Wordless Wednesday (Almost)

Haper is loving her legs and feet. She even likes to nibble on her toes a little. I love when babies do this. It seriously makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. :) 

Brotherly love after Harper's morning nap.

Giggling at Canon.

My heart is full!

Harper - 5 Months Old

January 17 - February 17

I can't believe Harper is five months old. 

A very fussy baby has turned into a happy baby! She is so happy most of the time and smiles all day long. She is very content doing whatever and only fusses when she is hungry. Her brother can get her laugh better than any one. She doesn't like to cuddle or be rocked which makes me sad, but she is super easy to be put down for naps and bedtime. She continues to be a pacifier user and sucks on her thumb occasionally. She was sleeping horribly for a couple of weeks right when she turned four months old, but with a little sleep training (which I said I would never do), she is sleeping so well at night. We could use a little improvement with the naps though, but I think they might be getting better. Harper seems to have such a sweet demeanor about her and we are so much enjoying seeing her personality develop.

Here is what Harper is up to -

- On January 17th she weighed in at 11 lbs 10 oz (4%) and was 24 in long (33%)
- Grabbing at toys so well and holds them in her hands.

- Loves to touch and grab at our faces.

- Rolling over - back to tummy and tummy to back

- Sleeping on stomach now (we put her down on her back, but she immediately rolls over to belly)

- Loves to play on play mat

- Size 1 diapers

- 3 month clothing and still able to wear 0-3 clothes as well

- Loves to talk and can get pretty loud at times.

- Loves to suck on hands and drools everywhere.

-Started sucking thumb occasionally.

- Eating every 3 hours (finally).

- Still breastfeeding, but started supplementing with breast milk or formula after every feeding.

- Have been to a few basketball games (highschool and college).

- Sleeping 11 to 12 hours a night (8:30 to 8:00)

- Taking 3 to 4 naps a day. Most are usually around 30 to 40 minutes and one is longer (2 hours). Start off in crib and then will finish the longer nap in swing.

- Very busy. Always looking around.

- Stopped swaddling arms this month and have slept in a sleep sack a few times since sleeping on stomach

- Loves to stand and is very strong.

- Still seems to prefer mommy. 

-Likes to look at herself in the mirror.

She looks to big in these pictures.

 

This elephant needs to be sewn up. He has been through a lot. :)

Valentine's Day - Thanks for being a part of my herd.

Canon had a Valentine's Day party in his class on Valentine's Day. He was super excited because he got to wear his new pajamas to school my parent's bought him and the teachers told him they were going to have ice cream. What a fun day!

We also prepared Valentine's for his class. Last year, Canon gave his class these.

I wanted to do something similar, so I found this idea and went with it!

I had a great time putting them together and Jess even helped me with a few of them. We had a hard time figuring out how to attach the animal to the cardstock. Once we figured it out, it went quickly. We tied thin ribbon to a paper clip to attach the animal. I also wrote to whom and from on the back of the card. 

Canon was super excited to give them to his friends and wanted to know which one each friend was going to get. 

The finished product.

Couldn't leave the teachers out. A box filled with notecards, a list pad, sticky notes, chocolate, and a thank you note.

Harper - Four Month Post

Four Months
December 17th - January 17th

- Sleeping pretty well. Usually 9 to 10 hours at a time with one early morning feeding. Goes to bed between 8:30 to 9:00 (Until January 12th and started waking up multiple times a night. One night there were over 12 night time wakings).

- Does not take good naps most of the time.

- Have found your feet and it is so cute.

- Had a great Christmas with both sets of grandparents. 

- Smiling so much.

- Still fussy (especially in the evening), but it is getting better.

- Starting to interact with toys more and more. Likes to cuddle with soft toys.

- Saw your first snow.

- Laughed for the first time (January 4th) at Canon, then laughed at Jess and me a few days later.

- Starting to really talk and can get loud. 

- Moved out of mommy and daddy's room and started sleeping in crib (January 11th).

- Started supplementing with breast milk after bedtime feeding (January 13th).

- Size 1 diapers.

- Size newborn and three month clothing.

- Went bowling with the family.

- Still enjoys baths and gets a bath every other day. 

Harper's New Interests

Last week Harper was on her play mat (which she loves) while I did some things around the house. I was coming in and out of the room and one time when I came in she was sucking her thumb. What? She is a pacifier user? I thought it was just a fluke, so I took a picture and thought it was cute. Later that evening she was in her swing taking a nap and sure enough when I went to go check on her she was sucking that thumb again. She has continued to do it off and on. I usually take her thumb out and put her pacifier in. I guess the thumb is good for when I can't put her pacifier back in. Now that she gets her arms out of her swaddle, who knows if she sucks her thumb all night.

