Gateway Discovery Children's Museum

Now that Summer is winding down and we can't go swimming we've been looking for ways to stay entertained. Now that Pierce is getting older and sleeping better I'm feeling SO much better about getting out more. Larry mentioned today that we should go to the Children's Museum since it was free (I couldn't remember it being free, but thought it would be fun to go again, we haven't been since Cara was about 1 ish). 

Unfortunately, it is NOT free, but it is a lot of fun for kids. They had a few new areas that I don't remember from before. There were some areas that weren't as nice as I remember them last time, but the kids didn't really notice, obviously. We almost didn't have enough time there this time as they wanted to spend so much time in each area. We had to talk them into moving on to the next section. I think the helicopter might have been everyone's favorite. I loved sitting with Pierce and watching the girls just play and figure things out. 

There was this derby car hill/track thing and I watched Cara find the cars, climb up to the top of the hill, put the cars in the right spots, and figure out how to pull the lever to release the cars down the hill. It was pretty cool to see her look around and figure it out. At one point Gwen had gotten hurt and was having a hard time calming down, but Larry took her to this spot that had light fabric pieces and a wind tube and you put the fabric pieces in the tube and it releases them into the air. That seemed to calm her down almost instantly. Lucy found a fun cart thing kids could ride and figured out how to ride it all around the area we were in (it wasn't as easy as it sounds). Pierce liked looking at books haha.

We had a lot of fun and then had to leave (my least favorite part of fun activities is forcing the girls to leave something they enjoy). I realized at that point we touched A LOT of things and my hands felt SO gross so we made sure to load up on sanitizer as we were leaving. I also made sure we washed our hands when we got home. I'm going to be getting some Airborn at the store tomorrow for us to take so we can make sure we don't get TOO sick from all the germs I'm sure we've brought home haha. 

Anyways, we had to pay more than we thought, but it was well worth it. There's HOURS of fun at this place and I'm so glad the kids had fun. 

Making the Most of our Summer

So with having a new baby at the beginning of the Summer we didn't do a whole lot. I'm one that will be a bit more strict at the beginning of the baby days to get them on a good routine and sacrifice our normalcy. That meant not a lot of getting out of the house. Normally, it's been fine, but with the girls getting older I did feel bad about keeping them inside so much and not having ways for them to get their energy out. Not to mention I wanted them to have more memories of this summer (even if they'll forget them in the future). I will say losing Baby Girl (our cat) really made me realize we needed to make sure we were having good times now, rather than waiting till later. It shook me up a bit more than I thought it would.

With that being said, we've been able to make the last bit of our summer a lot of fun. We made sure to get Cara and Gwen out swimming at our neighborhood pool for the last few weeks it was open (we switched off who got to take them during nap time on the weekends. Larry would do a Saturday and I would do a Sunday). The girls made HUGE strides in their swimming abilities this summer. They ended last year with Cara being okay being in the pool with floaties, but wouldn't put her face/head anywhere near the water if she could help it. Gwen always wanted to be held with floaties on and didn't want to swim much on her own. This summer Cara started taking her floaties off and walking to as far as she could, she'd practice holding onto the side and going to the deepest end, she also would jump into the pool in our arms then jumped in on her own with floaties on or into our arms without the floaties, but didn't mind if she went under a little. She also started practicing holding her breath and going under the water on her own. Gwen started jumping in and swimming ALL on her own with floaties on. We even got her jumping into our arms with floaties on as well. Both girls were so brave and earned many suckers for trying so many new things. We also practiced a lot of kicking to get them used to the swimming "pose". 

Swimming wears them out

We also had fun summer treats. We got some otter pops and had those anytime we went to play outside. But then we also got s'more makings and roasted marshmallows on our bbq and had lots of those. They were SO yummy and I was glad to have fun treats to share with the girls.

The marshmallows were a hit with this

We played a lot in the backyard. I made sure when Larry went back to work I'd send the girls outside during Pierce's first nap of the day so they could be loud and play and he could get a decent nap. I'd get them some snacks and water and make sure they had something like sidewalk chalk, play doh, coloring things, etc. Cara also learned to swing and became obsessed with it. It was really nice to let them get outside more and I feel it helped with nap time. I also loved being outside with them. I'd let them play while I worked. I'd take little breaks to swing Lucy (who LOVED being on the swings this summer) or do some homework items with Cara. It felt like I was really engaging with them and having good bonding time. On days it got too hot we let them play out back in the morning (when we had more shade back there) and then we'd play out front after dinner (when we had more shade there). The girls loved getting on their scooters and bikes and run around or race each other. We may not have gone far, but they had lots of fun.

