Carlie's 7-month update!

 

Time really does fly because our little Carlie-bug is seven months old already!  She is such a happy and laid-back baby!  She brings us so much joy everyday and it is exciting to watch her grow and develop!  She hasn't met any new milestones this past month, per se, but she is getting much more proficient at sitting up on her own.  We've been trying to encourage her to roll from back to belly but she really just seems to have no interest!  She will, at times, go from sitting to a leaned-over-on-her-side position that looks like it could turn into a creep/crawl, but in keeping with her laid-back personality, she just seems to be content watching Hadley run circles around her for now!

Carlie is wearing 6 month and 6-9 month clothing now!  You should see how chubby those little legs have gotten!  She's still wearing size 2 diapers, but I think she'll be out of those in another month or two!  Her sleeping hasn't really gotten any better, but she has graduated out of her swaddler and into the sleep sack, in hopes that she can now use her hands to help soothe herself when she wakes up in the middle of the night!

Earlier this month, Carlie went along with Mommy and Daddy to experience her first time voting for President.  She got to see President Obama get re-elected.   And then, a couple of weeks ago, Carlie celebrated her first Thanksgiving at Grammy & Granddad's house!  She even tried a little bit of mashed potatoes to commemorate the day!  In keeping with tradition, Carlie also went on her first shopping trip with Mommy & MumMum (and Hadley)! We usually go on Black Friday, but since we didn't get into town until that morning, we went to DuBois on Saturday.  Both girls were awesome little shoppers!  Carlie also took part in her first annual cookie baking day!  Though she wasn't able to do much, she did like chewing on pretzels (before they got dipped in chocolate)!

Carlie loves to "talk" and make "pfft" noises with her mouth now! It's so cute to watch (and hear) her talk to Mommy, Daddy, and Hadley (or anyone else who will listen)!  She's a great mimicker, too!  If you bang two blocks together, she will do the same...or if you bang one on the side of her block container, she'll do that, too!  She seems to understand the words "bang," "bounce," "kick," and "shake," as she will do each accordingly when given the directive.  Carlie has also started to wave in the mirror and to people/things across the room!

Carlie's favorite toys this month are her shape sorter and Potsy, both of which she likes to dump out and wait for someone to refill for her.  She also loves to knock over block towers and play with her toy kitchen with Hadley (when Hadley's in a 'play together' kind of mood).  She loves to get zrbts on her belly and to watch/play with musical toys (like the singing snowman/penguins or the music table)!  Carlie also smiles when she sees her favorite characters (Mickey Mouse and Daniel Tiger) come on the tv - she especially loves the Hot Dog Song - just like her sister did!

Hadley is Two!

On Monday, November 26th, our little Hadley Rebecca turned two! We celebrated with two Sesame Street birthday parties! Haddy had a great time and got so many wonderful gifts from her family!

 

I can't even believe we are parents to a full-fledged toddler!  Hadley has grown so much over these past few months and the changes are amazing!  Her sentences are usually 5-6 words long (sometimes even more!), which makes communicating with her very easy.  Hadley's hair is also really starting to get long (to the point that she might need to get a little trim very soon) and she's getting bigger and taller!  At her 2-year well visit with the doctor, Hadley was 25lb-2oz (35th percentile), 33" tall (25th percentile), & 18.5" head circumference (35th percentile).  Haddy wasn't too excited about being at the doctor's office (despite some nice pep talks from Mommy & Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood), but she seemed to do better as the appointment progressed.  Just as we got her calmed down again, the nurse stuck her with the flu shot - poor little lovey! She did love the "boo boo tape" (band-aid) and "shnack" (pretzels) that she got afterwards, though.

