Haddie Mae: 8 months

Dear Haddie,

At 8 months...

• You wear 9 month clothes
• You weigh 18.5 pounds but are still very short (which makes for an adorably chubby body!)
• You wear size 3 diapers
• People often mistake you for a boy, which is probably my fault because I dress you in a lot of navy and blue since it compliments your fair skin and red hair
• You take 2 naps a day, usually around 10 and 2. You go to bed between 6:30-7:30, usually closer to 6:30-7:00 though.
• You usually eat about 6 bottles a day with about 5-6oz in each. 
• You eat 2-3 meals a day depending on your nap schedule- your favorite foods are zucchini and corn, mac n cheese, and almost anything with fruit.
• You are finally sleeping through the night (7 to 7) without any feedings, and rarely even need me to put your paci back in. Just this week you figured out how to find one in your crib (I keep like 4 in there) which has been awesome
• You are finally napping in the crib and are no longer swaddled while you sleep
• You have started being bashful around people and will bury your head in your car seat or my shoulder when you are feeling shy. But you never completely bury your face because you want to know where everyone is at all times. 
• Your favorite toys are anything that is not a toy (car keys, spoon, shoe, etc). Especially a medicine syringe, water bottle and your brother's hair. 
• You are getting two teeth in on the bottom, but they are just barely coming through. Even when you're teething you're still a great baby, slightly fussier on occasion and you want to be held a lot, but it doesn't seem to affect your sleeping or behavior too much. You do eat less and drink more milk, though. 
• You can sit up by yourself and I've started helping you stand and hold onto the table
• You still refuse to lay on your stomach, ever, for any reason
• You love your daddy, I'm pretty sure he's your favorite person. As soon as he walks through the door at night you track him everywhere he goes and you constantly smile and laugh at him 
• You have started holding your own bottle and do pretty well with feeding yourself
• You have started crying sometimes if I leave you in the living room alone
• You think your big brother hung the moon. Seriously. You watch him so intently and laugh even when he's not doing something funny. He puts your paci in when you cry and has fed you a bottle and constantly smothers you in hugs an kisses. 
• You get crazy with other kids. You start laughing and kicking like crazy, it's the only time we see you get hyper
• You are still a great car sleeper and I am so thankful for that!

There is a song by Jars of Clay called "Love Song for a Savior" and I have been singing it as I rock you to sleep this week. Here are the lyrics:

In open fields of wild flowers,

she breathes the air and flies away

She thanks her Jesus for the daises and the roses

in no simple language

Someday she'll understand the meaning of it all

He's more than the laughter or the stars in the heavens

As close a heartbeat or a song on her lips

Someday she'll trust Him and learn how to see Him

Someday He'll call her and she will come running

and fall in His arms and the tears will fall down and she'll pray,

"I want to fall in love with You"

Oh, baby love. As I sit and rock you I look at your long lashes on your cheeks as you close your eyes, and your sweet dimpled hand resting on my chest, and I pray over and over again, "Lord, let this precious girl fall in love with you." All of the love and beauty and joy you have experienced so far in this world, it all comes from one place, Jesus. Rest in that, my littlest love. He is unwavering, he will protect you and love you fiercely, more than even Mommy and Daddy. We dream of so many things for your life, little one, but the biggest hope of all is that you learn to love Him fiercely, too. 

We love you to the moon and back, Haddie Mae. 

 Your hair is still very red!

Haddie Mae: 7 months

Dear Haddie,
At 7 months...

