4 Months Young...

I remember thinking, when Liam was 4 months old, that he was so big, he was wearing shoes, sitting in his high chair, and eating rice cereal... but with her, she's still seems so little, I can't even begin to think about giving her solid food yet. Maybe it's because I didn't have a bigger kid around to compare Liam to, or maybe it's because I knew he wasn't my last baby, that I felt like he was big and it was OK to treat him that way. But I just want to freeze time with Carolina and keep her my little baby forever.
Of course, there are certain things about babyhood that I would have her grow out of - like the crazy crying/screaming for unknown reasons, that she did on several occasions this week. It could've been the yucky cold that she (we all) have, or that she was just overtired from refusing to take naps - another thing I'd have her grow out of.
Look at that face - I don't want it to change. So sweet. (Except for the gnarly scrape she gave herself, ouchie.) Although her eyes haven't changed much yet, I'm certain they won't be the same chocolate brown as Liam's. I'm thinking hazel.
Liam's first week as a 3 year old was so-so. He felt pretty crappy from his cold, plus going cold-turkey-no-paci was kind of rough... 99% increase in stalling and fighting bedtime - and he went on a pee-in-the-potty strike and wet his pants about 5 times, I don't know what that was about, but I was not pleased. Thankfully all the iffy-ness of the past week disappeared today and we were a happy bunch!
Although I don't want her to grow up, she is. She likes to grab her feet, stuff her fist in her mouth, watch TV, watch her brother, and stand or sit up. She hates to take a nap - unless it's in the car, but goes to sleep so easily at night and gives me 8-9 hours of uninterrupted rest. At 5 months, Liam was 16 lbs. and 26 in. Lina's stats at 4 months are: 13.8 lbs (50%ile weight-for-age: perfect) and 26.25 in. (1%ile length-for-age) - and because she's so long her weight-for-length is still in the 1%ile. Still super long and skinny - but thankfully her weight is average and her gain is enough for her to be healthy.

Healthy & happy.

*Sigh*

One boy, three years, four birthdays...

It's funny how we say it's his "third birthday" when really it's his fourth. Here's his first birthday:

Second:

Third:

And turning 3 years old, on his fourth:My how Liam has grown up. Between this birthday and the last, he really went from looking like a baby to a little boy. It was an eventful year for him - he went on lots of trips, moved into a new room with a big bed, had a baby sister, stopped using diapers, and really just turned into his own funny, smart little person.

We had a great party, and I shouldn't be as exhausted as I am since it certainly wasn't that hard with all the help I had. But, I am :)

Here are some photos from the Three-Rex Birthday -

Dino decor by Meri Meri

Someone's ready for present - otherwise why would he smiling so nicely for the camera ;)

Love this pic of Heidi

P.S. that's Grant's arm sticking out of thin air

You must lick the frosting off the candles

Happy Birthday to our big 3-year old! We sure do love him!

iFun

Took some Christmas money and got a new phone that doesn't make me want to throw it through a window/drop it in boiling acid/run over it with my car 548 times/lose my mind. Specifically I got an iPhone and I've been having some fun with the Instagram app:

Good stuff.

Also, these are the only pictures I've taken, still, since New Year's. But there will be many to come next week, since a certain adorable two year old will be turning three.

Quick update on these two adorable children of mine: Liam is alllllmost potty trained. Amazing. I didn't think it would happen by 3, but apparently so, and he's kind of doing it by himself. Once he realized pooping in the potty wasn't scary after that first time (almost in the tub), he's done it pretty much ever since with only one accident. Also the kid can hold his pee a long, loooong time. But then when finally realizes he does have to go, it's too late. But, it's still only been 3 pee accidents, and mom and dad are being trained to know when he has to go - whether he thinks he does or not. He also got a short haircut this week (not a buzz like Todd wanted), short enough that he doesn't get the rats nest on the back of his head anymore - it's a good thing.

Carolina is being a good girl except for napping. She has not real napping schedule and when she does nap it's usually for only 20-45 minutes, with a very rare couple-hour nap. At least when she's awake she's not cranky, otherwise this would be a much bigger problem. The very good news is that she's still a great sleeper at night, ready for bed about 8pm and will sleep solid till about 5-6am, eat, and go back to sleep for another couple of hours - so basically she's weaning herself off the middle of the night feedings. So nice. She'll have her 4 month check-up in a couple of weeks and I'll be very interested to get her stats. She's still so long and skinny. Her pants size is still 0-3, but her 3 or 3-6 mo. tops are getting tight. I think she has the long torso/short legs that her Auntie Jen has from the Knights. But her feet are growing - because I can finally keep a pair of the cute newborn mary-janes on her (with socks)!

Love these two kids and can't wait for evenings and weekends when I can hang with them.

More Christmas

Why does it feel like Christmas was waaayyyy more than 3 weeks ago? Hm, maybe because it feels like April outside? And because worked just draaaaggged on last week? And maybe because I'm exhausted? Maybe.

Anyway, I promised more Christmas pictures and so finally here they are. These are ones from Jeran's camera. They are mostly just really funny. You'll see.

More of the twins:

(holding hands, aw)

All the cousins (attempts 1-4 of 392):

Baby swap:

Picture progression:

(you can't say we didn't try)

Oh the humanity:

Family pics!

Linda was adamant that we would take some good family pictures while everybody was together for Christmas. Since our last foray into family pictures didn't go well - at all - I was definitely wanting another shot (ha!) at it as well, and I think they turned out great!
Here's the whole fam - Lina's eyes are closed and I think Olivia is blowing bubbles, but with this many people/kids there's always something wrong, you just have to pic the lesser evil.

I'm SUPER pleased with our small family ones...

These really show how cute Liam is, especially considering how much he hates, and I do mean HATES, taking pictures.

And our beautiful baby girl... (with the craziest hair ever)

But the kicker was this one - LOVE!

Thanks Jeran and Patrick for doing such a great job!

3 Months!

Carolina Coline turns 3 months old today! And I am SO in love with her. I was pretty resolved that we were stopping at 2 kids after a rough pregnancy and birth, but she's such a good, sweet baby that I'm not sure anymore... Good news - no more weight checks for her! She apparently was gaining sufficiently each week, although I don' t think her %iles are much different. Her tummy troubles have greatly settled down (after a really horrible day of screaming a couple of weeks ago - Dr. called it colic, hmm), so she is mostly just a really happy, content baby - as long as she's not hungry, sleepy, or poopy :) . Her schedule was kind of up in the air for a while, she wasn't eating or pooping well - but that's settled down; and her sleep schedule was good, but then changed for some reason. She was sleeping until I would wake her up at 6 sometimes, but now she wakes up as early as 2, no later than 4:30... and then again at 7-something. It's not ideal, I'm pretty tired all the time - that's only going to get worse though and still one more month before I am "allowed" to cut off her nighttime feedings. But we're back to work tomorrow, so this all might change once again. I am really going to miss her, she has more smiles and more chit chat for me than anyone else - and she's very talkative.
We had these photographs taken about a month and a half ago... the photoshoot was an overall fail, except for these two pics...

Which I turned into these birth announcements...

Now I wish I'd waited to send them out, these are too cute! What a precious baby girl!