Update

Lily and Evie had their 3 and 1 year well visits yesterday at the pediatrician.  He is very impressed with both of their development especially how smart Lily is (she knows almost all of her letters!) and Evie's language (she says around 10 words!).  

Here are the weight and height stats:

Lily:

Weight: 26lbs (7 %tile)

Height: 35.75in (21 %tile)

So she has going up a few percentiles for weight and a bunch for height.  I knew that she had gotten a lot taller though because all of her pants are too short!

Evie:

Weight: 17.34lbs (3 %tile)

Height 29in (41 %tile)

Head Circumference; 17.25in (14 %tile)

So she has gotten A LOT taller!  Sean and I both thought she was going to weigh a bit more because of how much she eats but I think because she has gotten so tall and is crawling so much she doesn't hold on the weight.

Lily has been potty trained for a few months now.  She is still in diapers for naps and nighttime partly just because I don't feel like doing a bunch of laundry if she has accidents.  She is doing great during the day and can even "hold it" if we are somewhere that she can't go immediately like in the car.  

She loves puzzles and letters.  She knows almost all of her letters and even some of their sounds.  She has also started writing a little bit and wrote her name for the first time the other day.  Of course it was on a dry erase board so I couldn't save it so I will have to get her to write it on some paper soon so I can have it in her memory box.

Evie started crawling in October and is now really close to walking.  She will "cruise" around furniture and walks while holding onto our hands.  She got a walker toy from my parents for Christmas yesterday and has been walking all around the house with it this morning. 

She also got her first teeth (yes multiple) this week.  It has taken her so long to get her first ones that I have a feeling that she is going to have a mouthful of them by the new year.

Evie is starting to say so many words and gets so happy when she says something and we understand it.  Normally the doctor wants kids her age to have one or two words and she has over 10!  She says the normal ones like "mama" "dada" "Lil" "doggy" "up" "uh-oh", but she also has ones that many kids don't learn till much later such as "no" and "mine".  Can you tell she has a big sister that might say those words a lot?

Time is flying by

I know I haven't updated the blog as much as I have said I was going to.  Time just gets away from me.  We have been so busy with just the day to day stuff of being a family of four that we haven't been doing anything super out of the ordinary so then I forget to update.  I forget that even though the day to day stuff is just normal for us that maybe some of you would enjoy getting to read about it.

One big thing that has changed is that we have a roommate.  One of Sean's friend from high school got a job down in Columbus so he is staying with us until he finds his own place.  It has been great having another set of adult hands sometimes.  Both girls love having him around to play with and Lily needs him to say good night to her every night too.  Since our girls both go to bed fairly early we have taken the monitors down to him and Sean and I have been able to go out for a walk, to dinner, or to the grocery store together without kiddos.  

I know I have said many times that Lily was starting to potty train, and I am sure everyone is thinking "how many times can you start?".  Well this time we might actually be finishing potty training!  I had realized that Lily understood the concept and seemed to be able to tell when she needed to go, but didn't want to take the time away from whatever she was doing to actually go.  She would even through temper tantrums to try to not go in the bathroom.  I didn't want to force her in there because I couldn't force her to actually use the potty and I wanted to make it a rewarding experience not something she dreaded.  I decided one weekend to just stick her in a dress with nothing underneath.  I had read somewhere that even the feel of underwear on a child will confuse them and make them think they can just go like in a diaper, but if there isn't anything there then they will thinking about it in advance and try to go to the bathroom.  I also set a timer so she was reminded to go.  So far it has worked!  I started this about a week and a half ago and while she has had a few accidents most of them were when I wasn't paying as much attention to her as other times.  We still do a diaper at night and for nap, but I am so happy she is starting to finally get the hang of this!

Evelyn is really wanting to crawl but just can't quite figure it out.  There have been a few times that she will get up on her hands and knees only to lunge forward onto her stomach again. She does maneuver around a bit and can get to toys that are a few feet away.  Honestly I will admit that I am a little happy that she isn't crawling yet.  I know it is just going to be that much harder once they are both mobile and can go in different directions.  They are becoming such good friends that I am sure they will quickly learn how to conspire against us.

