Landon at Two Months

Landon turned two months old on Monday, December 1st.

Measurements
Weight: 11 pounds, 9.8 ounces (46th percentile)
Height: 22 inches (41st percentile)
Head circumference: 15 inches (71st percentile)

He's growing right on track!

Appearance
~CHEEKS! He has some pretty kissable, chubby cheeks.

~The hair on the top of his head is starting to grow in pretty thick. I think he'll be hairy like his dad (poor thing - ha!). The rest of his hair never really fell out.
~His eyes seem to be getting lighter. They are kind of a blueish gray.

~Now that he has some meat on him, he has yummy little leg rolls!

Sizes
~At two months Landon is wearing 0-3 month, and 3 month clothes.

^ He was having a chubby day on this day, 

and he wasn't pleased I was taking his picture. ;)

~We finished up the last of his newborn diapers, so he's in a size one diaper now. 

Personality
~The day he turned two months old I was able to catch a purposeful smile on camera for the first time!

~He is a little flirt.

^ Flirting with his Great Grandma Helen!

~When he gets mad, he gets mad really fast and there's no calming him down.
~I think he'll have a passionate personality.
~The crying has let up a lot so that's been a nice reprieve.

  
Likes
~Mama's milkies.
~His bouncy seat that vibrates.

 ~Baths

^ Chins!

~His Mama, Papa and Sissy. He will just stare and stare at Preslie when she's around him.

  
Dislikes
~Naps! This would be the reason I struggle to post just his monthly updates because the kid does not like to sleep during the day.
~Tummy time.
~He's getting a lot better at car rides, but he still has his moments.

Eating
~His eating (at 2 months - he's now 2 1/2 months) was beginning to get frustrating. I had to nurse him in a laid back position because he couldn't handle my forceful letdown. That was just an awkward way to nurse and I didn't enjoy it and Landon always fought it. So I took a little break on the breastfeeding and focused on the bottle for a while. He was still having issues with the bottle until I changed the bottle I was using. Then he started taking the bottle a lot better and was getting nice, full feedings. Each week I try nursing him to see if he can nurse without choking and this week we're finally there! So he's been nursing a lot more as of late. I'm thankful he seems to be a pretty flexible nurser.
~At two months he was eating every three hours during the day and once at night around 2 or 3am.

Sleeping
~As I mentioned before, he does not like naps. I am a proponent of Crying It Out (CIO). I did it with Preslie when I sleep trained her and it worked and she does a great job at self-soothing now. Landon gives CIO a run for it's money. I won't tell you how long I've let him CIO lest you think I'm a horrible person and mother; but Landon wins every time.
~At this point Landon goes down for a nap in his crib two to three times a day and will "nap" 30-45 minutes. I've tried letting him nap in his swing, in his bouncy seat or on the play mat and he won't go longer than 45 minutes. Once he's awake, he's awake.
~HOWEVER! He is an awesome sleeper at night! So I'm done complaining about his no-nap-taking-self. ;)

~I consider "sleeping through the night" to be from the time he goes down (which was about 8:15pm at two months) to any time after 5am the following morning. At two months he had not slept through the night. BUT...he did go a 7 hour stretch a couple times and that was awesome! I'm sure he'll be sleeping through the night soon.
~Which..side note - I don't get why he'll sleep so great at night but he won't during the day. Even at night if he stirs and wakes a little he will fall back to sleep. I do everything the same during the day (crib, swaddle, sound machine, dark room) that I do at night.

Schedule
At two months old, he was still on the same schedule as last month, except I moved his nighttime routine up because I was tired of him crying so much in the evening. So at two months his bath would start at 7:45pm and the rest would follow, and he'd wake between 2-3am for a feeding.

New Experiences
~We went to Grammy and Grampy's house and Landon met his Great Grandma Ruth for the first time!

~This was also his first long road trip and he did surprisingly well!
~Sister decorated him with stickers and he took it like a champ. ;)

~He met his Grandpa Pino for the first time.
~He enjoyed a Sunday brunch with friends and family during the 49er game.

 ~He got in lots of snuggles with Mama.

~He met his cousin Joseph for the first time!

~He had his first set of vaccines and only cried for a few seconds.

