Being that Finn is 2.5 years old this month and Fish is 6 months old, we decided to do family photos. My last attempt at family photos didn't go so well. But that had nothing to do with the family, but everything to do with the photographer (namely me -- I was quite stressed about getting them done quickly because of the three month old and the cranky toddler so I didn't look at the photos while I was taking them and I was pretty unhappy with them).
My next attempt I knew that I wanted in late August at the beach (of Lake Erie). I had a concept in my head and the light wasn't exactly what I wanted (I was thinking beautiful sunset with gorgeous pinks and yellows, instead we got windy and cloudy). But I think that they turned out better than I had imagined in my head. Always a plus when that happens. Enough words and now onto the visuals. Hope you enjoy.
We're goin' to Kentucky, we're goin' to the fair... To see the senoritas with flowers in their hair!
Quite the noise maker!
And music maker!
Learning what sounds each letter makes
An evening walk -- we were blessed with a couple of cooler days (now it's sweltering and our AC's broke). Can't wait for autumn!
She just learned how to skip!
Up close and personal with Fish
Rockin' some shoes!
Our local church had a festival and Finn got to ride on her first pony! It's name was Midnight and she loved the purple saddle!
Riding Midnight
We also played in their little kid play area for a while. Sister was learning that having a brother isn't so bad -- at least when it comes to teeter-totters.
Fish definitely felt like a big boy!
"Daddy! Daddy! Look at me! Look at me!"
Getting pretty good at standing!
Moving and grooving to the music.
We also had our first funnel cake.
She rode on the Rocket with Daddy. Such a big girl.
Coming back from their ride on the Rocket which goes around town.
Last weekend, she gave up her binkies. The Binky Fairy came and took them all to give them to all the little baby girls that needed them. She even signed her name.
The magic words were "Binkies for babies" three times. And we put them in the mail box so that the Binky Fairy could find them. And now that she is a big girl (and not a baby anymore) we are enrolling her in gymnastics class next week!
We had dinner with one of E's co-workers and they have a son that was born two weeks after Brother.
Their oldest was a girl who was five and she was doing gymnastics all night. Finn was really impressed and now really wants to go to gymnastics class. She was tumbling and trying to do handstands all the next day.
We hit up Toys 'R Us the next morning because she got to get a "big girl" present from the Binky Fairy.
Fish wasn't impressed.
An ordinary morning -- this is how he sleeps.
Big smiles in the morning.
He is really grabby now. And funny, too!
We went to dinner with another friend of E's later in the week. She got to wear a pretty dress!
Taken from our sidewalk -- this is our King of the Forest.
According to my unscientific weighing and measurements, Fish is
weighing in at a whopping 21.5 pounds!! And he is measuring in at 28.5
inches. His six month checkup that was scheduled for earlier in the month was rescheduled due to the pediatrician being unavailable. The new appointment is next week, so I'll update you next week on his official weight & height then.
We are currently sporting size 3 diapers. But I ran out of 3's earlier in the week and put him in sister's size 4 diapers. Sad to say that both of my kids could probably wear the same size. But with sister moving out of diapers, it won't be happening. If I wanted to buy size 4's, I don't think that he would have any issues with them. Sigh... He's just getting too big too quickly.
He is currently wearing size 6-9(6-12) month clothes, but I think that we are really pushing it. The pants that are shown in the above photo are 6-12. The waist band and the length won't cut it for very long. I'm going to be moving him into some 12-18 month pants next week , but I have a crap-ton of 6-12 fall/winter clothes. I was hoping that he wouldn't be moving into 12-18 until the beginning of the winter. I'm going to try and keep some of the bigger 6-12 outfits, but the 6-12 month pants are no longer. Although we could probably move shirts up a size too, I'm going to hold off for a week or two (as I don't have a lot of summer clothes in 12-18). So long story short, he is in 12-18 month pants, 9 month onesies, and 6-12 & 9-12 month shirts (for a couple of weeks at least). Here's to crossing your fingers that he will slow down a little bit in order for me to get to use some of those clothes.
