Oh Christmas Tree!

We decorated the Christmas Tree this weekend. It was tons of fun! We decided to go with a fake tree for the first time ever this year, for convenience and flexability with our Holiday plans. We will probably switch year to year on real/fake as it makes sense.

Ben was super excited! He was being super careful with the ornaments. If something looked breakable he would gently set it down, or hand it to me and ask about it. He did not want to touch the breakable ones, even HIS breakable ones, he would point and tell me where to hang them. He was sad when we were done and he wanted to do more. I think we will do some little crafts so he has more to hang.

Felicity meanwhile grabbed a box of ornaments, a bowl of cheerios, and hid in a large box we have there in the kitchen (for the kids to play with) and sat there eating cheerios and throwing ornaments until we caught her. It was hilarious, even though she broke one. She is def more interested in throwing the ornaments then hanging them. LOL.

Maybe add some pictures later?

Ben, On Harry Potter

We have been experimenting with different ways to help Ben stay in bed and go to sleep. A couple weeks ago I decided to try audio books, and what I had on hand was Harry Potter (I have all of them on cassette tape). After a couple days he acted like he really liked it, but I didn't think he was actually paying attention. I thought he just liked the sound of the voice.

Then on Saturday night, he suddenly popped out of his room and we had this exchange:

Ben: (RUSHES OUT OF HIS ROOM WHERE HE SHOULD BE TRYING TO GO TO SLEEP) I just heard about a cat reading a map! That's silly! Why is a cat reading a map? 
Me: Maybe the cat is magical
Ben: Is the cat megical? 
Me: Maybe, keep listening and find out
Ben: (Starts to go back in his room then pops his head out again). But is the cat magical?
Me: Yes
Ben: Why? 
Me: Go listen!!

And I thought.. Hey, he is starting to listen! That's great. Then Sunday night came. I did his bedtime and I ended up sitting and listening with him for quiet a while, and apparently he has been listening. Listening a lot and understanding and memorizing. Here is bits of our conversation:

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Ben: I like the part where the lights go out one by one and all that is left is the two shining eyes of the cat. 

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Ben: Here is the Voldemort Part. I like the Voldemort Part. 
Me: Oh? Which part?
Ben: Voldemore tried to kill Harry, but he couldn't. He has killed lots of people but he couldn't kill a little boy. That means he can only kill adults. 
Me: Or, Harry is very special. 
Ben: And when he couldn't kill a little boy his power went away. They don't know why. Thats why Voldemort is not here in the story. 
Me: Yes that's right. And thats a good thing! Because Voldemort was a big meanie.
Ben: No! Its not good. I like big meanies. 

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Ben: I really like this part!!
Me: Which? Where Hagrid comes on a motorcycle?
Ben: With Heager. 
Me: You mean Hagrid? 
Ben: Yes, Hagrid. Who is Heager?
Me: No one. You must be mishearing Hagrid. 
Ben: I like Hagrid.
Me: Me too! He is a good guy.
Ben: He is a GIANT!
Me: Yes he is. 
Ben: He borrowed the motorcycle.
Me: Yes he did, from Sirius Black. 
Ben: Who is Sirius Black?
Me: Just another wizard.
Ben: Is he a giant? 
Me: No, just a human wizard.
Ben: Giants are humans too! Just big humans. 
Me: Yes, I guess they are!
Ben: Hagrid went to a ruined house to get Harry. 
Me: Yep. 
Ben: Oooooh oooh ooh I like this part. (Listening and Repeating) He fell asleep just as we were flying over Bristol. 

So, he really has been listening. Unfortunately, we decided that while this kept him in bed, it as not helping him go to sleep. We are going to allow him to keep listening, but not after lights out. I hope he comes to think of Harry Potter as as much of a comfort thing as I do.

Thankful Turkey

This Thanksgiving I wanted to make sure to talk to Benjamin about being THANKFUL - being grateful for what he has in his life. (In general its a good lesson, but also he has had a bad case of the give-me give-me give-me-mores recently). So, I came up with this idea for a Thankful Turkey!

Here is the idea. I made a basic paper cut out of a turkey, and started cutting out paper feathers. Every night before bed we can talk about what we are thankful for an add a feather to the turkey. By Thanksgiving it will have a beautiful full tale. It is a fun activity and we will be able to look back on with lots of good memories.

(Ideally, the feathers would be more behind then on top of the turkey, but when your doing crafts with kids you have to let go of ideal and go with their creativity!) 

Nov 2nd - I'm thankful for Dad getting me new Star Wars socks

Nov 4th - For lots of blankets on my bed.

Nov 3rd - Grandpa giving my Koby (his teddy bear)

13 Months Old!

Time is a strange thing. It seems like it has been such a LONG time since Felicity's first birthday. SO much has happened. At the same time, how has it been a month? How have I not blogged for an entire month? Lots has changed.

If Felicity is not walking, she is not happy. She wants to walk everywhere we go. She wants to walk from the house to the car, from the car to daycare, and she does not want to be picked up and carried.

She loves shoes, both her own and her brothers. She likes playing with the velcro on them. Sometimes she just wants to play with them, other times she wants to try on as many as possible as quickly as possible. She also likes socks. And actually, clothes in general. And blankets. She seems to think getting clothes put on is magical and sometimes will laugh just watching me get dressed in the morning.

Within days after her first birthday she managed to get duplo legos snapped together for the first time. This made her so happy! She also loves to try and color, though her pressure on the crayon is still somewhat iffy, she has the general idea. She likes to stack regular wooden blocks and will keep stacking even if the tower falls (usually it falls when it gets tall enough to get hit by her swinging elbow). I think the highest stack I have seen is 5 blocks about.

She loves to have books read to her. Her favorite books are the Hello! magazines (Highlights). She also likes her Birthday present books - Doggies by Sandra Boyton and a farm animal flap book (she loves opening the flaps). She will try to look at other/bigger books on her own as well if given the opportunity.

She likes her brother's room, mainly because the small (toddler) bed. She will just climb on the bed, open a book, look at it for 30 seconds, climb off the bed. Rinse and repeat. She similarly likes to climb on and off chairs (or, if they are too tall, be lifted on and off). She will sit contently in a chair for several minutes, just because the furniture is novel to her. Especially if given a lap blanket.

I think she is teething (still). She has two teeth out and two or more on their way.

She loves eating utensils. Usually these days if she is reaching for your plate it is to try and get your fork or spoon (or knife!!), not your food. As far as food goes she loves meat, and given her free reign meat and dairy are her favorite things to eat. She likes fruit too and some veggies and carbs, but meat and dairy is where it is at for her. She loves trying to use cups, but she also likes to spit the water/juice back out for fun and it dribbles down her chin.

There is a picture of her on this date (10/22/15). It is at the Glensheen Spooktacular. Maybe I will post it later.. maybe I won't. Keeping true to my description, she wanted to walk for the entire event, and she got upset when she couldn't go back to things that "interested" or or take interesting looking side paths and steps.

