{1}

A year ago at this time Bob, Anna and I were adjusting to the newest lil member of our family, sleepless nights, and it seemed like we were all sick all the time. Crazy as it is, not much has changed in a year – the past week we have had many sleepless nights as we all cannot seem to get healthy. Turns out, other then that, A LOT has changed in the past year – and it absolutely baffles me that this sweet baby is already a year old!

Everly’s 1^st birthday totally snuck up on all of us, as I suspected it would and will continue to, given its timing with the holidays, but we had a lot of fun celebrating with her and our friends and family. We celebrated many times and Everly got many chances to dig into a birthday cupcake. The night before her actual birthday, Anna and I snuck out to buy her some balloons and Anna helped me wrap her presents and make cupcakes. For her actual birthday we went to a friend’s house and rang in the new year enjoying their company, yummy food and some fun adult conversation and games after the kiddos crashed. It was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed her special day. Instead of doing a big birthday party, we have booked a few nights in the dells in February and March and cannot wait to get away!

At one year, Everly is doing absolutely fantastic – other than a nasty cold she is fighting right now. I absolutely hate winter and CANNOT wait for spring to come and we can all be healthy again – anyway at one year –

Everly –

Weighs 21 lbs, 10 oz and is 31 inches tall







Has 4 teeth and broke her 5^th one through over the Christmas holiday







Is not quite yet walking – which has totally taken all of us by surprise based off of how quickly she took off rolling over and crawling. Everly is a very proficient crawler and I think that is why she really hasn’t taken off walking yet – seems as though she gets everywhere just fine on her hands on knees. She happened to take her first steps right after Christmas which I managed to catch on video and has been taking steps here and there more and more, but hasn’t really taken off yet..In time, I am sure.







Is starting to say her words more clearly – we can easily make out "mama", "dada", "Anna", "thank you" and "uh-oh". She also will say "more" and "all done" when she is eating.







Sleeps through night – She typically goes down around 7 and sleeps until 6:30 or so on most mornings.







Is bottle free!!!! I had no expectations to take her off the bottle right around a year, but she very easily dropped her morning bottle a few weeks ago so we tried going cold turkey that weekend and she did great! It is sooooo great to be bottle free. Although, I do have to admit it made me a little sad, she is one more step closer to being a little toddler. We started a new routine at night – 2 books and a sip of milk and down she goes. Her favorite books are the "That’s Not My….(pony, monkey, fairy, etc) series. She loves touching all the different textures.







Has started going through a ‘shy around strangers/clingy to mom and dad stage’. I remember this stage with Anna and it certainly can make evenings tough when we are trying to get settled in/cook dinner/get the girls ready for the next day, as she is typically exhausted for her day and ready for bed, but we get through it just fine. That being said, we can’t wait for her to grow out of it J







Loves to sort toys, clothes, really anything into pile and then different piles and resort them again – that can keep her busy for hours.







As most babies do, loves anything electronic – iphone, remote, ipad, etc. It amazes me how she already knows how to use the ipad.







Loves her big sister to pieces and wants to have whatever she has – milk, juice, snack, etc. I took just Everly to the store the other day and the whole way she asked for Anna – I love to watch the two girls play together. It takes a lot of patience on Anna’s side, and overall I would say she does great with her. Anna also continues to be a great helper – she loves to help me give Everly her bath.

On top of Everly turning one year old – we had a great holiday and enjoyed our time with family and friends. We are so thankful to have such an awesome support structure and feel extremely blessed. We look forward to 2014 and what the year may bring us. We have a couple of getaways booked to get us through the winter and Anna and I have a trip planned out east in April to see Michele, Mike and Teddy. Bob is looking forward to finishing off the basement and I can’t wait to decorate and organize the girls room’s and toys once that is done. Happy 2014!!!

{10 & 11 Month Update}

The past couple months have flown by – we have been very busy in the Seidel House!

 

I started back at work full time a little over a month ago and we have been super busy managing day care schedules, work, family time, swim classes for both girls, getting ready for the holidays, etc.  The week I went back to work full time, a proto type project that Bob was in charge of started up and he was incredibly busy working long hours and weekends.  It was a rough couple of weeks for all of us while we got adjusted to our new schedule, but I am happy to say that things are much smoother now.  Bob’s project was a success and he was told last week that he had earned himself a very awesome promotion!!  We are so proud of him as he has been very dedicated to his job and to us and I know just how hard he works!  We had so much fun celebrating his success last weekend J

  

Anna has adjusted from 2 days/week to full time and absolutely loves going to school, playing with her friends, and learning.  Through day care she had been taking swim classes at the YWCA.  That ended for the winter and will start back up in spring when it is warm enough again for the kids to walk across the street to get to the Y.  Bob and I had talked it over and both agreed we should keep her in the class over the winter.  We signed her up for Toddler 1 on Saturday mornings and it has become our new weekend routine to go to swim class on Saturdays.  She is doing great in class.  When you watch her work with the teacher you can see just how determined she is and we are very proud of her. 

