Maggie: Seven Months

Likes/Dislikes: A few of Maggie's favorite things right now are sitting up, her bouncer, playing with toys and pulling hair or grasping at faces. She's not really a fan on being left alone in a room for a minute or when she can't see someone, loud songs coming from certain toys or when her sister bites her (I would be mad too!).

Development: Like mentioned above, Maggie likes sitting up and it is crazy in the matter of the last couple weeks how much stronger she has gotten. She literally just sits there and plays with whatever is in front of her. She's also now learning to get up on her hands and knees. She cut two teeth this last month and I am convinced more are on their way since her hands are constantly in her mouth or is chewing on anything she can get her hands on. Maggie is still such a happy, content girl. Seriously, she smiles just if you look at her and she is squealing/finding her voice more each day

Sleeping: Knock on wood, Maggie has been doing really well with bedtime and typically goes down between 6:45-7:30 and then wakes between 5:30-6:15ish. We usually have to go in there once to pop her pacifier back in, but other than that she is doing good (unlike her sister). She is still taking two naps a day with a shorter one in the morning and a couple hours in the afternoon. On a rare occasion she takes an early evening nap for 15-20 minutes if she hasn't napped well during the day.

Eating: A typical day has Maggie eating seven ounce bottles four times and then a veggie/fruit once or twice a day. She is doing way better eating and hasn't tried a food that she doesn't like.

Family Update: We are doing good. Basketball season is always long and hard for our family - Matt works seven days a week and is gone a lot, the girls rely on me for everything and I grow exhausted. We are lucky to have my family so close to offer up help so I can get some "me time" and friends/co-workers that offer encouragement. Aside from that, we are thoroughly looking forward to spending the holidays here in Ames and for a few days off as a family.

Sleep Regressions Suck

Seriously, sleep regressions may be my least favorite phase ever. I thought we were done with them with Emma but I have been proven wrong. Let me tell you, this one is a doozy

Maybe it's my fault/karma for being blessed with a great sleeper for the last year and a half with consistent bed time, waking up and just an easy kid to put to bed. We are all about consistency and setting a good routine at an early age: bath, pajamas, chill out for 30 minutes, back to bed, read, water, prayers, hugs/kisses and out the door. Wouldn't hear from Emma and then when she woke in the morning, she would be talking in bed. We were rockin' bedtime and then it switched on a dime.

Now, it is stalling, whining/crying/screaming and us going in there anywhere from three to four times to get her to sleep. This goes on for about 15-30 minutes. Then it is waking through the night, sometimes not at all or like last night it was every hour for nearly five hours. We are tired. I am tired. Let's be real, Matt gets a break from this most night with it being basketball season.

I have researched a million websites so many times and often the same ones just to be reassured. This has been going on for nearly two months and has been the worst in the last two to four weeks. I remind myself this phase, but shoot, can this phase end NOW?

This better be a real thing and I hope this thing is done shortly because this mama is tired.

Ho Ho Ho

I love this Ames Santa and what he does for the community. He sets up an adorable lawn dispay and offers free visits to him for the four Tuesdays leading up to Christmas for kids to come sit on his lap in his sleigh. All you have to do is bring non-perishable food items for the local food pantry. How awesome is that? I find it absolutely appalling that the malls make you pay outrageous fees ($27 in Ames) to get a lousy picture. What this Santa does is pretty awesome and we will continue supporting him and our community by visiting him in the years to come. 

Turkey Day

I could listen to Emma say all day. When she wants to watch Charlie Brown, she calls it the "turkey one". It is adorable. She made this colorful turkey at Miss Amanda's house a couple weeks ago and was so proud we had to stop and show Nana on the way home.

Thanksgiving this year was tough. Matt was in Florida with the basketball team while the girls and I stayed back. Working full time and then being home with the girls for four straight days while both were getting up through the night, one was teething and another one was testing limits was a challenge. I was broken down and completely had the boo hoos. Thank God for my parents who saved me (us) on multiple occasions by taking Emma to spend the night one night, letting her nap down there a few times and totally letting us crash there when we wanted. We then didn't have to be at home alone and venturing out in the cold trying to find ways to occupy our time. Seriously you guys, I could cry just thinking about how much help and patience my family showed me last week. 