What I want to remember most about Felicity at this time of her life is how JOYFUL everything is. She LOVES life and is constantly amused, fascinated, and eager to learn live and grow. Its pretty amazing.

Happy Birthday Felicity!

Her "1 year Photo Shoot" 

Felicity turns 1 year old today. I keep having moments where I think back to what I was doing at this time one year ago... 12:17 PM. The contractions were starting to get tough, but still manageable. I think I was watching Hot Fuzz.

I hope to make another post, when I have photos available to me, concerning her great birthday party.

I also hope to make another post, when I have time, concerning my personal reaction to the birthday.

But, for today, allow me to just get down in writing what a fun, adorable, awesome little one year old I have on my hands.

Felicity walking more and more confidently everyday. She still will drop to her knees to crawl if she really wants to get somewhere fast, but walking is more and more her go-to for mobility with each passing day. Over this past weekend she finally achieved the ability to turn around. She is so proud when she walks somewhere!!

As mobile as she is, she is not as mobile as she wants to be. She delights in her older brother's running, jumping, and climbing, and attempts to mimic it when given the chance. The most recent chance came yesterday afternoon. We have two steps then a landing in our living room. Ben was leaping off the landing onto the living room floor. Felicity decided she should try this too. Needless to say I spent the next half hour standing near the steps to be there when Felicity threw herself off the top with no regard for safety. She has taken some tumbles this way but nothing serious.

Felicity wants to learn new words so badly, she points at things to get us to say the words. She really is working on the word "dog". She loves pointing out dogs and says "Da!" in a very meaningful way. She is also interested in cats but hasn't started a specific word for this. She makes the uh-oh sound... not the actual Uh-Oh, but the sing songy intonation the word has. She has an "m" syllable that she intends to mean "more" sometimes. That is about it for words she tries to say (along with her pitch-perfect imitation of the phrase "there she is"), but she definitely understands more than she speaks. She can answer some basic yes-no questions, specifically concerning food. Do you want more of x? and she will nod or shake her head vigorously and accurately to reflect her feelings. She will do this for some questions at random too. She also understands some "commands" (though whether she chooses to follow them is a separate question), such as "Sit Down" "Walk/Can you walk?" "where is ____?" "Find your pacifier" "go get ____" Etc. And as I said, she WANTS to learn more words.

Speaking of the dog, she loves to pet/touch the dog, especially the dog's face. She is also too interested in the cats and we had her get scratched by Gandalf one time. We are working on gentle petting and no hitting/grabbing... its a long process.

Felicity remains pretty clingy to me. If she is tired, she wants me first, but will take daycare workers, or DH, or my mom as a substitute depending on the situation. If she is awake and in a great mood she will be less clingy and let many people play with her/hold her.

We are still breastfeeding. She does not sleep through the night, not even close. I am sure these two things are linked but I am not willing to give up one to help the other.

She is, currently as we speak, working on cutting her first tooth (late bloomer in that regard).

She absolutely loves crayons, and to mimic anything her brother does with them. She knows they will draw on paper and seeks out things to draw on. She does not press them quite hard enough to consistently get a mark, but she sure tries.

She also loves cell phones, and tries to unlock them, and play with the touch screens. She has sent a few texts off my phone and maybe made a call or two. She has had her first "baby surfs the internet" moment when she managed to get from one of Ben's Apps on my kindle onto the internet (a message board page I use).

She loves peekaboo and laundry. She likes to take all the laundry out of a basket and play peekaboo with each article as she removes it. Sometimes she tries to put them back.. sometimes.

This morning she was delighting in pulling Kleenex out of the box and trying to play peekaboo with each one.

She loves water - bath time, beaches, lakes. Whatever. She likes to splash. She is not afraid of getting her face wet (yet) and loves to pick up sand/rocks and try to through them. Often her throws go backwards over her head rather than forwards. She has hit herself in the head throwing rocks at the beach. This love of the beach is why we did some of her 1-yr pictures at Brighton Beach.

She actually is kind of a picky eater... she doesn't always try new things. She is quite the carnivore and will eat most meat we give her. She loves olives, pickles, cottage cheese, goldfish (or other small) crackers, applesauce, ice cream, lasagna....

This girl knows what she wants. Last night at dinner she kept asking for something off my plate and getting more and more upset. I couldn't figure out what it was and had tried all food items, so I held my plate over to her, and she grabs my fork out of my hand. She often starts the day off at daycare by demanding a certain toy or book be handed to her. She is not very easily redirectable unless perhaps you happen to have a pacifier to distract her while you switch focus.

She likes reading books. Some she lets us finish, some not so much, but if I want her to "warm up" to someone new, handing that person a board book or Hello! Magazine is the way to do it. Her favorite books seem to be ones with animals (like Moo Baa Lalala), and the Hello! Magazines.

One of her favorite toys is a wooden "loading ramp" that her uncle made for Ben. It is about 6 inches tall and has a ramp down one side. She loves to sit on the flat part and/or slide down the ramp. Lately she has been trying to stand on it. It is a surmountable obstacle to challenge her gross muscle coordination.

She wears size four diapers and is switching from 12m clothes to 18m clothes. Her Drs appt is Friday, so I will get actual stats then as to her height/weight.

Insert your standard "time moves fast" phrase here. Hard to imagine that it has ever been different than this, that we have only had her a year, that she has changed so much in this past year. We absolutely love her and look forward to spending more years with her.

Felicity at 11 Months

Felicity turned 11m old on Saturday. We spend the day up the shore.

 

Felicity is getting big. Her personality blossoms everyday. I love the bottom picture of these three because it shows her conquering what to her was a mountain, a steep incline of rocks at Iona's beach. 

She took what I declared her first steps on Friday (Aug 21st). (I know she probably took some steps before that.. but not that I saw!!) Her body is getting strong. After a couple weeks not resorting to co-sleeping I tried to bring her into our bed recently on a rough night and realized how toddler like her body has become.

I mean it shouldn't be a shocker, she is taking steps, standing on her own, squatting, climbing stairs, climbing onto the couch... those muscles are developing. Yet, its always a shock to realize how much she has grown. The 12 month clothing I started putting her in around June are starting to look full.. maybe even small when it comes to full length pieces. We are buying 18m clothing for her fall/winter wardrobe. 

Back to her personality though - this girl knows what she wants. At meals, she will tell us exactly what she wants by pointing and "maah" and clapping and more pointing. Today at lunch she had everything we had except lunch meat and made it clear that was what she actually wanted. She knows what toys she wants, where she wants to go, and she does it. If you stop her from doing it, she becomes a rag-down collapsed meltdown. 

