Kemper turns 2!

I still am coming to terms with the fact that not only do I not have a baby anymore, but I have a full on toddler!  Its hard to believe how fast the past 2 years have gone and how busy our lives have become as a result of raising two beautiful children.  And we thought we were busy with 1...ha!  Needless to say, I can't imagine our life any other way, and each day I find myself looking around realizing just how complete our family is and how incredibly blessed we are to have health, happiness, and love between us all.  Here's what Kemper is up to now that he has 2 big years under his belt.

Clothing:
He currently wears a 2T, though this is a recent move from 24 months.  Still no preference on what he wears (thanks goodness!), and I'm cherishing the last couple of months that I still have one of my babies in onesies.  I HEART ONESIES.  I think because they in some odd way make me feel like I still have a baby and that he's really not growing up THAT fast.  Though he is.  :)

Eating:
Kemp has kind of gone back and forth on being a good eater and being a picky eater, but thankfully as of late we are on a good path.  He has been easier to transition into eating whatever John and I eat than Peyton who still really likes "kid" food.  Debbie, Kemper's daycare lady says that he is a fantastic eater, and finishes everything in his lunch every day.  He is now drinking 1% milk (yay for only buying one kind of milk), and drinks it from sippy cups.  Thankfully, we were done with the bottle before he even turned one years old.  His favorite foods include the following: Pickles, ice (haha!), bananas, fish crackers, turkey sandwiches, oatmeal, and cooked carrots.  He really likes stroganoff too, just like his daddy!

Sleeping:
Oh did we have no idea how well we had sleeping with Peyton.  She is and always has been a fantastic sleeper.  Our little Kemper on the other hand has certainly had more struggles with it.  Kind of like the eating thing, we are thankfully on a really great sleeping path with him right now.  But that didn't come without struggle.  Around 18 months or so, we struggled with him waking in the middle of the night several times literally crying and screaming as loud as he could.  Naturally we explored all ideas of what we thought the problem could be and we came up with...drumroll....nothing.  So, to overcome those issues, we decided it would be best to be consistent in not picking him up when we went in there, not bringing him to bed of course, and keeping all other bedtime rituals the same.  Eventually he figured it all out and we once again have sleep.  He's still sleeping in his crib, but by the beginning of May, we will switch him into a big boy bed as we promised the crib to another new baby.  Kemper sleeps with a small toddler pillow and blanket, and still sleeps with his music on and a pacifier.  We plan on taking the pacifier away once he's had a good month or so in his toddler bed.  He is still very attached to his pacifier and would probably have it in his mouth every second of the day if we let him.  Thankfully, we keep the pacifier for sleeping times only.

Daycare:
Kemper still goes to daycare at Debbie's, though in July of this year, he will start at Appleseed Preschool where Peyton goes.  We think he is very ready for the change and will be excited to be with his big sister for a couple of months before she goes to Kindergarten.

Talking/personality:
When Kemper's doctor asked me how many words she though he had, I guessed it at about 100.  His vocabulary in the last month has really just exploded.  He'll attempt to say anything that you ask him to say, and he is starting to talk in 2-3 word phrases.  People tell me that he is a pretty laid back 2 year old, though not shy at all.  He won't be the loudest one in the class, but he also won't be the shy one unwilling to try new things.  He's right there along with all the other kids, but not necessarily needing to be the center of attention.  We sometimes struggle with him hitting (mostly his sister), which is new to us since Peyton didn't go through a phase like that.  I am being reminded how difficult it is to try and discipline a child that you can't reason with at all because of his age.  Fun times!

