Another month, another year

First of all, a few days ago, on December 29, Natalie turned 15 months old. See what a big girl she's getting to be!

 

Second, it was our turn to spend Christmas this year with Sarah's family, and so we went to Iowa, where we were hosted by Sarah's parents. Here is our immediate family on Christmas Eve:

Sarah's sister, Miriam, spent Christmas with us in Iowa as well and came with her husband, Andy, and two daughters, Olivia and Nora. The cousins had a great time playing with each other, since they are close in age.

Nora, Olivia, Lexi and Natalie

 One night we made krum kake, a traditional Norwegian Christmas cookie.

Where does the time go?

I have been super busy at work - no time for personal things - and our weekends and evening seem pretty full, too.  Natalie lately seems really clinging and wants to be held for no reason that we can figure out.  You can tell she is learning things by leaps and bounds though she still doesn't articulate/say any words, except Dad.

Here's some of the things Natalie is doing now.

-Natalie knows to put her arms in her coat sleeves when her coat comes out.
-Natalie seems to be shaking her head no at times
-She blows kisses, waves and gives high fives goodbye.
-She says "more" in sign language.
-Natalie understands when I tell her it is time to go upstairs to brush her teeth - she starts heading for the stairs.
-She is learning how to color (per her sister) - she definitely seems to be holding a crayon in the right grip. :)
-I saw her back down 3 steps - this has only happened once, but maybe she has got it.
-She walked up stairs holding mom's hand and was able to lift her foot high enough to get it onto the next step.
-When we are leaving, she knows to get her socks and shoes and bring them to mom or dad for help.
-When we come home, Natalie knows to take her coat off.

Lexi is learning to read. She read "food market" all by herself and she didn't even have to sound it out.  She knows lots of what her school calls "sight words" and she reads a book each night from school.  She does a really good job of reading though sometimes she does get frustrated.

A million miles an hour

Natalie is definitely a walker now and hardly bothers to crawl.  She falls down frequently but immediately gets herself back up on her feet.  She handily crawls up stairs and just today managed to crawl down 3 stairs all by herself.  We have been trying to show her but she hadn't really seemed to get it.  Maybe she finally does.

Natalie zooms all over the place and can happily walk back and forth for what seems like hours.  She also likes to take things out of boxes, off shelves, etc.  She grips a crayon like she wants to draw but doesn't quite know how to push down consistently to actually get color on the paper.  But she happily tries - and then walks around with the crayon until something grabs her attention and it gets dropped right there.  We are finding things all over the place that aren't in the place that they belong.

It is so much fun to see her moving around and exploring.  You can picture the wheels in her brain turning.  Wherever we go out in public, people are admiring her and seem to love watching her toddle around. Children can so easily bring joy to others - regardless of whether they have children themselves or not.

Natalie did manage to fall today and somehow cut the inside of her gum.  I didn't notice until I pulled her head away from my shoulder after she had mostly settled down and Lexi exclaimed that there was something on my shirt. She also cut her finger in a separate incident and didn't like having the bandaid on it so that was rather traumatic,too.

At snack time, I was getting things out of the fridge when Natalie saw the clear small container of leftover over macaroni and peas.   It was at her level so she grabbed it and then took it to the table by her highchair.  She knew she needed to get up there to be able to eat. It's amazing how kids learn these things.  Of course, once she seemed to be done eating and I took the container and spoon away from her (she was playing with it), she had a major tantrum and just would not calm down. I finally just put her in her bed and left her for a while.  

Reaching new milestones

We are pleased to report that Natalie is walking - well, maybe 80 percent of the time. She is still a little wobbly, and her walking is often interrupted by tumbling forward or just deciding to bend down and crawl.

This is a shift in body for her and a shift in mindset for me. For a long time, I've been used to sitting at the computer at the desk in our dining room or being in the kitchen working on something and Natalie being in the other room and knowing that she wasn't going to be moving anywhere quickly (so we didn't have to watch her like a hawk). But now she suddenly appears - and then is suddenly gone again. Now she goes from me knowing she is somewhere else to me being surprised that she is suddenly next to me. She is quick on her feet.

Walking has also come with a new eagerness to climb stairs. She can go up them (crawling) fairly well, but we she doesn't want to be taught how to descend stairs, so we're still watching her carefully around them.

We are also pleased to see that Natalie has gotten her first molar in. She has all of her front teeth on the top and bottom, and so this is the first tooth for the back of her mouth. She still occasionally bites Sarah (for reasons we still can't figure out), so this new tooth is "the better to bite you with, my dear."

We are on the second and final day - hopefully - of "snow days" - all of us being home from work, school and day care, shut up in the house because of Hurricane Sandy. The city and federal government have basically shut down the city, and because of that, Sarah's and my workplace have been shut down. A shutdown of the D.C. public schools means that Lexi's school closes and Natalie's daycare closes.

