Anna: 4 Months

Today is September 22, 2013 and you are 4 months old!

You were weighed on 09.04.13 and weighed 13 lbs 6 oz.

You grew 2.5 inches since birth too!! That was HUGE!

You are wearing size 2 diaper, but the next time I buy diapers I will most likely buy size 3.

You are almost out of your 3 mos sleepers. For being such a peanut for so long, you have really started to chunk out. I am buying you 3-6 mos and 6 mos stuff for the fall/winter. UPDATE: I just took out all your 3 month stuff and the past two nights you have been in 6 month sleepers! My baby is growing!

You "talk" all.the.time!

You started laughing this month and you smile constantly!

You rolled over once from your tummy to you back right at 3 months. You try so hard to do it from your back to your tummy and it will be very soon!

You are really starting to love on your lovie! :)

I moved you into your "big girl room" with your sisters, Natalee and Emily on 09.14.13. You have since done great and are only waking once at night to eat around 3am. You get 4 ounces and go right back to sleep until 8am. I am going to be getting you off of that bottle in a week or so before my surgery, so you can sleep through the night for Daddy...oooor maybe I shouldn't? ;)

You are such a happy girl. So different from a few months ago!

You love watching your mobile and playing under your jungle gym.

You love the bouncy seat and the swing.

You also do really well in the bumbo and love to practice sitting up.

You love the exersaucer.

You love being in the Baby K'Tan still and I am looking at getting an Ergo to keep wearing you.

You still love your bath and Natalee LOVES helping me give you a bath.

Your schedule goes like this:

8am: Wake up, diaper change, we all come downstairs and you sit in the bouncy seat while I give your sisters their breakfast. 
9am: 6oz bottle, then playtime in the exersaucer.
10am: You go in the swing upstairs and take a 30 min nap.
When you wake up, you come back downstairs to play.
12pm: 6oz bottle and then diaper change and you go in your bed. Normally you fall asleep in seconds. You sleep until 4pm.
4pm: Everyone gets up, diaper changes and we come downstairs! Yay, Daddy is home!
Normally around 4:30/5pm: 6oz bottle.
5:30pm: In swing upstairs, for about a 20 minute nap.
You get a bath every other night, and bath time is around 6:30pm.
8pm: 6oz bottle and night-night time! You fall asleep in minutes!



Here are some photos of you this past month:

09.14.13

We love you so much little Anabelle! You are such a sweet girl!

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee: 22 Months!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Here we are once again, TWO MONTHS from TWO!!! AHH!

Just some quick stats of each of the girls:

Madelynn: 23 lbs 8 oz

Claire: 22 lbs 11 oz

Natalee: 19 lbs around

All size 4 diapers.

All brown hair. 

M and C - blue eyes, Nat - dark brown eyes

Mostly 18 month and 24 month clothes. Some 2T. Pants need to be long, shirts need to be a little smaller.

Size 4 (Natalee), 5 and 6 (M and C) in shoes.

You sleep great. About 8pm to 8am, every single night. Although some nights, Madelynn and Claire, you stay up past 11 o'clock just giggling, talking and laughing with each other.

1 nap from 12:30PM - 3:30PM.

You all love to eat. Your favorites this month is still pizza and every fruit and veggie. There isn't one fruit or veggie you won't eat. I love you girls for it, just like your Momma! You all love pickles and olives too!

{ In order: Claire, Natalee, Madelynn }

You all love to talk. You can say, Momma, Dadda, Baby, No, Yes, Barney, Elmo, Shoes, What is it?, I see?, Thank you, Please, Bye-Bye, Night-Night (ni-ni), Belly button, Bubble, Cup, Ba-ba, Hi, Go..probably more, I just can't remember!

You can point out your eyes, nose, mouth, hair, belly button, hands and feet.

You can say the sounds for a lion, cat, cow, and duck...but refuse to say others for some reason.

You go up and down the stairs all by yourself.

When you do something you're not supposed to, you look at me and say, "no, no, no".

You love to be outside. You love the slide and swings. You go to the tallest slides you can find and those are the ones you each go down.

