Ridley Eloise - Five Months

Ridley Eloise officially turned five months old today! She is the light of our lives and the happiest little bundle of joy that I ever met. Between turning four and five months, she truly has changed so much...it's amazing. 

Ridley is wearing size 0-3 month clothing, which she will be in for a while longer as some items are still baggy on her. She is also wearing size one diapers. She is a little nugget but I almost love that she is staying little for so long. She's precious! 

This month has been huge for milestones. She is laughing! She laughs at funny noises, funny faces, and when we tickle her belly or neck. She gives away her smiles so easily now too which is adorable and she is also babbling and squealing more often. She just started getting up on her hands and knees and pushes her legs forward so we expecting that she will crawl within the next couple months. She can actually sit up unassisted for a few seconds too! She has never really done the tripod sit since her arms are so short but she can actually sit there regardless which is impressive. We are still using her Bumbo throughout the day. Her favorite activity is rolling around on the ground. She goes from one end of the living room to the other in seconds...she's quick! 

She is taking around five ounces per feeding every two and a half to three hours. She tries so hard to hold her bottle and can hold the four ounce Dr. Brown's on her own but needs help with the big eight ounce bottles. 

Her favorite things include: Sophie the giraffe, her bunny chew toy, her brother Lachlan, mommy, daddy, spending Monday's with Gigi, playing at the pool, taking long naps in the afternoon and being sung to. She is absolutely the cutest baby ever! We love her so incredibly much. 

Favorite

One fact about Lachlan is that he has a favorite blanket. It is a blue soft blanket with turtles on it that we have had since he was born. He even calls it favorite! It has two turtles and two fish on the front. Lachlan always tells us that mommy and daddy are the turtles and he and Ridley are the two little fish. He never sleeps without it and he carries it around with him. It's so special to him! 

This evening Ridley fell asleep randomly while playing on her activity mat. Lachlan saw that she had fallen asleep and ran to get favorite and brought it to cover her up with. He tucked her in and left favorite there without us even mentioning it to him. This was really incredible to witness because this was truly a selfless act by my three year old. Anyone that knows Lachlan knows how serious he is about this blanket...he gets upset if we even touch it. Ridley really must be special to him for him to do that. 

As Lachlan and Ridley grow up, I hope that he continues to love and care for her as fiercely as he does now. He makes me realize that we have done something right in parenting him because of the way that he treats her. They are both such amazing little people! 

Lachlan's Life Lessons

Tuesdays are my day home with the kiddos. I take this day off in exchange for three short hours in the office early on Saturday morning...I think it's a fair trade off. This particular Tuesday was the day after Ridley had her four month shots which caused her to be extra cranky and she really didn't want to nap or even relax at all. Lachlan woke up and immediately came down the stairs ready for the day. Lachlan's life motto is "The sun is out so there is no resting!" He loves to remind of us this each morning. Ridley had just fallen asleep and I was just hoping he wouldn't disturb her and wake her up. I was too nervous to move her upstairs to her crib where I could guarantee that it would be quite so I let her sleep in her bouncer downstairs. Lachlan was starting running around and talking loudly in the living room and I asked him to sit down and use an inside voice so Ridley could rest. I found myself getting annoyed that he was being so loud when all I wanted was for my fussy baby to nap for half an hour. He ended up waking her up and while I was going to pick her up to try and console her, he sat down and had a really sad face. I asked him what was wrong and he told me, "I was just trying to be funny because I thought I could make you laugh but I wasn't funny and I woke up sissy." My heart sank and I just hugged him in the tightest hug possible and told him that he ALWAYS makes me laugh. I love my sweet funny boy so much and that entire morning I was so mad at myself for getting annoyed when he was just trying to make ME laugh. He is the very best part of me! 

He asked me to take this picture to show him as a super hero! He's hilarious! 

Lachlan Winston, my best boy.

It is difficult for me to put into words what exactly makes Lachlan, well Lachlan. He is so charming, energetic, intelligent, and loveable. He may actually be the very best part of me and I am constantly thankful to have him and his little sister as my children - they are so amazing! 

I started this blog a couple months ago to write about my little family and to serve as somewhat of a digital scrapbook of my children. I find myself yearning to keep Lachlan small as I see him growing so quickly. It is incredibly bittersweet for me to see hear the things he knows and to see the things he does. He is growing up so fast...

Lachlan has the sweetest voice when he speaks to his sister. My heart bursts when he says "My baby is sleeping over there. She is so sweeeet!" And when he says, "Ridley is my best girl." He just loves her so much and it is one of his best qualities - he has the biggest heart! 

One hilarious thing about Lachlan is that he does not understand family relationships. For instance, he will call me his brother and he calls his cousins his grandchildren. He even calls Ridley his husband. It makes me laugh and reminds me just how little, at age three, he really is.

Lachlan is a really good story teller. Recently, he has been telling us the story of how the moon was formed. He is actually really accurate and knows the facts, too. He loves to tell the story about how Ridley was born and he will say, "Dr. Wozniak had to catch her when she popped out." He actually never stops talking for more than a couple minutes but his stories are really impressive. He is so incredibly smart! 

