March Happenings

               March was a month full of celebrations, races, and sickness.  We started off the month with a celebration of my older brother, Camden’s, birthday and a baby shower for my sister-in-law, Justine.  My mom, grandma, and I hosted a shower for Justine to celebrate their baby girl.  We had close to 30 people at our house.  It was a full house, but we had lots of yummies and she got lots of wonderful things for Olivia.  Afterward, we quickly cleaned up and headed out to Havana Rhumba (a Cuban restaurant) to celebrate Camden’s 35^th birthday.  It was delicious food and wonderful company.

Kiddos getting some grub while we prep for the shower

Baby showers and Bday dinners are exhausting

                This month also marked the last two installments of the Triple Crown racing series for Ben and I.  On the 8^th we ran the Rhodes city 10k and it went really well.  Ben had no pain until the very last mile and he was thankfully able to run through it.  We ran it with an 8min 59sec pace.  Then the last race the the Papa John’s 10 miler.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to run as much leading up to this week due to the fact that the entire family got the stomach bug that lasted nearly a week.  Our pace wasn’t as great (9min 54sec) with the 10 miler, but at least we were able to finish and our kiddos were able to come and watch us on the big screen at Papa John’s stadium.

All bundled up to watch the race 

Final lap of our 10 miler

Happy to see the kiddos after the race!

                Thankfully this month also marked the beginning of some good outside weather for the kiddos to play in.  We had a lot of fun taking walks, playing in the driveway, and sitting out on our deck.  It wasn’t warm a ton, but at least we had a few days here and there.  We still frequented All About Kids to get lots of indoors play to avoid stir-craziness.  Alethea loves that place!

He loves to lean back in the swing and look at her

Buddies

blowing her trumpet, lol

working hard to walk up the hill

Trying to keep up with Alethea

Pull ups at All About Kids

                March also involved lots of basketball watching.  Louisville and Kentucky both did excellent in the NCAA tournament and we had a blast watching the games (and dressing up the kiddos).  We cheer for both teams, but when they play each other we are Louisville all the way.  We were bummed to see Kentucky beat Louisville, but thankfully it was a great game.  And it was a bummer that Kentucky couldn’t go on to win.

                We have also had fun with our weekly visits to the library.  They always have awesome crafts and the librarian is wonderful with the kiddos.  This month they even had a special treat; the zoo came to visit the library and Alethea got to pet animals.  Alethea absolutely loves the library.   She always picks out several books and a couple of movies to watch.  It is quite funny to hear her excitement about getting books.  Often times, she will look at the book choices on the back of a book and point to each one saying, “can we get that one, and that one, and that one….when we go to the library?”  Pretty much any book or movie she sees, she asks if we can get, lol!

Declan loves to look out the window while Alethea enjoys story time

The zoo came to visit the library and she got to pet a rabbit

                Alethea is growing into quite the sweet little girl.  She never ceases to amaze me with the cute things she says and she is always curious about what is going on around her.  We definitely can’t say anything around her without her inquiring more about our conversation.  As long as she isn’t tired or sick, she is very pleasant to be around for the most part.  J

She woke up, begged for food, and then fell asleep before eating it, lol

                She is a puzzler!  And her puzzle collection grew immensely this month.  She went from 3 puzzles to 21 puzzles this month thanks to consignment sales.  Her ability to complete puzzles is quite amazing and she has an incredibly long attention span for them.  She will sit and do puzzle after puzzle all by herself, though she does enjoy company while doing so.

                She is still a bookworm and it is not uncommon to find her sitting with a pile of books around her in her room reading.  It is also a frequent occurrence for her to come out of her room in the morning and the first words being a request to snuggle and/or read.  Her letter and number recognition has also gotten very good.  She is able to point out most of the alphabet as well as number 1-9.  We don’t do much official with learning them, but just natural circumstances have enabled her to grasp them quite well.

Reading me a story and showing off her piggy-tails!

                This month I discovered just how deprived of the outdoors Alethea has been.  On the days we can get outside, she can be a completely different kid.  She loves it!  It makes sense that it changes her too because prior to moving to KY, she wasn’t used to being cooped up because we were outdoors all year long…we didn’t have all that white stuff showing up all the time. J  Thankfully we are only going to get more and more outside time and I am hoping that results in a more content little girl.

Thrilled we are headed out for a walk

                One last fun detail to note is that I joined a Moms Club for the county that we live in so that will give us the chance to meet other moms and their kiddos.  I am looking forward to the weekly playdates for Alethea and the chance to meet ladies from our area.  We have attended a few of the public meetings and now that we are members, I am looking forward to the fun stuff!

