All things E
Although much older now, here’s the equivalent of E’s baby book (although there are actual printed versions that exist too) these are fun to look back at. This mostly covers the first year of our oldest child.
12 Months of blanket photos
Milestones
12 Months of Blog Posts (Click on each image below):
Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 28.5 inches (Estimated - No doctor's appointment)
Weight: 21 pounds (Estimated)
Special Outings: Jordan's, Plant Nursery, Alice's House, Target
Loves: Being outside, the neighbor's trucks, moo cow
Hates: Getting his face wiped, having a stuffy nose, gas pains.
Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness, Love bug
Height: 28 inches (Estimated - No doctor's appointment)
Weight: 19.5 pounds (Estimated)
Special Outings: Still going to count the trip to Florida, since that was also part of this month
Visitors: Alice and family, plus we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa!
Loves: Exploring, playing with friends, trips to Target, his moo cow, mooing, the kitty
Hates: Throwing up, being hungry, not being able to sleep when he's tired
Nick Names: The Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 27.75 inches (21st percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds, 4 ounces (40th percentile)
Head: 17.25 inches (15th percentile)
Special Outings: THE BIGGEST OF BIG OUTINGS! 30,000 feet in the air!! To a completely different part of the country!!!
Visitors: Becca, Oppedisanos
Loves: The Kitty, warmer weather, making friends
Hates: Getting face/nose cleaned, being tired or hungry
Nick Names: The Bubba, Bubba-bee, Sweetness
Height: 26.5 inches (Estimated because no doctor's appointment)
Weight: 20 pounds (Estimated)
Head: 17+ inches
Special Outings: None? We were total home bodies unless you count shopping trips..
Visitors: Raina & Zaida
Loves: Being surprised, cousin Zaida, poking at faces
Hates: Getting face/nose cleaned, being tired or hungry, not being able to crawl
Nick Names: The Bubba, Bubba-bee
Height: 26+ inches (Estimated because no doctor's appointment)
Weight: 18 pounds
Head: 17+ inches
Special Outings: Wedding in Lake Placid, VT
Visitors: Linzy, Drew (wedding party represent!), Jill
Loves: Taking baths, bubbles, silly songs and noises, broccoli and avocado
Hates: Getting his face/nose cleaned, being tired, the end of meal time
Nick Names: Bubba, Bubbabee, Ohhshh smoshhh
Height: 26.25 inches (27th percentile)
Weight: 17 pounds, 8 oz (47th percentile)
Head: 17 inches (41st percentile)
Special Outings: Daycare Halloween Parade, Daycare Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving in Cohasset
Visitors: No one!
Loves: People and faces. Trees. Being outside.
Hates: Hats and winter clothes, Being tired. Still.
Nick Names: Bubba, Bubba-bear
Height: 25.5 inches (as measured at home, since no doctor's appointment)
Weight: 16 pounds (as measured at home)
Head: Pretty round
Special Outings: Solo trip to VT with Caitlin, Pumpkin patch, Trip to Burlington VT to see Linzy, Raina and Zaida
Visitors: Jill, Tom's Parents
Loves: Rattles, funny faces, bouncing/shaking, airplane, looking out the window
Hates: His weak arms, being in the living room after 5pm, being tired
As of 9/29/2017 (One day late to get measurements from our doctor's visit!)
Nick Names: Bubba, Buddy
Height: 25 inches (45th percentile)
Weight: 15 pounds, 2 oz (45th percentile)
Head: 16.25 inches (40th percentile)
Special Outings: First trip to Vermont!, Daycare started, Final movie of maternity leave (Baby Driver), And a few parties (Baptism and a wedding shower)
Visitors: George
Loves: Daycare, Looking out windows, Watching people
Hates: Being tired, Not being able to roll
As of 8/28/2017
Nick Names: Bubba, Bubs
Height: 24 inches (As measured at home since no doctor's appointment)
Weight: 15 lbs (As measured at home)
Head: Large
Special Outings: Family vacation in Maine, craft group, movies (Wonder Woman, The Glass Castle, Landline), Fenway Park
Visitors: Linzy
Loves: Sucking on hands, being outside, sticking out tongue, playing airplane
Hates: Elevators/Ears Popping
As of 7/28/2017
Nick Names: Bubba, Bubby, Buddy
Height: 22.5 inches (32nd percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs, 8 oz (38th percentile)
Head: 15.5 inches (66th percentile)
Special Outings: Two more movies (Despicable Me 3 and Spider-Man), a visit to Becca, BBQ at my boss' house, 4th of July Carnival
Visitors: Danielle, DJ & Wyatt, Aunt Raina and Cousin Zaida, Tom's Parents
Loves: Baby crinkle paper, bouncer seat, anything patterned
Hates: Car seat/Driving in the car, gas pains, being tired
E's one month update!
