Painting Pumpkins

Instead of craving pumpkins we had Pennington paint a few pumpkins. Below is a picture of one of the pumpkins Pennington painted.

Pumpkin Patch

On Wednesday the whole family went to get pumpkins at Farmstead which is a Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch off of Eagle and I-84. It turned out that this wasn't a really good idea because it was super windy. Instead of actually picking the pumpkins off a vine we just grabbed some that were next to the entrance and jetted back to our car. Below are some picture of the family at the pumpkin patch. Pennington enjoyed riding in the wagon with the pumpkins. Mommy did her best to keep Piper warm and out of the wind.

Planet Kid

As I have mentioned many times before, Pennington is definitely excelling in the gross motor skills area. He LOVES climbing on things. One of the Groupon deals last week was 50% off at Planet Kid. Groupon is basically one big online coupon for something in your area. Planet Kid is basically an indoor playground at Wings. Below are some pictures of Pennington at Planet Kid. He liked playing in the toddler area but really wanted to go hang out with the big kids. Note: I don't recommend going to Planet Kid on a cold, rainy Saturday. It gets really crowded.

Piper's First Trip to the Cabin

Mommy, Nonie, Piper and Pennington went up to the Groves Family cabin last Thursday. This was Piper's first trip to the cabin. Daddy, Poppy, Uncle Henry and two of his friends Ryan and Nick, Uncle Elliott and his girlfriend Leasley joined us at the cabin over the weekend. While at the cabin we watched football games, walked along the beach in front of the cabin, went for walks around the cabin, played cribbage, watched movies, played with Pennington's toys, ect. Mommy, Daddy, Pennington and Piper went into McCall one afternoon and had a lovely family picnic (catered by My Fathers Place) at the park in McCall. Pennington loved walking around on the beach and watching the skateboarders. Overall, our time at the cabin was really fun minus the fact that the cabin is not childproofed at all. Below are a few pictures of the trip.

Piper Two Months Old

Piper turned two months old yesterday. I remember telling people that the first two months with Pennington were the hardest. I am happy to say that I have made it through the first two months with Piper alive and well. I think the reason I say the first two months are the hardest is because the baby doesn't interact with you very much. Now that Piper is two months old her personality is really starting to come out. She has the most adorable smile and really enjoys watching what Mommy, Daddy and Pennington are doing.

I went back to work when Pennington was two months old. This time around I decided to stay home longer which was definitely a good decision. I can't even imagine having to leave both Piper and Pennington alone with anyone right now. I will not be going back to work until Piper is 4 and a half months old.

My OBGYN doctor (Bryan Hodges at the Women's Clinic - I HIGHLY recommend him) gave us a free photo session and 8x10 photo when Piper was born. Today I took Piper to get her pictures taken. I can't wait to get the photos. She looked so adorable. Getting newborn photos taken is so much fun. I definitely regret not doing this with Pennington. I will post a few of the photos as soon as I get them.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Piper's eyes look as though they are two different colors. Her right eye is brown and her left eye looks like a lighter shade of brown / hazel. I believe that her eyes are continuing to change but as of right now I would say her has two different color eyes. It is pretty hard to see so I don't think that you will be able to tell from this photo. Below is a recent photo of Piper.

Piper Eight Weeks Old

Today Piper turned eight weeks old. The biggest development over the last two weeks is that she is smiling at us. We have continued to work on tummy time but it doesn't last very long because she is constantly rolling over from her tummy to her back. She has also started to hold rings in her hands.

At the "Breast Feeding Bunch" today we found out that she is continuing to gain weight. She currently weights 10 pounds 5 ounces which means she gained 5 ounces this last week. Over the last week we supplemented 6 ounces a day. Over the next week we are going to start cutting back to 5 ounces and the 4 ounces a day.

Piper loves to talk to us. We will try to post a video of her talking soon.

