I'll be honest... it was a pretty awesome day. Didn't start out all that well, Riley woke up at 1am with a fever, but that ended up just being an excuse for me to snuggle with her in my bed for 2 hours. And also? Then she slept in until almost 7am. Which also meant, since I was up at 5:15 with Jackson, I had time to prep everything for her. She came into the lounge to see THIS: Her response? "Look at all those animals on the couch!" All "new" stuffed animals, most of which we brought back with us from the US in December and just stuck in a box and saved for her b-day. She was pumped. Then we brought out a few little presents for her to open before breakfast. Included in that lot of presents was a nightgown and matching slippers from her grandma. Total hit. After a few pressies, she moved on to her favorite breakfast: weet-bix! Of course she had to help get the box, pour the milk, and put some sugar on it. And of course, sit on the couch and share with daddy. One bowl, two spoons. There were more presents, lots of playing with the presents, and then.. the big one. Oh yes. A pink motorcycle. Eventually it was nap time, and I used that time to blow up a bunch of balloons to fill the floor of her room. Funny thing is, her floor was COVERED in balloons, and she didn't even notice! She came running out, and it wasn't until I stopped her and told her to go look at the balloons in her room that she then noticed. And then she was pumped! Bahaha she kept saying "Look at all these balloons!!" Nana and Grandad came over for lunch, and Mark made Riley her favorite- pancakes and bacon with maple syrup. And then it was time for cake!! Riley was a PRO at blowing out the candles, in fact, that was all she cared about. She wanted to light them and blow them out over and over and over. She didn't even touch the cake! And a little tradition I want to start: the birthday interview! I've seen in a bunch of different blogs, it's nothing original by any means, but I wanted to ask Riley a bunch of questions and see how her answers change, and also be able to look back and see what things she said at each age. I also want to do a video version, but umm, getting a 2 year to sit still and answer 15-20 questions? HA. HAHAHA. So, here's the answers she gave me when I asked her the questions... And because I'm a little video happy lately and I couldn't resist.... A little clip of one year ago...
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Today, my little baby girl turns TWO years old. Two whole years. At two years old, Riley is just the sweetest, smartest, cutest little two year old I've ever met! I don't even know where to begin with this post. I want to remember every little thing about her. All her little sayings and quirks, her favorite toys and the funny things she does each and every day. Exactly how she is at the age of TWO! Language: She's a full blown talker these days. It's pretty easy to communicate with her, and she doesn't hesitate to tell us what she wants and doesn't want. She still likes to repeat everything she hears, which means she says some pretty funny things sometimes. She's got pretty good manners, saying please when she wants something and thank you after she gets it. Pretty cute to have her just blurt out "thank you, mama! thanks mama!" Some of her current funny phrases include: (1) "no mama, no can do that, I don't like that" when you try to help her do something that she wants to do herself (2) "Hey-o" instead of "Hello" (3) Saying "Hi Daddy, how are you today?" (4) "Baby awakey awake now!" every time Jack Jack wakes up (5) During diaper changes: "Baby penis! Don't touch the baby penis!" (yeah... that's what you get when you teach her the correct anatomical words for things) (6) saying "be careful, don't fall down you get a big owie, get a really big owie" (in reference to leaning over the edge of the couch) (7) "that's a bright light, it's really really hot, like a fire, don't touch it. that one's not working..." (in reference to the overhead lights in the lounge, where one bulb was out) (8) "that's an ooey gooey yucky yucky one!" (in reference to her pooping in the potty) (9) "okay here we go to do pee pee on the potty" when she needs to go. She always says "here we go" as she's running to sit on the potty. Books/stories: Riley still loves to read. We read a whole bin of stories throughout the day, and then we either read stories or I tell her a made up story or classic fairytale before nap and bedtime. She has countless stories memorized, and still loves all her Mickey Mouse stories the best. Other current favorites include: Slinky Malinki Open the Door, Babar the Little Elephant, Cinderella, Peter Rabbit, Madeline, and a bunch more. I try and make up at least one story for her during the day, and have her help me come up with the details. Sometimes we use Mickey and his pals as characters, sometimes we use Riley and Jack, just depends. I'll ask her questions to prompt her to help me create the story, and it's amazing the things she comes up with! Then when Mark gets home I have her tell him about the story I told her and see how much she remembers, and she does very well retelling the main points. Little video of her reading one of her fave stories: Mickey and the Pet Shop. This was actually quite a while