We are still going strong on the breastfeeding as his chubby little thighs are showing. He is a big eater, which sometimes exhausts me. But I wouldn't give it up for the world. He is starting to slowly stretch out his feedings to every 2.5-3 hours and I think this has a lot to do with the fact that he is eating solids now.
Speaking of solids, he is eating like it's his job! His current fare is bananas, sweet potatoes, pears, apples, acorn squash, butternut squash and green beans, along with oatmeal and barley. We are going to be starting peas, peaches, pumpkin, carrots, and mangos in the coming weeks. He is also eating A LOT. He will eat 2 oz of fruit and 1-2 oz of rice cereal, oatmeal, or barley for breakfast. And he will eat 2 oz of vegetables and 1 oz of fruit in the evening. If I would let him, I know that he would also eat during lunch. I'm going to speak with our pediatrician about how much he should actually be eating, as I don't want him to not get enough breast milk.
There are no teeth to speak of -- not even a bump (I thought I felt one this morning, but when I felt again, I think that it was just wishful thinking). He is drooling all the time and gnawing on everything, but nothing. (Sister didn't get her first teeth until 9 months and she was exhibiting all the same signs as him just as early as he has been.)
Dude is just not a roller. He has rolled over from both his stomach to his back and from his back to his stomach. And he has rolled over from his back to his stomach multiple times. But he just refuses to roll from his stomach to his back. I know that he can do it -- he just doesn't want to.
During tummy time, he is starting to do some scooting. He can scoot around to face the opposite direction. And he is kicking his legs and trying to get his booty in the air, which he does a good job of. But tummy time is NOT a favorite activity of his.
Fish is sitting up like a boss. He has an occasional face-plant, but for the most part, I'm pretty comfortable sitting him up on the carpet without pillows on all sides of him. But definitely not comfortable enough to do it on our kitchen tile or the hardwood floors. And he doesn't even need to tripod anymore. He can sit up and pick up a toy and put it too him mouth. Balance is getting good.
He really loves to stand up and is quite good at it. He will stand with assistance for at least 30 seconds before his knees give out. I think this has a lot to do with the bouncer that we have (which he loves) and while in the kitchen, he in an exersaucer where he can practice putting weight on his legs.
Of course, he still sleeps with us. Unfortunately, he still isn't sleeping through the night. He will still get up 2-3 times a night to eat. He will go to sleep around 8:30 and usually wake up between 7am - 8am. For naps, he usually falls asleep on his own in his swing, but recently, he has been wanting to be rocked to sleep (which is alright by this mama).
While Finn has her lamb, Fish has his blanket. There is no particular blanket that is needed, but he always falls asleep faster if he is snuggling with a blanket, even better if the blanket is over one ear.
Fish is also now a jabber-jaw, except he doesn't jabber, he bellows. There is lots of loud, long "aaaaaahs" and I mean LOUD. Finn has started crying quite a few times and when I ask what is wrong with her, she responds that "Brother is yelling at me!" He does have his jabbering moments, but mostly it's just wild-man calls -- and lots of them. When we are in the kitchen and I'm starting to prepare his solid food, he starts to get really vocal -- with lots of short wild-man calls. It's almost as if he wants to make sure that I don't forget about him -- because "I'm hungry!"
Dude seriously loves singing and music! He gets so excited when you sing a song on the radio to him -- it's even better than dancing! A lot of the times, he will even start singing along with you, which is really cute. Unfortunately, Finn doesn't appreciate the back-up singer that is sitting right next to her in the car when she asks me to sing "Papa's song" (Hush, little baby, don't say a word). She gets very angry because he is shouting louder than I can sing for her to hear.
When he gets excited, his hands go to town! It looks like he is conducting an orchestra. His little fat wrists start going in circles. And when I'm changing his diaper and he doesn't have a shirt on, there is lots and lots of fat-tummy slapping. He also kicks when he gets excited, which makes diaper changes difficult sometimes.
All in all, I'm really loving the age that he is at right now. He is such a snuggle bear and quite the good baby. He is fun, full of laughs and makes the greatest faces!
As you can see by the photo, we have moved Finn into a "big girl bed". She was very excited about it. Being that she is fully potty trained during the day (nap included now), the next step is getting her out of diapers for the entire night. She hasn't quite realized the power that she has now of getting out of bed in the middle of the night to sneak into our room. But it's only a matter of time.