We all woke up shortly after our usual wake-up time of 6:00 a.m. yesterday morning. By about 9:15, the kids already had a mild case of cabin fever. We're sure Natalie's new mobility has a lot to do with it. We ventured out to lunch to the Subway over near the Metro stop near our house. It's a walk of only a couple of blocks. We had a coupon to use, and it was just an excuse to get out of the house for a short time. As we were finishing up our lunch, they announced that they were closing for the day. On the way back, the wind caught Lexi's umbrella and knocked her over. We got a little wet, but it was a good change of scenery, if only briefly.

This morning Lexi has friend Lily over to play. Natalie is still going a bit stir-crazy, so we're all hopeful that we can go back to the routine tomorrow. We're sure Natalie enjoys daycare more than staying home with the rest of the family all day.

Lexi Explains her Drawing

No school and transitioning

Friday was a teacher inservice day for Lexi so Natalie went to day care as usual and I worked from home while Lexi entertained herself.  She set up her bedroom to be like school: the pupils (the bears, the cow, the monkey) at desks with their names written on a sticky note and their tables names after a book - just like at her school.  She goes through the whole morning routine: reading the day of the week, assigning the helpers, etc.  At the end of the day, I even got to play school with her and was one of the students while Lexi was the teacher. When she went outside to play on the swingset, I heard her recite the playground rules which they do every time they have recess at school.  Pretty amusing.

I even got Lexi to take a nap yesterday which is more and more unusual.  She slept for over 2 hours which seemed like a good thing at the time as I was able to get my work done without interruption but that meant she had a hard time going to sleep and she woke up early this morning. Since I also had a hard time going to sleep and was woken up early by Lexi, I should have had a nap yesterday as well.

I am transitioning Natalie off formula by mixing milk with the formula.  That seems to be going well.  What isn't going well is getting her to take the milk from her sippy cup.  She drinks her water just fine from the sippy cup but doesn't seem interested in getting her milk that way.  She also fell at the day care on Friday and bruised her cheek.  She didn't seem bothered by it at all when we went to pick her up. 

Playing games with Lexi

Lexi and I played games this evening.  We hid objects and gave clues where they were hidden: but I think she peeked most of the time.  We played bean bags on the letter cards and named something that started with them.  We played "heads-up, seven-up".  Just the two of us.  I tried to explain that it really wouldn't work with just two of us, but she wanted to play anyway.  We each took a turn being it before that game was done - probably lasted a whole minute. :)

Natalie just watched most of it and laughed when we laughed while playing with her stuff.  She did interfere in the one game by "finding" the object that I had hid.  I don't think she felt left out in any way.

Seeing her little mind work

I canjust see Natalie's mind whirring as she tries to navigate walking by hanging onto things.  She is continually looking for the next thing that she can reach to keep her upright. You can even see her make adjustments to where her hands currently are to be able to reach further.

Lexi on the other hand is learning to spell more words though she doesn't read try and sound things out when we are looking at books. I think she is "reading" from memory.  Tomorrow at her school they have an evening program about reading at home that we will go to since childcare and dinner is provided! :)  With Stephen gone that seems like a great deal.

Natalie at 1 year old

We had a good doctor's visit on the 1st. Natalie got 5 shots (including one for the flu) and had blood drawn out of her finger for the lead test.  The phlebotomist didn't see a vein so that is why she drew blood from her finger. She pricked the finger and then squeezed the blood out of it so it took a bit of time to fill 3 little vials.

Natalie weighed in at 23 lb 10.5 oz., close to the 90% percentile.  She is 30.75 inches longer which is the 95% percentile.

As you can see from the pictures Stephen posted, Natalie has been moved to the front facing seat and seems to love it. She has also done this funny thing where she is walking on her knees.  It's cute how she scoots along that way though crawling is still her mode of choice.

Granny commented when she was here that Natalie enjoys going to day care.  She really does get very excited when we get to the door in the morning - chattering and waving her arms.  I am glad she has such a good time there.  She is eating the center's food now so I don't have to bring anything - yeah!  One less thing to worry about.

Some photos at the one-year mark

 

 

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Natalie turned one on Saturday. It is very hard to believe that it has already been a year since she was born.  Stephen and I both remember the long day at the hospital waiting for her to arrive. Lexi remembers telling the school at all school meeting the name of her baby sister.

Natalie's loves eating bananas and really will eat just about anything. She continues to be a really good eater.  She loves pulling things out of boxes, bags, etc and leaves a trail of "stuff' behind as she goes exploring.  She is continually pulling herself up on anything she can from the coffee table to the nearest adult's legs.  I think she will really enjoy walking.

We had a small family party on Saturday night with Uncles Andy and Russell and Aunt Michelle.  Natalie didn't quite get opening gifts thought she liked pulling things out of the gift bags and crumpling the cards.

