Verity: 2 Years

Age: 2 years

Verity: 18 Months

Age: 18 months

Weight: 22 lbs - 42%

Height: 31 inches - 25%

Eating: Loves to eat. Still working on getting her up to full meal amounts but she's getting there. Loves pretty much everything... minus oatmeal.

Sleeping: Verity gives us good nights and bad. There are more 7 hour stretches but there's also nights were she gives 3-4 hour stretches.

Accomplishments: Verity has almost all her teeth now...maybe missing 2 canines. Can recognize and sing parts of Frozen songs as well as the theme song to Frasier (we've been watching Frasier.) Climbs the boys' bunk bed ladder and goes down the stairs (like a slide). Speaking of slides, she loves to go down those as well... she'll even do the swirl slides all by her self. She's daring this one!


Other Random Stuff: Verity is obsessed with water. She has no fear of it and will go straight into a splash pad or go swimming in a pool. Verity was a flower girl at my sister's wedding in May. Likes to exercise with me by doing squats.

Verity: 15 Months

Age: 15 months

Weight: 21 lbs - 50%

Height: 29 inches - 25% Looks like Verity is hitting her destiny of being short!

Eating: Verity still doesn't eat mass amounts of food but she does eat now. Her favorites are sunbutter, cream cheese, dairy products in general actually, popcorn tops (so they aren't pokey), carrots, and apples.

Sleeping: We finally started letting Verity cry it out a bit. She's finally not as stubborn so she would eventually given in. She was still sleeping horribly. However, the last few days her naps have been amazing; no crying and sleeping for her full 2 hours. Then last night she gave me a full 7 hours in her own bed! I'm hoping it's not a one time thing!

Accomplishments: Verity walks very well now and fast. She loves to climb and is always climbing on the kids' school chairs and table. Still only says a few words but she's getting there and she's great at saying yes or no to questions. Does a lot of pointing lately... in fact the other day she yelled at Everly and pointed at her to go back in her room (wonder where she got that from...) Verity is a dancer. Her new favorite move is shaking her hips and saying shake, shake, shake. Crazy girl has 10 teeth, 4 of them being her molars!

Other Random Stuff: Verity got to hang out with my parents and grandma while they were here. She warmed up to them nicely. Verity has also transitioned over to the 1 year old class during Bible study and has done great over there! Verity also got her first taste of snow, quite literally... she loves to eat snow! She also officially has enough hair for pig tails!

Verity: 1 Year

Age: 1 year!

Weight: 19lbs 14oz - 50%

Height: 28 1/2 inches - 30% (It appears like Verity dropped from 50%  to 30% but honestly I think we finally just got a proper measurement...normally the nurse measures too big)

Eating: We are slowly getting Verity to eat solids now. She still doesn't eat a ton and it must be smooth purees but she'll eat a bit now. As long as it's smooth, she won't gag. Still drinking lots of breastmilk too.

Sleeping: Sleeping is whatever... She probably wakes every 3-4 hours. I don't know. I've kind of just learned to go with it and not think about how she "should" be sleeping through the night.


Accomplishments: Verity has taken a step here and there. She's still not interested in the idea though. She much prefers just dropping down and crawling to you instead. I'm going to say her first step was at about 12 months but I'm guessing it will be another month before she's really walking. (which is how Everly did things too) Lots of talking but still pretty much the same stuff: mama, emma (which I'm starting to think might be anyone she loves and not just Emma...as she says it for Justin too... she refuses to say dada for some reason), hi, bye-bye, uh-oh, "mah" for more. Verity now has 6 teeth; 4 on top, 2 on bottom.

Other Random Stuff: Nothing interesting to put here. Verity had croup shortly after she turned 11 months. It was bad enough that we took her to urgent care although in hindsight I'm not sure that we really needed to (considering her oxygen levels were pretty much perfect) but it did get her done with croup faster. She's found her voice (not that she was quite before) and likes to shriek when she deems necessary. Still has quite the tongue fascination (as you can see for the picture). Her hair is starting to get longer and is still pretty blonde. There are some days when we wonder if she's going to be closer to a strawberry blonde but only time will tell.

Verity: 11 months

Age: 11 months

Weight: Roughly around 20.5 pounds according to the home scale.

Height: Once again no idea. I'm sure she's still holding her about 50% though.

