Today, Titus is two months old. He is growing like crazy, and this month was full of more wakeful periods and getting into a new rhythm of life.
Weight: 13.4 pounds today (weighed at home)
Height: probably around 24 inches
Diapers: size 2
Clothing: growing out of size 3months (or 0-3)
Titus is a pretty easy baby. We have fallen into a rhythm or schedule that we loosely follow every day. We go through a pattern of sleep, eat and awake. Titus is awake anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or so, and then will nap for an hour to two hours. So on any given day, he will take anywhere from 4 to 7 naps. He wakes up for the day around 7 or 8am (sometimes even later), and will go down to bed in the evening around 9 or 10pm.
Nursing is amazingly easy. He can get a full feed in about 6 minutes, which makes life much easier. He is also very easy to put down for a nap. We worked the 4 or 6 weeks to have him napping in his crib, and our work has paid off. Now when I notice he is tired I can set him down in his crib and leave the room and he falls asleep on his own. I am sure there will come a day when that doesn't work quite as easily, but I am very thankful for how he has learned to sleep.
Titus is becoming more communicative and responsive. He follows people and moving objects with his eyes. He loves cooing and "talking" to people. He smiles and has almost started giggling. Just in the last couple days he has begun swinging his arms trying to reach out and touch or grab objects.
He has bad cradle cap which doesn't bother him, but we get a lot of questions about. It is slowly getting better after lots of olive oil baths. I am also still following a gluten free/dairy free diet. Titus is a very happy baby now, and I am hesitant to re-introduce those items into my diet.
So when Titus was first born, I thought he looked identical to Georgia! (Ok, he was the slightly chubbier/boy version). But now, looking at pictures, I think they look vastly different. So, I thought it would be fun to compare the two of them. In this picture, Georgia is about 6 weeks old. Titus is 5 weeks old.
One thing I notice when looking back at pictures is that Georgia was much more smiley. She smiled in almost every picture I have of her!
Some similarities: both kids have the same scalp/hair. They both had/have cradle cap, and loose hair the same way. So far, Titus has lost his hair in the front, keeping long hair in the back. The same thing happened to Georgia, creating some funny hair styles in her early days.
That's about where the similarities end. Titus is much lighter skin tone. He is white and red, while Georgia has always had a nice tan look. Their faces are shaped differently, and Titus just looks like a boy. I will try to get some more pictures to compare in the near future.
Well, this last month we celebrated Georgia's birthday. My little baby is quickly growing up (I know, I make that comment every blog post). Seriously though, it makes me feel old thinking about how old she is getting! It seems like just yesterday we lived in London and had a little baby that was learning to walk and eat. Sigh.
Apple picking in October (no, we did not pick those apples. It just made for a good photo!)
Now our three-year-old is a rambunctious, sometimes-ornery, preschooler who loves to push our buttons and test every boundary. It really isn't as bad as it sounds (most of the time). She is also super affectionate, very creative and imaginative, and is one of the most outgoing people I know. On her birthday morning, she went with Dave to Starbucks and brought a balloon with her - and not just any balloon. This is the most ridiculous, huge princess balloon you've ever seen. It has to be at least two or three feet tall, and is bright pink and has six different princess on it. We gave it to her on her birthday morning and it has traveled with us many places. Dave said she was a mini-celebrity in Starbucks and everyone was telling her happy birthday. For my little extrovert, that was probably the highlight of her day!
One of the books we read has a character who carries grass in his mouth. So she wanted to try it
Weight: 37 lbs
Height: 41 inches
Shoes: size 10
Clothing: size 4T (although we have some 3T that she still wears and I have started adding 5T clothing for this winter)
Georgia loves princesses, books, and drawing pictures. She was Rapunzel for Halloween (without ever seeing the movie - she just likes the princess with the purple dress). She has asked a few times if she can grow up to be a princess when she grows up. She also asks Daddy (and me!) to be her prince.
Picking out a pumpkin
Georgia does NOT like: sitting at the table (a real battle these days to get her to stay still while eating), anything scary. She has entered a phase where she is now easily scared. I was scared of everything as a child, so I expected it to happen. We bought a nightlight for her room which seemed to help. But seriously, she had a couple days where she wouldn't walk to the bathroom by herself unless we came with her. She is scared of noises and is constantly asking, "What's that?!"