Her 1 year checkup appointment is first thing Monday morning so I will be able to soon report her stats. We did measure her on her growth chart and it looks like she is 1 inch shorter than Lexi was at 1 year old.

Natalie also switched to the front facing car seat on Saturday and I think she loves it.  She grinned happily at me every time I turned to look at her.  I got her two more pairs of shoes.  I figure I probably need to have her in shoes most of the time from now on.  I haven't bothered too much up to this point.

She steps!

Not quite walking, but Natalie is definitely on the cusp of walking 3 days before she turns one.  She was standing up and let go of what she was holding and took 3 steps.  She is very close to balancing on her own standing up.

Very exciting!

Natalie learning to use a spoon

11 months

Here's Natalie on her 11-month birthday on August 29. Hard to believe she's almost a year old already.

Another sign of what a big girl she is: She's getting her eighth tooth in - another one on the bottom!

Food in the Hair and a Pencil in the Foot

As she is eating, particularly as she is getting done, Natalie will run her hands through her hair.  Yesterday, that meant she had cheese from macaroni and cheese and pasta sauce in her hair.  Not only do I have to wash her hands and face, I have to wash her hair after ever meal!

And we are not sure how she did it, but Lexi somehow stepped on a pencil and got the lead stuck in the bottom of her foot.  It was weird because the skin was cut/came back in a flap and the lead was underneath that. Stephen pulled it out with a tweezers and she has been wearing a bandaid since then and favoring her left foot. 

Water...

And Natalie can turn on the water in the bathtub.  Hasn't managed to turn on the shower but if she stretches a little farther she will be able to to.

Little Miss Trouble

With mobility, comes trouble.  Natalie is now a proficient crawler, easily pulls herself up on anything and
everything and doesn't want to let go of whatever she has her hands on.  In a house with little storage, child-proofing can be tough.

This results in:
-trash cans on top of toilet tanks
-crayons in a container with a lid that even the child who can open it, can't
-a 20 lb bag of rice that gets moved on and off the counter
-the crib mattress in the lowest position
-the glass bowls inside the cupboard while the frying pans are out
-the basement door constantly shut (even big sister is closing it automatically)
-two days in a row where Natalie dumped her dinner over her head when Mom was to far away to stop her from picking up the bowl
-spaghetti all over the floor
-mashed bananas in her hair
-bike grease on hands and feet when she grabs onto Dad's bike parked in the living room
-kitchen refrigerator magnets found all over the house

..just to name a few.

To Lexi, a 5 year-old and a Kindergartener

Dearest Lexi,

I felt so proud of you on your first day of kindergarten.  You looked like a young lady in your new school dress posing on the front steps.  Dad and I both wanted to go with you that first day of school because we considered this to be a big step.  The first day of any school year is a big thing but the first day of kindergarten symbolizes to me the first day of your formal education.  I have been so pleased with how much you have enjoyed Pre-K and all of the new things you are learning all the time.  There have been many times where I thought "wow! when did she learn that??"

Being as how kindergarten for you wasn't too much new: yes,  new teacher (Ms. Trombley) and a new classroom (Go Tigers!), it is still the same building and much of the routines will be the same.  I was a little surprised at how hesitant you got as we entered the building and went to your new classroom (you even wanted to walk a little behind me so as to shield yourself).  I was proud of you for not crying or holding onto me as we left.  You found you new cubby and new seat in the classroom and when we asked you how your day went at the end, you seemed like everything was A.O.K.  It's nice that you have familiar faces in your classroom, particularly your best friend Ruth, and I hope that you can make some new friends and continue to be someone who can play and get along with everyone.

I love you very much and can't wait to see all that you learn in kindergarten!

Mom

Such a big girl!

You regular followers of this blog know that on or shortly after the 29th of every month, we post a photo of Natalie to show how she's grown every month since the day of her birth (Sept. 29). Because we post birthday pictures of Natalie (and did them for Lexi), Sarah, who also had a birthday this week, also deserves to have her picture on this blog. 38 years old - isn't she a big girl now?

10 months old!

Natalie turned 10 months old on Sunday, July 29. She is fully into the crawling stage and needs to be watched constantly. She is also pulling herself up to a standing position on anything that will allow her to. I guess she's trying to race through the crawling stage to the walking stage.

She claps!

Not sure if she has been doing this a couple of days already and we have never seen it, but Natalie has learned how to clap!

Natalie update

If you look at the number of pictures we have taken, you would think Natalie is a neglected child.  We took many more pictures of her sister at this age.  I also know we blog about both of them less.  Sigh.

Natalie now has 4 teeth.  Her two upper teeth came in practically one right after another.  She has a little gap between them.  I wonder if it will close when the other teeth come in..

