Another Two-fer: 13 & 14 Months

I missed another month! Poor #3 kiddo. She's getting the shaft! Hopefully she'll understand. I'm going to do a combo post again, but sadly I can't really distinguish what was by 13 months and what was just in the last month. So they're just getting lumped together.
13 Months


14 Months




Favorite part of the last few months? Snuggles. Lots of snuggles. I'm in heaven. She's never really been much of a snuggler so I think that makes it that much better. When she's tired, she just wants to be held and puts her head down on my shoulder and holds on tight. She'll do it when I ask for hugs or snuggles or love too. Best part of my job!

Finally some new teeth! And lots! I make the weirdest teethers. She's been really slowly getting teeth #5 & 6, the next upper ones. They just barely popped through last week. No sign of the next bottom ones at all. Well, just a few days ago, I was holding her in my lap, tickling her and as she put her headback and laughed I saw a molar. And not just one, three out of her four molars were already in. She skipped 6 teeth!

Language is amazing! She's learning new words all the time. Not necessarily speaking them, but she understands so much more every day. I love asking her to bring me something or take something to one of her siblings and having her be able to do it. She loves repeating sounds, even the obnoxious ones her siblings make. My favorite new word that she actually learned to say is "please". She learned the sign at the same time and she whispers a "pssss". It is so cute! And it seems to make her less frustrated cuz she can ask when she wants something rather than just squawking at me.

Another new word is "ouch". The other day at lunch she accidentally bonked her head on the table and repeated right after me when I said, "oh ouch". Then she kept bonking her head and saying ouch. Way to ram the concept in, I guess!

She's also kinda obsessed with saying "Mama!" She loves to come up behind me and pat my shoulder and say "Mama? Mama? Mama?..." She picked up saying it over and over again from Austin, who usually says it in 3s. (My own little Sheldon!) So between the two of them, I hear my name a LOT! McKenna has been insisting on calling me "Mother" so at least there is a little variety.

She also added a few new signs these months too. Milk isn't exactly new, but getting the concept of asking for it specifically is. She yells "Mama! Mama! Mama!" and when I ask her what she needs she proudly holds up her hand and signs it. The first time she got the right response, I could tell she was so excited. Like she just discovered all the power that she can now wield! She also learned how to shake her head no, which has helped a lot at meal times too. We can have a little conversation to figure out what she'd like to eat and what she needs more of. Love it! And sometimes when I answer her, she just starts talking gibberish like she has something really important to say. Wish I knew what!

She's learned a few body parts too. Hair, belly button, mouth, tongue and nose. Nose is awesome! When you ask her where her nose is, she squeezes it and says "Honk!"

I *might* just have a kid that obeys! Maybe. It takes a few times of telling her no, but she will usually stop doing what she shouldn't or comes when you ask. Austin and McKenna took "no" as a challenge and would just laugh at me. And "come" meant run as fast they can in the opposite direction. If she's cranky though, I'm completely out of luck. She's got a stubborn streak in there too.

All along, I've had a feeling she might be my most difficult toddler. She was my easiest baby, so it's just fair I guess! She's still a happy joyful thing most of the time, but she is developing a serious temper too. I think I had at least until 16 months before I got legitimate tantrums out of the other two. She's already got them figured out. If you take something from her, she will flail herself back and start kicking and shrieking. She has also figured out how to go limp when you're trying to pick her up. If she starts copying McKenna's meltdowns, I'm in for a world of hurt.

Along those same lines, she's already entering the "do it by myself" phase. She will insist on walking without holding your hand. Really wants to hold the spoon and feed herself. Has to hold her own smoothie and straw and will rip them out of your hands, spraying yogurt everywhere in the process, if you try to help her. Praying this is short lived, but out of experience, I'd say it's not!

Still a good eater. I keep waiting for that ball to drop. Austin was a good eater until about a year. Thankfully she doesn't seem to be letting up on enjoying food! She is developing a few bad habits though. She's taken to chucking food if she's full or uninterested. And when she's done drinking her milk she flips it onto the floor. The kids would keep getting it for her and then she discovered it could be a game. With a little bit of a 'tude too. One time I gave it back to her and she promptly chucked it again, pointed to it and I swear she said "Get it!"

She's a water baby! We did swimming lessons with the big kids this year at a friend's pool. While one kid was in their lesson, I swam with the other two. Bella LOVES the water. When we get to the pool, she immediately tries to climb in all by herself. I've had to bring a booster seat to keep her contained while I sunscreen up the others, otherwise she's gone! As soon as she gets in the water she starts splashing everywhere. She dunks her own face too, although she doesn't always hold her breath. We're working on that. She knows how to kick on command and does a decent job swimming when you pass her under water between you and another person. I need to find a good floatie situation for her. All the arm floaties and swim bellies are too big for her and she hates the infant floatie. Can climb right out too! She doesn't want to be held all the time, convinced she can swim by herself, so it's a bit of a challenge! But it is so fun to see her enjoy it so much!

Her new excited face KILLS me! I just love it so much! It's really how I'm seeing her personality and sense of humor blooming. She excitedly brings me stuff she finds, running towards me to deliver it. Delivering items gives her such joy! She'll bring me my phone, then take it back and take it over to Brian. Then confiscate it again and repeats over and over.

My Sunshine Turned One!

I got horribly sentimental when Austin and McKenna turned one, but there's definitely some extra tugging of the heart strings when your last baby turns one! Our house will forever be babyless from now on! I'm not sure I'm ready for it! Because of this, I might just have a touch of baby fever now and will be stalking, I mean visiting often, my cousin who just had a baby to get my fill!

As sad as I am for all the baby phases to be over, I'm having so much fun with our new little toddler! She continues to be a hilarious ball of sunshine and I just can't get enough of her!





New this month

As early as she was pulling up and cruising, I predicted she'd be walking by her birthday. And then as we got closer and closer she didn't seem to be making much headway. And then one day, it seemed, she just decided she was going to walk! She took that one fluke step before she was 11 months, but didn't do anything for several weeks. Then it was suddenly several at a time and within a few days she was going across the room! And now she's walking about half the time. She'll walk until she falls and then crawls it out, but can easily get to a stand without assistance. She's had some impressive falls. Whereas Austin and McKenna didn't walk until they were absolutely surefooted, Bella just goes for it! Sometimes the feet would come and sometimes they wouldn't! She's not even walking 100% and she's already trying to run.

Her list of words is growing. She now says "Bye-Bye" and "Night-Night". The other day she was being goofy on the couch and I asked her what she was doing. She grabbed her blankie, laid down on it and said "Night Night!". She also has sorta words for her binkie and blankie, but they're not very distinct. She can sorta repeat words when she wants to.

Also on her new list of vocabulary are "Pat, pat, pat", "Blast off" and "Hot Dog Hot Dog Hot Diggity Dog". She loves to do the blast off sequence of Little Einsteins and the Hot Dog Dance from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Her hot dog dance is super cute. I've tried to get it on video and can't quite get it in all its initial enthusiasm. The best part is that she copies their dance moves and raises her arms at all the appropriate times, even if just listening to the music in the car.

She is even more convinced that both the iPad and my phone are hers. And she insists on bogarting them both at the same time. She has become very interested in phones now. She holds all sorts of things up to her head and pretends to talk!

Her new hobby is unloading and reloading things. Laundry baskets, the spice racks on the pantry door, dresser drawers, the cupboard of cookie sheets and her all time favorite, a good ol' pack of baby wipes.

I love seeing her "get" more toys each month. She has very little interest in her own toys and really just wants whatever the big kids are playing with. She's getting into her job as annoying little sister! The best is when they figure out how to play with her rather than get frustrated with her. She loves to be one of the big kids!

She discovered pinching. She pinches me a lot for no reason while I'm holding her, but she's taken to pinching the big kids when they do something she doesn't like. Starting to hold her own early!

