Boo! 2011

Happy Halloween from Natalie & Rhys!

A cute little monkey and her banana.

Weekend activities

We stayed home this weekend and enjoyed it! Here's a recap:

Saturday morning Natalie and I played at the park for a while. David kept Rhys home and she napped. Then we switched kids; Rhys and I went to a baby shower while Natalie stayed home to nap.

We took both kids to the Cal Poly football game. Yes, we were feeling a little brave. Or crazy. But, our bet paid off - both kids were well behaved! Rhys napped for the majority of the game. For a while she would jump every time the crowd would yell but eventually fell sound asleep. Natalie had a great time dancing and cheering! She was mimicking the little boy sitting in front of us and yelling "go mustangs" by the end of the night.

We set the exersaucer up for Rhys to play with, but Natalie wanted a turn first.  Incredible how much she has grown...her feet didn't touch the ground the first time she sat in it. And neither do Rhys'.

This morning Natalie and I made the cookies for the Whoopie Pie kit from Patty. She was a good mixer.

But she also figured out it was chocolate and tasted pretty good!

I finished the process and she had part of one after dinner.

Natalie and I did a grocery run (David put Rhys down for a nap and stayed with her). Then it was Pumpkin Time! We let Natalie paint hers. First time ever painting - she thought it was great. She needed some of each color and went to town.

Rhys hung out in the exersaucer while I painted for her. We attempted to put her handprints on the side, but she got pretty mad about the paint on her hand and tried grabbing the pumpkin instead.

And Natalie saw us paint Rhys' hand and thought that would be fun to try...

She also helped David in the yard...

Busy weekend even though we were home!
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Rhys @ 3 months

Hard to believe this girly is 3 months old already.

Rhys is really getting strong.  She likes to hold her head up, loves to stand on our laps, and really likes to sit in our laps (with our help, of course!).   If I prop her up on an incline, she tries to pull into a sitting position.  I remember Natalie doing little situps at this point, so I'm guessing Rhys is getting close to that too.

She has found her hands lately.  She usually spits the pacifier out and sticks a finger, or two or three into her mouth.  We are still undecided if we want to get her attached to a paci or not..most days she can take or leave it, but it does calm her around nap/bedtime.

I'm off work for the next few weeks finishing up maternity leave before we get busy again at year-end, so I've been trying to work on getting Rhys into more of a routine and getting her to sleep better at night.  Naps are going far better than nighttime.  She still likes a good tight swaddle and also sleeps pretty well on her tummy (without the swaddle, of course!).  Her naps vary from 45 min - 2 hrs, although yesterday I got 3 hours out of her.  I went to wake her but she looked so peaceful that I just let her be.  I figured she was tired after a fitful morning.

Nighttime on the other hand is still not getting better.  She tends to go to bed between 7 & 8 pm.  I've tried to keep her up later, but she just gets cranky and wants to lay down.  She's still waking sometime between 1 & 2 and again around 5.  We've tried the paci, picking her up, but she just seems hungry. I feed her and she goes right back down, but that interrupted sleep is for the birds.  I could really use a few nights of good sleep!

Our other battle lately is the bottle.  Rhys has decided she doesn't want to eat from a bottle.  She took one around 6 weeks, and then had a few the few times I took her to daycare.  Although, she would only eat one bottle while away from me, when she should have had 2 or 3.  And now, as soon as we put the bottle to her face, she screams.  Won't have anything to do with it.  We've tried 3 different kinds of bottles with no luck.  I hope she figures it out soon, so that I know she will eat when I go back to work!  I know she CAN do it - I did a "dreamfeed" with the bottle last night and she took 2 oz while asleep. Too bad it didn't work to extend her nighttime sleep.

The cradle cap is almost gone, thank goodness!  But, her hair is also going!  She's starting to get the ring around her head from where she lays and if I pull out any dry scalp, along comes 5 or 6 strands too.   I find little hairs all over her car seat, her bed, and clothes.  I wonder if it will come back as dark? or maybe a little lighter?

I've been trying to get pictures of Rhys' smile, but it's darn hard to catch!  When she is happy and smiley, she is really happy & smiley.  She loves to talk and coo and smile after she eats.  So, I keep trying because her little dimple is too cute, but the camera throws her off and she gets ultra serious. 

Natalie is starting to try to play with Rhys more.  She tells her "talking" - she's asking Rhys to talk to her.  She goes up and says "good girl, Rhys" and pats her on the back, unless she is crying then she tells her "Rhys, STOP".  Natalie is always the first to hear Rhys cry when she is in the cradle or is tired of swinging and runs to "help" her.  The other day she tried to pick Rhys up.  I had laid her on the bed while I was putting away some clothes and Natalie came in and tried to "Carry her".  They don't interact too much yet, but I have a feeling Rhys is watching and will be smiling and talking to Natalie soon.

I'll save the rest of the Halloween pictures for later this weekend, but here's Rhys wearing Natalie's Halloween outfit. Natalie was 3 weeks vs. Rhys at 3 months.  It's pretty snug on Rhys, but is still cute.

Here's her surprised face:

And almost a smile:

Here's one of Natalie 2 years ago - she actually had enough hair for a barrette!

And a 3 month comparison picture:

I think the girls look really different from each other, but they certainly look like their mama! (the girls are wearing the same outfit, but it's not the one I had as a baby; just really similar.  I found the picture of me AFTER we had Natalie's 3 mo pictures taken and it just happens to be a similar pose, so I tried to get one of Rhys that is close too).

3 months stats:

Height: around 22in
Weight: about 13.75lbs
Clothes: depends on the brand. 0-3 pants, some 0-3 mo onesies, and 3-6 months

Diapers: size 2. Pampers fit well, Huggies Snugglers are small-ish, but we have an open package, so we're using them.

Camping - Doheny Beach

This past weekend we joined a group of friends and took the kids camping at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point!  I know, who goes camping with an almost 3-month old??  The prepping and cleanup took a lot of work, but it was worth it, (I think!).  The girls were out of their element being away from home - Natalie had more tantrums than usual and it was difficult for Rhys to be on her own.  But, we survived and I'm glad we went.

This is the same group of campers that we went with last year when Natalie was almost 10 months old.  This was the kids last year:

 And this is the kids this year!

We have multiplied!  Last year there were 8 adults and 4 kids, this year we've added 3 new kids.   We don't anticipate that happening again next year :)  The kids range from 3 months to almost 4.  Craziness!

On Friday we took the kids to this cute little petting zoo.  It's been a while since we've taken Natalie to something like that and she had a blast!  She kept asking to go back to pet the rabbits again, and again.

They had the coolest "corn box" - they replaced the sand with CORN.  It was so fun to play in.  We spent a lot of time letting the kids pour it over themselves, burying each other, and trying to prevent the babies from eating it.

Natalie & David rode the train...We also got a ticket to ride the pony, but Natalie had had enough and couldn't be entertained long enough to stand in line and wait her turn.  Maybe next time.

We took walks and most of the group rode bikes.  We should have taken a picture of that.  I took Rhys in the truck since I wasn't sure she was old enough, but the rest of the group biked to the petting zoo.  7 adults and 6 kids on bike seats / trailers is quite the sight.  We got a lot of looks when we all went out!

We enjoyed some water and hanging out at the beach...

We spent a lot of time BBQing & enjoying bonfires...

See the brown tent in the back?  That's "the lodge"...it housed David and I, Natalie's Tinkerbell air mattress and Rhys' swing and pack N play and still had plenty of room to spare.

Overall it was a great trip and we are already brainstorming where we'll go next year.  I can't wait to see how much the kids grow and change!