Veggie Time for E!

Elleanor has been getting cereal for a few weeks now.
We intended on starting some veggies at 5 months but we've been a little busy and have had a hard time getting around to doing it.
Finally we went and got some organic sweet potatoes at Reasor's last night.
Baked them, pureed them, put some in the frig and the rest in the freezer.
We made all of C's baby food and had a good time doing it, plus felt so much better about what we were feeding her as we were making it ourselves!
I intend on doing the same for Ellie, making her baby food specially for her makes me feel a little more at peace about the whole breastfeeding situation (which I still struggle with).
Plus it's super duper easy and saves some money so Tim is very on board and even makes it himself sometimes too.

(please excuse the yucky stained bib, it's a hand me down from big sis)

Sweet potatoes, it was what was for breakfast, lunch, and dinner yesterday.
She LOVED it!!
Can't wait to make more food for my sweetie!

Thanksgiving Day 2011

this Thanksgiving I was originally scheduled to work.
luckily there weren't very many babies being born and I was able to stay home and be with my family.
we first went over to the hubster's parents to celebrate and have lunch.
the food was delish!
the kiddos were entertaining as always.
and Caraline was her little 2 year fit throwing self she has been lately but we managed to get a couple of photos.

after we went down to Utica Square for the lights on.
love this.
we had a great time seeing all the other families there and enjoyed the Christmas singing and seeing Santa.
Caraline's favorite part was the hot chocolate, this girl LOVES her some hot cocoa:)

after lights on we then came back to our home for another delish meal made by momma!
we ate way way TOO MUCH, but it was all so good we couldn't help ourselves.
then it was off to bed as it was an early black Friday shopping morning for me, the hubs, and my sister.

5 mONthS!!!

our littlest baby turned 5 months on Nov. 20th.
time is absolutely flying by!

(just realized when I posted this how red her hair looks in this pic:)

ellie's 5 month birthday was such a special day for us.
we participated in our church's parent/child dedication on this day!
I can't even tell you how much this day filled my heart!
such a special day for our family that I will never ever forget!

but now more on sweet elleanor:)
no doctor's visit this month, so no stats.
we go back for her 6 month checkup on Dec. 27th.

big changes for this girl this past month!
we started cereal.
had it in my mind that we were going to wait until 6 months, but who am I kidding, nothing really has gone according to plan with this little gal, so the doc said we could start and we did.
and....she LOVES IT!!!
she just slurps it right up!
so with starting the cereal (that she gets now 3 times a day) we also went with a 4 hour schedule on our bottles!
elleanor really just decided to start herself on this whole 4 hour thing one morning, so we just went with it and have never turned back! guess she was just ready:)

this is what ellie's day looks like when we are at home:

7:00 awake, feeding
8:00 cereal
9:00 nap (uhmm, daytime naps still hit n miss, hoping she will get the hang of it!)
11:00 feeding
12:00 cereal
12:30/1:00 ellie and caraline naptime (somehow aunt mary can always get about 3 hours here but mommy is still working on it)!
3:00 feeding
5:00 cereal
6:00 sometimes a little nap here
7:00 last feeding
7:30 bedtime
night time sleep is pretty good, we get her down between 730 and 800, there are the few times that we don't hear from her til morning, but more often than not she awakes 1 time at night, usually around midnight.  sometimes she will put herself back to sleep, sometimes tim can just pat her back to sleep and sometimes we do have to get up with her, but no nighttime feedings happen. 

bottles: she takes between 6 and 7oz each feeding.
cereal: can't get it to her fast enough and she always wants more!

