12 month update

Stats: 19lb 3oz and 29.5 inches

Clothes: 12-18 month. Although I accidentally grabbed a pair of 2T pants this week and they pretty much fit her...

Teeth: Three more teeth broke through in the course of a week, with the fourth lateral incisor being a bastard hanging out right underneath the gum. I'm sure those teeth are partly to blame for the crap sleeping. If you are counting, that brings the tooth tally up to 7.

Sleep: Sigh. Still not sleeping through the night. Sleep training has commenced but we are still in the thick of battle.

Food: Nothing new here. Still eats a ton, still nurses a ton. I'm hoping that in the next few months she will consolidate some of her nursing sessions. Five times a day sounds reasonable, right?

Words: She's up to about 30 words now, which I think is pretty darn good for a one year old. Right now she's really into talking about "car car" and "go" which may be her way of saying, "Mom, you're super boring, please take me somewhere that has new and exciting toys for me to put in my mouth." (If you couldn't tell, she's still into putting everything in her mouth. I wouldn't be shocked if her first full sentence is, "Take that out of your mouth.")

Milestones: Oooh, a fun one! She's started following directions. Naturally they have to be very simple ("Come over to the changing pad" or "Bring that to Mommy") and naturally she has to be in the mood to obey instead of shaking her head no and running away. She's also become quite interested in putting things in baskets and taking them back out which I sort of remember from some parenting book means something. Or maybe I'm making that up. Marian, if you would sleep through the night I would know for sure. 

Miscellaneous: She briefly showed interest in coloring with a crayon vs. eating it. Baby steps, right?

A rare moment sleeping in my lap

Opening presents at her birthday party

"What is this sugary goodness that you people have been withholding from me?!"

Little diva knew she was the center of attention 

Who doesn't love a messy toddler? 

By far her favorite present- a spatula (thanks Nana!). Perfect for teething and whacking her sister

Opening presents with big sister

Her favorite part of her birthday- being told to rip paper up and getting to play with ribbon

Ella not-so-patiently waiting for Marian to open her present

Nom nom nom 

So there you have it. Twelve months of babyhood. From here on out I'm going to switch to posting sporadic updates, probably with a more thorough update around 18 months. Partially because I'm lazy (sorry kids- there will be no calendars full of your daily cuteness for you to discover later in life) and partially because after a while there's not quite as many changes on a monthly basis. And it would never, ever, have anything to do with opting for a cup of coffee over blogging or needing to keep the kids from pelting each other with toys. Never.

11 month update

How the heck is this little baby already 11 months old?! I feel like a broken record saying this, but I am continually amazed at how fast the time flies by. I swear she was just born yesterday. Today, people are throwing around the "T" word. Am I seriously going to have two toddlers in less than a month?

Stats: Nothing much has changed here. I think we're entering the point where, like her big sister, she is too active to put on any weight.

Clothes: She can still get away with some 9 month clothes. For the most part she's moved into 12-18 month.

Teeth: Still the same four teeth. There are some new ones trying to make their way in and are causing her to be extremely crabby. And to bite. A lot. Thankfully not so much while nursing (anymore). But for whatever reason, she thinks Ella's toes are perfect for biting. Which, as you can guess, is great for sibling harmony.

Sleep: Totally jinxed myself last month. Most decidedly NOT sleeping through the night. One day, right? Right?! For the love of God, someone please tell me these kids will eventually sleep through the night.

Food: Right now she's loving tomatoes. Preferably straight off the vine. With a side of dirt or mulch. And of course still nursing.

Words: Na-na (nurse), duck, ball, Goo-gog (Dougal), Goo-gir (Crilly- think this is her saying "good girl"), and nigh-nigh (night-night) are some of her new words.

Milestones: Ummm, definitely not my favorite milestone- climbing. On everything. And then proudly standing up like she's queen of the mountain and letting out a victory shriek. Such a little daredevil. Pretty sure I will be completely grey before 30.

Miscellaneous: She's starting to demonstrate an interest in books as things to look at instead of eat. She'll sit there and point at various things and say, "Dat? Dat?"

Little baldy finally has enough hair that I can make the tiniest of ponytails or clip in a bow. Whether she keeps it in for more than five seconds is another story.

A rare moment where she's sitting down

Running around like crazy. 

What, doesn't everyone wear one bib backwards and carry another around?

Clearly I don't feed her enough. She has to chase me around with a bowl in hand.

10 month update

Super duper late and more like 10.5 months. Here's what the crazy baby has been up to in the past month:

Stats: Somewhere around 18lbs and 28 inches. Hey, you try measuring a moving target and see how precise you are.

Teeth: Still 4

Diapers: I'm very happy to report that she pooped on the potty. Total fluke situation where Jim caught her about to go and placed her on there to avoid having to clean a diaper. One small step toward potty training. By my estimate we have at least 3000 more diaper changes until that magical day.

Sleep: Even though I know I'm going to jinx it I'm saying it- she now has slept through the night a few times. Meaning she is entirely capable of it and doesn't really need to nurse in the middle of the night. She gets until October 6 to be up partying at all hours and then the harsh reality of sleep training is going to set in.

Food: Still an eating machine, although the nursing has dropped down a bit to maybe 10 times a day. Three solid meals a day. Pretty sure she eats way more than her big sister.

Words: New words include naners (banana), ah (yeah), mo (more), all-da (all done), and my absolute favorite, NO! Always said quite emphatically. Because it's way more fun if both kids are screaming, "NO NO NO!" at the top of their lungs.

Milestones: Full on walking. While we were on vacation she would take up to a dozen steps at a time but didn't seem inclined to do much more. Now that we're home, with the dogs to chase around, she toddles after them as fast as her little legs can go. Poor, long suffering dogs! She also thinks it is absolutely hilarious to stand up in the middle of a diaper change and run off with the (thankfully) clean diaper- usually with Ella chasing after her yelling, "Bare bottomed girl! Bare bottomed girl!"

Another milestone that's not quite as exciting as walking but cute nonetheless- clapping her hands. She'll sit there and clap her hands along to music or when she's feeling particularly pleased with herself.

Miscellaneous: She has started in on the Big Emotions of the toddler years. On the down side, this means throwing herself down on the floor shrieking when she doesn't get her way. On the bright side, this means toddling over to give us hugs and slobbery baby kisses. Heart melted.

The "I'm doing something I know I'm not supposed to be doing" look

Cruising around the back yard

We start them young. No reprieve on chores even for the baby. 

Lost in thought. Or, more accurately, wondering how much grass she can eat without me noticing.

Playing with one of her best buddies

Being a holy terror and ripping things off the shelves

9 month update

Baby girl is 3/4 of a year old already. Here's what she's been up to this past month:

Weight: 17lb 9oz

Height: 27 1/2 inches

Teeth: 4. Both upper central incisors broke finally broke through. Now maybe a brief hiatus before we resume teething hell.

Diapers: The only thing of note here is that since she is eating tons of solid foods, we are able to go a bit longer between diaper changes. Now if only both kids were potty trained...

Clothes: Mix of 9m and 12m, depending on the brand.

Sleep: Most of the time she's going off to bed a bit later at night, though we can't do any later than 7 else it is meltdown city around here. Usually she's in bed by 6:30-6:45. Still up most nights for one feeding, though since vacation this totally ranges in time. It's super nice when she gets up to nurse right before 6 then goes back down for another hour or two. Still two naps a day. Please never ever ever give up both naps, kiddo!

Food: We've been given the green light by the pediatrician to try any sort of food except honey. Besides that, she's tried everything besides nut products. I ought to give her some because it's inevitable that Ella will try to give her sister some eventually. In fact, it's a miracle we've made it this long without that happening. Marian still nurses like a newborn- most days it's at least a dozen times a day. Which is getting very old. I love nursing and by no means am I ready to give it up (because then I probably couldn't eat ice cream every day). I am, however, ready for her to cut back a bit. Ella naturally cut back when she started eating solid foods so having a little remora fish constantly wanting to nurse is new to me. I know a lot of it is for comfort. She'll bonk her head and the only thing that will calm her is to nurse. I don't know what I'm going to do to get her to cut back a bit. In all honesty I'm not going to do anything until after we are done traveling for the summer, at which point she'll be almost 10 months and maybe will have cut down a bit on her own.

Words: Bye bye, dog, down, and up all entered her vocabulary this month. Of course not perfect pronunciations, but she says the same thing consistently. Yesterday as I was leaving to go to the grocery store Jim heard her say, "Bye bye Mama."

