10 Months

2 monts - that's right - just 2 months till our baby turns 1!!!  It's so hard to believe and I am already planning her 1st birthday party.  There were lots of big milestones this month, so let's roll!

Sleep - this is a HUGE one.  She's sleeping through the night!  It happened really suddenly a few weeks ago. We were happy when she repeated it the next night.  The first week she slept about 4 out of the 7 nights, but we didn't have to feed her when she did wake up - it was just a matter of rocking her back to sleep.  The next week was even better and now it's pretty much a sure thing. She is still taking two naps a day - one at 9 am and the afternoon at 1 pm.  Her betime is still 6:30. I feel like our "work in progress" with sleep is finally at a good spot!!!

Eating - we also hit a big milestone with eating this month. The same week Edith starting sleeping through the night, she also self-weaned. I don't know if they are related events. There were some signs that she was heading in this direction, but I was in denial about it. It's been tough for me because I really thought I would nurse for at least 12 months, but I don't want to force the issue.  She barely takes the minimum of 16 oz of formula each day (the dr. and I were trying to figure out at her 9 month appointment if she was even getting enough from nursing and formula combo), but she sure loves to eat food. She does great feeding herself at mealtimes and she has two snacks a day too.  She basically eats everything we do and even had her first taste of pizza this past weekend!

Moving - We got the little walker back from my parents and she loves cruising around with it. One favorite activity is for Eddie to drive his car and Edith chases him. We have to help her out as she does not have the steering thing down, but it's so cute to see them chase around. She is also getting really good at cruising along the furniture.  She is much steadier on her feet.  She's not quite at the point to walk on her own, but she has stood a few times unassisted for a few seconds. We'll see what this next month brings.

Teething - Her bottom tooth is finally popping through.  I swear it's taking forever!  I think she is doing more teething, but I am not exactly sure which ones will be coming in next.  We have also started brushing her teeth at night.  It seems to be going better than when we started with Eddie.

Playing - Edith plays so well by herself. She loves all types of toys. She will take Eddie's cars and trucks and moving them along on the floor. One day she spent 10 minutes playing with his garbage truck!  She'll also take an airplane and fly it in the air. She likes playing with balls and banging toys together or shaking rattles. She can play the xylophone - she'll get it down and bang away on it. Same thing with the drum.  She loves her little table and likes to put the balls down the holes. She is also starting to enjoy books more and more.  She will even bring one over for us to read. Mainly she likes the picture books best.

Other - Edith is at such a great stage right now. She smiles when you go and get her after she wakes up. She likes to point and show us things.  She'll also bring us stuff - mainly for us to eat.  I am pretty sure she learned this from Eddie. She loves to chatter away and it's more coherent than Eddie's was at this age.  She'll say Mamama, Dadada, bababa - they don't really mean anything at this point.  She is also doing some signing - she knows "more" and "all-done" and "milk".  I haven't done too much with her, but I am really hoping to try since she really does pick it up pretty well.

All in all I really see this little girl emerging from the baby. She is so much fun, although when around strangers, she often gives a scowling look and rarely smiles.  It's funny because it is so different from the person we see at home.  It's really starting to hit me that the baby stage is nearly over for us. On one hand it makes me sad, but then again, it's so fun to watch her learn to walk and talk.

I want to get this post up, so there won't be any pictures of Eddie with Edith today.  He's been sick and currently napping, so he missed picture time. But I did take a little video that shows Edith cruising the couch.

Look Mama - I'm sitting still!

Big Smiles today

Vehicle Day

This morning at a local mall was Vehicle Day.  They had about 30 different types of vehicles - construction trucks, city trucks, fire trucks, etc for kids to check out. The weather was cold and rainy, but Uncas and I decided that no matter what, we would take Eddie.  The girls ended up staying home, so it was just the boys.  We bundled up Eddie and off they went.  Uncas took a few pictures. Eddie had an absolute blast!  He is totally into vehicles right now, so this was great timing.

