Louie - 5 Months

This past month has brought lots of changes for Louie boy!

We don't have a formal 5 month doctor appointment, so I don't have all the usual stats - but I do know that he is now a hearty 18 pounds.

My formerly super easy sleeper is now much more aware of the world and his surroundings. That means that he doesn't drift off quite as easily as he once did and wakes more easily as well. All to be expected, but it made for one really tricky week of sleep at one point. He's a bit back and forth at the moment, but still overall a pretty good sleeper for the night time.

Louie has also mastered rolling over both ways. He loves to wiggle around and see different things. At first he would get annoyed with staying on his tummy for too long, but that is passing and he just rolls back to the other side if he gets bored. And he is SO GREAT at playing with toys. He is truly interested and engaged with his little baby toys...I swear we could only get Noelle to play with trash. She did not care much for toys, but Louie just loves them!

He also loves watching us eat, and I am so exited to start giving him food at the end of this month. As much as I am ready to watch him chow down on the baby food, I want to wait as long as I can (but let's be honest - I'll probably only make it until Thanksgiving before I give him something!) It is hard to believe it is already time to start giving him some solids...this baby thing goes by so much faster the second time around!

Noelle and Louie are also getting more and more fun to watch together. Noelle genuinely loves Louie and is happy to have him around. And of course Louie thinks Noelle has hung the moon. He is always happy to see her and always extremely interested in what she is doing. I look forward to the days when they can truly entertain each other and play together. I know it will bring on way more sibling squabbles than I can imagine at this point, but I also think there will be plenty of fun and sweet moments in between.

Father Christmas & Noelle

It's been a while since I've felt compelled to share a Noelle story, even though they seem to be endless, but this one I just wanted to stop in time and remember. She is so funny the way she thinks and reasons and talks to us these days. There really does seem to be something funny and interesting that comes out of her mouth all the time.

Within the last month this particular phenomenon has made me laugh so many times and really has just been a joy to experience.  Probably 3-4 weeks ago Noelle and I were chatting about something. She mentioned something she wanted but didn't have and she looked me in the eye and said, "We could ask Father Christmas for it!"

I was happily stunned. Father Christmas? How did my child turn British??!!

"Noelle, who is Father Christmas?"

"He comes down the chimney, and he leaves PRESENTS!"

"How did you hear about Father Christmas?"

"I don't know."

Me thinking...where could she have learned about him?....YOU TUBE.

"Noelle, did you learn about Father Christmas from Peppa Pig?"

"Yeah. And I want him to bring a red car and a blue train. He'll come down the chimney."

If you don't know, Peppa Pig is a super cute british cartoon of a little pig and her family. It might play on cable channels, but we don't have that, but leave it to You Tube to somehow connect my child to Peppa Pig. I am not complaining - I think it is a cute show and I love the british accents, and have secretly always wanted a child with a British accent.

Anyway - once I realized that she knew who Santa, aka Father Christmas was, I knew I had a new level of parental power. We weren't 100% sure how much we were going to push Santa in our household. We weren't against it, but it just felt like alot of effort, so we thought we might just wait it out until the kids realized who he was and what he did. So, it took 3+ years...but even better - we get Father Christmas!!! I have not corrected her because (1) how cute and (2) I LOVE IT!

Now, back to the power...it's the Christmas bargaining tool that all of our parents used on us. Either you say "you can't have that now...but you can ask Father Christmas for it!" - or of course as it gets even closer to Christmas time you use the nice list/naughty list to get good behavior. Noelle totally responds to the asking Father Christmas for stuff, and I'm pretty sure the good list/bad list gig is gonna work on her too. I completely avoided a complete meltdown in Target with her this week when I lovingly convinced her that we can just ask Father Christmas for something - we don't have to buy it now! #winning

So then today was another magical Father Christmas moment...Louie was asleep and it has been raining here, so I was trying to come up with anything fun to occupy her. She dressed up in her Halloween costume for school (Minnie Mouse) and one of her classmates dressed up as Elsa. Naturally when she came home from school she had to put on HER Elsa costume...but the problem was she didn't have a crown. Her friend had a crown.

So being the resourceful mother that I am, we made Noelle a paper Elsa crown. But that wasn't enough. Then Mama had to have an Elsa crown. And then we both had to have Elsa hair. Well, duh.

As I was finishing my Elsa hair in Noelle's bathroom, she was completely thrilled at my transformation. But then it took a turn...

"Mama, I love your Elsa crown and your Elsa hair...but you don't have an Elsa DRESS!"

"That's ok Noelle, I don't have to have an Elsa dress."