• You wear 6-9 month clothes but pants are big around your waist
• You weigh about 16 pounds.
• You wear size 3 diapers
• People make a lot of comments about how you look like your brother and especially how red your hair still is!
• You take 2 naps a day, usually around 10 and 2. If you take a good afternoon nap (sleeping til after 4), you'll stay up til 7:30. If your afternoon nap is short you will go to bed around 6:30.
• I get up with you a few times a night, usually to put your paci back in. A lot of people suggest I let you figure out how to soothe yourself back to sleep, but you are just such an incredibly good baby that I can't help but indulge you in the one thing you are a diva about (night time paci). But you don't always wake up, occasionally you sleep through til 6:30 or 7 and I feel like a new woman!
• Sometimes you eat in the middle of the night but sometimes you wait til an early morning feeding (5:30-6:30am) and then go usually go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8. When you wake in the middle of the night and want to eat it's usually because you don't feel good.
• You still nap swaddled in your swing like a champ (usually 1.5-3 hours each nap). Since you're the second child I haven't tried to move you, because WHY MESS WITH A GOOD THING?! We'll get there once you're too big for the swing.
• When you get tired you start rubbing your head back and forth, back and forth.
• Your favorite toys are the tv remote, walker and jumper (you finally figured out how to bounce!). 
• You can sit up by yourself but I spot you because when you get excited you fall over
• You still don't like to be on your tummy, I guess we will just skip crawling!
• You have been sick A LOT because big brother Titus brings a lot of germies home and then kisses you a million times. You don't seem to be too grumpy about it, but it does make you sleep pretty poorly
• You sleep in the crib at night (when you're not sick, then you sleep in the swing to be inclined)
• When I am feeding you something you don't like or cleaning your face, sucking your nose, etc., you blow raspberries to stop me from doing it.
• Your favorite past-time is LITERALLY staring deeply into other people's eyes. You just want to make a social connection with anyone who is willing and will be happy as long as someone is holding you and making eye contact.
• You love when I sing "Baby love, I need your love, I need your love, oh, how I need your love..."
• You smile and giggle so much when other kids are around! Even when they are not paying attention to you, you are still trying to engage and smile at them
• You love when I play peek-a-boo and say "ma ma ma ma ma... da da da da da..."

I can't even count the number of times I have said "I'll eat you up, I love you so!" the last few weeks. Everything about you makes me want to smother you with hugs and kisses. I want to give you ponies and palaces and princess clothes, you have me completely wrapped around your finger! And not just me, when you look at daddy he drops everything he's doing to try and get a smile from you (which isn't hard, you love your daddy! You track him all around the house from the minute he gets home). And big brother Titus isn't immune either, he LOVES to make you laugh and is always asking to "hold Baybee Hah-dee." He also puts your paci back in when you cry and tells you, "it otay, Baybee Hah-dee," in the car when you are crying. And if anyone else gets too close to you, watch out! He is very protective and says, "no, that my Baybee Hah-dee!" We are all so luck to have you as a part of our family! You are the perfect piece to fit into our chaotic puzzle :) We love you to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond, forever and ever.

 Brother refused to sit with us for the family photo (not unusual)

 Halloween in North Carolina! We went to visit our sweet friends, the Fosters, and all of you were "super kids" (super girl, super man, and super baby!)

Haddie Mae: 6 Months

Dear Haddie,
At 6 months...

• You wear 3-6 month clothes but pants are big around your waist
• You weigh about 16 pounds.
• You are still wearing size 2 diapers
• Most people say you resemble Titus but that you have much girlier features. I agree! You have looooong lashes and a cute little nose.
• We started you on baby food and you love it! You pretty much love all fruit and no veggies (you literally gag on green beans and peas). You do LOVE sweet potatoes, though!
• You go to bed around 7:30 and sometimes wake up around 4:30 to eat, but some days you sleep through til 6:30. 
• Your nap "schedule" doesn't really exist because we are on brother's schedule. But you usually take a nap sometime around 9, 1:30, and 4:30/5. But the past few days you have refused to take the last nap, so it's probably time to move you to only two.
• You still nap in your swing like a champ. When I try to put you in the crib you nap TERRIBLY. Since you don't try to escape the swing we'll just keep you sleeping and happy until you grow out of it :)
• When you get tired you start making a lot of noise. It starts out as just talking, but after about 10 minutes you start to get squealy and I know it's time for bed.
• Your favorite toy is anything that you can chew on. I haven't felt any teeth yet but you are definitely chewing like it's your job!
• You like to sit in your rocker and look out the back door at the trees and the dogs and brother jumping on the trampoline
• You are getting closer to sitting up but you can't do it on your own
• You sleep in the crib at night and don't move hardly at all. You are seriously the most chill baby! You are also still swaddled because you whack yourself in the face at night and then lose your paci.
• Your hair is not changing colors! It is still very red.
• You figured out how to do this high-pitched squeal and you love it. It's usually out of nowhere and when nothing is even happening!
• All the workers in the nursery say that you are the sweetest baby there and you cuddle the whole time. I am not surprised, you love to cuddle.
• When you wake up in the morning you will stay in your swaddle and sit with me on the couch for a little bit. Can't say I blame you, I like to stay wrapped in my blanket for a few minutes after waking up, too!
• You give me open mouth kisses and squeeze my face in between your hands. You also grab onto my arm when I walk around with you and I love that.
• Your favorite activity is sitting in your walker. Sometimes you push yourself around, but I think you mostly like it because you can sit up. You will sit in the jumper but you don't jump at all, not even a little bit! You just look at the toys or smile at anyone in the room.

