Charlotte 5 Months Old

Five months old is starting to sound old!  What's happening to our baby?!  Soon enough she will be sitting up and acting like a big girl :(  This month Charlotte started to roll over from her back to her tummy.  She LOVES playing on the play mat and looking up at her toys dangling down.  She reaches up for them and is able to grasp toys and put them in her mouth to chew on now.  She is chewing on things nonstop as we wait for her teeth to start appearing.  She is still such a happy and sweet baby.  We've had some friends stay with us this month and everyone who meets her can't believe a) how beautiful she is AND b) how calm and good she is.  And she really is.  She barely fusses.  Even a trip to a store and she sits in her carseat happily.  It is a breath of fresh air to have such a happy baby.

At 5 months Charlotte is still taking 4 naps a day most days.  Sometimes if she has slept in or taken a long nap it is down to 3 naps.  This was the month of the infamous 4 month sleep regression and it did trip us up a little.  She is just still a bit unpredictable with her routine.  At night she went from waking up at 2-3am and again at 5-6 am to a wake up that started as early as 11 pm!  her naps have never been superb so they stayed about the same but getting her to fall asleep became a little trickier and she totally changed how she liked to fall asleep....from a gentle sway and pacifier to get drowsy to more vigorous squats and bouncing!  It's like my daily aerobic activity. haha.  I know I need to transition her to the crib and out of the swaddle but oh how I've put that off.  I'm waiting for this regression phase to end!  :) She is still a petite little thing and wearing 3 month clothes mostly(some 3-6month clothes), size 2 diapers.  She loves smiling and laughing with us and loves rolling around on her mat and grabbing toys.  She especially likes her Scout dog who makes her giggle and her face lights up when she sees him.  Cooper makes her laugh alot, too and she enjoys watching him dress up as superheros and play.  She is starting to stand and play in the exersaucer for a real work out! We also gave her pears and sweet potatoes as her first food this month.  She is not sure what she thinks of it and gives funny faces, but tolerates this new activity!  We just love our sweet little girl so much xoxo

 Father's Day 2017

 those eyelashes though!

 mommy made dress ;)  loving my new embroidery machine

 our first trip to Kroger with both babes!  I put this off because it seemed so dreadful hahah it was actually a fund morning

 strawberry picking!

she's good at falling asleep on the go when we are out on adventures with Cooper :) I just try to make it home in time for afternoon naps which seems to work out well

Cooper Turns 3!

I can't even believe that our little baby boy is three years old!!!

This past year has flown by! And it's so crazy to see how much Cooper has changed in a year.  People call it the "terrible twos" but I have to say there was nothing terrible about this year with Cooper.  He is a kind, gentle, sweet, FUNNY, athletic, smart little boy.  He makes me laugh all the time.  We are so lucky to have a little boy like him.
At three years old Cooper weighs 35 pounds (80th percentile) and he is 38 inches tall (70th pecentile).  He loves to eat cheese and we sprinkle it on everything to make him eat it :)  he also likes fruit, and yogurt.  He doesn't like to try new foods.  He gives high fives and fist pumps.  He plays out side in his sandbox and loves sports.  He started to pay attention to movies.  Despicable Me 2 was the first one he sat through.  Zootopia was also a favorite. (which we watched so much  during my first trimester with Charlotte that I associate the movie with morning sickness.  Cooper would make me dance with him to the theme song and I remember cringing not wanting to throw up haha!) Polar Express was played on repeat this Christmas.  Daniel Tiger was his favorite show, but we welcomed the break from that this year as we watched movies more.

He started as a two year old who had several words he used to communicate to talking in fragmented phrases.  And now he really communicates effectively in sentences.  There are a few times I have to figure out what he is saying and I want to bottle up and never forget the way he says certain things.  Like his name.  Booper Wisikinson.  I almost wish he would never get it and say it the right way one day :) This year was also filled with major life changes as he moved into a new city/house (from Lexington to Louisville), started preschool and gained a new baby sister!

There are some things that stand out that he did this year that I never want to forget:
"HUGS" was the word he used when he wanted to be picked up  or he would need "huggies"  He would cry for HUGS and reach his little arms up at me.  It was the cutest. There were times when he would need Hugs more than we had time for and he would cry for hugs until I caved.  He was really good at needing them when we were in a hurry to get out the door. Getting out of the house in a rush always throw him off.  He prefers calm like his daddy :)

It was in December when I was VERY pregnant that Cooper decided to start jumping out of his crib.  He was also in the zippadee zip still!  haha So he was jumping off the crib in a sleep sack.  Recipe for a broken bone! I will never forget that day during holidays when he was supposed to be napping and I heard a giant thud.  I got him back in bed and of course he did it again.  But this time I didn't hear it and found him in the office closet where some Christmas gifts were hiding!  I'm sure he thought wow if I get out of my crib and find presents I'm doing his every day!  hahah.  Then that night we abruptly awoke to a knock on our bedroom door...it was zippy clad Cooper all pleased with himself!  Needless to say after that we converted him crib to the toddler rail version.  He loves his freedom! He finally did also start sleeping without the night zippy soon after his crib conversion.  The change did not go over well and I spent several nap times and nights on the floor (did I mention I was pregnant ha) to keep him less anxious about the change and in bed.  At least it happened before we had a newborn in the house!

