4 Months Old!

Evie is 4 months old! I'm a little sad the newborn stage is officially over. She is a baby now, not a new born. She does baby things like grab her feet, play with toys and coos.

She is such a content, chill baby. This month has brought on more protests but nothing to complain about.

The only thing I have to complain about is her sleeping habits... or lack thereof. I think I thought I would have another amazing sleeper like Livi. I was getting 6 and 7 hour stints at night out of Evie, until she hit 3 months. Now I'm lucky if I get 3 or 4 hour stretch. It feels pretty brutal to me. Because of all this we have begun to sleep train her a bit which has gone really well. Basically, she goes down to sleep for bed and naps awake and puts herself to sleep. She's attached herself to a fuzzy that is her cue and it works well, even when we are away from her crib.

The big surprise for us this month is our willingness to keep her sleeping in our room. She outgrew or got to mobile for the bassinet this month, which I'm so sad about because the girls Grampa (Jon's Dad) helped refurbish it for Livi before he died. This is the same point and age where we had moved Livi out of our room and in to her crib in the nursery. I told Jon that I wasn't sure if I was ready for that. He wasn't sure if he was ready for that either.... so we moved the crib in to our room. I'm so thankful that Jon and I are always on the exact same page when it comes to parenting!

Evie rolled over this month. April 23rd to be exact. Front to back. Other then the time she rolled off the couch when she was two months old... but that is another story that I was too upset to blog about! She hasn't done it since last week, but we never giver her tummy time because she hates it so much. We need to help her with that.

She loves her play mat and enjoys reaching for all the toys we have hanging off it. She also spends a lot of time in her Exersaucer these days, reaching and chewing on all the toys she can get her hands on in there. Evie is an avid thumbsucker now and I barely keep a soother around, except in extreme situations. She definitely prefers her thumb and can get some good suction on it most of the time now.

No teeth yet, but there are days I think she might drown in slobber. She smiles a lot but is still very quiet compared to Livi. I think Livi was an extra loud baby and Evie is an extra quiet baby so it is a huge difference to me.

Evie doesn't like nursing out of her home. She is very easily distracted and will sometimes go without eating in public and then gorge herself when we get home. She is definitely not hurting from this practice though because she is now 17.2 lbs and in 12 months cloths! I took a picture of her at 3.5 months in a size 12 month outfit that Sofie wore at 3.5 years old! 

All in all she is a pretty amazing baby and I'm pretty sure our lives would be exceedingly boring with out her! I don't know what Livi would be doing with out her. Sofie and Livi both adore her. Sofie loves cuddling with us in our rocking chair while I nurse Evie. It is actually quite special. She is such a blessing and we all love her just so much!

Happy Birthday Sofie!

My second child, who is actually the oldest, is 5 YEARS OLD!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOFIE!!!

You have made life so full of Joy!

full of Laughter!

full of a new kind of Freedom!

full of Cuddles!

and full of Beauty!

How did I get old enough to have a 5 year old?!

Good Morning Birthday Girl!

Instead of a birthday party we took the girls to the Aquarium! (We will have a joint 5th B-day party for the girls in June when we get them their trampoline.... shhhh! Don't tell!) The Aquarium was wonderfully successful. We probably didn't stay as long as some might necessitate because of how overwhelming it is for our young kids, but they enjoyed their time there completely. It was a good day to go... not as busy as I've seen it before. 

There was a lot to see and the kids were all over the place, jumping from one fish exhibit, to the penguins, to the frogs, etc. We kept costs down by packing a picnic lunch which was a fabulous idea on more than just a financial level. It got us out of the overwhelming space of the Aquarium and gave us some quiet time in the park. Sofie even got some music time during lunch. Perfect! 

Livi's favourite part was seeing all of the fish! I liked touching the anemone and seeing how awestruck the girls were at first. And Sofie's favourite part was probably the Tropical exhibit where she could touch the leaves and trees. Jon's liked seeing the dolphin play with Livi through the window, which was really cool. It was following the stuffed animal up and down against the glass.

We got home quite expectedly tired but I tried to get a little birthday photo shoot of Sofie, as I do every year on their birthdays, while we blew bubbles and Jon cut the grass. She was done though, but I got a few :)

Dinner consisted of Mac n' Cheese which is her favourite and chocolate cupcakes for dessert! 

Happy Birthday Sofie. You are amazing and I am so blessed to be your mom. 

It's Been A While

I've been gone from my blog for a while. No real reason. We are just busy with the day to day stuff of parenting three children and all that that entails. Nothing too exciting to blog about I guess.

We've been enjoying the days of gorgeous weather and have been taking the girls to the park regularly. Evie had her first ride in a swing. She didn't really care about it either way. She is such a chill baby. Sofie has been playing a lot better at the park. She climbs and explores now. She goes down the big slides by herself and even started going on the regular big kid swings too. The regular swings still scare me because if she did happen to let go she'd get pretty hurt, but she keeps asking to go higher.

Livi is still completely adoring of her baby sister. She can't get enough. She'll say she "has to go smother Evie now." As soon as she knows Evie is awake, Livi MUST go to her. Livi is such a good big sister. Sofie too. I'm kind of amazed at how wonderful they are with their baby sister.

Livi is a sponge for knowledge lately. She wants to know everything from how a dentist does a root canal to the anatomy of a sea star. She has started reading words too. I need to monopolize on this more  but I am failing a bit. I don't seem to find the time, but I need to make the time. She can do the monkey bars at the park, turn around on the bar at gymnastics and ride the rope swing, all things she couldn't do a few months ago. She is also "quite the negotiator" as her swim instructor put it. She likes to make deals and compromise on EVERYTHING! She is also the MASTER dawdler now. She finds eighteen things to do before she does the thing we asked her to do in the first place. Super annoying. She has also been pushing some of the boundaries again. I suspect it is still a bit of the upset from the baby coming and having two parents home while Jon is on parental leave. She is usually quite delightful, but when she's mad, the world knows it. 

Sofie has regressed in her own way... she wants to do what the baby does, especially this past month it seems. She tries to get in the Exersaucer, wants to be held like a baby and has even tried to breast feed. All things that I'm actually enjoying since she never got that as a baby. Her language is taking off in spurts and she is amazing us with how much she is actually understanding, even though she can't communicate completely. This lack of communication has become very frustrating to her and she breaks down crying frequently out of frustration. It is hard, but she is doing great! She can say little sentences now like "it broke" and "more eat please". She has come such a long way in such a short amount of time!

Jon is enjoying his time home but I think maybe starting to look forward to going back to work. He has said on a few occasions that he feels sorry for me for when he goes back to work. It is nice to hear :) Hopefully he remembers how hard being at home is when he is actually back at work!

As for me, I'm enjoying life. Jon is really wonderful at letting me sleep in a little in the morning because I'm up in the night with Evie. I usually still need a nap but it sure helps! A luxury I won't have when he is back to work. I'm loving this family time. We go to the park. We play with the kids a lot. We cook dinner together or take turns. We let each other have naps when they are needed. We let each other get out with out the kids when it is needed too. Granted being home together does illuminate some of our frustrations with each other a little more, like the fact that I always put the coffee cup he is using in with the dirty dishes even if he is still using it, but we deal with it, try to laugh and hopefully do better the next day.

I am blessed.