~He has discovered his hands and will put his thumb in his mouth when he can find it. I have a feeling we'll have another thumb sucker.

 ~He enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!

 ~He had a nice, long visit at Grammy and Grampy's house after Thanksgiving.

As Landon gets older and does something new each day, it's so fun to see his little personality peek through his newborn-ness!

Landon at One Month

I realize I'm over a half month late posting this. All stats listed below were what he was/doing at one month old (over two weeks ago).

Landon turned one month old on Saturday, November 1st.

Measurements 
We don't see the doctor until he's two months, so these stats are my best guesses...
Weight: 8.5-9 pounds
Height: 20 inches

Landon had a mild case of jaundice once we got home from the hospital. We had to go see the doctor the day after he was discharged from the NICU. Between the time he was weighed in the NICU before he went home and when he was weighed at the doctor's office the next day (which was less than 24 hours) he had already gained 4 ounces! I was pretty proud of that since I was strictly nursing him.

 ^ Looking super orange because of the jaundice. 

The orange onesie doesn't help either. Ha!

Appearance
~We've come to the consensus that Landon looks a lot more like me and my side of the family than he does Kevin. Which I'm okay with. :) Preslie resembles Kevin so much that it's nice to see a little part of me in Landon.
~He has very big eyes and the most perfect lips.

~It's hard to say what color his eyes are at this point.
~He doesn't have a ton of hair, and the hair on the top of his head seems to be falling out so he looks like he has a receding hairline. No bows to cover it up either!

~He scrunches up his forehead a lot and resembles a little old man.
~His right earlobe tends to have a slight bend to it. Hee hee! So it's a bit more noticeable than your average earlobe.
~He is a scrawny little thing. Not much meat on him at this point.

 ^I love this picture!

~At one month his umbilical cord was just about to fall off any day. He held on to that for a while (which grossed me out).

Sizes
~At one month Landon was in all newborn size clothes.
~Newborn size diapers, but we'll be going to size 1 diapers after the last of the newborns are used.

Personality

~He doesn't really have much of a personality yet, since he sleeps most of the time. So far he seems very serious.

~He cries a lot more than Preslie did. Preslie was an unusually good baby though so it's unfair to compare.

Likes
~Milkies, milkies and more milkies!
~He loves to sleep on someone and to be held.

~He likes to be snuggled in soft blankets.

^My favorite guys

~His umbilical cord has yet to fall off so the jury is still out on if he'll like a bath.

Dislikes
~The swing. Landon will tolerate it at random times.

~Being put down. Fun times!
~Tummy time.
~The Miracle Blanket Swaddle. He HATES this with a passion! So we swaddle him "manually" with a regular baby blanket.

Eating
~Landon was taking some formula the first week of his life (along with breast milk) due to being in the NICU and a delay in my milk coming in.
~At one month, he nurses every 2-3 hours. This has taken some getting used to for me. Preslie was bottle fed breast milk so she consumed more at a feeding. With nursing, it's a little easier to let him fall asleep and a little more difficult to tell how much he's getting during a nursing session. It's getting better though.
~We've started giving him a bottle at his bedtime feeding so he can sleep a longer stretch for the first part of the night.
~He can go from bottle to breast and/or paci to breast with no issues.
~I have a forceful letdown and he tends to choke when he nurses, so that's also something we're working on.

Sleeping
~We started Moms On Call at four weeks with Landon, so we were just in the first week of it when Landon turned one month.
~He slept in his crib overnight at four weeks. Prior to that he'd sleep in the cradle by my side of the bed. While in his cradle he would sleep three-hour stretches.

 ^Sister peeking at her baby brother.

~We have one side of his crib raised because he's had some issues with spitting up and we want to make sure he doesn't choke.
~Landon absolutely hates taking a nap in his crib.

 ^First nap in his crib!

~He sleeps swaddled, with a sound machine, in a pitch black room, with the door closed, and the Angel Care Monitor on along with the video monitor so I can see him from our bedroom.

Schedule
~I'm someone who likes a schedule. With Landon, I have been a lot more lax with his schedule, but I still try to keep him on one.

Here's his schedule at one month. It's unusual we actually follow the schedule during the day but in the evening we follow it pretty strictly to keep his bedtime routine consistent. It's rare he goes the full three hours between eating.

