65 Years

In June my grandparents celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary!   A marriage of 65 years is definitely a feat to be honored and was so thankful to be a part of their time of celebration.  On top of that, both my grandparents have been an incredible source of love and support throughout in my life as well as being a great inspiration.  I feel so grateful for them, the time we have together, and that my children have gotten to know them.  I am truly blessed beyond measure.

During Ainsley's visit they gave her a (early) birthday present of little princess dolls, which made for some sweet pictures and cherished playtime.

During Bailey's visit, he also got a (belated) birthday present of a toy train which has provided hours of entertainment.  We didn't get pictures of it during the visit though because he was too busy being busy and exploring the other treasure in their home... his favorite being this paperweight with gold flecks in it.

  

And it didn't take Caroline any time to warm up!  She was loving all the extra attention!

My heart is happy and full thinking back about this visit and I am overwhelmed with thankfulness and love.  But no time is ever enough and I'm hopeful that I will be able to visit again soon!

Caroline 7 months

I realize that I have said this almost every month now, but I can't believe that Caroline is already SEVEN months old!  I love it and hate it at the same time!  She is now closer to a year old than she is a newborn but she is also as sweet and as fun as can be.  Another thing I say all the time, but this is such a fun age!

One of her most fun and scary developments this month, is that she has become somewhat mobile!  She began the month by planking, which I wrote about in another post, where she is balancing her body up on her hands and toes with out stretched arms.  She is so cute and proud.  Then she transitioned to experimenting with putting her knees down and rocking back and forth a little bit.  This usually moved her backwards.  Now she goes from being up in her plank position or on her knees and thrusts her body forward and pulls herself forward with out stretched arms.  She isn't all that quick (yet) but for over a week or so now, she can get to anywhere she wants to go with this method.  She gets particularly excited and motivated when the remote is on the floor or one of Ainsley's sparkly dress up dresses or some of Bailey's cars or anyone's shoes.  As a family we are so not ready for this phase but I can't help but be proud of her and love it at the same time!  She is also able to sit up steadily and unsupported, but honestly, doesn't stay sitting in one place long because she usually quickly transitions to her belly in hopes of reaching something new and fun.

Another big change this month is that we moved Caroline's crib into Ainsley's room and she has been sleeping there during naps and at night.  This was in the hopes of getting her to sleep longer stretches at night, which hasn't really happened, but it is nice to have our room sort of back (her changing table and clothes are still in there).  Because Caroline is still waking up a handful of times at night, we temporarily moved Ainsley up to the guest room bed on the third floor.  Thankfully Ainsley has been so sweet and grown up about this transition but I know that she missed her real bed and room.  The plan is that once Caroline isn't waking up at night, we will move Ainsley back to her bed and the girls will share a room until we move into the new house.

Other points of interest about Caroline at 7 months:

• She had her third plane ride and saw the beach and ocean for the first time.
• Eating finally "clicked" and now she opens her mouth and glups food down.  She eats 3 meals a day most days (~8am, ~11:30 am, ~6pm) and has come to expect it more.  Now she fusses gets impatient if I'm not feeding her fast enough or if I get distracted with one of the other kiddos.
• Caroline mostly falls asleep on her own in her bed but will still fall asleep in my arms if I let her... And I try to cherish this each time because I know in a blink of an eye she won't do this anymore.
• Has started making the cutest high pitched "ba ba ba" noises.
• She rubs her eyes and ears with a chubby fist when she is falling asleep or tired. 
• Loves bath time and kicks and slashes in the water a ton!!  When she is at the pool, she kicks her legs almost non-stop in the water.  It's adorable and hopefully means we have another water lover on our hands!
• At the end of this month and beginning of her 8 month, she got sick for the first time.  It started out as a cold that transitioned to fever, vomiting, and ear infection.  Poor baby!  It has been rough seeing her so uncomfortable and out of sorts.

Some of my favorite sweet moments with Caroline are at the end of the day when I am nursing her before bed.  She just feels extra snuggly and I cherish the warmth of her little body in my arms or the weight of her head on my shoulder.  Some days I just sit and rock her even though she is done nursing and already fast asleep.  This is usually during part of the crazy time of night when we are rushing to do everyone's bedtime routine but sometimes, I just sit there in the dark enjoying my quiet little baby even though I can hear George chasing after the two loud wild monkeys. Sometimes I feel guilty for taking longer than needed, but most of the time I don't... I just enjoy the sweetness of Caroline.

Baby Plank

Earlier this month Caroline started planking!  The older two didn't do this and it is hilarious!  At this stage, Ainsley and Bailey came up to their knees but precious Caroline is protecting her knees and keeping them up!  Ha!  I love my strong baby and her solid planking form!

Caroline Kisses

Caroline is at the fun full-open-mouth suck-your-face-off kissing stage and I love it!  George caught these pictures of her attacking, I mean, affectionately loving on Bailey and I. She is the best and cracks me up!

Rub-a-dub-dub...

... three babes in a tub!  One hot slow afternoon recently the kids had an early extended bathtime/playtime in George and my tub.  They were so excited that Caroline got to join in on the fun for a little while too!  I was impressed at how well behaved the three of them were and the fact that most of the water stayed in the tub!

But as is standard these days, I couldn't manage to get one picture with all three of them looking at the camera.  Still... these pics give a more accurate depiction of life these days and I love it!

Ainsley making a loud obnoxious face to get Caroline to smile at her.  It doesn't make a pretty picture of Ainsley but it always gets a big smile from Caroline.

Bailey driving his skateboard on Caroline's head while she is completely oblivious...

