Three Months

In my defense, I started this blog post when Caroline was at her 3 month birthday.

Caroline is a joy to be around! Lots of smiles and lots of cooing. She is turning into a very happy baby! It's amazing what a few weeks can do when you have a colicky baby. She still has her moments of being fussy but it's a big difference from where we were one month ago.

Likes: Caroline loves her sea creatures toy that makes sound whenever you touch it. She is getting really good at understanding that she needs to stretch that hand out there in order to get her toy to entertain her. And even when she doesn't she has a great big brother who loves to show her how his old toys work. She also likes her touchy-feely books. It's exciting to see her understand that she needs to stretch her fingers out instead of keeping it in a fist to learn about the world around her. It's very cute and cool to see her brain work! She of course still loves her big brother Liam who adores her right back.

On her first day at the babysitters Evan set the carseat down on the floor and all the other kids gathered around Caroline to welcome her to the group. After a couple of minutes of the kids looking at her, Liam said, "Ok, ok that's enough! Give her some space!" A very protective brother! And while I was worried all day that Caroline would cry for hours or wouldn't take a bottle on my first day back to work, I was informed that she may be the happiest baby ever, so full of smiles!

She still likes her playmat, her swing and her bouncy seat. Caroline has also started to suck on her fingers to soothe herself to sleep. Bathtime is also still a favorite.

Dislikes: A non moving car is still #1 on this list. She is also not a fan of zerberts. (is this even a real word?) Sitting in a dirty diaper also gets some complaints.

Skills: Caroline rolls from her tummy to her back and actually started doing this at 2 months. Once she finds her two middle fingers to stick in her mouth she is very good at putting herself to sleep. She is a great talker, lots of cooing! Caroline has about 1 1/2-2 hours of wakefulness before needing another nap. Most of the time at night she will go 5 hours before wanting to eat again. On the rare occasion she has slept for 7-8 hours straight, and it was glorious!

Carving out a bit of me time

I did it! I actually went to the mall by myself and only purchased things for myself. It was really hard by the way. It was hard not to go straight to the children's section, for my children; or the mens section, for my husband. I forced myself to stay on the main level with the women's clothes.

Back before I was married or had children I'm sure I was very judgmental of mothers wearing their sweats to go shopping or going out in public without any makeup on. I often wondered why they couldn't put forth a teensy bit of effort to make themselves look good.

Ten years later I am that mother still wearing her yoga pants grocery shopping and I have not done yoga or any form of exercise all day nor do I intend to.

So that is why yesterday I felt it so important to only shop for myself.

Just don't ask what was in my bag.

75% of it was yoga pants.

I never knew

This conversation has happened twice now.....

M: Liam, don't let the dog lick your hands if you are still eating. That's gross.

L: No, Mommy it's ok. Butters has soap in her mouth.

Yep, it's happened twice...

Sheboygan

Sheboygan, Wisconsin was our family vacation spot this year and it was beautiful! Lake Michigan never disappoints me although I wish we would have had a little more beach time. That was hard to accomplish since the resort we were staying at also had an indoor waterpark on the property. Hard choices for a 6, 4 and 3 year old. We had a great time together and even Grandma Davidson got to come for a couple days and meet Caroline and Ivy.

It is sad how very few pictures I took during our 4 day stay but my other sisters did a great job of documenting our time together. Besides the beach and waterpark we also went to a Milwaukee Brewers game and the cutest little place called Bookworm Gardens. Caroline was not impressed with the baseball game and cried for most of it but she did like the peace and quiet of the gardens. Liam loved it all! Any moment he was with Violet and Eli was amazing and anytime Mom or Dad tried to butt into his time with them was not met with a happy response. It was almost a nice break for Evan and I if we did not have an infant who also needed our attention.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a great vacation and great food!

Our stylist, Violet Penelope

Best buddies!

Yep, a beach on Lake Michigan = wearing your clothes not your bathing suit

Pit stop on our way home, the Milwaukee Zoo

The dog

Even though this blog has her in the title I rarely have a post about our family dog, Butters. I mean, when all she does is sleep all day, shed her hair all over the floor and eat there isn't too much to write about.

However, our recent vacation has brought about some changes in her routine that I thought were funny.

First, the day Butters rejoined our family she was looking good. Maybe it was just that we had not seen her for a week but I thought to myself, "what a trim and athletic dog we have, she's gorgeous!"

And then Evan showed me the bag of food he had taken to the doggie hotel. It suspiciously still had about 1/3 of food still in it. I had thought Evan told me that he had only packed enough food for Butters for one additional meal. The bag also contained a silver scoop that did not belong to us. Butters food scoop is a red 1 cup measurement. The silver scoop belonged to a Zanie Powell...and was only a 1/2 cup measurement.  And apparently Evan had told the front desk when he dropped her off that she only got one scoop of food, not the measurement of food which is actually 1 1/2 cups. Who knows on what day the scoops were mixed up. But Zanie must have thought she was in heaven!