She likes books... though its questionable whether she wants you to read one to her or she just wants to open it to different pages herself. She likes phones and my kindle, whether or not they are turned on. She likes duplo blocks and is trying to learn to put them together. She is really close to being able to put two together, just not quite coordinated enough. She can stack wood blocks on top of each other (and enjoys doing this). She loves laundry and peekaboo and mimics the sound of the phrase "there-she-is" quite well. She mimics a lot, both actions and  language. Its hard to tell whats immediate mimicking and what is her trying to actually use words appropriately, but her language is definitely coming a long. In terms of actions, here is an example. We were in the upstairs bathroom and I was changing Benjamin's diaper while he stood up. Both Ben and I were using wipes to clean him off. Meanwhile, Felicity was off with her own pack of wipes taking them out of the package one after another. We finished cleaning him and Ben sat down to put on a new pullup. Felicity crawled over with a wipe and started to wipe his leg with it. It was extremely adorable. 

Felicity loves music. She responds to music almost instantly these days. I often sing her to sleep (Tin Soldier, When I'm Gone, 1000 Years, Under the Quarter Moon, Let it Be..). If a song gets turned on or comes on during tv watching she will start rocking or bobbing her head. 

She is at the stage where she makes the cute adorable scrunched up smile face. 

She still doesn't have any teeth and anytime she is fussy we guess that she is teething. We have been guessing this for about 8 months now. 

That is all I can think of right now. Next year is the big 1 year old!

 

Felicity at 10 Months 10 Days

I have now fallen victim to forgetting how fast things change TWO months in a row. On August 3rd, when I posted the last "late kid update", I started to write the new update. I thought it was going to be the "11m" update. I mean, it was only three weeks early.

But of course, in the life of baby, three weeks is ages.

So....

Felicity at 10 months 10 days

How fast does this little girl change and grow?

In the couple weeks she has started to really try to walk and stand. Before she seemed afraid to let go, even though she could remain upright if she did so, she just did not want to let go. Now she will let go, or try to kneel and stand without aid, or stand while vaguely leaning on something with her shins. She wants to learn to balance and walk and move like us.

I love to watch her play. I like to see how her little brain is learning. She actually plays with toys now instead of just banging them together or eating them. She likes to take magnets on and off the dishwasher. She will put toys (such as megablocks) into the Tonka dumptruck bed, filling it up. She rolls the dump truck. Yesterday, she lifted the dumper so it was up, and then experimented with putting items "in" the truck (between the cab and lifted bed). She tried the DVD remote, and when it made a clanging noise, as it was big and awkard to fit in, she went crazy clang clang clanging it every which way. She likes to take things apart. When we have Mega Blocks out, or foam puzzle blocks, I build things as fast as she unbuilds them, though she has also started to show interesting in building, for example, handing me two puzzle block pieces together, and then when I attach them, handing me a third and watching me attach it, etc.

This girl likes to eat. She still is getting breast milk several times a day both from the bottle at daycare and directly from the source. On top of that she loves meal time. Her favorites are blueberries, cottage cheese, shredded cheese, puffs, baked beans, olived, pickles, and pretty much everything else we have tried. She originally did not like bananas, but has since changed her mind. She likes all of the random casseroles and pasta salads we have given her. She likes pizza. She likes food. DH says that she would eat forever if you just stayed at the table and kept putting things in front of her.

Sleep wise is really hit or miss. She has slept through the night a handful of times but it is extraordinarily rare. More common is waking 1-2 times a night to eat. Usually if it is two times a night, the first is very close to my bedtime (like 10:30-11:30pm) and the second is really the middle of the night. She occasionally has a really bad night where she just does not seem to want to stay asleep at all. On these nights, all bets are off. I do attempt co-sleeping sometimes when she gets like this and its hit or miss. Sometimes she sleeps peacefully nestled in my arms, other times she thrashes and whines and  its a total disaster. I still am much more rested than I was with Ben at this age, because his sleep was even worse.

She knows the word book. If you ask her "do you want to read a book?" or "get the book" or "can you hand me the book?" She will look around, find it and hand it to you. A lot of the times she just grabs it back and tries to close and open the pages, but now she is getting to the point where she will let you read it and she will pay attention. She seems especially drawn to a small little book called "shapes" and we have even caught her mimicking the word "triangle" from it.

Late Kid Updates

How about an update on the kids that is long overdue?


At the beginning of July I started a post about Ben being 3.5 yrs old. I never finished or posted it... here is what I had:

Ben turned 3.5 yrs old on Sunday.

He is not a toddler really anymore, besides perhaps the diapers. He is a little boy.

All of Ben's favorite things involve water. He still loves pirates, and he is obsessed with pirate ships (the reign of the Bowy Rodger has continued... though somewhat lessened). We had a period of avid Octonauts play (a BBC kids show about underwater creatures). Sometimes he just pretends to BE an underwater creature, most specifically, an Octopus. Our whole family is Octopi. Felicity is a baby Octopus named Inky.

Unsuprisingly based on the above information, Ben's current "lovey" of choice is a stuffed Orca whale. He picked it up at the Park Point Garage Sale. We walked into one of the sales and there was a whole table of stuffed animals. Ben zeroed in on it right away and asked if he could get it. I said yes because it was like $.25. Then DH and I were browsing. DS started to wonder off. I told him to come back so we could pay for his whale and the sale owner, who was nearby, said "oh he can have the whale," At which point Ben turned and said "Its an ORCA" lol. He has since named it Splashy.

There have been phases where Ben has been very difficult. Typical three year old stuff. I think we went a good month where he ate ONLY corndogs. But, recently things have been a bit easier again. He has started eating more things, and listens better. He still is a three year old though, so of course there are difficult moments. One particular issue is sibling stuff, of course. He plays too rough with Felicity, or intentionally does things he know will upset her, like this morning he blocked her crawling path when I asked him not to (she was trying to crawl to me). That sort of thing. Hugging her so hard she is tackled to the ground, removing her hand from the table when thats the only thing allowing her to keep her balance, etc. But he does love her. We just have to remind him to be gentle gentle gentle.

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And, on 7/23/2015 I started a post about Felicity being 10 months old (as of 7/22). Here is what I wrote:

- She is pulling up on everything and now she will walk holding just ONE Hand, but she still just does not want to let go to stand independently

- She has not said anything that I would consider "her first word" but she mimics so many sounds. Most impressively is her attempts at copying the phrase "There She Is" that we use when we play peek-a-boo with her.

- Her favorite things in the world: Cell Phones, Pacifiers, Mom, Water (swimming, bathing, splashing, drinking) and Laundry

- She is quite good at fine motor skills, picking things up, and getting them to her mouth, no matter how small.

I did take a picture of her on 7/22, at Wednesday night at the races, playing on the turf at East. I hope to add it to this post shortly.

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Both kids have changed a ton in the time since I wrote these respective updates, and I will try to do another update for them here in a couple weeks when Felicity hits 11 months (OMG my baby is growing up!)

