1 month old!

I am one month (and 1 day) old!

• At 2 weeks I weighed 8lb 7oz...I had gained over a pound from birth!

2 weeks old.

• I eat about every 2-3 hours during the day and every 3-5 hours at night.
• As of today I wear size 0-3mo clothes and size 1 diapers.

• I am still a bit overwhelmed by this wild and crazy world!

This is my "what in the world is going on in this world" look.

• I love to be held and snuggled!
• I use my pacifier a lot during the day but I don't use it at all at night.

I'm already a champ at holding my pacifier (because if I don't someone might pull it out!).

• I sleep in the bouncer or swing during the day and in the rock and play in my room at night.
• I am a VERY noisy baby. I grunt and groan and squeak a lot.
• I am pretty fascinated by Franklin.
• I've been sitting in my Bumbo chair some and while I'm not so sure about it, I do a great job holding my head up in it.
• I just started on Zantac a few days ago to help with my reflux (it was starting to wake me up at night after Mommy fed me and then it would take a while for Mommy to be able to lay me down). The first few nights on Zantac have been successes! I do however really, really hate the Zantac. I gag and spit and sputter the whole time. Mommy says it's a good thing she's a peds nurse because she's had to pull out all her tricks to get the medicine in me. She also thinks I might be a bit dramatic.
• My big sisters love me so, so much, especially Ruthie. She makes sure I'm never far from my pacifier and my blanket. I'm still trying to figure out the sisters and am not sure if I'm ok with them or not. (I do love it when they sing to me though!)

Ruthie likes to accessorize me.

• This month I went to Boo at the Zoo. I slept through the whole thing but my sisters say it was lots of fun!
• I spend a lot of time in the car but I'm pretty good natured about it.
• I love to be outside and especially like going on walks.
• This month Columbia had severe flooding. Fortunately we were safe at our house and we never lost power or water. I did go many, many days without a bath because Mommy wasn't comfortable using the water to bathe me, even after it was boiled.
• I've had my first playdate with Ruth and I've been hanging out with my buddy William at preschool drop off the last two weeks.

hanging out with Ruth

snooze fest 2015 with William...this is how we roll during preschool drop off

• I got to meet my Uncle Ben and his girlfriend Ruth. I thought they were pretty great even though that Giant kid kept trying to rub the hair off my head.

• I've been able to spend lots of time with my grandparents. They're pretty fabulous.
• I love bath time. Sometimes I get so relaxed that I fall asleep!

Emmie at (almost) one month.


Ellie at 1 month.


Ruthie at 1 month.


(Right now I think JP looks the most like Ruthie.)

The Three Musketeers

The girls LOVE to play outside and they've been enjoying the cooler weather (especially Ruthie, the hot weather makes her eczema ten times worse) and the increased opportunities to play outside. Plus, it finally stopped raining and has pretty much dried up so we're loving the sunshine!
Ruthie LOVES to slide but our slide is super fast so she generally needs someone to catch her at the bottom. Fortunately she has some great sisters who are willing to oblige her. They have recently devised a new way to slide so that nobody has to be the "catcher". They all go down together! Emmie goes first, Ruthie well protected in the middle and then Ellie bringing up the rear. They did this over and over the other day and had the BEST time. I just love to watch them laughing and playing happily together!

First (play)date

My friend Mary Katherine came over today with her little girl Ruth. Ruth was born at the beginning of September and this was the first time I had gotten to meet her! She's so cute and dainty...she already looks so girly! She and JP hung out for a few minutes and then they took turns napping...the life of a baby! I really enjoyed getting to visit with Mary Katherine (and Ruthie napped almost the whole time they were here so I got REAL adult time). We have so many new babies at our church (the week JP was born there were 4 babies born in 3 days!) and I have gotten to know many of the moms better thanks to our "pregnant moms" dinners and I can't wait to watch our sweet babies grow up together and I look forward to many more baby playdates!

Suprise Visitors

Last week my brother Ben and his girlfriend, Ruth, came from Delaware/Pennsylvania to visit my parents for a few days and go to a Clemson game. While they were in the state they, and my parents, came to Columbia for a visit and for Ben and Ruth to meet JP (and so Ben could work on rubbing the hair off of JP's head). I just told the girls that Gran was coming so they were super surprised when everyone else showed up! They had face timed with Ben and Ruth a few days before so they were already acquainted with Ruth and had already decided they liked her. We let Ben and Ruth ring the doorbell when they got here and the girls were so surprised to go to the door and find their Giant!
We so enjoyed their visit and, since the big girls were out of school because of the flooding, they got some extra visit time!

