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."

4 years old

This is my post about who Liam is at the age of 4. It is long and will be boring but it is for me and Evan to look back on in a few years and remember him at this stage of his life.

Liam is 4! Where has the time gone? Liam is a happy, funny little boy and a great big brother. He does great with Caroline and has lots of love to give her. He goes to the babysitters on Tuesdays and Thursdays and stays at home with Grammie Walles on Mondays. He is enrolled for preschool next fall. He wears mostly 4T shirts and sweaters but mainly still his 3T pants. Liam mainly still naps for 60 to 90 minutes but there are also days where he just can't close his eyes. He will remain in his bed until we allow him to get up. He weighs 32 lbs and is 3 feet 3 inches tall.

Shark themed birthday party

Eating his birthday cupcake!

Likes: Liam loves superheroes still! Up until his birthday he would play superheroes every single day. Now he plays with his Legos. He is really into his Batman and Robin lego set and he thought I was the coolest Mom when I got my giant box of old Legos out for him to go through and play with. (I'm especially having fun going through my old sets and watching Liam play with all of them) He loves to imaginary play with Grammie and Daddy. He is still amazing at doing puzzles as well. He got 3 TMNT puzzles at Christmas that are 48 pieces each; while he needed help the first time putting it together he will now do them on his own, every single time. He also received 5 superhero puzzles that are 100 pieces each at his birthday. He does at least 1 of them a day. These he needs some assistance with but he did one the other day and almost had it completed by the time I got over to watch him. He enjoys reading and recently coloring and doing crafts. He adores Curious George, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, How to Train your Dragon 2 and Scooby Doo.

Liam has recently become a somewhat picky eater. He will eat chicken nuggets but not chicken breasts. (we keep explaining it's the same thing but his palate is just more sophisticated than ours) He still loves broccoli, cauliflower and carrots but won't eat green beans. He loves V8 tomato juice, bratwurst, corn dogs, most any fruit and all desserts. He loves when Grammie Walles brings doughnuts on Mondays for them to share.

Liam is very active and fun while around people he knows like family and friends and still quiet when meeting new friends. He says his best friends are Eli, Owen, Jonathon and Staley.

Liam's favorite shirts to wear are his "Flash" superhero shirt, his "Batman" sweatshirt and his new TMNT hoodie. Notice any similarities?

Dislikes: Liam does not usually want help while trying to accomplish something whether that means getting dressed, doing a puzzle or helping me cook. He will get very, very upset (tantrum) if I am even looking in his direction while he is doing these things if he has it set in his mind that he wants to do it himself. This has resulted in me having to close my eyes and being told when I can finally open them to see him once he is finished. (actually, this is hard for me to do but it is so much easier as well. otherwise I just want to try to help him which makes things worse)

Skills: Liam is getting really good at pedaling his bicycle (with training wheels and us right next to him)and he can manage the step stool in the kitchen so that he can help cook. He is getting really good at coloring inside the lines and does a great job writing his name. He can identify all of the upper case letters and numbers 1-20. He can count but it's really hard to say how high. Some days he wants to count with us and other days we are just counting by ourselves. Although he always asks if we can count to 300. Evan is working very hard with him on sounding out words with his chalkboard which he sometimes goes along with. He is more obliging with spelling and sounding out words when we are on pbskids.org

Liam will sometimes dress himself but is perfectly content having us help him as well. (only if we are allowed to) He brushes his teeth, goes to the bathroom, and washes his hands all by himself. (brushing his teeth is always followed by us brushing them again) He loves his ACT flouride Scooby-Doo rinse and does a great job of holding the liquid in his mouth in 20 second intervals and not swallowing it.

Liam is a great helper with Caroline. He loves to show her how all of his old baby toys work and helps to put on her socks and hat. He also enjoys picking out her headbands and/or bows. He is also very protective over her. If another child comes over to her or wants to hold her he will stop what he is doing and stand right next to his little sister. Sometimes even closing the canopy on her carseat to tell them to leave her alone.

One for her and one for me

Liam truly loves his Daddy! He gets so excited when Dad comes home from work or if it's the weekend as he asks Dad to "please play with me" as soon as he walks in the door. He loves spending time outdoors as well, whether it's building snowmen and snowforts or playing baseball with Dad and swinging on his swing he is a ball full of energy.

We couldn't be more excited to watch Liam continue to become a big boy! He rocks!

Better

Life is just better when there's someone to share it with. 

Choices

Are you seriously giving me choices? Cause I'll choose toast every time.