May Update

                May was another fun month of celebrations and fun times.  We started off the month with our first trip to the lake this year.  We were able to go out on my parents’ new boat, despite it being colder than we’d hoped.  My parents got a lot of fun new “toys” for the lake house and we are looking forward to some visits to the lake to enjoy them with them.

testing out the captain chair

Alethea's turn!

Captain Papaw!

Sheer joy!

Sleeping through his firs boat ride

Playing with Uncle Camden!

Snuggles with Granpeg on the boat

                The first celebration was Mother’s Day.  We started the day off with church and Declan’s baby dedication.  My family was able to join us for that and it was very special to have them there to support us.  After church we headed over to Red Robin for a yummy meal with my family.  The Mother’s day celebrations continued into the following week as well because Granpeg, my mom, Justine, Olivia, Alethea, and I all went to Sister’s Tea Parlor for a fun girls day in celebration of Mother’s Day.  It was Alethea’s first official tea party and it was a lot of fun for us all.

Declan's dedication

All the ladies on Mother's Day

4 Generations

Family photo

Tea party cup as big as her face!

                Next up was our 7^th wedding anniversary which fell on the Monday after Mother’s Day this year.  We aren’t very good at making a big fuss out of anniversaries, but we always make it a point to spend time alone together.  This year Ben surprised me with beautiful flowers and a card in the morning.  Then my parents watched the kiddos so we could go out to dinner and a movie.  We pretty much never go out to the movies because I typically don’t dig that for a date, but I really wanted to see Mom’s Night Out and Ben obliged.  I had heard it was a really good movie, plus we went to college with one of the actresses in the movie.  I am so thankful for the past 7 years and I am looking forward to many more!

Didn't take any pics this year...oops, but here is a throwback!

                This month we also finally dyed Easter eggs.  I had purchased a kit prior to Easter, but life got busy and dying eggs just wasn’t up on the priority list.  It doesn’t really matter anyway because egg dying is fun no matter when it happens. J  Alethea really enjoyed the process and she was even able to put glitter on them (which I think was her favorite part).  She also really enjoyed eating the eggs afterward, but was a bit bummed that the only the shell of the egg was dyed.

Obliging me with a pic

Working hard

finished product (pre-glitter)

One unfortunate thing about this month was another stomach but, but thankfully it was much less intense.  And the best part is that it was over and done by the time we reached my birthday, though it did make it so we couldn’t go back to the lake to celebrate on the weekend before my bday.  The farmers market also opened that weekend, so I enjoyed splurging there instead.  We didn’t really do a ton for my bday, but we did enjoy yummy pancakes and eggs for dinner followed by homemade pb chocolate ice cream and maple oatmeal cookies.  Yum!  I got my present last month so we didn’t do any presents for my actual bday.

bday dessert!

This month we had a crazy hail storm with nickel sized hail and lost the tops to two trees as well as cedars in our back yard.  It spurred the beginning of our tree removal process so I guess it wasn’t all that bad.  We also have been able to go see Cody and Camden play softball and I have to say I am a bit jealous they get to play ball!  Declan also went on his first trip to the zoo and we went to the Louisville zoo for the first time as a family.  We even got to go with good friends so that made it extra special.  I have also started a tradition with the kiddos of getting my runs in while taking them to the park.  So I run to the park, we play, and then I run back home.  It is a win-win for all of us and we even sometimes have a picnic lunch to add to the fun!  We also had fun planting out own container garden and helping with my parents garden as well. Alethea even got in on the fun and played in the dirt some.

running buddies

and my pup

poor trees

dirt angels

planting Alethea's flowers

softball!