Mom cooked a delicious Thanksgiving dinner in which Emma ate bread/butter, ham and jello. The necessities :) They opened their pre-Christmas gifts (pajamas and a special shirt/outfit) from my parents, Blake read and played with the girls and Alaina let Emma take over her phone. We are lucky to have family close by year round, but especially when Matt is gone. 

{M} Six Month Pictures

Her eyes. Her hair. That grin! Love this sweet babe that hammed it up for pictures.

Maggie: Six Months

Likes/Dislikes: The jumper/bouncer is Maggie (and ours) new best friend. She loves spending time in there bouncing around, playing and smiling. Honestly, she can sit in there for 30 minutes and be totally occupied. Maggie also enjoys putting her feet in her mouth, taking her socks off, rolling everywhere and smiling at anyone that smiles at her. Maggie hates being sick, congested and ear infections....and so do we! She extremely dislikes having to take the time to burp in the middle of her bottle or being overtired.

Development: Maggie's continuing to roll every which way and finding herself in new places quickly. She's found her feet and enjoys chewing on them, along with taking her socks off multiple times a day. Sitting up on her own is a work in progress, but she's getting stronger and lasting about a minute before getting top heavy and rolling over.

Sleeping: For the most part, Maggie is sleeping through the night. Again, being sick has thrown her off, but she is doing considerably well. She goes to bed between 7:00-7:30 and we usually go in there once to pop in her pacifier. She's been waking between 5:00-5:30 for the day. It's early, but honestly, I don't mind too bad. I know that this is the only 1:1 time I really get with her and it is nice to get up and have some coffee before everyone else is up. Emma went through something similar of waking really early. I know (at least I hope) it won't be like this forever. She's taking usually a 45 minute nap in the morning and then two to three hours in the afternoon with SOMETIMES a brief catnap in the evening.

Eating: She's still drinking six ounces every four hours and has now started solids. Last month I took some time and made homemade peaches, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, avocados and squash. It has taken Maggie awhile to get the hang of it as she doesn't really open up her mouth and her tongue seems to be stuck out first, but she is getting the hang of it.

Family Update: Exhausted. We all are. Enough said.

Trick-or-Treat

As someone that is not a fan of Halloween, I am thoroughly enjoying dressing my girls up and partaking in the festivities.

One thing I love about living in a college town is the never ending opportunities with things to do, like Boo with Zew (student club) at the College of Vet Med here at Iowa State. All Emma had interest in were the animals, no games or anything. She just kept asking where the animals were. Emma dived right in and pet every single animal, minus the snake. I love that we have an animal lover.

Ames moved trick-or-treating to the 30th since Iowa State had a home football game on actual Halloween. Our photographer, Destri, offered a free photo booth at her home for friends.

Then, just like last year, we headed down to my parents to trick-or-treat and for dinner. My dad, Matt and I took Emma to a handful of houses and she was not shy one bit. In fact, she walked right into a neighbor's home! Ooops!

Pumpkin Patch Visits

Emma and Maggie have made a couple visits to the local pumpkin patches and apple orchards over the last two weeks. Lucky girls!

A couple weeks ago, grandma and grandpa Shoultz took them to Center Grove Orchard while we were out of town for a wedding. No pictures to show from it, but we hear that Emma liked the people watching but would have had more fun with someone her own age there.

Last weekend, Matt and I took the girls to get pumpkins at Berry Patch Farms. This is where we have gone the last four years and love the small, simple and free farm. With where the girls are in age, it's perfect for us. Plus a hay rack ride to the field was icing on the cake for Emma.

Emma was thrilled to help Matt find just the right pumpkin and she saw lots of "baby pumpkins". Those baby pumpkins that we let Maggie hold led to a meltdown in the middle of the field. Isn't being two hard?

