Aaron - Four Months Old!

Well, I guess I can start off with my usual statement - how is time going by so quickly??  Aaron is four months old already, when did that happen?

It has been a great month - Aaron is such a sweet little guy, so even tempered, happy and cute.  He loves his older brother and sister so much and loves watching them.  It is great watching his personality emerge as he gets older.

This month, Aaron's had some exciting milestones - he rolled over both ways, went to a non-family babysitter for the first time, and then started daycare.  He also found his hands and had his very first cottage visit.  August was a big month for our little guy!

The rolling over was pretty funny - he rolled back to front first, and then two days later he went front to back.  The Borsts got to witness his rolling skills first hand - in fact, I think it was Auntie Kim who was there encouraging him when he rolled front to back for the first time.

Aaron's sleep has been pretty much the same as the past few months - sleeping good overall but still wakes up a few times each night to eat.  Mama doesn't mind too much because he is such a sweet little monkey and just eats and then goes back to sleep.

Aaron had a doctor's visit this month; here are his stats:

Length: 26 inches - 77th percentile

Weight: 14 pounds, 9 ounces - 32nd percentile

Head: 41.5 cm - 20th percentile

We love you, sweet Aaron boy!!!

Aaron - Three Months Old!

 It has been an exciting month for my sweet three month old boy - Aaron spent most of it traveling!  He was definitely the best behaved on the trip (of all five of us) - mainly only crying when he was hungry and other than that just hanging out and taking in the world.  Aaron took his first (and second) plane ride, dipped his toes in his first ocean and had his first trip to Disney.  That's a pretty exciting month, if you ask me!

Besides his big adventures, Aaron has been so much fun this month.  He is eating like a good boy and sleeping pretty well.  He still gets up a couple of times a night to eat, but eats and then goes right back to sleep so it isn't too bad.

He is continuing to find his voice and likes to talk to Cameron and Leah.  They think it is pretty funny and babble right back to him.  Aaron LOVES his big brother and sister so much - he is always interested to see what they are doing and is happy when they pay attention to him.  He is very curious about what they are doing and about the world around him in general.  It is so cute to see him checking everything out!

He is such a sweet, smiley boy.  I still can't believe how lucky we are!!

Aaron - Two Months Old!

I feel like a broken record, but I can't believe that it has been two months already.  I have the feeling that I will continue to feel like this - time is going by so quickly with Aaron!  He is such a good baby and gets cuter and more fun every day.  He is such a happy little guy - usually content to hang out on his playmat or sit in his bouncy seat.  Right now, his days consist of sleeping, eating, smiling, cooing, playing and of course, pooping.

Aaron sleeps at least four hours most nights, sometimes even five or six.  We usually put him to bed around 10, then he sleeps for four or five hours.  He eats and goes back to sleep for another three hours or so, then more sleeping.  Since he goes back to sleep right after he eats, it makes for a pretty easy night for me.

Aaron has found both his voice and his hands this month!  He loves to babble and make little noises, cooing and "talking" to us.  He really thinks it is funny to have a conversation, talking back and forth.  This is especially funny with Cameron and Leah, who love to hear their little brother talking.  Aaron has also found his hands and finds them endlessly interesting.  He does a great job grabbing on to the toys that hang above his playmat and can grasp a toy if we put it into his hands.  The older kids think this is pretty cool too and they like giving him toys to hold on to.

One of the best things about this month has been Aaron's smiles.  They are so big and so, so cute!  Cameron and Leah fight over who gets to be right in front of him to try and make him smile.  It is one of my favorite parts of the day too, making funny faces or talking to him to make him smile.

Here are a few random Aaron thoughts:
- He is the sneeziest baby I have ever met.  He sneezes at least a dozen time every day.
- Aaron poops louder than any baby I have ever heard.  There is never a question of whether or not he pooped because we definitely heard it.
-  If we put a blanket over Aaron's feet when he is awake, he makes it his personal mission to kick the blanket off.  He is a little soccer player with how well he can kick his feet around!
- I love watching him stretch first thing in the morning.  He still sleeps in the swaddle, so first thing in the morning when we unswaddle him,  his little arms come up and he streeeeetches them out.  It is so cute!