6am/7am: Wake and eat
7:30am: Nap 
9am: Eat
9:30am: Play
10am: Nap
12pm: Eat
12:30pm: Play
1pm: Nap
3pm: Eat
3:30pm: Play
4pm: Nap
6pm: Eat
6:30pm: Play
7pm: Nap
8:30pm: Bath
9pm: Eat
9:30pm: Bed
1am/2am: Eat

New Experiences
~Well, for starters...he was born!

~He met a lot of his family members.

^His sister

^His Grampy (my dad)

^His Grammy (my mom)

 ^His Uncle Matthew (my BIL)

 

^His Uncle JJ (my brother)

 ^His Auntie Courtney (my SIL)

He also met Grandma, Great-Grandma Helen, a slew of second aunts, uncles and cousins. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of them all yet.

~He enjoyed his first BBQ at Grandma's house.
~Landon experienced his first Halloween and dressed up as a football!

~He went to the pumpkin patch for the first time.

 

It has been a big adjustment for us all, welcoming Little Lando into our family; but now that he is here we wouldn't have it any other way. We love this sweet miracle baby with everything we have!

Landon's Birth Story - Part 2

Part 1 of Landon's birth story is here.

Eventually, it was time for me to push to get Landon's head down, locked and loaded. I think I pushed for 30-45 minutes before my OB came in to deliver me. At that point Landon's head was right there and I totally felt that urge to push. I told Kevin "Oh gosh. I have to push." and he said "Okay, push." Bless his heart, he was being such a good partner in all this. But my OB was still putting her gloves and scrubs on and I looked at him and said "If I push this baby is coming out! I have to wait for the doctor."

So then I told the doctor that I really needed to push so she quickly dropped the scrubs and took position, I pushed once and Landon's head was out and I immediately saw a slight look of panic/concern on the doctor and nurse's faces. The doctor said kind of quickly to the nurse some medical term for the cord being wrapped around his neck and it was so tight that the doctor had to ask the nurse to put her finger between the cord and the neck so the doctor could cut the cord from Landon's neck because it wasn't budging. Then the nurse translated and said the cord was wrapped around his neck but he was beautiful. Keep in mind, he was still partially inside me. So I was asked to push one more time and he was fully delivered.

The doctor did not lift him up for me to see and he was barely laid on my stomach. All the sudden there were about four more nurses in the room and they immediately took Landon to the warming table. He wasn't crying, he was so ashen and blue and limp. The nurses were rubbing him really hard to get him to "come to" and cry but he wasn't having it. Next thing I know a nurse requests another nurse to call the Rapid Response Team. At that point Kevin and I were very concerned.

As I'm laying with my legs splayed open, my placenta on a table and the doctor doing what she needs to do "down there," about 10 doctors and nurses come piling into our room to work on Landon. Normally, I probably would have been a little embarrassed because all of me was clearly visible to all of them. But in that instant all I cared about was making sure our baby was going to live. My nurse was keeping me up to date on what they were doing, and some doctors would come up to reassure us about what they were doing. No one was really giving us clear-cut explanations, but because everything seemed so frantic to me, I didn't think to ask questions and I didn't know what questions to ask in that moment! I just wanted them to stop talking to me and focus on the baby.

After a while they got Landon stable. There was talk of Landon going down to the NICU but he apparently was doing better so they decided against it. After a long time, I finally got to hold Landon and put him to my chest and nurse him. He never cried and he was still pretty cold. We eventually moved from Labor and Delivery up to our room in Recovery and when we got up there Landon was really blue around his lips. There was a lady up there when we got into the Recovery room and she drew blood from Landon and ran some tests on it right then and there and based on those results she called the NICU doctor who then came to our room and took Landon away down to the NICU. It all happened so fast.

It was such a roller coaster of emotions. First, we were so excited about his birth, then so scared after his birth. Then so worried because they mentioned the possibility of the NICU. Then so happy that he wouldn't have to go after all. Then back to being so worried and scared once he did have to go to the NICU in the end.