Natalie continues to love to eat.  She is drinking about 24 oz of milk (now all formula since the beginning of this week) and enjoys her solid food as well.  She still doesn't really reject any kind of food.  Sometimes she has a slightly weird expression on her face but she doesn't spit out things that she doesn't like.  She really likes feeding herself things she can pick up with her hands.  We haven't tried letting her self feed with a spoon yet.  We haven't been trying very hard to get her to drink from a cup but she doesn't quite get it when we do attempt that.  Of course, I am only putting water in the cup so maybe she doesn't find it very attractive to drink.  I still am trying to avoid sweets with her to see if that affects her palate as she gets older.  She has had her first taste of ice cream, though.

Natalie has definitely gotten the hang of crawling even though sometimes, she is still crying to be picked up vs. moving herself to where the action is.  She loves pulling herself up on things including legs and Stephen lowered her crib mattress yesterday as she was pulling herself up in the crib and could practically launch herself over the rail.

For the first couple of days after we got back from vacation, Natalie really protested being put in her car seat. I think she got a little tired of riding in it.  When we take her on the plane to Seattle in August, I hope she can sit still when required!

Fireworks!

Natalie experienced her first 4th of July and didn't seem fussed by all the booming fireworks.  We watched the downtown ones from the grounds of the Old Soldier's Home near us while people in the neighborhood also set off fireworks. She wasn't necessarily raptured by watching the fireworks but kept looking around at all the people.

Natalie's front tooth is coming in nicely and I would swear that there is another about to break through.  She continues to want to stand is continuously pulling herself up on our legs or pieces of furniture.  She gets herself in the traditional crawling position but hasn't figured out how to go anywhere.

Nine months!

Natalie turned 9 months last week on June 29. First thing that morning, I asked her: "Natalie, you've spent just as much time outside the womb as you have in the womb. Which do you prefer?" She just smiled.

Today, I took her to the pediatrician for her 9-month check-up. Her stats:

Weight: 21 lb, 14 oz
Height: 29 inches

The nurse was not able to tell me what percentiles she falls in.

She did not get shots, and the doctor did not have any concerns about her development. We just hope she starts crawling soon!

How Lexi's Mind works

Wanted to post this her for posterity.

Last night's conversation with Lexi:

It started between her and Sarah when Lexi asked her who made food - was it Jesus? Then I joined the conversation. Sarah explained that it's God who made food and the sky and sun and everything on Earth that we need.

"But what about Jesus...?" Hesitation. "What does he do? Does he help God? God has a lot to do." We essentially acknowledged that - that yes, Jesus is there with God and helps him with things.

Then came a question that she had raised the other day: "When you die, how do you get to heaven? How does God get you there? Do we live with God?" At that point, Sarah handed it over to me to come up with the answer. This is when my seven years at the ELCA come into play? This is where I apply my BSF years? I explained again what I had answered when the question arose earlier - that you have your body and your spirit, and when you die, your spirit leaves your body and goes up to heaven to be with God. "But how does it get there?" "Well, we don't know, but God makes it happen. God knows where your spirit needs to go."

It's funny the way she is asking things - she doesn't quite know what to ask. But it's also great that she's able to start grasping on to some of these concepts, although the hard one is about getting to heaven - how we're transported there, and are we physically there like we're physically here (I think that's what she's wondering). How do you explain it to a near 5-year old when adults have a difficult time understanding it themselves?

Lexi singing "What a Wonderful World"

This is the song she sang with her class at their end-of-the-school-year spring concert.

A little girl gets her wish

Lexi has been asking to go to the beach for a while. We weren't quite sure what she meant, what exactly she wanted to do there. In D.C., if you're wealthy, you have a house or a cabin at the beach in Maryland or Delaware, and you go there every weekend during the summer. You also have to battle traffic (especially on bridges across the Chesapeake Bay) when you go to the beach because everybody else has the same idea of going to the beach on the weekends.

For our June vacation (we are taking some sort of vacation each month this summer), we decided to take a couple of days when Lexi had no school (Sarah and I took two days off work) and go to the beach in New Jersey. We went to Wildwood, which is on the southern tip of the state, midway between Atlantic City and Cape May, on the very southern tip of the state. We decided to take the route through Delaware, which means you take a ferry from one cape in Delaware across the water 16 miles to Cape May in New Jersey. Putting the car on the ferry was part of the fun for Lexi.

Here is Lexi on our first day on the beach, running with a carefree attitude in the sand and surf. It was so heartwarming to see her so happy and getting her wish.

Last day of Pre-K

It was the last day of Pre-K for Lexi.  I think they had a good day just fooling around. She seems to be looking forward to going to kindergarten.  We have the final parent-teacher conference of the year tomorrow morning.  I can pretty much anticipate what they are going to say.  She follows directions well, she needs to work on writing her numbers. Not sure what else they will bring up. Will let you know...

Spring concert at Lexi's school

 

This is Lexi's class (pre-K3&4) with the other pre-K3&4 classes at the school singing their selection at last Wednesday's spring concert. In case you can't tell, it's "What a Wonderful World."