Along with getting a "big girl" bed, the bink fairy is coming tomorrow evening. Heaven help me! We have been talking about the bink fairy for the past month or so. She was totally okay with the idea of giving all her binks to a fairy that will distribute them among baby girls that need them more. Until push came to shove! And now she proclaims that she isn't a big girl anymore, that she is a baby and that she doesn't want to give her binks away. So if you hear wailing on Saturday coming for the direction of Ohio, it's just my kid screaming for her bink. I'm stocking up on cases of wine...
This kid. Too big for his britches (quite literally). I am going to save a lot of update information on him as Saturday is his 28 week update, but I can't get enough of this kid.
And this kid can't get enough of me! He has a serious case of separation anxiety. It only occurs when he sees me go. If he is distracted by something else, he's fine until he realizes that I'm gone. Then the flood gates open.
Finn was blessed with not one, but two motorized vehicles within the past two weeks. One was a golf cart from her Opa. And the other was given to her by David, E's Italian friend's kid. The Italians have a place in Scranton and David kept the John Deere there -- but he is now 10 and is over it. Well, Finn isn't! She loves it and is zooming all over the yard. And her Papa will be happy to know that the girl is learning how to steer! And it's pretty nifty because Papa & Mimi both work at John Deere, so I think they would approve.
I'm not sure where the summer has gone. Today the high was 67 degrees. The kids & I are in long pants and sweaters. We still have the windows open though. Our air conditioner has been on the fritz lately. E fixed it once already, but I'm not sure what he fixed actually fixed it because it stopped working again over last weekend (when it was really hot). But the cool air makes it feel like fall. I'll take it.
Finn has also turned the corner on 2. She will be officially closer to 3 on Saturday and really is starting to act it. The sass that comes out of this girl's mouth is unreal! But the ideas and storys that are starting to come out are quite hilarious. She is going to be a gifted story-teller that's for sure. She already uses facial expressions, hand gestures and head tilts while discussing things with you. It's amazing to watch.
And we are going to be enrolling Finn in gymnastics class come September. Since she is 2.5, I will have to participate with her (i.e. follow her around the class). But we are beginning with gymnastics as there are no dance studios that will take a 2.5 year old. Everything dance requires the child to be 3 years old. So we are going to start with somersaults and balance beams. E thinks that she will be over the moon for it. I'm a little leery as she seems pretty shy around strangers and other strange girls (most times).
When did this kid get so big? Honestly, I feel like I turned my back on him for a minute or two and when I turned back around, he got so big. Not fair. Last week, we did a little photoshoot with him (reminiscent of the one that we did with Finn at the exact same age). As he is getting older, he definitely doesn't look like Finn, but in looking at the photos, there is quite the family resemblance there. No one can mistake that they are brother and sister.
And I will admit that I put up quite a few photos for this post. But sometimes, this little dude gets quite the photographic shaft. He is still at the age where he doesn't really do anything, especially when we go places. He hangs out in his car seat and sleeps. And while I do take those photos as well, Finn gets 15 photos of her doing cute things and he gets one. Times will be a'changin' soon though. The lunker is starting to get too heavy to be carried around in his infant car seat. I think the requirements of the infant car seat are 30 pounds or 32 inches. I don't know how a baby that weighs 30 pounds would fit in that car seat! I'm beginning to have issues carrying him around and he only weighs a little over 20 pounds. I think we might be topping the 32 inches restriction before the weight. We have our six month well-check next week -- we'll find out then.
Another admission -- I did NOTHING special to his eyes in these black & white photos. There was no editing to the color of his eyes. Yes, you can't see the color of his eyes in these photos, but you can see the dark ring and the light centers? Yeah, didn't edit that at all! I showed E the photos and he said that his eyes look weird. I'll admit that it looks like I over-processed them -- but those suckers are all naturale. It just happened to be great lighting with the right angle to illuminate those baby blues.
And while this post is all about Fish, I don't want to do too much of an
update on him as he has a 28-week update coming up this weekend.
Again, where did the time go? He is such a big boy now. A big boy that looks a whole lot like his daddy.
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