3 months.

miss hayes turned 3 months on saturday, the 29th.

we LOVE you, mary hazel lucy!!!  

some things to note about your third month:

*you are growing so fast!  not sure about your weight but according to our (not exact) scales you are probably somewhere around 12 pounds.

*you wear a size 1 diaper 

*you are wearing 3 month clothes and are about to move from 0-3 to 3-6 month footed jammies.

*you went to the dr. on friday and they doubled your prevacid dose due to your growth and recent arching/agitation while feeding.  

*we got lots of smiles from you this month!  you had many really good days along with some really rocky days.  we are hopeful that the worst is behind us and that you will really enjoy life more now that you're a little older!  hoping your little tummy and all it's parts are strengthening by the minute!

*you do not sleep through the night consistently.  you've done it, but usually you get up once to feed (around 3 or 4 in the morning). you sleep in your crib now every night.

*you take a very good morning nap - usually 1.5 to 2 hours.  the rest of your naps throughout the day are not as good - you have the "30 or 45 minute wake-up" thing going on for those naps.  we are working on it!  your morning nap is in your crib now - not your swing!! 

*you do not like your carseat if you are awake especially if the car is not moving.  this is not fun for mommy.  especially during car pick-up line at sissy's school! whah, whah!!

*you have fallen asleep for nap in my arms several times lately while we've been out & about (at the park, at the church for supper and at our favorite lunch spot).  sarah kate never did this!  but she did like her car seat and would fall asleep easily without a fuss in it.  babies are so different really!  you like to be held more than anything (and you prefer for the person holding you to be walking around although if it's naptime and you're tired you will fall asleep in my arms while you work on a paci.)

*you "talk" alot!

*you love ceiling fans, watching sk, your bouncy seat a little more, play gym a little, and an octopus toy that mimi brought up.  you love your paci, but don't want it all the time.  you do not use it at night while you sleep.  for now it appears that you are going to be a mommy's girl!  

some recent pics:

you grabbed the cow and made it play music!! 9/24/12

happy 3 months to you!

week (or so) in review.

sooooo....i've been busy over here at the lucy household raising babies and such.  it's a great gig.  it really is exactly what i want to be doing, but i've little time or energy to blog by the end of the day.  but i really don't want to quit.  i have used this as a "baby book" for a year and a half now so i want to keep going.  which means some posts will be the long, catch up kind.

anyway, first of all (and i say this with my fingers crossed while knocking on my wooden side table over here) sarah kate's bedtime avoidance issues are no longer.  let's hope they are extinct and not endangered.  we don't need those episodes to be few and far between - we need them to be dead. a couple of things have happened that contributed to our relapse in peaceful bedtime routines.  first, sarah kate went through an AWFUL (and i do mean awful) time during the first week of school.  i thought she was either a)becoming bipolar or b)entered into the terrible 3's with a bang and was going to be a miserable person until july 6, 2013 when she turned 4.  i was concerned.  i knew part of the problem was her new routine - took her a little while to adjust to the school schedule after coming off of a laid back summer schedule.  but that excuse can only go so far so i knew it was time for an INTERVENTION!  we've made a change in our parenting around these parts.  we've really focused on positive reinforcement.  i used it in my classroom and it worked.  does it create perfect little robot children who act like angels 100% of the time?  absolutely not.  i don't want her to be perfect.  if she were then i'd be bored.  my job is to parent....and i'm a busy girl.  so anyway, negative reinforcement still exists in our house.  she still has to go to time out on occasion (although that really isn't effective for her).  she still looses her dress up clothes from time to time (that is quite effective).  but our main focus has shifted to praising her (over the top) for the things that she does right.  i stole an idea from another blogger's blog - called "warm and fuzzies."  if sarah kate does something really good (using good manners is the #1 expectation here) or if she brushes her teeth, says her prayers, goes to bed and STAYS in bed then she gets to put a "warm and fuzzy" in her jar.  when the fuzzies reach the "fill" line then she gets a reward.  she has reached the line 3 times since we started.  first 2 times she chose frozen yogurt as her reward.  the 3rd time (yesterday) she chose a spaceship bird feeder that she had been eying at michael's.  like i said, she is not perfect (who is...i'm surely not) but she is learning!  i also thought this system would be a good precursor to having a responsibility chart and eventually, earning an allowance. 
i do think 3 is a difficult age and in order for me to enjoy my job i have to be the one in control over here...not my 3 year old.