Eating: We try solids but that gag reflex is going to be around for awhile it seems. She's enjoys most of the foods we offer her, she just doesn't like more than a lick at a time. It's going to be a long time before she's actually eating, I fear.

Sleeping: Sleeping right now is a mess. I was drinking way too much peppermint tea (at least 4 cups a day) and that much peppermint can decrease milk supply. So suddenly Verity wasn't getting too much milk and thus waking up more often. I'm taking fenugreek to bring my supply back up and that seems to be ok now…but now Verity has croup and so we've been up every 1-2 hours again.

Accomplishments: I don't think Verity has added any new accomplishments since last month. Odds are she probably has but nothing is standing out to me right now. Still doesn't want to walk unless holding our hands.

Other Random Stuff: Verity went to her first Pumpkin Patch and seemed to love pumpkins. She also LOVES leaves. We took a few fall photos the other day and so she was sitting in a pile of leaves; she was mesmerized.

Verity: 10 Months

Age: 10 months

Weight: No idea…probably around 19.5 lbs (I've delayed too long for this post so I'm going to just post without the official stats)

Height: Once again no idea. I'm sure she's still holding her about 50% though.

Eating: Still pretty much just breastmilk. We are still trying solid foods but Verity still has quite the gag reflex. That said, she does seem to have a favorite food so far: pumpkin! Lucky for her, I'm stocked up on pumpkin so she gets that often, usually mixed with homemade chicken broth.

Sleeping: We are slowly coming out of Verity's waking every 2 hour phase (thank goodness!) Now I'll get 3-4 hours. Hopefully things will keep progressing and we'll be sleeping through the night once again.

Accomplishments: Can get to standing position from the floor by herself. Official chair pusher; she loves pushing our chairs across the room. Likes clicking her tongue and blowing big bubbles. Current words seem to be Mama, Emmm-ma (our roommate and since Emma is close to Mama it's a natural choice), Dada on the very rare occasion (she seems to be focusing on "m's" right now). And her first real word is Uh Oh. It's more of a sound as she's not really saying it but I'll take it. She also has no real idea of what Uh Oh means but it's still completely cute to get her to say it! And she's starting to say Hi (although once again, there's no real connection to it yet)

Other Random Stuff: We were watching The Aristocats the other day and Verity starting swinging her arms and dancing when she heard the "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" song. Now whenever any of us sing that song she'll start swinging her arms.

Verity: 9 Months

Age: 9 months

Weight: 18 lbs, 14 oz - 59%

Height: 27 1/2 inches - 44%

Eating: Mostly just breastmilk. Verity started solids when she turned 9 months (so a few days now). First food was egg yolks. Didn't like. Then we tried bananas which she appeared to like a bit better but her gag reflex is ridiculously strong and so she didn't like the whole swallowing process. Then we tried avocado; both in chunk and puree form. Once again, didn't like and gag. She even gagged on the puree. I've never had a kid with such a strong gag reflex especially at this old. It's a good think she's plump enough on breastmilk!

Sleeping: Little girl is no longer swaddled. She's getting to be a big girl. Unfortunately however, I've created a crutch of feeding her to sleep and thus she is now waking more than she should. Looks like we have a hefty dose of sleep training coming up.

Accomplishments: Still crawling (obviously), pulls herself up, cruises, "dances" while holding on to something, will stand unassisted for a few seconds and she's very proud of this feat. Getting good at that whole pincher grab (aka "guess what crumb Verity found on the floor") and can climb stairs now. (oh yay…)

Other Random Stuff: Verity loves water. If we're in the bathroom she'll stand by the tub and squawk away. If the kids are playing in the pool she'll try to climb in.

Verity: 8 Months

Age: 8 months


Weight: 18 lbs (roughly, it's probably closer to 18 1/2)

Height: 26 inches (yeah, I give up on this… Verity has gotten too mobile to get a good measurement)

Eating: Still just breast milk. Still nursing a lot. One more month and Verity will start solids.

Sleeping: This has been less than amazing lately. Verity had about 1 week of sleeping for only 1-2 hrs during the night and she had to be in bed with us. Finally realize it was just because she was ready to move into a bed of her own instead of the swing. Last night was the first night that Verity was in her pack n play (aka her own bed) and she slept a 5 hour followed by a 3 hour. Not amazing but I'll take it! Verity is also still swaddled; we swaddle for a long time.


