Holland- 5 months

Yeah, I'm so behind I'm going to have to rely on photos and fb posts to help me keep track of what happened this month!

Holland's biggest milestone was rolling both directions and trying rice cereal for the first time! She's in 3 and 6 month clothes, weighs about 17 lbs.  Making lots of raspberry sounds, and loves to chew on her toes. As with all of my kids, she didn't care for the rice cereal/breastmilk combo, so we only did it the once.  She kept pushing the food out with her tongue, so I figured she wasn't quite ready yet.

She made her first visit to Bebe's house in Cleveland and to McCarty's in Merigold. It's a long standing tradition that children receive a bird on their first visit to sit on a southeast pointing window sill. As nerve wracking as a trip to McCarty's with small children is, the gardens are worth it!  Such a beautiful and fun place to explore with kids.

Eyeing her first McCarty's bag

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Rolling with Bebe

Holland also had her first plane ride(s) as we traveled to Lake Tahoe/Truckee for a friend's wedding. She slept the entire way out there, but had a few crying spells on the flight back.  You can feel the frustration from other passengers, but not much you can do if a baby is going to cry.  It made and I so nervous/stressed, I'm sure that didn't help calm Holland.  No telling how many people I flashed while trying to feed her on the plane.  Oh well. Other than the crying, I also had a touch of a stomach bug and felt terrible the first half of the trip.  We did get out some to sight see and drive to the Lake in addition to the wedding festivities.  We stayed at the Cedar Sport Lodge in Truckee which was really pretty and had great breakfast/happy hours.

Dressed up with Daddy

The Beautiful Bride

We took a short hike around a lake next to Lake Tahoe. I can't remember the name at the moment.  We pulled off in to this state park because Holland was screaming and there are very few places going around the lake that you can pull off to feed a baby.  It ended up being a nice and beautiful little stroll. I forgot things like sunscreen, so Daniel's hat had to do for protection.

Fourth of July celebration at Lisa's house. This post is all out of wack, but I don't have time for perfection.

My sweet Evs

I'm behind on my Holland posts, but wanted to post on Evie before my feeble brain forgets!

Evie has started Willie Price this fall and, other than wanting to be walked in each day, has really loved it. Daniel and I had our first parent teacher conference and her teacher bragged on how sweet, and helpful she is.  She was described as an avid listener with a great attention span.  She plays with lots of different people and gets along well with everyone.  She comes to tell the teacher if she's upset at someone rather than acting out.  She loves her best friend Martin, and is very protective of him.  They always stand in line together or sit next to each other in centers.

My kids have very different personalities.  Evie is my joyful child.  She has the biggest, happiest, realest smile! She loves to talk to people and wants to say hello or wave to everyone.  She will gladly tell you all about her love of horses or dancing.  She is tender hearted and is very good at verbalizing how she feels (she doesn't get this from me).

Her big brother likes to keep his feelings hidden, and although he loves hard, he doesn't like to show it.  His first week of school, he made Evie a "map" to something and then folded it in to a fan.  She was soooo proud of that folded piece of paper, she took it to school to show it off.  The teacher said she kept going back to her drawer throughout the day to make sure her fan/map from her big brother was ok.  As much as they bicker, it's nice to have these reminders about how much they really love each other.

Evie is big on taking care of her baby at home and "feeding her". She likes to sit in the chair next to me and mimic me feeding Holland.  She wants to dress like her baby sister and is always bringing her toys or pacifiers to make her happy.  Evie gets so excited when Holland laughs at her or even looks at her.

Some of Evie's favorite things lately:
Horses/unicorns/ponies
Dancing- she asks constantly when she can dance on the stage
"Mogrit"- yogurt
cherry tomatoes
Singing Taylor Swift songs- especially "We are never getting back together"
Pretending to be Pete the Cat by putting converse on her hands and feet
Lots of dressing up and wants to dress herself each day

Holland - 4 months

We've had a big month adjusting to daycare, work, and our chaotic life in general!  We celebrated Daniel's 39th birthday with a low key celebration at home.  Daniel requested German chocolate cake, so I used my maternal grandmother's recipe for the icing.  It was not as easy as store bought, but was definitely delicious.  We sure are lucky to have Daniel in our lives.  He takes care of us and so many things around the house.  He's a cleaner, a fixer, an organizer, and a roll around on the floor and have fun-er! 

Sullivan lost another tooth (Evie kicked him while playing and it made the tooth bleed, so Sullivan finally pulled it out).  He attended Okra camp in Cleveland and got to do kayaking, stand up board, canoeing, archery, rock wall climbing, and many other fun activities.  I'm so thankful for Bebe and Fred Daddy letting him come stay and participate in such a fun camp. 

