Dear Irelyn: Months Three and Four

Dearest Irelyn,

My blog has been a little bit Holland-centric lately so I wanted write you a little note about how grateful we are to have you as part of our family {And to catch up on your bi-monthly posts since I'm behind on those!}!

Irelyn-girl, a lot of the nicknames we have for you are recycled nicknames. They are just ones that we'll probably use on all of our babies just because you can't help it. Names like chunk-a-monk just fit with lots of babies. But a couple of names we never used with Holland are: sweet pea, sweetheart, sweet girl, etc. Holland is definitely sweet {now--haha} but I guess during the first few months of her life that is just not the first word that came to our minds to describe her {see Holland's one month and two month posts to see some of her nicknames!}. Anyway, I'm not here to bag on your big sister because we love her so stinkin' much {and she was super fun in lots of other ways} but just to say that we love your sweet nature and are so grateful for the peace and love you bring to our home with your calm, mellow demeanor.

Your third and fourth months have been so much fun. It is such a joy to watch you grow and learn new things!

Here are some highlights from the past couple of months:

-You have been spitting bubbles like crazy! I don't remember this stage with Holland {although I'm sure it happened--maybe??} but it is so cute and fun! Whenever you are bored you just entertain yourself by spitting. It's pretty hilarious to watch!
-You have also started "talking"/cooing a lot more. So much in fact that the other day Holland thought you said "yellow" and then proceeded to say "Don't say yellow baby sister!" Apparently the word yellow is a little offensive. Haha.
-You stick your tongue out all the time and let me just tell you, you have a dang cute tongue! I didn't even know tongues could be so cute!
-You LOVE it when people talk to you/around you. Whenever I am having a conversation with someone you are convinced they are talking to you and you just grin like it is the best thing ever! A few Sundays ago you were convinced the Sunday School teacher was talking JUST to you and you smiled at him for a good fifteen minutes. I guess I need to sit in the front row more often!
-You have started giggling at your big sister so much more! Witnessing the two of you interact is one of the best things ever! I am grateful you like your big sister even though she is constantly smothering you in hugs and kisses.
-You chew on EVERYTHING! I do remember this stage with Holland. So. Much. Slobber! Good thing you can pull off the drool face super well!
-You have started bathing with your big sister while in the Bumbo {instead of showering with me} and you seem to enjoy it a bit more. Like, I mentioned, Holland is your constant entertainment so being in close quarters with her is definitely fun for you!
-You are definitely getting your own look as you get older. The first couple of months you looked quite a bit like your sister but you are looking less and less like her. I think the family consensus is that maybe you have the Olmstead eyes/eyebrows? I have the hardest time seeing these things but you are definitely looking different than your big sister!

I should also probably write about some of the not-so-exciting stuff just so I can remember later on:
-You don't sleep through the night yet but that's probably because I spoil you and just let you half-nurse, half-sleep the second half of the night. It's easier for me to sleep and I just love to snuggle with you.
-You are, however, a GREAT napper. You usually take two to three naps a day unless I mess with your schedule by leaving the house. But even if I do that you make up for the lack of one nap with a ridiculously long afternoon/evening nap. It's pretty awesome.
-You have always been a great at nursing for which I am so grateful! You and Holland both never had any problems nursing {knock on wood for my future children!} and while I have never had an oversupply of milk I definitely never have to worry about supply since you have both been so stinkin' chunky!
-Oooh you do have more hair than Holland had! Which has me so excited even though you are still basically a little baldie! Haha. Anyway, I love your tiny wisps of hair that blow in the wind!

Some Stats:
3 months- 15.5 lbs.
4 months- 16.7 lbs.

We love you sweet girl! You are growing up much too fast--of course--and we are just trying to soak  everything in before you are walking and talking like your big sister!

