Haddie-Lynn: twelve months

Happy Birthday Haddie-Lynn!

I knew this year would go fast, but it's still shocking just how fast. My big one-year-old. Oh it brings tears to my eyes. I'm sure you will think it's silly when I cry over how big you're getting, but once you're a mama, you'll understand. 

Eating, sleeping, and clothing sizes all remain the same as last month. You are still doing great with finger foods. You have snack cups just like bubba and you now handle a straw sippy cup with ease. You have started to wake up in the middle of the night this past week but I believe it's because you are going through a growth spurt. Actually I know it's because of a growth spurt because those 12m footies are about to bust at the seams haha! Good thing you got a bunch of 18m footies for your birthday.

We got your official measurements from the doctor. You weight lb oz (percentile), are " long (percentile), and have a head circumference of " (percentile). For comparison your brother was 18lb 13oz (5th percentile), 29.5" long (40th percentile), and had a head circumference of 19" (90th percentile).

You have 5 teeth! And a 6th one on the way. You definitely beat out your brother in this department. He only had 1 with a 2nd on the way. I adore that toothy grin of yours.

You are starting to do more of a traditional crawl now. You get on your knees and scoot around. It's a little hard to explain because you somehow manage to keep your feet tucked up under you. You will kneel and reach up onto the coffee table for the good stuff (remotes, phones, bubba's toys), but you still have no interest in bearing weight on your feet. Oh well, you move at your own pace.

You will now randomly say buh-buh for bubba and for bye-bye. I've also heard some uh ohs when you decide to throw your food on the ground. And there even have been some mamas when you are crying out for me because I left your line of sight. I'm excited for the day when you say mama because you are happy and not because you are wailing hehe.

You still love to suck your two first fingers of your left hand when you are tired. I tried and tried to get you to take a paci but no dice, fingers it is. You also are a snuggler. You will lay your head on my chest or in my lap and it melts my heart. You adore lovies and stuffed animals. Your pink bear that bubba made you is definitely a favorite. I know he beams with pride when you hug on it.

Bubs and sissy at twelve months

I could go on and on about how adorable you are and how much we adore you. This has been the best year baby girl. So excited for all the years to come.

All my love,
Mama


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Haddie-Lynn: eleven months

Dear Haddie-Lynn,

My little miss, you are eleven months old! You are such a beautiful little bundle of joy. The happiest baby about 95% of the time. Always smiling, laughing, clapping, and babbling. Your favorite song is "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!" You adore you big brother and he adores you just as much. You are his baby. 

You are sleeping from 7pm to 7am nearly every night. There are still the occasional middle of the night wake ups, but they don't happen too often. You sometimes nap at daycare, but definitely nap for mama at home. You typically will take a 2 hour nap right after lunch and then you are ready to go go go again.

You are doing really well with eating like a big girl. You haven't refused much although you are definitely starting to show preferences. Your favorite foods are fruits. Mama has to hide the banana if she wants you to eat anything else first because once it's locked into your sight, game over. You have three teeth now! You'll be eating cheeseburgers in no time, hehe.

You still nurse first thing in the morning and right before bed, but the times in the middle are a little all over the place. You'll nurse at least once in the middle of the day but you are such a busy body that it's normally not for long. In general though, you are a much faster nurser than your brother ever was. Even when you are sleepy, you are done in about 20 minutes total.

You are wearing 6m, 9m, and 12m dresses (ahh the beauty of a dress), but definitely only 12m footie pajamas. Those footies aren't going to last much longer either. You are a tall girl for sure. We will have to see how much you have grown at your 1-year check up. We did open up your diapers all the way right as your turned 11m, so you are on the longest stride and two rows open around the waist.

You are starting to understand the word no, and let's just say you aren't a fan. You have quite an opinion on things and if something doesn't go your way, you let us know. We keep reminding bubba to keep his toys out of your reach because they are the first things you go after. When you do manage to grab one, prying it out of your grasp isn't fun haha.

You still aren't crawling in the traditional sense, but that doesn't stop you from scooting across the room in the blink of an eye. You can still get around and get into trouble. If you fall over, you've finally realized you can push yourself back up. If you cry just right though, bubba will come to your rescue and help you up. He hates to see you stuck. You love love love your jumperoo. You may not like to stand up with help, but you'll jump your little heart out.

