So many changes are around the corner, I want to keep you updated on what's going on!

Friday, January 31, 2014

Our Month in Pictures - January 2014

So I am currently way behind, but still want to document the lightening fast changes that are happening in our family!  So while catching up I'm going to run highlights of our months, instead of weeks.  So here is the rest of January!

Finally got some serious giggles from Evie Bear - especially if you eat her tummy!


Pandora thinks the swing is hers!


Aunt Hannah helped Eb build an epic farm with his new animals!



Evie/Kitty bonding time!



Serious cold - January, 7, 2014





Evie loves her bouncer!



We've got this sitting up - getting down isn't so graceful yet!





Nursing snuggles...






This is Chris' Nanna as a baby - we think Evie looks a little like her.


Our box loving Pandora!




Life from an almost 2 year old...


On the move!


Two amazing years...


Fishing with Daddy!



Happy birthday Eb and Daddy!





Playing with his new farm stuff!





Inside fun when its too cold to go out!






Evie 6 Months!

My little Evie Bear is 6 months old!  I love watching her personality develop and trying to guess what she will grow to be!  Right now she probably the most content little person I have ever met.  She plays really well on her own and rarely cries.  Usually her cries are because her tummy hurts, she is tired/hungry or she is finally tired of being on her own.  Although we are beginning to see a temper develop, especially when we want her to lay still during diaper changes and she is more interested in wiggling she really cranks up!  She is fascinated with her big brother and everything he does. As such we hear 'No, Evie!' several times a day as she gets into some of his toys she isn't allowed to play with!  Because of her interest in him (and I think because she sleeps on her tummy) she is already moving!  It's not exactly crawling in the strict sense, more of an inch worm/army crawl, but she is certainly mobile!  And because she is mobile we have recently had to begin training her to stay away from the hearth and other 'no touch' items, breaks my heart whenever we have to start that training but I am always amazed at how quickly babies that age can learn and how much they understand!

She is becoming more vocal with babbling and talking to toys, but still no Mama or Dada yet :(  She is a super Momma's girl though!  She doesn't mind others holding her but she wants to know where I am all the time.  She is also a real homebody, she loves being home and gets super happy as soon as we walk in the door after being away for a while.  Once she hits the floor she rolls, giggles and babbles away, and starts looking for kitty!

Just this last week she had her 6 month appointment, she was 20.8 lbs (98.9 percentile) and 26.25 inches long (65 percentile)... And while we were there she received her first vaccinations.  I am always torn about vaccinations.  I know they save lives and prevent many debilitating diseases, but I also don't know how effective they are in babies whose immune systems aren't fully developed, and who are still getting lots of immunibodies from mother's milk.  I also don't see adequate research on certain immunizations and their side effects on tiny babies.   For us, we have decided that we are going to do a delayed vaccination schedule with some of the major vaccines (DTaP, HepB for example), waiting until their nervous system are more completely developed for some (think like 5 years old) (MMR for example), and entirely skipping some of the early ones such as Roto virus and HiB just because we are not exposed to those like someone working in the medical field or if our babies were in a daycare system. All in all I loathe making those decisions, I feel like its a dammed if you do dammed if you don't scenario.

She is still exclusively breast fed, we are waiting on her first teeth to pop through before we start any kind of solids.  She is working hard on those teeth, chewing and drooling on EVERYTHING, but so far no pearly whites.  Evie is close to sitting up on her own, if we set her up she will stay up for several minutes before slumping over.  She is still an awesome sleeper, we are now letting her sleep as long as she wants (before I was waking her every four hours or so) and she is still sleeping on her tummy.  We are moving her into her crib because she has started pulling up on the edge of her bassinet.  Its amazing how hard that transition is on me!  Her crib is in our room and she isn't moving more than five feet further away, but I have been sooo anxious about this transition.  Fortunately she hasn't had too much trouble with it.  Her eyes are staying a steady blue, except her left one which developed a brown streak around three months.  It is still so surprising to me that I have a blue eyed baby!





Happy six months baby girl!






Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Our week in pictures (1/1)

Enjoying presents the morning after...



Grandma's special addition to The Ox Cart Man...




Helping Daddy bring in wood!








Looking forward to the new year...


Evie being adorable!






The many faces of Evie:

Spock eyebrows.


Proud pushup.


Pouty, but I wanna!


.... I got nothing.


Hmmm, when did that get there?


Shooting deer with a massive stick.



A special present from Granddaddy - a wooden clothspin gun my Papaw made.  I didn't even know there were any left!