Just a normal day at home ;) helping mommy wipe off the table
Georgia is also adjusting to life as an older-sister. She really does love her brother and is great with him. I have noticed that she seems to be attention-seeking and tells me that she is a "baby". She found a pacifier we don't use and keeps it in her bed and likes to suck on it at nighttime. She also crawls on the ground and has a high-pitched "baby" voice that she uses. Its a little over the top, but I expect in a couple more weeks, life will resume as normal for her.
Georgia is hitting the imaginary stage. She plays pretend with her kitchen or her stuffed animals. When she is frustrated about something, she will tell me, "but there was a little girl who's parents let HER do that!" I could see her being a pretty good liar someday soon, but we have not had to deal with that yet.
This month has just flown by! I know I always say that, but I think having two kids now to keep me busy the time will go even quicker than it used to. Titus is doing well. Really well. He came home a little bit of a grump and has turned into a happier child. I have cut out gluten and dairy from my diet and it seems to make a difference in his world. It is difficult, but very much worth it for a happier child.
Weight: 10lbs, 1 oz at 2 weeks.... probably 11+ pounds now
height: 23 inches or so
clothing size: 0-3 months
Titus is a good eater. Nursing this time was a lot easier, probably because I know what I'm doing. He is also a great sleeper. He has already slept a 7 hour stretch. He normally wakes twice to eat at night - sleeping one 5 hour stretch and one 4 hour stretch, then a couple more hours. He seems to be like his sister and has trouble sleeping when out of the house. He will fall asleep in the car, but if he is in the stroller and out and about, he will fight sleep. He doesn't like to fall asleep nursing, which is the opposite of Georgia. He also has trouble sleeping if I am holding him. It makes my life easier because I can set him down - either in the swing or in his bed and just leave. He seems to enjoy laying quietly in his own space and staring off into space before falling asleep.
We have gotten a few smiles the last couple days. He also is starting to respond by looking at people and cooing just a little. He enjoys doing "tummy time" and has fallen asleep doing it a couple times. Dave and I got a cold this last week, so Titus has also gotten it. Thankfully its a very mild cold and doesn't seem to bother him at all.
easy-peasy recovery (mostly back to normal now, 2 weeks later)
I have to admit that Titus' delivery did not go the way that I had planned or thought it might go. It started when my water broke on Friday night while getting Georgia ready for bed. It was the one scenario that I had not really thought through. I had no contractions and was tired after a long day. We debated staying home or going to the hospital, but I knew that we should go in. So, we took a little nap and went into the hospital around 1am on Saturday morning. I had not dilated at all since my appointment on the previous Tuesday.
We had a very long night walking the hallways of the hospital, trying to get some contractions started. But pretty much we were exhausted and didn't sleep all night. By noonish, I still was nowhere close and had no contractions. I agreed to start pitocin. By 4pm I was done. Exhausted, tired. I thought for sure I was in transition because of how I felt. So I was very discouraged when I was told I was only 5cm. I ordered an epidural and asked they turn off the pitocin so I could get some sleep. They also started antibiotics because it had been 18 hours since my water had broken.
They were able to start the pitocin up again after my epidural was in place. Finally sometime that evening I could feel the need to push. They called my doctor who left a fancy dinner (complete with a nice shirt/tie on!) to come deliver. Pushing was as bad as I remember it being. I kept falling asleep between contractions and didn't have energy to even open my eyes. Thanks to my doctor, Titus was born after 25 hours of labor, and only requiring 2 stitches. He was almost 2.5 pounds heavier than Georgia!
Interesting fact - both Georgia and Titus were born at 40weeks, 3 days - both in the 8pm hour!
Titus has been a more difficult baby than Georgia. Although Georgia was probably close to a perfect baby. He has some fussiness issues and I have cut dairy and gluten out of my diet to see if that helps his digestive system. He has slightly redish hair and very red skin. He is also pretty hairy. He had a doctors appointment this week and he weighed in at 10 pounds, 1 oz and almost 22 inches. He sleeps pretty well at night, usually going to bed between 10 and 11 and waking up at 6:30 or so. He will wake up once around 2 or 3 to feed. He likes to cluster feed in the evenings, and will sometimes nurse for 2 hours on and off before he falls asleep. He doesn't take a pacifier :( I wish he did!
