Aubrey 8 Months

Pretty much daily I forget that I have an 8 month old, and think she's about 12 months. But alas, despite this little one trying to grow up way too quickly, we do indeed have an 8 month old on our hands! You are still the happiest baby I know, and smile SO easily which we adore!  You also can turn Angry Elf on a dime, but that just makes you that much more endearing : )

Happy 8 Months Aubrey Lynn!

8 Month Highlights:

-You have gotten quite active this month and are crawling at a very high speed all over the house. You love to pull up on anything and everything and just explore. You started trying to cruise and mostly fall over, but it doesn't phase you at all...you get right back up and try again! You are getting into everything, and trying to even climb the stairs. Look out world...Aubrey is mobile!!

-You celebrated your first 4th of July this year keeping it low key. We had a family day and spent some time at the park, which meant you crawled around on the blanket and just enjoyed the warm air.

-We had a fun pool day with the Lefler ladies and Katie & Maggie.  You didn't love the water this time, and pretty much cried every time I tried putting you in your floatie.  So you just enjoyed the warm weather, and were content being held by Mimi, or sitting on the towel out of the pool.

-At 7.5 months, you started doing your bedtime and most naptime routines without your paci, mostly because you started to sing along with our songs! It is one of the cutest things that you do.  You seriously just sing and babble along the entire time that we rock you! I absolutely love it!
 
Sleeping: I still can't say we have found a consistent schedule with you yet regarding naps, but bedtime is a little bit more routine.  You generally go down around 5:30 pm and get up for the morning around 7:30 am. Your first nap of the day is about 2 hours after waking, and is your longer nap, anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours, although lately it's been a solid 30 minutes (urgh!).  The second nap is 2-3 hours after you wake from the first and is mostly 30 minutes, but sometimes I get lucky and it's 45 min to an hour. 

I will say this month you really started fighting naps and bedtime.  In the past we'd be able to put you in your crib "drowsy awake" and you may fuss for a couple minutes, but you'd quickly fall asleep. Most morning naps you never made a peep. At the beginning of this last month, you started Angry Elf screaming at the top of your lungs when we put you down. We tried rocking you to a drowsier sleep, putting you in more awake, and rocking all the way to sleep a few times (and then realized this wasn't a good long term solution, and didn't work anyways b/c the second you hit the mattress you were screaming).  So we had to do some cry it out with you this month which was hard, but helpful. You now still have your moments, but for the most part if you do cry it's only for a minute or two until you roll around, find Lambie and get really settled in. 

Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding was all over the place this month. The first two weeks you ate 6-8 times a day, then the next 2 weeks cut back to 5 or 6.  I think this is a combination of you eating a bit more solid food, and maybe not going through a growth spurt so you aren't quite as hungry. Either way, I wouldn't really say we have a feeding schedule with you b/c most days aren't consistent.  At the very least, we eat 1 early morning feed which can range anywhere from 4 am to 6 am, then again around 10am, and then throw in some afternoon feeds, a pre-bedtime feed (around 5 ish), and the occasionally 9:30 or 10 pm feed (which I stopped waking you up for this month, but you still wake up on your own at times).

Eating: You tried quite a bit of foods this month, and while I wouldn't say you love any one thing (other than sweet potatoes), there are days you eat a decent amount (1-2 Tbl).  You tried: Butternut squash, peas, broccoli, green beans, veggie medley, blueberries, & spinach/zucchini/pea blend.  I'm not the best at being consistent with feeding you solids just yet, but we try to feed you oatmeal for breakfast, and then veggies or fruits for 2 other meals, although I will say we are lucky to get 1 other meal in most days.

Aubrey Loves:
-Crawling, pulling up, moving all around and exploring 

-Musical toys (pianos and Puppy)

-Watching Bella play, and trying to do everything she does

Aubrey Hates:

 -Being held down or contained to one spot
-Rocking and being held before sleeping : ( (she now just fights it completely bc she knows what's coming...so sad!)