Just Another Day in Paradise

My weekends lately have been fantastic. Full of fun and full of what I can only easily describe as "quality family time". Of course during the weekend there are moments of frustration... but by the end when asked what my "high and low" were, I always find myself thinking how wonderful it was to just spend time with my kids (and sometimes with siblings, grandparents, etc). I feel like these weekends are little slices of paradise, the "happily ever after" I waited for before I had kids, or even when I had just Ben and I longed to be pregnant again with each day.

Here is what my happily ever after looks like:
Friday Night: Pizza at my parents house. Ben loves playing outside there. I took Ben for a walk on the northwest passage (a trail through the woods that goes from my parent's house to the road). I told him about being a kid and climbing the old apple tree and promised we would find a tree for him to climb. I told him that I remember my parents cutting that trail. I put him up in the slingshot tree and told him the names of all the wildflowers. When we got back to the house I traded w DH and took Felicity inside while he came out to play with Ben. I had a tasty microbrew beer and hung out with my parents and little sister. Eventually we ate pizza, then watched soccer and played together. Ben was pretty rowdy, but we got some funny moments between the discipline. He likes to play space there. We sit on the couch and pretend to take off and then when we land on different planets he goes out and explores (and we stay on the couch comfortably. LOL).

Saturday morning we went to the Rhubarb Festival. We got there right at 9am, which was apparently just in time for the kids races. We ran the "little kid" race (BEN and I), it was quite a long "course", then we hung out in the shade sipping rhubarb lemonade while he colored a picture of a rhubarb stock (for a coloring contest). Then we headed inside for a treat. He had blueberry rhubarb pie with cinnamon icecream and I had rhubarb custard pie with vanilla icecream. Both were amazing of course. Back outside to pick out a free book, decorate a mug, plant a flower in said mug, and decorate a lady bug to put in dirt. We also found a good tree for him to climb, but as it was so crowded I told him we could go back and do that another day.

Saturday afternoon, after everyone got a nap, we went outside in our yard. Ben colored with chalk on the driveway (he drew a "no parking" spot. How hilarious is that?), and Felicity and I laid on a blanket on the grass (well, I laid there and she climbed all over me). Then I went in and started getting dinner ready. DH grilled brats. We had a family dinner and then gave both the kids baths before bed. They both LOVE Baths.

Sunday morning we did a "Target" run... kinda a family tradition lol. It went kind of rocky because Ben didn't listen and therefore had to forgeit the matchbox car he had picked up. Then we headed up to Enger Tower. We found a tree Ben could get up into a little bit. We climbed Enger Tower. Ben LOVED it and just wanted to run circles around the top of the tower. When we came back down he wanted to take the steps sideways. At the bottom he wanted to run around the tower again and climb on the walls. After that we walked over to the Asian garden where he thought the wooden bridge made a good pirate ship, and we had a near miss of him running into/ruining the Zen Garden (combed rocks). We headed up to the overlook area and let him climb on the rocks. He jumped into a puddle of sludge on one of them. The flowers were amazing, yellows white and oranges, even some wild roses.

Sunday Afternoon we decided to have a movie night. DH took Ben out to rent a movie and he picked Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. DH and him watched that while I mostly cooked and hung out in the kitchen. After dinner we all played together as a family with foam blocks/puzzle pieces. It was a lot of fun. In the evening, and this is a big deal, Ben pooped in the potty! LOL. Yes. Big deal here. We had been trying to get him to go/reminding him ALL day and suddenly out of no where he said "I have to poop" and ran to the potty, and poop he did. We practically threw him a parade - chocolate bar, number on his chart (he is working towards a book), and let him call his Aunt to leave a VM stating what he had done. Hopefuly it continues today but I am not holding my breath.

That is my weekend in paradise. Just everyday stuff... but awesome.

Felicity at 9 Months Old

Felicity turned 9 months old on Monday, the day after Father's day. We had a lovely weekend. She went to her first Grandma's Marathon, and we enjoyed time at the mall. We painted hand/foot prints for dad, spent a beautiful foggy morning at Brighton Beach and went to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

GROSS MOTOR: She is crawling like a champ, she moves quickly and likes to explore. She pulls up on anything that will support her weight (and sometimes something that won't support her weight!) She is interested in the stairs but has not made any real progress on them. She can withstand the occasional intentional and unintentional assaults and attacks by her brother.

EATING: She loves to eat. Some of her favorites: cottage cheese, blueberries, cereal, meat (she had salmon patty last night that she really seemed to enjoy), olives, and any kind of carb. She did not seem to enjoy the sweet potatos last night.

TALKING: Same old.. lots of babble. She is very loud in her vocalizations an the daycare worker who hosted the Grandma's Marathon party we attended emphasized that she is the loudest baby in the room. She loves to clap too and is interested in other gestures, though I haven't seen her make any.

TOYS: Her Favorite toys are maracas, crinkly blocks, small (very small) board books, and anything her brother has.  The books I read her most often are from the "Mini Masters" series (van gogh, matisse, degas and monet)

SOCIAL: She has chilled out a bit though she still is clingy sometimes. She has even let her Aunt L hold her for a few minutes without crying. She likes to play more and that distracts her from being clingy. She loves watching her big brother do just about anything, especially run and laugh though.

SLEEP: We transitioned her to a full size crib a few weeks ago. It has gone pretty well. The main problem is that she is at that stage where she tries to sit up pretty much the second she begins to wake up, and so wakes herself up. I am not really keeping track of how often she is getting up at night. I would say a good night these days is if she went down at 7pm, and got up at 10pm and 2am. That is rare... a third time would be more common. She also has a tendency to wake up at 5:15am, at which time I just bring her to bed with me for the last 45 minutes of the "night". I think this is probably associated with the light in our room.

I have a confession. I didn't take pictures of her holding the 9m sign, but I did take pictures of her on Sunday and Monday. Here they are:

A Trip to the Park

This afternoon we went to a park, a different park than normal because it was about to rain (better to drive to a park and be 30 feet from the car then walk 4 blocks there and be stranded if it rains). It was quite the adventure. Felicity was along for the ride (in her carseat, or strapped to my chest), but the real star of the story is Ben.

First, we get in the car, and on the way to the park Ben asks the question dreaded by all parents... "How did you get me as a kid?". I gave a very general answer: "Dad and I decided to have a baby and you grew in my stomach just like Felicity". Nope. Not good enough "but how did you make me?" Uh. Awkward laughter. Aaron started to jokingly say the infamous line "when two people love each other very much..." and we both cracked up. Then I said something like "men and women each have part of what it takes to make a baby inside them and we put them together in moms stomach". DH stepped in at this time and decided to compare it to making pancakes. Something like "Its like when we make pancakes - mom has some ingredients, dad has some ingredients, you mix them together and it bakes in mom's stomach". I asked Ben "Make sense?" and he said yes. LOL. Hope we didn't scar him for life.

