The Scholl Sisters' Christmas Update!

Christmas 2012 has come and gone, and I understand more and more each year why Christmas is such a magical time when you have little ones around. The girls (especially Hadley) had such a wonderful Christmas! Haddy loved doing her different advent calendars each day & discovering the new and crazy places where Cocoa was hiding each day! We did many other family activities that I hope will become our family traditions. We picked out & decorated our Christmas tree together, baked cookies, went looking at Christmas lights, went to Sesame Place (though that might not happen again since it was SO crowded), writing & receiving letters from Santa, we attended Christmas Eve service together, went to Uncle Brian's store to look at the train display, and attended many, many Christmas parties. The girls did an awesome job with all of the schedule changes over the week, as well - Mama & Daddy couldn't have been more proud!

The girls got many wonderful and generous gifts from everyone this year! Hadley received a bike from Santa as her big gift & Carlie got her new big girl car seat! They also received many new clothes, books, puzzles, blocks, and toys. Carlie especially loves her big arm chair, her vanity, & her ball pit. Hadley's favorites were her "Charlie Brown, Snoopy, & Woodstock" Peanuts stuffed animals & play figurines.

They also received a new kitchen set and several food & dishes sets, which have provided many hours of playtime fun together!

Their stockings were full of toothbrushes, new sippy cups, washcloths, shampoo, body wash, coloring books (or board books), and snacks!

Picking out our Christmas tree as a family!

Our elf Cocoa brought Hadley a Snoopy ornament for being a good napper!

Cocoa brought Carlie an ornament for her first Christmas!

Hadley was a great helper in decorating the tree!

Carlie "helped" decorate the tree, too!  She liked the way the needles felt!

Haddy loved visiting the train display!

Carlie IS way too cute to be on the naughty list!

These silly girls DO bring us so much JOY!

The (silly) Scholl family Christmas card, 2012

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Haddy's letter to Santa! (There was a drawing of "Lucy, Snoopy, Woodstock" on the other side!)

Carlie's letter to Santa!

We left our letters to Santa with Cocoa to take back to the North Pole!

Santa wrote back!

Santa wrote back to Hadley!

Santa wrote back to Carlie!

The girls met Santa and did a great job sitting on his lap at Sesame Place!  Haddy told him she wanted Snoopy, Charlie Brown, & Woodstock!

Santa also came to our development, but this was obviously one of his helpers, not the REAL Santa whom we met in Sesame Place! :)

The girls left a note, cookies, and milk for Santa, as well as carrots and water for the reindeer (as instructed in their letters from Santa)!

The girls looked so adorable in their Christmas dresses on Christmas Eve!

They must've been very good girls!

No lumps of coal here!

Carlie did a great job opening her presents!

Haddy was super excited about her new bike!

Carlie was all smiles on her first Christmas!

Video to be added at a later date!! :)

Carlie's 8-month update!

Our Carlie-bug (aka the happiest baby in the world) is now 8 months old & I still can't believe how quickly time is flying by!  In just a couple short months, we'll be mulling over ideas for her first birthday party! That's CRAZY! 

 

Carlie's been coughing and sniffling for a week or so now, so today she (and Hadley) went to the doctor's office.  It turns out that Carlie has the beginnings of an ear infection & Hadley has a mild case of pneumonia!  Eeesh!  All in all, the girls are both being little troopers!  At her appointment, we found out that Carlie is now 16 pounds, so she's gained about 2 pounds in 2 months, which is great!  She's wearing size 3 diapers now & is in mostly 6-9 month clothes.  Carlie is also SLEEPING now!  She typically gets up about once a night (around 3 or 4), which means that she goes for a 7-8 hour stretch & then goes back to sleep until 7:30 or 8.

Carlie's favorite toys this month are her baby vanity, her mini ball pit, & anything she can chew on!  She loves to bounce up and down when someone (or a toy) sings songs to her, especially the alphabet song!  She also bounces up and down and says aaaah! when someone says, "yay, Carlie!"  It's really cute!

Best Friends Forever!

This month, Carlie also finally learned to roll from her back to her belly - she actually started doing it in her sleep one night & then did it while awake a few days later!

 

Carlie sprouted her first (and almost her second) tooth this month, which means she's beat her sister by almost 5 months!  Because of her new chompers, Carlie has started eating small bits of food this month!  She does great with chunks of bananas and baby puffs!  She also discovered that she likes Aunt Kasia's gingerbread cookies!

Can you see my tooth?

On December 13th, during playtime, Carlie said her first word, "Dada," as you will see in the video below!  We don't think she says it with specific purpose (as in, knowing that she's referring to Dada), but it's a definite start!

Carlie also celebrated all of the magical moments of her first Christmas season this month!  We picked out a Christmas tree, went looking at Christmas lights, went to Sesame Place for their Very Furry Christmas, sat on Santa's lap, went to Christmas Eve service at church, and opened presents at many Christmas parties!

Cocoa (our elf!) brought Carlie her first Christmas ornament!

Picking out our Christmas tree!

Carlie and Hadley sat on Santa's lap at Sesame Place!

Santa came!

Sister love while checking out the train display at Uncle Brian's store!

Carlie and Hadley after church on Christmas Eve!

Sesame Place's Very Furry Christmas!

Carlie all bundled up on our COLD Christmas tree picking day!

It's my first Christmas Day!

Carlie inspecting her stocking loot on her first Christmas morning!

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!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.