Christmas

This was the first year that Cass really seemed to understand what was going on with all of the gifts. He is at a great age when it comes to buying gifts for him, because he loves everything . . . books, cars, etc., and of course Thomas the Train! He even loves Celena's presents . . . I say this as he is on the floor beside me spinning around a light-up turtle that she got as a gift - I guess she will learn early on to share her toys!

1st Christmas

Celena had a couple different "Baby's 1st Christmas" outfits, so we had a wardrobe change midway through the day so we could get pictures in each outfit. :) She must have sensed the excitement of Christmas, because I couldn't get her to nap at all during the day. She was tuckered out by bedtime!

Christmas Program

Here's a clip from Cass's first school Christmas progam. This is his class of 2-year olds singing. Cass is in the middle in the khaki pants and red sweater, climbing the risers the entire time. We were cracking up!

Our Little Ballerina

What do you think my husband would look like if he weighed 15 pounds and wore a pink tutu? Ha! Celena looks SO MUCH like her daddy!! It's funny to see the resemblance even when I dress her up like this. :)

Baptism

Celena was baptized in November. Our church doesn't allow video or photographs during the baptism, so we tried to get a picture of Celena with all of us after the ceremony, but as you can imagine it didn't go well with a hungry baby and a 2 year old that had just sat through a church service. SO, I decided today that we would play "dress up" so I could get a picture of Celena in her pretty little christening gown. You can't really see the whole thing (because as you can imagine it's impossible to pose a 5 month old in attractive way to get a picture of the entire dress, I tried but she kept sticking her legs in the air!!). I decided I'd frame the dress in a shadow box and use it for decoration in her room - that's one way to get our money's worth out of it!

Help Cass earn free books!

Cass loves to read, so I'm hosting an online Usborne book party so he can get more books and expand that little mind! The books are great, and they also have puzzles, sticker books, activity books and curriculum guides that you can do at home. Please check out the link below to my eshow and consider getting some books for the children on your Christmas list, there are books for all ages. The eshow closes at midnight on December 15. Cass thanks you!!! :)

www.ubah.com/HOS164981

By the way, Cass insisted on wearing his blue crocs with that outfit. I realize it looks goofy. He likes to express himself through fashion. Ha!

Little Stinker

Man, this little girl is persistent! Sleeping continues to be an issue. She has had a cold the last couple weeks, so I've babied her and have held her a lot for naps and at night when she wakes up. She is over her cold now, so I'm hoping we can make some progress getting her to soothe herself to sleep. The last couple days she has hardly napped at all, and hasn't gotten very good sleep at night either, so she was really tired today.

Since she was so tired, I decided to do whatever it took to get her to take a nap this afternoon. I laid down with her for a while to get her to go to sleep (which was nice for me too, since I was up with her until 2:30 AM last night!!), and she then took a good nap in our bed. Hopefully she will be better rested tomorrow so we can work on napping in her crib, and maybe I can post some positive updates about her progress soon!!!

Gingerbread House

Cass made his first gingerbread house last weekend. He lost interest after about 15 minutes of decorating, so not all of the decorations made it onto the house (which is why it is a little sparse).

His little personality continues to amuse us. The other day Celena was in her pack n' play crying, and Cass walked over and put a toy car and a book in the pack n' play, I guess he thought that would console her. Then, she was laying on a blanket on the floor kicking, and he put his Thomas the Train in her hand. I think he is really wanting a playmate!