The big news in Hadley's world is that she no longer sleeps in her crib!  About a month before her birthday, Haddy starting revolting against naps - one day when we tried to put her down for her nap, she (successfully - without hurting herself) climbed out of the crib, so that was the end of that!  The same day, Daddy converted her crib into her "big girl bed," but still to this day (over a month later), Hadley has not slept in her bed.  She continues to prefer the floor, wrapped up in her "Gin blankie" and "Chell blankie."  We've tried to bribe her by telling her that she can't watch Mary Poppins anymore until she sleeps in her bed, but she's mostly unaffected by that - truly, we don't really care where she sleeps, as long as she's sleeping (which she is!)!  Naps continue to be a struggle - when we're out and about and busy, she's generally fine without one, but when we're home and she tries to fight it, she's a bear by the evening time.  Generally, she will still take a 1.5 hour nap each day, but it really just varies from day-to-day!

Hadley has also been very excited because we recently got a new playground area installed in our neighborhood.  She loves to use the slides (all by herself) and bounce on the shaker.  She's still not a fan of the swings, though!  Haddy also loves to just be outside running around, burning off some of her massive amounts of energy!

Hadley's Favorites:
Shows/Characters: Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Sid the Science Kid, "Shoopy" and Charlie Brown
Best Friend: Carlie
Buddy: Daddy
Candy/Treats: M&Ms (Memmems) and Farties (Smarties)
Music: Snoopy songs (Lucy's the Boss, Flash Beagle, I'm in Shape) with Daddy while she's taking her bath and after she makes her NFL picks
Chores: helping to set the table, turning on the dining room lights
Funny things to say: Oh Cheese Weasels!, Oh Graham Crackers!, Holy Moly!, "Are you?" (Where are you?), "What that?" (usually when she hears a noise),  "still" (as a stall tactic - 'still playing with Daddy'), "just" (when she wants 'just' one thing and not the other...'just Snoopy, not Lambie')



Hadley can:

• Speak in 5-6 word sentences
• Count to 12
• Name all of her capital letters
• Say her full name
• Say her age
• Follow two or three step directions

Christmas Card Preview!

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How about a FREE treat?

Hey readers!  If you know me, you know I love a great deal - and nothing is better than free, right?  On Monday (11/19) and Tuesday (11/20), you can get your very own personalized greeting card for free from treat.com (sister site of shutterfly.com, specializing in greeting cards)!  Whatever your greeting card needs might be right now -- from birthdays, to Christmas, to anniversaries, you can find a card for it on treat.com!  Simply create your card on their site & use the code TREATBLOGR at checkout!  That's all there is to it!  So what are you waiting for?

 

Carlie's 6-month update!

This past Friday, Carlie celebrated her half-year birthday!  The party will continue on Tuesday when we go to the doctor for her well-baby visit (and shots!). I'm anxious to hear her stats (I will update here on Tuesday) since they were concerned with her weight gain (or lack thereof) at her 4 month appointment.  If you ask me, she's become a little chunky monkey over these past two months!

Edited to add in Carlie's stats!  She is in the 10th percentile for weight, weighing exactly 14 pounds (up 2lb, 1oz from 2 months ago).  Carlie is in the 10th percentile for height, as well, measuring 24 1/2 inches tall (up 1in from last checkup), & she is in the 50th percentile for head circumference, measuring 16-3/4 inches (up 7/8" from her 4 month measurement).

Carlie really loves to eat now! She nurses 6-8 times a day and she has also been eating some solids for a few weeks now and doing really well.  So far, she has tried (and liked) sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, apples, peaches/nectarines, and pears, as well as rice cereal.  She didn't really care for the green beans (and they didn't really agree with her either!), so we'll have to try those again later on down the road.  She usually eats solids twice a day right now; at lunch and dinner-times!

We have also started Carlie on a straw sippy cup over the past few weeks.  Unbelievably, within just a couple of days, she was sucking on and getting water out of the straw.  It's so funny to watch, too, because you can tell when she sucks and actually gets a drink of water - she makes this face like she just got some big surprise! You can tell she wasn't expecting that to happen!  Of course, she still doesn't drink for thirst-quenching purposes, but I'm really excited that getting her to use a straw cup may be just that easy!