She is becoming horribly shrieky and whiney when she doesn't get what she wants. I'm really hoping she learns how to sign please or yes soon, so that she can stop yelling at me when she wants something!

No new teeth this month. Still just 4 and I'm not sure I see any in the near future. I make really slow teethers! Austin only had two at one year!

I really want to know what color her eyes are going to be! I'm starting to lost hope in blue. McKenna's were blue really early on. Austin's stayed chrome-like for a while before settling on brown and I think Bella's might be going that direction, but some days I think they might be going green. I sorta hope so, so that each kid has different eye color.

It's been such a great year. My sweet bella Bella is so much fun! Thank you, Lord, for this blessing!

10 & 11 Months

Bella turned 11 months this week and I still haven't written her 10 month update! Momma fail. I'm going to have to go off of memory as what was by 10 months and what was by 11 months.

Have I mentioned before how much I love this kid? She is simply awesome. So much fun and getting even moreso each day! She cracks me up and radiates sunshine and joy!







By 10 Months

Her top two teeth came in with little fuss. It's funny how those teeth look like they're about to pop through any moment...for about 3 weeks! They actually probably still had a few days to go but she slipped in the tub and bonked her mouth and a corner popped through. Nothing like a bloody mouth to get a momma's heart racing!

Her right eye was almost clear! At 9 months it was still way goopy. And then she got a cold. I have to sincerely thank whoever exposed us to those germies! I hadn't really given her left eye clearing up much thought until the right eye started out and I remembered that she had a cold at 6 months too! I guess the pressure of the sinuses pushed the blockage out somewhat. I had already made an appointment with the eye specialist and she recommended surgery still since it wasn't completely clear. They like to do the before a year old so it's more likely to stick. This was about a week after the cold. She also thought I was a looney thinking the cold had something to do with it. I pushed for re-eval after a month since the clearing was such a new event. About a week ago, Austin was in the dr's office for a virus and I had the dr look at Bella's eye while we were there. She thought the blockage was so slight that she wasn't sure she'd even do the surgery. And she absolutely agreed it was the cold that cleared it up! I knew it! A momma knows these things! We had the follow up appointment this week and she's 100% clear! The specialist was shocked and admitted she was wrong! She doesn't need surgery! Yay for colds!

She's still a pretty easy going kid, but she is definitely developing her own opinions and can be a bit stubborn and cranky now. She has 3 things she has found a hatred for! She HATES to be locked off the stairs. She loves to crawl up the stairs. As soon as she hears someone go through the gate, she beelines for the stairs, hoping to make it through before it's closed. She looks like a little ice breaker ship, just tearing through whatever toys are in her way. And when her hopes and dreams are crushed, she lets you know her extreme disappointment! Lots of shrieks, sometimes crying. Angry little elf! She also hates to be washed up after a meal. Same shrieks and angry face. We're getting better at making it a game so hopefully that won't be a struggle for long. And she absolutely abhors getting changed and dressed. I can only change her with a leg over her chest to keep her from escaping. And once I get to the actual clothes swapping part, she is super pissed off! Doesn't matter if I'm trying to change her standing up or laying down. Really hoping that gets better soon. Thankfully, if you're not doing one of those three things to her, she's really really a happy joyful little thing!

She's starting to get a little naughty. I had these dreams about a kid that actually listens but I guess I was mistaken. She's a tiny bit better than the other ones, but mostly I'm getting creative with how to block her off from certain No-No's. The TV stand, bathrooms, computer (which she already broke a piece off of!) She does not like to be denied!

She does this way cute scrunchie face that I just love! She does it when she's both happy and sad, but her happy one is really funny. She does it at us at the dinner table to get us all to smile at her. Already getting a sense of humor.

By 11 Months

Cruising has become free standing! It's amazing how quickly it goes from that first attempt to being able to stand there and play with toys without holding on. She was even shaking toys while standing yesterday. She took a step the other day. Mostly just a fluke step but it still counts! I'm guessing she will be walking by a year or shortly there after.

She has become seriously attached to her binkie and blankie. When she's tired and fussy, I ask her if she wants to go find them and she does this nervous little giggle and then when she gets them she just melts in my arms. She still does her little tired moan when she has them. Love that sound!

She has so many more words than I thought she'd have at 11 months. She says and signs "Down" and "All Done". "Dadda" sounds more like a "Hi Dadda!" She's figured out "Uh-Oh!" and likes to drop things just so she can say it. Her favorite is "GO!" That's her mantra as she goes up the stairs and also gets substituted in for "All done". She's just now saying "What's that?" as she points to things. Her little pointing is so cute! It's both for questions and for excitement at the sight of different people or things! She also seems to be getting into the immediate imitation of sound phase too. When you tell her to say something, she gets pretty close I think!

She's learned what a fishie says and she knows how to use that for giving kisses. Such sweet kisses!

She really really loves ceiling fans still.

Man, can this kid eat! It's awesome. Anything and everything! She easily can out eat the other kids. Her favorite is strawberries I think. She likes so much though, that I'm not sure she actually has a favorite. She gets so cutely excited at the sight of a ritz cracker and her sippy cup. She just recently figured out how to use a straw too and thinks its the most amazing thing in the world to have some of mommy's lemonade. She's getting a little bit of a belly, so I'm trying to limit her, but it's such a joy to have an eater!

She's starting to rough house with the big kids. They still don't quite know how to play with her without hurting her, so it always makes me nervous to let them, but before she gets hurt, she thinks it's so fun to be one of the big kids. She comes at them too and of course they can dish it out but don't like it so much when she pokes them back! It's really fun watching them all interact. Love it!

I now have 3 kids I have to compete with for the iPad. She is obsessed with both it and my phone. It's scary that she already has a sense of how to use it. Her little pointy finger swipes across it just like it's supposed to!

A Three Year Old Princess!

About a month ago, our sweet McKenna turned 3! Seems like just yesterday I was waking up neighbors with my banshee cries and almost giving birth in our brand new minivan! Her flair for dramatics hasn't waned. She is so full of personality and attitude!





Oh, that attitude might just be the death of me though! I joke that she just turned three and we're hoping she makes it to four! The 2s started way rough and then they smoothed out some. And then right before she turned three, she got that little bee in her bonnet again! She has a very strong stubborn streak, that unfortunately she inherited from her momma! Sometimes she is very vocally defiant and other times, when you're asking her to do something, or correcting her, she just subtly sets her jaw and oh-so-slightly narrows her eyes and I know that a battle of will has begun! Thankfully now that we are a month into the 3s, the battles are spreading out again. She's working on having a loving heart and saying sorry when she's done something wrong. And I'm working on keeping my cool when she pushes buttons, cuz losing it only makes her attitude worse. Hopefully we'll get all these struggles out before adolescents, right?!

But despite our battles, she is so much fun. She makes us laugh and I'm so proud of the little girl she's becoming. She is smart and sweet and very loving. Such my good little buddy!

She has a funny sense of humor. She loves to laugh and giggle. My favorite silliness of late is how she loves for me to change the words to the songs we sing. You are My Sunshine now goes "You make me happy when skies are purple. You'll never know moose how much I love you. You have been my pickle today." That just cracks her up.

She is a bouncy little thing. She has to hop down stairs. Not just wants to, has to. If she doesn't get to, it usually starts a fight! She is always running and sashaying through the house. And bouncing on beds and in bounce houses could keep her occupied for hours!

She is going to be our creative one. She loves to color and will spend hours doing it if she could. She's very careful and does a decent job of staying in the lines for her age. Her main quirk is that she usually only uses one color per page. She could be on her way to being ambidextrous. She switches hands when coloring because they get tired, but she seems to have about the same amount of control between the two! She is all about coloring anything girly. Pinkalicious and princesses are pretty much all that get attention.

She loves playing on the computer. She's getting pretty good at using the mouse and can play a few games all by herself.

