My Baby Girl is 3 Months

Here is some pictures of Julie Beth at 3 months old.... she's growing so fast!!

She's quite a talker these days!!

All smiles!

Talking to Mommy

She's squealing in this picture...

I'm a princess!

She's falling in this picture a little bit, but I wanted to post it to show how petite she is. Everyone comments on how small she is, and she really is. She's growing like a weed, but Will was at least 3 pounds heavier at this age.

These uploading in the opposite order, and I'm in a hurry and didn't have time to fix it. She started out with her paci, but then got happy and spit it out to talk...

At three months, we guesstimate her weight to be around 12 pounds. That's what the Wii says anyway. We are ordering her sound machine this week, and we plan to move her out of the bassinet in our room and into her crib in her room when that comes in. It's time to try to drop that middle of the night feeding she's still holding onto. We love our princess so much!!

Will Walks The Dog

So last Christmas (as in Christmas '09), Will received this dog as a present. He wasn't really into it until this summer when I moved some of his toys to his sister's room for when she got older. And all of a sudden, it was his dog and he was all into it! Here he is playing with it the other day:

Here he is telling his doggie to sit...

Oops! He rolled over while walking...
Around the corner they go!

Stopping to let Doggie go potty...
And they're walking again...

Petting his doggie....

As you may remember, Will has a real, alive dog named Ellie. But he likes this one better because it (he hasn't decided if it's a he/she yet) doesn't try to take his food.

Sibling Love

As I have mentioned before, Will loves Julie Beth to death. He truly cares about her and her feelings.

Here he is chatting with her...

And then giving her her pacifier....

Here they are in his playroom (which will be THEIR playroom when she gets to the age of playing). He wanted her to sit beside him while he ate his lunch. He wanted to actually hold her, but this was sufficient enough.

And here they are in their first bath together. Our normal routine is that I bathe Julie Beth, and right after that while I'm dressing her, Stephen bathes Will. Well, Friday night, Will begged to take a bath with Julie Beth. So here they are!

And although you can't tell it in this picture, they are dancing. See Stephen's laptop in the background? He was playing music, and Will was standing in the chair, holding her hands and swaying side to side. It was so sweet.

I am just so glad that Will loves her and isn't jealous. Here's a couple of stories about them:

One morning Will came and got in bed with us, as is our morning routine for about 15 minutes of family cuddle time, and he said, "Get girl." He wanted to hold Julie Beth. And we let him!

And today I was loading the dishwasher, and I had Julie Beth sitting in the Bumbo on the kitchen table, and Will was in a stool between us, and he begged and begged and begged for a napkin. I kept saying no but finally gave in because I was in a hurry trying to finish before Julie Beth started crying. So I look over, and he was cleaning her up...she had spit up and he was cleaning both her and the table. It was so precious!!

Updates on Will

So I wanted to blog about a couple of big things happening in Will's life:

No. 1, Will is pacifier free!!! We were going to start 2011 paci free as stated earlier. We got back from Memphis on December 30th. We normally keep like 8-10 pacis in his bed so that at night Will can always find one. Well, when we got home, I didn't get all of his extras out so he just had the one. He loves to have extras, so he found me 6 more around the house that afternoon! He had quite the stash hidden. So I put those up, and on the 30th we put him to bed with just one pacifier. He woke up Friday morning and came and got in bed with us, as usual, and asked "Where's paci?" And we responded, "I don't know." If he had found it, he could have had it for one more day. But he never found it and never asked for it again. So I put it up that night before bed, and we have been paci free since. He still hasn't asked for it or tried to use his sister's. Those first few days were a little hard because he missing it even though he wasn't asking for it, so he was a bit whiny and fussy, but we survived and have been paci free for a week and a half. Hooray!! He says new words almost every hour now. I truly thought this would be my battle. I'm so relieved it wasn't.

No. 2, Will is becoming a good little prayer. Now, he doesn't pray yet, but if you ask him to pray, he will fold his hands together and look down. He doesn't close his eyes yet. But he will sit still and quiet while you pray. Then when you say, "Amen," he repeats you. So precious!!

No. 3, he is great at calming his sister down. All he has to do is talk to her or give her a paci and she will stop fussing. They really do have a great relationship already.

No. 4, Will is a neat child. Now, he is a child so he does love to make a mess, but he always cleans it up. I have really been working with him on this. So now every time he's done playing, he puts all his toys up. He even does it in the bathtub. Yesterday he went to church with my mom, and she said she had to wait on him to leave because he had to help the nursery workers put ALL the toys up. And it has to be his way... Stephen says he's almost OCD about it. His wife will appreciate me one day! :)

We just love our little guy and are amazed at how fast he's growing up!!

Snow!!

So in case anyone missed it, it snowed here in Alabama. This is a rare thing. We are all under the weather but Will insisted on playing in the snow for a little while. So I bundled him up good... He has on like 4 layers on top... and the top to his tiger Halloween costume was the perfect fit so please excuse our tackiness.

Geared up ready to go!

Wow! Snow!

Snow angels!

Just not so sure about this...

I stayed inside where it was dry and warm with Julie Beth while they played outside for like 5 minutes. After that, Will was cold and ready to come in. It was fun though!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!

This little girl LOOOOOVES her brother. She thinks he's the most interesting thing ever.

Will enjoying his new chair he got for Christmas

Totally relaxed!

How big is my baby girl getting?!?! Look at that sweet face!

She sucks her paci a lot, but if it falls out as it has in this picture, her fist will do!

Do you see how light her hair has gotten?!

This is right before bathtime for Will (hence the reason he's in just his diaper). These babies love to cuddle together in someone's lap. They hold hands often, which just melts my heart. They already love each other so much, and I just pray this continues over the years.

My Little Artist

So, I don't know if the Christmas post will ever happen. Stephen has all the pictures on the nice camera, and I can't get to them. But it was a lovely, magical Christmas. Maybe I will do just a words post on it later.

Anyways, onto my little artist. Since starting preschool, Will has really taken to drawing, coloring, painting, gluing, anything crafts related really. The other day we were stuck inside all day, and he was pretty miserable so we did a lot of crafts. Here's some pictures:

Painting

Still painting

Playdough hearts we made

So concentrated on painting

Isn't he just adorable? We think so, but we are his proud parents.

Julie Beth 2 Months Old

So, this post is almost a month old, but hey, it's better late than never; right?

Well, anyways, Julie Beth turned 2 months old on December 11th. We went for her 2 month check-up on the 9th. She weighed 10lbs even which is the 50%, and she was 22 inches even which is the 59%. Gasp, we have a child in the above average height category. Keep in mind, when Will was a year old, he was in the 8% for height. What can I say? They have a short mama! She was healthy and right on track. I asked about her right eye watering all the time, and he said that she has a TINY tear duct there, and so that's why. He said it will probably stretch with age and thus fix the problem. For now, we try to keep it dry and put Vaseline on her skin that dries out from always being wet. And this part may be too much for some, but Julie Beth poops A LOT everyday. It's so funny to me that my children are so opposite. I breastfed/breastfeed both of them eating most of the same diet, and at this age we started giving Will prune juice to help him go. With Julie Beth, every 2 or 3 days we are giving her 2-4 ounces of soy formula to help her not go. So hopefully that's going to continue helping. Shout is a MUST when doing her laundry. :)

At 2 months, Julie Beth sleeps a total of 10 hours at night with one feeding somewhere in between. She usually sleeps about 6 to 7 hours and then gets up and eats and then sleeps another 3 or 4 more. It's lovely. I prayed for a baby that loved sleep as much as me... and I think I may have gotten it!