Tate: 2 Months Old

Time flies! I can't believe Tate hit his two-month mark on January 11th.

I have loved this age with all my babies because they are finally smiling and coo-ing and sleeping well at night. I love to look back on these monthly baby updates to help with my next baby, so here is a bit about Tate so that I'll remember...

 Tate is in a really good routine and he's pretty predictable. He nurses at 6:30, 10:00, 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, and 10:00. (He dropped his 7th feeding around 6-7 weeks?) He is a speedy eater like his sisters, so it only takes him 10 minutes each time he nurses. He is usually awake for 60-90 minutes after each feeding and then he goes down for a nap. He is sometimes a light napper if the girls are being noisy and we have to give him his pacifier mid-nap to help him go back to sleep. At night he goes to bed around 10-10:30 and then sleeps til 6:30. We usually don't hear a peep out of him at night, but he has an occasional night wear he wakes up earlier than 6:30 and we have to give him his pacifier or burp him and then put him back down.

 This is the face Tate makes when his belly hurts. He has a pretty sensitive stomach and it was worse this month than his first month. He spits up tons and gets fussy when I eat dairy. I've been avoiding dairy and that has helped, but he still deals with the spit up, and painful air bubbles in his belly. It's so sad when he's sore! The pediatrician thinks it's just something Tate will grow out of sometime this year. But we're getting used to it and figuring out how to relieve his discomfort with lots of burping, keeping him propped up, being careful with my diet. etc. It seems like he spits up everything he eats, but apparently not because he's gaining weight really well. He weighs 13 lbs 3 oz (80th percentile) and is 25.5 inches long (97th percentile). 

Tate has the cutest open-mouth smiles and loves to "talk" to us with his little sounds. It's the best. Mya is pretty good and getting smiles out of him, and Bryn is the expert at getting him to "talk".

Here are Bryn, Mya, and Tate at 2 months. 

(I want to squeeze Mya's leg rolls in that picture!!)

December

I'm learning that everything is a bit harder with three kids.... including keeping up on this blog! I love having a blog as a family record, though, so I'm going to try to keep up on it somehow. Here are lots of quick pictures from the month of December. It was a great month with our little family of five. Josh traveled a bit and I felt quite triumphant about surviving a few days and nights on my own with the girls and a new baby! Life with three kids is both wonderful and exhausting, but we are getting into a new routine and gradually figuring out how to manage it and give all three kids enough love and attention. The days are sometimes long, but what a blessing to have three sweet children in our home. It melts my heart to see the girls' constantly doting over Tate, or when I'm snuggling Tate on the couch while Bryn and Mya pretend they are princesses, or fairies, or whatever characters they are for the moment. Motherhood is the best. 

Anyway, December pictures...

I love Sundays in December! Wearing Christmas outfits, singing Christmas hymns, and hearing all the lessons and talks in church about Jesus Christ. It's the best time of year!

 I love these pictures of Tate. As the younger brother of two sisters, I don't think this will be the last time he is dressed up in something like this!

This was on Tate's one-month birthday

 What is it about cardboard boxes!? We got lots of packages from online purchases in December and my girls went nuts over all the boxes. We've still got about 15 boxes floating around the house. We need to get rid of them, but the girls are so attached to their cardboard "cars", "houses", etc. 

 We went to the fire station, had treats, climbed in the fire trucks, and talked to Santa.

We hadn't gone on many outings since Tate arrived, so this was so fun for the girls to get out and do something fun and different.

Bryn had an awesome week in December where she decided - on her own - to do a secret service each morning. It was so great! One morning she woke up and cleaned the basement playroom, another morning she wrote nice notes to everyone in our family, things like that. The picture above is when she decided to "make breakfast" for me and Mya. (Josh leaves before 6 am, so he missed this gourmet meal). Bryn toasted some bread, unwrapped a cube of butter and smooshed it into a little bowl, got out the jam, and laid out an assortment of fruit. Then she ran upstairs and woke us up to eat. It was so cute!! I love Bryn!

Bryn loves mismatching her jammies and Mya loves this pajama set that often comes unbuttoned, showing her belly. It cracks me up! 

The picture on the right is what Mya does when you ask her to smile for a picture. Her elbow goes up in the air and she does this little closed-mouth smile. 

Bryn draws all day and Mya loves to watch her. I love it.

We are going a bit stir crazy with these freezing temperatures, so Josh and I bought a Little Tikes play gym on craigslist for really cheap and we set it up in our unfinished basement. The girls have loved it and it helps them get a little energy out. (If only our basement wasn't so chilly! Oh well. We'll take what we can get!)

