Wednesday, February 26, 2014

February 2014

Hadley at 8 Months:
*She is content as long as she can watch her big brother. He makes her laugh and smile more easily than anyone.
*She has been teething all month. She's been drooling like crazy. The bottom right tooth is finally poking out. She's been a bit fussy, but taking Tylenol has helped.
*Hadley thinks animal sounds are funny. She likes reading books with bright colors and animals.
*She laughs when tickled on her feet, chest and tummy.
*Hadley is eating pureed foods 2 or 3 times a day. She loves fruits, is okay with meat/carb mixtures but doesn't care for vegetables. She will spit them out and make faces unless I mix them with fruits. She loves Cheerios and tiny bits of bananas. As soon as she gets some more teeth, she's going to love table food!
*She started crawling at 8 1/2 months. She is motivated to reach her brother's toys. Parker is not thrilled with this.
*Hadley loves to stand up. She holds on to the edge of the couch or toys for balance and will stand until she gets tired and topples over.

Parker:
*Parker loves eating out. He asks to go to restaurants where he gets special treats like apple juice and macaroni.
*He likes being a big brother. He bosses Hadley around a bit ("no Hadley, that's not for babies"), but he is still mostly very sweet towards her. He likes to feed her bottles or get her toys.
*Parker has started some tantrums, especially around bed time when he's tired. He stalls and gets extra picky so he can lengthen the bedtime routine. We remind him of his manners and we have to be tough on him. He learned how to take off his childproof door knob, so he lets himself out when he wakes up. Because of this new freedom, he wakes up about 7:15 rather than 8:00.  One evening he let himself out and yelled from the top of the stairs, "Hey, Laura! I need water!" Yikes.
*Parker got his first haircut on the 15th.  He was so excited to sit in an airplane chair. He even got to watch Thomas the Train on TV during it. He did really well, however, he wasn't too excited about the buzzer/trimmer at the end. He was very proud when it was over and was pumped to receive his first lollipop as a reward. He looks handsome!

January 2014

Hadley:
*Hadley is getting to be a good sleeper. She is much better at going down without fussing. She usually naps at 10:30 and again around 4.  She goes down at 8 and sleeps until about 8:30. Sometime she wakes up for a feeding around 10pm.
*She is sitting up really well. She loves to stand and can balance while holding on to toys for a short period.  She is interested in moving around but doesn't want to try crawling. She might get on her knees but then flattens out and rolls to get to her toys.
*Hadley is eating pureed solids. Her favorites are bananas, pears and peaches. She is not a fan of peas! She is also eating mum mums (quick dissolving rice crackers).  Parker tries to try bites of her food. Even he didn't like the peas :)

Parker:
*Parker doesn't like to sing (and rarely every will) but he does loves listening to others sing. He asks me to sing simple kid songs all the time.  Lately, he's been asking me to change songs and add his favorite things into the songs (mostly vacuums and trains).  We have caught him singing the ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle on his own.
*He knows most of his letters and can count to 20, though he usually only makes it to 12 correctly.
*Parker loves going to the YMCA for toddler gym time. He jumps on the trampoline and loves to "run really fast". He loves that he gets to sing songs and get a hand stamp at the end.
*Parker has always enjoyed drinking his milk out of bottles. It has been a comfort thing for him.  For quite awhile, we've only allowed him to drink out of a bottle after nap time and first thing in the morning. Then it was only in the morning. I delayed taking it away while Hadley was a newborn because I didn't want him to get jealous of her bottles.  I talked it up for a few days, then took Parker to the store to pick out some "big boy cups" for his milk. This did the trick. We are officially bottle-free!