No More Green Beans

The other night when Patrick was feeding Aubrey she started shaking her head no and refused to take another bite.  I thought this was hilarious.  She knows what she wants and doesn't want already! He said that she's done this to him several times lately, but it was the first time I saw it.

Here's enjoying some pears I think...

And in case that was a fluke here we are trying to get her to eat her green beans...

Silly girl!

Aubrey's Getting Big

As of today Miss Aubrey is almost 7 months old.  Excuse me, did I really just write a 7?!?!?! I just realized this and now I'm having a mini panic attack. Friday, March 1st, she'll be 7 months.  How the hell did that happen already?!?!?

Here's my sweet pea hanging with Mommy as I type this.

Look at those cheeks! Aren't they kissable!? Muah!!

I mentioned that we recently moved her to her crib.  It was a pretty poopy start. Feel free to read  here if you missed it.  Since that day, it's been great! She wakes up earlier than she used to. In fact, the first couple of days she was up at 5:50 am.  Yeah, she'd come in have a bottle and eventually pass back out...just in time for the other kids to get up so Mommy & Daddy weren't sleeping anymore.

 

I'll take having her wake up early over middle of the night waking up any time.  She's been great about it. Fusses a little when you put her down and then she's out til morning.  When it comes to napping, the morning nap in the crib is about all we get a good stretch of.  The afternoon nap doesn't really happen in the crib because without fail when she falls asleep, it's time to pick Aiden up from school.

She also started crawling. She doesn't have it down completely, but she can get to things she wants to. And it's not the army crawl. She'll get up on her hands and knees and sort of launch herself forward, sometimes landing on her pretty little face! Eeeek! Slowly but surely she's starting to stay on her hands and knees and move them forward as she goes. (Here's a little video. It's not long, my phone cut off. Dumb phone! But you get the idea of what she's doing.)

Sunday (Feb. 24) she sat up all by herself! She's been super close for a while now, but she'll get stuck and then get angry.  I was sitting next to her when she was doing the trying to sit up by myself pose and I looked at Emma to tell her something.  When I turned back around to Aubrey, she was sitting all the way up.  Of course she did it when I wasn't looking! Stinker!!

She's getting so big!! Guess I'll be doing another post soon for 7 months! I still can't believe that!!

On to the Crib

Aubrey turned 6 months on February 1st.  Yesterday was the 16th of February so she's 6 1/2 months old now. 

And? 

She was still sleeping in our room.  No, not in our bed. I've never been one of those parents that can sleep with a baby or kids in my bed. But, she was in the pack and play in our room, where she's been since she came home from the hospital.  

My husband thought she should move to her crib in her own room awhile ago.  Me? I just wasn't ready.  She's always been right there since she was in my belly.  In her room just seems so far away.  What if she needs us? Doubtful since she's been sleeping the the night for quite some time now, but I just couldn't do it.

I knew she had to move soon.  The longer she stayed in our room, the harder it would be for her to get used to being by herself in her own room.  I knew that, I just didn't care. Hey, I'm just being honest!

Finally, last week I was able to come to grips that it was time. To start preparing myself I would give her a bottle around 8 and then take her up, swaddle her and lay her down in her pack and play, still in our room, for bed.  {Before this she was staying downstairs with us sleeping in the pack and play down here until we were ready for bed.} This is when I really realized it was time to move. Patrick always showers at night and she was in trying to sleep and he would still have to shower. Not easy to sleep when someone is shaving and showering 10 feet away from you.  

I decided last night (Feb. 16, 2013) it was time to move her for good to her own bed. She went down pretty easily. She only whined a little and then she was out.  It was then that I realized, "Oh crap! I forgot to swaddle her!" She doesn't usually sleep very well if she's not swaddled at night.  There was no way I was gonna wake her up so I decided I would just swaddle her if she woke up in the middle of the night.  I checked on her a few times, each time she was in the same spot on her belly.  Sweet baby.