He has excellent head control and is starting to track things with his eyes. His eyes are a bluish-gray color. I am trying to start the process of "sleep training" by having him take naps in his crib, when possible. He falls asleep (most times) in the car. When he is awake, most of the time he is grumpy. Thankfully he doesn't cry a lot, and when he does cry his cry is low and quiet. We are looking forward to a few weeks down the road when he will start to smile.
Lately, Georgia has many questions. I remember asking some of these same questions when I was a kid, too. Being a parent of a kid with lots of questions is both interesting and exhausting. Here are some of the things she wonders about:
From Georgia's first camping trip a couple weekends ago
-Where is that man going?
-If we are going to any place, she wonders if all the people in cars are also going to that place with us
- example: we were driving home last night and she asked if everyone else was going to our house, too
-Where does this person live?
-Where are her friends houses? (she wants to know which direction they live in from wherever we are)
-What is Sawyer (insert any friend's name here) doing now?
-Why or why not? (comes after almost everything)
Candy for breakfast in the morning after camping
Frustrating questions:
-For example, she will pick out her clothes and then ask, "why do I wear this, mommy?"
-Or she wants to use the big potty (rather than her little potty) and then will ask, "why I use the big potty?"
- I bought her some new shoes and then she asks, "why I like these shoes, mommy?"
Theological Questions:
-Where does God live?
- Where does Jesus live?
- Why does he live there?
- Where is heaven?
- Does (insert name of person) know Jesus?
- Why do they or do they not know Jesus?
So, I know I have a few readers, but mostly I do these blog posts for me. It is so nice to have a record of things that Georgia was accomplishing and we were doing several years ago. I definitely don't remember all of it! I always think I will, but I don't. I can't imagine how much I will forget when we have more than one kid.
Vacation #1 - at Huntington Beach on a nature walk
This summer has been insanely busy. And a few days of nothing mixed in. We've had a week at the beach with the Wallaces, and a week in Wisconsin with the Halls. We also were house-sitting at the beach for two weeks. We've done trips to the zoo, trips to the museums, swimming lessons, playing with friends, the splash pad, and so on.
Height: 40 inches - she's grown another half an inch the last month
Weight: 35 pounds
Shoe size: 9s and 10s
Her first 4th of July in the US! Watching the parade
We've been having a lot of struggles on the napping/bedtime fronts. Georgia just doesn't like taking naps (so she tells me). There is usually one or two days (or three) a week where she just refuses. And then other days where she is so tired she sleeps for 3+ hours in one day. She doesn't seem to understand that even when she doesn't nap, she still spends 2-3 hours in her bed - the same amount of time she would (or maybe even more!) than if she just fell asleep. We've spent some time in hotels and other people's houses (housesitting) and surprisingly she napped well in those places. I wonder if her room is too hot and too bright - I need to work on getting some blackout curtains up in her room to help with the light.
Vacation #2 in Wisconsin - eating lots of yummy ice cream!
Georgia is becoming a daddy's girl. Although she pretends not to want Dave, she loves getting kisses from him (and will wipe them off afterwards!). I think the highlight of her day is when he comes home and wrestles with her. She will play football with him, play hide and seek, "fight" and anything that involves wrestling and getting on the floor.
"vacation" housesitting at the beach
Georgia has been in love with books. She has always loved books, but I think she loves them more than ever. Many of the books we read are quite advanced - I remember reading them in 1st or 2nd grade. Also, she can recognize all the letters now and knows quite a few of the sounds they make. We're also working on reading short words - "go", "me", and "no".
Georgia is almost swimming! She took swimming lessons back in June and promptly forgot everything she learned. Well, not exactly, but she didn't want to replicate them for anyone. We never bought her any floaties (on purpose - she needs to learn to swim!) and instead she would hang onto a noodle while in the pool. Well this last weekend we were in San Diego and the hotel had an awesome pool. In addition, her little cousins were all there and they swim. So, of course she wanted to join them, and she did. One thing that really helped was borrowing some swim goggles. Now she has no problem putting her head into the water and going for it!
Still while housesitting
Things she is into these days: Veggie Tales (her love of Mickey Mouse is waning), doing puzzles, doing "school" (I bought some workbooks, and she loves things like connect-the-dots and mazes), helping mommy with whatever I am doing - folding laundry and putting it away. She loves playing with kids (and adults). We have been going to McDonalds at least once a week so she can play in the air conditioning since it is so hot outside. We started gymnastics up again and she is doing great and loving it! We're in the mommy-and-me class, and I hope that in a couple weeks she will move up to the independent class so it will be easier on me when the baby arrives.
