Five Minute Friday (on Saturday morning)

See, I'm already not very good at keeping up with this!!!   As I mentioned in my previous Friday post we were going to the Vandewater's to see Lee, our bro in law.  He is home on leave from Afghanistan and is soon to go back in a few days, to return home for good in early July.  It was great to see him, like he  hadn't even been gone.  Whitney warmed up to him quickly and my little Ellie even let him hold her.  He keeps a blog, Operation Enduring Freedom 2011  that you should really check out, if you don't already.  It's an excellent inside perspective on a deployment.

I have been getting the girls out to the park a few times a week and Whitney is turning into little miss dare devil.  Its hard to help her play with a baby strapped to my chest!  She says the funniest things and I mean to write them down so I can remember it all and laugh about it again some day.  The other day we were driving and we were going by a church, she says.. "whoaaa, that's a big house!"   We were getting her in the bath and she was standing next to the tub fully clothed yet, and she says, "you can't wear clothes in the bath.  You can't wear clothes when you're naked!"

It's Memorial Day weekend and my parents are coming to visit.  Love it when they come to play with Whitney, and that my mom always brings me goodies to eat!  I don't do much baking around here, unless it's refridgerated cookie dough!

My Girls at 3 Months

I have heard both- your girls look nothing alike and your girls look the same.  When Ellie was born my first reaction was that she looked just like Whitney.  It felt like I was holding a newborn Whitney all over again.  And then over the next few days I thought they looked nothing alike.  Now that Ellie is filling out, I think they look alike again, despite the different eye color, and Ellie will likely be a blonde.  The first four pictures are Whitney, the last four Ellie.  I don't know how to do them side by side, but if you know how, let me know (ahem...  Michele or Melissa!)  I make some chubby girls, huh!?!  Whitney cracks me up with how fat she was!

First Cereal

Whitney took these first three pics of Ellie, I think she did pretty good!

supported sitting

at the park

I have been eager to give Ellie cereal so I finally did last night and she did really good, and slept a little bit better last night!

Ellison- 3 Months

Baby Ellie is now three months old.  She is getting stronger and more alert every day.  She coos and squeals and smiles a lot and is generally a pretty happy baby.  She is starting to get stranger danger, apparently my girls are not the type of babies that just goes to any one.  She does better with Wade than Whitney did, but Wade is also around a lot more than he was when Whitney was a baby.  She does pretty good on tummy time holding her head up and can sit in the bumbo for a good period of time now.  She is becomming a supported sitter and if you prop her up you can see her working to try to sit upright.  She tries to suck on her hands and fingers but can't yet keep her hands in her mouth.  She will occasionally take a pacifier, but generally does not care for them.

She sleeps pretty well.  She has given me 8 hrs a few times and then the next night she will go back to 5 hrs, which isn't so bad for a 3 month old, but it stinks when she goes to bed at 8/8:30.  I would love to put her to bed later, but she set her bed time so I just go with it. She wakes up for good in the morning between six and seven.   I don't set schedules for my babies, I let them sleep when they are tired and eat if they seem hungry.    She is getting a more predictable daytime sleep pattern and would probably be even more routine if we would stay home in the morning. 

We have gotten the eating problems worked out. She nurses at night and  I pump all day and she drinks from a bottle.  Most days I can keep up with her and if not she will take formula.  How lucky am I?  Hopefully she will continue to take formula because it is pretty nice taking a thermos of hot water when we go out to mix formula.  Figuring out how and where to pump isn't so much fun, but it's working so far.  We made it half way to my minimum goal of breastfeeding for six months, so if I can make it another three, I'm sure I can go a year.  I'm anxious to start cereal to see how she takes it.  Some days she seems like she could use some, and other days she barely finishes the milk I have pumped.  I can tell when she hits a growth spurt because she will poop every other day and eat like mad.

She is in size 1 diapers that are quickly getting too small.  She wears 3-6 month clothing that fits perfectly.  I give her about 6-7 weeks before she will probably be in 6-12.

She has had a couple of sessions of PT for her tortecollis, and the therapist said it is a pretty mild case, but she still holds her neck pretty crooked depending on her energy level.

Five Minute Fridays

I was blog hopping just now during nap time and came across this post that you just ramble on for five minutes.  I'll give it a shot and try to do it every friday as a recap of our week.  Don't hold me to it though, we'll just see!

Here goes...It's a rainy friday with not much to do.  There was a lull in the rain this morning so I took the girls out to garage sales.  It has sort of become my new obsession.  I wish we lived in DSM where I could hit some serious garage sales in the super nice parts of town.  I have realized I have become a garage sale snob.  I check out craigslist to see what they are selling, and if they list name brand kids clothes I am totally there.  I also get really excited when they are in new subdivisions.  You know they are young couples unloading their baby/kids stuff.  I do drive by garage sales.  If the house looks yucky from the outside or they don't have good presentation from the street, I don't stop.  Sometimes if Wade is with me he makes me stop so he will get out and look and within a minute he's back with nothing.  He needs to trust my instincts if they are good sales or not!  We're on a mission for kids clothes/shoes and we have limited time with an infant!

Tomorrow we are headed to the Vandewater's.  Lee (BIL) is home on leave and we are looking forward to seeing him and it's always fun to get the kids together to play!

time's up!

Through the eyes of a child

Most of you probably found these pictures super boring, but Whitney took them, so I think they are cute!  I used to have the camera as off limits, but she is pretty careful with it and figured out how to take pictures, so if she has something to do that keeps her content and occupied, what the heck?!?

Another funny thing yesterday, she noticed a plane in the sky and you know how they leave a vapor trail, she looked at it and said, "plane drawing".  Yeah, I guess the plane is drawing!  Simple minds!

Blank Park Zoo

Monday we went to visit the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines.  The wind was a little chilly for Ellie, but other than that it was great weather wise.  This year we got a membership, thanks to my SIL for finding a super discounted rate on Groupon.  So if any one wants to go with us this year, we can take two guests each time we go!  There are a few exhibits under contruction, so hopefully by the end of the summer everything will be complete.  We were there for three hours and barely got everything in, so once everything is done I'm not sure we will see it all.

the big worm

good thing mommy was prepared, because she got herself all wet at the hippo fountain and we had to change shirts!

 In the kid's area.  You can feed the animals here.  They don't have free range goats any more like they did when I was a kid, but I guess it's safer this way.  Whitney wasn't sure about having animals eat out of her hand.

Going to the zoo with a 12 week old wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  After riding in her car seat she didn't exactly want to sit in the stroller.   We have discovered that you never have both your kids in your double stroller at the same time.  Hopefully as Ellie continues to grow our summer activities will get easier.  It will be nice when she can sit up in her stroller and cruise around.  But, the Bjorn works too!

Parakeet feeding is new to the zoo.  Whitney liked it.

Whtiney is little miss independent now.  She doesn't want to hang on to hand rails any more, she has to walk up and down steps like a big person now.  She tries to dress herself in the morning, which is super frustrating when you are in a hurry.