5:52 am was when that sweet baby decided she needed to wake up.  Too early!!! I tried to ignore her for a little bit because she was just chatting to herself but at 6 she was starting to get mad.  I go get her and she feels wet.  What in the world? I figured maybe she peed because she was sleeping on her belly and she usually doesn't? Then I unzipped her pj's.  Oh. My. God.  There was poop everywhere.  It was in the diaper, all over her back, all over her belly.  I couldn't even take the pajamas off! So bright and early, into the bathtub she went.  She seemed to be pretty happy.  Gross! That is a shitty way to start your day.  Literally!

So overall her first night in her crib went well.  She fell asleep on her own and stayed asleep.  Hopefully tomorrow she doesn't poop everywhere and sleeps just a little bit later...

Valentine's Day Fun

Yesterday Aiden had to go to school for Valentine's Day. Boo! That's okay though because he was pretty excited for his class' Valentine's Day party.  His choice of cards for his very first Valentine exchange? SpongeBob, of course! I thought about trying to do something cute off of pinterest, but really, isn't this holiday about kids getting to pick out their cheap old paper cards with a character they love? That's what I did when I was a kid and I loved it! So that's what we went with and I'm so glad we did!

I did try to get a little crafty for his teachers.  Okay, not really crafty so much, but I found the idea on pinterest and it was too cute not to do. And? It wasn't too expensive.  Even better!! Here's a picture of them all finished.  {Thank goodness the lady who originally did these put the tag on there to print because I tried making my own.  Epic fail! I have no clue how to design a tag that doesn't look like it was created by a 2 year old!}

Cute right? So thanks to the lady from pinterest! :-)

Emma had been pretty excited about Valentine's Day for awhile.  She had repeatedly told me that she wanted to go to "Valentime's Day" now.  I don't know where she thought it was.  I tried explaining it to her, but she's determined like her Mommy, so she didn't care what I said, she was going to "Valentime's Day" where ever it might have been.  She knew Aiden was having a party at school so maybe she thought we were going to a party too? I couldn't let my girl down so I decided to let her have a party.  In the morning we made Valentine's for everyone, then we had a little party at lunch. Think chips, cheese & crackers, sweets, you know, the important food groups!!  We had balloons and music too.  What kind of party would it be without that?? My favorite part was listening to her sing Call Me Maybe and This Girl is on Fire (that could totally not be the title of that song, but it's the part we know!). I love when she belts it out! So cute!!

 

We also get the kids little gifts so we gave them those once Patrick got home from work.  Yeah, unfortunately Patrick had to work in PA yesterday so he wasn't home for dinner so the kids and I had a romantic dinner of leftovers over candlelight. :-) {I swear whoever planned this meeting far away must have no Valentine.} During dinner we went around and talked about things they love. Kids have the best, not so deep answer.  Emma said she loves to watch something.  Which is a fact, that girl is always asking to watch something.  Aiden loves Mario and playing video games. And he decided that Aubrey loves drooling on her bib (I think that was it anyway.) Then they went around and said one thing that they love about each person in our house. Aiden: Aubrey-that she hugs him back when he gives her kisses on the face, Emma-that she plays with him, Daddy-that he plays games with him and gives him piggy back rides, Mommy-that she always gives him hugs and kisses.  Emma: Aiden-she loves his loves (?? She's 2 people!), Aubrey-she loves giving loves to her (see a theme here?), Daddy-she loves his hugs and kisses, Mommy-She loves my hugs and kisses too.  See they are sweet <3<3

Oh! Another thing we started (the first day of February) was a "heart attack" on the kids bedroom doors. Don't worry it's a good kind of heart attack.  We got little foam hearts and each night we wrote something else that we loved about the kids on a heart and hung in up so they could see it in the morning.

Overall it was a great day with lots of love!

Hope your day was as sweet as these little faces...