She loves puzzles! She didn't really give them much attention until just a few months ago. On and off mainly. But now she loves them!

She loves to sing! She is great with lyrics too. She knows "O Holy Night" - her favorite bedtime song still despite the less than wintery weather. And all three verses to "I am Jesus' Little Lamb". All the songs to all her princess movies. No car ride is complete without at least 3 rounds of the ABCs and It's a Small World!

She is still uber shy. She might be getting more shy. I'm not sure if it's played up because she's aware she has the power to be shy or if she really is scared of people. She immediately hides behind me if there is any men around that she doesn't know. She often says "I don't like people!"

She is very very into doing her fingernails right now. Her "Po-nailish." When Austin is at school and Bella is napping, we get some good girly time in. We either do some baking - usually cranberry orange muffins, cuz those are her favorite kind, or we do our fingers & toes. She lets me know when they get "all messed up" and she's due for an redo!

Right along with all thing girliness, she is very into her clothes & shoes! She loves wearing dresses and loves having lots of different shoes. She's very specific that her shoes match her outfit too.

She still adores Bella and still talks in an incredibly high, pretty dang annoying nonsense voice to her! I keep telling her to use real words so we don't confuse Bella, but that doesn't seem to help. Bella loves it though!

She adores her daddy too! She usually asks me at nap time if Daddy will be home when she wakes up. (Sometimes he has meetings or bible study) The other day when I answered yes, she said "Oh, that makes my heart so happy!"

I wouldn't say she adores Austin, but I think I can safely say she likes him, most of the time. They can be such good buddies sometimes. He helps her dress up in her dress up clothes and then he's her knight in shining armor. Or they'll play so good in his room with cars or reading. And then sometimes, he just irritates her so! She gets so mad at him when he teases her. I guess that's to be expected! She's starting to hit and kick him which isn't good, although the first time she started wailing on him was a little funny since he thoroughly deserved it!

We did potty training at the beginning of this year and it was an amazingly quick success! I thought it would go awfully since she can be a bit stubborn, but after the first couple days, she got the point and enjoyed her M&Ms and Hershey kisses! It took about 2 weeks for her to be trained and she's only had one accident outside of the house, and maybe less than 5 at home!

McKenna is all about dressing up like a princess. She likes to dress up like whichever princess she's watching. She's very very particular about her details too. She wears the accessories that she's deemed to go with that princess. She has a tiara that she thinks looks like Cinderella's, a necklace that goes with Rapunzel, etc. She has clear/purple Rapunzel shoes but she refuses to wear it with her Rapunzel dress, because in the movie Rapunzel is barefoot. Instead she thinks they look like glass slippers, so until she got some official Cinderella glass slippers, she wore the Rapunzel ones with her Cinderella dress.

She's all about all the princess movies too. Tangled was, and still is, her first love. But Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella (I, II, & III)are close behind. She knows nearly all the lines to each of those. And Sofia the First is right up there.

She is incredibly talkative! Whereas Austin asks about 1,000 questions a day, McKenna has 1,000 things she wants to tell me about. From what she wants to wear in her hair the next day to what her favorite toy is. Every statement or question always starts or ends with the very distinctive way she says "Mom". She kinda draws it out in a odd way. It's hard to explain, but I have video of it somewhere. Bella is starting to call me Mom in the same manner.

My favorite McKenna-ism these days - "Just because". When she answers any kind of "why" question, her answer always starts with "Just because..." "Why did you hit Austin?" "Just because he was being mean!" Sometimes it's included in some circular statements. "I like pink just because I like pink!"

She's still a peanut! A whopping 28lbs at 3 years. I can't find her card to get her exact height but she's still about 70% there. She actually eats better than Austin does when it comes to what she'll eat, but just not a lot of it. Funny enough, the reason she's more adventurous is because she likes to point out "Well, I like it!" when Austin complains that he doesn't like something. Hey, I'll take competitiveness if that's what it takes to get my kids to eat! No amount of peer pressure seems to work on Austin yet though.

Her hair is getting so long now. Just shy of the middle of her back. She is incredibly patient, letting me do all sorts of fun braids in it. And she loves to have a bow or flower that matches her outfit. Her eyes are the most gorgeous blue! She's growing out of her toddler cuteness and is turning into a really beautiful little girl!

Just like I'm trying to remember to do with Austin, I asked her a handful of questions about what she likes at 3. It'll be fun to see how these change over the years!

Favorite show - Sofia the First, the kite one (trolls)
Favorite food - Watermelon
Favorite Breakfast - Waffles
Favorite Movie - Tangled/Beauty and the Beast/Cinderella
Favorite thing to do with Mommy - Snuggle and say I love you
Favorite thing to do with Daddy - Play and roll around, Bat Tent Covers
Favorite thing to do with Austin - Play Super Why
Favorite color - pink and purple
Favorite song - O Holy Night
Favorite Toys - Princess Stuff
Favorite Candy - Rolos
Favorite Drink - Cranberry Juice
Best Friend - Sofie (Robinson)
Favorite Snack - Fishies
When she grows up - Wants to go to school. Be a big mommy

I think that's it! Can't wait to see what the next year has in store for our little princess!

Eight Great Months

I am LOVING every moment with this darling girl!! I am the most blessed mommy in the world because I get to be her mommy!




Lots of new stuff this month!

Crawling! She is oh-so-mobile! A week after she turned 7 months she figured it out. Sunday night she couldn't crawl and I was trying to teach her by enticing her with my cell phone as a prize. Monday she took a few "steps" and Tuesday she was off! It still amazes me how quickly they perfect something once they get it! She also learned how to push up to a sit on the same day. So now she's a happy girl! She can get to what she wants and then can play with it as she wants to.

And now she is into EVERYTHING! I have to watch her like a hawk and really keep an eye on what toys get left out. Day 1 of mobility she almost choked on both a cardboard tag from a stuffed animal and little doll dress at the same time. Actually the only reason I realized she had a whole tag stuck on the top of her mouth was cuz I discovered it when retrieving the dress! But I do love that she can decide what toys she wants to play with on her own. She's less frustrated because of that. Her favorite spot right now is the kitchen pantry. I've put the plastic spices on the bottom shelf and she takes them out and rolls them all of the kitchen. Seriously hours of entertainment!

She loves bath time oh so much! If you put her down on the floor of her room, especially if you don't put clothes back on her, she BOLTS to the bathroom, thinking it's time for a bath. When the big kids are in the bath, she insists on sitting next to it and watching them.

It's hard to believe, but she may be our loudest child yet. Maybe it's just me blocking it out, but while I remember the others going through a shrieking phase, I don't remember it at this volume! She shrieks happy, sad, hungry, bored or excited and sometimes, just for the heck of it. I tend to tune it out a fair amount but it drives Brian nuts. I'm hoping our neighbors aren't bothered too!

She still has yet to turn down a single bite of food! It's so fun! She gets very excited for mealtime and I swear she's yelling/shrieking "more" if I wait too long between bites. We've done fruit pieces, small chicken pieces and salmon in addition to all the usual purees. And we just added yogurts in too. She still is a little bit of a spitter, so no my carpet has a whole array of little colored stains. I'm constantly scrubbing it! I guess that makes up for not having to clean out quite as many diaper blowouts thanks to the solid foods!

In fact, she likes food so much, if it's near mealtime and you ask her if she wants to eat, she tries to eat your face.

She's already picking up on signing! She is really fascinated when I show her "milk", "more", or "all done". Almost from the beginning she would practice "milk" when I'd show her. And just before she turned 8 months she was hungry and fussy and started signing milk for me! I think "more" and "all done" will be along shortly. I know Austin was over a year before he signed at all, but then loved it and I can't remember how old McKenna was.

She's just picking up giving high fives, head bonks and kisses. And she's just getting waving hello at people. She usually will do it if you move her arm for her the 1st time. But occasionally you'll get an unprompted hello!

