Leah 11 Months

Little Leah is only a month away from the one year mark!  I just sent out her 1st birthday party invitations!

Our newest change has been sleeping arrangements.  I'd had it with Leah in our room, almost a year is too long!  We had tried combining the girls but someone always woke up someone else and then kids were crabby....not worth it.  So our new arrangement is Brie is sleeping in the guest room and Leah is in the crib in the girls room.  We have been doing this a few nights now and it is PERFECT!  The girls don't always go to bed at the same time, and always wake up at different times.  The other challenge we had was Brie had to try and be quiet while Leah was sleeping up in our room; that isn't the case anymore which is so much easier on me!  So until further notice Brie's new room is the guest room!  Leah goes to sleep easy, she has a little light up thing in her crib she likes to look at.  But for bedtime and naps she goes down great.  She usually goes down around 7:30/8pm, then wakes up between 5:30-6:30am, takes a bottle, then goes back down for 2-3hrs.  So I guess that isn't technically sleeping through the night, but close enough for now.  

Leah is still a good eater, however I have noticed she has been eating less recently.  And she is getting a little bit more picky, she doesn't really refuse food but she will whine for more waffle instead of eating her banana!  Also at times she won't drink all her bottle, especially if dinner time is too close to bedtime.  She will only drink 2-3oz of her 6oz bottle.  She really likes her bottles though, if you say "do you want a bubba?!"  Leah gets really really excited! 

She has her mama radar on most of the time, she likes to be where I am.  She seems to be ok going to other people, but likes to keep track of where I am!  Whenever I sit down she wants to be up by me, but never wants to sit nice.  She wants to stand on me, climb all over me.....she's a wiggly worm!  She is happy as a clam when I hold her and walk around with her, I've done many loads of laundry one handed!  She gets very excited when Alec gets home; if he doesn't pick her up right away she starts crying, it is ADORABLE!

Soooooo much drool these days...... she still only has two teeth!  I keep thinking more are going to start coming through, but no signs yet of anything.  That doesn't stop her from eating whatever she wants though! 

Love this baby girl so much!

It's a..........

This pregnancy is really moving along quickly!  I am about 17.5 weeks already.  When I was pregnant with Leah I was able to have one of the OBGYN residents that I work with scan me to see gender.  I had the same opportunity a couple nights ago!  It was SO fun being able to see baby again, and find out gender!!!  And it is fun for me to be the only one that knows for a short period of time :)

Alec had no idea I was doing it. When I was scanned with Leah I called him before and asked if it was ok.  This time I just went for it! After I found out I had to start brain storming how I was going to tell him!  I knew I wouldn't be able to hold in the information long.  So I consulted with a few people and came up with an idea!

I stopped at Meijer on my way home, and they were able to have someone help me get some helium balloons.  Then I came home and set up a box that Alec would see first thing in the morning.  (Now mind you, this all at like 12:30am.....)

Alec got up in the morning before me as normal.  I snuck out of bed behind him quick so when he saw the box I was able to say "surprise!!"  He was so surprised I knew and very excited to open the box!

It's a........

BOY!!!!!

We are very excited to change it up around here and have a boy!  I think Alec and I are both a little afraid of the unknown of having a boy, that we don't really have any name ideas for a boy!  But we have a lot of time to work on that.

Here he is, our little man!!

And I know someday he is going to mad at me for posting this on social media, but it is very obvious baby is a boy!!

Wisconsin Visit!!

Our last Wisconsin visit was a bit of a train wreck!  Brie was sick and very poorly behaved, Alec got sick, it was just rough all around.

This visit was far better!  The kids slept pretty well; taking into consideration the change to central time zone and daylight savings time happened.  Both the ride there and the ride home went really well.  We made great time thanks to Alec :)  We got a chance to test out our new van, Brie loved the DVD player of course!

We arrived Thursday just before dinner time.  It was great to just let the kids play and be out of the car.  Friday we headed to the Milwaukee children's museum.  Such a cool place with a little town set up, Brie really liked it!  There were so many people though which was kind of a bummer.....but we still had fun.

Pretending to be a vet!

They had the coolest grocery store, I would have just LOVED this as a kid!!!

We had a ton of fun spending time with Brad and Jessie again!

Brie and Bennett played well together!

We even got an adult only dinner out which was amazing!  Reminded me so much of the 'olden' days before we all had kiddos :)

We took turns with the guys getting out of the house.  Brad and Alec went and checked out a couple local breweries. And Jessie and I got to sneak out for a bit to do some shopping and get pedicures.....it was heavenly!

Saturday night I started not feeling so well.  I kind of just figured it was something weird and kept on going.  We got the kids ready for trick or treating, deciding to leave Eleanor and Leah home since the weather was rough.  I started feeling worse so also stayed back from trick or treating.  2 other couple friends and their kids came over for the halloween festivities so I was trying hard to feel up to it.  But by the time dinner time had come around I was so sick feeling. I threw up a few times, felt light headed, and just couldn't be upright.  Despite that little hiccup though.....the kids and Alec had a fun halloween!  Brie loved trick or treating!  

