2 MONTHS

Weight:12 lbs 11 ounces ( 7oth percentile)

Height: 23 inches (50th percentile)

What I am doing:

-I still love to eat. As you can see I am a great eater. Mommy says I should slow down but that does not sound like fun to me. My oldest sister was 13 lbs 2 ounces at 2 months and Gabby was 13 lbs 5 ounces, so I am right on track in this family:)

-I roll from my belly to my back. I have been doing this since I was 5 1/2 weeks old but mommy ignored it bc should thought it must have been a fluke. But no, pretty much every time mommy lays me on my belly I roll to my back. I just like to move.

- I smile ALL the time and I starting to make cute little noises.

-I wear size 2 diapers. Like I said, I like to eat. Don't hate. (I do get pretty bad diaper rash though, so mommy is starting to put me in this cute colorful diapers that are oh so comfy:)

*** (I will blog about cloth diapers after I get a better feel for them)

-I still wear 0-3 month clothes

-I am not a fan of this eat, wake, sleep schedule and I have pretty much boycotted the whole thing. I like to eat often and I usually get sleepy after I eat. I am pretty sure I am driving mommy crazy, but what is a girl to do.

-I don't like to sleep in my bed during the day. I much prefer my bouncy seat, the swing, the car seat or mommy's arms.

-I however love my bed at night (maybe she likes it when it is dark???) and I go to bed every night around 9:30. I wake up anywhere from 3:00 to one night I slept all the way until 7:30! I was so tired.

-I am a very loud grunty baby but I hardly ever cry. I just like to chill during the day. I am pretty much cool wherever mommy puts me as long as she is close by.

-I spit up a lot still. Mommy tries to give me this nasty (zantac) medicine, but I am pretty good at making sure I don't swallow any of it. I am a very "happy" spitter though.

-I love my swing and my mobile in my crib.

-Paci's are ok but I would much prefer milk 24 hrs/day instead of that plastic thing being shoved in my mouth. I like to make this gagging noise when they try to put it in my mouth.

- I am a great car rider.

***Corin has been a dream baby. She really is SOOO laid back. She smiles all the time and hardly ever gets upset. They only time she ever gets the mad cry is in the car if it is feeding time or if she has a belly ache. When she is hungry, she wants to EAT! She is a good size girl but does not look so chubby like the girls did. For some reason she does not like to nap in her bed during the day, but she will fall asleep on her own anywhere else and stay asleep. Weird. The whole scheduling thing has pretty much been thrown out the window. With two older kids doing completely different things, Corin pretty much just gets dragged along everywhere. I am not home enough to have a rigid schedule and as long as she is sleeping decent at night, I don't really care that much right now. I try to do eat, wake, sleep but sometimes she will have a really long awake period and then eat and pass out. OH well, it stresses me out to get worried about it, so I am choosing not to worry about it:) The girls love her so much and really are great with her. They help with everything from diaper changes, to baths, and entertaining her. Naomi is definitely her second mommy and always makes sure I don't forget her. We take turns "counting the kids" aka, making sure I have three kids in the car when we go somewhere:)

Corin on Oct 25th (her 2 month birthday). She was not a happy camper today. She had 3 shots and if she was not sleeping she was very upset:(

Seriously, she is a cutie.

C and big sister

Her boo boo's from her shots:(

Looking at her self in the mirror on her swing. She was making such funny faces. Love her.

29 things to do before I am 29....

I saw this idea on a blog I read a while back I thought it was a great idea. It is basically just a set of goals that I want to achieve before my next birthday!

1.) Read (and/or re-read) in completion the first 5 books of the Bible and all the gospels.

2.) Run a 5K and 10K.

3.) Take a weekend trip with Matt and no kids (or maybe just the baby if I am still nursing.)

4.) Teach the kids 10 new Bible Verses.

5.) Lose 20 pounds.

6.) Sew more.

7.) Pray more.

8.) Begin to teach the girls the Catechism.

10.) Make 3 new recipes a month.

11.) Do Gabby's 1st year scrap book.

12.) Back up photos to hard drive or CD's.

13.) Host a neighborhood party

14. ) Let the girls pick two children to sponsor and start sponsoring/writing them.

15.) Find a local place outside of church that we can serve at as a family.

16.) Help launch a Jubilee fund at our church (For every dollar we spent internally, we spend the same amount externally.)

17.) Transfer wedding video to DVD.

18.) Do something special once of month with Naomi and Gabby individually.

19.) Go on a family camping trip.

20.) Get new family pictures taken.

21.) Finish reading the new 7 books I just bought.

22.) Learn how to cloth diaper (at least part time.)

23.) Make friends with an elderly couple and have them over for dinner.

24.) Go to the zoo

25.) Start the Dave Ramsey spending plan, and stick to it.

26.) Clean out junk closet.

27.) Memorize the Sermon on the Mount. (I started this 2 years ago but fell off the bandwagon.)

28.) Drink more water.