She looked at me with her big blue eyes, put both her hands on my hips very tenderly and said,

"It's ok you don't have one now. We can ask Father Christmas for one, it will be ok."

I. Love. This. Kid.

So, Happy Christmas from the Watkins clan...we hope Father Christmas brings you all sorts of good gifts this year!!!

Elsa very pleased with her paper crown

crown buddies!

Rainy day Elsa's!

Louie - 4 Months

Little man is 4 months old! A whole 1/3 of a year, and we are loving every minute of it.

At the doctors office for this visit we discovered that Louie is...
17 lbs, 4oz - 89%
27.5 inches long - 98%
44.5cm head circumference - 94%

He is just the chillest and happiest little guy. He still is enthralled with his big sister. This month he started playing in his exer-saucer and for the most part enjoys it (as long or if not longer than the average baby does). He loves being sung to and he loves to "stand" with someone holding his hands. He is getting great head control and that is quite a feat given the large size of the kid.

He had that amazing roll over occurrence at the doctor's office for his 2 month appointment in August, but for the most part he either stays on his tummy or his back. And that means that he is still swaddled - which I am a fan of. I hate the learning to sleep unswaddled phase. I know it's coming. -sigh-

He still doesn't really take a pacifier...he will enjoy it for a hot minute and then he is done. I keep trying just to see - and even though he never keeps it for long, he will get distracted by it in his mouth and that sometimes is enough to calm him down and for him to forget whatever he might have been upset about in the first place.

One of our favorite things he started doing this month is what we call Chewbacca Louie - or sometimes "Loubacca" ... when he is tired and ready for a little snooze he sometimes will let us know by making these gurgling sounds. It's quite cute and funny. He also just recently decided he loves to stick his tongue out. I have a picture of Noelle doing the same thing at four months and they both look so cute and similar! I see how they really are quite different, but then I see a comparison and then they appear to look alike again!

He loves to breastfeed and is very fast at it (thankfully) - and sometimes he will take a bottle and sometimes he won't. I'm usually around all the time so it isn't an issue. Sometimes he won't take it and just decides to wait it out for me. But luckily he doesn't cry about being hungry. He just chills and waits. I guess he has plenty stored up for his body to eat on until I become available :)

He usually only wakes once a night to eat, if at all. He really is just a rockstar baby.

Louie boy, we love you!

First Day of School, First Day of School!

If you read the title of this post and had Nemo's voice in your head, you get bonus points!

I have been waiting for this day for months! Today was Noelle's first day of preschool. She has been longing to go to school since she figured out this past spring that her own personal hero (Meaghan Mahoney) went to school.

Here's what she knew about the day: she would have a teacher, make new friends, and that Mala (my mom) would cry.

Here's what she kept asking about school for the months leading up to it: could she ride the bus and would Meaghan be there.

Now I told her over and over again that Meaghan went to the big kid school and she would be going to the little kid school, but she still kept asking. On the bus thing we told her she just needed to pretend that Mama's car was a bus and she seemed to be able to deal with that.

We had her open house last week and it went pretty well. She was shy, but she was excited about her classroom and was mildly interested in some of the other kids there.

The night before her first morning it literally felt like Christmas Eve to me. I was so excited for her, for me, just all of it!  She's a great kid, but Mama needs a break from being the constant playmate. It's a little tricky with a 3 month old in tow and the constant rotating schedule of his needs. She also just seems to thrive with structure and learning and being around other kids...it's all going to be so good for her.

Today was day one and she did great! She had fun and even though she still seemed a bit shy about it all, she immediately asked if she could go back to school as we were driving out of the parking lot. That's a win in my book!

I very much look forward to the days where she can actually tell me about what she learned in school. Right now her answers are pretty much "I don't know" to most questions. She retains lots of knowledge and picks up on stuff pretty well, so I'm not quite sure why she isn't able to tell me what she did...I'll just chalk it up to her being a threenager.

Here's some pictures from this morning of our big girl!!

I told her to show how excited she was to start school :)

Another excited face. I will show her these one day when she doesn't want to go to school, in like 5th grade.

Posing before we left! Louie wasn't so sure about all this school business.

Louie - 3 Months

On September 5 this little guy turned 3 months!

And OH what a joy this little boy is and becomes with each passing day. I officially no longer have a newborn baby boy, I now have an infant baby boy!  I remember from Noelle that babies start to get more and more fun at the 3 month stage and Louie is no exception (a whopping 3 days in, ha!)

