Wilder's January 2016

26 months old

Our precious Wilder is 26 months old. He's solidly a two year old. His vocabulary and understanding grow more and more every day, and it's so neat to watch how his tender spirit operates in his world. Our living room looks like a parking lot and his play room upstairs resembles a train station. This boy loves his vehicles and transportation.

Wilder loves to picnic. Every day for snacks, he'll pick a spot, either outside on the driveway or in the living room, or in his play tent and say "sit down! picnic!" and we will sit and enjoy snacks. I love hearing his viewpoint on things as we watch planes go by and listen for delivery trucks. He loves going on man dates with Daddy. Sometimes they go to starbucks and discuss man things over croissants. He is my big helper at the grocery store. Always willing to help count produce and put it in the bags, or remind me that we need juice or toast or pouches... even if we don't need it. And he loves going on walks in the stroller, directing our path by pointing and saying "Straight, left, right."

One of the highlights of our days right now is after dinner, when both babies are in pajamas, we go play in his room. He'll use Zach as a jungle gym, race back and forth in made-up games, roll off his tiny chair, and then come lie down next to Felicity. "Crawling! She's crawling!" he says, when she's on her back or her tummy and kicking around. Felicity loves watching her brother, and if she could she would run around too. After he's tuckered out, we go and read books together. Felicity and Wilder in Zach's lap (I hold Felicity up) and they both listen and watch intently. Right now Wilder's favorite book is Welcome to Trucktown, with a lot of Smash, Crash, Smash and Crash! But he has about 6 favorites. He is actually revisiting some of his earlier faves like Brown Bear Brown Bear and The Very Hungry Caterpillar--now that we read them to Felicity. He likes Madeline too, and he can point out/name the Eiffel Tower in that book, on coffee mugs, on our photo gallery, all over the place.

We've taken a break from Cars and Planes the movies... he wants to watch Fishes, aka Finding Nemo, and he watches "toy trains" on youtube, which is really the most random train/car toy related videos you'll ever see.

We've eased off of pouches a bit (he would eat them all day every day if he could), so we're getting a little more "real" food these days. He loves noodles with butter, rice, toast, cucumber, grapes, sugar snap peas, pears, apples and strawberries. He'll have days where he chows down on fish sticks, shrimp and chicken, and days where he only wants peanut butter, cheese and yogurt for protein. We're working on it! The last few days he's been able to tell us "I'm hungry." rather than just "RED POUCH!!"

We're having some trouble with sleeping right now. He's napping well, but he's not sleepy for bedtime till way late. Even if he's in bed on time, it could take him 1-2 hours to go to sleep--he'll just roll around and talk to himself. He wakes up multiple times in the night, and consequently, he's sleeping later. Hoping this is just a phase!

While we do have meltdowns where I think "Wow, he's so two years old," he's a sweet and soft-hearted guy. He is so patient with the extra time things take with two kids, and he never complains when Felicity cries in the stroller, car, wherever... right next to him. He loves spending time with us, and his easy laugh lights up our days.

Here are some more photos from today!

"Acorn hat!"

Plane spotting

Owl nest spotting

Going to see the owl nest

Felicity 3 Months

3 months old

Hallelujah! We have exited the "4th trimester" and in my mind, we are done with the newborn stage. Felicity is 3 months old today! She is a chatty, active and smiley baby. She loves playing with her stuffed pink fox and elephant, she likes bouncing on my lap and loves to watch her big brother's antics. We've been reading to the two of them, and often she is really interested... Even though it's usually books about vehicles. :-) boy life. Wilder loves to "play with her" in the evenings, which is usually Felicity lying on a blanket or sitting on my lap while Zach and Wilder play in Wilder's room. But he will come over and sit right beside her and say sweet things about her. His version of hugging is just getting right up next to her and saying "aww. So tinylittle." :-) he loves when she's on her tummy. He falls over laughing and says "crawling! Crawling!"

She smiles quickly and often, and can be very vocal, even loud. She really tries to communicate with her baby talk. And she is always moving, unless she's nursing or sleeping. She kicks her legs, waves her arms and wiggles around. She can roll onto her side and is a pro at tummy time. She wishes she was walking already and will attempt it, with lots of assistance.

She's still exclusively breast fed and that is going wonderfully. We have been trying to get her to take a bottle of pumped milk and that is not going well. We have tried an assortment of bottles and nipples, for a month straight, but it's still a no-go. I'm really hoping she takes to it soon, for the occasional need for me to be away from her.

Because Felicity is bottle free, she's gone on four photo shoots with me. She's done great in the boba wrap! She hates the car seat and stroller and sometimes cries her eyes out when I put her in them. So the driving to and from the photo shoots has been tough. I am hoping she outgrows that.

Felicity sleeps in her pack n play most of the time. Just this week she began preferring to nap in the pnp instead of her swing! And several times this week she's slept most or all of the night in her bed. She gets up 1-3 times a night to nurse. She takes about 3 naps a day.

Felicity weighs 12 pounds 13 ounces and is 25 1/4-inches tall. Felicity is in size 1 diapers and either 3-6 month or 6 month clothes.

It feels like Felicity has been a part of our family for a long time, but it's only been 3 months. We love our bright-eyed baby girl and I live for her sweet smiles and snuggles.

More photos!