6 Months - Full Update

It's been a big month, so here are the details:

Sleep - we are continuing to improve on this slowly.  Currently Edith wakes up about 3 times at night.  I usually go to bed after the first time, so I am only really getting up with her twice.  She typically wakes up around 6 in the morning to be up for the day.  Lately it seems as though she is waking up a little earlier, but if she is playing in her crib happy, we won't go up and get her right away.  She takes about 3 naps a day.  Sometimes the naps are about 30 minutes, but usually they have been stretching out to closer to an hour and some mornings it's been almost 2 hours.  Her bedtime is 6:30 each night.

Eating - this month we actually started her on some solids.  She loves eating and we are up to feeding her solids twice a day.  Once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  We are also making better progress with the bottle.  She actually took a bottle with formula while I was standing there and had no issues.  I'm really pleased and I think that her full belly may be helping her sleep better.

Teeth - she has two bottom teeth and I am expecting that she'll have more on the bottom soon.  You can really see the teeth when she smiles now - it's really cute!

Playing - Edith is getting really good at playing by herself on the floor.  She is sitting up so well by herself and loves playing with her toys and Eddie's toys as well.  We also got out the Jumperoo and the Johnny Jump-up.  She likes both of them, especially when Eddie stands by her and plays with her.  I think she is more tolerant being in those than Eddie ever was!  She has also discovered how to do an army crawl on her belly.  It happened rather quickly.  I'm really surprised at that she is already somewhat mobile!  While Eddie rolled around like crazy and barely seemed to sit still, she will sit and sit for a long time.  It's really refreshing.  She hasn't figured out how to get on all fours, so we have a while before she starts to crawl.

Other - Edith is turning into a much happier baby.  She smiles a lot more and loves her parents, brother, Sammy and grandparents.  She does get frustrated quickly and will voice her opinion, but I would say she definitely cries and fusses a lot less.  She loves smiling for the camera.  It's so easy to get pictures of her looking at the camera.  In fact, posing her for the monthly pictures is a breeze.  It's when Eddie turn to sit with her, that it never works out!

6 Months

Edith was 6 months yesterday! We've had a house full of company and a very sick daddy, so my monthly write-up will be delayed. But we did take her monthly pictures. Here's one to hold you over!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas up here in MN.  This year we stayed put and didn't travel.  In fact, we didn't even leave the house today - it was pretty nice!

We started our celebration on Christmas Eve with Papa's arrival from Duluth.  We made Christmas donuts (yum!) and then Eddie helped Daddy leave Santa some cookies, milk and a little note.

Making donuts!

Setting out milk and cookies

Note to Santa

  This morning Eddie and Edith woke up to many presents under the tree.  Eddie was pretty fascinated by the site.  Edith was rather indifferent and really into grabbing the bows.

Eddie checking out the presents, Edith playing with Clifford

Eddie eating a Christmas cookies (as a brib to to pose in front of the tree)

Happy baby!

Tearing into his first present

Edith playing with her first present

After opening presents, we enjoyed a breakfast of Christmas donuts and then we opened our stockings.

For Christmas dinner I made a 25 lb. turkey that my father-in-law brought with him.  Everything was pretty tasty and then we had pecan pie for dessert.  The kids spent the day napping and playing with their new toys.  It was a relaxing day.  Thanks to video chat we were able to see my parents and talk with them this morning.  Next weekend we'll be celebrating Christmas with them!

I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their loved ones and if you were traveling - had safe travels!

Edith's Christmas outfit

She says "Merry Christmas!"

Meeting Santa

This week I took the kids to meet Santa.  They both did great.  They sat on his lap, posed for pictures and Eddie got to try his first candy cane afterwards.  It was a successful trip.  I didn't really try to dress the kids up and felt of bad.  But then the little girl in front of us was all decked out and refused to sit on Santa's nap and there were many tears, so what difference did it make that she was dressed all nice when they didn't even get a picture.

Once again, Eddie showing his delight at being at the mall

Big girl sitting in the stroller

Sitting with Santa

More Pictures

I feel like the theme of this year is me constantly being behind with blogging.  When I do have some rare free time, I don't like being on my computer.

We have been busy this month getting ready for Christmas.  We went to pick out Christmas tree and they were giving free wagon rides, so Uncas and Eddie enjoyed that.

 Uncas and I set up the tree and decorated while Eddie was napping that day.  He was most impressed with it when he woke up.  So far he has been really good with the tree.  His favorite ornament is one that was Uncas' when he was a little kid - a train!

