Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
June pictures #3
Every time I get out my camera, Nathan wants to take pictures. He's getting pretty good at actually capturing what he wants in his picture. Here is a picture of Donald (that he took). This is his most recent train aquisition. He received it a few weeks back as a reward for staying dry 7 naps in a row. He is still doing very well with naps. Nights, on the other hand, are a little less successful. Matt has been getting him up in the vicinity of 6:00 a.m. and taking him (mostly asleep) to the bathroom. It seems to be working. He apparently goes sometime right before waking up otherwise. If he makes 7 nights in a row (yes, even with Matt's help), then he will get Donald's twin...Douglas.
Caroline likes playing with her big brother. He is quite interesting! This day, I had just finished feeding her and she laid back (headed upside-down) to watch him. She ended up looking at him under his "tent" and he liked that. So...she joined him. He liked having his little sister playing with him. I think she enjoyed it, too.
I think Caroline wants to be just like her cousin, Kate. She's been on her way to sitting up for a little while now, but she hasn't been steady enough to stay for any length of time. Well, after looking at Liz's blog this morning and seeing the picture of Kate sitting up, she decided to sit for a little while. Don't get me wrong, she's not going to be sitting for a long time, but she stayed long enough for me to snap off a few pictures.
...and then she rolled gracefully back onto her tummy. This is her prefered position as it allows her pretty good access to her toys. She has gotten really good at using her hands. She can scoop things and pull them to her. She can also grab on to the toys on the exersaucer and pull them to her mouth. If I remember correctly, it's a separate milestone when babies start using both hands simultaneously. Well, she's also doing that. She'll move both hands toward an object and grab on.
Nathan doesn't like to be left out of the picture taking, so he often jumps in when I'm taking pictures of Caroline. That's fine with me...I don't have to beg him to let me get pictures of the two of them. This isn't my most favorite picture, but you can really see the difference in their skin colors. Nathan's is like Matt's and is more yellow. Caroline ended up with very fair pinkish skin just like me...easy to burn. :(
Since Nathan was interested in taking pictures this morning (and because I often feel guilty for not taking more of him), we tried to capture some good ones this morning. This close-up shot is in the kitchen. I lightened it a little bit because the original may be just a little too dark for some of your monitors.
This one is a strange angle, but I thought it was interesting. Actually, the first couple like this were blurry, so we went back after looking at them and took more. This one is my favorite...at least for the moment.
Nathan wanted to play outside in his sandbox for a little while this morning so I thought I would try to get some more pictures. He was in full sun, so the pictures of all of him didn't make my favorites (though there were plenty that I liked). I did like this one, though. I love little feet!
And last but not least, here is my favorite of the bunch. I often have a hard time capturing a good smile. This one is at least close to natural. My favorite part, though, is the grass in his hands. When we went to take pictures of him laying down, he proceeded to pull up grass. He's a boy! Again, I also like to see his feet. (In case you're wondering, Matt hasn't been lax on cutting the grass...it's just that it didn't rain here for a while so the grass was all mostly dead. Now that it's finally rained, we've been letting the grass grow so that it will get back to looking decent.)
Ok. That's all for now. I hope that you have enjoyed the picture show. Since we are closing on the house tomorrow, things are about to get even more busy than they have been. I don't know if I'll do too much posting over the next month. I will at least try to get some beach pictures up, but otherwise, it may be August before much happens. We'll see. This is a sit and do something enjoyable outlet for me, so I might still be able to make time for it.
Caroline likes playing with her big brother. He is quite interesting! This day, I had just finished feeding her and she laid back (headed upside-down) to watch him. She ended up looking at him under his "tent" and he liked that. So...she joined him. He liked having his little sister playing with him. I think she enjoyed it, too.
I think Caroline wants to be just like her cousin, Kate. She's been on her way to sitting up for a little while now, but she hasn't been steady enough to stay for any length of time. Well, after looking at Liz's blog this morning and seeing the picture of Kate sitting up, she decided to sit for a little while. Don't get me wrong, she's not going to be sitting for a long time, but she stayed long enough for me to snap off a few pictures.
...and then she rolled gracefully back onto her tummy. This is her prefered position as it allows her pretty good access to her toys. She has gotten really good at using her hands. She can scoop things and pull them to her. She can also grab on to the toys on the exersaucer and pull them to her mouth. If I remember correctly, it's a separate milestone when babies start using both hands simultaneously. Well, she's also doing that. She'll move both hands toward an object and grab on.