Also, she is rolling over like crazy. Anytime you put her flat on her back she rolls right on over to her stomach and then she gets mad (she's been doing this really well for about a week and a half now). She can roll back to her back, but decides to just get mad instead until you help her. We finally got her sleeping through the night again. She slept eleven to twelve hours straight for six days, not waking up once. Now that she is rolling, she is having a hard time getting to sleep. One night (Saturday), she woke up seven times. She does not want to sleep on her back, but it's hard for her to get in a comfortable position on her tummy. I worry that she is too young to sleep on her tummy, but if we go in there and put her on her back, she just rolls back to her stomach. Who knows. I am hoping she figures it out soon and that we can try and help her figure it out.

She seems to be catching up developmentally. The doctor has always told us she could be four weeks behind in her development since she was four weeks early. She has been later on some things (smiling and laughing), but I feel like she is keeping up now. I do think we might have another strong willed one on her hands. :) 

A "hair" Day

Saturday morning Jess was in the shower and Canon wanted to hang out in the bathroom while he showered. He likes to go through our drawers or brush his teeth while we are getting ready. I had come into the bathroom to make sure Canon was still in there and also to tell Jess something. 

I walked into Canon squirting Harper's bottle of milk (pumped milk) into his hair and using my comb to  comb his hair back like he had just put gel in his hair. It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on. He says, "Do you like my hair mommy?" In between laughs I told him it looked great. I could not stop laughing and bent down and told him I loved him and his fun personality. I told him next time he wanted to "gel" his hair, we would try real gel. Since Jess was still in the shower I sent Canon into the shower to wash his hair. I didn't want it to stink. 

What a fun kid. I laughed about it all day Saturday. 

A few hours after Canon "gelled" his hair, I got all my hair cut off. I decided if I was going to cut 5 or 6 inches off, I might as well cut off enough to donate it. My pony tail I will be donating is 11.5 inches long. I think my stylist was more nervous than I was. I don't absolutely love my hair, but hoping in a few more days I will get used to it. It was time for a change and I am glad I did it.

Not the greatest picture. Not feeling well today.

Mailbox Fun!

A few months back a saw a Valentine's Day blog post about putting fun things in a mailbox for you kids for the month of February.
I bought mailboxes at Target in the dollar section. I also found a ticket book in the dollar section (ex. Good for 1 Lunch Date). Then, one evening while Jess and I were out we stopped by goodwill and got some pretty looking old candlesticks. I spray painted the candlesticks black (you could do white if you wanted) and then glued the mailbox on with epoxy glue.

I decided to put candy and fun family activities in the mailbox up until Valentine's Day. I started on February 1st and Canon looks forward to getting something in his mailbox everyday. If we are going to do something that evening as a family, I wait to put the "ticket" in his mailbox after his nap, so he doesn't fixate on it all day. He never knows when the flag on his mailbox will be raised.

Feb. 1 - A certificate for a great big hug from mom and dad

Feb 2 - Fruit snacks

Feb. 3 - Super bowl party

Feb. 4 - A bubble bath

Feb. 5 - A family game of chutes and ladders

Feb. 6 - Lunch Date with Mommy

Feb. 7 - Movie and popcorn (at home)

Feb. 8 - Trip to Hoppity Hop

Feb. 9 - A treat

Feb. 10 - Wii game night

Feb. 11 - Lunch date with daddy

Feb. 12 - Certificate to go to GiGi's Cupcakes

Feb. 13 - A treat

Feb. 14 - Harper and Canon will be getting a note from Jess and I and a few small things each.

This has also been great because we have been really intentional about spending family time together. I sat down and looked at the calendar while making my list of activities, so I knew we would follow through. When he gets a "ticket" we do it that day, so it doesn't fall through the cracks with our busy schedule.

Happy Birthday Will!

Yesterday was a sweet day, but also a tough day. Last night after the kids were in bed, I was emotionally and mentally exhausted. I don't think I realized how the day was affecting me until I just couldn't go anymore. I honestly tried not to think about the details of the day Will was born or the few days leading up to his birth. I don't know why, but I just didn't want to relive it yesterday. I just wanted to celebrate him.

