Another Anna Post

Anna didn't get a lot of screen time in that last post, so here are some pictures of our 4 month old cutie...enjoy!











Did they remind you of these?

Stony Creek Farm

Today the weather felt like Fall, so it was the perfect day for a trip to the "Pumpkin Festival" at Stony Creek Farm! We took Adele last year, and she was afraid of some of the attractions, but we figured that our little daredevil would have a blast this time around.

She was actually pretty slow to warm up, and still did not do all of the attractions. There is a blow up "kiddiepillar" that kids can walk through, and Adele wouldn't go near it. There was also a blow-up haunted house that she was apparently terrified of as well. While we were there she just acted crabby and refused to go in them, but at home she told me she was afraid of their "air".

Anna was a sweetie and took the cutest nap on me. Too bad Daddy, Adele and the camera were busy playing on the playground while she slept. I actually tried to video tape it but couldn't exactly get a good angle what with her in my arms and all.

We started out our visit with a pony ride. Adele was in heaven...and then she was itchy.

Well...at least ONE of us was cooperating:

The "Bouncing Pillow"...Adele actually DID like this one (although not at first!)


Checking out a tractor:

"I'm a 'Little Climber'!"

"Made it!"

And we're back to the Bouncing Pillow....she would've stayed there ALL day!


Riding the "Pumpkin Train" (We told her it was a coach...like in Cinderella). She told us that this was her favorite part of the trip.


Anna just hanging out, looking cute by the Pumpkin Tree


I love looking back at our same trip last year and seeing how much Adele has grown in a year!

4 Month Stats

Anna's stats are in:

16 lbs 1 oz...just over doubled her birth weight!
25 3/4 inches

Both stats are in the 94th percentile...she's a BIG girl!

We are going to hold off on starting solids until she is 5 months old to hopefully escape some food allergy issues, but as of right now, I don't think she'll have allergies quite like Adele (unless she's allergic to peanut-I still don't eat peanut, even though I do occasionally sneak something that is "processed with" peanuts...so she's not terribly likely to have had a chance to show a reaction to peanut yet...).
I'm a little torn about waiting on solids. Lately she is so fussy when we're eating, and I think it's because she wants to eat too! Plus, there is a lot of contradictory information about withholding/starting foods early in order to avoid food allergies. Oh well...the "typical" timeline to introduce solid foods is between 4 and 6 months, so I guess that we'll be right in the middle!

Anyhow, to show just what a big girl she is, our precious Anna... Slept Through The Night...yes, the WHOLE night last night! (Gotta love those 4 month shots!) I'm not sure why I'm tired and dragging today, but that's just the way it goes! She slept from about 9:00 last night until about 7:45 this morning!!!

She is taking a stellar nap right now too (which means cleaning--or folding laundry--for Mommy, since Adele is sleeping as well...)

And now that I've written this, she'll be up every hour on the hour tonight, right? OH well...at least I've documented that it DID happen at least ONCE before her first birthday!

Tales of a Desperate...

Housewife???

Seriously. Adele is at school, and apparently (because I was planning on taking her to get groceries) Anna is taking the longest nap. Ever. I mean it. I feel like a "housewife" rather than a stay-at-home mom! (And I'm not really liking it...)

We got home from dropping Adele off, and Anna was clearly in need of a nap. So, I "napped" her. I rushed downstairs so that I vacuum before she woke up. (Morning naps have been...short...lately.) I cleaned up the floor as quickly as I could, and debated "weeding out" some of Adele's toys, but decided not to waste this opportunity to vacuum. Well, just as I plugged in the vacuum, one of my favorite songs came on the radio (Round Here by Counting Crows, if you *must* know-I'm a loser like that). I decided I just *couldn't* vacuum while that song was on. So I...wait for it...DUSTED! (Haven't read here before?...I HATE dusting!)

I tried to dust quickly, as in-for just the length of the song, but that didn't work, so about 2 songs later, I finally turned on the vacuum...sure that Anna would be up instantly due to my...dusting detour.

Nope.

I vacuumed the whole room, put furniture back, weeded out some toys, checked the monitor to make sure it was working, and sat down to write the previous blog.

Checked the monitor again....still sleeping, peacefully.

So, I checked email, and facebook, and caught up on my blog-reading. I checked the monitor again (and shook it a little this time, just in case!). STILL sleeping...c'mon kid, I'm hungry and we have NO food (not that you've noticed...)

So, I did the only thing I could do...I started sweeping the kitchen...surely she'd wake up just as soon as I'd moved all the furniture out of the room, right? Nope. I swept, swiffered AND mopped. She's still out.