8 Month Stats:

Height: 26.5 in (25th percentile)

Weight: 16 lb 9 oz (25th percentile)

Teeth: You got 3 new teeth this month...all on the top! (total of 5 teeth now)

*Wearing 3-6, 6 and some 9 month clothes (that are still a bit too big, but too cute to pass up wearing this season)

Aubrey's Firsts this Month:

 -Pulling up to stand (30.5 weeks)
-Cruising in her crib and on playroom futon (34 weeks)

This Month In Pictures:

 

Happy, crazy, bored : )

Baby jail

Standing to play right at 7 months

Crawling under things to play

Aaaand...crawling onto things to play

Not feeling the end of a hot pool day

Family park day...couldn't get a decent selfie from this little lady

I'm pretty sure more oatmeal gets on your face and bib than in your belly, but you still look super cute either way!

Isabella 25 Months

My oh my. This was a big month for our big girl!!  She is losing her toddler vocab, is potty trained, and ready to start a new job next week. OK, maybe the last part isn't true, but where did my baby go!?!?

Happy 25 Months Isabella Rae!

25 Month Highlights:

-We spent a ton of time outside this month, taking walks, riding in your car, going for some runs, doing chalk and bubbles, or picking (& eating!) things from the garden. You just love being outside and I love watching you explore!

Getting ready for a ride in your red car

-We also ate quite a few dinners outside because it's just so gorgeous out, and even on the hot nights we turn the fan on and enjoy it! 

 This was after the first time you said delicious as in "Mmmm, this meat is delicious!" Some days I can't get you to even take a bite of meat, other days "delicious!" Cracked me up!

-We went to Suwanee Town Center for a few picnics, and also enjoyed the splash pad a couple times!  

You provided quite a bit of entertainment eating while dancing and jumping and singing in the park!


-Your vocabulary continues to grow exponentially every week, and you are now losing some of your toddler vocab and saying the real words.  It kinda breaks my heart when I hear you say "All done" or "All gone" rather than "All gunk" or "Clean up" as opposed to "Pee Bop". You still do sign some words as you say them though which I think is super cute (mostly "all done", "please," "thank you" and "more")

-Daddy went on a work trip to Chicago for a week, so we spent quite a bit of time with Tia and Dani, and had a few sleep overs. Most of our time during the day was spent outside though which you all loved!

 One day you are going to ask why you never smile in pictures, to which I will say "I tried!!"

-You have gotten a better understanding of being scared of things. Awhile ago when you were terrified of your shadow, Daddy & I started teaching you to just say hi to it and not be afraid.  Now, you have translated that into saying hi to everything that scares you which includes loud cars or trucks, the vacuum, sometimes still your shadow, and occasionally the vitamix or soda stream (basically loud noises). Oh, and the video monitor in your room. You say "Hi cama" quite a bit : )
 
-One of your favorite things to do is go out to the garden with Mama and pick tomatoes and blackberries. You'd pick every single one of them at a time, even the unripe ones, if I let you.  lt's funny we couldn't get you to really eat tomatoes before, but now that you've had garden fresh tomatoes, you can't get enough! 

Yes, you will pick full sized tomatoes and eat them like an apple!

-We celebrated 4th of July in a low key fashion this year. We hosted a block party for our neighborhood over the weekend which was extremely hot, but tons of fun (ok that part wasn't so low key).  Out of the 7 families that came, 4 had daughters your age so that was a blast.  The afternoon was filled with running through the sprinkler, eating at the kids table, and lots of chalk & bubbles.  On the actual 4th (Monday), we had a family day and went to the park.  No fireworks this year because you would have cried through the whole thing we imagine! 

Oh, and of course we had to have red white and blue pancakes in the morning

 

 

Once again, the toddler refuses to smile or even look at the camera.

