five months

^big sister wanted to join in on the pictures as well ; )

Size: Wearing size 3 diapers and clothes ranging in size from 6-9 months and some 6-12 sized clothes.

Eating: Nothing really new to put in this category. The only thing she is getting is her mama's milk. She is very interested in our food and drinks, but we are waiting till she's 6 months to give her anything else (recommended by her doctor).

Sleep: This last month we sleep trained Paige, loosely following the Ferber Method. We had sleep trained Ellie when she was around 5 months old and it worked really well. Paige all together had been sleeping better than Ellie at this age, and it seemed like a good time to make this move. Paige was swaddled, using a pacifier to help relax/put her to sleep, all while we were holding/swaying her to sleep before we put her in her crib. It wasn't a hard process and she would go to sleep and stay asleep great at night, but naps were not great at all. They would range in length from 30 minutes - 2 hours, but more than not they were on the short side. Every once in awhile she would put herself back to sleep. It was wearing on me and we wanted to create better sleep habits for her all together.
The first couple days of sleep training were a bit rough, to be expected, but each night got better. Naps were a slower start, however she does great now. It usually takes her less than 10 minutes to fall asleep. Sometimes she chats, makes some noise, and may whimper/cry for a min, then drifts off to sleep. She usually prefers to roll to her tummy and sleep that way. She is also favoring both her index and middle finger to suck on at the same time- going back and fourth with those fingers on her right and left hand - not sure if she'll pick a specific side or even stick to those fingers. And now her naps (2-3 a day) are 1-2.5 hours most days. Her bedtime is 6pm, on average. At night she does 9 hours straight on average. Her wake time in the morning varies, but hopefully soon I can find a good time to consistently wake her (or she may even start waking at a more consistent time on her own). This way the day can be more predictable. Now, I just go off her wake times and make sure to put her down to sleep after an hour and a half or no later than 2 hours after.
Her sleep routine looks like this:
-Nurse in her room (if bedtime) with all lights on
-Diaper change (and change into pjs, if bedtime), with just side table light on
-Put in sleep sack
-Read a short book or two
-Stand and sway for a minute
-Lay down in crib awake
-Turn on sound machine to white noise and turn off side table light

Milestones/Accomplishments:
-Rolling consistently from back to tummy
-Sleep trained
-Finally found her toes
-Sits well with support around her sides
-Grabs her toys and brings to mouth really well
-No more pacifier
-Opens her mouth big and leans toward you for kisses sometimes

Likes:
-Toy zebra that hangs on carseat (Ellie loved it, too when she was a baby)
-You blowing raspberries on her, anywhere
-Rocking in the chair with Ellie
-(this one could have been on a few updates prior) Loves listening/watching people talk
-Attention! She will brighten up with any form of this from Ellie, daddy and me. She does take a little warming up to strangers, but a good smile to her will do her good!
-Touching faces
-Sucking on index and middle finger at same time - on both hands, but at different times

Dislikes:
There aren't really any new dislikes that I can think of...

Additional things I want to remember: Her eye color is brown, like mine (and I hope they stay this way!). Her thigh rolls - still so chubby and cute. How she'll babble on and on. Her grabbiness with book pages. How she'll also look up back at me while I'm reading to her.

October photo favorites

Trying to take advantage of these last mild temp days, spending time as our family of four and with friends! There's so many holidays in these next few months that bring people together, too! 

One afternoon as I was getting Paige ready for nap I noticed Ellie was being particularly quiet in her room. So I went to see what she was up to. Well, she had gotten into her (new) big girl bed and was fast sleep. I usually put Ellie down for her nap a little after Paige, but I guess this day she was really tired and decided to go into bed/sleep on her own. We always read and cuddle for a few before I put her down, but I didn't need to this time and she slept her normal length nap as well. 

I will add, this was the only time she has done this...so far. And, she didn't want her pillow/side in bed to be on the "proper" side for awhile, but now it's switched around. 

^ Ellie just leaned over and wanted to cuddle with me while we watched a show together. 

Love it when she does this. 

^ Steven has been taking Ellie out on her bike a little and I guess she's not totally into striding herself just yet! She looks so grown up to me...almost threenager!

^Was able to snap another sleeping picture on a different day. Love it when I can sneak one in before she wakes up!

Soaking up these beautiful fall days with some walks with our little family. 

Picture below shows Ellie checking out some ducks in the water and holding a leaf. 

All on her own she has been enjoying picking up fall leaves and bringing them home. 

