19 months old

• Gwynn is starting to talk more and more.  She’s even said a couple of 2 word sentences (“Hey Bubba”…“Bye Mommy”).
• Her receptive language skills are through the roof. She can point to almost anything when we read her stories at night. We even have an iPad app for receptive language where it tells her to touch different objects…she’s pretty much mastered it.
• She is still obsessed with anything Mickey Mouse.  She can point to every character when we read her Mickey books. She loves to dance to all the songs too.
• At night before she goes to bed we let her pick out books to read. She gets pretty upset if we only have time for one book…usually it’s 3 or 4. She doesn’t really have a favorite yet, but pop-up books and Eric Carle books are read frequently.
• She’s still doing great at daycare. They said she loves to eat and will eat anything they give her. Ms. Ouida said that she acts a lot older than she actually is and she’s really very laid back and easy. When Daddy picks her up from daycare she insists on walking to the car instead of being carried (she still lets Mommy carry her). 
• She eats anything and everything at home. Her favorite things to eat are raisins, cheez-its, crackers, bananas, green beans, chicken, pasta, etc. Daddy got some sour straws and she LOVES those.  She likes eating Eggo French Toast Sticks for breakfast and one funny thing she’ll do with them is take one bite out of each piece (there are 4) before eating all of them. It’s very peculiar…we hope she doesn’t have OCD.
• We say prayers before we eat and she’s really good at saying “Amen” and doing the sign of the cross. We also say prayers before bed and she’ll repeat everyone’s name as we say it (“God bless Grammy…God bless Grandma…God bless Pop…God bless Grandpa” etc…). Our list is pretty long, but she’ll say everyone name with her little hands folded.  It’s so sweet. 
• At her 18 month doctor’s visit (on January 21st), Gwynn was 32.2 inches long (60th percentile) and 25 pounds, 1 ounce (60th percentile).

Our growing boy!

He found his toes

Luke found his toes while playing with mommy the other day. He seems to enjoy them.

There it is!

“Hey, why did you tell me about these before?!?”

Luke’s first food

We tried food with Luke for the first time. Well, technically it was the second time we tried, but the first time he took it.

He was not into trying it whatsoever.

“You want me to eat what?”

“Here goes nothing…”

“Arrrghh”

He is the most stoic baby ever.

“No more… I’m full”

4 months (Luke)

At four months…

• Luke is still a big boy, but he’s not as chubby as he used to be. All the weight seems to have moved to his cheeks.
• He wears 9 month clothes and some of those won’t fit for much longer.
• Luke is still in his swing at night, but we’ve tried him in the crib a few times. He’s starting to show signs of disliking the swing. If he’s wide awake he doesn’t like to be in it. He wants to be on the floor with Gwynn.  I know she can’t wait until he’ll be able to play with her!
• He generally sleeps from 8pm to 6am. A few nights he’ll be hungry during the night, but that’s not the norm anymore.
• Luke is able to stay sitting up for a moment or two before falling over. He should be able to sit up indefinitely by 5 months we think.
• He loves holding onto something when he’s falling asleep (especially his dog blankie).  This keeps him from pulling his pacifier out which he loves to do now!
• He grabs everything in sight.  It’s so fun to play with toys with him because he’s becoming really interested in them.
• Luke has used the bouncer (exersaucer) quite a few times and seems to enjoy it.  It’s so nice to have Gwynn around to press the music button for him. He’s pressed it a few times himself though!
• He’s got a big appetite. 8 ounces for daycare and 6-8 at home. Right now, his schedule to eat is 6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, between 4-6 pm, and then another bottle right before we go to bed (between 9-10 pm).
• No food yet, but we’ll probably start him on oatmeal, rice cereal, etc. once we go to the doctor for his next check up.

Trip to Huntsville

We took a day trip to visit Uncle Jeremy and Julie in Huntsville. We didn’t go anywhere else in Huntsvegas due to Luke having a bit of a fever.

Gwynn loved the chips and hummus. She loved dipping the chips into the hummus. What she loved even more than that was putting said chips back into the bag.

She got a wooden sandwich making set which she loves. It goes great with the kitchen she got from Santa!

Checking her Facebook.

Gwynn isn’t a dog person, but she’s working on it.

As always Gwynn has to find something to play with that isn’t even a toy.

She loved falling out of it.

Thankfully she just jumped up and down on the dog bed and didn’t lay down on it herself.

Trying on Uncle Jeremy’s shoes.

Next she tried on Julie’s shoes.

“I love this present!”

18 months old

Our sweet girl is a year and a half old already! Can’t believe it.

• Gwynn’s pretty much into everything and has more energy than Mommy and Daddy combined.  She wears us out!  She even learned to climb up on the couch by herself…just wish she would take a nap while she’s up there!
• A few months ago Gwynn became obsessed with Sesame Street (Elmo and Cookie Monster mostly). Well, Gwynn has a new obsession.  MICKEY MOUSE.  She loves Mickey.  we’ll let her watch one episode in the afternoon while she eats her snack and as soon as we walk in, she’ll grab the remote and scream “Minnie!! Minnie!!” (She can’t say Mickey yet…or she might prefer Minnie over Mickey).
• Gwynn’s gone potty three times so far.  If we ask her if she needs to go potty she’ll run into the bathroom and sit down (fully clothed), but hasn’t initiated using the potty yet.  We don’t have much time to work on it on the weekends, but we’ll definitely work on it over Spring Break some more. 
• She’s repeating pretty much everything we tell her to now, but she’s also saying more and more words spontaneously…some of her new words are:
  • “Bye-bye”…was saying it sporadically, but she uses it all the time now.
  • “Hi” or “Hey” while talking on a pretend phone or when waving to people…she says this a lot in church to everyone around us.
  • “Bubba”…what she calls her brother (also still calls him “Coo”). 
  • “Carkle!”…we played the game “Farkle” a lot over the break and she learned to scream it when we did!  It’s really cute. 
  • “Ba ba”…for bottle (which she always wants to give to Luke even if he doesn’t need it).
  • She’ll go to the refrigerator and say “milky” or “juice” when she wants a drink.
• Gwynn still gets 2 naps during the day occasionally, but usually she’ll just take one long nap (around 2 hours). She still goes to bed around 7:15 pm and we usually have to wake her up for school around 6:00 am. On the weekends she’ll sleep until 7:00 am.
• Her eating is still really great.  Her new favorite food is cucumbers.  I’m so glad that I have someone to eat vegetables with since Daddy doesn’t eat them!  If we go to a restaurant and I get a salad, Gwynn will point to the salad until I give her the cucumbers. Guess I’ll have to start ordering extra!
• I was able to count her teeth one night when she was really sleepy and I counted 18!  I didn’t get bit either! We haven’t had any teething issues with her except for her 1st molar coming in.
• She is still using a pacifier at night and during naps (and when she can steal one from her brother). She always sleeps with her Ellie (pink elephant) and at least 2 small blankets. She doesn’t leave the blankets on though…she likes to get them in a ball and lay on top of them.
• She still really loves her brother. She’ll go up to him and say “hey” and have the sweetest smile on her face. She is very gentle with him and we haven’t really had any jealousy issues at all.  She’s a great big sissy!