Lydia Elise: 2.5-2.75

Oh Lydia Elise, how we love you. You bring so much happiness to our little lives. 

The last three months brought about lots of changes, but two in particular - potty training and lots and lots of words! 

Stats: She fits in size 2T and 3T clothes equally well. She was in size 4 diapers during the day and size 5 diapers at night - but hooray for being potty trained! 

--We started another little push towards potty training pretty close to 2.5. I made the mistake of trying to use M&Ms as a reward for going potty. However, it didn't work for us. She'd walk around holding her M&Ms for hours. Finally, after her begging to take her M&Ms to bed and then waking up crying during the night because she couldn't find them, we swore never to try to bribe her with candy again. We switched to giving her pennines and quarters that she could put in a "bank" and that was much more successful for us! (More on that later.)  

  These pictures show her carrying a little blue M&M around and her reaction after it accidentally fell down the vent. Poor sweet girl. She was so distressed! We've told her that if things fall down the vent, we can't get them back so she needs to be very careful. However, she was SO upset about this darn M&M that I tried to get it out for her. I couldn't reach it, so I went and got another M&M and pretended to pull it out of the vent for her. She immediately went from sobbing to giggling. She told me "I feel happy now!" 

YouTube Clips of this. Part 1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGXExkskRV4&feature=youtu.be  and Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeqzBR7vg0k&feature=youtu.be

--She has the spirit of an explorer. She's always testing her physical limits and exploring the world around her. She often accompanies her adventures with self-narrated descriptions. "If I stand in 'dis, da water gets wet." Yes- it does. 

 --She still loves to build towers (which are one or two blocks as a base and go really tall) and castles (which have a wider base of 6-10 blocks and are more building like).

-She is so funny and so lovely. I'm amazed at her sense of humor, happy smile, and beautiful countenance.

--She loves her little brother and likes him to join her on all of her adventures. He's a good sport. Also, up until just this last week she's called him "Baby Aussin", but now she can say Austin very clearly. She still uses the "Baby" prefix frequently, but occasionally she will just use his name. "Where is Austin, Mom?" It's sad and sweet at the same time. I loved that she called him Baby Austin, but now she is treating him like she realizes he's a real person and it's sweet. 

--She has recently discovered a love of painting. In addition to a few fun watercolor books that my mom gave to her she has painted a canvas for her room, small wooden blocks, pages and pages of artwork, a wooden toy car and a pumpkin. She also loves to use fingerpaints in the bathtub.

--We celebrated her third Christmas and it was the best one yet! 

--She absolutely adore her daddy. She also loves pandas. We just randomly saw this Panda Bear at IKEA before Christmas and Lydia was smitten. We told her that maybe she would get a Panda Bear for Christmas, but thought she might forget about it. However, leading up to Christmas she kept telling everyone who would listen, "If I'm really lucky, I will get a Panda Bear." We couldn't resist that. When she got her Panda Bear from Santa, she was thrilled and it quickly turned into her favorite friend. Panda Bear (that's what she will tell you his name is if you ask) goes with us everywhere.

--We are potty trained! Fin.al.ly. It's been months and months in the making. We started before Austin was born, with stickers and a potty chart - and I like to think that even though we couldn't finish it then that we laid some good ground work. Basically, if you took off her diaper and let her run around the house she would go potty every time - almost no accidents. But if you put clothes on her, she couldn't make the connection to going potty on the toilet. I just didn't know how to bridge that gap. We basically stayed at that point for several months, asking her if she needed to go potty - letting her sit on the toilet whenever she wanted, but not really pushing anything or stressing out. We got to the point that she was going poop in the potty most days, right before her nap. Finally, we were almost out of diapers and I knew that she was ready, it was just me who was putting it off because of the energy it would require to make the final lap to the finish line. The M&Ms had been a disaster, but we had started giving her pennies for pee and quarters for poop so she could carry them around and I didn't have to worry about her getting melted chocolate everywhere. So I made a "bank" out of a little plastic package/box for her to start collecting her coins. We told her that she could save her money and go and buy something at the store. I was thinking something more along the lines of a small toy or a bag of candy, but when we were grocery shopping she spied a giant panda in the Valentine's section and immediately told me that she wanted to bring her money to the store and buy the big panda. I told her that if she started going pee and poop in the potty every time, that she could bring her money and buy it. After that she kept talking about her big panda and pretty much pushed herself over the edge. After a week of staying dry and wearing underwear everywhere we went (Still pull ups for naps and diapers for bed, although most of the time those are dry when she wakes up.) and after a few trips back to the store to look at the giant panda, we went to the store so she could buy one! We took the panda to the self check-out and let her put all of her coins in the slot by herself. It wasn't quite enough to buy the panda - but we figured that at this age, the fact that she saved up her money to buy something was a big enough lesson and we would cover the extra money. (Plus if she had been saving her pennies and quarters over the past several months - I'm sure she would have had enough.) She loves loves loves her Big Panda and we love being potty trained! 

