Favorite kitchen activity

It's nearly impossible to stop her from pulling all of the seasoning packets out of 'her drawer' several times per day. 

The average day...

Daily schedule:

 

• Awake: 6:45-7:15am - if Daddy's home, he goes in to greet her in the morning
• Breakfast: banana/applesauce/cheerios/yogurt/oatmeal
• 1st Nap: 2-4 hours (typically 2.5/3hrs.)
• Lunch: anything - truly
• Playtime for 2-2.5 hrs.
• 2nd Nap: 1.5-3 hrs. (typically 2 hrs.)
• Play until Daddy gets home - including an awkward sprint/fall/sprint/fall/sprint trip to the front door when he arrives.
• Dinner: whatever we're having - plus some extra greens, if we're on top of it.
• Bedtime: 7pm - bottle, books (unless she's falling asleep in her highchair - which happens 2-3 times per week - then we abbreviate the bedtime routine) and she's put into her bed.

Diapers: 2-3 poopy diapers/day (size 4s)

 

Temperment: She's simply a joy. Truly a joy.

Walking, Talking & Teeth!!!

I've been getting really bad about updating recently.  Partly because we're almost ready to launch Dave's photo blog, Facebook page and a host of other things keeping us swamped...which is really exciting! 

We also were blessed with an insurgency of Slaugenhoups! From all points, Alaska, Maryland, and Clarion County. Very fun.

And...the purpose of this blog...to track our sweet baby girl's first year...has lots of updating to do!  We are finally walking (Well, Ellie took her first steps at Erin Vanderbeck's parents' house on September 25th.  She took a few steps toward Erin's cracker).  Shocking, right?

At breakfast last week, Ellie was eyeing up Killian (the dog) in the dining room while she sat perched in her high chair.  She blurted out as clearly as an adult would say it, "Doggie". Dave and I looked at each other and tried to replicate it, but she was entirely consumed by her breakfast at that point. The "Hi" and "Hey"s are back regularly too.

Finally!!!!!!! a tooth! After a very restless night in the pack 'n' play in Aunt Molly and Uncle Michael's house, I felt a pointy part on her lower left gum.  After months of applying the 'she must be teething' label to a bad night's sleep, we finally made it!  We can stop saving for dentures. Dave can stop losing bets to me about when a tooth will pop. And yes, she walked before she had teeth.

Clearly, I owe better posts on all of these things, since they're all such a big deal in kid terms, but I need to grab some photos too.

Hope everyone's doing well and enjoying fall! 

9-month Doc Appt.

Height: 27.5 inches (50th %)
Weight: 17 lbs. (25th %)
Head Circumference: 45 cm (55th %)

Overdue

Wow - sorry for the overdue posting here - I'm going to have to make it short, since Ellie's on her way up from a nap. 

I realized it's been almost a month since I last posted!  Crazy. Quick synopsis of the big things that have come and gone:

• Trip to Germany and Austria (basically the reason I went missing on the blog for a month). Lots of funny stories from this trip that deserve their own post.
• Baby play dates that get so much better each week!  Because the 'play' date actually involves 'playing.'
• Dave has been shooting a LOT. So there's lots of post production that I need to get on - thus, my time normally spent blogging went toward my 'other job'. Which I enjoy just as much, albeit keeping me away from my fun social avenues. :(
• Switching rooms around in the house so that Ellie now has almost an entire room to be safe and play in.  I'm sure the commitment to the kid is much to Annie's chagrin, but it's nice that I can be in the kitchen and keep an eye on her destruction.
• David has been super Dad.  He took on watching Ellie all day yesterday from awakening to nearly  sleeping - he was exhausted when I got home and said, "I don't know how you do it every day." (HUGE GRIN HERE)
• She's started sleeping through the night!
• Nana visited and saved Mama on a few occasions.
• Oh yea, and we're pregnant!

All of these items deserve their own post, so I'll have to get on that!

Glad to be back!

xoxo

Little victories

Last night, David and I were having dinner. I had steamed some very small pieces of zucchini and didn't mash them. We put them in the middle of her tray in hopes she might become interested in using her hands to start feeding herself. Since she places everything in sight on her 'direct-to-the-mouth-conveyer-belt' I thought for sure she'd pick it right up.

A Blueberry Morning

Instead, we got some fake crying noise, grunting in the spoon's direction (we had a second course of scorn squash) and a complete disinterest in the zucchini. After about 5 minutes we move on. Oh well, we said. Guess she's not ready yet. I had talked to Heather about Pippa doing just this, so I knew it was within her developmental ability.

