Combo Update (Months 6-9)

I’m so late with Grace’s 6, 7 and 8 month update that I’ve combined them into one glorious 9-month update.

Grace weighed in at 18 lbs.,  at her 6 month appointment and then 19 pounds at her 9 month update. Her growth is slowing down as she has become super active. She’s still got those cheeks though! She doesn’t crawl yet, but she can spin herself in a circle and roll over and over and over to get across the room, especially if there is one of Noah’s toys that she is after.

Just after turing 6 months she had her first taste of pureed food. So far, she enjoys most things, but at the top of her list are sweet potatoes, pear, peas, applesauce, black beans and puffs… sista loves some puffs!

Grace also popped her first two teeth just after her 6 month birthday. Her two bottom teeth came in the same week and she had a rough few days, but even on a rough day, Grace is still a pretty easy baby. She just wanted to be held or carried in the baby bjorn and chewing on toys constantly.

With Noah in pre-school Grace’s immune system is getting plenty of practice; she has fought off several colds like a champ, but needed some medicine to kick a nasty croup out of her system. Dave got to go to San Francisco for work and sleep in a king-sized bed by himself during the teething and part of the croup fiasco. Lucky him! 🙂

Noah and Grace are becoming even more like buddies these days. Grace loves to observe Noah and cracks up at his antics, I mean he is pretty funny; I’m pretty sure Noah is Grace’s favorite person. So far the feelings go both ways, after Noah’s afternoon nap he regularly asks to play with Grace or asks for her to lay in bed with him. Nearly every day Noah asks, “Can Grace play with cars?” Sorry Noah, they are still too small for her! Dave and I love seeing the spontaneous hugs he gives her and their little friendship forming… Now that he doesn’t hit her anymore. 🙂

We can’t wait to celebrate Christmas next week with these two best buds. Check out our flickr.com/photos/harttersinc for the latest pics!

 

Preschool Days and September Fun

September has been jam-packed with fun times around Charlotte. Noah kicked off the month (after the camping disaster) with his first day of preschool. He walked right in, grabbed the school bus toy and started playing… didn’t even look back at me. His teachers tell us he loves school and does great there.

First day of pre-school. September 2, 2014.

Next up was our neighborhood’s annual Greek Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church a couple of blocks from our house. Over the five-day festival, it seemed like all of Charotte descended on our neighborhood. There was lots of traffic, music and the smell of greek food in the neighborhood. We hit up the festival twice and Noah got his first taste of carnival rides and Greek donuts.

The fun continued with a visit from Uncle Danny and Aunt Rita. We had a blast showing them around Charlotte and Noah loved building train tracks and playing animal flash cards with them.

He loved this giant slide!

Noah acting very serious on the train with his friend Maeve. After a few times around the track, he started to realize it was fun. Then he didn’t want to get off!

 

 

Uncle Danny and Aunt Rita

Photobomb by Noah.

Family Camping

Dave and I had grand plans… our family of four enjoying the wilderness, sleeping in a tent together, roasting marshmallows, making pancakes at the campsite in the morning, making family memories. It was going to be awesome, until it wasn’t.

Looking back, maybe we should have tried sleeping in the tent in the front yard, before driving two and a half hours to the mountains. We’re not going to let this defeat us though. Yard camping or camping at a campground about 30 minutes away are next on the agenda. We WILL camp before Grace turns five!

All was great, until Noah would not go to sleep in the tent, or happily hang out by the fire/outside. He just couldn’t work it out that it was time to go to sleep, add in being over-tired from no nap, not being in his normal routine, and throw in the sugar from his first s’more and it all led to us packing up the campsite at 9 pm and driving back to Charlotte. (And having to backtrack and drive about an hour out of our way due to an accident and roadblock on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Fun. Times.) We couldn’t subject our camp neighbors to anymore of the tantrums. But, we captured some pics before it turned sour. 🙂

Noah happily played with is trucks while we set up our (new and huge!) tent. Grace did great, but with all the nonsense going on around bedtime, she had trouble getting settled down too!

 

Definitely an upgrade from our two-person backpacking tent or our four-person, which really only fits two people and a Bernese Mountain Dog. Who wouldn’t want to sleep in this palace?!

 

Roasting marshmallows in happier times.

Five Fantastic Months

 

Here’s our little lady at five months…The months seem to be flying by, especially when I always write the monthly blog late. I did take the pic on her five-month “birthday” though. Grace is doing awesome! Her sweet personality shines every day. She sleeps all night and plays, eats and sleeps all day. We are truly blessed with an easy, happy and healthy little girl.