Kyle and I have always said how well Lachlan fits our family. He has characteristics from each of us that makes him a perfect little person. Lachlan inspires, loves, and entertains me every single day and I couldn't ask for better. 

Ridley Eloise - Three & Four Month Update

The third and fourth months with Ridley have been amazing! She grew out of the sleepy newborn baby phase and into a baby girl with so much sass and personality. It has been incredible watching her grow and change so much in the last two months. 

Ridley will officially be four months on Monday and she is wearing size one diapers and mostly size 0-3 month clothes but with some size newborn mixed in. Although she is still very petite, the hubs and I have so much fun talking about how she has gotten too tall for some outfits. 

Ridley is eating 4-5 ounces each feeding. She can be difficult during some of her feedings so it seems like she has some problems with reflux like her brother did as a baby. Overall, she really doesn't puke much at all. She does spit up quite a bit but nothing that I am concerned with. 

She can now roll over from back to front and front to back pretty easily. She started this process during the second month so I may have mentioned that in her last update but regardless, I want to remember everything she does these days. She smiles all the time now too - no laughing just yet but we are oh so close! She cries with her lower lip out which is so precious. She grabs onto everything and holds on her giraffe teether throughout the day to chew on. She has already pulled my hair once too...ouch! She loves being held and rocked to sleep. 

Speaking of sleeping, she sleeps through the night which is pretty amazing! Our schedule right now is that we feed her around 6 PM and she normally falls asleep after that feeding then we feed her again at 9 PM, before we go to bed, and then she will sleep the entire night until around 6 AM. She's such a rockstar! 

We just love our petite princess so incredibly much! I am so blessed to have been able to give Lachlan a sibling and I know that he loves her more than anything. Their relationship has been one of the best things to experience. It seems so unreal that we have spent four months with this little girl but she has been able to make our lives exponentially better during that time. 

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. Between the parade, the family cookout, and the fireworks; I just can't get enough! This year was no exception and was actually a bit more fun because we celebrated as a family of four and it couldn't have been more perfect. We actually started celebrating on July 3rd, which is when Rantoul does their fireworks. It was chilly out that day but we totally underestimated how chilly it would be. Luckily, we brought a bunch of blankets and sat all bundled up surrounded by my family. Lachlan got to run around with his cousins before it got dark out and he loved his freedom! The firework show was somewhat of a disappointment: only lasting about fifteen minutes but it was so cold by this point that we really didn't mind.

After the fireworks we headed home and got the kids put down for bed. Ridley was already asleep in the car on the way home so that part wasn't too difficult at all. Kyle and I stayed up and prepped for the next day by making a dip that we were bringing to the cookout and getting french toast casserole in the crockpot for breakfast. We woke up pretty early on the 4th and headed over to my mom's for my french toast casserole and bacon...so yummy! Afterwards, we walked down to the parade and met up with the rest of my family. This was the best parade Rantoul has had in YEARS! It was nice and long and very enjoyable. The weather was perfect so that helped, also. Lachlan loved every second of collecting candy and even brought his drum to play along with the band. I swear this boy is so cute! 

That afternoon we headed over to my aunt's house for a family BBQ. We made homemade macaroni and cheese which turned out so good! After the cookout we headed home for a quick nap before heading out to the Champaign Urbana fireworks at Memorial Stadium, just us and the kids. We brought our blankets to lay out in the grass and bought some Krazy Korn (mix of cheese, caramel, and kettle popcorn) and just enjoyed the event. They had a band playing and were selling glow sticks and swords, which of course Lachlan got. The firework show itself was really great this year! They played patriotic music and had the fireworks going off with the music which was really cool. Ridley stayed up through his entire show. I think both kids were pretty amazed! This was the perfect way to celebrate the fourth. 

The next day was back to work for me for a couple hours so I was back to reality pretty quickly but that night we continued our weekend of fun by playing with sparklers and eating s'mores out on the patio.

 I hope you all had a great holiday! I am so proud to be an American and to be able to celebrate such an amazing day. 

My first day back // A weekend in review

Well, today was my first day back to work. It wasn't nearly as bad as I imagined. I was sad to be away from home but my coworkers are all super sweet and made me realize why I love my job. I am glad, however, to have tomorrow off work to spend the day with my babies. We will have so much fun! Kyle sent me pictures of the kids while I was at work and my favorite was this one of Miss Ridley. Apparently she loved holding her Sophie all day long! 

This weekend was a lot of fun even though it flew by, like always. On Saturday we had a play date with Lachlan and Ridley's friends. They each had a friend that was their age. The big boys didn't get along very well the whole time but the babies loved being together! They are so cute. 

On Sunday Kyle took Lachlan to play at the splash park while my mom, Ridley and I went to the outlet mall. I have officially finished Rid's 0-3 month wardrobe thanks to some awesome sales at Carter's. I also got an adorable wallet from Coach and some new work clothes. We also found some cute new headbands for Rid, which she loved modeling. 

We finished off the weekend by relaxing at home while it stormed. I am really looking forward to this weekend because we are going to try to head to the dunes for some sun and sand as long as the weather is nice.