Milestones: She waves hi and bye. Lots and lots of cruising with many attempts at walking, but she's not quite there yet. She can manage one step then trips on the second. Recently she discovered how to hold a toy in her mouth so as to have both hands free to crawl or cruise. She can stand up on her own for almost a minute at a time. She now gives kisses- open mouth slobbery kisses but kisses nonetheless and sometimes will make a kissy noise at me.

Miscellaneous: Marian is quite the little stinkerpot and has started doing things to purposefully annoy her sister. When we were on vacation and they were next to each other in the car, Marian would sneak her leg over onto Ella's lap- prompting lots of cries of, "MOM! She's kicking me! Keep you feet to youself!" as Marian giggled. At the same time, Marian wants nothing more than to play with her sister and gets so upset when Ella doesn't want to play. Ah, the joys of siblings.

Other things that interest her: dumping things out (blocks, box of clothespins, opening drawers and ripping things out at lightning speed), singing songs with motions (i.e. If you're happy and you know it), and being a little mountain goat and climbing onto everything.

Taking out tupperware

Playing with her shadow

Mommy & Marian selfie at the lake

Going tubing

8 month update

Weight: Will have to update when I get her to a scale. Guessing still around 17 lbs

Height: Squirmy cranky girl is hanging out on my back in the Ergo. Will have to measure her later.

Teeth: Still only the two central lower incisors. The upper two are working on making their appearance.

Diapers: Nothing new or exciting here. Well, maybe new but not terribly exciting. Since she's eating more solid food her poop is now, well, more solid.

Clothes: She can still do some 6-9 but they are getting tight, so as they come through the wash I've been putting them aside. Still can't do bigger than 12 month size- unless of course we are in a true clothing pinch and I toss her in some of Ella's clothes.

Sleep: I finally feel like we are over some magical sleep hurdle. Napping consistently? Check. Sleeping at night? Eh, mostly good. Still one night time nursing. However, sleeping in until a decent hour of the morning? Not so much. Maybe it's because she's not waking up for her middle of the night nursing until around 5, but it is extremely hard to get her to deign to go back to sleep until a decent hour. There have been several times she sleeps through until 5:40 then wants to nurse. I don't know why, but 6:00 sounds so much more humane than 5:40. I'll admit, I have shut down the monitor some mornings in hopes of her learning to sleep in for 20 more minutes. She seems to be onto my strategy and will just stand in her crib and scream until I get her.

She did sleep through the night twice last week. At least I think she did. I was a bad mom who forgot to turn on the monitor before I went off to bed. I figure if she was really wailing I would hear her.

Food: The kid is an eating machine. There are meals where she eats more than her big sister. We've started doing multiple meals every day, in part because she is not happy being the only one not eating. Right now she is loving blueberry pancakes and beans (thankfully not together-yuck!).

Words: That's right, folks. We have a talker. Her first word was "Dada" followed soon after by "Ella." After lots of coaching, she now can say "Mama"- but calls me Dada most of the time. Hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?

Milestones: Lots of crawling and cruising around. She pulls herself up to standing and has taken one unassisted step. I'm taking bets as to whether she will be walking by 9 months.

Miscellaneous: She loves, loves, loves her big sister and wants to do everything Ella does. That has caused some consternation with Ella because "Marian is NOT a big girl!" It also has led to some bumps and bruises. Like when she tried to go for a ride on Ella's tricycle and managed to rip her upper lip tie. I'm a lot calmer about it than I was when Ella was the same age. I'm pretty sure when Ella ripped her lip tie (the first time) there was a call to the pediatrician. This time- eh, been there, done that.

On a different note, Marian started swim lessons. It's been a bit interesting because swim starts at 6:30 and she's usually in bed by then. So far she seems to enjoy it.

Swimming with Mommy

Standing up. Also- a oneie with a tail? How cute is that?

Ella "feeding" Marian dinner

Coloring with a lot of supervision, else the crayons go in the mouth

Pretty much a perfect summary of their relationship. 

Checking out Ella's tricycle (Note: this is NOT when she fell off and ripped her lip tie. That was in the back yard on the grass. Jim is just outside of the picture here.)

Showing off her cool new TARDIS diaper cover and how all the cool babies play with the jumperoo

Both all smiles

7 month update

Why is this month's update late? Well...look at this picture and figure out what I have been doing instead of updating the blog:

Summary of this month in one picture

That's right folks. We now have two children who are busy getting into trouble.