Not terribly disappointing, but parents are great at getting excited to try something new only to learn it rarely works on the first try. So I started feeding her the acorn squash. We were all using utensils when all of the sudden we see her slam both hands down on the zucchini and bring them to her open mouth. We look on in amazement! Then she did it again. David puts his hand up to quietly high five and my eyes filled with tears. Yes, tears. And yes, I deserve to be teased for crying because my baby picked up food. So exciting!!!

Little moments that surprise you.

We had halved blueberries for breakfast...on to something new!

Food Update

The girl's getting it down. She's a champion spoon eater. It doesn't really matter what's on the spoon, as long as it's reloaded as soon as she wipes it clean. If you're not fast enough, you'll be treated to a pounding of the right hand on the tray table and some bizarre fake crying noises.

It's most astounding how much Elizabeth can eat. One of my greatest fears in this whole food thing, aside from the obvious choking, is that I will somehow teach her to overeat and pressure her into a lifetime of being overweight. They say breastfed babies develop a sensor in their bellies to let them know when they're full, but it still sits high on my list of neurotic mommy fears.

The strange thing that she does when she's eating is she sticks her left hand, well up to the fingers at least, into her mouth after nearly each spoonful. After overcoming questions of infant bulemia, we've learned from Heather that Pippa does it too. Phew!!! My Mom swears that she's exploring the textures in her mouth, but when my helpful husband pitches it, the hand in mouth makes him a little crazy. (it takes twice as long to feed her when she's 'exploring' each bite!)

time to lower the crib!

On anything. On everthing. Whenever. Wherever. Look out.

It was one morning when I went into her room to get her only to find her staring over the crib rail at me. We lowered the mattress that afternoon!

Pulling herself up on objects and people came so quickly after crawling that it's hard to believe.

She will crawl over and pull herself up on my leg. She will crawl over and pull herself up on her highchair. She will pull herself up on the dog. She pulls herself up on the exersaucer, which leaves her looking like she's providing the percussion for a thunderstorm. Swaying, bending, arching, teetering and (if I can get there fast enough to avoid it) crashing. It spins and rocks, so it's my least favorite thing that she climbs on.

The carpet often provides a safe landing, and I watch her like a hawk around corners and hard surfaces. That aside, she's so proud of herself that I can't help but let her keep doing it. Everywhere!

Sitting Tall

Ellie has gotten the sitting thing down. She actually mastered sitting AFTER crawling. Weird, right? But she's her own woman, clearly!

The sitting makes me laugh at times, she'll now pull herself up to stand up only to fall into a sit. She'll be wailing her sweet little head off when she wakes up in a stranger's house in the sitting position. She'll crawl over to the foam that Nana bought. And climb up to sit on it like an Queen! It's so nice to be able to have her sit next to us on the couch or on a bench.

Fun things all the time!

And we're.........crawling?!?!

The little one had been working on moving for quite some time. She started the wounded soldier/sniper drag around 5 months. Then she started getting up on all fours and rocking (well, maybe teetering or shaking is a better description). David and I assembled a bet that she would crawl within the next 10 days, or before her 6 month mark of 6/8/10. I took the under and David took the over.

Her crawl track finally paid off on June 14th. My Dad was over to offer assistance with the shed construction and we were all outside. Ellie had a blanket in the yard scattered with a few toys. She was up on all fours and rocked herself forward.

Cross patterning like a rockstar. She moved nearly 6 feet. Of course, I shed a tear. Crying as a Mom, when your kids do new things, is so foreign to me, so I challenge someone to explain it to me. It just happens.

The kicker is that once it's figured out, it's all they can do. I had childproofed just in time! And thanks to my loving husband, we switched the dining room and the piano room. Now the room closest to the kitchen is child friendly and she can do whatever she wants with plenty of safe room. Added perk, the dining room now feels lie a real room!

Real food!

Oh a new land for us!

I went back and forth on when to start her on food. People ask if she seems interested in eating. I'd mentally think, well, she's interested in directing everything to her mouth, so how can I tell?

ss a treat for my Mother in Law for our delayed Mother's Day, we introduced E to bananas. Her Aunt Molly smashed that bad boy up nicely and while Nana held her, Daddy took pictures and Aunt Molly fed her. Fed her is a nice way of putting it. She wasn't so sure what to do with the mushy cream stuff aiming toward her face on a shiny long thing. I'll consider it a success since she swallowed most of it. We tried banana again a few days later.

Now fast forward to how she acts today. As soon as the spoon comes out of the drawer, as soon as the tray slides into position, as soon as her Mom sits down in front of her with a bowl of something - it's on! Squeals, grunts, grabby hands and head thrusts toward the food begin. Don't take a break, don't be too slow in delivering and don't run out of food early. She will advise not too pleasantly her disdain.

She's an absolute riot to me. She loves everything; I'm going to put a running list of new foods on the side here.

Comedy Hour

Elizabeth has been checking herself out in the mirror on her playmat. So today, she kept looking at me saying, "Mom, there's nothing on the other side of this? How dumb do we think I am?!"