Haddie girl, you are seriously so laid back! I love your precious disposition. You will smile at anyone (and then duck into my shoulder like you are shy) and you're not afraid of strangers. You don't make a ton of noise, but you definitely can. When you are tired you SCREAM if you're not getting what you want. You are so much louder than your brother when you want to be! Fortunately, most of the time you just sit quietly and wait for someone to make eye contact with you so you can giggle. I sing you a song called "Just to See You Smile" anytime I change your diaper and your eyes light up. I really feel like I would to anything just to see you smile, because it's the sweetest thing on earth. I can't stop kissing your cheeks when you snuggle into me! I am so thankful for you, Haddie Mae. I hope you always want to be my best friend.

Titus: 2.5 years

Dear Titus,

At 2.5 years...

• Words I would use to describe you: passionate (to an extreme in a good and bad way), contagious laughter, funny, sweet, very sensitive, dramatic, energetic, loving, impatient, easily frustrated, loud, and creative.
• You are trying to quit napping and it is killing me! You fight me every step of the way at naptime and bedtime. There have been a couple days where you didn't take a nap and you did pretty well, but you ended up cranky by the end of the night and I was cranky from not having a break!
• You are OBSESSED with your baby sister. You talk and sing and kiss and laugh at her all the time. You have yet to lash out at her or seem jealous in the least bit, I've been pretty surprised.
• Right now your favorite things are letters (of course), baseball, America's Funniest Home Videos, and drawing. Last week you drew a "towtul!" (turtle!), dolphin, punkin, and a fish.
• We spend a lot of our time during the day writing letters, playing with letter magnets, watching your phonics DVD and working on your phonics workbook. It's so crazy to watch you get excited about reading already! 
• You know all the letters by name and recognize the way they look, you can write a lot of them (and numbers too), usually in chalk on the trampoline. Your favorite iPad apps are all alphabet related. 
• You are constantly sounding out words and telling me what letter they start with ("duh duh dinosaur. D, mommy! Mommy, D!")
• You are all boy- you would wrestle with anyone who walked through the door if they would let you. But you would also hug anyone who walked through the door, you are the best of both worlds!
• Your favorite foods are mac n' cheese, pizza, chicken (grilled or fried), deli turkey, cheese sticks, pickles, black/blue/ras/strawberries, apples, spaghetti, raisins, peanuts, french fries and popcicles
•  You love playing outside, jumping off stairs and climbing up hills. But you always remind me, "be tareful, mommy" (careful). Once you climb up the hill you'll turn back to me and say, "I did it, mommy! Titey did it!" (sometimes you call yourself Titey to go with Mommy, Daddy and Haddie)
• When we drive you frequently look out the window and make up songs about the clouds and sun and moon (almost always to the tune of twinkle twinkle)
• You have memorized "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son..." and it is PRECIOUS to hear you recite! You also know Jesus Loves Me, Twinkle Twinkle and the Alphabet song, of course
• When we pray at night you list things you're thankful for. But a lot of times you say, "no pray. Amen" when you just want to play more.
• If I pay you a compliment (Titus, you are being such a good boy! or, I am so proud of you! or Do you know what? You are my favorite little boy in the whole world!) you will say, "Adain, mommy. Adain" (again) and want me to repeat the compliments over and over :)
• One of your favorite activities is riding on daddy's lap down the street to Brooks' house. Sometimes on rainy days I just let you play in the car and you sit in the driver's seat turning on the hazard lights and holding the steering wheel

Things you say:

"Top daddy. Why you do dat?" (when daddy is singing)

"Too loud daddy. TOO LOUD!" (basically anytime daddy is talking)
"What doing mommy?" (you ask me this like 30 times a day)
"Tidey do it."