ago, and it's near impossible to get her to read the whole story while also getting it on video, so it's pretty choppy and way less clear than normal, but you get the idea. Songs: She loves listening to music. We play a lot of music during the day, and she loves listening to it and singing along. Her favorite song is "the ABC song" and she would listen to it (and sing along) over and over and over. She knows and can sing dozens of songs, including Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a little Starfish, Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, and many more. She also LOVES to dance. She bust a move big time, and loves when someone dances with her. It's pretty darn cute, I must say. Little dancing video (sweet PJs, I know) Independence: She is potty trained, hooray! She uses the little potty as well as the big toilet (with her elmo seat) and she is doing extremely well. She is really into getting herself dressed and undressed these days. She can get her underwear and pants on all by herself most of the time, and can get her shirt on with a little bit of guidance. But just a little bit, very discreetly, otherwise she gets mad and wants to do it all by herself. She can put her shoes and socks on by herself, and she can take everything off all by herself. She wants to make her own PB sandwich, pour her own milk, pick out her own spoon and cup, put her own toothpaste on her tooth brush, buckle herself and her brother in their car seats... the list goes on. Basically, she wants to do it ALL herself. And if you forget that for even a second, she will very loudly and clearly remind you she did NOT like you helping her. Food: Favorites include: pancakes with syrup and bacon, pretzels, bananas, peanut butter sandwiches, hummus, raw carrots, "those vines" (fruit snack thing), weetbix, pistachios ("stachios"), and cheese, and chippies and sauce (or as us Americans call it, fries and ketchup). She's picky with vegetables but she absolutely loves raw carrots. Not cooked carrots. She will also eat raw spinach if it has balsamic dressing on it. She will eat bananas and oranges, and that's pretty much it. We get fruit in her by giving her those pureed squeeze pouches, which she usually devours. Favorite toys: She loves to build towers (and knock them down) and play with her train tracks. She loves any of her toys with ABCs on them (ABC tower, abacus), and still loves her shape sorter. She loves playing with playdoh and bouncing on her pink poodle from Aunt Jennie. She's really into throwing things, and loves throwing balls all over the place. She loves riding on her various bikes and in the cozy coupe car we got from the toy library. She does multiple puzzles each day, she just loves them... And of course, always up there, is the ipad. Favorite activities: Jumping. The girl loves to jump. Mostly on the bed, but she LOVES trampolines as well. She also loves running and "crashing." She'll run up and down the hallway and fall down and yell either "crash!" or "kaboom!" She loves painting and coloring and playing with stickers. She loves going to the playground and LOVES going to feed the ducks "a sandwich" (or old stale bread). She got really excited when Mark pointed out a pukeko to her, and spent the rest of the day saying "feed the pukeko a sandwich!!" She also loves riding the firetruck outside the supermarket, and going to the local coffee shop to get a fluffy (frothed milk). She LOVES playing with Harvey (Nana and Grandad's beagle) and thinks he's just the best thing ever. Feeding the seagulls and ducks. Favorite shows: She LOVES watching videos of herself and her brother. She would watch "Ri Ri videos" all day long if we let her. Mickey Mouse is her favorite show to watch, and she's pretty darn funny watching it. Mark and I disagree a little bit on how much TV she should be allowed to watch, but he's been getting her into some new movies this month, so her favorites are: Despicable Me, Mega Mind, Shrek, Tangled, and The Princess and the Frog. She also likes Hi-5 (and loves all the songs she has learned from this show), and Sesame Street. Smarty pants: At two, she knows: all her colors, letters, and numbers. She knows the sound each letter makes, and a couple of words that start with each letter. She can count to 20, but mostly stops at 15. She knows that the number two represents a quantity of two, and "3" means she has three things, and so on. She knows tons of animals and the sounds they make and the foods they like to eat. She has a crazy good memory and is able to recall facts and retell stories extremely well. She know tons of shapes, and loves biting her pretzels into triangles and semi-circles. Silly bug. Other faves: She loves her grandma and grandpa, and Nana and Grandad. Every single time Nana comes over she wants to play trains with her. It's like Nana = trains. She asks to "kype with grandma" or "call grandma" every day. She knows how to call daddy all by herself on my cell phone, and does so frequently. She still doesn't say the "s" at the beginning of most s words, which I think is so very cute. She bargains like crazy, and my favorite is after I finish reading her stories at bedtime, and I say goodnight, and she says to me "how about, mama can snuggle you ONE more minute?" How can you say no to that? She loves playing in the front seat of the car. She loves helping me do the dishes, the laundry, and washing the counters and the floor. Such a good helper! She LOVES her baby brother and gives him kisses and cuddles, tickles him, and tells him stories. She loves cracking eggs and helping with baking. She LOVES having the bottoms of her feet lightly stroked/tickled, and will lay there perfectly still and say "tickle the other one, one more time?" She loves playing in Jackson's crib and asks to get in there all day long. For the most part, she is extremely well behaved when we're out and about. She rarely has tantrums while we're out, and usually listens to me when we're in public. She's really good with other kids, doesn't steal toys or hit or push or any of that stuff.
