5 Months

Little Mimi,

Today you are five months old. You are beautiful, happy, and content and I’m frantically searching for the pause button in life. While I love watching you grow up and learn new things, I’d be equally as happy to keep you as my little baby forever.

Speaking of little...we had your 4 month check up a few weeks ago. Turns out, you’re not really little. You weigh in at 15 pounds 10 ounces. For a point of reference, Tyson was 13pounds 3 ounces at his 4 month checkup. Like whoa.

Want to know what a 5 month old is up to?  

You sit! Ok, it’s a tripod, but you can “sit” without assistance. You’re thrilled with this accomplishment and we’re guessing it’s because you no longer have to roll around in spit up all day long.

You eat and eat and eat and eat. Please see above about not being small. Fruit, veggies, and cereal now. Peas appear to be your favorite veggie (what the?) and bananas are clearly your favorite fruit.  Since offering veggies and fruit, you typically give us the look of death if we try to feed you cereal. I tasted the cereal the other day and don’t blame you a bit.

You laugh. Mostly at your brother. That kid can get you to laugh at anything. I spend hours making silly noises and playing peek-a-boo to hear your little laugh, Tyson says your name and you give him a belly laugh like no other.

You swim. We took you for your first swim shortly after your 4 month birthday and you LOVED it. Since then we’ve had several family swims. Your little legs kick like crazy and you have a smile plastered across your face the whole time.

You had your first cold this month and spent several afternoons napping in mommy’s arms instead of napping in your crib. I loved every minute of it, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the naps in mommy’s arms might be contributing to you STILL NOT SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!! Let’s clear this up now-I love your naps in my arms at 3PM. I don’t so much like them at 3 AM. Capeesh?

Happy 5 month birthday, baby.

I love all 15 pounds 10 ounces of you,

Mommy

Photo Friday

4th of July-In pictures!

We had an amazing fourth of July full of boating, fishing, eating, and fireworks. It was exactly what the holiday was supposed to be and I think our kids loved it. 

Hurry, Hurry Drive the Firetruck!

Our local fire department puts on a Safety Awareness day every year. It’s something we’ve talked about taking Tyson to in years past, but for one reason or another (lazy parenting) we never made it.

This year we got off our couch, loaded up the car, and made the long and treacherous  1 mile trek to the Fire house. Don’t worry-we didn’t shower before going-didn’t want to be too ambitious.

As the pictures can prove, Tyson LOVED it. They also prove how great I look when I don’t shower. Try not to be jealous.

Next year, if we can muster the energy, we’ll head back. Preferably after showering.

 

Milestones

I’m now realizing that shortly after becoming a Mother, I should have invested in Kleenex. It seems that Motherhood has reduced me to a big blubbering mess-crying at every accomplishment and failure my littles achieve. I’ve needed a Kleenex more times in the past 2.5 years than I have in the previous 29.

For the record, I’m pretty sure I’m emotionally stable. I cried the first time each were placed on my chest, cried in frustration when I couldn’t figure out how to get them to sleep, cried because I couldn’t figure out how to stop their tears, cried at Tyson’s first swimming lesson & Mila’s first smile. These tears? They seem justified and explainable.

This past weekend, though,  I cried over cereal spit up and poop. And now that I’m writing about it, I can see that you’re going to second guess my statement about being emotionally stable.

We decided to introduce Mila to solids at 4 months old. She downs formula like it’s her job (it kinda is), was showing interest in the food we were eating, and has muscle tone/neck control like a body builder.  Despite knowing she was ready, I was secretly hoping she wouldn’t like it so that I could continue to rock and bottle feed her until Kindergarten.

Wishful thinking. Girl is gonna be an eater. She couldn’t get enough of it.  

True to form, I cried when I gave her a bath that night as I washed the dried cereal spit up off of her chins (don’t hate me Mila, your baby chub was ridiculously cute).  

Yes, I cried over spit up, but I also cried because my baby is getting old already. I cried because eating cereal means that eventually she will start eating food and drinking from sippies. I cried because there will be a day when she doesn’t need me to give her a bottle or feed her from her baby spoon. I cried because I am proud of her-proud of her first milestone.

Not wanting to let Mila one-up him in the never ending battle for our attention (and my tears), Tyson decided that he would potty train himself this weekend. After months of trying every sort of bribery in the book (stickers, toys, suckers, movies etc.) he woke up Wednesday morning, picked out his underpants and stayed dry for the whole day. And then followed it up by staying dry the rest of the weekend. There were two poopy mishaps, but for the most part, the kid officially potty trained himself (praise Jesus because I really wasn’t up for the challenge and consistency potty training was requiring).  

Emotional stability be damned. I cried Thursday morning after the first time he told me had to and then successfully went poopy in the potty. Yep, I cried over poop.

But it wasn’t the poop that I was crying about. I cried because potty training is a sure sign of independence. It’s one less thing he needs his mommy for. I cried because he looks so ridiculously cute in his little Buzz Lightyear underpants. I cried because he says, “I’m going pee-pee” and means I have to pee!  I cried because he taught himself. I cried because I was so, so, proud of him.

While poop and cereal spit up might have triggered my tears, it was the intense pride in my babies that made them fall. And if crying over your kid’s accomplishments (no matter how ridiculous they might seem in writing) makes me emotionally unstable, then please book me my padded room at the Mental Hospital.  I’m sure there will be many, many more irrational and unstable tears to follow in the years ahead.   

Photo Friday

Happy (late) Fourth of July!

More pictures of our weekend including a possible update on potty training coming soon!!