Grace Elizabeth - 7 Months

Wow has this last month gone fast! Gracie continues to knock down milestone after milestone while continuing to be the happiest girl on the block at the same time. Our little girl is sure a trooper - adjusting to a new house, mom going back to work, hectic mornings, more baby food, and, just in the last week, formula without a hitch.


Gracie started off her sixth month by mastering sitting. Then, to make mom proud and actually accurate for once in terms of predicting when milestones might happen, Gracie literally started crawling the day she turned 7 months. We do have this on video, but I have yet to attempt downloading from our video camera to my computer - I will put doing so on my blog to-do list! (Also on my blog to-do list are 6 month/2 year pictures along with some pictures of our new house!) Ultimately, I'm not surprised that Gracie is crawling 2 months earlier than Olivia did. Throughout the month Gracie was turning in circles, scooting backwards, and practicing her "super-baby" pose (flailing arms and legs while on belly) in preparation for that first scoot - actually it was more of a full body lunge - forward. Grace is certainly a go-getter and has great desire to play along with her big sissy. Over half the time, Gracie goes nuts when Olivia bounces into the room - kicking her legs, squealing, and now scooting to get closer.


Personality wise, Gracie continues to be incredibly cheerful, fairly flexible, and a mommy's girl (although her favorite sounds are dada and raaaaa - the raaaaa comes from watching Olivia and Brian "play roar" as Olivia likes to say). The picture of Gracie on the couch actually was taken at Slumberland Furniture where Grace and I went to take pictures of some sofa options for Brian to later look at. Grace apparently thought posing on the sofas was one of the coolest things and smiled and squealed with every flash of the camera.


Our schedule has become fairly consistent now. Gracie usually starts her day around 6:30 and ends it around 7:15. In between is a bottle, breakfast, a morning nap, a bottle, lunch, an afternoon nap, a bottle, dinner, and a bath before her bedtime bottle. She's doing better with taking bottles but rarely drinks more than 4 ounces at a time. I sneak in extra ounces by adding formula and cereal to her breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I'm hoping that my prediction (from the sixth month entry) about Gracie sleeping through the night at 8 months proves to be as accurate as the crawling at 7 months was! At some point during the night Grace wakes up for a bottle. Honestly, although I wouldn't mind sleeping through the night, it's okay with me that she's still getting up. Gracie's a peanut - 15.4 ounces (20th percentile), so I'm okay with her taking a few extra ounces in the middle of the night. Plus, now that I'm done nursing, Brian and I can trade off with this responsibility! :)

Lately we've been spending a lot of time with our new neighbors (actually we're their new neighbors) the Gavle's. Maggie, their daughter, is just two weeks younger than Gracie, and it's fun to see how their entertain each other already - Jamie and I have joked that we think sometimes they get sick of us! Olivia loves Maggie too and asks on a very regular basis to go "see Baby Maggie and Jamie." Here's a picture of the girls at the pool. We are so happy to have such great friends living so close by!


I should do another entry sometime soon about Grace and Olivia's relationship. I truly do think their sisterly-bond is as strong as it possibly can be at 7 months and 2 years old. Although I won't pretend that Gracie has never cried because of something Olivia did/took away, I feel like I can also say that Olivia is protective of and extremely loving toward her "sissy." They love seeing each other for the first time in the morning, taking baths together, "talking," and generally playing. Olivia continues to be very helpful with fetching diapers, toys, etc., and, almost always, gladly entertains Gracie when I need a few minutes to get things done. Lately, Olivia has taken to calling Gracie "punkin" and "buggy" (abbreviation for "love bug").

Nothing makes me smile more these days than my two sweet little girls. Life is good.

Check Me Out!

Wordless Wednesday

This picture is taken at our old house, but it still applies since
Livy still asks to sit in the "applesaucer."

First Haircut

Last week I finally gave in and agreed to get Olivia's hair cut. Even though I do miss her curly little tail, I do have to admit that the trim did her good. Her hair looks a lot thicker and has a bit more curl in it. All we need is a little humidity to get the curls really going!

We decided to let Denny Smock - a family friend - have the honors of Olivia's first haircut down at his barbershop. Denny has, of course, given his own grandchildren their first cuts! Brian needed a haircut, so we all watched Daddy to get Olivia warmed up to the idea. The warming up didn't go perfectly, so I ultimately bribed her with some ice-cream. I wouldn't say Olivia was a fan of the haircut process (I didn't expect her to be), but the ice-cream bribe was a serious help, and I am just pleased that we didn't have a tantrum and that Olivia was quite cooperative. Actually, I may even venture to say that Denny and Olivia were getting along pretty well by the end of her cut - Olivia even gave him some knucks and Denny responded by saying the haircut was on the house. :)

These pictures speak pretty well for themselves....

