Caleb at 6 months

Our little man will be six months on Monday and I know it sounds like a cliche but time is FLYING by. The past six months literally feel like they went by in a few weeks. Don't get me wrong some days felt like an eternity but looking back I feel like our baby is not a baby any more and it sort of makes me want another one :) Sort of. I wouldn't say he is super laid back any more, he is definitely developing a little bit of a fiesty personality, he has an opinion now and he makes it known. He is pretty easy to calm down but for instance, he FREAKS out if you leave him in a room by himself for any period of time. If I have to leave him to get his sister or grab something from the kitchen etc by the time I get back he is crying so hard he is tomato red and sweating. As soon as he sees me he is all smiles. He doesn't like getting out of the bath tub or having his nose wiped. I have never seen a kid move his head around so fast as Caleb does when he spots a kleenex. We haven't had his six month check yet but he weighs a little over 17 lbs and he wears his 12 month clothes, people are usually suprised when I tell him he is not yet 6 months. He sits on his own although he doesn't really like it, he prefers to be on his stomach dragging himself around the living room chewing on his sister's toys. He rocks on all 4s all the time, but doesn't do a full crawl yet. More like the army crawl, he drags his body around and rolls to get where he needs to go. He is intense about things, he takes his play time very seriously and concentrates hard on whatever he is doing. He laughs all the time, he loves being tickled and having his belly kissed. He adores Brian, lights up whenever he sees him and strokes his face whenever Brian is holding him. it is so very sweet. He usually goes to bed between 5 and 6, we give him a bottle around 10 or before we go to bed and then he sleeps till 7 7:30. He takes 2 naps a day, the 1st one is only for about an hour and the 2nd one, well we are lucky to get 2 hours out of him. If I let him take a 3rd nap it screws up his bedtime so I have to put him down really early or he is just wrecked. I am a little frustrated with his naps, he needs to sleep longer during the day but I have tried everything and I can't seem to get him to nap longer. Caroline took 2 2 to 2 1/2 hour naps a day and still takes a 3 hour nap in the afternoons so I refuse to believe he just isn't a good napper, plus I need the break :) Overall though he is a sweet, happy, goodnatured, handsome little fellow and we adore him. I feel like he is going to be 1 before I know it and it makes me sad, I hope the summer slows us down a little. His reflux continues to be a problem and I hope he grows out of it soon, I would love to have a baby that does not have reflux! I can't imagine what it is like to not have to hold a baby upright 20 minutes after they eat and force nasty tasting medicine down their throats 3 times a day and not have to rock them to sleep over and over after they wake up choking on their spit up. Fun times! At the same time though we are grateful that is all we have to complain about, and we love our babies to pieces reflux and all.

Oh, and

We are also huge fans of this guy...

To know her is to love her

Caroline is talking more and more and it's so fun listening to her. We, of course, think her little voice is the cutest thing ever and she really is so funny. I feel like we are getting to know her all over again now that she can express herself and is not just whining all the time. Boy was that getting annoying. We have discovered that she does not like to be messy, or to see other things messy. She does like to create a mess, don't misunderstand, but then she will complain about it over and over with a distressed tone of voice until you wipe it, clean it, pick it up etc. Today I was feeding her lunch and I had gotten her string cheese that had both white and yellow cheddar and she declared it "messy" and wouldn't touch it. Cow's are messy (their spots apparently look like dirt) rain is messy, and so on and so forth. When she get's really excited about anything she yells "mommy daddy, mommy daddy" over and over which we think is so cute. She LOVES our friend Katie, I mean loves her. She asks for her ALL the time, when we pray at night as soon as we say dear Jesus she starts to yell Katie, Katie, till we pray for Katie and family. She sings along with Jesus loves me and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She asks for daddy and Raw-Ree (my mom) all day, if she gets in trouble or if I am not meeting her needs fast enough she asks for one of them in a super pathetic voice and it's clear she wishes one of them was there instead of mean old mom :) She is a total mama's girl though and I love the way she says mommy. It's my favorite thing ever. She has recently been taking off all of her pajamas and her diaper when she is in her crib, twice now I have found her deeply asleep, naked, and laying in a gigantic puddle of pee. The second time was at 4:30am, that one was fun. I won't talk about the 2 poop incidents but just know that there are poop incidents. She is a bit of a spit fire (I always tell Brian that I wish the kids looked a little bit more like me and acted a little more like him instead of vice-versa or better yet looked like him and acted like him) and we love that about her but it can be a challenge and she definitely pushes the limits with obedience etc. We have recently been seeing a real improvement in her behavior and obedience and that is so encouraging for me. I spend many night close to tears worrying about if I am doing the right things with/for her and wondering why she doesn't seem to be getting it, am I too hard on her am I not hard enough, am I not letting her be a kid or expecting too much etc so it's been nice to seem some positive results. She has a great sense of humor, she know's when she is being funny knows when you are being funny and she has a great laugh. I love it! She is so full of life and energy, when she get's excited about something she yells WHAT'S THAT?!? At the top of her lungs (for people or things it's the same response) and I love looking at things through her eyes, I wish I could get that excited about everything. She adds a "y" to the end of most things, so juice is juicy, cake is cakey, milk is milky, her favorite show Max and Ruby is Maxy, and so on and so forth. Oh I love that kid. She really is such a joy to be with. I am sure there are a million other things I am forgetting but that's enough for now. We are so blessed to to be her parents and this age (although not without it's challnges) is so much fun. I have a ton of pictures on my camera to download which I will do and post tomorrow. Or Wednesday. By Thursday for sure :)