The highlight of Evie's month has been Pony Camp!!!! It was only 3 half days, but that girl is hooked and she has told every person she meets about pony camp. 



Sullivan and Evie are both still crazy about Holland.

Taking care of her baby.

Helping Holland sit up

Reading baby books to Holland

 

Even Sophie the cat is crazy about her!

 We've been trying to incorporate some fun activities into our lives instead of just sitting at home all the time. We joined a pool and that has been really fun!  Sullivan is getting much  more confident with his swimming now that he gets to do it more often.  We've got to get to work on Evie now!  Holland doesn't care for the cold, big pool, but likes splashing in the baby pool. We also took Evie bowling for the first time.  It was so much fun!

 

 

Holland has been practicing sitting up in her bumbo, sucking her thumb and taking a bottle much better.  She had to have another round of antibiotics and steroids after getting croup and double ear infection again.  Building up those immunities, I suppose. Not crazy about all the drugs, but don't want my baby in pain either.


On Holland's 4 month birthday, we all went for a rooftop dinner before Daniel left on an AT hiking trip with a friend.  It was bright and hot up there, but it is a good location for kids!

He didn't believe me when I told him he had a few freckles. He wasn't happy to see the proof..

We sat on the sunny side, always on the sunny side!

My sweet Holland is still an excellent sleeper, very content, making lots of B sounds.  She laughs primarily for Sullivan, but sometimes others are able to get a giggle from her.  She, just this week, started taking bottles at daycare.  I don't know what the magic trick was, but she decided she likes the fat dr. brown's bottles, but only if given by Miss Daisy, and only in the bouncy seat.  She won't take it from anyone else or if being held.  It's a start though!  I haven't been going to feed her at daycare anymore at lunch.  Sad, but good progress for her anyway. She's started grabbing her feet for happy baby pose and enjoys rocking around on the floor....almost rolling over!

Holland - 3 months

My last few weeks of maternity leave flew by, of course.  We tried to get in visits with family and friends and soak up all our time together. We took Evie to get her first haircut! Gigi came to visit, and we went to see Julia's dance recital together.  Evie danced in the aisles to every song, so I've gotten her signed up for dance classes beginning in August. 

I celebrated my first Mother's Day with 3 kids!  Church was the ultimate "mother's" day experience.  Holland pooped, I went to change her and realized she'd blown it out all over church dress and I had no car keys to get her a change of clothes.  I bring her back in church in just a diaper, get keys, get her dressed, and as I'm heading back in to church, I see Daniel with Sullivan and Evie heading for the bathroom.  So we were all present for the Lord's Prayer and the closing hymn.  Love being completely disruptive in church multiple times...These days pass quickly though, so I'm trying to take it all in stride.

Holland started daycare on May 18th.  She was asleep when I dropped her off, so when she woke up in a new place, she was upset. :(  I went to feed her at lunch, since she still wasn't taking bottles, and she seemed happier.  The lunchtime feedings continued for the entire month as the bottle attempts at daycare continued to fail.  Alas, it only took 3 days of daycare for Holland to get her first cold and ear infection. Unfortunately, since she was a week shy of 3 months, her fever on a weekend meant an ER visit for us.  They poked and prodded her and it was terrible.  The worst part was, they said they found nothing wrong- just a virus.  When we went to see our regular pediatrician a few days later, she told us the ER results showed RSV was positive. Didn't give me a lot of faith in the ER here for babies.  Pediatrician said her ears were also infected, so we did our first round of antibiotics.

Last Day of Maternity Leave nap together

baby iv port, cuff, o2 monitor

This month also brought Sullivan's last day of 1st Grade. He had such a good year this year, and has just grown so much.  He's reading books on a 6th grade level (he's on the third Harry Potter book) and just seems really interested to learn.  He's a walking encyclopedia (and general know-it-all), but his teacher really seemed to know how to channel that in a positive way.



Holland weighs about 14 lbs and is wearing size 3-6 month clothes.  She still sleeps like a dream in the cradle in our room. She continues to want to cluster feed for a few hours before bed, but then sleeps for 8 hours, eats, and then sleeps some more!  I have to wake her up to get her dressed and fed in the mornings.  She's really started laughing and cooing and trying to talk to us.   She's discovered her hands and likes to look at them and clasp and move them around.  Still hates her bottles, but loves her big brother! Generally, just incredibly happy.





