Harper 3 Months

3 Months....seriously?!?!  I forgot how hard it is for me to handle all of the changes that happen in the first year until now.  As much as I want my baby to keep getting bigger because it means she is doing good and is nice and healthy, it also breaks my heart a little bit.  I get so sad when my babies outgrow their clothes....packing away baby clothes is one of the hardest things for me sniff sniff.  With that said, our tiny little Harper is not so tiny anymore!!  This last month she has really grown and is no longer in "newborn" clothes.  In fact, she is wearing a size 2 diaper and averages around 3.5-4 ounces every 2-3 hours depending on the day and occasionally 5 ounces if she is really hungry.  She is doing great with her night feedings, usually going 7-8 hours in between bottles.  She generally takes a bottle around 7-7:30 and falls asleep around 8 and doesn't wake up to take another bottle until 2:45ish.  I have a great husband who gets up and feeds her during the middle of the night and then I do the next bottle that falls somewhere between 6:30-7:30 in the morning (Matt works out during this time that's why he does the earlier feeding).  Let me set the record straight though: he goes to bed as early as he can once the girls are down and I stay up and pump....Yes, somehow I have managed to continue pumping twice a day...once in the morning and once at night.  While it is nowhere near enough for Harper, she has been getting close to 3 bottles a day worth of breastmilk which makes me feel like it has been worth it although most days the last thing I want to do is pump.

Harper spends a lot of time in her swing during the day.  She sleeps fairly good in the swing, especially when it is on.  By now you would think that Harper would be able to tune out all of the noise from Peyton but instead she seems even more sensitive to the slightest noise.  In fact, sometimes she will wake up just from me turning the knob to turn the swing off!!  Needless to say, she is not a heavy sleeper, although I guess I can't complain since she is sleeping so well at night.  Which brings me to my next point...Harper is still sleeping in our room in the rock and play sleeper because Peyton is still in the crib in the nursery.  I definitely should be moving Peyton out of the nursery by now but honestly, I just haven't been ready to move her to her big girl bed upstairs.  The first 2 months were a whirlwind with Harper coming early and then being hospitalized with viral meningitis and we finally have started getting settled into a routine and I don't want to change anything....maybe next month I'll be ready haha.

Despite my best efforts, Harper is still not really interested in taking a paci. However, she does like to suck on her fist and occasionally her thumb.  She also likes to grab onto her dresses and blankets....I am wondering if this means that she will want a lovey when she gets a little older.  It is pretty much impossible to keep a blanket or a pair of socks on this baby because she always kicks them off.  In fact, we have pretty much stopped putting socks on her feet at night because she NEVER keeps them on.  She isn't super crazy about tummy-time and truth be told I haven't forced the issue like I probably should, but she has really good head control when on her tummy and in sitting.  In the last week or so she has started lifting her head up and clearing the surface when she is laying on her back.  It is as if she is trying to sit up.  We think she has been fighting some issues with her acid reflux and seems to prefer being held upright on my chest more these days but won't usually fall asleep this way.  She likes to look around and take everything in when on my chest.  She loves for you to walk when holding her and this is usually what we do when she is really upset.  She also likes for you to bounce and sometimes sway with her when she is upset.

Harper LOVES her big sister and lights up when Peyton is near.  She is smiling a good bit more, especially first thing in the morning.  She really is such a sweetie and I know that she and P are going to be the best of friends.

My Little Parrot

A couple of days ago I was trying to get Peyton dressed and she wasn't cooperating like I wanted her to. She was running away from me laughing like it was a game, but I was in a hurry and wasn't really in the mood for a hard time so I said "Peyton Bradford, this is not a game" and reached out, pulled her over to me, and got her dressed. I haven't thought anymore about it until today. She needed a clean diaper and Matt had gone into her room to change her but she had stayed in the den where I was. Matt started calling her, saying "Peyton" when she goes "Peyton Bradford this is not a game." HAHAHAHAHA! I cracked up laughing! This little girl is such a mess and I absolutely LOVE it!

27 Months Old

I believe that time is literally flying by.  I think that I blinked and Peyton went from 24 months old to 27 months old.  It's amazing how much she continues to change before my eyes.  This little girl brings so much love and laughter to our life.  She is super fun right now and has so much personality.  Because of the cold weather we have been spending a lot of time indoors these days and although the days can get long trying to keep her entertained, it's been nice to not have to be on the go all of the time.  She got a dollhouse for Christmas and that seems to be one of her favorite things to play with.  This is one of the few things that will actually keep her occupied for any period of time that no one has to actually play with her.  She also has a horse head on a stick that her sweet babysitter, Anahi, gave her for Christmas that she also loves to play with.  She puts the stick between her legs, her hands on the reigns, and runs around the house saying "yee-haw" and "giddy-up Maximus".  In case you didn't catch that, the horse's name is Maximus from the movie Tangled.  Peyton continues to enjoy playing with her baby dolls, cooking in her kitchen, and jumping on her mini trampoline.

