6 Months

I swear she is still brand new.  Its already been half a year?  Heavens, I need to start planning her first birthday party.  How is this possible?!  Since I can't seem to grasp how old she is, here's a detailed account of her life right now to prove it to you, and me.


Annabelle is taking 3 naps a day.  Generally it is 2 long ones, morning and mid day, followed by a shorter late afternoon/early evening nap.  Believe it or not, it took me a great deal of time to figure out how much/how often she needs to be napping.  We were just on the go too much with Sam!  Now that I have a handle on the info, I'm working on a balance between staying home for her naps and getting out to do things with Sam.  Its a continual work in progress.  In addition to her three naps, she nurses 5 times.  We finally dropped our dream feed, so now she is usually in her bed for 11 straight hours at night.  For the record, this is waaaaay longer than big brother.

All of that eating and sleeping doesn't leave us with a whole lot of time to play!  And its only going to get worse when we add solid feedings into the mix (stay tuned, that's coming this weekend!).  But we have fun with her.  The whole sitting thing adds a new dimension to our play, and she is getting better and better with that every day.  She is happy sitting so that she can see everything, and even happier sitting on high ground.  Sam's bed, which is a bit lofted, is her preferred perch.  She grabs onto everything within her reach and shoves it in her mouth, including my hair.  She and I played in front of the full length mirror yesterday for about 30 minutes.  It was blowing her mind, which was really fun.  She is starting to love books - she tries to grab at the pictures while you're reading.

Interesting note: she tolerates the exersaucer.  This was one of Sam's happy places, so its a bit of an adjustment to me that she isn't content there for longer than 5 minutes.  She does try to "sing" to the buttons that sing back, really funny.  Honestly, she desires greatly to just be where Sam is.  She really is happiest when she can watch him.

She is so mellow.  The only time she cries hard is when put into a car seat hungry, I believe out of fear that she won't be fed at all.  Yes, this means very little crying, but it is also work to get her to laugh.  Makes it super rewarding though.  

She is a tiny but healthy girl.  13 pounds even, which puts her in the "less than 5%" group that her brother is so familiar with.  After insisting that he was fine with this gain, the Dr. asked me if I was concerned.  I've been down this path before, so no, I'm good.  She grew 1/2 an inch to 25.5 (36%), but again, Chris and I put zero stock in length measurements until they measure them standing.  Her head is 16 1/4 inches (26%).  And her head is beautiful.  Literally, that is the word he still uses to describe her head shape every time we see him.  And he described her sitting abilities as "exceptional."  She was old enough to get her first dose of the flu shot, so she ended up with 4 shots and 1 oral vaccine.  I swear, she cried for about 25 seconds and was done.  

She's going to change a lot over the next six months, more than she has the first six.  By her birthday she'll be done nursing (to this day that's all she's ever had!), and could be walking and even talking!  But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

At 6 months, here are her lists...
Likes:
-Sam
-Being Held
-Chew Toys
-Pulling Mommy's Hair

Dislikes:
-Being Left Alone
-Hungry Car Rides
-Cold Milk

New Skills

When we were in Florida for Christmas this past year, we were given a hand-me-down bike for Sam.  We put it away for a while because, honestly, I wanted him to play with all of his new gifts that people had loving picked out for him.  Well, recently he found it in the shed and began begging Chris to put the training wheels on it so that he could ride it.  Done and done.  He's getting pretty good at riding his "big bike."  The biggest difference from the tricycle, of course, is that he can't pedal backwards without jerking to a stop.  Part of the game is also to get a wrench and "fix" it, just like Daddy did - every single time.

Not to be outdone by her brother's new trick, Lady A has recently mastered a new skill as well.  My bitty girl is now a sitter!  In a matter of 10 days she went from not even being able to do a tripod sit to full, independent, playing with toys sitting up.  And we've been at this point for about 5 days now!  Of course she is still unstable, and sitting is not to be practiced unsupervised, but she is getting more stable and stronger every day.  Soon she will be able to sit in the grocery cart...and that makes life just a little bit easier!

A Quick Stop

Because we have two out-of-town weddings this year, both of which require travel by our whole little gang, an entire separate trip to The River wasn't going to happen this summer.  There's only so many trips that this Mama can handle with an infant, and only so many vacation days for Daddy.  So we decided to squeeze in a quick trip on the way home from Hilton Head...

We left Hilton Head around 10pm and pulled up to the River House about 4.5 hours later.  Two sleeping children quickly turned into two wide awake children.  We got them settled into bed fast enough, but neither fell back to sleep.  Annabelle decided to blow out her diaper, requiring a diaper, PJ and blanket change.  Sam decided to test the freedom he was given to come get us - rather than calling us - if he needed anything.  To be honest, I don't know how long it took them to fall asleep because we ended up passing out first.  Oops.