Love,
Mom {&Dad}

Three Months

Four Months

Irelyn's Blessing Day

We were able to bless our sweet Irelyn Sage Ashby while we were in Oregon for a family reunion {June 22, 2014} and it was such a wonderful day! It was so special having both of my grandpas in the circle as well as my dad, one of my uncles, and a few of my brothers. Race gave Irelyn such a beautiful priesthood blessing to start off her life here on this earth. I am so grateful for the priesthood and for my amazing family. Here are some pictures from the day!

Irelyn on her special day. 

{A post with details on her outfit will be coming soon!}

Ashby family of four!

Race and his girls. 

Me and Irelyn 

My cousin, my mom bribing the kids with candy, my brother and sister-in-law and niece. 

My sisters with Irelyn, my aunt with my nephew, and my sister with her sweet baby girl. 

 With my Olmstead grandparents! So glad my grandpa was able to be a part of Irelyn's blessing day and so grateful to my grandma for arranging a brunch for everyone afterwards!

Dear Irelyn: One and Two Months

Dear Irelyn,

I had a one month post for you in my drafts that just never got finished. So now you are two months old and I'm just going to combine the two!

Your first month you were just about the gruntiest baby ever. Because of that you gained the nicknames Grunt-a-babe and Little Baby Grunting {among others}. You have since grown out of that and I have to say that I miss it quite a bit!

It's also important to note that you have taken a binky since the very start and have even taken a bottle {twice}! Your big sister never did either of these things so we're feeling pretty lucky!

During your first month you pooped almost every time I got your diaper open. It was crazy! It didn't matter if you had just pooped or I was just changing a pee diaper or anything! You were bound and determined to poop every time your diaper was off! Cleaning up baby poop isn't the best job but you always just looked like it felt soooo good to get it all out so I just couldn't help but laugh every time this happened! We sure did A LOT of laundry that first month! It was extra funny because Holland NEVER pooped or peed on us while we were changing her and then you came along and decided you needed to make up for her perfect record in the first couple of weeks! You are now past that stage and have only pooped two days in the last two weeks! Which is a whole new adventure. I'm always trying to figure out how many extra outfits I'll need to pack since your "poop day" means there will be A LOT of poop when it does finally come. Haha. You chose the day we drove back to Idaho to poop {and amazingly didn't get any poop on your carseat} and then your blessing day. But, being the little angel that you are you pooped after your blessing and even after you were out of your dress! Haha. So neither of those ended up being too disastrous--thank goodness! I'm sure we have many more poop adventures to come though. And I'm sure you'll be thrilled that I've recorded them all for you! ;)

This last month you traveled to Arizona and Oregon. On those drives you passed through Nevada and Utah as well. So you have been in five states now! You did wonderful in the car and sleeping in weird places and having your schedule messed up every couple of days. You really are such a mellow baby which has been a wonderful blessing!

You have been smiling for a while now but you smile at us more and more every day. I love to get you smiling and cooing at me. Your cooing {or talking} is just about the sweetest thing I have ever heard! You are almost starting to laugh. Sometimes we can get one little tiny giggle out of you and it's adorable! I think you'll be laughing pretty soon! You absolutely love to be talked to and are even starting to enjoy having Holland get up in your face...sometimes. Haha. She can still be a little overwhelming! I can't wait to see you girls develop your relationship over the next few months and then years though.

You are just such a joy to have around. Being a mom to two definitely has its hard days and we just got home from being with family for the past month so I'm sure we have lots of adjustments to make but we really are so happy to have you as a part of our family!

Some Stats:
One Month: 11 lbs.
Two Months: 13 lbs.

And of course some pictures!

9 & 10 Months.

First off, I am a couple of months behind on Holland's monthly updates. She is already TEN months old! So we're just going to combine the two months! And then I'll still do the Instagram posts separately! I still haven't done her Eight Month in Instagrams yet! I'll get there! We had a trip to AZ in May for my sister's wedding and then we went camping the week after we got back. Other than that we've just been soaking in the beautiful weather and spending lots of time in the sun! But back to the update on Holland's ninth and tenth months!

I have officially failed to do a photo of Holland in a laundry basket every month. Oh well! I take hoards of other pictures of Holland so they will just have to suffice for this post!

