4 Months!

I can't believe we've had Allie as part of our family for 4 months already! Time is seriously flying by. It's exciting and scary all at the same time. She continues to be such a joy and keeping us all giggling and melting over her huge smiles. I think it's safe to say we all feel like we just can't get enough of her.

This month she:
-- has found her hands. She constantly is playing with them, pulling things up closer to her, holding onto anything she can find, and just this past week reaching for things in front of her face!
-- rolled over! She can now regularly roll from her back to her front and is usually ok to stay there for a little bit.
-- loves to cover her face with blankets. She shoves them into her mouth, but also pulls them over her eyes and usually sleeps better if she has a little bit of her face covered. We're not sure what that's all about
-- has regressed in her sleeping a little bit :( I'm not too happy about it. She gets up at least once a night, usually twice and has a hard time falling back asleep the second time.
-- giggles pretty regularly :) It's the happiest, cutest noise. There's not really any way to know what will cause it, but luckily we've caught it on video a few times so it's saved forever!
-- is getting less content with being left by herself. She loves to have other people's attention, especially Peyton's. If we lay her down on the floor and leave to go get something, or walk out of her line of sight she starts fussing.
-- still is wearing 0-3 month clothes and people are always surprised to hear how old she is. She's definitely still petite.
-- has enough hair to fit into a ponytail! Pigtails are much easier (as you'll see in the pictures), plus Peyton says that Allie is "so pretty!!" when she has her pigtails in.
-- has started chatting away. It comes in bursts, but when she wants to talk, she'll coo for a long time, and back and forth with us like she's having a conversation
-- still LOVES Peyton. Peyton usually gets the biggest smiles out of Allie and the most laughs. It melts my heart to see them becoming such good friends already. I sure hope it stays this way and there aren't too many fights in their future haha
-- loves the bath. She gets really excited to be put in the water and kicks and splashes most of the time she's in there.
-- has started pushing up during tummy time and holding her head up for a second or two. She always seems surprised to see our faces when she gets her head up, but cracks the biggest smiles.
-- is still sleeping in mom and dad's room, but we're hoping to change that this week. Hopefully that will help everyone sleep better
-- continues to be one of the happiest babies I've seen, except when she has tummy issues and then gets mad and loud pretty fast. Hopefully starting on some solids soon will help with that.
-- puts up well with being arguably smothered by mom, dad, Peyton (who loves to give her "squeezes" by laying on top of her haha)
-- has started sitting up in the bumbo fairly regularly and likes to be able to look around on her own. She sometimes still falls over sideways and can't quite get herself back up though. Peyton also gets jealous and asks to sit in the "blue seat" every time so Allie's turns are sometimes pretty short.
-- hasn't shown any sign of teething, which mom is grateful for
-- still likes to have her binky, but also sucks on her fingers regularly when she can't find the binky

'

21 Months

It's been a little while since the last update on Peyton, she's growing and advancing a ton and is hard to keep up with sometimes... in the best way possible :) We can't believe how big she is and what a toddler she's grown into. We're so grateful she lets us experiment all of our parenting on her and puts up with us so well.

Recently Peyton:
-- has extremely expanded her vocabulary, it's a pretty regular occurrence for her to say something that I had no idea she knew existed, much less how to say it
-- has started to really love her baby sister. She asks to hold her and feed her and if she can come with us no matter where we are going. She's always concerned about where Allie's sleeping, and where all of her stuff is. It's adorable.
-- is finally starting to wear 18-24 month clothes... just a little bit late
-- learned how to run and can actually run for a little while without losing her balance
-- started enjoying coloring with mom and dad's pens (we had to have an important conversation about where we're allowed to color), and have switched to color wonder markers (we're extra grateful to Crayola for that invention)
-- has started to try new foods, but still loves fruit more than anything else
-- takes after her mom and LOVES pink milk haha
-- still loves to be told she's a helper - it's the quickest way to get her to do something
-- has gotten extra attached to mom, and doesn't like to be left in a room without her
-- is impressively good at remembering people's names - we're not sure where that one came from since it's not a skill either one of us claim, but it makes going through pictures fun
-- has started saying please and thank you without any prompting (SO glad our insistence there is paying off)
-- LOVES shoes. She has a different name for each pair of her shoes and loves to take them off and put them on herself.
-- has started giving the best "gueezes" (squeezes), wrapping both arms around us and squeezing tight
-- already has 2 favorite movies we rotate between: the "baby foovie" (Hotel Transylvania 2) and the "maui foovie" (Moana)
-- asks to ride in the "blue car cart" no matter which store we're going to, and gets super excited if that's actually the cart we get at the grocery store
-- still has to go to bed surrounded by stuffed animals, but hugging her lamb and her bear
-- has been to SeaWorld twice and loves the rollercoasters. We're equally surprised and impressed. She sits through the whole ride with a stone face and as soon as it's over asks if we can go "again, again?"
-- thinks she can jump super high, and loves to jump on couches, beds, and sometimes the floor. It's pretty entertaining to watch.
-- knows most of her colors and loves to point out different colored things
-- loves going to nursery and asks us every time we're going to church when she'll get to go play with toys and have "nacks" (snacks)
-- still loves planes, cars, trucks, busses, and helicopters - she points them out whenever she can see them
-- also loves games, even if she has no idea how to actually play she likes to pull all the pieces out and make her own version. She always does a great job of putting all the pieces away before she asks for "a nudder" (another) game
-- LOVES playing hide-and-seek and says "surprise" whenever she gets visible again. She'll also play hide-and-go-seek by hiding her fingers, toes, hands, etc, anything she can hide and then find, and will even play by herself in her crib or carseat.
-- has started mimicking faces we'll make to her - her attempts are hilarious
-- has started using more descriptive phrases and sometimes sentences. She's slowly using more words for instructions/requests instead of just gesturing
-- learned how to swim! She does an awesome job in her puddle jumper and is so much braver in it than I think either of us anticipated she would be.

3 Months!!

Our Allie is 3 months old! Actually she was a little over a week ago, but we went to Powell so we're a little bit behind. She continues to amaze and impress me with what an easy-going baby she is and how wonderful she makes things. We wouldn't trade her for anything!

This month she:

-- has started cooing and they're the most adorable noises ever
-- has gotten a little more vocal about needing/wanting things
-- started sleeping through the night (I'm telling you... she's an angel baby!), sometimes still gets up for an early morning feeding, but then goes right back to bed
-- loves to play with her own hands and can regularly be found holding her own hands on her chest
-- is getting more control with moving her hands and legs
-- has more consistently become a stomach sleeper. She loves tummy time and especially being swaddled and laid on her stomach
-- is getting much better head control and will only lay on our shoulders if she's really relaxed
-- constantly gets comments about her hair wherever we go, and doesn't appear to have lost any of it
-- loves when big sister comes to play with her and talk to her - she gets a smile on her face as soon as she hears her coming close
-- has started taking an interest in her surroundings. She's always content to sit in someone's lap if it means she can watch what's going on in the room
-- has started drooling more and more, but is also spitting up less
-- has lived up to her occasional nickname of Houdini as she breaks out of her swaddles. We're not sure why she breaks out of them because she's much more content to stay wrapped up.
-- discovered she has a tongue and is always sticking out

(ignore the weird lighting... still figuring out the best time of day/place to take pictures in our new house)