Hadley's 21-month blog post

 I can't believe that the next time I will write a blog post for Hadley, it will be for her SECOND birthday! Where has the time gone???  These past three months have both shocked and amazed us as we witnessed Hadley grow and change.  She talks so much now and understands so much.  She loves to learn and is so inquisitive (though we haven't quite hit the "why?" phase yet, thank goodness!).  The overriding themes of this stage in her development are definitely independence and inquiry!  I'm constantly floored when she comes up to me and names a letter or talks about something that we haven't really talked about in months - it's like, 'how does she remember this stuff?'  

Riding the Barrel Train at the Frenchville Picnic

Monkeying Around!

She has become such a great communicator, as well! Gone are the days of screaming and whining because we can't understand what she's trying to tell us (though there are still days of screaming and whining for other toddler-related reasons!).  She says so many two syllable words now, including her name, "Haddy Becca Scholl" and "Car-yee" for her sister!  She now calls us Mommy-Mama and Daddy-Dada which I think is so adorable!

Hadley's a great big sister!

Family Hay Ride!

We've got Olympic Fever!

Haddy is 31.5" tall and weighs about 23 pounds.  She is still in size 4 diapers and some 18-month clothes, but she's rapidly closing in on 24 month & 2T exclusively!  I foresee her wearing those sizes for a long time!  Even though she's really a peanut for her age still, she is becoming such a big girl!  She is a great eater now (both in feeding herself and in actual food choices).  She even feeds herself her own yogurt & cereal with milk for her breakfast every morning (though she does need some help slurping up the milk!).  She still sleeps about 10-11 hours every night and naps for 1.5-ish hours every day.

Dancing at the beach house!

Dancing some more! What a silly monkey!

Family Beach Picture 2012

She can identify most shapes (circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, star, heart, octagon, & sometimes diamond), many colors (though not as consistently), & over half of her upper-case letters!  And I swear we haven't been sitting down, teaching them to her outright! She just picks up on everything!

 

Hadley has also begun doing some chores around the house!  She really loves to help carry bottles/containers or silverware items to help set the table and she also puts away dirty diapers into the diaper pail & exclaims, "proud!"  One job that she does not really enjoy, however, is putting away her toys - that has run her into many-a time out...the little head-strong girl that she is!

Cruising with Daddy in the Jeep at the OCNJ Park!

Hadley's favorites right now ------
Toys: Tea set, Little People, Disney figurines, kitchen set, Mr. Potato Head
Shows: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse & Sesame Street
Movie: Mary Poppins (I think I've seen this at least 5 times since we introduced it to her a few weeks ago!  It has since been hidden & will only come out on special occasions!) and "School" aka. High School Musical
Foods: yogurt, cereal, cheese, ham, crackers ("crack!" & "goldsh"), sandwiches (egg salad, grilled cheese, chicken salad)
Activities: swimming in the pool & at the beach, playing "Run-Run/Hide & Seek" with Daddy, climbing & hanging on things like a monkey!
Phrase: "Try" - like when we are eating something & she wants to try it - or if she wants us to try & put Carlie in the swing or bouncer or Bumbo!

  

Carlie's 3-month update!

 

Carlie is 3 months old already and it's unbelievable how much she has grown since last month! We don't have any official stats since there is no 3-month well-check, but when I weighed her last week on her Granddad's baby scale, it showed that she was about 11lb, 4oz which would be up almost a pound from last month!  She is wearing size 1 diapers and almost exclusively 3 month size clothes now.

This month, Carlie loves to smile - especially at Mommy and Hadley.  She loves to get baths and she still loves to sleep, though we have been having some issues at night because little Houdini likes to constantly break out of her swaddle and wake herself up!  Most days, Carlie still takes a big 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day! Hopefully the trend continues!  Carlie's favorite toys right now are her pacis and her swing.  She also likes to listen to her crib aquarium while she falls asleep and do "bikey ride" exercises with her legs!

In Carlie's third month of life, she took a trip to the Cape May Zoo (she mostly just sat in the stroller and sweat her little buns off!), DelGrosso's Amusement Park (where she rode the train and the carousel), and the Frenchville Picnic (where she had her first hay ride and met lots of Mommy's friends from home)!  She also got to experience the big ol' 100-mile yard sale of central PA!  She wasn't overly excited by any of those, though!  Carlie also laughed for the first time this month at almost 13 weeks (July 31st), though we haven't been able to catch it on video yet!

On the carousel with Mama at DelGrosso's

On the train at DelGrosso's

Family Hay Ride at the Frenchville Picnic

Long Live Summer!

Just a quick blog post (I'll be getting to Carlie's 3-month post next week!) to let you all know about a really great contest that Shutterfly has going on right now, their Long Live Summer photo contest!  It is a multi-week summer themed photo sweepstakes with instant win prizes, weekly prizes, weekly featured photos, & a grand prize family trip to the Bahamas! All you need to do is upload your favorite photo and caption based on the theme of the week.  Get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering! You can enter at any point during the 5-week sweepstakes period.

