Katelyn is 7 Months Old

What a month it has been. Katelyn started crawling two weeks ago and hasn't looked back. In fact, the contrary. She has been pulling herself up on anything and everything, She can't stay still! The dynamic between Kate and Luke has been pretty interesting to see since she's been crawling. She quickly wants to get to all his toys {she can care less about her toys}.

Not that Luke isn't sweet and gentle with her anymore but he is having a hard time adjusting to Kate taking his toys or knocking down his blocks. We're having to work on the whole sharing with sister thing. I think Luke has picked up on the fact that Kate isn't quite so baby anymore too. He's been playing rough with her {literally rolling her on the ground, laying on top of her, giving her tight hugs, etc} but she's been able to take the heat. She's going to be a tough girl. I've also noticed some teasing going on. I caught one act on video. Luke has this dump truck that when you press a button it rumbles and starts driving. Well, he set that thing up to drive right into Kate {let's just say she wasn't happy}.

Kate has had a rough month with teething. I almost forgot what she was like before teething. She's been really fussy and is quite the screamer. Whew, it's loud! I'm thankful Luke is able to sleep through it otherwise I wouldn't catch a break! I'm looking forward to some pearly whites popping up hopefully real soon.

I don't know if it's the teething {because it's been a whole month of it} or if it's just her, but I'm starting to wonder if  Kate may not be much of a sleeper. Most the naps she takes are short and she wakes up periodically at night. I'm not positive but I also think Kate may be weaning herself of nursing. It's been a struggle to keep her on for longer then 5 minutes. So needless to say, a lot was going on this month!

Here is what else Katelyn's been up to:

• You're a little chatter box. We don't know what you're saying but you love to say it.
• I never once had to consider "baby proofing" the fireplace or coffee table with Luke. But they're like magnets to you.
• You like to try and keep up with your brother and Daddy when they play rough and you try and join in on the fun.
• You really really like Luke's toys especially his legos.
• You and Luke play so cute and you think he's really fun and give cute belly laughs when he talks to you and crawls around with you.
• You like to pull his hair and hold on to it tight.
• You squeal when you're excited
• You've been making cute sounds with your mouth.
• You make this vibrato sound {it's hard to describe but very unique} when you get excited.
• When being held, you like being passed around quickly from one person to the next.
• You stayed in the nursery at church for the first time this Sunday and did really well. 
• It's been fun watching you pick little things up with your little fingers. We went out to eat and the restaurant served crushed ice so you were able to pick up the little pieces and put them in your mouth. 
• We're starting to see how stubborn you really are. You were protesting your nap one day and I looked at the monitor after you finally stopped crying and you had fallen asleep standing up and leaning on the crib.
• You pull yourself up on everything. You like to get into the toy baskets and pull things out. 
• You like to crawl under the coffee table.
• You've started to explore other parts of the house other then the family room. It's fun to watch you.
• You like to chew on shoes {your shoes, we keep our shoes out of reach}
• Despite your teething you still are a very happy baby and your smile and giggles are so contagious. You have smiley eyes. 

And here's our photo shoot. I usually take the photos when Kate wakes up from her afternoon nap but now that it's Fall the sun goes down sooner and I wanted to get good lighting still. So Luke was still up and decided to join in on the fun. I'm loving these photos! It really captures just how much they're relationship has changed since she's crawling now. Kate really wants to keep up with her big brother. These kids are everywhere now!

Katelyn is 6 Months Old

Katelyn is 6 months old! She's already half a year old?? I'm in denial. This is going way too fast! This month flew by and we didn't even have big plans. I can't imagine what the next months have in store for us with the all the holidays coming up. Last month Kate was a pro at rolling and literally 3 weeks ago she gets on her hands and knees and starts rocking back and forth getting ready to crawl! Now every time she's on the floor she gets in this stance and rocks away. She's gotten forward with one crawl then falls to her belly and army crawls. She's very persistent though. She's a determined little booger:).

Here's our list:

• Her eyes are still blue. I think they might turn to light brown or hazel though, I'm seeing faint brown streaks.
• You have pretty much gone down to two naps a day instead of three. Luke stayed at three for much longer. I'm sensing you won't be the sleeping type. You tend to take just 45-1 hour long naps occasionally a 2 hour nap{sigh}.
• You sleep 12 hours at night (or should I say you stay in your crib for 12 hours at night). I hear you wake up in the middle of the night talking. I look at the monitor and you are 'bright eyed and bushy tailed'. You eventually doze off to sleep again.
• You started eating solids and gobble it up! Luke likes to help with the feeding.
• I've slowly starting teaching you sign language. Luke helps me teach you also.
• You are as smiley as can be.
• You like to hear yourself cough. When you get excited and laugh you cough too.
• You are quite the squealer and talker.
• You are giggly and ticklish. We LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear the giggles.
• You sit up, but you still can't catch your fall and will fall right on your head:)
• Your favorite toy right now is the jump-n-go. You especially like when Luke pushes you in it.
• When I put you down for naps and nighttime you like to put your blankie over your face. Luke liked to do this too.
• You are very much a do-er. If you see something, you want it and you get it.
• When you get excited you repeatedly open and close your hands.
• When you get tired your eyes get red and glassy.
• You are starting to teeth {let's hope the teeth come soon!}.
• You want to crawl so badly and you are getting so close!

Here's our photo shoot. She is just so lovably darling. We love her! 

Luke: Our little man

There is just so much to say about this little man, where do I begin. He's just over 2-1/2 years old. He is our little independent, energetic, strong-willed, stubborn, loving, caring, sweet, gentle, kind-hearted, rough, animated comedian with so many animated facial expressions that the average person can't even begin to try and do. We had his two year doctor's appointment back in April and they asked us if he was putting sentences together, could dress himself and color in the lines. We had to say no to all these milestones but literally within these last few months Luke is doing all those things {accept for maybe coloring in the lines}! It's crazy how fast he is developing. He says the funniest things sometimes. Dave and I laugh so hard. We're also finding out things we do or say by seeing Luke copy them. I never knew that I said phrases like, "Oh, yea, yea, yea," or "Nope," or "whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" or "oh goodness," or "oh no!" or "hey, hey, hey."

Some of his coined phrases:

• When he doesn't want me around he says things like, "Mommy, upstairs;" meaning Mommy I don't want you with me downstairs.
• "Listen, listen, no do that" he likes to boss his toys around.
• When he hears a song that says mercy he says, "Mommy, panking {spanking}, no panking, give mercy, give grace, give grace like Christmas."
• "No, Luke do"
• When he likes or wants something he'll make it sound like it was your idea by saying things like, "Mommy, pretzels." Then I in return say, "Pretzels, Luke, do you want pretzels?" and then he says, "Okay, yea pretzels."
• He calls spider webs "pider mans." He'll say look Mommy, look, pider mans."
• He saw a really tall, large man in public {thankfully far off in the distance} and said, "Daddy, Daddy, giant!" {We read him David and Goliath and he knows Goliath is a tall giant}
• When visiting Nick, Heather and family he was playing with their puppy, Milo. Milo was biting at Luke's rain boots and Luke giggles and then gets to Milo's level, cups his hands around his mouth, and says, "Milo, listen. Look at me. Milo look at me. No biting, no do that." {you get a picture of how our discipline plays out in our household?}
• If something looks broken and needs fixing he says, "Oh no, Wuke fix it, Wuke fix it"
• When he wants to show off he says, "Mommy, Daddy watch this"
• When Dave plays rough with Luke and he hasn't shaved in a while Luke says, "fafe ruff!!" {Face ruff}
• One time I was giving Kate a bath at the sink and Luke decides to ride his car right into my ankles. I tell Luke that hurts Mommy and if he did it again he would get a spanking. So within seconds he does it again and I tell Dave to give him the spanking since I'm at the sink with Kate. Luke runs to Daddy crying and positioning himself for the spanking but begs for "little panking, little panking," Dave couldn't compose himself and burst into laughter and then gave him a "little" spanking:).

It makes our hearts happy to know that Luke is starting to learn and understand God and his love for us. We read Luke a children's bible at night time and his favorite stories are; Adam and Eve {He calls it "fruit" or "neaky nake"} and David and Goliath {he calls it "giant"}. This is the coolest thing of all; back in March, he was flipping through the bible looking at all the pictures and came across Jesus on the cross, he immediately stopped flipping and pointed saying "Oh no, hurt!" I was shocked that he noticed this and that it caught his attention. So I said, "yes Luke, that's Jesus. He died on the cross for our sins. But He's risen and alive!" So now every time he sees anything that remotely looks like the form of a cross he yells, "Cross, Jesus!" and then says, "Oh no!" It's just too cute. We pray with him and he's prayed on his own too. Luke's prayer goes, "Jesus, God, Amen." Some old bible songs he loves and sings with us are, The B-I-B-L-E , Jesus Loves Me, The Gospel Train, If You're Happy and You Know It. Dave is also a really good story teller and gives very animated somewhat scary old testament stories. Two of his favorites are Daniel and the Lions Den and David and Goliath. These stories are read at night when he's in bed and when it gets to the scary part Luke hides under the sheets. He has also memorized his first bible verse; Jeremiah 29:11.