We all love you so so so much. You are our princess, our baby girl, our sweetness. You make our family complete. You're full of sass and full of love.

Bubs and sissy at eleven months

All my love,
Mama


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Haddie-Lynn: ten months

Dear Haddie-Lynn,

My little love bug. Ten months! How has it been ten months?? I'm starting to plan for your first birthday and I can't believe it. I truly could not imagine life without you in it. You have my heart forever baby girl. 

Food, food, food, you love food! You are an eating champ. We are starting to move from purees to cut up food like bananas, strawberries, chicken, potatoes, etc. You are a wonder at feeding yourself. You can gobby down a whole banana in the blink of an eye. Since you are eating so much now, your bottles have decreased to 4oz in size. While I still love nursing you, mama is more than ready to be done with pumping for daycare bottles.

The sippy cup is not your favorite. Well, let me rephrase. It's very fun to play with, but not so much to drink water out of. I put a smoothie in it one day and that kept your attention! Perhaps when you are ready to switch to milk, you'll like the sippy more.

No official stats this month, but you are wearing 9m and 12m clothing and 12m footie pajamas. The 9m footies are no more. Since we are in the season of dresses, these sizes should last all the way until it gets cool outside. Your hair is long enough to put bow clips in. Sometimes you'll leave them in and other times you'll grab and pull them right out haha. Your diapers are still on medium stride with two snaps open around the waist. Mama is having to replace all the elastic in your diapers. After being used on big brother, it was stretched out too much and causing leaks on all your pretty bubbles. We can't have that!

You are doing great with sleep! You still go to bed after your 7pm nursing and you sleep until 6:30-7 the next morning. At daycare you take little 45 minute naps in the morning and afternoon, but on the weekends you typically take one 2-3 hour long nap after your 12pm nursing. It's quite nice to have some quiet time where both you and your brother rest in the afternoon. Everyone wakes up with big big smiles.

No developments in the crawling department. In fact, you are quite stubborn about the whole thing. If we try to put you up on your knees you scream and cry. Oh well. 

You had your first trip to the beach this month and you were born to be a beach girl. You had a blast playing in the sand and letting the waves wash over you. I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself. 

Bubs and sissy at ten months

All my love, 

Mama

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Haddie-Lynn: nine months

Dear Haddie-Lynn,

My little miss sassy pants. I love to call you that, but truly you don't sass all that much. You just have a big personality for a little bitty girl, always smiling and giggling. You are our little ray of sunshine and light up the room. 

You are eating like a champ these days! I send a total of 16oz of food to daycare each day and not a drop of it comes back home. I can't list out all you've tried because there is just too much. So far the only thing you've truly refused after multiple attempts was sausage. No matter what I mixed it with, you were not having it.

You got your second bottom tooth just a week after the first one had popped through. All the better to scarf down cheerios, puffs, and cereal bars with haha! All this eating has definitely lead to some growing. You are 27.25" long (34.5th percentile), weigh 16lb 2oz (16th percentile), and have a head circumference of 18" (92nd percentile). For comparison, your brother was 27.5" long (17th percentile), weighed 16lb 13oz (3rd percentile), and had a head circumference of 18.5" (87th percentile). You are wearing 9m clothing for the most part. Six month footies are definitely a thing of the past, but some rompers and onesies still fit. It won't be for much longer though! Your diapers are still at the medium stride with two rows of snaps open. 

Your nursing schedule has been modified a little. You are nursing/having a bottle at 6, 9, 12, 3, and 7 now. Instead of 6 then 8, we split the difference and then you go to bed right after. It's been wonderful! I don't have to nurse you to sleep like I did your brother. Sometimes you fall asleep while nursing, but if you don't I can just lay you down in your crib anyway. You may fuss once or twice, but you suck on your fingers and snuggle with your lovie and blanket and are out within minutes. Hallelujah!

You still don't want to crawl. You like to sit on your play mat with all your toys and watch the world around you. If something rolls out of your reach you will stretch and lean just as far as you possibly can to get it back. Sometimes this backfires, you lose your balance, and end up falling on your face. You definitely don't appreciate when this happens haha.

We brought you into the pool for the first time this month. You loved it! I know you'll be a water baby just like your brother. You float around and splash the water, completely content. You're such a good sport when Bubba accidentally splashes you or makes waves with all of his jumps.