You love car rides. You love to just go anywhere out of the house. I don't blame any of you, I love to get out too!

You love to color. Claire you are still the best colorer.

You love to read.

You all love to be tucked-in at night.

You love to give kisses!

This month we changed around your rooms to Madelynn and Claire in one room and Natalee and Emily in the other. You are doing much better and sleeping longer because it's not constantly play-time.

You love to play together, but you all still fight occasionally. I constantly have to say, "please be nice to your sisters" 1 million times a day!

Madelynn and Claire, you both had strep throat for the first time this past week, but you did fine. You are all on antibiotics now.

You love Barney and Elmo and love watching TV.

You love the dog and she plays so nice with you.

FUN FACTS ABOUT THIS MONTH:

You all were flower girls in your Aunt Megan's wedding on Saturday, October 20, 2012 (photos coming, I promise!). You did fantastic and danced the night away! Everyone thought you were the cutest girls!

You got to go to the airport with Momma and Daddy on Wednesday night to pick up Pop-Pop in your PJ's and everyone thought you were so cute. You were screaming "Hi Pop-Pop" over and over. You were all spoiled with being with so much family for a few days before Auntie Megan's wedding! You visited with your Great Nan, Aunt Suzie, Aunt Stephanie, Aunt Christine, Uncle Tommy, Great Nana, Aunt Jen, Aunt Terri, Aunt Bonnie, Aunt Beth, Uncle Russ, Pop-Pop, and your two cousins Katelyn and Amanda. Everyone just loves you all to pieces!

We have gone to the pumpkin patch twice this month. 

Has Momma bought your Halloween costumes yet? Big fat, nope. Not yet. Opps. Better get on that. I think you are going to be little witches or bumble bees! We shall see. Momma finally bought your costumes on Sunday and I got a mad deal on them! Off the Clearance Rack at Toys R Us, two for $7 dollars each and one for $5 dollars...all the same size and costume! THREE costumes for less than $20! Oh yes, be jealous!

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee: 17 Months!

You all are so much fun! 

You all loved to be chased and love to play outside!

You love love love your pool on our deck and love the one at Nana's house too!

Your favorite place to be in in the swings anywhere. You can swing for over an hour and still scream when it's time to get out.

You love to slide down the slides at the parks by yourselves! You all have no fear! I so love that about each of you!

You are great eaters and sleepers.

You love chicken nuggets, every vegetable and fruit there is and pretty much anything we give you. You all don't care for red meat too much but we keep trying.

You all are talking so much and are very good at following simple directions, like, bring that to Momma or let's go to the kitchen for lunch. Oh how that makes life so much easier.

You all take one nap from 1-4pm.

Finally about 20lbs!

Size 4 shoe

Size 4 diaper

12-18 Month Clothing

Obsessed with her wooden bead toy, loves her lovie and being ticked.

Says "baby", "bye-bye", "hi", "go, go, go", "pretty", "good girl", "ba ba" and "no no no".

When Momma says "share with Mommy?" you will hand me whatever you have and then shake your head and say "good girl"! LOVE IT!

Our strong, brutish, silly girl!

Finally about 20lbs!

Size 4 shoe

Size 4 diaper

12-18 Month Clothing

Loves her lovie, her daddy and to swing!

Says "baby", "bye-bye", "hi", "go, go, go", "ba ba", "beep beep" and "no no no".

Our sweet, sensitive "Lola Mae"

Still about 17lbs!

Size 3 shoe

Size 4 diaper

12-18 Month Clothing

Loves to be chased, tickled, climb things, slide down by herself and her "glowy".

Says "go, go, go", "bye bye", "hi", "gowy" for glowy.

Our little "shrimpy" "peanut" "stringbean" and "Na-Na".

Momma and Daddy love you three more than you could ever know!

...I know I kept this a little short this month...next month I will update more. I rather just play in the moment with my girls than sit here and write about it all the time!

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee: You are TEN Months Old!

Oh my goodnes, 10 months (on 10.23.11)! I can barely believe it, time flies! This has by far beeen mine and Daddy's favorite month! You all are doing so much, each day new things and we can barely keep up with things! I just love the sweet little girls you are becoming, I mean you have always been sweet, but now your personalities are really starting to shine through, and it is such a blessing to witness each day!