Canon and I ran errands in the morning getting balloons, flowers, and cake. Canon really enjoyed running errands as we don't do this very often anymore now that I have two to run around with. We all went out to lunch and then came home and got the kids naps. We then went out to the cemetery (we were going to go earlier in the day, but it didn't work out) along with Jess's parents. After leaving the cemetery we went out to dinner then came back to our house for cake. Canon insisted we sing Happy Birthday to Will. It was sweet, but kind of sad.

All of our family had a message to put on a pinwheel I made.

Just like last year, we put all the pinwheels out at the grave. 

While Jess was praying with Canon before bed, Canon said "Happy Birthday William Thomas, we sang happy birthday to you, mommy put a pinwheel on the cake, and we went to your grave." :) 

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago our second child Will was born. An hour after we welcomed him here on this earth, he went to be with Jesus. I think about him every day and I miss him terribly. 

Jess is taking the day off and we are spending time together as a family. We are headed to the cemetery this morning with flowers, balloons, and of course pinwheels. Canon and I are going to go on a lunch date to Chick-fil-a. Later this evening Jess's parents will come and we will go to dinner and out to the cemetery again. 

This is a picture from last year. 

We will also be donating clothes, blankets, etc to the hospital later on this month. 

We love you William Thomas! 

"That's a great idea"

If I were to tell Canon I needed to update my blog he would say, "That's a great idea!" 

This is his new phrase this past week. 

I feel like every moment I have to myself I am either taking a nap, doing house work, or just sitting down not wanting to think. Naturally the blog has not been updated lately. Here are a few things the Rainer family has been up to (January 18-February 4)

- Jess is taking his last seminary class. He graduates in May!!!

- We had a super bowl get together at our house last night with a few other couples. It was a great time getting to know some families in our church we don't know very well.

- We have taken Canon to a few high school basketball games with our friends. Canon has had a great time watching the games and eating snacks. He has been a bottomless pit lately.

- We all went to the Vanderbilt/Alabama basketball game at Vandy along with Jess's parents. 

- Jess and I went on a date. :)

- We had lunch with my sister and brother in law when they were in town for a mini vacation.

- Harper is doing really well. She is so much more content lately. She loves to smile. She loves to watch Canon run around. She was waking up 8 to 12 times a night for her pacifier, so we have been doing some sleep training with her (which I said I would never do). Now she is sleeping really well and is usually up only once and goes back to sleep after fussing for a few minutes. She still does not nap very long during the day, but we are working on that. The swing is my life saver some days. She is now rolling over back to stomach. We are also supplementing her with pumped milk or formula after most feedings. 

She loves to chew on her hands.

She enjoys playing on her play mat. She goes after that frog and gets very proud of herself when she makes it play music. 

Our sweet happy girl!

- Canon is still thriving in Mother's Day Out. We ran into one of his teachers on our date. She said she could just eat him up. She said he is very social, very verbal, doesn't mind getting messy, and seems to get bored because he isn't challenged enough. I think this will be an issue with him in school. :) Jess and I feel Canon has been a little easier lately. He is very independent at home which is very helpful for me especially when I am feeding Harper. He can get himself dressed most of the time except for his shoes and socks. He loves to brush his teeth on his own (we let him do this during the day and then at night we brush them for him). He is very obsessive about his shoe laces and it drives Jess and me crazy and he is very opinionated about what he wears. He does not want to sit in a booster seat anymore at the table. He also is becoming more opinionated about what he eats and dinner time is a battle many nights. Before now Canon had been such a good eater and would clean his plate. He is bottomless pit when it comes to snacking though. Hopefully it is just a phase. He continues to love to play football, soccer, and basketball (in the house since it is cold outside). He loves to tell stories and some of them are quite entertaining. He also has an imaginary friend, Pretend Boy. He has blue hair, can fit in your hand, and his mom drives him to our house. He shows up once to twice a week and does different things with Canon. We hope he sticks around for a while. 

I left Harper's room to go get something and Canon had put Harper's pants on. He thought it was hilarious. This was right after he had pumped a third of a bottle of hand soap out all over the bathroom vanity. He thought that was funny too. :) 

Oh and Canon loves to wear "footsie" pajamas for naps and at bedtime. It's a "thing" that has lasted about two months now. 

- We are enjoying life with our sweet children. I am feeling more confident as a parent to two and some things are getting easier and smoother. I am absolutely in love with how sweet Canon and Harper are with each other. It makes me teary eyed sometimes. 

This post was really random, but thoughts I wanted to write down and not forget. Hoping to get my blog made into a book soon. Starting to research how to do it. Any suggestions would be appreciated!