Lenore at 6 Months

6 Months Old

Her stats (from the pediatrician, percentiles from BabyCenter):
Height: 27.13 inches (between 75th and 90th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs. 14 oz. (between 75th and 90th percentile)
Head Size: 44.5 cm (between 90th and 95th percentile)

Her doctor's appointment went well. The doctor said she couldn't hear the heart murmur, which I take as very good news! We still need to go see the cardiologist for a check-up in the next few weeks, so we'll get more information from them. Lenore had one oral and two injected vaccines, and she took them pretty well. The first shot, she didn't even flinch, but the second one, she let out a wail but calmed pretty quickly. We go back at 9 months!

What she's doing this month:

• She is crawling! Not in a coordinated manner, but she can get across a room in no time. She mostly uses her arms to pull the rest of her body. She will get up on all fours and rock, but she ends up on her belly and army crawls across the floor.
• She sometimes plays with Lewis' toys or her toys, or, lately, power cords. :/ However, she seems a lot more receptive to 'no' than I remember Lewis being. If I grab her away and tell her 'no,' she goes to play with something else. I seem to remember him continually going back to the wires.
• She is NOT sitting yet. Seems a little out of order to me, but every time I try to put her in a sitting position, she leans forward and takes off for something across the room.
• Nursing has become interesting--if someone talks while she's eating (usually Kevin), she'll turn her head to him to hear what he's saying (ouch! to me). Or she giggles at Lewis or blows raspberries, all while semi-eating. I can see glimpses of the two of them teaming up against me in the future. :) She has not bitten me, YET, though I'm sure it's coming.
• I did go ahead and start her on solids right before Easter. She was doing the things that the pediatrician said to look for, as far as readiness goes, and it was time. She is VERY enthusiastic about eating and VERY, VERY messy. (I don't remember Lewis being quite so messy.) Maybe because she's starting younger, and she's still developing her chewing/swallowing skills? Anyway, she's loved everything we've given her, and she often fusses if we don't get the next bite to her fast enough. She just eats once a day, with us at dinnertime.
• Changing her diaper is an adventure--she usually spends the entire time trying to flip over to her belly, so I try to calmly return her to her back (over and over again). It might be getting better.
• She is napping well (knock on wood). She will nap 2-3 times a day, depending on how long the naps are.
• Overnight, I'd say she wakes up 1-2 times a night. It feels about 50/50 right now.
• She went through a rough patch with the car seat, correlating with our house showings and/or teething--she was not happy, and, booooy, did she let me know! There were multiple times she cried from the moment we left to the moment we got home (e.g. the 30ish minutes from Kevin's parents house to home). My nerves were shot on many occasions, but thankfully she's through that now.
• She had her first hair cut this month! My aunt Peggy is in town from Florida, and she offered to trim up the wild sideburns. It is sweet that she was the first to cut her hair, since she always cut ours when we were younger.
• She is wearing size 9 month clothes, almost exclusively.
• Tooth count: TWO! (Her bottom two middles came in a few weeks ago.)

You can just imagine the sounds that accompany these pictures:

 :)

She's definitely more vocal than Lewis ever was!

House Update: Our house sold in 9 days! And we found a house a day before our unofficial deadline! (Phew--we were looking at apartments to rent, in case we didn't find a house, and I was pretty sure we wouldn't find anything in time.) We had to have an accepted offer by Tuesday in order to line things up for the old house/new house to close on the same day (our buyers had given us 30-45 days, and that Tuesday was 30 days out from our closing). Anyway, the house we're buying came on the market on Sunday, we saw it Monday, and made an offer Monday night. There was a 2nd offer, but ours won (it was very exciting!). So we're in the inspection/appraisal/repair phase now, which will soon be followed by the pack-up-the-house phase. :)

Lenore at 5 Months

5 Months Old

aka The Month When Everything Goes in Her Mouth

Her stats (percentiles from BabyCenter):
Height: 26.5 inches (75th to 90th percentile)
Weight: Unknown (because I sent the scale to the storage unit--oops!)
Head Size: 17.25 inches (90th to 95th percentile)

This month went by so quickly! It seems like we were JUST at the doctor for her 4-month check-up. We've been really busy--the house is almost on the market (pictures were taken Friday, so we're just waiting for them to be edited and for the realtor to post them--should be just a matter of days!!!). I also have been busy helping with Lewis's big school fundraiser, which was Friday night--I volunteered on the committee and helped with the silent auction, so that's taken a bit of time the past week or two.