I had fully intended to start a veggie this week but with our crazy weekend schedule we had no time to make it to whole foods and get this girlie some green beans and sweet potatos! was hoping to be able to give her thanksgiving dinner! maybe, just maybe I can get out this evening and make a Reasor's run to see if they might have some organic veggies so we can get started.

happenings:
the laughs, giggles, and squeals just keep coming and coming.
loving that we now know how to blow bubbles with our tongue.
her feet are her new favorite toy, she loves to hold then and chew on them, her big toe is her fave!
the drooling is also here and is overflowing! keep waiting to see those little teeth pop through but none so far.
she wants to watch caraline all the time, she loves to watch caraline play and also loves it when C gets close enough to pull her hair:)
screaming fits! yep this girl can go from 0 to 100 in a split second, so not use to this as Caraline barely made a peep, but this little gal is much more vocal than her big sissy was.
almost rolling from her back to her stomach when there is a toy out of her reach that she wants to get!
can't wait to see what the next month has in store for miss ellie!  (I pray that it involves better daytime sleep) she just changes and does more each and every day.  so fun to watch her firey little personality develop!

Happy Halloween!

yes, just now doing my Halloween post.
it's been down right busy around here.
so a little late on this post.
but I wanted to get it in here for my girls!

Caraline dressed up this year, Elleanor did not.
we had the cutest little ghost bib left over from Caraline so I guess we could say E was a cute little ghost.
and we absolutely hands down had the cutest little Minnie Mouse ever!

first over to Nana and Papa's to trick or treat and see the cousins!

then we headed over to one of my very best friend's house for a Halloween dinner and some trick or treating!
no, we didn't get any pictures here.
still trying to figure out this whole how to take a 2 year old and a 4 month out to do something and have time to get the camera out.
but we had a blast!
hoping to make it a tradition and celebrate with this crew every year!!!

Ellie's 4 month birthday!

Our littlest gal is now 4 months old!
She is changing so so much.
I thought I was going to get to have a little mini me this time but I am now not so sure.
Her looks are starting to change and as I look at pictures of her big sister Caraline when she was Ellie's age I am seeing that Ellie is looking exactly like her then! (Which means she will prob end up looking like her daddy)!
But guess that's quite alright because her big sister looks like daddy and think she is just super duper cute!

BIG BIG changes in our house this past month.
The sleeping started and we are loving it!
Well let's just say the sleeping at night has started, daytime sleep is still a work in progress!
She usually just takes little hour naps, at the longest, but then will maybe every other day have an after noon nap that is from feeding to feeding time.
But at night we are getting 11 hours pretty much every night!
Both girls go down at 730pm and we see them at 630 in the morning!

Elleanor is on a schedule, which we start with our first feeding at 630.
She eats between 5 and 6 oz every 3 hours.
She still takes naps between each feeding with the longest being after her 1230 feed.
I try to put her and Caraline down at the same time after this feeding and can at times get a good 2 hours to myself (LOVE it when this happens).
Ellie's last feeding is at 630pm then we have a little bit of family playtime before the girls both get put down in about an hour.

The past few days have been a little rough.
The drooling and fussiness are here and I think I can see where the little bottom front teeth are going to start trying to come through.
She has been waking at night the past few nights, I think because of her teeth? because she just wants to be held but a little bit of tylenol has been helping.

She has also learned a new sound, which I am not that fond of.
It is this super high pitched squeal, which she likes to do at times just to hear herself but then she also now does it when she is crying, can't wait for her to get over this!
She coos and coos and has started throwing some goo, goos in there.

Caraline is absolutely in LOVE with her little sister.
She never ever seems to be jealous of her and she is always so interested in what Ellie is doing.
C talks to her and gives her hugs and kisses constantly!
LOVE THIS!

Skills:
still rolling over, just from belly to back. starting to try to go the other direction.
sitting well in her bumbo seat.
picking up toys and being able to get them to her mouth.
at times wakes up in the morning talking instead of screaming, wish this would become ALL the time.
she is also loving to reach out and touch people's faces.

Stats:  Just went for our 4 month checkup this morning.
Height 26in - 97%
Weight 13lb 15oz - 50%

I'm sure there is so much more that I could include but for now this is it, we are so exhausted, a 2 year old and an infant are definitely HARD work!  However, we wouldn't have it any other way! LOVE my girls with all my heart!

photo time

I missed the 3 month mark for photos of Ellie so we did 4 month photos instead.
and since we were doing them we thought we would go ahead and try to get some family pics too.
let me just tell you that our 2 year old was a complete mess the ENTIRE time.
we did however manage to get a couple of cute ones and of course an adorable 4 month photo of Ellie for the dining room wall.

this is Caraline's new face, that she is doing ALL the time

LOVE our little family!

and those pretty curls.

there's daddy and that sweet girl's silly new face again:)

tickle time!

our too cute little 4 month old!

for our black and white wall in our dining room. LOVE IT!

another one making the dining room wall!

and this one for the hubster's and my bedroom!

even though it seemed it was a disaster we came away with so many great memories, thanks again Heather! You are the bestest!