Stats from Aaron's two month appointment:
Weight: 13 lbs, 1 oz - 65th percentile
Length: 24.75 inches - 88th percentile
Head: 40.5 cm - 47th percentile

Aaron - One Month Old!

It is hard to believe that an entire month has gone by and that Aaron has grown so much already!  He is so sweet and adorable, the perfect addition to our family.  Aaron is definitely more alert these days, although he still sleeps more than he is awake.  When he is awake, he likes to look around and check out the world.  He looks up at his toys when he is on his playmat and loves to watch Cameron and Leah do silly things to make him laugh.  He has just started reaching up towards his toys too.

Looking at big sister Leah

Grabbing at his elephant

He is also content to sit on our laps and hang out.  At dinner time, if he is awake he wants to be held so he can be up at the table with us - he gets mad and cries if we keep him in his bouncy seat down on the ground!  I guess he already knows he needs to be in the middle of the action.

He is sleeping in three or four hour stretches at night now, and once he even gave us five hours in a row!  He is good at night though, when he wakes up he just eats and goes back to sleep.  He loves being swaddled, just like the older kids did when they were babies.  As soon as he gets in the swaddle, he relaxes, calms down and waits to be fed so he can go to sleep.  It is so sweet.

Aaron has been eating really well too, every three hours or so.  He is certainly growing into a little chunky monkey, it is so cute!  He can hold his head up for a while although he really dislikes tummy time.  He gets tired of it quickly and then lays his head down and cries to be turned over!

 The most exciting thing is that he is starting to smile.  Just little ones for now, but they are so, so sweet!

Aaron went to the doctor a bit before his one month birthday.  Here are his stats:
Weight: 9 pounds, 2 ounces - 25th percentile
Length: 22.5 inches - 90th percentile
Head: 37 cm - 20th percentile

4 weeks old - weekly photo shoot

Cam and Leah Stats

At the beginning of November, Cameron and Leah both had big birthday milestones - 4 years old and 18 months!  Both of those milestones came with a doctor appointment to see how they were doing.

Here are Cameron's stats:
Weight: 36 pounds - 53rd percentile
Height: 38.5 inches - 15th percentile
Vision: 20/30 - the nurse said that was very good vision for someone his age, apparently you don't to 20/20 until you are older and your eyes are more mature

Cameron did very well in his appointment, impressing the doctor with his precociousness.  He was deemed very healthy.  Poor boy also had to get four shots - one was the flu shot and the other three were for kindergarten.  He did NOT like that part.

 

Here are Leah's stats:

Weight: 22 pounds, 2 ounces - 18th percentile

Length: 31inches - 30th percentile

Head: 47 cm - 61st percentile

Leah also did very well in her appointment.  She was very inquisitive and wanted to know what the doctor was going to do before he did it.  Once he explained to her what he was doing, she was fine with it.  She liked helping the doctor by holding stuff for him.  Leah also had to get two shots and she also did not like them!

More about Leah

One thing I forgot to mention in my 15 month post was how good Leah is at communicating. She really gets her point across and understands everything we are asking. We think she is pretty darn smart! :-P She can nod her head yes and shake her head no, and amazingly she actually uses them correctly. She doesn't just say NO to everything, like I remember Cameron doing. She has a pretty good size vocabulary, although I think I am the main one who can understand her words. She can say: Leah, Mama, Dada, Poppa, Nana, brother, Cameron, Grandpa, hi, bye-bye, ball, up, out, help, more, thank you, please, milk, water, do, poo-poo, duck, uh-oh, cracker, cookie, baby. She can also make the animal noises for a duck, a cow, a dog, a bird and a cat. We think she is going to be quite the chatty girl when she gets older!

Leah - 15 months old!

Last week, our sweet Leah Kate turned 15 months old. It is crazy that she is such a big girl already. On Tuesday she had a doctor's appointment. She got one shot and was so mad at the nurse after she got the shot, but then waved and blew her kisses on the way out. Here are her stats:
Weight: 19 pounds, 14 ounces - 8th percentile
Height: 30 inches - 26th percentile
Head: 46 cm - 51st percentile

Tim was very worried that the doctor would be worried about Leah not gaining much since her one year visit, but the doctor was fine with it. He knew how active she has gotten since she her last visit, and figured she is probably just using a lot more calories these days. He looked at her chunky thighs and said, "It doesn't look like this child is starving!"

