A Bit of Catch Up

Kaelyn is getting so big! This was her first bath in the big tub, rather than her baby tub, and she loved splashing around!

 She is a full fledged crawler, and has been for awhile now.  Just like Alexa, she seems to have a built in radar for all things technological and off-limits.  This is her spying Mommy with her new camera and deciding to go for it.

 This isn't her first taste of baby food, but I think the faces she makes are hilarious, so we had to document it.  I just love how she looks at me like I've betrayed her by feeding her "real" food.

 We have, however, found out that she loves ice cream.

 This reminded me of the movie Beethoven, when that boy in the park shares his ice cream with Beethoven, because Mike's ice cream cone was making the rounds between the three of them.

This was the first time Kaelyn pulled herself up into a sitting position all by herself.

 We recently went to the zoo for my birthday.  Alexa's favorites were the fish (like always) and seeing the baby elephant.  We decided that we're never taking a stroller to that zoo again.  Neither kid was in it for very long and it's so much harder to move around with it.

I am watching the baby of a friend 3 days a week in the mornings, and Alexa is loving having another baby around.  She thinks it's so fun to have them following her around, and they really do!

 Just Alexa being cute:

4 Months

Tomorrow Kaelyn will be 4 months old, and a week from today Alexa will be 3.  Where did time go??  We had Kaelyn's 4 month appointment on Monday, and she is a chunk.  She's 15 1/2 pounds, 25 inches long, and has 2 teeth poking though.  When the doctor laid her on her tummy to see how she was doing strength-wise, she was surprised to see how high Kaelyn lifted herself up, then to hear when she started rolling over (Nov. 1) and then to see how close she is to sitting by herself.  She said developmentally Kaelyn is closer to a six month old than a four month old.  Guess that means I'm going to have my hands very full even sooner than I thought! Mike is convinced that she's close to crawling too, but I'm not so sure about that, and I really hope she's not!

Alexa won't be in for her 3 year checkup until February- apparently we got her in late last year, and it has to be a full year in between for insurance reasons.  She's disappointed about that because although she has hated everything about going to the doctors in the past, she is very excited to go this time.  I think it is because how often I was going at the end of the pregnancy, and then how often Kaelyn has been going since she's been born.  And I don't think Alexa remembers what shots are.  I'm hoping this will work in my favor this time, and she'll actually consent to be weighed and measured without me holding her the whole time. 

Alexa's at such a fun age now, she is SO excited for Christmas and then her birthday, and then going to VA to see "Max and Shawn and TJ and Uncle Bart and Rachel... " and then she continues to list everyone else in the family.  Being less shy is nice, too.  She's not so attached to us when we're are Grandma and Grandpa's, in fact we barely see her because she loves playing with her cousins.  She actually sat on Santa's lap this year, which is the real reason why we bought that picture- proof!  This opening up has made everything a lot more fun because she actually does stuff now!

A Little Bit of Everything

Mike found this onesie just before Halloween; the back has crossed bones and says "I've got a loaded booty".  We think it's pretty funny (and generally accurate) and was perfect for the season!

 Here's a sneak peak of Alexa's costume this year. Can you guess who we each were?

 This past weekend was Kaelyn's baby blessing at our church, and while my parents were in town we went and got some pictures taken.

 Alexa did really well until the end.  At that point we had been there a couple of hours and she was just tired, hence the very force smile!

 Alexa had a great time playing with my dad, who was  able to spend a week with us.  We went to the playground one day and she had a blast playing in the leaves.

 And taking the leaves off of their 'sticks' and bringing them to me.  Whatever floats her boat!

Waterfalls, Pumpkins, and 2 Months

My sister came and visited us last month and we had a great time.  We went to Multnomah Falls (one of Alexa's favorite places) and to the zoo another day.  Alexa really had  the time of her life having someone to pretty much cater to her every whim.  She still asks just about every day, "Aunt Rachel coming to play?"

 A few weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch, and again, Alexa had a great time.  She has fallen in love with all things Halloween and has also been asking me daily if it is time to go Trick-or-Treating.  She's even taken to practicing using legos and pennies.

 We also set up her house that she got for Christmas (I was waiting until after we moved) and she loves coloring it, and dictating to everyone else how they should color it.

 Kaelyn had her 2 month appointment last week.  She was 12 and a half pounds, which put her in the 85th percentile.  She impressed the doctor by rolling onto her side and babbling to herself in the mirror.  

 She's such a great baby, so laid back, which is really nice because Alexa needs/wants all the attention she can get. Alexa is surprisingly helpful now. She actually gets mad at me if I go get a diaper myself, because that's her job. Speaking of diapers, Alexa is finally getting out of them.  She wears them at night and when we go on long errand trips. She is doing really well staying clean, although she does seem to have an aversion to going poo in the potty, however, but we're trying to get past that.  And that's life for now!

2 Weeks

At least I'm sticking with the 2 weeks late thing instead of falling further behind, right? At her 2 week appointment, Kaelyn was 9 lbs 1.1 ozs, and all around evenly proportioned, at 75% in all her measurements.  When the doctor came in, she took one look at Kaelyn and said, "A redhead, huh? Which side does she get it from?" She's got Mike's coloring, for sure!

 

Alexa is enjoying the new toys that have appeared, and has missed the fact that she is a little big for them, but at least she shares, right?

 Dressing Kaelyn in Alexa's old clothes really highlights the similarities between the girls!

Above is Kaelyn at about 3 weeks, and below is Alexa at about 6 weeks (please ignore the slightly possessed look...).  And I just noticed that I even cocked the bow to the same side on them, ha ha, I must have known I'd use these pictures for comparison!

And for good measure, here's a sweet picture of Alexa stopping to smell the roses. 

Kaelyn has arrived!

So, it may be 2 weeks late, but this is Kaelyn Elizabeth's debut on the blog! She was born on Aug. 21 at 9:14 pm, and besides the fact that I was at 8 cm before I finally got my epidural (my veins are pretty much non existant and that makes putting IVs in very difficult, and that has to be done before an epidural can be put in) labor went really well.  In fact, she basically came out on her own, which was a nice change from Alexa's birth.  She was 8 pounds 13 ounces, which kind of surprised me since she was actually a couple of days early whereas Alexa was a week late and was 8 lbs 11 ozs.  Hopefully this isn't a trend that future babies will follow!

On an unrelated note, the pictures are in the order I uploaded them instead of backwards! Thank you blogger for finally making blogging a bit easier!

Now She's Fun!

As I was tearing up a little tonight (you'll see why later) Mike made the comment that Alexa is fun now- "not that she wasn't before..."- and as sad as I get sometimes that she isn't my cuddly little baby anymore, she is a lot of fun now! She loves playing soccer...

and playing with her rice...

 And when we went to the zoo for Mike's birthday (the big 30, by the way) she had a great time looking at all the animals.  Of course she liked the waterfalls and fish the best, but she did enjoy the more exotic animals, too.

She even pet the goats and pigs willingly and tried to tell them to come closer if they wandered away!



 But this is why I teared up.  Lame, I know, but I'm pregnant, what can I say? Tonight was Alexa's first night in a 'big girl bed'.  Really we just took the side off so it would be in its day bed form and got one of those safety rails.  She was so excited about her big girl bed, and so far (I think) she's still laying in it! I didn't think she'd stay in it once we shut the door, so let's hope she makes it through the night!