In a Limo

Sitting in a coach bus

beeping the horn in a dump truck

Inside a utility truck

It's hard to tell from the photos, but he really did have a good time. Often with Eddie, when he is doing something - he'll just be taking in everything, so you can't really get a good feel for what he is thinking.  He did talk a lot about it today after he got home. I'm so glad we had this opportunity for him.

Projects!

Lately I have been trying to do things with Eddie while Edith sleeps in the morning. I used to let him sit in front of the tv while I would do some housework.  They are both napping at the same time in the afternoons, so I've decided to try and save the housework for during that time.  This way Eddie and I can spend some fun time together.  Sometimes we bake, but sometimes we do "projects" - that's what I call them.  They are nothing fancy, since I am hardly crafty. I have found some great ideas on Pinterest and other blogs.  Which of course leads to me wonder what did moms do before the internet?  I guess they must have looked up stuff in books . . .

Anyhow - one of the first things I tried doing with him was let him play with colored vinegar and a pan full of baking soda.  You are supposed to take droppers and drop the colored vinegar into the baking soda.  The droppers were tough for him and it took me a little bit to realize - hey, just give him some spoons.  He had a fun time watching the colors fizz and bubble. Of course by the end he just ended up dumping the little bowls of vinegar, but that's ok.

In beginning with dropper

Now using spoons

 One of the other things that I have done is made homemade playdough.  I found this recipe which is super easy.  I stocked up on salt and cream of tartar and we are good to go. It lasts forever in a plastic ziplock bag. I also have a bunch of a little toys from when I was a kid that are fun to use when playing with playdough.  We go in phases with the playdough, but now I try not to pull it out all the time, so it's fun and new when I do.

I also recently started stocking up on some cheap crafty supplies - like washable watercolors, glue, scissors that he can use etc. . .  it sort of snuck up on me that he is old enough to do stuff like this.  One thing that he also likes to do is color with markers and crayons and play with stickers, so some days, that is our "project".

Earlier this week I bought some cheap pasta and dyed it (you can find the instructions to do that here). I figured this would be good for stringing necklaces and other various projects.  Wednesday I set some pasta out with the glue.  I let him glue the pasta to some card stock. When that got old, I brought out some playdough and he played with the pasta and the playdough.

The set up

Dipping pasta into the glue

The finished project

Again - these are far from super clever, but it does help pass the time and it also provides some good one-on-one time. I look forward to when both kids can do stuff like this together, but right now Edith is at the EVERYTHING in her mouth phase, so that just wouldn't work!

What kinds of "projects" do you do with your kids?

Never wake a sleeping baby

Unfortunately it seems like Edith's naps have been getting interrupted a lot lately.  I really hate waking her since her sleeping has gotten so much better lately. I was going through old pictures lately and found a few I took of Eddie sleeping.  I realized that I don't have any recent ones of Edith sleeping, so I snapped one before waking Edith the other day.

Edith sleeping at 9 1/2 months

Eddie sleeping at 13 1/2 months (we were still swaddling his legs!)

Seeing the pictures of both kids sleeping goes to show how much they look alike! And also that we really like the color orange in this family.  I guess it's not shocking that orange is Eddie's favorite color right now.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 4th Birthday to Sammy!

And it Begins . . .

I picked up a "walker" for Edith on Friday from my dad.  Here is a look at Edith's very first time using it:

Easter 2012

I hope everyone had a very happy Easter.  We had a good weekend.  Uncas took Friday (and Monday) off work, so it's been a fun, long weekend. 

Friday we decorated Easter eggs:

 Then we played outside for awhile:

Saturday we drove to Papa's house, up in Duluth.  Eddie and I playing with Legos*:

Sunday morning opening Easter baskets:

Eddie got to play with Papa's tractor:

Cousin Anna came over this morning and she played with Eddie and Edith too:

Eddie and Anna outside

Playing on the floor with Uncas and Sophie

Anna and Eddie dancing

Posing for the camera

We had our "Easter" dinner on Saturday night with Papa, so we could leave early afternoon.  We had a lot of fun seeing him and Sophie.

*If you look at my hair in the Easter egg coloring picture vs. the playing with Legos picture, you'll notice quite a difference - I also got my hair cut this weekend!

Winner!