29.) Think of something really cool to put for the 29th thing to do before I am 29:)

-Check out new post on Naomi below.

Our Oldest Daughter

It has been far too long since I gave a good update on our oldest daughter:

Naomi is now 4 1/2 years old. She asks us almost daily when she will be 5!

She weighs 36.5 lbs and is nearly 43 inches tall.

She is definitely going to have that tall lanky body type that she will hate all thru middle school but will love later in life.

She still sports long locks but might be getting a few inches cut off soon.

Her eyes are a grayish blue.

Her favorite color is red.

She knows all her letters and numbers and counts pretty much to 100.

Her penmanship has become amazingly neat with in the last few months. She already has started sounding out small words and I have no doubt she will be reading books before Kindergarten.

She is a very intellectual child and loves to learn. She reminds me so much of my sister when she was little. She already adds small math problems in her head and I never even explained the concept of addition to her. She uses crazy big words in sentences and has an amazing memory. She memorizes Bible verses in a matter of days.

Naomi is still a work in progress when it comes to being away from her mommy and daddy. School is going much better but she still has to be pulled off me when I drop her off. Once we are gone (in almost any setting) she settles down within a matter of minutes. She is still somewhat shy and reserved in group settings. She honestly prefers adults for friends instead of children her own age. She is most verbal and expressive with kids that she knows very well, like of course Gabby, and a few of our close friends children, that we see on a regular basis.

Naomi has an incredibly tender heart. She already loves to serve and help out. She worries a lot about the people she loves and consistently prays for the "whole world" and for little boys and girls who do not have a mommy and daddy.

Naomi still loves animals and still says that when she grows up she either wants to be a Veterinarian or a Cooker (aka Chef!) She listens really well most of the times and is a big help around the house. Both her and Gabby have chores they help with daily, like cleaning their room and playroom, helping with laundry and dishes, getting dressed, brushing teeth, and making their bed.

Her favorite hobbies right now are playing play dough, painting, coloring, doing homework, going to the park, playing tea party with Gabby, baseball with daddy, playing with sidewalk chalk, and watching Disney movies. She is still our picky child when it comes to food and right now she likes macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly), alfredo noodles, tomatoes, oranges, apples, cooked broccoli with cheese sauce, chicken nuggets, chocolate milk, and anything sweet:)

When Naomi has had adequate sleep we hardly ever have discipline issues with her. Her main disciplinary problems (apart from her whole separation anxiety thing) are fighting with her sister, manipulation, and negotiating. 90% of the time the girls are best friends but occasionally they get in fight over something. We are trying to teach them self control and no matter what happened, their reaction or response should always be Godly. We should not react with anger but with kindness. They are learning this, it is just a process. We are also at the age with the girls that we are having to teach them "why" we obey. They are learning that they obey us in the same way that "we" all obey God. They are learning to want to obey instead of just doing it because we say so.

Everyday Naomi is becoming more and more aware of what it means to follow Jesus. She asks some tough question already and I am confident that she understands even more than I am aware. She knows what sin is, she knows that Jesus died on a cross to "pay" for our sins. She understands the story of Adam and Eve. She knows that God is perfect and that only through Jesus can we be made perfect. She gets all this, at least at a surface level. It is all still a little abstract but I am so excited to see her heart grow more in love with Jesus.

Our sweet girl is a full blown kid now:) We have loved every minute of watching Naomi grow. She truly is a joy. I am ever so grateful that God chose us to be her parents.

WE love you Naomi Reese Major.

How does your baby sleep?

So I am curious, how does your baby sleep? Or how did your baby sleep when they were little?

-We love to swaddle and all of girls share the love of the swaddle. In this picture Corin is in the Halo swaddle sleep sack. I love that she can still stretch her legs out but still feels the comfort of being really tight. You do have to be careful to make the swaddle part REALLY tight or it will move its way up around the baby's face through out the night. In the beginning we used the Kiddopatamus swaddleme alot and we still use it if her Halo one is dirty. We did have trouble the first few weeks with both of these being a little big and used these aden and anais blankets.

When Corin is the fleece swaddles we just let her sleep with just a diaper underneath. With the blankets we put her in a gown or footed pajamas.

-Corin slept in her pack n play next to our bed until she was about 5 weeks old. She is really good baby but she does make lots of little noises so I finally started putting her in her room at night. She sleeps really well in there at night.

-We try to do a VERY flexible eat-wake-sleep schedule all day but usually her last feeding around 9:30 she falls asleep nursing. I don't purposely feed her to sleep, that is just what usually happens.

-I hardly ever give Corin her paci in the middle of the night. She gets in when she is fussy during the day but right now she does not seem to need it at night. I don't want her to get to that point where I have to get up and put it back in her mouth every time she wakes up.

-She usually sleeps on her back or occasionally tilted to one side.