She's in what I like to call the puppy dog phase. Everything goes in her mouth. But she also loves to crawl around the house carrying things hanging out of her mouth. Puzzle pieces, socks, dolls, etc. She looks so silly.

She's starting to actually get a little clingy. She's been such a low maintenance kid which has been a blessing when I have to give the big kids attention or discipline or prepare meals or get them ready for bed. But now she wants to be in the mix and wants to be up in my arms more than usual. She can still be distracted by toys when its necessary, but since she's not much of a snuggler, it's nice to get some extra holding in!

She got her first two teeth this month.

I'm pretty sure her eyes are going be blue. It's still kind of hard to tell, but that's the way they seem to be leaning. Hopefully they're just as beautiful as her big sister's!

Two-fer: Happy Half Birthday, Sweet Bella & One More

Woops! 2 months got away from me. So this post is a two-fer!

I started writing Bella's 6 months post on the day she turned 6 months! Obviously my life with three kiddos is a lot more busy than I thought it would be! But oh so worth it though! What a fun 7 months it's been! I swear Bella is absolutely the best baby ever! She is so much fun and I'm so blessed to be her mommy!

Every time I write a month post, I open up Austin's & McKenna's posts for their same months so I can see how the kids differ and how they are the same. When I did it this time I was surprised, because while I thought Bella was hitting milestones earlier than the other kids, I could have copied and pasted most of each of their posts here instead!





As of 6 months...

She loves to shake her head. One day she just started copying me when she was a little loopy tired and now she just thinks its the funniest thing to do. She has an amazing knack and shaking in response to appropriate questions. Auntie Suz asked her if she could be any cuter and she correctly shook her head "no", with a big smile on her sweet face!

She is so proud of her tongue! She constantly has it sticking out. She is also incredibly fond of blowing raspberries and clicking her tongue.

She loves her toys! She gets so excited when she sees her toys and is amazingly content to play with them for as long as she can reach them. And when she can't reach her own, she happily gets into all of the big kid toys!

She's a sitter! Not completely, but getting better everyday. She can sit without supporting herself with her hands for short periods too. She loves to sit with her toys because she can get at them even better.

She is learning volume control from her brother & sister! She is sooooo loud when she gets shrieking! While I'm glad she wakes up happy in the morning, 5am is not a time to enjoy shrieking! I suppose it's better than crying but a good ol' fashion fussy whimper would be much more preferable! Brian has to endure the shrieking in his ear while he tries to sleep because I have to bring her into our bed so she doesn't wake up McKenna.

The poofy hair is mostly gone. I'm sad! I miss it! Every once in a while it makes an appearance after a good hard nap.

She loves giving kisses! It's like being attacked by an octopus!

We had to quickly adapt to unswaddled naps. She was strong enough to roll over swaddled but not strong enough to really be able to keep her head up while swaddled on her tummy. I felt so bad doing it though! She was such a good napper swaddled and really had a hard time figuring out how to settle down unswaddled. The first time I every really had to let her fuss to sleep because she couldn't even settle while being rocked and it broke my heart to see her struggle. It took a couple weeks but she finally got it and is back to a great napper!

Her plugged eye ducts are resolving! I was fairly certain she'd need surgery eventually but I was wrong. The left eye is clear and the right eye is so much better than it used to be. The dr. is good with waiting and giving it some more time! Praying it resolves completely on its own!

6 month stats - 17lbs 1 oz - 65%, 27.5" - 95%. Still a chunk! I affectionately call her my Squishy!

7 Months!



As of 7 months, she still wasn't officially crawling but man, could she get around! I'm actually not sure how, exactly. When you're watching her she stays in one spot, but when you walk out of the room for about 15 seconds and come back she's across the room! She rolls and scoots and turns and rolls more. She's a determined little girl!

We started solids about 6.5 months and I can't tell you how great it is to have one kid in the house that actually eats! She loves food! Has yet to actually turn down a single bit of food. We run out of food before she runs out of appetite. Not a single shudder either or scrunched face until we busted out the puffs. I'll give her that they're banana flavor, which I find pretty gross, but what baby doesn't like puffs? They're baby crack! Gonna have to try another flavor, I guess!

She loves loves loves bathtime. She graduated to the ducky bath and couldn't be happier. Now she gets to splash around and gets so excited trying to catch her floaty toys. I have to watch her really carefully because she gets so aggressive, she dives for them!

She's figured out how to "blabble" her lips and mine with her fingers. It's her favorite thing to do when I'm attempting to rock her to sleep!

And boy, does she love her daddy! I love watching her face light up when she sees him! She'll stare him down until he looks at her and then flashes him the best smile. They have some pretty good rounds of peek-a-boo that are just too cute!

She stares strangers down for smiles too, just like Austin would. She makes friends everywhere! While shopping for Christmas presents with the girls in the stroller, I got more "Wow, that is happy baby!" comments. Love that she's got so much joy that it spills out on other people!

Happy 5 Months!

I actually wrote this on her month-day. Too bad it took me another week to take her pic and more than another week to get it onto the computer! Bleh!

Another month is gone already! It's a good thing she gets cuter and more fun by the day, otherwise I'd be lamenting the passing time much more! It is really fun to see her little personality bloom even more each day. She is just plain awesome! Oh I love this kid!








I hate to write it, for fear of jinxing myself, but each day I'm more and more amazed by what an easy, happy baby Bella is! She is almost always smiling or laughing, is incredibly flexible and patient and when she's fussy it takes very little to soothe her usually. She can definitely cry and do so loudly, but those times are few and far between. I really hit the jackpot with this one!

Her personality is just so fun already. She loves to giggle and laugh and be tickled. She already gives great hugs by burying herself into my shoulder. And she loves to attack me with kisses. And when I come in to re-binky her or get her up from a nap I get the best smiles, even if she was fussing. In fact, if you laugh at her when she's fussing, she'll just start laughing back with you. I've been trying to "document" her fussy face because it's really funny. She pouts both lips out like a duck and gives the fakest fuss! But every time I pull out my phone or camera to capture it, she just smiles for the camera!

Not really any new major accomplishments this month, just improving on the last ones. She scoots faster on her back when she tries, but really she doesn't try too much anymore. The moment you put her down, she flips over to her stomach. Which is sorta a bummer, since she still doesn't have the stomach control and usually ends up chunking before too long. So she actually doesn't get put down too often unless it's been awhile since she's eaten. She made some improvement on crawling, but very little. Every once in a while she'll make some good forward movement. But for the most part she was very content to stay put.

Her exploding love of toys is probably why she was happy staying put though. Boy, does she like her toys! We got the bouncer/activity center all set up for her and she is in heaven in there. Sunday I swear she tried to dive out of my arms to get into the one in the nursery at church. And she is just content as can be on a blanket on the floor surrounded by things she can whack at or hold in her hands and chew on. While I love playing with her, it's also so great that she does good by herself for a bit to allow me to make dinner or tend to the bigger kiddos.

While she's really not too much of a fusser, she does let you know very distinctly when she's done playing and wants to go to bed. She starts yelling and her shrieking eel impression gets very loud. She's started kicking her feet against each other somewhat frantically too when she's tired and so now she always has little cuts on her feet from her toenails scratching. I hope she drops that habit soon! It's hard to keep them short enough so she doesn't hurt herself.

Just like the rest of the family, she loves the TV! It was about this age too, that Austin would yell at us when we'd turn it off. She'd rather watch than eat, so I have to now nurse her with the TV off.

The hair poof is still going fairly strong. It stays down for longer and longer after a bath, but a good bedhead inducing nap brings it right back to life. The hair on the back of her head is curlier than the rest and gets into the worst dreadlocks from her rubbing her head back and forth when she sleeps. I've had to cut out some bad knots after trying my best to detangle them. Thankfully she has a lot of hair (still very dark!) to make up for it!

