Weeks 8 through 14

I blinked. I swear that's what it feels like. It truly feels like I blinked and now Sam is already three months old and in daycare and I'm back at work. The first day back has gotten easier with each baby and with Sam I cried for only a few moments in the daycare parking lot on the first day. After that it's just been a whirlwind of getting kids dressed and ourselves ready and out of the door on time.

Sam is already rolling over - sporadically - which feels entirely too soon. Overall she's just a happy and easygoing baby. She's not quite sleeping through the night yet, but she's only waking up once in the middle of the night and then again between 4:00 and 6:00 AM, which works out with our work schedule.

This kid also has such great head/neck control. When she's laying on her back she looks like she's trying to do a sit up and really she prefers sitting upright and facing out if we're holding her. For Christmas she got an insert for our highchair so now she can sit at the dinner table with us and she loves it.

My favorite part of the day is still pick up time. Everyone is always all smiles and it just melts my heart.

Party like a rock star

Ever since our little man was born we've called him Tommy and Tom and the girls often sing part of The Who's Tommy to him. So when it came time to start planning Tommy's first birthday party I immediately knew I wanted to do a rock n roll theme. I originally wanted to get him a Tommy shirt, but actually get around to looking for one until the week of the party and by then all I could find were $25-40 shirts and really, does a one year old need a $40 shirt for a one-time wear? Thankfully we already had a few different classic rock band shirts for him and eventually settled on Led Zeppelin. We kept the decorations simple with black and silver/grey streamers and balloons and tablecloths. I made a couple of faux speakers with boxes and black tablecloths. I had bought the girls some punk rock gloves and wound up repurposing the cardboard hands from the gloves to use as sign of the horns decorations. ROCK ON!



It's hard to see in that pic, but I made a birthday banner using a tattoo-style font.



I also printed out a bunch of classic rock album covers to hang as decorations.


As for the birthday boy himself, well, he felt like being a true mama's boy that day and broke down every time I left the room without him. But you know what they say, it was his party and to hell if he wasn't going to cry if he wanted to.


He knew *just* what to do when it was time for cake and grabbed his cupcake and focused on (somewhat) quietly eating it. I say somewhat because he would pause, look over and cry, then go back to his cupcake. Rinse and repeat. He finally calmed down after gifts were opened and settled on playing with a sturdy box one of the gifts came in.




Happy birthday, Tommallama!
Now. His first year well check.
Stats:
24 lbs, 87th percentile
31 1/8" long, 92nd percentile
19" head, 96th! percentile

He checked out well and wound up with three vaccinations and one prick to check his hemoglobin. Turns out his iron levels are still on the low side, so he'll be getting a daily vitamin with iron and we'll recheck him in a month. He's also had a newish development which seems to have happened overnight. He's been taking steps here and there, but not really walking - just cruising around. But this week he's just walking all over the place. I'm sure it won't be long until he's keeping up with his sisters.

Somewhere between 29 weeks and 34 weeks old...oops

Life got way too hectic recently and I think I missed a couple of weekly shots. :( Here are the most recent ones. He's already 34 weeks old and will be 8 months old right after Christmas.



Tommy is all over the place and into absolutely everything. He crawls at lightning speed and is pulling up, too, so nothing is safe. He swipes everything and immediately tucks it in his mouth. He's still the happiest baby I know. In fact, as I type this he's crawling around grabbing things off of the couch and laughing...and he got his flu shot this afternoon, too. Happy kid.

26 weeks old and 6 month stats

Oh, boo boo. I really need to start taking these weekly pictures earlier in the day when he's happy and not right before bedtime. Mom fail.

So much has happened this past month that it's been hard to keep track of it all. Tommy started solid foods, and loves them, really loves them. He gets upset when he finishes a meal, but I know there's no way his little stomach could hold any more food than what we gave him. He also loves sitting at the dinner table with us and happily smiles and coos at everyone. So far he's had avocado, banana, cereal, plums, pears, peaches, sweet potato, a couple of winter squashes, and mango. Up next are the green veggies and adding in some herbs. I'm thinking that we may just puree whatever we're having for dinner (but not meats) and then just feed him that. I gave him a bite of my skillet potatoes the other day and he loved them - spices and all.