My dad won our NCAA tournament this year, so he gets to display the prized plaque! So far everyone has won once, but Uncas. Maybe next year...? But until then my dad can enjoy bragging rights!

9 Months - Full Recap

As promised here is the full recap of the month.  It seems like a lot has happened, but I think it's because March is a long month after the "short" month of February.  Or maybe a lot happened :-)

• Eating - the main change now is that she only nurses before going to sleep.  She is way too distracted to nurse anywhere but her room.  A couple of times a day we give her a bottle of formula which she takes about 2-4 oz, so not a ton, but I still feel like she needs to get more nutrition in her. She loves eating real food and does not really care for being spoon fed.  Most meals she just grabs the food and shoves it in her mouth while making a "Mmmmh Mmmmmh" sound.  Sometimes she drops food out of her mouth while making that noise!  Meal times are fun for her and Eddie as they like to make faces and noises back and forth to each other.  Real fun for Mama as she sits in between them . . .
• Sleeping - it's getting better, very slowly . . . right now we mostly get up once at night with her.  The timing varies - some nights at 9:30, sometimes not until 2 am.  She usually is awake for the day around 6:30, sometimes slightly earlier and sometimes a little later.  She still takes two naps - her morning nap is at 9 am and then her afternoon nap is at 12:30.  For all of our sleep issues, I do want to mention something positive.  She has been super easy to put down to go to sleep.  It really started when her bedtime consistently became 6:30.  She nurses to sleep and it usually takes about 10 minutes - maybe 15 and she is out.  When I am not around, she will take a bottle and usually fall asleep just as easily.  Today when putting her down for her nap, she was wide awake but done eating.  She clearly wasn't happy being held, so I put her down in her crib wide-eyed and didn't hear a peep from her.  I am so glad there is some good news to report. Maybe soon, she'll be sleeping through the night?
• Moving - this month she started pulling herself up.  I was hopeful it would take her longer, but of course not my child.  And now the cruising of furniture has started.  She is getting pretty steady and has started taking our foot stools for a little stroll.  We are getting the little walker that Eddie used from my parents this weekend, so it's probably only a matter of time before we are in big trouble.  But I can still hope that she won't walk before she is one, right?
• Teeth - another tooth finally popped through on top!  She has 7 total, but I know she is teething now, so I am expecting at least one more (perhaps on her bottom) to pop through.  She is quite uncomfortable right now, poor thing. But I love her smile with all of her teeth showing!
• Playing - Eddie and Edith are definitely little buddies.  They do like to play together.  They do this thing where they crawl around on the floor and go into rooms and sit there and laugh and then crawl around some more.  They love crawling into our room and the bathroom - both places that are out of my sight and off limits.  Eddie sometimes will go into the rooms and actually call "Edith" so she'll come in by him.  She likes any toy that Eddie plays with, so that can be an issue.  If she doesn't get what she wants, she will cry as if the world is coming to the end, but she is easily distracted (sometimes), so giving her another toy will usually help.  She loves to crawl around and explore and really likes to pull herself up to standing to check out new places.
• Other - She likes to clap and I think sometimes she does it as the "more" sign, but it's hard to know. She can also give high fives.  She likes to mimic noises, especially ones that Eddie makes - like when he imitates a fire truck or a dinosaur.  Uncas plays a game where he pretends to eat her fingers and she thinks its the funniest thing in the world.  It's the first thing we have been able to do with her that makes her laugh as hard as Eddie.  He can really get her going. She has figured out how to work a lot of the toys that we have - far earlier than Eddie ever did.  And even though I don't feel like we read as much to her, she does like books.  When we read, she likes to touch and point at the pictures.  She can be very happy, except for when she is not.  And she will let you know if she doesn't like something - it's loud and clear!

Trying to get pictures of her this month was a joke!  I have a feeling the next few won't be any easier!  I actually took some a couple days early because I liked her outfit.  It didn't go too well.

 Let's move to the floor - no, that wasn't such a good idea.

 Let's try the actual day.  Well, that was even worse.

 Eddie wanted nothing to do with these pictures, so the fact that he was actually sitting there was pretty amazing!