Rowan: 33 Weeks (7.5 mo)

Rowan is now 33 weeks!  And a few days after I wrote her last update, she made some huge changes...for one around the 4th of July she started sitting like a champ!  She is also eating a TON!  At first I guess I was just catching her at bad times or something, because she would just purse her lips closed, and I had a hard time getting her to eat, but lately she has been very good about eating, and she isn't making faces as much either.  She also has started to hold her own bottle.  She can take it out of her mouth, and get it back in with no problem!  Her schedule is harder to predict now because her tired cry is very similar to her bored cry.  Sometimes I think she is ready for a nap, but then she just cries in her crib which is unlike her, so I take her out again, and try to entertain her and she is fine.  Her naps have been shorter than usual, and we think it's because she is sleeping like a log at night time.  She usually goes to bed around 5 or 6 pm, and doesn't wake till we get up at 6am the next day.  It has been very nice, and we hope she keeps that up!  In fact this morning I went in her room, and she was still asleep...I had to wake her for the first time.  She is really pushing up on her hands and knees and we know she is so close to crawling, but we hope she waits till at least after her pictures next week!  Once she starts to crawl, we know life as we know it will change all over again...we will have 2 fully mobile kidlets!  Anyway, she is such a delight in our lives and we can't imagine life without her.

Liam: 2 yrs, 7 mo.

OH my goodness the list of things that Liam has done this past month is sooo long!  He is just constantly changing and coming up with new things everyday!  He is really starting to put ideas and concepts together.  He will see something, and talk about it, and ask questions...lately his most common phrase is 'What's that?'.  He will say it for everything, even though we know he knows what it is.  We suppose this is a 2 yr old phase that is part of learning and developing.  We always try to teach him manners, so we will ask him to say please and thank you.  We will say 'Say Please' , then he will say 'Say Please' back , or we will say 'What is the magic word?', and he will say 'Magic word Please'...it's pretty funny.  He loves singing, and loves to dance with the drum.  He is starting to listen more to us, whether he follows our direction is another story though.  It certainly is nice when we have to do something for Rowan, like give her a bath, and he will 'help' out.  And by help out, I mean he will stick by, and not get into too much trouble.  Although the first time we had her in her sit up tub upstairs he decided it would be fun to get in her tub when she was done with his clothes on, it was pretty funny!  He will hand me diapers when I ask him, which is very nice!  He is really good on the stairs now too!  Although, he still needs a spotter, he can go up and down all by himself now.  He has been a lot better hanging out with us on the main floor lately, and generally will listen to what we ask him, although he still does not understand 'Don't run in the house' !  We can even leave him for brief moments without worrying too much that he will get into too much trouble.  He loves to ride his trike around, and is starting to peddle better, although he gets really distracted by all the bugs and small things on the ground.  He has to stop and check each one out!  He is really into bugs too, and his favorite movie this month has been 'Bugs Life'.  I got him a book about ladybugs, and snails, and he also has a book on different bugs, and can identify them all.  He has been loving summer, and has some new sandals, a new hat, and new sunglasses...he loves running around in the back yard and getting into the garden and picking strawberries.  We have not been pushing the whole potty thing, but if he asks to go we will let him try.  He has gone pee a few times in the Elmo toilet.  He generally likes to go in the bath tub.  He is starting to get a few fears.  He is now scared to ride the pony at Thanksgiving Point, and he also is scared to go down the slide at the park...Both we think will be short lived phases, hopefully!  We just can't believe that he will be starting preschool in a month!  Our little guy is just growing up so fast!

Rowan: 7 Months

Happy 7 Months to Rowan, she turned 7 months on June 26th.  She is growing and changing so quickly too.  Her bottom 2 teeth are coming in...she was sore for a few days, so we needed to give her a little Motrin, that seemed to help.  She is more expressive with her face now.  She likes to scrunch up her face, it is so cute! It seems she just wants to skip sitting all together, and start crawling! She is pushing up with her knees and arms, and she is pivoting and scooting all over to get things she wants. She has really quick and grabby hands too, we really need to be careful what we leave out around her now, especially with a toddler in the home too!  We are scheduled for professional pictures mid July, and she needs some more help with sitting.  She does OK for a minute or so, but then she topples over...I ended up getting her a Bumbo to help get her stomach muscles in shape.  It seems to be helping so far. 

 

She is talking a lot more now!  She is now saying 'Dada' and all sorts of other sounds.  She also gets more bored, and likes to play more now.  She just loves everyone, and will smile and be happy with a perfect stranger.  She is pretty much on a predictable schedule now too which is nice so we can plan more around her naps, and when she cries we pretty much know what to do for her.  She was really starting to dislike her bassinet that we had in our bedroom, so when she turned 7 months about a week ago, we moved her upstairs, and she will sleep right through the night now, close to 12 hrs.?!  We can't believe it, we have been so lucky so far...I'm sure that will change when she starts teething more, but for now we are quite enjoying it, although we do miss having her near us!  But it's nice because we don't disrupt her sleep in the evening.