Not crawlin' but scootin'

Natalie still shows no interest in crawling. But she's getting good at scooting around on her bottom from a sitting position. Nowadays, we can set her in one spot, and the next time we look up, she has moved a couple of feet.

But she is also scooting into some inconvenient spots, like under one of our Swiss chairs. This has happened a few times and we've had to come rescue her from the snatching chair.

Reflections

Love is a weird thing.  I see Lexi walking through the school door away from me towards the cafeteria (where she starts every morning) and my heart just swells.  I am so proud of her. She is know brave enough - and comfortable enough - to walk by herself most days from the door to the cafeteria. I used to have to walk her all the way to her table and then sometimes she wouldn't want to let go of my hand.  She seems so tall and grown up.  She has strong opinions on what she likes to wear (certain shirts and skirts which get worn over and over again) and notices all sorts of things about the world.  She still likes to pick up whatever looks interesting on the ground. We seem to spend a lot of time when walking with her telling her to "put that down!"  Next year she starts kindergarten - actually, in just 2 months, on August 6th.  PK-4 is officially over on Wednesday. They will have show and tell for the parents on their food unit on Tuesday morning and then on Wednesday fun and games in the afternoon.  Thursday and Friday are no school - parent-teacher conferences so we are all going off to Cape May, New Jersey. This is Lexi's beach trip.  She has been asking to go to the beach for years it seems like. I hope she likes it! We get to put the car on a ferry to get there so I think it will be interesting.

For the summer, she is attending 4 weeks of what they call intercession classes at her school - basically, just a lot of field trips around the city. Then we are renting an RV for a week and touring the Hudson Valley in NY state. Then she has two weeks summer day camp through DC parks and rec. When I first told her about that, she was a bit unsure so I hope she likes it.  Then it will be on to kindergarten!

College T-shirt day

Only college T-shirt she owns. Thanks, Michelle!

Crazy socks and shoes day

:)
Yes, her shoes are a little worse for wear.  She has a new pair but didn't choose to wear them.

Silly Hair and Hat Day

Lexi's school reached their goal of 3 million minutes read this school year and so they are having a Spirit Week. Today's theme: silly hair and silly hats. With the hat on, you can't quite see that she had a pig tail on the other side. Trust me - it's there.

I turned 8 months last week!

 This is me in Daddy's new wing chair.

And here's a bonus photo of the two sisters together:

Still asking funny questions

Lexi has fallen into a bit of a pattern. During snack time, Mommy reads her one story, then I read her one story. I just finished reading her Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.

At the beginning of the story, the month of August is mentioned. Lexi said that her birthday is in August. Then she asked me, "How did you decide that my birthday was in August?"

This was followed by a bit of conversation about babies growing in their mommies' tummies and then coming out after they've grown a certain amount of time. I managed - this time - to avoid any further talk of anatomy!

Hungry girl

Natalie seems to eat more on the weekdays than the weekends.  Do you think that is possible?  During the week, she has 20 ounces of milk at the day care plus some cereal plus 2 things of baby food.  She nurses before she goes to day care and sometimes eats something with us at dinner time.  On the weekend, she eats maybe 6 times and it's hard for me to judge her milk intake.  I also feel like I can't always tell if she is really hungry or just eats because we give her food. I hope her body is telling her when she is full!

Lexi on the other hand is big into PB&J sandwiches with the crusty off and cut into squares (thanks, cousin Sophia for the squares idea...).  She also like her fruit (apples, cantaloupe, pears, strawberries) and meat, particularly when it doesn't have a sauce on it.  Lexi also inherited Dad's sweet tooth. 

Bath time!

Natalie graduated to the big bathtub tonight and I gave Lexi the option of taking her bath at the same time.  Natalie seemed to love the bath toys..more so than the one I let her have her her baby bathtub.

Lexi again has a mouth sore. This one on the inside of her cheek. Stephen took her to the dentist this am and now she is on antibiotics. She complains about the pain and I have been called by the school two days in a row now about her being in pain.

New foods

We have tried to introduce Natalie to finger foods but she doesn't seem to be getting it.  We tried Cheerios and she didn't understand that she should open her mouth to receive food from our fingers.  If you put it on a spoon, she opened her mouth just fine.  She would pick them up - but unlike everything else that she picks up and immediately puts in her mouth - all she wanted to do was hold them. Bizarre.  I also gave her pieces of waffle this morning and again, she didn't want to open her mouth to receive the pieces.

Lexi's mouth is slowly getting better though she still says it hurts.

Nickname for Natalie

Lexi has a nickname for Natalie - at least, I view it as a nickname. She calls her Nat-a-lay and or Nat-a-la.  I tend to call Natalie lovie or chunk as she is such a nice chunky baby.  Stephen doesn't really have a nickname for her.

Yesterday was my 7-month birthday

I'm such a big girl now!