Still can't tell what color her eyes are going to be. I'm thinking they're going to be hazel like Austin's, cuz they remind me of his chrome eyes at this stage, but sometimes they are much bluer. Time will tell!

Big 4 Year Old!

(Just a bit overdue with Austin's 4 year update, but really did you expect anything else?!)

Well, we survived the 2s and while the 3s started out rough, it ended pretty good. We definitely have our parenting struggles but I so enjoy our little 4 year old! He is just awesome and amazing and makes us laugh!


(He's really tall, but not as tall as this picture makes him look!)



So many changes this year! Our little man is in preschool now. I'm doing better with it than I thought I would. (I would have done better had the idea not been broached the day after Bella was born! But at least I don't cry about it now!) I miss him terribly when he's gone but we have lots of fun when he's home. And it gives McKenna some more focused momma time. Austin LOVES school. He is such a little sponge. He is such a social butterfly and loves all the kids, Micah in particular. And he comes home with songs and stories and bible verses. He's still such a ham and will perform just about any of them for anyone who'll listen. Although its hard to get them out of him right after school. When I ask what he did that day I get a lot of "I dunno" or the patent "Jesus" answer when I ask what his story was about. But eventually I can get him to recall and share. Academically he's pretty advanced I think. He can write all his letters and most numbers and knows all his letter sounds and is starting to sound out words. If I don't understand something he's saying, he'll sound it out for me. :| "I said train, mom. T-t-t-train. It starts with a T!"

We decided to send him to preschool a year earlier than originally planned so he could learn how to listen in a group setting. Listening and obeying are not Austin's strong suit! He is not a bad kid, just an aloof and independent little soul. He does what he wants, not defiantly usually, but because in his mind if it's what he wants to do, it should be done. Everything is his "favorite thing to do" and therefore justified. It makes for very frustrated parents! And then you pair it with selective hearing (ie ignoring) and it gets even more frustrating. We struggle with teaching him how to obey without breaking his spirit.

What makes parenting him so much easier is his sweet heart. He is such a loving, affectionate, snuggly little guy! We constantly hear "Momma, I love you so very much!" And "Daddy, you're my best friend!" (Granted some of these are clever ploys to get back on Mommy's good side while in the middle of getting scolded. But it's good he does that too, cuz sometimes it's the only thing that keeps me from putting him up for sale on Craigslist!) He gives the best hugs and will tackle us with kiss attacks. For a while when he'd go to bed, he'd need a hug, a kiss, a knock (gentle head butt) and noses. Even in his affection he is silly!

He loves his sisters! He and McKenna squabble all the time, (mostly Austin taking something to be a pill and McKenna hitting him in retaliation) but they are starting to become good friends! They play really cute together and Austin can be incredibly sweet to her! And he adores Bella. He is always introducing people to his new sister and always telling her how much he loves her and gives her sweet kisses!

Our little boy isn't so little anymore. I'm not positive I beleieve the dr's scale that puts him at 37lbs (75%) since he is still so skinny. But he is so tall that maybe it's true. He was 41" (also 75%) at his last appointment. He was able to go on the good rides at Disneyland pretty early this year. For having such a fear of heights, I'm always shocked how much he loves roller coasters.

His favorite new ride is Star Tours because he loves Star Wars. In actuality he has only seen a little of the movies but his best friend Micah's favorite thing is Star Wars and there are guns and swords so its obviously the best thing ever! My absolutely most favorite part of him loving Star Wars though is his mispronounnciation of R2D2 - "artoody toody". Sometimes there is even an extra extra toody in there. I'm praying he never gets it right cuz I love it!

This kid comes up with the funniest things to say. He picks up phrases and jokes from shows and school. Right now his catch phrase is "for the record..." How he knows how to use it correctly is beyond me! My favorite Austin-ism this year: When he gets undressed to go to the bathroom before bed, he likes to ask everyone "Do I look naked to you?" What is it with boys and being naked? The kid would go commando every day if I let him!

I don't even know how to explain the other funny things he says in a way that makes sense. Maybe they are only funny to me? Yesterday he was explaining how he had boogies in his nose and he said "you know, this thing on my face? Right here! This thing!" He's not serious, just silly! Disciplining him while he says these random things is hard too! He asks for little spankings, not big ones. Complete with hand gestures. I've had to walk out of the room so he doesn't see me laugh when I'm supposed to be mad! His favorite thing to say when we give him food he doesn't like is "I want good food not bad food! This is bad food! My tummy needs good food so I can grow up strong!"

He loves to whistle, except that he doesn't know how, so it's just a funny screeching sound he makes. I will post a video...someday!

The boy is obsessed with Legos. I am completely amazed at his Lego skills too! He can put just about any kit we give him together...by himself. I taught him (meaning showed him like twice!) how to read the instructions and he just does it all on his own! He's got a little engineering mind for sure. Some of the kits he does are for 6 or 7 years and up. I, being the neurotic person that I am, feel compelled to keep all his kits separate. That was easy when he had 2 or 3 sets. It's becoming more difficult now that he has a lot of sets!

He is also obsessed with Angry Birds. That was the theme of his birthday party. He's actually really good at playing the game on my phone. He got a few plush birds for Christmas and then earned a few over the year for potty training and good behavior. They are his precious toys sleeping toys! He also likes to chuck them at you and make the Angry Bird sqawking sound.

But his big obsession for the year was Octonauts. He refers to himself as Captain Barnacles, official Octonauts! He introduces himself like that to strangers constantly. And he want the only one with an alter ego. He calls me Dashy, Daddy is Kwazi, mcKenna is Professor Inkling, Bella is Turnip, Nani is Tweak and then various other family members share the titles of Shellington and Peso. It has waned some, mostly after Daddy put a ban on being called Kwazi when Austin went at least a full month without calling him Daddy at all! Plus he has found a few new shows he really enjoys so that has contributed to the waning. But Nani is very consistently called Tweak. That might never go away.

For most of the year he insisted on everything being either blue or in 3s. Because he was 3 it was his favorite number. If a toy was blue, he needed it. If it was pink, he insisted McKenna needed it. He's very into traditional gender designations! If he had a cookie, he needed three. If I sang him a song at bedtime, it had to be three songs. Sometimes this would backfire on him - we'd tell him to take two more bites of something and he insisted on 3! Sounds good to me! Of course, now that he is 4, his favorite number is 4!

He insists that someday he's going to turn 100. This mostly comes because he thinks 100 comes after 20. (He can actually count to 100 with minimal assistance but likes to say it goes "19, 20, 100!") I really hope he turns 100! I wish I could be around to see that. Partly because I'm curious if his childhood prediction comes true and partly cuz I'm excited about all the amazing things he's going to do in his lifetime! If anyone has enjoy joy to fill up 100 years of living, it's this kid!!

Austin is the king of questions! I think the average kid asks 200 a day? He can crank that out by the end of breakfast! Most of them are "why?" It's hard to balance answering legitimate questions and needing him to not question everything we ask him to do before obeying. But lots of times he has really good questions and just wants to learn. He's a sponge! He's also learned to use them as stalling techniques at bedtime, insisting on asking the same questions over and over again, so I've had to limit him to either 4 questions or 4 songs or a combo of both and he gets to choose how to use that time.

I have never met a child that is as much of a social butterfly as Austin is. I absolutely adore this about him! He will talk to anyone and everyone! He has yet to learn some social norms so a lot of times people, kids in particular, don't know how to respond! He usually introduces himself as either "Captain Barnacles, official Octonaut!" or "Austin Jeremiah Crowley, Austin is spelled A,U,S,T,I,N!" And then he launches into his whole life story or tells them all about his blankets or birds or his favorite toy! He always wants to either have friends over after school or invites himself over to their house. Stranger Danger and personal space are two concepts we have to work on. He just loves and talks to everyone! I discovered he has no concept of strangers' personal space when he just randomly hugged a lady in the grocery store. What's worse is she was wearing a skirt! Both she and I were mortified as he reached under her skirt to hug her leg. Thankfully I quickly figured out what he was doing and told him "oh, sweetie, we don't hug people we don't know!" So a few weeks later he introduced himself to a lady in line at Disneyland, asked her name and THEN hugged her!
Phew! That was a doozy of an update! I didn't realize how much he's changed in the last year. He is such a joy and I just love this kid so much! I want to remember everything about him being this stage!!

