Clara Four Months

Baby Clara turned four months old on Saturday and as you can see she's as cute as ever - (I totally should have brushed her hair some more before the pictures, but I only have a very short window to take them as you can see from below.) 

^^That was an outfit Amélie chose herself. 

I haven't been to get Clara weighed this month, but I'm pretty sure she's growing just fine as you tell from the developing chubbiness. Lately, she has become so active. She's always rolling from her back to her belly whenever I put her on the ground. She tries to twist and turn out of her bed and bouncy chair and just doesn't want to be in one place for too long. She can grab her toys now and plays with rattles and other easy to grab things. She always puts everything in her mouth - the opposite of Amelie who never put anything in her mouth as a baby. I think weaning with Clara will be a bit easier since she's so willing to taste everything. We won't officially try weaning until she's six months, but I'm hoping it will be a faster process than with Amelie. 

Clara is still breastfeeding in a similar pattern to last month, she usually stretches to every 3 hours during the day. She's been sleeping mainly 7pm-7am with a feed or two in between. Nap times have become shorter lately and usually don't last more than an hour, but she still has at least 3 naps during the day. She's been much better than Amelie at this age with going to sleep on her own. I used to feed or rock Amelie to sleep, but with Clara I can usually put her down and she'll soothe herself to sleep by sucking on her fingers. I bet she would love a pacifier, but I don't want to deal with breaking the habit later on. 

Other than that, Clara is still a good little baby, but I can tell she needs more and more attention now as she wants to play and is always trying to escape from where I put her down. She still likes being in baby K'tan or my Solly baby wrap, but just not for as long periods of time as when she was a newborn. We're looking forward to the Christmas break and doing lots of fun activities soon!   

                                         

Amélie 2.5 Years Old

Amélie is my big girl now. She amazes me every day with how much she learns and with her great memory. Since Clara was born, she seems so much more grown up to me and she's only 2.5 years old.  I think it has a lot to do with how much she can say. Her English accent and expressions are adorable and sometimes she says the most random and funny things ("Mummy, shall we play now?", "That sounds like great fun"). She's definitely had a growth spurt in the past couple of months or so, going up a couple shoe sizes and needing lots of new clothes.

She's becoming my little sidekick and absolutely loves helping and getting involved in anything I do. We love having chats about our day before bedtime and even watch Full House together. Our thing lately has been cooking together. She'll climb up onto her stepstool and help me wash vegetables and mix ingredients. We love making pancakes in the morning and muffins from time to time. Mealtimes are a struggle sometimes, but keeping her entertained and having at least one thing she likes helps.  She loves imaginative playing - doctor and an airplane ride are a couple of favorites. Most recently, she's mastered going on Andrea's tablet and playing toddler animal puzzles (by herself). It's incredible how fast she's picking up technology and probably knows how to use my iPhone better than some adults :)

Amélie is the best big sister. She is so excited when Clara wakes up in the morning and we both go to her to give her kisses. The other day, I caught Amélie caressing Clara's face and giving her a cuddle when I left the room for a minute. It was the sweetest because it was unprompted, just sisterly love. There are moments she tells Clara to stop pulling her hair or doesn't want to share her toys plus she'll ask me put the baby down if she wants a cuddle instead.

The classic toddler tantrum happens from time to time and it makes me want to pull my hair out, but we survive using different strategies (either leaving the room and waiting for her to finish or distracting with something else). I can see how the term threenager has come to be and am so looking forward it to be over.

In September, Amélie started going to preschool three morning a week and in the past month is now loving it. It took her a while to get adjusted and she's quickly making friends and looks forward to going to school. With that and the new addition of a little sister, there has been a little bit of a regression in potty training recently and I really hope it will pass soon.  It mainly happens if she's very distracted and so into playing that she kind of forgets to go, but it's been happening more frequently than once in a while so we've been using stickers for encouragement and reminding her tons.

I feel like I can write tons and tons more on how Amélie has grown, but I'll call it a night and leave you with a few pictures instead.