We got to the park and walked over to the playground. There were quite a few kids there. Benjamin is not great at making new friends. He tends get this really "mean" face on and stand in their way and sometimes yell random things at them related to what he wants to play... we are working on it. Today though he was yelling "Feeding Mice ahead!!". We asked him to make sure and this was indeed right. We have NO idea what he meant or where he got it. Something about his new nursery rhyme story book (from the garage sale yesterday)... DH and I were both puzzling over it when out of no where another little girl yelled the exact same thing, obviously copying Ben. OMG we almost died laughing. The madness is spreading!! Well, despite his bad / mean face, he did eventually manage to get involved in a game with two other kids... where he was the bad guy of course!! They started calling him Mr Goo and running away from him and he ran after laughing maniacally. Guess as long as everyone is happy it works well!!! As DH said, he casts himself as the villain!

After those kids had to leave we wondered down to the baseball field. I did not know how it would go, but Ben LOVED it. I was pretending to be the pitcher. I would act like I threw the ball, then they would swing and say "CRACK" as if they were hitting the ball hard and run the basis. It was very fun and there were some great moments. First, DH told him he had to touch third or it wouldn't count, he dramatically reached down and placed his hands on it. Later, on the third or fourth go, he got tired and just sat down between second and third base. Then, when DH decided to pretend to be an outfielder, instead of running his bases, Benjamin chased DH into the outfield to help. Fun was had by all!!

Felicity - 8 Months Old!

 Felicity turned 8m old on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. She seems so much bigger than a month ago when I look back!!

 She started a basic level of mobility when we were in San Diego (May 11-14). That was a sort of three point crawl where her hands, one knee, and one foot (her left foot) were on the floor. She wouldn't put that left knee down. Now, two weeks later, she is a very good traditional crawler who can go where she wants, though is still not sure she will get there. I am sure that will come in a day or two. The same time she was working on crawling she also started pulling up A LOT. And, by pulling up, I mean going into a four point stance with her hands on any slightly raised surface. She started doing this in Flagstaff (May 9th) and kept doing it more and more and more. Now she is really close to flat out standing. She WANTS to be standing. She will happily stand with one hand holding onto something (like my pant leg) while waving the other hand in joy. And - she has started to let go. Any day now she will let go and won't fall over right away. She also cruises a bit, though she is still working on that.

And what does she do with this new found power? She tries to get wherever I am. She harasses the animals. She seeks out new and interesting things to put in her mouth. Being able to pull up in her crib and pull up on the coffee table has opened up some whole new worlds to her. Now if we can keep her from ingesting random carpet fibers and rocks, and keep her from pulling giant books onto her head, she should live to see her first birthday.

For eating, she is at the stage where she is interested in putting EVERYTHING in her mouth, so when it happens to be food it usually goes well. Except cauliflower. She rejected cauliflower tonight for sure (but happily ate broccoli, tomato, strawberry, baked beans, and a pickle). At dinner last night she demolished an entire slice of lemon and was intent on eating the rind as well (but I took it from her). She likes pizza. She likes soup. She likes cottage cheese. She likes olives. She likes bacon. She likes green beans. She likes pretty much everything we have given her. Besides cauliflower. Her pincer grip is pretty decent and gets better everyday.

She also LOVES to talk. She babbles a lot, and very loudly. I am not sure she actually has any new sounds since last time - Da, Ba, Ya, Wa, and Ma. She also makes a popping noise sometimes, and a sort of swallowed "g" noise. She likes to mimic a lot now. She learned on the way home from San Diego that she could make short noises as well as long when the flight attendant started "roaring" at her. She is interested in singing and music and variation in pitch though she does not really do it yet. She can clap if she wants to and likes when other people clap.

In the last few days I have been making an effort to read her more books and she actually seems to enjoy it quite a bit. I think she really would love a texture book, she likes to touch EVERYTHING. We have some somewhere but I need to pull them out. She tries to "feel" the pictures in "Brown Bear Brown Bear What to You See?" She likes the turning pages.

Overall, she is a very happy baby still. She is almost always smiley and happy. She has started some of the "You took what I wanted!" crying when a toy or piece of food (or remote control or rock) is removed from her  possession, but overall she is cheerful. She loves when you talk directly to her. She loves her brother, even when he is tackling her (right until her face gets pushed into the floor).

Her biggest love though is Mom. She wants to stay within 18 inches of me at all times. Depending on the moment it can be adorable or stressful or overwhelming. She is growing so fast and I love to watch her grow.

7 months

Felicity turned 7 months old lately!
Oh how much she has grown and changed.

Gross Motor: Felicity is full of movement but not quite mobile!! She sits like a boss, she can roll over either way as she so desires. She pulls up on things - especially on people. She loves to be in a kneeling or standing position and tries to find something to pull up on to get to these positions. She goes into a half crawl position and rocks and is very close to taking off crawling. She seems to try to put her feet on the floor instead of her knees when she is trying to crawl, which obviously isnt very effective. She is so strong, and so squirmy. A lot of times if you are holding her and she wants to be moving/crawling she will just be squirming, reaching, stretching, arching, moving.

Fine Motor: She loves little details. She absolutely loves to grab my necklaces, but she doesn't yank them really. She just fingers them. She might try to slowly pull it to her mouth. She is still perfecting her pincer grip. She very carefully examines, pulls on, messes with zippers and buttons.

Speech: What a speech explosion recently!! She is starting to make real speech noises (consonants is what I should say). We get a whole lot of ah-bah bah bah bah and some ma ma ma and some dah dah dah. Its so fun to hear it! It makes her seem so much bigger than the previous pterodacytly style screams, grunts and vowel sounds.

Behavior: She has definately become more clingy in the past month. She does not like it when I walk away!! She does not like it when I hand her off to someone else if she is at all tired or has not seen me in awhile. She will still play for awhile on the floor by herself, but its best if I stay away. If she sees me and I dont stick around she might get upset. She is most interested in objects that are new to her, and/or objects she sees us using, like spoons.

Food: We started her on solids a month or so ago. Baby lead weaning. She really likes salty foods like Olives, pickles, etc. Really she will eat most anything we give her. Sometimes she makes some funny faces that make it seem she doesnt like something, but then she will keep eating it.

Sleep: Not good. I need to get her full size crib up. But if she is anything like her brother, even that won't help.

Health: She has a cold at the moment and has had a lot of issues with dry skin, but she is a happy baby!!

I am in love w this little girl. She is growing so incredibly fast and I can hardly keep up with it.

Easter 2015

Ben was so excited for the Easter bunny to come because HE LOVES CANDY.

