Family

First TOOTH!!!

Stella finally had a tooth break through!! She has not been sleeping as well through the night for the last week or so, partly because she's starting to sleep on her tummy and seems to get stuck and wake up, but we think part of it has been these teeth! So Saturday morning I was thrilled to find that little tooth poking through! Even though it was a rough weekend - Andy was out of town for a bachelor partry - it was a relief to have a tooth come through finally! A month and a half after Hudson got his first tooth, she's just telling us again that she is her own little person - and we wouldn't have it any other way.

She's also been getting a bit more interested in getting into the crawling position (sort of). She and Hudosn love to laugh together, and she's loving her FOODs more and more. Fruit is definitely favored over veggies, but she's having both and so far seems to dislike bananas and green beans more than anything. She'll eat a little of the green beans, but the face she makes when she tastes banana just plain is quite a sight. She's also figured out how to use a straw! I will upload the picture I took soon, but she is so adorable loving that water!!

time with Oma

We had a fun weekend/week with Oma this week! She came to help watch the kids while we worked, as daycare was closed this week! I'm sure she was exhausted at the end of the day, but we REALLY appreciated her help and company! Great way to celebrate his 3rd birthday!

 The best picture we could get of the three of them…and that was after about 10 minutes of trying to convince Hudson to come sit next to Oma for a picture. 

Summer days...

 Bath time upgrade! Stella loves to splash in her big girl bath!

Little miss smiles a lot…loves sitting out on the grass on these warm days!

Six Months

Stella is six months old!!
She had her check up yesterday. and I am thrilled to say that she gained 2.5 pounds the last two months! Here we have stats:

Six months;
Weight: 15 lbs (25%)
Height: 26.5 inches (75%)
Head:     (75%)

She is doing great!! She now has the green light to eat two meals a day in addition to her 28-36 ounces of milk a day. She is sleeping from about 8pm to 6am, then takes a morning and noontime nap for a few hours - so she has about 11-13 hours a day of sleep. She's developing beautifully, and though her laryngomalacia causes some challenges and she will still need to take her medication twice a day, we are SO happy with how she's doing!!

Passing on the legend

 Anyone who knows me knows I have been a Michael Jackson fan for a LONG time. My 18th birthday present from my parents was a drawing of Michael Jackson. Seriously. And I loved that thing. So it's only natural that my children will follow in my footsteps and love Michael Jackson as well. Maybe not to the degree that I do, but I'm proud to say that Hudson CAN identify a Michael Jackson song when he hears one, and that's pretty much good enough for me. 

Stella is now LOVING her sitting up time, and has mastered the skill! She also LOVES big brother, and the feeling is wonderfully mutual - except when Hudson gets a little too excited and one (or both) of them end up hurt. I think we can probably officially start calling Hudson a Sharknado. Not only does he love sharks (as seen in the picture), but he is most definitely like a tornado - bull in a china shop - taznmanian devil - etc. You get the point. And here he is crying at my side because he jumped off the chair and hit his head on the elliptical machine. He's fine. :)

almost six months?!?

 SIX MONTHS! Wow, hard to believe! She is growing up so fast! 

 With teeth coming soon, a wet chin is a common day occurrence for this little foot chewer. 

Six month updates:
1. Stella is a HAPPY HAPPY girl! She is so quick to smile, and laughs a lot these days! She is not quickly open with strangers, but once she sees someone she knows she is all grins. Though she doesn't like being left alone for more than a minute, she isn't as interested in new people as she is in her familiar faces - especially big brothers! She hardly cries, and if she does it's pretty easy to figure out why!
2. Stella has been sleeping pretty much through the night since she was just about 2 months old, maybe even a little earlier. Unlike her brother, she was ready to turn it off for the night and refuel! She sleeps well on her back, swaddled up tight, but has started to turn on her side more as well. She wakes us up in the morning with a thwap of her feet hitting the ground - mermaid style! No crying, or even talking, just that mermaid slap!
3. She has been trying to sit up for months, and is finally doing it more on her own now. She still leans back a bit and will topple over, but she her desire to be upright has her trying to get back into the sitting position as quick as possible! She's rolling over both ways as well, but has never liked tummy time (like her brother did), so isn't quite ready to start thinking about crawling. In fact, we wonder if she will end up scooting around on her butt instead of crawling because she dislikes tummy time so much! We'll find out soon i'm sure!
4. FOOD - eating for Stella has been a challenge pretty much since day one, but she continues to improve. She's now eating rice cereal and veggies in the evening, and still has between 26-34 ounces of sensitive formula a day. though she will almost always eat the minimum she needs to, there are days now and then still when feeding her is a huge difficulty, and because she's not carrying much extra weight, we worry. But she IS healthy and IS growing, so we can't ask for much more!
5. We often call her "little bubbles" these days, because she is regularly blowing bubbles and sticking out her tongue! No teeth yet, but we're guessing they'll be joining us soon based on the amount of drool coming from her mouth. She wants to put everything possible in there to chew on, so at least she's trying to self sooth. :)

Overall she is an easy, joyful little girl. She LOVES big brother, and seems to like taking it all in at every chance. We love this little girl more than we ever imagined, and I have to say I think i like having two kids more than one!!

 We took this last picture of Hudson in this onesie when he was six months old…i will post a couple more with their faces as well. They do have some similarities, but they are definitely unique from each other in quite a few ways!

Our Boy

holy cuteness