3 Month old Ruth and crazy big sister Rosalie

Ruth is making her crazy face at me, so funny.

I did crazy hair and braided all of Rosalie's hair, she looked so cute, but would only wear it for about 5 minutes. She cracks me up.

3 Months is a fun age, we are finally getting more understanding of Ruth. Things were a lot smoother at the beginning of the month. We are still having sleep issues with her. She is just not a sleeper. During the day her naps are about an hour, then she wakes up but is still tired and will only be happy for about 5 minutes before deciding she wants us to put her back to sleep. She is very particular with how she wants to be held to fall asleep, and it seems that the only one that is able to do it is me. She does not like to fall asleep for anyone else really, which is a bit exhausting. She doesn't really seem to love other people holding her much. She will tolerate other people holding her for a little while but gets fussy and wants to be back in my arms. Rosalie loved to be held by everyone, so this is really different for me. Rosalie also slept really well, so I'm completely confused with this child. Ruth likes people, from a distance, she will smile for everyone and loves to watch others from the comfort of my arms. She will be happy for them for a short amount of time, but then wants me again, and she really just wants me to hold her all of the time. She wants to be held, but is not snuggly at all. Rosalie would nuzzle my neck and snuggle on my shoulder, and Ruth wants to be looking around, or held with her head in the crook of my arm to fall asleep. It makes me kind of sad, and I try to force her to snuggle, but it does not work. Ruth's favorite place to sleep is in my bed, with or without me. Sometimes I give up at night and just bring her in bed because then I know I will get some sleep. She seriously will wake up every 5 minutes sometimes and start crying because I put her down. So if it is 2 or 3 and I can't handle it I let her win. I know this is not a great idea, but I need some sleep too ya know. She still wants to eat all night long, but I have stopped feeding her, which is why she doesn't want to go back to sleep sometimes. between midnight and 4 I will not feed her, just because I know she can go longer than every 2 hours which is what she seems to want to do. She eats around 7 pm, has her bath and goes to bed by 8, then will sleep until around 10:30 sometimes 12:30. She is just so all over the place with that. I can hardly keep her on a routine with her crazy waking. She is so fun and happy though. She smiles a lot, and talks, and is just such a joy. I just can't seem to figure her out, because she is soooooo different that Rosalie. I know that no kids are the same, but I guess it makes sense that my pregnancy was so different too. Maybe different personalities of babies cause different pregnancies and symptoms and such. Ruth loves to suck on her hands, and brings them together on her chest and holds them like that a lot, it is really cute. She also likes to grab her blanket and suck on that. She can hold her head up really well, she pushes up on her arms at tummy time. She loves baths, she loves talking to people and looking at faces. She doesn't really like toys, but she loves to try and grab at hands and faces. She loves the TV, I try not to let her watch it, but sometimes when she is being extra fussy the tv will settle her down. She loves and fears Rosalie, you just never know if Rosalie is going to be sweet or mean to Ruth. Rosalie loves Ruth, but sometimes just gets feisty and chooses to taunt her in some way. Today Ruth rolled over for the first time from tummy to back, she cried so hard, it must have scared her. We blessed her last Sunday and it was beautiful, I'm so grateful that our family could come and the Sean could bless her. This last week was a bit harder sleep wise because I had a cold, and Ruth was on antibiotics for a staph-infection. She seems to like to create drama with health any time there is going to be some sort of family thing. Like before Thanksgiving when she choked on her spit up and gave me a huge scare by not starting to breath right away and gasping a lot. And then right before her blessing she got a staph infection and had to go to the dr and be on antibiotics. I just hope this is not a continuing trend. She is so fun, and changing so fast, it will be interesting to see how her personality changes and get to know who she really is. So far I know that she is stubborn when it comes to sleeping.

I have one just like this of Rosalie.

This is how the pictures of them together seem to always end up, I just don't get it. Ruth does not always cry when Rosalie is around, but that is how the pictures make it seem.

holding her little hands together.

With Gammy and Pops at the zoo.

Blessing day.

My friend Kalina did a little photo shoot for me, this is a preview.

Rosalie is growing and changing a lot too. She has gotten a little taller (she no longer looks like a toddler) in the last few months and has had a dramatic change in her speech. She just says so much and in complete sentences and some of the things she says are just so hilarious. Like when she can't hear her game on the iPad she says, "it can't hear us." I just love it. She is soooooo social, she is always asking for one of her friends to play or go do things. She loves to be out and about, as long as she is going to see one of her friends. At the grocery store she talks and waves to all of the other shoppers. She also loves to eat samples at the stores. She is also having a hard time with sleep since losing the pacifier, and I also am not quite sure how to deal with it. She also claims she is afraid of the dark and monsters, so sleep is a struggle, she comes into our room once or twice each night. She finally has interest in stories and reading books and is recognizing letters, I work with her and do little preschool lessons about each letter, it is a lot of fun. She loves songs and singing and now fills in the blanks of songs. Sometimes she makes up the words and it is so funny. She loves to talk on the phone with my mom and sings to her, it is probably one of the funniest and cutest things ever. She has a lot of personality and I love it. She loves to help me out with cleaning and doing things for Ruth, but sometimes she likes to defy every single thing I ask her to do and also loves to torment her sister. I just don't understand why sometimes she will randomly run up to Ruth and smack her, or shover her head to the ground and try to kick her during tummy time. Sometimes I wonder if it is because she needs more one on one attention. I try to spend most of the time that Ruth is napping doing something with Rosalie, but there are times when I just have to clean the apartment, or shower, and I just can't giver her 100% attention all of the time. We are still struggling to get the 2nd part of potty training going with her. I got her pull-ups and told her that they are not diapers, but she still chooses to use them rather than the toilet for the major event. I have convinced her to sit and try to go a couple of times, so hopefully we are on our way to being diaper free with her(except for bedtime). She is so fun, and I just love watching her learn and grow. I just hope that I am being a good mom and teaching her well. It makes me sad when I notice that she copies the things that I don't want her to copy from me. So in teaching her I am also trying to change my bad habits.

Rosalie loves to go out on her scooter, this was at a roller rink that had a toddler day and let you bring in all riding toys.

Rosalie wanted to try out the skates, she was not quite coordinated enough to do it, but we had fun trying, and boy was I sore the next day from it.

Rosalie loves to help me bake, so that she can lick the batter.

At the zoo, waiting to feed the giraffe.

She LOVED feeding the giraffe, this is something we will have to do again. Rosalie is such an animal lover, she takes after me like that.

Gammy and Pops rode the carousel with Rosalie, she loved having them on there with her.

I love my girls, I love them so much. I'm so lucky to have them, and I'm so lucky that I get to stay home and raise them. I'm lucky to have Sean who works so hard for us and makes this possible. Children are seriously the best blessing, even though at times they make me crazy and sleep deprived. I hope this sleepless phase goes quickly and that I will remember to enjoy the fun and wonderful moments that happen throughout the day.