Vacation From Hell '14: Part 1

We got back from our big beach vacation with my mom's family two weeks ago and finally are back t normal life. One week, one house, 39 people. It was crazy fun! 

Our first night and the kids could not wait to get in the pool.

Scarlett's first time on the beach.  She was startled when the waves would come up and get her but then she loved floating in the water all week.

And she never tried to eat the sand. The funny thing is that she grabbed a fistful of sand and soon after this picture was taken, she fell asleep on my mom, still with the fistful of sand. 

My cousin's wife got all the little kids their own personalized buckets. They are adorable!

Scarlett and baby Drake playing in the baby pool. Neither was too happy.

The kids had so much fun playing in this ditch. 

My baby girl and I in our beach hats.

This was our tent city that we lived under for the week. 

That is her resting face and I love how her upper lip disappears and it looks like her cheeks are sagging her little smile.

We went on a dolphin nature cruise half way through the week. My mom kept Scarlett so that Miller got some one on one time with Mommy and Daddy. After this we went souvenir shopping and got shaved ice. It was a good date with our little man. 

 

 

We randomly decided to do a bonfire and it was a highlight of the trip. The weather was so nice and it was only in the 60s with a slight breeze. The hot fire, my feet in the cool sand and the sound of the crashing waves, ah it was amazing!!!

Alright I am breaking this up into two parts so stay tuned.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Eight

  

Weight: 20lbs 13oz (+12lbs 2oz) (Miller was 20lbs 10oz)

Height: 28.5in (+8in) (Miller was 29in)

Head: 18in (+4.25in) (Miller was 19"in)

Sleep: Well the good news here is that she seems to be improving. She has been getting better about waking up and putting herself back to sleep so that we are now getting longer stretches of sleep from her. Definitely not sleeping through the night but at least she is not screaming her head off every hour because she wants to be held. I am hesitant to say that these are permanent changes because she is not consistent day to day, but overall she has been much better. She even did good stretches of sleep in the PacknPlay at the beach, which I could not get her to sleep in last time we went to Tennessee. Even with naps she has been sleeping 1.5-2 hours, however that is only once a day. 

I am only nervous that since she has discovered crawling and pulling up, she might wake up and start playing in her bed. I am hoping that we skip over  that possible phase. Ben did find her standing in her crib greeting him when he went to get her one morning so we had to lower her crib some.

Eating:  Nursing is going the same. As for solids, lots of different people gave her lots of different foods at the beach so she is getting used to new things. However, at home I just give her what we have and sometimes that does not offer her a lot of variety. Oh well, you can tell the girl is not starving.

Best Moment:  I love watching her play by herself. She is so happy to discover and figure out new things. It is even cuter when her and Miller play. It does not last very long before one of them annoys the other one but it is sweet while it lasts. 

Milestones: I officially have a crawler and a stander. She crawls all around the house, and pulls up to everything. Part of me wants  to hate it because that means my baby is getting bigger but I just can not help but love it. I was the same way with Miller. They just look so content to be able to get themselves around. You can just see this "Eureka" moment happen for them, like, "so this is how the big people do it". She can also stand independently for a bit. This girl has always had good balance.

Monthly Wisdom: I am suddenly seeing how far we have already come with her. We have a long way to go in terms of raising her but I am noticing how different her first year has been so far compared to Millers. It has been much more even keeled adjusting to having two kids than adjusting to the first one.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: She has been sleeping decently so I am hoping that is a permanent change and in a few weeks we will transition her out of the swaddle. I know we could have done it a while ago but it is for my security. It has always been a part of our night time routine and signal to her to go to sleep but most nights she gets out of it after being in bed for a while and sleeps fine. I am just afraid we will do without it and she will have trouble getting to sleep.

Things Scarlett is doing

-She has gotten better at getting food to her mouth. 

-Crawling, pulling up and standing like a champ.

- She dances when she hears a song come on that she likes.

-She has started to sit in the cart when we go to stores and she LOVES it. She went with me to the craft store and flirted and smiled with everyone and when they looked at her to give her attention, she would flap her little arms and bounce up and down with the biggest smile.

- She plays and just babbles to herself. It is so stinking cute!

They are looking less and less similar as time goes on but I feel like they still look like siblings. They just have completely different face shapes

Here is them next to each other now. So different but some similarities. 

 Here are a few extra shots of her. 

She wanted to show off her new skills for this months photo shoot. 

He was being so sweet and wanted a picture with her. He kisses on her all the time. 

This is not a great picture but it accurately captures her hair and the red that is coming out in it.   

Happy girl.

  

This is from last week. She crawled over to the window, and just stared outside and babbled. She was a happy girl.

