Lenore at 9 Months

9 Months Old

The best I could get this morning. There was another, probably better, session before this, but I didn't realize the memory card wasn't in the camera. I can't find the cable to pull the pictures from the camera memory to the computer, so this will have to do.

Her stats (percentiles from BabyCenter):
Height: 29 inches [between 75th and 90th percentiles]
Weight: 21 pounds [between 75th and 90th percentiles]
Head Size: 18.5 inches [above 95th percentile]

What she's doing this month:

• She is a wild woman, on the move! She takes off crawling with a vengeance--she puts her head down and clip-clops as fast as she can across the floor. Sometimes she crawls on one knee and with one foot (maybe it's faster?), but she's usually barreling around on all fours.
• She is also still mildly obsessed with climbing the stairs. I've been barricading them, but every once in a while, I'll catch her on the 2nd or 3rd step. (There have been a few times where I've been on the phone or distracted for 30 seconds, and I've found her up in Lewis' room. Hence the barricades now. I tried to install a gate, but the &%*# wall and banister don't line up, so I don't exactly know what to rig up at the bottom of the stairs.) 
• Once she realizes she's been caught on the stairs, she tries to scurry up even faster to get away from me. I have heard that she got red-faced and kicked and fussed at Grandma Sharon when she took her off the stairs at their house--I haven't seen that yet, myself, but I don't doubt it.
• She is starting to cruise. She will move along the coffee table a little bit and will reach out and move from couch to coffee table and vice versa. Sometimes she will let go with one hand while standing, when she's feeling extra brave.
• She eats like a beast. She's nursing every 3-4 hours, and then eating all three meals with us. Some days, she'll eat an entire container of yogurt and a piece of toast for breakfast (sometimes only half a container), some fruit and cheese for lunch, and usually a vegetable and some of what we're having for dinner (or cereal). We still spoon feed her yogurt, cottage cheese, cereal, etc., but she very much wants to feed herself the finger foods. Sometimes at dinner, she'll lay her head to the side and just shovel the food in her mouth. She is a big fan of meat--chicken is her favorite, plus turkey, ham, and hamburger, so far.
• If you are eating something that she wants (which is pretty much anytime I am eating), she will let you know it with an 'Mmmmmm!!!' sound (add grunting sound for the full effect).
• She hasn't turned away a food that I can think of (she didn't like apricots at first, but now she does). She will hopefully be a good influence on Lewis.
• Sleep is so close to being great, but not quite. She did sleep through the night a few times recently (like 8pm-7:15am), but 4:30-5am is her usual wake-up time. I go in and feed her, and she'll sleep until 7:30-8am, so I can't complain. She is having trouble falling asleep some nights (25% of the time), so that's been frustrating. I think it's probably teething-related, so I've been trying to be patient (teething is horrible, in case anyone has forgotten).
• She is napping twice a day, same as last month, really. Sometimes only for 45 minutes to an hour, sometimes much longer (around 3 hours).
• She isn't talking, of course, but she's starting to babble. I hear 'Buh' sometimes (like Bubba or Brother??) and 'Ma' (Mama??). And of course, Mmmmm!!
• She is recently interested in doors. We went to open gym the other day, and there was one of those big cubes with different activities on the top/sides. She sat and opened/closed the little doors forever. At home, she likes to close doors if they are open.
• She has also started pointing with her index finger. Not at what she needs/wants, but just in the air. Like, 'By George, I have a great idea!' I think I remember that being a developmental thing, along with picking up food and feeding herself.
• She and Lewis are playing together more and more. She's pretty happy to play with cars and trains or whatever is lying around, though she has taken to her baby doll that my mom got her, too.
• She is wearing 12 month clothes.
• Current Tooth Count: 4, and working on more.

Preschool starts back in a few weeks, and Lewis will be going 4 mornings/week. This year they are offering a Parents' Day Out, so Lenore will be going 1 morning/week, as well. 

A brief house update--we have had quite a series of unfortunate events this month. We had torrential rains and flash floods on two occasions (two nights apart), which flooded our finished side of the basement. We've had to move everything from that side to the unfinished side, in case it floods again, and we had to have the (new) carpet and pad removed so that we could dry everything out and keep it from getting in the walls and baseboards. Before we restore it back to a finished condition, we are working to resolve the bigger issues of why it floods. Through that process, we have discovered foundation issues that (we believe) were covered up by the seller, so now we are preparing to enter into mediation to try to get some of those expenses covered. Once we get through that, we can hopefully put our house back together.

There have been a few other issues, as well--chimney/fireplaces leaking, new front door warping, infested/dead ash tree that had to be taken down, driveway drainage issues (which we already planned to address), a new water stain on our bedroom ceiling (we are getting a new roof and gutters next week), etc. The joys of homeownership!