Nick Names: Bubba, Bubby, Buddy
Height: TBD (at our appointment tomorrow)
Weight: TBD (at our appointment tomorrow)
Special Outings: First Movie (Cars 3), Hiking at Breakheart, Random Shopping Trips
Visitors: My parents, Aunt Joanie & Brookie, Nicole, Stephen & Alice, Aunt Raina
Loves: Warm baths, Eating, Sleeping in someone's arms
Hates: Being cold, Gas pains
All things G
All the posts and memories to look back on the first year of our medium child’s life.
12 Months of blanket photos
Milestones
12 Months of Blog Posts (Click on each image below):
I’ve been counting down for this for a year, but still somehow I can’t believe that we’re here. I barely remember you as an infant, those days were so long ago. And these last 6 months have flown by.
You are so much fun right now. Always laughing, always moving. You’re still “talking” and mimicking us all like crazy, and have started pointing all over the place to tell us your opinions and what you’d like. You have strong feelings and get angry quick if I tell you that you can’t have my phone or something else you want.
Holy cow, only one month to go!
I know I keep saying this, but I’m shocked this is where we are. How are you almost a year old? I feel like we’ve all survived some big battle and have come out victorious! We’ve survived, everyone is happy (mostly), and we’re really figuring out this family of four thing. Not that I didn’t think we’d get here, but I’m so proud of all that we’ve accomplished this past year, and it’s gone by so quickly! (When I sleep I forget all those rough months and I’m much happier - remember that!)
So nine months snuck up on me, but I’ve been calling you ten months for the past few weeks. I don’t really understand why some months seem longer than others, or you seem seem to grow faster at some points and slower at others. I think because of this, it seems like you haven’t changed much this month, but you actually have!
Baby, baby, baby. You are such a fun addition to our family. Your laugh, your faces, your happy little grab onto my arms when I bounce you up and down and you snuggle your face into me.
You’re happy as long as you’re a part of whatever’s going on. If someone walks into another room, you squirm after them as quickly as possible, and if you’re having trouble keeping up, or they vanish out of your sight, you’ll start screaming until someone picks you up. Sometimes you’ll just decide that you’re done on the floor and you’ll squirm right up to someone’s feet and look up at them with your big eyes until we grab you.
I heard someone say recently that nine months is peak cuteness for a baby, and I’ve got to say we are well on our way! You are just adorable lately. Dimples on full display, giggling all the time, totally squeezable. Just lots of fun. It would be nice if you’d pretend to care about me or Tom at all, but it’s more than obvious that all you want is your brother. It’s everything we dreamed of when we decided to have two kids so close together, so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.
I knew it was coming.. in my head you were 6 months, but 7 was coming soon. Still, when Tom mentioned this morning that we should have taken the month pictures this past weekend, I was floored. 7 months today? Already? HOW?
I guess that means I’m not counting down days anymore to when things will get easier, because we’re here. We’ve got a schedule and a rhythm and although we are tired and busy, it’s more fun than not. You’re happy more often than not. You’re sleeping at night, and even most days at daycare. Which, by the way - DAYCARE. You started this month and you’re rocking it. It was so easy I almost forgot you haven’t been there that long.
Holy personality baby!
I think month 6 is when things click for me. You’ve gone from generic baby who sits there and we fulfill needs, to a tiny adorable person. You’re fun now, you smile and laugh and interact. You’ll grab at our faces and try to eat our nose. You’ll laugh if I pretend to bite your hand. You still don’t give laughs away very easily, and increasingly make us work harder to get them, but they’re so rewarding when we do. Your personality is coming out more and more every day, and I love it.