If we don't get groceries soon, we won't have time before we have to pick Adele up from school.

Now that I've successfully blogged (whined?) about Anna's stellar napping abilities, I'm sure to get no rest this afternoon, and I'll get to get groceries with two in tow (and I won't feel at all like a "desperate housewife" anymore!)


WAKE UP, KID...

....so Mommy can stop cleaning!!!!

Oops!

I guess I'm a little bit late, but Happy 4-Month Birthday, Anna!

At Four Months, you:

Put everything within reach into your mouth!
Are trying to sit up all by yourself!
Still don't really like your carseat, but have been "caught" napping in it on longer car rides!
Are usually smiley for anyone who will give you attention!
"Belly Laugh"-but only for special people like Daddy and Bapa!
Adore your big sister and are often fussy when she is away at school!

You have decided that you would rather be with us than anything else, so you're still putting up a bit of a stink at night time, but we're working on it!
You still sleep swaddled, and that *might* be part of the night-waking problem, but you don't like to fall asleep any other way :(

You're still not rolling over, but Mommy thinks you're close!

We go to see Dr. Freeman tomorrow to find out your "official" 4 month stats!

Love you, little Anna!

Adorable, Adoring Adele!

Anna isn't the only sweetie around here lately. Adele has been positively perfect lately. She enjoyed her visit with Bapa and Aunt Jenny and has a newfound love for her sister (and her sister's toys!)

Here she is talking with Anna...I had been asking (repeatedly) for her to do some odd job, and when I went to "investigate" why the job wasn't done, this is what I found:



"Playing" with Anna's carseat:

We got the tunnel out to see how Anna liked it...it sure was a hit with Adele!


"Teaching" Anna how to play in there:

I just love this one:


Really enjoying her Bapa time:

Bapa brought new Play-doh and it was a HUGE hit! The two spent over an hour playing with it one day!



Who knew she was such a snuggle bug?!?!

That Was Then...

I don't know why that post didn't publish until today (User malfunction, I'm sure...) BUT...it's made a complete liar out of me!

Anna has been up A TON the last two nights. So much so that I decided to let her...cry...it...out! There are probably a billion previous blog posts from around May of 2008 where I struggled with this SAME issue with Adele...well, except that this time, I think it's actually working!

Granted, Anna is a much (Shh...don't tell Adele) easier baby that her sissy was, and I think that is playing an important part in both her (and MY) ability to actually cry it out! She's not doing great in the middle of the night (will cry for half an hour before I go in to soothe her...and usually end up nuring her) but evenutally she'll cry for about 10 minutes and conk out. Adele NEVER did that...of course, part of the problem with letting Adele cry it out was that MOMMY couldn't handle it. In fact, Monday night (our first night of letting Anna cry) Daddy offered to take Tuesday off to help me cope. I didn't need him to! I knew I'd be tired (I couldn't sleep while she was crying...but hey, I wasn't sleeping when she was up wanting to nurse every hour either!) but it didn't bug (or physically hurt!) Me the way it did when we tried with Adele. I KNEW Anna needed sleep, KNEW she wasn't possibly hungry, and when she just squirmed while I held her, I KNEW she didn't really need me there to comfort her. It still isn't easy to let/hear her cry, but hey, it's working!

For naps, it's been even easier! I still swaddle her and either nurse her or rock her with her paci till she's asleep (What can I say, I LOVE the cuddle time!!!) BUT...if she cries when I put her in her crib, I give her once chance, and then let her cry a little. I'm not sure what I'll do during the day if she cries for longer than 15 minutes or so, but for now it's working...and she's taking decent naps!

Well, I'm sure as soon as I click "publish post" I'll be jinxed somehow, but for now, it's working...and I like that!

All About Anna

Well, there's no question about it, Anna is just a little sweetheart! She is full of smiles unless she's sleepy, and if you swaddle her fast enough, she hardly cries then, either. Don't get me wrong, she has her moments, and can be pretty opinionated, but most of her day is spent smiley and content...especially when she's being held!

I've been keeping track of her "schedule" each day to try and find some rhyme and reason, but so far, there is none. She is still up between one and four times each night (although, I'm hoping that the "four" was a fluke! She stays awake for just under 2 hours at a time before she gets cranky. She takes about 3 naps during the day, but usually is ready for a fourth about an hour before bedtime (which basically just turns bedtime into an hour-long-and-then-some process. We're definitely still working out the kinks, but since I'm not going back to work until August, I've got plenty of time to figure her out!