Nathan doesn't like to be left out of the picture taking, so he often jumps in when I'm taking pictures of Caroline. That's fine with me...I don't have to beg him to let me get pictures of the two of them. This isn't my most favorite picture, but you can really see the difference in their skin colors. Nathan's is like Matt's and is more yellow. Caroline ended up with very fair pinkish skin just like me...easy to burn. :(
Since Nathan was interested in taking pictures this morning (and because I often feel guilty for not taking more of him), we tried to capture some good ones this morning. This close-up shot is in the kitchen. I lightened it a little bit because the original may be just a little too dark for some of your monitors.
This one is a strange angle, but I thought it was interesting. Actually, the first couple like this were blurry, so we went back after looking at them and took more. This one is my favorite...at least for the moment.
Nathan wanted to play outside in his sandbox for a little while this morning so I thought I would try to get some more pictures. He was in full sun, so the pictures of all of him didn't make my favorites (though there were plenty that I liked). I did like this one, though. I love little feet!
And last but not least, here is my favorite of the bunch. I often have a hard time capturing a good smile. This one is at least close to natural. My favorite part, though, is the grass in his hands. When we went to take pictures of him laying down, he proceeded to pull up grass. He's a boy! Again, I also like to see his feet. (In case you're wondering, Matt hasn't been lax on cutting the grass...it's just that it didn't rain here for a while so the grass was all mostly dead. Now that it's finally rained, we've been letting the grass grow so that it will get back to looking decent.)
Ok. That's all for now. I hope that you have enjoyed the picture show. Since we are closing on the house tomorrow, things are about to get even more busy than they have been. I don't know if I'll do too much posting over the next month. I will at least try to get some beach pictures up, but otherwise, it may be August before much happens. We'll see. This is a sit and do something enjoyable outlet for me, so I might still be able to make time for it.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
the oatmeal did it
For those of you who aren't educated in baby poop, let me give you a quick lesson. :) When a baby is breastfed, the poop doesn't stink. It has a smell...but it doesn't stink. Once the baby begins to eat "real" food, all that changes. Today, Caroline had her first stinky poop. The oatmeal did it. We started rice cereal last week, but the rice didn't do it. We started oatmeal a couple of days ago...and the oatmeal did it. I know it will only get worse...
On a nicer note, we haven't give Caroline her medicine since last Friday. I don't know if the cereal had anything to do with it or if the medicine just wasn't doing much any more. Whatever the case, I'm glad that it seems that we're done with medicating her...at least every day.
On a nicer note, we haven't give Caroline her medicine since last Friday. I don't know if the cereal had anything to do with it or if the medicine just wasn't doing much any more. Whatever the case, I'm glad that it seems that we're done with medicating her...at least every day.
Monday, June 11, 2007
June pictures #2
Just a smile...
This day, Nathan wanted to "read" to his sister. I hope he continues as he gets older!
Nathan and Daddy went swimming at Grandma and Granddad's pool for the first time of the summer. Hopefully, there will be many more of these adventures.
Here's Daddy helping him "swim."
We managed to convince Nathan to try to touch the bottom. Maybe by the end of the summer he'll be confident that he can do it.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Photographer Nathan
(there are also two other posts from today below)
Nathan has decided that he likes to take pictures so I am trying to give him opportunities when he is interested. Mostly, I'm just trying to help him learn the idea of looking at the things that you want to have a picture of before pushing the button. Here are a few of his masterpieces. :) Oh yeah...the last one is supposed to be a picture of the rain.
Nathan has decided that he likes to take pictures so I am trying to give him opportunities when he is interested. Mostly, I'm just trying to help him learn the idea of looking at the things that you want to have a picture of before pushing the button. Here are a few of his masterpieces. :) Oh yeah...the last one is supposed to be a picture of the rain.
June Pictures #1
Here she is checking out just what that thing was that was just in her mouth.
I just thought this was a cute picture.
Here is Caroline "eating" her first rice cereal. It was pretty runny. As you can see, we had to use a bottle for mixing. The baby/kid bowls are still in the attic.
Her favorite activity these days is holding her feet. They are in her hands (and often in her mouth) all the time!
What a sweet picture of Caroline and her Daddy.
What a good Daddy!
Who knows what Nathan found on the ground, but I thought it was a cute picture.
Caroline was laying on her play mat while I was doing something in the kitchen and Nathan decided to join her. I quickly grabbed the camera for a cute brother-sister moment.
