Nathan - eight months

Although it's mainly in the backwards direction, he's mobile!  Set Nathan on the floor and he's on the move.  He'll usually lunge forward to grab a toy, rock on his hands and knees for a bit but then ends up on his belly and gets pissed.  He can spin himself around, but most of the time just moves backwards until he gets stuck under the couch.  In addition, he seems like he'll be ready to pull himself up soon.  He does it with little help from us while holding onto our fingers and he'll remain standing if he has something to hold on to.

Separation anxiety.  This is something that we really didn't deal with when Gwen was a baby.  I could pretty much walk out of her sight at any point, anywhere and she would be perfectly fine.  This time around, things are a bit different.  In the past week or two, I set him down and the lip pout starts.  If I walk away, forget it.  It's like I've abandoned him forever and I'm the meanest Mom on the planet.  He's even throwing a fit if I take a toy away from him these days, and with a big sister who is newly very territorial over her toys (no doubt because baby bro is more mobile, and grabbing at them), I feel like I'm always just trying to keep the peace.

Regardless, I still feel like this is the happiest little guy I've ever known.  His smile can light up my whole day.

Princess Tea

We were excited to hear that Gram and Pa's favorite spot in Salem, The Hawthorne Hotel puts on an annual event for little Princesses (and Princes) in their gorgeous banquet hall!  Grammy treated Gwen, Nathan and me to a lovely afternoon of dress up, dancing, and lunch.  Gwen and Nathan were announced into the hall when we arrived and we were brought to our table by one of the "Hawthorne Princesses".  Gwen seemed a bit overwhelmed at first but she had what I call a quiet excitement.  She was in awe of the big Princesses and she followed her Princess around for a good portion of the time, holding her hand and swaying slowly to the music while staring up at her in wonder with a shy smile never leaving her face.  Of course, with about 20 minutes left she became completely comfortable and was "that girl" running around the dance floor and twirling like it was her job.  I wish I could've bottled that day, it was such a special one for all of us.

we loved sharing the day with our friend Emerson :)

Nathan - six to seven months

(I'm combining 2 months because I've been 'gasp' falling behind on my posts)

Half a year has flown by with our sweet guy.  One of the biggest things that stands out to us with his personality now really developing is just how emotional he is! (Sorry, older Nathan if you're reading this 15 years+ from now! hehe). There's really not much you need to do to get a smile and belly laugh out of him and he "flirts" with just about anyone who glances his way.  On the other end, he also seems to be effected negatively by things pretty easily too (i.e. Mommy walking away from him God forbid).  He's a TOTAL Momma's boy (again, sorry Nathan. But for me it's the best feeling in the world)!  

This is such a fun age with him sitting and interacting a lot more, and even starting to make some word sounds.  I have an adorable video of him saying "Dada"!  He's obsessed with studying Gwen, and she's just infatuated with him.

OK, here are some updates:

Sleeping

This has been a challenge from the start.  I've been much more willing to bring him into bed with us than I was with Gwen.  I'm not sure if willing is the right word.  The sheer exhaustion of having a toddler and a newborn made it so that I didn't have much of a choice.  I would basically just fall asleep nursing him and any time I tried to stay awake to put him back in the crib after that first middle of the night feeding, he would just cry so I'd end up just bringing him back in anyway.  With Gwen, we had a bit of trouble getting her to fall asleep initially but once she was asleep, she was out.  It has been the opposite with Nathan.  He falls asleep almost immediately (yay for my sanity), but then he wakes himself up throughout the night.  He just moves around so much, kicks his legs and scratches his head (to the point where it breaks skin) and wakes himself up.  Thankfully now I'm starting to see a change in that and I think we're heading in a good direction here.  At seven months now, he's starting to just wake up once at night.  And now, tonight I'm not expecting to get much sleep because I just typed that out loud.