Tommy also started sitting up on his own and is army crawling all over the place. I was putting Stasa's hair up this morning and had the tv remote on the floor next to me and all of a sudden Tommy was by my side swiping at the remote. He slugs his body across the floor fast. He gets up on his knees and rocks, but hasn't quite figured out how to crawl, so he resorts to moving like a slug.



He's been drooling up a storm and a couple of weeks ago I felt something sharp in his mouth and poked around and discovered two teeth buds emerging. They've finally fully popped through his gums and the doctor checked his upper gums and said we've got awhile before those come in.

We took him for his six month well check this week and the doc said he looks great. His stats are so close to Lexi's and Stasa's at that age. He wound up getting all but one vaccination and his flu shot. The one vaccine will be delayed since we opted to get the flu shot.

	Weight	Height
Tommy	16 lbs 5 oz	27.5”
Lexi	16 lbs 3 oz	27”
Stasa	16 lbs 10 oz	26.5”

First solids

GIVE ME MY FOOD!


We started noticing Tommy acting differently during our meals. He would watch us like a hawk and try to swipe our food over and over again. Since we almost always have avocado in the house, we decided to mash some up and try it out with him. He LOVED it. I mean all of my babies have loved solids, but Tommy didn't even seem surprised - just excited to be eating food. He gobbled down the little bit we made and started crying when it was gone.

Since then we've introduced bananas, sweet potato, a couple of different squashes, peaches, and mango. I still have a bunch of produce on my counter waiting to be baked and stewed and hopefully I get a chance to do that this weekend. Plums and peaches and pears and papaya! Yum! I'm also hoping to make some brown rice cereal so we'll see how that pans out.

Keep on rollin'

We hit another milestone with the little man this weekend. I was chatting with friends and absentmindedly playing with Tommy on the floor and saw him reaching over farther than he had before and then BAM he was on his belly looking up. I put him back on his back and within a couple of minutes he had rolled over again. Determined little dude.

Now, I love watching the kids grow and hit all of the milestones they should, but this particular milestone has always come at a price for us at bedtime. Back is best, they say. Well, yes, it is and when your baby is used to only sleeping on their back and end up rolling over in the middle of the night (over and over and over again) they wake up pretty ticked off. So last night was a bit of a bust. Tommy kept rolling over and each time he did, he'd get so angry it would take quite awhile to soothe him back to sleep. Then at some point he was just mad for no reason at all or at least nothing I did calmed him down. Needless to say I'm on my second large cup of coffee for the morning and in search of a caffeine IV. 

For now here's Tommallama rolling over last night and again this morning. 

SHE WALKS!

Okay, not really. But yesterday Lexi took her first steps: STEP-STEP-STEP-FALL. And she did it again this morning. I guess she just wanted to make sure we ended 2011 on a high note. I'll try to get a video of her doing it next time. I screamed when she took her first steps because Tom was in the other room and I think I scared her. Oops. Happy New Year, everyone!

The Sick Attacks...aka why we've been MIA

It's been a little chaotic around here the past week or so. Stasa woke up one night coughing so hard she puked so I took her in to see the doctor the next day. And let me note - she had no other symptoms beyond a slight runny nose that just started and the cough. No fever. No whining. No appetite loss. Nothing.

She tested positive for RSV.

So she stayed home and we started nebulizer treatments every 4 hours during the day and every 6 at night and were told to come back in a couple of days so they could check her lungs. We were also told to monitor Lexi since RSV spreads fast and that we shouldn't be surprised if she ended up with it. Which she did. Between both kids, we've gone to the doctor for follow-ups every other day. Seriously. So many visits to check their lungs. And we're finally getting out of the woods. Both girls were cleared for daycare this week and we're weaning them off of the nebulizer. Just in time for Christmas.

Needless to say, it's been a looooooong week home with both girls. Thankfully Tom and I were able to tag team so we could both get some work done, too. And during that week, Lexi mastered a new trick. Standing Baby. She can stand all by herself for about half a minute and she's cruising like it's her job. Little sister is FAST.

I'll leave you with these pictures as I have to frantically clean the house before guests start arriving. Oh yeah, and wrap presents.





TEETH!



"I'm workin, Mommy. I work with Daddy."


Baby cruisin':

Something new everyday

First things first: we have no idea what made Stasa sick. I took her to the doctor today and after looking her over and running a strep test, they sent us home with instructions to bring back a urine sample, which I'm still waiting to get...because, you know, catching my kid's urine in a cup is exactly the type of thing I look forward to. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's just your run-of-the-mill stomach bug and will pass with time.

