Blair at 6 months

Blair is 1/2 a year old today. Wow is about all I can say. I know I say this every month but it is going by way too fast. I feel like I just posted her 5 month post. She has her doctor's appointment on Thursday so I will add her stats later. She is 26 in long (50th) and 15 lbs 13 oz (25-50th).

I was about to give up on her and solid foods (okay not really but I was so frustrated). It had been almost 2 months since we started solid foods and she would hardly eat anything and the stuff she did eat I basically forced down her. Then out of no where (the last two days) she has been eating like a champ. I swear she downed her food in less than 5 mins last night (granted it wasn't that much but what normally takes her 20-30 min took her 5 min). I can't tell you how excited I am about this. She has her own special way of eating which makes me laugh but as long as she eats it I really don't care. She opens her mouth wide and sticks her tongue out as far as she can. Once the food is in she pulls that tongue back in, closes her mouth, and actually swallows instead of spiting it out. Last night Easton wanted some strawberries so I thought I would give one to Blair and see how she liked it. I put it in one of those net bags and let her gum it and suck on it. She loved it!

Blair has started to bite her bottom lip and is drooling. I'm guessing she might be getting some teeth (I really hope not but I think she might be working on her bottom teeth). I think I see and feel some but she makes it really hard to see with that tongue of hers. She is also making the razzing sound or spitting sound. Easton thinks it is funny and has started to do the spit and drool stuff himself. It makes me so mad when he does it (lets be honest it isn't as cute when a two year old does it) but he doesn't understand why Blair can do it and he can't.

Blair is also starting to talk/make sounds. She likes to make the ba ba ba sound. I'm working on ma ma but she just smiles and thinks I'm funny. I swear she said da da before but I haven't gotten her to say it since.

Video of Blair talking.

Blair also loves to touch and grab on to everything. If you sit/stand next to her she will grab on to your pants and just caress/feel the material. Nothing is safe within her reach. If she is close enough to the couch she will grab the sheet protector (in case Easton has an accident) and pull it off to suck on it. Definitely not safe since it is made of plastic. She loves to hold toys and of course stick them in her mouth.

She still hates tummy time but every once in a while she will roll from her back to her tummy and then after about 5 min cry because shes on her tummy. We are still working on her sitting up. She is doing better but still falls over after a while. She also loves her jumper. She likes to move around in circles and play with all the different toys.

Blair still spits up and smells like puke all the time. I give her a bath and I swear within 10 min she smells like puke again. I'm told that she will out grow this by the time she is 9 months old. I'm wondering if she will ever out grow her blowouts too. It would be nice if that stopped by the time she was 9 months as well.

Blair is actually growing some hair! I know it is hard to tell but she definitely is.

Blair's sleeping pretty well once she finally falls asleep. About half the time we let her put herself to sleep. We generally have to go in and put her binky back in (or we think we have to but it back in) several times but eventually she falls asleep. She's funny and talented because I've never known a baby to cry and still have a binky in their mouth. Usually they are crying because their binky fell out and they want it back in their mouth. I think Blair just doesn't like to be left alone. Lately with it being so cold Blair has been waking up freezing. We put blankets on her but she ends up kicking them off. We decided for her sake that we will just keep the heater at 70 so she doesn't freeze. Since our down stairs neighbor just moved out the heater seems to never turn off. We are definitely going to have a high bill this next time around. What we don't do for our little princess.

Blair is very picky when it comes to her binkys. We lost her last favorite one the other day but had two other types as back ups. We tried both kinds and neither were good enough. We had a screaming baby for the next hour until Nathan finally got home and I sent him to church to hopefully find it (that was the last place I remember seeing it). Nathan went out to his car and came back in with the binky in hand. I guess she threw it out of her carseat as we passed the bushes outside our apartment. I just recently went out and bought some more of her favorite binkys along with a binky holder. Hopefully we won't have to have a screaming baby again.

Advent Calendar

As many of you know we are anxiously waiting to hear where we will end up in 8 days! It is seriously killing us and I swear we are always talking about it. Here I go again. So in an effort to keep us distracted, make it go by faster, and to have fun this holiday season I decided to come up with something for us to do each day up until we have our Christmas (Dec. 14th). This is what we have been up to this last week.

Mon. Nov. 30 Setting up the Christmas tree

Already playing with the boxes.


Early Christmas present from Nathan.


Tues. Dec. 1 making these bad boys.

Pretzel rods covered with carmel covered with white chocolate snowmen.

Wed. Dec 2. Delivering these bad boys (secret santa). I got caught on Saturday when someone asked if we had made them. I'm really not good at lying.

Thurs. Dec. 3 Snowman pizzas.