We are very much looking forward to a tropical beach vacation with lots of pina coladas and no stress!!

Lewis the Truest, Vol. XIX

One day we were talking about Kevin running to Jimmy John's to get dinner. I was looking at the menu online, and said:

Me: I'll have a Slim Two.
Lewis: I'll have a Slim Four. Because I'm FOUR!

That ended up being turkey and cheese, which worked out well. Lucky him--who knows what he could have ended up with. :)

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On a regular Sunday morning...

Lewis: VRRROOOM. I love tractors.
             TOOT-TOOOOT. I love trains.
             (wings out, flying through the living room) I love planes.
              I love orange.

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One morning as Kevin was coming into the living room to sit with Lewis (he acts like this most anytime Kevin tries to sit next to him on the couch):

Lewis: Go away!
Kevin: I don't want to go away.
Lewis: Yes, you do, because leave me alone!

It is reminiscent of my brother in his teenage years. Leave.Me.Alone! He used to yell that dramatically at my mom when she'd try to wake him up for school. :) I've been saying that Lewis is a little teenager-ish lately...moody one minute, but wanting to snuggle the next. 

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The previous ones were from back in March (oops, forgot to post!). More recently...

In the car one day...

Me: Do you want to play soccer?
Lewis: Just golf.

It made me laugh. I'd be fine with golf, as I would be with tennis (another sport he says he wants to play/likes to watch on TV). It just caught me off-guard, as do a lot of the things he says! 

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Discussing dinner the other night, he was having trouble making the words come out of his mouth.

Me: What would you like for dinner?
Lewis: Toast. I'd like toast, but I'd like it to not go through the toaster.
Me: So you want bread?
Lewis: Yes.

Again, made me laugh. :)

Lenore at 8 Months

8 Months Old

See my two bottom teeth!?

Her stats (percentiles from BabyCenter):
Height: 29.5 inches (above 95th percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds (between 50th and 75th percentile)
Head Size: 18.25 inches (above 95th percentile)

We went to the cardiologist last week and received a good report! Her heart is normal-sized (which I'd never heard them mention it being other than normal-sized, but still good to know). The pulmonary stenosis is no more, as well--it all looks normal now (hooray!). There are still some areas between the upper chambers that are open, but our doctor believes they will close up entirely by the next time we see him (in a year). So YAY! He said that things look great and that we have no reason to be concerned.

We also went to the pediatrician last week for an ear check--she'd had a runny nose on vacation and was extra fussy and fevered over the weekend, so I took her in Monday afternoon. Sure enough, another ear infection. Mid-week, she had a mild reaction to the antibiotic, but the nurse I spoke with said that it was not a full-on allergic reaction. She said that some kids, some times, develop a rash from amoxicillin that lasts 1-8 days (usually around 3 days), and that it wasn't a concern unless it worsened, which it did not. She just had some small, light pink polka dots all over her body for a few days.

What she's doing this month:

• She is still crawling and pulling up whenever she can. We've seen maybe some slight and/or accidental attempts at cruising, but nothing consistent. Not as many bumps and bruises so far (fingers crossed!) as Lewis had in this phase. I feel like she's learned how to get out of a situation safely, fairly quickly.
• She, of course, still gets into things she shouldn't (blinds, the dishwasher, etc.), and I say 'No No' and shake a finger at her. She looks at me with the biggest grin, which is too cute for words.
• She still plays shy sometimes--if you sweet talk her, she'll tilt her head to the side, sometimes even batting her eyes. 
• She takes two naps a day. There are some days when it's 1 hour + 1 hour, and others when it's 45 minutes + around 3 hours. She's a little unpredictable still, but at least she's napping.
• Sleep has improved overall this month. She's been sleeping a lot more with the ear infection and teething, of course, but even before that, we did some moderate sleep training that she caught onto pretty quickly. I haven't had to get up with her overnight this week (which I'm sure will end now that I've written it down). She has been waking up between 5-6am, and I feed her, and then she goes back down for a couple of more hours.
• Nursing is better this month! I realized the other day that I haven't had the after-pain for a while now. We must have figured out a better latch again, thank goodness. With her eating more solids and not being nursed to sleep at naps now, I feel like the number of times a day that she's nursing has dropped quite a bit this month. Like maybe 5 times a day??
• Speaking of solids, she now eats all three meals with us. Dinner is still the biggest meal for her, followed by breakfast, then lunch. Breakfast and lunch were only added as a way for me to keep her contained (to keep her in my sights and NOT climbing the stairs) while I finish making dinner or while Lewis is eating dinner if Kevin is working a little later. She hasn't been as much into food this week, probably from her mouth being tender--she has still eaten some finger foods, but she's been pretty anti-puree, for whatever reason.
• The day before and on our way to vacation in Pensacola, we ended up accidentally stopping at Chick-fil-A 3 days in a row (we wanted a place for Lewis to be able to run around a little). In that time, she got quite a taste for their chicken nuggets. She and Lewis would split a 4-pack, at first--she would eat 2, and he would, with a fight for every bite, eat 2. We then started getting a 6-pack, and she totally ate 3 one day to his 1-2. Lenore + Chicken = Love :) She's also a fan of their waffle fries and the blueberries from their fruit cup. 
• She LOVES playing with Lewis. They both light up when they see each other. Lewis loves coming in and saying goodnight to her and giving her a kiss. He also loves twirling her hair, as he does mine, but we have to get on him about being too rough with her baby hair/scalp.
• She is wearing mostly 12 month clothes now. There are still a few 9 month ones that will stretch and fit her, but just a few.
• Tooth Count: I'm going to say 3! One of her top front teeth is fully visible now, but the other one is still hiding under her swollen little gums. It should pop through any day now, I predict.

