7 months

Caroline, you are now 7 months old. What a big girl. You continue to be such a happy baby. You smile very easily and we laugh at your smile that always peeks out from under your paci.

I had a lot of fun with your monthly chair photo shoot. You did not want to sit still and you were so curious about that piece of paper.






This has been another big month for you. You started to eat solid foods. It took a few days for you to really get it but you are a very good eater. So far you have had sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, green beans, avocado, banana and rice cereal. I made a huge amount of baby food the week before we started feeding you. It has been so helpful to have a freezer full of food cubes. It is a lot cheaper and healthier than buying jars of baby food. I am sure I will do that some too but for now you have only had homemade baby food.
You continue to nurse about 6 times a day. You are getting more easily distracted so it is getting harder to nurse you around other people, even when you are under the cover. You have had your first two teeth pop through this week. They are the bottom ones. They are hard to see so I have not tried to take a picture. You can feel them though. You are very good at sitting up. you rarely fall over anymore unless you are sitting on the bed or couch. You will strain to try to sit yourself back up but you cannot do it yet. You have started to pull up on things a little. So far you are only pulling to your knees. You are able to reach for things and work your way up.
You are so proud of yourself when you pull up. You are not sure how to get down though and many times I hear you fussing because you are stuck with your arms holding onto something but your body has slid down.
You are not really trying to crawl yet but you are starting to get on all fours. I was wondering if you would ever crawl because every time I put you on your tummy you would flip over to your back. You get onto all fours from the sitting position instead of from your tummy. You are pretty good at going from sitting to all fours and back sitting again. When on all fours you are not yet trying to go anywhere.
You are finally rolling from your back onto your tummy and I expect you to be rolling around the room any day now. Honestly, I think the thing that is slowing you down from learning to be mobile is that w are on the go so much. We are rarely home during the day except when w are napping.
You are getting more interested in everything around you. You have developed a lot of curiosity. Your little fingers are getting more precise as you work to pick things up, move them around and examine them. Of course everything also goes into your mouth these days. Katherine is always telling you, "baby sister, don't eat my book".
Your favorite toys are the dishes from Katherine's kitchen. Lucky for me you are content almost every evening for about 30 minutes just playing on the floor with the toy dishes and food.
You are content, that it, until I walk out of sight. I don't think you really have separation anxiety as much as you are very social (like your mom and your sister). You are not too picky about who is with you, you just don't want to be alone. It is funny because as social as you are, you are often very bashful. If I am holding you and someone comes up to you, usually you will bury your head in my shoulder and hide your face. This is even with people you know very well like your grandparents.
This month you have started sitting in high chairs at restaurants, sitting in your stroller all buckled in like a big girl instead of always being in your infant sat, and you have started enjoying the playground. Katherine insists that you go down the slide with her and you have been on the swing in our yard.
You are getting more vocal. Babies always make such cute noises. Now I can tell that you are trying to imitate language. You are making all kinds of new sounds.
You are a pretty good sleeper. You go to bed between 7-8 which is early for our house. You sleep 12-13 hours and usually wake up once during the early morning. Usually if you wake up after about 5 I just bring you into our bed and we snuggle as you go back to sleep. If I nurse you in your room and put you in your crib I have a hard time going back to sleep at that hour.
You usually take a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap. Our nap schedule is still pretty random and I often let you fall asleep on my bed after I nurse you. I know that will have to stop soon when you start to crawl because I don't want you to fall off the bed.
Caroline, you are such a sweet girl. We love you so much.

Valentines Weekend

When daddy came home from work on Friday he had Valentine's flowers for all three of his girls. Katherine and Caroline each received a rose and mommy received her favorite, tulips, planted in soil rather than cut in hopes that they would last longer.




The girls had cute, almost matching, outfits for Valentines. The funny thing is that I did not buy them to match. I bought Caroline's sweater at a consignment sale in September. Then in October I received a box of clothes from my college roommate. They are the same colors and both spell LOVE in a block.
Daddy took all three of his Valentines to one of our favorite mom and pop restaurants in the neighborhood. We usually get take out from there but decided to eat out for the special occasion. Apparently everyone else in the neighborhood had the same thought and we had to wait for 45 minutes to get a table. Luckily both girls did well at dinner.

Saturday I joined some other girls for a scrapbook weekend at a friends lakehouse. I know it is not very romantic but it was the best weekend for us and when you have a wonderful husband, Valentines is just another great day of the year. I took Caroline with me and she did a great job. I actually got a lot of pages done. She and I stayed in a room with a wolf rug. The loved it and thought it was like Hooligan. Katherine and daddy had a fun Valentines day. They started off by going out to eat breakfast. Of course Katherine got pancakes.
Then they went to Lowes and participated in the kids workshop. This week they made a jewelry box with a heart on it.

Christy Needs . . .

I am so far behind in blogging. I still have not blogged about our Valentines day, Caroline's 7 month "birthday" and Katherine's birthday weekend. We also have a new cousin who arrived today. So, be watching for a lot of catching up this week.