Saturday was lovely.  It was the first time that we'd ever been alone at the river.  We went down to the water for about an hour, but didn't float at all.  We mostly played and hung out just the four of us.  Grammy and Papa arrived at dinner and got to hang out before the kids went to bed.

And then Sam woke up in the middle of the night with a high fever.  Score for Mommy: not only did I remember to pack the children's tylenol, I knew where it was in the suitcase, found it and dispensed it in the dark.  Thank you, thank you very much.  Anywho, he was crying hysterically and, as per usual, only calmed down when Daddy laid with him.  Except they did that in the big bed (btw, all 4 of us were in one small room).  I lost my spot, as I'd gotten up to tend to Annabelle, who woke up to the crying.  She was happy as could be, but not the least bit interested in sleeping.  So Sam passed out and transferred back to his bed, and I took Annabelle to the family room in fear that her "talking" would wake the screamer again.  1.5 hours later she was asleep in her car seat and I was asleep on the couch.  Unscore.

Sunday was interesting.  We've now done enough fevers to know that when Sam gets a fever, he gets a high fever - like, over 103.  And he throws up once when its at its peak.  And I think we can finally recognize when that's coming.  Poor guy was miserable and had no interest in the river.  The grandparents and I took Lady A for her first run ever, and she did great.  We finally convinced Sam to stay with the grandparents so Mommy and Daddy could get about 45 minutes of water time.

After dinner we loaded up one more time and drove the 12 hours home.  It was nice to feel like we were in the middle of no where for 2 days.  It was nice to spend that last weekend of our vacation away, rather than rushing back into laundry, yard work, etc by getting home on Saturday.  But that last drive was painful.  If we hadn't been up with the kids on Saturday night it would have been a different story, but it was a pretty rough go for the adults.

But now we are home, enjoying our last few weeks of summer.  Can't believe so many are back in school this week - I am NOT ready to admit that summer is over!

Hilton Head Island 2012

We did it, our first road trip with 2 kids.  I'll accept your congratulations now.  Part of me wants to recap the entire week, but I know y'all aren't quite as interested as I am in the details.  I'll try to keep it brief.

"Its hot, we're not gonna sit around thinking.  Grab your towels, get your sunscreen, everybody's headed to the BEACH!"

A song from Sam's SonSurf VBS this year, which he insisted on listening to as we pulled out of the driveway.  We left at naptime, drove till dinner, the kids slept while we drove through the night, Cracker Barrel breakfast, and then we were there.  Annabelle got a few bottles in motion - and Chris and I now know how to wedge ourselves between the two back seats to assist in said feedings.

We (Gommy, Papa, Uncle Matt, Aunt Kate, Aunt Kristen, Cousin Molly, and the 4 of us...Uncle George still deployed to Japan/Australia/Some Islands/A Boat) stayed, once again, at a house with it's own pool.  This, my friends, is the way to vacation with Littles because it allows for everyone to enjoy being outside regardless of how many children need to nap on how many different schedules.  This year I was incredible grateful for the feature since I was often hanging back with a napping baby that would soon need to nurse.  I would have loved to get a little more beach time with my boy, but we overlapped our stays by at least a little bit each day.

Sam had a great time.  He ran in and out of the waves like a champ, jumping through them, splashing everywhere, with very little regard for the saltiness of the water.  He dug in the sand, crushed sandcastles built by others, filled in holes as fast as Uncle Matt could dig them.

In the pool he lived on his noodle.  With noodle attached firmly to his waste, the child was invincible.  Jumped off the side, fetched things in the deep end, splashed and played.  He loved not having to be connected to an adult, and we loved having our hands free.  He also stood on the step to play pouring games with Miss Molly, during which times there was NEVER any fighting over whose turn it was with the watering can.  There were games of synchronized jumping (we watched a lot of the Olympics!)..."On your mark, A-Set, Go!"

At the house he turned the stairs into his airplane, and every single person had to take turns going on rides with him.  He was the pilot, but  also served snacks - usually cheerios - and often made stops to pick up food (Idaho for potatoes, Chicago for Chicken).  He also invited everyone to come to "his room," which was the closet in the master bedroom (which the 4 of us shared).  Given that his sister sleeps in a closest at home, he had no qualms identifying it as his own.  

Annabelle seemed to enjoy the water.  She kicked her little legs a good bit.  It was a challenge to keep her fully shaded, but that hat sure looked cute on her!  She didn't seem to mind the sand, but made an utterly disgusted face when she dipped her hand in the ocean and put it straight into her mouth.  She didn't really take to napping in the old beach stroller, so I didn't get as many beach walks as I might have liked.