Lunch date #1

Lunch date #2 

Three Quarters Of A Year Old

9 Months

Weight: 18lbs 12.8oz

Height: 28.25 inches

Clothing: All of his 6-9/9 month clothes have been packed away with the exception of 2 sleepers that still seem to fit him and a few pairs of pants that either still fit or at least fit well enough to wear at home and last us til shorts weather. J  He is wearing 9-12, 12, and even some 12-18 month shirts, and 12 month pants (though some need to be rolled up when he is walking around at home so he doesn’t slip.

Shirts are overrated!

Diapers: He is still on the same rise in cloth diapers and we just added an additional insert at the end of the month because he is a bit of a heavier wetter than Alethea was.  He is going through about 6 to 7 diapers a day and we actually are rarely using the diaper sprayer which is nice.  We did give it a lot of use during his bout with the stomach bug though and boy were we thankful for it too!

Cloth diaper cutie

love that face!

Eating: He is still eating three meals a day as well as 4 nursing sessions.  The last week of the month he had less interest in food and we are still working up to better eating after his stomach bug.   New foods this month: rice, apricots, quinoa (with parmesan), cherries (in smoothies), kiwi, broccoli, peppers, onions, beans, beef (in meatloaf), and fish. He is now eating all finger foods.  The only puree he gets is the smoothie I make him and put in our reusable squeeze pouches.  His favorites include: roasted yellow squash and zucchini, green beans, blueberries, grapes, pears, and cheese.  He only had a roll once, but I am pretty sure that is going to be a quick favorite!

Friendships: He is in the nursery at church, but other than that he isn’t really around any other kiddos his age.  He seems to play well with other kiddos and loves to play with Alethea still most of all.  She is rough on him at times, but he is a trooper.

buddies :-)

He follows her anywhere!

Mobility: He is crawling everywhere, still not in the traditional way, but he makes it work. He combines the bear crawl and the normal crawl.  He is pulling up on everything and walking along whatever he can reach with ease.  He continues to push chairs, walking toys, tables, wagons and anything else he can pull up on around the room. And he moves fast!  He is transferring from object to object, often just barely in reach from each other and he is also standing on his own without holding on at random times.  One funny thing is that he tries to do pull-ups on tables when they are taller than him, lol.

on Daddy's off-limits weight machine, but too cute to not take a pic :-)

Pulling up on the table at library story time

All About Kids fun!

Sleeping:  He is still taking two naps a day and sleeping through the night.  Unfortunately he is more of an early bird than I care for, but at least he isn’t up in the middle of the night.  Some nights he stirs, but he hasn’t woken up to feed or need snuggles all month.  He still doesn’t go to sleep as quickly at nap times as he once did, but he typically fusses, then plays, and then passes out in 10 minutes or less.

not always happy to be awake

love the crossed feet while he sleeps

Playtime: He loves to play with anything he can pull up on and anything that Alethea is playing with.  He has also taking a liking to electronic cords, tupperware, and Alethea’s craft supplies, lol.  Anything he can bang with or bang on is a bit hit.  He loves music and bounces/bobs his head to the beat.  He loves to climb on our toy slide that Alethea got for her 1^st bday.  He loves books and tickles.  We have been able to get outside to play finally this month and he loves it.  He uses his walking toy to walk all over the sidewalk/driveway.

train table at the library

future best buddies. :-)

future bball star

Communication:  He is getting a little bit tougher, probably thanks to Alethea, so he doesn’t seem to fuss quite as quickly when taking spills as he used to.  He makes a lot of sounds like “dadada”, “duhduhduh”, and “bababa”.  He loves to hear the sound of his voice, but thankfully it is less yelling of late.

Teeth: His first tooth busted through on March 10th and it was his front left tooth on the bottom.  He has only had minor fussing at night due to teeth, but we haven’t had to use any meds.

Random: He had his first stomach bug for the first time toward the end of this month.  It held on for about 5 days and it was close to a week before he was really beginning to eat well again. 

  He loves my camelback water bottle.

Busted!

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)

                        8ish: 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 and in bed by 7:45/8

February has come and gone....fast!

                February is always a fun filled month with Valentine’s Day as well as Alethea’s birthday.  This year we added to the fun by throwing in our first race of the year and a surprise visit from the Smith’s!