We even took some family walks with Pierce in the carrier. He seemed to love being outside. This was a HUGE relief because in the beginning it seemed like taking him outside messed with his sleeping at night so we really didn't get out much, but him getting over that and liking being outside really helped make our summer more special.

So overall our summer might not have been ideal, but we still found ways to make the days special with the kids and I look forward to many more summer with the kids. 

Pierce is FIVE months

   I am FIVE months old!

I like: songs (especially Larry singing Down by the Bay" or "Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes", being rocked before sleeping, rolling from back to belly

I dislike: being hungry, being put down to sleep without rocking, 

I am now: our unofficial weight check says he is . He wears 6 months clothes already (definitely nothing 3-6 month, and really he could probably be in 6-9 month easily). Technically he is in size 3 diapers, but we do have some 2's we're getting rid of so we use those for his day time diapers and 3's for nights.

Growing so quickly, outgrew this onesie
Before really getting to wear it

A Typical Day looks like: 

 

Wake up between 7:40 and 8 (he's usually good at sleeping until we wake him up, but I try and wake him up around 7:45 so he'll get to his first nap on time haha)

8 get a 7 oz bottle (4 oz breast milk, 3 is formula)

8:30-9:30 wiggle & giggle time / hang with dad time

9:30-10:30/11 nap time (we usually have to change his bum, turn off the lights, rock him for a minute, and then set up down and he'll put himself to sleep within 10 minutes)

11 next 7 oz bottle(again 4 oz breast milk, 3 formula)

11:30-12:30 wiggle & giggle / hang out time

12:30-2 nap time (he's good at sleeping until 2, but sometimes he'll get up around 1:30)

2 next 7 oz bottle (same ratio)

2:30-3:30 play/hang out time

3:30/4-4:15/4:45 nap time (if he woke up early from his 2nd nap he'll go down early for this nap, but the latest he tends to go down is at 4 and he'll only nap for about 45 minutes most days. Sometimes he'll go till 5)

4:30-5 hang out w/mom while dad is working out downstairs

5 he gets a 6 oz breast milk bottle

5:30 dinner time, he gets a little thing of baby food, we'll let him determine how much he wants to eat. He'll usually eat anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of it.

6-7:20 play time

7:20 7 oz formula bottle

7:30/7:40 start bedtime. Sundays and Thursdays start with a bath, then it's diaper change, pajamas, owelet, a little cuddle/rock, and sleep by 8.

He finally started sleeping through the night the week of August 22nd. Larry took nights and since he'd been sleeping so good for him we decided to just have him put him down to get used to sleeping. The night of the 24th we decided to put him down without a bottle and he's done REALLY well so far. It hasn't been too long, but we've only had a couple nights that he has a hard time with it. I'm SO thankful that transition has been smooth so far.

This Month: Pierce is so silly and is now ticklish behind the ears (it's SO cute to see him scrunch up). He finally got to meet most of everyone on the Wilson side, he does decent with strangers. He'll cry a little bit, but he gets over it fairly quickly. 

We finally got him not needing a bottle for bed, which has been a HUGE relief! He sleeps pretty good at night, once or twice a week he'll have a little cry and need to be rocked a bit, but once we rock him he's usually good. He definitely became a belly sleeper, once we put him down he'll roll right over and fall asleep haha. He loves rolling from back to belly, but has a problem going form belly to back (which I find funny since that's the one Cara mastered first). 

He's a lucky boy, he gets the master room all to himself right now. In a few weeks we'll get everything switched (hopefully), but until then mom and dad are in the guest room haha.

Update on last month's goals:

• Try out new foods: he LOVES foods. Especially if they don't have the oatmeal cereal in them. He gets excited for meal times.
  
  
• Rolling over (to help him at night). He rolls from back to belly easily, but won't roll from belly to back. But since he's a belly sleeper it hasn't been an issue.
  
  
• Bedtime routine without a bottle: started and have done that. He's done great with it! I'm so so so relieved and happy it's been going so well.
  
  
• Be asleep by 8 PM without a wakeup before 9: check, so far! Friday's are our hard nights though so we'll see how he does tomorrow night, but it's been good for all of us.
  

Goals for next month:

• Move Pierce to his own room: By 6 month at the very latest.
  
  
• Get used to eating more baby foods: he still spits it out or his hands get in the way more and more. I'd like to get him more eating it, rather than tasting it. I don't want to up our bottle sizes, just up the baby food he's getting.
  
  
• Practice rolling from belly to back so we can...(vv)
  
  
• Practice sitting up and scooting. We haven't done much of this, but I think we can start since I know Cara was sitting up with pillows by 7 months. Plus he's a wiggle worm and so I think scooting is getting close.
  
  
• Introduce Pierce to football season: The Packers first game is coming up so I'm excited to get him used to that going on!