Holland - 2 months

At her 2 month appointment (9 weeks, 2 days old), she weighed 14 lbs and was 23 inches long.  Evie was the same length at 2 months, but weighed 12 lb, 6 oz at 2 months.  Holland had a pound on her big sister at birth though, so not too much difference as far as weight gain. She's wearing size 2 diapers and 3 month clothes.

Only smile I've caught!

She's holding her head up very well, although she hates tummy time and we don't do it very often.  She is regularly smiling and cooing and loves to "talk" to Mommy and Sullivan especially.  I can't catch either on video since she goes stone cold as soon as I pull out the phone.

Holland is still sleeping a good 7 hour stretch at night, eating, then sleeping about 3 to 4 hours.  I need to start trying to move her bedtime earlier in preparation of going back to work.  I'm going to miss lazy mornings at home!  Holland is still sleeping in the Rogers craddle in our room and is using her Zen swaddle blanket now.  She had started being able to unwrap and get tangled up in her muslin swaddle blankets, so we moved to one with velcro.  She can still frequently get out a "rodeo arm", as Daniel calls it.  She doesn't require anything too special at bedtime.  I feed her a lot before bed, so usually we just swaddle her, put her down, and within a few minutes she's out.  God bless an easy baby.

rodeo arm

She's not perfect though!  She HATES a bottle.  Initially she would take a bottle, from someone other than me, grudgingly, but lately she's refused from me or Daniel or the kids.   She won't latch or suck at all!  Just pushes the nipple out with her tongue and gets mad.  Giving her a bottle is currently the only thing that really makes her mad/cry.  A lactation nurse told me to stick with the same type of bottle so she realizes this is what's happening.  That didn't work, so now we are in the super fun and expensive phase of trying every bottle on the market.  I have 2 other really weird ones arriving from Amazon tomorrow to try.  Holland starts daycare in a week and  a half, so I'm really hoping we find one that she doesn't detest before then.  If not, then I hope the new environment/new people will help her take a bottle.  If all else fails, I guess I'll be going to the daycare at lunch to feed her.  I hope it doesn't come to that, but I have heard stories, even from my pediatrician about babies that won't take a bottle not eating all day and then nursing constantly when back with mom.  It would make me sad to lose my sleeping baby because she won't eat during the day from a bottle!  Prayers please that we get this figured out!  Other than losing the night sleeping, I can't stand the thought of her crying all day because she won't take a bottle.  :(

As for nursing, we are still struggling with a consistently good latch.  Some days it's great, some days she just refuses to do it really well.  She has no problem getting the milk, but not comfortable for me!
Sullivan and Evie are still good with her.  Sullivan loves to hold and talk to her.  Evie loves to pick out her clothes and tuck her in and wipe her mouth.  They are both so precious with her.  On the weekends, Sullivan will turn her nap nanny to face the tv, so they can watch cartoons together.









We've made a few short car trips as a family of 5! We made a day trip to see my Aunt Beth in Hernando, went to the zoo on Good Friday, and went to Cleveland for Easter.

Holland did really well at the zoo. She primarily slept, but it was super hot that day.  Evie wore new shoes (mom fail) and got blisters, so we ended up carrying Holland a good bit so Evie could ride in the stroller.  Unfortunately, later that evening I came down with food poisoning.  Pretty sure that zoo cheeseburger was the culprit, and I won't go in to additional details to explain why I believe that.  Suffice it to say, I will NEVER eat at the zoo again. 

When we went to Cleveland for Easter, the kids, Christina, and I went to the Grammy Museum to check out the new Taylor Swift exhibit.  Evie loved all the beautiful costumes, and she and Sullivan had a great time dancing and singing and recording their own versions of her songs.  Evie almost pulled a tv off the wall when she took off without taking the headphones off, so that was a scary moment for me!  Thankfully, Christina got everything hooked back up and all was well.  

Easter Sunday we all made it to church on time and dressed!  Holland and I missed most of the service, but it was nice to be with family!  Funny story about Easter morning. My mom had participated in one of those youth fundraisers where you pay to have them hide eggs in your yard.  Alas, the kids somehow got confused....and hid eggs at the house across the street!  So my sweet Mom went over and found all the eggs and then re-hid them at her house.  I hadn't put any eggs in baskets since there were going to be some hidden outside, so Sullivan was so disappointed and confused when there were no eggs.  After my Mom took care of business, she looked out the window and "noticed the eggs".  Kids were non the wiser and were so excited that the Easter bunny hadn't forgotten to bring eggs/candy!