Sunday, July 31, 2011

Angel Eating...Very Loudly!

Mealtime at our house is far from quiet...I don't understand it, but almost every time we feed Angel she makes a ton of noise when she is swallowing each bite.  On top of that she cries for another bite!  She is more than a bit impatient it would seem and the 5 seconds it takes to refill the spoon is just too much for her to handle.  Here is a little glimpse into some of her mealtime sounds:



While her skills have improved she still seems to forget that her feet don't help during feeding.  I'm loving that we are 6 for 6 with foods...she loves cereal, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, bananas and carrots!  I'm really hoping her love for all foods is here for life and maybe she can teach her big sister that there is more in life than goldfish.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Two New Spoken Words Today!

I can hardly believe it!  If I wasn't there to hear both of these new spoken words today I probably wouldn't believe it!  After lunch she was playing with her Daddy doing the See and Learn "More First Words" flashcards and when the bubbles card came up she busted this out...



Then I was playing with her with some toys that her Cousin O and Cousin C decided they were okay with passing down to Sweet Pea and she wanted the box open.  I was expecting to hear her say "up" which is her typical sound when she wants something opened.  Instead I heard this...



Can you believe it?  Two new words in one day?  I think she now says: up, Mama, Daddy, ball, dog, more, her sisters name, Grandma, banana, moo, baa, yeah, eat, and now bubbles and open!   She is starting to say me, mine, Grandpa, her name, Elmo, I want, and many more that I can't think of.  Now her words are not perfect, but we understand her intentions and so I count them.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Wheels on the Bus Video

Sweet Pea was dancing all around when we were singing Wheels on the Bus so I broke out the camera and captured some of her silliness...

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Happy 6 Month Birthday Angel!

Can it really be?  I don't believe it is true, but supposedly Angel turned 6 months old today!  Where did the time go?


Angel is still more of a newborn than a toddler, but she is fast approaching the tipping point.  Here is a quick summary of what she is up to these days:


Stats:  Length: 26 1/2 in (75th percentile)
          Head circumference: 43 1/2 cm (75th - 90th percentile)
          Weight: 15 lbs 6 1/2 oz (50th percentile)


Quick video:


Sleeping: We put her down around 7pm and she tends to fall asleep around 7:30pm with some help from us.  She used to fall asleep on her own, but that isn't happening very much anymore.  As for her waking up...it depends on Sweet Pea.  We moved her into the same room as Sweet Pea on the 17th and I wish I could say it was going well, but it isn't.  The past two nights Sweet Pea has gotten up before 5am and so I finally resorted to putting her in the pack n play in our sunroom so that we could get a little more sleep and so she wouldn't wake up Angel.  Angel was quiet until after 6:30.  The days before she would be up at 5:30 with Sweet Pea.  They are both light sleepers and I wish I knew how to change that!  Naps aren't going well these days at all.  She is taking 3 a day, but they aren't consistent.  Angel falls asleep easily in the car, but as soon as we stop she wakes up so it makes getting a solid nap in difficult when we have to pick Sweet Pea up from school.  She also isn't sleeping for more than 30-45 minutes when she naps at home anymore.  She used to sleep for a good two hours!  I miss those days and hope to bring them back, but I don't know how.  I know she would do better if she had a consistent routine and was at home for most of her naps, but I've been working really hard at getting Sweet Pea out to the pool and play dates so Angel has had to adapt.  All things considered, she is doing pretty darn well.


Eating:  Angel is exclusively breastfed for her liquids although she can take a bottle so Mommy can be MIA when necessary.  She started rice cereal on July 10th and loved it immediately!  She is hilarious when she eats...maybe a little frustrating at times, but it really is funny...if you don't get the next bite to her fast enough she starts grunting impatiently.  By fast enough I mean that as soon as you take the spoon out of her mouth she is almost immediately ready for the next bite.  I think it is safe to say that she loves rice cereal!  Since she handled the cereal so well I decided to try sweet potatoes a week later.  The first bite I gave her was at the end of a feeding of cereal where she was pretty much full already.  The look on her face was funny because she was confused, but not upset.  She took another bite and then was done.  The next day she ate a good 1/3 of the jar.  Angel has also had peas and just today she had pears.  She ate the whole container in one sitting today!  Her technique is definitely improving and I'm hoping she continues liking everything we give her!