We certainly don't think she is starving, the girl is a wonderful eater. She will eat most anything - meat, veggies, fruits, bread. She drinks a ton of milk and loves anything dairy, especially cheese. Many times, she will eat more than Cameron during a meal. All of that is exactly why I wasn't too worried about Leah's lack of weight gain.

Miss Leah is indeed a very active girl these days. At around twelve and a half months, she started walking quite a bit. It started out, of course, with four or five Frankenstein steps between Mama and Daddy, but pretty quickly turned into walking for distances. Now she walks, runs, can walk backwards and tries her hardest to jump. She LOVES to dance and do acrobatics - really she likes to do whatever her big brother is doing!

Leah has always been a curious girl, and now that she is active it has just increased. She is very mischievous and is getting into everything! We have definitely gone into childproofing overdrive, making sure all of the cabinets are locked and the dangerous stuff is out of reach. Leah loves to walk around the kitchen, opening up every single cupboard, looking in, taking one or two things out and moving on to the next. She can be a one-woman wrecking crew, but it is very fun to see her start to explore her world.

Leah: Twelve Months Old!

Leah turned twelve months old last Sunday. She had her one year checkup today. Our poor baby had to get four (!!!) shots and then had to get blood drawn. She cried a bit but mainly just looked outraged that we would subject her to such mean torture! Here are her stats:
Weight: 19 pounds, 4 ounces - 19th percentile
Length: 28 1/2 inches - 29th percentile
Head: 45 centimeters - 45th percentile

Leah fell asleep on the family room floor!

One of the most striking things we have noticed this month is that, all of a sudden, Leah understands us and can do what we ask. The other day I was in the mudroom looking for one of her shoes, so I called out, "Leah, where is your shoe? Bring Mama your shoe!" I peeked out the doorway and saw her crawling over to her car seat, climbing up on it, grabbing her shoe (that she had presumably hid in there!), and bringing it back to me. Then she sat down and held her shoe near her foot! It is really awesome and gives us a taste of what is to come.

Leah has been doing fantastic this month with her sign language. It must go along with the new understanding that she has when we talk to her. Her best signs are "more" and "thank you" - especially "Thank you", which she does without being prompted. She can also do "please", "all done", "eat", and "milk". We are working on "help" and "drink" too. It has been fun for Cameron too, who has taken back up the sign language. He loves to show Leah how to do her signs.

Leah has become so mobile! She doesn't quite walk yet, but she is SO CLOSE! She has taken a couple steps when we send her back and forth between us, but doesn't seem to interested to do it on her own. She can stand up without holding anything and gets a very proud look on her face every time she does it. She also RUNS behind her push toy. She definitely understands the concept of walking, just doesn't want to do it on her own quite yet. Soon enough, I am sure.

Leah loves to be outside. She likes to be carried around in our arms and check out the world. She has a walker that she loves to go in, especially enjoying running down the driveway. She is happy to sit in her stroller and just look around, but also loves to crawl on the ground and feel the dirt/grass.


This past month, Leah had her first Easter. She did a great job finding her eggs and her basket, and loved doing both. More about Easter in a separate post though.

And of course, Miss Leah had her big first birthday this week. Of course, that will be a separate post as well.

Leah: 11 months old!

It is amazing to think that Leah is 11 months old. In just a month she will be a year - I can't even imagine that! My baby is growing up soooo fast! In fact, I probably shouldn't be calling her a baby anymore because she is definitely heading into toddler-land. Luckily, other than a few cranky days from teeth, she is still a total sweet pea! Speaking of teething, Leah got her third and fourth teeth this month - her front top two. They are just barely popping through, but they have been working their way to the surface for a long time so I am glad they have popped!


Leah has become quite the mobile little monkey. She walks with a push toy and can cruise around the room holding onto furniture and toys. She doesn't quite walk yet, but she is so close! She can stand up on her own for a few seconds, but gets excited and topples over pretty quickly. It is super cute though, and she is so ready to walk! She wants to go places and can't seem to get there quickly enough. She has adopted a new crawling style, which we will try to get on video sometime - she half sits, half crawls, scooting around on her bum. It is hilarious.