We enjoyed meeting Ruth and she made friends for life when she brought a box of books to read to the girls and then spent a fair amount of time reading to them.

The girls were also thrilled to get lots of outside time with Uncle Ben pushing them on the swings! Books and swings...pretty much the way to win their hearts!

JP was mildly impressed with his visitors. He slept through a lot of the visit.

Bonding with Grandaddy.

I figure just give him a few months and he'll be highly impressed that he has a giant for an uncle, especially if Ruthie has anything to do with it. She thinks Uncle Ben is pretty fantastic.
My mom brought dinner for all of us and my dad made homemade ice cream. It was an all around great day!

Grandaddy had to get a haircut while he was visiting.

Newborn Pics

Hospital pictures have come a long way since Emmie was born almost 6 years ago. When Emmie was born they came in and took a few quick snapshots of her and Ellie was the same way. With Ruthie and JP the photographer has come in and taken a lot of time posing them and getting them in the right light. With JP, Paul and I even got to be in the pictures! I just downloaded JP's pictures and I love them so much...I thought I'd share some of my favorites!









(we got an 8x10 of this one)


The photographer spent a lot of time taking JP's fingers out of his mouth but I love it...reminds me of his sister!

Rain, Rain, Rain

We woke up this morning to devastating floods around Columbia. We are so, so fortunate at our house to have minimal flooding in our immediate vicinity. Just a few miles from our house there are roads completely underwater and roads that are crumbling. All the interstates around us have areas that are closed due to flooding.
We have friends who woke up to water in their houses. We have friends with small children who had to evacuate their houses in the early hours of the morning (some by boat) with just the clothes on their backs. We have friends who have lost cars, homes, and everything in their homes.
We are so grateful to all the friends and family who have checked on us. We still have power and water (although we are now under a boil water advisory) and our nice and dry in our house. I did get out this morning and get some video in our neighborhood.

This is just outside of our house.


This is 2 houses down from us.


This is right before you turn onto our street. They have a LOT of water in their backyard!



The house on the right belongs to some friends from church. They had to be evacuated by boat this morning with their young children.


This road is just a few miles from our house as is the one below.





Closer to downtown Columbia...building collapsed.

21 Months

I am 21 months old!

• I wear 18mo-2T clothes, a size 5-6 shoe, and a size 4 diaper.
• I sleep from about 8pm-630 or 7am. I take about a 2 hr nap in the afternoon in between picking my sisters up from school. I'm now sleeping in the big girl room all the time (still in my crib) and doing pretty well!
• My hair is still WILD curly!
• This month I became a BIG sister! I am so in enamored with my little brother. I love to tell him hi, give him kisses, and hold him. I have adjusted relatively well to having a new baby in the house.

• This month Mommy and I went to the zoo together and I had so much fun!

• This month I started going back to My Gym and I LOVE it!
• I'm learning animal sounds. I love to roar like a lion and I can make dog, cat, sheep, horse, and duck noises.
• I'm working on counting to 3.
• I'm saying more and more understandable words every day and am definitely having less communication frustration.
• I have so, so much personality. Most of the time I'm really good natured and am always making people laugh.
• I know what I want and I'm pretty determined that I'm going to get what I want, whether it's the water cup I want, the shoes, or the outfit I want to wear, or the chair I want to sit in at the table!
• I'm pretty good at figuring things out. Can't reach something? It's ok, I'm sure there's a chair, stool, or box nearby that can be moved and climbed on!
• I love to help in the kitchen.

• I'm such a daddy's girl...I get so excited when I hear the garage go up at the end of the day...I know it's my daddy!

• I love books, especially ones that have animals.
• I love playing outside and have enjoyed being able to go out more now that it's a little cooler. I love the swings and slide especially.

• I am pretty good at puzzles and will sit for a few minutes and work on them.
• I LOVE jewelry and pretty dresses.

Emmie at 21 months.

Ellie at 21 months