the kiddos chatting

I have mentioned before that Caleb adores his big sister and gets super excited anytime she pays attention to him. Here is one of the rare moments when she is as into him as he is into
her

2

the elmo cake my sweet boy

opening her presents

after the cake

multitasking with her new cell phone and laptop

My sweet girl turned 2 yesterday. We did a low key family thing which was really relaxed and fun, she had a ball. I made her an elmo cake which she was super excited about, till I cut off part of elmo's eye for her to eat, that sort of freaked her out. I mean she ate it, but she kept pointing at it and saying "eye" and making a face. I never really thought about it, but it is kind of weird. And I have always thought pinata's were a little strange, you buy one that is a character they love and then ask them to beat it with a stick? Anyway, it was a fun day although I felt really sad that she is 2 and the time is FLYING by. All of a sudden she looks like a little girl to me and not a baby, and she is really tall which makes her look even older. We had her 2 year well check this morning, somehow she got it into her head that we were going to the mall to meet "kaw-tee" (my friend Katie who we do meet at the mall often to try and wear our kids out in this cold weather) so she was not pleased when not only did we not meet Katie and Maryn at the mall , but we were at the DOCTOR'S and she had to get a shot. They told me that based on her height she will be 6 feet tall (she is 36 inches) but I hope for her sake they are off by and inch or 2. I guess it's possible since I am 5'11. Brian is so annoyed right now, ok, I am actually 5'10 but I used to be 5'11 in high school and I shrunk an inch. Brian says this is impossible, and that my high school basketball coach padded my stats to make me feel taller but I swear I was 5'11 and I shrunk. But I digress, Caroline is healthy and happy (1 lollipop and some chik fil a later, she does not do well with her shots) and yesterday was a wonderful day. We missed our family that couldn't be there but I will post some pictures and video.

Caroline at 2:

She is super sweet and SUPER sassy. Brian and I laugh when the sour patch kid commercials come on that say "first they're sour then they're sweet" because that is Caroline exactly. She is testing all the limits, but that's to be expected from a 2 year old and she is very loving and cuddly at the same time. She loves to stack things, every day she pulls her books from all over the house into one big pile and then makes them into stacks. Once they are stacked she wants you to read each one and then re stack them. If a stack falls over, she is not pleased. She got a tea set as an early birthday present and she loves it, she has tea partys all day long for herself, and her stuffed animals and sometimes for me. She is pretty obedient for the most part, but we have days where I feel like I am spanking her all day long and then we could go a week without another one. She loves veggie tales, which she calls Bob. That can get confusing since they are all Bob to her and if you put one on that is not the one she wants to watch she just will say "BOB BOB BOB" over and over till you find the right one. She could take or leave her brother at this point, he adores her and gets so excited if she pays any attention to him, sometimes she will give it to him but most of the time she just ignores him. She calls him baby and she does get upset if he is crying, or playing with what she thinks is one of her toys. We keep telling her they are actually our toys and she has to share them with her brother and friends, hopefully it will sink in soon. We are just going through the "mine" stage, and she has started to say no a lot and melt down pretty easily. Again these are all things we expected and I just have to try to keep calm and patient when she is acting up, which was much easier when I only had 1 child and got a full night sleep :) Her little face is so sweet, I could stare at her all day long and I still can't believe she is mine. I love being with her, I really enjoy her and her little personality and love watching her learn and grow. She is starting to talk a lot and pops out with new words every day. It is so fun to hear, and a lot more fun than just trying to guess all the time what she wants and needs. We are so blessed by her and wouldn't change anything about her!

I'd like to give a special shout out to my mom for tirelessly driving back and forth between here and Charlottesville, babysitting, changing diapers, cleaning, doing endless dishes, reading 500 books a day to our little reader, cuddling, kissing, cooking, letting me sleep in, and all with a smile on her face. Thanks Rae-Rae!