Natalee: You started saying "dada" on 10.20.11. You started pulling up on your knees and rocking back and forth on 10.21.11. Way to go big girl! You can push yourself backwards constantly and roll over of course, and that is your mode of transportation right now! You love cheese and yogurt and you have had so many "real" foods, including steak, chicken, turkey, baked beans, pizza...really, I can't remember anything you haven't liked yet! You have no teeth yet, but you are our best eater! You also eat lots of veggies all by yourself. You love to chat and you love to watch sports with Daddy on the couch, especially when he wraps you in our Eagles blanket. You love it!

Madelynn: By far your favorite food this month is cheerios and puffs! I think you would eat the entire box of cheerios if I let you. You shovel them into your mouth and it is so cute! You started shaking your head "no" (from side to side) for the first time on 10.20.11. Now, when you are eating and we ask you, "Madelynn, do want more bread?", you shake your head "no". It's by far the cutest thing and Daddy could barely contain himself, just asking over and over, "how does she know to do that?!" You love bread, refuse yogurt, and are just in love with trying to feed yourself all of the time! Amen baby girl! You love to use your sisters to help you stand up and brace your falls! They don't apprecaite it very much though. You love to play with Claire especially! You also love to whisper, it's the funniest thing. If I say, "Madelynn, say dada," you will look at me and start mimicking my mouth moving up and down and whisper "dadadadaada," I love it! You have two teeth, the bottom two, that came through on the same night! You take teething seriously, and do not like it at all. You are very fussy, wake up a million times at night and don't want to eat much, you poor girl! Your two top teeth are getting ready to pop through any moment and I hope they come soon because you seem to be miserable the past few days!

Claire: You are still getting up on your knees and hands and rocking back and forth but that's as far as you get, you are so close to crawling though. You do the "army scoot" and are quite good at it because you can get from point A to point B in NO time! You have started attacking your sisters too, but are not the bully that Miss Madelynn is. You and Madelynn love to play together and take eachothers toys and go back and forth all day long. It makes my heart sing when I see you all playing together each day, I just love it to pieces.  You have one tooth on the bottom (the right side) and one tooth on the top (the left side). The other top left tooth is almost through, it's right there and will pop through any day!! You don't seem to be too bothered with sprouting teeth.

This is the first month where you guys have really started playing together.
Madelynn and Claire, you seem to always be next to eachother. It is SO interesting to watch identical twins, I tell ya, I am learning so much. It really intrigues me and the older you get the more and more I see.

You are all in size 9 month sleepers.

You are all wearing size 9 month outfits, but they are getting short in the legs! Size 6 month and most 6-9 month outfits are too small now. All of your "holiday attire/Christmas/winter" clothes I am getting in 12 months. You have long legs, ladies, whahoo, I hope you take after Momma!

 You wear size 2-3 shoes.
You can still fit into some 6 month onesies, but the 9 month ones fit you fine too.

You wear size 3 Pampers Baby Dry diapers during the day, and size 4 Pampers Extra Protection diapers at night.
Your 1st Birthday Party stuff has been ordered, your invitations have arrived and Mommy could not be more in love with it all! I don't know how I am ever going to out-do this year!

You all can sit up just fine. Claire, you have almost made the transistion from sitting to crawling. Our wonderful therapist works with you each week and you're getting closer and closer.
Madelynn and Claire, your voices seem to be completely different.
Natalee, you have really started talking this month!

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Our daily schedule looks like this at this time:

Somewhere between 7:30-8:30: Wake up. I take you all out of your cribs and put you on the floor and you love to play with your books and toys that just stay upstairs. Madelynn, you are always standing up in your crib now when I come in and greet me with big smiles! I love it! I get you all changed and dressed for the day and then we venture downstairs.
Natalee, you are the first to eat breakfast each day because, well, you are most impatient and can barely contain yourself while I am making your cereal. Now, it's a little easier because you eat your cheerios and puffs while I make everyone's breakfast. You eat about 3/4 cup of banana oatmeal without taking a breath most days. And then I go on to feed your sisters. Claire, you eat about 3/4 cup of banana oatmeal cereal and 4 ounces of fruit. Madelynn, you eat 4 ounces of fruit mixed with a grain and then normally another 4 ounces of a fruit. Both of you get cheerios and puffs too, and sometimes dried fruit. Normally, we are done with breakfast, no later than 9:30am.
Then we play, rotate around with toys, the walker (which Mommy picked up at a yard sale for 3 BUCKS!) and the exersaucer. Natalee, you are the only one who gets a 5-10 minute nap around 10:00am in the swing.