 

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Seven

I know I am late on this but I kept forgetting to get her measurements.  She officially passed up Miller this month in size but if she is like Miller, as soon as she gets mobile she will slim down (not that I am saying she needs to).

Weight: 20lbs 1oz (+11lbs 6oz) (Miller was 19lbs 8oz)

Height: 28.5in (+8in) (Miller was 28in)

Head: 18in (+4.25in) (Miller was 18.5in)

Sleep: This is no better than last month. I have the most inconsistent little sleeper and she is driving me bonkers. Some nights she will sleep for an hour or two in her bed before waking up again. Some nights it is 5-7 hours. Sometimes she can be soothed by rocking, or nursing and some nights she is inconsolable until she lays down in bed with me. I do not mind cosleeping halfway through the night but not my entire night. A few nights ago we started making a push to soothe her and leave her in her crib. Two nights in a row it worked and then the next night we tried for 2 hours while she just stared at us and intermittently cried. We had some mild success the next few nights and she eventually put herself to sleep.

Naptimes stink too. Almost everyday, she will take one long nap in the middle of the day. She starts in her bed and normally she will sleep for an hour and a half there. When she wakes up, I move her to her swing. Then this week she would only sleep a half an hour in her bed. However, for the last week she has only been sleeping for 30 minutes and then maybe taking another 30 minute nap in the early evening.

One of the greatest lesson I learned as a parent was that nothing was permanent and it is always a phase that will be over soon enough. Not with this chick and her sleeping. I am convinced that she will never get better and I will be dealing with this for the rest of my life.  Okay I know that is overdramatic but I am tired and not able to  think clearly.

Eating:  She is still nursing like normal. We started solids and so far she has had avocado, carrots, sweet potato, watermelon, broccoli, cantaloupe and apple. Oh and a rice cake she stole from Miller one day. She really liked that one.

Best Moment: I love her smile. Her whole face lights up and can just make anyone's day brighter. She is so sweet and friendly to everyone she meets.

Milestones: She is starting to scoot on her booty. It is so funny to see how she starts somewhere and in just a matter of moments, she is a completely different spot. She can also go from laying down to sitting so that helps her to be independent so she can maneuver herself some. She can pull up to some things.

Monthly Wisdom: I keep telling myself that it will get better eventually. I just need to keep my head down and this phase will be over eventually (please God let it be soon!!!!).

Goals for the Upcoming Month: We are really trying to work with her on sleeping better. We are not really militant with the kids sleep when they are born. We just kind of go with what works for them and us while trying to establish good habits. I remember Miller getting to a point where he just decided that he did not want to do what we have been doing all along. Well that is where we are with Scarlett. She is just getting more demanding and only wants to sleep on or with us. Not cool little lady! I hate it but it looks like we are trying to let her learn to self soothe herself and that involves crying some. There is just no way that I can only have her sleeping on us, at least no way where I maintain my sanity. I love her and I hate to hear her crying but her (lack of) sleeping is really interfering with everything in our lives and I feel like it can not be healthy for her either.

Things Scarlett is doing
- Pulling up to a stand on some things. If she can not get a great grip, she at least pulls up to her knees.
- She has really good fine motor skills for this age. She is good at gripping things and manipulating them. 
- Trying to bring food to her mouth.

Why is it that a boy can have hair grow super fast but a little girl's hair is stubborn and slow growing? She is cute as can be with her hair as it is but I wish it would grow in faster. After 20 years of trying, I finally figured out a fish tail braid and I need my daughter to get hair that I can play with.These two kids definitely look like siblings and especially in person now but they look so different in these pictures. She is chunkier and Miller has a bigger head, but there are looks that she gives me that are so Miller.  

4th of July 2014

The 4th of July is always an odd holiday to me. I love all holidays and any excuse to celebrate but I never seem to feel satisfied with this one. I know it is typical to go to a parade, cookout, go swimming, and see fireworks. 1) We never go to parades and I am not even sure I would know where to find one. 2) The lake is way too busy to deal with on 4th of July. 3)We normally do a cookout so that is one plus.

This leaves us with fireworks. If we could end our day with some fireworks, I would be  super happy. One big problem is that they are so late in the evening and my kids are melting down, so the last thing that I want to do is fight traffic and crowds. The other problem is that Miller does not seem to be a fan of fireworks. Like, screaming, crying, tense, covering his eyes and ears.

Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed our day hanging out with family, it just seemed so lackluster since we did not do any of the fun activities associated with this holiday. 

I could not get a good picture of them in their 4th of July outfits. One of them always looked upset but they were actually fine.

Dad preparing the pulled pork. He has 4 dogs at his feet hoping he would drop something.