So when they took Landon down to the NICU, Kevin went with them. So I was alone in my hospital room. I wasn't intentionally left by myself. My mom was on her way back to the hospital to stay with me while Kevin was in the NICU. Surprisingly, I didn't break down at that point. I think I was still in so much shock that I hadn't had a chance to process everything. But I was sad. So sad that I didn't have my baby in my arms and that I wasn't able to hold him skin-to-skin and nurse him like I normally would have been able to do. So sad that our family wasn't there to hold and love on him.

My mom made it to my room and it felt good to have her there. Kevin came back from the NICU and explained what he could. We still didn't know much then, and I think looking back now, I was too afraid to ask too many questions for fear of what the answers might be. Kevin then went home so he could see Preslie, help put her to bed and get some dinner, while my mom stayed with me. My mom and I went down to the NICU to see Landon and that's when I had my breakdown. I don't like crying in front of people, but I couldn't help it at that point.

Kevin came back that night and my mom went back to our house (my dad was with Preslie back at our house). Since I didn't have Landon around to nurse him, I had to use one of the hospital's pumps to pump all the colostrum I could for the baby.

Landon ended up being in the NICU for three days. I was discharged from the hospital the day after I delivered. Thankfully, Kaiser has a program where you can "board in" a hospital room for up to three days after discharge if you have a child in the NICU and you don't have to pay for the hospital room. The only caveat was the hospital staff would not provide you with any support (like hospital food, etc.). It was just a place to stay so we could be close to our baby and it worked perfectly. We ended up "boarding in" for one night on Thursday the 2nd.

On Friday, after the NICU doctor made his rounds, they told us we could "room in" with Landon that night. The NICU at this Kaiser has two "bedrooms" on the NICU floor. This gives parents a chance to stay the night in the hospital with your baby in your room and nurses nearby. Again, super convenient and a great accommodation at no charge. The only drawback was the room was literally a square with no windows so it kind of felt like you were in a shoebox with a bathroom. But we were just happy that Landon was doing well enough to be able to do this.

 

^ The first time I was ever alone with Landon. I was able to take off his lines for good and get him dressed in a real outfit.

^ His first outfit! He was swimming in it and was so itty bitty!

^ Hanging out with Papa in the "room in" room on the NICU floor.

That night neither Kevin or I got much sleep - and it wasn't because of having a three-day-old in the room. It was because the nurses wanted him to eat every three hours. So I'd nurse him every three hours and change his diaper, start to fall back to sleep and a nurse would knock on our door to get his diaper  so they could weigh it. At least Landon slept great that night!

On Saturday Landon was discharged.

 ^ Heading home!!!

It was a great feeling to be out of there. I felt very thankful for so many things that day:

1. Having such a great and supportive husband. He is My Person and was an amazing partner through everything.
2. That Landon wasn't required to be in the NICU for very many days compared to more serious cases. It was scary nonetheless, but I know it could have been worse and for that I am grateful he was spared.
3. Our family who helped us so much with Preslie during it all.
4. Our hospital. I was so incredibly impressed with all the services we received.

^ We're home!

Once we got Landon home, I think everyone took a big sigh of relief. As for big sister, she didn't want to have much to do with him. I had big plans before I went into labor about how my parents would bring Preslie to the hospital to meet her brother for the first time. What she would be wearing and how we'd give her a little Big Sister Gift. That obviously didn't work out like I had hoped. In the end the only thing that mattered was that we were all under one roof and everyone was healthy.

The End.

:)

Landon's Birth Story - Part 1

It's obviously been over a month since Landon was born, but I want to attempt to document his birth story. Hopefully, I can remember most of it since it's been a while!

Disclaimer: If you could care less about the birthing process or get grossed out by "womanly things," then you might want to refrain from reading this.

Since I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Landon, I had a feeling he would come before his due date (which would have been October 19th) and earlier than his sister was born (Preslie was born a week early). Once I made it to 32 weeks with Landon, I was feeling as uncomfortable as I was when I was 35 weeks with Preslie. So that gave me even more of the sense that he was coming early.

The weekend of September 20th I was 36 weeks pregnant and made the three hour trip to my hometown and back with Preslie, to see my parents, attend a couple birthday parties and catch up with friends. I knew it would be a while until I was able to get back there once Landon was born. The whole time I kept hoping I wouldn't go into labor there because, 1) I was nowhere near my hospital, and 2) Kevin wasn't with us. So I just made sure to take it easy and let my parents take care of Preslie. Ha!

