Carlie-Bug is One!

I can't believe it's true, but our Carlie-Bug is really a year old now! Where has the time gone? Carlie celebrated her first birthday with a donut, which she very messily enjoyed, and a letter C shirt from Hadley (she picked the color, orange!). Mama and Daddy also got her a ladybug poem decal & a ladybug growth chart, both for her room. She celebrated with a birthday party at Grammy & Granddad's house over the weekend and she will have another party at MumMum & Pops' house this coming weekend! I think there's a good chance that she'll be all partied out by the time this is all said and done!







At her well-baby visit with the doctor today, Carlie weighed 19lb, 10oz (a full pound and a half heavier than Hadley at the same age!), 27.5" tall, & 18" head circumference (25th, 10th, & ~75th percentiles, respectively)! Carlie wasn't too happy about the 3 shots that she received, but overall, she is very healthy and the doctor has no concerns at this time! Carlie is wearing 12 month size clothing, almost exclusively now, but she's growing so quickly that it's hard to say how long that size will fit her! She is still wearing size 3 diapers and size 2 shoes (tiny little feet! At the same age, Haddy was wearing size 4 or 4.5, I believe!). Carlie still doesn't say much in the way of understandable words (other than Dada and "DAT/that!"), but she is a great communicator and has started using signs and head nods more frequently! She signs more, please, and thank you, and will now nod her head yes and no! It's really very cute and it's neat to see how much she actually understands of what you say to her!



Carlie's favorite things to do this month are to play at the playground (swinging on the swings and eating mulch!), play at the sand table or the water table (also eating sand!), and to try and chase Hadley. I have to admit, she does a pretty good job of keeping up with her!





The big news for Carlie this month is that she started walking! About 2 weeks before her birthday, she took what we would consider her first steps. She did the "Frankenstein Walk" for a couple of weeks, but on her actual birthday, Carlie just decided to go-go-go and she hasn't stopped since! I've affectionately nicknamed her ATB (short for all-terrain baby!) due to her skills in going from carpet, to hardwood or tile, back to carpet again without falling...or on mulch, sidewalks, and grass while wearing her shoes! I think that's pretty good for a beginning walker!



In other big news this month, Carlie is now completely weaned from nursing! I felt as though she wasn't really getting anything anyway, so we decided to slowly cut back about 2 weeks before her birthday. We transitioned to whole milk (which she took to really well, in my opinion), and aside from a couple of crabby, clingy days, she did awesome! It probably helps that Carlie LOVES to eat (everything!), so distracting her with other yummy foods helped to take her mind off of "milkies." These days, Carlie loves veggies (cucumbers, asparagus, bell peppers, green beans) and fruits (mango, banana, strawberries), but quite honestly, there isn't a food that we've given her that she hasn't eaten! She is definitely her mother's daughter (though she loves her sweets, so she's certainly her father's daughter, too!)!



Carlie has also popped two new teeth this month to bring her running total up to 9! She got the last tooth on the bottom to give her the full set of eight in the front, and she's just started cutting a molar in the back, as well! She's been doing OK with the teething, but we've been having to get up with her quite a bit at night, so we're hoping that the tooth cuts through quickly so we can all get back to our normal nighttime sleep schedule!



Here are some pics from the first of Carlie's parties - more to be added later!















Party Number Two....

Carlie tried to share her messy smash cake with Hadley!

Carlie, Haddy, & Mama riding on Tim's barrel train at Carlie's party!

Carlie's 11 month update!

Carlie is 11 months old!  She brought in a new month in style with another ear infection (double, this time!).  Poor kiddo has been such a trooper through it all, though! I wouldn't have even known she was sick if not for taking her for her follow-up from the last ear infection only to get there and discover both ears infected!  She's got her mama's ears, for sure! I hope she doesn't have 3 sets of tubes in her future, though!

The word of the month for Carlie now is PERSONALITY! Woo-hoo! From the laid back girl that she once was, you'd never know this was the same child!  When Carlie sees something that she wants, she must have it NOW - no substitutes!  Whether it be the ketchup bottle off of the table to hold beside her while she eats, or Aunt Jenna's chocolate cake (when she's supposed to be eating her oatmeal for dinner!), that girl is feisty until she gets her point across!  She's great at using grunts (or whines!) and signs (mostly "more," but sometimes "please") to communicate, and it's obvious that she understands much of what we're saying to her.  If we ask her if she wants to read a book, she'll crawl over to the little bookshelf.  If I ask her if she wants milkies, she usually starts to cry because she realizes that she does & that sounds like a great idea that just can't wait!

 

Another word for Carlie this month is finally, finally, FINALLY...SLEEP!  I can now happily say that Carlie goes down to bed around 7:30 each night & wakes around 6:30 the next morning.  She typically takes 2 good naps a day (sometimes 1.5-2hr each!) and gives me no trouble at going down for either of them (or at bedtime)!

Carlie also started crawling this month.  It started out kind of side-winder-ish (or Smeagol-ish if you ask her daddy!), but it's morphed into a mostly normal looking crawl.  Of course, she only uses it to get from where she is to where she can pull herself up beside something & then it's walk-walk-walk along the furniture from there!



Plans are well underway for Carlie's first birthday party! I can't believe in less than a month, she will be one.  That year has seriously FLOWN by - way faster than even Hadley's did.  I'm sure it's because with two kids, I'm twice as busy a with one, but WOW!  It really has passed in the blink of an eye!

Carlie absolutely LOVES to eat!  We haven't really found anything that she DOESN'T like, but her favorite foods this month have been steamed broccoli and cauliflower, as well as egg salad, chocolate cake (haha), and alphabet cookies.  Typically she eats a yogurt and half a banana for breakfast, with cheerios for a morning snack.  At lunch, she'll eat half a jar of meat/veggie dinner, half-to-a-whole fruit, as well as bits of whatever Haddy and Mommy are having (egg salad, veggies and meat from soup, grilled cheese sandwich, ham, cheese, etc).  We also (messily) discovered that she loves ravioli!

