12 month stats

Gwennie Girl,

  On your actual birthday I focused on all the gushy stuff so today (before we are too far past your birthday) I want to take a few minutes to document all about what you have been up to this month. To start with, you are a tiny little peanut. You weigh 18lbs 11 oz and are 30.5 inches. You wear 9 or 12 month clothes and size 4 disposable diapers. You are on the medium setting of your medium cloth diaper covers.

Your 7th and 8th tooth came through (the 7th on the day of your birthday party and the 8th a few days later) and we were SO glad that after the horrible go of teething you had between 10-11 months that these ones came in without a peep. We’re hoping that now you will get a bit of a break from the whole teething game. Because it is no fun, not at all.

You still nap twice a day, usually around 8:30-9am and around 1-1:30pm, both lasting anywhere from 1-2 hours each. The nice thing about you is that when we are out and about you have figured out how to be more flexible. You roll with the punches and are able to go without the morning nap if we’re busy. You go to bed between 7-7:30 and sleep until 6:30-7am, sometimes waking up for a little snack around 5:30-6. You nurse 4 times a day and drink a bit of cow’s milk in between. You are getting weirder with your food – you don’t like to sit in your high chair, you’re much more of a grazer, just like your big sister. Mealtimes are becoming kind of tricky, so I like on the go times when I’m able to toss food in front of you and watch you gobble it up without missing a beat. In your highchair, however, you are typically only happy with crackers, veggie straws or bagels.

We’ve been spending our days doing fun summer stuff – pool, beach, park, zoo – you name it. And you love it. Well, you love the pool as long as you get to stay on the deck with food and you love the beach as long as you just get to muck in the sand. You aren’t so much a fan of the water yet, and in fact, it seems that the pool and beach have ruined bath time for you, as well. As much as you used to love baths, it is now like wrestling a rabid jungle creature trying to wash you.

I’m pretty sure the zoo is your favourite place as you are totally in love with animals. You sign birdie the whole time we are there. Animals capture your attention. You know how to make sounds for cow, puppy, monkey, and horse. Of course, they all sound fairly similar but I can tell the difference. Other than that, you don’t say a lot other than uh oh, hot, hat, and Mama (only when you want to – never on command). You sign a lot though, you point to everything and say “uhh, uhh” and sign milk, more, please, all done, thank you, eat, puppy, bird, cup. Despite your quiet nature (well, that is a misnomer, even though you don’t say many words, you certainly aren’t quiet – hello screamy baby) you know how to get your point across and are learning to communicate really well.

I love that suddenly, you have a strong understanding of almost anything I say. I can ask you where your cup is and you will go get it, I can say “Go get a ____” and you know what I’m saying, you even know what I mean I give you clothing and tell you to put it in the laundry (gotta start you young).

You love to sing and dance. I adore it. In the car, if Eva and I are singing, you are undoubtedly singing along. You love to play with the Little People princess castle and sing with them. It is jus the sweetest ever. You also love to play with the kitchen toys, babies, the tea set, the toy camera and blocks. You love reading books, and are starting to recognize and point to some items. You love going to see the chickens and horses and going for walks. You love playing in dirt and sand, playing catch and playing peek a boo. To you, the only place worth being is outside. You bring me your shoes and hat and said “haaaaa” all.the.time. You are whiny and like to be right by my side at all times – independent play has been all but non existent lately. You want to be doing exactly what your big sister is doing all.the.time. And I mean, exactly what she is doing. You are not content to play beside her with a similar toy – you always want the exact thing she has. My job of referee has definitely begun.

On your actual birthday, we enjoyed a nice little dinner with M and L and a chocolate chip cookie cake made especially for you by your big sister. We loved celebrating with you.

You are turning into such a goofy, wonderful little girl. Watching you grow up, learn and explore just makes my heart so full. I can’t wait to see what our next year together holds – although I sure hope it doesn’t zoom past as quickly as this year has. Even though you are all big, and grown up and toddler like, I know that when you snuggle up to nurse or cuddle with me, that you are still my sweet baby. I love you more than I could ever say with words.

Stay sweet, my girl.

Mama

the part-ay

Since Gwen’s first birthday party was well over two weeks ago, I guess it’s about time to write a little recap. The theme of Gwen’s party was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. Katie was the one who put the idea in my head and I’m so glad she did because it fit just perfectly. Not only because Evalyn’s first birthday party was also the title of a theme song (A Bushel and a Peck) …(sidenote: I seem to have started a trend here… I need to start thinking of other theme songs that could work for parties for future children)….but also because throwing a rainbow theme birthday party in the summer is the easiest thing ever.

Basically, anything that is any bright colour would work for decorations and bright colours are very easy to come by in the summertime. Most of the decorations were things I already had or things from the dollar sections at Target/Walmart and the Dollarstore.

When I thought of the theme I set Elizabeth off to work on creating an invitation and decoration package. And she did not disappoint. Obviously. Her work is always so wonderful. If you’re looking for invitations, birth announcements, nursery prints or anything of the sort, head over to her shop.

After a few (okay, more than a few) back and forths (thanks for your patience Liz!) we had exactly what I was looking for…

She also made coordinating cupcake toppers, favour tags, food labels and a banner … all which you will see in the following photos. Combined with a friend from church cutting scalloped circles and rectangles die cuts out for me – the decorations were easy and perfect!

I had a major brain fart and planned Gwen’s birthday for Father’s Day. Why didn’t anyone tell me this in the planning process? I’m not sure. Anyway, it wasn’t until well after the invitations had been designed, printed and distributed that I even realized it. Ah well, cute baby Gwennie trumps Dads any day of the week.

When I set out to plan Gwen’s first party, my goal was to have a cute, fun party without going (too far) over the top like I did for Eva’s.

Well, HA. HA. HAHAHA.

The thing is, once I start, I just can’t stop.

But being totally honest, I really did achieve this goal. Although my husband still teased me about the level of detail at this party, it was not as intense as Eva’s. Making 40 candy apples the day before a birthday party? Never again. Like I said, most of the decorations were things I already had and/or inexpensive and easy to make or put together. Especially since I suckered my girl Briar into making all the tissue poms for me. One of my favourite accents to the decorations was wrapping a ton of variously sized, empty boxes in two different patterns of wrapping paper that fit with the colours and theme of the party. This was such a cute, simple and CHEAP way to add a lot of POP to the tables. Adding the extra height and patterns really did a lot for the look of things.

I decided on a taco bar for the food – of course, there’s nothing inherently rainbow like in a taco bar, but it was fun and colourful and most importantly, delicious. I did both taco beef and shredded BBQ taco chicken. We also served chips, salsa, guacamole, queso, veggies and southwest ranch dip, texmex quinoa salad, taquitos and 7-layer dip. For dessert, there were cupcakes (duh) made my Evan’s talented cousin, rainbow fruit kabobs made by my girl C-Bisc, with “fluffy cloud” dip (marshmallow fluff and cream cheese), and a candy buffet.