Didn’t I just post one of these? This month FLEW by. I wish I could say it’s because you’re sleeping, but nothing is consistent there. We actually started out the month with you sleeping through the night and doing GREAT, but then you started rolling and hit your 4 month sleep regression and everything changed. You can’t really roll from your belly to your back, so that makes you incredibly angry in the middle of the night, and you’re still trying to figure out what to do with your hands. So we’re all tired. So tired.
You’ve done a lot of growing this past month, and I finally feel like I can say that I know you a bit. While you’re getting more and more content playing alone, you’re still happiest hanging out in our arms. When I do set you down to play, you’ve started to bat at toys and grab a few even. You’re getting frustrated that your hands don’t work the way you want them to, but you get so excited when you actually grab a toy.
You suck on everything, especially your fingers. You often have at least three fingers in your mouth at a time, and recently you’ve started sucking on your arm. Whatever you can get. (And when you can get one of our fingers, you go for that too!)
END OF THE 4th TRIMESTER!! YAY!!!
Ahem.
Little babies are squishy and adorable and wonderful. And exhausting and they don’t play very much and they don’t sleep very much and when you’re still dealing with healing and hormones and everything… it’s just nice to be at a point where things are getting easier. And more fun.
Nick Names: Goober, Snortle-pig, Lovey
Height: 23.5 inches (76th percentile)
Weight: 13 lbs, 15 oz (87th percentile)
Head: 16.25 inches (97th percentile)
Special Outings: First time with all 4 of us in the car (to get oil changed haha), Burlington Mall, First snow angel, Mama’s dr appointment, PetSmart
Visitors: Grandma & Grandpa, Raina & Zaida, Nicole, Stephen & Alice
Loves: Sleeping, pacifiers, big brother, staring into the light
Hates: The cold, being hungry, tummy time
As of 1/23/2019
Nick Names: Goober, Snortle-pig, Salamander, Lovey
Height: 22 inches (77th percentile)
Weight: 11 lbs, 5 oz (83rd percentile)
Head: 15 inches (83rd percentile)
Special Outings: First Movie (Vice), Hiking at Breakheart, Random Shopping Trips
Visitors: Grandma & Grandpa, Raina & Zaida, Aunt Joanie & Brookie, Nicole & Alice
Loves: Sleeping, pacifiers, big brother, staring into the light
Hates: The cold, burping, diaper changes
All things F
Our last baby, our youngest child. Memories from the first year of her life.
12 Months of blanket photos
Milestones
12 Months of Blog Posts (Click on each image below):
Even though this is our third first birthday, it’s still just as much of an accomplishment each time. We did it. We survived the year! And I’m always just as shocked about how quickly it went by. How are you one already?
Your year feels split in half - the first half you were the easiest little squish baby who just came along wherever we went. The second half, aka the mobile half, is when things got a little crazy. You became strongly opinionated and LOUD. You aren’t talking but you still blow us lots of raspberries, give very wet kisses and screetch often. You’re constantly moving and climbing and exploring and trying hard to become a full on toddler. You love eating chicken nuggets and pasta and drinking from a sippy cup just like a big kid.
Of course because I mentioned how much I loved your gummy smile last month, you immediately popped out two bottom teeth - officially becoming the youngest child in this family to get a tooth! Maybe that’s what was messing with your sleep last month? It’s definitely gotten better - you still hate being put to bed, but then you fall asleep quickly and are back to sleeping through the night.
This month you have definitely decided what you want, and anytime you don’t get it you start immediately crying, fold in half, and put your forehead on the ground until someone comes to comfort you. Specifically you want to be held, but doing something interesting, or you want to be down on the ground playing, but with me or Tom less than 3 inches away.
I’m not sure if it’s too much to say, but this might be your hardest month yet. You hit a sleep regression HARD, at the same time separation anxiety peaked. Suddenly you’re fighting sleep, you’re screaming, and one night you were up from 9pm until midnight. It wasn’t fun. We’ve mostly moved passed that, but you’re still not as “easy” as you were a month ago. You want to be walking, but you can’t yet. You want to explore but you also don’t want to be out of our arms. And you cry at daycare drop off now. So it’s been a rough month. We’ll get through it, of course.