Her hair is wild and fluffy and getting long, but she rarely lets me pull it back. She no longer hates having her teeth brushed (thank you electric spiderman toothbrush) but she doesn't love it either. She loves taking a bath with me, and wants me to read her stories before bed and naps, but is happy for daddy to do it if I'm busy getting Jackson to sleep. She normally wakes up super happy and comes running down he hallway, BUT she needs a solid 20 minutes to wake up fully from her nap, we call it her "fragile time" and we try not to set too high of expectations or demand too much of her during that period She still hates the sun in her eyes while we're driving, and doesn't like us to close her bedroom door at night before she falls asleep. I think that pretty much covers it! Happy second birthday to my little buggy! Just another day in the life of Riley Bug. And I apparently forgot to name the video, so it's called "New Project." :) It's official. Our house is on the market. We have a big fat sign out in the front yard. We're listed on multiple sites. And we have our first open home in just a few days. We have "officially" been on the market for about 5 days now, and we've had 5 prospective buyers through already. We have no idea what to expect- is our price fair, will we sell quickly, will we get ANY offers, etc... but we will see! One thing I do know... having your house on the market means it basically needs to be ready to be seen at any time (or with 24 hours notice, per my request), which means there is a LOT of constant tidying going on. Our house has never been so clean and organized! In fact, we had someone through today, and I had just cleaned the lounge and kitchen, so I confined the babies to our bedroom for a little bit. Riley didn't mind one bit. Jumping on the bed is probably one of her fave activities. She could jump on the bed all day long... She loves to jump and then slam her butt onto the bed (see above). She makes sure to tell me she will only jump in the middle so she doesn't fall off and get a big owie (may have said that to her just a few times before). And she has yet to fall off the bed or get any sort of injury jumping on the bed, so let's keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way. The same cannot be said for her antics with the beach ball... Seriously this girl cracks me up. I won't share too many of her latest antics, as they are going to all be put into a big TWO YEAR post, but I love love love her to pieces. I'm surprised she's smiling in these photos below, she was saying "no mama, don't do that, no can take a picture." And the little dude? He's still pretty much the happiest, most chilled out baby during the day, and the worst sleeper ever during the night. Okay, not worst sleeper ever, but pretty darn close. Like, waking up more times than I can even count, every single night, kind of bad sleeper. The thing is, for the most part, he's just a happy little guy during the day, you'd never know he doesn't get a good night's sleep. And he goes down for most of his naps in his crib, all by himself, so it's not that he can't put himself to sleep. I'm convinced it's directly related to his eczema, but we can't seem to fix it. Oh well, eventually we'll figure it all out. It could definitely be much worse! I'm sort of wishing he would ditch his paci and and learn to suck on his fingers or something, but we still swaddle him otherwise he scratches his whole face and head. On another note- currently his favorite thing to hold on to or play with are little blankets. He loves this blue blankie, and there was a massive meltdown (by Riley) today when I wouldn't let her take the "blue gray gray" away from Jack Jack. It's the same as her pink one, only... it's blue. He's also getting closer to rolling over. He'll roll to the side, and with a tiny bit of help he'll roll all the way over, but he's just so happy to lay there and take it all in, or to watch what Riley's doing, that he just hangs out on his back a lot. And I'm pretty sure he's got a flat head as a result of all the time he spends on his back. Dangit. He also always has his two little feetsies glued together. Only a matter of time before he gets those toesies in his mouth! Anyway... so, first open home this Sunday, which also happens to be Mark's birthday! Then Riley turns TWO on Tuesday, and MY MOM GETS HERE ON THURSDAY. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. Riley's super excited too, and Jackson, well, he's just chillin'...