For favours, I skipped making favours for the adults (sorry, friends!) and just stuck with the kids. At Eva’s first birthday there were hardly any kids so I did the candy apples for adults but this time, there were a plethora of kids so it was great to focus on them. I gave the kids a sand bucket with shovel, filled with “rainbow” stuff – freezies, rainbow goldfish, skittles, playdoh, sidewalk chalk, crayons and bubbles. For a guestbook, I had a copy of a “Somewhere over the Rainbow” book for people to sign (this is the same thing I did at Evalyn’s party). I also had tissue poms hanging in various spots and a 12 month photo display of Gwennie. I don’t have good pictures of either of these things because they were all on windows. The tissue poms hung in place of our curtains and the 12 monthly photos were mounted on scalloped rectangles and displayed on the window behind the food table.

I started to get a wee bit (okay a lot bit) nervous in the week leading up to the party because the weather forecast was not looking good. We were expecting about 25 people, plus kids and well, our house just isn’t cut out for that many people. We were so blessed that the rain stopped about an hour before the party started and the sun poked through the clouds, giving us a beautiful afternoon for the party. The bright side is that our icky, unfinished basement is in better shape than it ever has been since we got it all ‘cleaned’ up in the event I had to banish the boys downstairs to play pool. It was a good thing it turned out to be inside, too, because my Sweet Girl was pretty overwhelmed with the chaos when everyone started arriving. It was good for for us to get outside and spread out.

The day was all together so much fun – a wonderful afternoon of celebrating our sweet girl. I guess for the rest of the post, the best thing is to just let the photos do the talking…

Our Family

Normally I don’t think I’d post so many photos of people eating but every time I look through the pics, I can’t help but laugh at the “baby row”, as I called it. Seven little high chairs all in a row. Are my kids blessed or what?

The cake smash.

After Gwen was finished with her smash cake, I thought it would be HIGH-LARIOUS to pretend to smash it in Evan’s face. Then he started asking me why the icing stunk so bad. I was completely annoyed by him asking this out loud in front of everyone since Caley (who made the cupcakes) was sitting RIGHT there. And, well, you know, she's pregnant and hormonal and I was afraid she would cry and be embarrassed about the stinky icing. So I gave him an evil "shut your pie hole right now if you know what's good for you" stare and took a whiff of the cake to prove it didn't stink. And, yeah, you know the rest. Joke's on me. I was covered in icing for days.

It’s so hard to believe my second baby’s birthday has already come and gone. A year has been quick enough to go by in an instant and long enough to change our hearts forever. Thank you to everyone who has celebrated her first year with us!    

twelve months of gwenna

Gwennie Girl,

I blinked.

I blinked one short blink and suddenly, here we are. A full year (to the exact minute if this post publishes when it’s supposed to) since that beautiful July morning when you stole my heart and made me the mother of two.

It’s gone so fast. Yet, somehow, at the same time I feel like I have soaked up and savoured your first year in a way that I didn’t know was possible. I cherished those lazy naps in my bed with you. I cherished the months that you spent hours snuggled between Daddy and I in our bed. I cherished watching you grow and learn and develop and explore. I noticed every milestone. I didn’t wish it away. I cherished it all. Maybe because I knew just how fast these days would be gone.

You are my sweet slow down baby. When life is moving too fast, you have taught me, at the most important times to stop. To stop and slow down and just be.

You are a beautiful soul. You light up every room with your smirks, smiles and giggles. You make friends wherever you go, waving and chatting with everyone you see.

People always talk about the second child living the shadow of the first, and going unnoticed. I think those people are crazy. You are in the spotlight more often than you’re not. Because, you see, not only do a have a proud Mommy and Daddy doting over you, playing with you, loving on you and getting excited with you about every discovery and development you make – but you also have a Big Sister who loves you up just as much, or more, than we do. She is your biggest fan. I have waited and waited for the novelty of having you around to wear off for her – but it hasn’t. Of course, there are starting to be moments of disagreement and annoyance between you two, but for the most part, she adores every single thing about you.

My blue-eyed girl – the moments we have shared this past year are so cherished in my heart. There is something about the first year that’s just so special. You have come so far, changed so much. From a tiny little babe nestled on my chest to a walking, running, playing, spirited little girl who is joy to me. You are very evidently becoming your own person. You are dramatic and funny and silly. You love to be outside – bringing your shoes to me within two minutes of waking up and banging on the glass of the windows, screaming at me if we don’t head outside right!this!moment. You love your puppy. You love your Daddy. And the two of them together is the best thing. You love your big sister. You love to play with her and copy her and most of all, annoy her. You love all of these things – but at the end of the day, you are Mama’s sweet baby. You begin and end your days cuddled in my arms and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

You have captured us – so fully and so quickly. It’s only been one short year – but it’s as though you’ve been a part of our family forever. We can’t remember what life was like without you, and we’d never want to remember. You have made our hearts a million times bigger and filled us with a million times more love than we could ever imagine.

Thank you, sweet girl, for being ours and for making this year the best one yet.

All my love,

Mama

just like this

Sometimes life with little kids is kind of mundane. I mean, there is fun and excitement and joy and chaos in each day but often, it’s monotonous. The same thing day and and day out. We eat, we play, we clean up, we nap, we go potty, we change diapers, we clean up some more, we read books, clean up some more … and so on.

Yet, there are moments, little blips of time where something may happen – as commonplace as it may be – and I am just struck with awe and amazement and bewilderment at these two little people I call my daughters. You know the moments? When you can hardly catch your breath because you realize just how amazing they really are? Just how blessed they make your life?

The other day I had such a moment. I was going about my every day stuff. Washing dishes, I think. I heard the very familiar sound of two little girlies giggling and laughing together. I turned around and saw this. My two little ladies, walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between the living room and dining room, Evalyn pushing her baby in a stroller, and Gwennie carrying a miniature stroller, doing her best to keep up with her sister. Every time they got to the end of the room, Eva would say, “Come on, Sissy, let’s go again!” and at one point even left to find an itty bitty teeny weeny baby doll to put in Gwen’s stroller. They went on playing like this, together, for nearly twenty minutes. All while I sat back and watched silently.

(I tried and tried and tried to actually get a good photo but their blurry little selves were running and wobbling too quickly to get a nice photo.)

While I watched them, I was so struck. I even found myself blinking back a few tears. Because in that moment, I realized that the best gift I’ve ever given them is each other. Sisters. A built in best friend.