With all that's been going on with Stasa, we've just been hanging at home, keeping it low key and making good use of the playroom. She surprises us everyday with what she knows. If you ask her to count, she'll say "3, 2, 1, 2, 3!", but if you just sit back and watch her, you'll catch her counting the right way "1, 2, 3...8, 9, 10, 11, teen." Same with the ABCs - she pretends she doesn't know them, but then can sing the entire song if she thinks you aren't paying attention. And she's so damn observant. I swear she's got better eyesight than Tom and me combined. Tonight's moon was barely a sliver (it's a waxing crescent) and she spotted it immediately in the dusky sky. This morning we were stopped at a traffic light and she was quietly announcing the color, size, and type of vehicle that was passing us: "little red cah", "big black truck", "yellow schoolbus!", "ambahlance"...

And she can hear the slightest of whispers. It's like she's a secret agent or something with spy equipment. Tom and I will have a quick conversation in hushed tones and she'll perk up and yell out "Stasa have ice cream, too!" "We going to play place?" "I don't want any naptime!" 

She's something else, that kid. And the other one? Yeah that one has started doing the unbelievable: pulling up. On her own. The other day I went to pick up the girls and spied Lexi playing and stood so she couldn't see me. She crawled right over to this low play pen where another little boy was quietly playing. She got there, grabbed the edge, and slowly but surely pulled herself up to standing and quickly snatched all of the boy's toys. I stood there in awe, but then chalked it up to a fluke. Then she did it again and again when we got home. And then again the next day and the day after that. She so wants to be in on whatever Stasa is doing, after all, that is her current idol. She gets so upset when we're all playing in the same room and Stas walks out and she'll start hightailing it down the hall to be with her big sis. 

We're off to the Yo Gabba Gabba live show tomorrow night at the Patriot Center. Stas will be dressed as Foofa, natch. And you know I'll have pictures to share. For now I'll leave you with these cuties.

Future Olympian

She's such a daredevil and already crawling over all sorts of things, including my legs.


And she's oh-so-happy with her new abilities.


"I'm gonna getcha, camera!"

She sits, she scoots, she swipes

This kid scoots and crawls all over the place now. This morning I put her down on the floor in her room and went to get dressed, Tom and Stasa were across the hall, brushing their teeth in the bathroom. As I'm dressing I hear Tom say "What happened? Who's that?" I peeked around our door and caught Lexi scootching her butt across the hall and into the bathroom, determined to be a part of our morning routine. And if you put something down she's not supposed to have, like an envelope, girlfriend doubles her speed to  get to it before you can. SWIPER, NO SWIPING!

We're in trouble now

Roll on over, little girl

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I'd like to kick the 6 week growth spurt in the teeth

We're smack dab in the middle of the dreaded 6 week growth spurt, which means Lexi's back to waking up every 2 hours during the night and has only slept in 15 minute stretches so far today. Right now she's sitting quietly ::knock on wood:: in my arms, locked in a staring contest with the couch. Wanna take bets on who's going to win that one? She looks exhausted and is fighting sleep and I just want her to give in so I get some stuff done...like showering.

So since she's decided not to sleep, I thought an impromptu photoshoot was in order. And look what I captured! SMILES! REAL smiles!





Oh and guess what big sis managed to do last night? She broke the bell on her trike. Thank goodness Tom figured out how to put all of the pieces back together.

First sentence

"Hi, daddy."

"Hi, mommy."

Stasa's first sentences. "Hi, daddy" came first and we almost couldn't believe our ears. It came out in this sweet soft little girl voice and was accompanied by a hand wave. Now she can't say enough "hi, daddy" and "hi, mommy" and we're loving every minute of it. 

Stasa, 17 months old

Stasa's almost a year and a half already and her personality becomes more defined each day and we find ourselves laughing all the time at some new thing she does.


We play in the playroom while Tom prepares dinner each night and when he calls up "dinner's ready!" Stasa runs over to the gate and walks down the stairs with assistance and then bee-lines for her highchair. She's getting better about eating what's served and always tries something before refusing to eat it. We can usually trick her into eating things by dipping them in ketchup. She ate grilled tuna for the first time this week, but only after I dipped it in Catalina dressing, which was disgusting. But at least she ate half a tuna steak. I've also had to stop having a drink with dinner because if she sees my cup, she'll refuse to eat anything until she can drink all of my milk or juice. So after she's eaten a good amount, I've been bringing out a little bit of milk in a big girl cup (no lid!) for her. She drinks most of it without spilling and puts the cup down on her tray in between sips and goes "ahhhh!" each time. I don't know where she picks up these little things, but it's so funny when she does it.