Smiling

Unhappy because she couldn't run around outside like her sister

So pretty

Lily was constantly moving so this is what all the photos of her looked like

Playing together

"Enough pictures Mom!"

I had to be sneaky to get her picture

So happy that she was able to "catch" Lily's puppy

Growing up, 8 months, and Arts and Crafts!

There are some days that I feel like I can actually see both of my girls learning new things and growing.  While Lily is still tiny for her age she has gotten so much taller the last few weeks.  We have had a few cooler days this week so I tried to put her in jeans that she wore in the spring and they were all too short!  I guess she will be getting a new wardrobe.  The main problem is that she is so skinny compared to her height that most pants don't fit her.  A lot of her pants just slide right down when she is running around and she is constantly having to pull them up.  I just know it is going to get worse too because she is still in diapers so once she loses that extra bulk there will be nothing to hold up the pants.  I am going to have to find a belt for her.

This morning I swear she woke up with so much more language than she did yesterday.  Everything she has said today has been super clear and in sentences.  I love being able to have conversations with her.  I am always amazed at what all she has to say.

Evie is also small for her age (although I don't know a percentile because she doesn't go back to the doctor until September), but she is bigger than Lily was at this age.  Most of the clothes that Evie is wearing that belonged to Lily are from when Lily was right around a year.  So much for my idea that I was going to get to reuse all of Lily's clothes since they were both born the same month.  Luckily it has been hot here for the most part because Evie has just been wearing onsies or even just in her diaper.  Once it gets colder she will have to get a new wardrobe too.

Here are some photos of Evie at 8 months:

 

8 months

"Here Mom"

 So I got the crazy idea to have the girls finger paint on canvas to make some artwork for their rooms.  Surprisingly it was Lily that was messier than Evie.  I was going to put something down on the ground but figured Lily was going to slip or trip on it, and the paint is washable, so I decided to just let them sit on the tile and paint.  Evie loved it and did great not trying to put any of it in her mouth.  Lily of course got it everywhere including all over her body, legs, face, and hair.  I actually think by the time they were finished and I got them in the bath that Lily had more paint everywhere else on her body than on her fingers!

Figuring it out

She looks like she thinks she got caught doing something wrong

"I put on lotion"

The finished work

7 Months and 100 degree weather

I have been trying to find fun things for Lily to do outside.  This activity was actually going to be for both girls, but Evie was sleeping and I needed something to entertain Lily before she got too loud inside and woke Evie up.  These are just colored ice cubes made in muffin tins.  I think I put too much food coloring in each one as there were some spots that were super colorful and where the color was rubbing off on her hands and clothing.  She had fun stacking them up like blocks, naming the colors, feeling how cold they were even though it was close to 100 degrees outside that day, and even tasting them.  Later on we put them in a bucket and watched how the colors mixed together as they melted.

Exploring the ice blocks

Feeling how cold they were

She wanted to see if it tasted like a popsicle

Her hands were a little colored for a few hours but it washed off that night during bathtime

Evie is 7 months old!  I can't believe how fast this year is going.  

Smiling for the camera

Still not crawling and that is okay with this momma right now!

"Hey, what's this?"

Sean and Evie on the 4th

Things have been pretty hectic here recently so unfortunately I have been slacking with updating the blog.

Lily is growing up way to quickly for me.  All of her language is just amazing.  We can now carry on conversations where each of us will take about 4 turns.  Very rarely does she not use sentences.  It is great to see her personality come out even more.  She is quite the little negotiator.  She definitely does not get everything she wants, but there are times when she has made a good point so I have given in.

She is also quite social.  Every morning she asks me who we are going to see or play with that day.  Whenever we go on a walk at least one or two little kids in the neighborhood have to yell hello to Lily.  We have been hanging out with the neighbor and her kids and the kids she babysits.  She babysits a little girl a few months older than Lily and she has a son that is a few months younger than Lily.  She also has a 4 year old that Lily just adores and babysits a little boy that is just a few days older than Evie.  It is great to have friends close by for the girls to play with and to give me some adult conversation as well.