Around 11:30am we start lunch. Normally, Natalee eats first again and gets 4 ounces of a veggie and either 4 ounces of yogurt or 4 ounces of fruit. We practice "self-feeding" each day and you do great. You can also eat cheese, bread, peas, ham and turkey lunch meat, really anything as long as it is in small pieces. Claire and Madelynn, I basically do the same with you, 4 ounces of a veggie and 4 ounces of fruit and some "self-feeding" time. Claire, you really want nothing to do with "self-feeding" but we are working on it daily!

Naptime is promptly at 12:15pm and lasts until 3:30pm. You all sleep great and normally do not budge or make a noise the entire time. Natalee you have been in your bed for months now and you love your bed now for naps too!
Once you all wake-up, you love to spend some time with Daddy. Claire, if Daddy picks you up to kiss and hug you and doesn't keep you for a little bit and talk to you, you get very upset. Madelynn, you will stand at the gate and just cry for Daddy. It's all so cute. You are definitely noticing your Daddy this month so much! Claire, you just seem the most attached to Daddy right now! You will actually cry for him in your cries, you cry for "dadada". SO sweet!
Snacks at around 3:30pm of cheerios and puffs and dried fruit. Sometimes a yogurt, sometimes a bottle.
Dinner is started at 5:15pm and you each get 4 ounces of a meat and grain (like chicken and rice), 4 ounces of a veggie and sometimes 4 ounces of a fruit or yogurt (whatever you haven't yet had). Also, we practice "self-feeding" of all the other foods I already listed!

Bathtime, we start at 6:30pm, Daddy and I bring you all up to your room, get you undressed and Mommy gets in the shower and Daddy rotates you guys through the bath tub with me. It works out great, I just put my old bathseat (from when I was pregnant with you girls) and your bathtub goes on it and I just fill and re-fill as each of you come in. It works so well because I don't have to bend over, amen!

After the bath, we play, read books, snuggle with binkis and lovies and then it's bedtime! Bedtime is around 7:15pm, give or take ten minutes or so.

Normally, you all still wake up about twice per night for a bottle (we are working on this despertely!!!!). It has made it much easier since I just give it to you in your bed and you hold it yourselves! Natalee, Mommy still feeds you but you normally only wake up if your sisters are whinning. I really think if it wasn't for each of you waking eachother up, youall would sleep through the night. I wish there were books written about co-sleeping multiples! If I ever wrote a book, it would be on this topic! It's very hard with multiple children sleeping in the same room, believe it or not!

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Mommy and Daddy love you all so much! We have had such a wonderful time with you girls the past ten months and we are so looking forward to the next few months with the holidays and your first birthdays! We can barely believe we have survived a whole year since you were born, however, on one hand it seems like it was just yesterday when we held you each for the first time!

Happy TEN Months Baby Girls!

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee: You are NINE Months Old!

Ummm...who are these NINE month olds I have CRAWLING around my house and terrorizing each other!?! I'm speechless!

Randoms to Start:

You all know your names so well. I just call you and instantly you look at me and smile! My heart always melts, I can't believe you know your names.
You all raise your arms to be picked up when you want to be picked up or you see me coming to get you. Of course kicking your legs and jumping up and down, if your in the exersaucer is always a must, when you see Momma.
You all still love Baby Einstein and we watch it many times a day, but not as much as we used to, you all rather just play now! We have switched to some of the Baby Signing Times and Sesame Street, You all LOVE Sesame Street!!!!!!!
You love to play peek-a-boo, have me sing you songs, read to you, and you love your doggy (and any other doggy) and will laugh at her all day long!