Doctor:
This year, Kemper battled several little colds, and maybe a couple of fevers, but nothing too awful.  We were also lucky enough for him to get a very mild case of Hand, Foot, Mouth disease.  In addition to these, he had his first little ear infection and it was treated easily with antibiotics.  We changed doctors from Dr. Melissa Walsh to Dr. Maggie Bevilacqua, who is also a doctor at Richmond Beach Pediatrics.  The only reason we changed is because she was able to accomodate Friday office hours and Melissa Walsh was not able to.  Kemper has also had 2 check ups at the dentist and seems to have great teeth so far.  All his teeth are in except his final molars, which there is no sign of yet.  The following were his 2 year stats at the doctor:

Weight: 29.2 lbs (77th percentile)
Height: 35 inches (63rd percentile)

Kemper's Favorites:

• Loves, loves, loves any kind of ball, but especially a football or basketball
• Loves to play catch
• Pickles
• Boy cousins Hank, Mason, and Alex
• His sister Peyton whom he adores
• playing outside 
• chapstick (calls this "dapdick too mommy")
• his pockets (calls it his "pock")
• his toy car that he can drive, ride in, and pack stuff into the back 
• choo choo's
• garbage trucks (or any other big truck)
• Motorcycles
• ice cream
• Not really into TV yet, though he does like the Mickey Mouse Club
  

A little something sweet...

Tonight as I was putting Peyton down to bed for the evening (Kemper already fast asleep in the room next door) said she wanted to ask me something.  She went on to ask me if, when she is a grown up, and when Kemper is a grown up as well, could she marry him.  She continued that she just loved him so much and that "when he was a dad, she wanted to marry him (insert mommy's heart completely melting at this point)."  I of course diverted the question for another time, but decided this was absolutely blog worthy and something I never wanted to forget.  It'll be one of those stories told at her wedding someday.  Oh how I love these kids!

Kemper turns 11 months old!

We are T minus 1 month from our baby boy turning ONE YEARS OLD!! This truly has flown by, even faster than Peyton's first year.  Its hard to believe that its already been 11 months. Our sweet Kemper continues to be such a blessing to our entire family.  He is sweet, sensitive, determined, and unafraid of physical challenges.  Here's what he's been up to the last month.

Sleeping:
Besides a few nights here and there where Kemper woke up to be soothed back to sleep due to teething, he continues to be a great sleeper.  His usual is bed around 7:30 or 8:00 and he sleeps between 11 and 12 hours straight.  He still sleeps with his white noise, in a sleep sac, and with his pacifier.  He prefers to put himself to sleep rather than being cuddled or rocked to sleep, which makes it very easy for us!  We toyed this month with cutting his naps down to 1 per day (as we thought he was showing signs he was ready), but we quickly realized that he indeed was not ready for this change.  So, that being said he is still napping twice per day for an hour and a half to two hours each nap.  He usually does ok to skip his first nap if we really need to be out and about doing something, but certainly much prefers to be napping twice per day.

Eating:
Kemper is our little picky eater.  Some days he eats great, and others he could take or leave food, including his bottle.  We are still transitioning to sippy cups, which he is doing better with, but we are not yet ready to ditch the bottle entirely.  I was just saying this morning though that I think I'll push the sippy cup even more, as I don't really think he would miss the bottle at all.  He's eating anything and everything, but really likes pickles, tofu, green beans, peas, squeezy fruit packets, and carrots.  His bottle is usually about 6oz, 3 times per day. 

Clothing:
Kemper is currently wearing 18 month clothing.

Doctor Visits:
Kemper came down with pink eye in both his eyes at the end of this month.  And of course it happened on a holiday (Peyton also got pink eye on a holiday).  John took him to the walk in clinic and got drops and he was much better after just a day.  Even with all the goop in his eyes and them watering all over the place, he was as happy as can be.

Milestones/likes/habits:

• Started saying "mama", "all done (sign language and sometimes verbally too)", "uh-oh."
• Started waving bye-bye
• clicks his tongue
• favorite toy is his golf ball
• really liked to play with (and un-tie) all the ties on his crib bumper
• wants to eat and play with anything his sister has
• loves the bath (and can't get him to stop standing up in the bath)
• Doesn't mind having water poured over his face while washing in the bath (total opposite of his sister in the matter)
• putting everything in his mouth
• starting to stand on his own for about 10 seconds without holding onto anything
• cruising around furniture
• trying really hard to get him into books (we try to read to him once a day), but his attention span with this is about 2 minutes if that.
• getting nearly impossible to get him dressed and change his diaper on the changing table and he is rolling over and squirming everywhere.
• still loves his uncle Todd
• This month, we are planning on taking away his pacifier all together during the day and only allowing him to have it while sleeping.