Dearest Holland,

We are still loving each stage you reach more and more! It is so fun watching you explore and learn new things!

At nine months you:

-Love putting your fingers in other people's mouths and feeling their teeth as well as in your own mouth.
-You went on a trip to AZ to be a part of Aunt Helena and Uncle Cory's wedding and did great on the flight to AZ but threw up the last ten minutes on the flight back to Idaho. That was not fun but shockingly NO ONE on the plane noticed! I have no idea how since you threw up ALL over Dad. We were grateful no one noticed though and everyone on the plane loved you!
-You can wave and it's adorable!
-You learned how to get up from your back. You still haven't really every rolled from your back to your stomach but you learned how to sit up from lying on your back and let me tell you, you can see just how hard your abs are working to get you up!
-You can stand up on furniture and walk around it and you figured out that sometimes you can let go and stand up on your own for a few seconds.
-You eat any finger foods that I put in front of you but you especially love anything green- avocados, peas, green beans, etc.

We just can't believe how fast you are growing up!

At ten months you:

-Let me feed you from a spoon for the first time ever! That lasted about a week before you decided you were ready to feed yourself with a spoon. So I load the spoon up and hand it to you and then you do an amazing job at getting it to your mouth. That lasted for about a day before you decided you should also be getting the food onto the spoon. You are turning into a toddler much too fast! You are pretty good at getting food for yourself but I have to monitor by holding the bowl otherwise you just dump everything out and don't eat much of it. You are loving meal times and I have noticed that if you hadn't had enough big girl food throughout the day you can get really crabby. We have yet to come across a food that you don't like. There were a couple of things you didn't like the first time around but by the second time we gave you them you decided they were delicious {strawberries, bananas, pineapple}.You do really seem to like veggies more than fruits which is helping me to be better about eating veggies! You're just such a good example! You still nurse quite a bit which I'm totally okay with because I love to snuggle with you. I think I will be pretty sad when you decide that nursing isn't your thing anymore.
-I shouldn't write anything good about your sleeping schedule because I know the second I say anything about it it will change. You have ALWAYS gone to bed really late but we had a wonderful week where you went to bed at 11 every night. I LOVED it. But then I bragged to my mom and the next night you didn't go to bed until 1:30 am. I did not love that so much. So your sleeping schedule is still a little crazy but when you do get to bed you don't usually wake up at all during the night and that is really nice! And you take two pretty regular naps during the day unless your schedule gets messed up from church or visiting family.
-You started taking steps! You had taken one or two steps towards me but the first time you took steps with real purpose you were walking towards your Aunt Tyne and you walked about five steps. It was impressive! You do love your Aunt Tyne and she is also the first person that you crawled to! Since those first few steps you have started to walk more and more! The most you have taken is probably right around ten but you've gotten so good at keeping your balance and deciding when you're ready to sit down vs. falling down.
-Also related to walking we have been taking your walker to the mailbox every day. It makes for a much longer trip than me carrying you there but you love to stop and wave at the cars passing by, watch the kids running around, eat the grass and rocks, etc. so we take 20 minutes to make our way to the mailboxes and then let you play at the mailboxes/park for a while before we make our way home. It's a nice way to get out of the house and enjoy the pretty weather.
-You learned how to open up cupboards and our house looks like a tornado tore it apart every day. Every cupboard in the kitchen and living room is open and everything is dumped out. It is a full time job to follow you around and clean up your messes. So sometimes they just stay that way for a while...oh well! You also love to dump out all of your books and blocks and other toys and then you'll just sit in the middle of the mess and pull your blocks apart, read yourself a book, kiss your stuffed lion, etc. for a while. I do love that you are starting to get a little more independent during your play time but you definitely still prefer to have me on the floor playing with you or reading to you or just around to climb all over. You make sure that I don't leave you alone for too long!
-You are finally starting to get over your stranger anxiety and have started smiling at EVERYONE again! You had a couple of months where people really had to coax a smile out of you and you did not want anyone other than mom holding you. Now you go to other people a LITTLE bit more and you have started grinning at everyone. We love to see your smile more!
-You have also started laughing out loud super randomly. It's like you just thought of the funniest joke and couldn't help laughing but we don't know what it was. I love to hear you laugh so I don't mind not knowing the joke!