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Just a quick note to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! Here are few pictures of our little sweethearts this morning.

 

 

 And because you always need one of them all together...

Happy Valentine's Day!

6 Month Comparisons

Here's each of our babies at 6 months old!

Aiden (and the reigning champ of being the biggest at a 1/2 a year old!): 19 lbs 11.9 oz, 29 inches long

Emma: (the smallest of the 3 at this point) 17 lbs 8 oz, 26 1/4 inches

Aubrey: 18 lbs 3 oz, 28.15 inches

Poor Emma was a bald baby for quite some time! :-)  I still don't quite see the resemblance (I never do!), though they do seem to have the same nose and big blue eyes.  One thing I do know? They sure were/are cute!

Wordless Wednesday: What We've Been Up Too...

Here's what we've been up to this week...

• Turning 6 months old

•  Making Valentine's Day crafts (This girl and her faces. :-) I swear she liked it, she even asked to make at least 4 when I had to stop her!)

• Going to Chuck E. Cheese's to celebrate Aiden's great report card

 

This makes us giggle everytime we look at it!

• Playing in the snow

• Checking ourselves out

• Going back to the doctor for yet another double ear infection for Emma (the 3rd this winter) and strep for Patrick

She can still work the camera, even worth sore ears :-)

• And learning the in's and out's of how to beat Bowser on Mario

It's always a fun and busy time in this house! 

Happy 6 Months!!

Wow! Today marks the day that we have had Aubrey in our lives for 6 months...half of a year...and? It just does not seem possible that she is that big already!!

Dear Aubrey,

You are such a joy and have been the perfect addition to our family.  The kids love you more than I can even explain.  In the morning when Emma comes into our room and everyone else is already in there she only says, "Good morning, Baby Aubrey", the rest of us she couldn't care less about at that time.

You are doing so much now! You're "talking" up a storm.  {You may have seen the video of her here talking to herself.}  I wish I knew what you were saying.  Last night, you were telling some serious stories and you were pretty loud about it too.  :-) You are a pro at rolling over and sometimes use that to get around. You also push yourself backwards and spin in circles trying to get to all kinds of things.  That moving backwards thing gives you some trouble sometimes. You'll get yourself pushed to where something is stuck between your legs and you can't go any farther.  You are not a fan of when that happens!  You love your jumperoo! You'll bounce in that thing for a long time!

Sleep during the day hasn't been that great lately.  The swing used to be where you'd sleep for a long time during the morning and afternoon. But? Your chunky booty is getting too heavy and the swing won't quite swing like it once did meaning you don't sleep there.  We've had to just start laying you in the pack and play in the living room for naptime and while you will put yourself to sleep most of the time {Woot! Woot!}, you only stay asleep for about 20 minutes.  Sweet girl, you need more than 20 minutes of sleep during the day.  You may be getting bigger, but you're not that big yet! Thank goodness at night you are still an awesome sleeper.  You're still in our room.  I know I need to move you out soon, but I just don't feel ready yet. We still swaddle you up because I swear keeping your arms down helps you to sleep longer.  Maybe some day soon we'll see how you do without being swaddle but why mess with it if swaddling seems to be working??
Currently you'll fall asleep around 7:30-8 and sleep until about 6:30.  Sometimes you'll wake up in the middle of the night to tell us something but after you're done talking you'll go back to sleep.

Here's some other info about you right now:  Clothes: 6 months, though 9 months isn't too big on you, diapers-moving up to size 3 today, Feedings-we're trying something new right now to wean you off so much cereal in your bottles since you don't spit up as much now that you're getting older. You usually get 6 ozs in the morning, before bed and in the afternoon. You also eat a stage 1 fruit and cereal mid morning and then a half a stage 1 veggie at dinner, along with 4 oz of formula.  I feel like we're constantly feeding you, but you seem full and happy. :-)

Here's a couple pictures of our big girl!

Look at that little attitude!