Super busy. Super sleep deprived. But still having a good time. Quick recap of the happenings over here... Tummy time, toddler loving getting dressed all by herself(and totally fashionable, of course), chubby super kissable cheeks, play gym time, trying to get knees up = face plants, sister lovin' on little brother, big blue eyes... Post dinner face snuggles with froggy, BUBBLES, reading, bonding, cute baby x2, laughing because mama is just SO FUNNY. Now, someone please tell my children not to gang up on me and both be awake for extended periods of time at 2am... Mkay?
Alright, so, time for a potty training update. We have been at this for a week now, and, dare I say it... Riley is (pretty much) potty trained! Hoooooorrrrraaaaayy! Now, let me go back... In the past 4 days, Riley has had a total of TWO pee accidents, and one poo in her underwear. One time was today- she peed in the car seat on the way home from swimming, but in her defense, she did tell Mark she needed to pee but she was buckled in and on her way home, and she peed twice in the potty right after they got home, so she really really had to go and she was trying! The other accident was on day 4- and it basically happened because she was running to tell me she needed to pee rather than just hopping on the potty, so she half peed on the floor, half on the potty. The bigger development is that she recognizes when she needs to pee, stops what she's doing, and goes to sit on the potty. All without me telling her to. I still suggest she go use the potty throughout the day if she hasn't gone in a while, but I trust that if she says "no" that she doesn't really need to go. We've gone on several outings where she has used the potty before we left, stayed dry the whole time, and peed when we got home. She also has pulled herself together mid tantrum to go and sit on the potty. I've been totally impressed! Someone has decided she prefers to go "au naturale" these days... but with shoes. Must. have. shoes. Now, onto pooping. She went days 4 and 5 without pooping whatsoever, and then woke up in the night with a dirty diaper. Not ideal, but better than on the floor I guess? The following day she pooped in her underwear, which was less than pleasant, but actually much better than when she pooped on the floor! And then this morning, she pooped on the potty all by herself!! I was getting worried that she was going to have some aversion to pooping on the potty (as many kids do), but that may not be the case, so we'll see. SO. Things I think worked/helped Riley in this process. (1) Being totally naked at first, but also getting used to wearing underwear and taking them off. (2) Marshmallows!! Her reward for using the potty. (3) Praise. Lots and lots of praise for her accomplishments. Telling her how proud we are and what a great job she's doing, etc etc... (4) Preparing her in advance for this- just talking about it, letting her get used to using the potty and seeing us use the toilet as well. (5) Asking her frequently if she needed to use the potty, then slowly tapering off how much we were asking her/telling her so that she could figure it out on her own. (6) Trying to get her to sit on the potty as much as possible the first day or two, even if that meant extra TV time. Things that didn't work that well
(1) The sticker chart. She liked it the first day, but we stopped using it after that. Probably because she plays with stickers all the time so getting a sticker wasn't that awesome of a treat, and not sure if she totally understood the concept and the delayed gratification behind the sticker chart. (2) Taking her on an outing the first day- probably wasn't our smartest move, but no permanent damage was done so oh well. (3) Getting frustrated. I knew going into this that there would (and still will be) challenges. I told myself that if she has accidents, the most important thing is not to get mad or frustrated with her. We've done a very good job of that, but it is frustrating sometimes when I'm trying to get us out of the house and trying to get her to pee before we go, and she just won't do it. There have been times