We did a weight test at our friends the Mahoney's and Louie is weighing in at a hefty 16 pounds even. Now, at his 2 month doctor's appointment (which was a week after he turned 2 months) he was 14 lbs and 14 ounces. Just 3 weeks later...THREE WEEKS...he is now 16 lbs. Man that kid can grow.

He is thoroughly filling out his 6 month clothing and there are quite a few items that will need to be retired very soon.

He loves to just stare you down with those deep deep brown eyes and he loves to chuckle. It's not the full belly laughs we got from Noelle, but Louie is definitely laughing. He is just more of a short chuckler than a giggler. He gives tons of smiles to his big sis, but he gets most excited when we eat his ribs, chin, or feet.

I can take Louie just about anywhere and he is pretty happy. He still gets slightly cranky right at the end of the day, but overall is not much of a fussy boy.

Here's the fun photos of our little boy who is now 1/4 of a year old!

Small Changes, Big Difference

I'm embarking on a new project...I call it the "Great Kitchen Spruce Up of 2015!"

Let's just hope I actually get it all done before 2015 is over :)

Basically, I'm home more now...but I'm still a do-er. I like to get stuff done. We've lived in our home for over 5 years now and one of the first rooms I painted was the kitchen. Not much else needed sprucing up in there at the time, although over the years we have changed a few things (new sink, new faucet, added a garbage disposal...)

But over time the painted kitchen cabinets have not held up. They are in desperate need of repainting. On top of that, I accidentally painted with flat paint on the walls, which you should never do in a kitchen. I just asked for flat instead of eggshell and just lost my mind.

So being around this kitchen much more often, it is officially driving me crazy. I had to do something.

After some research I've decided, I'm going to go for it! I love DIY projects, and oddly enough I think I can do this. It will just happen SLOWLY. But that's ok with me! Of course I would love instant transformation, but let's face it, we don't all have the budget to pay the pro's for this stuff.

I decided to start small this week...with the refrigerator.

Ever since we moved into the house it has had these stained patches on it. Not sure what from, don't really care. But I just decided one day, enough is enough. I got on pinterest and read about other people painting their appliances. I decided I could totally do that one evening. And I did. Small change, big difference!

You can buy the appliance paint at Home Depot (it's rustoleum appliance paint). I got myself some white, and went to town. It was very very smelly, but I only had to do one simple coat on the front. The rest of the fridge was just fine. So if anyone wants to try this, I have LOTS of extra paint.

Next I will slowly repaint the cabinets myself. Then I will paint the ceiling, trim and update the wall color. I still want a yellow kitchen I just want it a little lighter than it currently is. I'm excited for all these small changes to add up to a refreshed kitchen!

I'm hoping to even replace a couple light fixtures maybe! Exciting times in the Watkins household - let me tell ya!!

Louie - 2 months

Louie turned 2 months old on August 5th - and he is doing awesome! I don't have his 2 month "stats" just yet since we don't have his 2 month check up until next week. But this kid seems to grow overnight every night!

Here are some highlights from Louie being the big 2 months...

Louie has dropped to just one night feeding usually...it happens anywhere from 2am-4am and then his next feed is usually between 6am-8am (and I consider that into the next day...even though we usually go back to sleep afterwards). He did have one magical night where he went to bed around 9 and didn't wake up to eat until 6am, fingers crossed more of those start happening!  I had tried doing a dream feed with him a couple weeks ago and it didn't eliminate any of the night feeds...and since it took work to drop Noelle's dream feed, I have decided to just not try to dream feed this kiddo. Especially since I don't have to get up early for work or anything.

Louie loves looking out the window and sitting outside. He still is very tolerant of his car seat and most car rides unless he is a little hungry. He happily sits on his playmat and loves to kick a ton. He naps about 4 times a day, two of which are usually cat naps on me while in the baby k'tan carrier. He loves to eat and is very fast at it. The only long feeds are usually the last one of the day when he is tired and not as alert.

Noelle adores her little brother still and can't wait for him to get bigger so she can play more with him. Louie loves his big sis too - and usually gives Noelle at least a smile or two each day. He gives great smiles (especially after eating) and that is when he also likes to "talk" to us with the sweetest little baby coos. We are watching him get closer to laughing but he isn't quite there yet...but probably will be in a couple weeks.

It's getting alot easier each day and we feel we have mostly adjusted to having 2 kids...the evenings are the hardest at this point, but they seem to get easier with each passing week. I am very much looking forward to the 3 month mark when Louie starts getting even more expressive and transitions to the "infant" stage and out of "newborn" days.

We are so grateful to have this little chunk of hunk in our family!!