2. Let her try other solid foods besides puffs
3. Work on her standing skills while holding onto furniture or a toy. (this last one was more of my decision)

So, the pediatrician was very concerned that Caroline is throwing up her Puffs. He feels because they do dissolve and become sticky they may be sticking to her tongue and that is causing her to gag. So, as soon as we came home from the office, I gave Caroline toast. She LOVED it! Did not gag once. Here I thought if she was gagging on Puffs she wasn't ready for any regular foods. He also recommended that she see a specialist for this, which I tried to argue the necessity (we already see a specialist for her hips, how many specialists does a girl need?) So I have to call him back and tell him all about the toast success. We'll see if we go or not.

Dr. Traeger was also very concerned with the fact that Caroline rarely sleeps through the night. Um, hello! me too! So, he recommended letting her cry before I zombie walk my way into her room at night. I seriously cannot remember how we did this with Liam. It is so hard! It took about a week but we discovered that I can no longer go in her room at night. She is aware that its me and just gets really upset that I'm not picking her up to feed her. So, now I get to lay in bed while Evan goes into her room and either soothes her back to sleep or changes her diaper and lays her back down. I think this is great. Evan probably doesn't but I have been getting up with her for 9 months. It's his turn.

While filling out the paperwork they give you at every appointment to see if your child can do certain things I realized that I was marking a lot of Not sure or No answers. Especially in the gross motor development category. Can your child stand up holding onto furniture. No. Can your child drop a toy while standing, bend down, pick up the toy without falling. No.

Uh oh. Caroline! Look at this sheet! I think you're supposed to be doing this stuff.

So, I am finding out that because Caroline is so easy going it's very convenient to sit her down or put her on her belly and either play with Liam or do the other million things that need to happen in our house. Evan and I are now putting more of an effort into slowing down and helping her work on those gross motor skills.

[By the way, Dr. Traeger is not at all worried. He put her up on the examination table on her belly to see if she tried to move around and she did exactly that plus try to scoot towards his lap top computer]

New skills:  Turning the pages in her books and opening flaps, pincer grasp, turning in circles while on her belly and getting up on her hands and knees, rocking then lunging forward so that she does a belly flop. Standing up while holding onto a toy with assistance.

Caroline nurses 4 times a day and 0-1 times a night. She is beginning to sleep from around 8pm-6:30 am, sometimes waking once but then going right back to sleep after a diaper change or some soothing from Evan. She still takes her 2 naps during the day.

Caroline now has 6 teeth, 3 on the bottom and 3 on the top.

Blueberry face!

The missing bear

"I'd like to file a missing persons report."

"Ok, ma'am, who is missing and for how long?"

"My son's bear."

"I'm sorry, did you say a bear? You might want to try animal control."

"Oh no, he's basically a member of our family. He goes everywhere with us and he's not large. He has light brown hair and black eyes. He has had surgery on his left leg and so his leg is a little limp. Probably scar tissue."

"And when did you notice him missing?"

"Oh yes, well that would be Saturday night when Grammie told us that Liam didn't have him to sleep with. We searched the car after our dinner out and when he didn't turn up we began to panic."

"Is it possible he went on vacation and forgot to tell you?"

"Of course! He did mention that he was a bit bored and that Aunt Emily looked like a lot of fun. Maybe he's with her!"

Ok, ok I'll stop the fake 911 call. But seriously? We braced ourselves for the worst when we turned up at Grammie's empty-handed. Thankfully, Liam was asleep and transported easily to the car without asking any questions. It was only until the next morning that he climbed into bed with us and wanted to know where his bear was. So we had to explain how after playing at the park with Aunt Emily and listening to his book on CD in her car, Bear snuck in her backseat and we accidentally took off without him.

At least we knew exactly where he was. And at least his Aunt sent him pictures of Bear sitting on her bed with her old teddy. He really liked that.

Since Liam has so many stuffed animals we told him to just pick a new friend to hang out with all week until we could get him back. None of his animals were good enough though and instead he thought Caroline's little bear from Great-Grandma Davidson would be a match. So he very politely asked Caroline if he could borrow her bear and of course like any good sister would do, who can't talk for herself, she said yes.

Could have been a disaster but maybe this whole turning 4 thing is starting to work out. I'm not complaining!

Sharing is caring

*The Flash will be playing the part of Robin in this performance

"I want a pop tart for breakfast! And Batman and Robin need one too!"

"Um, you're only getting one pop tart so if Batman and Robin are hungry I guess you'll have to share."

"Awww. Hey guys, mom says I have to share so if you want a bite raise your hand."