Brady's 4 Year Stats

I normally update the kids' height and weight stats in their birthday posts, but with the kids' birthdays being so close, it doesn't make sense to trek to the doctor's office twice in two weeks, so they go at the same time after Izzie has had her official birthday.  That means, Brady's will have to be updated after his official birthday post from here on out.  He's a healthy boy and passed his eyesight and hearing tests.  He had been playing pretend doctor all week with my mom and knew all of the things that were going to happen (including the shots).  He kept telling Nana that they would check his eyes, ears, mouth, and belly, but that he didn't want the shots.  Both kids needed shots, so we let Brady go first because if he saw Izzie go first, there would be no way we could restrain him.  He certainly put up a fight and kept telling the nurse to be careful.  The poor kid cried long after Izzie had had her set of shots and stopped crying herself.  He got lots of stickers and a cookie at Subway for lunch afterwards to make up for it.

He's very lean and taller than a majority of the kids in his preschool class.  He's certainly all muscle and you can tell how dense his body is when you pick him up.  He moved into 4T pajamas in the fall, but the shirts are getting a bit short on him (remember he's got a long torso and short legs like Andy).  He just moved into 4T shirts and they're huge on him (pajamas tend to run small so they're snug and flame retardant).  He still wears all 3T pants and when I buy 4T shorts and pants in anticipation of him going up in size, the waists are huge!  He still wears 2T bathing suits and sometimes even then, they start to slide down.  He had big feet and just got size 11 sneakers.  These are his stats compared to last year.

Last Year:                                               This Year:

38 inches (65th percentile)                 41.25 inches (75th percentile)
34lbs (75th percentile)                         38.8lbs (70th percentile)

I knew he was slightly under 42 inches from our recent trip to Great Wolf Lodge where that was the cut off for some of the rides.  He grew 3.25 inches in a year, increasing his percentile, and if he grows less than an inch to reach that 42 inch mark he can ride some of the really big rides at Disneyland like the Matterhorn.  He already reaches the requirement for the fun ones like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad, and Tower of Terror.  They've changed the photo pass options to allow you to have to rights to all your ride photos as well, so I can't wait to see his face on some of these rides!  He gained less than 5lbs and is now in the 70th percentile, but you wouldn't know it to look at him (as I said, he's all muscle).  His doctor said his BMI was perfect and he's very proportional.  As long as he's healthy, that's all we could ask for.

Happy 1st Birthday Isabella Betsy!!!

Our "baby" is now officially a toddler!  She's officially a one year old and it still hasn't sunken in yet.  You almost feel like there should be this big change, but they're the same as they were the day before.  This year has gone by so quickly and it's hard to remember the tiny baby we brought home a year ago.  She's so physical that she has seemed older than she is for a long time, so turning one almost seems like a formality.  She's a very happy girl and is extremely social.  She smiles at everyone and will play with anyone.  We love watching her and Brady interact.  They love each other so much and it's amazing to watch them together.


She's certainly fearless.  When we went to Great Wolf Lodge, she was walking in water up to her waist, not wanting to hold our hands and picking herself back up when she slipped.  She's a climber and can now climb up stairs.  She nearly gave me a heart attack a few weeks ago, when I was cleaning the kitchen and turned to see her standing on the fireplace.  I ran to reach her before she fell off, and of course clipped my own foot jumping the barricade and we both fell at the same time.  She came out less hurt than I did and was more scared than anything.  We'll have to keep a very close eye on her as she gets older and isn't penned into the main room any longer.

 

She's a little mommy to her babies.  She will carry them around on her shoulder and try to feed them their bottles.  She'll put them in her toy stroller and push them around.  If they fall out, she stops right away to put them back in.

Look how much she has changed in a year!

The distance from Brady's birthday to mine is 20 days, with Izzie's falling in the middle.  Andy was super anxious and impatient so he had me open my present early.  He got me a new camera and wanted me to have it before Izzie's official birthday so we could take really nice pics.  We were testing it out in the next few pics.

She's certainly got an attitude and a personality and you can tell that in this picture.

Milk face, the morning before her birthday.  She's started weaning and has all sippy cups of formula (soon to be whole milk) during the daytime. 

My Oma in NYC was admitted to the hospital a few weeks back with pneumonia and my dad has been traveling up there to be with her.  It became apparent that he wouldn't be able to make it for Izzie's party because of his need to be with her.  We worked out a deal where he would bring my mom the weekend of Izzie's real birthday and that would make up for him missing out on the party.  We all went out to dinner the night before her birthday to celebrate.  My mom has stayed the week to help with party prep.

First pic of our official one year old!

Monthly owl picture!

The birthday girl in her tutu!

Presents! 

Toting around her copy of Mary Poppins from Nana and Dubby.