Quickly after his second birthday he learned to ride the scooter.  He runs alot but is still pretty clumsy!  and Likes to look behind him instead of where he is going.  He was riding a tricycle by his third birthday.
He loved to color and coloring books this year.  He would sit down and color with a serious focused look on his face for like 30 minutes without stopping.  He learned to love play doh which helped teach him his shapes.  He also likes to paint, play in the jumpy, baseball out back, soccer, and hide and seek.  He started dressing up like super heroes and basically every day we have a super hero in the house now.  We can thank Will and Harrison for this influence I believe.  I love it!  Will and Harrison play with us all the time since we live down the street now and Cooper would have been one lost soul without Will in his preschool class.  Watching them play together makes our hearts so happy. They are good at coming up with a plan while at recess to play together after school then letting me and Emily know their plans at pick up!  hahah how could we say no.

Here is a list of some things all about Cooper this year:
Wore his "green Ho Hos" Christmas pajamas about every day :)  they were his fave

Is slowly outgrowing nose picking but unfortunately he developed this habit this year and we noticed it was something he did to soothe himself.  there's even a video from his preschool program with him up there picking his nose!  hahah we're still working on it ;)

Loves babies.  Like sees or hears one when we are out and demands checking the baby out as he proclaims "BABYYYY!"  We were hopeful this meant he would also love our baby!

Is a pretty resilient guy.  We threw alot at him this year and he rises to the occasion!

Favorite color: green
Favorite character: spiderman
Favorite book:  His family book I made
Favorite Song to dance:  Taylor Swift "Shake it Off"
Favorite Sport to play:  Baseball
Scared of : going under water
We love this precious boy!

Charlotte 4 Months Old and a Week at the Beach

Reflecting on this month I'd say we were running more on autopilot and things seemed smoother and more routine! Charlotte is still taking about 4 naps a day.  Most of them are shorter, 30-45min, but almost every day she is able to get back to sleep with our help during her afternoon nap.  Which works our nicely because it falls during Cooper's nap.  No better feeling than having both children nap at the same time!!!  Her bedtime is about 8pm with a 30 min hello each night.  She usually gets back to sleep in about 20-30min after that.  She eats again 1-2 times in the night and wakes up after about 12 hours of night sleep.  She likes her second night feeding to be early morning like 5am and then she goes right back to sleep for a couple of hours.  I like that!
She's wearing size 1 diapers and size 3 month clothes.  It's always sad to me to put away the smaller things she's outgrowing.  Charlotte is still the sweetest little thing who loves to smile and interact more with us.  She started holding Scott's finger when he gave her bottle and that has carried over to breastfeeding, too.  She waves her hand across my chest until I give her my hand to hold.  It's pretty cute!  But I have lost my ability to browse the internet on my phone while she eats now ahahah.  I guess she was demanding my attention!
She loves bath time.  I don't think she has every cried when she is getting a bath from the time she has been home.  She is getting stronger and tolerates tummy time pretty well except that it makes her spit up.  Dr. Nick told us he was impressed with how strong she is!  She has started to suck on her hands. ALOT! No teeth showing yet, but I think its safe to assume they are soon approaching!  This was also the month that Cooper announced he loves being a big brother.  Bless his sweet heart.  He really loves his sister.  He interacts with her all the time and wants her to watch him playing.  I noticed how happy he has been this month and it finally clicked with me that he has just gotten back to his normal easy going self that he was before her arrival.  Changes are hard for a 3 year old!  Yep that's right, Cooper turned 3 on the same day Charlotte became 4 months!  It was also a big month because we went to Destin, Florida for vacation for a week.  And it was such a great week. I wasn't sure going into it how well it would go traveling (our first flight with kids) and being at the beach with a little baby.  But we worked it out and I have only happy memories from the whole vacation.  I'd go back tomorrow! More about Cooper's third Birthday and Destin in their own blog posts.
Back to Charlotte!  At 4 months she weighs: 12lbs 14 ounces (25th percentile) is 24 1/4 inches in height (50th percentile) and head circumference 40cm (25th percentile).  She's a petite little thing, but healthy and growing well!  Here are some pictures from month four!