Some of our favorite things:

• Mommy LOVES when she can hear you sing along to songs in the car. 
• You are very much the pleasing type. When you think we are disappointed you start to cry.
• You accidentally hurt Kate one time when you were hugging her and you got very upset. 
• You get embarrassed easily and don't like for us to watch you dance.
• You are very very social. You light up when other kids are willing to play with you.
• Your facial expressions. Every single one of them.
• Daddy and I have become spelling champs because of you. We literally spell out almost everything so you can't understand us:). 
• You can count to 20.
• You are very creative when playing and do very well making up scenes where there are good guys and bad guys
• You understand opposites
• You are very good at puzzles
• You can sort and love sorting all your legos in piles by color especially the blue legos. I think that's your favorite color:).
• You and Mommy have fun making different facial expressions. You make happy, mad, surprised and silly faces. You don't like sad faces and when I pretend cry it gets you all upset and you start crying.
• You are very persistent and will call our name when you want our attention. You don't just want us to answer you but we have to look at you also. 
• When Daddy leaves for work, you sometimes will dress like you are going to work and get out your tools and say, "bye, go to work."
• You watch shows that are educational and encourage interaction and response. I like watching you {without you knowing of course}play along.

Another cute story; Luke was playing in the play-room so nicely by himself and talking up a storm. I tip-toed in to see what he was up to and he had his lego boy in his car and lego girl talking to each other and the dialogue was about the man going to work and the girl kissed him good-bye. I asked who the two legos were and he said, "Mommy and Daddy, Daddy go to work." It just melts my heart to see what he observes play out during his playtime.

We just have so much fun with this guy. He really lights up every room he walks in. Here are our latest pictures of Luke.

Katelyn was pretty patient during the photo shoot for Luke. She does look a little grumpy in this picture. Still cute though!

Kate is 5 Months Old

Oh man, just when we thought she couldn't get any cuter she went on and got more cute!;) I mean seriously, it's not just how she looks but it's the sweet noises that come out of her little mouth and her cuddly little personality that makes her cute! She has the raspiest low voice I've ever heard come from a little baby girl. We had fun this month ending our summer with our annual Gentile family vacation. Kate rolls circles now and loves to be on her tummy. Funny how that happened when just a month ago she hated it. I think maybe she just wanted to be able to roll from side to side as much as she pleased and now she can.

Katelyn did decide this month that she wanted to start waking up at 5 AM instead of her usual 7-7:30 AM routine. This Momma was not too excited of this change and decided last week to put her through baby sleep boot camp. The first night she cried for an hour and 15 minutes!! It was a rough night {Dave had to put his headphones in to drown the noise} but we pulled through and she finally went back to sleep and didn't wake up until 7:30 AM. Now she wakes up at 6-7 AM. I'll take it;)

Here's what she's been up to this month:

• When you are tired you get slap happy and giggle at any silly face.
• You like when we hover over you and get real close to your face and talk. It makes you talk along with us.
• When I put you down for naps and bedtime I hover over you and kiss you. I talk to you and you giggle and coo. It makes it so hard for me to leave the room knowing that you are so happy!
• When we pretend to eat your neck you giggle
• You are very ticklish
• You are still a diva when you nurse and demand a pat on the bottom, rocking or shaking most times.
• You are unfortunately a picky sleeper still. You don't like the pack and play. You either like your crib or being cuddled with someone.
• You got your first sunburn and Mommy felt so bad. You were in the shade but in the water and the sun rays may have bounced off the water and onto your cheeks.
• You can prop yourself for a little bit.
• You've already been inching and scooting with your body when you're on your belly, trying to grab for toys.
• You like textures, tags, color and crinkly noises. You really like colorful books that crinkle.
• You are very smiley and friendly. You haven't been upset once when other people hold you. If people smile at you, you smile right back.
• You like to mimic the sounds we make to you.
• You got to meet your little cousins when we visited in Florida and you loved when they played and held you.
• We can always get a giggle and smile out of you when we pretend to sneeze.
• You like to giggle.
• You are quite the observer and can be very content with being held and watching what is going on around you.
• When you are on your belly you sometimes will get really excited and will start "swimming" in place. You get your feet and your hands going while your belly stays firmly on the ground. It's pretty funny:)
• You scratched yourself pretty good on the nose and these pictures show your little scab.

And here she is! {discretion: yes, there are a TON of photos. You might be wondering why I didn't take time to narrow them down but I DID! I can't help myself. There are just so many good ones of her and to me everyone of them looks completely different. Plus, when I read blogs that's one thing I always wished the writer would post more of;)}