when I've gotten frustrated and tried to tell her she HAS to sit on the potty, and it really doesn't help at all- she just gets mad and refuses. Definitely can't force her to use the potty! (4) The potty seat that goes on the toilet. So far she hasn't ever used it. She'll sit on it, but she's never peed on the toilet, so at some point we're going to need to work on that. It's not like I can drag our little potty with us everywhere we go! Obviously that's just our experience... she's done extremely well and hopefully she continues to do so! Can't believe my baby is using the potty (and thank god for not having two babies in diapers anymore!) 4 months old. Pretty hard to believe! The last few weeks have been crazy. Lots of changes, ups and downs, new developments, and basically horrible sleep. Yeah, we'll start with that one. Sleep. How could this happy little dude have any sleep problems??? Sleep (night time): Wow, I don't even know where to begin. If you have ever had a 4 month old, then you have likely heard of "the 4 month wakeful." And if you haven't, well, you are very very lucky. This little guy is in full 4 month wakeful mode. His night time sleep has been absolutely horrible lately. As in, I went three nights in a row of getting no more than 45 minutes of consecutive sleep. And only about 3-4 hours total. Basically, this little guy is wanting to go to sleep for the night around 6pm. Sometimes he fights going to sleep (which just requires extra rocking/walking) and sometimes he goes right to sleep with just a few rocks and shushes. But then he wakes up anywhere from 10-30 minutes later SCREAMING. And all he wants is to go back to sleep. Then we get him back to sleep, and he wakes up again. And again. And again. Sometimes the only way to get him back to sleep is for me to lay with him and nurse him on the bed or on the couch, and wait until he is in a DEEP sleep to transfer him into his bed. Otherwise, he wakes again. These days, his longest stretch of sleep is MAYBE 4 hours if I'm lucky, usually no more than 3. And after that? Oh man he's pretty much up all night. Only way I can get even a little bit of sleep is to bring him in bed with me, and even that is hit or miss. I'm praying he gets through this little phase without deciding it's fun to keep waking up 10-15 times a night, or wanting to stay up for hours at a time at 3am. Sleep (day time): Now, funny thing is... his day time sleep has seemed to improve. We're still struggling with extending naps past one sleep cycle, but that's mostly because I can't drop everything to rock him or shush him or nurse him or do whatever it takes to get him back to sleep. He is sleeping in his crib for most of his naps, except for his midday one where I usually hold him (since Riley is also sleeping) in hopes of getting in at least one good long nap during the day. In his crib, he usually naps for 30-50 minutes, with his longest nap so far being an hour. He likes to sleep on his side, snuggling a security blanket we just introduced to him. He LOVES it. Obsessed. He strokes it and clutches on to it between his arms, it's pretty darn cute. He occasionally puts himself to sleep all by himself, as long as he has his paci, his blankie, and his fisher price seahorse to look at. He's taking 3-5 naps a day, depending on what time he wakes in the morning and how long each of his naps are. (Below right... how he falls asleep for all his naps. Cutest thing ever) Personality: Jackson is a totally easygoing little dude during the day. He is happy being held, or laying down, or sitting in his baby seat, or chilling wherever we are and doing whatever we're doing. He smiles pretty much as soon as I look at him, and loves to watch every little thing I do. He's a chatty little guy, and loves to have conversations with anyone who cares to have a chat with him. He's super ticklish on his tummy, legs, back, and sides. He loves his paci, and he gets mad when it falls just out of his reach. He also lets out little cries of frustration when he can't quite get something into his mouth due to lack of coordination. He loves his playgym and goes