This month Grace was promoted to the back seat of the stroller. Noah has trouble keeping his hands out of the wheels, but Grace’s little arms stay safely by her side.

Just hanging out in the kitchen while everyone else eats breakfast.

4 Fun Months

Each month seems to come and go faster than the next. Grace is so full of chatter and smiles that it makes the rest of us smile more too. Her cheerful disposition is clear, but I still wonder how it will manifest itself as she grows up! Grace got a thumbs up for perfection from the pediatrician at her four month appointment. She’s gaining on her brother and already tipping the scales at nearly 16 pounds. It seems like she practically skipped over the 3-6 month clothes and is now comfortably wearing mostly 6-9 month styles and size two diapers.

Grace sleeps about as much as Greylock used to! We can count on her for 12 hours every night and a couple of three hour naps during the day. We left her and Noah with a babysitter the other night–after nursing and drinking a two ounce bottle before we left, she still downed a five ounce bottle from the babysitter before going off to bed.  The girl loves to eat! She is very close to rolling over and can get up on her side… I know she will be doing it soon. Grace still isn’t much of a fan of tummy time and generally prefers to lay on her back or sit in the bouncy seat or bumbo.

Noah and Grace are super cute together. Noah has been asking to “play with Grace” or “hug baby Grace” a lot more lately. She’s going to have her work cut out for her keeping up with him… but I have no doubt she will be up for it.

Noah is TWO

Look at this big kid! It’s hard to believe we have a two-year-old in the house!

We  had a busy birthday weekend celebrating a triple holiday — Noah’s birthday, Grace’s baby dedication, and Father’s Day. Grandma and Pop came all the way from NY to help us celebrate!

A quick round-up of Noah at 2:

Likes: Frisbee, running, going to the pool and spray ground, trains, trucks, buses, ambulances, riding bikes with Dad, cheese, cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese, super cheesy mac-n-cheese, fruit, hummus, ice water, books, duplo legos, Thomas Trains, and an old baby Einstein video on YouTube.

Dislikes: Vegetables, playing inside when he wants to go outside, waiting for dinner. 🙂

Noah is talking more and more every day. We stopped counting his words, he repeats everything and says many new words every day. He is also starting to repeat favorite or common phrases from his books and is saying more names…. still working on “Grandma.”  :).  We love hearing Noah’s short stories, he recently recounted our morning swimming with his friend Emerson (who has a gate in her neighborhood). “Car! Gate! Pool! Snack! Home!” Or a bike ride in the neighborhood, “Dada! Bike! Crocs! Outside! Choo-Choo! Big Truck!”

As I mentioned above, he loves running, riding on Dave’s bike, practicing jumping and just being outside. Somehow he is shockingly good at throwing a small frisbee. Noah has ZERO interest in coloring or anything that involves sitting still, but he plays on his own more these days and will sit still for short videos on the iPad.

We have causally entered the “potty training” world. Noah tells us when he needs to be changed and sometimes asks for “potty”. Not sure it is going to happen anytime soon, but it would be really nice to get one kid out of diapers!! His reward for sitting on the potty is a sticker. He gazes longingly at his cat and dog (goddy) stickers and carefully evaluates the choices before choosing one — it is quite the process.

Happy Birthday Buddy!

 

 

Happy Grace @ 3 Months

“I refuse to smile..but check out my faux hawk!”

All is well in Grace’s world. Very happily there is not too much to report. She continues to eat and sleep like a champ, smiles and chats to us frequently, and expertly fends off the occasional rowdiness from her brother.

We are getting into a good rhythm/routine with Grace’s naps, but on the weekends, she naps on-the-go, so that we can keep Noah busy and get out on some kind of activity. We finally broke her of the swing and as Grace happily naps in her crib, we happily got the swing out of our living room! She’s doing a lot better with the bottle and eagerly takes her little 2 oz. bottle from Dave each evening before getting tucked in around 7:30 p.m. We’ve been inching Grace’s bedtime up and she has completely embraced it … Dave and I even watched TWO episodes of Scandal on Netflix the other night. (Olivia Pope!)

This month we had Grace dedicated at our church, Watershed. It was a crowded stage with 10 other families dedicating their children as well. The same day, Noah moved up to the “spouts” class at Greenhouse (Sunday morning for kids), so now he is with his 2-year-old friends. And Grace started in the “seedlings” class … she’s the newbie so gets lots of attention … and I can actually pay attention to the service now. 🙂

Grace with Grandma and Pop.

Happy Grace with Dad on Father’s Day.