All smiles. As a side note, Nathan completely dressed himself this day - picked out his clothes and put them all on by himself. Go Nathan!
rolling and staying dry
Caroline rolled over back to front yesterday. Yay! I figured it was coming because for several days she would roll to her side. She just didn't roll the rest of the way. It doesn't seem to be a fluke either. She did it several times yesterday and once already today.
Nathan has continued to wear underwear and do pretty well. He stays dry about 75% of the time for naps and about 50% at night. However, he hasn't been doing so well at night over the last week. I'm pretty confident that he goes either as he is starting to wake up in the morning or just before...and that wakes him up. So, this morning, Matt got Nathan up early and took him to the bathroom. Nathan was dry, went, and stayed dry. So, we may just have to try that for a little while until he gets into the routine of getting up and going. I keep thinking "maybe we should just go back to diapers at night". He hasn't worn a diaper in about a month, though, so I hate to go back. I'm just getting really good at washing sheets and quilts!
Nathan has continued to wear underwear and do pretty well. He stays dry about 75% of the time for naps and about 50% at night. However, he hasn't been doing so well at night over the last week. I'm pretty confident that he goes either as he is starting to wake up in the morning or just before...and that wakes him up. So, this morning, Matt got Nathan up early and took him to the bathroom. Nathan was dry, went, and stayed dry. So, we may just have to try that for a little while until he gets into the routine of getting up and going. I keep thinking "maybe we should just go back to diapers at night". He hasn't worn a diaper in about a month, though, so I hate to go back. I'm just getting really good at washing sheets and quilts!
Saturday, June 02, 2007
percentiles, medicine, opening up, and toys
We (Nathan and I) took Caroline to the doctor on Thursday. This was her four month visit. She now weighs 14 lb, 12 oz and is 25 in long. That is about 75th percentile for both. Her head is about 90th percentile. At least both of our children are "blessed" with big heads!! They'll get to sympathize with each other as they grow up.
We had planned to wait until Caroline was 6 months to start her on any solid foods. (That's what we did with Nathan and it went well.) However, Dr. Blevens suggested going ahead and starting her on cereal to (hopefully) help with her reflux. We would really like to get her off of her medicine. So...we'll probably go get her some cereal before long and see what happens. Maybe we'll actually be able to stop her medicine without too much trouble.
Since Caroline was born, Nathan has really come out of his shell. He is much more outgoing these days. He talks to everyone...and when it's us, he talks all the time. :) Some in my family say it reminds them of me...though I had him beat on when I started talking. Anyway, he has even started talking to strangers. We're going to have to really start enforcing the "be careful of strangers" lessons. At church on Sunday, he asked some random man (I didn't know him) what his name was...just out of the blue. I'm glad that he's come out of his shell some, but I don't want him to get too comfortable with people he doesn't know. Some of this may be related to his age, but I think it has mostly been spurred on by him seeking some extra attention...since his baby sister gets lots of what he used to get.
Oh yeah...one more thing...Caroline has really started playing with toys. Over the last two weeks, she has gone from not really being interested to actively trying to get toys. Of course, any toy that she can get close goes right in her mouth! We're going to have to start being more careful about what is close to her and how clean everything is.
We had planned to wait until Caroline was 6 months to start her on any solid foods. (That's what we did with Nathan and it went well.) However, Dr. Blevens suggested going ahead and starting her on cereal to (hopefully) help with her reflux. We would really like to get her off of her medicine. So...we'll probably go get her some cereal before long and see what happens. Maybe we'll actually be able to stop her medicine without too much trouble.
Since Caroline was born, Nathan has really come out of his shell. He is much more outgoing these days. He talks to everyone...and when it's us, he talks all the time. :) Some in my family say it reminds them of me...though I had him beat on when I started talking. Anyway, he has even started talking to strangers. We're going to have to really start enforcing the "be careful of strangers" lessons. At church on Sunday, he asked some random man (I didn't know him) what his name was...just out of the blue. I'm glad that he's come out of his shell some, but I don't want him to get too comfortable with people he doesn't know. Some of this may be related to his age, but I think it has mostly been spurred on by him seeking some extra attention...since his baby sister gets lots of what he used to get.
