St. Patrick's Day

Yesterday we had a St. Patrick's Day party at our house. It included all things green and rainbow, and a bunch of balloons too. It was a lot of fun - the food was good - the kids had a great time, mostly jumping on the trampoline and playing in the sand box, and the mommies got to hang out and talk, oh and play pictionary!

Both girls are wearing Green! I had a few pictures where Pepper was actually smiling but of course Summer wasn't looking at the camera in those pictures grrr lol.

Next party - Spring/Easter woohooo!

Changes

Things are changing, most importantly the weather!!! This week the temperatures have been in the mid to upper 70's and I love it! Spring is right around the corner and I couldn't be happier. Something else is changing .... Pepper's eye color. I am not sure where they will end up but you can clearly see the middle of her eyes are no longer blue. Brown? Green? Hazel like her sister and both of our fathers? You probably can't see it in these photos real well can you?

and look at that hair, how in the world did I end up with a reddish haired baby? Never in a million years would I have guessed that one. Do red headed people have brown eyes? Here is another picture of her eye up close, maybe you can kinda see it here.

It mostly looks yellow to me, hopefully she doesn't turn into an avatar lol. I am also loving 4 months old, better than 3 months. Pepper is really starting to master grabbing things. Most things go into her mouth of course. If she sees something she wants she will grab it and she tries darn hard to get it into her mouth. She is also a little happier, but I can tell she wants to start moving. She gets annoyed at laying on her back on the floor in one spot. I keep telling her to roll over but so far she isn't showing much interest. Sometimes I put her in bed with me in the morning so she will sleep longer and she has no problem rolling from her back to her side to face me so I have a feeling if she really wanted to roll over she could.

Here is a rather boring and long video showing Pepper laughing (sorta) at her sister. She finds us amusing but not enough to give us a really good laugh yet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W60HrZ-QZU8 We were shopping at Lowes, she is in her car seat inside the shopping cart, in case you were wondering.

Lazy Sunday

We finally seem to be healthy around here, just in time for the warm weather (I hope). The time change was today and I think it went ok, it will be nice to wake up at 6:00 am instead of 5:00 am and I will have no problem going to bed an hour earlier. Pepper is constantly putting her fists and everything else she can grab into her mouth. She is starting to drool a lot more too, of course. She can sit up unsupported in her play chair thing too. Not that she likes sitting in it for longer than a few minutes. Summer still likes Pepper and has no problem with her neediness. Summer is also doing good, she is finally starting to help with "chores", and by chores I mean picking up after herself. I guess we should have started when she was younger but at least she isn't fighting us too bad right now. I also discovered that by adding a leave-in conditioner in the water spray bottle, it takes out the tangles and doesn't hurt her when we brush her hair each morning - shew! I was getting tired of hearing her cry every single morning when we had to brush hair, and she doesn't want to get it cut. Here are a few pictures of the girls from today.

4 month appointment

What a great 4 month doctor appointment today! This was the first time we saw the pediatric doctor and she was also amazing. Even the shots didn't seem as bad today. Pepper weighed in at 15.2 pounds in the buff. I guess I was weighing her a bit on the large side at home. She is 25 1/2 inches long, and her head is 41 centimeters. The doctor looked at her teeth and saw the white things I noticed that are on the top side of her gums and said it was something, and not to worry about it. She listened to how much she is drinking (about 6 - 6 oz bottles a day) and said that was ok. Her spitting up, not to worry about that either. She flipped her on her stomach and was happy at how strong she is, and was a bit surprised we don't do more tummy time with how well she is doing holding herself up. I had a concern about how much she spits up when she is on her stomach and she said it was ok and she might actually digest better so we might put her on her tummy more. I had planned on giving Pepper tylenol before her shots to help with the pain but the doctor said it wouldn't help and in fact they did a study that babies who had tylenol prior to vaccines developed less antibodies against them, so good, no tylenol - which I don't like to give anyway. I also had a concern about the formula she is on, the similac sensitive and she said not to worry about it. We discussed solids, and since Pepper has such great neck control she was all for starting when I felt ready. I think we will try to wait until she reaches 5 months, 6 if I can keep her satisfied. I filled out the 4 month evaluation and the only think Pepper isn't doing all the time is laughing but the doctor wasn't worried and said that if Summer did it at 3 months she was actually a little advanced. Pepper will smile, and go ha, just one ha, not the happy ha ha haha ha yet. We work on it too, trying new ways to get her to laugh. She gets so tickled that her whole body will jerk in a happy way but she just won't make the sounds yet. Her ears were clean, lungs and heart sounded good, no clicking in her hips, and if anything the doctor made me feel like she is ahead of others her age. Maybe they all do that, anyway I was happy when I left. We went to a different room to do the shots and as if Pepper knew it was coming she started crying before he even started but somehow I think that made it better, it made her cry not as dramatic when she got the shots. This guy also gave her one, two three, where the last time they had two docs give them to her at the same time, which you would think would be better but maybe not?

Here she was a few minutes ago on the floor. It doesn't seem like her legs hurt. Of course I hate to touch her there and she has Band-Aids to remind me. Every time I accidentally grab her leg I go OH MY GOODNESS I AM SO SORRY lol.

We go back in two more months, I guess I can probably handle it :o)

Black and White

As you probably noticed, I love color. I generally stay away from black and white photos but recently I took a photo of Summer and turned it into a black and white and I must say - it is one of my favorite photos! Her hair was all crazy like that thanks to the trampoline. I just may get this one in print! Thanks to I Heart Faces for the challenge this week!

I love hats

Do these photos look a bit aged? That's because my baby is a bit aged! Where has the last 4 months gone? These dresses are Summer's, well they were Summer's, I guess they don't fit Summer anymore, but they were in Summer's box of clothes that I kept. I mostly like them because of the hats, of course.

Here is a picture of Summer wearing the same thing, she was not quite 4 months old. I am glad I kept some clothes. I kinda wish I would have kept it all but where would I have stored it!

Oh, and guess whose eyes are starting to change colors? No clue what color they will end up but it is really obvious now, the middles look less blue and more something else. We can't wait to see what they turn into.

4 Months

I have managed to keep little Pepper alive for four whole months! She really hasn't done much new in the past month, if anything her coordination is getting better, she is really grabbing toys and still trying to put them in her mouth. We had two really bad days with teething so I hope to see a tooth or two anytime now. She is a hefty baby weighing in at 16 pounds and is tall too at 25 inches. She has her 4 month doctor appointment on Friday, and while I am looking forward to it I am not - I don't want to do more shots :o(

Unfortunately I am not doing as well, I have been sick for over two weeks and had one of my worst days yesterday. Coughing, sneezing, congestion, weakness, I am not sure what I have, I thought it was a sinus infection but now I am not so sure. I could go to the doctors but at this point I figure I am pretty far into it so hopefully I get better soon. Thankfully my wonderful husband was able to wrangle Pepper yesterday for 4.5 hours while I napped, yes I took a 4 1/2 hour nap. I guess I needed it. Spring anyone? I am looking forward to getting healthy, warmer weather, and the time change this weekend. Right now Pepper has been going to bed around 7:oo PM, waking between 12:00-1:00 AM, again between 3-5:00 AM, and trying to get up at 6:00 AM. I usually get her to sleep for a bit longer with the pacifier but with the time change it shouldn't be a big deal. It will be nice to have longer days too - I think.