Pat, we are no longer at the zoo

I have been trying to find a time to sit down and completely update my blog from the past 7 months and decided to face the fact that this is not going to happen and to move on. I want to be a good blogger, really I do, but I can't promise it's going to happen.

A lot has been going on since, April, Caroline is almost 2, oh, and we have a son, Brian Caleb Jr. He is 4 months old today, and the sweetest baby in the world. He would be the easiest baby in the world if it wasn't for reflux, although he is much less high maintenance than his sister was when she had it, and a perfect fit for our family. These past 4 months have been a complete blur, which is probably a good thing or else there would be no more babies coming into the Young family. I thought I was on top of this parenting thing until I had 2, all of a sudden I am tired, impatient, overwhelmed, scared, selfish and TIRED. But I love it more than anything in the world and it is the most rewarding wonderful thing in the world. I don't know how all of that is possible at once, but there it is and I love being a mom, I love my kids.

Caroline is almost 2 now, she asks "whats this" about 500 times a day and I am not kidding. For those of you who think that is cute come over and see what you think after a few hours of it. She would have us read books to her all day long if we would do it. She loves to read and will "read" to herself, it's the cutest. She flips the pages talking straight gibberish with occasional real words thrown in for good measure. For example, if she was reading "Are you my mother" it would go a little something like this: gibberish gibberish gibberish gibberish NO, gibberish gibberish gibberish, NO, meow, moo, gibberish gibberish gibberish MOMMY. If you are familiar with the book, this will make sense to you. She is a mama's girl, she asks for her dad all day long but she is all about mommy when he gets home. She loves her little brother, but she is aggressive in her love, its sort of scary. She brings him toys to play with, like a rolling pin that could crush his head, or tries to pick him up/drag him where she wants him, or she literally will smother him with kisses. Got to watch that one 24/7.

Caleb is sweet and cuddly. He does have reflux, which is no fun but when his tummy isn't bothering him he is the easiest baby. When he was first born and would wake up to eat he would lay in his crib and silently suck on his fists till I came in to feed him. He is pretty strong, he already can play in his excersaucer and sits in his tub seat to take baths. He grabs toys and plays with them intensely, and he is always interested in what his sister is doing. He gets so excited when she pays any attention to him and gives her the biggest smiles. He belly laughs all the time, his first smile was around 5 weeks, and was for Brian. Everyone always says this, but I could not imagine loving another child as much as I loved Caroline, and I certainly never thought I would think any child was as cute as I think Caroline is. However, we love him to pieces and I think he is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Oh, and he has NEVER peed on me which I think is kind of amazing since all of my friends with boys told me this would happen all the time, but he never has. When he needs to take a nap we just lay him down and he falls asleep, it's a miracle. And for the first 3 months of his life he slept anywhere from 8-11 hours at night. Caroline didn't do that till she was 11 months old and we had to let her cry 5 nights in a row for about 2 hours. It was not pretty. This past month we have regressed on night time sleep, but I guess I can't complain since he did so well for so long, and hopefully we will get back to that soon!

I'll sign off with some pictures of the kiddos.

Zoo!

Caroline and I went to the zoo today with our friends Katie, Emmet, Maryn, Jesse and Lars. I LOVE the zoo and I think I was more excited about it than Caroline was. I mean she had fun but we could have seen a goat and a chicken and she would have been just as excited. She was definitley interested in the animals but I think a dog is still her favorite. Weather wise it was a perfect day for the zoo, and it wasn't too crowded. Remind me never to let my kids go on a field trip to the zoo without me, there were all these school kids there and they were OUT OF CONTROL. The monkey's are always my favorite, there was a chimpanze that was right up at the window waving at people, I thought it was so cool and carried Caroline over to see and she freaked out trying to get away from it. Oops. This is neither here nor there, but when I worked at McLean Bible we took our Junior High kids to the zoo one year during summer camp and it was mating season and seriously every animal at that zoo was mating. It was super awkward to try to explain and the kids were definitley fascinated and asking lots of questions that I would have prefered not to answer. I mean the prarie dogs, the monkeys, the peacocks, the hippos the galopagas turtles (that you could hear the turtles through the whole zoo). It's funny now but at the time I was dying. The entire rest of the week kids were imitating noises the turtles were making, I have never heard anything quite like it. I am happy to report that there were no awkward mating moments today.

This video is from the end of the day, 2 hours past naptime, kids were getting sloppy. And I know that the floor of the elephant is not the cleanest place to let your baby play, but honestly this one licks tires and the toilet. My cleanliness standards have gone way way down.