Nursing

I don't think I've posted about this since he was born.  Let me tell you, nursing the second is a WORLD of difference from the first.  The pain wasn't even close to as bad.  Plus, I was totally SHOCKED at how often I needed to nurse Gwen in the beginning but it was much easier the second time around knowing what to expect.  Nathan latched very easily from the beginning and he's much quicker than Gwen was so each feeding isn't taking as long as it did the first time.  I'm also not keeping track of each feeding on my phone so I think it has put less pressure on me and I've just been nursing him whenever I think he seems hungry.  At this point I think we're down to 5 or 6 feedings per 24hrs.  We're at that annoying stage though where he gets distracted by everything so keeping discreet while we're out just isn't possible.

Food

We started solids a little after 5 months and we're up to 3 times a day now.  I've made some of the food but I'm doing mostly store bought organic which I did with Gwen too.  He's had a variety of fruits and veggies (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, carrots, green beans, spinach, avocado, apples, bananas, peaches, prunes - ahem, Lord knows we've needed them!, apricot, pears, blueberries, and I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.  No meat or dairy as of yet).  He seems to like everything pretty equally with no real obvious favorite but he does prefer the thicker purees.  He usually makes a disgusted face after the first taste of just about everything, but then once he gets used to the taste he'll gobble it all right up.  He wasn't a fan of the homemade peas or avacado but I'm thinking that's because I wasn't able to get it pureed as smoothly as the rest.  

6 Month Photos & Stats:

Weight: 16lbs 5oz 40th %

Height: 26.25in 58th %

Head: 17.25in 62nd %

7 Month Photos

3

She's giving us a run for our money these days with quite the little personality :)  Sometimes having a three year old is not too far off from what I'd imagine having Bipolar Disorder would feel like.  It's amazing how one minute my heart could be bursting with such pride, happiness and love.  And the next, I want to run, screaming out the front door.  Gwen tells me that she loves me and gives me a kiss on the nose, especially when she sees that I'm not feeling well or if I'm upset.  I'm not sure how a three year old has the ability to be as compassionate as she is.  On the other hand, we have days where she fights me on every single thing we do - getting dressed, brushing teeth, going potty, getting into the car seat without a karate chop to fold her stiff as a board body at the waist.  It's maddening!!! Then I remind myself that there's a reason why three year olds are like this, it's all part of learning and development.  I love this girl more than life itself and I remind myself how lucky I am to spend my days watching her grow up and form an amazing and independent little personality.

3 year stats:

Weight: 30 lbs

Height: 36 in

For comparison, below are her yearly stats:

2 years:
Weight: 26 lbs 4 oz - 45%
Height: 33.2 in - 34%

1 year:
Weight: 19lbs 6oz - 22%
Height: 30.5in - 89%

Newborn:
Weight: 7lbs 3oz - 39%
Height: 20in - 72%

Birth Day

1st Birthday

2nd Birthday

Florida Trip part 2 - DISNEY!

We took our first family vacation (with an outside baby, that is), to Florida this month!  Originally, we had only planned to visit and stay with Justin's parents at their condo in Venice.  But Justin decided that he wanted to take the kids to Disney for a night.  I actually thought he was nuts, but I'm so glad he pushed for it.  We had SO.MUCH.FUN and decided to stay an extra night.  It was super chilly but we were still happy to be missing the "Polar Vortex" up North.

To see Gwen's excitement over seeing the castle and meeting Ariel and Belle in person, was just something Justin and I will never forget.  It really was magical, as cliche as that sounds.  I'm writing this post almost a month later and her face still completely lights up when she talks about it and completely gushes about how she met Ariel and sat on her lap(!!!!). 

First stop was Downtown Disney for lunch:

That night we had dinner at the "Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue".  This was pretty cool for me because I remember going to this dinner show the last time I went to Disney.  I was probably only a few years older than Gwen!  We all had a great time.

After dinner we decided to walk around and explore our hotel the Wilderness Lodge and we decided to get caricatures done of the kiddos!  We're so happy with how they came out.  Gwen gave everyone a show while she was sitting for her drawing :)

The next morning we were up early for the opening of the Magic Kingdom!

chilly boat ride!

this was epic for Gwen

waiting for the parade

dancin in the street

my view for most of the visit <3

meeting Belle!

daddy got to meet Belle, too! lol

Gwen was excited to see Sebastian at the street party

The next morning we went to breakfast at our hotel and then headed to the Animal Kingdom!