What she's doing this month:

• She is rolling over like a fool. As soon as you put her down on her back, she automatically flips to her belly. She now will flip both directions (left and right) and from back-to-belly and belly-to-back. She sleeps on her belly, happily now (thank goodness).
• She is slowly mobilizing!!! The past few weeks, she has started getting up on her knees with the little booty in the air, and she'll make either small scoots backwards or spin around. It's not significant movement, but it's movement! When I put her in her crib in, say, the lower right corner, I'll find her in the upper left corner (that is forward movement, I guess).
• She is napping in her crib now (unless we have errands--in that case, she falls asleep in her car seat and naps through Target or Kroger). :) We have fallen into a pretty good routine--she naps 3 times a day for 45 minutes to an hour. Occasionally, she will surprise me with a 2 hour nap in the afternoon, but that's only happened a few times. I'm trying to be better with her than I was with Lewis about putting her down awake so that she can learn to fall asleep on her own (vs. nursing her to sleep). She is getting so much better each day, fussing less and sleeping better. Occasionally I'll put her down and can just tell by her cry that it's not going to happen, so I'll feed her to help calm her down. 
• Speaking of feeding, nursing continues to go well (hallelujah!). At her 4-month appointment, the doctor said I can start introducing solids. I didn't start Lewis until 6 months, so I'm in no hurry. I did try rice cereal one day a few weeks ago, but it was a logistical nightmare for me--trying to pump fresh milk to mix with the cereal, while eating lunch with Lewis, while holding Lenore, was not ideal. :) She definitely watches us as we eat, which was one of the things the doctor said to watch for (she grabs for things and watches every bite as it goes from plate-to-mouth). At this point, I kind of feel like I'll get around to it, eventually. I've got the house stuff to worry about, so I'm kind of considering it as one less thing to have to do right now. Now that the fundraiser is over, I might focus more energy towards it--we'll see!
• Since the whole rolling over thing began, sleep regressed. She goes to sleep around 7:30pm, just like Lewis (Kevin puts Lewis to bed, and I put Lenore to bed). I was waking up 2 times a night most of this month (usually like 12:30am and 3:30am and 7ish for the day). Just the last few nights now, we've gone back to 1 time a night--around 2 or 3am, and then 6:45-7am.
• Just last night, she made it 7:30pm-5:30am! (And then slept until almost 9am.) I'm sure it was a fluke, but amazing, nevertheless. 
• She has very vocal days--she will just blab on and on, right in your face, like she has something really important to say. I always agree with her, whatever it is she is saying. :) I definitely don't remember Lewis 'talking' this much.
• She's still very drooly and loves to gnaw on our fingers, but she shows no sign of teeth just yet. She's been this way for at least a month because I remember her gnawing on the doctor's thumb at her 4-month appointment. For the drool,  I finally bought some waterproof bibs to wear so that her shirts stay somewhat dry.
• She is also semi-sucking her thumb/gnawing on it and/or her fingers. She is a slobbery mess, most of the time. :)
• She seems to love being outside, which I, of course, love. With the house prep stuff, there's been some yard work that needed to be done, so I've laid out a blanket in the grass for her, and she'll stay there pretty happily for 30-45 minutes. With her being a little bit mobile, though, I did catch her trying to put grass and/or leaves in her mouth a few times. :)
• She loves her brother! They continue to have more interactive time together, and they both seem to love it. Sometimes, she'll be in the Jumperoo, and he'll figure out ways to make her cackle. Sometimes he wants to hold her, and she ends up trying to eat his face or his hands (nothing says 'I love you' more than that). :)
• She loves Kevin, too. Her face just lights up when he gets home from work. :)
• She does sometimes have some fussy times between 4pm-bedtime, depending on how her afternoon nap goes. I've seen some improvement the past few weeks, but this was definitely a thing earlier this month. There were quite a few days of me cooking dinner with her in the Ergo because she wouldn't let me put her down, otherwise. Cooking dinner, fussy Lewis, barking dogs, etc. at the end of the day makes for some stressful situations for ol' Mama. It seems to be improving, though. 
• There was a day this week when her nap attempt was interrupted by the realtor coming over (and subsequently, barking dogs), so afterwards, I put her in the Ergo, and we mowed the yard together. She totally fell asleep about 10 minutes into it, and happily slept throughout the rest of the mowing. :)
• She is wearing some 6 month clothes, if they're separates. In one-pieces/sleepers, she is mostly wearing 9 months. Her 6 month sleepers are too snug, and some of her 6 month pants (depending on the brand and style), have been retired. Some of the pants' waistbands were super tight (damn you, impractical baby clothes' designers!!).