-Perhaps the biggest news from this month is we started potty training! I have to say that I was far less ready than you were, but now that we are almost 2 weeks out, I am so glad that we did! You had been sitting on the potty chair in the bathroom when I go, and several times would tell me before you had to poop, run to the potty chair, and then poop in your diaper.  Potty training was SO SO SO much easier than I expected, and while I know it's still early and things can change, you were just ready so that's what made it easy.  The first day was pretty much catching you (or you catching yourself) mid pee on the floor and carrying you to the potty. The second day you went around the house completely naked all day and you had no accidents. Zero. Not even a close call! I couldn't believe it.  And the remainder of the days followed suit (although we then put panties and a shirt on you).  I will say day 1 you completely freaked out about pooping on the potty.  Day 2 you moderately freaked out. Day 3 you held it a bit longer than you would have in a diaper, but ultimately asked me to hold you over the big potty and you just pooped. A LOT! I was so grateful I didn't have to scrape all that out of the little seat.  We had our first "outing" and car ride on day 4 and you did fantastic. Overall it's been about 2.5 weeks and you are a super star. You've had a few accidents (3 to be exact) although 1 was my fault b/c your child safety lock was on your bathroom door and I was changing Aubrey! Oops! You peed right on your carpet as you were pushing open your bathroom door as hard as you could! I couldn't have imagined it would have been this easy with you! Way to go my big girl!

Sleeping: This month you started to give us "problems" going to bed. I say the word problem OH.SO.LIGHTLY because really, you are very easy to put down for both naps and bedtime. However, for the first time ever you started crying a bit after we got done with our bedtime routine of several books, songs and rocking, asking for more of the above.  Overall, you do this maybe a few times a week at most, and it lasts all of 30 seconds.  Yeah, like I said...not really a problem. You still stay in bed, and we don't have to worry about you walking out of your room (*yet?*).  

Your bedtime is 7:30 pm and we go up around 7pm b/c you like the slow process of getting ready for bed, reading, singing and rocking.  You then sleep til about 7:30am lately, and we get you out of bed at 8am. You just stay in bed and play with your stuffed animals, or your newest obsession: Dora the talking doll (which by the way is Dani's!)! 

Nap is at 1 and you sleep anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours. Every day is something different!  

Eating: We started doing family dinners this month as opposed to feeding you dinner at 5 or 5:30, and then Daddy and I eating after you were in bed. You absolutely love it and so do we!  You always ask to "Amen" before we eat : )...and then about 12 times throughout our meal!  I have noticed by me making one meal, you are much more adventurous in trying new things. And when I make something I don't know if you will love, I give you several other options on your plate. 

Favorite foods this month: FRUIT! Any and all fruit, although "bapes," "boo boos" (blueberries) and "strawbees" have been on repeat!  Green smoothies (which lately you ask for every day, like twice a day!). Cheese, PB sandwiches, Fig bars, Kashi bars (your "treat" for potty training), homemade fruit popsicles,  cherry tomatoes right from the garden, black olives, frozen corn and frozen sweet potatoes, & GF nuggets. You love waffles, eggs and toast, or oatmeal for breakfast.

Isabella Loves:
-Eating!

-Being outside, chalk, bubbles, slides

-Singing, dancing and music of all kinds!

-Rocking, cuddling and "nuggles"

-Going for rides in her car
-Reading 
-Coloring and playing with stickers
 

 Isabella Hates:

 -Having personal space invaded (here's looking at you Aubrey & Dani)
-Not being able to do something independently when you try. (We are working on slow deep breaths and asking for help as opposed to hurling yourself down and/or throwing whatever you can't do).

25 Month Stats:

Height: 35.75 in(approx 60th percentile)

Weight: 27 lbs 10 oz (approx 45th percentile)

*Still in size 4 diapers at naps/nighttime

*Wearing 2T clothes and panties

Isabella's Firsts this Month:

 -Potty training!!

This Month in Pictures:

 

 Loving our new 10x6ft pool

On a trip to Ikea with Mimi & Tia...good to know our van easily holds 3 across

 Small pools & popsicle parties on the balcony!

You & Daddy- two foodie peas in a pod!

Eating a waffle larger than your head!

Another one of Daddy's phone gem finds

 The 3 Lerma ladies