Well after saying I wasn’t sure what makes you upset, this month definitely gave me a few examples. For whatever reason, your stranger danger seems to come and go. You’ve always loved daycare and never reacted poorly there, but suddenly you’ll burst into tears if a neighbor that you’ve known since you were born tries to hold you. While you often seem to be more like G in that you don’t want me to hug or cuddle you too much (you’ll go so far as to punch me in the throat to try to get out of a hug), you’ve also been a bit attached to me lately. You want me to sit approximately 2 inches from you on the ground next you to. Close enough that you can have a hand on me or crawl into my lap if needed, and if I try to leave the room or move away, you’ll start crying. That’s definitely new.
This might finally be the month that breaks me, because having three mobile children is definitely harder than two and a baby. I think we can finally say you’ve figured out this crawling thing, although not well enough for us to realize that when we put you somewhere, you’re not going to stay there. You’re moving just enough that we’re still surprised to find you in a new spot. You bounce and spin and take a break to sit and then get up and move another step or two, but you’re definitely moving, and obviously thrilled about it.
After a few boring months, this was a big one for you! Not only did you leave the house, you left the state and flew all the way to Florida! And then we discovered that you aren’t really used to being outside, and it’s a huge adjustment. We’ll just say it wasn’t your favorite, so after a trip to a playground, a hike to the river, and a farmer’s market all in the first two days, we mostly let you stay in the house after that.
By some weird turn of the calendar, you don’t really get a half birthday this year. It’s better than being born on a leap day, sure, but it did give me a bit of pause when deciding when to celebrate. The answer of course was whenever we wanted to.
This was a big month for you - you started daycare! You were getting extremely bored at home every day, and seem to be doing well at school. Except for the first day when you came home so exhausted you could barely make a noise or keep your eyes open, you’ve adjusted great. You don’t cry at drop off, and they say you’re happy during the day. E occasionally peeks in the window at you and finds you napping in a crib. It’s both weird and fun to be driving home from pick up with three children in the car. Sure it takes us a while to get everyone strapped in, but you’re a pretty good sport. I don’t want to jinx us, but you may be my baby who has hated the car the least. Not enough to sleep in the car, but I’ll take neutrality.
Well this month you have officially moved from a baby that is content to be along for the ride, to our ‘baby baby’ who wants to explore and do. No longer can we put you down on the floor with some toys and expect you to be content. You need to be entertained and experience and see new things. Which has been hard since we haven’t left the house this month. It makes me hopeful that your transition to daycare will be smooth, though. The other day E was explaining to you what daycare would be like. He was telling you what your room was going to look like, and made sure you knew that he’d be able to see you and check on you through the windows multiple times per day.
More than once this month I’ve said that I think we’ve found our loudest child. You have found your voice and you love to sing and make everyone know that you have opinions. You are making sure that you will not be a forgotten third child. I’m not sure how you could be, you’re everyone’s favorite. Even the cats like to come check on you multiple times a day. Your siblings are still your favorite - after a particularly fussy day, the first time you seemed truly happy was at the end of the day when I set you up watching G.
What a determined little baby you are. You’re not content with being a newborn anymore. You’re learning to roll and are working hard at sitting up too, when all we want is to enjoy you as a baby for as long as possible. You see your older siblings doing things, and you just want to be where they are. You love them so much, if you hear them you’ll crane your neck and move your body to try and see them. Of course they love you just as much, some nights you get a hug when Mama and Dad don’t.
About halfway through the month, I looked at you and realized you were no longer a newborn. It was shocking and sad. I wasn’t sure how the change had happened so quickly, and was immediately mourning the fact that you’d left the sleepy and squishy phase. It is, of course, an accomplishment for you. You’re growing! You’re one step closer to showing us who you are as an independent person. And pretty quickly I learned to love this new phase too. You love eye contact, and when I coo at you, I can make you smile.