My girls, I hope you always walk together, just like this. Side by side. Through every thing life brings your way. I hope you always laugh together the way I see you laugh together every day. I hope you always bring joy to each other the way you do each morning when you squeal with delight at the sight of each other. I hope that you’re always able to add cheer to each other’s day and change grumpiness to giggles, the way you, Gwen, do now when Evalyn is grumpy. She can’t help but cheer up after a nap when you walk into her room. I hope that someday, we will see a picture just like this, only you’ll be walking side by side, with your very own real live babies in those strollers (and you’ll have shirts on too, I hope). I pray that you are always the very best of  friends, just the way you were when I captured this moment. That even when you fight and bicker and throw things at each other… even when you hate each other’s guts … that you will still, deep down in your core, be the very best of friends.

I hope you’ll always be just like this.

eleven months of gwennie

Baby Girl,

You are now eleven months old. Let me tell you, this one surely makes my heart hurt. Just weeks from now, we will be celebrating your birthday as a one year old. I’m trying not to get ahead of myself but it sure feels like it’s creeping up too fast. Every single day you do more and more things to remind me that you are, in fact, growing up before my eyes. This month has been so full of big, big changes. Your personality is shining, you’re starting to express your own ideas, preferences and interests and your temper flares up more often than I can say. You are a spitfire. You rock my world. You hold my heart in those tiny little pudgy hands.

Here’s how you’ve looked this month:

This month has been a big one for you. Most importantly, you’re now a full on official walker. After taking your very first timid steps when you were nine and a half months old, you cooled it for a while but by the days following your ten month birthday you were gaining more and more confidence. Each day you got steadier, faster and more brave until finally, about three weeks ago, you started taking off on your own more often than not and switched from crawling to walking as your preferred mode of transportation. Of course, you also don’t mind being chauffeured around in one of the many toys cars we have on the driveway.

In other big news, this month was the month of teeth. Girlie, you have had a tough go with some of these teeth. From fevers, to sleeplessness, to all around grumpiness. Food strikes. Whining. Clinginess and cuddles. But, finally, all that work has proven to be worth something. On May 15th your second top tooth finally busted through, after sitting at the surface for nearly 6 weeks. I have never seen a tooth take so long to come through. And then, just a few weeks later your third and fourth top teeth came in on May 27 and May 29th. So now you’re sporting six pearly whites and I have to say, those top teeth sure change your looks! Again, another reminder that you are turning into a t…t…t… I can’t say it.

As for sleep, you have become a champion napper (knock on wood!). You nap twice a day. In the morning you go down between 8:30-9 and sleep anywhere from 1-2 hours. In the afternoon, between 1-1:30 for 1.5-3 hours. I’ll take it! The nights have gone up and down due to teeth, but you are typically sleeping from 7pm-6:30/7am with one wake up anywhere between 4-6. It’s not too bad at all! We are still making an excellent team on the nursing front. You nurse 4-5 times a day, depending on how early that first morning feed is. I love those special moments with you. We pushed through the time where everything and anything was more interesting to you than nursing and now you’re back to loving it. You are serious about your milk and so I can nurse you whenever and wherever without having to worry about you being too pokey.

You’re still loving your food, though you went through a bit of a strike while teething. You love avocado, pasta, broccoli,  black beans and cottage cheese the most. Oh, and bread. Anything that remotely resembles bread is good for you. You’re still very iffy on fruit so I have to get creative sometimes, but we’re learning. Fruit smoothies every day!

You’re becoming excellent with using signs and figuring out a way to communicate with us. You sign “more” most often and have transferred it to other areas aside from food. You also sign please, thank you and all done but these take a little more prompting from Mama. Whenever you see Nika, you sign puppy and squeal with delight. She is your favourite. As soon as Daddy walks in the door, you start signing puppy because you know he will take you to see her outside. For a while, Puppy was also the sign you used whenever you wanted or were excited about anything but now you use “more” in place of that. You also sign “cup” and “milk” and have started using them unprompted to request a drink. We’ve started to work on help, but of course, it’s much trickier. As far as verbal words, you say “uh oh” , “Dada”, “Mama” (only at select times, on your own terms) and “EB”. As far as I can tell, “EB” is your way of calling to daddy when he’s outside. You stand at the window and yell, “EB! EB! EB!” I wonder where you’ve heard that before?

Some other fun tricks you’ve learned… You sing and dance all day long. Your singing sounds like “Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh” and your dancing mostly involves bouncing around, clapping your hands and kicking your legs. You kick your feet in the tub and when sitting down. You jump. You wash your hands when they’re dirty (wipe them back and forth together). You love to play “go nigh nigh”. You point to your head when asked where you’re head is or when we are getting ready to go outside.  I think because you know you need a hat. Similarly, you squeal with delight when you see me pick up my sunglasses. I think because you know it means we’re heading out. You like to carry things around, specifically buckets, and fill them up. You love to comb your hair with Sissy’s comb.

Speaking of Sissy, you love her more than ever. And you have suddenly become her little copy cat. You look and act so proud any time you do something that she does. Like put on her hat, carry her backpack or purse, or fill a bucket with toys. The other day she put shoes on to go outside and when I looked over you had taken a shoe out of the basket and were banging it on your foot. I’ve also caught you with a pair of her undies on your head. 

Watching the two of you together is the best gift I’ve been given as a mother. The best. The love you both have for each other is so … complete. Wherever she is, you want to be. Your temper shows itself loud and clear if you look out the window and realize she’s outside and you’re not. Especially if she’s with Daddy. He’s your second favourite.

My sweet, sweet Gwendolyn. My prayer is that you continue to grow up, learn, develop and explore that you know you can do anything. You are brave, you are a climber, you are an adventurous little love. I think you’ll be our dare devil and I hope I can reign in my mama heart enough to let you learn the hard way when it’s needed. You have a sensitive heart. Your feelings get hurt easily. Yet, I also see you learning how to work this to your advantage sometimes when you look to see if anyone is watching before putting on a show about something.

      When I look at you, especially in the quiet hours of dawn while we nuzzle in your chair to nurse, I feel a love so strong that it hurts. Often, my breath is taken away when I think of how blessed I am to get to hold you, love you, have you. You are truly a gift to my heart.

I don’t care what anyone says. You might be eleven months old. You might be walking like a pro, chattering up a storm and learning new things each and every day. But all of that aside, there’s one thing I know. You, my Gwenna, you are my baby girl.

Love,

Mama

guest post by Gwen: favourite baby snacks

Okay, so I lied, Gwen is actually not going to be guest posting. But, hey, we can pretend. A few weeks ago I sent out a plea to my Tweeps asking for their most loved out-of-highchair snacks for their babies between 10-12 months old. You see, despite the fact that this is my second rodeo, I still feel like I have no clue what I’m doing about 90% of the time. I forget so much about Evalyn’s infancy. I try to remember what she was doing/eating/saying at what stages but, basically, unless there’s a photo to look back on or a specific blog post, I don’t remember.

