Our weeks have been full of many, many activities! I haven't really blogged much about what we've been up to ... I have taken a ton of pictures and posted them on Instagram and Facebook ... so I'm sure no one has felt too out of our loop. But I wanted to get a general blog up ... I have a few videos I'd like to post.
This is Colton skating ... he has improved so much! We are very proud of him. He's not the bravest of boys, but he has done so well overcoming his nervousness and trying new things! He even shows you his "skills" in the second video ... he can jump on his skates. Good job, Bubby!
We spent May getting back into the gym habit. I hit the gym every week day this month, and it has been a welcome home kind of month for me. Now that I feel like the daily gym habit is back in full swing, I need to focus on what I have been eating more closely. This past month, we did a "month of salads" for dinner. It was a little difficult thinking of that many salads to make ... but I found Pinterest to be a nice source for recipes. We had a lot of really tasty varieties, and I think we may have to try a "month of salads" again. Here are three of the 20 or so salads we ate ...
GREEK SALAD: We had this salad twice and once with all of the ingredients but no lettuce. Greek Salad is my favorite!
GREEN BEAN SALAD: Billy bought a bunch of fresh veggies at a farmers' market on the way home from work one night, so I made up this fresh green bean salad ... it was SO delicious!
MANDARIN SALAD: Billy really isn't a fan of my "fruit" salads, but he did well trying them all out. We had mandarin and pear with gorgonzola ... I loved them, but he only had one helping. At least he tried!
We picked peaches this month. They were SO delicious and tart! I made the best cobbler out of them ... peach, raspberry, blueberry cobbler ... mmmmmmm! Then I finished the peaches off that we didn't eat up in a peach upside down cake. That was super yummy, too. We'll have to pick peaches again next year. The season is short here in FL but well worth the effort of picking!
They had so much fun picking the peaches!
Millions of peaches ....
BEST cobbler!
I had a fabulous Mother's Day! I never blogged about it, but my kids (and Billy) went and got me flowers ... Khloe picked them out herself--a dozen hot pink roses ... doughnuts, iced decaf coffee, and a gift. They bought me a Clairsonic. I love it! It's supposed to keep you from aging too quickly, because it's thoroughly cleanses your skin properly. I don't know about all of that, but I do know that my skin is very smooth and soft ... and that feels really nice. We had a relaxing day around the house ... and then after we went on a nice family walk in the evening, Billy bought us some Chinese food for dinner ... we ended up getting it from a super delicious restaurant. Mmmmm ... I'm thinking about their veggie lo-mein right now! But what I'm most thankful for from Mother's Day this year is that I got to spend it with my THREE beautiful children. I'm so very blessed, and I couldn't have spent the day doing anything better ... the whole day with my kids (and husband) is just what I needed.
I love these kiddos!
When I ask them to smile ... sometimes, they both do this head-tilt thing ....
Pirate Khloe
We had some pool time this month ... and as per usual, it's already super hot down here in FL. Colton has been getting better this summer in such a short amount of time. Gwendy (our friend) has been encouraging him to get used to putting his head under the water again, and in just one short hour swimming with his Dad, he started to jump into the pool by himself and swim to Bill ... and swim from out in the pool to the side of the pool. He is getting more confident by the day! I sure would feel better if he would get the hang of it. He is not a danger seeker, and he thinks about what bad things might happen if he tries new things ... so he's never the first to jump off of something or do something "scary". It makes me proud to see him getting the hang of swimming. Glad to know he can let go of his fears! Khloe had fun jumping in to Daddy, too. She has been working with Gwendy to get her swimming lessons in this summer. Gwendy does such a good job with her, and she is learning a lot ... she doesn't love getting water in her eyes, but she is doing very well!
We went bowling with friends one Saturday night this month. We all had such a great time! The kids LOVED it! We'll definitely have to go bowling again soon. Even Alice had fun listening to the music at the bowling alley.
Our little bowlers!
Colton getting into it!
Every time Khloe knocked pins down, she jumped and cheered for herself. It was so cute!