West Farm

Last weekend we headed to one of the local pumpkin patches. It was not very big but the girls had a good time. They checked out the animals and enjoyed overpriced hotdogs and cotton candy:)

They had a little kid corn maze but we thought we were cool enough to do the big one. Lets just say a huge corn maze, plus 3 kids and 2 strollers did not work out well. We both were pushing strollers and could not look at the map. After about 15 mins of "enjoying" it we were ready to leave. It took us another 40 mins to find our way back out. I was getting a little worried I was going to have to sit down in the middle of the maze, in the dark, to feed the baby. Thankfully we make it out finally.

Naomi is trying to read the map for us:)

PS. Don't judge Gabs outfit. She is all about picking out her clothes and I just don't feel like fighting over something as small as wearing red and pink together:)

Be Still My Beating Heart....

Sweet moment of Gabs loving on her sissy. Now I need to get one with big sister.

Thinking....

So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, probably bc of one of two reasons:

1.) I ordered 7 new books and have started all but one of them. I have a really bad habit of reading too many books at once and then never finishing any of them:)

2.) I spend a lot of my day nursing a baby. I try to play with the big girls some while feeding Corin but most of the times I am either sitting in the chair in their playroom or on the couch in the family room...thinking:)

So many of the Christian books out right now are about giving to the poor/social justice/helping the widow and the orphan.

So my question is what EXACTLY do we do? Where is the balance? Or is their one? I struggle with how to actually live sacrificially, but also live in this country, raise a family, and tend to a home. Does this make any sense to anyone? I feel horrible that there are children all across the globe that die of starvation daily, but does that mean I should feed our girls only rice and beans?

I would love to give a waitress a $100/tip, help out a single mom with groceries, sponsor a couple kids thru organizations like Compassion. But is this enough? Or is it just my measly attempt to make my self feel better and mark it off my "Christian" list. To what expense to we give? I don't mean this in a selfish manner, (as to buying more things for me) but what about the girls? I promise that I realize that we have MORE than enough. Matt makes a good living and I am able to stay home with the girls and we are very comfortable. I just know how I am. And I have always been a "giver." I just know that I could almost get carried away with "giving." Or is that even a wrong attitude? Is it even possible to get carried away with giving?

Are we all supposed to move to the inner city, or become missionaries, or join the Peace Corps? Or are some of us called to minister to the suburbs? To someone that out the outside looks "wealthy" but is just as "oppressed" because she is being physically abused as the little girl in Africa? Or is this what all Christians think they are called to and no one ends up going and we all stay home in our heated homes, nice cars, fancy clothes, and expensive coffee to "minister" to our "neighbors."

I am serious. I beat myself up about this stuff. It is overwhelming to me. I want to follow Jesus with all of my being but what does that really look like? Am I settling for less?

David Platt in his book Radical (one of the six I am reading) says, " My biggest fear, even now, is that I will hear Jesus' words and walk away, content to settle for less than radical obedience to him."

This is SOOO true for me. Am I willing to go the distance? Am I am "yes" woman for God?

Sweet Girl

Easy Bake Oven

Easy Bake Oven- $3 (garage sale)=sweet deal!

Easy Bake Oven Mixes -$5 per set for 2 servings=extortion

Easy Bake Oven Fun-Huge Smiles on Girls Faces=Priceless

Hello World

Hi peeps. Can you all believe that I will be 6 weeks old on Wed? Me neither. I would only be 5 weeks old if mommy did not insist that I come out a week early. Everyone thought I was going to be some huge baby...but apparently for a Major I was still relatively small. Oh well. As much as I really enjoyed my hot tub I do like the outside world better.

Here is a little more information about me:

Well as I said, I am nearly 6 weeks old.

I LOVE baths. They are awesome. Mommy only gives me about 2-3 baths per week but when she does, I am SOOO happy:)

I love to sleep, especially really deep during the day. I love my mommy but she does get on my nerves when she wakes me up all the time during the day. She won't let me go to sleep after I eat (and let me tell you eating is exhausting!) and she will only let me sleep for 2 hours at the most during the day. At night they just started putting me in my room around 10:00pm. I usually sleep until 2:00 and then mommy comes and gets me to feed me. I am SOOO hungry by then. Mommy says I should sleep longer but I just miss her so much. The good thing is that usually after my first feeding I get to stay in mommy's room the rest of the night. She puts me back in the pack n play until 5ish and then I usually lay next to her until morning. That is my favorite part.
I LOVE to eat. Me and mommy get along just fine. She really is my best friend. She took me to the doctor the other day to get me some medicine for my belly/spitting up. They weighed me with my clothes on and I weighed 11 pounds! Mommy said I gained 2 pounds in 3 weeks! I can't help it, I think milk is yummy...especially when mommy eats ice cream or cookies:) I am happy most of the time, unless my belly hurts, I am tired, or I want to eat. My sisters are great. They take great care of me and give me a paci whenever I want it.
Everyone says I look JUST like my daddy. What do you think?

Peace out peeps, I need to take a nap.

Little C