Evie has had a rough couple weeks.  We started her on solids.  Evidently the solids I decided to start on her coupled with her body changing the way it digests food, made her constipated.  She did enjoy the prune juice that Sean had to give her a couple times and that definitely seemed to work.  For the most part it didn't seem to bother her, she is such an easy going baby.  We slowed down on solids though to give her body a chance to regulate itself and have just recently started giving them to her again.

Last week I was working a lot so the girls were either with my mom or the babysitter a lot.  Evie is doing well with her stranger anxiety, but she still doesn't like to drink out of a bottle all that much.  There were a few days where she didn't drink much at all and then when I got home she wanted me to nurse her almost all night long.  That made me super tired the next day at work and made my time away from the girls that much harder.

Sean and I got to go see fireworks for the 4th of July!  We have never seen them together and it has always been something I wanted to do.  The girls are definitely too young, plus they go to bed hours before the fireworks start, that I didn't think we were going to get to go until they got much older.  This year though, my parents weren't doing anything so we left the girls there and Sean and I got an evening with some friends without kiddos.  Of course while we were waiting for the fireworks to start huge storm clouds started rolling in.  We decided to head back to the car.  We figured we would just watch whatever we could see from there and then be able to be in the car in case the storm came.  This ended up being an amazing idea because our car was evidently at a perfect viewing area!  Then we didn't have to walk to the car and wait forever to get out of the parking lot.  I can't wait for the years to come when we get to go as a family.  I just know they both will love them.

6 months

 Yesterday was Evie's 6 month well visit.  Sean was able to take the day off work to go with us which was a huge help.  I always forget to ask something or Lily wants my attention while the doctor is talking with us.  She is bigger than her sister was at this age, but still small.  It is funny because I keep thinking about how big she is (she is wearing clothes that Lily wore when she was 10-15 months old!) but she is still small compared to the averages. 

Weight: 14.22lbs (16 percentile)

Height: 25.5in (39 percentile)

Head Circumference: 16.25in (17 percentile)

The doctor says she is doing great and is happy with her development so far.  He did give us a handout on sleep because she is having a hard time going to bed at night and is still waking up several times throughout the night sometimes.

We also got the okay to start solid foods!  I think she has been ready for awhile, but he wanted to hold off since she has only been nursed.  She has been grabbing for our spoons and foods for about a month of more now so I knew she was going to be excited when the spoon actually came her way.

Here are the photos from her first feeding.  It took her only a couple bites before she had this whole eating solids thing figured out.

Not so sure

She really didn't like the first couple bites

Leaning in to get it faster

"You are going too slow Daddy, I will help you"

Sucking it all off the spoon

Giggling

Today as I was making lunch I heard a bunch of squealing and giggling coming from the family room.  Not wanting to miss out on a good time with the girls I went to investigate and this is what I found.  Lily is such an amazing big sister

Water beads and sitting up

The weather here has been amazing so we have been going outside as much as possible.  Lily just got a new pool because the one she had the last two years is small and better suited for Evie.  This one is really cool and you can hook the hose up to it and it will sprinkle water over her.  We haven't tried it yet because just playing in the water is so much fun.  I will save the sprinkler part for later in the summer as an extra surprise. 

 

The problem with going outside so much is using a ton of sunscreen.  The other day Evie was napping and Lily and I decided to go out and play for a little bit in the backyard.  Their sunscreen was in Evie's room so I just sprayed a little bit of mine on Lily.  I'm not sure if it is the sunscreen or the sun and heat or a combination of them, but Lily got what looked like little hives on her legs, back or her arms, and her neck.  She didn't seem to notice it so I am assuming it didn't itch.  Sean and I decided to keep her inside for a few days to see if that helped it go away and it seems to have.  When she gets hot it does come back a little bit, but not as much as before.  When I compared the two sunscreens I found out that the kid's stuff is PABA free which is evidently a big allergen for kids and people with sensitive skin.  I am not sure if we can keep her inside much longer since she keeps seeing all her friends outside so we will have to try her sunscreen again and hope that the splotches don't come back.

