Valentine's day

I had grand plans to post this ON Valentine's Day but it didn't happen.... this was the best I got of all of them!

I made a special dessert on Valentine's for everyone - fudge and cheesecake -

(okay, so it was mostly my choice but I figured if I was splurging on dessert it was going to be good!)

Anyway, I served everyone up, Tadhg throughly enjoyed most of his, Alannah just picked at hers,

  (no surprise there since she's not much of a sweets person unless it's pure chocolate)

The boys ate a couple bites and then told me they had enough sugar and could they please have some kiefer and oranges for dessert. Of course, I agreed... and finished off everyone else's plates while doing up the dishes (oh, who me? would I do that?)..... and have been enjoying the leftovers myself all week!

5 months

 Ailish Sinead ~ 5 months

Sweet girl..... how are you 5 months old already? 

You are getting so big, with a personality, smiles and babbles

~you now have 2 teeth.... the first one showed up on February 2, front right center

and it's neighbor, front left center, showed up today

~you moved into size 2 diapers this month

~you are getting tall.... you are outgrowing clothes in length long before you do in other areas. 

~I have had to put away a number of 3-6 month clothes that are too short, but for the most part you are in 3-6 or 6 months clothes, some 6-9 month. 

~you coo and babble alot, have many smiles and are overall very happy

~your evenings are starting to get better again....nights are still a little iffy but hopefully those will improve with the evening time getting better and teeth coming in!

~you are typically up for about 2 hours at a time, napping for 1 1/2 -2 hours. 

~morning nap tends to be 9/9:30-10:30/11, afternoon nap 12:30/1-2:30/2 and catnap 4-5ish

~ideally, nights would be 7-7, with a dream feed around 9:30 and a early morning feed around 4-5 ;-)

We love you little A!

18 months

 Tadhg Conor

It's hard to believe you are 18 months old now!

In some ways you are still my baby boy but in others you are doing at well at keeping up with the other boys.

~pretty sure you now out-weigh Alannah ;-)

~you are in 18-24 months or 2T clothes & size 4 diaper 

(tho I think you will be the first to go into size 5 before graduating out of diapers!)

~you are beginning to use more and more words, including your signs on your own

~some new ones lately are "me", "mine", "yes", "up"

~you are very expressive, often responding very excited or sad depending on the situation

~you are a wonderful helper... often the first one finding your shoes and jacket when we go to leave, often finding your siblings things and giving them to the proper person, the play vacuum is a favorite and you push it along side and behind and around me while I vacuum

~you love to eat ;-) yogurt, cheese, pasta and salmon are favorites but you will eat anything happily!

~you are officially down to one nap, it took a good 4 months to get you there, we would often do a short morning nap, or a morning nap every couple mornings and so on to get you to just one nap. You are now napping around 2 hours, a little earlier then we had been doing naps, in the 12:30/1 range till about 2:30/3. 

It's working out nicely with Ailish's naps as well. 

Alannah still naps with you and the big boys are rarely napping anymore. 

~Bedtime is 7/7:30 and you are FINALLY consistently sleeping past 6 am as well ;-) You are usually up around 6:45 and past 7 is a special treat for mama

~You still love your tiger lovey, but are now showing a preference for one of them over the other (they are indentical loveys) you really like the one that the ear has torn open a little on and you play with the ear ;-)

Love you little man!

You still have quite the hairstyle - very fine blond/white hair - often sticks up crazy in the back due to 2 cowlicks, it's starting to get longer and will sometimes comb down okay. Still haven't had a first haircut ;-)