Nora Kate, Mommy, and Daddy

Since Nora Kate hit the two month mark, I'm no longer doing the weekly updates-just monthly.  BUT I didn't want to go too long without sharing some pictures of our sweet baby girl! :)
I took these a few weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to comparing them.
My parents saved the outfit I wore home from the hospital.  So I dressed Nora Kate in it one day.  When I looked at these pictures again today, it got me thinking, and I decided it would be fun to compare mine and John's baby pictures to Nora Kate.  Since I've already posted pictures comparing the three kids to see who looks like who, I thought this would be nice to see how Nora Kate compares to her parents!
So here we go...


The first three pictures are of Nora Kate wearing the outfit I wore home from the hospital.

 

 

Next we have baby pictures of me and then John.  (The quality is poor because I took pictures of pictures.)

Above:  Jessica's newborn picture.

With my dark eyes and all the hair, Nora Kate does not resemble in this picture at all.

Jessica at 17 months.

(I think Carter (now 18 months) looks a lot like me here.)

Jessica at 3 years and Erica at 8 months.

(Carter definitely resembles my side of the family.)

Above:  John 3 days old.

John as a baby with his Dad. 

In both of these baby pictures of John, Dawson and Nora Kate resemble him more than they resemble me.  (Also, John and Dawson both look so much like Grandad.  The Zorio genes are strong!)

Above:  John at age three.

Dawson looks a lot like his Daddy!

 

So it was fun to look at these pictures, but I think that...

-Dawson looks like John (and Grandad)

-Carter looks like me

-And Nora Kate looks like Dawson (go back and look at the pictures comparing these two in the other blog posting from a couple of weeks ago).  So I think Nora Kate looks more like John than me, but really I think she looks more like Dawson than anyone.  I will admit that I can see both John and myself in all three kids, but it's fun to compare these pictures!

Nora Kate: 2 Months

Our precious Nora Kate is now TWO MONTHS old!  At her checkup she weighed 11 pounds 11 ounces and 22 inches long.  (Just for fun-at 2 months Carter was 12pounds 6ounces, and at 2 months Dawson was 12pounds 12ounces.)  Her growth in weight, length, and head circumference are all right on track.  She is also where she should be developmentally! 

Nora Kate is eating well!  During the day she eats as frequently every 2-4 hours.  She has taken a bottle of pumped milk 4 or 5 times now with no problems, EXCEPT the one time I tried to give her a bottle at Dawson's soccer game she would not take it.  Thankfully, she has taken a bottle since then with no issues.  I guess she either wasn't really hungry, wanted to look around outside at the soccer game-she loves looking at the color contrast between the treetops and the sky, or else she does not like to take a bottle from me!  She held out, and when we got back home from the game she nursed just fine.  I'm hoping to keep giving her a few bottles here and there, so that we will know she can take them-unlike the boys who both decided they didn't want to take bottles.  She's a good eater, aside from her reflux.

Thankfully, I think her reflux may be improving (knock on wood!!).  We have been giving her a mixture of mylicon and Mylanta (doctor's orders), when she is struggling with reflux which seems to help.  Thankfully though, it does seem to be happening less frequently! 

Nora Kate must understand that her Mommy likes her sleep, because she sleep one long period of time each night that is about 5 or 6 hours (AWESOME!!), and then after that she will go a 2 or 3 hour stretch before waking again.  She is a night owl, though and likes to stay awake at night until 10:30 or so.  This is her prime "hold me" time where she prefers to be held from at 8:30-10:30...specifically she likes to be held with me standing.  No matter how relaxed she gets, she always know when I sit!  I am not complaining though, because when she does go to sleep at night, it's good! :)  Speaking of sleep at night, she's still sleeping in the bassinet beside my bed at night.

Nora Kate had not been a fan of riding in the car, but in the past couple of weeks she has decided she likes it.  (When I picked Dawson up in carline this week-which was previous a time of some major crying for Nora Kate because it involved sitting in her carseat with the car not moving for a period of time, Nora Kate was NOT crying, and as Dawson's teacher helped Dawson into the car she even commented on how quiet our van was! haha!)  I'm so happy that she's overall just becoming more content though-largely due to the improvement of the reflux, I believe.