Earlier this week, my mom took the girls back to Center Grover Orchard and met up with a lady that she met through Circle Time at the library and the girl she babysits, Cammi (Emma's little friend). Emma LOVES Cammi and talks about seeing her every Wednesday at the library. It was a good idea having someone else Emma's age there as she did more and was more eager to play. I'm so looking forward to getting a family pass in the future and seeing Emma and Maggie enjoy it for myself.

Maggie: Five Months

Likes/Dislikes: Our Maggie gets the biggest grin (eye squinting and all) when people smile and talk to her. She also loves grasping and touching everything. We started giving her a tiny little cow blanket to hold as she falls asleep so she has something to feel. Miss Maggie is not a fan of (oatmeal) cereal. She's only had it three times, but purses her lips together and arches back to refuse it.

Development: She's rolling over! Since learning to roll over, she now prefers to sleep on her side or stomach it seems and also sleeping better. When she's too tired and her head gets too heavy, she just lays her head down and quietly waits for someone to come roll her back. The only problem with the rolling over is the immediate spitting up (a lot) that occurs after. Maggie's beginning to talk, coo and giggle more and more, we just love it. Her hands are also a constant fixture in and around her mouth, along with drooling to accompany it. Since her new found obsession of putting her hands in her mouth, it seems like her spitting up has peaked as well.

Sleeping: We had a bit of the four month sleep regression, but nothing as bad as Emma's. Maggie just wasn't wanting Matt to put her to sleep, stopped putting herself to sleep and was taking longer to be rocked to sleep. It seems like ever since she got sick, it threw her off. So starting tonight we are going to try to get back into a routine of putting her down drowsy, yet awake. She's been still going to bed between 7:00-8:00 with a night feeding here and there. We are trying to cut the night feeding and just go back in and pop her pacifier back in. It works about 50/50. If she sleeps through the night, she then typically is waking between 5:30-6:00. Maggie's naps are fairly decent with a morning, afternoon and quick early evening nap. She is on a four hour eating schedule, so it seems like her naps are more consolidated.

Eating: Like I mentioned above, Maggie is on a four hour eating schedule and is now drinking six ounces! She's a growing girl! We switched to five ounces last month, but we, along with my mom and Amanda, noticed she was definitely ready for six ounces as she wasn't staying satisfied.

Family Update: Where do I begin? After Maggie finally was getting over being sick, I then had appendicitis and had to have my appendix taken out. Not real convenient when you have little kids and have to take it easy/aren't supposed to pick them up. Luckily, we had my in-laws in town and they were a huge help. Was starting to feel better and then we hit a deer (or the stupid deer hit us) on our way home from Minnesota last Friday night. $7,000 worth of damage later and we will hopefully be getting our car back in two to three weeks. Hoping we are done with the bad news for awhile. Matt is officially in the swing of prepping for basketball season now that we are a month out and also staying busy covering football. Emma's keeping us on our toes with learning new words, new things to cry about and just being a silly two year old. She's still really good with Maggie and loving that she is becoming more active.

On the Mend….Maybe

A couple weeks ago we heard Maggie coughing/sneezing through the monitor overnight and the next morning she sounded super congested and had a lot of junk coming out of her nose. Just thought it was the weather changes, but when I went to go pick up the girls later that day, Maggie's left eye was a bit swollen and my mom said she was constantly pulling stuff from her nose. Off to the doctor we went. Left with a sinus infection diagnosis and amoxicillin for ten days. After a few days, we still weren't seeing improvements and was occasionally running a low grade fever but knew it could take 10 days to start working. Luckily we had her four month appointment on the 14th and so we would follow up then.

At her four month well check, Dr. Patten said she clearly wasn't still feeling good and on top of that, had an ear infection. Poor girl is now off amoxicillin and on cefdinir. Because she was sick, we pushed back her four month shots to do when we did a follow up appointment on the 30th. We did measurements as well and our big girl is weighing 18 pounds 2 ounces (97th percentile) and is 27 inches (100th percentile) in length. She's the size of an average nine month old! Emma was always tall for her age, but Maggie sure does have her beat.

We are almost a week into the cefdinir and can't wait to be done with it. It is causing havoc on her tummy and she projectile spits up all day. She has seemed a lot better….until today when she sounds congested again. Grrr!! Hello cold and flu season, I have not missed you!