A whole month. A month of cuddles and smelling your head, and staring into your eyes. It’s a different experience, knowing you’re my last baby. It makes every cuddle just a little more precious, and makes me wish to get through these rough days less. Actually, they’re really not that rough.
There’s definitely some benefits to being the third child. You definitely have more relaxed parents than your siblings had. E had nervous new parents and G had parents who were figuring out how to parent more than one child. You have parents who have been there, done that, and so not much makes us nervous, which means not much upsets you. You are the calmest baby we’ve had. The vacuum can be running, your siblings can be screaming, and you can be sleeping.
Birthdays
A summary of birthday parties we throw:
E: Karate (7), Superhero (6), Rainbow Sparkle (5), Orange Frazzle (4), Cookie Monster (3), Wheels on the Bus (2), Elliot the Elephant (1)
G: Baa Baas (5), Trains (4), Curious George (3), Bumblebees (2), Balloons (1)
F: Finding Nemo/Dory (3), Cats (2), Ladybugs (1)
Surprising no one, this year’s theme was LEGO! Super fun, super timely for us. It also gave us a great excuse to rewear our shirts from Legoland.
As always, the cake needed to be on theme, and I thought building a Lego piece would be easy! Turns out it’s been a while since I’ve made a square cake, and the circles on top weren’t easy either haha. It worked though.
G is the hardest kid to buy things for, or do something special for, because we have no idea what he likes. His Christmas list is still whatever his sibling gets. He plays with what everyone else plays with. And the only thing he really, really wants is baa baas. We’ve already done a sheep birthday party, though, and wanted to do something new and fun. So since G couldn’t decide, we said we’d plan something fun and he trusted us.
You know me, I love when a kid gives me a theme to work with. F has been very clear for a while now that she expected her birthday to have a blue cake, goodie bags, and everyone to sing to her. But the actual theme she wasn’t super sure on.
It’s funny how much can change in a year. Last year I said I wasn’t a fan of class parties, and this year they’re my favorite haha. Partly because they seem to be slipping away - I thought we’d have them through third or fourth grade. And maybe our class was an abnormally this year, but the parties were already splitting boys and girls, which obviously doesn’t work for us. We only had 2 invites to parties this year, and watching how sad it made E, and also seeing other parents stress about kids not showing up has moved my opinion towards one of, the more parties the better!
Somehow we managed to pull off a small celebration for G again, just days before Christmas. It’s such a hard thing - in the middle of getting ready for Christmas and wrapping presents and figuring all that out, we suddenly have to double decorate and make a cake and have him feel special.
For months he’d been asking for another train birthday cake, like he had for his birthday last year, but then suddenly with a month to go he asked if he could have a baa baa birthday again. I told him that surprisingly he’d actually never had a baa baa birthday before, at which point he demanded it.
From ladybugs to kitty cats.
Mostly I’m just picking themes that seem fun based on random things she likes, and since I didn’t feel like throwing a baby doll birthday party, cats it is! So we decorated the whole house with cats with party hats and E helped me by blowing up a lot of balloons. He was home one day with me and bored, so I threw some balloons at him and told him to figure out how to blow them up! It was actually pretty cool watching him figure out what he needed to do.
Our cats didn’t love it, though. Every night you’d find them staring with wide eyes at the stuff hanging from the ceiling. Which to be fair, did look like we’d cut a head off a cat and hung it from a string…
I am not a fan of class parties. It’s so much easier to do a small friends and family party - less stress, cost, planning, less everything! But a certain kindergartener watched all the other children get big parties and was insistent that he wanted one too.
Our class hasn’t been very good at sharing contact information, so the only way to invite anyone is to invite the entire class by sending invites to school. It’s actually helpful that the teachers agree to distribute invites in the folders that go home every night, but it was a lot of control to give up for me. Even worse was when I set an RSVP deadline and had at least 6 kids RSVP after that time.
I had no idea what to expect - would we get 3 kids or 13? The party was out of town, so I wondered if that meant less people would come. Maybe I hoped it would mean less people would come? It was a funny line where I didn’t want no one to show up but I also didn’t want everyone.