Nora Kate LOVES, LOVES, LOVES bath time!  She is always very happy, chatty, and smiley during bath time.  I love to listen to her sweet little voice as she coo's and makes all kinds of noises!  Lately she has been smiling even more.

We have been doing a lot more tummy time lately, and Nora Kate actually seems to enjoy it-in short increments of time.  Without me ever telling them to do so, one or both of the boys usually end up laying on the floor beside Nora Kate while she's having tummy time...it's usually always Carter.  Dawson sees it as his job to protect Nora Kate from Carter, a lot of the time, and he will tell Carter that he's being too rough or too rowdy around Nora Kate.  :)

Both boys are so sweet with Nora Kate.  She gets more kisses and hugs from Carter than anyone in our family, I think!  He kisses and hugs her toes, feet, hands, and her head frequently!  We just have to watch because he can get a little rough without meaning to. 

We all love our precious baby girl!  On to the pictures!

 

 

Nora Kate is 2 months old!

Nora Kate's 2 month sibling photo!

Carter is 18 months and Dawson 4 years.

It's so very difficult to get three children looking AND smiling AND still for a picture!!

Nora Kate 2 months.

Carter: 18 Months

Our sweet Carter is 18 months old!!  I waited to post this until after his 18 month checkup so I could include his height and weight stats!  So, at 1 and a half Carter weighs 26 pounds, and he is 32 inches tall.  (For fun, at this age Dawson was 27 pounds and 32.5 inches tall!)
At 18 months, one of Carter's new found loves is CLIMBING!  It makes me so nervous!  He climbs on everything.  He climbs on the kitchen table, coffee table, Dawson's bed, chairs, couches, you name it.  When I see him on something dangerous, I have to slowly walk toward him (instead of running like I want to) because he starts laughing and getting silly because he's proud of his accomplishment, which makes me even more afraid he will fall.  (I looked back at Dawson's 18 month update after writing Carter's, and I had written very similar things about climbing for Dawson at this age too.)
Carter is becoming less picky (he still refuses to eat any sort of pasta-even mac n cheese), but he's broadening his pallet lately!  Finally, he has gotten two more teeth!  Just in the past couple of weeks his 5th and 6th teeth popped through the gums! I love his sweet little smile right now!

In addition to climbing, at this age Carter also loves:
-singing (he knows an impressive amount of words to various songs now!)  His favorites right now are Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star; The Ants Go Marching; Baa Baa Black Sheep.
-dancing-If it has a beat or music can be heard anywhere, Carter will hear it and start dancing.  He usually starts by bouncing up and down bending his knees, adds in a side to side movement, and the motion of twisting one arm back and forth bent at the elbow.  It's adorable, and I love to watch him dance!
-talking!-Carter is constantly talking, constantly!  He learns many new words each day!  There is no way I could write down all the words he says now.  A couple of weeks at the soccer game, Carter was being held (against his will), and yelled perfectly clear, "I want down!"  This was the beginning of him starting to put words together, and he keeps impressing us with his ability to do this!
-play-Carter loves to play any game with his brother, but his favorite thing to do with Dawson is run and wrestle!  Carter's favorite toys right now are Weebles (we just got them out of the attic, so they're new to Carter and he loves them!  I love to hear him say, "Weeble! Weeble!"), other favorite toys include books, color wonder markers (he says, "mark mark! mark mark! when he wants to color with these!), the toy leaf blower, weed eater, mower, and ride on construction equipment are the current favorites.  I also must add that Carter is really good about entertaining himself for about 5 minutes in the playroom by himself.  He's never really had to do this because he's always had Dawson, but when Dawson's at school and I need to change Nora Kate or make Carter's lunch, I have noticed that Carter doesn't mind to do this for a short period of time (about 5 minutes).  It is WONDERFUL!!!  I think having had a child first who did not (and still doesn't often) entertain himself, it makes me notice and appreciate it!
-his brother-Carter loves his brother.  He constantly looks to see what Dawson is doing or saying, and then usually copies it (this can be good or bad!).  He had about two weeks where Carter cried every time we would leave Dawson at school (am I that boring to Carter?! haha), but he seems to be over it again for now.  That's how attached he is to Dawson though.  As long as Dawson is with him, he doesn't have separation anxiety from me or John.
-lawn mowers- Carter loves lawn mowers and says, "Lawn mow!"  He can hear one from a mile away!  He asks to ride John's all the time, and he looks so happy to ride with his Daddy.
-outside-Carter loves playing outside in general, and a recent favorite is playing sand!  John had the wonderful idea to bring the sand table and sand box on our patio, and it's GREAT!  Now the boys can play it in all the time!
-to laugh!-Carter really does love to laugh!  He's such a ham, and he will do anything to make us laugh too!  He's constantly making silly faces, doing silly little dances, walking backward, or doing anything he thinks is silly then looking at us to see if it made us laugh.  Then he breaks out laughing.
-to hug!