So a few weeks ago I found myself stumped about what to feed Gwen for (at least mostly nutritious) snacks. The thing is, she doesn’t like to be contained – having 3 meals a day confined to the high chair is bad enough as it is. Plus, we’re busy. We’re on the go. We don’t typically have time to be sitting around in the high chair more often than we already have to. So I needed to come up with some ideas of things that would be easy and relatively non-messy for her to eat on her own, out of her chair.

If you know our Gwennie, you know that she’s super picky about fruit. A kid who doesn’t like fruit! It’s absurd to me as Eva would live off fruit if she could, and has always been a fruit lover. Unless it’s in pouch form, I usually have to trick Gwen into eating fruit. As in, soft pear chunks mixed with beef stew. Delicious, right?

Sometimes she’ll be more apt to eat fruit if she’s on the go, grazing, but you know, this gets messy. Fruit is juicy and sticky and a lot of it stains. Anyway, that whole fruit tangent is a bit beside the point…

After reaching out for ideas on snacks I started racking my own brain – trying to remember what types of snacks I took with me on the go, to church, to friend’s houses, and so on, when Evalyn was a baby and what other things would be ideal for this stage. So here are a few ideas I’ve come up with that may help you if you’re looking for some new ideas.

Before I start the list, I should also note that since Gwen has been very adventerous with her food right from the start, many of the typical go to’s don’t really work. She laughs in the face of mum mums and even cheerios, which used to be thrilling and marvelous barely get the time of day anymore (unless, of course, they are in her sister’s bowl .. then they are amazing). Puffs give her a little bit of a thrill, but I don’t often shell out the money to buy them. She also is very good at self feeding and regulating her food. There are very, very few times when I have had to be concerned with her putting too much in her mouth, or taking too big of a bite or whatever. She is a pro star at pulling things out of her mouth if she can’t chew/swallow it, so that also helps with the variety I can give her.

Without further adieu, here is a list of our favourite snacks at 11 months:

- Fruit smoothies - frozen fruit, milk, banana, yogurt, spinach, probiotic, frozen veggie cubes.

- Pouches – or juicies as they are lovingly referred to in this home. We could not live without our juicies.

- Shreddies - new on our menu this week – she’s loving them – they may be too crunchy/difficult for smaller babies or babies who don’t do much self feeding.

- Peas, corn, black beans, lentils – throw a mixture of any/all of these things in a snack trap and she’s a happy girl.

- Cheese – cubes, shredded, sliced, strings … whatever. If she has cheese, all is right in her world.

- Steamed edamame beans – up until this week I had been cutting them in half but she is now able to eat them no problem as they are. Again, a snack trap full of these and she is good to go.

- Graham crackers – these were suggested by both Lynsey and Karla and so I tried them while we were making s’mores at the cottage. She likes them but doesn’t go crazy over them and I do find they’re a bit messy. So, she’s only had them a few times.

What are your favourite (older) baby snacks? Especially for when you’re out of the comforts of the high chair?

ten months of gwenner

Sweet Gwens,

Here we are at 10 months old. I’m not even going to say it. The last month has been a riot with you. This is one of my favourite ages. I love watching you explore, learn, develop your personality and be funny. I love seeing you do things that you find amusing and break out into uncontrollable giggles. I love watching you play on Big Sisters bed, flopping down on her pillow like you’re going to sleep and kicking your little feet. I love watching you dance with your Daddy. Wiggling your legs, clapping your hands, waving your arms in the air as he tosses you all around. I love seeing you stick your little tongue out the side of your mouth and look at me out of the corner of your eyes when you’re getting into mischief. I love watching you wave at all the vehicles that drive past on the road. I love watching you light up at the sight of your big sister, your daddy, your puppy, or your chickens. I love all of these itty, bitty, teensy weensy nuances that all together make you who you are.

Here’s how you’ve looked this month (ahem: cutest cute cute)

We’ve finally welcomed some warmer weather and have been spending as much time as possible outside. You love being outside at the park or just in our own yard. You have no problems with the grass and are happy to sit, crawl and play in it. You only eat it sometimes.

The two biggest pieces of news this month are that you took your first steps and you cut your third tooth. Let’s talk about the steps first. You have been cruises for ages and you are getting more and more steady all the time. I can usually set you down on your feet and you can stand unassisted for a good long time. In fact, more often than you losing your balance, you just get tired of standing in one spot and sit down to crawl away. On April 18th, when Auntie Caley and C were here, you took your very first unassisted steps. You took 3-4 steps a few different times that day but didn’t keep it up much after that. You’ve taken 1-2 here and there and once (only once) you took eight steps to me but you’re still pretty content to crawl. You also love to walk holding our hands and have gotten so steady that you can do pretty well with only holding one hand now. The only way I can get you to attempt steps by yourself is if you are holding two objects in your hand. I guess you feel like you’re holding onto something so think that you are steady. I can just imagine in no time at all you’ll be ripping around here like it’s your job.

As far as your teeth, come on with the teeth! It’s getting a bit ridiculous. I have felt like you were on the verge of cutting new teeth since the very first two came in – way back in February. I have been able to clearly see your top 4 teeth for a while and your gums have been so swollen and the whites of the teeth so close to breaking through that when you smile the right way, it looks like you have top teeth. Your right hand top tooth finally broke through on Monday (April 29) and I hope its pair is close behind. I am not a fan of this long drawn out teething process. I fear the long road ahead of us.

I’d like to think that these teeth are the culprit of our sleep issues lately. On one hand, you have been napping wonderfully and have gotten into a much more predictable, normal routine with your naps. You’re doing great and falling asleep quickly and on your own (as long as you have a paci in your mouth, one in each hand and your lovies close by) and have weaned away from nursing to go down for your afternoon nap – meaning that your nursing schedule is now more reminiscent of a 10 month old and less of a 1 month old. You now nurse about 5-6 times a day instead of 7-8. You typically wake up for the day around 6:30 (although we’ve just come out of a long stretch of 5:45-6am wake ups – no thank you) and have your first nap between 8:30-9, depending on wake up and whether or not it’s a preschool day. You nap anywhere from 1-2 hours. You then go down again between 1-1:30 and usually nap for another 1.5, sometimes 2 hours if I’m lucky. You are in bed by 7 pm most nights. And that’s where it goes down hill. I guess realistically, you still haven’t been doing that bad, as most nights it simply takes a few moments of rocking or soothing or a quick nurse to get you back down. But, gosh, baby, let’s just sleep through the night like we used to, okay?