John Kemper is 10 months old!

Our sweet baby boy has turned 10 months, and just 2 months shy of 1 year old.  I never dreamed it could have flown by this fast, and I have already found myself trying to cherish little moments more and more as I know they won't happen for ever.  The other night, he fell asleep in my arms in the rocking chair, which hasn't happened for several weeks and I never wanted to let him go.  I would have rocked him all night like that if I didn't need to sleep myself.  Love those special times between my children and I.  Its equally as touching to witness John have these moment with Kemper and Peyton like the other night when John (who was holding Kemper) was smacking his lips, and Kemper was mimicking him.  John just about melted when Kemper did that.  So sweet.  John and I have sort of named Kempers personality thus far as being a sensitive, but daring boy.  He is pretty aggressive with what he is willing to try physically, but emotionally he is quite sensitive.  We love an embrace everything about this sweet boy and cherish all the unique differences him and his sister have.  Its one of the beauties of having two children and seeing them develop their own individual personalities.

Sleeping:

Kemper continues to sleep through the night, every night going to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and waking anytime from 6:30-8:30.  He is still sleeping in a sleep sac, with his white noise machine going and with a pacifier.  He still does a great job putting himself to sleep and often prefers is vs. being rocked to sleep.  He continues to take 2 naps per day, one around 9:30 and the second around 2:00, each lasting 1 1/2-2 hours.  We are feeling so blessed to be getting wonderful sleep with both our children!

Eating: 

We have become pretty adventurous with what Kemper eats, and we pretty much give him anything and everything that isn't a choking hazard (and of course no peanut butter still).  We worked tofu back into his diet with no problem, so I don't think he has any sort of soy allergy.  Some of his favorite foods currently include tofu, scrambled eggs, beets, cheese, and all pastas.  We mix pureed spinach into lots of his food as we did and continue to do with Peyton.  Kemper has enjoyed every vegetable we give to him, and eats lots of them, but he does not favor fruit at all.  If you put a cooked beet and a banana in front of him, he would always pick the beet.  We are working on it with him, and he will eat them, just not nearly as readily as vegetables. 

Kemper is still taking 3 bottles per day, from 6oz-8oz each.  We are attempting to work in sippy cups with him, but he hasn't been too hot on them yet.  He is making some progress with them, so we'll continue to offer them to him.  We made an effort his month to NOT feed his bedtime bottle to him in his room, and instead do so in the living room with all the lights on, noise going, etc. in an effort for him to not make a habit of needing to be fed a bottle before bedtime.  We will next work on cutting out this night time bottle and instead give him that milk during dinner. 

Clothing:

Kemp is currently wearing some 12 month clothing, but mostly 18 months.

Milestones/Big Events:

• "Touchdown" arms in the air
• Crawling on 12/30/2013
• Going from laying down in the bath to sitting up on his own
• waving bye bye
• bottom tooth to the right of his two middle teeth popped through
• right canine tooth popped through
• pulling himself to standing-everywhere!
• Fell out of crib onto hardwood floor.  The day before this happened, he had learned how to pull himself up in the crib in his sleep sac.  We already had the crib lowered to the middle level, and had talked about the fact we should probably lower it all the way.  I was at a Seahawks game with my mom and John was watching the game at his parents.  We had Katherine over to babysit, and she put him down for a nap and all of a sudden heard a big thump and a huge cry from Kemper.  John raced home and checked him out, and he was ok, but certainly a scary moment for us all!  Needless to say, we lowered the crib all the way immediately.
• Working on saying "uh oh" and "all done"

Starting to think of his first birthday plans!!!

9 Months old he turns!

These months are truly just flying by, but I must say I am enjoying Kemper and this two kid thing more and more each month.  We've hit the sweet spot in terms of fun in sleeping and personality with our little boy.  I am loving this age because he is hitting developmental milestones so quickly all the time and lots of them, which keeps it entertaining and so enjoyable to witness.  Here's what our little prince has been up to the past month.