Like most other 2 year olds, she is talking up a storm. She mostly asks "Why?" about 3,502 times a day. But she also has some funny sayings and ideas. She will ask, "Why this song?" or "Why you do that?" or "Why you eat that?" or "Why the sun out?" Seriously, its just all. day. long.
The other day she got a little ouchie. Nothing major, just a bump. She sat down on the couch next to me and grabbed my phone and said, "I think playing games [on mommy's iphone] will help me feel better"
She is also in a very lovey-dovey mood with daddy lately. If she is getting ready for bed, and has not done so yet, she will jump up run out of the room to find Dave and suddenly say, "I need to give Daddy hugs and kisses!"
I've been giving her two kisses at night (because she is two), and she always goes on to say, "I be 3 soon.... and then 4.... and then 5........ (and so on, usually ending around 9). Yikes! How is she getting so old so quickly?
When asked her name by other kids (usually at the playground or playplace), she gives them her whole name, "Georgia Ruth Wallace!" Poor other kids don't understand what she is saying. We're working on just saying her first name when asked.
She is very excited for her birthday. She will say, usually at least one time each day, "After baby's birthday then comes my birthday!" (if you don't know, I'm pregnant and due this fall).
When we get into the car, Georgia likes to tell me, "My tummy not full!" Oftentimes I have snacks in the car for her to munch on, and she enjoys asking me for them. She will say this statement when she is hungry, too.
We had a fairly hot month of May, and Georgia enjoyed playing in our sprinklers
Here we are, halfway through Georgia's third year. It seems sort of odd - in some ways this year has flown by, but it also seems an eternity since we had her 2nd birthday party. In my mind I want to start planning her next one, but I have more than enough time for that ;)
Once again, she is completely potty trained. I don't think she's had any accidents. (She had one accident this weekend). She has woken me up in the middle of the night a handful of times because she has needed to go potty or poop. She loves going potty in public restrooms (When I was a child, I was fearful of that for many years!).
She picked out her outfit - complete with accessories!
The one thing we continue to work on is obedience. She hates getting ready for naptime or bedtime and also doesn't like to sit still at the dinner table. Other than those activities, she is rather obedient. She stays close in stores, never wanders off too far in public areas, and is generally a happy girl.
Nightime
She has been great at playing by herself the last month. She is a great engineer and loves anything that she can build or design. She loves putting together train tracks, building with duplos or with other building blocks. She also is super imaginative. She makes food, plays with her cash register, takes care of babies, plays with her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and on and on.
Playing with the Sesame Street playhouse at Nana's house
She knows probably about half of her letters by sight. She can count to 20 most of the time. She can count up to 10 objects with maybe 80% accuracy. She can count up to 5 or 6 objects with 100% accuracy.
Putting a train track together
She sleeps about 11-12 hours at night, and takes a nap most days of the week. Naptime ranges from 1-3 hours.
I have been watching 19 Kids and Counting lately. If you don't know that show, its the Duggar family who have literally 19 kids. They feel very blessed to have that many kids, and would love to have even more. Basically, because they are so different than what society says is normal, they are misunderstood and criticized for their beliefs.
In one of the episodes, several of their younger kids are sick. Throwing up. Coughing. Fever. When your kids are sick is one of the worst times to be a parent. You are worried, extra busy cleaning up, washing hands, keeping sick kids away from well kids, etc. Jim and Michelle, the parents, had the best attitude about having sick kids. I'm sure part of it comes from so many years of experience. But one of the things they said really stuck with me. "These are the best days of our life".
That phrase has come to my mind a lot lately.
These are the best days of my life while Georgia and Dave pretend to be water buffaloes (thanks to Veggie Tales) and run around the house, poking people and things with their "horns". (do water buffaloes even have horns?)
These are the best days of my life when listening to the same CD the same three kids songs over and over and over again while driving in the car.
These are the best days of my life even when I'm awoken at 2am because of her bad dream about bears. Someday I am going to wish my girl was still little enough that I could climb in bed with her.
These are the best days of my life when she fights naptime and I hear her saying, "I took a good nap, mommy! Time to get up!" because I am so blessed to have a little one, and really she is a good sleeper (most of the time)
These are the best days of my life when I find a corn cob in her baby's stroller, my makeup brushes in her bed, the kitchen tongs in the office and my high heel shoes strew all over the house.
