Project 365: July Mosaic

Caroline is 2 months old

Dear Caroline,
Happy two months to you! You are a dream baby. I didn't think it was possible to have a baby easier than Kate was, but then you came along. God knew with a very active sister just 16 months older than you that I'd need an easy-going personality with baby number two. You fit the bill!

* The biggest news of the month is that you started to sleep through the night when you were just five weeks old. You haven't stopped since that first night you did it, either. Incredible. Mama and Daddy REALLY appreciate this. A full night's sleep makes all the difference to my state of mind! (If anyone is interested, I did the Moms on Call online seminar for tips on sleep training. While I know it has been very helpful to me, I also know that we were just blessed with a good sleeper.) We feed you at 9 p.m., you're asleep by 9:30, and you wake up around 7 a.m.

* You rarely cry. Sometimes you cry when we put you down to sleep (usually at the evening nap), but it doesn't take much effort at all to soothe you. You get quiet the second you see a familiar face pop up over your crib. When you do get upset, you stick your bottom lip way out. It's so cute and so sad at the same time!

* Obviously we don't need to try to give you a pacifier very often, but you're not a huge paci lover. You'll sometimes hold it in your mouth for a minute or two. Kate was much more attached to her paci by this age.

* You spend much of your waking time under your activity gym while I try and keep Kate from stepping on you or "loving" on you too forcefully. You love the little firefly that hangs down from it and plays music. You're pretty good at tracking it with your eyes as I move it from side to side or up and down. There are also crinkly leaves on the mat that you love to kick. You also like your swing, and you are mesmerized by the mobile that spins above it.

* You're quite the spitter-upper. I thought it'd be hard to top Kate in that arena, but I think you're probably even. We go through a ton of burp rags everyday. Sometimes it's projectile and looks like the entire contents of a bottle. It doesn't seem to bother you, but I do a lot of laundry, and you and I don't always smell the best.  :/

* You're starting to smile more often. You smile up at me when I'm done swaddling you in your crib, all snug and set to go to sleep, and you wiggle and smile back at me when I'm holding you and I put my smiley face close to yours.

* When I'm holding you up to my shoulder, you squirm to get your face smushed next to mine. While I LOVE that, I also get a little nervous that you're going to spit up in my face. :)

* I love to rub your head - your hair is so soft and downy! It's still pretty dark, and you don't appear to be losing any of it. Are you going to stay a brunette? Your eyes are getting to be a brighter blue... just like Kate's. We're still not sure who you look like, though. Gram says you resemble her baby pictures, and Nana says she sees a similarity to Uncle Keaton as a baby. Guess we'll have to wait and see!

* Your routine during the day is eat, play, nap. When we're home, you nap swaddled in your crib with the sound machine on. You're flexible to sleep on the go, too. We try to get out of the house for an errand or a drive (or something) at least once a day. You love to sleep in the car and in the cart at the store.

* You usually drink between 5 and 6.5 ounces at each feeding, and you have 6 feedings per day. I can't wait to see how much you weigh at your doctor visit tomorrow! We keep your feedings to just 30 minutes now, so it doesn't feel like we're spending all day feeding you now.

We can't wait to see how you will change over the next month. I can hardly wait for your first laugh!
Love you,
Mama and Daddy

Stats:

weight: 13 lb, 13 oz (>97th%; "off the charts!") 

length: 22.5 inches (50-75th% range)

head: 15 inches (50th%)

clothes: Some 0-3 month things, some 3-6

diaper size: size 2

sleep: 9:30pm-7am

naps: 7:30-9am, 10am-12pm, 1-3pm, 4-6pm, 7-8:40pm (bath time)

feedings: 7am, 9, 12pm, 3, 6, 9

Last monthly post: Caroline is 1 month old

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{monkey business}
Caroline is 2 months old today! Stay tuned for her monthly post...

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{birthday party}
Today we joined our Life Group friends at a splash pad for Hannah and Lauren's birthday party! Courtney (their mom) put together a "Pinkalicious" themed table based on the book. She did such a great job with all the details; it was absolutely precious!

On the right: Kate drinking her first Capri Sun... she looked like such a "big kid" with that thing!