So happy to be seeing this girl smile again! 

Maggie: Four Months

Likes/Dislikes: Maggie is loving tummy time, sitting in her bumbo, being talked to and sucking on her hands. She's still not liking having her bottle taken away to burp or being over tired.

Development: We, okay Emma, got Maggie to laugh out loud giggle for the first time. You forget how amazing that sound is. It was the sweetest thing that had us all laughing and both girls with hiccups from all the laughs. Maggie's head control and just overall body control has become a lot stronger. She is SO close to rolling over that I'm actually shocked it hasn't happened yet. Grasping toys and blankets is also a new development that she enjoys. Maggie's learning to coo more and more and can't stop smiling when she does.

Sleeping: It's funny how much can change from month to month. When you think they will never outgrow something or sleep, they prove you wrong. Last month she was only napping in her rock n' play and adjusting to sleeping to her crib. This month she solely sleeps in her crib and hardly sleeps in her rock n' play anymore. We also are about two weeks in of breaking her of the swaddle. She did AWESOME with that transition. It was a struggle with Emma, but with Maggie it was an absolute breeze. She's still consistently going to bed around 7:00 p.m. and waking up once in the night. We have had a handful of nights of her sleeping through the night, which is heaven.

Eating: Maggie's eating was about the same during the month: four ounces every three to four hours with one middle of the night feeding. Since she turned four months, we have upped it to five ounces.

Family Update: Matt headed to Spain for 11 days in August and so it was just the girls and I. We did surprisingly well. Maggie was a rock star and Emma did good, but started pushing boundaries and was really missing her dad. Thank goodness my parents are down the street for help when I needed it. Football season has started and that means Matt's weekends are now spent working again. I took the girls tailgating for the first game of the season. They made it for about two hours (in 90 degree weather) before my mom took them home so I could go to the game. Both girls are doing really well for my mom and their one day a week at daycare. We are lucky to have such amazing care for them.

Maggie: Three Months

Likes/Dislikes: Maggie likes watching ceiling fans, putting her hands in her mouth and kicking her legs. Dislikes are tummy time and having her bottle taken away to burp.

Development: This past month Maggie has really found her hands and loves to chew on them or bringing a blanket up to her mouth to chew. She's also found her voice and "talks" to you. I love the little coos of her voice. When she's real excited, she kicks her legs and big sister Emma finds this so funny. She socially smiles back to you if you smile at her. It is the best!

Sleeping: Naps are going well in her rock n' play, but terrible in her crib. Not sure why she can sleep in it at night but only 30-40 minute stretches for naps. To be sure she gets some solid sleep, we put her in the rock n' play for naps. She seems to be getting too tall for it, so we know that we won't be able to rely on that much longer. Maggie's wall has officially been "hit" at the end of the day between 6:45-7:00 p.m. Once it is hit, she lets us know. We quickly change and swaddle her, give her a bottle and rock her to sleep. It takes just a few minutes after her bottle before she is out cold. She then sleeps (in her crib!!) until around 3:00 a.m., eats and goes back to bed. The second stretch is harder for her to sleep in her crib for too long, so usually ends up in the rock n' play before waking up for the day between 6:15-7:00 a.m.

Eating: She's eating really well and still taking four ounces every three hour with the last bottle of the day between 6:45-7:15 p.m. Her reflux seems to really be under control with just mild spitting up and overall more content with feedings.

Family update: We have been busy! I started back to work full time on July 30 and we are really getting into a groove. Last month I shared that we were switching daycares, but after a second visit to the home before the girls started, something still wasn't feeling right and I was unsure. I then contacted Amanda, who watched Emma when my mom was out for 12 weeks last fall, to see if there was any chance she would have an opening for one day a week. Low and behold a couple days prior a family told her they were leaving and Amanda wasn't going to fill it. She and her family know/love Emma and know how well she fit in with the group, and agreed to take on Maggie and Emma on Fridays! I seriously cried tears of joy. Amanda and her family are fantastic and I am elated to know our girls will be in her care. They have had one day there and did really well. She said they were both joys :)

Celebrating Emma {Twice}

Lucky girl Emma got to celebrate her birthday not once, but twice!