As you can tell I remember a lot more about your tenth month than your ninth month! I guess that's why I need to actually write these posts as they are happening!

I do love you sweet girl and I will never get tired of watching you, teaching you, cuddling with you, loving you, etc. You are my sweet, perfect baby and I am beyond grateful that I get to be your mom! Your dad and I love you so much!

Love,
Mom & Dad

Nine Months.

{At Gram and Granddad Ashby's house}

10 Months. 

{Showing off her four teeth and the fact that she loves to be 

upside down--she also loves to be thrown in the air, flipped over, etc.}

8 months.

You guys, I didn't write down much about Holland's eighth month. I usually keep a little running list on my phone of things I want to remember and now that she's almost nine months I'm getting everything confused! So this eight month post is going to be quick and a bit scattered.

Dear Holland girl,

We are just loving you at this stage. You are so funny and we love finding things to make you laugh. You have four teeth now but still are pretty anti-baby food. You are eating more finger foods. Lots of the little Gerber snacks but also bits and pieces of mom and dad's meals. You really like eating peas from mom's salads and you LOVE grated cheese. For the past few months you have been really clingy to me {mom} which makes some days really hard. Even though you still won't go to Dad for more than a couple of minutes if I'm in the room you have started to get SO excited when he gets home. You grin and grin when he walks in and just love when he comes to say hi to you. It is adorable! We're also grateful to live near your Aunt Tyne, Uncle Patrick and cousin Madison. You LOVE your Aunt Tyne. She is one of the only people you will go to over me. You also love your cousin and just want to be big like her. You follow her around while she runs throughout the house and laugh at everything she does. You also clap for her. Your clapping is one of my favorite things. You learned to clap just before your half birthday but then stopped doing it for a while and now that you've started it up again I just love it. It cracks me up when you clap for Madison or for yourself. Sometimes you'll crawl to a toy and then sit down and clap for yourself for making it there. It is just so cute! I am just loving everything about you these days! Thank you for bringing so much joy to our home! I love you Holland!

One Month.

Two Months.

Three Months.

Four Months.

Five Months.

Six Months.

Seven Months.

Eight Months!

Love you sweet girl!
Love, Mom & Dad

Self-Timer Fails I Love.

I don't know how people use the self-timers on their cameras. Maybe it would help if I had a remote or something but just figuring out how to focus the camera and stuff completely eludes me. Despite that, I have ended up with quite a few "messed up" self-timer shots that I am in love with simply because they are of Holland and I. So, you all get to see a few of those today! As well as some mirror pics of the two of us!

I am so glad that even blurry images can capture just how much love I have for my sweet Holland girl. We sure do have a lot of fun together!

Happy Wednesday! And holy heck can you believe it's May?!

P.S. If anyone has some awesome self time tips and tricks I would LOVE to hear them!

{These photos were all taken the same day as my "A Day in the Life" post.}

Bath Time

I have TONS of pictures I didn't use from my "A Day in the Life" post so I'm going to have a bunch of little posts with some of those pictures! To start out, here are some super cute, fun pictures of Holland's bath time. She loves baths now that she can sit up and play with her toys. Before she could sit up Holland pretty much exclusively showered with me. She was SO relaxed in the shower and so upset when we tried to bathe her so I just went with what worked! I loved just seeing how relaxed and happy she was in the shower but I have to say, having the shower to myself again is SO nice! Anyway, on to the adorable pictures!

Pre-bath Play time with Dad

Bath Time!!

Post-bath with Mom

Get this towel off me stat!! 

Post-bath snuggles from Dad

We love bath time around here. Who wouldn't love adorable naked baby bums, happy squeals, and that wonderful post bath baby smell?!