9 months [babywise]

9 months [babywise]

Rogue turned 9 months 2 weeks ago and I am so far behind on this update.  Rogue is so much fun, he's making these months fly by!  I can't imagine how fast the months will be go once it's actually warm outside.

At 9 months, our little Rogue is 20 pounds and 29 inches.  He continues to be an easy baby and hardly ever fusses or cries for us.  He's truly a gem and we feel so happy and so blessed that God gave him to us.  He is an opposite baby than Solis.  She still wasn't crawling at 9 months.  Rogue has been at it for 2 months now and gets into everything.  Even when Solis started crawling, she didn't get into stuff, she was so chill.  Rogue is our active one!  When we wake him up from naps, he doesn't just wake up slowly.  He immediately sits up and pulls himself up to standing.  This kid is ready for action right away!  Car rides are a dream with him, he never ever fusses.  Solis was a pill in the car at his age so we are loving his temperament so far.  His personality is starting to show and he does this head tilt thing and smiles at us, which just about melts me every time.

Eating:  Rogue drinks 6oz, 4x a day.  He eats a fruit or veggie puree 3x a day.  And this past month, we started giving him finger foods after his purees.  He loves to feed himself.  He has tried (and loved) scrambled eggs, ground turkey, mashed black and pinto beans, pasta, cheese, torn pieces of bread, meatballs, salmon, and tilipia.  Between the bottles, purees, and now finger foods, I feel like we spend half our day feeding him!

Waketime: This kid is non stop for his 2 hour waketimes.  He doesn't stop crawling, cruising around, crawling to the next stop, standing again.  He stands so well holding on with one hand now.  He hardly falls anymore.  This age is so much fun and hectic!

Mr. Trouble

constant laughing and goofing around from these 2 :)

Sleep: I feel so repetitive each month but Rogue still sleeps amazingly well.  Sleeps from around 8:20pm-8am and takes two 2-hour naps.  We still put him down for a half hour catnap in the evening b/c he can't handle staying up from his last nap to bedtime....or maybe we just like the half hour break from watching him constantly? ;)  When we get Rogue ready for naps or bed, we turn his sound machine on and he immediately reaches for his crib now.  That boy loves his crib!  

Schedule: 

8am 6oz, breakfast

10-12 nap #1

noon 6oz, lunch

2-4 nap #2

4pm 6oz, snack

6-6:30 nap #3

6:30 dinner

8pm 6oz then bed

  These 2 are quickly becoming the best of friends.  Solis is by his side every time he's awake.  She's the first to run into his room when nap time is over.  And Rogue follows her around like a lost puppy.  He doesn't even follow his mommy!

We all love you, Roguey! XOXO 

LOVE art

LOVE art

Valentine's Day is only 2 weeks away so we are all kisses, love, and sweets around here.  It's time to take down all the snowman artwork in Solis's playroom and fill it with pinks and reds!

Supplies

Cardstock

Painters Tape

a variety of finger paints (we used red, pink, and 2 shades of purple)

 This finger paint LOVE sign was really easy to make and super cute & colorful.  The hardest part was cutting out tape to make the letters.....

please ignore my funny looking O :)

I used painter's tape so the paper wouldn't rip when it was time to tear the tape off.

At first, Solis would just dot one finger at a time.  At this rate, it would take her till the 4th of July to finish.

I suggested using multiple fingers to paint and it was like the lightbulb went off in her little blonde head...."Ooooooh, now this is fun, mommy, but I'm gonna get messy!"

A certain little baby wanted in on the paint fun.

Those cheeks!  I want to kiss them right through my computer screen.

When Solis napped, I let the paint dry.

 Solis loved watching me peel away the tape to reveal the letters.  And voila!  
An original Solis finger painting creation :)

the cutest little snowmen feet

the cutest little snowmen feet

You can find these snowmen feet all over pinterest and I made a variation of them last year (click here).  But that didn't mean I wasn't going to make them again, especially now that we can add Rogue's chubby tiny little foot!

We have been getting little bits of snow here and there and to say Solis loves it is an understatement.  I am more than happy to stay inside when Rogue naps and daddy and his girl play until they have "red marks on their faces", as Solis says.

 Her princess snow woman.  With no eyes.  

But a crown and butterfly wings (which you can't see).

 Another freezing walk around the block.  Only 50 more days till spring!!

Snowman Counting Activity

Snowman Counting Activity

Last week, we made a snowman craft (found here).  This week, I broke out some buttons and got my little girl counting.  This was a little simple for my 3 1/2 year old but it's a super cute activity and Solis loved rearranging all the buttons and then sorting them by color afterwards.

Supplies:

cardstock-white and different colors for hats

velcro sticky tape

bag of buttons

markers

First I made the snowman by tracing different size tupperware containers.  Next I cut out 9 hats and wrote the numbers 1-9 on each one.  I laminated the snowman and hats for extra durability but it's not necessary.  The next step was cutting little velcro pieces and placing one on each hat and all the buttons and also 9 pieces on the snowman.  This step isn't necessary either....your child could just place the buttons on the snowman.

And then all you do is pick a hat and count that many buttons to put on the snowman.
Simple enough!

8 months [babywise]

8 months [babywise]

This was a crazy month.

Rogue turned into a non stop wild man....
and gained 3 top teeth!

He's been crawling since 7 months and started pulling up a week after that.....which he does on everything, resulting in several falls a day as he's learning to find his balance.  We have hardwood floors in our whole house except one room.  So as you can imagine, there are lots of tears everyday.  Shaun joked that maybe we should buy Rogue a helmet b/c he falls so much.  But maybe we should?  I seriously worry he's going to have damage from hitting his head so much.  Poor kid.