                This year for Valentine’s, we made a week of celebrating for Alethea.  She made homemade valentines for a few buddies in SC as well as some family.  We did lots of crafts, including plenty to decorate the walls for Valentine’s, and baking in the shapes of hearts.  She is a big fan of stickers so there were plenty of those involved as well as yummy homemade muffins and graham crackers that were a big hit!  Then, for Valnetine’s day itself, we had heart-shaped meals including heart-shaped pancakes and eggs for breakfast and heart-shaped burgers and fries for dinner. J  We also got Alethea Valentine’s stickers and tattoos; the stickers were a hit, but not really the tattoos as much.  Plus Ben brought home gorgeous flowers and some chocolate for me after work. 

My Valentine's Cuties

Love her face when she got her stickers, lol

Pretty flowers

My little chef

Graham Cracker watching and goldilocks :-)

Heart muffins

and heart graham crackers

And heart shaped dinner. :-)

                Then, as I mentioned in my special birthday post, we spent February 21^st celebrating Alethea’s 3^rd year of life.  So much fun celebrating her special day with family and then my parents stayed overnight so that we could get up early and run the Anthem 5k.  This was the first leg of the Triple Crown running series.  With Ben helping to pace us, we ran at a pace of 8min 32sec which was pretty much the best pace for me yet.  We were so thankful Ben was even able to run it at all because he has been struggling with heal pain due to plantar fasciitis.  It was so much fun to have our first race as we are looking forward to the next two in the series as well as the Derby half-marathon in April!

So many runners!

                The biggest surprise of the month was getting to see the Smiths.  We had been talking about them coming sometime soon, but hadn’t really made official plans.  Then, Ben was able to get cheap tickets to the UofL game and he invited Brian to join him.  I am so thankful he accepted and brought Anna and the kiddos with him!   It had been 6 months since we had seen them, but we just picked up right where we left off.  One of the biggest treats was that we got to go out to dinner, without kiddos, for the first time EVER before the boys headed to the game.  It was so nice to have completely uninterrupted conversation for a few hours!  Though we only had a few days together, we made the best of that time.  It was so wonderful to see Alethea with her BFF Molly playing together again and they picked right back up where they left off too.  We loved seeing all 5 of the kiddos together; 6 months brings a ton of changes in such little ones!  Looking forward to a great time again in the fall when we go down to SC!

The boys got the tub all to themselves

Just a little game of ping pong

Just like old times...Alethea pulling the Smith girls in the wagon

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Rocking the balance beam

Cute little boys!

                Ben is continuing to enjoy his job and is loving taking on new projects and presenting ideas to his team.  He is also finishing up a workout spreadsheet he created to track all of his muscle groups in hopes of revolutionizing his workout routine.  For me, I have continued to focus on my running.  Beyond cooking and daily routine, working on my training for running has been about all I have had time for.  Life has been busy, but I am so thankful we have been able to take care of ourselves through working out and eating right!

                Now for a brief update on Alethea.  She is getting bigger, but surprisingly not as much taller as I thought she was.  I think all her growing is focused on language skills right now and less on physical development.  Her at home 3 year stats are 40.25inches tall (98th + percentile) and 36lbs (90^th percentile).  She has grown almost 4 inches and gained about 7.5lbs in the past year.  Though her weight is finally catching up to her height percentiles, she still has no booty so we still struggle with pants staying up, lol.  She definitely has a longer torso, so her top half wears bigger sizes than her bottom.  She is wearing 4T and 5T shirts (still 3T dresses as tunics) and 3T and 4T pants as well as some 5T leggings.  Her feet haven’t changed much lately, but she is wearing size 9.5 Sauconys for now.

My little artist

                She has changed so much over the past year.  I was just reading over her 2 year update and she was saying things like “pahtee Lala” and this year for her birthday she was saying “I am going to have a birthday party with a strawberry ice cream cake and presents”.  That is quite the development in language!  One thing that hasn’t changed much in the past year is that she is a chatterbox, always talking. J  She finally has all four of her two year molars in as of this past month. 

Happy girl, messy hands!

                Another fun thing to note in comparison to her a year ago is that she still loves music, lining things up and reading. She is also still a sporadic eater.  Her favorite meals are breakfast and lunch and she tends to be a lighter eater at dinner. She continues to love any kind of fruit, cheese, and bread.  She also continues to test her limits, but is getting more strong-willed at testing so we are having to implement more consequences than we used to.  It is so fun to see how much she has grown over the past year.  She is definitely not a baby anymore!

PB and apples, yum!

Ta-da!  She finished it all by herself.  She loves puzzles!

Love this face...showing me her cleaned plate :-)

Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus (snack at the library)