Gross Motor:  Angel rolled from her back to her stomach regularly before she was 4 months old, but she just started regularly rolling from her stomach to her back two weeks ago.  She tolerates being on her tummy much longer these days, but still doesn't prefer it...although you wouldn't know it since she is always rolling onto her tummy!  She is starting to bring her knees up under her belly and spins all around.  Her movements aren't very controlled yet, but she is making progress every day.  She still spits up every time we put her into sitting, but she is able to sit unsupported for a few seconds.


Teeth:  Her first tooth (bottom left front) broke through on the 23rd and it looks like she is about to get the other bottom front tooth.  I'm hoping we don't get two in one week, but I do believe we might!


Favorites:  Her sister, baths, her thumb, her toes, singing and "flying" through the air.


Personality:  She is very alert and aware of everything.  She rarely blinks as I believe she is afraid she will miss something.  Angel is easy going for the most part, but is picky about who holds her.  She will stare at a person for a little while before she either cries or breaks into a smile.  I often wonder what is going through her head!


Hair:  Her hair is starting to come in and it looks like we might have a blond toddler eventually.  Her dark baby hair is slowly being replaced and the bald spot on the back of her head is just barely starting to get some new hairs.


Happy Birthday Angel! We love you more than words can say.  Your bright blue eyes and sparkling smile make every day a wonderful day.  I can't wait to see what you do next!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Random Photos

I've been absent a lot lately so here is another catch up post.  You will notice that I've backdated a couple other posts to try to keep them in the actual order that they occurred.  Our lives have been busy, but wonderful and although I wish I was better at keeping this blog updated, I'm happy that we are living life to its fullest!

Sweet Pea has been loving pushing her dolls around in this little stroller that she was given for her birthday.


We've been enjoying the warm weather and had a playdate with her boyfriend:


More proof of sisterly love:


Reading to her sister:


Even Angel is having fun at our playdates now!




Saturday, July 23, 2011

Angel's First Tooth

Angel's first tooth broke through today!  She is 3 days shy of turning 6 months and she has a tooth!  Craziness!  Sweet Pea didn't get her first until 3 days before she turned 9 months so I thought I had a little more time.  I'm going to miss her toothless grin very soon here!

We were VERY lucky that this tooth either didn't hurt too much or Angel is great at dealing with it.  She has been gnawing on everything (as evident in the vampire video) but she has been pretty quiet about the whole thing.  Way to go Angel!  You could slow down the growing up piece just a tad though...Mommy isn't ready for you to grow up!

Mommy has been neglectful...I need to start taking more photos of Angel!  I was looking to put one up here and I realize that I don't have any recent ones!  I'll try to take some tomorrow.  For now though you will have to make due with a video of Angel playing in her "Circle of Neglect" (aka exersaucer) for the very first time back on July 12th.  I love how she starts expressing displeasure as soon as I say she is liking it!  Go figure!

Handbells For Grandma

Have fun at bell camp Grandma!  Maybe you can teach me a few songs when you get back...



See video here

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Swimming with Cousins

We've been going swimming with Cousin O and Cousin C a lot recently.  It's fun normally, but Grandma made it extra special today.  Sweet Pea is loving the water and gets very excited when I ask if she wants to go to the pool to swim.  I'm trying to take her at least once a week and she is getting better every time.  I don't want summer to end!!!!

Angel hasn't joined us in the water yet, but hopefully she will soon.  I'm not sure how I'll handle both of them, but hopefully I'll figure something out.




This is one happy girl!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Concert in the Park

Another fun concert in the park with Grandma!