You are all most content in the mornings, after breakfast and in the evening, after dinner.

You all always wake up smiling and I put you all in one crib and get you dressed, singing "Good Morning to you..." You all love it and love seeing each other in the morning!
By far, you all love bath time with Daddy the most or shower-time with Momma.

Natalee:

 

You have made such progress this past month! I can barely believe at the big girl I see before my eyes! You can sit up now. Your by far favorite thing to do these days is to eat your toes and you HATE when Momma put socks on your feet! You are fascinated with them! (and so are your sisters, because they still eat your feet like crazy!!)
And one day, I just gave you a pacifier since we have like a million and you took it and haven't let go of it since! You can't sleep without it and you absolutely just LOVE it! It has made you whine less and all around much happier. I am sorry it took me so long to offer it to you after I thought you were done with it.

You love cheerios and any people food for that matter! You have tried so many things....bread sticks, olives, ice cream, cheese, yogurt, pasta, rice, apple juice, water...and so much more, but I just can't remember, please excuse my pregnancy brain, Natalee, when you read this one day!

Madelynn:

You are crawling everywhere and getting into trouble all day long! You are such a determined child, I swear! Your favorite thing to do is pull up the floor mat, even though I have a blanket over it and another floor rug on top of it, you always pull up all the pieces and managed to pull it apart (since I wrote that, we have changed the whole area, mainly because I was tired of putting it all back together all of the time!!). You are slowly learning the word "no, no" but you have began to throw fits when I move you and then as soon as you are over it, you crawl right back over to the edges of the mat and go at it again....allllllll day loooooong!

You have started arching your back and throwing mad fits when you don't get your way, which is interesting because you are a "quieter" and a little more reserved than your sisters.
You love to smile at ANYONE and everyone always asks if you are always this happy!

You still have the most hair of your sisters.

You are the bully of the bunch, still. You beat up on your sisters alllll day long and I have to save them constantly!

What Mommy? I'm just trying to get over her, she is in my way!!!

You visited the hospital for the first time on Sunday, 9/11/11 for a bladder infection, with a very high fever. Momma and Daddy were very scared but you did great and smiled the whole time!

You are almost holding your bottle, you do it by yourself most of the time, only sometimes needing assistance! You hold your own juice cup just fine.

You sit up and go from sitting to crawling and crawling to sitting, very easily!

Claire:

You said "dada" for the first time while we were at the beach. You say, "dadadadadadadadadada" a million times over. It's so cute.  You babble constantly and are so loud!

You also went through a phase while we were at the beach where you stuck your tongue out consistently. It was so funny and only lasted about a week.

You love taking your socks off and chewing on them.

You hold your bottle all of the time and your juice cup! You are such a big girl!

Growing:

You have grown sooo much! You are all in size 3 diapers and honestly, I don't think it will be long before we are already in size 4 diapers, in fact I have already ordered some via Diapers For Divas!

You size 1 shoes do not fit anymore, so for fall we are moving to size 2-3. You wear shoes every time we leave the house now, unless we are just going to Grandma and Grandpa's across the street!

You are in size 6 month (Natalee) and 9 month (Madelynn and Claire) sleepers.
Your daily outfits are between 6 and 9 months but all of the stuff I am buying for fall is all 9 months and fit all of you fine, but for after your birthday, I'm sure you'll be in 12 months. I am so happy that you girls are finally catching up to your age in your growth! Most of the 6 month stuff is getting too small but since most of it is summer stuff, I am just trying to stretch it through the warmer fall days.

Stats:

At the doctors on Friday for our 9 Month check-up:

Madelynn:

Birth: 3 lbs. 14oz.

9 Months: 15 lbs. 12 oz. (7th percentile)

Birth: 16 1/4 inches

9 Months: 27 inches (25th percentile)

Claire:

Birth: 3 lbs. 14 oz.

9 Months: 16 lbs. 3 oz. (15th percentile)

Birth: 17 inches

9 Months: 27 inches (30th percentile)

Natalee:

Birth: 2 lbs. 13 oz.