The following weekend, at 2:30am on the morning of Sunday, September 28th I woke up to contractions out of nowhere. I had had continual braxton hicks for the latter part of my pregnancy, but these were strong enough to wake me from my sleep. I thought "This is it! He's coming today!" Then my next thought was "Oh shit. I still have so much to get done!" I immediately started stressing about all the stuff I still had left to do - the mounds of laundry being one of them. So at 2:30am I got out of bed and began to do laundry and clean the house. Nesting much?

Once I was up and moving around, the contractions stopped. At one point I laid on the couch to rest for a bit and the contractions started up again. Any time I was laying down I'd have contractions. They were pretty mild pain-wise at that point, but enough pain to keep me from going back to sleep.

Kevin took care of Preslie that morning once she got up and that allowed me to get a couple hours of restless sleep before I got up for the day (for the second time). Once I was up, I went to the bathroom and discovered I had lost my mucus plug, which was completely surprising because I was only 37 weeks on this day. For the following two days I continued to have "bloody show" and a lot of mild contractions that became a bit more painful as each day went by.

Since that Sunday I was taking a lot of walks each day to see if the contractions would become regular - which they didn't. The only thing that remained consistent was that they would come regularly and strong when I was laying down, but would go away if I was up and moving around (which was the complete opposite from when I was in labor with Preslie).

Once Tuesday evening  (September 30th) came around, I had this weird feeling that Landon would be born the next day. Maybe since I had given birth one time before I could sense my body was getting ready? I don't really know, but I decided to double-check my hospital bag, I got everything packed up for Preslie for when we took her to Kara's if it was going to be an early morning drop off, and I made sure the guest room was ready for my parents.

At about 3am on Wednesday, October 1st, I was woken up again to much painful contractions. As I was timing them they were about 5-7 minutes apart and stronger than they had been previously. I made sure to do a lot of laps around the house to see if they would keep coming, and they did. I spent about an hour-and-a-half on the big medicine ball while I watched TV, just to get my pelvis open and relieve the pressure on my lower back. The contractions were continuing to get stronger so I decided to take a bath at about 4am. When I did that when I was laboring with Preslie, it got things moving real quick. And the same can be said for this labor.

I got out of the bath at 4:30am, then laid in bed and continued to time my contractions for another 15 minutes. At that point they were coming every 4-5 minutes. So I turned on my light, rolled over and tried to gently wake Kevin up to tell him it was time to head to the hospital.

Side Note: The day before, Kevin had a hard but very successful day at work. He had "requested" that I not have Landon on September 30th since it was month-end for him and he had some very important deals to close. He ended up closing all his deals, plus an additional one! So needless to say he was utterly exhausted when I woke him up.

So we got up, he showered, I got dressed and texted Kara to let her know we'd be dropping Preslie off since Landon was on his way. The contractions were getting much stronger. I wasn't able to talk or walk when they came. We got the car packed, the dogs situated, family notified and then we got Preslie up and changed and in the car and we were on the road at 5:30am. We dropped her off and headed to the hospital.

 

^ One last belly pic on our way out the door! 

37 weeks and 3 days pregnant.

Once at the hospital, a midwife checked me 6am and I was only 3cm! I couldn't believe it. I was so frustrated. My contractions were STRONG and I was sure I had made more progress than that with being in early stages of labor the past two days. That midwife almost sent me home, but she decided to let me stay there for an hour to monitor the contractions and see if I made any more progress. When she walked out of the room I got off that hospital bed and stood up and labored standing up to help things along.

Holy hell. Did things ever move along!

The contractions were so strong that I was shaking uncontrollably during and after them. Sweet Kevin thought I was cold and was trying to cover me up, but I had to explain to him (through gritted teeth) that the shaking was involuntary and I wasn't in need of blankets. I also had the need to vomit which was super fun (said no one ever).

The midwife came back at 7am and checked me again and I was then at 5cm. I thought progressing two centimeters within one hour was really good progress, but I guess not. She ALMOST sent me home! But I literally gave her a death stare and pleaded with my eyeballs, willing her to keep me there. After some hmming and hawing on her behalf, she decided to admit me since I needed a couple rounds of antibiotics because I had tested positive for Group B Strep. I was so so so relieved.