I'm very thankful that you don't show many signs of separation anxiety. As long as we give you a few minutes to feel someone out, you don't seem too afraid. You do so well during daycare drop off or in the nursery during church. Everyone marvels at just how happy you are! 

Bubs and sissy at nine months

Look at my girl grow!

All my love, 

Mama

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Haddie-Lynn: eight months

Dear Haddie-Lynn,

Another wonderful month with our wonderful girl. Your personality is a little sassy and a whole lot of sweet. You really do smile nonstop. Everyone loves to tell us what a great baby you are and I couldn't agree more. 

We've got a good little routine going on these days. Feeding is the same as last month, with nursing on the 3s and two 4oz servings of solids per day. We've added a few new things: spinach, chicken, and oranges. You also have your first tooth! You'll be chomping down food in no time.

You are starting to grow out of some of your 6m clothing. Things that snap like footies and onesies are getting a bit tight. You are a long and lean little girl. With the warmer weather, you've been wearing more dresses though, so those will fit for awhile. You've also moved up to the medium stride in your cloth diapers. 

Bedtime has changed a little bit. We've pushed up your last feeding to 8 and then you are down for the night. Mama was noticing that after your 6 o'clock feeding you were falling asleep in your mamaroo and then I would wake you at 9 to eat and go to bed. Why not wake you at 8 to eat and go to bed? This way mama and daddy have a little time before they need to go to bed too. You seemed to adjust to this no problem.

Another bedtime development is that you are now in your crib! It's only been about a week but you seem to be doing just fine! You fuss just a little bit until you start sucking on your fingers and then you just go right to sleep. I still can't believe that you are a finger sucker. You flat out refuse any sort of passy at all. It makes me a little sad. I loved the passy days with your brother.

You don't really show any desire on becoming mobile. No signs of crawling and you won't even bear weight through your legs yet. Anytime someone tries to stand you up, you tuck your little legs under your bottom. Oh well, no need to rush this sort of thing. You'll do it when you're ready. You are becoming really good at sitting up unassisted though!

It seems that Waldo has become your kitty of sorts. Every morning he comes into your nursery with me and waits by my feet as your nurse. As soon as your done and I sit you up, he hops into my lap so you can pet him. It's equally adorable and strange haha. Waldo has always been our unpredictable cat, but he seems to love on you no matter how much you might grab at his ears or tail.

Daddy and bubba still get the best smiles out of you. You get so excited to see your boys and start flapping your hands up and down. In the morning, I take you into bubba's room to wake him up and you both start the day with big smiles when I do. I adore seeing how much y'all love each other. Bubba and daddy both love to make you giggle. It is the sweetest sight.

Bubs and sissy at eight months

We all love you so so much baby girl!

All my love, 

Mama

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easter

About a month beforehand, my mom called me up and put in her request to have us spend Easter at the log cabin. She hadn't cooked for an army recently and who was I to deny her that pleasure? Quinn was actually able to spend a long weekend with them as well. His daycare was closed for Good Friday, but both the hubs and I had to work, so Memere came and got him Thursday afternoon and kept him until Sunday.

The easter bunny left a bucket of treats at our house for the little guy, so we brought them along. Glow in the dark items are a recent obsession and the bunny knows what's up, four packs of bracelets in various colors AND a glow sword.

Quinn is also completely tickled to sit quietly for huge chunks of time and work on puzzles. It's the only thing that keeps him still for that long. Bunny put two of those suckers in the basket! We also had 4 new Llama Llama books (fitting since I call him my little drama llama), egg shaped chalk (how could I not?), a travel color wonder book with marker (for future restaurant distraction), and lots of plastic eggs filled with jelly beans. PS I wish easter candy makers would get on board with more non-peanut contaminated products. I couldn't find one single chocolate bunny without the warning.

The other easter bunnies of the family set up a quick egg hunt in the back yard. Replace the smart phones with a standard film camera and I'm flashing back to many a hunt in my own Memere's yard. There were 5 cousins and we would each hunt for a specific color as to keep it even steven.

Quinn was fairly decent at the hunt, but good thing he didn't have any competition. Child is easily distracted, haha.

We were also able to get a pretty cute family picture. I still failed at getting any pictures of Quinn with grandparents or of all the awesome food. Ah well.

