Go Go White Sox

Sometime in July, Evan and I woke up on a Sunday morning and thought to ourselves let's be completely insane and take the whole family to a White Sox game. Evan didn't really think it sounded that crazy. I thought it sounded like a nightmare to take a baby and a 3 year old to a 3 hour ball game but I was told that it would be fine. Evan and Liam had a great time.

Should I leave it at that?

Lucy and I watched the first inning. Then she got hungry so we went to the bathroom where I nursed her and she fell asleep for about 30-45 minutes. While I was gone Evan said Caroline was....a 3 year old. Constantly moving up and down the aisle of seats, swinging her new metal water bottle that we just received as the free gift and almost hitting the people's heads in front of them. Once Lucy and I got back up to where they were seated we all went back down to find some food. Once we got the food then we went to the kids area. Once again, Evan and Liam had a great time. Lucy, Caroline and I were stuck on the other side of the doors of the kid area because Evan had bought a giant tub of popcorn that you aren't allowed to take into the kid area. Since I knew that the giant tub of popcorn most likely cost $15 I was less inclined to throw it in the trash. But as I sat eating out of the giant tub of popcorn all by myself I realized first how sad I looked and then also how it didn't even really taste that good. Once I threw it away we all took off to find the boys. They were in fact having a great time.

We finally went to sit down only to realize it was now the 9th inning. The good part was the Sox hit a home run to win the game and we were illegally sitting along the 3rd base line fairly close to the field. That was exciting! When he hit the homerun Evan picked up the nearest kid, realized it was Caroline who could have cared less about the game in front of her, put her down and picked up Liam who again, was having a great time.

9 months

Holy cow... Lucy is 9 months old!

Lucy at 9 months old is a baby who does not like to stop moving. She crawls everywhere, pulls herself up to a stand on everything and recently has found our stairs and loves to try to climb them. She also loves to crawl to the dog bowls and play in the water. She has started to clap her hands together and loves to turn pages in her flap books and also her Baby Faces book.

Lucy weighs: 15 pounds 3 ounces
Height: 2 feet 3.8 inches
Teeth: 4
Eyes: Dark Brown
Hair: Blonde

Lucy has become a very good eater. She enjoys chicken, hamburger, sausage, crackers, Cheerios and toast. Yogurt and cheese are also yummy. She has become very skilled at the finger pincher technique and so picks up her food from her tray very well. She still has some of her pureed foods but I am hoping to start transitioning her to diced food very soon. Currently, when she is all done she will just cry so we are still working on baby sign language for 'more' and 'all done'.  The last couple of nights she has gotten very good at signing 'all done'. She is still nursing about four times a day.

She has the greatest laugh and likes to be tickled. Lucy adores big brother Liam and many times will laugh at him when he is trying to get her to notice him. She also adores the dog, often times crawling to be near her or crawling over her and falling on her face. Butters is very good at allowing her to be near her. (even though I'm sure she would much rather be left alone) She likes to watch Caroline as well but Caroline still gets a bit too close so Lucy is trying to figure out how not to be knocked over instead of enjoying her sister.

Lucy takes two very good naps during the day. We usually put her to bed still awake and she may cry for a little bit but can and does put herself to sleep most of the time. We are still trying to figure out what we are doing at night though. She will put herself to sleep at night or I nurse her to sleep and then will sleep from 8 pm-3 am. Evan has been going in trying to get her to go to back to sleep. Currently that involves him picking her up (which goes against everything that we have read about sleep training) and helping her go back to sleep. In the beginning she would then sleep until 5 am, where I would go in and nurse her, then put her back to bed (again!) until around 7 am. Most recently, she has become very upset to see Evan (instead of me) and will not go back to sleep. A few most recent nights she has stayed awake crying for almost one hour. *sigh* I do not know what to do about this and am giving in so easily by just feeding her so that we can all go right back to bed. Although, I know that I would LOVE to get a full nights sleep again. It's been way too long for me!