I don't remember too much between the time I was admitted and when I got the epidural. I do remember throwing up a lot and my contractions feeling way more painful and strong than they ever were when I was in labor with Preslie. They probably weren't, but time can play tricks on your mind. Once I got the epidural I could focus more and relax. I realized our nurse was awesome and that my OB was actually on call that day. I was pretty happy about the fact that my doctor would be delivering me.

The nurse allowed us to rest for a few hours while the antibiotics were administered and I progressed more. I have to say that I have no regrets whatsoever with getting an epidural. I know women have strong opinions about all that, but for me it was wonderful and it allowed me to get the rest I needed before I started pushing. At one point the nurse was going to check me and break my bag of waters but apparently that happened on its own. I couldn't feel anything so that whole part of labor was pretty anticlimactic.

When the nurse let us know that I was complete and I'd start pushing in about 30 minutes, I requested oxygen while I pushed. During my labor with Preslie and when I was pushing with her, I didn't have the extra oxygen and I felt like I was going to pass out on multiple occasions. I didn't know enough then to ask for it. So this time I did, and my nurse gave me the oxygen mask right then so I could just start getting it ahead of time.

I think it was around this time that we noticed Landon's heartbeat was dropping every now and then. It didn't drop consistently and hadn't dropped too low for it to be a cause for concern at that point, but it was something the nurse was keeping an eye on.

I think I'll stop here because his birth story is really long. I'll post the next installment tomorrow!

Preslie Kay at Eighteen Months

Preslie turned 18 months old on Thursday, October 2nd; one day after her little brother was born.

This past month has been a big adjustment for her (for us all)! Here is what Preslie has been up to the past six months...

Measurements: At Preslie's 18 month well-check she came in at...
Weight: 24 pounds, 13 ounces (73rd percentile)
Height:  2' 8" tall (53rd percentile)
Head circumference: 19" (92nd percentile)

^ Water table fun over the summer! April 7, 2014

Appearance:
~Preslie has thinned out some since my 12 month post. She is on the move a lot so she doesn't have as much baby fat as she once did.
~Her eyes have pretty much evened out to a hazel color.

^Easter Sunday! April 20, 2014

~I think she has 11 or 12 teeth! She won't let me get a good look at her top molars and she BITES if I stick my finger in her mouth, but that's my guess. Based on the 11 or so teeth that she has so far, it seems like the smaller teeth tend to give her more problems when they break through than the molars do.

~Girlfriend has long legs and a big belly!

~Her hair has grown an awful lot and its light brown in color. It's very thin but is getting longer each day. I plan to have it grow long so I can do fun braids and curl it and whatnot when she's older.

^Cooling off! May 13, 2014

Sizes
~She is kind of all over the place with her sizes. She can fit into 24mo/2T clothes okay but it's getting to the point where they won't fit for long. So at this point I'm buying 3T pants and tops (to accommodate her belly).

~Size 4 shoe. She barely stayed in a size 3 for very long. I was so hesitant to buy her many shoes in a 4 for fear she'd grow out of them too fast, but so far Preslie has held steady at a size 4 shoe for now.

 ~Size 4 diapers, sometimes size 5 depending on the brand.

Personality
~I don't quite know where to begin to even describe this girl's personality. She is ever-so sassy. She clearly knows the word "no" and knows exactly when to use it.

^This smile melts me. May 25, 2014

~She is a bossy little thing - much like her Mama. 
~Much like her father, she loves attention. If she's in a room of people she makes sure we're all watching her. I'm going to have to teach her a little humility as she gets older. ;)

^Places to go, people to see! June 26, 2014

~She notices EVERYTHING! If you have a zit on your face or an "ouch" on your leg, she's sure to point it out to you.
~She will not smile for the camera unless someone is doing something silly for her. Child makes you work for a grin.

^Baby in a basket! June 27, 2014

~She will say "hi" to people she sees when we're out and about.
~If we're someplace new she takes some time to take everything in before she warms up to the situation and people.
~As with many toddlers, her attention span is slim-to-none most of the time. However, she will play by herself in her room for 15 minute stretches now and then.

New Words
There are a long list of them and the list seems to grow each day! Here are the ones I can think of right now...