nuts kicking and flapping his arms and yelling at the toys while he whacks them. He has no problem with new people holding him or talking to him, and gives out smiles pretty freely. He is pretty happy in his car seat as long as he has a paci or something fun to hold onto, and he hasn't fallen asleep in the car in quite a while. He likes being outside and riding in the stroller, but we don't get out all that often since it's just so darn cold. This little guy does not like to be cold, and like his sister, does not like the wind on his face. Milestones: He has started really trying to roll from back to belly, although he only gets as far as his side. If he's on his side, he tries to roll onto his tummy but can't quite get his arm out of the way, and sort of gets stuck face planting into the ground. He seems to have no interest in rolling from tummy to back anymore (he only did it once). He's totally figured out he's got hands, and stares at them very intently. He's also figured out that he can grab toys AND bring them to his mouth, which has opened up a whole new world for him. His favorite thing to suck on is still blankets or any kind of cloth. He is constantly trying to grab my fingers and pull them into his mouth. He has also started sucking on his fingers, which I think at this stage, I would love for him to become a finger sucker rather than a paci-a-holic like Riley, but we'll see. He is constantly trying to do little baby sit-ups. He can sit-up briefly all on his own, and loves to stand up and bounce with some support from us, although not for too long as his little legs buckle without warning. We introduced him to a door frame jumper (daddy's idea) and he's pretty darn cute rockin' his little body around. Feeding: Still doing well with breastfeeding, no problems whatsoever. Mostly he's on a good eat, awake, sleep routine, but sometimes if his awake time is too long, he refuses to sleep without being fed again. And you will KNOW if he wants to be fed when he YELLS when you try to give him his paci. He's not fooled into thinking something delicious is coming out of that! He's not so good with a bottle, in fact, the most he'll really take at a time is about 2 ounces before he gets fed up and won't take any more. And I know it's not because he's not hungry, as he'll nurse for quite a while right after he's offered a bottle. But at least he'll take enough so that if I go out somewhere (which is not often), I know he won't be starving! He loves grabbing onto me and pinching me while nursing, and his little karate arm goes nuts swinging all over the place. He still LOVES Riley, and she is enjoying having him be a little more interactive these days. He seems to like being naked, which I discovered now that I have to strip him down to keep him moisturized so frequently. His eczema is looking better now that we've switched to everything 100% cotton, but his skin still gets pretty dry and requires special care to keep the flare-ups at bay. I'm convinced his itchy skin is contributing to his horrible sleep, since he looks like he's constantly trying to scratch himself. We're still trying to figure out how to get it all under control! Jackson likes stories and songs, and gets to hear lots of big sister's favorite stories every day- lucky little boy. He also gets to hear whatever songs Riley requests... really though, as long as someone is saying SOMETHING to him, he's happy. Even if it's Riley yelling all kinds of stuff in his face. :) His growth seems to have slowed a little, he now weighs about 16 pounds, and is mostly in 6 or 6-9 month clothes. He still loves bath time, although not quite as much as before, since due to his eczema we make his baths quite a bit cooler than before. He splashes like crazy and kick kick kicks the whole time. He only poops once a day or every other day, but when he does poop, it gets everrryyyyywhere! He likes to suck on his bottom lip and does it all the time when there isn't a paci in there (see below right). He's just the most precious little boy in the entire world and worth all the sleepless nights!! Happy 4 months little boo boo!