Piper has also starting to become more independent while sleeping. Last night we were able to get her to sleep from 9:30pm until 3:30am in her crib waking up once to eat. This is HUGE progress people! Hopefully by the time she is 3 months old she will be sleeping in her crib regularly instead of in bed with Mommy.

Below are some recent pictures of Piper.

Piper Feeding Update

Two weeks ago (when Piper was six weeks old) I took Piper to see Kathy, a Sacral Cranial Specialist at the Lotus Tree, to see if Piper had any issues with her month that might be causing me not to produce enough milk. Kathy found a few issues and worked her magic to get Piper's mouth in better shape for breast feeding. We visited her again last week (when Piper was seven weeks old) for a follow up session as well. Overall Piper's mouth is a little tight but not nearly as bad as I remember Pennington's being. The therapy that Kathy did on Piper has definitely helped to improve my milk supply. Piper has continued to gain more than enough weight over the last two weeks, averaging around 8 ounces a week.

I also went to the "Breast Feeding Bunch" last Wednesday which is a free breast feeding group that St. Lukes offers. The benefit of going to the group is that you can do free weight checks and ask a lactation consultant any questions you might have. The lactation consultant on hand mentioned that her latch looks great. Since I know Piper is gaining more than enough weight, I decided to cut back on supplementing to a maximum of 6 ounces a day to see if she continues to gain an adequate amount of weight. I will make sure to include a feeding update on Wednesday after I go to the Bunch.

I would like to mention a few things I have learned over the last two years about breast feeding that will hopefully help others out.

1. Take the class and read a book on it before you have the baby. Breast feeding is so much harder than you think. I made a HUGE mistake the first time not doing that.

2. Meet with the lactation consultants. For the most part they are really helpful.

3. Go see a Sacral Cranial Specialist. For some reason lactation consultants are not really good about referring you to see one but I will say that the SC Specialists are much better at fixing your breast feeding issues than the lactation consultants.

4. You seriously have to feed the child 8 to 12 times a day. This basically means you don't do anything but feed the baby over the first few months of their life. Piper is almost 8 weeks old and I am still feeding her at least 8 times a day (every 2 to 3 hours).

I remember reading in a breast feeding book that once you get to six weeks it starts to get easier. I will definitely agree with that. Since breast feeding is continuing to go well (minus the fact we are still supplementing a little bit) my next challenge is going to be to figure out how to continue breast feeding when I head back to work in January.

Pennington Fourteen Months Old

Pennington is fourteen months old today. He has grown up so much over the last month.

Pennington still hasn't spoken his first word yet but he is communicating with us by using a few words in sign language such as all done, more, dog, thank you and touchdown!!! He has also started to give people "Pennington Kisses" which is really just a gentle head butt.

Pennington continues to excel in the gross motor skills area. The kid as NO FEAR!!! Today he went down a really steep slide head first and face planted into the sawdust. Boy do we have our hands full. At Daddy's soccer game on Sunday Mommy saw him dribble the soccer ball touching his feet six times in a row.

Pennington is also starting to be very interested in how things work. He is entertained for hours trying to vacuum, but things inside a container and take then out, and screw lids on and off.

Pennington continues to LOVE fruit, specially grapes and raspberries. He isn't much of a meat eater so we are constantly trying to find things for him to eat that have protein in them. For breakfast we have been working on using a spoon to eat oatmeal or yogurt. He can feed himself if we put the food on the spoon for him. He is still working on trying to get the food on the spoon himself. Over the last month he started to drink from the straw and then let the liquid spill out of his mouth getting his clothes all wet so we switched to a sippy cup.

Pennington has continued to be challenged by his little sister Piper. We always thought of Pennington as a child that never cries but those tears have started to come since Piper was born. Overall he isn't angry at Piper he is just wants attention. He has started to intentionally hurt himself to get attention. Usually what happens is Pennington accidentally falls over and starts crying, we give him attention by asking him if he is okay, and then he does it again on purpose. We are really trying to give him as much attention as we can but it is hard when Piper is still really young.