I made him answer a bunch of questions about his likes and dislikes at age 4, but I'll do those in a separate post since this one is already crazy long!!

4 Months Already!

Big month!! She rolled front to back about 2 weeks ago, but hadn't done it again since. Then last Wednesday she decided she wanted to roll back to front. And now she's a little rollin' fool! She decided that while she was at it, she'd become mobile too. No, she's not crawling...yet. (Although I don't think she's that far off from crawling - she's almost got an army crawl figured out) But she does scoot around the house on her back. She gets her feet under her butt and then pushes with all her little might. She gets where she wants to go. She can also turn all the way around while on her tummy and occasionally makes some forward movement. So real, legit, movement will not be long coming! I am so in trouble!

She's finding her voice a bit. She chatters when she's happy, even moreso when she's tired. And very much so when she's stuck on her tummy and is tired. Then she sounds like a little shrieking eel!

She found her thumb last week. If I weren't anti-thumb, I'd love how cute it is! It is definitely preferable to her previous attempts to self-soothe - shoving nearly her whole hand in her mouth. I think another couple weeks and she'll be able to fit the whole thing in!

We went to her 4 months appointment Wednesday. My little beast is getting bigger! Gained a pound in a month - now at 14 lbs 13 oz. And if the measurement is to be believed (which looked legit to me) she's officially off the charts in height - grew 2.75 inches and is now 26.5" long.

Poofy hair is still going strong! It's getting a little thinner, but not much. Some days it's her whole head and others it's just the back poof. I hope it sticks around for a while.

My little beast is a strong little beast! She is determined to bust out of any swaddle. We tried switching from her Adan&Anais swaddler to a SwaddleMe, in hopes that the velcro would hold her in. It has not. She either busts out of it or gets her arms through the bottom hole and pulls it up over her head. Time to start phasing it out so she can sleep without it. But then we'll have to figure out a new napping situation, since she currently naps on my bed. I'll either have to move McKenna to my room for naptime or figure out how to get them both to nap in the same room at the same time.

I can't get over how happy this little girl is! She is sunshine embodied! I hope she always stays that way!

Three Month Pooh Pic

Bella is still such a sweet little thing! Such a joy! She cried a little more this month than the previous ones, but in general she is still so happy! She still really only cries when she has tummy issues. Unfortunately that has been happening more this month. Not sure if it's something I'm eating or what. I'm pretty sure onions don't help, but even without those she's a gassy little thing recently. Trying to iron it out. Right around this point Austin started pooping once every 4 days, and she might be going that route. I think it's just going to take a bit to iron out.

She has the best smile! She's getting fat little cheeks that are so cute when she smiles. Even is developing a little dimple on her right cheek. I love her fully body smiles.

Giggles and laughing are in full swing. She's ticklish just like her momma. And she will laugh at her daddy and her siblings' crazy antics already. And sometimes if she's super tired she starts laughing for no reason. Getting loopy already!

She LOVES Austin and McKenna. She lights up at the first sight of them and is still so amazingly patient with them! Even when getting bonked with toys and getting cheeks squished, she hardly ever protests.

She's starting to grab and bat at things. She loves her bears in her bouncy seat, Bert & Geraldo, the goat/moose. I love watching her with Geraldo. (You pull it's legs down and it jiggles back) She slowly raises an arm until her fingers start to touch it's legs, then she carefully wraps her fingers around one leg and then yanks with all her little might! The other kids weren't at all close to being strong enough pull Geraldo into action, but she's got it down!

Still hitting the jackpot with a phenomenal sleeper at night! She's up to 8-10 hours now, most nights. It mostly depends on how well she ate before she goes down. If she gets a good meal, she's good until 6am-ish! And then she goes down again until 8 or so. She goes down fine usually - just give her a binkie, a blankie and a ceiling fan to hypnotize her to sleep and she's golden! I actually don't mind the times when she has a hard time going down because when I go in to re-binkie her (yes, that is a verb around here!), she lights up! It's a smile that half says "I won! I got you to come in here!" and half says "I missed you! You're my favorite person!" Naptimes are actually a little rougher than night. She wakes up at 45 minutes on the dot without fail. Where the other kids could go back to sleep without their binkie, she absolutely needs it. Most of the time it just takes rebinking, but sometimes she needs a snuggle nap to get back to sleep. I've gotten a quite a few naps over the last couple weeks!

She had a weight check at 3 months and was 13lbs 13oz - 75%. I just packed up a bunch of clothes she outgrew already. Clothes McKenna was sitting up on her own in! I don't think of Bella really being that big, or McKenna really being that small, but I guess there really is a big difference between them!

Her poofy hair gets more impressive with each day! I love it! I don't even try to tame it. It gives her even more personality than she already has. It's getting longer and doesn't show signs of laying down anytime soon!

2 Months Already!

New this month...

So many smiles! Oh how I love her smile! We have already graduated from little ones to full body wiggle smiles. I can tell already that she's going to be a joyful little thing! We've gotten a few giggle precursors I think. Those will be coming soon I'm sure!

She really is the happiest baby! She hardly ever cries. Only if she hasn't pooped in forever or if she's just crazy crazy over tired. And being overtired is really quickly remedied with a swaddle, her blankie and a binkie. She just snuggles in like you've given her what she's been craving forever and then her eyes roll back and she's out cold in seconds. I love how snuggly she is. If I lay down with her to help her fall asleep, she wiggles until her face is touching mine.

The only time she doesn't go to sleep easily is if she's having some reflux. And then she has a hard time settling down still. We've done a few tummy naps as last resort. So far it's not nearly as bad as McKenna's was, so we're holding off on meds. She only struggles every few days. I've been putting her down inclined on a pillow and that has been helping a ton.

She is consistently sleeping 6-8 hours a night too! (I'm afraid to say it outloud, for fear she'll stop!) Seriously hit the baby jack pot with this one! I've tried waking her up to feed her and she won't. But since she's gaining weight fine, the dr didn't see a problem with it! I don't know if that's how it's going to be or if she is still just a sleepy little newborn, but I'll take it and be thankful for it while I can!

She had her 2 month well baby check on Friday and is a healthy little thing! 12 lbs 8oz - 85% and 23.75" - 95%! She's a full 2 pounds bigger than McKenna was at her 2 month check up!

Her hair still sticks straight up. It's starting to lay down a teeny bit right after a bath, but eventually boings right back up. I haven't really attempted to tame it. I love it just the way it is! And what is growing in new is really dark still. Both of the other kids had dark hair at birth, but lightened up almost immediately.

Her eyes appear to be staying blue, but who knows! Austin's didn't change for 6 months. She also appears to be getting the same eyelashes as Austin. I think his eyelashes with McKenna's eyes would be awesome!

She loves her big sister and big brother! Which is good, cuz she has to put up with them no matter what! She is incredibly patient with the pokes, hugs and squeezes and baby talk from both of them. And she gives them the best smiles with they talk to her. I can't wait for all three of them to be such good buddies!

McKenna Update - 2 and a 1/3

I'm still going to go back to December and get caught up, but I want squeeze updates on the bigger kids, since it's been too long. I even skipped McKenna's 2 year update. The move really screwed me up on that one!