Stasa's such a happy kid when she wakes up each morning and usually wakes up talking to her bears that sleep with her. Once we come in, she gets up and helps us hang her blankets over the rails, then she grabs her 2 bears and is ready to get changed for the day. Those 2 bears seem to go everywhere with her nowadays; 1 is a bear Dan and Jenny brought back from Harrod's and the other is the first bear we built at Build-a-Bear. 


And don't you know those bears come back into her room when it's time for bed. We tell her to "say night night" and she grabs those bears and RUNS to her room. And the bears have to come up on the changing table when she gets into her pajamas, too. As soon as we put Stasa in her crib, she crawls around and pulls down all of her blankets and then curls up with her bears. We've been putting her to bed a little early, anytime between 7:30 and 8:00 PM and most nights she spends a good 15-20 minutes talking to her bears before falling asleep. 


She's recently become obsessed with our hairbrushes and combs and always grabs one when she comes in our room each morning. Then she walks around trying to comb her hair, but only manages to brush a few hairs into her face. And if I sit down she'll "brush" my hair, too. It's amazing how much she picks up from our daily routine. She'll play in the bathroom every morning while I do my hair and makeup, so now I know she's paying attention to everything. 


I'm thinking of buying a training potty seat soon since she knows when she poops and will tell us when we ask. I'm sure it's probably way too early, but I figure it can't hurt. I'll just put it in the bathroom and will bring her in whenever we go in there, too. I should probably start researching best practices with potty training, too, so I can be prepared. 

Stasa, 16 months old

The other day I started thinking about our 18 month well baby check-up that's scheduled in a couple of months and wondered what kinds of questions the doctor would ask me. I'm assuming she'll inquire about Stasa's vocabulary and comprehension so I started putting together a mental list of her spoken words and commands or questions that she understands.

Consistently spoken words (with meaning):

• baby
• daddy
• mama/mommy
• duddy (duckie)
• doddie (doggie)
• itty (kitty)
• ba-boo (ball)
• pup (up)
• neah (yeah)
• whereist? (where is it?)

Understood commands and questions:

• Did you poop?
• Give mama/daddy/baby/whomever a kiss.
• Give mama/daddy/whomever a hug.
• Where's your bear?
• Let's feed the baby.
• Bring mama your baby.
• Are you hungry?
• Do you want some milk?
• Where's the kitty?
• Sit down.
• No. (She definitely understands, but doesn't like it.)
• Bring me the ___.
• Get the ball.
• Yay! (clapping)
• How big is Stasa?
• Where's your nose?
• Where's the baby in the belly? Where's your belly?
• Say night night. Let's go night night.
• Bye bye (waves bye)

Random cute things she's doing nowadays:

• Patting our backs when she hugs us
• HUGS! for us, her baby, the cat, random kids, hand puppets...
• Says "ooOOooOoo" when putting on her play necklaces
• Tries to put her socks and shoes on, but only succeeds in placing them on top of her feet
• "Reads" her books and our magazines
• Places her cup on the dinner table when she's finished with it (mostly)
• Neatly dips her french fries and chicken nuggets in ketchup
• Spoon feeds herself yogurt and other soft foods

I'm sure there are other words, commands and cute things she's saying and doing that I've neglected, so I'll add to the list as I remember them. For now I think she's right on track with her development. Tom and I both can't wait until she starts speaking English and not Stasish, but then again, we'll probably be saying "remember when she was nice and quiet?" after a week of her chattering.

STEPS!

Stasa took a couple of steps unassisted yesterday! I'm going to try to get it on video next time!

A weekend of friends

Three little ladies, all dressed up.
Caroline, Audrey and Stasa


Not so happy with mama...she's looking at Julia to save her.
Audrey, Stasa and Caroline (Audrey's really enjoying that necklace!)


Happy 34 weeks, Stasa!


STANDING UNASSISTED!!!! She started this at 35 weeks exactly.

More videos

A new game called, Headbutt Mama


The new way she plays with her jumperoo


Her newest trick - pulling