Lily was there too...although she slept through most if it.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Sweet Pea's New Haircut

Look who finally got a true haircut!  We have been delaying the inevitable for far too long.  Everyone under the sun was being too kind to us in not making us do this earlier.  Our poor little girl had the worst mullet ever!  It's finally gone though!  Take a look at the results...





Not too bad considering I did it myself!  My first haircut ever...on a squirming 2 year old!  I hope to get better with time and it seems I will have lots of chances to practice with two little girls under my care.  Poor girls!

Monday, July 11, 2011

Exersaucer Fun

I also pulled down the exersaucer (Circle of Neglect) today!  Both girls love it!



Installed Doorway Jumper

I finally went up into the attic and pulled down the doorway jumper for Angel.  It is yet another example of how I am neglecting to realize that Angel is ready for new things until well past the point that I should!  I don't know if it is because I am so accustomed to Sweet Pea taking her time to achieve everything or if I just don't want Angel to grow up so fast.  Either way, I hope to start being better about it soon!

Angel absolutely lit up when we put her in the jumper!  Unfortunately, Sweet Pea did too!  We were trying to get Sweet Pea ready for bed and this riled her right up.  Whoops!  It was too cute to stop though!







Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Successful Surgery

Sweet Pea's ear tubes surgery was a success today!  The ENT was even able to get the next size of tube placed so hopefully these will last longer than the previous two sets.  It's amazing to see how small her ears are!  I never really noticed it until I was looking at Angel's ears and you can very easily see the size difference.  I think Angel's at 5 months of age are already bigger than Sweet Pea's at 2+ years of age!  Insane!

We arrived at 5:30 and as we were checking in we were told that Angel wasn't going to be allowed on the surgery floor.  She was healthy, but they don't allow anyone under 16 up there supposedly.  It sure would have been nice for someone to tell us this prior to today!  I had both kids with me during all the pre op meetings...you would have thought someone should have told me that I would need to make plans for Angel!  Nope!  Luckily it was okay since we had Grandma to stay with Angel.









Sweet Pea has sometimes had a hard time waking up from the anesthesia.  I could hear her crying when she was just starting to wake up and they finally brought me back to comfort her and as soon as I was holding her she settled right down and crashed out for over an hour.  She was out cold!  The nurse seemed to be wanting her to wake up so that we could get out of there, but I wasn't going to force her awake before she was ready.  The few times that we tried a little she flailed around just enough to make me not want to continue.  When she finally did wake up she was quiet and a little out of it, but that was so much better than prior times when she would cry for so long.  I could easily handle snuggling with her for an hour!  Trying to hold an inconsolable girl is not nearly as easy.



Thank you for all the good thoughts!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Fun in the Sun

The weather has been amazing here and we took advantage of it today!  Sweet Pea hasn't been enjoying the water table, sprinkler or grass this summer so I keep trying to show her the error of her ways.  Today it finally worked!  I took her out in the morning and she played and played and played!  She was willing to play in the water table on the grass in bare feet and didn't even need to have a blanket underneath her!  She would splash her face and dump water on herself and not care at all!  When we were playing in the sandbox that I turned into a mini pool she was kicking and splashing and even sitting in the water.  I think she was okay with it because it was so warm out, there was no wind and the water heated up pretty quickly from the sun.





Here is a video of Sweet Pea showing off her kicking and splashing abilities:


Here is a video of the water slide we made:


Angel wasn't in a good mood today, but she tolerated being outside for a little while.  I thought this was a good way to keep her out of the sun when there was no shade to be found:


It's so nice to not have to keep these girls apart anymore!  They missed each other!



We joined a local group of moms at the park this afternoon for some homemade ice cream making and it was a blast!  We had a small ziplock with the liquid ice cream and an outer ziplock with ice and rock salt.  The kids shook the bags and within a few minutes they had ice cream!  It was so easy and it was very yummy.  Sweet Pea was kind enough to share hers with Mommy as it was melting pretty quickly!



