Emma vs. Olivia - 10 Months

Emma - Ten Months

Height: 26.5 inches

Weight: 17 pounds

Sleep: Sleeping through the night!!! We've made it! And now I've completely forgotten about the sleep deprivation and couldn't go back. 

Eating: Still eating a ton of milk. So so on real food. She's a pretty lazy eater, and will eat it if you feed it to her. Which is annoying because she can totally feed herself. Beyond real food, she has eat a glass piece from a broken ornament, a few leaves, one dog food kibble, and an entire starlight peppermint. 

Milestones: She's walking around the furniture and using her walker. She can wave, clap, and I swear says "hi" "bye" "dada" "koda" and "baba" (bottle). I might be crazy about the talking thing, since Olivia didn't talk until 18 months (potentially exaggerating, I don't really remember), but she always says "hi" and "bye" when waving. Time will tell. 

Clothes / Diapers: 9-12 months and size 4 diapers.

Best Moment of the Month:  Sleeping through the night! Hands down. 

Parent of the Month: Why do I always get these?? Definitely when I caught her chewing on broken glass from a Christmas tree ornament. I thought she had gotten a candy cane, because her drool was tinted red. It was a cut. She smiled at me and fought me as I fished it out of her mouth. Please don't call child services. 

Favorites: I still love my Maya wrap ring-sling for holding Emma (it doesn't hurt my back like the Bjorn). 

Emma's favorite is Olivia. Olivia always makes cupcakes in her kitchen and puts "sauce" from a plastic soup can on them. Emma went over to the cupcakes, put it in the muffin tin, added the "sauce," and it was so sweet to see her playing just like Olivia. She wants to do everything Olivia is doing. 

Gingerbread House Decorating Party

I went to Target not too long ago and bought a bunch of stuff I didn't need. Who's surprised? 

They had these little gingerbread house kits for sale. I thought it would be such a fun idea for a play date. I grabbed 6 of these, santa plates, and a coloring table cloth.

I used gold washi tape to label the plates and their juice (two things they are likely to get mixed up). And also used it to label the champagne glasses for the moms. Why are there so many play dates that don't serve alcohol?? 

The kids pretty much ate candy for dinner that night. But they had a blast. 

And it was a fun little festive playdate. Target for the win, always.

Olivia and Santa

"Mama, Christmas is Jesus' birthday!" That's right Olivia! "And we celebrate Christmas because God gave us Jesus on that day!" That's right! (Mom of the year, I'm doing everything right, I'm raising the world's best child, I am amazing!) "And on Christmas, Jesus comes down the chimney and leaves us presents!" Crap. 

Last year, Olivia didn't have much of an understanding of Santa. When she woke up Christmas morning, I told her Santa came, and she spent most of the morning wondering where the man was. I forgot to tell her he just came, dropped off gifts, and left.

So this year I was telling her all about the magic of Santa and how he leaves presents under the tree, and how we can leave him cookies.

The entire time she has this side eye. 

When I finish, "How does that man get inside my house?"

Legit question.

Dan told her to, "Be good, Santa is watching." She immediately looked at our security cameras and I spent the entire evening convincing her that Santa hadn't hacked them. 

She found a picture of herself sitting in Santa's lap and made me promise her I wouldn't make her do that this year.  She also wrote Santa a letter asking him to leave all presents outside because she didn't want him breaking into her house. 

She's slowly turning a corner. When her friends all got pictures with Santa, she did as well. She told us tonight, "Santa can come inside, but him better take hims boots off! Him would get mud on da floor! And him better be quiet. Him could wake up Emma. If him wake up Emma, him would have to pat her back until she fell back asleep." 

We have a few more weeks.

So far she's asked for TWO candy canes. And one pink present. I think we can manage. 

Emma vs. Olivia - 9 Months

Tried to pick pictures with similar facial expressions. Still can't get over how tan Olivia was as a baby. 

 

Emma - 9 Months

Height: 26 inches

Weight: 16.5 pounds

Emma chunked up!! She gained 1.5 pounds this month and moved from the 6% to the 22%. What a chunk!

But Olivia was 2.5 inches taller than her at this age. She might be a squatty chunk.

Sleep: Sometimes she sleeps through the night. Sometimes she wakes up once. I feel like we are getting there.

Eating: This chunker is eating 35+ ounces a day. Which is a LOT! Plus all table foods. She has her pincher grasp so she can pick up small bites of food. Also, dog hair and tiny pieces of mulch. And a rock once.

Milestones: She's pulling up completely and walking around the furniture. Climbing the stairs. She drinks out of a straw sippy cup and can feed herself a baby food packet and her bottle. When did she get so big!

Clothes / Diapers: 9-12 months and size 3 diapers

Best Moment of the Month:  When Emma officially learned to pull up. She is so happy now that she can play around with Olivia and look up over the coffee table, or whatever is in the way of her view. 