This picture pretty much captures it:

Meanwhile Felicity is all - "yeah I will sit here and play w these plastic eggs"

Ben was REALLY bad at finding eggs. He pretty much had to fall onto one to find it. I have read about kid's brains and how they don't "scan" selectively for information, but still it was crazy how bad he was at finding these. But he had a blast doing so, and he shared his candy all on his own/voluntarily. It was super sweet.

After the Easter egg hunt we all got gussied up to go out.

Then we went to my parent's house to take some pictures. These are the best with my camera. We got some family shots and some more great ones of Felicity on my dad's better camera... but Ben didn't want anything to do more pictures.

 After the photo shoot we headed up the shore to Superior Shores to eat brunch. It was a really nice meal. Felicity tried Salami, Carrot, celery, pesto pasta, and had more green olives. She gummed the salami (a single piece) for a good half hour off and on. We had a hilarious moment where Ben, tired of trying to get his yogurt out of the cup, started scooping it with his hands (blueberry of course). I am glad I bought his outfit second hand. I think that white sweater-vest was one-time use only!! LOL.

At the end of the meal we did some socializing, until Ben started running wild. Always a queue to leave.

On the way home, everyone else napped while I drove, so I took the scenic route. Then I indulged myself by stopping at French River to feel the lake wind and snap a couple of pictures.

Back at my parent's house we wiled away the afternoon chatting, napping, and playing. It was a great day.

Easter Saturday

Felicity's first Easter!

Ben got to dye easter eggs three times - twice with my parents, then at home with us. It is very cool seeing him develop all sorts of new fine motor - he used the little wire holder to move eggs in and out of the dyes. Perfectly? No. But still quite well. When Aaron went to dye an egg with Felicity he let her get to close and she spilled the bright green dye EVERYWHERE. Its a good thing I don't love our table (and its free) because it has some stains on it now.

Then I did a quick wardrobe change and did "Felicity's first egg hunt". She really was reaching for this one egg, which I tried to make to match her outfit. She is just too cute.

We even managed to get to the park for the first time late Saturday afternoon  (just Ben and I went).

Felicity at 6 Months Old

SIZE: At her 6m Doctor's appt, they had difficulty measuring Felicity. They first said she was 25.5" long (30th percentile) and then switched it to 26.5" (69th percentile) after measuring her two more times. She is definitely outgrowing the 6m clothing. I washed what we have in 9 month but am struggling emotionally w putting  a lot of the cute 6m stuff away.

GROSS MOTOR: It is hard to believe that she has only been sitting 5 weeks. It is so normal now. She loves to stand too and sometimes when you go to put her down in a seated position she won't bend at the waste. She can roll easily front to back, but I haven't yet seen back to front. She tries to do baby sit ups, but still can't maneuver to sitting on her own. Soon. She is also just getting the concept of pulling up on things. Soon.

FINE MOTOR: She is working on her pincer grip. Sometimes she gets it, sometimes not. She has come very adept at handling toys and her pacifier and can get things to her mouth no problem. Everything goes to her mouth.

VERBAL: She likes to make raspberries even more now, and will sometimes just get to shrieking and babbling. She seems to like to babble or yell at or with Ben quite a bit.

SOCIAL: In March I posted that she didn't like to be left alone. Wow. Things change FAST. Of course she still prefers if we stick around, but I am absolutely astounded by this baby's ability to entertain herself. You sit her next to a box of toys (Duplos most frequently) and if she is clean and fed and awake, she will sit a good half hour or forty-five minutes playing on her own without caring at all if you are with her or what you are doing. Its seriously impressive. In fact, she is more likely to fuss IF she sees you. Left alone she will play longer (out of site out of mind??). When she is tired or hungry then she wants up for sure. In crowds, she prefers to be held by someone familiar, especially Mom. She also likes socializing with Ben a lot. She gets excited when he pays attention to her and shrieks and laughs and babbles. She is a happy baby and laughs a lot.

EATING: She is a distracted eater for sure these days and it can be quite aggravating and messy! Also, we have started baby lead weaning and are giving her all sorts of table foods. She especially seems to like bell peppers, apples, celery, and salty things like bacon, salami or olives. She has obviously not liked bananas (just like Ben!) and sweet potatoes. Always trying new things!!

SLEEPING: It has not been a good month sleep wise. She is cutting her first tooth and has had a lot of rough nights where I lost count of the wake ups. Two nights ago she slept 4 hr stretches and it felt like a freaking miracle. Lately I have been describing the nights she wakes only every two hours as "Acceptable". She wakes more than that and I say it was a rough night. Less than that and it was a good night.

HABITS: She loves her pacifier whenever she starts to get tired. She loves loves loves toys and will examine an object you give her for a very long time before getting board with it. She puts lots of things in her mouth. She wants to see what you have, she reaches for our phones, Ben's toys, etc. She is a happy baby. I pretty much covered it already. She entertains herself SO WELL.

The Bowy Rodger

My son has an imaginary pirate ship. He calls it the Bowy Rodger. (As in the Bow of a ship). (It took us ages to figure out the correct pronuncation. We spent several weeks going "Bolly?" and him saying "no, Bowy" and us not hearing the difference). I have been meaning to write about it for ages. It just gets more and more elaborate as time passes and I am sure I will miss some things, but here is what I remember (in the order that I think I was told it). I intend to add to this post as he adds to his ship or as I remember things he has said, or as they are reported by other caregivers in his life.

The Bowy Rodger is big. Really big.
The Bowy Rodger is good pirates, not bad pirates.  
The Bowy Rodger is so big it would fill up the whole universe.
The Bowy Rodger is just a little big. It doesn't fill up the universe.
The Bowy Rodger is so big it would fill up the whole city, but only the outside part, not in people's houses.
The Bowy Rodger sometimes has bad pirates.
The Bowy Rodger is painted many colors, not just brown. It is painted red, and white, and blue, and green, and orange, and pink.
The Bowy Rodger is one of the many "Rodger" ships. It is the biggest Rodger.
The Bowy Rodger has really big cannons that shoot lightning and can break other ships.
The Bowy Rodger has one mast with two sails.
The Bowy Rodger can have birthday parties on it. That is why its painted so many colors.
The Bowy Rodger is big enough to fit a GREAT BIG DRAGON on it as a crew member because the Bowy Rodger is REALLY big.
The Bowy Rodger has a microscope pointed down into the water so you can look for germs.
The Bowy Rodger has a cabin (not all pirate ships do, but the Bowy Rodger does).
The Bowy Rodger's cabin is for baby dragons and baby dinosaurs to live in.

Added 4/5/15
The Bowy Rodger has warm, soft beds for Mom, Dad, Felicity and Ben
The Bowy Rodger has wheels when it goes on land, but not when its in the water
The Bowy Rodger has wings when it flies (but only when it flies)
The Bowy Rodger has a small button on the inside wall that the baby dinosaur's can press to change it into a Submarine
The Bowy Rodger is the biggest ship in the world. 

...