She loves to dress up like a princess!  So naturally she had to be one for halloween :)

We had such a fun time though; bummer I got sick and had to miss church Sunday.  But Alec was able to go and took the kids (he really is super daddy!), he said it was cool to be back in our old church and say hi to people there again.  The ride home went far better than I thought it would.  I could hardly move my head without feeling super sick; both kids slept for the beginning part of the drive (and so did I!).  Then Brie watched a movie and we just kept handing Leah random things and food to keep her busy.  Alec drove like the wind and got us home in 4hrs and 3min (that is a new record for those that have not made that drive before....).

It really was a great trip!  Sometimes I just can't hardly believe how much life has changed since we started hanging out with Brad and Jessie.  We used to hang out at least once a week, sometimes more than that!  And now we live 300 miles apart and have 4.5 kids between the two of us!  Crazy!

We aren't 100% sure when the next time we will get together again is; hopefully once more before I have this baby!  Beyond having the baby I can hardly think about what life will be like....probably a bit more complicated and busy!

Leah the destroyer!

This little kid is more like our little monster :)  She is into anything and everything!!  We had to install more drawer and cupboard locks, then we ran out of them....I need to order more, because she found more drawers to open and empty.  Nothing is safe from her, I move things around every single day and yet she always find something to get into!

She sure is a busy body.  I love this age though, she loves to try and do whatever Brie is doing or whatever we are doing! 

Leah is taking steps now, she will walk between Alec and I or take a couple steps towards something.  But she just isn't ready yet to do it on her own, she still crawls all the time.  

Baby #3!

Alec and I are about to be officially out numbered this April!  We are very excited to be expecting baby DeLange #3!

Brie kind of knows what is going on, if you ask her about the ultrasound pic on the fridge she knows it is a baby that is in mommy's tummy.  But she never brings it up or anything like that, so who knows how much she actually understands.  

Leah will obviously have no clue what is going on!  Leah and baby will only be 16mon apart :)  Yes, they will be close together in age.  And yes, we will be very busy!  But we are super excited.  

Prayers that everything continues to look good for baby and the baby continues to develop and grow into a healthy little he or she!  We will be finding out gender, and we will be sharing what the gender is this time around :)  We have a few more weeks yet for that!  

Leah 10 Months

Leah is a very busy 10mon old!

There is never a dull moment with this kid, she doesn't sit still unless she is eating or sleeping!  She is always on the move and always has an agenda.  This week she has learned to open the cabinets in the kitchen (most are locked, not all); this has thrilled her to pieces.  She hasn't really started taking the stuff out yet, but is fully amazed she can open and close them.  Leah is always on the go, she just buzzes from one thing to the next.  Unless she is doing something she isn't supposed to be doing (and she knows usually what falls on this list!), then she will sit there and work on it until she gets caught (ripping pages out of books is her favorite).  We can't have anything on lower shelves, everything has been moved up.

Leah crawls very quickly, pulls up on everything, walkings along the furniture, and likes to walk while holding your hand.  She also loves to push and walk behind things.  She just started clapping her hands, and it is absolutely adorable!  Leah will give you a kiss, and by a kiss I mean an open mouth slobbery mess :)  She also has started copying what you do; if you stick out your tongue and say "where's your slicker" she will stick out her tongue.

She had a good streak going with sleep; she was starting to sleep through the night pretty consistently!  She would go to bed around 7:30p/8p, but was waking up around 6:30am (which is too early for me).  But that has seemed to all go away, she has more recently been waking up around 4am, and not wanting to go back to sleep.  It has been HORRIBLE though; we need to get her back to sleeping through the night.  I'm this close to just sticking her in the guest room and buying a good set of ear plugs.  Leah usually takes 2 naps a day, sometimes a third depending on timing.  When she goes to bed I put her in a fleece zip up sleep sack, put her plug in, and she has a lovey she cuddles with.  She really loves her plug, we have a million of them all over the house and she is very excited when she comes across one!

Leah is a wonderful eater; she isn't picky at all (which is refreshing after Brie, who is VERY picky!).  We have moved to bottles; no more nursing for little Leah.  Its a good decision for both of us, it was hard for me at first to be done but it is for the best.  She loves food, she is really good at picking foods up and feeding herself.  She eats almost everything we have put in front of her.  When Leah is done eating she just starts throwing it on the floor.  She will look right at you and chuck her food on the floor.....stinker.  Josie, however, loves this little habit of hers.

Some of Lele's favorite thing to do are:

• Books: She doesn't like to sit for books, but she loves to go through books herself.  She really likes to crinkle and rip pages in books....so we have to watch the paper books around her.  But she loves to turn pages in the board books we have!  
• Get into whatever Brie is doing: Poor Brie is so tolerant most of the time, Leah seeks her out and just has to have her hands in whatever Brie is doing!  I took a picture of Leah screaming as I was telling her she was not allowed to destroy the puzzle Brie was working on.  She does not like when you take things away from her, or take her away from something. 
• Seek and destroy:  She will literally stop, look around for something to get into, and high tail it over there!  She has a magnet for things she is not supposed to get into; books, my bible, picture frames, kleenex, , shoes, anything really! 
• Be held: sometimes nothing makes her happy except for just holding the baby, the problem is it always seems to be at the most inopportune time.  But I love holding a baby on my hip, so I try and do it as much as possible :)

We love this little kid so much.  She is getting so old and I can hardly believe we are approaching the year mark!  

Brie's 3 year pictures

My mother in law took Briana's pictures today turning the big 3!!  It is hard making a 3yr old smile normal....but we got some super cute ones :)