Callie: 4 months!!!!

So I'm really behind seeing as Callie turned 4 months a couple weeks ago. But better late than never! Callie's fourth month continued to go smoothly - here's a summary below:


EATING
Callie continued doing both breast feeding and formula. I usually nursed her first (she only took about 10 min) and would then give her a bottle. She usually took 3-5 oz of formula from a bottle, depending on how hungry she was. She still burps pretty easily and rarely spits up. Such a small, but wonderful blessing! During her fourth month, she would usually go about 3.5 hours between feedings.

SLEEPING
Her nighttime sleep was still great! She would usually sleep 11-12 hrs at night, sometimes waking up at 4:00 or 5:00am to eat....and sometimes not. Bedtime was about 8:00 and she would wake up between 7-8am. However, there were usually 3-4 times a night she would wake up crying, and would quickly go back to sleep after mommy gave her her paci.

Naptimes continued to vary. She generally took a morning, afternoon, and evening nap. But if one of those naps was short, she usually wanted a fourth nap somewhere in the day. And the naps weren't at the exact same time every day...it just depended on when she woke up that morning. Her morning nap was consistently good - usually 1.5 - 2.5 hrs.

Also, we still swaddled her.  There was about a week that she acted like she didn't need to be swaddled so we stopped, and she did well for a few days.  But then her naps got dramatically shorter, we started swaddling again, and they returned to normal length.  So swaddling we stayed!

WAKETIME
Callie awake longer this month. After a nap, she was usually awake about 1.5 - 2 hrs (including feeding time). This was fun because we got more time to play with her. She became much more aware of everything going on and didn't want to miss anything. She liked to stand on our laps or to be sitting up. If we were holding her, she liked to be facing out. She's still a big fan of bathtime. She kicks and smiles the whole time, and often gets upset when we get her out. Some things she liked to do during her waketime were:

• talk to herself while in her swing
• try to grab toys that mommy was hanging above her face
• watch Caeden and Ella play (now that's good entertainment)
• be held in mommy's arms while she walked around doing housework
• laugh at the ridiculous faces and sounds that mommy and daddy make at her

Our little Princess

LITTLE SISTER
Callie is still truly adored by big brother Caeden. He loves to love on her and help take care of her. He is getting better at being more gentle with her, but its always a work in progress. :) Sometimes Callie starts smiling and kicking as soon as she sees Caeden coming, and she loves to reach for his face. Other times, she starts crying when she sees him coming. Ha! So we're not sure of her feelings toward him yet. I guess time will tell!

Talking to her

She is already greatly loved by two boys!!

MILESTONES
Some things Callie started doing during her fourth month were:

• laugh out loud
• reach for and grab objects held above her head
• grab toys and pull them to her mouth

4 MONTH DOCTOR VISIT
At Callie's 4 month check-up, she had to get 3 shots again and she recovered very quickly. She even acted normal the rest of the day (unlike her 2 month shots). She was on track developmentally, but the doc said we need to work on her rolling over....I guess mommy wasn't good about giving her enough tummy time each day. :) Here were her stats at the time of her 4 month appointment:

Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz (50-75th percentile)
Length: 25 inches (75th percentile)
Clothing size: 3-6 mos, and some 6 mos
Shoe size: 3 mos
Diaper size: size 2

Callie Ann, 
I'm holding you as I write this.  I love to smell your baby smell, feel your warmth against my face, and listen to all your little baby sounds, even simply your breathing.  I cherish each day and moment we get with you - can't you just stay little forever?  It's so sweet when you'll nuzzle your little face into my neck and "cuddle."  We love your smiles, your laughs, and even your delicate cries. Thank you Lord for blessing us with Callie!

Caeden: 3.5 years old!

Oh. My. Goodness.  The NEXT post I'll be writing about Caeden will be when he turns four - I don't like this - I don't like it at all!  Can't they just stay small forever???

Caeden just turned 3.5 years old earlier in Feburary, so I want to document what things he's doing right now.  A LOT has happened in the last 6 months!

EATING
Caeden is still a pretty "picky" eater - I keep wondering if this will ever end!  We still don't give him choices when it comes to meals, but there are many nights he goes without eating much dinner.  He loves to watch mommy cook and help me cook when he can!

His favorite and least favorite foods seem to change on a weekly basis.  But at the time of this post, his favorite foods are: apples & cinnamon oatmeal, macaroni & cheese, hot dogs, strawberries, RANCH, chicken nuggets, and Gogurt.  Things he consistently does not like are: ground beef & soups.

SLEEPING
His nighttime sleep is still great.  He generally sleeps from 8:30-7:00ish the next morning.  He's had trouble falling asleep the last few weeks - just laying in bed for a long time.  He doesn't talk and play - and he doesn't ever get out of bed - he just lays there.  And Daylight Savings Time is coming in a few weeks - that's definitely not going to help!!

His naps vary - he still takes one every day.  But sometimes they're 45 minutes and sometimes they're 1.5 hours. I'm wondering if he's starting to phase them out - and maybe that's why he's having trouble falling asleep at night??  Several of his friends that are this age no longer nap, but luckily he still does!!

PLAYING
This is what we do most of our days...PLAY!  And since Callie was born, we don't get out as much (especially since it's been winter) - so we just play at home a lot!  If it's warmer than the mid-40s outside, and especially if it's sunny - we're outside burning some energy!

Currently, Caeden's favorite toys are: his trucks & tractors, his basketball goal, and Woody & Buzz Lightyear!  His favorite movies are still Dora & Diego.  He likes all varieties of books - we read a different one every naptime and bedtime.