My mom has been begging me for this post. So, here you go, mom. Two little Bartlett babies. Very similar, but SO very different. Jackson at 7 weeks, Riley at 6 weeks. Jackson was a pound lighter than Riley at birth, but has well surpassed the weight she was at similar ages. At 8 weeks, he weighed 12 pounds 2 ounces... I think at 2 months Riley weighed around 10 pounds. He's clearly got more chub than Riley. He has a similar amount of hair, similar color, but we'll see what happens as he gets older. He's getting more and more bald, so looks like I'll have two bald little babies! He also clearly has big blue eyes like she did/does. He got pretty bad hormone spots/ baby acne around 4 weeks, while Riley never had any of that. That picture above on the right is totally unedited, her skin was pretty flawless. They both had/have cradle cap. As for who has whose features, I have no idea! Riley definitely looks like Mark, and so far I've had people tell me Jackson looks like me, but I'm not really sure. Also, Jack has pretty bad eczema, which Riley never had. Jackson at 1 week, Riley at 5 days old... jaundice much?? The biggest difference between the two of them so far has been their newborn sleeping habits. Riley had to be held to sleep right from the start. She hated to be swaddled. She adored her paci from the first day we gave it to her. As a newborn, she barely ever cried as long as she was being held. She slept in bed with me, in my arms every night. She never ever ever cried during the night, and hardly had to be rocked, she was happy so long as she was snuggling with me (keep in mind we are just talking about her first 8 weeks, things definitely changed as she got older). If she was put down, she was NOT pleased, and pretty much required constant attention and interaction. Right from the start Jackson would sleep anywhere. In his bed, in the car, in the swing, on the couch, in the MOBY, anywhere. He loved to be swaddled. He NEEDED to be swaddled. He hardly took his paci at first, and never slept with it early on. The first months of his life he almost never slept in bed with me at night, he was too squirmy and it made me too nervous as he was constantly trying to burrow his face into my body. He slept pretty well independently in his rock n play by our bed, and around 10 weeks (I think) he started sleeping 7 hour stretches. Oh how I wish that were still the case... Riley at 3 weeks, Jackson at 2.5 weeks Riley hated tummy time until she could roll onto her tummy by herself, while Jackson seems to like it (or at least he doesn't mind it in short bursts). Jackson almost never spits up, but seemed to suffer from a bit of gas pains in his first few weeks (seems to be all gone now). Riley used to spit up fairly regularly, but didn't have a lot of gas issues. Riley didn't really enjoy being worn in any sort of carrier unless she was facing out, Jackson loves facing in and snuggling. If she feel asleep in the car seat, Riley would wake up AS SOON AS the car stopped moving. In his first few months Jackson would often sleep in his car seat long after we got him out. Riley used to startle at any little noise- Jackson is totally unfazed by noises, and hardly ever startles. Riley at 3 months, Jackson at 3 months Now at 4 months Jackson is starting to resemble Riley a little more in terms of his sleep habits and preferences. He would love to be held for all his sleeps. He also now loves to sleep in our bed. He sleeps in his crib during the day out of necessity, but often wakes up way too soon. Jackson is much more independent than Riley was during his awake time- he's happy to play on his play gym, lay on the floor and take it all in. He loves the stroller (Riley hated it), and is alright with the car seat as long as he's not too hot. Jackson does occasionally put himself to sleep for naps, whereas I can count on one hand the number of times Riley put herself to sleep without any assistance from me. Riley at 3 months, Jackson at 3 months At 4 months, he's way bigger than 4 month Riley. He's about 16 pounds, in 6-9 month clothes, and is overall just a much bigger, chubbier little dude than she was. I think she weighed around 13 pounds at 4 months old. She was a little more ahead in her gross motor and fine motor milestones- she was rolling and grabbing toys much more efficiently, but he's much chattier and laughs and smiles more freely. At this age Riley was mama OBSESSED and afraid of strangers. Jackson has no problems with new people, gives smiles freely to all, and is pretty equally happy with mama and daddy (as long as he's not hungry, then he only wants his mama!) Riley at 3.5 months, Jack at 3.5 months... look at the difference in their legs!! Another different thing about the two of them- Jack is totally the type of baby that, if left to cry, will get so worked up that he will gag and choke. Not that we ever leave him to cry, but if we are in the car, for example, and he gets upset, within two minutes he's crying so hard he's gagging and choking. Scares me every single time and I hate it. Riley never did that!
I don't really think they look much alike, and their personalities are also very different, but I love them just the same!! |
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