Uh, mom, I really don't care if you're wearing a cape too....
I'm NOT interested.

Dad, will you stop taking pictures and get me out of here!

I'm seriously not pleased, but I will be a good girl and not fidget.
But don't mind me, I'm just going to pout a bit.

Okay fine, I'm done pouting, but don't expect me to smile....
All I really want it my "ice-ceem."

Grace Elizabeth - 6 Months

It's absolutely crazy to think that Grace is already half a year old! It never ceases to amaze me how much babies change during that first year of life....

Grace's 5 1/2 month pictures have been ordered (along with Olivia's 2 year pictures), so I will hopefully be sending those out soon. Grace will have a 6 month appointment sometime soon too, so we'll get to see where she's at in the statistic department.


In the last month it's really hit me that Gracie isn't a bitty baby any more. Lately (actually starting about two weeks ago) she's a rolling machine, using this skill to bring anything and everything to her mouth. During this past month Grace has gotten a little more aggressive with reaching too and sometimes surprises me with the things she manages to get her hands on. Gracie's drooling a whole bunch again, but so far no sign of any more teeth which is okay with me. Hopefully the teeth stay away for a bit because nights have taken a great turn with Gracie only getting up once instead of twice. I'm happy because we didn't have to battle to get this accomplished, Grace just did it on her own. I can handle once a night, but I was concerned with the twice a night deal with school starting just around the corner.

Favorite toys include anything that squeaks, rattles, or lights up. And, of course, Olivia is really Grace's favorite "toy." Gracie has got to be one of the happiest most easy-going babies out there. Her laughter comes easily and she's quick to smile at pretty much anyone who makes any effort towards entertaining her. I seriously appreciate that Gracie entertains herself well and is equally entertained by Olivia. Their sisterly bond is pretty amazing. The only thing Gracie gets a little sassy about is bedtime - but in this sense I don't mind because she wants to go to bed! Bedtime for Grace isn't ever much later than 7:30. Mornings start for us around 6-6:30. I'd love for it to be later, but this wake-up time is actually perfect for when school starts, so I shouldn't complain. Plus, it's hard not to be happy to pick up Grace in the morning with her wide smiles and happy squeals.

Besides the rolling all over the place, other signs of growing up are....

* Starting baby foods: So far we've done (in order) plain cereal, bananas, green beans, applesauce, squash, and peas. Grace has done great with foods and shows major interest in the entire eating process - once again, I attribute this to Olivia. The only downsides are that I don't feel like Grace is nursing as well and that she has dirty diapers non-stop! Right now, in terms of baby food meals, Gracie is having breakfast and dinner. We're still working on adjusting the nursing/eating schedule to accommodate these meals, so I don't think I'll try lunch for a while yet. You'd think I'd know exactly what I'm doing this second time around, but apparently not. I also need to try out the sippy cut soon, but I think I'll wait until I stop nursing (which will be when school starts).

* Beginning sitting: Gacie is getting better at sitting. I'm not going to claim that she can do this yet, but we're getting there. So far the longest sit without assist has maybe been 1 minute.... Like I said, we're working on it. At least Gracie doesn't seem to mind the falling over onto her face thing.


* Growing some hair: If you didn't see it for yourself, Gracie's bald spot was pretty incredible. It started out fairly typical (just the spot from lying on her back), but then it kept growing! However, the baldness literally stopped progressing at her ears making her completely bald in the back with three inch long hair in the front. Rather interesting... Now though, the bald spot is on it's way out. This new hair has some serious catching up to do, but I have faith!

* Making lots of sounds: Many of you know about Gracie's classic squawk. Now, to accompany this we have lots of various chocking/coughing noises, a softer squawk, and bababa/dadada. Of course the dada is my favorite.

* General understanding: Gracie has also developed a bit of a whine that she now uses to indicate displeasure if something is taken away. She's realized that she can get my attention by acting like something's wrong and clearly enjoys seeing these attention-getting sounds work. She also seems to understand that her laughter is contagious.

How lucky we are to have two such happy kids! I can't wait to see what the next six months of Gracie's life brings. My predictions: Crawling - 7 months, Sleeping through the night (am I trying to jinx myself?) - 8 months, Walking - 11 months. We'll see how close I am!

Favorite Things...

To add to Olivia's two-year old post, here's a list of some of my favorite things (or things I think are most funny, odd, etc...) about her right now...

