Ashley is 2 Months Old and Rolling Over!

Since I forgot to start off her one month pics with a stuffed animal as a comparison for growth like Ben, here is her 2 month pic to get the ball rolling.  I'll try to keep up with it each month just like Ben so we can watch her grow.  Here are some recent pics.

"I'm smiling so hard my eyes are closing!"

What are you looking at?!

Ben trying to help although Ashley didn't want the binky.

We went to the doc today and here are her stats:
Weight - 9 lbs 10 oz (25%)
Height - 22-1/2" (55%)
Head Circumfrance - 14" (3%)

So a little bit of a tiny head, but to me it's not noticeable at least.  Ashley is full of smiles and is starting to giggle/coo and make different sounds.  I love talking to her and seeing a huge grin come across her face as she stares in recognition of me.

She's also a little advanced just like her brother.  Last Tuesday she rolled over off her tummy to her back.  Just like with Ben I thought this was a fluke, but it most definitely was not.  I have a hard time getting her adequate tummy time each day since she rolls over when I put her down that way.  Instead I have to hold her up on my chest to try and get her to use her stomach/neck muscles.

Nights are still going really well.  We feed her around our bedtime (10ish) and then she'll sleep til 2-3 and go right back asleep after eating again until about 6:30-7.  I'm defintely not giong to complain about only getting up once in the night.  I think it's a welcome change from our experience with Ben.

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers!

Ben has an obsession lately with diapers and likes to stack them and move them from pile to pile.  He seems to steal all of Ashley's diapers from the pack n play so it's not easy for me to find any when I need to change her, but when I find one I find a ton!  Here's a video of him with his 'normal' diaper routine.  He likes to pick them up one at a time and hand them to Bri or I.  He even calls out who's on the diapers (sesame street characters) and indicates 'yuck' for inside the diaper where you go potty.  He's even had to go to sleep with some in his crib because he wouldn't let go of them one night.  Who knew diapers were hours of entertainment both on and off?!

He also likes to help around the house - I only wish he could maneuver the vacuum a little better and maybe I'd be off the hook for it!

And of course he likes to 'pet' and hold Ashley.  Oh and the binky in his mouth is back due to the fact that Ashley gets one.  He tends to steal them and shove them in his mouth to get attention like her.  He doesn't sleep with it or leave the house with it, it's mainly a short stint and then he leaves it somewhere that I have to eventually find.  If that's the worst of it - I'll definitely take it! 

Ashley is One Month Old!!

Ashley went in yesterday for her one month checkup and is growing really well.  She has gained about 2 pounds since she was born and grown about 3"!!  That's a lot of work for a month!

Stats:
Weight - 7 lbs 15.4 oz (25%)
Length - 21-3/4" (75%)
Head Circm. - 13-3/4" (10%)

This weekend we went to Deanna Rose on Saturday since it was so nice out (along with everyone else in JOCO).  He was a little scared of the goats this time around, but still liked to see all the animals.  He especially liked to takes rocks from one end of the park by the goats all the way over to the cows at the other end.  Well worth the money for him to relocate pebbles in their park which I'm sure they appreciated.


At the Koi pond



What are you looking at goat?!



I need more Cowbell!

Then on Sunday we went over to the grandparents to celebrate Brian's dad's 80th birthday and Brian's birthday.  All of the fam was there so Ashley was finally able to meet everyone.  Ben even had a great time playing with all his cousins.


Ashley with Julie and Kylie



Leah, Holly, Ashley, Ben and Sarah



Krissy and Ashley

Ben is still really gentle with Ashley and a great big brother.  He likes to help throw diapers away and 'pet' her.  Yes, pet.  We say be gentle and I guess he's learned with the dog that the words gentle and pet are synonmous to him. 
Here are some pics of us lounging around this weekend.


Loves his chair and drinking water from a bottle



"Petting sissy"

Is Ellie out here?

Ben's everyday activities - pushing around the cozy coupe and singing the wheels on the bus and petting "Ashey".  Ben is obsessed with buses.  He says bus about a million times a day and always points them out when we're driving around.  I have a video of it, but can't seem to get it to upload after several tries.

Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth

It's been a while since I've posted a video of Ben and since he is getting bigger and more talkative by the day I figured it was about time.  Now I know all parents think their kid is the smartest and most talented, but I'm not delirious.  Ben is advanced on certain things, but definitely not all.  Of course I am the kind of parent who will show off his talents rather than his not so bright side! So without further ado, here is a video of Ben pointing out his body parts.