 

 --I'll call her "Lyd" and she'll say "I'm not a lid, I'm an ee-yah." (Lydia.) Same thing for Austin and David. I'll call them Handsome and she'll say "He's not a handsome. He's a Austin/Daddy."

--If you ask her how many of something there is, she'll say "3,4,5!"

--She really enjoys doing puzzles. She got a 12 piece puzzle with cars and trucks and a 24 piece puzzle with animals for Christmas. She can do both all by herself, but loves if you sit and "do" the puzzle with her. That consists of her doing the puzzle and maybe letting you help push in the last piece. She just wants you to be there with her while she works on it. This is one of the few things that really grabs her attention for more than a few minutes. She can sit there and do the puzzle 10 times in a row and loves it.

--She likes to help make breakfast/dinner/cookies/etc... She likes to dump things in and says "I will do it!" if I look like I'm going to just dump it in myself. She also likes to hold bowls/cups if I'm pouring something (like milk) in them. She says "I will hold it in place."

--I like to pretend like I'm munching on her arm/leg/etc... I'll say something like "I'm going to eat you... munch munch munch... yummmmm." She'll squeal and try to run away, and say "Nooooo... don't eat me!" If I ask her why not, she'll say "Because then I'll be all gone!" I have to laugh, but then I tell her that I wouldn't eat her all gone, because I would miss her. Sometimes she'll do the same thing to me, but then she'll look up at me and say "I'm not real eating you - just 'tend eating." (Pretend) I love it.

--Crossing our fingers, but we've moved past her extreme tantrum throwing. Or at least we've figured out how to minimize them. Ignoring them seems to work pretty well, then after she calms down a little bit, we'll go over to her and say "I can see that you are feeling sad/frustrated - do you want to tell me why?" Or something like that. It's been really effective. The tantrums are much quieter, less dramatic, and less frequent than they were when she started throwing them.  Although she does get terribly upset sometimes, I like to think that she knows we love her and that we are willing to listen to her express her feelings. The other day, a neighbor expressed that Lydia was so polite and well behaved. I agreed, but then shared that we had just gotten back from the library where Lydia was so upset that she threw herself to the ground in front of the exit doors and didn't move for several minutes. We laughed - but I really do think that she is an extremely wonderful two-year old, even if she is still learning to express her emotions.

--If you ask her, she'll say her favorite color is Blue.

--If she isn't strapped in to her booster chair at the kitchen table, she has a hard time focusing on her food. But, she is still a good eater and will eat most everything that we serve. I just asked her what her favorite food is and she said "a-nilla ogie-yurt and swa-bee ogie-yurt" (vanilla and strawberry yogurt). That is certainly true. She also likes pasta, chicken, spinach, red peppers, cucumbers, cheese, sw-an-inches (sandwiches), toast with pur-pur jam (grape jelly), rice, fruit of any kind.

--She doesn't like me to leave her alone in a room. She'll say "I'm kinda scared" and ask me to stay with her. 

--She has beautiful blond hair that curls perfectly in her ponytails/pigtails. I pull her hair up almost every day but I have also used my straightener to flip it out at the bottom and it's darling. It's still got natural curl at the ends and looks darling when I let it go curly on the bottom and pull the top half up.

--She's scared of the trains that come by at night (and sometimes during the day). I don't know why, they never seemed to bother her before - but sometimes she'll cry out for us, especially if she is in her bed but hasn't fallen asleep yet. We have told her that she can hold onto her special bunny or her panda if she gets scared and that they will protect her - and that seems to have helped a lot. We also have helped her say prayers that she wont be scared and that she'll feel the Holy Ghost and she frequently asks us to help her say prayers when she's scared. 

