Chats with Charlotte 2

Charlotte's making some solid sentences lately. She is cracking us up and blowing us away with her incredible conversational abilities. She's basically a genius. ;)

Momma, hold you, now! (Screamed from her crib when she doesn't want to go to bed!)

Charlotte, hurt, ankle. 

Charlotte, hurt, elbow.

Uncle Allen, hurt elbow. 

Scary loud noises! 

Oh, yook, emineminems. Red, green. Hi, emineminems!! One. Eat it. #M&Ms 

Asher come too. 

Me come too. 

Go outside now! Play now! 

Daddy cook. Daddy wear apron. 😄😄

Asher's awake. Hold him now. 

No mail today. Sad! 

Daddy's home. See him! 

Alpaca, horse! run with Dad.

Play markers now. 

Play car now. 

Mixer. Make cookies now. 

(Can you sense the urgency in all her conversations!? Everything is NOW!!) 

Currently

One of my New Years goals is to blog more regularly. I wrote down "blog at least once per week", giving myself lots of wiggle room, though I hope to post even more frequently than that . Blogging took a back seat during the "fourth trimester" as we juggled a newborn, a toddler, and a new house that needed a lot of TLC. 

But now it's 2016 and Asher is a bit more consistent and our house is coming together. So here goes nothing-- more blogging! 

I've seen many versions of "Currently" blog posts and have decided not to try and meet any specific formula. I'm just taking the plunge to give a quick update and to have a record of these cold, rainy, winter days in the first year of my baby's life. 

Currently reading: All the Light We Cannot See. Got it for Christmas and have read... Oh, about ten pages. Ha. But it's intriguing so far. 

Currently loving: the sunshine outside today! It's only about 40 degrees but I can't remember the last time I was home for a sunny day. We went to the playground instead of to Costco, because SUN!!

Currently cooking: spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner. And green beans, because Charlotte loves them. 

Currently anticipating: the Internet service person to show up and give us wifi. The company called yesterday and re-scheduled the appointment to get it connected for this afternoon. We've been borrowing from the neighbors since we moved in, but it only works on the outer wall of our bedroom and in Charlotte's room. 

Currently staring at: photos of my gorgeous children. I can't get enough of their sweet little faces. 

Asher: three months old

As I type this post, Asher is screaming his head off in his car seat on the way to the airport. If there is one thing he hates, and I think there is only one... it's the car seat. We keep thinking he will get used to it, or cry himself to sleep, but he doesn't. He can scream for over an hour in that thing, especially if it's dark and he can't see what's going on around him. Ugh, driving with him is the worst part of life right now. 

Otherwise, our boy is an absolute delight. He grins and coos and watches the world with serious concentration. He is mellow and engaging and beyond adorable!!

 

Growth/ development: we don't know Asher's exact weight, but I would guess it's between 14 and 15 pounds. He has outgrown his three month clothing and is firmly in the 6 month camp right now. He is tall and strong and very solid. Also- his round belly gives me all the heart eyes!! 

Sleep: Something that revolutionized sleep in Asher's life this month is that we started putting him to bed on his belly. After watching him nap that way for a couple of days, and being confident that he could turn his head to breathe, we tried having him sleep on his tummy at night. He sleeps SO SO SO much better. He can soothe himself by wiggling around, rubbing his face on the mattress, and eventually settling down peacefully. Two thumbs up for more sleep! 

Asher's schedule is becoming a bit more predictable lately. He usually goes to bed at 7 and gets up for the day around 8. He wakes up once or twice at night, nurses, and goes right back to sleep. He takes a long morning nap and either 2 or 3 shorter naps throughout the day. He nurses about 8-9 times, on average, but not at any specific times. 

Asher loves: watching his sister, nursing, being worn by momma and dad, laying on his back and kicking his legs, cooing, taking baths with Charlotte, smiling at himself in the mirror, looking around, and waving his arms. 

Asher doesn't like: the car seat, being awake for too long, taking a bottle, the car seat, and pacifiers. And the car seat ;)

Asher: 2 months old

As of two weeks ago, Asher weighed twelve pounds, one ounce. I'm guessing he is closer to thirteen pounds, now, but we didn't have a two month check up so I'm not sure. He was way above his "peers" in height and weight, and is significantly bigger than his sister was at this age. (She weighed about eleven and a half pounds at two months!) 

