2 Month Stats and 25 Months Old

Ann Parker had her 2 month appointment last week. She is as healthy as can be and we are so thankful. She weighed 8 lb. 12 oz. (2-5%), was 21 3/4 inches long (25%), and had a head circumference of 14 1/2 inches (25%). She is much smaller than Caroline at two months. C was 10 lb. 2 oz. - exactly 2 pounds heavier!! She was also 1 1/2 inches longer. Dr. Wilson said that she looked perfect and there was nothing to worry about! AP had to get two shots and one oral vaccine. She only cried for a few seconds after the shots. As soon as I picked her up she was okay. She was not good about taking the oral vaccine though!! She kept spitting it out. I don't really blame her. I still hate taking medicine like that. We are so happy that she looks so great!!

Caroline is now 25 months old. It's so strange to not do a monthly post on her. She continues to amaze us with her vocabulary. I told her it was bedtime the other night and she said "really?" It was so funny. There is still plenty of babbling, but she can identify most objects around the house, colors, numbers, animals, friends and family members. It's so amazing to think how much she has learned this past year!! Caroline used the big girl potty TWICE in one day!!! She hasn't done it again, but we are off to a great start. We are so proud of the healthy, smart, kind girl she is!!

Fun with Friends

Our sweet friends Jenny and George had a cookout at their house last weekend.  Adam was on a recruiting trip for work, so it was just me and the girls that went.  We had so much fun.  There were 4 babies and 2 toddlers there.  Caroline had a blast running through the house with Raughley and Ann Parker enjoyed her first official "playdate" with some little friends. 

Caroline loves babies!  Holding Ann Parker and Liam.

Lovely ladies and their babies!

Two Month Comparison

Caroline and Ann Parker are both such cuties!  The pictures that we took of each of them in the hospital are identical.  I was pretty sure that Ann Parker would look a lot like Caroline as she got bigger.  At one month I think they were pretty similar as well.  But now, at two months I don't think they look that much alike!  They both have the same nose and cheeks, which they get from their daddy.  They have different head shapes, eyes, and mouths though.  What do you think?  All of these pictures were taken on the day they turned two months old.

Two Months Old!!

Two Months Old - June 20, 2012

Today my baby is two months old.  Time sure is flying by.  We are enjoying Ann Parker so much.  She is such a wonderful baby!!  With very few exceptions she is sleeping through the night.  I will feed her between 10-11 and she will sleep until 8:30, only stirring once and 99% of the time a paci will help.  It's been such a difference from baby Caroline, who was up a lot during the night for feedings.  She is napping well during the day too.  She usually takes one long nap in the afternoon and then little cat naps here and there, but that also changes depending on the activities of the day so I won't say that we're in a schedule yet.

We have moved her to size 1 diapers, although they are still a little big!  She has outgrown some of her smaller newborn clothes.  She is still wearing mostly newborn and some 0-3 month clothes.  She goes to the pediatrician tomorrow so we'll have stats then.  I know she has grown though - look at the difference between these pictures and last month!

She is still a good eater.  She is also better at nursing, although she mainly takes bottles.  She is only getting breastmilk at this point and hopefully that will last for a while.  She takes about 3 oz. at a time during the day and about 5 oz. at night before bed.  She doesn't spit up very much which is great, but if I try to give her more milk she will projectile spit up.  Lovely :)

She smiles all the time and I just love it!  Caroline seems to get the most smiles and that's okay with me.  Ann Parker still loves her swing, bouncer, Nuk paci, being outside, stroller rides, music, bath time, being held, Caroline, and watching Daisy.  (Mommy and Daddy too, of course!) 

She doesn't mind tummy time.  She's been working hard on her neck muscles!  She has also been bearing weight on her legs a lot. 

She is a very happy and content baby - an absolute joy to be around! 

Happy 2 month birthday Ann Parker!!  We love you so much.  I am so happy that you are a part of our family.  Your sweet little smiles and precious little coo's just melt my heart!

Father's Day 2012

Adam is truly the best daddy I know!  He works so hard so that I can stay home with our girls.  After long days at the office he will come home and play with Caroline and Ann Parker.  Whatever C wants to do, he will do with a smile - dance party, tea party, dress up, you name it and he will do it.  Since he has been working so incredibly hard lately, I had a fun and relaxing weekend planned.  As we all know the saying...the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. 

Friday was such a beautiful day.  I thought that we would eat dinner outside at The Club.  We were going with another couple that is expecting their first baby this fall.  Caroline, who has been a lot better when it comes to eating out, decided that she would rather run around instead of eat.  Awesome.  The evening was spent talking to our friends in shifts.  We would take turns bringing Caroline to run around on the patio.  So much for a relaxing dinner with friends!

