5 months old

Look at how well I hold myself up!

5 months have come and gone quickly! Here are some things that I want to remember about Carly at this age:
-She loves Kate and smiles at her anytime she is around.
-We don't hear her laugh that often, but it is precious when she does. She mostly laughs at Kate. We have found a couple of tickle spots and we can always get a laugh with those!
-She prefers to sleep on her tummy and not her back. We have not been getting the best sleep lately because she will get stuck on her back when she rolls over. She won't just go right back to sleep either since she doesn't suck her fingers or a pacifier. Hopefully, she learns to roll from her back to her tummy soon!
-She likes to be rocked to go to sleep in the glider or us standing up. When she is sleepy she prefers to be on your chest facing you laying straight up.
-She typically cat naps in the morning and then takes one long 3 hour nap in the afternoon. She sleeps about 12 hours a night. She typically starts her night between 8-9:00 pm, will wake up around 2:00 am, and then 6:00 am, and will start the day around 8:00 am.
-We have not started her on rice cereal yet. We are going to do this at 6 months.
-Her reflux doesn't seem to be a problem anymore. We will probably talk to her doctor at her 6 month appt. about stopping the medicine. She still needs to get good burps out after feedings, but we haven't seen her do a big spit up in awhile.
-She loves to put her feet in her mouth when she is laying on her back. She enjoys playing on her back, but she doesn't want to sleep on her back.
-She will wake up and just play in her crib without crying unless she is hungry or tired.
-She doesn't really cry that often. She will fuss when she is sick of being in the doorway jumper or the exersaucer, but she doesn't really cry unless she is really tired or hungry.
-She will nurse about 8 times a day. It is usually every 2-3 hours. Her feedings are usually at 9:30 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm before her nap, 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 9:00 pm, 2:00 am, 6:00 am. It can be more often if she is needing it to help her fall back asleep.She usually takes between 5-10 minutes per feeding.
-She is wearing 6-9 month clothing now.
-She still does not like a pacifier or a bottle. Sometimes she will chew on a couple of her fingers to soothe herself, but not every time. She also likes to chew on her little pink blankies.
-She has a pretty laid back happy temperament. She gives her smiles out to anybody that will give her attention.
-She likes to play on the floor, in the exersaucer and doorway jumper, but prefers to be held. She will stay the longest in the backpack that I put on me with her in it.
-She falls asleep almost anytime we go for a drive in her carseat. However, she wakes up when we get to our destination, so you can't depend on that for a good nap.
-She loves to pull her bird toy on her carseat.
-We love how she will coo and flap her arms when she is happy. Zack will say "flap your wings" when she is moving her arms back and forth.
-She loves to blow bubbles when she is happy, too. Kate will try to blow bubbles back at her.

Overall, we just love our precious girl and feel so blessed! I have some things to write up about Kate later. I just wanted to celebrate Carly today and being five months old! By the way, I noticed I had misspelled a couple of words on my last blog. I corrected it, so sorry! Some times you type so fast you just don't realize your mistakes till later.

This and That

Yesterday we had Carly's Baby Blessing at church. Here is a picture of Zack and the girls after church at home. I really don't know why Kate is pointing up. I think she is saying "Praise God for Carly!"

Here is me and the girls

Kate has become a big fan of monkeys lately and every time that she sees Zack's Iphone she wants him to show her monkey videos. It cracks us up! She will just keep saying "monkeys" until he shows her some videos. Here she is watching a monkey video.

It is very common for me to walk around with Carly on my back with this backpack. It is really for hiking outdoors, but I find that it is most helpful around the house. At times, I will be holding Kate and Carly at the same time with this on my back! A couple of nights ago she just couldn't stay awake any longer.

Kate loves to play with Daddy when he comes home from work. They were playing a go to sleep game.

We had a play date with Harper, Aubrey, and Ryleigh last week. It cracked us up that Kate decided to just grab Harper's leg for no reason. I think Harper looks a little unsure. I wonder why!

Kate gave Harper a break but then grabbed on to Carly.

Aubrey wanted to lay down because Carly was laying down, and then Kate joined in, too.

We introduced Carly to the doorway jumper a couple of weeks ago. She seemed to like it for a little while. However, it became a problem because Kate really wanted to try it out, too. Obviously, she is way too big for that! Kate loves all of Carly's toys.