Alice has been growing and changing daily. She is holding her head up high during her tummy time ... she seems uninterested in rolling over ... just like her brother! Khloe was ready to roll over right away ... Colton didn't seem to care one bit ... and neither does Alice (so far). She just loves to look at the dangling things in her gym and grab at her toys hanging all around .... she enjoys tummy time, and loves to grab at the remote (don't all kids love those!?!). She is a giggler and smiler ... just like Colton. Khloe was so inquisitive ... she looked and studied people. She observed. Colton smiled and grinned CONSTANTLY. Alice is just like him. She is so happy, smiley, and giggly. I love it! I think she might have dimples. I'm crossing my fingers ... but I think I see a dimple on the left side of her face ... I hope she takes after her Dad that way. I think she looks a lot like Colton when he was small ... sometimes, I get flashbacks. It's weird.
Two cuties.
Those eyes ....
Tummy time ...
Some more tummy time ...
We had a full weekend a few weeks back. We went to a Princess and the Frog birthday party ... and then we followed that up with Disney on Ice. The kids had a great time! Khloe still talks about the Princesses and how much fun she had. I know they are going to love Disney when we go.
Kissing a frog!
Princess Khloe
She was SO excited when the Princesses came out!
Colton held her hand as they crossed the street.
We spent some time at the park ...
This weekend, I am heading to a Girls' Weekend at the beach with my friends. I am so excited! We plan on relaxing, getting massages, swimming, seeing a movie, etc. It should be a fun weekend, and I am so thankful for Billy for taking care of the kids all weekend and allowing me this time off. What a great guy!
So apparently, I can only write blog posts when Alice gets one month older ... my last three have only been about this same topic! Other things happen to us and we are busy doing a lot around here ... I just haven't sat down to write about it! I'll try to be better about that this month.
But ... since I'm already here ... this will be a blog about how the months are just ticking by and Alice has already reached 3 months!
May 7, 2014
Length: 25 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 14 1/2 lbs. (90th percentile)
She went through a bottle transformation this past month. At the beginning of 2 months, she began to dislike her one bottle/day feed. I could barely get her to take 2 ounces. It took about two weeks of persistence with the bottle ... one feed per day during her most awake feed ... to get her to accept that this was inevitable. One day, she just started drinking down her bottle like it was no problem! I was so thankful! I was very tired of having her fight it.
Other than that ... it's business as usual around here. Colton keeps hinting at wanting a baby brother ... and by hinting, I mean flat-out telling me so. Aside from saying that he would like to save his planes for his baby brother when he grows big like himself, he told me he wants five babies. I said, "I have three already." He said, "Yeah, but I think five would be good. Ok, Mom ... four is good, too." I have asked him why he wants another baby ... he said that he needs a brother to teach him how to play Mario and to play with him. That kid! He is full of it.
Khloe has been telling me all about the princess party she wants to have when she turns three on "Eptember 21" (as she says). She is very excited to turn 3 ... she talks about it all of the time. She is especially excited to start ice skating with Bubby. I think she feels like she's in limbo right now. She feels big enough to do things with Colton, but her age keeps her from doing them. She, also, has been talking all about getting a big-girl bike ... with princesses on it, of course.
Alice started sleeping through the night shortly after she turned two months old. She gave me a night here and there for a few weeks and then one day ... she just slept 12 hours. That has been her mantra for nearly three weeks now, and I have been loving it. Just in time for me to start up at the gym ... which began this week! It was a fabulous week of working out! I have really missed the gym, and I am glad to be back in the old routine. I am hoping that in a month or two, I'll see some healthy results. I'd like to do 3 days of Zumba, one day of Body Flow (yoga/Pilates), and one day of cycling. All with some weights added throughout ... I may do cycling and BodyPump (weightlifting class) rotations. I have felt great this week ... sore and loving it!
Next week, we have a lot of fun MOMs Club activities planned ... and as per usual, we will be hitting up the pool. It's that time of year again! Summer is here ... it's hot ... and the pool is a great place to lunch and swim. It's difficult with Allie being so small this summer, but we'll still enjoy it as much as possible. I know next summer will be much easier ... Alice will be able to run around and play, too.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine let me know that Queen Elsa was coming to Mrs. Tea's Garden Tearoom, and if I wanted to take Khloe, I better sign up quickly! When I finally did sign up, I realized that this was going to be a big hit. The lady told me that she had already filled the spot for the day, but she was thinking of opening another spot due to all of the interest. Then come to find out weeks later, she had opened up four more days to include all of the people who wanted to meet Queen Elsa from the Disney movie Frozen! I'm glad she fit us into the original time slot, as all of our MOMs Club friends were going at that time.