When the ice cream fun was over Sweet Pea wanted to play in the swings as she normally does.  As I was pushing her and holding Angel it dawned on me that Angel could probably go in the other swing!  She is growing up so fast and I have a hard time admitting that she isn't a newborn anymore!  Angel sat right up and loved it!







A quick video of the swinging sisters:


Sweet Pea is healthy so we are scheduled for ear tube surgery tomorrow morning and have to arrive at the hospital at 5:30am.  Wish us luck!!!!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Toes

As all babies seem to do, Angel LOVES her toes. Just yesterday I captured her doing some impressive work to try to get to her toes while strapped into the chair. It looks like she is trying to get out of the chair, but I promise...she is really just going for those succulent little toes.





And yes, I realized that the straps probably needed to be tightened so that she didn't flip out of the chair the next time she was so bend upon eating her toes. Unfortunately, when I went to tighten the strap it broke so that chair won't be used again. Angel loved that chair and it worked well for us, but Daddy kept killing his toes on it because the frame of it sticks out a bit so he is probably the only one happy about its retirement. In fact, if there wasn't the risk of his little girl getting hurt I wouldn't have been surprised if he tried to break the straps earlier!

Anyway, back to my question...Do toes really taste that good?

This afternoon I was on my way home from picking Sweet Pea up from her center based therapy program and I glance into the backseat to find her trying to attack her toes too! She was completely bent over with both arms wrangling her pudgy foot up to her mouth and she is practically gnawing on her big toe! She then switches feet and repeats the process. Her big toes have been peeling a big on the edges and I'm wondering if her teeth are what is causing it? I didn't realize that she was doing this. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and saw that she is just mimicking her sister and trying to see what Angel is so fascinated with...but really?!?!

Mrs. Potato Head and Home Situation Update

Sweet Pea wanted to play with Mrs. Potato Head this afternoon so she gets her out of the toy bin and brings her over to me.  She comes with just one arm and one ear attached.  Sweet Pea then goes back to the bin to get more pieces.  She grabs the eye glasses and hat.  She gets frustrated when the glasses won't stay on because she doesn't have a nose or another ear and decides to toss them aside and put the hat on and then go back for more pieces.  I prompt her to bring me a nose or eyes or ear or even her mouth.  Yes, she knows what those items are, but does she bring them?  She reaches in and grabs a few items including the eyes, nose and mouth and drops those three on the ground and keeps only one other piece.  Know which piece she thought Mrs. Potato Head couldn't live without?  Apparently a one armed, one ear, hat wearing Mrs. Potato Head needs a purse more than any thing else!  My girl has interesting priorities...she definitely didn't learn this sense of style from me!

I've been needing a bit of humor as my days have been far from fun recently.  Sweet Pea is finally healthy (I hope I didn't jinx anything) and so is Daddy, but Angel and I are anything but!  Angel has been waking up before the two hour mark every night recently and I've been sick as a dog.  I finally went into the doctor yesterday and learned that I have bronchitis so I got some drugs and they are already starting to work their magic.  Angel's doctor also changed her meds and she is also doing a bit better today.  I hadn't slept more than 30 minutes for the past 3 nights until last night when I actually slept for 2 1/2 hours in a row!  I felt so alive this morning it was ridiculous!  And then to make matters even better...Angel took two good naps today of almost 2 hours and so I got to sleep over an hour each time too!  Daddy has been a life saver and has taken care of Angel for the past two nights as well as having done more than his share around the house too.  He is the only reason this house is still functioning at all.  Not that we are functional, but we are somewhat functioning.  Let's hope that today is a sign of good things to come.  We've been under quarantine for far too long and it looks like the 4th of July will be Independence Day in more than the traditional way!

Here are a couple of photos from the sickness that our house has been:

This is one night when Sweet Pea wasn't feeling well.  She had moved sometime after we put her to bed into this much more comfortable position.


And this was Angel when she wasn't feeling well...you can see it in the look in her eyes.