 

 

Everly as well has fallen into a good routine at day care.  The baby place is split into two rooms, one room for the babies until they are 1 and another room for the toddlers ages 1-2.  After day 1, the teachers did what Bob and I thought would happen and moved Everly over to the big kid side early.  Everly is a very busy little girl and it certainly seems like she fits better with the “big” kids.  They have a wooden play structure with a few steps, a tunnel and a slide and after day 2 Everly had mastered it.  When we get to school she gets so excited she actually squeals some mornings and when I pick her up at night she is absolutely exhausted so I think it is safe to say Everly loves going to day care J  I am doing a Baby and Me swim class with Everly on Tuesday evenings after work.  She and I both love the class.  We signed up through the city of De Pere and the class is at Syble Hopp school using their rehab pool which is literally like 90 degrees.  It is so warm and fun and Everly absolutely loves the water.  I really enjoy our extra one on one time together.  It is so hard to believe in a month she will already be a 1 year old.  I’m pretty sure I will still be calling her my “baby girl” when she is well into her 30’s J. 

 

 

 

So at 11 months Everly –

 

FINALLY sleeps through the night!!!!!!  YAHOO!!!!  When we brought Everly home from the hospital, she was a fairly easy going newborn and did really well at night.  Once we got the go ahead to not feed her every 3 hours at night and let her wake to feed she would typically get up to eat 1-2 times a night.  Slowly it dropped to once/night and at that point I thought we would very easily drop that last feeding by 4 months or so and be good to go.  Everly however had different plans.  Since 4 months old Everly has, without fail, woken every night between 3-4 to eat a bottle and would go back down until 6 or 7.  Her schedule wasn’t THAT bad, especially considering some nights she would go down around 6 or even earlier, but it did start to take its toll on us.  She has never had a pacifier and it always seemed that the bottle was the one thing that would soothe her.  I was starting to get concerned as they typically tell you to take the bottle away starting around one year and that is just around the corner.  I thought maybe once we started day care she would just be so exhausted she wouldn’t wake up but I was wrong - she is completely exhausted, but still would wake up to eat every night.  Then about two weeks ago Bob and I woke up and in the morning (feeling quite refreshed I might add) and quickly asked each other, “did you get up last night?”  Neither one of us had.  Same thing happened the next night and then we agreed we were officially done with a bottle at night.  She has slept through the night basically ever since.  There have been a few nights where we would have to go in and rub her back to put her back to sleep, but I can say that we are very much enjoying this recent change to our schedule – thank you baby girl!!!

 

Evie is a very happy, babbly little girl.  Her favorite words are “da-da”, “uh-oh”, and “thank you”.  I catch a “ma-ma” in there every now and then and sometimes even an “Anna”.  Love to hear her cute little voice babble away.  She also loves to “sing” in the car.  Normally on my way to and from day care/work I call Michele.  With the bluetooth in the car Everly chooses to participate in the conversation pretty much all the time.  It’s fun that Michele gets to hear her chat, but not as fun when I am calling somewhere to make an appointment or trying to talk to my boss J

 

Ever since starting day care Everly has really gotten into eating her solids.  Much more than Anna did at this age.  Some of her favorites include bananas, cottage cheese, cheese slices, yogurt, eggs, toast, noodles, bread, and mandarin oranges.  She is also drinking milk out of a cup very well at meal time, so hopefully the transition from her bottle to a cup won’t be too bad when it comes time to do it. 

Everly is extremely active.  When we first started day care and really to this day, every time I pick her up they can’t stop telling me how busy she was that day.  On the weekends at home she can take up to 4 hour naps if it is quiet, but only sleeps for about an hour max at school.  She is pulling herself up on EVERYTHING and just this past week started to stand up with no assistance without hanging onto anything.  Part of me hopes she starts to walk soon, as she is into everything already, but I also know once they start to walk it doesn’t get any easier.  We are really enjoying watching her learn how to be steady on her feet and can’t wait until she takes those first stepsJ

 

 

 

The Seidels are really enjoying getting ready for the Christmas holiday.  We have so much to be thankful for and are so blessed to have each other.  We cannot wait to celebrate Christmas with our family and friends and our first Christmas as a family of four.  Michele and Mike are coming for a week at Christmas with little Mr. Teddy and Liz and Brett just welcomed their first little boy today, so it certainly will be a full house at the Willis residence and we ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT!