 

embrace the camera october 20,2011 - daddy style

daddy and his sweet girls!

pumpkin patch 2011

this past friday i got to leave work early, which never happens on a friday!
i also got to pick my girls up from the babysitter, which i also never get to do!
so since we had no plans and tim wasn't having basketball practice, we decided to make it a fun family afternoon/early evening.

first off to the pumpkin patch.

caraline's first time on a horsey!!!

really wanted to get a cut pic of the girls together but the huge 2 year old fits we are currently having got in the way of that so the first up is the only one we could get, so we got a few of  Ellie laying on the ground by herself since her sissy wouldn't pose with her:)

after the pumpkin patch we thought we would try taking the girls out to eat for the first time ever with both of them!!! you would have thought we were crazy with the way we had to leave the pumpkin patch (that would be carrying C out screaming), but what the heck, we were hungry!
the girls did AWESOME!!!  of course it was 5pm, so the place was pretty empty, but still they did great!

embrace the camera day

more zoo fun!

3 months along!

a few days late on this post but Ellie girl turned 3 months old this last Tuesday!

we didn't go for her well check until the friday after.
here are the stats:
length: 24 1/2 in. 90th% (tall girl)
weight: 12lbs 13oz 75th%
head: 15 3/4in 50th%
she got 1 shot and she does absolutely wonderful with them.
she just lays there on the little table smiling and cooing at the nurse and then cries out for maybe 2 seconds after the shot and then its all over with back to happy baby.

that's right I said "happy baby".
which is pretty much what she is these days, that is during daytime hours.
don't get me wrong she still has an occasional off and we still have a small fussy time in the evening but for the most part she has turned around during the day.
her naps aren't quite as long as I like but she takes them and is still pretty happy when awake even with a short nap.
as for nighttime we are still struggling.
she has been a  horrible sleeper at bedtime.
we were still up several times during the night.
our doc said "brandi leave her in her bed and see what she will do, do not get her up"
so for the past few days that is what we have done.
it has been rough on everyone, even Caraline but we are seeing some progress!
last night for us was pretty much sleeping through the night!
Ellie woke up twice, once at 3am and then at about 430am, both times she had rolled over to her back.
usually this totally freaks her out and there has been no getting her back to sleep but last night all we had to do was roll her back to her tummy and she went right back to sleep!
doing this took a total of maybe a minute and a half!


happenings:
the rolling over business definitely wasn't helping with our sleep progress.
this big gal sleeps on her belly and right at her 12 week birthday she decided she would start rolling over to her back and freaking out after she did it.
she is also very good at holding her head up and I'm hoping we can start some bumbo seat sitting very soon, I think she will really like it!
the smiles, coos, and squeals are coming all the time!
during the day she really only gets fussy for 2 reasons, poop and sleep.
she still has the biggest, brightest blue eyes just like her sister (we are hoping they are here to stay)!
her hair is still dark, out in the sun it is a very pretty auburn color, can't wait for more of it to come in so we can really see what color it is!
she loves her bouncy seat in the morning, we put it on the kitchen table and she can be a part of our morning routine of coffee, breakfast, dishes, and making bottles.
she also loves to play underneath her activity gym, which is what we routinely do after she has her bottle and before naptime.
she is also starting to like her bjorn much more, we took her to the zoo this past Saturday and used it and she did great in it!
she loves to watch her big sister Caraline play too!
and Caraline loves her little sister, she wants to tell her "Hi  Baby" all the time and give her kisses constantly!!

Things are definitely looking up in the Maxeiner house these days! Couldn't imagine my life any other way!