 

At around 6 months something changed with her eyes because she started to squint with the camera flash.  We had been thinking about getting a new camera anyway, so with this new development we decided to go ahead and do it.  It would be sad if all your baby pictures after 6 months were squinty, so we are glad the new camera is super fast, so her eyes are nice and wide open. 

 

Another big change this past month is we started to feed her some food!  We started out with some Rice cereal, and she did pretty good.  Then we had some left over jars from Liam that were still good, so I gave her a taste of Mangoes...it was a little too tart to start with, but the faces she made were priceless!  Mike got some more tame flavors at the store, and so far she has tried; bananas, carrots, peas, pears and butternut squash.  Usually she takes 2-3 feedings to finish a jar, but she plowed her first jar of butternut squash the other day, we were so proud of her.  She is kinda funny still about eating though.  She even makes faces eating rice cereal...Liam was more of a gagger, but Rowan is more of face maker!

 

I just can not believe how fast this last month flew by!  Most of the month I was healing from having a mole taken off of my foot, so we really didn't do much, but the kids managed to grow and change regardless!

 

Oh, and one last thing...I was just looking over Liam's 30 week post, which is how old Rowan was this past week, and ironically 'Auntie' Heidi came to visit him the same exact week!  We got some really cute pictures, and will have to post them together to compare sizes : )  He seems so much bigger!!

Rowan is 6 Months!

I know I've been bad lately on Rowan's updates...things just get so busy, then last Friday I had a mole removed from the arch of my left foot, and I have a lot of stitches there now, and I can't walk!  It is horrible, but I am grateful for my husband who took care of me all weekend, plus the kids and house. And I'm also grateful for my mom, and mother-in-law that are helping me with the kids when Mike has to work. Anyway, Rowan turned 6 months old on May 26th, and she is cuter than ever.  She also had her 6 month check-up on May 28th.  

Here are her new stats: 15 lbs. 8 oz. (39.86%)
Length: 25.5 inches (40.74%)
Head: 17.25 inches (85.05%)-as you can see her head is still BIG, just like Liam's!

She is starting to sit, and just this past weekend she started 'talking', saying 'Baba' and 'Mama'.  We also fed her some rice cereal.  The first time was pretty messy.  We mixed it up really soupy like it says to on the box for their first time.  She seemed to know right what to do, she grabbed for the spoon and pulled it to her mouth...then she started blowing bubbles on the spoon.  Overall she did pretty good for her first time.  We have tried a couple more times since then, and she is really starting to get the hang of it.  We look forward to trying some new flavors like apples and carrots!  She has been sleeping through the night most of the time now, we feel so spoiled.  Although, she is almost outgrown her bassinet, so hopefully my foot will heal soon before she needs to move upstairs.  Anyway, we love this little girl so much, and are so grateful to have her in our family.  Happy 6 months little girl.

Liam is 2-1/2 years!

WOW, Liam is 2.5 years old today!  He is growing into such an adorable little boy, and it is exciting to see all the things that he learning every day.  He has such an amazing memory, and is really good at forming ideas together.  For example we were driving home the other day, and someone had a bike strapped to the roof of their car, and he said 'Bike on the car'.  I have been going to the Dr. to have several moles taken off, and he has been very concerned about them.  He points to and counts the ones that are left, and calls the ones that are healing 'boo-boo's'.  I had mentioned to him the other day that dad would be staying home with him, and I would be going to the Dr. to get some more moles taken off.  The following morning, he told Dad that I was at work, and at the Dr. getting some moles taken off.  He just amazes us how much information he can take in, and remember later on.  On the way home from work we drive by the school he will be going to in the fall, and I pointed it out to him one day.  Then one day when we drove by, he recognized it, and said 'Liam's School'  Although, he has a few variations of his name. It took him until recently to start saying his own name, and here are a few ways he says it; 'Jaeon', 'JeeJum','YayYum'.  I suppose the sound Lee-um can be hard for a 2 yr. old, but the funny thing is he can say pretty much anyone's name you tell him...we think it's pretty cute though!  He can say 'L' sounds, so when he's really tired we will say he's getting loopy, so he will say 'Jaeon's getting loopy', it's pretty funny.  He likes to talk about 'his people'.  He will count the people in the room, or he'll say something like 'lots of people', or 'Rowan is a people', 'Mama is a people', and 'So and So is my people.'  His favorite movie is Peter Pan still, and he will pretend to sword fight when Peter Pan is fighting with Captain Hook.  He also likes to find his shadow on the wall, like Peter Pan does.  His favortite book lately is his Dr. Seuss's ABC book, and a funny word he likes from that book is Googoo Goggles for the letter 'G'.  It is a fun word to say, and he even has a pair that Grandma B. found for him to wear.  He finished up his gym class last week, and I think I'm going to check out another one that is in Lindon once my foot is feeling better.  He just loves gym class!  Just wanted to follow-up on the hurdle that we had last month.  We decided to go back to having his milk in the car when I pick him up to go home, and he hasn't fought me too much about his car seat since then, thankfully.  A few things he did this past month was he helped dad plant the garden, we saw the Penguins at the Aquarium and he took a ride on Thomas the Train.  He had a great time!