PHOTO THEMES

•       Week 1(7/9): Americana

•       Week 2 (7/16): Great Outdoors

•       Week 3 (7/23): Water Fun

•       Week 4 (7/30): Sports & Activities

•       Week 5 (8/6): Parties & Celebrations

Leave a comment here if you decide to enter & maybe link up to a blog entry with your photo entries!

 

Carlie's 2-month update!

Carlie has officially been a member of our family for two months now - I know I've said it before, but I seriously can't remember what it was like without her! She's just such a happy little addition to the family!
As per Carlie's doctor's appointment yesterday (where she got 3 shots and an oral vaccine, which Mommy cried through just as much as the baby), Carlie is now 10lb 6oz (up 1lb 1oz from a month ago), 21-1/4" long (up exactly one inch), and has a head circumference of 15-5/8"(up 7/8")! She is in the 25th-50th, 10th, and 75th percentiles, respectively. Yes, I do know that makes her a shortie with a big head! That's ok, she'll grow into it!

Carlie has continued to be a great sleeper, averaging 7-8 hour stretches at night and taking a 3-4 hour nap in the middle of the day (have I mentioned she's her mother's daughter?). She's now wearing size 1 diapers and is mostly in 0-3 month clothing, with some being just 3 month size.

Carlie has been more wakeful this month and does pretty well at tummy time. She has rolled over a couple more times since last month, but still not consistently enough to say that she actually rolls from belly to back. She is still a very happy baby who smiles all the time (the doctor even commented on how happy she was at her check-up) - we even think we've heard the beginnings of her laugh, which sounds more like a cough, but with a huge smile on her face! She enjoys looking around: at lights, fans, balloons, faces, etc. Anything with striking contrasts grabs her attention! She also loves to snuggle and be swaddled (it's like a magic wand when Carlie is fussy - swaddle her up and she immediately stops!), and for Mommy to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little 'Car'"
Hadley continues to be a wonderful big sister! She loves to play peek-a-boo with Carlie while she's getting her diaper changed, or to crawl up onto the ottoman to give her a kiss. Sometimes, she'll sit down and tap her arms and say "hold" because she wants to hold Carlie, or she will spread out the tummy time mat and say "tum tum" because she wants to lay beside her while she does tummy time. It's really so sweet and so exciting to watch the bond forming between them!

Carlie had many firsts this month! She had her first visit to the beach (remember she went to the shore house last month, but we never actually made it to the beach with her), as well as her first road trip to central PA to meet Mommy's side of the family & to camp at the cabin. She also went to the Snow Shoe parade for the first time and wasn't scared at all by the bands and fire trucks...although I think next year she'll be fighting her sister for some of that candy that she collected at the parade!

Carlie's Birth Announcement!

Photo Card

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Carlie's 1-month update

Today, Carlie Isabella is already one month old! It's funny how it seems like she was just born yesterday, but at the same time we can't remember what it was like before she was a part of our family!

As of her 2 week appointment, she was in the 25th percentile for everything, but I can tell just from looking at her that she has grown SO much in those two weeks! Her face has really started to fill out and become more round & her body/legs don't seem nearly as scrawny as they did when she first came home. At her 1-month appointment, she was in the 25th percentile for height and 59th for weight and head circumference. She weighed 9 pounds, 5 ounces, was 20.25" long and had a 14.75" head.

Carlie continues to be a great sleeper! By her two-week appointment, she was back up past her birth weight, so I no longer needed to wake her for feedings. In the past week or so, she has started sleeping for 5.5-6.5 hour stretches at night, which makes for one happy (and mostly well-rested) Mama! This means that she's already down to just one nighttime feeding (around 3AM), after going to bed around 9 (although she tends to fall asleep around 8 on her own & I wake her again to feed her before I actually put her to bed). She usually wakes for the day around 6:30-7. She typically cat naps all morning long and then takes one big nap (2 or 2.5 hours) when Hadley naps around noon - that's great for me so that I can also rest or get caught up on things around the house.

During the day, Carlie typically eats every 2-3 hours, however she has been making a habit of cluster-feeding all evening from about 5:30 on. It sounds exhausting, but I don't mind it one bit if it means that she's going to continue being a superstar sleeper at night!

In general, Carlie is a really content baby, especially when she's got her paci. She has recently started to coo & we caught her first social smile on video today! She also doesn't seem to mind tummy time too much. Miraculously, she has rolled from belly to back at least 7 times in the past 1.5 weeks (yes, the first one was at 2.5 weeks old!). The first time or two, I thought it must have been a fluke because she seemed like she was pushing against a gas pain or something, but then it just kept happening and happening! Hopefully she'll keep practicing that one!

Carlie got her first sponge bath (May 6th) and tub bath (May 22nd) this month! She was not a big fan of the tub bath the first time, but seemed to enjoy it a bit more the second time.

She also had her first road trip to the shore this month for Memorial Day weekend! She did great and slept the entire way! Unfortunately, she didn't get to go to the beach, but we've got all summer for that!

We love our little Carlie-bug!

Photo by Keri Tex Photography