* Loves singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Wheels on the Bus" with hand motions
* Has no fear of water what-so-ever
* Asks for Gracie upon waking
* Is a great cuddler - especially in the mornings
* Is speaking in short sentences
* Loves to be naked (see below)


* Says she's "cold" when she wants to be wrapped up in her blanket
* Randomly kisses me on the cheek and lips
* Understands sharing - although isn't always good at it
* Shares her silkie to comfort others
* Knows she makes Gracie happy and entertains her just because she likes to
* Is learning (sort of) her colors because of her love for "freezie-pops"
* Snags my freezie so she can finish the juice from both hers and mine
* Always identifies everything as pink when asked
* Counts sporadically - one, two, one & eight, nine, ten
* Asks to sing "abacee" aka the ABCs frequently
* Is Little Miss Helpful
* Enjoys cleaning with mommy
* Loves watering the plants and has her own watering can


* Can finally have a ponytail - although it's rather pathetic
* Is potty-trained (with exceptions of course)
* Congratulates herself after going potty with "Good job Biva!"
* Has gotten over her fear of bugs and now squishes ants with her fingers
* Has slowly, but surely, become a social butterfly
* Sometimes tells me that "mommy pretty"
* Loves the word "silly"
* Is an excellent dancer and enjoys music
* Can finally say her name - "Biva Huinker" - but when asked what her name is sometimes responds "Two" and/or "Happy Birthday" (clearly we worked on those two responses a lot!)


* Plays with her babies non-stop
* Is starting to play make-believe (mostly involving her babies)
* Likes to do everything "self"
* Spontaneously says she needs a time-out even though she's only gotten three of these from me (apparently they made an impact)
* Has a renewed love for books and will read by herself at times
* Loves swinging but wants me to carry her across the sand to the swings at the park so she doesn't get sand in her shoes
* Has made great strides in the running, climbing, jumping, etc... department
* Loves washing her hands and wants to do this constantly when playing with chalk
* Says "nite-nite mommy" and "love you" every night as I'm leaving the room

I'm sure I will think of more things to add to this list the moment I officially post it, but I think it's a good start at recording all that's happening at this point in Olivia's life!

Happy 2nd Birthday Olivia!

Last weekend Olivia entered the world of two year olds in grand fashion. Here's a run down of all that happened...


On Thursday (the 8th) we had Olivia's 2-year check. Olivia weighed in at 25 pounds 13 ounces and was 33 inches tall. Both these measurements put her in the 30th percentile, so we still have a peanut on our hands. Otherwise, we were congratulated on having Olivia potty trained (more on that another time) and were informed that she's just perfect - not that we didn't already know this!

Despite this pout, Olivia had a blast playing out in the yard!

We had a great time at my parent's house for the remainder of the weekend.... On Thursday Olivia got to hang out a bunch with her Auntie Thyme. They had a fantastic time together as you can tell from the pictures! The sprinkler was a great hit, and I wish I had recorded all the giggles that accompanied the many trips through the water! I absolutely love watching Thyme and Olivia play together - really, if you consider their ages, they could be sisters. Olivia very clearly adores Thyme. She mimicks her both in voice and action, and since getting to spend a solid weekend following Thyme around, Olivia asks about her frequently. It will be fun to watch them grow together - and, I look forward to seeing if they look alike - I'm seeing more resemblance as Olivia gets older!


On Friday morning, Mark, Brian, Thyme, Olivia, Grace, and I headed up to the Minnesota Zoo. The girls did great and Olivia was fairly adventurous. For as much as a trooper as Gracie was, I think next time we'll have to leave her home at grandma's. I felt bad for her in the heat and her nap schedule was all messed up. Grace, however, was amazing and hardly made a fuss. Olivia seemed to enjoy seeing all the animals - if I had to decide, I'd say that the fish, leapord (once she realized it couldn't come through the glass - see picture below), and the prairie dogs were her favorite. Next time we'll have to try to visit "The Farm" again, but we bi-passed it as we had just visited the fair and seen all the farm animals the day before. After the zoo we hit up Noodles before heading home. Surprisingly, Olivia stayed up in the car, but she crashed for 2.5 hours when we got home.

Olivia was just a bit intimidated by the "big kitty."

After nap we took a trip over to the neighbor's pool. Olivia continues to be quite the water animal, and, if Grace's kicking arms and legs are any indication, she will be too!


Later in the evening more relatives came over for gift opening and cake. Looking at these pictures, you might be wondering why Olivia has a Fourth of July birthday cake.... Well, let's just say it was a great deal at Dairy Queen (we had to go for the ice-cream cake since Olivia still will have nothing to do with breads - even in sweetened form). I wasn't too please when Brian came out with a non-birthday cake, but I guess it'll make for a good story in the future and Olivia obviously didn't mind!


Olivia didn't want to go to bed after all the festivities which I guess means she had a fun day and didn't want it to end! I enjoyed getting some extra cuddles at bed time. I can't believe how quickly two years have flown by. I've pretty much forgotten what life without kids is like, and I can't imagine what life would be like without Olivia. Not a day goes by that she doesn't bring a smile to our faces and laughter to those around her. You are one of a kind Olivia, and we love you for it!!!