   

You like to chatter, although now you’ve gone from being way louder and more verbal than your big sister was as an infant, to being quieter. You say “dada”, “mama” and something like “eaaaa-da” (which I am beginning more and more to think is your word for Eva). You also spend a lot of time saying “ah ah ah” very loudly, which is you saying Hi. Dada is the only word you typically will say on command. And you have definitely made the connection between that word and your Daddy. As soon as you see him it’s “Ah ah ah DA DA!” The Mama usually comes out when you are whining for milk and if I tell you to say Mama you smirk and say “Dada”. Never fails. You sign eat, more and milk. Sometimes you do all done but you prefer to just scream at us to get that point across. Now, we’re working on please and thank you.

At the beginning of the month, we had our second round of a stomach bug. You had it first and I unknowingly was blaming teething for the nasty diapers, food strike, long naps, poor nighttime sleep and extra nursing. Now I know that you had a bug since the rest of us got it the next week. Girl, you were put through the ringer this month!

Just before that happened, you went on a bit of  strike with eating fruit and would scream if it even touched your tray. The only way I could get fruit into you was through pouches or by mixing soft fruits with your meals. For example, you were okay with pears mixed in beef stew and blueberries in shepherds pie. Delightful, isn’t it? Then when you were sick you went on a total solids strike and hardly touched anything. Again, I thought it was because of your teeth bothering you but now I realize your tum was just upset. Good news is that now you are back to eating like a grown man and devour anything and everything that is placed in front of you. And a LOT of it. You eat far more than your big sister, I can hardly keep up. It still surprises me every day when we sit down for meals and I look over and your tray is totally empty before I’ve barely had time to dish up everyone else’s dinner!

The next month is going to be jam packed full of fun summer adventures with you and I can’t wait!

Love you my sweet girl,

Mama

this is what we call a brain dump

1. Everyone looks at Gwen crawling and cruising and walking holding my fingers and makes the “Oh, no, Mama. Get ready. She’s gonna be walking soon”. And guess what? I CANNOT WAIT. Other than the fact that her walking means she is growing up faster than I refuse to believe, there is absolutely no reason I don’t want her to walk. The truth is, when she starts walking, life will be a lot easier. Most people think the opposite. But I don’t. It’s not like she doesn’t move around completely and fully as it is. I found with Eva once she gained the independence of walking, her frustration levels decreased like whoa. Not to mention the whole taking the kids outside to play thing is kind of ridiculous since all I can do is carry Gwen around.

2. I used to be a good blogger. Now I suck. Maybe someday I’ll find my voice again. Then again, maybe I won’t.

3. I was chatting with some tweeps about some funny stories about Evan. Some of them have been shared on this blog in years past. But, many of my current readers are more recent. I am thinking about starting a little series on funny stories about that Dude. Like, the time he peed the bed, the time he hid in the freezer to scare my dad, the time he snuck into my parent’s room at a cabin with a real, live fish to wake my mom up… The kind of stories that make me say, “Wait. WHAA? I married him?”

4. Speaking of things that could/should be on this blog. Remember once upon a time I had a cooking blog? I miss that. I cook a lot. I love sharing recipes. But it’s the whole remembering to take a photo of the steps and final product and blah, blah, blah….

5. Lots has happened around here this week. Due to a series of unforeseen events, I am back to working part time. Or at least I am for a little while. More on that later, maybe.

6. Evalyn is obsessed with rhyming. It’s so cute. And funny because she really has no idea what rhyming is. I am trying to tell her it’s when the end of a word sounds the same. But she isn’t quite getting it. Every day she comes up with some great new rhymes. And she is so excited about it. Our favourites? “Buttah! Peanut Buttah. DAT RHYMES. Pets. Wonder pets. DAT RHYMES! Daddy. Uncle Tim. DAT RHYMES. Lolly. Lolipop. DAT RHYMES! Pizza. Chicken wing. DAT RHYMES! Sky, wall. Floor, window. Milk, hat. DOS RHYME”

7. I went back and looked through my blog posts and pictures and updates from when Evalyn was 9-10 months old. And holy cow. I feel like she was way more grown up and big than Gwennie is. I MEAN, GWENNER IS STILL MY TINY BABY. It is reassuring for me to know that I still think that Gwen is a baby. I didn’t feel like Eva was a baby anymore at this age.

8. Running errands with kids is a pain in the rear. But, guess what? It is way less of a pain in the rear when the weather isn’t in sub zero temperatures. Finally, I no longer feel shaky and break out into hives thinking about taking both kids to the grocery store or Wal-Mart or anywhere really. I feel good knowing that it was simply the winter weather that was decreasing my confidence. Not my mom skillz. 

9. Nap time will be over soon. You’ll find us outside. WITHOUT COATS.

nine months of gwenna

My Sweet Little Gwenna (that’s your newest nickname) Love,

Last week, we turned the corner on your 9 month birthday. I have got to say. This one hit me hard. This is your last single digit month. Three quarters of your first year is behind us. It’s a slippery, downward slope to one from here on out. It tears me up because you’re growing too fast, yet I’m always looking forward to the next thing and anxiously waiting for what’s ahead.

Although we haven’t had your 9 month check yet, our home scale tells me you’re about 17 lbs 12 oz. (Edited to add: At 9 months and 2 weeks you weighed 17lb 4oz, 27.5 inches long and a head circumference of 17.71inches). You wear 9 and 12 month clothes. Size 4 diapers. Medium cloth diaper covers. You’re a dainty little peanut. Here’s how you’ve looked this month…

I think ‘beautiful’ pretty well sums you up.

This age, oh this age! It’s the most fun yet. You’ve been such a little ham this month. Although, the month didn’t start so great as we spent the first few days tackling the stomach flu. Both you and I had it. And then Daddy got it a day later. It was so sad and pathetic to see you that way. Broke my mama heart. Thankfully, you recovered and were back to your normal self without missing a beat.

Here are some of the highlights of what you’ve been up to this month. You’ve taken off with baby sign. You sign more (mostly only for carbs), eat (usually accompanied by a lot of lip smacking), all done, milk, cup, and puppy. Now we’ll start working on please and thank you. You also love to wave, point your finger and clap your hands, although your coordination is not quite there and you often just squeeze your hands together. The other day you were having a wild dance party with your dad and sissy and you were just kicking your legs and going nuts waving your arms and squeezing the palms of your hands together. Speaking of dancing, that’s your favourite thing to do these days. As soon as you hear anything that even remotely resembles music you start dancing. You also love to shake. Any time there is something in your hand and I tell you to shake shake you go crazy shaking it around.