Lucy is wearing her 6-12 month and her 9 month clothes. This is so weird to me. I mean, yes she is 9 months old so it totally makes sense that she should be wearing that size right? Except that Liam and Caroline were both usually one size smaller than their age. Meaning that at 9 months they still wore 6 month clothes and by age 2 they could still fit in 12 month pants. While Liam and Caroline are short and stout, Lucy is long and lean. I think she will be tall like her Daddy. Which also means that Christmas dress I bought for her in February on clearance probably won't fit her come December. *sad face*

She is SO mad at me for trying to put her hair up.

Lucy is making lots of different sounds with "da" or "do" being on the top of the list. It's quite possible that her first word may be dog. She crawls over to the dog and climbs on the dog and the whole time says "da, da, da". She has even made some sounds like "Mom". A couple times I noticed it in the middle of the night, but it is the middle of the night and I thought my brain was playing tricks on me. But the third time I heard it was when Evan was trying to put her down for her nap and she was crying and very clearly saying "mom". She won't and hasn't said it since.

First day of first grade!

Last Friday, Liam had his first day of first grade! He was so excited to see his friends, ride the bus again and meet his new teacher. I was very excited that Liam got in Mrs. Williams class whom I requested last year. She seems really great and I've heard very diligent with reading, which is just what Liam needs.

Lucy, Caroline and I took Liam to school in the morning and it was so fun! Liam's kindergarten teacher made a big deal about him being a "big first grader" but I think Liam was a bit preoccupied with his own thoughts because he told me later he didn't hear her at all. But as we were walking one of his best friends from last year ran up to him to walk with us for a couple of minutes. They are in the same class and Liam says their desks are almost right next to each other.

Liam rode the bus home and said his first day went great! Mrs. Williams seems very nice and fun. He even has a locker!

I am so excited that Liam is excited for a great school year!

Summer

gone like the wink of an eye!

Sleeping in Mom and Dad's bed

Playing in the sprinkler

Playing at the splash pad

Baseball

Fun Runs

Flying a kite

Harry Potter parties at the library

Michigan

Eating s'mores

Time with Great Grandma

I would say we have had a very busy summer. Since school started last week we must say good bye.  Successful summer - check!

Coach Pitch Baseball

Liam's favorite sport so far has got to be baseball.

He likes batting and playing first base. He likes first base because "everyone has to throw to first after they catch the ball" which means he gets to try to catch the ball every single time.

Liam had a great season with the same coach he has had for the past 3 years. Coach Sam is really great with all of the kids. He is very encouraging and great at giving instruction. He had practice every Monday and Wednesday and then for the last three weeks he also had games on Friday nights. 

We even scored some nice baseball cleats at a garage sale for $1. Liam loved wearing them for practices and even just playing in the yard.

Overall, Liam had a lot of fun and is very sad that the season is over.

Evan and I loved watching him play. Caroline loved that his practices were right next to the splash pad and playground. Lucy loved that mom was on the blanket right next to her so she could climb all over me. Liam loved hitting line drives right at the coach. Which he did on two separate occasions. 

His last game was moved to an indoor gym due to the heat index which we all appreciated, especially Lucy. Who discovered the stairs that we were sitting on and that she climbed for the last half of the game.

7 months and 8 months

Since I never got around to writing a post when Lucy turned 7 months I decided to combine these last two months together.

The biggest change for Lucy in the last couple of months is that she started crawling. At about 7 months and one week Lucy took off and hasn't stopped since. After about two weeks of crawling she began to pull herself up to a stand on anything she could. Furniture, people, the dog, toys; it really doesn't matter she is strong and nothing is going to get in her way.

We have been continuing to introduce solid foods and things that she wasn't interested in before she has now accepted. She really likes Puffs and has started grabbing the spoon as well while we feed her. Most recently we introduced oatmeal and she is not a fan. Screaming and crying hates it.

Sleep has been a challenge this past month. Lucy has been waking up every 3-4 hours for several weeks. I feel like her top two teeth have got to be playing a role in this new awakening. She used to be such a great sleeper. We even tried to start sleep training because I am so exhausted. That didn't really work and after 40 minutes of crying I gave up and just nursed her. Not ideal. Last night I walked in to feed her and she was standing up in her crib, crying for me. 