So, this has nothing to do with the kids but a fun little game I saw on Facebook and a few blogs this week. You go to Google and type in your name followed by "needs" and write down the first 10 things that pop up. It is totally silly and pointless but I was bored and just chilling after a busy weekend. My commentary is in italics. So...

1. Christy needs to blog. Google, how well you know me. I do seriously need to blog. It is my therapy and I am so far behind.
2. Christy needs help. Hmmm. How should I interpret this. I do need help in so many ways. I need help cleaning out my house. I need help in motivation to work out. I need help in staying sane some days.
3. Christy needs to take her opinions elsewhere. I probably need to keep my opinions to myself a lot more.
4. Christy needs more pop video on AOL video.
5. Christy needs a new computer. My computer is only about 18 months old but this weekend it is driving me crazy and going very slow. Maybe this is prophetic.
6. Chirsty needs an intervention video.
7. Christy needs to take a good hard look at the mirror. Does this mean it is time for a new haircut? I know I need to lose some weight. Are you trying to tell me something Google?
8. Christy needs to know where her inventory is located at all times. I am always losing things or forgetting things.
9. Christy needs all of her course readings in electronic form.
10. Christy needs to stop putting these men before her kids. This was a news story about Christy Brinkley. Not really applicable to me. I feel like I need to not always put my kids at the top of the list.
11. Christy needs a little more humility. This was #11 but I thought it was the best one. I do need more humility.

Just out of curiosity and a little boredom I thought I would see what Sam, Katherine and Caroline needed. Here is the #1 on google for each of them.

Sam needs a little getting used to. He is a little quirky. He wore some 70's Elvis sunglasses on our first date just to see what I would do.

Katherine needs some rules to follow. Google, this is so true. We were just talking about how we were being too lax with her and we are reaping the results of that.

Caroline needs to lose some weight. This is not at all true. At just 15 pounds she is growing. Caroline is not a fat baby at all.

3 year well visit

Today we went to the doctor for Katherine's 3 year well visit. We were supposed to go in 2 weeks but bumped it up to today because she kept saying her tummy hurt and she has a cough. With her birthday being this weekend I thought it was better to go in and be seen to make sure she is not getting sick before we have the festivities. Luckily she is OK and we have her well visit out of the way. This was her first big girl check up which means she did not have to get undressed to get weighed. She is lucky that she has not had to go to the doctor since her 2 year check up so it was like a new experience for her. She did great. She weighed 26 pounds 8 ounces which puts her off the charts at a <3%. She gained 4 pounds since last year is small. What else is new? When it was time to measure height, she stood against the wall rather than getting measured on the table. She was not as cooperative as it was hard to be still. Her height is 35.5 inches. The standing scale started at 35 inches so we barely made it. She is 20% for height. They no longer do head circumference but added blood pressure. Hers is 78/50.
Katherine did great with all that they did. She had her blood pressure taken, vision test, hearing test, looking in the eyes, ears, nose as well as a general once over. She got a clean bill of health. Since we went in at the last minute we saw the nurse practitioner who happens to be Kate's mommy from her class. I think that really helped her to be more at ease since she knew her doctor.

Happy Valentines

Katherine and Caroline wish you a Happy Valentines Day!


I know, this is being posted a few days late. We have been busy and I was actually out of town on Valentines and forget to set this to auto post. I recently bought Photoshop and got a lot of digital scrapbook templates so I had fun creating this card. I a still pretty slow as there is a big learning curve but I was happy with how it turned out and I hop to get better.

I just "slurped" my blog

I wrote a few months ago about how we turned our blog into a book for the portion of our blog where we lived in Norway. It was easy (though time consuming) and I love the end product. It was also very cost effective.

I used a software called blurb where they "slurp" your blog onto your computer for you to edit your blog to be made into a book. When I wrote about this before, blurb was not working with blogs on blogger. I am happy to report to you that it is currently working with blogger again. I checked on it because I am going on a scrapbooking weekend and wanted to have my blog on my computer without having Internet access. I thought this was a great way to get that. It is also just a great way to back up the blog. Someday I am sure I will make a book again. I think this time I will try to download and format the pages weekly so that when I am ready to create a book it will not be as time consuming. Maybe I will print an annual book of our blog.

Anyway, I thought I would pass that info on to all of my blogging friends.

Puff Mommy

Today I decided to give Caroline some Puffs to try as her first finger food. I am not sure you can really call Puffs food, they are mainly air and pretty much dissolve in your mouth. She worked on her pincher grasp and was able to grab the Puffs off her high chair tray pretty easily.
She could get her hand and the Puff to her mouth easily as well.
But, getting that Puff un-stuck from the hand and in the mouth proved to be the challenge. They would stick to her fingers, fall to the tray or fall to the ground where a dog awaited.
Overall she enjoyed them and it gave her something to do while I ate my lunch.