Weight: Last time I weighed her on our super accurate scale, she was 16.5 lbs

Height: She's sleeping right now but I'll update once I get a chance to measure. ETA: As best I can tell, she is 27 inches. Measuring a super squirmy baby is hard!

Teeth: She has both central lower incisors. She's definitely working on some other teeth but no others show any signs of erupting soon.

Diapers: We've tried a couple of different things that have worked. Right now we are rotating through three nighttime diaper solutions: a wool diaper with a bamboo/hemp booster, a fitted diaper with bamboo/hemp inserts + cover, and a bamboo all in one deal. Most mornings she is waking up dry. Then again, I'm not sure if it's the diaper that is making the difference or the fact that she isn't nursing a gazillion times a night.

Clothes:  Nothing exciting here- still 6-9 and 9-12, with a few 12 month clothes that fit. We did have to break out bigger socks. Okay, I probably should have brought out the bigger socks like two months ago but I have a toddler who freaked out over Marian wearing "her" socks and since the baby didn't care...

Sleep: With the exception of my weekend in Raleigh, most nights she is only up once. Usually right around 4am, which means if I'm smart and go off to bed at a reasonable hour, I can have 6+ hours of sleep. Most days she takes two naps, although if Ella is noisy and wakes her up early from the afternoon nap she'll take a quick catnap before dinner.

Food: We're mostly doing baby-led weaning now, primarily because with two kids I've found it's much easier to plop the stuff down on her tray and let her feed herself. Jim reminded me about puffs, which are quite possibly the least nutritious baby food ever but does give her plenty of practice on her pincer grip. Still usually one meal a day, except on weekends when she'll have some breakfast with us. And of course she's nursing probably a dozen times a day. She's also working on drinking from a sippy cup. She needs some help but she is a thousand times better at drinking from a sippy cup than she ever was from a bottle.

Milestones: Marian is now a full-blown crawler. In a matter of days the kid went from being slow and hesitant to being crazy fast. I turn my back for a second and she is into mischief. New favorite activities for baby include trying to sneakily eat the dog toys, crawling through one of our end tables, and seeing how many of Ella's toys she can play with before her sister notices. New activity for Mommy includes lots of baby-proofing. (You may ask why our house isn't completely baby-proofed. Well, Ella was a year old when we moved in and could be trusted not to touch certain things.)

Since she learned to crawl- which was, oh, last week- she has moved onto cruising. I am guessing we're going to have another early walker.

She's started babbling a bunch. Mostly a lot of "Blab ba ba BA BA blab!" and "Eh la la LA la LA la"- which we joke is her saying "ELLA!"

Miscellaneous: With the crawling has come a decided preference over toys. It used to be that Ella could tell her "trade" or "switch" while grabbing toys out of her lap and as long as the toddler gave her another toy, all was right with the world. Now there is a lot of tug of war type stuff and shrieking.

Although they have devised a game that is mutually agreeable. Ella pretends Marian is a dog and throws a toy for her to fetch. Marian happily crawls across the floor and grabs it. And repeat. Part of me thinks I should explain to Ella that her sister is not a dog. But then the lazy part of me thinks, "Eh, I can get five minutes of peace" and praises them for playing nicely together.

This is MY firefly

Playing doctor, or as Ella calls it, "Do doctor"

Clearly she's mastered drinking from the sippy cup

They see me rollin'...

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

This little tiny squishy baby...

So serious

...is now this big smilely roly-poly baby. I feel like I say this all the time, but where did the time go?! 

Those cheeks! They kill me. 

Weight: 16 lbs (55%)

Height: 26 1/2 inches (90%- holy cow!)

Teeth (!): Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a tooth! She got her first central lower incisor at the end of April. The second one looks like it is not far behind. 

Diapers: I'm still puzzling out the heavy wetting situation. If anyone has ideas regarding keeping her dry through the night I would love to hear them. 

Clothes: She's plateaued a bit and is still in 6-9 and 9-12. 

Sleep: Since starting on solid food we've had some better luck on the sleep front. There have been two times in the past month that she has only been up once. Most nights it's still 2-3 times. On bad nights it's still 5+ times. 

During the day she is mostly on the 2-3-4 schedule, which I love because I can look at the clock and know exactly when she will be ready for a nap. You know, because the "I'm super cranky" cry isn't obvious at all. 