Friday Dec. 4 camping out in the living room, making smores, and watching movies.

Sat. Dec 5. Making a snowman. We were supposed to do something else but because it snowed the boys couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Sun. Dec 6 Making an ornament.

I helped Easton make this.

Random pic.

Easton likes his snow boots. He put them on and I couldn't resist taking a pic of his cute outfit. Do you think his fashion statement will catch on?

Another random pic.

I just thought this was really funny when I saw the two of them drinking from the same cup. They remind me of two people in love.

Easton at 2 1/2

Easton turned 2 ½ today. It is so crazy how fast time goes. I feel like Easton has grown up so much in the last ½ year. I was looking at pictures in Blair’s baby book the other day of Easton holding her when she was first born and he looks so little. A lot has happened since then and I really feel like I have a “big boy” now.

He is talking like a champ. We still have some difficulties with some words but for the most part we can communicate pretty well.
He is playing really nice with his friends these days and is even sharing his toys!
He's not being as stubborn as he has been (thank goodness!) and I feel like he is trying really hard to listen and obey.
He is praying a lot better now (he even reminds me every once in a while when I forget) and he is really starting to love to read the scriptures.
His potty training is really starting to take off. I think he is finally giving in and is pretty excited about it now. I would say more times than not he is the one to tell us that he has to go. I think he has only had one accident in the last week.

He went to the dentist today and got his first cleaning done. He did so good. He just sat there opened his mouth real wide and did exactly what the hygienist asked him to do. He was such a big boy!

I finally feel like I have my Easton back. We had a couple of hard months (basically the last 1/2 year) but I feel like my sweet little guy is back. He has his moments don't get me wrong but for the most part he is back. Just the other day he came up to me sat in my lap, gave me a big hug, kissed both sides of my checks, and said, “love you, Mommy.” I won’t lie. It brought tears to my eyes. I love this little guy and him expressing his love to me definitely made the last ½ year worth it. I think being a mom is the best thing in the world.

Other new and fun things about Easton

Nathan has taught him the game “I got your nose”. He loves it but isn’t very gentle. We are working on that. When he first learned it he would basically stick his finger up Nathan’s nose (like a hook) and yank his nose off. He is doing better these days but lets be honest it still hurts. He also likes to eat your nose once he rips it off.

He likes to sword fight. I think he got really excited about this after he watched Star Wars with Nathan. For some strange reason he has to stab you on your left arm. He will run you and him around and around in circles until you give up and let me stab you in the left arm. Nathan and I generally will fall down once he stabs us but Easton will just randomly fall down like he got stabbed even though we haven’t even touched him. He has to get kissed in order to come back alive.

He likes to feed his stuffed animals real food and drinks. He has ruined a couple of them because of this. He also likes to have his animals pretend to go potty on his made up potty chair. “Good job, Ape! You went potty!”

He is all about taking turns. “It’s mommy’s turn.” “It’s daddy’s turn.”

Along with “why” are now “huh” and “what”. He uses these when he doesn’t want to do what we ask him to do. He hears us loud and clear but likes to pretend like he doesn't. We usually come back with, “you heard me.” and then he will go and do what we asked him to do.

Luckily for us his whys aren’t dragged on and too annoying. He will usually say why about three times and after the third explanation he will just yell, “NO!” I don’t know why but at least the whys stop there (for a while anyways).
Me: “Look EE you have a football on your PJs. Remember we watched daddy play football .”
EE: “Why?”
Me: “Because he likes to play football.”
EE: “Why mommy?”
Me: “Because he plays football every Thanksgiving.”
EE: “Why?”
Me: “Because it is a tradition.”
EE: “NO!” shakes his head and walks away.

We love you EE. Thanks for bringing such joy in our family. We are definitely lucky to have you.

Blair sitting up and Easton's latests

Blair is finally sitting up! I knew she could do it but she was just so stiff that if you sat her up she would just fall over backwards. I finally figured out the trick yesterday while she was in the bath tub. If I put something in front of her between her legs, she has to bend over to reach it so then she can sit up all by herself. She sat up for a good 2 minutes in the tub before she got distracted and stiffed up and fell backwards. It's funny how kids are so different. Easton was the opposite. In the beginning he would basically fold himself in half and have to use his hands to hold himself up. I guess Blair just has abs of steel or a very strong back. She really doesn't need her hands to hold herself up (maybe for balancing).

Short video of Blair sitting up.

If she wouldn't have moved the phone she probably could have sat up for a few minutes.