 

 

{Every 8 Month Update}

I really feel like the past couple of weeks have been a complete whirlwind, as we have been on the go since Bob's brother's wedding in August. Somewhere in that time Everly turned 8 months old!

At 8 months -

- Everly is 100% mobile, and fast too! She pulls herself up on everything all the time and is constantly finding herself in tough predicaments as she gets stuck under the kitchen table, behind a chair or couch, etc. She loves to explore as long as she knows an adult is close by and absolutely hates to be left in a room alone. And, whenever she is crawling around the house, she always, without fail, has a toy in left hand.

- Has 2 front bottom teeth! - Catches on quickly and tries to mimic whatever we do. A few of her favorites is playing "SO Big!" and she loves to clap her hands.

- A few of her favorite things to eat include scrambled eggs, toast, crackers, noodles, pears, peaches and cheese. She totally feeds herself and has not interested eating from a spoon - pureed food went out the window a long time ago! She also loves to snack on puffs and Gerber wheels and cheese puffs. She does great with a sippy cup of formula or water.

- She is a pretty good sleeper, starting to skip her nightly bottle which has been awesome. This new pattern was recently interrupted this weekend as she came down with a really bad cold. Last night was the toughest, she woke up around 1:30 am with a fever, vomited a few times and was pretty inconsolable for about 3 hours. HOPEFULLY that was the worst of it, as she seems slightly better today and has been sleeping a lot. It was not a fun night and Bob and I both feel so bad for her. I hate when babies get sick and there really isn't much you can do for them but lots of cuddles and kisses. Her cry has been so pitiful the past couple of days, we certainly hope things change soon for her. And hope we get back to sleeping through the night too :)

- She looks so much like her Bob - some days I cannot get over how much she looks like him - I like to refer to her as my little "bobbette" :)

- Her favorite playtime activities include swinging at the park and playing with her big sister Anna. She pretty much follows her around the house and I love to hear them play together. I have to give Anna a lot of credit too. We are always telling her to be careful with Evie and she often gets toys pulled out of her hand, her hair pulled, etc as Evie doesn't know better and Anna is overall super patient with her. Anna is such an awesome big sister and helper!

 

 

 

{Happy Big 3 Annas!}

Anna had a birthday that just kind of kept going and going this year…We first celebrated two weeks or so early before my parents left to go out east to meet little Mr. Teddy Terlizzi. We had dinner at my parents (a summer favorite – homemade pizza on the grill), had a cake and sang happy birthday and opened a few presents. I absolutely love seeing the pure magic in Anna’s eyes when anyone sings “Happy Birthday,” so it was good that we had many opportunities to do it over and over during the course of her birthday celebrations.

The next week, Anna’s actual birthday was on Monday. To celebrate, we went to the zoo (Anna’s absolute favorite place to go) with my friend Amy and her daughters Brynn and Nora. Brynn and Anna have really bonded over the past year or so over playdates and are just two peas in a pod and so fun to watch. We had a great morning at the zoo. We came home and rested up to head out to Happy Joe’s for dinner to celebrate Anna’s and her cousin Izzy’s birthday as well. They girls enjoyed playing games, eating pizza, and their birthday sundaes before opening a few gifts and heading home. (On a side note, we had to head to S&L in Pulaski after as we had purchased a new vehicle over the weekend and had to take care of a few things. The engine in Bob’s jeep blew out on the highway the week before. We freaked out for about a day and then remembered we were going to have a buy a new vehicle sooner than later anyway so it probably isn’t too big of a deal. We ended up purchasing a 2013 Ford Explorer Limited and I absolutely LOVE it! It’s a lot bigger than the Murano – I just love that it has a third seat - we certainly felt like we needed some more room, especially when we went on vacations. We were so excited we are able to snag this one up so quickly over the weekend!)

Then, the following weekend we had a “Minnie mouse” birthday party for Anna with some of her friends and our friends at the house. We had such an awesome day. The weather was absolutely perfect and the kids played…and played…and played. The party started around noon and our lasts guests left around 8:00 – a very successful party in my book .  We are so lucky to be surrounded with some awesome friends and love that Anna has some pretty great kiddos to play with as well.




Every parent says it and I have said it many times before, but I absolutely cannot comprehend that Anna is 3 years old already! I give her a lot of credit, her world has changed A LOT in the past year. When I think of all she has done from starting preschool/daycare, transitioning to a big girl bed, giving up a pacifier, becoming an AWESOME big sister, and potty training, surgery on her thumb, we could not be prouder of our crazy, on the go, little girl!

