January 2016 Updates
Abigail
-Must be hitting the 4 month sleep regression a little early. She gets out of swaddles easily no matter how tight I have it. Realizing I need to probably teach her how to sleep without being swaddled-Pacifier- she now takes one! It's been nice for car trips but I've gotten a bit lazy and started using it so I can juts lay her down for naps and attend to whatever/whomever else needs me in that moment. It's a season. I just always take it out of her mouth after she's asleep for a little bit so she doesn't rely on it to go back to sleep.
-LOUD- I think we have a little Lucas! She must feel the need to compete in the house to be heard. I personally love the sound but when she wakes up talking before the other kids are up, I can't just let her be for a bit as she and Kate share a room. Luckily this doesn't happen often- she usually sleeps longer than the toddlers.
-Drool- Holy cow can this girl drool! If you wipe her mouth, you have approximately 60 seconds before you need to wipe it again until there's so much dripping that it goes on to her shirt. Bibs become soaked quickly. Everyone says teething but I'm not convinced.
-Laughing!- Oh is her laughter just the sweetest sound! (2nd to her purring of course- which she still does). Just today we had one of my favorite memories. I put a blanket on the floor and we had a dance party. I held Abigail at toddler height ( I was on my knees) and she just giggled and laughed. She loved joining in with her siblings and feeling like them for once.
-Rolls to her side and gets really close to rolling to her tummy but since she can't roll from tummy to back yet I'm hoping she doesn't quite learn to roll yet!
-Eating: Has refused bottles of milk at grandma's house all month for daycare. She now is sometimes using a syringe just to get 1/2 an ounce to an ounce in her just so she doesn't dehydrate. We've tried formula, bottle boot camp, taken her to the doctor, different ways of storing the milk... nothing is working so far. I'm thinking it may be smart just to get her on to formula somehow so she will eat at grandma's and I can just sell or donate what I pump while I'm working.Lucas
-"I make a joke"- he is his father's son already- always trying to entertain! Last month we were at a hotel and we put him and Kate in a pull-out bed and had the monitor in the next room. It was time to go to sleep and we let them mess around a little but they had to stay in bed. Well Katelyn is getting tired and she's getting frustrated with Lucas talking so she keeps telling him to be quiet so I talk to him over the monitor to be quiet and go to sleep. They are both quiet for about a minute and then Lucas says something we can't understand, he's leaning right over Katelyn and then starts cracking up and saying "I made a joooooooke! Me funny!"
-Because he had a diaper rash we tried a day of no diaper and tried a little potty training while we were at it. I think I could've kept at it if I really wanted to but I valued my time with the kids more and figured it'll be better later on when he's a bit more ready. I don't think he's quite ready yet.-More words: "Look at dis, mommy"
-Lots of stuttering when he gets excited, loves to get our attention and then figure out what to say, "daddy" "what bud?" "uuuuuuuuuuum"
Katelyn
-Plays hospital and volcano are her favorite things to play lately. Lots of "we're hiding mommy!" which both are convinced if they can't see us, we can't see them. See picture in the car. Luke: "Me hiding mommy. Me hiding!"-Words: She still says "I'm forgotting"
-Nurturer: LOVES baby Abigail. In fact she can get Abigail smiling and laughing more than anyone else can. She also helps Lucas with his coat and shoes when he needs it- always looking for ways to help! This month I've really spent a big focus on Katelyn. I realized that she's always taken the back burner since she's been 12 months old since she had a new baby brother at that point, then a year later, once he was a little more independent, mommy got pregnant again and horribly sick that I really think caused a rift n our relationship. I've really really enjoyed spending special intentional time with her! This has included "spa" days (baths, curling hair, nails), special movie night in mommy and daddy's bed when daddy was gone for a night, and just specific attention to her and playing with her.Abigail's almost rolling over:
