Happy 3rd Birthday Jade!

I find it amazing that my first baby has turned 3 already! Time is just flying by, but we are loving each new phase...well most new phases. We could of course deal without the temper tantrums and the talking back, but I just think each year gets to be more and more fun.

This year we celebrated Jade's 3rd birthday the weekend before her actual birthday with just our families. Mike and Jean were down the night before the party to baby sit the girls so we could go to Nate's Christmas party. My parents came down Saturday and brought my Grandma. We of course had to have a Frozen party! We ordered a cake from the local bakery and found some fun decorations at Walmart. I have to admit, I took the easy route on the food and didn't do all the cute stuff I found on Pinterest. We served taco in a bag, chips and salsa, snowflake sugar cookies, Sven poop (puppy chow), Elsa's frozen hearts (chocolate covered pretzels), and birthday cake!

Throughout the day, Jade was telling me that this was the best day ever and the best birthday ever! Made me feel pretty good and I'm glad she was so excited to celebrate. All she kept asking for for her birthday was balloons, so anything else was a bonus. Nate came home with about 13 different balloons! and her cake. I think that made her day right there.

Jade is not very fond of getting sung to so she had to hide her face during the birthday song and for some reason has no idea how to blow out candles. I guess I didn't know that was something that is hard to do. Yes, we know she's not 33, but Nate didn't know I already had bought a number 3 candle and bought another one when he picked up the cake so we used both of them.

Next was time for presents! That was super fun for her. She got a bunch of dress of clothes, an Anna doll to go with her Elsa doll, a doll house, magnet blocks, a movie, a puzzle...

Anna Doll

Anna Dress

 

Elsa Dress

Doll house

Balloon avalanche on her actual birthday!

Jade loves Princess's, Fairies, anything that goes along with the movie Frozen, running around the kitchen island, playing hide and seek, and playing dress up. She does a great job talking and enunciating. She is able to name common colors, can count to about 13 before needing help, can sing the alphabet, spell her first name, tell you her whole name and what month her birthday is in.  She struggles leaving me in unfamiliar places and sometimes familiar places. She has always been a Mama's girl and continues to be one.

I saw this next part online and I am going to start it this year and try to remember to ask her these questions every year...
Jade's 3 year old Favorites:
Color: Red (although the color changes almost every time you ask her from red to pink to blue to green)
Activity: Play
Food: Macaroni and Cheese
Animal: Dog (this also changes as she is not a real animal lover right now)
Song: Let It Go - from Frozen
Movie: Frozen
Show: Sophia the First
Candy: M&M's
Toy: Elsa doll (this also changes)
Best Friend: Megan (this made my heart so full! I hope that's her answer to that every year!)

Megan is 9 Months Old!

Megan oh Megan...you're 9 months old. Where has the time gone!? She is full of personality this month and becoming more and more mobile. She gets into more "trouble" than Jade did, so we really have to watch her. I never understood why they had straps on everything for babies. I totally get it now. For example, I never understood all the straps on highchairs, but completely understand it now. They can climb right up out of them. Megan is starting to understand what we are saying and it's really fun! She "says" so big. Knows what come here mean. Seems to somewhat understand what "no" is, but likes to test her limits with that one. Knows who Mama and Dada are and will look at us if we ask where the other one is (not always, but does it occasionally). She is able to turn pages in books when we read and loves to read our pop up books to see the story "pop out."

Sleep:
Megan goes to bed at 7/7:30 and wakes up for the day usually around 7:30/8. She is still getting up 2 times a night most nights. She wakes to eat usually around 10:30/11:30 and then again anywhere from 1-5. My body must be getting used to it, because I don't get as tired during the day as I used to! She naps either one time for 2-3 hours or 2 times for 1-2 hours each nap. She has a hard time napping when other things are going on. She wants to be a part of everything. She usually does pretty good on one nap though. If she takes one nap she usually sleeps from about 12:30-3:00ish. If she takes 2 naps, she naps a couple hours after she wakes up for  1-2 hours and then again around 1:30/2 for an hour or 2. She is getting easier to put to sleep, but she is still not as easy as Jade ever was. We are finally getting her figured out. Most of the time she likes being rocked to sleep, but there are times that she just wants nothing to do with being held and you can lay her down and she cries herself to sleep in 5 minutes.

Feed Me:
Megan continues to eat every 3-4 hours for the most part. She can go longer without food, but it seems like we have so much food we try to fit in, in a day that we give her something that often. She nurses throughout the night and her first and last feedings of the day. She gets a 4-5oz bottle around 11:30 and then eats a solid lunch with us at noon. She usually eats 1-2Tbls of cereal with water or milk and half a container of fruits or veges. Then she has another "snack" usually around 3:30. She doesn't eat much at this feeding, 3-4oz bottle. At 5:00 she eats her next solid feeding of 2Tbls of cereal and half a container of fruit or vege baby food. She nurses at 7 for the last time before bed. I have stopped pumping during the day all together about a week ago. Megan is not a big eater and is a very distracted eater. When she has a bottle, we have to give her something to have in her hands and when she eats solids, she gets her own spoon to hold onto while she eats. She LOVES yogurt, just like her big sister. We go through tubs of yogurt in this house! She hasn't really been into more solid foods like puffs and yogurt bites, but we will keep trying them.

Milestones:
11-19-14 - Is able to crawl up stairs without a problem!
11-28-14 - Said Dada and looked right at Nate when she said it. It doesn't happen often, but she did do it!
12-12-14 - Started cutting her top two teeth at the same time.
12-13-14 - Took a couple of unassisted steps to me. She was in some control while doing it. Took two steps and then fell into me. I don't think walking is too far off in her future.


Favorites: Playing peek-a-boo, following and playing with Jade, wrestling with me and Jade, chasing her Dad and Jade, crawling into and onto anything she can, crawling up stairs

Weight: 17lbs   Length: 26 3/4"

Clothes: 6-9 month 

How big are you? So BIG!!

Playing with these blocks is way more fun than posing for a picture Mom!

What? I'm not supposed to rip the paper off the blocks?

Big girl showing of her pearly whites.

Megan is 8 Months Old...WHAT?!

Finally Megan is becoming more of a human! I mean that in the nicest way possible. Yes, babies are cute and lovable, but for close to 8 months all she did was eat, poop, sleep, and cry (yes, I am exaggerating a little). She now is mobile and laughs and jabbers and is getting to the stage that Nate and I really enjoy. Even Jade seems to be excited her sister is on the loose, as long as she keeps her hands off her toys! She does a great job playing by herself and when she is done playing with one toy, she is able to move onto the next without my help! She loves to follow her sister, watch what Jade is doing (and try to help Jade), and climb. Jade was so laid back compared to Megan. I can't count how many times Megan has bumped her head or tipped over because she thinks she can walk or stand on her own. Megan and Jade started crawling at about the same time as each other and I always said that Jade would walk before she became a good crawler. Well, Megan is pretty good at crawling and is really trying to walk. She gets this look of concentration on her face like she really wants to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other. I know I say this every month, but Megan LOVES Jade! Wherever Jade is, Megan is not far behind. She even can crawl into chairs so she's sitting right next to Jade. Jade can still make her laugh without doing anything at all. I hope they will always be best friends!

Sleep:
She is getting better at sleeping for the most part. We have some nights obviously better than others. She is still waking to eat 1-2 times a night. The times are pretty much all over the place. Usually around 11/12 and then again at 3/4ish, but it does vary. I knew we wouldn't have another Jade that slept all night every night, but I sure wish we did. I would even be better if Megan had more of a schedule so my body could get used to it. She still goes to bed around 7/7:30 and is up anywhere from 6:30- an occasional 8:00. She does wake up and go back to sleep on her own too. Sometimes she really doesn't want to be rocked to sleep, I will lay her down awake and she whines for a minute and is asleep. This would be ideal!! We left the girls with my parents for a night to see Garth Brooks and she did awesome for them. They laid her down and then she didn't get up until 6! She does best with 2 naps, but sometimes doesn't get them in because we aren't home. She still won't sleep places because there is too much going on. She will fall asleep in her car seat on the way home from places, but wakes up as soon as I open her door. She naps around 9-10 for 1-2 hours and then again and 1-2 for 1-2 hours.

Feed Me:
We've tried a few more vege's and fruits. Doesn't seem to hate anything yet. I haven't tried anything green yet...I hate the smell of those. She is not a big fan of cereal. I usually mix a fruit or vege in with her cereal to get her to eat it. Sometimes it works and others it doesn't. She doesn't eat much in comparison to Jade. She actually has decreased the amount of solids she eats since we started solids. She started taking a bottle better and then stopped eating solids great. I'm sure she's getting more milk now so isn't as hungry, but I still feel like she should eat more. Oh well. She loves yogurt! She still gets for bottles/nursings a day, eating every 3-4 hours. She nurses in the morning and at night and gets bottles during the day. I am still pumping once during the day. We have not even started into the stash I have in the freezer. I think I could  probably stop pumping during the day and start getting into the stash as we have plenty of milk frozen. We are still attempting solids after her lunch bottle and at night when we eat dinner. She nurses at 8AM and 7PM, then bottle around 11:30 and 3:30. Solids at noon and 5/5:30.

Milestones:
11-10-14 Started crawling into things and onto things. She will climb into Jade's chairs, into shelves, on stools, and anything else she can get on/in.
11-13-14 Started crawling on hands and knees instead of army crawling.

Length: ?? Weight: maybe around 17 lbs, I forgot to weigh her
Clothes: 6-9 months. Pants and sleeves of shirts are still pretty long for her.

Loves: Following us everywhere and putting anything she can find into her mouth. She makes sure I do a good job cleaning the floors...she finds the smallest crumbs on the kitchen floor and carpet!

Always has her hands or something else in her mouth!

Happy girl! We ditched the blocks because they were a distraction.

This is why they made straps on things like highchairs...we never had to use them with Jade. It's a whole different story with Megan.