Dance Party

Here's a video from Sunday of Ben dancing while Milo is trying to sort fridge magnets and give them to him.  Unfortunately Ben was working too hard on his awesome dance moves to pay attention to Milo.  Once Milo gave up he decided to talk to his buddy on his 'phone'.  Quite an entertaining duo we had!

Representin'

So this past weekend when my sis was in town we went to Holiday Mart and there was so much to see.  We definitely had a good time and could've easily spent a full day there, but in the short amount we spent there we found a few unique items.

I have a new favorite shirt and so does Ben (or at least it's my favorite shirt for him).  Maybe it's the irony of the shirt that I like best or the fact that it's him wearing it - my son, who cries at the drop of a hat.


JoCo Tough! - So true!



He's still a handful, but a ton of fun especially since he's talking a lot more now which is awesome.  He can say (in his own terms - and these are our loose interpretations for his gibberish) outside, dog, dada, mama, papa, turtle, shoe, sock, sit, what's this, please, thank you, ball and his favorite...NO!  We've been working on our use of said word, but he still has that as his favorite and chooses to use it constantly.  If it's not outside (ow-sigh) or dog it's the word no.  What I love most is when we read to him and he tries to repeat the words you say.  He's really been working hard to put the sounds together to make them match.  The animal book is still one of his favorites and turtle and penguin are the two favorite animals in those books.  He can't quite say penguin although he tries (shenhoo is what comes out).

A few new things he's been doing lately that Bri and I can't resist are when he reaches out to hold our hand.  He uses this a little too much to his advantage though as generally we're being led to the door for outside play.  Apparently he's more of a take charge and director type of personality since his other trick is to sit down on the ground and then point to the spot next to him and say 'sit'.  He will repeat this word until you finally sit next to him and then a few seconds later he's up and moves about 5 feet away and does it all over again.  This is easier for Bri than I as my bump is starting to get bigger and getting up/down from the concrete driveway is not all that easy nor enticing.  He's also getting much better about stairs and he tries to take them on like a big boy if holding your hand - he prefers this actually.  He's even mastered the stairs on our lower deck outside which kind of made me sad.  He seems so big and grown up already!

Here's a video since it's been a while on that front.  The end is the best part!


Also - for those of you that don't know or don't read my facebook page, we are having a girl in March!  We had a sono two weeks ago and I'm just really delayed to get this updated here, but nonetheless, here's pics from the sono.


Foot



Profile

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, Stop!

Ben is starting to dance and follow along to the Yo Gabba Gabba dances (yes, he still watches this show and it's still the only one that he's interested in).  Thought the video is fun despite how close he is when watching the TV at times.

Frankenstein & Basketball

Odd combination for a title, yes. To start with Frankenstein - that is his new nickname at daycare. They told me this on Friday afternoon and it's all I could think of all weekend long when I saw him walk. For some reason he holds his arms out in front of him when he walks now and it's hilarious. I guess it could be for balance, but he's able to hold things while he walks which just makes me extremely nervous so his balance is actually pretty good. For instance, this weekend he insisted on carrying his mini tv/music thing across the room which is half his size. He fell down a lot and got really frustrated, but eventually made it. Then he wanted to head back.... ugh. Walking is now his primary choice to get around (unless he wants to get there in a hurry) and he is able to get up from the floor so all bets are off. Here's a video that sort of shows you Frankenstein with a basketball.

Speaking of basketballs, Ben is fascinated with basketballs and hoops. His dreams will be shattered eventually like Brian's were when he realizes he's too short to ever really play, but hopefully that's a long ways off. He loves putting the basketball through the hoops and can even walk around with a full size basketball in his arms. Crazy strength - almost superhuman. It just doesn't look right. And why we have 3 basketball hoops at our house is beyond me, but at least there's always one handy. Here's some pics from the weekend.

Walking

I think we can officially say he's walking.  He has been taking a handful of steps on his own for a while, but now he's walking across rooms.  Ben will lose his balance still, but has gotten much better about steadying himself as he goes.  I'm sure it won't be too terribly long before that's all he does.  Yesterday he was even able to stand up on his own from the ground rather than pulling himself up on things to get standing.

Chairs

I'm not sure if anyone else dealt with this prior to the walking phase, but chairs are fascinating apparently.  Either that or Ben will end up being an interior designer or home stager.  Here's some footage of what takes place everyday in our kitchen around dinner.

Doors

One of Ben's latest favorite things to do is closing doors. He gravitates to them and loves playing with them. So far he hasn't locked him or us out of anywhere yet or slammed his fingers in the door (although he has in drawers). Here's a short video of him in his element.



Also, when we went to the doctor two weeks ago he said Ben's upper gums were swollen, but still no teeth. He's still doing all the motions of the teething (as compared to the last time) so we'll see if they ever pop out. So to capture his mood the last two weeks here's a pic.