faces

The girls were being cute this evening sitting on the couch, playing together. Of course I wanted to take photos. I asked Katherine to smile and this is the face she gave me.
She told me it was her sad face. I thought it looked like a pouty face. I can see a faint smile hiding under there. She thought she was pretty funny, pretending to be sad. I told her she was silly and then she gave me this face. Isn't she lovely? I think one time she saw her older cousins making silly faces for a photo and now she things it is the greatest thing. Finally, I got a smile. She is so sweet when she cooperates. We went outside after the rain cleared up and I wanted to get photos in Valentines shirts. Katherine was not smiling so I thought I would ask her how old she is about to be. The "three" would make it look like she was smiling just like when you say "cheese". Instead she held up her fingers. She is so excited about her birthday. It is just around the corner.

writing an email

Katherine loves to play on my computer. She will pull up the extra rolling desk chair and tell me that she needs to send an email or look at pictures. Her new thing it that she wants to write her name. So, I usually open up a document or an email and tell her what letters to type. She knows all of her letters and can find them on the keyboard. Usually she will press one letter for a long time so her name ends up way too long but with all the right letters.

Today she sat at my computer while I was in the other room. I came in and asked her what she was doing. She said she was playing real gentle on my computer and needed to write her name. So, I opened up a window and left the room to get our stuff ready to leave. When I came back later tonight, this is what she had written.

kateriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikat

Considering the fact that I have not made any effort to teach her how to spell her name I think this is pretty good. She remembers it from all the times she asked me to help her spell it on the computer.

4th photo tag

I was tagged by Justin with a fun blog challenge. I am to open the 4th folder in my photo directory and post my 4th photo in that directory. So, here it is, a photo of me and Katherine about a month before Caroline arrived. We are "booping" tummies.
Now, I tag Beth, Chrys, Joanie, Lynette, Jaime and Shannon.

Soccer Princess

Today the girls played at Nana and Pops house for awhile. Katherine arrived with a suitcase full of her dress up clothes. Of course she chose to wear her new Cinderella dress. The weather was beautiful so they spent a lot of time in the back yard.Pops and Katherine played with the ball. He used to coach our soccer teams so I am sure he is starting early with Katherine. It looks like she is throwing a ball back in bounds.
Luckily she followed my directions and did not try to wear her princess slippers while outside. They have about a 1" heel and are about 5 sizes too large.
She is a girly girl yet she also loves to play and get dirty. Maybe someday she will be on a soccer team named the princesses. One of her favorite books/movies right now is Gigi and the purple ponies which is about a girly girl and her soccer experience.

Playdate

Today we played with Sydney and her mom Sarah. Sarah and I have been in a women's mentoring group at church for 4 years but she has not been able to attend in the past year due to grad school. She came last month and we realized that we needed to get the girls together. Sydney is 4 months younger than Katherine and they probably have not played together since they were 1. Sydney goes to a mom and tot ballet class on Friday's so we joined her. It is for kids 14 months - 2 years so Katherine is about to outgrow it. She had fun but I don't plan to join it. I would rather wait and put her in the 3 year old ballet class. But, since we started the ballet class at the rec center we don't need to do that.
The teacher took each girl to the side to help them do a back arch and an arabesque. Katherine loved the bar and practiced her arabesque as well as using it more as a monkey bar.

After class we ate lunch at El Fenix and then headed to the park. Caroline loved sitting on the blanket and watching the big girls.
I put Caroline on the slide and Katherine wanted to go down with her. Don't worry, I never took my hands off Caroline as she slid down.

Bow Head

I was a bow head growing up in the 80's. The bigger the bow, the better it was. Katherine is not a fan of the bow though she is getting better about fixing her hair with either a clip, headband or bow. I am trying to get Caroline used to hair accessories so she wears headbands with bows a few days a week. This red and white polka dot one is by far the biggest we have. I love it!
She is such a cutie. I want to hug and kiss on her all day long.
She had a fun time picking the grass and eating the leaves so I have a lot of photos of the top of her head. I put her in our swing for the first time. She looked a little uncertain but overall enjoyed it.

Ballerina Princess

Like I have mentioned before, Katherine is obsessed with all things related to Princess' and ballet/dancing. She is turning into quite the girly girl. So, today was a dream for her. She had her first ballet class. It was at a rec center and just perfect for an almost 3 year old. We missed the first 2 weeks of class so I did not know what to expect or wear so Katherine is not in a leotard, tutu or ballet shoes yet.
She had a ball and talked about it all day. I think it will be a great thing for her, especially since she has few girl friends.

Then when we got home there was a special package in the mail. Our friend Beth sent a package with a complete Cinderella dress up costume that her daughter had outgrown. Katherine was so excited when she realized what was in the box. She put it on and did not take it off until time for bed. She actually wanted to sleep in it but I said she had to take it off. The perfect thing was that today she was saying she wanted a blue dress instead of a pink dress. I took her outside for a quick photo shoot because I needed a princess picture for her Birthday invitation. For once I quickly got some great photos from a usually uncooperative preschooler.

CPSIA update

I wrote awhile back about the CPSIA law going into affect February 10th. I wanted to update you that the CPSC granted a one year deferment on the testing. So, it looks like all of the mom and pop shops that make handmade toys and clothing items for kids will be able to remain open for another year while the government further defines how this law will play out. Of course this also means that all of the big companies making toys in China also have a year that they don't have to test as well...