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

growing up

teeth, sitting up, rolling over, eating and more

So today i decided to look back at Hudson's info from when he was about 5 1/2 months old (Stella's age now), to see how similar or different stella and he are at this stage in life.

Hudson got his first tooth at just about 5 1/2 months, and he was also sitting up by himself, rolling over both ways, had started eating rice cereal, and was getting himself into the crawling position (he slept on his stomach so was getting a head start on this, crawling by 6 months). He was also loving his bouncy chair, jumping and screaming - having a ball - pretty much daily. He was still inconsistent with naps, and we had a bit of difficulty getting him to sleep.

Stella, at 5 1/2 months, does not have any teeth yet, does not sit up by herself (though she would like too and is always trying to sit up), rolls over both ways, has started eating rice cereal with a touch of veggie at dinner time with us (though most of it drools back out still), and has not figured out the crawling position - which make sense since she does not like being on her stomach in the first place! She sleeps on her back, through the night (for the most part), and naps about three times a day pretty easily. She does sit in the bouncy seat, and is just barely starting to push her legs in it and start to bounce a little.

So there it is - interesting to think about and look at - they are both individuals in every way, but both doing great!! I started thinking about this because i couldnt' remember when Hudson got his first tooth. Stella is putting everything humanly possible in her mouth, and drooling quite a lot, so i was thinking a tooth is goin to be coming sooner than later (of course it doesn't matter since they get them eventually, i just wondered).

Both kids are/were very easy to smile, very happy, and very engaged in their surroundings. I remember people saying they thought Hudson was engaged and had good eye contact, and Stella is exactly the same. So they are great to watch together!!

phone photos from summer!

Hudson's gotten good on his bike, and we take it over to the newly designed park pretty regularly!

Roses from our yard!

We got a slip n slide - lots of FUN!

Hudson noticed he and Andy were dressed alike…so a picture was in order!

Our first time at the puddle jumper pool in Stapleton - we all had lots of fun!

These are Hudson's best buds at daycare/school. London and Luke - they LOVE being together!! And above we have the cars from the movie Cars that Hudson has collected - yikes!

yummmmmm

 Stella rolled over from her tummy to her back yesterday! She could already roll onto her stomach, but doesn't like being on her stomach so that isn't seen often. We are still doing tummy time though so she can start getting those crawling legs ready!

 Stella has started eating rice cereal more regularly, and we've added a splash of veggie! Most of it come back out once it gets in her mouth, but she seems to be liking it a bit more which is good!

4th of July treats

Happy 4th of July, 2013! It's hard to believe the year is half over already! With two kids, two full time jobs and two hour long commutes every week, weekends seem to be going by quicker that we can keep track of! But there have been a few milestones I don't want to let pass without documenting, since I know we'll want to look back years from now and see what we were doing!

To celebrate the 4th, Stella tried her first bite of real food - sweet potatoes! I mixed a teaspoon in with a little rice cereal, and much like her reaction to rice cereal, she didn't seem to like it much! I think it will be something we ease her in to, which is why we're slowly introducing the rice cereal every couple days. She is eating fairly well the last few weeks, but is still pretty thin, so we thought maybe a little rice cereal would be good. So I guess we'll need to keep slowly trying, and maybe in the next couple months she'll start enjoying it!

She's still sleeping pretty well through the night, and is usually asleep by about 8, and sleeps until 5 or 6. Her naps are getting a little more predictable some days, but she is not an easy kid to put down for a nap! We know she likes her morning naps, and that's the easiest of the day. Her second nap seems to come around lunch time, depending on how long she slept the first time (this varies based on Hudson and his noise level). Then during the week she'll nap somewhere around dinner time, but only for about 30 minutes. She is VERY easy to smile, and has started spending a few minutes a day in her bouncy chair - which she loves! She is fitting in most of her 3-6 month clothes now (at 5 months old!), but they are still big around. Her shoe size is 1 in length, but they look silly because her feet are so narrow! Looks like she has her great grandma REEVES feet (hopefully without the bunions!). She is so alert and is getting better and better at grabbing and holding things. Her favorite activity is still watching big brother. No teeth still, but the drool is there, so who knows when those first ones will arrive.

Hudson is doing great as well - he's the smart kid in class (according to his teacher) still, and is now learning his days of the week and months of the year because he knows his letters, colors, shapes, and can count to 20! He loves being with his friends, but still cries often when i say goodbye to him in the mornings. We're seeing his social skills change in different environments, which has been interesting to watch. He is very social around those he knows, and seems to be either silly/goofy or very uncomfortable around groups/strangers. Once he gets older we think he'll grow out of this more, but its been interesting to see him change in different settings. He is a total mama's boy, and i'm told starts talking about my arrival to pick him up at daycare at least an hour before i get there. He loves his cars and trains still, and his imagination and play time have become a regular part of each day. He plays by himself more often now, though still enjoys and requests mommy or daddy to join him. He cracks us up all the time, and sometimes says the darndest things! Yesterday in the car he said "mommy, my seatbelt is too tight, it's hurting my peepee." Yes, that is exactly what he said. Hilarious.

little helper

Hudson decided to do some extra cleaning after me…he turned on the vacuum, looked up at me, and raised his eyebrows up and down as he walked away pushing the vacuum. REALLY? Who IS this kid??

5 months!

colorado springs zoo trip with grandma

 This morning we took a trip down to Colorado Springs to the zoo we have heard about for 6 years but have never seen. WOW. It was so different from any zoo i've ever seen, and we highly recommend it to anyone! Hudson walked around that zoo for over 2 hours, and we didn't see everything! Here we stopped to see the elephants (and statues of elephants) which Hudson enjoyed until he realized how BIG the elephant next to this little one was! The after shot would have been him walking quickly away. :)

 Highlight for Hudson: This old airplane! So cool.

 Highlight AGAIN for Hudson: riding a real train!

 Highlight for us: Stella did great! (until the drive home, which was an entirely different story).

Stella in her new favorite thing - waving to the camera! This picture cracks me up - her big head and her little legs (sticks, as i like to call them).