Carlie now weighs about 19 pounds (up a whole pound from last month!) and is wearing mostly 12 month clothing.  She still wears size 3 diapers & is starting to be able to wear some size 2 shoes without them falling off!  That's one area (foot size) where she is so different from Haddy who was already well into size 3 and 4 shoes by this age...not that either of them really liked to wear shoes, though!

During this past month, Carlie also celebrated her first Easter!  Our spoiled girls each got 3 baskets (Grammy & Granddad, MumMum & Pops, and the Easter Bunny) & had some fun egg hunts while visiting with Mommy's family.  The girls were great little travelers, too!

Haddy-isms (28 months)

Hadley has become quite the chatty-Haddy lately, so I wanted to do a quick update with all of the funny and cute things that she says now at 28 months.

• "Mommy, you're my favorite girl in the neighborhood!" (as well as, "Daddy, you're my favorite girl in the neighborhood!")
• "Mommy, you're my sweet baboo!"
• While changing Carlie's diaper, she was rolling all over the ottoman.  Hadley came over and put her hands on either side of Carlie so she couldn't roll and told me she was "keeping Carlie safe."
• "Yay, Car-Car! You're doing so great!" 
• "I is awesome and Carlie is 'dorable!"
• "Mommy, I will kiss your boo-boo."
• Singing Soft Kitty
• Dancing to Gangnam Style (and insisting that every picture of a man with dark glasses on is Psy, including Keanu Reeves on the cover of the Matrix DVD!)
• I told Gregg that I thought I felt a draft in his office, Hadley came in and said, "Mommy, you silly, there's no giraffe here!"
• "Actually," For example, "This is actually my kitty, Car-Car!"

Carlie's 10-month update!

Carlie is 10 months old!  I can't believe I just took pics for her 1st birthday invitations - that is just crazy!  I haven't weighed her recently, but I would guess that Carlie is right around 18 pounds.  She's definitely a peanut, but also definitely growing.  She now has 7 teeth (that's 3 more since last month!), but she's been doing really well with the teething.  She wears mostly 9-12 month clothing & is still in size 3 diapers.

Carlie has done pretty well with sleeping this month - she still typically wakes up once for a feeding, but it's been between 5-6, so I consider that sleeping through the night (though I'd still rather her sleep through until 7!).  I think that once the all-at-once teething is over with, she'll hit that 11.5-12hr/night sleep mark, though.

Not only is she sleeping well, but Carlie is continuing to eat table food like a champ!  She's tried bits of meat, pieces of beans and noodles, and many fruits and veggies, however I think Carlie's favorite is steamed broccoli! She can't get enough of it!  Carlie will eat a container of yogurt and half a banana for breakfast, a jar of veggies and a jar of fruits for lunch, and a big bowl of cereal with fruit, plus bits of table food for dinner.

As far as physical milestones, Carlie still has not begun to crawl, however she does attempt (rather unsuccessfully) to creep across the floor.  She gets frustrated very easily (likely because she sees Hadley motoring by and she really just wants to join in), so rather than keep on trying, she'll push herself up to sitting and if possible, pull herself up to standing.  She loves to cruise around the furniture & I swear she'll be walking soon, but she's definitely still not ready (she tends to lead with her head when she takes a step!)!

Carlie has also started correctly signing "more" this month, which is so, so cute!  I just love baby signs!  You can tell she's so proud of herself when she does it, too!  And of course Hadley is proud because she helped to teach her!

 

Carlie now takes a bath with Hadley in the big-girl tub!  They love splashing around in the tubby!

Carlie loves:

• taking baths
• Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
• hugs from Hadley
• when Hadley talks to her
• basically anything to do with Hadley
• knocking over towers of blocks
• broccoli
• fruit (peaches) 
• frozen Go-Gurt
• Mr. Potato Head
• music/dancing

Carlie isn't a fan of:

• naps (though she still usually takes 2/day - one for 1.5hr and one for an hour - she just fights it!)
• Mommy leaving her (at all!)
• Hadley taking her things
• things being out of her reach

Hadley at 2.25

Hadley is now 2-1/4 years old and such a funny bunny!  She is still a bundle of energy and rarely slows down, but I guess that's pretty normal for a 2-year-old, right? 

Haddy now weighs about 26 pounds and is approximately 33.5 inches tall.  She wears mostly size 2T clothes now & is still in size 4 diapers.  We were excited a few weeks ago when she had a success on the potty, but alas, it was just a one-time thing.  She has NO interest in being potty trained right now (that would require slowing down to actually SIT on the potty! Who has time for that?)!  We CAN proudly say, however, that she now sleeps in her bed for bedtime and naps!  No more floor for her, hooray!

Right now, Haddy loves....

• watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and Doc McStuffins
• playing doctor a la Doc McStuffins
• singing songs from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
• doing puzzles
• making messes with her toys
• making clubhouses and boats
• playing Candy Land (even though she doesn't really "get" it)
• dancing (Hey...Haddy Lady, 'gotta put a ring on it!')
• Potter Puppet Pals video
• cucumbers & dip
• P-jelly (peanut butter & jelly sandwiches)
• Teaching Carlie signs and to say "mama, dada"
• taking baths with Carlie
• playing in the basement
• saying NO!
• playing Ring Around the Rosie
• finishing her questions with, 'huh?'
• playing at the gym

Haddy isn't so crazy about...

• diaper changes
• cleaning up after herself
• sharing
• reading stories
• messy play (goop, fingerpaint, shaving cream, etc)
• eating dinner