Couldn't pick a favorite picture, so here are a few more:

My sweet girl :)

Lenore at 7 Months

 7 Months Old

Her stats (percentiles from BabyCenter--the scale is still in the storage unit until Sunday):

Height: 26 inches (between 25th and 50th??) She was 27.13 inches at the doctor last month, and she probably didn't shrink--I've clearly gotten an inaccurate measurement somewhere along the line, which is understandable since she keeps making her way away from me.
Weight:
Head Size: 18.5 inches (above the 95th percentile)

What she's doing this month:

• She is definitely sitting! She started to a few days after her 6 month birthday.
• She is crawling all over the house, pulling up, and climbing stairs. It makes getting anything done very difficult. Last night, I was making up her dinner in the kitchen (out of sight for less than a minute, maybe two), and when I went to get her, she was halfway up the stairs. Definitely need to get baby gates up for my sanity/her safety. Here she is after dinner last night with Kevin--she made it all the way up!
  
• On that note, her naps (aka my time to try to get things done) have not been the best as of late. Like 20 minutes long, if at all. She's therefore very fussy and clingy when she is awake, and I'm often at my wit's end, trying to get her to fall asleep. (It doesn't help that I feel like I have a million things to do right now.) I find myself in the same situation I was with Lewis around this time--I guess I fell into the same habits as with him as far as nursing to sleep, etc. I meant to be better with her.
• I think it was around this time with Lewis that I was also hitting a wall, looking for a job, ready to enlist some outside help, etc. I remember things improving with him, so hopefully they do with her as well. We did sleep training around 8 months with him, so maybe we'll do that after vacation in a few weeks.
• She eats like a champ, and she's becoming a cleaner eater by the day. The only thing she has not liked so far has been apricots. She is very proficient at feeding herself (pieces of bread, blueberries, etc.), earlier than I remember Lewis doing. (I might not have given him a chance to practice as early as I have with Lenore.) She eats a full meal with us at dinnertime, and I've been putting in her highchair at breakfast and lunch to have a little bit of food with Lewis and I. 
• Nursing is back to being no good. I think her two bottom teeth have changed things as far as the latch goes, and I've been having the sharp chest pains and burning like I did early on. It's especially bad in the middle of the night if I get up to feed her--I can't fall back asleep because my chest is on fire. Very horrible. I've been googling, and others say that it will improve. I tried to quit yesterday after a particularly horrible night/morning, but by the end of the day, I was back to nursing. It's very hard to quit when you have a full milk supply--the engorgement, the necessary pumping or feeding to relieve things, etc. I couldn't figure out the logistics before, and I definitely can't now with house things to do.
• Still wearing size 9 months clothes, though some are getting a little snug! 
• Current Tooth Count: still 2, though I suspect more are on their way. She had some mouth pain and fussies a few weeks ago, but that has since stopped and there are no new teeth appearing yet.

Trouble with a capital T

Eating sand/We need a bigger sandbox 

We are officially in our new house, as of last Thursday! It was a whirlwind of last-minute stress and plans that I do not wish to repeat anytime soon, but we are in and we love our new house. The backyard is especially great--we've grilled a few times, and it's a great place to sit at the end of the day and enjoy a cold beverage. Lots of birds chirping, no crazy backyard neighbors, very peaceful.

This Just Happened...

I hear that my faithful readers have noticed my lack of posting. I kind of forgot to try to post from my phone as I intended to many months ago, so here is a test post. 

We were just making dinner in the kitchen and Little Miss did this:

And then she rolled sideways and on the ground and bumped her head. And so it begins! She pulled up on a diaper box a few minutes before this and that must not have been a big enough thrill for her. :) 

[She is 6 months, 1 week, and 4 days old.]

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...

:)