Bailey so proud of himself for "sharing" his skateboard with Caroline and Ainsley freaking out because she is putting it in her mouth.

Oh, how boring life would be without these three!  I love them all to pieces!

Caroline 6 months

Weight:  15 pound, 11 oz (50th percentile)
Height:  27 3/4 inches (98th percentile)
Head:  16.5 inches (25th to 50th percentile)

I can't believe that Caroline is already half a year old!!  More than in previous months, this month it felt like Caroline started taking her first "steps" away from us and from being an infant.  She is obviously of course still so little and full of pudgy, snuggly babiness but this month she started asserting her individuality and independence a bit more.  All of these changes made this kind of a tough month on the Caroline front.

For starters the first part of this month Caroline learned to roll from her belly to her back.  At first she only did this during play but then eventually started rolling over in her sleep and waking herself up and not remembering or having trouble figuring out how to get back on her belly.  All babies go through this but for some reason this started the progression of troubled sleep for her and we are STILL trying to figure it all out.  Shortly after learning to roll, she learned how to use her voice and very vocally made it known that she wanted and needed more consistent dedicated naps.  I don't blame her, we have pushed her farther than any of our other kids without a consistent schedule and she decided to fight back.  In the beginning of this month, we had almost a week with lots and lots of daytime crying due to naps.  It was horrible!  And based on a friend's recommendation, we hired a sleep consultant to come in and layout a schedule for us.  It was immediately helpful in regulating her daytime sleep and now she is consistently taking 2 naps a day for 1-2ish hours each.  Her nighttime sleep has been a whole other story though... at the beginning of this past month, she started sleeping 7pm to 7am without a dreamfeed!  She did this consistently for about a week and then the whole rolling thing happened and messed everything up.  She got overtired during the day and then was up a lot at night.  And we are still kind of stuck there.  I'll be honest, it has been pretty rough and at times I feel like we have a newborn again.  I added back in the dreamfeed and the sleep consultant is helping us make progress again, I guess, but it has felt like a long month and I don't know that I see an end in sight yet.

Feeding this month has been in transition right along with her sleeping as they go hand-in-hand at this age.  She is eating about two solid food "meals" a day and is slowly getting better at opening her mouth and letting me spoon stuff in.  That said, I have been reminded of the patience it requires to feed a baby because it can feel so tedious and unproductive especially at this early age when as much if not more ends up on the tray, her bib, face, clothes, hair, etc, than in her mouth.  That is why, with everything else going on, I sometimes can only make it happen once a day.  But aside from avocado, she seems to like everything she has tried.

On other fronts, Caroline is at such an adorable stage!  Sleeping aside, George has commented on how this is one of his favorite ages.  Caroline's face lights up with delight when she sees George or the big kids or I walk into the room and she happily flaps her arms and squeals or giggles.  When she's rested, she is so smiley and happy and just basks in the attention showered on her by Ainsley and Bailey.  They both adore her and melts my heart to see, even when they go so far as to "fight" over who gets to play with her, bring her a toy, or make her laugh.  They both often get their feelings hurt if she is smiling or laughing more at one than the other.  This month, Ainsley has calling her "hood-dee" instead of Caroline for reasons I'm still not able to understand and Bailey always sweetly refers to her as "baby" and often "my baby".

Other things from this month I want to be sure to remember:

• The early part of this month, she found her tongue and has fun sticking it out and biting it
• She took her second flight and first trip to Missouri and got to meet her great grandma/pa Norma and Lee, her uncle Matthew and Aunt Meaghan, her great grandma Tina, and some of my aunts, uncles, and cousins.
• She had her first little fever that thankfully only last about 24 hours.
• She can roll back and forth and slide herself left to right to get toys.  And at the end of this month, she has started being back to lift up slightly on her arms and toes and scoot herself backwards.  If I leave her for a few minutes playing on the floor with her toys, I often come back to find her in another spot.

• She has started wearing some of the clothes that Ainsley was wearing when Ainsley was close to one and walking!  But as much as we joke about her being chubby, she really isn't all the much.  She just has a lot of cheeks and chins and is tall!
• Other people - even strangers - often comment on her gorgeous blue eye and the amount of hair she has and they always guess that she is much older than she is.  I like to dress her in blue because it makes her eyes stand out even more!  George and I comment to ourselves all the time about how beautiful we think she is.  Clearly we are biased but I just love my pretty little lady!
• I love how her hair swirls on the back of her head.  Ainsley didn't have this much hair until she was over a year old!

• Likes to play with the tags of all her toys and loves to chew on Bailey's super hero guys and the arms of Ainsley's dolls, and her toes.
• Started sleeping in a sleep sack and with her lovey although she hasn't attached to her lovey yet.
• We packed up the baby swing this month and got out the jumparoo.  She doesn't love the stationary jumparoo that Ainsley and Bailey used and instead tends to prefer the doorway jumper that we borrowed from a friend.  The doorway jumper gives her more freedom where she can twist and turn and I think she feels more "a part of the action" in that one. I'll post pics of those at some point.

• For several months now, when you are holding her, she never really holds back... meaning that she has both her arms flung out "diva style" to either side.  But this month she has started holding onto our shoulders at times.  It is so sweet and feels like a little hug.  When she gets excited she will smile and squeal and then dive her face into our shoulders/neck to "hide."  It is one of my favorite things!
• She loves it when George and I play chase with her.  Usually George is holding her and he will run in slow motion away from me.  I'll come up slowly and grab her arm and tug and pull on her.  She loves this game!  She gets so excited with the anticipation of being "caught" and then delights when I grab her.  It is the sweetest!