Since we have been inside we have had to find fun things to do to keep the begging to go outside to a minimum.  I have seen on Pinterst an idea to use water beads as a sensory activity for kids.  I had a few bags on hand that I had gotten at a craft show to put in vases instead of water.  I had never thought to let Lily play with them but decided to give it a try.  She loved them!  They start out as small beads and you soak them in water and they get bigger.  They are the size of marbles and feel kinda wet and squishy.  They were a lot of fun to feel, scoop, drop and let bounce, and try to pick up.  Since they are small they are definitely an activity that required adult supervision but we will be doing these again for sure.  They are great because you just let them sit out and they shrink back to they original size and can be stored easily for another use.

I soaked them all night so they were ready for her first thing in the morning so don't mind the pj's and messy hair :)

Feeling the water beads for the first time.

Examining them.

 

More examining

I did start out with blue, green, and purple, but I soaked them all in the same water and they all turned out blue. If I buy more I will make sure to soak them separately so there will be lots of colors.

Last weekend we did Race for the Cure.  It is a 5K walk/run to raise money for breast cancer research.  Sean's work does a team every year so we walked with them.  Since pink is the color for breast cancer awareness and  both my girls have lots of pink clothing it was easy to get them in cute outfits for the walk.  They both did great riding in the stroller the whole time.  I thought Lily was going to want out, but I guess there were enough people and dogs around us for her to watch to keep her entertained.

Evie at Race for the Cure

Lily holding Evie at Race for the Cure

The last bit of big news is that Evie can sit up all on her own.  Well, she can't get to a sitting position by herself yet, but if we set her up she can keep her balance.  She is also trying to crawl.  She can get up on her hands and knows her legs are supposed to do something, but hasn't quite figured it out yet. 

Evie setting up like a big girl

Oh the Things Toddlers Say

Everyday Lily is saying more and more.  It is very rare for her to not be speaking in sentences of at least 4 words.  While I understand most of what she is saying there are still times when she will be jabbering on about something and I am completely lost.  Unfortunately those are the times when she typically ends whatever she is saying with "Okay?" and I never know if I should say yes or no because I have no idea what I would be agreeing to.

There are times when she says things that are just absolutely hilarious.  For example the other day she was playing with her stuffed pig and bunny.  She turns to me and in a very serious voice says "Piggy sad".  I respond with "Oh no, why is Piggy sad?".  She says, "Bunny tooted and it stinky".  I really had no idea what to say to that.

She has also started to recognize some letters thanks to this amazing puzzle that I found for her.  Every time she finds all the letters for a word she asks me to spell it and points to each letter and repeats them after me.  There are a few that she gets on her own including "t", "g", "k", and sometimes "n".  She also knows "me" and "double me" aka "u" and "w"!  Every time she points to one of them and I say either "u" or "w" she repeats with "me" or "double me".  It is really cute.

Evie is growing up so quickly.  She loves being down on the floor trying to crawl.  She can't get up on her hands and knees yet, but she can turn her body around if she wants to get to something that is a different direction (she kind of pivots on her belly).  She also loves being in her excersaucer.  I think she doesn't want to miss a thing that is going on so she loves that she can be upright and looking about in that thing.  She is gaining so much more control of her movements and will purposely grab for, and hold on to, toys.  Evie also loves grabbing her toes.  Evidently feet are the most interesting and hilarious thing ever.  The other day she kept holding on to her feet and staring at them and then would start laughing.  Lily and I would then also start laughing which would make Evie laugh more. 

Evie 5 month growth picture

Evie 5 months

Such a happy baby

Lily showing off all her teeth

Lily helping find the correct number for Evie's photo

Blowing bubbles outside

Playing outside

I am making bins to organize the girls' closets.  This is the first completed one and I am quite happy with it, especially since it was originally just a diaper box!

Siblings

Lily and Evie are definitely falling into their rolls of older and younger sibling.  Lily has recently decided that there are times when she doesn't want her younger sister touching her or looking at her.  I hear "Evie no, don't ______" a lot through out the day.  The main problem with this is that Evie obviously doesn't understand "no" yet and just keeps doing whatever she feels like doing at that moment.  She also LOVES looking at her big sister. She is constantly watching Lily and smiling and laughing at her.  This definitely annoys Lily when she realizes her little sis is doing it.  Evie seems to want to be wherever Lily is and is very interested in her.  It will only be a matter of time before she is following her around the house and annoying her on purpose!  

