9-month-old Gwen

Gwen is a proficient army-crawler. She likes to follow us around and explore the house. She's still pretty cuddly and likes to have regular contact with her loved ones. She's most happy carried around by one of us. 

Food is starting to be more appealing to her, but she's still adamant about feeding herself, so it's soft finger foods for her. She usually doesn't eat very much but she drinks plenty of bottles of milk so she's growing! She has her own growth curve for height above all the rest. 

Gwen can go from crawling to sitting. She has now climbed up our whole staircase (with someone nearby but not assisting). Her sleep schedule is still a mixed bag, but her naps are starting to get more consistent, so hopefully nighttime sleep follows. In general, she's been trending toward sleeping better at night, often waking just once or twice. 

Trying to hold her still is a challenge.

Having fun with her siblings.

Looking up to her big sister, literally.

Easter Sunday

Easter morning the kids woke up and got to search for their baskets. 

The kids both reached for the Bluey puzzles first. 

We had breakfast, got the kids dressed and then had them do an Easter egg hunt.

6-month Gwen

Gwen is a sweet, happy girl as long as she's with her people. She loves to be held but will spend some time in her jumperoo or on the floor stretching out. She has mastered the back-to-front roll and almost always rolls over after we put her down. Her sleep continues to be all over the place - some nights she wakes up every 30 minutes and I end up sleeping with her in my arms in bed, other nights she wakes up 2-3 times (gets help settling back down and/or eats), and on rare occasions she'll sleep through the night (for example 11pm-7am). It seems to go back and forth between the first two for the most part and it's utterly exhausting. However, I am deeply grateful it's rare for her to keep me awake for any significant stretch of time through the night. Usually she's up for 30 minutes or less and goes back down, at least between the hours of midnight and 7am, anyway. 

She loves attention from her siblings and they adore her for the most part. This picture is her smiling up at one of her siblings. She follows them with her eyes whenever they're around. 

She is curious and strong. She's getting better at sitting but still can't sit without support. She isn't slumping over in her high chair anymore, though, so she's making progress!

She is our little giant (off the charts tall!) and we love her happy, squishy face. She is typically easy-going and doesn't mind being loaded into her carseat to drop off and pick up her siblings from school three times a day (Henry's preschool is a half-day). 

So far she is not very into trying foods. We've tried a few pureed foods now, bits of bread and other soft foods, but the only thing she's seemed very into was peanut butter. Even that she was done with pretty quick, though, once her mouth got sort of sticky. I've come to realize just how unusual it was for Emma to just eat every baby food she tried and finish them. It was pretty spectacular. I'm hoping Gwen starts to get more of a taste/feel for food over the next couple months. We'll see!

G 4-month photos photo dump

 Here are some 4-month photos posted late. 

5-month-old baby

 

At 5 months of age Gwen is a joy. Her smiles come easily and she's pretty relaxed much of the time. She has found her toes and can rotate herself around on the ground. She rolled front-to-back before turning 3 months old but has only done it a handful of times. She rolled back-to-front once the other day but I missed it while talking to Henry. 

She has been drooly most of her life and that continues. Thankfully she spits up less than she used to now. This past month I've had her try a few new foods but she hasn't been a fan of much. She didn't like my home-pureed sweet potato, or store-bought pureed prunes. She has seemed to like tiny bits of soft bread and she ate a bit or two of tomato. 

Her sleep could be much improved, although she has some good nights off and on. She'll sleep a 7ish hour stretch for a few nights in a row and then go back to waking up multiple times through the night. Right now she's on a 3- or 4-day streak so hopefully it continues. Her naps during the day are almost all 30 minutes, occasionally a big longer (40 minutes). Sometimes I snuggle with her in bed after she wakes up from a 30-minute nap and she'll nap longer then (1-1.5 hours more). 

Emma and Henry are both pretty warmed up to her at this point. It's hard not to take to her when she smiles so much. Gwen absolutely loves to watch her siblings and sometimes laughs when they're around. She's not a big laugher, so the laughs we do get are magical. 

She's learning and growing. She "talks" to us sometimes and likes to see what's going on. Henry has created some extra middle names for her which include "smiley," "soap bubbles" and "strong muscles."

Birthday celebration

 We were very happy to have my parents come to celebrate Emma's birthday this past week. It felt like a quick visit but we're glad they could make it, even though the weather here was crazy snowy before they arrived. 

Emma is a reading rockstar and is loving chapter books lately. She loves her school teacher and is having a great time at school. She wants to be a dancer and loves to show people her dance moves. Hopefully we can get her in a couple dance classes over the next year. 

For her birthday I got to pull her out of school during her lunch time to have a Jamba smoothie and homemade quesadilla in the van. She came out wearing a paper birthday crown that her teacher made for her which was so cute. She was so happy and enjoyed having out in the van with me. Henry came out of preschool midway through her lunch time so he was able to hang out with us too. We walked her back up to the school so she could make it to recess. 

My mom made chicken pot pies (and vegan pot pies) - of various sizes since I just have 1 pie pan - for dinner, per Emma's request, and made her a yellow cake with fondant decorations. I made and applied the frosting and added berries, and Emma added rainbow sprinkles and candles. 

First birthday with a sister!

Emma is bright light in our family and we love her a whole lot. 

Plus, pictures of our visitors with the littlest!