My happy little sleeper

I am now convinced that Natalie is sleeping through the night.  While she hasn't slept through the night every night or the last couple of weeks, she has done it enough times that I am feeling good.  If she isn't asleep already when I put her in her crib, she is falling asleep quickly on her own, most of the time without fussing.  I no longer am waking up expecting her to wake up and so am definitely feeling more rested.

Lexi has picked up her cousin Sophia's habit of wanting to look at some books once she has gone to bed.  I don't know how long she does that but it must not be too long as she's never awake when we go up to check on her.  I am grateful that our big girl continues to be a good sleeper.

Natalie's two bottom teeth are both poking through and one is quite sharp. If she bites on your fingers, it really hurts.  I let Lexi brush her teeth for the first time tonight.  Natalie didn't really seem to like it  - there was quite a bit of crying.

We have now tried peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes and beef.  Some she seems to like better than others but its kind of hard to tell as she happily keeps opening her mouth for whatever you feed her. Sometimes her facial expressions are kind of funny but she doesn't spit anything out.

Natalie also appears to be more cranky in the evenings lately and we can't quite figure out why.  She doesn't necessarily seem very interested some times in eating but she doesn't always want to sleep then either.

Photos from our MN trip

Here's photos from our Minnesota visit with Lexi and Natalie's cousins, Sophia and Logan.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150765475737290.427018.529232289&type=1&l=bbcd33fd61

Sleep training

I have decided I have to get Natalie off of waking up at night. She really doesn't need to eat when she wakes up so I have stopped feeding her in the middle of the night. When she has woken up the last two nights, I have picked her up and held her but tried not to do any soothing. She does fall asleep in my arms fairly easily but then doesn't like it when I lay her back down in the crib. Sunday night, I was up for 1.5 hours, last night only 1.15 hours. Progress, hmm?

Tonight she wasn't asleep after eating before bed so I laid her down and she wailed. I went in 5 minutes later to find her on her tummy wailing away. She can roll over both ways but lately seems not to like it on her tummy and instead of getting herself turned around, she just hollers. So I put her back on her back, stuck the pacifier in and left her. 15 minutes later she seems to have quieted down. Crossing my fingers....

Updates on Natalie

An earlier post on this blog mentioned that Natalie can now sit up on her own. Here is a photo showing her new skill:


She is doing well with eating solid foods. So far we have fed her food from small baby food jars - carrots and sweet potatoes. We have also given her rice cereal. She got the hang of eating in a way other than a bottle or breast feeding quite quickly. She quickly learned that if there's a spoon in front of her face, she should open her mouth. We remember how foreign this concept to Lexi was the first few times we fed her solid foods. Lexi had this look on her face like, "What? You mean I have to get my food this way now? It's not going to be as easy as getting milk delivered directly into my mouth?"

We also discovered in the last couple of days that Natalie's first tooth is coming in! Sarah felt it on her lower gum, and when we look closely at it, we can see a tooth poking through.

Lexi and the swing

Lexi has learned how to operate the swings herself - she is actually getting it to go by herself. This seems to work best on the swings in Sophia's backyard as Lexi struggled to get the going in the swings at the park but that is quite an accomplishment for her. She hadn't quite figured it out up to this point!

Visiting cousins and sitting up

Lexi, Natalie and Sarah are in Minnesota visiting Sophia and Logan - and their parents, of course. Lexi has spring break this week and I didn't want to sit at home with her the whole time. The Bradway cousins' day care is closed for a few days this week but Brian still has class so Granny is up here as well helping with child care. We had an early am flight on Monday morning and due to airport lines, boarded with the final boarding call. Otherwise, both girls traveled nicely and Brian was there to pick us up and take us to his house before leaving for class.

Sophia and Lexi are getting along well. Some small squabbles but otherwise, lots of laughing, running, playing and talking. Just saw them now putting together a puzzle and taking turns doing it! We three Padres are sleeping in Sophia's room with her: the older girls in the bunk beds, me on the trundle bed and Natalie in the pack and play. Lexi thought she could sleep on the top bed but that didn't quite happen.

Logan and Natalie seem to be at least slightly interested in each other. Both were sitting on Granny's lap when Logan decided to touch Natalie on her head. Then she returned the favor and neither seemed to mind or get hurt. We have tried sitting Natalie up on the carpet in their living room and if you get her balanced right, she can sit and play with things close to her. Another first!

6 months old - and big!

I turn 6 months old today. To mark the occasion, I had an appointment at the pediatrician's office this morning. She got my stats:

Weight: 18 lb 11 oz (in the 92nd percentile for her age)
Height: 26 inches

Natalie trying solid food for the first time

The planets are literally aligning. Venus has appeared in the dusk sky by the moon, and Jupiter is set to come out later. That must mean it's time for Natalie to try solid food for the first time. Here she is getting some rice cereal.

Lexi entertaining, Natalie transfixed

Roll over!