Oh yeah...one more thing...Caroline has really started playing with toys. Over the last two weeks, she has gone from not really being interested to actively trying to get toys. Of course, any toy that she can get close goes right in her mouth! We're going to have to start being more careful about what is close to her and how clean everything is.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
black and white
Caroline and I had a little mini photo shoot this afternoon. I've been wanting to take some pictures with the black background to make some black and white pictures. However, I haven't been able to find my black sheets. I finally found them the other day (accidentally) and found some time today. So...here are two of the pictures. I had quite a few that I liked, but I thought I would spare you. :)
Here is Matt's favorite from the set (added later than original post):
Here is Matt's favorite from the set (added later than original post):
Monday, May 28, 2007
success, schedule, and snuggles
Success: Nathan is making good progress toward being entirely potty trained. He's been potty trained during the day for well over a year now, but he just wasn't interested in staying dry when he slept. Every once in a while, he would decide to try, but it never lasted long. Well, I think I finally hit upon an effective reward. Trains! There are two trains that Nathan has really been wanting - Donald and Douglas. They are twin engines. Well, I told him back toward the beginning of the month that if we stayed dry for seven naps in a row he could have Donald. And if he stayed dry for seven nights in a row he could have Douglas. I am happy to report that he has now earned Donald. Yay! We are still working on Douglas. He has been successful about 50% of the time. At least to some degree, when we eat supper (and thus, when he last drinks) is affecting it. Anyway, we keep up with his successes on these calendars (the first is for naps and the second for nights):
Schedule: Here is Caroline's basic schedule these days...well, if we were actually home all day this is about how it would go.
8:00 - get up and eat
9:30 - sleep
11:00 - get up and eat
12:00 - sleep
3:00 - get up and eat
4:30 - sleep
6:00 - get up and eat
7:45 - top off for the night (eat)
8:00 - sleep for the night
Snuggles: Caroline is so sweet to snuggle with these days. I don't really know what it is, but her size and ability to hold herself just makes a difference. Holding her up against me is just yummy!
Schedule: Here is Caroline's basic schedule these days...well, if we were actually home all day this is about how it would go.
8:00 - get up and eat
9:30 - sleep
11:00 - get up and eat
12:00 - sleep
3:00 - get up and eat
4:30 - sleep
6:00 - get up and eat
7:45 - top off for the night (eat)
8:00 - sleep for the night
Snuggles: Caroline is so sweet to snuggle with these days. I don't really know what it is, but her size and ability to hold herself just makes a difference. Holding her up against me is just yummy!
Thursday, May 24, 2007
who's enjoying this more?
Here is Caroline with her great-grandfather (aka Papa). I don't know which one of them is enjoying it more.
Monday, May 21, 2007
are they up or down
Here is a fun fact about Caroline: when she sleeps during the day, she sleeps with her arms up (like in the previous picture). When she sleeps at night, however, she sleeps with her arms down by her sides.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
there was one in the bed
and the little one said...roll over...
Caroline rolled front to back for the first time on April 26th. I went in to get her up that morning and she was on her back. She didn't do it again until Saturday. On Saturday she did it twice and yesterday once. Each time it was in her bed by herself. I'm hoping to get to see her do it soon.
She is continuously becoming more aware and interactive of the things and people around her. She watches people now and is beginning to play with toys. She loves when people talk to her and will often talk back. It is really cute! I've tried to get some audio or video, but I haven't had good luck (either because of her or because of equipment). Maybe before too long I'll be able to do that...or get Matt to help me catch some.
5/15 Update - I finally saw her roll over today. She just flipped right on over while she was laying on her Pooh mat this afternoon.
Caroline rolled front to back for the first time on April 26th. I went in to get her up that morning and she was on her back. She didn't do it again until Saturday. On Saturday she did it twice and yesterday once. Each time it was in her bed by herself. I'm hoping to get to see her do it soon.
She is continuously becoming more aware and interactive of the things and people around her. She watches people now and is beginning to play with toys. She loves when people talk to her and will often talk back. It is really cute! I've tried to get some audio or video, but I haven't had good luck (either because of her or because of equipment). Maybe before too long I'll be able to do that...or get Matt to help me catch some.
5/15 Update - I finally saw her roll over today. She just flipped right on over while she was laying on her Pooh mat this afternoon.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
May pictures #2
Last night, Nathan and Daddy camped out in the back yard.
He had to take his friends and blankets with him!
He's a silly boy with a silly smile.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
it's all in the ear
A little while ago, Nathan was singing as he cleaned up. This is quite common as he sings all the time. This time the song was one I didn't know he knew (or had even ever heard). I immediately recognized the tune as "Oh How I Love Jesus". However, as I listened closer, I heard "Oh hat on a Jesus...oh hat on a Jesu-us..."
Monday, May 07, 2007
playdough creations
Nathan and I got the playdough out today and made these creations. He sometimes plays with playdough at church, but we've never taken the time to get it out at home.
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