Helmet

We went to the doctor today and found out that Ben is slowly trending lower and lower on the stats scale. For his 9 month checkup he weighed in at 9lbs 3ozs(30%), is 27.5" long (25%), and his head circumfrance is 17.75" (45%). I think part of the less weight gain is due to his mobility. He rarely sits still and even when he sleeps he tosses and turns all night. He's definitely cruising around on his toys and one of his favorite things to do is stand at his play table and walk around it. He's even getting better using his walker and we don't have to help him with it anymore which is nice.

Here's a video from today after the doctor visit. Good thing he has a big head, hopefully it's well padded! Otherwise we may need to consider putting a helmet on him if he's going to keep this up. Let's just say Ben's pretty special or just stir crazy for this never ending winter!



I've updated a few more videos on you tube as well so enjoy!

And crawling...

So the last video I posted was from Wednesday and this is from this morning. He's learned to crawl just far enough to dive to his destination. He's starting to understand that he can get places also which means we're going to have to keep a close eye on this little troublemaker.

Almost Mobile

So Ben is very close to being mobile. Here's a video from the other night. I finally started babyproofing last night, but I'm sure we'll find things we missed once he has a better hang of it. He still won't go more than a few crawls before stopping, but pretty soon he'll be off and we'll never be able to catch him again. Ah, the joys of parenthood. On one hand I'll be very happy we don't have to carry him around and get things for him, but on the other I'll miss the days of being able to walk away and not have to worry about him for a few seconds.

Quick story - Brian dropped Ben off at daycare yesterday and put him down at which time he crawled a little ways across the room to steal a toy from another kid. I think we may have a trouble maker on our hands and guess we need to start working on sharing.

Feeding the Dog?

Well this morning Ben figured out that if you hold a puff in your hand near the dog that she will take it out of your hand and eat it if you won't. This basically meant that the dog got more food than he did. Oh well, I guess they are BFF anyway. I didn't get video of him actually feeding the dog, but this is close enough.

Moving Up

Well Ben was moved up to the 'crawling' room today at daycare. Now hopefully he learns from his friends and actually starts to crawl. He's getting close so here's a video of him today on the floor. His new thing is to get up on his tippie toes and he will lunge forward so he'll probably be mobile in the next few weeks......I think. (And I apologize for the Halloween bib.)



The dog is still his best friend of course and we can always count on her to put a smile on his face. So far she's still receptive of him, but I think it's because of the food and drool around is mouth/bib. Kind of gross, I know, but we try to keep her from actually licking him so she follows him around in the hopes that he drools on the floor.

Dada?

So Brian is convinced that Ben has said his first words. He basically has been repeating the sounds which forms dada. Judge for yourself though.

Peek A Boo

So Ben thinks this is the funnest (yes - funnest) game ever. We've begun to play it on a daily basis just to hear the giggles and it seems like every day it gets more hilarious. It doesn't seem to matter what object or if we are hiding from him - either way he cracks up. Here's a video we got of it the other day when he couldn't get enough.

Yes, he is in the baby bjorn. His fussy time is late afternoon and he is only content in that or his door jumper so we switch off between the two. Also, that is a deflated balloon of what used to be a bear.

Pumpkin Patch

Ben went to his first pumpkin patch this past week and was very entertained looking at the pumpkins. He just stared while we picked out our pumpkins and even let out a few laughs. Here's a pic of him next to pumpkins that way just as much if not more than him.

This week he's started to sit completely on his own. Ok, so it's only for a few seconds without tipping over, but he tries real hard to sit there. He's also enjoying his jumper. We let him sit in it for quite a while today and he was very content the whole time. I'm glad he's finally enjoying it more than the first couple times we had him in there. It's always nice to have new arsenal for keeping him busy. See the video below for playtime this afternoon.

4 Months

Ben's hit the 4 month milestone quicker than I'd thought. Sorry I'm a day late and my posting has slowed down so much, but it's been busy around here with work, studying, baptism prep and MRIs. Yep, Ben is still a pain in my behind, literally.

So to play catch up he's....(deep breath)...grabbing toys, making lots of interesting sounds, sucking his hand and thumb at times, watches football, making monkey faces, rolling over both ways, and laughing (especially when Brian does the theme from Monday Night Football).

He had his checkup today and basically he's average. He weighs in at a whopping 15 lbs 1.5 ozs (55%), 25" long (50%), and head circumference is 16-3/8" (40%). So he has a small head like Brian and I.

Here are some pics from the last month - click the pic for a slide show and there's a video below of just him lounging around.