Carlie is still wearing size 2 diapers & is now in mostly 6-month sized clothing.  She is still using her infant car seat, but rumor has it that she is going to ask Santa for a big girl seat for Christmas, so her days in the infant seat seem to be numbered!  Carlie also out-grew her infant swing over the past month, attempting to sit up every time Mommy & Daddy would try to place her in it!

 

Carlie is now very good at sitting up on her own & that seems to be her preferred position most of the time.  That's most likely because she can more easily keep an eye on big sis & stay a part of the action!  She loves when Hadley plays peek-a-boo with her, gives her zrbts (raspberries on her belly & cheek), & dances to try and make her laugh.  No one is better at making Carlie laugh than Hadley!

This month, Carlie's favorite toy is her squeaky giraffe, but she also really loves her giraffe rattle, her Fisher Price baby camera, & anything she can chew on!  She also really likes to have her Violet dog & her giraffe teether/rattle toy in the car (are you noticing a trend with the giraffe toys?)!

Carlie has continued to not be my rock-star sleeper that she was for the first 4 months of her life!  Her naps have been pretty normal (a short nap in the am, a 1.5-2hr nap in the early afternoon, & a short post-dinner nap before bed), and she is great about putting herself to sleep, but the night-wakings have started to become almost unbearable!  She used to go to bed around 7:30pm & not wake up until 3:30 or 4am, but that hasn't happened in months!  She now goes down around 7 or so & then it's anybody's guess, but she's always up at least twice a night!  Usually around 1 & 4 lately!  I've been praying that she would make a turn-around one of these days!

We took two family trips to farms/pumpkin patches this month (Savidge's & Kunes' Farms)!  Although there wasn't too much for Carlie to do there, she found ways to entertain herself!

Carlie loved swishing her feet around in the corn pit at Savidge Farms!

Peek-A-Boo Carlie at Kunes Farms!

Family photo in the pumpkin patch at Kunes' Farms!

Cutest 'lil pumpkin in the patch!

We also attempted to stuff Carlie in a pumpkin this month! She wasn't excited or amused by this!

Get.Me.Outta.Here!

Sister love!

Mama & her girls!

 We celebrated Carlie's first Halloween by dressing her up as a Penn State game ball - for the chilly Halloween night that we had, I'd say she had the best costume!

WE ARE...Nittany Lion, PSU Cheerleader, Coach O'Brian, & the Game Ball!

Carlie waving her Terrible Towel!

 And of course I have to include that Carlie weathered her first (and hopefully only) hurricane this month!  Hurricane Sandy caused a 24 hour power outage in our home, but thankfully nothing more!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas & a GIVEAWAY!

My favorite holiday is quickly approaching & it's once again time to start thinking about Christmas cards!  I hear all of you haters out there saying nasty things about me making a Christmas post before Halloween time has crossed many people's minds, but OH WELL!  I can't help it! I love Christmas & this year will be especially exciting because Hadley is at such a great age & she will really start to "get it!"  She picked up on our excitement last year as a one year old, but now, she is fully conversational & totally understands most things we talk about with her, so I have no doubt that she will be on a massive overstimulated Christmas high just like her Mama!

I've been asked by Shutterfly to review their new Photo Christmas Cards and I'm more than happy to do so!  I've ordered from them for the past two Christmases and have been more than pleased with the result, particularly the 5x7 stationery cards! I love the way their site is set up, because I can easily navigate and view only the type of cards that I'm searching for!  I can select the size (5x7) and also choose the number of photos that I would like to include.  We will probably need to have at least 4 so that we can include one photo of each of the girls, plus one of them together, as well as one of the whole family.  I'll include pics to a few of my favorites below!  I'm a big fan of the solid-color backgrounds that really let the photos stand out...now to find the perfect photos...

Don't forget to check out Shutterfly's Special Offers Page, as well, for the latest deals and steals on their awesome goodies!

Oh, and a giveaway...Shutterfly has graciously offered to give one of my readers a credit for $50 off their total order (not including shipping & cannot be combined with other offers)!  Please comment here with your email address if you would like to be entered to win! The winner will be randomly drawn on October 29th!