We got some humorous feedback from his preschool teacher last week. When I went to pick him up, she asked me if Chris wrestles with him. I said that he did, and asked why she wanted to know. Apparently Cass tries to wrestle the kids in preschool! She said it is harmless, he just walks up to them with his arms out and lays right on top of them. She and the other teacher couldn't figure out where he got this since he doesn't have older siblings. So, we had to tell Cass that he only wrestles with Daddy. Our little talk may have worked, because the teacher said he didn't wrestle at all today! :)

Our Kiddos

Cass has a mind of his own lately, but he happened to be rather cooperative yesterday so I asked him if he wanted to take a picture with his sister and he surprised me by saying "yes"! (I'm finding it tougher these days to catch him in the picture mood). Anyway, I obviously wasn't prepared for the picture, as you can see Celena is wearing St. Patrick's Day pajamas. And it's December. There are a few reasons for this . . . 1) The color green is one of the colors of the month that Cass's preschool is focusing on so I thought I'd put Celena in it, 2) These are size 9 month pajamas that I thought Celena would wear in March, but she is growing like a weed so I figured we'd get some use out of them now, and 3) we weren't leaving the house all day. Oh, and 4) green is a Christmas color. I know, using that as a reason to dress Irish in December is a stretch. Regardless, she doesn't look all that thrilled to be having her picture taken.

Cass is quite the little helper these days. He will let the dogs in the house for us (when they don't already let themselves in . . . amazingly our dog Norm has figured out how to open the door), and he'll go and get about anything for us when we ask him to, so we can be lazy and not get out of our chairs. :) Yesterday I even asked him to brush the hair out of my eyes because I didn't have a free hand while I was holding Celena and he did it. I think soon I'll teach him how to give massages to I can get a back rub now and then. ha!

Cass is also getting closer to potty training. Yesterday he pointed to his pants and said "poopie", so I gathered Celena and we all ran upstairs where his potty was, and he had me pull his pants down, and he sat down. Unfortunately the "poopie" was already in the diaper (lesson learned - we need another potty for downstairs), but he asked for toilet paper and wiped and put the toilet paper in his potty. I gave him a miniature Hershey's candy bar as a reward, and immediately read his Potty Book to him, then called Daddy at work so he could leave him a voicemail telling him what he did. I really have no idea what I'm doing, I suppose rewarding with chocolate isn't the best idea, but he otherwise never gets candy (I know, I'm a mean mommy), so I figure it just may do the trick.

Thanksgiving

This was Chris's (first) plate of food on Thanksgiving. I just had to take a picture of it . . . remember that game "Where's Waldo?", where you had to look at a chaotic picture and find little bitty Waldo? You can play a similar game with Chris's plate called "Where's the Turkey?". Do you see it? It's up around 11:00. About the size of a quarter. Seriously. Why even get any turkey? He doesn't really like turkey, but feels obligated to get an itty bitty bit on Thanksgiving.

Above is Celena in her "First Thanksgiving" outfit. She's a little chunk, huh?

This picture is of Cass in the same "First Thanksgiving" outfit when he was a baby. He didn't fill it out quite as much as she does, but to his credit he was a month younger than her at his first Thanksgiving.

4 month doctor's appointment

I'm not sure why, but it seems like I've been too busy lately to take many pictures. So, sorry this is kind of a boring post - no pictures for you today. However, I thought I'd post an update since Celena had her 4 month doctor's appointment last week. Here are her stats:

Height: 25 1/2 inches (85th percentile)
Weight: 14 lbs (60th percentile)
Head: 16 1/2 cm (80th percentile)

She is really changing these days. She now rolls over from both her back to her tummy and from her tummy to her back. She has also become much more content just sitting on my lap - it's nice not to stand up while I hold her all the time!!! It's fun to watch her personality develop, and interesting to see how different she and Cass are. Cass was a very intense baby (and still has an intense personality, but don't all 2 year olds???) - he was colicky, always wanted me to stand and hold him, and was terrified of baths. Celena seems to be very laid back, will lay on the floor or sit on my lap contently, and LOVES to take a bath. They really couldn't be much more opposite - it will sure make it fun to watch them grow up if they continue to be this different!!!

4 month growth spurt???