Easton has wanted to feed Blair her solid foods so I let him help me the other day. He actually does pretty well. What's better is Blair loves Easton so much that she can't help but smile so big when he is around. That definitely makes it easier to get the food in her mouth. She is still having a hard time with solids and will spit it out. We started sweet potatoes this week. She definitely likes them better than the other veggies she has had previously, but she still has a hard time not spitting them out. She is definitely a messy eater. Easton was so cute the day when he helped me feed her. Blair's face was covered with sweet potatoes so Easton made his way to the table, grabbed a napkin, and came back to wipe up her face. Even though he's not the gentlest little guy he is definitely a very sweet and thoughtful little guy.

On Monday Nathan was in charge of the lesson for FHE. He taught about holding on to the iron rod. Easton thought it was the best thing to semi close his eyes and use the rod to get to the fruit (pear). He did it a couple of times that night and insisted that we all take turns. I figured that was the end of it but then last night (Tuesday) he randomly found the rod and actually closed his eyes and started at one end of the rod and pulled his way to the other end. Object lessons are so important for kids. They may not fully understand the topic that you are trying to teach them but they always remember the fun activity that goes along with the topic. I guess it all starts there and eventually they catch on and learn the lesson.

Video of Easton "holding on to the iron rod".

Plus you get an extra added bonus at the end. Enjoy!

Now that I think about it Easton has been doing this with a few of the FHE lessons we have been teaching him. I taught him about Jonah and the whale and used a big square bucket to represent the boat. I put Easton in it and moved it back and forth to represent the storm. The next day he got the bucket out and moved it back and forth himself to represent the storm. Unfortunately he moved himself back and forth too vigorously that he tipped the bucket over and it hit him in the face causing a bruise. Oops! I also taught him about fishers of men and got that same bucket out, filled it with water and play fish, and had Easton use his fishing net to catch fish. He brought me all the supplies the next night and fished while I cooked dinner.

I've been trying to do some pre-school/fun activities with Easton this last week. Now that I'm starting to figure out Blair's nap schedule and we are staying home more because of the colder weather I figured we need to have some fun activities/things to do to keep ourselves busy. Right now I'm trying to teach Easton his letters. Easton knows the ABC song pretty well so I figured he could start to recognize which letter shape goes with the letter name. We have done A-D so far. I wouldn't say that it is connecting right now but we are still having fun coloring and spending time together. Unfortunately for Easton I'm not that great of an artist. I ask him if my pictures look like what I'm trying to draw and he says, "No, Mommy." I must not be that bad though because he can tell me what the things are the following day(s) (maybe he is just like his daddy and has a good memory of what they are "supposed" to be).

Easton's tree.

I wanted to do more of a fall tree with red, yellow, and orange but I only had these two colors on hand.

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures done at JCPenny yesterday. If you care to look at them here's the link and info. http://www.smilesbywire.com Name: ASHLEY KELSEY Access Code: LTPP0285105779JCP. For those of you who wanted B&W sepia vertical we went with #E5. Those who wanted color horizontal we went with #p4. Hopefully you would have picked the same. We get to pick them up on the 30th.

Family Time

Making cake balls! I forgot to take a picture of our finished product but I think the real reason why there wasn't a finished product picture was because they were so good that they didn't last long enough for me to take a picture. Thanks Sue for the cake ball idea! It was a lot of fun.

Not that great of a video but I thought Easton did a pretty good job of crumbling up the cake. I think he did a better job of not making a mess than Nathan.



Blair chilling out while we make cake balls.


Easton ready for church in his new pea coat. Nathan got a new one as well so we are all sporting the gray pea coat (minus Blair-she has a black one).



Blair after church in one of her Christmas dresses Jana sent her. I had to put it on her now because I was worried it wouldn't fit her in a few weeks.

Dad and Easton watching Star Wars (Easton's new favorite). They watched the 4th one (first one made) on Monday night and then they watched the 5th and 6th last night. Easton was very worried about Luke falling in the 5th one that they stayed up past Easton's bed time to watch the 6th one. They HAD to watch the 6th one so Easton knew that everything was fine with Luke.

While the boys had their guy time, Blair and I had girl time in Mom and Dad's bed until we fell asleep. I know we're party animals.

Blair claws and grabs onto everything. She got a hold of Easton's hair yesterday and actually managed to pull some of it out. Easton is still bringing it up today that Blair hurt his hair/head. I would have thought he would have forgotten about it over night but apparently not.

Dad and Easton wrestling. You got to love Easton's evil laugh.




I like how he thinks it is so funny when Dad goes flying.

Easton singing B-I-N-G-O. His big dog's name is now Bingo. Nathan's worried that if we ever get a real dog that Easton's going to want to name it Bingo.

Why?

My sanity just flew out the window. The whys moved in the Kelsey household a couple of days ago and it doesn't look like they will be leaving anytime soon. Why?