Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

I have been terrible about posting regular updates on Baby M. She has left behind her newborn/young infant ways and is embracing her new found freedoms as a “regular baby” as older babies are known around here.

M is sitting on her own, scooting forward and backward, and getting up onto her hands/knees and rocking. Her first tooth broke through this weekend. It’s amazing how quickly she is growing!

Baby M loves her brother and sisters. She will laugh for E more freely than anyone else, she watches J very intently, and while she is cautious of S (with good reason) she still loves for S to play with her.

M’s favorite toys are her Sophie the Giraffe teether and her Skip Hop owl. She chews on everything she can get in her mouth, and drools everywhere.

She is enamored with her Daddy and big brother. If either of them is in the room and within her line of vision she can’t focus on anything else. Sometimes Daddy has to leave the room so M can focus enough to eat.

We’ve given her a few tastes of food, and she isn’t sure what to think. The picture below is after a couple of bites of applesauce. (sorry it’s blurred, she was moving around)

At the doctor Friday she weighed 17 pounds and was 26 inches long. 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. She’s a chunkster.

Her rash that I thought was yeast related turns out to be eczema/contact dermatitis. Hopefully we can keep it at bay with coconut oil and natural soap. I’m relieved it wasn’t yeast related, though, because I wasn’t looking forward to the treatments involved with getting rid of the yeast.

Overall, she is doing excellent. She’s been off of her prevacid since Friday night, and while she’s done pretty well, we have had a couple of bouts of projectile spit up. She doesn’t seem to be in pain (no screaming, writhing, etc), so we’ll see how the week goes.

She is much more content now that she is getting older. She will usually sit happily in the floor or the exersaucer for 20 minutes or so, and sometimes longer if the big kids are around to entertain her.

M is a very social baby. If we are all in a room she is happy, if she notices that everyone has moved on she is immediately upset. She lights up when someone talks to her, and she sometimes does this excited rocking thing (in your arms) like she just can’t contain her excitement.

It’s been an interesting six months around here, but we wouldn’t trade her for anything.

We love you Baby M, and are so glad God gave you to our family!

Last month our little sprite of a girl turned 2 years old.

She is such a fun and entertaining girl.

S’s favorite thing to do is spin in circles. It’s just a natural part of her day, like walking or eating. She spins until she falls down and then gets up and spins some more. The other day she was spinning around as she ate her banana. She also likes to hold a stuffed animal or doll and spin while singing “Ring Around the Rosies”. One day she was jumping while she spun and told us it was a “spinning show”. She is a trip!

She loves to read books, play with her siblings, and love on baby M.

Her favorite toys are definitely baby dolls (and playing mommy). She loves to swing and slide, ride her ride-on toy, and run around outside.

S’s favorite food is “bunnies” (Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies) or cheese, and her favorite drink is orange juice.

She is still a tiny thing weighing in at 22 pounds. She is moving into size 24 month clothes but still fits pretty comfortably in many of her 18 months (except dresses; all of her 18 months dresses are way too short. Guess she has long legs for her size?). We finally made it onto the growth chart at our doctor visit last week. She is 10th percentile in height (as she has been for a while) and less than 5th percentile for weight. The doctor was fine with her growth, though, so that is definitely an answered prayer.

She talks like a big girl now; in complete and (mostly) comprehensible sentences. Some of her speech funnies are “uh vekum” (your welcome), “harms/heyes/hyegs” (arms/eyes/legs), “singers” (fingers), and “mah doocie” (more juice).

S loves to sing Jesus Loves Me and Holy, Holy, Holy. She says the prayer God Our Father at mealtimes and bedtime. She has also been heard saying a “real” prayer: tank you for bubba, tank you for Mah-Mah, tank you for sunshine, tank you for friends, etc. So sweet!

I can’t imagine life without our “miniature” girl.

We love you Boo-boo. Happy 2 years old!

So, I’m a little late again this month. Here’s my little gang in February.