Alethea Lenora is THREE!!!

                On Friday February 21^st, our sweet baby girl turned 3 years old.  She is growing up way to fast!  Three feels like so much older than two for some reason.  She is quickly losing the baby face and growing into a beautiful little girl. And she even has the hair coming in to go with it!  There are many days we get on each other’s nerves and she drives me crazy, but I wouldn’t trade a minute I have with her.  I am so thankful that God has blessed me with the opportunity to be at home and pour into her life.

My Beautiful Girl!

Last sleep as a 2 year old

                Alethea is very inquisitive and always asking questions.  She is like a little sponge and taking everything in.  I am always amazed at the things she understands and can restate.  Her vocabulary is mature beyond her years and I love that we can carry on adult-like conversations these days.  It’s hard to believe that when she first turned 2 she spoke one word or simple sentence statements and now she is speaking in full, complex sentences.  She has also begun to show interest and retain knowledge about Jesus and His life which has been really neat to begin talking with her about.

                This year, since we had just moved, we don’t know many people locally yet.  We decided to just have a fun night with family over to celebrate Alethea’s birthday.  Ben and I also had fun spending the day making her feel special.  She woke up as normal, and I turned on Super Why as a special treat for the morning while I made breakfast.  Crazily enough, she fell asleep watching it!  I was concerned she might be getting sick and her fun day might be ruined.  Then she woke up and threw up as I was carrying her to the breakfast table.  Surprisingly she still wanted to eat her breakfast and after breakfast she was still hungry and ate 3 servings of Annie’s cheddar bunnies!  From that point on, you would never have known she was sick in the morning, phew!

Sleeping Beauty

Birthday breakfast (heart cutout of strawberry cake, smoothie, and banana)

Fun after breakfast with Declan

Silly birthday girl

                After Declan took his morning nap, we met Ben at an indoor play place called All About Kids.  We had heard recommendations that it was a lot of fun, and she loved it!  It took some time for her to warm up to the place and branch out but, once she did, she had a blast.  Having Daddy there was really helpful. J  When open gym was over, Alethea and I headed out for a shopping date while Ben took Declan home for a nap.  We decided this year that Alethea would get to pick out her presents at Toys R Us (other than the new undies and puzzle I had already gotten her).  She had a blast walking around the store and playing with the toys.  I told her we were going to pick out some presents for her birthday and so she was handing me toys to say “I want this one Mommy”.  I was surprised that she wasn’t asking for everything; she actually was very selective with what she chose.  I carried around what she chose and then, if she wanted too much, she had to make a trade in order to keep the new item.  After about an hour of fun, we walked out of the store with a Sophia wand that plays music and teaches numbers and letter, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book with figurines to go with it, a squishy Sully doll from Monsters Inc, a wind up ducky, a pack of stickers, and a Minnie mouse heart shaped tin all for $30 (after $8 in coupons).  I think this might be a new tradition because we had so much fun spending time together and she was so excited about her new goodies.

new puzzle

All her loot

New undies

Declan enjoyed All About Kids too

Playing in one of the bounce houses

blocks!

giant slide fun

tippy toes :-)

trampoline

Shopping!

                We followed up our date with cookies from Whole Foods before heading home to make a yummy dinner to share with family.  Alethea’s request for her birthday dinner started out as strawberries and a long list of fruit, lol.  After discussing it, she decided she wanted pink pancakes and eggs.  I didn’t want to use food coloring and wanted Declan to be able to eat the pancakes so we did pancakes with pink strawberry sauce on the side instead.  She loved them and ate 4 pancakes and 2 servings of eggs!  Then her request for her cake was a strawberry ice cream cake.  I layered homemade strawberry ice cream, homemade strawberry cake, and homemade chocolate sauce to make her cake.  It was delicious, but unfortunately the ice cream turned out hard as a rock after sitting in the freezer, so we had to wait for it to thaw a bit, lol.

Birthday dinner

Declan had his dinner earlier so he was just playing

Strawberry ice cream cake

pretty layers

And he got naked!

Time to blow out candles

yum!

finger-licking good

being Uncle Cody's "doctor"

magic wand time!

Had to have a shot of her shirt, even if it was dirty :-)

                After dinner and dessert, we had fun watching her open everyone’s presents.  She got a bingo game, a puzzle, a little people Noah’s Ark set, kitchen utensils, a wooden cake set, a magnetic dress up ballerina set, Minnie Mouse hat, and some books. Of all the toys, she was most interested in the books, lol.  We have a major bookworm on our hands! She did get out her other goodies after reading all the books with Mamaw, but it just makes me smile how much she loves her books.

Checking out her presents

Reading time!

                She was a tired girl after skipping her nap and a day full of fun, but she had a blast celebrating her birthday.  We built up the suspense leading up to it and she was anxiously awaiting her big day.  I am so thankful for my sweet little girl and look forward to seeing what year number 4 has in store for her!

Declan is 2/3 of a year old!

My Happy 8 month old!

Weight: 18lbs

Height: 27.75 inches (barely getting taller, but still on the upswing)

Clothing: I have packed away all of his 6-9 month pants and many of the 9 month pants.  They are getting to tight/short.  Some of his 6-9 month shirts are still sticking around and all of his 9 month shirts still fit.  We have packed away all but one 6-9 month sleeper and three 9 month sleepers and the rest are 12 month sleepers.  I actually really like the 12 month ones best because they have the foot grippers so he doesn’t slip.  He can wear 12 month shirts and pants as well and we have started to rotate those into his wardrobe as needed.

Smiley boy...pants getting too short :-)

12 month sleeper!