Time to wake up sleeping beauty!

 

Grace at Two Months

 

Our little lady is growing like crazy and certainly packing on the pounds. At her two month appointment she weighed in at 12 pounds 5 ounces and 23.5 inches “tall.” She continues to eat great and her little personality is coming out a bit too. She gives us more smiles and is generally laid back like her brother. But… she has no problem using those powerful lungs to tell us she is hungry, wet, overtired or just wants to be held … especially in the evenings!

Grace had a major sleep breakthrough this month. Three weeks ago she was still getting up every 2.5-3 hours all night, with the occasional four hour stretch in there. Then one night she slept nine hours and the next she slept 11 and she has slept 9-11 hours every night since. It’s like a switch went off and IT.IS.AMAZING. I’m still thinking it’s some kind of fluke and she will regress, but I sure am enjoying it for now. Mostly I think it’s related to her finding her thumb. I often see her hands up by her face or her thumb in her mouth when I go in her room… so it seems like she’s soothing herself to sleep. Whatever it is, we are so thankful!

I usually wake her up around 7:30 to eat and then she takes a morning nap until 9:30 or 10. After that, all bets are off … If she needs to catch a nap, she will sleep in her swing, but not the crib. We are passing the swing back to our friends who are expecting a baby in July… so I have about a month to work on the afternoon nap in the crib. In the meantime, her spit up has eased off a bit … some days are worse than others… but nothing like the “Spit-up King, Noah.”

Noah asks for “Baby” most mornings as soon as he wakes up and says “baby, night-night” when he sees her sleeping in the swing. He is starting to make the “G” sound if you ask him what her name is. And I’m sure once he says “Grace,” “Grandma” won’t be too far behind … right Grandma’s?

Grace is very content to sleep in her carseat, so we happily take her and Noah out to dinner with us. She even went with me to her first “Girls Night,” — she slept soundly while eight friends enjoyed drinks, dinner and cupcakes at Tupelo Honey. She looked very stylish in her plaid dress…but the carseat straps kind of cramped her style.

Later this month (actually on Noah’s 2nd birthday and Father’s Day), we are having Grace dedicated at our church. Lots of blessings to celebrate for our little family!

Noah pointing out that this is in fact, a baby.

A picture of good health at her two-month check-up.

I’m ready for Girl’s Night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grace’s newborn picture.

Cousins!

Mike, Angel and Adeline flew down from the mitten to spend Memorial Day weekend with us. We had a great time showing them around Charlotte and hitting up some of our favorite spots. It was so fun seeing Noah and Adeline play together. They warmed right up to each other and had a lot of fun with Noah’s water table and toys throughout the weekend.

As Uncle Mike would say, “The gang enjoying some ‘free range’ snacks.”

Looks like Grace found a good spot to snooze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes when you’re eating BBQ, you just need to hug your cousin.

Noah thinks he’s the boss of the Y spray ground.

Addie gets in on the spray ground action.

What’s Up With Noah

We sure are busy with Grace, but having a lot of fun with Noah as well! He keeps us on our toes and our days busy and full of chatter.

Over the past two weeks Noah has had a word “explosion.” He probably says 30 or more words on a regular basis and he attempts to repeat much of what we say. Our favorite word… battery. So funny to hear his little voice say “battery,” which he learned when Dave needed to replace a battery in one of his toys.

He continues to be very active and loves to play outside, run down hills and go for rides on the back of Dave’s bike. He happily rides along in the “big boy seat” in the stroller, all while pointing out big trucks, trucks, buses and cars in our neighborhood. He has developed quite an affinity for frisbee. Too bad they have organized soccer leagues for 2-year-olds but no frisbee leagues! He has several “frisbees”, his favorite being an oatmeal container top, which surprisingly soars pretty well. A few coffee container tops and an actual frisbee round out his set. We enjoy lots of playtime outside with the neighborhood kids and the growing collection of shared ride-on toys, especially with the longer spring days.

During a recent busy morning I put a Thomas the Train video on my iPad for him to watch. What I hoped would be a quick and easy distraction for him, has opened up a whole new world of “choo-choos” on the “ipa-pa” (iPad). Dave and I are now learning all about the choo-choo’s as well.

Noah is such a fun and silly little boy. I can’t believe he is almost two!

Noah with Jules, the BMD and giving Grace a quick kiss!

 

Tummy-time x2.

T-ball anyone?

We were a little unsure how he would handle the low seat. He loves it. Phew!

Looking like a super-hero at the park.

Noah is pretty excited about goldfish crackers in his Easter basket.