paining her spaceship birdhouse

concentration!!!

supervising the spaceship painting=)

so anyway, that is where we are with our sarah kate.  she is so dear!  such a fun, funny, and smart little lady that i spend my days with. love her so! i'll take all the hard days she throws my way as long as i get to have her here with me. 

speaking of hard days.  hayes has had some lately. but not today - today she was great! this week she has started arching again during feedings, especially towards the end of the day.  we have an appointment tomorrow to follow up on her reflux to make sure her meds are still correct for her growing little body!  

and growing she is!!!  she doesn't skip a meal even if it hurts a little to get it down!  look at this sweet baby girl's big ole baby belly!  i could seriously eat this child up with a spoon.  she is SO obsessed with her mama and the feeling is mutual.  

"oh yeah, this is my belly!  don't be jealous!"

and (again with fingers crossed and while knocking on wood) sarah kate continues to love her sister so much.  she is so good with her.

in other news....

my mom came up last thursday and stayed through the weekend which was great and so helpful because trey left on friday for his golf trip.  she kept the girls thursday night for trey and i to go out to dinner.  it was our first date since hayes was born!

she kept hayes on saturday afternoon for me to take sarah kate to see finding nemo in 3D.  we had such a great time!  we got a big bag of popcorn and really enjoyed our time as a twosome - just like "old times." =)

sk's letter of the week was "c" this week.  instead of getting creative she just wore a cow dress to school on wednesday and then we went to starbucks for a cake pop.  and she took "crunchy crunchy carrots" as she likes to call them to school with her lunch. next!

 on sunday sarah kate really wanted to bake a cake.  right.  well, i don't bake but i did have a blueberry muffin mix on hand so we made those.  she loves to help in the kitchen!!  i've only made blueberry muffins 5,000 times so i have no idea where we (i) went wrong this time!!!

ha!! we actually still enjoyed them all week.  sk had one for breakfast each morning - i just cut the top off and the rest was tasty.  i think i put the oven on the wrong temp.  i am plagued by baby brain.  so far in the past 5 days i have burned muffins, forgotten about sk's open house at school (i made it very late after a friendly reminder), and i accidentally bought the cottage cheese with pineapple chunks to put in my lasagna.  i am lucky that both of my children are still alive at the end of each day.


sk and i invited several of her little friends to play at the park on tuesday morning.  i only took a few pics and they are all of the cutest little boy ever...her friend, foard.

he was climbing the tree and i was taking his picture with my phone.  when he realized what i was doing he got himself in this fancy position and said, "well look at me do this!!" so proud.  so i had to snap a pic of course.

oh, and then something sad happened to our beau this week.....

when i took him to be groomed they ended up having to cut all his beautiful long ear-fur.  it was our fault.  it was matted so badly.  in the midst of my trying to juggle life with a newborn i have neglected my furry little boy.  i am making it up to him with daily brushes and long walks (errr....that's the plan at least).

beau is loving all the butterflies!!!  he feels good with his new haircut even if is ears look goofy.  trey has assured me that he doesn't know how ridiculous he looks nor does he care.  

i am slowly getting sarah kate and hayes' bathroom together.

 got to love a good ole spooky vintage octopus, right!

now, i want to paint the cabinets white.  i think i can do this myself.  i wonder if i need to prime..hmmm...a project for this winter maybe.

and finally, my favorite people...

caught up (for the most part) for now;)

don't forget. (sk-isms)

i keep an sk-ism post in my draft box so that i can come and add to it from time to time and post them when i think they've gotten too long.  i don't want to forget some of the things she says! 

there are some things i do want to forget. but when these recent tantrums are all said and done then even those are laughable at the end of the day (kinda).  for example, while throwing a fit about who knows what: "no!! i don't want to be nice!!! i want to be ugwee (ugly) and wude (rude) and i just want to cry!! i will not calm down!  i want to cry!" 

 now that you've probably said a quick little prayer for me (and i do appreciate that, thank you) here are some of sk's best:

"i feel weird in blue jeans."

on wearing the same UGA dress as her sister:  "oh look!  baby hayes has on the same dress as me.  we are matching!!!  it's a proud, proud day."