Yes, Natalie can roll over, but she doesn't choose to do it very much. I wonder if she doesn't really realize how she does it the times that she has done it. She can go both ways - back to front and front to back. She also manages to move her body around/a distance when on her back. We place her down on one part of the carpet and she ends up in a different orientation or several inches from where she started.

And she also slept through the night one night! Of course, she hasn't repeated it since but there is hope. :) I am content if she wakes up just once; two times is a killer and I haven't figured out what triggers that.

Five months old

Good thing there was a February 29 this year. Otherwise, Natalie would have skipped turning 5 months old!

Lexi instructing Natalie

What's New?

I feel like I haven't written in a while. Work is very busy for me so I don't have time to do personal stuff during the day. :)

Natalie seems to be doing well at day care. No picking up illnesses yet though she seems to have congestion that waxes and wanes. She is drinking a lot while there - much more than I am producing naturally so we will soon be supplementing with formula. I hope that is not an issue with her. I don't remember Lexi having a problem switching from breast milk to formula. I will continue to use the breast pump though as I really like the convenience of nursing when I am with Natalie. Bothering with bottles is a pain.

Stephen is 39 today and Lexi is 4 and a half. She continues to evolve. Now she is into wearing dresses again. Good thing as most of the pants that she wants to wear have holes in the knees. I finally threw them out and got some more of the type that she likes to wear. We are continuing with the swimming lessons. After one lesson where she got really freaked out, I managed to coax her to go back for the next lesson and she has continued to do well. Last time, we even went in the really deep end (12 ft) and she swam with this noodle floaty thing around her waist for quite a distance. She hasn't quite figured out how to kick her legs in the most efficient way but she tries with gusto.

4-month stats

Natalie went to the pediatrician yesterday, just two days after her 4-month birthday.

Her stats:

Weight: 15 lb 5 oz
Height: 26.5 inches
Head circumference: 43 cm

Here is her photo at 4 months:


We have her wearing the bib because she can be quite drooly to the point to soaking her shirt front. It's kind of gross.

We need have her do more tummy time says the doctor. She often doesn't seem to like it so we tend to not leave her there too long.

She seems to be adapting well to day care and while we have had some sporadic sleeping at night, last night she went for 7 hours without needing to eat. Hoorah! Hoping for more nights like this.

Two videos to show

Back at work, daycare and sick Lexi

Tuesday was my first day back at work. Natalie, of course, chose Monday evening to not sleep very well meaning mom did not sleep very well. I did manage to get through the day at work but felt pretty tired. No one expected too much of me though so it worked out ok. I managed to get through a good portion of my emails. People were happy to see me back and I found a bunch of stuff that didn't get done while I was away. Ugh. I was hoping to avoid having to touch a lot of it again!

Natalie did ok at day care. She ate fine (phew!) but didn't sleep very good; just 20-30 minutes at a time. That improved throughout the week so I feel she was adjusting ok. She was definitely happy to see me when I picked her up. Dad is dropping her off every morning while Mom deals with Lexi and then Mom picks up both girls at the end of the day.

Lexi woke up on Thursday and vomited a little so Dad stayed home with her. She was sluggish all day and did lots of napping though didn't have a temperature until late in the day. Friday was an inservice day so she was going to stay home anyway. She has seemed mostly normal since then but with not much of an appetite and getting tired easily. Today (Monday) there was also no school and I hope when she wakes up tomorrow she feels normal again.

On Saturday morning, we woke up to a sprinkling of snow on the ground. It had frozen on top though so it was rather crunchy on the grass. Lexi stomped around in it a bit then declared she was cold and had to go back inside. We had lesson #2 of her swimming lessons; it did not go smoothly. Lexi was excited to go and did the first thing just fine but then pretty much cried and protested through the rest of it. I think it was a combination of feeling cold (the kids sat on the ledge of the pool while the teacher explained something) and then being scared. I am praying that next week goes better. I really don't want her to be scared of the water.

Fun Friday

I spent some time at Lexi's school this morning, the last time for a while as I won't be available during the day anymore. When she signed in, she wrote her whole first name without any help! Hoorah! She's finally got it - she used to get half way through and then need assistance with which letter came next.

I went to the All School Meeting with her class. All grades up through 2nd grade meet in the gym where they have a "meeting". The agenda is posted up front so everyone can see it and they go in order. Awards are given out for kids who have been nice or worked hard, people who had birthdays in December were recognized and everyone brought a book and spent 3 minutes reading (after singing a chant about reading). It was neat to see Lexi participating - doing hand signs when called for, chanting along with everyone else.

I told the class after snack time that this would be the last time that Natalie and I would be coming in as I had to go back to work.

At recess, I noticed that Lexi does seem to be quite popular. She was certainly leading the pack around the playground.

Yesterday they had International Food Day and asked us to bring something in so there would be a little bit for everyone to try. I brought in couscous. They had so much food, the couscous was consumed today. Many kids told me that they had never had it before.

