Monday, August 13, 2012

Merging

In an attempt to make better use of my time, I've decided to merge my personal and craft blog. Since Daisy Cottage Designs had more followers, I exported all the posts from this blog over there.

If you'd like to keep up with our family, please head to that site and follow there.


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Caroline's 4 Month Update

Caroline 4 Months

Sweet Caroline is four months old. I must admit that I'm just a little bit impressed with myself: I have taken the pictures within a week of her "month birthday" every month so far. I didn't do so well at taking the monthly "sticker" photos with Riley and I had to promise I would do better to convince David to let me buy a set for Caroline. I intend to keep my promise :)
  • Caroline continues to be a good sleeper. We're consistently getting 10 hours at night. I'm hoping that doesn't change as we head off to camp this week. We Brown girls like to stay on schedule so I'm trying to keep my expectations low. 
  • Caroline is paci free at night! Right after I wrote last month's update, Caroline started waking up in the night because her pacifier would fall out. I'll feed a hungry baby in the middle of the night, but I'm not getting up to replace a paci. We had a couple nights of crying/fussing, but our girl is now able to put herself to sleep. This makes me one happy mommy.
  • With Riley, we wished we had let her keep the pacifier during the day so we gave it a shot with Caroline. She actually has it for naps and does fine not having it at night. I read a few places that it's a different part of the brain that takes care of day and nighttime sleep and apparently it's true. 
  • I have good news: Caroline's spit up issue seems to be getting better! We had her 4 month appointment last Monday and we got some bad news in the weight gain department (7 oz. in two months really isn't cutting it). The doctor's suggestion was to add some cereal/solids to her diet in hopes of helping her milk stay down. I'm a big fan of delaying solids until 6 months, but I'd rather her eat a little bit than be on medicine. You might do the meds and that's fine, but David and I decided we'd like to avoid that if possible. So far the spit up has decreased; we'll see at her 2 week recheck if she's packing on the pounds.
  • Caroline is such a happy girl. She rarely cries, is content to watch what's going on around her, and laughs at the silly things we do. She doesn't mind being passed around at church, and she lets Riley "feed" her cupcakes and "Oreo soup." We have a busy schedule and it's certainly a blessing that God has blessed us with kids who are able to go with the flow. 

Caroline 4 Months

Caroline 4 Months

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Life

Granny Square Baby Lovie 1
We've been busier than usual lately, I guess. At least it seems that way. I haven't had much time to blog lately because we've been dealing with some sleep issues with Caroline during the day and some weight gain issues due to her spitting up. Fun, fun, fun. I'm going back on a dairy free diet, trying block feeding, and cutting out some whole grains to try to help the spit up. If it doesn't improve in the next two weeks, our littlest is going to have to go on medicine to help prevent it. I'm really praying that we'll be able to avoid that - yes, I know it's not the end of the world if she has to go on something but I'd definitely like to prevent it if at all possible. 

We've been doing a few preschool activities here and there, but nothing as organized as we had been. I have a couple ziplock baggies with pre-made sorting activities and shape/color practice that we've been pulling out. Riley enjoys those, and I need to make up a couple more baggies so we have some selection. I'll be glad when things calm down a tad so we can get back on track with that. We've been talking about creation and doing crafts related to that. I just haven't gotten around to taking any pictures of our work. 

I've also been crocheting quite a bit lately. Now that Caroline goes to bed when Riley does, I have some time in the evenings to get a little bit in. They have also been taking one nap a day at the same time. I've actually been able to open my Etsy shop again, too. 

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

From Our Family to Yours...

Happy 4th of July! We have had a great day enjoying our little family and we're hoping the weather will hold out tonight so David and Riley, along with others from our church, can pass out tracts to people waiting for the fireworks display. 

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Friday, June 29, 2012

My First Guest Post

I had the opportunity to write my first guest post this week! It's up now at Prettiful Designs. I'm thankful for the opportunity to share what Riley and I have been doing in our preschool adventures, as well as give 6 tips that have helped us accomplish lots of activities and learning over the past few months. Head over and check it out! 

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Busy Little Bees

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That's what we've been lately. Last week, we were out of town on our annual girls' trip. What a blessing to have a group of young girls who know how to have good, clean fun. We went to Venice Beach and found tons of shark teeth, went snorkeling off the west coast of Florida, and spent the day at Busch Gardens. We came home with lots of great memories, blisters on our feet, and minimal sunburn.

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Besides not taking the best naps in the stroller, Caroline did great! I'm always nervous to take my babies on a trip where they'll be totally off-schedule. Thankfully, she went with the flow and didn't have a hard time at all. True to her norm, Caroline did shower several of the girls with huge smiles and puddles of spit up. I'm hoping she'll grow out of it soon as people are much more reluctant to hold her than they were Riley - can't say that I blame them!

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This sweet little girl stayed with my mom and dad while we were gone. It's the longest David and I have been away from her, and it was much harder on us than it was on Riley. She and my parents went to the beach, visited with my grandmother, and did as much playing and book reading as you can squeeze into three days. It was so good to get back home to our biggest girl. It was a little taste of what it will be like when we head to camp for a full week in July. I'm going to be one sad mommy to leave this sweet face behind. 



Saturday, June 23, 2012

Preschool at Home Weeks 9 & 10

Sensory Bin Fun

To be honest, we've been taking it easy in the preschool department lately. David was traveling last week; Caroline and I were away with him this week. Preparing for those trips didn't leave much time for our usual activities. While I had hoped to do some fun stuff, it is summer and we are going to have to be flexible. While David was out of town, we did at least shop for and make our first sensory bin.

Summer Sensory Bin

If you're not familiar with sensory bins, they're just what they sound like - a tub filled with items that appeal to a child's senses. In our case, Riley could hear the rice crunch as she moved items around; she could feel the textures of the rice, paper, and ribbon as she manipulated the items; and she could see the bright colors of the flowers and butterflies I placed in the bin. They also provide children with opportunities to use their fine motor skills, transfer items from one container to another, and sort items by color or category. For more information on their purpose, see this post on sensory bins at A Purpose Driven Home

In our Summery Sensory Bin, we included the following:
  • Rice dyed green (I put a couple cups of rice in a ziplock bag, added two squirts of hand sanitizer, and food coloring until I got the color I wanted)
  • Brown basket filler paper
  • Red and white polka dotted ribbon
  • Silk flowers and butterflies
  • Pieces of yarn
  • Rubber bugs
  • Leaves
  • Fake grass
Toddler Sensory Bin

I put all these items in a dollar store tub and let Riley go to town. I provided tweezers, spoons, and containers for her to use as she was playing. Riley's favorite part of the whole experience was playing with the green rice as if it were sand. She also liked to pretend she was eating it... a good reminder that you can't let kids play with this unattended.

Sensory Bin Fun
Mess from Sensory Bin

As I'm sure you can imagine, we had quite a bit of "deen rice" on our rug. Believe it or not, the noise of the rice being swept up by the vacuum cleaner did not appeal to Riley's senses. I'm still finding random pieces of green rice under toys and behind baskets. I'm thankful Caroline's not crawling around yet or I would have needed to be much more careful not to miss any pieces when we were cleaning up. 

Lasso the Moon
 

Weekend Bloggy Reading


    Saturday Show and Tell at Cheerios & Lattes
Saturday Show and Share at I Can Teach My Child
Making the World Cuter Monday at Make the World Cuter