We have an almost 4 year old in our house, which means it was time for a party! G is someone who doesn’t require much to make him happy, which is great, but it also means it’s hard to do something like plan a party. If I ask him what he likes or if he has any toys he’d like, he has a hard time answering. Anything and everything can make him happy, but he’s also happy without.
Our last FIRST birthday!
It wasn’t as big as our other parties, but it was as normal as you could get for a pandemic first birthday. A nice bridge into the future maybe?
I’ve already shared a birthday post for our recent five year old, but his party (parties?) need some documentation as well. This year he was insistent on a rainbow sparkle theme, surprising no one - so we went all in! I did better with the rainbows than I did with the sparkles, but I made sure to get a few of those in there too. His other requests included wanting to go to Jordan’s for his party, and having real candles on his cake that he would get to blow out. Who knew that I was depriving him by not giving a small child fire!
Usually it’s great having a child who likes everything. He’s almost always excited, and it’s very easy to make him happy. The downside, though, is it’s hard to figure out what he likes. Obviously the answer is everything, but when you’re trying to buy him a present, or pick a birthday theme, “everything” isn’t the most helpful answer. Add in the complication of trying to make sure it’s something that he likes, and not something he’s just copying from his brother, and we were coming up pretty empty.
Even if you watch Sesame Street and consider yourself and expert, you might not know who Frazzle is. We were first introduced to him via the “Fuzzy and Blue” song (which I’ll admit is hilarious), and E quickly fell in love. I’m pretty sure the Frazzle book we own is the only merchandise in existence right now, and we’ve only managed to find a handful of videos on youtube where he exists. He simply isn’t used that much or at all anymore. My theory is because he’s super scary looking and doesn’t speak English, but that hasn’t stopped E from loving him.
And so every time I asked E what he wanted the theme for his birthday to be, he would tell me “Orange Frazzle Party.” And yes, I tried to suggest other things, wait to see if he’d change his mind, anything. Nope, this is what he wanted.
Just because there isn’t going to be a big party, doesn’t mean that I can’t decorate like there would be! Picking out a theme, deciding what the cake would look like, those are things that are fun to me. I enjoy doing that for my children’s birthdays, so even though we’re in the middle of a pandemic, that didn’t stop me.
It was never going to be a big party, of course. I don’t think 3 is a year that people tend to throw huge parties like you do for a 1 year old, but we probably would have had some friends over. There also would have been a party at daycare (and of course more cake) and so none of that happened.
My dad has been telling me this my entire life, but December birthdays are hard! It’s such a busy time of year, there’s so much on our list to get done, and suddenly we had a first birthday party to plan! And I knew I both needed to, and wanted two for two reasons. One, I didn’t want to fall into the trap of second child gets less. I’m trying hard to make sure that both of my children get enough. Enough love, enough pictures, enough of feeling special. Which means their own day to celebrate their birthday.
There are a lot of things that E gets excited about when he sees them. BIG TRUCKS, bikes, turkeys, and school buses! He also loves us to sing songs for him, and one of his most requested is “Wheels on the Bus.” He knows all the hand motions to all of the verses, and it’s the cutest thing ever.
So when I was deciding what to do for his second birthday, it just seemed like the perfect theme. I actually had more fun than I thought I would creating decorations for it, but we all know that any crafting is fun crafting for me haha.
As much as we’d like to sometimes, we can’t pause time. We can’t stop these little creatures from growing older. So instead, we throw them a party!
E’s best friend, and my goddaughter, turns 2 TODAY!
It's special that E and I get to share a birthday weekend. It's also a little crazy - there's a lot of celebrating to do in a small amount of time. The good news is, we had a nice long weekend to spread out the festivities in. Daycare was closed on Friday, which left E and I with a free day. We started the day off by going out for breakfast, and ended the day with a birthday play date.
Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 28.75 inches (13th percentile)
Weight: 21 pounds, 8 oz (54th percentile)
Head: 18 inches (40th percentile)
Special Outings: Panera, Market Basket
Visitors: Grandma & Grandpa, Becca & Joe, Nicole, Alice & Stephen, Aunt Joanie, Uncle Rick & Brooke
Loves: Laundry baskets, coat hangers, walking by pushing furniture
Hates: Waking up during the night, empty bottles, getting hurt