Aren't you just on tenderhooks to see what the Bowy Rodger gets next?

Week of DOOOOM

First. Housekeeping.
For the record, Felicity started sitting on the same day that I posed to the blog that she was not quite sitting yet. 2/23/2015. I went to pick her up from daycare and had her on my lap to put her socks and jacket on, and I realized I wasn't supporting her anymore. As of that moment, she can sit just fine, as long as she so desires (which might not be that long if there is something interesting she would rather lean or lunge for).

Now that that is documented...

This week sucks.
The sucktitude of this week so far is one for the record books. No ONE big thing has happened. We all have our general health, jobs, no car accidents, etc. I am sure a week can suck more than this one. But in terms of small things adding up... this week takes the cake. This blog post is my therapy about it.. I am well aware MANY things that went "wrong" are things I could fix by being more organized, but thats sort of the point really. I am just ridiculously sleep deprived, aggravated, and everything sucks. I do NOT want suggestions for how to "fix" anything here.

What I want is a hug and a "wow yeah that really sucks". No other comments welcome.

To set the stage... Felicity had a cough for a week. We went to urgent care on Friday and everything looked ok. Clear ears, clear lungs. We were told to see if it got better or worse. Saturday night it seemed to approve... then

Sunday Overnight - Felicity did not sleep hardly at all, unless it was upright in my arms. Coughing fits and general fussiness.

Monday - We had Ben' s Early Childhood assessment. I had looking forward to it for ages, I wanted to see what he did at it. I scheduled it specifically so I could be there and see it. But, Felicity was sick too and needed to see the doctor. DH stayed home to to sort out what to do with both kids. Because we got up/came downstairs later than normal, my auto-brew coffee had been sitting too long and had to be tossed. When I go to pack my pump bag I find out that I never put Friday's milk in the fridge, so it has to be tossed. Bye bye liquid gold. Felicity was fussy and did not want to be put down. I called the doctors office right at 8am when they opened and was on hold for 15 minutes. When they finally answered, I discovered my phone is broken and they couldn't hear me even though I could hear them fine. I had to hang up and call from DH's phone, wait on hold 15 minutes, and then be told "OK we will have a nurse call you back". So we had no idea when or if we could get Felicity to the doctor. We all headed out to Ben's assessment. Because we had to drive separately, I ended up trying to get both kids out of the car and into the place where the assessment was, juggling multiple bags, the carseat, and the three year old, who did not want to walk (he did walk though). We go to the assessment and its going fine, but then the doctors office calls in the middle of it. SO, I miss the part of the assessment I am most interested in, that I have been looking fwd to for months, to answer the phone. I schedule the appointment. DH takes Ben to daycare and I take Felicity to her appt. Because we did not know what would happen with it, we didn't think to pack the stroller or a baby carrier, so I have to carry her in a very long way from parking to the office, which is crowded and busy at 10am in the morning. (Also I had a feminine issue that I won't go into detail on here, but it made this even worse). We see the doctor and it turns out Felicity has a double ear infection that had popped up since Friday. The doctor prescribes antibiotics. I know that you are not supposed to jump right to antibiotics for ear infections, but I also know that if I DONT agree to the antibiotics it means I will need to come back in 24 hrs to have her ears checked again. So I agree to the antibiotics and feel like a bad mom. I take Felicity to daycare and drop her off, and go to work. At work everything is insane. It is the start of the month, which is always busy, but on top of that we have lots of bad cases we are dealing with (messy cases with mistakes, or cases where the client isn't very nice to deal with, etc). We are down a man. I am team lead, so on top of trying to catch up on my task for the day people keep bringing me all the nasty stuff, including my supervisor who seems to be having as bad of a day as I am. A migraine sets in. I should have expected a migraine because they are pretty predictable, but I didnt and I do not have any tylenol. Because I am breastfeeding, I cannot take any of the meds other people offer me, and no one has tylenol. Finally I get off at 4:30, where I go to the pharmacy. I discover once their that I don't have my prescription card for the new year, so I will have to pay out of pocket. I ask if the prescription can be mixed with milk, and they say absolutely not.  I get the prescription and go to daycare where they report Felicity has had a miserable afternoon, which I expected. I get home and go to give Felicity the first dose, reading instructions carefully because she is so little, and it explicitly says in the instructions that it CAN be mixed with milk. Who is right? The directions of the pharmacist? Who knows. This medicine is THICK gross and pink, with a horrid bubblegum smell. Felicity hates it and is gagging on the texture. She has snot coming in torrents out her nose and hates getting her nose wiped. I don't remember everything else that happened that night... so lets move on.

Tuesday: Felicity slept horribly again, and is a snotty mess in the morning. I am exhausted and what was a migraine has remained around as a dull background headache. I look at the Tylenol on my dresser and think "I need to remember to bring that to work" and promptly forget it. We are running late. Something in the kitchen smells HORRIBLE. We get downstairs at 7am (late) and realize ITS SNOWING. Boatloads. I give her the medicine, which she hates. We manage to get everything (or so we think) packed up and in the car to go to daycare drop off. We get to daycare and I realize that we forgot Felicity's milk, so DH takes them inside while I "run" home, a task that is significantly complicated by the horrible roads and us running late (we live by a high school. Running late means that there is much more traffic there). I drop off the milk, and head to work. Roads are TERRIBLE and now I am running REALLY late. I hardly make it up the hill to park, but I do. I get into work, and its exactly like Monday. We are still down a person and everything we touch is a disaster. My best work friend is in a horrible mood and not feeling well, and decides to leave early, meaning I have no company AND we are down another person. I leave work feeling horrible and stressed, and head to daycare where we have parents night. Parent's night goes OK, except for the fact that they don't have enough food, which is a first, they always have a ton of food for dinner. I leave parent's night hungry and get home with two cranky kids. We both take a moment to dig through the fridge to find the source of the stench and throw out a really old gross milk. Now our whole kitchen REEKS of rotten milk. I give Felicity her medicine, and she gags on it so badly that she throws up all over both of us. She is still a snotty mess, and now her poo is beginning to look funny from the meds. Because it snowed all day (there is a good new 8 inches outside), DH has to leave me alone w the kids while he goes and shovels. Normally not a big deal, except when you are already tired and frustrated, with a stinky kitchen. DH tries to help give me a bit of relief by taking Felicity up when he does Ben's bedtime, but it only lasts 10 minutes because she poops again, the stringy gross stuff. I try to help get rid of the kitchen smell by doing some cleaning, but discover we are out of vinegar, but I do what I can. While trying to clean up a bit I manage to spill a cup of sweet tea all over the dining room floor. It still stinks in the kitchen no matter what I do. Because we didn't get enough to eat at daycare, I am desperately hungry so I keep going to try to find a snack, but everytime I open the fridge it stinks and really we have nothing I want in the house.