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{fun with film}
My dad recently handed down my grandfather's "Argus Anastigmat" camera to me. I finally started loading the film in it a couple of days ago, and I realized I've never put film into a camera that didn't automatically advance it for me! My dad gave me a lesson, and it's ready to go now. I also finally loaded the Holga toy camera Nick and Kate got me for Mother's Day with 120mm medium format film.


It's going to be very experimental at first; I'm not sure how all the settings dials work, and I'm very used to my digital camera showing the metering! I think it'll be good practice for photography in general. I'll be much more careful with each shot and pay more attention to what's in the frame.


Looking forward to sharing these with you. Surely something will come out... or at least be interesting!

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{you can't say no to this face}
Kate was reaching for the baby monitor up on the table. When I made the "eh eh" noise, this was the look I got.

By the way, we were in the backyard playing with the hose. Thought I'd explain why Kate is sans clothes.  :)

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{Eek! It's bedtime, and I need to take a picture for the day!}
Some days are just like this...no time for photos. My camera had most of the day off!

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{caroline is 8 weeks old}
Snapped a few pictures of Caroline wearing my grandmother's baby gown.

Scroll all the way down to see a picture of Kate (at 11 weeks) wearing the same dress.

Here's Kate...

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{books before bed}
Kate is learning the ancient art of stalling at bedtime; right now it's just asking for more books to read together, but soon it will include the "I need a glass of water" or "I forgot to tell Kirby goodnight" excuses, too. She's growing up so quickly!

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{feeding her baby}

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{paci emergency}
Kate just has one main paci that stays in her crib, but I also keep one back-up paci in her bag in case of emergency. Well, a bonked head followed by a bonked (and bleeding) lip followed by throwing up after choke-crying (and all past her bedtime)?? That qualified as a back-up paci emergency! You can see that it did the trick. Poor girl!


iphone, instagram

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{lens baby's one year anniversary}
Our Lens Baby group is one year old today, so we met up at Jennifer & Hayley's house for an ice cream party. This group has meant so much to me; not only was the catalyst for me to switch the dial from "auto" to "manual," but Kate and I have made great friends, too.

This is Kate's first bowl of (fake) ice cream. I bought her the SO Delicious coconut milk brand (like her yogurt) and put Oreo crumbs on top. She LOVED it. It surprised me how long she sat in this one spot, shoveling it in.

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{kisses}
Even though Kate did give me her first kiss on Mother's Day, she's been kissing "on cue" for about a week now. She leans in and says, "mmmm!" Today I was lucky to have my camera in hand when she was feeling some sisterly love.

Sunflowers

This morning Kate and her friend Hayley played in a sunflower field up north in Celina. 

These girls will someday be in school together, so it is neat to see a friendship blooming.

"Sunflowers"

by Rebecca Kai Dotlich

Yellow faces 

round 

as plates; 

giants growing 

at the gate. 

Golden guards 

saluting 

sky; 

garden kings 

with chocolate eyes.

The sunflowers were definitely on their last leg, so I have made a mental note to go earlier next year!

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{sun seekers}
Kate and her friend Hayley playing in a sunflower field.
A few more pics in a post to follow...

Caroline is 7 weeks old

This girl is all cheeks!

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{splash pad}
We met up with our Lens Baby group at a splash pad this morning. We couldn't stay out long, but it was sure nice to see our friends!

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{the Super Why dance}
Kate has a new dance she does to the song at the end of episodes of Super Why. It involves hiking up her shorts and doing high kicks. I confess, I often rewind the song so she'll do the dance again. Hilarious!

I'm sad.

All of my blog pictures from Friday and back are gone. I was deleting albums from Picassa to clear them off my Google+ profile, and I didn't realize one of those albums contained every single picture from my blog. I was even on the lookout for those, and I completely missed them. I'm sure I just clicked "OK" when it asked me if I was SURE I wanted to delete the album. Good grief.

It'll take time, but I can rebuild most of it. Most of the 365 posts will be easy to fix. The others will be a bit harder since I don't remember what pictures I posted. It takes time to resize images, and do the pretty, rounded corners. There may be a few images that are gone for good.