We were invited to go to a friends house for dinner on Saturday with a bunch of other couples and their kids.  Adam had to go on a recruiting trip for the day but was supposed to be home by 6:00.  I spent the day with the girls and we waited for Adam to get home so we could all go and have a good time.  Sounds fun, right?  Well, an hour before we were supposed to leave the house Adam called and said they were running behind.  I'll leave out the rest of the details but Adam never made it to our friends house that night!  We were so looking forward to spending time with him!  At least we have all day on Father's Day, right??

WRONG!!  Late in the week we found out that Adam's parents decided to come into town for the day and that Adam's brother made plans for the men to play golf.  Adam hasn't played golf in so long so that was a nice treat for him...although it meant once again scratching what I had planned and any hopes of spending the day together.  Regardless, we still made the most of the time we did have together that day.  I got up early and went to get coffee.  I came home and made breakfast.  Luckily both girls slept in so that Adam could too.  Once everyone was awake, we ate and gave Adam his gifts.  He got some new framed pictures of all his girls to put in his office, a new polo shirt (apparently a Father's Day tradition as he has gotten a new one every year), some nice shaving cream and face soap, a bottle of bourbon (hey - the man has been working like a dog, he needs it!), and another page in his Father's Day album.  He loved all his gifts!  We decided to stay home from church and just enjoy our time together.  We played with the girls and relaxed on the couch.  It was great.  After a while we all got up and got ready for brunch.  We went to Oscar's at the Art Museum.  It was delicious!!!  I cannot wait to go back.  The food was great and they had live jazz music playing.  The restaurant is located right next to the new children's area so Caroline had a place to go when she was bored of sitting.  Perfection.  After brunch we took Adam to the golf course.  The girls spent the day playing at the house.  We were going to cook Adam a lovely meal but of course, golf took forever and he wasn't finished until almost 8:00 so Adam and I ate Chipotle.

New page in album.  Left side is interview with Caroline and her hand.  Right side is picture of Adam and Ann Parker and her foot print.

Happy Father's Day Adam!  We hope you had a wonderful weekend.  We sure do love you!

Muffin date

This morning while my baby girl slept, I had a date with my big girl! We made blueberry mini muffins and then ate in bed while watching Mickey. Lots of hugs and giggles were involved. I love spending time with my Caroline!

Caught!!

I finally caught Ann Parker smiling on camera!! What a cutie!

The things she says...

Caroline's vocabulary has just exploded and she keeps us laughing all day long! I want to remember some things she says at this stage.
•Baby nice (if AP isn't crying)
•Boo boo shoe (when she hurts her foot)
•Hello. I'm me.
•Sydney Polka (she's trying to say the name of her friend but slightly off. She will also say this randomly throughout the day. Maybe we need a playdate?)
•I pretty. (Also said randomly throughout the day)

She's so funny and is saying new things all the time. This is such a fun age!

Here's a pic of my silly girl in the bassinet...

Important things

It is important to check vitals on the back door when it is this hot outside!

Lots of firsts!

This has been a busy week for little AP!! On Saturday, June 2 - at six weeks and one day old - she gave her first real social smile!! I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet but I will soon!!! On Tuesday, June 5 she slept through the night! She ate at 11:00 and slept until 8:30!! We are so proud! On Wednesday, June 6 she had her first non family babysitter. We went to an event for Adam's work for about 3 hours. She did great! I did pretty good too...it's hard leaving your babies when they are so little! Last week we had to travel out of town for a funeral. We took AP with us. This was not only her first time out of town, but her first plane ride!! She was fantastic. She slept the whole time. It's been a busy week for our little girl! She's doing so many new things and I just love getting to be a part of it!!

These pics are of random things this week; doing puzzles with Caroline, tummy time, play mat with her sister, relaxing, a half smile, etc.

When?

When did I get old enough to have not one, but two, kids?? Time is going by too fast...

2 Years Old!!!

2 Years Old - May 23, 2012

Despite all my efforts to keep her a baby forever, Caroline turned two years old a couple of weeks ago.  What an amazing two year old she is!  Her development continues to amaze us each day.  Her vocabulary grows by the minute it seems.  She speaks in some small sentences and says quite a lot of words.  Her understanding of what we say is incredible.  She recently learned to say "Mickey/Minnie" and it's so cute...also not surprising at all since she's obsessed.  She will try and repeat most words, except when we try to get her to say something.  She's a little stubborn like that :)

She's very active and moving almost all the time.  She has pretty much completely cut out naps which wears this mama out!  I think she's too young to be done with naps, but it's not worth the sttruggle to get her to lay down each day.  Instead, she has "quiet time" for an hour or two.  She can watch Mickey, do puzzles, read books, etc.  She spends time doing independant activities so I can rest or get other stuff done around the house.  She is sleeping better through the night, but we still struggle with getting her down to sleep.  No doubt, she is improving, but it's a slow road.  She wants to be right in the action and has a hard time going to bed if she thinks something is going on.  Some nights she'll be great and be asleep by 8:00 - other nights she has been screaming and crying until 10:30.  Fun stuff...