She did get her first cold - a couch and runny nose - while we were there.  I think it made it a bit more difficult for her to sleep, but she really wasn't any fussier.  Always sad, though, to see your baby get sick for the first time!

Sam enjoyed having Molly around - most of the time.  It is, after all, exhausting to share ALL of the time.  Molly loved him too, even tried to drink milk (much-detested by the little lady) to be just like him.  "Sam, I coming!" she would announce after each nap, as if his world had stopped to wait while she slept.

We enjoyed a few nights out on the town - one restaurant had fire, one had Ohio State and one had Harbor Town - but cooked in most nights.  Its just easier with so many small people.  Matt and Kate got away one night to celebrate their first anniversary :-)

Chris and I had fun.  We went in with realistic expectations of what this vacation would be like.  This is not the season of beach reading and relaxation.  In fact, during the day we often saw each other in passing, one getting a kid up while the other putting a kid down, feeding one while playing with the other, to the beach and from the pool to make sure they both got to experience everything.  But none of that matters compared with seeing your kids light up with enthusiasm and enjoyment of the special activities.

I will leave you with a link to more pictures and videos.  Hope to be back there again soon!

Playing Together

Annabelle has her first cold, and Sam is concerned.  He keeps asking to take her to the doctor, and since I keep refusing, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

They played doctor for 10 minutes.  Both my kids were happy and occupied for 10 minutes.  I can see now how having a built-in playmate is going to be life-changing, for all of us.  Now granted, I was closely supervising since my 3 year old was "doctoring" my baby, but still, they occupied each other for 10 minutes.

And they both loved it.  She was so happy to be a part of his game.  He was so happy to have a willing participant who was captivated by his every word.

At one point Sam asked me, "Is it polite if I take her clothes off to give her a shot?"  You see, we've started talking about when it is and is not polite to be naked.  Sam is still has very little concept that nakedness isn't for the world to see.  And while she is a baby and it really doesn't matter, I really don't want Sam thinking that he can take clothes off of his other friends to play doctor.  Yikes!  So I said it was not polite, but that I would get her arm out so that he could administer a shot.

5 Months

**My apologies for the late post.  We were on vacation, and I didn't want to spend a lot of time on the computer.**

Our little lady turned 5 months old at the beach.  What a rough life this child leads.  She is fortunate to be the second child, as we so could not wrap our heads around taking a baby this young to the beach the first go round.

5 months finds Annabelle much the same - still a good baby.  Less newborn, though, which I guess is a good thing.  I have managed to figure out her nap schedule, which is two long naps and one short nap.  If she gets her first nap of the day, she is an excellent sleeper all day long.  In fact, I often have to wake her from naps to feed her.  Why, you ask, would you wake a sleeping baby?  Because it is my strong belief that babies that sleep too much and eat too little during the day will sleep too little and eat too much overnight.  So there you go.  Unfortunately, Sweet Cheeks (a Sam-approved nic name) does not always get all of her naps because, well, Sam and I would kill each other if we never left the house.  And three naps a day in the crib, plus 5 nursings a day mean we would pretty much never leave the house.  So we have Sam days, filled with outings, and Annabelle days, filled with at-home play.  It is working for us so far.

I still swaddle her!  But she is getting really good at getting out of it, so I must soon figure out how to put her to sleep with free arms.  Especially since she is taking to rolling over in her crib.  And no, she still cannot roll from her stomach to her back.  This confuses me.  She is pushed up all the way on her arms, crying because she is mad, and just sits there.  Just lean, little girl!

She is playing much more.  She likes to always have something to hold, be it a toy, strap, or burp cloth, and is constantly trying to get said item into her mouth.  This, plus my battle wounds from spoon

 feeding Sam, are making me consider Baby-Led Weaning with her...but that is another post.  She is always trying to sit up, it looks like she's doing little baby crunches.  If I get her balances just right she can sit for a few seconds, but she just won't reach her arms down to learn the tripod sit.  She did, however, sit in her first ever high chair on the way to vacation.  She's no longer content in the bouncy seat because she can't see what's happening.

I'm not going to lie, it is hard work to get her to laugh.  I feel like this goes with her laid back personality - it takes a lot to get her worked up for the good or the bad.  Some belly blows and neck nibbles will often do it, but there is no belly laughing yet like Sam had at this age.

And her list for the month...
Likes:
-Sam.  Her biggest smiles are always for Sam
-Being included

-Having her diaper off

Dislikes:
-Being left out
-Prolonged periods on her stomach