He just started smiling and is bringing great joy to all of us. We can't get enough of his little coos and that gummy grin! 

When people ask, I say that Asher is a better eater than Charlotte was, but a worse sleeper. We were much stricter with sleep training Charlotte and it really worked well! 

Just this past week we started making Asher go to bed in the travel crib instead of the swing. There were some tears, but not too many. :) He takes his naps all over the place, since he has to live his life around his sister's activities. If he got to choose, he would always sleep snuggled up against momma or dad in the Ergo or ring sling. 

Though he doesn't have as consistent of a routine as Charlotte, there are patterns to his day. He typically gets up for the day between 7 and 8. He is awake for about 1.5 hours before taking a long nap (2 hours, sometimes!) He has a good awake/ play time around lunch and then often naps after nursing while Charlotte is napping. In the evening he naps in the carrier while I play with Charlotte, make dinner, and then eat dinner. He is almost always awake for about an hour, but then is ready to nurse and go to sleep by 7:15pm. He is definitely getting some calories in during the night. He rarely goes more than three hours between feedings, especially now that he is sleeping flat on his back and doesn't feel as snuggled. 

I would definitely say he is easy going. He cries if hungry or tired, or if his sister throws a ball at his head. Otherwise, Asher is a content little boy and we are crazy about him. 

Happy two months, sweet babe.

Chats with Charlotte 1

Our big toddler girl is soooo chatty these days. She cracks us up with her running commentary and has a million opinions about everything. 

Some of my favorite things she says, at 22 months:

Oh, my! 

Alpacas! Okay! 

Mom. Dad. Asher. Charlotte. 

Airplane! Sky! Wow! 

Snails. Okay! 

Asher. Toot. Asher. :)

Okay? Okay. 

Stool. WaWa. Stool. WaWa. (This series of statements gets repeated over and over until I get the stool out of the closet and put it near the sink so she can play in the water.)

Nigh night. 

Cougar. Bear. Lily. Play. 

Spin, spin, spin, dip. (These are her dance moves ;) )

Up! Up! 

No, no, no, no, no! (Okay, I hate when she says No, but it must be included because many many many of her chats these days involve that two letter word!)

Pease. Okay.

Asher: 1 month old

We don't know how much Asher weighed at one month but he was 9 pounds 13 ounces at three weeks. 

He wears size one diapers and 3 month onesies/shirts. His 3 month pjs are too short already! What a tall guy! 

He doesn't have much of a schedule but there are some consistent patterns to his life. Each day he has a long-ish time awake in the morning and after dinner, and sometimes in the middle of the day, too. He is also consistently fussy early in the morning- often nursing every hour or so from 5ish until about 7am. #wearetired 

He is a super patient guy in terms of putting up with his big sister's rough housing. He is not patient about waiting to eat, though, and complains loudly if he doesn't get to nurse the second he is ready :) 

He is often content to lounge on his playmat and kick his feet while looking from side to side at whatever catches his little eye. 

We love this little guy so much!! 

Dear Charlotte, 18

My big toddler girl, 

You are the best girl in this whole entire world. You make my heart sing. 

I am so proud of the ways you have grown in the past couple of months. You've become a big sister and have handled that difficult transition with grace, patience, and a sense of humor. 

When I watch you hug your brother, or snuggle up to him on the floor, I melt into a puddle of mush and want to have a million more babies. 

Tonight was totally nuts-- your daddy was unloading some stuff from our POD into the new house two doors down. Asher was tired, but couldn't settle down by himself so I filled the bathtub and plopped you in. Without any protest, you played happily

 in the tub for over 30 minutes while I got your brother to sleep by bouncing him in the Ergo in the dark bathroom. Thank you, little love. Good teamwork. Fist bump. 

Lately you are super interested in filling cups with water and dumping it into something else. 

You are OBSESSED with alpacas and snails... You wake up talking about the animals that live nearby-- goats and horses and alpacas, oh my! 

Charlotte Adeline, I love you so much!!