This is the first thing I saw when I woke up this morning - Celena staring at me with a big smile on her face. That is because she got to sleep with her mama last night. I don't let her do this very often, only when I get so exhausted that I can't get up with her anymore. Her sleep schedule continues to be very inconsistent. She slept through the night a few nights ago, then the following night only woke up once, but then the last couple nights she has woken up almost every hour to eat. On those nights I end up just putting her in bed with me after the first couple wakings so I can get some sleep! I'm not sure why she is doing this, but I have heard babies can go through a growth spurt at 4 months and want to eat all the time, so hopefully that is what this is and it will soon pass!

Here is a sign of what also may be causing the night wakings - maybe she is teething??? It seems early, but she is drooling a lot and chewing on her hands all the time. If I remember right, Cass did this for quite a while before a tooth appeared, so I don't expect to see any pearly whites popping through very soon.

In the doghouse

Here's where I found Cass with some of his toys yesterday - in our dogs' cage. He's getting too tall to stand up in there, but he doesn't seem to mind.

New hat

Check out Celena's new hat! I love, love, love the little baby flapper hats! I have become obsessed with etsy - as you may know, it's a website with all handmade things where you can find great stuff, especially for babies. In case any of you want one of these hats for your daughters or just for baby gifts, I got this one from ZoeLynnDesigns - the website is http://www.zjohnson.etsy.com/.

Poor little Celena is fighting the cold that we have all been passing around the house. I took her to the doctor yesterday just to make sure her ears and lungs were okay, and they were fine. She's just really congested and has a bad cough. Last night she woke up around 2 am coughing, and I was able to get her back to sleep around 4:00 in her swing downstairs and I slept on the couch beside the swing. She seems to be a little better today, so hopefully she is on the mend.

Halloween

Chris carved a couple pumpkins on Halloween, then went through what appeared to be a tedious process of separating the seeds from the pumpkin so that we could toast them. Cass was a lot of "help" in this process (you can see from the picture that Chris was trying his best to make sure Cass didn't mess up his piles).

Here's our little cheeseburger all dressed up for Halloween! He had fun. The day after Halloween he put his costume back on and wanted to go outside to trick or treat again. I guess he doesn't realize that it is not normal to dress like a cheeseburger and ask your neighbors for candy on any ordinary day :)

Celena was a bunny. This picture is funny - the cheeseburger had a little meltdown while trick-or-treating. I can't remember what it was about, but you can see in the background that he was being dramatic and had dropped to the ground to throw a typical 2 year old tantrum.

The bunny didn't make it very long!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!

Cookies

Cass's preschool had a cookie decorating party for the kids and parents on Wednesday, and we had to miss it because Cass was sick. So, I decided that Cass and I would make cookies together yesterday. I stood him up on the chair so he could help flatten the dough, put the cookies on the cookie sheet, decorate them, and even do the dishes. You can imagine how this went - when he put the cookies on the cookie sheet he wanted to bang the cookie sheet on the counter, then when we did dishes he managed to take a drink of the dish water and stick the dish cloth in his mouth (YUCK!!), and then when decorating the cookies he kept dropping the spatula. We had fun though. However, when it came time to decorate the last few cookies that I told him he could eat, he didn't want to do it - he wanted NO frosting on them. Weird kid, huh? I guess it goes along with how he doesn't like fried food. I have a health nut on my hands. :)

Bumbo

I broke out the Bumbo for Celena for the first time today. She hung out in it while we had dinner. I had been putting her in her swing when I needed to be "hands free", but she tends to fall asleep in the swing and I wonder if she was sleeping too much during the day and then not sleeping well at night (see prior post about her sleeping!). In the Bumbo she should be able to stay awake better!

I just had to post this one - this is Cass on his first day of the Bumbo - I remember he giggled so much when we put him in it! Wow, he is growing up too fast! :(

Latest Milestones

I have good and bad news about Celena's progress lately. First, the bad - Remember my prior post about her sleeping through the night 2 nights in a row? Well, I jinxed myself. That was it. After those 2 nights, she's back to her old tricks. She has a cold, so that may be causing her to wake up more. Or, maybe it's because she has been swaddled and now she tries to squirm out of the swaddle to chew her hands (and if she gets lucky, she'll catch her thumb), so maybe she's waking herself up?? I decided to no longer swaddle her arms, but it hasn't made much difference.
She now can hold her head up very well, and lift it up when she's on her tummy. She also rolls from her tummy to her back, and ALMOST rolls from her back to her tummy.