9 Months: 13 lbs. 14 oz. (just barely off of the "normal" curve)

Birth: 15 3/4 inches

9 Months: 25 1/2 inches (5th percentile)

Sleeping:

We haven't had to use the "time-out" crib at all this month! Amen! In fact, we have even put it back in the attic, for now, until Little Miss gets closer to arriving!
Natalee, you have been sleeping in your crib, on your belly for naps and have been doing wonderful! You sleep great for at least 2.5 hours! At night, you are still the first, normally to go to bed (or want to go to bed) and you go down great, on your belly and with your paci, it has helped soooo much.

You all go to bed around 7:00pm and sleep until somewhere between 7:00am and 10:00am, it just depends on how many times you wake up during the night. Normally, you each don't wake up more than once, but sometimes twice.

You all love your lovies and will not sleep without them!
We also lowered your cribs to the bottom level since you are all sitting up and were starting to pull on your mobiles.

Eating:

You all eat great! Madelynn, you get 4 ounces of fruit and cereal and a yogurt in the morning, normally between 8:00am-9:00am. Claire and Natalee, you get about 1/2 of a cup of banana oatmeal cereal with about 1/4 cup of fruit mixed in. Madelynn, you still refuse to eat the baby cereal. Natalee, you LOVE your cereal in the morning and scream bloody murder for it each and every day! You open your mouth and grunt like a bird, and it's literally gone within minutes! You are so funny! Madelynn, you are the least interested in breakfast, just like your Momma!
Natalee- you had cheerios for the first time on 9.12.11, and you love love love them, along with any other people food you've had so far! Madelynn, you love cheerios too! Claire, you gag on them in two seconds.
You all LOVE your juice/water! Claire, you will lay on the floor and drink your juice for like 30 minutes. It's so darn cute!!!!!!!

For lunch, around 11:30-12:30pm, you each get about 4 ounces of a veggie and a bottle of about 8 ounces.

Bottle, 8 ounces, around 3:30pm-4:00pm.

Dinner, around 5:00pm-6:00pm, you each get 4 ounces of a veggie w/ some sort of meat, and then a fruit, about 4 ounces of that. Sometimes, if I run out of fruit, I will give you cereal, but normally I just give you cereal in the morning.
Bottle, 8 ounces around 7:00pm, or sometime you go to bed not wanting a bottle and then wake up around 10:00pm to have it, which is fine because I am normally still up then.

Natalee, you love the Baby Mum-Mum Rice Vegetable Rusks. I gave you each one on 09.08.11 and you ate the whole thing in five minutes and your sisters couldn't even get one bite down before gagging. You on the other hand, have no problem! You love them! You do so much better with textured food or real people food than your sisters do. Claire, when you get something on your tongue that has a texture, you stick your tongue out right away and let it fall off. You are so funny!

You all want anything Daddy or I have. Whether it's food or our phones, the remote, a napkin, anything...you want it. You watch us eat and stare at us like you want it all for yourself! I can't wait until we can give you people food all of the time!

I have started also giving you shredded chicken, for the first time this past weekend. It was a rotisserie chicken from Costco and of course Natalee loved it and Madelynn ate it and Claire wanted no parts of it. I shredded the whole chicken and divided it up in bags and froze it for later use.

More Randoms:

This month we did so many fun things!
We went to the beach for the first time! You all LOVED it!
You went to the zoo for the first time on 09.16.11 for the Lockheed Martin Picnic with Momma, Daddy, Gammy, Grandpa, Aunt Christine and Uncle Nate!

You went to your first Poolesville Day on 09.17.11 and everyone was so happy to see you!! You loved watching the parade and all the people walking by all day!!

You went to Smokey Glen Farm to the Shady Grove Fertility Clinic Family Picnic on 09.18.11.
Nana made you fresh applesauce with apples from our favorite market.
We bought your Halloween outfits! :)

You were featured in a Hyundai commercial!

You went to your first Poolesville High School Homecoming Football Game on 09.24.11.

We officially know if you have a brother or a sister coming in January...and, it's a sister!
Mommy has ordered all of your birthday stuff! It's all handmade and going to be gorgeous!!! I am so excited to share details soon!