Eddie also got to enjoy our first big snow fall.  He has a little shovel and loved going outside to help Daddy shovel snow.  Unfortunately his new boots weren't here in time, but fortunately we had some pink boots for when Edith is older and they fit him perfectly!

Miss Edith has been busy cutting more teeth.  I attempted to get a picture of her two bottom ones, but it's hard to get up close, have her smile with mouth open and make sure the picture isn't blurry.  Here is my best effort.

We also started putting her in her high chair.  We got a new one to save space - so it's much like Eddie's booster and just fits onto a regular chair.  She likes sitting in it and playing with toys.  My parents were here this weekend (more on that in a minute) and my mom was itching to get her started on solids.  So on Sunday we let my mom feed her rice cereal. She did well and seemed to like it well enough.

My parents were in town this weekend to help us out because Eddie needed to have some minor surgery last Thursday.  They baby-sat all day for Edith, so we could both be at the hospital with Eddie.  It was an out patient surgery, but it was a long day.  He did great and is healing and bouncing back very quickly.  Here are a few pictures from that day.

Playing with a toy while waiting for surgery

Taking a pre-surgery nap

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy

There he is!

Post surgery - cuddling with Daddy

This morning I decided to bring out the Johnny Jump-Up for Edith.  She wasn't too sure about it, but then Eddie came over to play with her and she liked that better!

5 Months

Another month and more milestones for Edith. 

Sleep - Well, I think it's getting better . . . we are only getting up 4-5 times a night which is a significant improvement.  The 3rd medication seems to have helped with her reflux.  We are working to get her naps more consistent.  During the day we primarily lay her down and let her "cry it out".  She usually fusses for a few minutes (less than 5) before she falls asleep.  When she does fuss longer than 5 minutes, we go up, make sure she is on her back (she can't roll from her belly to her back) and that she has a nuk and her blankie.  After that she typically falls asleep right away.  It's really nice and we would do the same thing at night, but she is currently nursing to sleep then.

Eating - nothing new to report.  She has taken a bottle on a couple of occasions and we are hopeful this month she will so the husband and I can go on a date night.  We pulled out one of Eddie's old sippy cups and she seems to have the hang of that, which is amazing because Eddie was almost year before understanding a sippy cup.  Of course she likes to chew on it because . . .

Teeth!  Yes, that is right - she cut her first tooth this past month!  She is working on another one which is really bothering her - hence her chewing on her hands, our fingers, toys, paper, anything she can get her hands on!  I'm hoping once the tooth pops through she'll be in a better mood.

Playing -  She still loves to kick - a lot, so you have to watch out.  She is getting really good at holding toys and putting them into her mouth.  She is much more deliberate than Eddie was and she has better control.  She is good and holding her nuk, taking it out of her mouth, examining it, and then putting it back into her mouth.  In fact one night, Uncas went upstairs to calm her down and had to pry the nuk out of her hand to put it back into her mouth!  She wouldn't let go!  She really likes pulling the toys down on her carseat handle.  She still likes watching Eddie or Sammy play.

Other - Edith can roll from her back to her tummy and at times you lay her down and she immediately flips.  She can't roll the other way.  She does like playing on her tummy now, but when she is done, she lets you know - she just starts screaming.  She continues to be very social.  She likes being held and if you put her down and walk away she starts screaming.  Over Thanksgiving she wasn't a fan of being held by strangers.  Overall I would not describe her as being laid back.  When she doesn't like something she just starts to scream and she can definitely scream!  But when she is in a good mood - mornings are her best time - she can smile and charm with the best of them!

Here are her monthly pictures.  As you can see, I took them first thing this morning, so she smiled a lot!

Picture Post

I've been very behind on downloading pictures off of our camera.  I finally managed to catch up today, so here are some pictures that I have taken in the past month, but haven't posted!

First up - these are for Grandpa Ron who believes that Edith never smiles.  She does, and here is proof!

Uncas celebrated his 32nd birthday.  It was very low-key because he was still recovering from the flu.  That just meant that I ate most of his birthday cake!

Eddie reading in Edith's chair.  He loves this thing!!

 Some pictures that I took on Thanksgiving morning before Uncas left to visit his grandma (the kids and I stayed home) Notice that Edith pretty much keeps the same pose the whole time!

Getting ready for Christmas!  We let the kids practice wearing the Santa hat.

Watching the Vikings game with Daddy!  I called them my purple people eaters all day!

And finally I took this picture today - I had put Edith down and came back to find Eddie had climbed on the ottoman and was playing with her or trying to.  She's screaming in case you couldn't tell from the picture.