Smarty Pants

Mermaid Lizzy

This kid.  It's amazing how kids grow both physically and cognitively.  Elizabeth picks up things so quickly - she is just So. Smart.

At almost 14 months Elizabeth weighs around 24 lbs.  She has 8 teeth on the top and 6 on the bottom.  She does plenty of baby talk but does say mama, dada & bye-bye.  She has moments when she'll say a word once or twice but then we won't hear it again.  I'm pretty sure she heard us say Seahawks (SB CHAMPS!) so much this past month that she has started saying it too.  Now she's using a lot of the "k" and "t" sounds.  

Just this evening she pointed her popsicle at me and said something that at first sounded Russian to me.  But I finally figured out she was saying "cut".  She wanted me to cut the wrapper down.  Every time she would eat it too short I would ask "Do you want me to cut it?" and she would hold it out.  By the 3rd time she was asking me!  "Cut"!  SO SMART.  

Earlier she was walking around with my pajamas shirt, cuddling with it and when she walked passed me I noticed her nose was running so I said "Oh Elizabeth, you have mocos" and so she turned her head into my shirt and blew her nose!  I'm pretty sure Aaron STILL isn't sure how to properly blow his nose and he's 5!  LOL.

Elizabeth walks well and she loves to be outside.  I like to try and go pick up Aaron early so it gives me enough time to allow Elizabeth to walk from the car to the classroom to pick Aaron up.  She loves it.  She walks around his classroom and all his little preschool buddies and love her.  Even the teacher and T.A.s want to pick her up.  One mom actually holds her and kisses her!  Surprisingly, I'm not bothered by it.  (Well, not that much anyway.)

As you can tell from the picture, she also loves the water!  She's so funny because she'll just lay down in the water on her belly -- no worries, no hesitancy.  And she kicks and turns.  I'll lay her down in shallow water on her back sometimes and she just laughs and kicks.  She has no fear!  Elizabeth is also a climber.  She tries to climb on her brother's toys and furniture and get on his foot stool.  I mean, I really gotta watch this one all the time.  

But I think what she loves most is FOOD!  Hahaha!  This baby girl can eat!  I mean, you'd think she would be bigger than her brother was at the same age but Aaron was a chunk!  And Lizzy really isn't.  I mean, she's got baby chub, but she's not like Aaron was.  And yet you can't eat a damn thing in front of her without her yelling at you and reaching out for it.  No joke.  I think she's only turned away food 2 or 3 times.  I pretty much have to portion control her meals sometimes because she'd just keep eating!  You can see her belly expanding!  haha!

But honestly, Elizabeth is such a smart & happy baby! She's doing wonderfully.  We hope you are too!  

    

First Shower

Today Aaron took his very first shower with me! I was kind of nervous, worried about holding his slippery little body standing in the shower but it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Of course keeping his bath chair in the shower with us helped considerably!

Aaron is doing much better with his gas and reflux, though it does still effect him some. I think he'll grow out of it by 6 months like everyone says.

He is definitely doing a lot more laughing and giggling, which is just wonderful. It's so heartwarming to hear him laugh. The first time I got him laughing by kissing his neck, he would laugh and then I would laugh because it was SO cute that he was laughing and then we'd do it all over again! I can tickle him sometimes and just get him in a giggle fit! It's adorable.

This past weekend my BFF Stephanie from Sacramento came to visit us and she was so sweet. She took him right up and shared all the baby responsibilities - of course she has 2 children of her own! She also bought him a Light & Sound Aquarium for his crib and she bought some bowls and spoons so she could help me try and feed him oatmeal for the first time. He's still young, and I'm not planning on supplementing the cereal for formula just yet but I do want him to get used to eating. So Steph made a small amount for him and at first he kind of just held it in his mouth and looked at us but as soon as he figured out it was food, he took right to it! So now every once in awhile I will feed him a bit of baby cereal before I give him is bottle.

He also recently got a swing from his Aunt Kathy and he does like the glider motion of it. Unfortunately the stupid thing stops on the glider motion even though the motor is on, so we're going to have to see if we can exchange it.

Other than that, he's growing and growing. I can't believe the difference 3 months makes! I'll keep my camera clicking for you all!

One Month Old!

Today my baby boy is one month old! Hooray Aaron! And he has definitely grown!

Unfortunately, Aaron has been really fussy/cranky lately and we think the reason is gas. He was constipated and that was part of the problem, but we called the nurse at his doctor's office and she told us to try Karo Syrup for awhile. The Karo Syrup worked right away but we're still gonna use it for awhile until we're sure he's totally back to his normal BMs. It still seems like the gas is still bugging him though, so now we're trying a new bottle system. We were using the Born Free system (because it's BPA free) but now we're trying the regular ol' Playtex drop in system. I just started it so we'll see how that works out. If you've got other gas reliving suggestions, please let me know!

Aaron did have a one month birthday visitor today! My friend Sara came by and brought Aaron an adorable outfit with a monkey on it. Before her visit, Aaron took a bath and got all spiffed up, making sure to put on the adorable sailboat onesie Sara gave him before he was born. He looked adorable. Too bad he was so fussy toward the end of the visit!

Here is another bath time photo:

Bath Time

Today Josh and I gave Aaron his real first home sponge bath. Aaron can't have a soak bath yet because he still has his umbilical cord and his little pee pee is still healing from the circumcision. Aaron is a little fussy when it comes to being messed with too much so he wasn't keen on the idea in the beginning but once we got to his head & hair, he loved it. Aaron loves to have his head rubbed so washing his hair was a breeze.

We've also been taking him into the bathroom with us while we take turn taking hot showers because he's been really stuffy this past week and has a bit trouble breathing, especially at night. The steam seems to really help him and we also bought some saline drops for his nose, but he doesn't like that like he does the warm steam and heat lamp in the bathroom. And we put him at an angle instead of flat on his back when he sleeps, so I'm hoping that's helping him sleep better too.


Aaron also enjoys sleeping a lot just like his daddy so it's only natural that I would have caught them sharing one of their favorite activities together. Aaron is starting to sleep longer and eat a little bit more than 2 oz now. On Tuesday he has his 2 week appointment, so we'll probably have another update then. One thing that hasn't changed yet - he's still the most adorable baby on the planet!!