 Mr. Tate

More Tate

 And more Tate. 

He's smiling and coo-ing now and we sure love it!

 Tummy time with monkey. Thank you, Mya.

 My Aunt Carolyn came to town and it was so fun to see her a few times. She was so nice to bring us a delicious meal one night, and babysit Tate and Bryn for a couple hours one day so that I could have some solo time with Mya at the library. Sweet, little Mya needed some attention and we had such a nice morning with just the two of us. Thank you, Carolyn! 

 The girls loooooove holding their little brother

Bryn inherited the Clarke genes for allergies and asthma, so we spent a lot of time at the doctor's office trying to get her breathing under control. She is still doing three nebulizer treatments of albuterol every day, but she's doing better than in November and December. The treatments last 30 minutes each time and it's kind of a pain for Bryn, but she has been such a good sport about it! 

 These girls love Tate so much! 

The picture on the right is when Bryn picked out matching outfits for everyone with grey pants and striped shirts :)

 I didn't get much done in December. It was too cold to take Tate outside or to any stores, so we spent a lot of time just cuddled up at home.

 More Tate

And a few more Tate pictures just for good measure.

Bryn Turns 6!

Bryn turned 6 on December 30th! We sure love this sweet girl. It was fun to celebrate her special day. We do birthday parties every other year and this was her "off" year, so we just had a fun evening as a family.

Bryn requested a birthday dinner of Chick-fil-A.

 Opening presents and giddy as can be about it

 Her favorite gift this year was a set of Disney fairy figurines. She is really into the Disney fairy chapter books lately, so she's had fun playing with these figurines and acting out the stories. 

 Bryn finished the night with a breathing treatment. The poor girl has had asthma issues for two months and has had to do albuterol breathing treatments 3-4 times every day. 

This is Bryn on her birthday the last six years :)

Bryn has been such a fun child. She has always been so full of energy and personality. She is constantly making us laugh with all her theatrics and silly ideas, but she is also such a sweet and thoughtful child. We love all the notes she leaves on our pillows and the pictures and cards she gives to her friends. She has such a big heart. I'm so grateful to be her mother and so proud of the good girl she is becoming. 

We love you, Brynlee!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! The girls woke up at their regular time and then burst through the wrapping paper wall and ran downstairs to see if Santa had come. Bryn was really nervous that Santa might not have come (since we don't have a chimney/fireplace) but Mya comforted her by saying "It's okay Brynnie- we can still have cereal!" Bryn ran down the stairs yelling "Presents!" while Mya yelled "Breakfast!". Food is really important to Mya... she takes after her mother!

 Going through their stockings...

I feel really tacky that Santa has shopped on Craigslist two years in a row, but he found this awesome KidKraft dollhouse on craigslist for 1/6 the price of what it sells for online. It's in great shape and came with all the cute wooden furniture, too. Good work, Santa! The girls were so excited about it and they've played with it nonstop since Christmas.

 Tate's first Christmas!

The girls have been asking for Anna and Elsa costumes for the whole year and they finally got them at Christmas. Those are some high quality wigs!

 We joined Jake and Tyra's family for a delicious Christmas brunch. It's always hard to be away from our families on Christmas, so thank goodness that we have a bit of family nearby in New Jersey!

 Ha ha! This solemn little face is what we get most of the time for pictures. Oh Mya...

 We came back home, had dinner with our little family, and the girls had fun playing with their new toys. Most of these barbies are old, but Bryn got new barbie clothes from grandma, so this is the little fashion show of the new clothes.

 Christmas is such a fun time to be a parent. I loved seeing the sweet excitement in my girls all day- and all throughout the Christmas season. What a wonderful time of year to spend so much meaningful time as a family, celebrating the birth and life of Jesus Christ and trying to emulate his love and compassion in the way we serve those around us. I'm sad that Christmas is over, but excited for this new year ahead of us.

Christmas Family Sleepover

Josh suggested a new tradition this year: sleeping under the Christmas tree the weekend before Christmas. Tate and I actually sneaked upstairs and didn't sleep under the tree since he wasn't sleeping through the night at this point, but Josh and the girls had a fun sleepover and surprisingly the girls fell asleep without any trouble. (I thought they were going to get too silly!)

 I got the girls new matching pajamas for the sleepover and they were too giddy about them to smile for a regular picture. Silly girls :)

So cute!

We watched the old version of Rudolph the Reindeer - the one with the misfit toys and everything. I forgot how strange that movie is, ha ha!

Homemade cookies were required!

After the movie, the girls settled into their little spots and then it was bedtime!

 It was a really great night as a family! And three cheers for new Christmas traditions!