^July 4th, 2014

~No
~Ya
~Please
~Sit
~Moon
~Sky
~Car
~Truck
~Night night
~Shoes
~Water
~Milk
~Snack
~Yellow
~Blue
~Bubbles
~Football
~Touchdown
~Go
~Niners
~Bye bye
~Baby
~Mama
~Mommy
~Papa
~Bubba
~Ball
~Outside
~Down
~Up
~More
~Apple
~Juice
~Shhh...while holding her finger in front of her lips. It's pretty darn cute. :)

Likes
~Preslie loves to go "bye bye." She is always really good when we go out and about to run errands.
~She will eat snacks all day long if we let her. That's all I hear during the day (and "Mommy!").
~Preslie gets so excited when Papa comes home from work.

^Papa is always so fun!

~Sweet girl loves to color. Whether it's in a coloring book or on our phones in an app.
~She thinks it's really funny to run away from us and be chased. Not so funny while Mama was pregnant!

~Preslie is obsessed with stickers. I get sticker books from the $1 Spot at Target. Luckily, these stickers aren't too sticky because we find them everywhere: on the sliding glass door, on cabinets, on Landon, in his car seat, on the floor, in her crib, etc.
~She enjoys "helping" Papa in the garage with projects.
 ~She likes to suck on her toothbrush. I think it feels good on her gums.
~Preslie loves to be outside. I don't know a toddler that doesn't!

^Cheese! August 5, 2014

~Girl is obsessed with the moon! She points at it every time she can spot it in the sky and goes nuts with excitement.

Dislikes
~She fights us with all she has when we try to brush her teeth. Any tips???
~Having her diaper changed.
~Sometimes having her hair done. I have to be real quick when I do it otherwise she is over it.
~She doesn't enjoy being told "no" or "that's enough" or when something is "all gone." Typical toddler behavior.

^Really mom???

Eating
~Preslie sits in a booster seat at the table with us now. She has since she was about 13 months old. Mostly because I was tired of looking at the high chair all the time. I have issues with "clutter." Ha! She does a decent job at sitting at the table with us. I think it makes her feel like a big girl.
~Recently, having her finish her dinner has been a struggle. She will refuse to eat some nights if she decides she doesn't like something; and it could be something she gobbled down the night before. Sometimes, she sets her mind on not liking a food randomly and there's no changing it. We won't make her a different meal though. She either eats what is in front of her, or she wakes up real hungry the next morning for breakfast.
~Preslie drinks a sippy cup of lactose free milk every morning when she gets up.
~She drinks water throughout the day. We don't give her juice unless it's apple juice or Gatorade heavily watered down with water.
~She had candy for the first time on Halloween night and she is now a big fan of the sugar!

^Having the time of her life outside with Papa! October 18, 2014

~She does not enjoy vegetables. However, I've recently introduced her to the holy grail of ranch dressing and it's helped with getting her to eat them.

Sleeping
~Preslie goes to bed between 7-7:30 each night and wakes up around 7:00 the next morning.
~She takes one solid nap in the morning around 10:00 for a couple hours and sometimes she'll take an afternoon nap. We've been trying to phase the second nap out but if she seems tired we'll put her down for a second one sometimes.
~She has yet to discover that she can climb out of her crib and I hope to keep it that way for as long as possible.

New Experiences
~I don't really know that I can remember every new experience Preslie has had over the past six months, but she seems to learn something new everyday.
~She knows the hand motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider."
~She can count to three with you.
~She likes to "sing along" to songs like "ABC's," "Row Your Boat," "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She doesn't necessarily sing with me, but she sounds out the words the best she can.
~She's spent a lot of overnight visits with Grammy and Grampy and with Grandma.
~She spent a lot of time swimming this past summer and went to a lot of BBQ's at Grandma's house.
~The most notable new experience would be becoming a big sister. I plan to post about that later.

It is so hard to wrap my head around the fact that Preslie has gone from a baby to toddler to now a little girl, so quickly. Babies don't keep, and boy am I realizing that at lightening speed. Kevin and I often talk about the fact that we have to make sure to soak up this time with Preslie as she is now because she will never be this way again. We only have one shot with this little girl and we try to make the most of it as much as we can.