Peyton probably watches too much TV, but I have to admit that sometimes I am glad that she likes to to sit and watch TV because a lot of times that's our snuggle time.  I knew that as she got older one of the things that I was going to miss the most was getting to sit and hold her.  Well lucky for me, she still likes being held and sitting on the couch and snuggling up with me while we watch whatever movie she is into that week.  Once she decides she likes a movie/show, we have to watch it over and over again until something else that's new comes along.  A lot of times she likes to snuggle with me on the couch while watching TV first thing in the morning and then again at night before bed.

This little girl LOVES LOVES LOVES her daddy and asks for him from the time she wakes up until he comes home from work at night.  Most mornings Matt is gone working out when she wakes up and  when I go into her room to get her the first thing she says is "where's daddy?"  She literally says this EVERY morning.  He is usually back home by 7:30 and showers and then gets to spend a little time with her eating breakfast before he leaves for work.  Peyton gets so excited when she sees/hears his car pull into the garage, running to the door saying "daddy's home!"  I think it's very sweet how much she loves him and wants to spend time with him.

Although she is so sweet and loving, she does challenge me. She still isn't big on relaxing and taking naps and half the time runs from me when it comes time to get dressed, brush her teeth, etc.  I think she thinks it's a game but this 7 month pregnant momma doesn't find it fun!  She is tall for her age, wearing a size 3T in most outfits in order for the pants to be long enough and a size 7 keds although I think they are getting to be too small.  She still has sweet little curls in her hair that I pray stay because I love them!  She says that her baby sister is in "mommy's belly" and that her name is "Harper" although I don't know that she really understands that in a few short months there will really be a new baby sister here.  Until then, I am trying to soak up every minute with precious little girl!

Picture with Santa

Last year when we took Peyton to get her picture with Santa it hadn't even crossed my mind that she might be scared of him.  So when we placed her in his lap and she lost it I was very surprised.  Of course I wanted to buy the picture with her looking all pretty in her little Christmas dress with a big smile on her face but the picture that we ended up getting was far from that....she was crying and had her arms reaching out for us to come save her from this scary strange man.   At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy the picture that they had taken of my little girl looking so upset, but then everyone told me that I had to.....that one day I would look back at that picture and it would be one of my favorite pictures of her with Santa.  Well I did buy the picture, and while I don't know that it will be my favorite picture, I do think that it will be funny for Peyton to one day look back at and see how upset she was to be sitting on the jolly ole man's lap.  All of that said, I was determined that we were not going to end up with the same response this year when we took her to see Santa.  As soon as Thanksgiving was over, Matt and I started talking up Santa to her, trying to get her excited about seeing him.  Then, when I saw that Blue Willow was having an Elf Magic Party and Santa was going to be there I jumped at the opportunity to buy a ticket so she could see him.  Well the day of the party came and I got Peyton all dressed up in her cute smocked dress and red puddle jumpers and was so excited to see if things had improved from last year.  Unfortunately, they hadn't.  Once she saw Santa and realized that she was going to be sitting on his lap she started crying and clinging to Matt.  Although Matt was able to get her  to let go long enough to sit her in Santa's lap, she was having no part of staying there so we quickly jumped in the picture too.  Needless to say, this picture didn't turn out much better than the one last year.  I wasn't too discouraged just yet because it wasn't even December and I knew that we still had some time to turn things around.

Over the course of the next month, we continued to talk about Santa to Peyton, watching lots of Christmas moves and reading Christmas books.  One day I met my mom at Brookwood mall and while Peyton and I were waiting to meet up with her at the food court, I pushed P over in her stroller to take a peek at Santa.  He was super nice and pulled out a candy cane for her so we strolled up to him to say hello.  He started talking to Peyton, asking her what her name was and what she wanted for Christmas.  She wasn't too sure about him but did manage to take the candy cane and whisper "thank you" without shedding any tears!  Yay for us!  Our victory was short lived....a couple of weekends after that Matt and I took Peyton and two of our nephews, Will and Andy to see Santa at Vestavia Country Club.   I just knew that if P went with Will and Andy to see Santa that she would be fine and she was, just up until it came time for their turn.  Once again she started crying and clinging to Matt.  Matt placed P on Santa's lap and her cousins stood on either side and I started snapping away hoping to get a cute picture of the three of them.  While it didn't turn out to be the most successful photo op, Peyton did sit in Santa's lap long enough for us to get a picture and she didn't get as upset as she had at the Blue Willow.

We ended up having yet another opportunity for P to see Santa at Matt's work Christmas Party.  Although she was a little hesitant and didn't really smile, Peyton did sit with Santa for a good 2 minutes or so and never cried.....maybe she was finally starting to warm up to him after all!

