Day 197- 3 and 4 months!

Asher is already 4.5 months old!!!!!

A ton has happened over the past 2 months, but here is an update on Asher's development over the past two months.

Here he is at 3 months!  Such a cutie.

All smiles :)

 Asher, at 3 months you were quite the cutie.  You love to coo and "talk" to us.  You love singing, "this little piggie" and peek-a-boo.  You had some good weeks and bad weeks as far as sleep goes.  You slept through the night for about 2 weeks just before 3 months, then had a regression around the time that mommy and daddy took you to a wedding in Eureka Springs.  You were VERY attached to you paci and needed mommy to put it back in your mouth every 1.5 hours at night and after 45 minutes at naptime.  It wasn't long after this started happening that mommy took the paci away cold turkey.  Gotta do what you gotta do.  It only took you a few days to get the hang of soothing yourself on your own and you started sleeping better again.  You took 4 naps each day this month between 45 minutes-2 hours long.  You went to bed around 10pm.  You were eating 6-7 times a day- about 3-4 ounces.  You were just starting to grow out of 0-3 month attire and moving into 3-6 month clothes.  You wore size 1 diaper.  You rolled over a few times from tummy to back this month as well and do well during tummy time. You like to hold things and play under your play gym.  It is fun to see you pay more attention to Caleb and see him give you attention in return.  I love you!

More pictures of the next few weeks...

 1st time in the exersaucer.  You loved it!!!!

 Brothers together!

 Lovin' tummy time.

 Watching big brother play basketball with daddy.

 At the park! (I love your David Hunt eyebrows)

 More brother time!!!

 Walking to the playground at the church across the street.  Our near nightly ritual.  You love the ergo.

 Our family!

Asher, your 4th month of life was a BIG one!  You started rolling tummy to back easily, you started getting on all fours with tummy off the ground, and you started trying to move to get things.  At 4 months, you still weren't very good at being on your back or side, so mommy started practicing that with you more.  You are wearing size 3-6 and 6-9 month clothes and size 2 diapers.  Your disposition is so sweet and you are always ready to offer a smile or squeal.  You love people and will talk to us or try to scoot to get our attention.  You are very easy going as well.  You love to play in your exersaucer, take baths with your brother, have tummy time, and be outside.  At your 4 month appointment (which was at almost 4.5 months) you weighed 14lbs, 9 oz (25-50%) and were 26.2 inches long (75-90%).  You sleep through the night or get up once for them most part (every once in a while there is an outlier).  You go to sleep around 8:30 or 9 and get up between 7-8.  You take 3 naps a day that are 45 min- 1.5 hr long.  You eat about 5-6 times a day and take about 4-5 ounces each time, except for right before bed when mommy breastfeeds you, then feeds you a 5 ounce bottle of thawed milk.  Gotta fill that tummy up before bed!!!  I love you dearly and already feel like you are such an important part of our family.  Can't wait to see what the next weeks and months bring!  

Day 185- Independence Day

This Independence Day was a great day. 

Alan had to study in the morning, but came home at lunchtime so that I could run some errands while the kids napped. After naptime, we went over to our friends' house to go swimming. It was lots of fun to enjoy the pool with our kids.

We ended up staying for dinner and visiting til bedtime. It is just sweet to spend time with friends. We don't do it enough!  After we left, we came home and caught fireflies with Caleb. (The Shelton's yard is awesome for fireflies!). He was thrilled. He was even able to catch some himself. Then, to top it off, we went down the street to a church parking lot to watch our neighborhood golf course's fireworks display. Asher didn't seem to mind a bit. Caleb didn't like them too much until he figured out that it wasn't so loud if he plugged his ears. Then he kept saying, "Fireworks are so pretty. Fireworks are humongous!"  

We put the kids to bed as soon as we got home around 10 and headed that way ourselves. Overall, a lovely day!

* update on Real Food month- yesterday was the first day that I really wanted to cheat. I wanted to go get ice cream so bad to celebrate, but Alan helped me stay strong. I also put Ranch on my salad at our friends' house, but I'm trying to not be a total crazy about it :)

** Honey whole wheat brownies are NOT very good. Anyone have suggestions for moist** brownies without sugar????  Or any desserts (with chocolate) and no sweeteners except honey or maple syrup???

Day 181- Real Food Month

July is going to be Real Food Month at our house. This means:

Eating plenty of foods in their natural form

-veggies

-fruits

-meats

-nuts

-seeds

-dairy products

Eating homemade foods with whole ingredients

Eating store bought foods with less than 5 ingredients

This means NOT eating foods with:

Preservatives

Coloring

Highly processed oils

Added sugar (aside from honey or maple syrup)

Fillers

In addition, I am planning to leave out caffeine and alcohol. 

You can find my original inspiration for Real Food month at 100daysofrealfood.com. 

Our family did this challenge in January of 2012. It greatly changed our eating habits. I'm happy to say that I had much less food to clear out this time around and that the biggest challenge in all this is finding snacks and quick foods that we can eat when we don't have time to sit down and prepare scrambled eggs for breakfast or make guacamole for a snack. 

Things I'm hoping to gain:

Lose a little weight

Increase energy

Lower body fat percentage

Find snacks that we enjoy and are healthy

Increase Caleb's exposure to different types of food

Make healthy food decisions for our family while the kids are young