Sleeping:
We are still in sleep heaven over here at the Kirkpatrick household.  Kemper continues to sleep through the night, every night, usually lasting about 11 1/2-12 hours per night.  His bedtime routine remains the same with bath, books, bottle, song and bed.  He has continued on his really good streak of putting himself to sleep vs.  needing to be rocked to sleep both for naps and nighttime.  He is still napping twice per day, once around 9:30 and the other around 1:30 or so.  His naps last about and hour and a half to two hours.  He is still sleeping in a sleep sac, and goes down on his tummy.  He's become quite the mover while he sleeps.  He rolls onto his back for a while, then back onto his tummy, tucks himself into corners, then spreads back out.  Quite different from how his sister slept at that age.

Eating:
This month, we have pretty much been giving Kemper anything and everything in terms of solid food.  He really enjoys chicken nuggest, chicken ravioli, cheese, scrambled eggs, green beans, and cooked carrots.  Fruit has been a little more tricky to get in him, but he gets some banana, some pears, and some applesauce.  He is still taking 3 bottles per day, morning lunch and bedtime.  They are anywhere from 6-8oz.  We are attempting to introduce sippy cups to Kemper, though he hasn't quite grasped onto them yet.  We still have not attempted tofu again since his gas experience with it over a month ago, but I'm sure we will try that again soon. I also want to try rice, bean, lentils, etc.

Teeth:
Kemp has 2 lower middle teeth, 2 top middle teeth, and his canine teeth on both sides are about to pop through.

Doctor Visit:
Kemper got a clean bill of health at his 9 month check up.  He weighed in at 21lbs, 10oz (77th percentile), height at 28.5 inches (45th percentile), and head circumference at 46.5 (84th percentile).

Clothing:
Kemper is wearing 12 month clothing, but is quickly approaching the 18 month clothing.

Milestones:

• getting up on all 4's and thinking about crawling, although not actually crawling
• Army crawling
• Pulling up on his knees in the crib and the bath
• "So Big" with his arms up in the air
• LOVES his uncle Todd
• Trying sippy cups, doesn't have the hang of it yet
• For Christmas, he really just wanted to eat all of the paper
• Eating lots of finger foods on his own

Kemper turns 8 months old

This is the month of blissfulness!!  Our sweet little peanut (not so peanut anymore) has turned into a dream of a sleeper and a wonderful eater and is always full of laughter (and screams as well).  It truly has been perhaps my favorite month so far in this little man's life, I think because his schedule both eating and sleeping is finally solid and predictable, and because he has turned into just this little snuggly, lovey, playful little being that he is so enjoyable to be around all the time. 

Sleeping:
WE ARE ALL FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT, EVERY NIGHT!!  Yes, all of us.  Mommy, Daddy, Peyton and Kemper all sleeping all night long.  Its fantastic.  And I think the best part about it is that we didn't have to do the hard core cry it out with Kemper.  He just naturally progressed into it on his own.  We did first cut out any eating in the middle of the night, but literally within a week or two of doing that, he was sleeping through the night.  He still goes down to bed between 7:30 and 8:00pm and he is up between 7:00 and 8:00am.  As for napping, he is still on a two nap per day schedule, the first one around 9:30 and the second around 2:00.  He still sleeps on his tummy in a sleep sac, with his white noise machine and pacifier (although he usually spits this out relatively soon after falling asleep).  His night bedtime routine is still bath, book, bottle, song and bed.  He is also gotten really good about putting himself to sleep vs. having to be asleep in our arms before being put in the crib. 

Eating:
John and I sort of had this epiphany this month about Kemper's eating when we went back and read Peyton's blog when she was around this age.  We realized that we were being much more exploratory with Peyton than we had been being with Kemper, so we ramped it up a bit this month with Kemper.  We hadn't been giving him any finger foods yet (besides puff's), so we tried that and Kemper immediately fell in love with finger foods.  Every part of it.  Eating them, grabbing them himself, feeding himself, etc.  Needless to say, his food list has grown tremendously this month, and we are feeding him all sorts of things now, like eggs, cheese, green beans, tofu cubes (although we have some suspicion he might be allergic to soy because of some really bad, painful gas he has one night after eating it and we haven't tried it again since), hot dog (much to my disagreement!  :) ), and fruit.  This month, we used the last of the frozen breast milk and he is now 100% on formula and is doing great with it.  He has 3, 8oz bottles per day and still prefers them warmed up.