Diapers: He is still exclusively cloth diapered.  I love that I haven’t had to buy any diapers for him (though I did buy one for fun because I wanted it for a picture J).  He goes through 6 to 7 diapers a day and some days almost all are poopy and other days hardly any.  So he isn’t really consistent.

Diapers are overrated

Eating: He is up to three meals a day as well as 4 nursing sessions.  He loves food!  New foods this month: butternut squash, mango, carrot, yellow squash, zucchini, chicken, yogurt, milk in recipes, flax in a muffin recipe, blueberries, pickles (chewed on at a restaurant), homemade rolls (wheat, coconut oil, molasses, maple syrup), egg yolks, cheddar, mozzarella, monteray jack and grapes.  I have approached feeding Declan much different this month mainly just because I felt like he was ready for finger foods.  Very early in the month, we began giving him half a banana to gnaw on, peas, beans, chopped carrots, sliced pears, etc. and he did great with them.  So we are gradually phasing out of purees. And really he only gets maybe ½ cup of puree total throughout the day if that much, but I am just trying to use up what I had already prepped.  His favorites include: carrots (really his only favorite veggie), blueberries, grapes, pears, and cheese.  He only had a roll once, but I am pretty sure that is going to be a quick favorite!

Pickle!

Banana is a fave!

Cheese and Peas!

Scrunchy faced is the best way to eat :-)

Blueberry banana cookie!

silly eater!

Friendships: He pretty much smiles at anyone and everyone….as long as Mommy or Daddy (or someone familiar) is nearby.  Really he is too young for friends, other than family at this point.  Alethea is his best buddy and we are already noticing a mutual love between them.  He loves to play with her and it is not uncommon for them to have fun making noises back and forth.  It has been so much fun to see the adoration turn into actually playing together instead of him just watching her or visa versa.

Best buds!

Daddy Snuggles

Silly kids!

Mobility: Early in the month, he finally began to crawl.  It is definitely his own unique combo of bear crawl with one leg and regular crawl with the other, but he is able to traverse our entire great room with ease, so it works for him.  He is up on two feet holding onto something absolutely whenever possible.  He loves being up and able to look around and lets us know with squeals (and grunts/yells) of delight!  Once he pulls up on something, if it can move, he moves it, lol.  Our learn and groove, little wooden table (and chairs), kitchen chairs, high chair, play slide, etc. have all traversed the family room floor at some point with him pushing behind.  He loves it and he is actually quite stable, even when they sometimes move a bit faster than he was expecting.  He is able to stand and bounce, transfer between/walk along things, and he stoops with one hand to pick things up while in a standing position.  He may be walking before we know it; YIKES!  He has to keep up with Alethea I guess. J

Standing up

So proud of himself

He loves the dishwasher

Sleeping:  Early in the month, I thought I was going to lose my mind because he was waking up multiple times a night crying.  I didn’t always have to come and get him, but when I did, I rarely had to feed him because all he wanted was to snuggle and then back to sleep he went.  I am attributing this to a few things: he stopped sucking his fingers for self-soothing, he was developing new skills, and he was becoming more away of us being gone (separation anxiety).  All of these were normal things, but still not fun and not something I ever experienced with Alethea so they were quite the shocker!  Thankfully by the end of the month he was back to sleeping all the way through and beginning to sleep past 5:30 again.  He even gave me several days of sleeping until 6:45! He is taking longer to fall asleep at naptime due to his new found mobility and it is not uncommon to find him standing/bouncing and crawling around his crib for a while.  Thankfully he still willingly takes both of his naps daily.

Sleepy snuggles with Daddy

Fell forward and asleep from a sitting position

Playtime: He loves stickers and paper.  I have to watch him closely because, if I don’t, he puts both into his mouth.  The funny part is that he seems to know they aren’t food because he will chew on them for quite some time and not swallow them, lol.  His love for paper is a bit to Alethea’s dismay sometimes because he ends up messing up her artwork, but for the most part she is understanding.  He loves to bang on things and scream while doing so.  He still loves bracelets and necklaces, but tends to swing them around more now than he used to.  He loves to play with books and has begun flipping through them a bit, but still mainly chews on them or bangs on them. He loves to play with his learn and groove and has actually begun to dance a little bit.  He loves to smile and sway back and forth and shake his head when music plays.

Playing with Basil

First time finger-painting 

scooted back under the toy shelf :-)

Communication:  He is still our little sensitive boy.  He cries at loud noises (i.e. clapping, sneezing, or things dropping).  He has brought back the screaming in delight and then he giggles afterward.  He has quite the pucker lip that is pretty hard to resist.  He also has a silly squishy face smile that is pretty irresistible as well.

Teeth: No teeth yet.  If he follows in Alethea’s footsteps they will show up next month.  He is chewing on his fingers more lately, but that is the only possible sign of teeth to come.

Random: He celebrated his first Valentine ’s Day this month, though he isn’t really aware of what that day is.  He is now taking baths in the big bath tub without his blue baby tub.  At first he was not a fan because we wouldn’t let him pull up to stand, but by the end of the month, he was actually enjoying it from time to time.  Many days though, even if he doesn’t like it, he is content to stand naked on the outside of the tub and watch/squeal at Alethea while she takes a bath.  He finger-painted for the first time this month and loved it!

Standing outside the tub because he got mad he couldn't stand in the tub

Sample Schedule:

                        6:00/6:30ish: wake up, nurse, then play (I try to leave him to play in his bed until

7 when possible)

                        8/8:30ish: breakfast  

                        9:30 – 11ish: nap, then nurse and play

                        12:30/1ish: lunch

                        2:30-3:30/4ish: nap, then nurse and play

                        5:30ish: dinner

                        7:30ish: nurse (often to sleep) and in bed by 7:45/8