^Got to celebrate one of my best friends and her little baby girl on the way. Paige and her are going to besties! (Also, I am wearing a tank top under my Moby wrap, even though it doesn't look like it! ha)

^ALWAYS wanting to dress up like a ballerina (can you guess what she'll be for Halloween?!?) and dance with her daddy!

^Ellie quite often asks for me to put Paige by her in the chair so they can rock together. Paige loves it, too - as you can tell. Melt my mama heart!

^Steven took Ellie to her FIRST trip to the dentist. They call them "Happy Visits" where we go. However, there were some fearful tears shed. But overall she did well and her teeth are looking good! 

^Our friend Shaina invited us over to play in their leaves. Ellie enjoyed herself.

 Below are more pictures of the girls in the rocking chair. Ellie wanted to hold Paige's hand, too!! I couldn't pick just one from the several I took, because each one captures a little something different and sweet that I want to remember. 

^And that same afternoon Ellie wanted to join in on story time with Paige (before Paige's nap). I wasn't paying close attention to the whole shot, and I cut off the second page of the book that says 'What a wonderful world'. It truly is a wonderful life that I'm living. Even though there's not so wonderful events occurring on the regular in the world, I can still see the beauty in it and am so grateful to be living the life I do. Thank you God!

Another walk with my gang

^A walk with the ladies and kids from our life group at church!

^Ellie got this My Little Pony mask from a McDonald's kids meal and I find it hilarious when she puts it on! 

^First picture captured of Paige sleeping after being sleep trained! She is doing super well with it all - not perfect, but SOOO much better than she was! 

(more details on her sleep will be in her 5 month update post in a couple days)

Happy Halloween!

^Ellie posed like this all on her own! 

^She did have a hard time looking at the camera; kept looking at me and Paige! haha

Our friends had a TV show themed party!

Steven: Burt Macklin (Parks & Recreation) and Me: Rachel Green (Friends)

The girls were obviously their own thing, but we had fun putting ours together. 

 After I posed for the above picture, Ellie wanted her pictures taken (below photos) again and she was so cute posing!

3rd Annual Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch! This will be the third year in a row that we've gone; hence the title of this post ; ). And as Ellie gets older, each year she has more fun! This was of course Paige's first time and she had no idea, but it will be fun to see her (hopefully) enjoy it more each year as well. I invited a couple other friends and that made it even better. 

First on the agenda was the BIG slide. You have to climb up a ton of hay bails and the guys helped Ellie up it, while us other girls watched from below. I took a video of Ellie going down it and her laugh that echoes in it is so cute. She loved it. 

Next was the corn box which Ellie had never done before. She went back and fourth between liking it and then not so sure. Our friend Andrew got in it with her and that was funny! However I didn't get a picture of them in it together. 

There were a few different bouncy houses and Ellie enjoyed herself in those. She had never been in one before and I wish I had been able to go in it with her...adults weren't really allowed...

To the side of one there was a decent sized slide and she went down that one a couple times as well.

Last activity before the actual pumpkin patch was this fair type swing ride. Ellie is the one who initiated going on it, which surprised Steven and I. We didn't think she'd want to go on something like that without one of us being able to go with her. However, when it was time to load in the swing, she was still all for it. Then we even went on to say to each other, she'll probably be a little scared when it goes. That girl shocked us and she had a blast. I took a couple pictures and a video. As you can tell by the picture below her face says it all - pure joy! And, if you could hear her laugh - priceless! Ellie even wanted to go on it again.

It was a mid temperature day, but as the evening went on, it got a little chilly and windy. Thanks Amanda for keeping our girl warm! 

The hay ride to the patch...

Our friends, Shaina and Josh and Andrew and Amanda...

Paige had dozed while we were doing the previous activities, but woke when we got on the hay ride...

All the girls (Paige hidden in the ergo)...

We'd say Ellie had a content time looking at the pumpkins and asked if she wanted to pick one. But the couple she pointed out, were yucky ones. And the guy who was explaining the different sections of pumpkins kind of gave us the wrong impression, so we didn't actually get off where the cute little ones were and it was kind of hard for me to pick a nicely shaped orange one. Though, I did end up getting a good white one! Also, a few minutes after we'd started looking at pumpkins, Paige started to get fussy and then she was full on crying. I was keeping us out later than she'd prefer, but I had hoped she'd snooze more in the ergo. But, she wasn't feeling it. By the time we got back on the hay ride to the place you buy and leave, Paige was calmed down thankfully. 

We're really glad Ellie had the most fun and we got to make more memories with our friends. We even had them over for dinner after; soup and sandwiches - Amanda's idea for a nice fall day together! Great way to end the night!