Now that Peyton had seen Santa almost a handful of times, it was finally time to put her cute little Christmas dress on and take her to get her picture made with Santa at Brookwood Mall like we had the previous two years.  Since we waited until almost the last minute (two days before Christmas), there was a small line when we got there but thankfully it moved fast and we didn't have to wait too long.  I was fully prepared that Matt and I might have to get in the picture in order to get Peyton to actually sit on Santa's lap, but once Matt placed her in Santa's lap she seemed okay so we stepped back and I started snapping photos.  Peyton did such a great job!!  She even told Santa what she wanted for Christmas when he asked.....candy corn haha!  Guess all of our hard work finally paid off! Here's hoping next year that first time's the charm!

"Look Baby"

It's kind of sad to admit this, but we still have paper blinds up in the front windows of the house. This morning I noticed that Peyton was holding her baby doll and was trying to lift the paper blind up so she could look out the window. I pinned the blind up so she could see, and watched as she held her baby up to the window. Just when I thought my heart couldn't handle any more sweetness, I heard Peyton say "Look baby, what do you see outside?" At that, my heart turned into complete mush!! I immediately pulled out my camera to take a picture but little did I know that Miss P was in the mood for modeling today. As I was putting the camera up Peyton said "Mommy take a picture of me." So almost 50 pictures later I have lots of images to remind me of the sweet innocence of my little 2 year old girl......

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Big Girl Potty

We were supposed to have Peyton's 2 year pictures taken this morning but the photographer came down with the stomach bug at the last minute so we had to cancel. So when Peyton woke up I was in an extra good mood because we had no plans for the day!!! This meant we could do whatever we wanted (which seems to rarely be the case these days). Well it started off like most days, with me bringing Peyton to lay down in my bed to watch a few minutes of Mickey Mouse when I noticed that her nighttime diaper was still dry. I asked her if she wanted to go potty and she said yes so we quickly made our way to her bathroom because I just knew that if she had held it all night that she MUST have to go any second. We put her little potty seat on the big potty and I lifted her up onto it and even turned the water on for good measure. We read 3 or 4 books and still no tee-tee!!! I wasn't ready to give up yet so I kept stalling trying to keep her entertained so that she would continue to be content sitting on the potty. As we were singing Patty Cake, Patty Cake I heard it....she was going tee-tee on the potty!!! Yay for Peyton!!! I don't know that she really understood what was going on but I was super excited and kept clapping for her and telling her how proud I was. Afterwards, she got off the potty, we washed her hands, and ran to tell daddy the big news. Then she got a special treat of some chocolate and we called GP and Granddad (even though it was nice and early) because we knew that they would be excited to hear the news as well. I know that we still have a long way to go with potty training, but I sure was one proud Momma this morning!

24 Months...aka 2 YEARS!!!

Man have I been dreading writing this post. Not so much because I am sad that my baby is now 2, but mostly because she is full of energy and so sweet and so much fun that I don't know that there is anything that I can write that will truly describe what a joy Peyton is to Matt and I.  Peyton really is such a special little girl. She loves to laugh, sing, and dance. She has also became such a little snuggler, oftentimes wanting to sit and snuggle on the couch with me.  She still LOVES to be held, and says "hold you" all of the time.  I have to admit that I do love that she still wants to be held but she sure is getting heavy!!! She is OBSESSED with the movie TANGLED. We watch it at least once a day! This seems to be our theme---Peyton becomes very attached to a movie or a song and then she wants to see/hear it all of the time. We have rotated between Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (specifically Mickey Mouse in Wonderland), and now Tangled as far as TV shows go. As for songs, I think it started with "Happy Birthday" and "Row Row Row your Boat," and now it is "Yo Ho Mickey" (which Peyton calls "Ho Ho Mickey.")  

As usual, this little girl is talking up a storm! However, she is now starting to put multiple words together and is even starting to speak in short sentences. She's pretty good about saying "please" when she wants something (i.e.: "down please") and almost always says "bless you" when someone sneezes or "excuse you" when she hears her daddy burp :) She used to love to take baths but now prefers to take a shower with me.  She still is not big on taking naps but continues to be an excellent sleeper in the car!  Thus our current nap routine...let P fall asleep in the car, whether it be after I pick her up from school or we run errands and I time it so that we head back home around the time she typically gets tired; we come home and I park the car in the garage (engine off of course) and I run inside and make sure all of the phones are either out of the room or turned off; then I very carefully unbuckle her and hold my breath while I get her out of the carseat, praying that I will manage to get her back inside and on the couch without waking up.  Most of the time this works, and I just lay on the couch holding her and watching TV while she naps.  I'll admit this is not the best thing to do but at this point I am just so thankful that she will take some kind of nap that I don't really care how it happens. She still loves her paci which she refers to as "noney" and although I said that it would be gone by the time she was two we are really no where near that.  It's really hard to think about taking something away from her that she loves so much, not to mention it's something that easily comforts her when she is upset.  The day that we take "noney" away is going to be hard on ALL of us.

 We are so blessed to have such a beautiful, sweet, happy little two year old and can't wait to see what the next year brings.  WE LOVE YOU P!!!

2 Year Stats:

Height: 36 inches (90-95th percentile)

Weight: 27 lbs. (50th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18.25 inches