Kate's 18 month portraits

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{fries}
The girl loves her some French fries.

taken w/ iPhone, Instagram app

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{Kirby gets a bath}

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{daddy time}

I love this shot...such a sweet connection between daddy and daughter.

I love the Bandaid on her finger, too! (She had her finger pricked at the doctor today.)

Here are a few more shots I took today... felt like Caroline hasn't gotten her share of photos lately!

Kate with her new "color wonder" markers... GREAT invention! (And ironic that I'm posting in all black and white today!)

I was surprised to see her matching up the right color caps to the markers.

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{class of 2032}

The training starts early in this family!

Kate is 18 months old

Dear Kate,
Happy half-birthday! You are 18 months old today - such a big girl! You grow more capable and more communicative each day, and as always, you are so much fun! Here's what you've been up to over the past month:

* You say a ton of words now. I was keeping a list of words you mastered in past posts, but you're adding so many words to your vocabulary now that it's kind of pointless to keep up with that. You repeat (or try to repeat) anything we ask you to say. You still don't string any words together.

* When you want something, you scream. Loudly. We ask, "What do you say, Kate?" You stop screaming to softly and sweetly say, "peace (please)?" Then we have to figure out what it is you want. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's not.

* Apparently no one told you about the "cars and trucks are for boys" gender stereotype. You love trucks! We have a truck board book that you want us to read before bed about a gazillion times, and every time you hear a truck drive past our house, you point to the door and fervently ask, "'iss?" (asking to go out to see the truck).

* You really love to color at your table upstairs. It's one thing you'll actually sit still for.

* As I've posted before, you now know most of your letters. There are about 5 or so that you still get mixed up on or won't attempt at all. (W is just too hard to say!) You know many of the letters' sounds, too. Yesterday when you were taking your bath (with your foam letters floating all around you), I asked what letter started the word "soap." You pulled the S out of the water and smacked it to the side of the tub. Amazing! You love the show on PBS called "Super Why" because there are letters on the screen pretty much the whole show. It's a good one to put on when Caroline needs her bottle.

* When Caroline has to eat is the hardest time of your day. You couldn't care less most of the time about sitting in my lap or being snuggly, but the second I hold Caroline for her bottle, you make a beeline for me! You're trying to reclaim your turf, I guess. You get pretty fussy and tend to throw tantrums the most during Caroline's waking hours.

* You say "baby" a lot! Anytime you hear Caroline make a peep, you say "baby." It's helpful because sometimes you hear her before I do! You play with your baby dolls a whole lot more now. It's so cute to see you hug your doll. Yesterday you patted her back like you were burping her, and today you even pretended to feed her with a bottle for a second. You're still not interested much in Caroline, though. You have no desire to love on her the way you do your doll. Someday we'll get there! :)

* Good news: Your hair is growing. Bad news: You have a mullet. Business in the front, party in the back. And what a party it is! You have the sweetest curls. I have to re-wet it in the mornings to get the curls back, so I chase you around the house with a spray bottle, squirting you. You LOVE this!

* You're sort of a finicky eater. You love something one day and turn your nose up at it the next. You'll eat a ton one week, and the next week you'll scream at every meal. I think it probably has to do with teething. You love your fruits and veggies, and you scarf down bread, too. You do really well using a fork now. And if we go out to a restaurant or through a drive through, you always get French fries. You love French fries. I'm not sure, but I think you were pointing to Chick-fil-A as we were about to pull in there yesterday. I think you might know that that's where we go for fries (and Mommy's lemonade).

I look forward to each day knowing I'll spend it with you!

We love you so much, Kate Burnett!
Mama and Daddy

Stats ("official" this month)
Weight: 25 pounds, 10 ounces (75th%)
Height: 33 inches (90th%)
Head: 18.4 inches (75th%)
Clothes: 18-24 months, some 2T
Diaper Size: 4
Sleep: 7pm-7:30am
Nap: 12-2pm
Teeth: 12 (8 front, 4 molars)

Kirby kisses 

into everything

You love your crib, and you almost always go down easily for nap and bed time.

coloring with Daddy

curls!

into everything (part II)

monthly elephant pose

giving hugs and saying, "awwwww"