From this age, I want to remember how sweet my little boy is-always hugging and snuggling, how silly he loves to be, how much he loves and copies his big brother and how gentle and loving he is toward his little sister.  He amazes us with how much he  is learning and his ever increasing vocabulary!  Carter, thank you for always keeping us smiling and laughing!

On to the pictures!

If there's a camera nearby, Carter is making the "cheese' face!

Why sit for your 18 month picture when you can stand and jump on the chair while singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star?!

Carter at 18 months with his siblings.

Nora Kate 2 months. Dawson 4 years.

 

Can You Guess Who?!

When Carter was about 8 weeks old, I did a little blog post showing pictures of Dawson and Carter at various ages because people always asked if Carter looked like Dawson as a baby.  Well, now that we have Nora Kate, people are always asking who-Dawson or Carter-she looks more like.  So, here you go...

39 Weeks Pregnant with Dawson

40 Weeks pregnant with Carter

40 Weeks Pregnant with Nora Kate

 

My first time holding Dawson

 

My first time holding Carter

 

My first time holding Nora Kate

 

Dawson

Carter

Nora Kate

Dawson

 

Carter

 

Nora Kate

 

Dawson

Carter

 

Nora Kate

 

So, what do you think?  I think that Nora Kate looks more like Dawson, but I can definitely tell their baby pictures apart.  They look similar, but not just alike.  It's funny because on an ultrasound where we could clearly see Nora Kate's noes and mouth, John and I both looked at each other and said, "She looks like Carter!" But now that she's here, I think she looks more like Dawson-and not just because of her blue eyes.  Her facial features, eye color, and complexion are more similar to Dawson than Carter.  I do think her nose and some of her features resemble Carter though too.  Nora Kate is like her Daddy and Dawson with blue eyes, whereas Carter and I have brown. 

Personality-wise, I think Carter has been our most laid back baby (by far!) and he's still pretty easy going!  I would say that Nora Kate is our least laid back child-a lot of this is due to the reflux issues which have improved, but are still existent.  I'm happy to hold and cuddle her though!  In terms of sleeping at night, Nora Kate is sleeps longer stretches of time at night than either of the boys ever thought of doing until they neared their first birthday (yes, I'm serious!).  It's fun to see how different all three sweet babies looked, yet they still look like siblings! And it's fun to see how they can have such different personalities, since we haven't done much different between the three.  They are each their own sweet little person!

 

**On Sunday, Carter will be 18 months and on Monday Nora Kate will be 2 months, BUT I'm holding off on posting their updates until after their check-ups so I can include height and weight stats!**

Nora Kate is 7 Weeks

Seven weeks have already passed since Nora Kate's birth!  It seems impossible, but at the same time, she is already such a part of our family!  The boys seem to be getting more and more used to having a baby sister in the house!  They both like to hold her (for short periods of time!). 

This week Nora Kate got to help her Daddy celebrate his 29th birthday!

 

 

She also got to go to Dollywood for the first time, and did great!

 

She cheered on the Vols!