Watching you say “hi” is the cutest thing ever. Any time you have a toy phone, or really anything rectangular in your hand, you hold it up to the side of your head and say “Haaaa Haaa”. After you started doing that, any time I tried to get you to “say hi” and wave when your hands are empty, you would do the same thing, with an empty hand …. hold it against your ear and say “Haaa haaa”. Recently, you’ve started to replace this with a typical wave, though. Not nearly as cute, although still adorable.

So I guess that means that “Hi” is one of your first words. Along with Dada and Mama. More and more, I am starting to think that you’re associating those sounds with us. Although, I think Mama is more an indication that you want milk right now than an actual name for me. I guess that makes sense. Me = milk.

Speaking of milk, you typically nurse 7-8 times a day and eat 3 solids meals, as well as snacks. The snacks probably aren’t necessary but I have learned better than to try to eat or feed your sister with you around without giving you something. You will have no part in that. You are still doing very well with baby led weaning although you went through a phase of refusing fruit. The only way I could trick it into you was with a pouch or by chopping small chunks into your main course food. Some of the best were pear chunks in beef stew and plum chunks in sausage pasta. Whatever works. You seem to be back to loving fruit, though, which is wonderful. Your digestive system is still up and down but since you started taking a daily probiotic things have leveled out quite a bit and you seem to be feeling better.

You nap twice a day (usually around 8:30/9 am for 1-2 hours and 1/1:30pm for 1-2 hours) with the ever so occasional third nap if you’re in the ergo or we’re in the car. And only on days when your naps aren’t great. Which is often, unfortunately. You go down around 6:45-7pm and start your day anywhere between 6:15-7. You wake up once or twice throughout the night for a snack. The sleep and nap thing isn’t overly consistent these days but we’ll get there someday, I know that much.

You are still only sporting two bottom teeth. We’ve thought we’ve seen evidence of your two bottom eye teeth (weird, I know) for quite some time, but nothing yet. As far as I can tell, your top teeth aren’t close yet. It’s a different game this time, as your sister already had a mouthful of chompers by your age.

You’ve been a bit of a chicken lately. You get scared easily and often. If Daddy blows his nose too loudly, or a toy drops to the floor to quickly, or the dog (heaven forbid) touches you with her paw, you get the whole pouty mouth lip quiver. It’s kind of cute but also sad. I know it’s just a stage that happens at this age and you’ll toughen up quick enough.

You’re a crawling machine, although your interest in crawling is getting less and less all the while. You stand on everything and anything and have perfect cruising. You’ll walk the entire way from the kitchen to the living room holding onto chairs, windowsills, walls, tables, and anything you can get your hands on. You’re starting to love walking holding our fingers as well. You stand unassisted for a few seconds at a time, usually when you don’t realize you’ve let go of whatever you were holding. See, baby? It’s all happening too soon!

Some other high lights this month are that you celebrated your first Easter, went to the sugar bush, met grass for the first time (well, since you were wee tiny), had a visit from Nana and fell down the three stairs at the back door (I guess this isn’t really a highlight, but it happened and you’re okay). Every day you have a blast playing with your big sister. You get so excited to play chase with her and want to follow her around all the time. I know I’m in for it because you’ve started to become very interested in grabbing whatever toy she has and you fuss and whine if she doesn’t give it to you. I foresee a lot of life lessons coming our way soon enough.

You are a joy if there ever was one. Such a sweet little light in my life. You have made my heart twice as big as I ever thought possible. I love you like crazy, you little stinkin’ ripper!

Love, Mama

Easter 2013 Recap … before Easter?

This is the obligatory Happy Easter post. The Easter bunny actually visited our place a week early, as we had originally had plans to be away over Easter, I wanted Evalyn to have the chance to do the egg hunt at home. Poor girl kept asking if we would go egg hunting out in the grass. Hate to break it to you girl, but an Easter egg hunt wearing a snowsuit just isn’t the same.

So last Sunday when my Mom came for a visit, she took the kids downstairs to play and while they were gone, Mr Easter Bunny made his appearance. When I went downstairs to tell Eva, of course she flipped and didn’t want to come upstairs because she didn’t want to see the Bunny. I don’t blame you kid, that Dude be creepy. I reassured her he was LONG GONE and just left treats behind. That seemed to solve the issue and she came right upstairs.

Of course, this is the first year that she’s really been into the whole Easter egg hunt thing, and it was adorable. Every time she found an egg, she would say “Oh silly Easter Bunny, this don’t beyong here! Des eggs don’t beyong with my movies. Dees eggs beyond in my basket!” She thought it as absolutely hilarious that he would put eggs in the places that he put them.

Here she is on the hunt….

 

The Egg Hunt concluded on the couch where Mr Bunny had left their Easter buckets. And hello, pointless. All week all she has played with is the $2 straw basket and the empty plastic eggs. She could have cared less about the gifts!

And don’t worry … just because she’s yittle doesn’t mean Gwennie had to miss out on the fun.

Because we did our Easter thing last weekend and ended up canceling our plans for this weekend, we’ll just be having a quiet weekend together as a family.

Today is Friday but praise be to God that Sunday is coming. The stone will roll away and by the grace of an almightily God, these beautiful babies of mine have the most amazing promise of redemption!

 

Happy Easter!

eight months of gwennie girl

My Little Gwenna,

Here we are just past your big 8 month birthday and as always, time is zooming by faster than I am comfortable with. This has been a big, fun month for you.

You are a spitfire and your personality is beginning to shine through so clearly.

Case in point.

Our home scale says you weigh just over 17 pounds. You’re wearing 6-12 and 9 month clothes. Size 4 diapers, medium cloth diaper covers. Here’s a few glimpses of how you’ve looked this month.

You started the month off right by learning to pull yourself to a standing position holding on to furniture. And you haven’t sat down since. That’s almost not an exaggeration. Sitting on the floor to play with toys no longer interests you. You would much rather stand holding a chair, the couch, the coffee table – whatever you are close to – and watch what’s going on around you. This newly developed skill caused us all some grief over the past few weeks as you were far  more interested in standing up in your crib than sleeping for a good chunk of time. Also, baby learning to stand + hardwood flooring = disaster waiting to happen. I’m sorry for the head bonks you’ve experienced, little lady. But for real, just stay on your booty! Right at the same time that you started to figure out the standing thing, you also realized you didn’t have to lay down in the tub anymore. As soon as you sat yourself up, it was like you discovered a whole new world. Now bath time is filled with “Stay on your bottom. Sit down. Sit down. On your bottom” and other constant repetitions from Daddy and I.

You are a mischief maker. I cannot turn my back for five seconds without you getting into something. Your favorites are the stuff on the sofa table shelves, the DVDs and the dishwasher. You are also starting to figure out how to totally mutilate the toy shelves, which makes cleaning up so much fun for me! Along with standing, you’ve started to figure out a bit of the cruising business. Slow down, sweet baby girl, slow down. Although you are sometimes interested in walking around on your feet while holding our fingers, you mostly prefer to crawl. If there’s somewhere you need to be, you know how to get there. And fast. You don’t want to waste time trying to walk holding our hands when you know you could zoom there way faster by yourself.

