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!!

Rowan: 22 Weeks (5 months)

Rowan turned 5 months on April 26th!  She rolled over one day before turning 5 months, just like her brother!!  She goes through phases where she sleeps more, and eats less and then eats more and sleeps less...it is all just part of having a baby that is growing and changing so quickly.  I have been looking at some of Liam's video's from when he was her age, and it's so interesting to see how he was.  Rowan was with me in the office while I was watching a video of her, and she got sooo excited!  She started smiling and kicking her legs, she definitely likes other babies!  It doesn't matter how bad of a mood you are in, if she smiles at you it ALL goes away!

Rowan: 21 weeks

I was looking over my posts for Liam when he was a baby, and I was doing a weekly update for him...so I thought that I really need to be better about posting more updates for Rowan while she is still a baby and changing so quickly.  I think part of it is that you notice a lot more new stuff when it's your first time experiencing it. Part of it is taking care of a 2-year old as well as an infant is very time consuming, and it's hard to keep up with everything that needs to be taken care of.  Anyway, earlier this week we were talking about how she would be starting to blow raspberries soon, and sure enough that evening, she started doing it.  She also has found out that she can suck on her toe, and it has become her new favorite chew toy.  Over the weekend, she slept a lot!  I had to pretty much force feed her during her awake times.  We think she is getting ready for a new milestone, probably rolling over.  I also read in my post on Liam that around this time his appetite started to get more than I was able to produce, and I didn't have much stored in the freezer either, so we had to start supplementing with formula...I'm not sure what is different this time, but I don't have that problem at all...in fact, I have so much stored milk, that I have to keep rearranging the freezer to make room for more.  She is still eating a lot too...I'm hoping this trend keeps up, and we won't have to buy formula at all!  Another thing I noted, and I'm not trying to compare our 2 kids, but just note is that she isn't as verbal as Liam was at this age. But she is definitely more social as far as laughing and smiling goes.  Every baby is so different, it is interesting to notice their unique qualities.

Rowan: 4 months (4.5 months/20 weeks)

I am so behind this month on Rowan's update.  I just have not been right since the time change, and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed lately.  Rowan turned 4 months old on March 26, 2010.  She also had her 4 month check up on March 31st.  At that time she weighed 13 lbs. 13 oz. (51%), her length was 24.3 inches (48%) and her head was 16.4 inches (67%).   I weighed her on the home scale a few days ago, and she has topped 14 lbs. now.  She is definitely growing right before our eyes! She is now a pro at drinking from her bottle, and is also weaning from nursing.  She gets too distracted with what is going on around her to sit still long enough to have a good feed, but thankfully if she wakes at night she will still nurse, so that is nice.  She is full of smiles all the time, and basically you just need to look at her and she will smile.  She is starting to laugh and giggle too which is just adorable.  She can roll over with a little assistance, like with gravity or if she pulls on something, but she hasn't quite done it on her own yet, but very close!  She has recently discovered her legs and feet.  She will hold her legs up and play with them and her feet too.  She is starting to outgrow her swing because she is starting to sit up in it and hold onto the sides and the swing will stop, so we brought up the Jump-a-roo the other day, and she loves it!  She took to the jumping right away.  Although, I can tell when she gets tired because she will lay her head on the side.  She absolutely adores her older brother, and you can tell she already looks up to him.  We just are amazed on a daily basis just how cute and wonderful she is, and are so thankful she is a part of our family.