5 months 1.20.13

I've been slow to write this post because Miss Caroline is growing up too fast. I can't believe she is 5 months. I wish the delay in writing this would keep her little longer, but she continues to grow, develop and experience new things.
On her 5 month birthday, she was baptized at St Peter's in Lexington (my home church). This was a wonderful way to mark her turning 5 months.  Pastor Rawl did her baptism.  He has been a part of all of our family's life-events: my confirmation, our wedding, Tillman's baptism, and now Caroline's baptism.  I'm relying on the grandma's to send us photos from the event, since we didn't take any photos.  Hope to do a full post on the baptism soon.

Happy Girl!

Caroline's hair continues to be a "show stopper." Everywhere we go people are in awe over her curly locks! I think it has even gotten curlier over the past month.  Another "physical" change is that Caroline has her first tooth coming in!  It is on the bottom, and we should see that pearly white really soon!

Caroline has also learned a few new tricks this month.  She is starting to sit up by herself for short periods of time.  Also, tummy time is a favorite for her.  She loves to be put on her tummy to reach for things.  She also can roll from her tummy to back and back to tummy!  She gets startled when she rolls to her back, as her head generally thumps the floor pretty hard!  When she isn't rolling around, she is scooting around...or wiggling should I say.  She can shimmy her way all around the floor to get to things.  Tillman and her are starting to "play" together a little.  We try to encourage Tillman to give her toys and sit on the floor with her.

Is my hair ok?

We are also working through putting her in her crib!  The first night went pretty good, but the past two nights have been *heck*!!  I went ahead and transitioned "cold turkey."  She went from being in the Moses basket, downstairs and swaddled to now in the crib unswaddled.  I didn't want to baby her; I just wanted to see how she did with it all.  She goes down wonderfully!  She watches her mobile, kicks around and then falls asleep.  However, around midnight she is back up.  Although she will feed and go right back down, I tried to let her cry it out.  She cried, and she cried....I couldn't take it.  I picked her up and fed her. 5 minutes later she was out.  After that, I felt like I was starving her, so that kept me up longer, as I was pondering all of this in my mind.  I should have been sleeping because she was back up again at 4, and again she drank and went to sleep.  Unsure what to do, so this saga will continue!   

Ahhh living the life!

Caroline has been keeping the doctor busy this month too!  Everything is viral, so we can't do a thing for her.  Her poor nose has been stopped up since she began daycare, and it just won't end. She spent the first day of 2013 at the doctor's office and went again last week.  She also spent 2 days at home with a fever.  She wanted to be held the whole time, and she could feel when you were putting her down and would instantly wake!  Now as I write this, I wonder if it wasn't her tooth giving her the runny nose and fever.  

Caroline's 5 month stats:

Weight-15 lbs 2.7 oz (48th percentile)

Diaper size-finishing up size 1's in the house and moving to 2 as soon as possible!

Clothing-wide range-0-3 in two pieces and 3-6 in sleepers

Diet-mostly "mommy milk," occasional formula, and rice cereal began this weekend.

Sleep-waking at midnight and 3AM.  She's only taking 30 min naps at daycare. She's turning out to be her father-a person who needs little sleep!

Favorite things-smiling, giggles, "raspberry" sounds, blowing bubbles with mouth and nose (poor thing is so congested), playing with her car seat toys, and enjoying the Jumperoo and Bumbo seat.

28 Months 1.12.13

The Pottying Parrot is what Tillman's name is this month!  He repeat everything and is officially wearing big boy underwear!  This has been a huge month.

"Aw Man!" is his favorite new saying.  He does use it appropriately.  He gets that Nick.  Nick generally says it when he drops stuff, makes a mess, or falls down.  Tillman picked it up and uses it all the time. Every time he says it, he gets a huge grin on his face!

Pink Eye Day Home From School

Pottying has really taken off as of last week.  On Friday (1.4.13) he had a dry pull-up all day at daycare.  They said we could bring big boy underwear the following week.  Tillman stayed dry the entire week at school.  However, we generally couldn't make it to the house before he was wet, so we wore diapers at home and underwear at school.  Over the weekend, we really worked with him to go to the potty. We stepped up our treats to a sucker (instead of M&Ms).  He would go on the potty, and would say "yeah, pee pee on the potty....SUCKER!"  He did have an accident in his pants of the #2 kind.  It was very nice weather, so we were outside.  He was escorted over to the water hose to clean up his mess.  I think he enjoyed it, but I also think (I hope...we'll see) got the point across that he can't do that in his new big boy underwear.  He has also been going potty before bed and has been waking up DRY!
Nick and I have been so impressed with his progress. It really has happened fast.  We've tried to be really flexible with him about were he goes potty, as we have a potty chair and a potty seat, we let him go on the potty with no little seat, we let him choose which potty in the house, he picks out his big boy underwear from boxers to boxer briefs to briefs ..the choices are endless!  All of these antics have helped him stay excited about going potty and makes him think less of the cool ELMO diaper!

Masterpiece in progress!

We've been on this potty train since the summer, and I'm glad that he is finally willing to do it verse it being a fight.  It will be nice to cut back on the diaper buying.  I won't say we are complete done with diapers and pull ups, but we certainly see light at the end of the tunnel!

Back to Tillman parroting everything-he is starting to really do what the cartoons ask kids to do.  When Barney starts hugging at the end of the show, he goes around to everyone and starts hugging and saying "I love you."  I never thought I'd appreciate Barney, but I do now!  Also, he is very into ELMO's world.  He loves to sing the song.  In the car, he has his kiddy music.  He is starting to sing along.  One of his CDs sings the ABC's.  He tries to keep pace with the ABC, but he is more interested in keeping up with the tune than the letter.  Any of the letter that have a pause-G, P, S, V, Z he really hangs on to those during the tune.  He'll get it!
T is also a counting machine.  With help, he can count to 10.  He generally likes to do every other number, so we have been working on counting.
Colors...oh colors!  No progress in that department.  Everything is pretty much still YELLOW.  That child won't learn his colors to save his life!

Cheese is a big smile and closed eyes!

Motor skills are coming along.  He is starting to "ride" his Strider bike.  He enjoys wearing his "hat" (helmet). He takes his bike for a spin mostly when Nick take Graham on his walks.  Tillman "Flintstones" his bike around the yard.  He can do about two laps around the yard before he is on to something else.

Health wise, it was a rough month.  It included Pink Eye, Albuterol Treatments, Cough, and Runny Nose.  He is on the mend now, as the whole house is!  We're hoping for a happy and healthy 2013!

Rolling!

28 month stats
-Diaper size 4
-Clothing-24 mo shirts and 18 mo pants
-Weight-26 lbs
-Shoes size- 7