This was before we put the gate on the stairs and I found the stinker climbing them.

 Rogue likes to live dangerously.

At 8 months, Rogue's reflux seems to be gone.  He's still on meds and we will wean him soon.  He loves playing with his big sister, exploring every inch of our house, and will stay in his highchair to eat all day long if we let him.  He only cries if he falls or is with a stranger and is quite happy otherwise :)

His schedule this past month:

8am 7oz, solids

10-12 nap #1

noon 7oz, solids

2-4 nap #2

4pm 7oz

6-6:30 nap #3

6:30 solids

8pm 7oz then bed 

Eating: Rogue still takes a bottle 4x a day and eats solids 3x.  He's getting really good at picking up puffies and we will be moving onto finger foods soon!

 Sleep: His sleep is still incredible.  He sleeps around 11.5-12 hours a night straight through.  Takes 2 solid naps and one catnap.  Rogue puts himself to sleep after some quick snuggles from mommy.  I feel so fortunate to have both my babies sleep so good.  Babywise has kept me sane!

Twice a week, I have to wake Rogue only after an hour to pick Solis up from school.
He always looks so peaceful and I hate waking him!

Solis: She is an amazing sister.  Yes, we have our times when she gets frustrated with Rogue b/c he's grabbing her things.  But we're working on how to handle those situations.  Solis gets so excited every time Rogue is up from a nap.  She is really enjoying having a playmate in the house.  I catch them playing side by side daily and it's the cutest thing.  Whether she's dancing around the room or teaching him animal sounds, he giggles at her non stop.  I can only pray they continue this fun loving relationship with each other.

First time Rogue sat in the cart.  They seem unimpressed.

We love this little 19 lb guy so much and cannot imagine our family without him.
Happy 8 months, sweet pea!

Marshmallow Craft

Marshmallow Craft

I used to do a lot of crafts and learning activities with Solis.  Then her little baby brother came into the picture and all those fun activities went out the window and sticker books made a permanent home in Solis's life.  Now that Rogue is getting older and a new year brings resolutions, I found it fitting to start doing crafts again with my Sole-train.

So we are starting off January with a marshmallow snowman.  

First I had Solis draw 3 circles.  This took several tries to put them on top of each other and make them big enough.

Then I put glue on each circle and she placed the marshmallows on the glue.

The end result is an unproportional snowman but she made the circles all by herself and was super proud of it!

Since we had leftover marshmallows, Solis created another masterpiece.  She wrote her name in pencil, I covered it in glue, and she went to work.

 Can't end this post without a picture of our Roguey!

I dressed him in Bengal gear today to support daddy's team for the playoffs.  Rogue was not their good luck charm :(

7 months [babywise]

7 months [babywise]

I say the same thing every month.
There's no way Rogue is 7 months already??
My baby grew up so much this month.
He's reaching milestones months ahead of Solis.
First he started sitting up.

 We were really enjoying the "just sitting" stage.
But only for like .5 seconds.  (Thanks, kid.)
Because Mr. Over Achiever decided to start crawling a week before his 7 month birthday.
Big sis didn't crawl till 10 1/2 months.

And then he pulled this fast one on us.

Rogue thoroughly enjoys crawling towards cords, the Christmas tree, stairs, and anything he shouldn't be near.  Our kids are so different.  We never baby proofed with Solis b/c she stayed by my side and hardly ever tried to get into anything she shouldn't.  And at 3 years old, she's still stuck to me like glue.  Rogue is going to be our wild child for sure.  And 2 other random things, he started saying da da and had to get his hair cut for the 2nd time!

And now onto the Babywise stuff.....

Eating: Rogue dropped a feeding and now only gets 4 bottles a day (yea!!).  He is a big fan of all veggies (orange and green) and bananas.  We started giving him puffs but he's not quite coordinated to get them to his mouth yet.

Naps: On days when we're home, Rogue takes a 2 hour morning nap, 2 hour afternoon nap, and a 30 minute catnap around dinner.  I never, ever skip one of the first 2 naps.  The first one is usually short b/c we're out doing something but he just sleeps longer in the afternoon.  If there's one thing I firmly believe from Babywise, it's sleep begets sleep.

Night Sleep: He's hitting the sack around 8:20, after his last bottle.  And once again, this kid is amazing and sleeps till 8 in the morning.  He did have one night this month when he woke up 3 times.  But he was just talking, no crying.  I went in the first time and he just started laughing at me.  It was pretty funny until he did it 2 more times that night.  What a stinker. 

Schedule: If you know anything about Babywise, you know how exciting it is when your baby goes to the 4 hour schedule!

8am 6oz, solids

9:45-12 nap #1

noon 6oz, solids

1:45-3:45 nap #2

4pm 6oz

5:30-6:15 nap #3

6:30 solids

8pm 6oz then bed

Solis: She loves her brother so much.  She loves helping him, playing with him, entertaining him.  But now that Rogue is on the move, she can be possessive of her things.  One day I suggested that if she doesn't like it, give him a toy that he can play with.  She now dumps out ALL of Rogue's toys anytime he's up and is getting used to the idea of sharing her things.  Maybe not all her things but baby steps.  She loves calling him buddy and he literally sparkles when she talks to him.

Happy 7 months, Rogue!  You may be wild and active but you are ever so sweet and smile constantly.  You get so excited and bounce up and down on your hands and toes when you see us.  You are such a happy baby and that makes me one happy mommy :)