Food (including solid food!): In addition to nursing, she's started on some solid food. So far she's had bananas (felt kind of meh about them), oatmeal (likes okay), yogurt (loves), applesauce (the current favorite), and avocado (tried tonight- gobbled up a few pieces then the rest was a decided no). We're doing a mix of purees and baby led weaning, while sticking with the attitude that "food before one is just for fun." Along with, "Have a full belly and please for the love of God sleep through the night." 

Milestones: She is a rolling machine and does this crazy crawling backwards thing. Forwards crawling will be happening soon! If you are holding her hands, she tries to pull herself up and tries to take steps. 

She's getting better at sitting unassisted. Still topples over quite a bit and even the pediatrician said she could be doing a bit better. Mission for this month- become a rock star sitter upper. 

And a weird milestone- her clogged tear duct finally cleared up. In the interest of full disclosure, this might have happened last month. However, since I noticed it this month, that's where I'm placing it. 

Miscellaneous: Everyone comments how she is this sweet, calm baby. Well, let me tell you- girl has a serious temper. Ella tried to take away Marian's beloved spoon and Marian grabbed on with both hand and then gave an ungodly shriek. They've been having a lot more sibling "spats" in the past few weeks- most likely because Marian can move a heck of a lot more and is incredibly adept at grabbing stuff (so says the bald spot on my head), and the two year old is not always happy with this. 

Despite that, Marian still thinks her sister is her best buddy (not entirely sure Ella feels this way). I love that they are "playing" together more and more. 

Laundry basket fun

Ring around the rosie, complete with hats. Why hats? Ask Ella. 

And now for some more photos:

 

Looking sweet 

Smiling at Daddy, who was being silly behind the camera

Not entirely sure how she feels about food
(Funny story about this photo- Jim saw it and said, "Wow, Ella sure looks a lot like Marian in this photo!" Granted, we had been looking a pictures of Ella beforehand. But yes, that photo DOES look a lot like Marian)

Her beloved spoon

Nomming on the bib

5 month update

Weight: 14 lbs 12.8 oz

Height: I don't have an official height so we're going with a guess of 26 inches. We'll see how far off I am at her next checkup or when I can find a tape measure, whichever comes first.

Diapers: Cloth, even at night. She's such a heavy wetter that I'm going to try using wool at night to see if that helps keep her dry.

Clothes: A mix of 6-9 and 9-12. I'm going to put it out there that big sister is in 2T and at the rate Marian is growing, they might be wearing the same clothes soon. I guess that might simplify things.

Sleep: We're still firmly entrenched in the crap sleeping. We're attempting to do some modified sleep training- mainly not rushing to get her when she starts fussing and instead giving her a few minutes to settle down. I've also been trying to only nurse her until she's drowsy and put her down still partially awake so she can learn to get herself to sleep. It's tough though.

On the plus side of sleep issues, we bit the bullet and got her out of the rock and play. She forced our hand by learning how to sit up in it. Now she's in the pack and play and sleeping flat on her back, although she can roll over to her side or belly if she chooses. The plan is to have her start napping in the crib when we get back from our trip in a few weeks. Ideally we'd be switching her up to the crib fully in the next few weeks but I'm not trudging up and down the stairs several times a night. So until she learns to sleep through the night she's staying in our room.

Feedings: She's put herself on a pretty decent schedule for eating during the day. Usually every 2-3 hours. I can tell she's flirting with the idea of doing longer stretches and with getting herself on the 2-3-4 schedule, but we're not quite there yet.

Milestones: Working on sitting up unassisted- she can do it for about 10 seconds now before toppling over. She's trying really hard to sit up on her own from lying down. She figured out how to roll continuously to get to what she wants, and can inchworm/army crawl. And to top it all off, she managed to get herself up on hands and knees- didn't go anywhere, but still. Two mobile children! Oy vey! At least she can't get very far or go very fast.

Miscellaneous: She loves playing little sing-song type of games, like "Row Row Row Your Boat" or "Ring Around the Rosie" (Ella likes holding hands and playing with her sister, especially the falling down part). She is so amused by her own reflection and making silly faces in the mirror. She also has discovered the joy in sticking out her tongue and the awesomeness that are her feet. Overall she has such a happy little personality, although she is quite determined to get what she wants.

I'm on the go! 

And I can sit up all by myself! At least for a little bit before toppling over

There's a lot of this going on....

...and this. She loves her feet

Nothing's better than nomming on your toys

She makes a lot of silly faces

As a bonus, here's a video of her giggling.