Been so behind with the updates!  Here we go…

JAREN

Stats
No stats at the time of this update, but he is currently wearing 12 month onesies, 9-12 month tops, 18 month sleepers, 12-18 month pants (mostly because of his big belly, they end up being too long for him though), and in size 4 diapers.

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Milestones/Development
– Doing this Korean exercise where he opens and closes his fists every time we say, “Jam Jam.”
– Total of 7 teeth. 3 on top and 4 on bottom.  He’s currently teething again because his drooling is nuts and he’s constantly chewing on his fingers.  Hasn’t affected his sleep yet (at the time of this update).
– Starting to crawl more with his belly off the ground – he does this pike looking maneuver with his legs when he is reaching towards something.
– Pulling up higher and higher onto everything.
– Babbling a lot… lots of it sounds like “dada,” but I refuse to believe that it’s his first word!

Firsts
– First Halloween
– First Picnic
– First Photoshoot
– First time wearing a dress (mama got bored)
– First Thanksgiving (and first time trying turkey)

Could not get a good picture of him at the pumpkin patch!  He was scared

Solids
He’s now getting 3 meals a day and breastmilk 4x a day.  Usually his breakfast and dinner are finger foods that he can grab on his own to eat, but lunches are often purees. My MIL watches him while I’m working, and she feels more at ease feeding him purees so I just let her do what she feels most comfortable with.  I’m still working on teaching him how to use a straw cup – he just thinks it’s a toy and it always ends up tossed on the floor.

More playing than drinking from his straw cup

He LOVES food!

Sleep
He’s a really great sleeper, and we haven’t really had to do much to get him to sleep. He regularly takes two 1.5-2 hour naps. He goes down for the night around 7 pm, and is up for the day anywhere from 5:30-6:30 am. He’s an early riser and wakes up at the same time like clockwork.

Here’s a typical day for Jaren:

6 am – Wake up and Nurse
7 am – Breakfast – usually a variation of eggs, pancakes, and cut up fruit
9 am – 1st nap (1.5-2 hours)
10:30 am – Nurse or bottle
12 pm – Lunch – usually purees.
1:30 pm – 2nd nap (1.5-2 hours)
3 pm – Nurse or bottle
6 pm – Dinner – whatever we’re eating.
6:30 pm – Nurse and sleep

NOELLE

We transitioned her to a new preschool at the beginning of November!  Although I kept going back and forth about my decision at first, it turned out to be a great one.  She loves her new school.  There’s a lot less resistance getting her there now, and she actually rushes us out the door in the mornings.  She’s always happy when she comes home, and her sleep has improved so much too!  Must be from all the increased learning and stimulation.  This new school is closer to home, brand new, super clean, provides lunch, and has webcams so we’re able to monitor what they’re up to at any time of day.  We are all so happy with this decision!

In the last two months, it also seems like she’s had another language explosion.  Her sentences are getting so much more complex.  She is a very articulate little girl and picks up on every little thing.

She is always correcting me now.  She thinks she’s always right and knows everything.  This must be a “three” thing right?  Even if I KNOW I’m right, she will say, “No mama… it’s THIS.”  I just nod my head and humor her, haha.

She’s coming out of her shell a lot more now too.  She suddenly loooves to dance, and insists that I dance with her.  She sings all the time, laughs so much, and is a lot quicker to warm up to new people these days too!  It is so neat to see her personality develop, and really interesting to see how much she’s changed in the course of a few months.

SIBLING LOVE

As Jaren gets increasingly more mobile and into Noelle’s things, we’ve had to really monitor them in case we find Noelle stepping on, hitting, or pinching her brother. Noelle gets possessive of her stuff and doesn’t like it when Jaren starts chewing on her things. She jumps into my lap when she sees Jaren crawling towards her and says, “Jaren’s comiiing!!!”  The moment Jaren wants to play with something she’ll immediately want it too. We keep having to tell her to wait her turn, and remind her that Jaren is still a baby and doesn’t understand yet.  I see now why siblings tend to fall into roles like “the baby of the family.”

Despite this, she still shows a lot of affection towards her brother.  She gets really excited when he wakes up from a nap.  She runs to hug him first when she comes home from preschool.  She strokes his head and tells him, “it’s ok” when she hears him crying.

Sometimes they eye each other with skepticism…

Other times they can’t resist each other

Let’s hope there’s more of the latter!  Til next month…