Her fine motor skills are definitely improving too. She can use a lot of her big girl toys now - putting rings on a stack, putting balls into holes, and occasionally putting puzzles pieces into puzzles. We have been getting out a bunch of new (well, new to her) age-appropriate toys for her and she has been loving them. No more baby rattles for Leah!

Leah has learned a bunch of cute little tricks this month. She can do high five, blow kisses and has been learning sign language. She does "more" and "all done" quite well. We are still working on "please" and "thank you", but she will probably figure those out soon. The cutest thing she has learned to do is say "uh oh!" It is absolutely adorable, and she has quickly figured out the correct use of it... and she seems to revel in finding reasons to yell it out! She loves to throw stuff on the ground and proudly proclaim, "Uh Oh!"

Leah continues to eat like a champ - eating pretty much anything and everything we put in front of her. She loves meat, veggies, fruit, bread and dairy. Especially dairy - she LOVES her cheese! Leah has also started sleeping better - pretty much every night she goes all the way through to the morning. For a week or two though, she was consistently waking up at 4:30am on the dot. She didn't want to eat, just wanted her snuli back in her mouth. I think it is the teething. It made for a tired Mama though!

Leah also broke her finger this month - her first major injury (and it really wasn't major at all). After a couple hours though, she didn't even act like it bothered her at all, and when she smushed that same finger at daycare a few days later, she barely cried. She is a tough girl!

Leah had a doctor's appointment this month, to get her ears rechecked from an ear infection a few weeks ago and also to have her pinky checked out. She weighed 18 pounds, 12 ounces, so she is putting on some weight. I think she is still on the smaller side, but she will get big soon enough.

We love our Leah girl!

Leah: Ten Months Old!

Last week Leah turned 10 months old. Lazy Mama missed the post by a week. Sorry Leah!

Leah happened to have a doctor's appointment on her 10 month birthday, so we have a weight update - she weighs 17 pounds, 10 ounces. She also had a double ear infection and a possible strep throat. Poor little monkey! In fact, we knew there had to be something wrong because our usually sunny baby was a bit cranky and woke up a few times at night. Once we took her to the doctor and got some antibiotics into her system, she was good as new.


Leah has been eating like a champ this month and has added more foods to her repertoire. She eats cheese now, along with fish. She likes both. She also continues to do a good job on all other foods - she likes meat, veggies, fruits, and breads. She has been going through a bit of a phase lately where she only wants to be in her high chair for a few minutes before she starts to whine and cry. The minute we take her out, she is happy as a clam and wants to eat off her tray. As long as she is sitting on Mama's lap, she wants to eat and eat and eat. We are glad she is eating, but we need to get her to stay sitting in her high chair!

Leah's first mac and cheese - talk about a gourmet meal!

One of her favorite snacks, baby cheesy puffs. She can eat a can of these if we let her!

Leah has become so mobile over the last month. She crawls like a champ, on her hands and knees now. She is so quick, scrambling around the floor going after Cameron. She can also pull herself up onto things and has started moving around, taking little steps to creep along them. One of her favorite activities is emptying off her entire floor shelf, pulling each toy off individually. She hasn't quite learned to clean up her messes yet, but luckily she has an older brother to take care of that for her (sometimes).

One thing Leah will not be trying for at least a few more years - beer!

In daycare, Leah has moved up to the next class. She is now in Infant 2. She has a new head teacher but the two helper teachers switch back and forth between her old class, Infant 1. They have "big kid" toys in the room and a big table with six seats built into it that all of the babies sit in. At first Leah wasn't eating very well, leaving most of her bottles. She is also taking really short naps - there is just too much excitement going on for her to sleep. She is getting better about the bottles but still takes a 45 minute or an hour nap at the most. She just takes time to adjust, so we aren't too worried.

What are you looking at?

Leah had a fun trip to Canada this month, for her first Winterlude. She got to spend lots of fun time outside and enjoyed checking out the festivities.


Bundled up and ready to "skate" on the canal

As for sleeping through the night, Leah is getting better about it. She doesn't sleep through every night, but since she has been feeling well she goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up to eat at 5:30 or 6am. After she eats, she goes back to sleep for another hour or so.

It has been another wonderful month with our sweet Leah girl!