And some more pictures from this morning, just for fun:

 My sweet babies :)

 Lenore says, 'I will eat you, doggie!'

 Both kids, watching our doggies being escorted from the room (it was an exciting morning of picture-taking, let me tell you). :)

 

 

 Why not stand for a bit?

 And not sit still for longer than 5 seconds...

:)

Lenore at 4 Months

4 Months Old

Her stats (from the doctor's office, percentiles from BabyCenter): 
Weight: 17 pounds, 1.8 ounces (between 90th and 95th percentile)
Height: 24.88 inches (between 5oth and 75th percentile)
Head Size: 17 inches (between 90th and 95th percentile)

So she's not growing in length as much, but still packing on the pounds. :) Her appointment went well--the doctor said that she thinks the heart murmur sounds softer than when she first detected it (I'm not sure how she can remember such a thing--maybe there's a scale that she uses?). We go back to the cardiologist around 6 months for another echo to see for sure, so hopefully we do see improvement then. She had one oral vaccine and two injected ones.

What she's doing this month:

• She's rolling over, both from belly to back and back to belly. She will only go one direction from back to belly (over her right side), so that's helpful for knowing where to lay her down (knowing where to give her some extra room to land). She started doing this at around 3 1/2 months. I don't have a specific date, and I don't have video (poor Lenore). :) She really gotten the hang of it this past week, I know that.
• Sleep is slowly improving. She's had a couple of nights lately where she's only woken up around 2am and 5:30am. I'll put her back down after the 5:30 feeding, and she'll sleep anywhere from 6 to 8am. I've been staying up, so it feels like she only woke up once. She's still had some 1am/4:30am wake-ups, so I won't toot my horn/her horn just yet.
• Since I wrote this a few days ago, just as we were maybe seeing improvement in sleep, she has entered the 'HELP, I've rolled over and don't know what to do!!' phase. Also, the 'OMG, my arm is stuck between the crib slats!!' phase.
• She's settled into a pretty good routine of eat-play-sleep. She's been staying awake for about 2 hours at a time, followed by a 45 minutes to an hour long nap. I think that adds up to 3-4 naps a day, depending on what time she wakes up for the day. If we're out running errands, she might fall asleep for longer in her car seat. One day last week, she slept for 3 1/2 hours (after a normal morning and shortened mid-day nap)!
• Breastfeeding is finally going well. As it should be, finally. I do still have some Raynaud's pain sometimes, but it's nothing compared to what it used to be. She's still not taking bottles 'well,' but she has taken a few. Kevin's parents watched her last weekend while we took Lewis to Chuggington Live (for his birthday gift), and Lenore didn't really drink much from the first two bottles, but she took the third one pretty well, Sharon said. She did better yesterday with a bottle for Sharon, too. She did so-so for Kevin this morning. She's very active with  her hands and pushes the bottle away a lot, so Kevin has had some luck swaddling her while feeding. Still a work in progress.
• I might be biased, but she is just such a sweet baby. She smiles and giggles and just warms my heart, most of the day. She does have her moments, especially if she's hungry, but she's generally very sweet.
• She doesn't have any teeth, but she sure likes to gnaw on things as if she is teething. Blankets, thumbs, etc. And she slobbers so much and blows raspberries. I can't imagine what it will be like when she actually is teething.
• She's wearing 6 month clothes.

Lewis the Truest, Vol. XVIII

It's been a while, but Lewis continues to be pretty hilarious. The first three of these are from back in November/December, and the last two are from this morning: 


My mom reminded me of this one. She stayed with us for part of a week to help me with the transition and recovery. She was immensely helpful, but that's beside the point. :) While helping get Lewis ready to go to school (I believe), she told him to go potty. 

Lewis: I don't need to potty! I'm not holding my penis!

I'm not sure where/when he picked that up. I guess we have called him out a few times for saying he does not have to go, when he's either very clearly grabbing himself or in the process of taking his pants and underwear off, randomly, in the middle of the living room. :) He's pretty good about going when he needs to go, on his own, but he's more resistant when we are the ones telling him to go (e.g. when we're getting  ready to go somewhere). As with most things... :) 

--------- 

Kevin and Lewis were sitting at the table one evening, talking about sleep and the importance of naps. Lew was particularly wound up that evening, as he is most evenings when he doesn't get enough sleep, doesn't nap, etc. Naps are almost nonexistent now, so crazed evenings are something we're trying to manage. Kevin was trying to explain to Lewis how tired he (Lewis) was and how much better he would feel and would be able to behave if he would just take a nap (for the love...). 

Lewis: I'm not tired...I'm just HAPPY! 

