Julian's 4 months old!

Yesterday my lil chubs, aka Snickers, aka lil man turned 4 months! He is getting so big! Speaking of which, his 4 month appointment was today and he is a whopping 17.2 pounds and 25.5 inches. That puts him in the 89% for weight and 73rd % for height. Like I said, he is a BIG boy :) When I took him to the Dr., all the nurses gathered around the scale oohing and ahhhing at him. Once in the room, Dr. Rampley insisted on taking him back in to the office and showing him off to her co-workers while Bella and I waited. It was super cute, he sure loves all the attention! She was impressed with how active he was and how much cooing he does. Here are the things is doing so far:

-He is rolling over from back to tummy and also tummy to back.

-He can sit unassisted for about 3-5 seconds.

-he loves to giggle and smile. He is a very happy baby and loves everyone.

-He has started to reach for things , including my hair :)

-He is sleeping from 8 until 5:30-6 every night. He hasnt waken up in the middle of the night in almost 2 months. We put him down in his crib wide awake, and he puts himself to sleep. We have NEVER had to "let him cry it out", which I am so thankful for because that was rough when we did it w/ Bella.

-He will roll across the living room

-he has a few teeth that are starting to come through

-he has started on cereal and he hates it so far!

-He still wants to be held most of the day. If he is not held, he wants us to be near him. He is a real snuggle bug.

-He is predominately breast fed, however does get some formula. He definitely prefers breast milk. He is drinking 7 oz at a time-CHUBBS!

-when he hears his sister's voice, he will look around the room until he finds her and give her a humongous smile that melts my heart.

Julian has been such a joy. He is a very happy baby and in turn makes our entire family happy. He has made our family complete and I feel so blessed to have him.

JULIAN'S FIRST TASTES OF CEREAL

My smarty pants- Isabella

There have been some funny and amazing things that Bella has done in the last few weeks that I keep telling myself to write down so that one day she can read when she is older. I want her to be able to look back and see all the things that she was doing at a certain age. So here goes:

-She was eating a chip the other day and she pulled it out of her mouth and she said to me "look,Mommy it's Califowwnia". It most certainly did look like the state of California. A little background on this: Eric bought Bella a United States puzzle, and I asked him why he had done this being that she was only 2 years old! Anyway,much to my dismay, she loves it! She has learned where EVERY single state goes, and can tell me about 12-15 state names. She absolutely amazes me. I know that learning the states is not really developmentally appropriate, but she does love it.

-She knows every letter of the alphabet and recognizes them on the tv, books, or when we are out at the stores. For example, her and I were at the library and she would point out to me every number and letter down the aisles.

-She recognizes that in books that they are made up of words. In fact, she was reading her baby bible book and she said to me "look Mommy, my bible has lots and lots of letters". She loves books so much and enjoys the library and checking out her own books.

-she is using anywhere from 5-10 word sentences (yes I count). She is using articles (a, the, an), using pronouns correctly, she knows her first,middle and last name, she knows mine and Eric's names, she can answer questions and is now asking me questions, knows boys vs. girls, knows all colors, knows the difference between little and big.

-she really loves engaging in pretend play. She loves to cook for us in her kitchen and play with her baby dolls. One time I actually caught her trying to feed her baby from her chest. Obviously she sees me feed Julian,and when I saw her do it to her doll, I laughed so hard!!

-She loves to help me cook dinner in the evening. She sits on the counter and stirs whatever it is that I am cooking. She has to be involved in all parts of the cooking. When it's ready, it is her job to go and tell Daddy that dinner is ready. After eating dinner together, she helps by bringing the dishes from the table to the sink. She thinks this is all so fun, I know that wont last long!


-She still has a little lisp with her /s/ and /th/ sounds. I think it's so cute! I keep picturing her in school one day and telling her friends "my mom's a speeth thewapitht".

-She knows that "shit" is a bad word and when I say it she says "no mommy we dont' say shit, we say shoot"!! that really cracks me up when she does that. I know, I shouldnt laugh,but it is kind of funny.

I continue to be surprised about how much information she retains. I have a feeling she is going to love school. I love that she loves to learn and Im going to do my best to keep her learing fun :)



My little nerd at the library

Family Weekend

Last weekend, My dad and Rhonda came to town. We had many fun things planned for the long weekend. Friday, we had lunch at Five and Diner, then headed to the Sea Life Aquarium in Tempe. Bella had soooo much fun, she really loved it. She got to hold starfish, go inside a bubble and take pictures, sit and stare at the sharks swimming, and much more. The aquarium was very cool and we had a great time. The following day, Eric and I took Bella to Story Time live at jobing.com arena to see Dora and Ni Hao Ki Lan, Wonder pets, and The Backyardigans. Bella wore her dora shirt, dora hat, dora watch,and took her dora cup. Bella had the best time! We went to the 11 am show so there weren't many people. We were able to move really close to the stage. Bella danced and sang the entire time. It was great because each story got the children involved by asking questions or having them dance or jump.Her favorite story was obviously Dora. She was so exctied when she came out. Saturday night, Becky and Tommmy came to Phoenix to help us celebrate my Dad's birthday. I made Italian sausage with peppers w/ pasta. We then let Bella play outside as we all had drinks outside and enjoyed the nice weather. Sunday, we had chorizo and eggs and said goodbye to our company. It was such a good weekend full of family and fun. Thank you to my Dad and Rhonda and Tommy and Becky for a great weekend. Both kids were spoiled rotten and so enjoy the time with our family.