6 Months! What?!?!

It can't be 6 months already! I can't believe my baby girl is 6 months-old! Wow.

Tricks: she's dragging her body all over the place these days. She's able to sit up, albeit with poor posture. When she's on her belly she will get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Dave swears he saw her take one or two movements forward (aka crawling), but we made a bet that both of us need to see it for it to count as legit. This morning she pulled herself up on her crib to a slanted standing position. Craziness! I guess I have to change my viewpoint on where the dangers lie!

Life: is surprisingly going well sleepwise. She's been sleeping much more consistently now that we've started solid foods. After months of sleeping best on her belly, our baby is now a side sleeper. She seems to sleep best on her side. She'll flip back and forth without waking up. With the megaheat that we've had recently, the window air conditioner has been on almost nonstop! I liked the energy saver. Setting, which regulated the air temperature, kicking on when it got past the temp. Here's the bummer, every time it would kick on or turn off, she'd wake up! The sudden change in noise brought her out of sleep. So. We've just kept the air conditioner on a higher setting, and we let it run.

She's probably going to need white noise once we take it out in the fall. Sigh. Can't win 'em all.

Week 23

Tricks: Finding and attempting to eat all of the things we should stay away from (see pic) - babyproofing here we come!!! Still mostly moving backwards instead of forward on crawling flat, but she's moved forward a few inches here and there.

Life: We're realizing that we need to childproof!!! Ah!

Week 22

Tricks: Oh, she's tricky alright! Ellie is now able to, I'll call it, 'fake throw'. In case it's not obvious what that means, it's when she clasps something big so firmly that she's able to show you and then pull it back. Still interested in anything that you're holding.  Maybe the start of sitting up?

Life: Generally good - she got sick and with her new love of putting her hands all over my face, it's no wonder that I came down with the cold too.

Colds are wonderful sources of parental discontentment - we're more exhausted than usual and the baby is incredibly cranky, coughing herself out of naps, trying to eat while unable to breathe, kinda miserable all around.

But despite the cold and weary weather.  We've had a good week.  

Week 21

Tricks: Personality growth week. Primarily, she's been destyructive in ways we thought were a ways away...i.e. pulling table cloths, plates, utensils, paper, pens, drinks, lamps, and any other items that are within reach. Not to be overlooked: cell phones, remotes, sunglasses, laptops, dogs ears, and the like are particular favorites.

Life: We feel as though she's learning something new every day! The same old toys are losing their spark, and new ones are being subbed out - thanks to friends and family.

In general, still sleep deprived, dealing with trying to up milk production, so almost every 2 hour feedings. We so quickly forget how exhausting those early days are/were. :)

Dear Babies

Why does the routine that was so successful so well for so long suddenly not work?

We'd love to know.

Much appreciated,
Moms

Week 20

Tricks: She flips all around these days.  She holds the bottle on her own to feed herself (discovered during the prune fiasco).  She still moves backwards - definitely not forward.  It's still grabbing and sucking on her toes.  She's starting to recognize faces (beyond her own parents) and meet them with smiles.  If you take something from her, she'll let you know she's getting unhappy about it. 

Life: We just can't believe how much she can do.  She's getting so big! She's finally out of the newborn clothes - yes, all of them, even the ones that were huge on her.  I can no longer call her my newborn.  So sad. But such fun to watch her grow and start new things.

Ah, teething...

At first you tell yourself that there's no way. She's too young. It's too early.

Then you notice that she isn't eating as well and sometimes cries while nursing. She's been drooling for some time and everyone seems to be warning you that she's teething. So you ask other mom's who have had babies in this decade. They respond, "are her gums inflamed? Do you see the teeth coming through?" the reality is that first time Moms have never gone through this, so we haven't a clue what we're really looking for.

Then you watch as she grabs for things, draws them to her mouth and wails out in pain. Finally catching on here, Mom.

OK, it's teething. The drool, the poor nursing, the trouble sleeping and random crying is buttressed by noticing reddish gums and white bud looking shapes under the gumline.

Thanks to Becky Sechrist for offering her teething solution of frozen washcloths. These serve as fantastic replacements for the rapidly melting teething rings the stores hock.

And so it begins.

Gotta love it!

Week 19

Tricks: feet in the mouth, helping to open the mail by tossing everything on the floor and looking down to see where it all went. Maybe a bit of hide and seek? Pulls pacifier out to talk

Life: the trip overseas has been challenging as far as getting the babies back on schedule. The first night back was particularly rough, she was up several times and then again at 3am for good.

Day by day it's getting better. After Ellie woke herself out of a sound sleep by knocking her head against the crib rail, we bought bumpers right away! She seems to be loving them, since they block her view.