These are the best days of my life as I struggle to figure out how to remove stains from t-shirts, as I am continually buying clothes for the little one Georgia because she never stops growing!
Well, another month has just flown past us. This month has been quite a bit more summer-like in weather (how are we actually going to survive the even-hotter months of July and August???). We've gone to the water park a few times. We spend a lot of the middle of the day indoors where it's cooler. Our schedule is still very busy between gymnastics, Bible Study, small groups and play dates.
Dying Easter eggs after Easter.
Weight: 33.6
Height: same - around 38 inches
A favorite activity - playing in the dirt
The newest news is that Georgia is now "officially" potty trained. It has been a straight 14 nights since she had a wet diaper, and she has slept with underwear on for about 7 nights now. She has not had any accidents. She is pooping maybe 5 out of 7 times in the potty, and now will only poop in a diaper if it has been a while and she was too busy to poop during the day (and then I will put a diaper on at naptime/nighttime because I know there is a greater chance of her pooping).
update 5/11 - since I've had this written for 2 weeks and never posted it.... she had one nighttime wet diaper (she was wearing a diaper) and she woke up and told me she had to pee, asked if her diaper was on, then wanted me to change it. She has also had one night where she woke up at 2am and told me she had to go. We went to the potty and then she went back to bed. She is now pooping all the time in the potty, and has still had no accidents or problems.
Her imagination has just taken off. She plays pretend with her animals. She wears mommy's high heel shoes. She brings me pretend food to eat. She loves the baby dolls that she has and will feed them and take care of them.
Georgia and her second cousin, Sawyer
She is napping and sleeping really well. When we're in our routine, she will nap every day. Still occasionally or most often on Saturdays she doesn't want to take her nap. Most naps are 1.5 hours. She is sleeping through the night.
Georgia is playing a lot more independently. She will find toys to play with and entertain herself for a while. Of course this always happens when I am ready to leave the house or move onto something else. When I am busy and need to get stuff done she always wants to play with me (of course).
a dance party at Disneyland
One of our biggest struggles with her is that she doesn't like to stay in her chair at meal times. I really think this is something she will outgrow and mature into. Sometimes we put her in her high chair, just so she sits still. Other times we read books to her as we eat to keep her interest.
This morning brought several funny statements and I thought that I should write them down so I don't forget!
Georgia was sitting on my lap and I while I shaved yesterday, I am starting to get some stubble on my legs. She said something to the effect of "ouch!" and I put her on the bed and we were feeling how smooth Georgia's legs were and how smooth or rough my legs were. She felt my legs and then immediately took her hands to my face and said, "Still have a beard!" in a very cheeky voice. Dave and I just burst into laughter and then Georgia laughed and said, "boys have beards!"
Nothing out of the ordinary here. Gloves on feet. Half-naked kid. Popsicle on a rainy day
After using the potty, I asked Georgia if she wanted to put on her underwear. She said, "NO. Wearing bottom" (as in her butt).
I got a book about crickets from the library. We were talking about how crickets have strong legs (and muscles) and they can jump high. She said, "I have strong feet! I jump high too!"
We have had Georgia in gymnastics for 10 weeks, I think. We do it through the city, and the program is just great. Her class is relatively small - about 8 to 10 kids (and their parents). Her coach has just been completely awesome. She is very energetic, loud (helps when you have ten 2-year-olds!), enthusiastic and encouraging.
Forward roll (and her coach next to her)
The way gymnastics works is they have different circuits or courses for the kids to go through. They are long enough that most of the time all the kids can be completing it at the same time. There is very little sitting around.
Her favorite activity - the trampoline!
Some of the things they do are: walking on balance beams, climbing on nets, jumping, forward rolls, hanging from uneven bars, and starting to do the basics of things like: back bend, cartwheel, and handstand. They have a trampoline they get to use, some slides, and a zip line.
Uncle Jon helping her do a hand stand
Every single day (almost without fail), Georgia asks if she gets to go to gymnastics.
another coach helping Georgia do a "monkey hang"
Some things I love about it: a place where Georgia is stretched physically to do things I would not otherwise teach her. Teaching her about following directions from adults in authority. She has to learn to wait her turn and have patience.
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