Khloe was super excited just to be having a Mommy-Daughter day out ... when she found out we were having tea with Elsa ... she was VERY happy! She watched Frozen all of the way to the tearoom. When we got there, she got to meet Elsa right away. The lady who does this for a living plays every princess and Disney character (girl) you can imagine. She is so talented! She really makes herself stay in character the entire time and even uses accents when necessary.
She had the best time!
All she liked was the clotted cream ... forget the scone!
Yummy!
Koki got her picture taken with Queen Elsa, and then we sat down to have tea and delectable tea food together with our friends. There were small sandwiches, spinach and egg quiche, broccoli slaw, cupcakes, scones with clotted cream, truffles, and breads. I had tea while Koki had pink lemonade. The kids had apple slices, pretzels, sandwiches, and marshmallows. While we ate, Queen Elsa came around to talk with all of the little princesses who came to meet her. She repeated her story about a million times! She was so sweet to everyone. After we ate, she read her story (again). While she was reading, Khloe piped up to help her a few times. Once she shouted out, "And then you took off your glove!" The second time she hooted, "That big naughty snowman!" It was too cute! When she finished reading, she did a sing along with about 3 songs with all of the kids. Every little girl was wearing a princess dress with most of them wearing a Frozen dress. It was really cute!
Reading the Frozen story to all of the little princesses ...
They are singing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"
"Let it Go!" What a fun song for everyone to sing together! EVERY mom was videoing the event! Ha, ha!
Singing along with Elsa ... all of the Frozen songs!
Group hug!
The best part was when we were leaving, Khloe said, "I love having tea with you. That was the best day with Elsa!" It was just so fun to have a moment where just the two of us could spend some time together and all of my attention could be on Koki. She is SO absolutely sweet. Sometimes I forget that! She can be so energetic and funny ... I forget that she is super sweet and kind, too. I love that girl ... what a wonderful and special time we had together!
Actually, she has passed the two-month mark ... she is nearly 9 1/2 weeks old! It's amazing how fast these past few months have gone!
2 months old--April 7, 2014
I took Allie to her 2 month well-check today. I had to take her a week later, because my pediatrician's wife just had a baby last week. He seemed pretty tired today!
My sweet baby girl ... she is SO precious!
Here are Alice's stats for her two-month check:
Weight: 12 lbs. 12 oz. (95th percentile)
Length: 24 1/4 inches (95th percentile)
Head Circumference: 15 1/2 inches (95th percentile)
This girl is super adorable. I really can't say enough about how blessed we are to have Alice in our lives. I need to knock on wood ... I don't want to jinx us, but she is, seriously, the BEST baby. She is so calm, patient, and sweet. She sleeps through the night ... she first did this about 3 weeks ago, and then last week, she slept through the night 3 times. She has been doing it for the past few nights again. I think we have made it to my favorite point ... eating 4 times/day ... napping 2 times with a small catnap after dinner ... and sleeping through the night! Easy peasy (knock on wood)!
I think the best part is how Colton and Khloe react to her. Colton can only speak in falsetto when he talks to her. We have tried and tried to get him to speak normally, but he just can't! It's so funny! Khloe wants to give her a million hugs, pokes, and squeezes. I'm so glad that they think she is as amazing as Billy and I do.
I took some 2 month pictures of Alice, because I wanted to use a hat that my BFF Aubrey and Josh Leeker sent to me when Khloe was little. I think the pics turned out great! I, also, took some pics of Colton with Alice, because Brenda sent me a Pinterest photo idea. It turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself! (And to think .... I took a million more adorable pics, but I thought I'd just show these ... don't want to get carried away!)
Love that smile!
That face!
Such a happy girl!
Love how this outfit brings out her eyes.
She is a doll!
I love that look on her face!
This one is my favorite.
Baby girl ...
Just snugly in her wrap ...
Those cheeks!
This is the Pinterest shot idea ... I love how it turned out. He is such a sweet big brother!