She still takes two naps during the day and goes to bed at about 7:30 pm. Lucy is very go with the flow so even if I have to wake her up in the middle of her nap or delay getting her down she doesn't get very fussy.

Since learning how to crawl she has decided that if she sees me in a room she needs to be next to me. This results in her crawling over to me and then trying to climb up my legs to get to me. If I try to run away from her she is not happy about it.

At Liam's last baseball game we had to be inside due to the heat. We decided to sit on these stairs that were  on one side of the gym. Lucy was very happy just playing on the floor in front of us and then decided, "This looks fun!" So, yeah now we can also add climbing stairs to her checked list of things she can do. 

She likes waving her arm up and down as well. I'm not sure if she is waving hello or if she's just having a good time but it's definitely something new.

We still don't have any words or even sounds that we can relate to anything. But she does love to "chat". Many times in the car she will talk to herself, very loudly.

Also something that is new within the last week is her ability to turn pages in her books. Her favorite book right now is her Peek-a-boo book and she loves opening and shutting the page to hide the toy.

Lucy makes the cutest little face sporadically. Here's proof:

I can't believe how in just the last month she has changed so much. Slow down Lucy!

My 3 year old

Happy Birthday Caroline! 

Caroline is 25 pounds and just shy of 36 inches tall. She is beginning to wear 3T shirts and still wears 2T pants.

She is smart, she is feisty, she is stubborn and man alive she loves her sweets. 

Caroline at 3 years old likes playing with her Calico Critters, likes to color and play with her baby dolls. She enjoys play doh and bubbles and will happily play with Liam if he allows her to. She currently likes to color on herself or any scrap piece of paper she can find. She can count confidently up to 12 and needs help after that to 20. She knows her ABC's but leaves out TUV. She knows her name starts with a C and can write the letters C and T.

Caroline is really getting into the princesses and likes to watch princess songs on YouTube. Her favorite princesses are Ariel, Elsa and Aurora. She likes it when I sing the princess songs to her as well. She loves to play dress up right now as well. Again, Elsa and Ariel are her favorite costumes.

Caroline loves having a baby sister and giving her lots of love. Sometimes her hugs are a bit too rough and often times she tries to lay on top of Lucy but her heart is in the right place. When she wakes up in the morning she always tries to find Lucy and gets so excited when she sees her. It's very cute. She loves to bring Lucy baby toys and help me when its time to change her diaper. She is a great big sister.

She is very good at entertaining herself. Often times if I am busy with the other kids or trying to do chores she will play by herself. She likes to follow me around the house and be close to me but doesn't get upset if I'm not playing with her. 

Her lack of sleep does not seem to bother her. She has mostly given up her naptime although we do try to still have her do quiet time. Most of the time that is not quiet though as she will continue to try to get out of bed the entire time. At bedtime even though she is in bed by 8 pm she will happily sing and talk to herself sometimes until 9:30 pm. She often hears, "GO TO SLEEP!"

If Caroline is misbehaving we have found the warning of taking away desserts is the most effective punishment. She LOVES her desserts!

Caroline likes the colors purple and pink, loves to wear dresses and is not a fan of bugs. In fact she really doesn't like bugs. She loves to paint her nails and put on chapstick. She also likes to carry a backpack or purse around the house. She is definitely a girly girl.

She enjoys playing with Liam and if he allows her to they play quite nicely together. If Liam decides he wants to be mean or wants to try to get her in trouble then he likes to get in her face or push her against the sofa or sit on top of her. He's a true big brother. But I also don't want to make it sounds like she is the innocent one. She knows that if she is doing something that annoys him if she keeps doing it and he gets mad enough he will get in trouble. She's sneaky that one.

Caroline will watch some TV and movies but is not drawn to the screen as much as Liam is. Movies she is really into are Frozen, Strawberry Shortcake, Sarah and Duck, My Little Pony and Spirit.

She had a great birthday party that was once again at McGraw Park's splash pad. The kids got to play in the water, ate cupcakes and we even got to break open a piñata. She got some very fun presents but mostly just loved running around with her cousins.

We are so excited to see what this 3 year old has in store for us over the next year. We love you Sweet Caroline!