Ahh, I love this one - she sometimes can get her thumb!!! I like this, because I view that thumb as the pacifier that will help her fall asleep on her own! It hasn't happened yet, but I'm waiting for the day! :)

Siblings

I haven't posted for a while because we've all been under the weather lately. Cass brought a cold home from preschool last week, which then turned into a double ear infection and fever. The cold has now spread to the rest of us, so we feel cruddy right now! Cass seems to be on the mend and Celena is just a little bit congested so far, so I'm hoping she isn't going to get any worse.
Here are the kids today. Cass loves to have his picture taken, and Celena doesn't seem to mind either! :)

Here's big brother hamming it up for the camera. He loves to kiss Celena - we've taught him to kiss her on the top of the head, with the intention of not spreading any germs to her that he picks up at school (obviously that isn't working).

Update: She did it

Last night I put Celena to bed at 9:00. When I woke up this morning at 6:15, I got that panicked feeling as I realized I had been sleeping all night long. Then, at 6:22, I heard a little cry, and of course thought, whew - she is still alive (I know, all of you moms have been there!!). Yep, the little girl SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! I feel like a whole new woman today! It's interesting, because she was officially 3 months old yesterday. She must know she is a big girl now and it's time to sleep all night! Hopefully it wasn't a fluke and it continues!

Rainy Day Entertainment

We've had some rainy weather recently, and Cass gets stir crazy in the house on those days. So, we are always looking for different ways to keep him entertained. One day he decided to put stickers all over Celena (or "Na-na" as he calls her). I don't think she enjoyed it near as much as he did.

12 weeks

We've made it to the magic 12 week point! I call it "magic", because in my mind this was the point where Celena would start sleeping through the night. If I recall correctly, this is when Cass started sleeping 12 hours straight each night. We aren't quite there with Celena, but she is doing much better. Last night I put her down around 9:00, she woke up at 11:15 for a feeding, then got up around 7:15 am. Our pediatrician said most likely it would be between 4 and 6 months when she really slept through the night, and since she was a few weeks early then it may be a bit longer. With all of that said, I'm pretty pleased with how she is doing! She is starting to interact with us now - she coos, smiles, and laughs. It is so cute! I'm trying to get the laugh on video, but haven't been able to time it right yet. Hopefully I can get it and will post it here soon.

I have a charm bracelet with Cass's name on it that I used to wear every day (now I need a new one with another charm with Celena's name . . . hint, hint Chris). Cass liked it, and apparently wants one too. He uses rings from one of his baby toys to wear as bracelets. This morning before Daddy took him to soccer he was running around the house wearing his "bracelet". As you would expect, Daddy made sure it was off before heading out the door! :)

Thomas the Train

Thomas the Train was in Spencer, NC on Friday, so we took Cass to see him. Cass LOVES Thomas.

We took a ride on the train. Cass waved at the people standing beside the tracks (as you can see by the blurred hand in the picture).

There were quite a few things to do there besides ride Thomas. Cass got to see a firetruck. He loves firetrucks about as much as he loves trains.

Of course we had to treat Cass to the typical food that they have at these kinds of festivals and load him full of sugar. Here he is enjoying a funnel cake and ice cream - YUM!