Papa and Carly

It seems like July just came and went and now August is slipping away, too. I am sad about time going by so fast, but I am not sad about the hot months slipping by. Oh my goodness, could it be any hotter? We enjoyed some time off as a family with Zack. We got to eat some sno cones, we went to the zoo, we went swimming, and did some relaxing. Zack also went to Colorado with his Big Bend buddies. He has six college buddies that usually go to Big Bend in the spring every year, but this year they tried something different. They had a great time in Colorado with beautiful weather! I have been meaning to do Carly's four month write up but we have just been busy. Zack's grandfather Papa passed away almost two weeks ago. His health had been declining for quite some time, so it was not totally unexpected. We are sad that he is no longer with us, but glad that he is no longer suffering. He was 88 years old and lived a wonderful life. We know that he is now celebrating with the angels in heaven! We love you Papa! Kate got to spend 3 nights and 4 days with Nana and Papa while we took Carly to Fredricksburg for Papa's funeral. That was Kate's longest time away from Mommy and Daddy. She had a great time playing with her cousins and going to VBS. Carly also did really well with all of the driving. We had a time of mourning and celebrating of Papa's life.
I can't believe Carly is almost 4 1/2 months old now. It appears that she is going to be full of smiles like Kate. She is very quick to smile at others. It is fun to interact with her now and get little coos and laughter from her. She has also started rolling over from her tummy to her back, so we are now letting her sleep on her tummy all the time. She has been wanting to do this for some time! No more sleeping in her car seat! She loves to lay on her back on a blanket and play with her feet. It is humorous to watch her concentrate so hard on grabbing toys. She will sit in her exersaucer for awhile now, too. She isn't quite on a schedule yet. It is much harder getting her on a schedule when you are also working around a toddler's schedule. She usually will take one long nap a day and goes to bed around 9:00 pm. She will typically go between 6-8
hours before waking up for a feeding at night. Then she will sleep till she has slept a total of 12 hours a night. Carly is more of a snacker when she eats. She likes to nurse off of one side and then about an hour later she will nurse off the other side. I think her reflux makes her get full faster and she doesn't like to take in a lot of milk. Her reflux is a lot better, but it is still at a point that we feel she needs her medicine. She still has no interest in a pacifier or a bottle. My pediatrician said to just not push it right now, especially since I am staying home. She will do this funny, odd thing when she is tired. To help soothe herself she opens her mouth real wide and makes loud sounds. Some times it can take her awhile to fall asleep. She likes for you to rock her standing up while she is laying on your chest. Overall, we still think she is pretty laid back. She doesn't always have to be held, which is nice! She is like Kate in that she likes to be able to do her own things, too. Carly loves Kate! She just lights up when Kate is around. She even smiles real big when Kate rather aggressively helps bathe her. Kate is very helpful with her, but doesn't have that much of an interest in playing with her. They pretty much do their own thing. I know that will change eventually, though. Her weight at her four month appt. was 14.85 pounds which puts her at 75 percent for her weight. Her head and length were at 50 percent. Kate was 75 percent for length and 25 percent for weight at Carly's age. They seem to be really different in their bodies at this point. I know that can change, though. Carly is wearing 3-6 month clothes. Since Carly is a little bigger than Kate I think their clothes are not going to overlap as much as we had thought. A lot of Kate's 6 month clothes are long sleeves, and we are certainly not ready for long sleeves any time soon! We are just loving both of our girls! Kate has enjoyed playing with baby toys again. Almost every day Kate likes to sit in the exersaucer just like Carly! Kate is constantly coming up with new words . One of her favorite new phrases is " hold you" for when she is wanting to be held. She will often call Zack by his name instead of Daddy. I think it is because she is always hearing Aubrey call him that. It cracks us up because she will sneeze and say bless you to herself. We still cannot make out a lot of her words, but she seems to be speaking more and more clearer. Overall, we have enjoyed our summer. Zack is back at work now and gearing up for the new year!

Here is a picture of the three Pruett men taken last November:Dad Dad, Zack and Papa
Papa was a fighter till the very end. He would rarely complain about his health.

A couple of 4 month pictures of Carly. I love her cute little ears! Everybody thinks she looks like somebody in the Pruett family. I have heard Zack, Lindsey, Lauren and Debbie!