--She had a nightmare about a snake coming to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but that "Papa" saved her. She talks about it all the time, still. "If a big snake comes, we can say go away snake, and he can go back to hims own home to play with hims own friends." She says that the snake will try to eat her, but she will either tell him to go away or that she will invite him to watch a Super Why instead. I occasionally worry, because she seems legitimately scared or this snake - but we've tried to acknowledge her thoughts about the snake and give her some tools to not be scared. (Saying go away, holding onto her panda to protect her, talking about how the snake wont eat her but he probably just wants to play with her, etc...) 

--She's learning how to say prayers. She won't say them on her own, but she's started mumbling after us as we pray. We frequently pray (at her request) that she won't be scared when the big train comes, or if a snake comes, and that she can hold her panda and special bunny if she gets scared. We also say "I'm grateful for..." and let her fill in all the things she's grateful for, which mostly consist of her Pandas and anything else she can see at the moment. 

--She doesn't like spills and will wipe up any messes that she makes/finds. Often if she drops something on the table during dinner, she won't keep eating unless we help her clean it up. 

--She loves her black boots to wear outside, but as soon as we come inside she asks to take off her boots and her socks. She doesn't like wearing socks if she isn't wearing shoes. 

--She loves Daniel Tiger and Super Why. 

--We were recently introduced to the Fancy Nancy books and we love them. I have a hard time finding good children's books that we both like; that entertain her and satisfy my list of expectations in a book.  Others we like lately are Go! Go! Go! Stop! and Owen. I just asked her what her favorite book was and she said "Fancy, Fancy Chriss-mas". My favorite thing about reading books with her lately is that she loves to say the words as you say them. She has probably half-a-dozen or so books memorized and she'll say the words right along with you or right before you say them. She gets so silly about it sometimes and she starts giggling until you can't understand what she's saying - but we think she's so smart to have so many words memorized. 

-She won't wear bows for longer than 20 minutes. I don't even try on most days, but usually on Sunday I'll try to sneak one in for church. It never fails that she reaches up and pulls it out - and usually hands it to David who puts it in his pocket. If she hands it to me, I'll try to put it back on her so she's learned to give it to daddy.

--She finally has all of her teeth (except her very back molars, of course). The ones next to the molars that she has took the very longest to come in and just recently made it all the way in. 

--Did I mention that she loves Austin? If he cries, she'll say "I will go help him!" If I'm doing laundry or something and he's on the floor, getting fussy - she'll start bring him toy after toy to try to cheer him up. She's so sweet with him - the perfect older sister.

Some other pictures from the last three months: 

We absolutely adore this darling girl. I can hardly believe that she'll be three in just a few short months!

(More videos of this month: (There were just too many to include in this already long post.)
Bedtime Routine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqMGeJwQWLM&feature=youtu.be
Exploring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aS_kVxWq44&feature=youtu.be
Ring around the Rosies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuajfpEzfTU&feature=youtu.be
Gummybears from Grandpa Walker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIuYyATgAHU&feature=youtu.be
Elsie and Lydia in the Cupboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OGS2N4d42I&feature=youtu.be

Insta-Tuesday {2.4.15}

I've been absent from Instagram almost as much as I've disappeared from blogging this month. However, here are a few snapshots of our life:

(In a new format that will look nicer when we print our blog books.) 

{1.16.15}

This little man is learning to reach and bat at toys. Love him! #austinscott #the

onlytwominuteshehasntbeencryingallday

{1.18.15}

Finally taking down Christmas. #deadlineisjanuary31 #right?