Parent of the Month: This one goes to me. I left the girls in the playroom for not even two minutes to put dinner in the oven. Olivia excitedly yells, "mommy, come quick or you'll miss it! Good job Emma!" I ran down the hall to find Emma up three stairs! Time to use the bottom baby gait too. 

Favorites: Emma has a little table like this to stand at while playing. We still love our ikea high chair. Other than that, we don't use many baby items anymore. Emma just wants to hang out with her big sister and do the things she does. 

My favorite is when Emma laughs. If she's excited, she kicks her feet. And when something is really funny, she scrunches up her face and her eyes and laughs like she's sniffing / hyperventilating. So cute!!

Emma baby, please stop growing up!

Five on Friday

1. I showered twice the other night. I showered. Put on my PJs. Thought, "Crap, I forgot to shower!" And got back in the shower.

It was a low point in my life.

I clearly need more sleep.

2. I swear I have friends.

3. I gave Olivia the bad news that they don't make mac and cheese without peas in it anymore. She said "don't worry mommy, I'll just pick out the noodles." 

4. Before Olivia's birthday party, I asked her what she was most excited about. She replied, "Showing my friends my baby." I asked which baby (she has a TON). She said, "Emma baby, of course." Sweet thing was most excited to have everyone play with Emma.

5. Along the same lines of sister-cute, when Olivia had her shots, she didn't even flinch, but poor Emma got this huge bottom lip pout and started crying a completely different cry, like she was sad for her sister! Then, the boy next door Adrian, was pushing Olivia in the cozy coupe with his bike (it looked like they were crashing). Emma got that same huge pout and started crying again, like "that boy is hurting my big sister." Olivia is pretty shy, but I think Emma might be the one to stand up for her! 

Genevieve Hayes Gifts

Have you guys seen Genevieve Hayes Curated Gifts? Friends are always looking for unique baby shower or wedding gifts, and her frames are the best! Everything is hand embroidered silk ribbon. She does a ton of custom orders - and dyes the ribbons herself to make the perfect color. I had this frame made to match Emma's room, and am obsessed with how well it turned out!

You could match the birth announcement, nursery, wedding invitation, wedding flowers, or save the date. How beautiful is this one? Imagine your wedding invitation with your flowers bordering. 

BUT she's also started making hair bows. Olivia was the flower girl in a wedding when she was one, and I could not find the right hair clip. White or ivory never quite matched her dress and I ended up gluing a broach to a ribbon. This sweet hair clip would have been perfect!! Or one that matches the wedding colors or flowers! 

Check out her shop, and keep her in mind for your next special occasion. 

Halloween 2016

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. Its my favorite holiday: costumes + candy.

We carved a pumpkin and roasted the seeds. I told her when it was dark we were going to put a candle in it. Once it started to get dark Olivia said "mom, can we light the happy birthday pumpkin now?" I realized her birthday was the only time she's done much with candles. 

Olivia wore her Sofia the First costume for both of her classroom parties and her Halloween playdate - and Dan and I have 0 pictures! She told me that one of her friends was dressed as "dark vapor" and she didn't know what anyone else was. 

On Halloween she wore her Anna dress for trick or treating.

Emma wore quite a few festive outfits.

And was all set to go with her super warm flamingo outfit! I'm always so cold on Halloween, that I was pumped about this puffy costume. Turns out, it was 83 and she would have been sweating to death. Dan changed her into a packers jersey, and we also got 0 pictures.

For trick or treating, we started at the neighbor who was giving out beer for adults. Obviously. And then made our way around about 10 houses. Emma crapped out and went to bed. Olivia decided that she had enough candy and wanted to sit in the driveway and eat it, rather than get more. Pretty successful night if you ask me.

For our neighbors Halloween part, inspired by Emma, I was a Flamingo. Inspired by some article Dan read that morning, he decided to be Donald Trump. We were late because his makeup took too long.

We had such a fun Halloween. And have vowed to not buy any more candy for the rest of the year. 

Olivia's 3rd Birthday Party

Olivia was so excited for her Cinderyella party since May. I'm not sure what she's going to talk about now.

It started with donuts with her class the Friday before her birthday. She wanted to make sure everyone got a pink donut with sprinkles.

We ended up having to take Emma to the ER the night before - so we were all exhausted and it was quite the scramble to get everything together. But nothing was raining on Olivia's parade!

We had gummy ring pops and candy bracelets. Cinderella rings and magic wands. Cinderella labels, birds holding the signs, Cinderella faces and balloons. BBQ, chips, apple sauce, goldfish, and cookies.

Beer. Mimosa bar. And signs that said "because .. kids party #amiright?" and "18 more years Olivia."

A cake that Olivia picked out. 

About 20 kids. Pumpkin painting. Trampoline jumping. Hammock swinging. And mom forgot all about the glass slipper scavenger hunt. What can you do with 24 glass slippers?

After her party, I told her she could choose whatever she wanted for dinner. Cake and broccoli it was.