You now have two teeth. Your first one popped through on February 13th and the second one came quickly after on the 16th. Based on your sleeping, napping and incessant whining lately, I’d guess there are more on the way.

Your Big Sisser is your very favourite friend. You love, love, love her. She makes you laugh all the time and you work real hard at keeping up with her. Of course, you clearly know that whatever she is playing with is where it’s at and always want in on the action. I love seeing you together. I love knowing that you’ll be best friends and worst enemies as you grow up. I am so blessed by your love for each other.

You are a chatter box. Mostly you shriek and scream (not a crying scream, just a “I AM HERE AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW IT” scream) but you also jabber away saying “Da da da da” and “Ah ba” and “Ya ya ya” all the time. You also love to smack your lips, blow raspberries and give kisses. I’m the only one you are usually totally forthcoming with the kisses with, and I don’t mind that at all. I know I’m your favourite. We have started focusing on some sign words with you since you’ve started to wave sometimes and food is becoming an integral part of our daily routine. You have definitely waved, signed cup, milk and eat. We are gradually working on more, all done, please, thank you and a few others. It’s so fun watching you learn to communicate. Let’s just try to stick with the signs instead of the super loud shrieks, how about it?

Sleep has been an issue this month. You are very inconsistent. So, knock it off, will ya? Typically you nap twice a day but the third one still sometimes sneaks in if your afternoon nap ends too early. You are in bed by 6:45-7 most nights. We have tried to push this a bit later, but you can’t seem to make it any later than that, no matter how hard we try. Some nights you’ll sleep peacefully until 4-5 am and then nurse and sleep a few more hours but some nights you’re up six hundred times. This too shall pass, I suppose. (It can pass as soon as you’d like, mkay?) It’s been a point of frustration lately but I am just trying to ride it out and remember that it won’t be forever. I keep telling myself this stage will pass quickly, and while I would love to sleep more, I don’t want this stage to pass too quickly because I just love how fun and inquisitive you are right now.

You’re still an eating machine and have been going to town on almost everything you have tried. I was going to make a list of the things you enjoy, but honestly, that list is just too long. You still nurse anywhere from 5-8 times in a 24 hour period, totally depending on how our night goes. You eat three meals and typically a few snacks during the day. The snacks are usually a by product of what Evalyn and I are doing because I have long since learned that we cannot have food in your presence without sharing. You make that more than clear.

You are a delight. A joy. A little spitfire. For your first few months we always talked about how it seemed as though you were going to turn out much more mellow and chill than your big sister. We take that right back. You have a temper and personality a mile long, there’s no question about that. This should make for some wildly interesting years ahead of us.

  It’s so hard to believe how quickly we’re slipping down the slope toward your first birthday. You’re growing up far too fast my dear, so just stop it right now.  

Love, Mumma

surviving the bedtime crazy: part 2.0

A few months ago I wrote this post highlighting the challenges in surviving the evening hours with two two and under on my own. Since then, I’ve been fortunate enough to have had way fewer evenings where this is necessary. The late fall and winter months mean work is less busy and there is less going on in the evenings for Evan, which means there are two to tackle bedtime more often. This makes mama happen.

Over the last three weeks, however, Evan’s been doing some work at our church which means he has been spoken for most evenings. So, once again, I’ve had to find my groove at doing the whole bedtime thing solo. What I’ve learned over the past few weeks is that now, surviving bedtime with the two of them? Piece of cake. Surviving mealtime, on the other hand? That’ll take me down. That’s a different story, though. My purpose in this post is to give an update on the whole bedtime thing now that I’ve got a few more months under my belt.

There are a few key reasons why bedtime seems to be much smoother.

First, bathtime. Gwen can now sit up and move around easily in the tub. I am not afraid of her sister crushing her or smothering her. This means dual bath time is possible and way less stressful than it used to be. Secondly, Gwen no longer freaks out the second she gets lifted out of the tub, expecting a boob to be in her mouth within a matter of milliseconds. This means that I can take the girls straight from dinner to the tub. Or, at least put them in the tub earlier in the evening as opposed to just before bed, even if not right after dinner. I bath them together, get Gwen out and PJed first, while E continues to play and cleans up the bath toys and then get her out and PJed.

Second, their bedtimes have adjusted. At the time that I wrote that previous post, both girls were going to bed between 7:30-7:45 which made it tricky to accomplish bedtime routines for both. Now, Gwen is in bed, asleep by 6:45-7 and Eva still goes to bed by 7:30-7:45. When I wrote the first post about the bedtime stuff, I was hesitant about having Gwen’s bedtime be earlier than Eva’s since I cherished that one on one cuddle time with her. I do miss that. I miss being able to nurse her and sit in the nursery holding her, sometimes for as long as an hour, before laying her down. But the good thing is that she usually makes her way into my bed in the wee hours of the morning anyway, so we still get that cuddle time. She also wakes up earlier than Eva most mornings, so we get some nice one on one before the Big Sissy is awake.

And lastly, Gwen no longer takes forever to go to sleep. She nurses for 3-4 minutes, and if she’s not already asleep when she’s done, as soon as I lay her down with her pacifier, she’s down for the count. There are very few nights (KNOCK ON WOOD AS HARD AS I CAN) that she puts up a fight to go to sleep. If she doesn’t immediately go to sleep, it usually doesn’t take a lot of effort, other than slipping the paci back into her mouth, or laying her back down if she’s standing up.

So, now, it usually goes like this. I can get both of the girls bathed and PJed by 6:30-6:45 and if it’s not bath night, it’s even smoother. Although bath night is a welcome distraction to kill some time between supper and bed. Often, Gwen has a bath every night and if Eva wants to join her she can but she doesn’t always. After PJs are done, we play for a while longer until Gwen starts to fuss. Then, if Eva is engrossed in something I just leave her be. If she needs a distraction, I’ll throw a bowl of crackers at her and turn on a show. Either way, it’s not a huge deal since Gwen nurses so quickly anyway. I’ve had nights where Eva just doesn’t seem to want to be distracted while I’m putting Gwen to bed and she has stood in the nursery beside us. So far, though, that hasn’t bothered Gwen and she still goes to sleep.

Then, when that’s done, I still have a good 30-40 minutes until Eva goes to bed. Depending on the night, she and I might have a shower (sometimes this is my best option for actually getting a shower myself), or I will clean up from dinner while she plays if I haven’t had a chance to. She may have a snack and watch a show or else we’ll do potty, pull up, teeth brushing and snuggle in her bed for a books and songs for a longer time before bed.