So, Butters was put on a diet while we were away and instead of her usual 3 cups of food a day she was only getting 1 cup of food total. Poor, poor dog she must have been starving! However she looks fantastic! Don't worry, she probably needed the lack of food anyway. She is still our healthy happy girl.

Secondly, Butters apparently did not miss running with Evan. In our state of still unpacking, our things are not really organized. We have been missing the nose piece that we use to take Butters on her walks and runs so that she does not pull us around. Last night Evan hooked the leash up to her regular collar and off they went! When Evan returned he told me how he was pulling her so that she would keep up with his running pace and all of a sudden he didn't feel any resistance. When he turned to look all he discovered was an empty collar at the end of his leash! He then noticed Butters standing about 10 feet behind him just looking at him. I'm surprised she wasn't walking home in the opposite direction! She had clearly had enough!

My non-athletic lab

Two months

or 10 weeks. I'm a little late with this one but Caroline just had her two month wellness visit today so here our her stats.

Weight: 10 lbs. 8 oz
Height: 22 inches
Percentile: 17 for both height and weight

While her percentile has dropped for weight the doctor is not at all concerned considering what her big brothers stats were as an infant and still are. He says she will find her own rhythm and grow just fine. Caroline was not impressed with the shots today. She did fine with the first one, maybe  trying to figure out what just happened, but the second shot got an audible scream followed by lots of crying when they came in with the third shot. Thankfully, she calmed down enough to eat and has been fine ever since.

I did voice a concern in regards to her fussiness/crying and was told that there are no health reasons as to why she is the way she is and that as the months go on she will get better and better. She has already gotten better in mine and Evan's opinion but here's to the future getting even better.

It's hard to believe that she is already 10 weeks old and that I have to go back to work in 2 short weeks! I have thoroughly enjoyed my time off with her and Liam and while the summer wasn't all I was hoping it would be with trips to the waterpark and me getting super tan; it was still lots of fun. (In fact we stayed inside a lot and took as many naps as I was allowed)

So, Caroline at two months is:

Likes: She has really blossomed in the last few weeks with her awareness. She definitely smiles frequently at me, Liam and Evan; knowing exactly who we all are. She loves the mirror right now. Will actually lay on her playmat and kick/throw her arms and legs to hit her toys. (instead of just crying) She has discovered her hands recently and likes to chew on them. She still likes to sleep, eat and poop. Most recently we have at least one outfit change a day due to a  diaper explosion. Caroline loves bath time although she is now getting a little too long for the kitchen sink. Her new favorite way to be held is like a football. This will usually get her to stop crying very quickly, although she still also likes to be held tummy to tummy. She also likes to play on her tummy. Her neck control is beautiful!

Dislikes:  The beach! (maybe next year) Having a stuffy, snotty nose and having to get that nose cleaned out. A non moving car and even a car that is moving but a long drive home from Wisconsin where all you want to do is to get out of your carseat but you can't due to those stinking laws! She is still not a fan of the pacifier. (we have given up on trying to get her to take that) A brother who accidentally knocks her in the head with his foot (he was just trying to get onto his bed) and a brother who yells loudly right next to her ear. (now we know that that is a bad idea)

Skills: She recently has been putting herself to sleep. It is very rare but on the occasion that I have to put her down to do something else, and she is not happy about it,  I will come back to her a few minutes later and she will be nodding off.  Her neck control is a major skill as well. She has one coo that sounds just like she is saying HI! (love it) She is still eating every 2-3 hours during the day but now will go 4-5 hours at night between feedings (yay!)

Health: She no longer wears her harness at all! We have a follow up appointment in a couple weeks with the orthopedic doctor where she may have an xray to make sure that things are where they should be. 

Returning to reality

We just got back from an amazing family vacation with my family in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. We were right on Lake Michigan and could go to the beach anytime we wanted; or the hotel we were staying at also at an indoor waterpark that we could also visit at any moment.

A perfect family vacation!

Unfortunately all vacations have to end. Liam found that out tonight.

9:00 pm

M: "We're home Liam! Doesn't it feel great to be home finally?"
L:  "No, I want to go to our other home."
M: "Oh, you mean the hotel on our vacation?"
L:  "Yes! I want to go back there! I don't want to be at this home!"
M: "Well, that isn't our home. It's just where we stayed while we were on vacation."
L:  "I want to go back to cation. I don't want to stay here! (tears beginning)
M: "Me too buddy. I want to go back to vacation too."

I'm not sure where Liam thought we were going today in the car. But apparently, when you combine the beach, a waterpark, sleeping on the top bunk of a bunk bed and uninterrupted time with Violet and Eli (and other family members as well) it makes coming back to the "real world" very hard. Especially when it's 9 o'clock at night.