Kevin and I both got a good long laugh out of that one. So, so funny and not funny at the same time. :) We've been trying to get him to bed earlier to make up the deficit, and that seems to help. We've started quiet time in his room in the afternoon, too, instead of wasting time getting him ready for a nap that isn't going to happen.

----------

Kevin and Lewis were down in the basement watching a UL game:

Kevin: (yelled at the TV)
Lewis: What's wrong, Dad?
Kevin: Oh, the Cards just aren't doing well. (or something to that effect)
Lewis: Do we need to change clothes?

It totally cracked me up when Kevin told me. Just what we need--another superstitious UL fan in the house.

----------

While we were eating breakfast:

Me: Lewis, do you want some fruit to go with your breakfast? Maybe some grapes? A banana?
Lewis: Did you say crackers? 

Wishful thinking, buddy! (He'd eat crackers for every meal if we'd let him.)

----------

Sitting at a stoplight on the way to school:

Lewis: Why do the cars drive on the road?
Me: Because that's what they do. People drive cars on roads in order to go places.
Lewis: Are they going home?
Me: Yes, some people are going home. Some are going to school, some to work, some to Kroger.
Lewis: Some to train rides.

Of course, someone, somewhere is heading to the train station to take a train ride. And it was the way he said it, too. In the same tone as me, trailing off, finishing my sentence.

Lewis at 4 Years

Four Years Old

His measurements (percentiles from World Health Organization because he's too old for the BabyCenter one now):

Height: 44 inches (97.7th percentile)

Weight: 48.2 pounds (99.8th percentile)

We go to the doctor on Tuesday for his 4-year check-up, so I'll see if they agree with our measurements.

What he's into/what he's doing:

• Trains! Everything is trains right now! He still very much loves tractors and planes and construction trucks and the like, but he's been especially fond of trains these past few months.
• He knows his numbers, and we are still working on letters. He was doing pretty well with them, but recently he's either forgotten them, or he thinks it's 'funny' to get the letter wrong when we ask what it is. He's really good at 'reading' signs and brand names.
• We haven't begun to work on writing at all, but I think that will happen soon. He's doing better with coloring (scribbling, holding a crayon, etc.).
• He LOVES his sister. He gives her a hug and a kiss goodnight every evening, and they've started interacting more during the day. For instance, I can put her in the jumperoo, and he'll talk to her and play with the toys with her--she just giggles her head off at him, so I think it's safe to say she loves him, too. :)
• School is going really well--he loves his teachers and classmates so much. They've started Show and Tell this semester, so he's started taking in a toy one day a week to share with his class. We are trying soccer again this semester, and it seems to be going much better this time around (he bowed out last year after just the first week, I think).
• We are starting swim lessons again in April (we last took them when he was just over a year old). Hopefully now he's old enough to learn to swim on his own! I don't have to get in the water with him now, so Lenore and I will just watch from the sidelines.
• He asks great questions! For instance, in the car the other day, we were jamming out to Throwback Thursday, like we do every Thursday on the way to school. I was dancing like a fool (as usual) and said something like:
• Mama: Man, these are all the songs Mama used to dance to when I was a kid.
• Lewis: Who drove the car when you were a kid?
• I told him that it was Gramma or Papaw. Then he asked if they drove my car, to which I explained that my car wasn't around back then, but that we drove Gramma and Papaw's cars. We then went on to talk about what their cars were like, and he asked if Gramma's blue car was kind of like Dada's blue car and so on. It just kept going. It was sweet to have a whole conversation with him, with him actually thinking and inferring and contributing to it. He seemed so grown up!
• Sleep isn't the greatest at times. He hasn't napped in months (except for the occasional one in the car if we're driving a long distance). He still goes down for the night at 7:30pm (sometimes earlier if he's wild), and he's been waking up around 6am (maybe 6:30 if he's 'sleeping in'). A few weeks ago, he put himself to bed at 5:30pm and didn't wake up until 6:30 the next morning. The end-of-the-day-sleep-deficient-Lewis is quite a sight to behold, let me tell you!
• Eating is meh. He would definitely survive on bread and crackers alone if we let him. I didn't realize just how appalling his appetite was until we were in Boise and I saw how well Juniper and Otis were eating. [To be fair, we'd fallen into a particularly deep granola bar and peanut butter/cheese cracker sandwich habit between Lenore's birth and the Boise trip.] When we got back from there, we implemented a fruit-only snack policy, which helped immensely. (I've loosened a little on that, but he doesn't ask for granola bars or cheesy crackers anymore, thank goodness.) His list of foods he will eat is still fairly small, but we're working on it.
• He is wearing 5T shirts and pants right now and size 12 shoes. Some of the shirts and pants are getting a little short, so it depends on the brand--we've moved up to the XS (4/5) boys size in some pieces. His footed pajamas are size 6.
• We love him to pieces! Looking forward to 4!

