Liza is 9 months!

Sweet baby girl,

• You are eating SO much better than you were a month ago. Bananas are clearly your favorite, but you'll eat any fruit. You don't care for vegetables, but we keep trying:) You are still nursing about 4 times a day, and you are now eating 2-3 servings of pureed food a day too.
• You are really interacting now! You squeal and babble a lot, like you're having a real conversation.
• Your hair is coming in! It seems to be growing so fast now!
• Your two bottom teeth have broken through! And it looks like your two top teeth will break through any day now.
• You are 16 pounds, 13 ounces, which is on the small side for 9 months (10-25%). I think it is because you were slow to start eating - now that you've started you'll probably gain weight fast!
• You are such a sweet, laid back, happy little girl and I love you to pieces!

Liza is 8 months!

My sweet Liza is 8 months old!

Sweet baby girl,

• You've just started sitting up this week without falling over AT ALL!
• You've tried several foods now, but you really don't care for it at all. The only thing we can get you to eat is bananas.
• Your hair is finally starting to come in a little bit!
• You grab things constantly now! You reach and stretch for anything within your reach - you've even knocked a glass of water over (on your mom's phone!) in a restaurant:)
• I LOVE your smile and I love to see you happy baby girl - you are my sunshine!

My birthday

I had a great birthday this year with my sweet girl...

And my goofy boy...

Matt made me a fabulous gluten free cake with chocolate frosting! And Will helped put on the candles and did an awesome job getting them all in a line...

Liza is 4 months!

Liza,

• You've started sucking your thumb! You don't really cry at all anymore when we put you down to sleep - you just put your thumb in your mouth and sooth yourself to sleep!
• You've discovered your feet! You love to pull your feet up in front of your face and look at them!
• You weigh 13 pounds, 15 ounces (50th percentile) and you are 25 3/4 inches tall (90th percentile)
• You are able to sit in your bumbo seat really well now!
• You are still eating 5 times a day and sleeping from about 10pm to about 9am.
• You aren't swaddled anymore when you sleep! You've transitioned to a sleep sack (a wearable blanket for babies) and sleep so well with it!

Liza is 3 months!

Sweet Liza,

• You are sleeping through the night! You actually have been for about a month now - you usually wake up sometime between 7:30-8:30, although about once a week you'll wake up at 5 or 6. If you do, I'll feed you and lay you right back down, and you'll go right back to sleep.
• You eat roughly every 3 hours during the day. You are on a routine of eating, awake time (tummy time, sitting in your chair, going for a walk in your stroller, etc), and nap time, which repeats throughout the day. You still rarely stay awake for more than an hour before you get cranky and we put you down for a nap.
• You coo and "talk" to me a lot now! And you will get a huge grin on your face when your daddy or brother or I smile at you!
• You will not take a pacifier or bottle at all. I'm not giving up on the bottle though - we'll keep trying:)
• There isn't a 3 month doctor's appointment so I don't know how much you weigh, but you have outgrown all your newborn clothes and some of your 0-3 month clothes as well. You are still in a  size 1 diaper but I think we'll be moving to size 2 any day now.
• You are such a sweet baby girl - I could just hold you and look at you all day long!

3 years

The birthday crown and magic wand he made at summer camp this week:)

With Will turning 3 I wanted to write down a few of the cute things he says and does right now - I want to remember what my sweet boy is like at this age:)

• His favorite word is "Why?" And no response seems to satisfy him - it only invites another "But, why?" I love his curiosity!
• I told him one time when he hurt himself that we could pray to Jesus and He would heal his boo boo. Since then, anytime he falls or bumps his head the first thing he says is "It's ok mom. Jesus will heal it."
• He copies EVERYTHING he hears us say, even some things I don't remember ever saying. He was playing with some toys the other day and they kept falling over and I heard him say "Not again! Golly molly, not again!"
• He randomly tells Matt and me (and his extended family) that he loves us. We'll be driving down the road and he'll say "Mom, I really really love you" in his sweet little voice. Melts.my.heart.
• Every time we tell him we're going to a restaurant for dinner he begs to go to "Chuck E Jesus" (Chuck E Cheese's)
• He really loves his little sister and shows a lot of concern and care for her. If she starts crying he will say "Mom, feed her! Feed her mom!" The other day he saw a mark on her stomach (she has a hemangioma on her stomach) and was really concerned about this "boo boo." I told him that she'd have it a little while and then it would go away but it doesn't hurt her. Later, I saw him kneeling beside her little bouncy chair quietly saying "God, please heal Liza's boo boo and make her feel all better. Amen." He has SUCH a tender heart!
• He knows every word to House of the Rising Sun, Sweet Baby James, and Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Matt sings these songs to him before bed, and Will has now learned them perfectly:)
• He is such a friendly kid! He introduces himself to every kid he meets at the playground - he will usually smile and wave and say "Hi! I'm Will!"
• He is always saying "Mom (or Dad, etc.), want to play with me?" or "Want to dig with me?" or "Want to color with me?" It is so cute, and impossible to resist:)
• He sings the blessing every night before dinner. He sings "Tank you Fa-da, tank you Fa-da, tor our food, tor our food, anymore blessings, anymore blessings, a-ma-men, a-ma-men" for "Thank you Father, thank you Father, for our food, for our food, and our many blessings, and our many blessings, amen, amen"
• The other day he asked us to sing the snowman song. We told him we weren't sure how that song went and asked him to sing part of it. He did, and sang "the snowman came rolling home" A light went off in our heads - it was "This Old Man"..."with a knick-knack paddy-wack give a dog a bone, this old man came rolling home." I can see where he'd hear "this old man" and think it was "the snowman"!
• When he is talking to both Matt and me, he will say "you guys" instead of "ya'll" - he's more of a Midwesterner than he knows:)
• He likes to dance whenever there is music on. Sometimes to him that just means spinning around and around but he will also dance with me, which is really cute. Some of my favorite memories are cooking dinner and listening to music and dancing around the kitchen with my little buddy.
• He LOVES Curious George and Mickey and carries them around the house with him. Matt took a picture of him sitting with them on his bed this afternoon. Will grabbed the phone to look at the picture and said he wanted to show it to his "boys" and held it up to Mickey and George's face. He then said "It's so cute Dad. Send it to Mom!" So I got a text of this picture this afternoon while I was downstairs feeding Liza...

• He likes to play "blast off" with daddy - something Matt remembers doing with his own dad when he was little:)

Will's birthday!

Will's actual birthday was Wednesday. He'd already had his party, but we still wanted to celebrate his special day with him so we went to Shedd Aquarium. It was Will's first time going to an aquarium, and he had a great time!

He really liked looking at all the different fish and things, although I think his favorite parts were the submarine play area for kids, and the penguin climbing area that had a slide and tunnels - we had to literally drag him away from these areas:)

We stopped and ate lunch and watched these huge dolphins and beluga whales swim right by us - this was my favorite part.

Shedd Aquarium is right next to Soldier Field, the Field Museum and Adler Planetarium and they are all right on the lake in downtown Chicago. It's really beautiful.

We had a VERY tired little boy when we left the Aquarium. He couldn't make it home before falling asleep!

We were still making his birthday cake when he woke up from his nap, so he got to lick the spoon!

He also got to sample the homemade ice cream early...

We grilled hotdogs and corn and also made watermelon tomato salad for dinner.

Will showing me how old he is now!

We gave him Mickey and a scooter for his birthday. He'd seen Cousin Otto's Mickey in St. Simons and LOVED it! And he is getting the hang of the scooter and likes it too!

Mickey riding the scooter too!

I think he had a really fun birthday! I love my little 3 year old!!