{1.31.15}

Lydia is officially potty trained! After months of being almost there, we made a final push last week. She earned coins for going in the potty and saved up her money so she could buy this giant panda. She's in heaven. #shelovespandas#quartersandpenniesforthewin#wewerealmostoutofdiapers

{2.1.15}

Blocking the sun and holding in his pacifier from the front seat. #lifeofamommy #imapro #myarmhurts#ilovehim

{2.2.15}

It just keeps getting better and better! Road trip anyone? #awesome

{2.3.15}

See the monitor in the background? We are at zero percent kids asleep an hour and a half after bedtime.#heavenhelpus

{2.4.15}

Day 3 of "painting in the bathtub". She's got a cough and a fever, and the steam and soaking in the tub seem to help - so I can't say no to her. #sickbabiesaresosad#lydiaelise #suchtalent

Austin Scott: 3-4 Months

As I was getting ready to write this post, David said "Just put a picture of Austin on and write, 'We didn't sleep this month - so this is the best blog post you get.'"

There is more truth to that sentence than I'd like to admit. Our sleep schedule has been pretty... poor. I'd say that our biggest accomplishment of this month is that we all survived. (Terrible, I know. Austin - when you grow up and read this post, just know that I love you more than you can even possibly imagine. If I come across as complain-y, I'm sorry. I wouldn't trade long nights-and days-of holding you for a million hours of sleep without you in my life.) 

Stats: 

13 lbs-(5th percentile). Size 1 diapers are a little small and size 2 diapers are a bit big. Still in size 0-3 months clothes, but they are starting to get a little small-ish. 

--We celebrated Austin's first Christmas. Which was wonderful. 

--Austin laughed for the first time and we caught it on camera. I love it, especially because he hasn't really belly laughed since. He was watching his Aunt Jenna as she was making a bed and when she flipped the sheet up into the air to cover the bed he started giggling. She kept doing it and he kept laughing. Thanks to Kevin for pulling out his phone and capturing the sweet moment on camera. 

--In direct contrast to his laughing, he has the saddest sad face. 

--He kicks his legs when he's happy or when he's upset. The more extreme the emotion, the harder he kicks his legs.

--He has the biggest wide mouth smile, but its super elusive and hard to catch on camera.

--This last month has been full of stress about Austin's weight. In a nutshell: Austin has been dropping in his percentiles, we were worried, I'm taking every supplement I hear about, I don't like my pediatrician and don't have much confidence in him, Austin seems fine so we are just going to watch him. 

The long story: At 3 months we went in for a weight check and Austin had dropped in weight again to the 6th percentile (from the 13th at 2 months). The nurses made it sound like a big deal, people I talked to about it made it sound like it was a big deal, the internet said it was a big deal. So I started supplementing and trying to increase my milk supply in an effort to make sure he was getting enough to eat. I was in contact with my pediatricians office and they said that rather than have us come in for a separate appointment, the pediatrician recommended coming in for our four month appointment early. We made our appointment 10 days early, but when we got to the office - the doctor basically had no idea what was going on. (We've had such a struggle to find a pediatrician that we like, that seems like they actually know/care about us.) I had to tell him that we were there early because there was a concern about his weight. Without even examining Austin, and after only a tiny glance at his chart, he said "He's probably fine." Argh. I mean, I was hoping that we'd go to the appointment and they'd ask me questions about his output, look at all of his vitals, then tell me that he looks fine - just a little small, and that sometimes babies just grow a little bit differently and it's not something to worry about. But the nurses seemed so stressed about it, then the doctor didn't ask me any questions about Austin, basically just told me that if I was worried I could start taking an herb to increase milk supply (fenugreek, which I was already taking). He said that maybe that's why we had leveled out his growth chart; he was 12 lbs (6%) at the 3 month-ish weight check and was 12lbs 9.5oz (also 6%) at 10 days before 4 months.  He didn't even mention supplementing with formula or starting to give him solids but he had us schedule another weight check to make sure that Austin kept growing, and said that he should gain about 8 oz in the next two weeks. Fast forward to the weight check when I realized that the numbers on the paper reflected that the doctor only put that Austin needed to grow 2 oz, even though the nurse said that he should be gaining about an ounce a day (not an ounce a week!). He weighed 13 lbs, which was not the 8 oz we thought he was supposed to gain and puts him in the 5th percentile. So he didn't drop a lot, but he did drop. I asked the nurse to go and ask the doctor, even though according to what he wrote on the chart Austin was fine. He basically said he'd check up on Austin at 6 months. I'm frustrated with my pediatricians inability to communicate with me and that we have been so worried and have such little resolution. However, Austin seems okay and has several wet diapers and at least one poopy diaper a day, so I'm choosing not to worry about it. I'm also going to see a lactation consultant, in hopes that they can give me more detailed guidance about what I should be expecting.