Natalie has been particularly vocal today. Not sure if it is because of going to school or what.

Sleep patterns

Natalie can go for 5.5 hours without eating. Sounds good right? Unfortunately, that is happening during the day (early morning) and not during the night time hours when I would like it too. I have been trying to get her out of that pattern this week by feeding her a little earlier than she is asking to eat during the evening. Not sure if that is really working though last night she did manage two 4 hour stretches of sleep before she needed to eat again. Who knows what going to the day care will do for her patterns? I hope she will take the bottle for them. We haven't tried again in over a week but the last 3 times we tried, she refused - except from me. She drank from the bottle when I held it. Go figure.

Natalie is also a very wet baby. She drools a lot and is constantly putting her hands in her mouth. Then she wants to grab your hand and you end up with a really gross hand! We have been putting bibs on her so she doesn't soak her clothes and the bibs end up drenched within hours it seems like.

Stephen's reflections on Christmas

For the second year in a row, we hosted Christmas this year in D.C. My (Stephen’s) parents came from Seattle again, but none of Sarah’s family came (last year was our year to spend it with that side of the family officially). In their place, we had my brother Andy from NYC come down with his partner and his sister (Michelle, who lives in D.C. as well), and their parents came from Texas to spend Christmas with all of us.

As I expected, it was a full weekend of nonstop eating (and cleaning up, followed by immediate preparation for the next big meal). We started on Friday night with a dinner at our house. We kicked off the Christmas weekend with a Swiss-style meal – three types of fondue: traditional cheese, meats cooked in an oil fondue, and vegetables cooked in a broth fondue. Saturday mid-afternoon we gathered at Michelle’s place in her apartment’s common room and joined some of her other friends for a potluck. And Sunday we were back at our house for a brunch and dinner.

Lexi enjoyed having people around again nonstop after the many weeks earlier this fall when various family members visited us for Natalie’s birth and baptism. She especially enjoyed all the attention from Uncles Andy and Russell, who tried to match her silliness. Uncle Andy did several art projects with her that involved constructing funny hats or horses and a number of other things. And she appreciated having the grandparents around who could take her to the playground.

For the past few weeks, Natalie has matured a bit and has been engaged when people get close to her. She lets out a big grin whenever someone gets close to her face and smiles or talks to her. So she, in her own way, had fun and participated with all of the people around.

At the early service at Christmas Eve at church for families, we, the four Padres, were asked to play the part of the Holy Family. Presumably this was because we have a newborn – Natalie – who was able to play the part of the Baby Jesus. This did not involve any speaking parts for any of us. Lexi was very nervous about the whole thing and did not want to wear the donkey costume that was provided, so Uncle Andy ended up making her a homemade hobby horse out of recycled packing paper and the cardboard roll from a roll of wrapping paper. Both Sarah and I had parts to play in the late service that night, so she and I went back to church while everybody else stayed at home and babysat and slept.

So, all in all, it was a busy and full week with many people around and much going on.

Natalie's first airplane ride, camping and more

On January 1st, Natalie, Lexi and Sarah flew to Salt Lake City to spend 5 days with Aunt Miriam and family (including Granny and Grandpa who were still there). Natalie did very well on the airplane; in fact, both girls were great travelers. It helped that Lexi was older, it was a direct flight and we checked our luggage. On the flight back, we even received wings for both girls; Lexi promptly asked to pin hers to her shirt. We will save Natalie's for her.

We had a great time in SLC. Lexi really enjoyed playing with her cousins - and playing with all of their toys! She was also not as scared around their dog, even managing to pet Katie at one point though she would often skirt around her to avoid the possibility of brushing up against her. Lexi and cousins went to a farm to check out the animals (and sit on a tractor), walked to the library, visited the aviary and a playground in the park and went to ice skating lessons. Lexi was not thrilled with the ice skating - she said she was cold and started crying and quit early. One day, Grandpa took the Padre ladies up into the mountains so Lexi could see and play in the snow a little bit. There wasn't a ton of snow in the mountains but we did find some to poke around in for a bit.

For New Year's Eve, the Padres went to a Lutheran family camp session. We played games, square danced, did crafts and ate very well. Lexi was very excited about going to camp and enjoyed staying in the cabin though she didn't like the stink bugs in the room. She needed help avoiding them to be able to cross the floor. Sarah also tried the zipline the camp has and decided once was enough. I didn't like it at all - it made me nauseous. With the exception of Natalie, we were all awake to ring in the new year. Our girls were the youngest at the camp and got lots of attention; Lexi caught the attention of the counselors and one of the teens and had a ball with her new "friends".

Once back in DC, Lexi started her swimming lessons. They are for 30 minutes every Saturday through end of February. I was a little worried about her being scared but she did great. It is an adult/child set up so either Mom or Dad will be with her in the water each lesson. She jumped off the side of the pool happily into Mom's arms and even dunked her head under without too much fussing.