The spacing in the bedtimes has made it oh so much easier. So much. Eliminating my need to basically toss one kid into their bed and run to the next makes the evening quieter, more peaceful and less “I wanna pull all my hair out and then drown myself in chocolate”. Although, if I’m being totally honest, I do often feel that way anyway.

This new set up, with the earlier bedtime for the babe, makes the whole “bedtime” thing take much longer but also makes it a far less chaotic time. For now, when it’s dark and cold and icky and we wouldn’t be outside anyway, it works well. When summer comes and evenings are spent outside, we’ll see how it goes, as I’m sure Eva won’t be as interested in coming inside when Sissy has to go to bed. For now, though … you’ll be hearing no complaints from me.

Some things

Leave it to me to all but abandon this blog and then randomly pop in with the world’s most scattered, incoherent brain dump post.

We’ve reached the point where getting Gwennie changed is worse than wrangling a wild zoo animal. So that’s fun.

Hardwoods throughout the entire house + crawling baby = also fun.

Whenever I’m out, be it shopping or at a restaurant, or any public place, really, and I see a baby asleep in a car seat or stroller, I have to stop myself from staring with my jaw on the floor. Honestly, this really happens? My babies do not do this. Ever. Aside from very early infancy, neither of my girls have ever stayed asleep in the car seat. Sure, they’ll sleep in the car but as soon as we stop (even at a red light sometimes) awake. And to even consider falling asleep while riding in the stroller? Impossible. Evalyn did it once, around 10 months old, on the hottest day in the history of the world at the zoo. For 15 minutes. So yes. Babies sleeping in public places. Foreign world to me.

Evalyn has her first ear infection, well, make that double ear infection, of her life. In other words, this was highly warranted today.

We’re almost halfway through the month. How? I have no idea. I had a great old list of things to get done this month and so far that seems to be flying out the window.

As of yesterday, I’m obsessed with spring footwear for my toddler. Toms? Converse? What’ll it be?

Sleep talking is funny. Last week, when Evan came to wake me up to tell me the baby was up (seriously, I think him waking me up instead of my body waking up to the sound of the baby crying totally screws me up). I told him: “Bring the shelf in here. Let me dust it, that’ll help”. Then the next night, he woke me up at 2am and said “I think by tonight we should be ready for the wall prep”. And last night, I stood outside of Eva’s door and listened to her telling her baby a big old story about something. Who knows what.

I am tired.

That’s about all that’s inside my brain today.

Seven months of Gwen

My Little Gwenner,

You are now seven months old. This month has been a big, big, big month for you. So many changes have been happening and it seems you do something new each day. I know that time flies. It always does. But, I am fairly certain that once a baby starts moving, time starts moving faster and faster, too. I am afraid to blink.

This month, one of our most exciting ventures has been into the world of solid foods. For how petite you are, and how quick you are at nursing you have totally and completely shocked me with how interested and eager you are to eat solid food. I totally expected you to be a bird. But, nope. Not even. So far, you are living up to your namesake with the amount you like to eat. We are taking a baby led weaning approach when introducing you into the world of solids, and girlfriend, you are 100% on board with this plan.

It is messy business. Messy, yummy, fun business.

So far you have eaten so many things. Carrots, cucumber, sweet potatoes, squash, parsnips, beets, avocado, broccoli, green beans, pears, peaches, mangoes, plums, apples, grapefruit, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, raspberries, scrambled eggs, toast, chicken, steak, pasta, cheese, yogurt and much much more. Aside from greek yogurt, which was not your favourite, you have eat to turn down anything. I’ll be interested to see if you chunk up in the next few months since you seem to be quite the empty pit!

The other big news this month is that you are on the move. You don’t stop for anyone or anything. You have been somewhat crawling and lunging since Christmas (when you were under 6 months!!) but you have really gotten the hang of it in the last few weeks. Along with that, the last two weeks has marked a huge change in your agility and balance. Suddenly, you never topple over when sitting, you can easily and gracefully move from sitting, to tummy, to crawling and back again. It amazes me how quickly your movements have become so fluid.  You have even started to pull up to standing on furniture. Oh no, you don’t, little missy! You are supposed to be my itty bitty baby, so you can cut this funny business out right now. The pulling up on furniture has just started in the last few days and has resulted in a few head bonks and kabooms. I have learned that I cannot let you out of my sight for a second. Something tells me we’ll be spending a lot of time together in the ergo until you learn how to keep your balance a little better.

You are so cheerful and talkative. Although you still grace us with the high pitched squeal every now and again, you’ve mostly replaced it with a low growl, or with saying “Ah-ba! Ah-ba!” over and over again. You blow raspberries almost constantly and have recently started giving hugs and kisses. Your hugs are so sweet when you just cuddle yourself right into the crook of my neck. As far as kisses, you prefer those of the open mouth variety.

For the most part, you are sleeping fairly decently at night, although we’ve been up and down with sickness over the past number of weeks so that always throws a curve ball. Thankfully, though, (knock on wood), you seem to have given up your affinity for super early mornings and sleep until at least 6:30 most days. I cannot even believe that I’ve reached a point where I can say “at least” in reference to 6:30 a.m. But that’s how it goes. You go down around 7pm and usually sleep until 7am. Most often you wake up once anywhere between 2:30-4:30 for a quick nibble and then you go back down easily. Many mornings, you start to stir between 5:30-6 but as soon as I scoop you into my bed, you easily settle back down. You seem to love being warm and snug in my bed, because that’s the place where you usually sleep in the longest. You still nap three times a day, although your third nap is questionable. Sometimes it doesn’t happen, sometimes it’s an hour and sometimes it’s 10 minutes. Regardless though, your first two naps are starting to become much more consistent and predictable. You’ve even been doing an awesome job at putting yourself to sleep. Keep it up girlfriend!

You and your sister are up to no good. You spend your days giggling, playing and reading together. I love to see your relationships developing but when I see you straining to follow her and keep up with her, I am terrified because I know it won’t be long at all until you are spending your days conspiring against me and creating even more chaos than there already is. Those will be the days! Your relationship with your sister is not one sided, by any means. Just as much as you love her, she loves you back. When you were born, I wondered when the novelty of having a baby sister would wear off for her. It still hasn’t. Every morning she asks where you are and as soon as she sees you, she lights up and starts talking to you. She is so precious with you. Calling you “sweetie heart” and “baby girl” and “Gwenna Guhhh”. Your relationship has blossomed even more over this past month, as you’ve started moving and being able to play a little more actively with her. It’s going to be trouble from here on out!

Everyday I am overcome with gratitude and joy knowing that you are mine and I am yours. You have made my heart double in size and I praise God for you every day.

I love you sixty clock! (as your sister would say).

Mama