She is a good eater most of the time.  There are times when she won't eat - but she's two.  She loves breakfast food (pancakes, waffles, sausage, cinnamon rolls, etc.), fruit, broccoli, edamame, pizza, toast, noodles (off all kind lately - lo mein, spaghetti, pad thai...), cheese, and DESSERTS!!  This girl has a serious sweet tooth just like her mommy!  It's so funny because sweets were the only thing I couldn't eat when I was pregnant with her.  So far I haven't found anything sweet that she won't gobble up.

She's growing like a weed.  At her two year appointment she was 25 lb. 8 oz (35th percentile), was 34 3/4 inches tall (90th), and had a head circumference of 18 1/2 (45th).  Dr. Wilson was happy with her growth and after talking with her for a while, she said that Caroline was also right on track developmentally.  She had to get her finger pricked, but she didn't shed a single tear.  Caroline had a clean bill of health and doesn't have to go back until her 3 year old well visit!!  I cannot believe that we are down to yearly visits with her!

Caroline still loves to be outside more than anything.  We spend a lot of time out doors each day.  She also loves puzzles and books.  Mickey is obviously her show of choice, but she also likes Little Einsteins and Backyardigans.  Other favorite things are dancing, running, bath time, painting, holding her sister, playing with baby dolls, her shape blocks, and pulling Daisy's tail :)  She loves seeing her friends and can be a bit of a show off when they are around.  After we came home from the hospital with AP she was being a mama's girl but now we are back to having a daddy's girl big time!!

Happy 2nd Birthday precious Caroline!!  We are so proud of the amazing little girl you are becoming.  You are loving, kind, and funny.  You are so full of life and it makes us smile.  When you were born we said that we didn't care what you grew up to be - as long as you grew up to be happy.  You've got a long way to go before you are "grown up" but so far you are certainly happy on the journey!  You find a way to always smile and that makes us smile too.  You have made our lives so much better!  Two years ago you made me a mommy - the best gift I could have ever imagined.  I love you to the moon and back! 

Party Time!!

We celebrated Caroline's second birthday on Saturday, May 19th.  Were we crazy for planning a birthday party with a one month old?  Yes!  When I started thinking about her party the guest list was pretty long.  We had a big one year old party and I wanted two to be just as big.  When I realized that we would have a new baby anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks old, the guest list started getting smaller and smaller.  We decided to have a small party and just invite our family, C's friends from school and play group, and our friends that had kids.  We must have picked a busy weekend because so many people couldn't show up!!  The group was very small, but we had a blast!  Caroline had such a wonderful time and got so many nice gifts.  She is one very loved little girl.

We decided to have a Minnie Mouse themed party since she loves Minnie.  Just like last year, we had balloons on the mailbox and the birthday banner on the front door to greet everyone.

Caroline loves balloons and streamers - I mean really loves them!  That's great since they are such easy party decorations.  I made sure we had lots of both in the house that day.

We had a delicious cake from Edgar's along with the rest of the snacks that day.  Caroline, of course, ate only the icing!

I made it easy on myself this year - I put out outdoor toys in the backyard and had some paper and crayons inside.  I didn't plan any other games or activities and just let the kiddos play.  It worked perfectly...especially since most of the kids C's age couldn't come and it was mostly these cuties!

Caroline looked lovely in her white tutu and hot pink shirt!  She kept saying "tutu, tutu" all afternoon!

Ann Parker was another cutie in her opposite attire - pink tutu and white top. 

Caroline loved when we sang Happy Birthday to her!  Her face lit up and she had the sweetest smile.  Best moment of the party if you ask me!

All in all, it was a fun party and C had a great time!  She got some wonderful new things.  Some of her favorite things are her Little People Farm, Minnie Mouse cell phone, Minnie Mouse dress up toy, basketball goal, monogrammed beach towel, books, and puzzles.  Happy Birthday Caroline!

Matching Outifts!

It's so fun to have two precious little girls.  I love dressing them in matching outifts.  I know I won't be able to do this for long, so I am enjoying it while it lasts!  Of course a little photo shoot was in order for the first time they matched.

I know there are many more matching outfit photos to come!!