2 Years

Emma Kate is 2 years old!  Or as she tells anyone, 2 and a half! (just like Harper ;))  This girl craaaaacks us up.  She has so much personality and never fails to make us laugh.  For a girl who literally did not laugh until she was like 8 months old she has come a long way.  I like to think she was saving up all that personality for now.

She is a talking machine and never stops, at least not at home. In big crowds she gets a lot more quiet and typically just smiles with her tongue hanging out at people.  She talks in very complete sentences and enunciates her words in a way that lets you know she means what she is saying!  If she says something that I don't quite understand she won't let me get away with nodding or saying uh-uh, I basically have to repeat the word until she knows I got it.

She loves, loves her sisters so much, especially Harper.  She loves to tell everyone that she is a big sister and 'baby e-yine' is her baby and that she is 'doe cute' :)  Harper bosses her around all day long but Emma Kate enjoys playing whatever game Harper comes up with about 90% of the time.  They love to be superheroes (harper picked that up on the playground) and wear their hooded bath towels around saving things.  She says, 'emma kate to the rescue'!!  EK loves her kitchen and loves to bring me things she cooks for me to taste.  She's also very into her baby dolls and is always taking care of something. When people come up to say hi to Caroline she almost always goes over and loves on Caroline… just a wee bit protective ;)

Her adjustment to life as a big sister took a couple weeks but overall has been great.  She really identifies herself as a 'big girl' like Harper and reminds me all the time that she is not mama's baby anymore ;)

She knows her alphabet, counts to 10 (except skips 4), loves to sing God our father at dinner.  She loves llama llama books and we read one every night.  Her bedtime routine is out of control - she has us whipped.  We rock, read a book, sing rock a bye baby TWICE, lay her in bed, give a drink of water, cover her up, wipe her nose, kiss her and her bunny, wait for her to say love you good night bye bye and then repeat it back…. hahaha.

She is not into dirt, sand, snow, etc.  This winter she basically cried or spit at the snow anytime it hit her face - it's making us kiiiind of nervous for our trip to the beach so hoping she gets over that!  The other day I was encouraging her to run to me in the yard and she says 'no running, only walk so we don't get booboos'.  About 30 minutes later we're in the house and Andy asks who wants a snack and you should have seen how fast she ran in there for that!  It's all about priorities with that girl!

She has gotten to be a little pickier eater and is maybe starting to thin out a little bit?? She is definitely getting taller.  At her 2 yr checkup she was around 29 lbs and I forget the height!  Wearing mostly 2T and 3T.

I asked Andy what he wanted to remember about EK being 2 and he says 'the looks'.  She does this crazy thing where she looks out of the side of her eyes at you when she's telling you something very serious.  And her grumpy face where she tilts her head down, furrows her brow, then looks up at you.  When she's making this angry face at Harper for no reason I will ask her to please use a happy face so then she gets the goofiest smile with her fingers pulling at her lips.

We had a music themed birthday party for her 2nd bday and it was a hit. EK was all about her moosic party and the cake!  She talked about her birthday cake for daaaays.

We are looking forward to a fun summer of pool, golf, trips to the farm.  I'm planning on putting her in dance this summer and I think she will love it - she likes to watch Harper through the door at dance class and is always mimicking the moves :)

We love you Emma Kate and are so, so thankful for you and the constant laughter you bring to our family!!

 Caroline's baptism

 Harper's grandparents day

 Dad's 31st bday!

 At Harper's schools derby parade in her own derby hat :)

 bubbles!!

 with her buddy jack

 goof ball :)

 easter 2016

 Christmas morning 2015

 trying out baby caroline's crib

 as close as she came to Santa Christmas 2015

 her thoughts about snow/cold :(

 pumpkin patch fall '15

 Harper's 3rd bday party

 7-4-15

 Outer banks '15

2 Months

Baby Caroline turned 2 months on the 15th!  She definitely continues to live up to the title of 'sweet caroline' and has made our adjustment to 3 so much easier.

She is generally very content and some days go by that she just doesn't cry at all.  (Or maybe it's that the other two are so chaotic at times that I just don't hear it???)  I told Andy that I literally look back in my car multiple times per day to make sure she's in there.  In the car if she ever makes a peep both EK and H immediately start yelling, 'baby caroline is crying mama, she needs milk'. haha.  She loves being held and is super snuggly.  Thankfully she likes the carseat and spends a lot of her awake time on her playmat.

Over the last few weeks she has started sharing her little smiles, always such a fun milestone :)  For my records, I think the first official intentional smile was 4/23 :) She loves being talked to and will usually flash a smile if she's not too tired.  I wish I could say she was smiling more at her sisters but I feel like she actually flinches when they come near.. haha.

She still naps all the time - the longest she's awake is usually 1.5 hrs or so.  Harper and EK have never been the best sleepers for me so it's possible my expectations are super low but I'm pretty happy with how Caroline is sleeping.  At most she is up 2x/night - usually around 2 and 5.  Fortunately she has also started going to sleep at a much more reasonable hour and is usually in bed at least by 830 or 9.  A couple nights ago she actually slept for 9 hrs straight - the night of her doctor's appt which was filled with shots.

We've had a lot of celebrations this month and try to get random pictures of Caroline (usually in the carrier or the carseat) so she knows she was there too :)  We celebrated Caroline and Olivia's baptisms, Andy's bday, both mine and EK's as well as mother's day.  Caroline helped celebrate the way she knows best - sleeping!  We've also had lots of fun playdates which the big girls have loved of course :)

At her 2 month WCC she was up to 11 lbs 7.8oz, 22.5 inches long.  Both around the 50th percentile.  She's mostly out of her newborn outfits and into 0-3 months.  She certainly has filled out a ton and has some fluffy little cheeks :)  A lot of her hair has fallen out but I think it's starting to come back - dark hair and dark eyes I believe…. she looks a lot like Harper to me.

 Emma Kate's 2nd bday party!

 Helping dad open his bday presents

 Getting a blowout for her photoshoot

 too bright mom!

 first bottle! she was not a big fan but has gotten better, still doesn't really like pacis

 her baptism

 cuddling with dad

 mother's day at the newport aquarium

playdate with piper, jack and roen