One last family fun was that we went up to Ohio over Memorial Day weekend.  We haven’t been back to Ohio since a few months before Alethea was born.  We were able to stay with our good friends the Elgersmas and had a chance to catch up as well as meet their two little ones.  Definitely a wonderful reunion and so fun to see the kiddos play together.  We were also able to go visit Cedarville where we got to catch up with my favorite Chuck’s ladies as well as stop by to chat with some professors.  Thankfully we were able to visit many of our friends that still live locally and we even got to return to our home church there in Xenia.  We enjoyed lots of flashbacks and reminiscing.  We had so many good times there and it was fun to bring our kiddos back to where our story began. J

Colonials Pizza

and the girls

Alethea by Cedar lake!

I was bad about using my camera this weekend, but here is Alethea and Jeremiah reading together :-)

Now for a quick update on Alethea.  She is really increasing her interest in letters, she recognizes all of them, and even knows all the letters in her name (though not necessarily in order).  She is very excited about letters and can often copy letters that I write.  We are not pushing it, but really just taking it based on her interest.

First trip to the science center

We have also watched the movie Frozen a ton.  Thankfully it has such good music and I actually haven’t really gotten tired of it.  She is silly and sings, “do you wanna build a snowman…” when standing outside the bathroom often times when we are using the bathroom, lol.  She gets quite the kick out of this!

She still talks about all her buddies in SC and wanting to make things for them as well as her new friends here in KY.  I love how she is always making something for somebody when she gets into her craft drawers.  She has never met a kiddo that was a stranger and I love her sweet spirit and desire to be with friends.  Whenever we go to a park and there are no other kids there, she wants to know where her “friends” are.  We definitely have a social butterfly on our hands!  Surprisingly though, she still has a shyness in certain situations, but I those are mostly when adults as well as kids are involved.

She still loves the swings

One last bittersweet fact about Alethea is that she asks a TON of questions and especially drives me nuts in the car. Her favorite questions are “why?”, “what are we doing next?”, “can I do….in the future?, and “Can I get…at the library?   I love that she asks so many questions and I think that is a large contributor to her intelligence and extensive vocabulary.  However, sometimes I really just need so peace and quiet, lol!

Sleeping beauty

She loves her brother

Skyping with Grandma and Boppa

That’s all for May!

11 months down, 1 to go before our baby is 1!

 

Weight: 20lbs (weight taken the weekend following stomach bug so may have lost weight)

Height: 29.75 inches

Clothing: We are in all 9-12 month, 12 month, and even some 12-18/18month clothes.  He finally got to move into his summer wardrobe pretty much full time and it is a good thing since he is already beginning to outgrow some of it.

love me some baby in shorts!

Diapers: He is still on the medium rise and going through 6-7 diapers a day.  Yet another month of diaper sprayer overuse, lol.  He had another mild stomach bug as well as teething poo so we have been spraying diapers a lot more than ever.

It's more comfy in just a dipe and a T

Eating: He is still eating three meals a day as well as 4 nursing sessions.  He is a very inconsistent eater.  One day he will chow down on something and then the next time I serve it he spits it out.  He is getting really good at feeding himself and we are even beginning to work in the spoon and fork for practice. His appetite has also been inconsistent which I think is due to some stuffy nose, tummy issues, and teething.  He is still minimal on the grains, although he did get to try Alethea’s cheddar bunnies this month and is quite the fan of them.  I didn’t really do a great job of keeping track of new foods this month, but I know he tried cornbread, brussel sprouts, figs, pasta, whole eggs, ham, a small amount of peanut butter (in a smoothie), and I am sure there is more, but I can’t really recall any specifics.

Yogurt face

  

Friendships:  He is becoming more and more aware of those around him and we find him watching other kids play even more (especially bigger kiddos).  He and Alethea are becoming best buddies more and more each day.  He now crawls to follow her pretty much all over the house and in the morning when she wakes up he crawls to go open her door when I say “let’s go get Alethea”.  I see a great friendship in the making there!