"maybe i got it from one of the elephants on dumbo. yep, maybe that's it!" (when i asked her where she got "it's a proud proud day" from. and she is exactly right! i knew she must have heard it somewhere- she didn't really use it incorrectly either!)

"i think i need to have a tea party because i have a cough." (along with a dramatic and fake cough).

"the princess does not want to sing right now." (referring to herself of course).

"i am NOT being ugly! this is ridiculous!!"  (her reply when i told her to stop acting ugly.)

"i think we need to have a tea party.  that will help you feel all better!!"  (after i got on to her.)

"well."  (how she begins most all of her answers.  for example, "sarah kate, what are you doing?" "well, i'm about to have a tea party.")

"no, no, no, PAPA is my bestie." (when trey asked her if mimi was her bestie.) 

while dressed as sleeping beauty, she comes over to hayes and says, "awwww, look at the little tiny sleeping beauty!  she's so cute, i love her!" (in a little tiny voice - dramatic much?)


"you put him in the wrong direction!!! that's the wrong direction!!!" -on where i tucked dumbo into bed.  apparently he likes to sleep on her right side, not her left.


"she is little aurora" - when the doctor asked who her baby sister was. aurora is sleeping beauty and apparently sk is big aurora and hayes is little aurora.


 "i want to be cinderella when i grow up." when i asked what she wanted to be when she grows up. lovely.


 "daddy, get the teacup off of your ear! what is wrong with you??!!!" (when trey hung his teacup from his ear at a tea party during dinner one night. i live with some interesting people.)


"dumbo, no sir, that is MY tea not your tea!" (what she told dumbo after she stuck his trunk in her teacup & had him "drink" her tea).


"well, elephants are not able to say please and thank you so he can't have any tea." (when i told her to get dumbo his own teacup after the incident above).

"oh dumbo, i'm so sorry, i love you!!  i don't want you to be in trouble!" (after she scolded dumbo for drinking her tea.)


"but God is not in my heart.  my heart is too tiny." (when i told her that we needed to say our prayers which sometimes she doesn't want to do.  i told her that God was in her heart and he knew what she was thankful for anyway.  ha!  of course she took it literally - bet she thinks i'm nuts to say a person could fit in her little tiny heart.)


i called santa the other day while she was being extra ugly and difficult.  i pretended to have a full blown convo with the man in red.  he was NOT happy to hear the things he heard and he is not sure if sk deserves a visit this christmas.  he will have to wait and see how she behaves.  so anyway, later in the day sk got her princess pretend phone and said to me, "i'm calling your mama!  i'm gonna call her, i'm going to call mosemary, and i'm gonna tell her how ugly you have been". then she began dialing!  touche' sk. touche'. (and yes, she says my mom's name with an "m" instead of an "r". that's not a typo.)


there are definitely moments when i'd like to freeze time.  sometimes trey and i think of something that happened exactly one year ago and we can never believe that a whole year has passed by!  one year ago (on the 17th - my mom's bday!) we were in greenville for ashley's brother's wedding (bryson and amy).  i reminded trey of that and he about died!  feel like we were just there.
and yet, look at how little she looked....



