Monday, June 30, 2014
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Another pair of loved shoes
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
Whoa - 8 Months
Slow down...I personally dislike when we get close to the end of a year. It just feels like the proceeding months went too fast and now we only have a little bit of time left. Well that's where I'm at with Eva's first year. I can't believe we only have 4 more months to go.
But after reviewing previous blogs, I'm also grateful to be where we are. Eva's a whole little person. She's engaging and sweet and loving (she gives me lots of kisses) and sleeping and taking a bottle and an all around person. So I wouldn't trade being here for the newborn phase again.
Really the big stuff of the month happened the week leading up to the 8th month mark. Babies are really amazing when it comes to skill acquisition. We took a 5 hour flight to California and it was like some switch was flipped. On the other side of the flight, Eva was now rolling from front to back and back to front. She was actively trying to get people's attention to get a smile/reaction. It made for a super fun trip since we were out and about a ton.
She also is starting her language development. I can ask where Ellie or Daddy is and her face/eyes immediately dart for them. Yesterday, we were looking at the ceiling fan in our room and I was making the sign for fan (pointing finger going in a circle). I then asked her to show me the sign and she raised her hand and twisted her wrist. Our first sign!
Teeth are coming! The first one has broken thru and the one right next to it, isn't far behind.
With teeth comes food. We have worked up to a range of foods. She's eating mashed foods, feeding herself biscuits and cheerios. And most fortunately, taking bottles. We've been giving one 8 oz bottle just before bed and that seems to be making a difference to how much sleep we've gotten from her.
But after reviewing previous blogs, I'm also grateful to be where we are. Eva's a whole little person. She's engaging and sweet and loving (she gives me lots of kisses) and sleeping and taking a bottle and an all around person. So I wouldn't trade being here for the newborn phase again.
Really the big stuff of the month happened the week leading up to the 8th month mark. Babies are really amazing when it comes to skill acquisition. We took a 5 hour flight to California and it was like some switch was flipped. On the other side of the flight, Eva was now rolling from front to back and back to front. She was actively trying to get people's attention to get a smile/reaction. It made for a super fun trip since we were out and about a ton.
She also is starting her language development. I can ask where Ellie or Daddy is and her face/eyes immediately dart for them. Yesterday, we were looking at the ceiling fan in our room and I was making the sign for fan (pointing finger going in a circle). I then asked her to show me the sign and she raised her hand and twisted her wrist. Our first sign!
Teeth are coming! The first one has broken thru and the one right next to it, isn't far behind.
With teeth comes food. We have worked up to a range of foods. She's eating mashed foods, feeding herself biscuits and cheerios. And most fortunately, taking bottles. We've been giving one 8 oz bottle just before bed and that seems to be making a difference to how much sleep we've gotten from her.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Ellie-isms
We've been working super hard to get back on track with Ellie. It feels that we lost a little magic when Eva joined the family. Adding another person seemed to jumble up things and we were left with a little person that wasn't sleeping as well and was defiant about a lot.
With the help of her preschool teachers and a lot of one on one, we're back! We still have an almost 4 year old that challenges boundaries but she's much happier, minds directions more and is sleeping better.
With this new found "grove", we've been enjoying many funny observations that come from her little mouth.
One day we had a duck pair tootling around our yard. We were trying to describe how they were different. The "boy duck" was the pretty one with the curly tail feather. And the "girl duck" was colored so she would blend in with her surroundings to protect the eggs.
Later, Ellie saw the ducks again. She said "Hey, there's the tricky one!". We were puzzled...the tricky one? Yes she insisted, "The one that likes to hide." :)
Another interesting thing Ellie is doing, is labeling things as beautiful and not beautiful. It's normally categorized as something with lots of colors versus something that only has one color. Recently, this came up in school when her group was asked to sort a pile of rocks and gemstones. Most kids sorted by size or color but Ellie applied her "beautiful lens" to the activity. She didn't even want to show the not beautiful ones (the rocks).
Ellie's also getting into words. They have been practicing writing names all school year and she's been getting better and better at writing her letters.
The other morning we passed by a schedule chart in the kitchen. She looked at it and said "There's the Quiet Time sign". I was astonished that she knew it said that. I asked her how she knew that it said Quiet Time. She looked at me like I was crazy and stated matter of frankly, "Because it says Qqquiet...Q-U-I-E-T." Got it.
With the help of her preschool teachers and a lot of one on one, we're back! We still have an almost 4 year old that challenges boundaries but she's much happier, minds directions more and is sleeping better.
With this new found "grove", we've been enjoying many funny observations that come from her little mouth.
One day we had a duck pair tootling around our yard. We were trying to describe how they were different. The "boy duck" was the pretty one with the curly tail feather. And the "girl duck" was colored so she would blend in with her surroundings to protect the eggs.
Later, Ellie saw the ducks again. She said "Hey, there's the tricky one!". We were puzzled...the tricky one? Yes she insisted, "The one that likes to hide." :)
Another interesting thing Ellie is doing, is labeling things as beautiful and not beautiful. It's normally categorized as something with lots of colors versus something that only has one color. Recently, this came up in school when her group was asked to sort a pile of rocks and gemstones. Most kids sorted by size or color but Ellie applied her "beautiful lens" to the activity. She didn't even want to show the not beautiful ones (the rocks).
Ellie's also getting into words. They have been practicing writing names all school year and she's been getting better and better at writing her letters.
The other morning we passed by a schedule chart in the kitchen. She looked at it and said "There's the Quiet Time sign". I was astonished that she knew it said that. I asked her how she knew that it said Quiet Time. She looked at me like I was crazy and stated matter of frankly, "Because it says Qqquiet...Q-U-I-E-T." Got it.
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Mud bath anyone?
We did some trenching in the yard and the rain over the last couple days gave me the chance to backfill with minimal settling. Ellie decided to help out. . . Nuff said
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
One of those things I want to remember. .
Little Ellie has been tucking her hand under her face when she sleeps - too cute. They look so angelic when they sleep.
7 1/2 months
What a month-ish it's been...not our most elegant but blessed none the less.
There were some ups but many frustrating downs. Again, I believe sleep is behind much of our angst. We, inclusive of all family members, just need to get more of it. The good news is that we've been working hard on it, trying to work through each of the girls hangups and are making head way. This week, we have had successful nights which has led to happier days. So the plan is to keep the focus on and get more and more sleep.
Eva's quickly figured out rolling last month (like 2 or 3 days of practice). It was something the pediatrician encouraged last visit. He wasn't worried because she was sitting well but wanted to get the other motions going. Although I must say that hanging out on her stomach is still not preferred.
Most recently, she's been working on going from a seated position to hands and knees. She'll rock or reach on hands and knees and then go back to seated. So I'm guessing that crawling is not far off. I think once she has the muscle strength to carry her robust self, she'll be fully mobile.
We had a quick visit with the pediatrician this month for a vaccine. While there, we did a quick weigh in. She's growing at a pretty steady 1lb/month. This month she was just over 19lbs.
In other great news...Eva's closed tear duct finally opened. The week we were scheduled to meet with Dr's to consider a probing procedure to open the duct, all the eye goop we'd been living with cleared up. Funny how life works like that...even for babies :)
Playing in the rain
Got to enjoy some splashing in the puddles with grandma today. . . is there anything better than puddles???
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