"You did it, Tidey!" (when you finish a game or something)
"Mo ass-sauce please." (Applesauce)
You always want a "chocky waffle" for breakfast (chocolate/nutella waffle)
When you walk in the backyard you say, "get bock, Cucy! Get bock, Bocko!"
You sing a song and then say, "you do it, mommy!" And then you want me to sing it back to you. Then you says, "yay, mommy!!"
"TITUS JAMES AUTRY! WRITE IT MOMMY!"
"I take baff, mommy!" (bath)

"See moon, peas." (every night before bed)

"Bank bew, mommy!" (thank you)

You are such a funny little guy! You are saying more and more things everyday. I am constantly impressed by the original thoughts and questions that come out of your mouth. Some people told me that once a toddler starts talking you will just want them to take a break because it is so non-stop, but I don't feel that way at all! I want to hear all the little things that are going on in your mind. 
Your best habit right now is how sweet and loving you are. I love hearing your excited little voice when I walk into the room,  yelling, "Mommy!" with a huge smile on your face. You run and jump into my arms and it's just so precious. You're also the best big brother Haddie Mae could ask for. You COULD NOT be sweeter to your baby sister. You put her paci in when she cries and if she's crying in the car you say, "no cry, Baybee Hahdee. It ok, Baybee Hahdee."
 Your worst habit right now is generally being stubborn! Boy, that is an understatement. When I tell you, "don't do that" you YELL back, "NO, DON' DO DAT!" You fight EVERY nap and bedtime, screaming and throwing a fit until you finally pass out. You get in trouble the most for yelling (sometimes at us in defiance, other times when a toy isn't doing exactly what you want). But I just keep reminding myself that everything is a phase and truly, your good qualities far outweigh the bad toddler habits you have right now. I know you will grow out of them eventually (fingers crossed!) so until then I will just be patient and pray A LOT :)

We love you SO SO SO SO much, my sweet boy! I am lucky to get these years where I can stay home with you and watch you dance around the house and sing made up songs. We love you to the moon and back, forever and always.

Haddie Mae: 5 months

Dear Haddie Mae,
At five months...

• You breastfeed 6 or so times a day for about 10-15 minutes (I'm loving your quicker eating time!) and you eat rice cereal once a day. After trying it for 3-4 days you got REAL SERIOUS about your food! You would eat the spoon if I'd let you.
• You go to sleep around 8pm and you have stopped having to do a full nursing session before bed. You will sometimes sleep through til 6:30/7 and sometimes wake up to eat around 5 then go back to sleep til 8.
• You went through a phase this month of needing your paci put back in 5-6 times a night, but luckily you grew out of that and now you only use it to fall asleep
• You wear size 2 diapers
• You weigh 14 lbs
• Your hair is finally growing back in where you rubbed it off in the back and some people think it looks more strawberry blonde now
• Your favorite toy right now is your paci. You take it in and out of your mouth and look at it and chew on it from every direction
• You love when I sing to you, this gets the biggest smiles out of you all day long
• Your nap schedule is still unsettled since we're on the go so much, but you do usually take one long nap (hopefully when brother does!) that's about 1.5-3 hours and a couple of catnaps that last about 30-45 minutes.
• You are finally sleeping in your crib at night, but you have to stay swaddled. You are taking a longer time than brother to grow out of your startle reflex, so if your arms aren't swaddled you wake yourself up and cry.
• You still nap in your swing, you will hopefully start napping in your crib this month
• You have rolled over... once! So I know you can do it, haha. But you still throw up most of the time you're on your tummy so you prefer being on your back or side.
• If I'm in the room, even really far away, you will track my voice wherever I go. I love this SO much.
• You are wearing 3 month clothes and some 3-6 month clothes, although they are too long on you. You have to wear 6-9 month+ headbands though because you have a pretty big head like brother!
• You have started laughing at your toys
• Your big brother calls you "Bay-be Hah-deee" and it's super sweet :)
• You were dedicated this past Sunday with your cousin Madeline. At one point you found each other's hands (not that you knew what you were grabbing) and held onto each other. I love watching you grow together!
• When you are nursing or falling asleep you constantly rub your feet together, like you're trying to create a fire! You also do it if I'm trying to put you to sleep and you are fighting me. It's definitely unique to you, Titus never did that.

Yesterday morning the best thing ever happened. When you woke up I went to get you from your crib and I carried you into the living room. Grandma and Opa were there playing with Titus and as I started to talk to them, you just snuggled your little head right into my chest and held onto my arms. I'm sure your brother did this, but I don't remember when he did it for the first time. I swear, Haddie Mae, I didn't move my feet from that spot for a solid 5 minutes because I just wanted to stay in the moment forever. Can I tell you a secret? One day, you will be a very big girl, too big for me to carry you around on my hip like I do now. And when you become a big girl some very sad or scary things may happen to you. But guess what? You can always lay your head on my chest when you need a snuggle. You will never, ever be too big for me to wrap my arms around you and hold you tight.
We love you to the moon and back, baby girl.