Celena's 2 month appointment

Here are the kids before we went to church on Sunday. It's so fun to get Celena dressed up in her little dresses and bows! She had her 2 month doctor's appointment today - she is a big girl! Here are her stats:

Weight: 11 lbs., 9 oz (75th percentile)
Height: 23 inches (75th percentile)
Head: 15 1/2 cm (75th percentile)

Boys will be boys

Daddy and Cass were outside working on our irrigation system last Sunday afternoon, which apparently involved digging in dirt. Do you see what Cass is wearing? A white button down dress shirt, which actually was the shirt he wore to church that morning. And why, do you wonder, would Daddy knowingly take Cass outside to play in dirt in that shirt? I kind of wondered that too, but I didn't ask - I've learned to pick my battles. Ha ha. Sorry, Chris, if you are reading this. :) Anyway, it was cute and Cass obviously had fun - he was covered in dirt. Chris brought him inside and took him straight to the bathtub!

Hilton Head

Here I go again apologizing for not posting for a while. Lately I have had one (or two) kids attached to me around the clock, so it has been hard to get much done! Hopefully Celena will start going to bed earlier soon so I can have a few hours in the evenings to catch up on things.

Anyway, we took a weekend trip down to Hilton Head a couple weeks ago. We stayed at the Disney Resort there. Even though it is a Disney resort, it isn't decked out with all of the Disney characters, decor, etc. It's basically just a regular resort but it's owned by Disney.

This is really the only Disney themed thing that they have at the resort - a couple bushes shaped like animals (not sure if these are Disney characters or just animals).

I love this little jean skirt and tank top that Celena was wearing. Isn't it cute? As I probably mentioned previously, Celena had been sleeping in a carseat for her first few weeks of life due to reflux. After I eliminated dairy from my diet, the reflux got better and I decided it was time to ditch the carseat. I initially tried to have her sleep in her crib a couple nights before we went on vacation and it didn't go well. However, when we were in Hilton Head I decided to swaddle her (which I hadn't been doing because I thought she didn't like it) and have her sleep in the pack 'n play, and guess what . . . it worked! She slept for about 4 hours at a time throughout the night. YAY! It was so nice of her to be cooperative on our vacation! :) For the next week at home, she continued to sleep well. The last couple nights now have not been as good though - she has been breaking out of the swaddle blanket. Today I bought a couple of those Kiddopotamus swaddle wraps (our pediatrician jokingly calls them straight jackets), so I'll try that, hopefully it works. By the way, do you know the Kiddopotamus company is headquartered in Leawood, KS?

Future Picasso

Here is Cass's first art project from preschool. I wonder how much of this Cass really did, and how much the teacher did. Regardless, we are proud! :) It's fun to have the artwork to display on the fridge. I'm going to take pictures of each piece that he brings home over the years, and make them into photobooks - a friend of mine recommended doing that, rather than trying to save all of the originals. I thought it was a great idea!

Aloha from North Carolina

There was a "Luau Party" in our neighborhood last night, so we dressed the family up in tropical attire. We had a good time - Cass pushed his wagon around the street most of the night (it doesn't take much to entertain him these days), and several of my girlfriends took turns holding Celena, so Momma got a much needed break! :)

First Day of Preschool

Cass started preschool today at a Christian church in Concord. He goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 to 1:00. It should be really good for him - their curriculum is very focused on religion, as well as academics (learning letters, shapes, etc.). They have "free play" time too, so he will get some socialization. One of his buddies in our neighborhood is in the same class so he already has a friend there!Here is the typical front porch first day of school picture. He looks a little dazed. It is probably because our dogs Norm and Tina got loose when he opened the front door, so they were running like crazy down the street and we were yelling at them to come back home. They did.

Here we are walking into the school. Poor little guy didn't want to walk alone - he wanted to hold Mommy's hand. Check out the cute little Thomas the Train backpack!!

I think he was wondering why Daddy was taking so many pictures. He doesn't yet understand what a monumental event this is. :)

He was fine when we got to the classroom - he went right to the toys and started playing. However, when we told him told him goodbye before leaving he started crying, and we could hear him crying as we walked out of the church. I held it together (barely) - it was hard to leave him, but I just kept reminding myself that the preschool will be really good for him. When we picked him up, the teachers said he only cried for the first 5 minutes, then was fine. Hopefully each day gets a little easier!