Accomplishments: Lots of progress this last month, Verity crawls like crazy. She has a bit of the "zombie crawl" but she'll crawl normally if she wants to get somewhere fast. She can pull herself easily now and there's no stopping her. She's starting to learn how to get back down which is good because otherwise she just gets stuck standing up. More babbling, getting closer to actual "mama" and "dada" but not really associating anything yet. She's also started to "bounce" while sitting, sort of a dance move.

Other Random Stuff: Not much else to report. Verity is still quite happy and easy going. She seems to be taking after Logan a bit. It'll be interesting to see if she continues to look like him.

Verity: 7 Months

Age: 7 months

Weight: 17 lbs, 8oz - 60% (roughly, at home measurements)

Height: 26 inches - 50% (not too sure this one is correct or more likely the nurse over measured at the 6 month appointment. )

Eating: Still just breast milk. We delay solids until 9 months to make sure her enzymes are in place so that we do not risk allergies, reactions, or gut issues.

Sleeping: Generally sleeps for 4-6 hrs at night followed by shorter spurts. Naps are starting to stretch out especially a few days ago when Verity decided to sleep about a total of 30 minutes each day. Oy.

Accomplishments: Verity got her 2 bottom teeth. Trying to pull herself up but generally topples over so it's a high risk task. So so close to crawling. Currently she can get up on her knees but doesn't know how to move forward. Usually she ends up doing "planks" or "downward dog". Verity is addicted to clapping her feet. Any time that she is on her back or in her car seat,  she will clap her feet. Can get from laying to sitting on her own.

Other Random Stuff: I don't think there's too much else to mention. Verity seems to be going blonde. I think she'll end up one of my blonder kids; like Logan. I've also been going through the old baby pictures of the other kids and I'm starting to think that Verity looks like Logan did when he was a baby; so who knows, maybe Logan will have someone who looks like him after all.

Block Biter

Here's a little snippet of Verity, the block biter.

She started out by eating her block and laughing as I was doing some exercises so I decided to take a mini break from crunches to show you all what she likes to do while mommy is working out.

Getting Chatty in the Bath

Verity is getting to be quite the talker. I'm deathly afraid to admit it but I fear she will be my most talkative child yet. Poor introvert mama with not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 ridiculously extroverted children. It's a good thing of course but it can drive this mama batty.

Verity's talking is currently cute however and not annoying...give her time, she'll get around to asking those "why?" questions soon enough!

Recently, I was giving her a bath and the second I put her in, she started blabbing. The girl talked for probably a good 3 minutes before I even decided to start washing her.

Here's just a bit of what she had to say.

Verity: 5 Months

Age: 5 months

Weight: 15 lbs 8 oz - 50% (roughly, measured at home)

Height: 25 inches  - 45% (roughly, measured at home)

Eating: Same old, same old. Just breast milk and often.

Sleeping: Generally sleeps for 5-6 hrs at night followed by shorter spurts.

Accomplishments: Rotates in a circle if on the floor, grabs toes, "talks", happy shrieking, rolls from back to tummy, recently fake laughed repeatedly.

Other Random Stuff: Not much going on with Verity this month. She's sort of in between milestones so there's nothing really new. Next month should have lots to list. Still as cute as ever though!


 

Verity - 4 Months

Age: 4 months

Weight: 14 lbs, 5 oz - 50%

Height: 24 1/4 inches - 38% (this would seem to suggest a drop in height but honestly I think Verity's regular doctor has always measured at least a 1/2 inch big so it's probably the same curve)

Eating: Eats every 2-3 hours still unless it's bedtime.

Sleeping: Sleeps for 5-6 hours and then finishes the night with a few 3-4 hours. Still sleeping in her swing for most of the time.

Accomplishments: Laughing, talking a ton, "singing", rolled over from tummy to back (just one like all my children seem to do). Verity's moved on to 6 month old clothing already. She's huge! Verity also decided to self-wean from her pacifier. I've never had a kid do that and definitely not at 3 months old which is when Verity decided to. Now she just puts herself to sleep by grunting or complaining to herself (her choice)

Other Random Stuff: Verity is still my easiest baby. Very mellow and happy. She's getting more hair in although nowhere near hair clip ready. Looks like she will be one of my blonder children like Logan. Speaking of siblings, Verity loves her brothers and sister. She cracks up when they try to be funny for her and if she's having a hard time waiting while I make dinner, I can just have one of the kids talk to her and she loves it.