(The boys both wore this onesie when they were this size, and it's one of the few things that wasn't too boy-ish for Nora Kate to wear.  AND the tutu was a piece from one of my old dance costumes!  So I really liked this outfit!)  :)

We went to Nana and Grandad's to watch the football game, and all three kids were decked out in their Tennessee attire!

One big accomplishment for her 7th week, was taking a bottle for the first time!

Both brothers wanted to watch her take her first bottle.  Carter saw that there was something white in her bottle, and started asking for his milk (in a sippy cup, of course)!  She has now taken three bottles, and done great with all of them. 

Nora Kate looking sweet and wishing us a Happy Fall! :)

The kids in their matching Jack-o-Lantern shirts on October 1st!

 

In other Nora Kate news...her 7th week was a mix of good and bad in terms of her reflux.  The first half of her 7th week was pretty miserable with her crying and seeming so uncomfortable!  The Zantac the doctor had prescribed made things worse, so I had been holding out hoping she would get over it on her own.  By the weekend, though, we knew we would be taking her to the doctor ASAP when they opened on Monday.  We still had a lot of fun, but no one was sleeping much.  Thankfully John was off the weekend so he was home to help me a night, but the day we went to Dollywood we had both had about 4 hours (max) sleep.  More than being tired, we both just felt so sorry for our baby girl being in such discomfort!  Thankfully, on Sunday night, Mom came over to stay for about half the night so we could get some rest.  Monday mid-morning, we took Nora Kate to the doctor where we got two new reflux medicines!  THANK GOODNESS!  Almost immediately when we began giving her the medicine, she has been so much happier and sleeping better too.  I am so thankful that we figured this out and got something that works!  Now we can tell more about our sweet Nora Kate's personality, and it's wonderful!  She's much more smile-y and coo's some.  Now we enjoy holding her during the daylight hours, and just because we want not because she's been crying for a couple hours!  Most of all, I'm just glad she is feeling better!

The reflux solution was the big news for her 7th week!  Also while at the doctor she weighed in at 11 pounds 4 ounces, which equates to her still gaining about an ounce a day which is perfect! 

Nora Kate is getting even stronger at holding her head up, and she loves to look around when being held up to your shoulder.  Since starting the reflux medicine, she is a happier baby in the car too!  She has also been enjoying more time in her swing.  We are loving our precious Nora Kate!

I plan to update at 8 weeks/2 months, and then go to the monthly updates until age two when I will switch to the 6 month updates, so check back in a week for one more Nora Kate update!

September 2013

September was a great month, and we were able to do a lot of fun things!

 

At the very beginning of the month, we visited my Mamaw (the kids' Great Mamaw).  I shared a couple of pictures from this visit in Nora Kate's weekly updates, but here are a few that include the boys!

 

Dawson LOVES riding his bike right now.  September was full of neighborhood walks and trips to the park so that Dawson could ride his bike.  Usually Dawson rides his bike, I carry Nora Kate in the carrier on my front-she's happy and warm and sleeps the whole time, and Carter rides in his push tricycle. 

 

On one of John's off Thursdays at the beginning of the month, we decided to take the kids to Gym Bugs to play.  I wore Nora Kate in the carrier on my front where she slept most of the time.  The boys had a blast jumping and being wild there.  Best part...we ran into our friends Charlie, Olivia, and Andrea AND Colt and Alana!  It was great!

Above:  Olivia and Carter on a slide!

Above:  Dawson loves to go, go, go and be busy all the time, but in September I did manage to have a few at home days to play and enjoy a calmer morning (I'm hoping to allow for a few more of these in October!)  Anyway, I took Nora Kate to change her diaper and when I was coming back to the playroom, I noticed it was very, very quiet.  I snuck a peek and Dawson was "reading" to Carter.  They sat like this about 5 minutes Dawson "reading" and Carter listening intently, until they realized I was watching.  Sweet brothers!

 

 

This month we also celebrated Grandparent's Day!  I took the kids to visit each set of Grandparents, and we delivered a little craft!