A cash register from Nana and Dubby.  She fell in love immediately!

A growth chart for her room.  This was the only present from us she got on her actual birthday because we like to measure them on their birthdays.  Her other gifts from us will be opened at her party later this week.

Thanking Nana for the great gifts!

She had a smash cake for portraits and will have another at her party, but you can't have a first birthday without cake!  We went out and got her this oversized cupcake to smash on the night of her birthday.

Andy helping her get what she had on her hands in her mouth so that she'd be enticed to dig in.

She's an old pro now, so she'll be sure to put on a show at her party.

Nothing sums it up better than this picture.

A look back at every single month!

She's still pretty petite, but it's funny to see her with her belly and thighs since Brady was bigger but slimmer.  She's maintaining her size 3 when it comes to diapers and has moved into a lot of her 12-18 month winter clothes (mainly Gymboree and Crazy8 brands).  When it comes to her Carter's clothes, she's still in the 9-12 month size, which also goes for her pajamas since she's short.  

She's an amazing eater and will eat three solid meals a day, with formula, breastmilk, water, and snacks in between.  She's also crazy active so definitely burns off what she eats.  She has six teeth and can take bites of anything, which is not something we got used to with Brady until he was much older. 

This week she had her 12 month doctor visit.  It was time to put in our weight guesses again.  At this point, I have the lead of 1-0 over Andy.  My guess was 19lbs 8oz, and Andy guessed 22lbs.  Brady was 21lbs 2oz at 12 months.

Here are her official 12 month stats:

Weight - 20lbs (35th percentile)
Height - 29 inches (50th percentile)

I win again!  Now 2-0.  With only three more appointments before she turns two, if I win one more, the contest is over.  She's certainly our little miss.  She may be in the 50th percentile for height, but Brady was 31.5 inches at one year.  She just reached the height max for her baby carrier and her big girl car seat is on it's way to us as we speak.  I was more than ready to move Brady, but now that I have two kids and preschool drop off, it's so much easier to have her in the carrier and click her right into the stroller.  It will take an adjustment and hopefully the weather will take a turn so it's not so tough, but we'll see.

Six Months Old - Izzie B

Izzie is now six months and officially half a year old!  I really can't believe it.  She's really grown this past month and has reached many milestones.  She's full of personality and turns heads everywhere we go.  The red hair seems to attract everyone in a twenty foot radius and sometimes further.  We got back from the beach not long before she turned five months and my mom came back to Michigan with us while my dad went on a long business trip.  It was really nice for both the kids and I to have some time with her for a few weeks.
 

Since I had an extra set of hands, I decided to take the kids to see Monsters Inc.  This was Izzie's first movie experience.  Brady went to see Toy Story 3 when he was four months old, so I was no stranger to the baby in a movie theater experience.  She was really good.  She ate and even took a nap.  She only cried once during a very loud part.

Having some fun with the display.  A few weeks later, after my mom had gone home, Andy and I took the kids to see Planes, so Izzie saw two movies this month.

August started off cool, but soon got very hot, so we spent plenty of time at the pool and even got to take my mom a few times.

Izzie is sitting up more and interacting with her toys.  This ball popper is one of her favorites.

Brady still is very mindful of Izzie's needs.  If she cries, he assumes that she's hungry or tired.  He even helps get diapers for me.

Andy took the kids for a walk one evening and Izzie kept smiling and laughing at Brady riding his bike.

Unfortunately, we suffered another loss this month (making it a total of 8 this year).  This time it was Andy's grandfather, the kids' great-grandfather.  This year has been very rough on us and both Andy and I lost our last remaining grandfathers.  It makes my heart very heavy to think that my kids won't remember them.  My PopPop didn't make it to see Izzie born, but we took some comfort in the fact that we were able to bring Izzie to meet Andy's grandpa, Dick.  Dick was Andy's mom, Betsy's, father, so he was very pleased that we named her for her and that she had the same red hair.  When we went to visit him back in May, he kept telling all the nurses that Brady Charles was named after him (his first name was Charles, though he went by his middle name), and Isabella Betsy was named after his late daughter.  I'm sure he's up there telling Andy's grandma who passed shortly before our wedding all about Brady and Izzie.

That side of Andy's family hardly ever gets together so it brought a lot of family we hardly ever see together.  Neither of Andy's aunts had ever met our kids as they don't even live near Pittsburgh.  Andy is pictured above with his Aunt Holly and the kids.  The kids also met their great-aunt Judy for the first time.

To this day, we still don't know where Izzie's red hair comes from lol ;)

Izzie loves playing on the floor and often passes her toys up for a chance to play with Brady's.  He's very good about knowing which toys she's allowed to play with and will take away the ones that might be dangerous for her to put in her mouth.