--He loves playing peekaboo. Sometimes that is the only thing that will stop him from fussing. I'll put a blanket over his face and pull it off and he'll grin (and kick his legs). Occasionally I will catch Lydia coming up to him on the couch and playing peekaboo with him. Melt my heart.

--He's not rolling yet. In all honesty, he's not even showing any interest in rolling. (Aside from one day when he was trying to roll up onto his side, which made me think it was close but then he hasn't shown any interest after that.) He doesn't love laying on the ground which makes tummy time hard - and makes laying on his back hard. (It also makes for some long days of holding him.) I know that all babies develop differently, so I'm not worried - but I am excited for him to learn.

--Sleep. Or lack thereof. We were in a fairly decent routine, but then something must have happened because we regressed and have been sleeping worse than ever before - even as a tiny newborn. I feel slightly reassured after reading about Lydia's 4 month post when I wrote "But now I feel as though everything is just out of control." Because that's pretty much how I feel right now. We went from waking up 3-4 times a night, to waking up every two hours, then every 90 minutes, then every hour. I still get a pretty good stretch from 7-10:30-ish. But then it's 11:30, 12:30, 2, 3:30, 4:30, and up for an hour sometime between 4 and 6 before falling back asleep until about 8... I'd be happy to just sleep with him in the chair but he gets uncomfortable a while and it wakes him up, but if I try to put him in his bed 75% of the time he'll wake up again before I even fall asleep in my own bed. It's been so exhausting. David has been really helping out with the hour-long awake-awake stage around 4 or 5, it's such a blessing. But we are all starting to get desperate. I've taken to trolling the internet looking for magic baby sleep tools. We ordered a Zipadeezip, but it was too big and didn't help - so I ordered a Woombie but it hasn't gotten here yet. Seriously, one morning at 4 a.m. I was paying for and downloading a "Baby Shusher" app to the iPad in hopes that it would soothe my baby to sleep. And it's not just at night. Our naps are dwindling too. He used to take a good nap in the morning, but now I'm lucky if I get a few half-hour naps during the day, and one in the evening.  This last week (technically after I should have written this post) we went to Idaho Falls to visit Jenna, and he slept better than he's slept in a month! I told Jenna we were moving in. But I'm hoping that we hit a turning point and that our sleep will get better from here on out.

--He is SO SO SO drooly. No teeth, from what I can tell, but SO drooly.

--Austin was blessed soon after he turned 3 months. It was a wonderful day and I love that the blessing David gave to him will follow him and be his to draw on for the rest of his life. 

--He likes to stand with his little legs straight out and stiff as a board. When I carry him in my Beco (which I love), he stretches his legs out so straight that they wiggle under the waist strap no matter how tight I cinch it. He's strong and stiff and just likes to be straight, straight, straight. 

--I remember with Lydia always feeling like she was so big. Every month I wrote about how big she was getting. But with Austin I just feel like he is still so small.  Part of that has to do with how small he actually is - I mean the 5th percentile is small! But also, I think I know how big he is going to get - and so I'm able to just see him for how little he really is and just try to soak up his tiny-ness. He's got this tiny little double chin, and these tiny little rolls on his legs. Everything is just so small and so sweet.

-I mentioned above, we don't love tummy time. But we are working on it. We love this little giraffe toy that he got for Christmas - and it makes tummy time manageable. (I've also been using mirrors and other little toys, which is fun.)

-He pulls his shoulders off the floor like he's trying to do a sit-up all. the. time.

--He loves to be swaddled! He's happiest wrapped up snug and cozy in a blanket even when we are just hanging out and he definitely can't sleep unless he is swaddled. He's strong and he wiggles his arms out - but then he fusses until you wrap him up tightly again. It's so interesting how different babies are and how they just like what they like.

-Lydia still loves him so much. She still "hugs" him by laying her whole body on top of him, but he's getting big enough that I don't worry about it as much. (I still tell her to be gentle and not put her whole weight on him.) But he's big enough that it doesn't really bother him -he's tough.  Much of the time it makes him smile - he likes the attention.

-My boys. I love them. 

Happy 4 months Austin, we love you!