Above:  Grandparent's Day Craft-It is almost impossible to get a newborn to make a handprint with paint, so we settled for a fist print! :)

 

When we visited the Knoxville Zoo this month, we took Nana with us!  The kids had fun showing her all the animals and fun things they do at the zoo!

 

While at the zoo, we got to feed the budgies!  They put seeds on the end of a stick, and the birds eat them.  The boys enjoyed this!

 

Below:  John was feeding this bird, and Carter reached out to touch it.  This scared the bird and it flew INTO Carter's face!  (All of this happened as I was snapping this picture!)  When it happened Carter announced, "All done!"

 

It was a nice morning so we took advantage of the playground and sand area at the zoo too!

Above:  Nora Kate's second zoo visit!

Above:  Petting zoo fun!

 

Since we went to the Tennessee Valley Fair last September, Dawson has been asking when the fair would be back and has literally been counting down the days!  So on a Friday night in early September, John and Grandad took Dawson to the fair!  All three had a blast!  Dawson had A LOT of stories to tell about the rides, animals, and trying cotton candy when he got home!!!

 

I think we're finally falling into a routine with Dawson having school two mornings a week.  I still miss Dawson so much, and it seems so weird when he isn't with me these mornings, BUT he LOVES school!!  I have really enjoyed getting to have a little one on one time with Carter.  One Wednesday morning we met friends at Tumble Bears to play...every picture I took of Carter there was a blur!  Here he is on the inflatable!

 

Above:  Nora Kate slept the entire time we were at TumbleBears, and so did her friend, Gianni who is 6 days older than her!

 

The weekend of September 21 was a fun and busy one with John's sister getting married!!!  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the actual wedding to share (yet-hopefully soon!), but it was beautiful.  AND I do have a few from the pre-wedding festivities...

Above:  Nora Kate and I headed to the bridesmaids luncheon on Friday.

Above:  Dawson, Nora Kate, and I at the rehearsal.

Our family at the wedding rehearsal (or as Dawson called it the "practice wedding.")  (For some reason, Dawson kicked his shoes off as we were taking these pictures.)

 

And a couple more pictures from the rehearsal...

Notice Nora Kate and I in our matching dresses! :)

 

Friday, September 27, we celebrated John's 29th birthday!  That evening we had Grandad, Nana, Lolly, Pop, Uncle Logan, Aunt Emily, Eric, and Drew over to celebrate with us! 

After much debate on what kind of cake Dawson wanted to make for his Daddy, we decided on making a football cake!  We grilled steaks, ate dinner, had cake, opened gifts, and then played outside and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores over the fire pit!  We had a great time celebrating! 

 

On Sunday we continued celebrating John's birthday, with a trip to Dollywood!  We hadn't been since about a week and a half before Nora Kate was born, and Dawson has been asking to go EVERYDAY!  So he was thrilled when we told him at breakfast our plans for the day!  The last time we went it was SOOO hot (and I was pregnant), but this time it was a mild fall morning that made for a perfect Dollywood day.  It wasn't too crowded, so we got to do a lot!

Nora Kate's first visit to Dollywood!

 

Carter prefers riding with Dawson, so he's looking a little lonely here.

 

Since I have been pregnant the whole season going to Dollywood, we haven't gotten to go on any of the big roller coasters or adult rides, so this time John and I switched out and got to ride the Tennessee Tornado and the Barnstormer!  Dawson informed me that it was okay for the to do these since Nora Kate had already gotten out of my tummy.  :)  While we switched out watching the kids and riding the roller coasters, the boys LOVED this little play area!  Look at Carter's sweet smile!

 

And finally, Carter fell asleep about half way through our walk back to the van!  This is what a long, fun day at Dollywood will do to you!  :)

 

Every Monday night in September, we also enjoyed going to Dawson's soccer games and practices!  I'm going to wait until the end of the season and do a little soccer post, so I haven't included any pictures here just yet. 

 

September was such a fun month!  October is looking to be just as fun with a visit to the pumpkin farm, the Foothills Fall Festival, and, of course, Halloween festivities all planned!