I think Izzie will be just as excited to go to Cars Land at Disneyland in May :)  She's become intimately acquainted with the main characters.

Brady has taken a liking to Izzie's toys.  Most of them are his old baby toys, but since he hasn't seen them in a few years, they're brand new to him.  I tell him as long as she's sharing, he has to as well, but we don't have many fights over toys just yet.

Look Mom!  No boppy!  She's now sitting up all on her own.

I have video of her scooting.  She can get all the way across the room to get something she wants.  She started doing that mid-month and it shocked us.  Brady was an early mover and was scooting at 7.5 months, so Izzie has him beat by a whole two months!  She's now working on getting her knees up and I bet she'll be full on crawling by the time seven months come around.

She's starting to transition to two naps during the day that are a bit longer.  One day she woke up so refreshed and happy, I snapped about a dozen pictures of her just smiling away.  She is now sleeping through the night consistently!  That is something I've been waiting for because I need a good night's rest.

We decided to travel home to Pittsburgh for Labor Day weekend, especially since there was a big Pitt game on the holiday.  My brother had moved into a new place up on Mount Washington and needed some help moving, so we spent that Saturday up there at his new apartment.  Andy and I got engage up on Mount Washington and later had some wedding portraits taken up there, so it felt good to be up there and see the gorgeous views of the city.

Andy and my dad took the kids over there while my mom and I got our hair done so they could start helping out.  Izzie is having some carseat shenanigans.  She looks so small in that carseat, but Brady first started riding in it at seven months old.  Hard to believe.

Brady hanging on the hammock on the deck.

Alex and Lauren had lived separately with roommates before, so when getting their own place, they needed to get some new things.  One of them was a 3D TV, which Andy was more than happy to test out.

Izzie had been refusing bottles, but a few weeks ago kept taking our water bottles and placing the closed capped end in her mouth.  I was thinking that she might be willing to take a bottle if she was able to hold it herself.  I was right!  She's seen here taking her first bottle (of breastmilk) since before she was one month old.

Owl pictures!  She was much more cooperative now that she can sit on her own.

At her last doctor appointment (four months), I noticed they double checked her head circumference measurement.  They didn't say anything to me, so when I got home, I checked what it was at two months.  It had only grown 3/4 of an inch and was now in the 5%.  I was a little concerned and wondered why they didn't say anything, especially if they double checked to see if it really was that small.  Lauren, who is now a nurse, said that I shouldn't be worried about small head size unless she wasn't meeting her physical milestones.  She's certainly hitting them on time or early, so I started to relax.  They checked her this month and she only grew 1/2 an inch and was still in the 5%, so they said since it's been consistent the last two months, not to worry about it.

The weather is still hot here, so we are getting as much use out of the 3-6 month summer clothes as we can.  There are several outfits she has grown out of and I was pretty sad when I broke out two separate 6-9 month dresses and she almost couldn't get into them, meaning she won't wear them again.  I've got all the 6-9 month fall clothes washed and ready to go for when the weather changes.  She moved into size 3 diapers this month!  It's crazy how fast she's growing.  She's still got her chunky thighs, so we assumed that she'd easily outweigh Brady who was 16lbs 10oz at six months.  I wanted to low ball my guess so I had a better chance of winning, since we've both overestimated and lost the last three weigh-ins.  I guessed 16lbs 10oz and Andy guessed 16lbs 4oz. 


Her are her official six month stats:

Weight - 15lbs 10oz (40th percentile)
Height - 25.5 inches (40th percentile)




I never would've guessed that she only gained 1lb during the last two months and was officially 1lb lighter than Brady was at six months.  She's so chunky that it doesn't seem possible.  Her height only grew 1/4 of an inch in the last two months, so that, combined with her smaller head measurements leads the doctor to think she'll be petite.  Who knows?  Her car seat is good until 22lbs or 29 inches, so we hope to keep her in it as long as we can to utilize the handle bar that we can hook toys onto for long car rides.  Brady reached 29 inches at nine months, so he was in the big car seat around seven months and car rides became a bit harder to keep him entertained.

Izzie often pulls her bottom lip in like Brady always did, so when I caught a picture of her doing it, I had to put them side-by-side.

All six month pictures put together.

On her actual six month birthday (Labor Day), Pitt was set to play in prime time in their first ACC game against Florida State.  You didn't have to ask me twice if I'd be there.  We headed down early to eat at Rib Fest and it started to rain.  We all headed in and got under cover.  Brady was with my parents on an upper level, while Andy and I had Izzie.  We made sure to document her first Pitt game with the picture above, sporting her jersey and handmade by me headband.

We started strong, but started to fade out in the second quarter.  Izzie decided that would be a good time to take a nap.

Brady was sitting with my parents in their third seat and since no one was sitting in the seats beside them, we joined them after halftime.