They love to wrestle

He will follow her anywhere just to play

Snuggles

Mobility: He is still mostly crawling, but now he is actually crawling normally 75% of the time.  He has even experimented with bear crawling outside to avoid hurting his knees.  On May 7^th he took his first steps and it has been a gradual increase in bravery since.  I think he will still take a while, but he is getting more and more comfortable with taking a few times.  Once he gets the balance stuff figured out he will be off to the races because he is super strong.  He just hasn’t figured out that he can’t lung forward and expect to stay on his feet. J  He is also quite the climber these days.  He has figured out stairs, stools, and toy chairs so it is not uncommon to find him elevated these days.  Thankfully he has figured out how to safely get himself down from one level up, but the stairs are still a hazard going down.  Until he can walk, we won’t really even try to work on that skill though.

on the move

stairs are way too much fun!

Sleeping:  He has finally been back to normal sleeping habits and gotten rid of the night cries for most of the month.  Yay!  Mommy and Declan are both happier as a result, lol.  He is taking 2 naps still, but more and more of his morning naps have been on the go lately and I think that is only going to become more common.  If he is in his bed, he will still take anywhere from a 30 minute to 1.5 hour nap in the morning and 1.5 to 2.5hr nap in the afternoon.  Alethea dropped to 1 nap just before a year, but I am not ready to do that with Declan because then I will lose the luxury of them napping at the same time in the afternoon. J  He typically goes to bed between 7:45 and 8:15pm and gets up between 6:15 and 7am.  It’s typically only about 10-10.5 hours a night, but at least it is a solid stretch these days.

taking a nap on Mamaw and Papaw's boat

Playtime: He is becoming more and more interactive with his play.  He is to the point where he actually wants to play with someone and isn’t always content to play solo.  Thankfully he is still excellent at solo play though.  He discovered his ability to blow a whistle/toy trumpet and make noise this month and he loves it.  He will crawl around with one of them in his mouth intermittently making sound.  It is pretty common place these days to have him crawling around with something sticking out of his mouth, lol.  He is up on two feet much more lately and really wants to walk along things to get where he is going so that can sometimes limit his play if he is set on being upright.  He loves to play outside and just be in the fresh air.  Balls are a big hit too.  He still loves to jam to music and I am sure he is really glad I finally put more batteries in a few of their musical toys.  It is very common to look over and see him swaying or bouncing to music.  He also likes to clap, not always to music, but he enjoys it.  He loves to put objects in and out of cups, bowls, and drawers, etc. He also has begun trying to stack objects.

He loves to climb on things now and take all the buckets off our shelf

He loves to play outside

Communication:  He is developing quite the personality.  Most of the time he is pretty chill, but he definitely is vocal when thing are not going his way.  We are about 50% on the communicating “more” at meal times, but that is really probably more on me because I haven’t work with him a ton on it.  He doesn’t really yell at me for food a lot, but more just makes an “uhhh” sound to let me know he wants/needs more.  He has also definitely learned to work his pucker lip when he is sad and it is quite adorable.

Teeth: No newbies this month, but he does have his top two front teeth on the verge of coming in any day now.  So, for now, he just has 2 teeth.

Random: He loves being tickled and has the cutest belly laugh.  He tries to do pull ups on the handle for our freezer drawer.  He watched Mommy and Daddy compete in their first half-marathon and was a trooper.  He also experienced his first Easter and Easter egg hunt. He went on his first boat ride at the beginning of May.  He loves to make a scrunchy face and really enjoys having a scrunchy face competition with Alethea.  He had his baby dedication at church on Mothers’ Day and all of my family was able to come in support our commitment to raise him to become a godly man. He skyped with Grandma and Boppa for the first time.

Easter

Egg hunt...he really just watched

climbing a tree after Mommy and Daddy's race

Captain Declan

That face!

Baby dedication

Mother's Day

Skype!

Sample Schedule):

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

7 when possible, but we usually only make it til 6:45)

                        8ish: breakfast  

                        9:45 – 10:30/11ish: nap, then nurse and play (only 30 minutes if we are out)

                        12:30/1ish: lunch

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

                        5:30ish: dinner

7:45ish: nurse and in bed by 8ish – with the nicer weather and family fun, we had been getting him to bed later more often, but this is our typical.