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surprise, surprise

Well it's finally out in the open! We are expecting our second bundle of joy this September! It's still pretty surreal to think about. Actually, I try not to think about it because when I do it's a mixed bag of "oh another sweet squishy baby!" and "crap, what have we done??"

Let's rewind a little bit. When the hubs and I decided to jump on the baby train again I knew I wanted to plan out a better reveal to him than what happened last time. (I took a test at 6 in the morning because I was too excited to wait any longer, excitedly told him he was going to be a daddy, he grunted and went back to sleep…ugh!)

I found a funny/cute card on Pinterest (because duh) and went ahead and printed it out beforehand. I had it stashed away in my craft room, ready. The morning I knew I could test, hubs was distracted with Quinn so he didn't know I was doing anything. Once the word "pregnant" flashed across the pee stick it was game on! (Still the longest two minutes of my life ever.)

I grabbed my card and the stick and handed it over.

I did attached the card to one of his favorite candies at least, gummy bears. This time there was more than a grunt. Hubs smiled real big and exclaimed, "awww you gave me something you peed on!" Always the romantic, that one.

For about the next 10 weeks, the pregnancy was our little secret. The hubs and I wanted to wait till I had seen the doctor, had a couple ultrasounds, and cleared past the first trimester before we revealed to the world. We did the same with Quinn and it's always easier said than done!

The first time we saw baby 2 was on February 5th, at 8 weeks 3 days. Sadly, the hubs was in Atlanta for work and couldn't be at the first ultrasound. I decided to ask the tech if we could FaceTime and thankfully she agreed! The hubs got to watch our little bean up on the screen thanks to technology.

The second time we saw baby 2 was on March 9th, at 13 weeks. We had decided to let Danny's boss know about the pregnancy so he could help manage the traveling schedule around our doctor's appointments, therefore hubs was in actual attendance this time around. We both breathed a sigh of relief when we saw baby 2 bouncing around and developing just as he/she should!

Now came the fun part of deciding how we would announce this baby to our families and our friends. I had been scouring Pinterest (again duh), but it all felt so "done." I really don't know how it hit, but it did. I decided to do a play on our last name. All I needed was a large scale or seesaw. Do you know that playground seesaws pretty much don't exist anymore? So what's a girl to do… Hubs to the rescue! He built one!

Of course Quinn thinks this seesaw is awesome, because it is! We called up our favorite photographer, Erica Billingsley, and she agreed to meet us at a park here in Spartanburg. She seriously is the best. It started with my maternity pictures when I was pregnant with Quinn and here she is capturing the beginnings of our second.

I made a card that we then printed out and handed to our parents and also mailed out to some friends and family who aren't on Facebook. We posted the pictures above on Facebook to announce to the rest!

Telling my family:
On Saturday, March 21st, we took a trip to Chapin because Quinn "had been begging to visit Memere and Papa" wink, wink. I also had told my brother we would be there and Quinn "would love to see his Uncle Casey." Both very true statements, but not the main reason for the visit. My mom had been cooking all morning for us and when we all sat down to eat out on the back porch, I had Quinn give Papa a belated birthday card to open.

He stared at the card for what seemed like forever haha. He finally said something along the lines of "oh that's so nice!" so I asked "well do you want to share the news?" Apparently it still hadn't clicked yet because he then replied "oh I get it!" and my mom instantly perked up and asked, "are you pregnant?!" Haha!

When we told them about Quinn, my mom got to open the gift of a baby bib and she screamed and cried so quickly my poor dad didn't have a clue what was going on. So I figured this time around, he would be the one to open up the reveal item, it just took a little longer for the puzzle pieces to come together haha.

Telling Danny's family:
On Sunday, March 22nd, we had tickets to take Quinn to see Mickey's Magic Show in Greenville. The show was at 4 o'clock so we planned on meeting Danny's parents and his sister's family downtown for dinner. Once everyone was seated and had ordered, we had Quinn give his mom the same card. She opened it and, again, seemed to stare at it forever. Kathy and Kevin instantly knew it was an announcement without even seeing the card so we all began to just giggle and look at each other seeing how long it would take to click. Kevin even whispered, "wait for it…." Finally Harriette's head popped up and she mouthed the words to me "are you pregnant?!" like it was still a secret. I laughed and said yes.

Now our secret is out in the open and I can stop trying to suck in my gut! Our next big milestone is the gender ultrasound on April 6th.

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