LEARNING
Caeden is always learning so much!  His speech is wonderful, and very understandable.  Whenever he goes to the doctor, she always comments on how he is verbally on the level of a 4/5 year old - and we believe it - he talks all. the. time. (Not sure who he gets that from....)  He has become very creative lately, both in the stories he tells and in his imaginative play. He can count to 20, identify all the letters, name about 2/3 of the letters, and tell the sounds of about 1/3 of the letters. His weakness is in his drawing/writing skills.  He's great at almost all fine motor skills - but just really shows no interest in writing or drawing.  He can draw a "C" for his name and can draw a line, a cross, and a circle.  But that's about it.  We recently found an app on our iPad called "Letter School" which I highly recommend - it works on tracing and writing all numbers and letters - so that's good....and he loves it!  Maybe we can improve this skill through that app!!

DISCIPLINE
Caeden's behavior has improved greatly in the last six months!  His fit-throwing has gotten much better.  The two biggest things we're working on now is obeying mommy & daddy quickly (when we ask him to), and not hitting.  The only people he hits are mommy & daddy, and most of the time it's because he's playing or trying to get our attention - but it hurts when he hits!  And we don't want him using that to get our attention - so we have been much more strict about this rule.  We are also working on "interrupting" - since he is such a talker, we're trying to model and teach him how to wait your turn when you have something to say.  I know it's hard for me as an adult - so we're being patient with him, but still trying to teach him.

SOCIAL
Caeden & Ella are still BFF!  But it's funny to see how their interests have changed the last few months.  She always wants to play "babies" and Caeden wants to play either basketball OR trucks.  We have the hardest time agreeing all day every day what to play.  It's just interesting to see how the difference in their gender is now becoming more obvious.  Caeden has many friends at "school" (Mothers Day Out) that he tells me about, and has lots of friends through our play group.  However, the only person he really plays "with" is Ella.

 

BIG BROTHER
Since the last time I posted, Callie was born and Caeden became a big brother!  He has done amazingly wonderful with this transition and truly is a great big brother!  He did not regress in potty training or sleep or behavior, so that's great!  Yes, there are times he wants our attention and he makes it obvious - but that's very normal.  And he's usually justified in wanting our attention.  But he loves her so much!  He gets so excited when she wakes up - he loves to hug & kiss on her - and likes to help us take care of her.  Although we recognize they are still young, we are so thankful for this bond!

GROWTH STATS
Weight: 31 pounds
Height: 38 inches
Shirts & Pants: 3T
Shoe Size: 9

Caeden, My heart is so full watching you grow and learn.  I love you more than words can ever express!  And seeing you love on your baby sister creates a whole new love for you!  You are so big and so smart!  We thank God every day for you - please don't grow too fast!  We love you!!!

Playing with Toys

About a week before Callie turned 4 months old, she started actually grabbing at toys to play with them.  The toy flower in this video is her favorite!  It's not the best video - but it's just a short clip.  It's hard to get a "good" video with big brother around. :)  This week, she has also started grabbing things and putting them in her mouth. I just love love love seeing babies develop!

Laughing at Caeden

Callie has been laughing since she was just a few months old, but they're just kinda tiny girly laughs. :)  It's rare that we hear an outloud, belly laugh.  She has only done this a few times - apparently we have to be very funny for her to give us one of those!  Well, Caeden is one of the few people that has gotten her to actually giggle aloud. This is a short video I captured of him playing with her - and I caught two laughs towards the beginning.  I love the bond these two have right now - I'm sure I'll have to remind them someday that they really did love each other when they were little! ;)

Callie's Playmat

Callie is 4 months now!  (No worries -her 4 mo post will be coming soon!) About 2-3 weeks ago, Callie discovered that she could now control her hands! This is a video of when she first started hitting at the music-playing flower on her playmat.  Of course, her hand movements were still very jerky, but it's fun to see her trying so hard! :)

Valentine's Day 2013

We celebrated this Valentine's Day (2013) a little differently.  I figured that since we make a month-long celebration out of Christmas - why not do the same thing for Valentine's Day?  So, on February 1, Caeden and I made a chain out of pink, purple, and red paper links to hang up.  (Since we had done this for Christmas, Caeden knew that it was a countdown for Valentine's Day).  For 14 days, Caeden got to wake up each morning, tear off one link, and on the inside was written an activity for us to do together!

Some days the activities were simple (read a Valentine's Day book), and sometimes they were more involved (make a Valentine's Day box).  Here are a few pics of some of our activities we did to celebrate this Day of Love!

One day, we put wax paper on their shoes, and went "ice skating"

in our living room! This was so fun and hilarious!

Their shoes were way slippery than I thought they 

would be, and they had a blast!

We also finger painted with (and ate) pink pudding. 

(vanilla pudding + red food coloring)

 And one day, we made miniature heart-shaped pizzas. 

We cut the dough with our heart cookie-cutter, and 

the kids got to do the rest.

That's all the pictures I got.  But some other activities we did were: making a bumblebee out of paper hearts, made Valentine Brownies, he went on a one-on-one adventure with Daddy one afternoon, went on a Donut Date with mommy one morning, made Valentine's for our friends, did a "lacing" project with hearts....those are just some.  On Valentine's Day evening, we went on a family date to Chick-fil-a to celebrate our love for each other!

Here is a picture of my LITTLE Prince Charming

on Valentine's Day!

(You can tell someone had been eating

some chocolate). 

And here are some pictures of our little Princess!

Valentine PJ's

Daddy's Little Princess

I absolutely love holidays, and I love making the most of them!  

So, we had fun making it a 2-week celebration!