Anyway, I will leave this update with an e-mail from Grandma B. about Liam:

Hi guys,
I forgot to tell you this cute Liam-ism.  I was changing his pants and he was talking in a super high, sing-song voice.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm talking Rowan",  leave it to a kid to know that babies have their own language.  I don't know if I told you this one, when I asked him if he wanted to see the neighbor's chickens, he said yes,...and the cow.  I told him they didn't have a cow and he said, OK, how about a zebra?

Gotta love that boy.
Love ya,
mom

HAPPY 2.5 years Little Man!

Rowan: 24 Weeks (5+ mo.)

OK, so much for trying to write every week...it is so hard to carve out a few minutes when there is already so much to do!  Anyway, I just want to jot down a few new things that she is doing before she changes again...I would say about a week after she rolled back to front, she started rolling front to back...she can now roll over in both directions with ease.  She definitely prefers to sleep on her tummy now that she can roll over...Liam was the same way.  I just have to make sure she is in a good position as to not suffocate.  She is tucking her knees under and pushing her bum up too...she will be crawling before we know it!  She is eating a ton!  Mike bought some rice cereal, and we will be trying that very soon...She is grabbing things very well now, and especially likes to grab things she can chew on...She has officially outgrown her size 1-2 diapers and onto size 3.  I can't believe she will be 6 months in just over a week...time is just flying by too fast.

Liam: 2 yrs. 5 mo.

I keep a list throughout the month of all the new things that Liam is doing so that I can remember everything for his monthly update....this month has to be one of the longest lists yet!  He just continues to grow and change in so many ways....So where do I start?  How about we start at the top of the list and go down...One day I made a video of Rowan, and I played it back right after...he saw Rowan on the floor and on the screen and said 'Two Baby Rowan's'...Also one night I was getting him ready for bed, and he saw me in the mirror and said 'Two Mamma's'.  He is starting to count people in room too.

The weather is warming up, and we took him in the back yard to play.  He saw the garden, and pointed to where the strawberries were last year and said 'Strawberries'.  We were quite amazed and surprised he remembered them from over 8 months ago!  He has quite the memory.  

We took the kids to the tulip festival.  I wanted to get some macro pictures of the flowers, and all he wanted to do was RUN!  Mike chased him around the whole time, he thought it was a fun game to run and be chased...and man is he fast?!  For safety sake, he will need to learn very soon that he needs to stick by us.  

Grandma and Grandpa P.  had a spare 'Cars' trike at their house, so they gave it to Liam to have at our house.  We ordered him a matching helmet.  I thought for sure we would have to fight him to get him to wear it, but to our surprise he put it on, and we took him out for a little ride.  He quite enjoyed it.  While on his ride we came across a roly poly that is like a bug in his new bug book.  Dad picked it up, and it rolled up into a ball.  I had never really looked up close at one, and I was really amazed at how detailed they are.  We let Liam look at it for a while, then dad put it safely in the grass.  We thought it was a nice little learning experience for him.  

A couple big hurdles we have been dealing with over the past month has been getting him to sit in his highchair and his car seat.  He will do a few moves where he will either make his body limp, we call it the 'limp noodle', or he will stiffen his body, we heard it called the 'stiff hot dog'....apparently this is something that is common for kids his age, and we just have to deal with it!  The other big fight we have had lately, and this has been going on since we started, is brushing his teeth.  The ease of it comes and goes, but it seems to be more difficult as of late. I am just hoping it starts to get easier sometime soon.  

We took Liam to a couple of gym classes for a trial run, and then signed him up at the one closest to us.  He loves it!  He especially likes to jump on the trampoline, and jump into the foam pit, and swing on the rings.  We do think that we might sign him up for another session, but at the other gym ( I will write more on that later, probably on my other blog). 

He has been talking a ton lately, and will mimic back a lot of the stuff we say.  He can say every one's name, and is starting to say his name, but doesn't really say it well yet, but the funny thing is if you ask him to say Mississippi, he can say it perfectly.  He still pronounces yogurt, logurt, which we find very cute.  His favorite new movie as of late is Peter Pan, and he calls it 'Pie Pins' or a variance of that...We love all his mispronunciations : )  Anyway, this is getting really long, and I'm at the end of the list, so until next time...We LOVE you Liam!!