McKenna's last update was from the beginning of March and reading it, it felt like a lifetime ago! She has grown up so much in the last five months! Probably some of it is real growing and some of it is just in comparison to Bella. I swear McKenna's head grew while I was in the hospital. It's huge now! Hee hee. Really she just seems so big when I snuggle her on my lap now. She's no longer my baby. She's a bonafide big kid.

With growing up has come all sorts of attitude! Not sure if it's because she's 2, because we moved, because of Bella's arrival, or all of the above. She definitely had a hard time right after our move. Even though she loves her new room and our house, she adopted some defiance issues - refusing to feed herself, screaming at me. That has only gotten worse since Bella was born and now includes throwing things, hitting and kicking and straight out telling me "No!" when I ask her to do something. So I'm doing my best to make sure she knows that is not acceptable while also trying to give her special attention so she doesn't feel slighted by the attention Bella requires.

I am so so thankful that any aggression she has is taken out on Brian and I rather than Bella. We were very worried for as clingy as she had been the last couple months that we would have lots of jealousy issues. But as it turns out, she ADORES Bella. Her first words in the hospital room (with her arms outstretched) were "Hold it?! Have it?!" Seriously melted me to my core! (Austin, by contrast, was far too distracted by all the buttons and levers and switches in the hospital room and had to be compelled to say hello to his new sister! He adores her now though.) She is always near her, making high pitched cooing noises and talking to her in her own little language. And she'll even share her favorite blanket with Bella. ("All cozy!") It really is so sweet to watch. If anything we have to make sure she doesn't love Bella too much. She can get a little grabby and hold on too tight. And she is determined to accessorize Bella with Mrs. Potato Head pieces. She will get those glasses on her eventually, even if Bella loses an eye in the process!

Once again, her speech totally amazes me. She uses complete sentences most of the time and picks up new words and phrases constantly. She's constantly repeating what Austin says too, which is good and bad! It's very cute to listen to their conversations. Their arguments are pretty funny too. Often they argue about two different subjects. "Blue!" "No, papa!" "No, blue!" It's very entertaining.

Up until last week, her affirmative answer was almost always "please", even if it was just a yes or no question. Recently she added "Sure!" to the mix but "please" was still dominant. Just last week she stopped saying it all together and now just says "Yeah." Sounds like a silly thing to document, but I'm actually really sad! I loved her "please"! Is it bad that I'm trying to get her to regress back to it?!

My absolute favorite thing she says...One day I asked her if she knew she was wonderful and she said "No! I 'pecial! I 'pecial like Bob!" Thankfully she's talking about Bob the tomato and not "What about Bob"! Bob the Tomato says "God made you special and he loves you very much!" I love that she knows that already!

McKenna and Austin are becoming the best of friends. They still drive each other nuts though - McKenna is a typical little sister, swyping his toys and pushing his buttons; Austin always has to be doing whatever McKenna started playing with and is constantly telling her the right way to play with something. But a good portion of the time they play well together. They love to chase each other through the house. (I LOVE that our new house allows them to do that! At our old one, the chase was very short - about 10 feet!) They love to dance together, which they insist on doing anytime a song comes on in any movie or show they are watching. And they love to wake each other up from naps too. Their exchanges then are so very sweet! I hope they are always good buddies!

My fear that McKenna wouldn't be a puzzle lover was totally unfounded. In the last 5 months she's gone from not liking puzzles to loving them and rocking at them. She can do the 24 piece jigsaw ones now. My mom has some multi-layer ones that she loves and will spend most of the time at their house playing with. I love it!

Her other favorite activity at my parents' house is putting on my mom's necklaces and bracelets. She is all girl!! She'll get about 20 around her neck and then come show you how pretty she looks. She looks like she's been to Mardi Gras!

Her next favorite thing to do is coloring. She could do it for hours. It's the only thing that keeps her in her Sunday school class.

We are no where near potty training. She used to go on the potty sometimes but now not at all. Even though I bribe her with chocolate. I'm not in a hurry really, except that she hates to have her dirty diaper changed. I was hoping if I could get her to go in the potty, it would cut out that drama.

She's getting there on her letters and numbers. Austin learned his primarily by doing his letter puzzle and while I worked with her as she did that puzzle too, she wasn't nearly as interested in learning them. She's picking them up though. I got a new app for the iPad this week and was surprised that she knew more than I thought she did. She does pretend not to know things sometimes.

Just like her brother, she has endless energy. She hardly walks anywhere and always has the cutest bounce in her step as she runs. Still has happy feet when she's excited too!

Her hair is getting so long now! I love having daughters just for the reason of getting to do someone's hair! It's long enough to have two french braids down the back. She actually sits still sometimes to let me do it. She likes to inspect my work in the mirror afterwards.

Her favorite book for the last several months has been "Happy Birthday Hamster". Austin got it for his birthday but she has claimed it since her birthday was more recent. She gets so excited with each page.

McKenna got an adorable kitchen from her grandmas for her birthday. As soon as we bought a house, I knew that was going on her wish list. The kids play so good with it. Austin really likes the baker outfit that she also got. And McKenna loves to "make" cookies and waffles and feed them to me. (And Bella! We have to watch her on that too!) She's such a good little hostess!

She loves all things Princess, especially Rapunzel (which is her favorite movie) and Tinkerbell and gets horribly excited when she sees them. And since Tinkerbell shows up at the beginning of every Disney movie, she gets excited a lot!

Gosh, I'm sure I could keep going. It's been a full 5 months. But I think that mostly covers it. Despite the behavior issues, she is such a fun kid! Even if she can't be my little baby anymore, I've still loved watching her grow into a little girl!
*I was going to write an update for Austin too, but he's close to turning 4, so I'm going to wait until then. Hopefully I don't forget!

1 Month Pooh Pic

Time for round 3 of Pooh pics!

So far our first month has been pretty great! My recovery from her birth was amazingly smooth. I was so surprised by how good I felt! Which was such a blessing, since taking care of three kids and still trying to make progress on putting our house together since the move is a lot of work!




We are in love with our new little Bella. She's a sweet, cuddly little thing already. At birth she looked a lot like McKenna cuz of the chubby cheeks, but as the swelling went down some, she's more Austin. She does have the same cheek bones as McKenna though. It makes her a good combination of the two. McKenna and Austin are so different personality wise - it will be interesting to see if she's a mix between the two that way also.

Bella is a really great sleeper for the most part. I thought Austin sleeping 6 hour stretches at 4 weeks would be hard to beat, but she's been doing it consistently since 2 weeks! Thankfully she's also a pretty good eater, so I'm pretty sure she's getting enough to eat. She seems to have a little issue with reflux but I'm not positive. I'm keeping a close eye on it because that really affected McKenna's eating, but so far I don't think it's too bad. She's not as great of a napper and I think that's where the reflux is getting her.

So far she's a pretty relaxed little thing too. She puts up with McKenna's constant attention fairly well and only fusses a little when she's tired. The only thing that really gets her going is when she is gassy or hasn't pooped in a while.

Austin was a master pooper. There was no diaper that could contain that kid. He pooped out of the diaper every time he pooped and he pooped everytime he ate for the 1st 4 months. McKenna wasn't much of an explosive pooper, but she was the tooter. Neither spit up hardly at all. Probably less than 5 times each. Bella does all three! I have already cleaned up several worse explosions than I think Austin ever did. She's a bit of a gassy little thing. And she's definitely a spitter. I'm not used to having a spitter. I finally figured it out to take changes of clothes for me rather than just for her.

She's been a sleepy peanut, but she's starting to wake up and get some personality. I can already tell that I'm going to adore her smile! I can't wait to see what the next months have in store!

22 & 23

Okay, it finally happened. I got so far behind and so out of blogging, that I skipped a month of McKenna's updates. The month got away from me and before I knew it, we were closer to 23 months than 22 and it seemed silly to attempt it. 'Course, now I'm a good week late on month 23! I have fairly good excuses but really I just need to buckle down and get caught up cuz it's not like life is about to get any simpler!