At three years old Anna –

Is still a good sleeper. The transition from crib to big girl bed went great with really no issues. Her bedtime is typically 8:00 pm, but certainly goes to bed closer to 9:00 this summer it seems. She also is starting to show signs of dropping her afternoon nap. Some days she still takes it, other days she does fine without it. I love that when she wakes up in the morning she comes and crawls into our bed. You never know which stuffed animals or how many blankets are going to make the journey with her across the house. Always fun to see what she brings in every morning.

Is potty trained during the day. When she does nap, I would say she wakes up with a dry diaper 50% of the time or so. We could not be more excited or proud of how well she did with potty training. One day it seemed to click and she hasn’t had an accident in weeks. WAY TO GO ANNAS!!!

Her loves – being outside, going to the park, bubbles, chalk, glitter, coloring with markers, stamps, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Doc Mc Stuffins, princesses, dress up, playing with her cousins and friends, waking up baby sister, playing games on the ipad, juice, cottage cheese, yogurt sticks, mac and cheese, any fruit especially watermelon, strawberries and grapes, mushrooms (favorite meal is beef stroganoff – I am always impressed with how much she eats when I make that meal), going to the grocery store, and the zoo.

Is extremely independent…no exaggeration there, she loves to do everything and anything BY HERSELF…from dressing herself, putting shoes on, brushing her teeth, buckling herself in, etc.

Is so very helpful. She talks a lot…like all the time. And it really is funny some of the random statements that come out of her mouth. And often follows each statement with, “Right?” The other days she told me, “Umbrellas keep people safe and healthy, right?” Not sure where she gets it from…

Is loving, helpful, happy, sweet, busy, smart, kind, gentle, silly, wild, and playful every single waking moment of each day. Love this little girl to pieces!!! 

{Everly 5/6 Month Update}

Evie is now 6 months old – and while it is crazy she has been with us for 6 months already, I also kind of feel like she has been with us since the beginning.  However, she is getting so big on us WAY too quickly!

So at six months –

*She can sit up all by herself…she started this trick maybe 2 weeks ago and every day she lasts a
little longer before she topples over face first to the ground, but always has a big grin.  It is very clear she is proud of this new trick.

*She gets up on her knees and rocks...I am sure she will be crawling in no time!

*She rolls, and rolls, and rolls.  And then rolls a little bit more. 
 

*She will “walk” if you stand up and hold her by her hands...Again, very proud of this new trick.  Loves to do it.

*She giggles…at Anna…at the dogs...if you make a fishy face at her…if you giggle…if she sees Mickey Mouse on TV…pretty much at EVERYTHING….she is so happy!!!  I love that when she looks at you and you smile, she smiles…love that she recognizes us and immediately feels safe when she knows we are near.

*I think she said “Mum” the other day….I could be totally crazy (which Bob would confirm in a heartbeat that I totally am), but I went to pick her up at my moms and she was in the exersaucer.  I got down on my knees by her to give her a kiss and she laughed and said “Mum” – coincidence?  Probably, but I will take it!!!

*I have basically totally given up on feeding her pureed food.  She loves her highchair – loves to sit in it and suck on a cold wash cloth, loves to play with her toys in it, loves to watch us do things in the kitchen while she is in it, loves to watch us eat….but absolutely hates when I offer her pureed food from a spoon.  Just the other day I offered her the gerber wagon wheels and rice puffs that more or less melt in their mouths and she is in love.  She loves to gum them and play with them and instantly knew how to pick it up and bring it to her mouth, so I am going to wait until her appt next week and see what else the Dr says we can give her from the table.  Anna, on the other hand, is totally digging eating the pureed baby food J

*She is a good sleeper…takes a quicker morning nap around 1-2 hours after she gets up in the morning.  I feel bad for her, because she often has to take that nap in her carseat when we are out and about.  Her and Anna normally (but certainly not always) take a good afternoon nap at the same time around 2-4.  Then some nights, she may go back down around 6ish for a quick cat nap and then is down typically by 8 for the night and sleeps until 6:30 or so as of late and we are lovin’ it!

*Spends about 95% of her time…awake or asleep…on her belly…which makes diaper changes darn right nearly impossible...

*Loves her bath and loves water

*As she has never taken a pacifier we have always wondered if she would attach to something that she would use to soothe herself.  Turns out she has – she is majorly in love with the Aden and Anais swaddle blankets and clings to them when she is sleepy.  She actually sucks on it put herself to sleep.  It is nice because we have a few of them so I can put one in the washer and give her a clean one when I need to and we can always buy more if necessary, although at $32 for a four pack, it’s a pretty pricey pacifier!   I do love them though, because they are so lightweight, it doesn’t make me nervous to put her to bed with it. 