Here is his 3 year post.

And his 2 year.

And his 1 year.

Lew's Favorite Things - Age 4

What is your favorite...

...color?   orange

...toy?   an airplane

...stuffed animal?   my baby and my dog (his 'baby' is a little stuffed penguin that he got from his teachers, Ms. Shauna and Ms. Linda, for Christmas; his dog/puppy is the dog we take monthly/yearly pictures with)

...thing to sleep with?   my puppy and my baby

...fruit?   apple

...vegetable (new this year because I forgot last year)?   carrots

...cereal?   Strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats (Not just the regular kind...made that mistake once) :)

...thing to eat for breakfast?   toast

...thing to eat for lunch?   peanut butter and jelly

...dessert?   ice cream (chocolate, specifically)

...candy?   worms (gummy worms, not real ones) ;)

...drink?   lemonade

...restaurant?   Moe's (the boy can throw down some chips and salsa)

...animal?   dinosaur

...book?   Thomas (specifically, Crack in the Track)

...song?   A Sky Full of Stars by Coldplay :)

...game/sport?   basketball

...TV show?   Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

...movie?   Blue Mountain Mystery (Thomas)

...thing to do outside?   play with my wagon

...place to shop?   Goodwill :)

...shirt/outfit?   Thomas shirt

What do you want to eat for your birthday dinner?   toast (of ALL the foods in the world...) :)

Who is your best friend?   William (one of his classmates...they like to play trains together in their classroom)

What do you want to be when you grow up?   a train conductor


Clearly there is a strong train influence right now, so that was the theme of his birthday party yesterday. I'll get a post together on his party soon (right alongside that long-lost Boise trip post from last month), and I'll take his yearly picture with his puppy.

Lenore at 3 Months

My pretty girl at 3 months 

And showing her personality at 3 months :)

Lenore is 3 months old now and is a very sweet baby girl. No doctor's appointment this month (at least no wellness-checks...hopefully no more sick appointments, either), so I took the measurements myself:

Her stats (percentiles from BabyCenter):

Height: 25 inches (in 90th percentile)
Weight: 16 pounds (above 95th percentile)
Head Size: 16 3/4 inches (between 90th and 95th)

What she's up to this month:

• Sleep has been rough on me. With the sickness of the past few weeks, she's started waking up 2-3 times a night (at like 12:30-2-5 or 1-3:30-6:15), and I've had trouble falling back asleep some nights in between feedings. I put her down between 7 and 7:30pm, and then I've been going to bed shortly thereafter (8 or 8:30pm) to try to get enough, but it's still been rough. I try to get her to stay in bed until at least 6:30am--sometimes she won't go back down after a 5am wake-up, though. I know I'll look back on these days 'one day,' but man. What I wouldn't give for a continuous night of sleep.
• She has the sweetest giggle. That helps. A little. :)
• She is having more 'active' time...in the Jumperoo, on the floor, standing on our laps, etc. She really seems to like to stand.
• I've started trying to do her naps in her crib this week. She was napping in her rock-n-play or her swing up until now, but her naps were only lasting 30 minutes or so. I'm trying to keep her in her crib for at least an hour--it's going well in the mornings and at mid-day, but not so much in the late afternoon. (Update: we're back to napping in the rock-n-play. Still trying to avoid/wean off the swing naps if we can.)
• We've both noticed that she seems more verbal than we ever remember Lewis being at this point. She coos and makes all sorts of noises, like she's ready to talk already.
• Breastfeeding is better than it was, but still not as it should be. I no longer have the toe-curling pain at latch-on, but I do still have a lingering, burning (raw) pain after we're done feeding. She will not take a bottle when we've tried on occasion, which feels very limiting to me. I've been reading about how to get her to take them, and it seems a lot of people say to keep offering bottles-only (no boob) for a day or two, and that she will eventually give into it (and then reintroduce the breast once bottles are established). If I can get my *(&$ together, I can pump and try that, though. I'm just having trouble finding time to do much of anything besides keeping the children out of trouble right now. I also dug out a different brand of bottle we used with Lewis, and a friend might bring a third brand over for me to try out...maybe Lenore is just unsure of the particular design? I had a friend suggest that last week, too. I'm not sure, but I really hope we can get her to take one soon so that I can maybe sleep through a couple of feedings and let someone else take over.
• She is wearing 6 month clothes.