Clothing:
Kemper is currently wearing 12 month clothing.

Teeth:
Kemp has 4 teeth currently (2 on top middle and 2 on bottom middle)

Milestones/Other interesting Kemperisms:

• Said his first "word" being "dada" on Halloween this year
• Able to "walk" around now in his walker
• Able to stand up holding onto a standing toy, or the ottoman
• Able to somewhat scoot around, but not crawling yet
• Working on some sign language with him such as "more" and "all done"
• For the past month or two, he has been very active with his hands.  He is always shaking them around, moving his fingers and rotating his fists around (looks like he is really excited, but he is doing it all the time, even when not excited).
• Loves his johnny jump up still
• Loves to sit on a blanket with his basket of toys and just play
• Loves his sister who is always making him laugh
• When you go to pick him up, he immediately snuggles into your chest and tucks his hands under his body (best feeling ever)
• Screaming very loud when he wants more food (hence the reason for attempting some sign language)
• Tried turkey for his first time on Thanksgiving!
• Getting more and more curls in his hair
• Spent his first night at Grandma and Grandpa's this month
• Has a little separation anxiety and does not like being left in a room alone

  

777777777SEVEN777777777 Months old!

Here we are at 7 months old with our little boy!  It really has been a big month for Kemper with lots going on.  He continues to be the most smiley baby I literally have ever come across (he'll flash his two pearly whites for anyone that smiles at him, and even flirts with many people).  We are really enjoying watching his personality develop and listening to him try and find his voice and form words (although he hasn't said any yet).  Here's what he's been up to this month:

Sleep:
Always the most important, right?!  Thankfully this month, Kemper's sleep has FINALLY taken a turn for the good.  Really good.  Shhh!!!  I don't even want to say it out loud or even type it for fear it will jinx us!  With the exception of the week when he was sick this month (read below to see the details of that), he has either been sleeping all the way through the night, or getting up once around 4:00am to eat and then goes back to sleep.  We've continued with the 7:30-8:00 bedtime.  He has a bath, book with mommy, then a bottle and sleep.  He's still sleeping on his tummy, in a sleep sac and with a pacifier (although he usually only has the paci in for about 5 minutes when he first falls asleep and then he spits it out and is fine without it).  We are trying to wean him off of eating completely in the middle of the night, even if he wakes up because his doc says he certainly does not need to be eating in the middle of the night.  I have cut his bottle down to 4oz in the middle of the night, and will move it down to 3oz this week and so on until he isn't getting anything.  He has really become a good self soother and will put himself to sleep if we put him in the crib before he is fully asleep (both for naps and bedtime), which we are of course welcoming with open arms.  His naps are still happening twice a day and last around and hour and a half to two hours.  He still likes his music on (or at least we put it on always when he sleeps). 

Eating:
A HUGE decision was made this month to wean Kemper off breastfeeding.  I didn't think it would happen this early, but Kemper began to bite me (very hard and even to the point of bleeding once), as well as push me away most times when I would try and nurse him.  I decided to read his cues and stop breastfeeding.  In addition to his very bold cues, I began a new job at the end of this month and felt it was a natural progression to stop breastfeeding and then I wouldn't have to pump at work at a new job.  That being said, he has not seemed to care AT ALL that we are no longer breastfeeding.  He is still getting 100% breast milk for now, as I had about a month's worth stocked up in the freezer, but once he goes through that he will begin formula.  Kemper is doing really well with solid foods as well.  Here's a list of what he's had to date:

• avocado (still his favorite by far)
• banana
• applesauce
• oatmeal
• beets (loves!)
• tofu (pureed with other foods)
• cauliflower
• white sweet potato
• quinoa (pureed with other foods)
• carrots
• peaches
• butternut squash
• infant whole milk yogurt