She is one of the coolest little girls I know, so easy going, with a go with the flow, happy go lucky attitude - we absolutely love you to pieces little girl…thanks for bringing so much happiness to our world!  Happy six months!!! 

xoxo
Mom and Dad

 

{Our Big Girl Anna!}

She did it!!!  After trying on and off, I think it is finally safe to say Anna is potty trained during the day.  She still gets a diaper for naps and bedtime, but it looks like we are good to do during the day.  Anna showed interest in using the toilet early on, well over a year ago, however it never really turned into anything.  Being pregnant with Everly and knowing the big adjustment it would be on Anna, we just didn’t push it.  The last thing I wanted to happen was to think we had trained her and then she reverted back once the Everly arrived.  Then like a month or so ago, she asked to wear panties so we tried to start again, but after multiple accidents it was clear it just hadn’t clicked yet.

Then, two weeks ago Friday, we were at my parents for dinner.  She had a very wet diaper and was wearing a dress and we were outside.  I took her diaper off and let her go free for awhile.  To be honest, I totally forgot to put a diaper back on her.  Well, a little while later she came to me and said she had to go potty, so we did…and then a little while later she said it again, and we did.  That night I would say she came to us 5 different times and said she had to go, we would take her, and she did.  It was clear it had clicked!!!  (This would so happen too, because earlier that day I had gone to Target and bought 2 92 count boxes of diapers for her!)  So from then on, every morning when she gets up we take her diaper off, take her to the potty and put on panties.  We had a few accidents early on, but they are fewer and farther in between.  I was so proud of her the other night; we went downtown to watch the fireworks and before going up to my dad’s office we walked around for a little bit so I put a diaper on her, not being sure where the closest available bathroom would be if she had to go.  I totally forgot about it and then 2 hours later, we were up at my dad’s office and she said she had to go potty so my mom took her….AND HER DIAPER WAS DRY!  Way to go Annas!  We are all so proud of you!  You have very quickly gone from a little toddler to one beautiful little girl - lots of love and kisses Anna!!!

 

 

{Anna's Surgery}

In the beginning of April, Anna finally had surgery to unlock her thumb.  Sometime around a year old we noticed that Anna’s right thumb was locked in position.  I mentioned it to her pediatrician and he agreed it looked like trigger finger so we set up an appointment with a specialist to get it checked out.  We were sent to Dr. Cullen at the Hand to Shoulder Center in Appleton and I highly recommend him – he did a great job and was wonderful with Anna – quite the patient doctor J  I am very happy the surgery is behind us and even happier to report everything went great and a weeks later Anna had her follow up with Dr. Cullen and was determined to be just as good as new, with a brand new working thumb.  Anna did great for the surgery and was quite a brave little girl.  When we went in for her pre-op appointment, I will admit I started to get a little nervous about the whole thing as she tried to climb up my chest and then down my back when the doctor tried to listen to her heart.  We got to the hospital the day of her surgery pretty early in the morning and got Anna settled in.  After meeting with Dr. Cullen, the anesthesiologist and the nurse that would be with her the whole time, they gave her some medicine to mellow her out, which was by far one of the funniest things I have ever seen.  By that time Anna was so out of it, I don’t even think she realized what was happening and they wheeled her back to administer the anesthesia and perform the surgery.  While I was most nervous to see them put Anna under, I had no idea her coming out of the anesthesia would be the worst part.  She woke up pretty scared, screaming, crying, kicking, biting and trying to rip out her IV and take off her bandage.  After an hour of trying to console her, we packed up and tried to head home.  Once in the car, Anna was successful at ripping off the bandage so we had to go back to get it reapplied.  Turns out our little Anna is quite the fighter J  It ended up that her getting it off was the best thing she could have done, once she saw the wound, she was more than happy to put the bandage back on the never let it bother her once the entire time she had to wear it, which ended up being about a week.  Overall I am so happy the ordeal is over with, while her reason to have surgery wasn’t too big of a deal, it is never fun to watch your little one go through something like that.  And we were only more reminded of how lucky we are, as there are some very sick kids in the world, whose families go through surgeries and hospital stays on a daily basis.  Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with all those families and kiddos who suffer each day from illness.

 

Brave Little Girl

 

 

Patiently Waiting

One very tired little girl fell asleep on the way home eating a cracker

 

Hehe...one very drugged out little girl :)