Wednesday: Felicity slept slightly better but still not great. I got up and was optimistic about the day because I didn't fall into the toilet. Yes. That was reason for celebrtion, as I had the opportunity to do so and managed to avoid it. Then, when I gave Felicty her medication, I managed to spill 2/3 of the bottle of sticky pink goo all over our changing table. Cleaning up the spill was bad enough but I also would then need to get a new bottle. On the way to take the kids to my parents house I had to loop back and check that someone who ran off the road was OK. Coming back into town to go to work my mind drifted and I started heading towards home instead of work. By the time I got downtown I was running quite late. I had to try three different parking spots before I found one that was legal (got to watch out for those sneaky driveways that no one shovelled yet) and that I was confident my car wouldn't slide out of. Everything was super icey and it was bitterly cold. Work continued much the same. Chaos, problems, and strife. My supervisor was heard making the comment she wishes she could erase the week. We were short staffed for part of the day and my supervisor said other units were so short staffed we might need to lend them workers despite being behind. (This is mostly due to illness). I once again managed to NOT bring tylenol and once again my migraine reared its ugly head in the afternoon. After work I had to go by the pharmacy to get the replacement meds, which was crowded and unpleasant. I found out there that the pink sticky mess was the only option and I couldn't get something more baby friendly. I got out to my parents house to find two sleeping children, which was nice. However, my mom reported that they both had been needy all day, Felicity had a bad diaper rash and was pooping frequently as a side effect of the antibiotics. When they did wake up, both kids were extremely needy. Felicity still clearly did not feel well and JUST WANTED MOM. Ben was sleep deprived from his shortened/late map and JUST WANTED MOM and was brimming with toddler emotion that had him crying over things as horrible as "having a brownie for dessert". My parents were being lovely and trying to help but both kids just wanted me. Its nice to be needed... except when there is not enough of you to go around and your tired, sore and grumpy (did I mention muscle soreness that made me think I was getting sick??). When I got home I went to give Felicity her medicine, and she gagged to the point of vomiting, this time producing a large ball of mucous that probably explains why she hadn't been eating much, all the snot she has been swallowing was gumming things up. I got the second half of her dose in her and proceeded to try to relax only to be up to change her poopy diaper and re-spread diaper cream four times in the next hour. She also ate twice in that next hour. Ben was having a rough time settling in for the night and kept calling DH back in again and again.

Thursday: I started this morning when I woke up so optimistic!! from 6-7 went pretty smoothly. Then I got downstairs. The kitchen still/again smelled like rotten milk. We don't know if there is still a source or if the stench just won't go away. I gave Felicity her meds and she spit them all over her outfit (though didn't throw up at least?). I went to pack my pump and found MORE of my breastmilk to throw out that I forgot to put in the fridge on Wednesday night. We ended up running really late and I was practically late to work. Walking into work was FRIGID COLD. Now, its Thursday afternoon and I have a migraine again. But, Maybe things are turning around. Things have gone slightly smoother at work, and there was free pizza for lunch. I am trying to convince myself that this is the end of the bad week and tomorrow will be up up and up. Wish me luck. 

Miss Fliss - 5 Months

Has it really already been a month since I posted? Or close to it?

Felicity is sick this week. She had a very snotty nose over the weekend, and now has a barking "seal" cough. Second time she has had this seal cough, maybe its her thing.

SIZE: She is growing fast. We will need to switch her to a crib (from her mini-pnp) soon. I don't have actual measurements though. She is wearing size 6m, except sleepers need to be 9m (when they are her full length), and a lot of 6m pants are getting tight.

GROSS MOTOR: She still isn't really sitting, like if you put her in a sitting position she topples over, but I really think its more because she wants to reach something always, can't just sit there. Her goal is to get something in her hands, not to sit up. She likes to be in a standing position and likes her bouncer OK. She is finally tall enough to take the calculus book out from under it. Daycare tells me she is a roller. I have yet to see her go back to front, but thats because we hold her so much at home, she isn't on the floor much.

FINE MOTOR: She loves to grab things, and doesn't really miss when she reaches for them anymore. She is obsessed with having something in her hands and wants to get it to her mouth. She often ends up with it on her head instead of in her mouth, which is also adorable. She will grab anything you leave in her reach, including your hair (which she pulls), your plate/glass, etc. She likes to lay on her back and grab her toes or to take her own socks off. She throws things a lot now when she is done with them (or on accident? Its hard to tell sometimes).

VERBAL: She is a "talker". Lots of noise and babble all the time. Sometimes when she is fighting going to sleep she just murmurs babble really loudly, it is adorable.

SOCIAL: She is a pretty happy baby, its rare for her to cry and when she does its usually pretty easy to identify the cause. She is happy at daycare as well. She watches everything around her intently. She loves watching her brother bounce around and be crazy. She recognizes us, especially me (mama), and flails a bit reaching for me when I come into a room. She doesn't like to be left alone. If you are out of her site and she is not otherwise distracted she will start to fuss a bit, but this can often be alleviated by singing so she knows someone is still around (I like singing A Thousand Years to her, its her song in my head). 

EATING: Still exclusively breastfed (bottles of Breast Milk at daycare). She has become a distracted nurser, if there is a noise elsewhere in the room she has to detach and look, its rather annoying. She is interested in food but isn't quite ready yet.

SLEEP: She is not a great sleeper. On an average night she would wake up every 2-3 hrs. Sometimes if I am lucky she will go 4-5 hrs before the first wake up, but that has been rare recently. Sometimes if I am unlucky she will be restless and not settle well and be up more. She still is sleeping in a PNP within arms reach of me at night.

HABITS: She uses a pacifier, but mainly for sleeping. She is a gassy baby. She is fascinated by the television, especially soccer it seems, or things with green/solid backgrounds. She laughs when you make noises at her, and its pretty easy to get a smile out of her w a little effort on this front. She will use her bouncer, sit in a bumbo, or her reclined baby seat, or lay happily on her back, as long as someone else is around and she isn't hungry/tired. Somestimes she just wants to be held. She of course likes sleeping in someones arms (who wouldnt?) As for toys, she seems to especially like that crinkly/plastic bag noise, and chewing on books. But better than any toy is whatever you have... your phone, the remote, your container, your plate, the table, etc.

APPEARANCE: She has thin but growing hair all over her head, rather wispy. The bald spot she had on the back is filling in. Her eyes are slate grey. Her eyelashes are ridiculously thick. She still has a chronic "milk blister" (really a callous) on her top lip from sucking. She has kind of dry skin so we use lotion a lot.

**
I know baby's grow up fast. I was totally prepared to sit back and let this happen with Felicity and not stress over it, and I am enjoying every second with her that I can. When you think about it in the grand scheme of things, 6 months pinned to a couch because your baby is sleeping on you really isn't so bad, actually kind of amazing in its own way. I snuggle her as much as I can, and try to keep taking pictures to capture what I can of this time.