As much as Lily gets annoyed with her sister she also seems to like the attention she gets from her at times.  If Evie happens to fall asleep out the the family room Lily will randomly yell "EVIE!".  Of course Evie jumps awake which makes Lily look very proud of herself and exclaim "Evie wake up!".

Rainbow Rice!

Today Lily and I colored rice into a bumch of different colors. She had a ton of fun scooping and pouring. When I first dumped them in all the colors were seperated and she was naming all of them.  It wasn't long before they were all mixed together though.  The best part of this activity is that I can put a lid on the tub and store it away for another day and it will be just as exciting then.

Consistently Inconsistent

I have decided that the phrase "Consistently Inconsistent" very accurately describes my life and our girls right now.  While I am loving my new job and being able to set my own schedule, it isn't always as easy as it seems.  There are many times that I want to work, but the people I need to meet or work with are not available.  I have had two pay periods with the company.  In one I worked 12.75 hours and the other only 2.5.  I can't wait until I am more independent and get a few more clients because then I can really set my own schedule and have more consistent weeks and paychecks.  

Lily is still working on potty training.  I believe that she could actually be done with diapers now if she really wanted but that there are some control issues going on and therefore there are many times when diapers are necessary.  She will go a whole day with using the potty and having a dry diaper the whole day and then the next she refuses to even go into the bathroom.  While I feel kids shouldn't be pressured into potty training when they aren't ready, I am frustrated because I know she can do it.  I keep trying to step back and not pressure but it is hard when the day before I didn't have to change any of her diapers.  Consistently Inconsistent.

We have moved Evie into her own room and that is helping someone at night.  While I still have to get up to feed her (and now have to walk across the house instead of just getting her out of the bassinet beside my bed) the time that we are sleeping is much more restful.  The monitor that we use is a sound activated one so it doesn't pick up all the times when she is just moving slightly, but will let me know if she is really moving a lot or crying.  She usually goes to bed the same time as Lily, so around 7pm.  Sometimes I will go in and feed her before I go to bed anywhere between 10pm and midnight.  Most of the time she doesn't even wake up for this feeding.  Then she will sleep till around 5am when she wants more food.  Then she will sleep (or at least lay quietly in her bed) until about 6:30am.  Then there are the nights like two nights ago when she wakes up almost every hour from midnight till 6am.  I really don't mind getting up and feeding her, in fact there are times when I like being able to just sit and rock with her in the quiet house with no distractions, but I would really like to know before bedtime if it is going to be a night where I am doing that once or twice or six plus times.  Consistently Inconsistent.

On another note, I am going to try cloth diapering with Evie.  It was something I wanted to do before Lily was born but there were many reason that we didn't.  Now that I am staying home more I feel like it is a very doable option.  I have been doing research online and there is so much info out there that it is a little overwhelming.  I found a couple different types of cloth diapers at a consignment sale the other day so we are going to start with those and then go from there.  I have also found a bunch of websites that have patterns and tutorials on making your own cloth diapers so once we pick a type that we like then I plan on doing that to save even more money.  If anyone has any tips, advice, stories, or anything about cloth diapers I would love to hear them.

Photos

Here are a few photos from Easter

Family photo

Lily loved looking for Easter Eggs.

Especially when she found out there were treats inside.

5 years

Yesterday Sean and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  We didn't go out and do anything special, just hung out with the girls all day, had a nice family dinner at home, and watched some tv.  Basically it was like most evenings in our house but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.  Yes wedding anniversaries are about us as a couple, but to me they are also a reminder of the day we became a family and therefore spending the day as a family was great.

There really isn't much else to update on around here.  The girls are as adorable as ever.  Sean is working a lot.  I am starting to work a bit more and am really loving my job, but also loving my time home with the girls.

Lily showing Evie how to play with her Exersaucer

Checking out all the toys

Impromptu photo shoot that didn't go so well.

4 month old Evie

Being silly

Lily was pretending to take pictures of Evie too so I had to snap a quick one of her.  She has quite an imagination.

Sister loving time

Evie laughing at her big sister

Beautiful!