Scarlett playing with my Pappaw. He loves babies!

That evening, we went to a family friends pool. My dad and Miller had a blast.

This is my kid, just watching fireworks on TV.  We went outside to see some around the neighborhood too and Miller would not move from the couch. Anytime he heard them that night, he reverted back to this position. On the plus side, Scarlett seemed to enjoy them.

 

The next day we went to my grandparents for a cookout. He loves his mommy!

Miller found a nice place in the yard and quietly played with his cars for hours. When I went out there later to clean them up, I found little ceramic frogs from an outdoor checker set. It was adorable that they completed his menagerie of trucks. 

It was a fine holiday but I hope we can make better traditions in the future.

Scarlett Monthly Update: Month Six

 

  
I am in shock, complete and utter shock, that this little girl is 6 months old. I will admit that I was a little sad and I have no idea where the time went. Ben finally told me that I am sad because I pretty much lost 2 two months to moving and a few weeks to the holidays. He is right! I mean, I try to cherish every moment with my kids, even the bad ones, but we have had some pretty hectic times over these 6 months. I know that we have loads of fun ahead of us but I want to scream at time to slow down. If not, I will just have to keep having babies to satisfy my baby obsession (as Ben calls it).


Weight: 18lbs 9oz (+9lbs 14oz) (Miller was 19lbs)

Height: 27in (+6.5in) (Miller was 27.5in)

Head: 17.5in (+3.75in) (Miller was 18.5in)

Sleep:UGH!!! She is such a happy baby and mostly so predictable during the day but at night, she is so inconsistent. Miller would at least form a pattern for a few nights before it would change. Every night with this girl is different. Some nights she is down for 30 minutes and wakes up, some nights it is 5 hours. For a few nights last week, she would wake up and just want to chat. Well I found out this weekend that her first tooth popped through so that might have been the problem because the two nights after that, she slept 9 hours straight. Or it could be that I started swaddling her differently because my little Houdini can always get out of them. Naps have been the same way. She should be taking 2-3 naps a day and most days she only takes one 1 hour nap. I have been so frustrated lately. 

Eating:  Here is where she is predictable, and still eating every 2-3 hours, sometimes 4 depending on what we are doing. We started her with solids and gave her carrots this past weekend. She was not too thrilled with the taste. She has liked avocados and loved watermelon. We are going to start super slow with solids and just give her food if we have something baby appropriate.

Best Moment: I love that she can sit up and interact with us. I wish Miller did not find this as an invitation to push her over or pull her down but I think she likes being able to see everything around her.

Milestones: Like I mentioned above, she got her first tooth last weekend. Also, when she does get on her belly, she can get up on her hands and knees but there is no forward movement. Miller started crawling a few weeks from now so we will see what this girl does. She has also gotten really good at sitting up. If she falls, it is when she falls forward trying to get something.  And she finally officially rolled over from back to belly. She has pretty much been able to do it but just could not get over her arm.

Monthly Wisdom: I reread some of my wisdom from Miller's old posts and it still rings true. I feel like we have been in survival mode for most of the past 3 years and I am so tired of it. I do not want to be bored but I want to feel settled. I have been trying really hard the last month to get in a routine and I am successful to a degree, but no matter what I do, chaos still ensues. In my old post I said that I just there will always be chaos but I just need to try to enjoy it.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: I am going to keep working with her on the floor. Starting solids slowly. I am trying to maintain the routine we started and I am hoping that we can get in a better situation with her nap and make that plural.

So at this point Miller's hair was growing in and hers is being super slow. It has grown a little bit and we can already tell it is a totally different shade than Miller's. I do not want to jinx myself but it is definitely slightly red. The picture does not show it because it is the old brown hair she was born with but the undergrowth is lighter and redder. 

Scarlett's 6 Month Pictures

I was kind of lazy doing Scarlett's 3 month pictures so I made sure to get the 6th month ones that I wanted. I love capturing the seasons that we are in so I wanted to do a summery picnic outside. The location ended up being perfect and I am super happy with how they turned out.

I am not one to call my daughter a princess or be into super frilly things for her (I like some frills but I have a limit) but once the thought struck me to do a tutu, I was obsessed. She looked so pretty and I kept wanting to call her my "gorgeous little princess". While we were out in the field, she was winding down but I love the paci in this one.

There is always a picture like this for every shoot that I have done with kids. They are some of my favorites. I think I want to get them all framed for a gallery wall.

I took these the next day at home. She was obviously much happier.

I call this one her "glamour shot".

This makes her look so much chunkier than she actually is. The rufflebutt is not flattering but it is so cute!

I have already started compiling ideas for her and Miller's next shoots. So excited for them but I do not want these months to go by too quickly.