I was so blessed to be able to spend this Mother’s Day with a few of my favorite people.
We decided to spend some quality family time together at Dollywood. Bailey and Owen both seemed to enjoy the rides and everything else the park had to offer.
And I enjoyed just having the time with them! Definitely a great Mother’s Day!
Last weekend we packed up the kids and headed south to Huntsville, Alabama to visit our sweet friends Jared and Melanie and their adorable daughter Caroline. We had not seen them in nearly a year so needless to say, a lot had changed in both of our families since then.
The weather was beautiful and we had a great time exploring all that Huntsville had to offer, including a stroll through Big Spring Park to feed the fish and ducks…
…a visit to the EarlyWorks Children’s History Museum…
…a bike ride through the neighborhood…
…and hanging out at the playground!
It was a long way to go for such a short trip, but definitely worth the drive! We had such a great time and can’t wait to see everybody again!
Hard to believe, but Owen turned 9 months at the end of March. Here are the numbers from his 9 month well check:
Owen continues to be a very happy and healthy baby. The only concern Dr. Reinhardt had at the well check last week was that Owen still wasn’t very mobile. He wasn’t rolling around to get to things, going from laying down to sitting, crawling, or pulling up yet. After a very thorough inspection of his joints and reflexes she reached the conclusion that the only thing wrong with his is that he’s a tad bit on the lazy side. She gave us some tips on how to better “motivate” him to move and said that if little progress was made by his 12 month well check that she would order a physical therapy evaluation on him. Well, I guess hearing her say that was all the motivation he needed, because less than one week later he is now crawling, pulling up, and fully mobile (heaven help us!).
In other news, Owen now has two teeth (bottom center) and is eating pretty much anything you put in front of him—cheerios, bananas, mashed potatoes, pizza crusts (don’t tell the Dr. about this one), and so much more. He’s finally figured out how to use his sippy cup and seems to enjoy drinking his water. His vocabulary has increased from zero words to three with him now saying “bye bye”, “mama”, and “dada” (in that order might I add). He is such a true joy to be around and my heart melts every single time he flashes that handsome smile at me!
Yet another way overdue post about one of my kids. This time it’s a nearly-month-old update on Owen. Needless to say the kids have been keeping me pretty busy. Anyway, back to the 6 month update on Owen!
At his 6 month well check last month Owen had the following measurements:
Over the past several weeks Owen has experienced a lot of firsts. He began sitting up on his own. He got his first tooth. And, probably the most exciting first of them all, he began eating solids! Needless to say, by this age he was ready for solids (and my boobs are more than ready for a longer break between feedings/pumpings)! As far as milestones are concerned, he’s a little behind where Bailey was at this age, but he’s a completely different baby from how Bailey was and just seems to do things at his own pace! I’m very curious to see what sort of changes the next few months will bring. Whatever they are I know they’ll be exciting to watch!
* To say the past month or two have been busy is an understatement. I’ve got a back-log of posts that I’ve been meaning to write, so bear with me as I try to catch up. *
Last month I took Bailey in for her 3 year well check. As usual, I was pretty interested to see how her weight and height have changed over the past year (check out her 24 month stats here).
As expected, her numbers were up. Also as expected, she’s still on the lower end of the percentile range. But, as Dr. Reinhardt assured me, it’s much better to be on the lower end of “normal” than on the upper end.
As far as developmental milestones go, Bailey is meeting or exceeding all of them! Some of her current favorites are:
No matter how desperately I try to hold on to them, her baby years are long gone. She’s now entering the 3’s, which is exciting and terrifying all at the same time (anyone out there who’s had a 3 year old will completely understand that statement!). Can’t wait to see what the following year with bring!
I realize that this post is more than late. I had every intention of writing it 2-3 weeks ago, but work, the kids, the house, etc. just kept getting in my way. Sorry about that, but better late than never, right?
Anyway, here are some pictures of our mantle all decorated for Christmas this year. It was so different from the mantel that we had last year and the year before. It has a much more casual feel to it, which I love! Hope you love it too!
This past weekend we celebrated Bailey’s third birthday (check out her first and second birthday parties too)! I tried to keep things as simple as possible by sticking with a rainbow theme, where pretty much anything bright and colorful would go.
I whipped up these cheerful invitations to go along with the rainbow theme and then printed them on card stock left over from my sister’s bridal shower earlier this year. Waste not… want not, right?
The foyer, dining room and kitchen were all decorated with these fun, rainbow-colored streamers that I made (thanks to a little inspiration from my friend Holly). They were so super easy to make and I plan to reuse them at future celebrations.
Since the most important people at the party were going to be two and three year olds I tried to have a few different play zones scattered throughout the main living areas (you know… to try to keep the kiddos from destroying playing in Bailey’s room). I pulled out the rainbow-colored blocks and set them out in the living room.
In the dining room I covered the table with white craft paper, which the kids were free to color on. And color they did!
The food at the party consisted of pizza (requested by Bailey), rainbow-inspired fruit and veggie trays, and rainbow tie-dye cupcakes (recipe found here)!
The kids all seemed to be BIG fans of the spread, especially when it came to the cupcakes!
After eating the kids were invited to make a toddler-friendly tie-dyed t-shirt following this tutorial.
They all seemed to enjoy the activity, but it proved to be a little more time-consuming than their two and three year old attention spans could manage. So, we moved on to the presents. Naturally, many of the presents had to be tested (for quality assurance purposes) as soon as they were opened!
And as always, playing with the wrapping paper was just as much fun as playing with the presents!
Even sweet Owen enjoyed getting in on the wrapping-paper-playtime-fun!
As they left, the kids were given favor bags filled with candies that fit right in with the rainbow theme.
But as great as the favor bags were, by far the best part of the day was Bailey getting to spend some time with her two most favorite people… her BF (as in boyfriend) Colin and her BFF Maelen!
Happy birthday sweet girl! I love you to the end of the rainbow and back!