Her first celebration took place a couple weeks early while we were in Minnesota. We had Matt's family over to his parents for dinner, cake and presents. It's fun watching her open gifts now, she gets so excited showing us what she got. She was equally excited being sung to and her Bubble Guppies cake that grandma and grandpa Shoultz bought for her.

We celebrated Emma's 2nd birthday all weekend a few weeks after the first celebration. That Friday she had a special lunch outing with just mommy and daddy to Panchero's and on Saturday we went to Dairy Queen with Nana and Papa. On her actual birthday, daddy went and got her a sprinkled donut (that she wanted cut up to eat with a fork) and chocolate milk. She was on a sugar rush.

It was a beautiful, hot day that we spent outside running through her new sprinkler and playing her pool. She loves water and being outside, so the sprinkler was the perfect present.

We ended her birthday with Nana, Papa and aunt Alaina joining us for dinner (a taco bar), cake and presents. Nana made her Bubble Guppies "Molly" cake. Again, blown away with how talented she is. Emma loved it and knew exactly who was on the cake. The highlight of the weekend was us singing "Happy Birthday" to Emma. She lit up. Like was genuinely tickled and touched that we were singing to her. In fact, she was so excited that it looked as if there were tears welling up in her eyes. We all agreed that moment and her expression will forever be a permanent memory of her. Emma was a lucky little girl and received her first American Girl "Bity Baby" from Nana and Papa. Matt and I ended the day by writing notes to Emma in a journal we started last year on her birthday. It was a great way to reflect on the past year of her life.

It truly was a wonderful month celebrating our sweet little girl. I can't believe she is already two! I feel like I blinked and she is now becoming more and more of a little girl and not a baby anymore. 

Emma: Two

Eating: Emma's favorite meal of the day is still breakfast. The girl can inhale her breakfast food and even asks for seconds and thirds. She's also quite the grazer throughout the day - loves to snack. If she had it her way, she would have a snack cup filled at all times. She is also obsessed with cookies and asks for one at least twenty times a day. Lunch and dinner she kind of picks around, but does a pretty decent job. Is not a fan of sandwiches. Usually have to bribe her to take a few bites.

Sleeping: Still taking one nap that is usually two to three hours in length. Going to bed around 7:30 and either falls right to sleep or takes 45 minutes to fall asleep. Either way, she is so good with bedtime and usually says "okay" when we tell her it is time for bed. She is stalling though and wanting lots of books read, prayers, multiple drinks of water and lots of kisses. Good thing she is so cute that we usually don't mind :)

Development: At Emma's two year check up, she weighed in at 25 pounds 6 ounces (33rd percentile) and 35.5 inches (93rd percentile) in length. Since my last post when I thought Emma wasn't learning more in the talking department, she has taken off big time. Learning new words daily and repeating more after everyone. I can't believe I was ever concerned on that, how silly.

She's becoming more coordinated and likes to walk up and down stairs like an adult and can kind of throw a ball/catch it. She's also good at putting together puzzles. Now if only we could get her to learn numbers (other than one and two), colors and her name.

Likes/Dislikes: Her dislikes are pretty typical for her age: when she doesn't get what she wants. Ha. She has perfected the fake cry and whining. If we cave in, she usually does this evil-ish laugh that is kind of her way of saying "Haha, you suckers!".

Emma LOVES playing kitchen, like seriously does it all day long. She pretends makes food for everyone and acts like she washes her hands/dishes. She's also still loving on her baby dolls and being very motherly. She feeds them, burps them and walks around the house "ssshhhing" them to sleep. It's absolutely adorable.

Emma's {Almost} Two Year Pictures

We had one of Alaina's good friends take Emma's two year pictures. Lauren is just starting out and going to school for photography/design and wanted to build her portfolio. While I warned her that nothing will be posed because we have a busy girl on our hands, she was all game and captured Emma's personality perfectly: silly and sweet.

4th of July

Swimming pool. Ice cream. Grilling. Can't get much more patriotic than that, right?