New these months...

We started potty training and we've more or less stopped. I started PTing Austin at the beginning of the year and since the potty was in the living room, she insisted on going too. She definitely gets the concept but it was totally stressing her out, so I decided to stop. She would ask to go every 2 minutes but would kinda freak out when she actually got on the potty. Especially if she was nearing needing to poop. So I would get her down, and then 2 minutes later she'd insist on going again. She cried if I didn't take her and she cried if I did. It wasn't good. Thankfully she's calmed down some and doesn't ask to go as often. More of less back to telling me when she's currently going. If I put her down on the potty at random times, she'll usually go. So I'm keeping it familiar without stressing. She's pretty cute when she goes though - she insists that I flush the toilet but she stands there and says "Bye Bye Pee Pee! See you later!!" She gets so proud when she does go. I think when we go back to officially training when she's a little older, it will go smoother.

Her vocabulary amazes me! She talks all the time and is very understandable the majority of the time. She's also picking up funny things Austin says too. A new favorite is "My bad!" She's very interested in possessive nouns - Momma's shoes, Kenna's shirt, etc. She's a little confused though about how to describe her own things and frequently calls them "My Yours". One new phrase that cracks me up is "I working, momma! I working!" Totally tmi, but this is what she's announcing now when she poops, cuz I'd ask her "Are you done pooping or still working on it?" and it progressed to that!

My favorite is when you say "I love you!", she responds me "Too!"

She got some babies for Christmas that have become beloved companions. She's such a little momma! She's constantly feeding her baby with a fork (hot dogs, of course!) and giving it a bottle. She could push it around in her toy stroller for hours too.

McKenna's level of whiney-ness is getting a little old. Her clinginess for me is decreasing, but her clinginess for her blanket, her Minnie Mouse & her sippy cups is increasing. If she's sad and her blankie is not in her hand, I'm treated to a very high pitch, pitiful "Blankie!! blankie!!" Even if it's within 5 feet of her. I made the mistake of washing said blankie the other day, not anticipating a mini issue about something little would turn into a full on meltdown because she couldn't be comforted by her blankie.

Her absolute state of joy at the sight of anything Minnie Mouse, Little Einsteins, Pooh, or Special Agent Oso coming on the TV or computer cracks me up. It's complete with high pitch squeals and happy feet.

She's already entering the I-do-it-by-myself phase. ("Polfe!" A lot of her s sounds are p's for some reason) Thankfully only on a few things, but it does cause some problems. The biggest problem is her shoes - she absolutely insists on putting on her shoes by herself but she absolutely can't figure it out! There have been lots of tears! It's becoming a power struggle too as she's starting to test me - she'll go back and forth between "self" and "momma do it!" with nothing I choose being satisfactory. It's very frustrating!

She finally got all her eye teeth in. Poor girl has been chewing on her fingers for weeks now!

She's finally getting into puzzles now! Which makes her puzzle-loving momma so very happy. She really likes her letter puzzle and is getting fairly good on which letters is which.

She so definitely my kid - she lives for back scratches! She just snuggles down and lets you scratch her back and neck and arms forever. She even calls out which she wants scratched next. And she loves to snuggle with daddy for scratches too, which of course melts him. Love it!

21 Months

Only one week (and change) late this time. Making progress!





New this month...

McKenna is officially a weaned child! Not officially by 21 months, but by 21 months and 1 day. My pregnant body wasn't really giving either of us a choice and honestly it is nice to not have to nurse someone for a whole 5 months! She surprised me by not totally freaking out. Only the very first missed feeding was rough and all the rest have been totally fine. She still loves me to snuggle and sing to her while she drinks her sippy cup of milk, so both of us are happy. I was afraid I'd lose my snuggle time with her.

Along the same lines, she's now a food lover! The last month she's started eating like a little piggy. Twice as much as Austin does. That was my main motivation for actually weaning her - I knew she was finally getting enough calories. She LOVES pasta and will ask for it for every meal. And hot dogs are probably a close second. She even pretends to eat hot dogs on her new tea set plates. "Pips" (chips) are also requested at every meal. She's getting really good at using a fork and a spoon too. She can even feed herself yogurt. I do have to watch her cuz when she's done eating, she starts fingerpainting with her food.

Just when I thought her love of drinking any water available had waned some, she started drinking the Christmas tree water. Even used poor Baby Jesus from our Little People nativity set as a cup.

Apparently McKenna thinks Daddy drives fast cuz she insists on going "Wheeeeeee" for the majority of the time we're driving. Cracks me up!

She has perfected bouncing seat drops. Her favorite spot to bounce is daddy's tummy but when she gets tired/nutso she'll start doing seat drops just about anywhere. Even just carpet. Hurts my back to watch! Obviously I try to keep her from doing that, but when she just randomly does it!

She's been asking to go potty more and more, even though it is usually after she's already gone. But she'll try to go and then announces happily "I did it!" And then she excitedly prances out to the front you and announces "Potty! Potty! M!!!" to whoever is there. Austin so sweetly responds "Good job Kenna! I so proud of you!" I decided today to try potty training her at the same time as Austin and she did great! Two small accidents but by the end of the day she was really getting it!

20 Months

Yup! Two weeks late again! Really I have no excuse this time. Just pitifullness!






New this month...

Oh my, the clinginess!! It's gotten way worse. And I'm actually praying it's teeth, cuz that means it will hopefully end when the teeth pop through. If it's a behavioral issue only, I just don't know what to do about it. There are tantrums when I go out of the room or even look like I might think about leaving the room. Which means every time I need to go the bathroom, put an article of clothing away, grab a diaper, etc. we have tears. And these are whether Brian is in the room or not. She just wants Mommy! When she's well rested, it's not as bad, but anywhere near nap time, or just afterwards, it's fairly bad. She's also having a hard time sleeping, so I'm fairly sure it's teeth.

On the flipside - I've gotten the best snuggles in the past couple months. It's hard to get frustrated when you're so loved!!

Words have evolved into sentences. And her vocabulary continues to grow each day and completely astounds me! She knows all the (important) parts of the body and very happily and sometimes painfully (ie pokes you in the eye) points them out on whoever is nearby. She loves to name all the pieces of clothing as Daddy gets dressed in the morning and on her dolls. I think she really only needs to hear a word once or maybe twice to have a good handle on it these days. And she's really clear on most of her words too. It's nice not having to interpret!

She's just starting to get the concept of colors. She doesn't know the colors but she knows that they exist. When asked a color, she usually answers blue, with red as a backup answer.

Her love of water has not ended! Thankfully she doesn't drink nearly as much bathwater these days. But her love of water has expanded to giving everyone else water. She is constantly giving her dolls & Austin's figurines something to drink. I guess she figures if she's thirsty everyone else must be too.

She is starting to love songs. She can sing along partially with me on "You are My Sunshine" and "Little Einsteins". And frequently we hear her singing but can't quite figure out what song she's singing but it resembles something on Little Einsteins or one of the other cartoons.

She's taking her job as annoying little sister very serious still. She's added hitting and pushing to her repertoire of bugging skills. So now she'll steal a toy from Austin and then when forced to give it back, she hands it back and then whacks him! Sigh...

I totally heart the way McKenna runs! So much enthusiasm! It's a combination of bouncing, running and prancing with an added wiggle in there. I need to get it on video of it so I don't forget it.

I'm fairly confident she will be potty trained before her big brother. She tells me most times before she poops and if not before, she makes sure to tell me afterwards. I've tried to get her to go on the potty when she tells me before but she's not quite ready for that. She also tells me before she has to pee a lot! She's already gone on the potty a few times. She doesn't like to sit on the potty - she tell you she needs to go, then if you ask her if she wants to go to the potty she always says "NO!" So I'm trying not to push it. But she does thoroughly enjoy her M&M reward, so that's how we get around it.