"b" is for.....

the letter of the week is "b."

b is for birdhouse

b is for baby talk and baby smiles

b is for ballerina

b is for bella's tail (can you spot it in the pic below??)

b is for boo-boo bunny.  why didn't i invent this thing.  we had a fall today, but boo-boo bunny (icepack) made it all better.

b is for beach!  sk went to the beach this weekend with her lala, dougie and daddy.

b is for bulldawg!!!

b is for "beep beep!!"  sk is obsessed with these cars.  we never got one, but when we go somewhere (like alhambra park) that has one she can't get enough of it.  mr. claus plans to deliver one - hayes will enjoy it when sk is tired of it.

b is for, "bye bye, mommy!"

weekends.

this is a post of pics from our past 2 weekends!  i have just been so busy with my 2 girls lately (and tired) that i haven't had time to do much blogging.  

labor day weekend:

we went downtown to the battery for a picnic.  sk was looking for the perfect spot=)

this one doesn't care where we picnic....snoozie!  can i please note that this past week i got hayes weaned off these huge, no-hook green hospital pacifiers!  she still takes a paci but i was able to successfully switch her to the nuk brand.

 this pic is not from our picnic but see - nuk paci!  go me!  and look, i get to use the cute and convenient little "h" paci clip.  it's the little things i guess=)

after lunch sk ran and ran.  she played tag with her daddy, too.

bless her heart.  she runs like her mama - we're all knock-kneed and have long, lanky legs that kick out.  trey and i always joke about her being our little track star since she's so physically cautious and awkward. if you've ever seen the episode of friends where rachel no longer wants to run with phoebe - well, sk and i are phoebe.  although, if she uses all that strong-will she has been showing us lately, she can do anything she puts her mind to!  i was a fierce little tennis player once upon a time so those legs are capable=)

 

 someone decided to join us=)

 

"can we go out on the boat??!"  oh sk, next summer you will have a "normal" summer, i promise!

the weekend after labor day we took sk down to our family beach house for a late summer trip.  she was so excited when we pulled into that familiar place late thursday night - hayes was pretty pumped herself!  we had a great time - very relaxing.  my parents and the twins came over friday night for dinner and frozen yogurt.  it was nice of my parents to celebrate their 43rd wedding anniversary with all the little girls, trey and myself at sliders!  not romantic, but the kids had a blast (and the adults enjoyed the live country music!)   hayes went to the beach for the first time on friday - it was the day she turned 10 weeks.  she just hung out in her bouncy seat and took a beach-nap.  anyway, it was nice to get down there - sk had been asking to go so i'm glad we were able to make it happen before our fall gets sooo busy.

just getting to the house and unpacking/getting ready for bed. 

it's funny how when you have a second baby your first "baby" becomes a giant.

first day on the beach - 10weeks

 and to compare: this is a pic of sk's first day on the beach (the day she turned 8 weeks) wearing the same little sun bubble...

sk's first day on the beach - 8 weeks

they are kinda like twins. 

trey and sk dug a hole to china.  sk gave trey lots of "bubbly bubbly baths!"

sk and her dumbo - the best of friends!

on saturday, i had just put hayes down for a nap when it was almost beach time so trey & sk went to the beach to play.  later that afternoon while sk "napped" and hayes really was napping, i went down to the beach all.by.myself.  did you hear that?  i just sat there in the sunshine.  it was great=) 

my best "sister shot."  awesome.

the girls at dinner: brycie is climbing.  sk and ava are digging in the sand.

it's hard to get everyone in an iphone pic, but here we are at island time yogurt.  if you read our beach trip post then you know our family is a bit obsessed with this place.  i'm proud (or sad..whatever way you want to look at it) to say that we were at the beach for 3 nights and only went once. 

mimi, papa and all 4 grandgirls (hayes snoozed in her carrier all through dinner and dessert!) and that's trey's leg by sk. ha!

and then last sunday we came back home.  and reality hit.  hard!  sk went back to school 3 days and also started throwing awful tantrums (not at school thankfully!  she saves all that for us at home which is how i want it if it has to happen!).  i think she is exhausted.  and she's 3.  it has been very hard for me and so tiring.  bedtime avoidance has finally become an issue - at nighttime and quiet time.  so anyway, i'm slacking on my blogs because i'm emotionally drained by the end of each day!!  on a happier note, hayes is beginning to come into her own!  she still has a little ways to go, but she has certainly turned a corner and is having alot of happy times - lots of smiles and nice wake-time.  most of last week was rough for her because i was on an anitbiotic for a sinus infection and it made her tummy hurt, but i'm all finished and she seems to appreciate it.  11 weeks - we're not too far from 3 months!!!  2 weeks to go!