She isn't rolling over yet, but I've been working with her, and she is starting to enjoy her "tummy time" more and more. She LOVES when we pull her to standing

She has been eating up her "Bapa" time and even transferred from my arms to Bapa's arms MID-NAP today at Conner Prairie. That's a first...ever! He also got her laughing huge belly laughs before we went grocery shopping. Bapa definitely has the magic touch, I guess!

Adele Starts Preschool!

Anna isn't the only one growing up too quickly around here! Adele started preschool today!

(I guess it's not *technically* preschool-it's the Mother's Day Out program at our church, but she's in a class with other kids her age, and calls her teachers Mrs. ___, so it counts as "school" in my book!)

Adele was more than ready to grab her "papat"and Tinkerbell lunchbox and leave Mommy and Anna in the dust this morning! She was so ready, in fact, that it was hard to take a picture of her! I tried again at pick-up time, but the girl is really giving my non-existent photography skills a run for their money! At home, she *demanded* that I take her picture next to Cookie, and refused to hold still, and she was just about the same next to the preschool sign (and I was also holding a fussy Anna for those...)






I had great plans of cleaning while she was gone, but Anna took a short nap and then was only happy when snuggling her mommy. I think she was a little lost without big sissy home to entertain her. I soaked up the snuggle time...my neck even got sore from staring down at sweet little Anna!

Adele talked non-stop on the ride home about her day. Apparently one of her teachers was "a little bit naughty." When I inquired as to why, Adele told me that the teacher "made a big mess." She also told me that two teachers were crying. At that point, I was pretty sure that she has NO idea what the difference between "teachers" and "students" was (that or she was playing her "game" of role reversal at school too!) At least, I'm hoping that's the case, because there are only two teachers, and I would hate for them BOTH to have cried on the first day of school!

Over the summer, when I got the enrollment information I freaked out about her food allergies. Fortunately, this morning, I was fine. I left a note and a bag of goldfish in her backpack for her snack and that was that. It was MUCH easier to leave her than I had thought...especially when the teachers IMMEDIATELY asked me about snack when I appeared in the doorway-knowing they *remembered* Adele (or her neurotic mommy) made me feel pretty secure that they'd be diligent about keeping her away from "scary" foods!

So Not Ready For This!

Conversations with Adele:

Mommy: "Adele, what are you doing?"
Adele: "I'm just checkin' out this boy"



She was just staring out the window watching a boy ride around on a scooter waiting for the bus..."checking him out".

A Dose of Anna

Not much to report, except that Anna has been such a lovie lately...I think I made that word up, but it fits, so I'll keep it. It's MY blog, and I'll make up words if I want to.

She was snuggling her elephant, but looks a bit "caught in the act" in this picture!


Ahh..that's better!


More Elephant:


Tummy Time!


Usually my blurry pictures don't make it onto my blog, but I thought she was going to roll over...and wanted to catch her in the act!

She didn't. Oh well....she's my baby, and I'm in NO rush for her to grow up!

"Tricky" Pillows and Other Such Nonsense

Daddy was selected to sit on a jury, "We Three Girls" have been sick, and Cookie is banished to the kitchen...it's been a bit busy here lately! (But don't worry, Adele is still having loads of fun playing in her mud box...uh....sand box!)

Uncle Tim and his family were down for a visit this past weekend. We had a fast and furious time trying to beat the heat while still showing off the likes of Fishers. Trips to the Y and Ben and Ari's pretty much did the trick. The babies and James slept great, but Adele was up several times throughout the night itching like crazy, poor little girl.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we found out that she definitely is allergic to Cookie. The allergist's suggestion was that we get rid of Cookie (And this was without even knowing that Cookie is the fluffiest, most shedding dog EVER!), but Daddy and I are trying some creative solutions first-especially since Adele's major "reaction" is her eczema, and not her breathing (more about that later...) So, we bought baby gates and have blocked Cookie "into" the kitchen-hoping to keep her shedding "mess" on the linoleum which is much easier to keep clean than the carpet!
(Don't worry...this was BEFORE we "knew" that she was allergic to Cookie-Adele is adjusting to not being able to snuggle Cookie, but she still forgets pretty frequently!)

So far there is still long black dog hair EVERYWHERE. And Adele is still itchy.

Sunday morning, Adele woke up with the runniest nose ever. She looked pretty miserable all day, and we couldn't really figure out why. Flash forward to Monday morning, Anna sneezed and coughed herself (and me!) awake, and I discovered a runny nose and sore throat. Before I even made it to Anna's room, Adele was in the middle of a coughing fit as well. At least I had figured out what was wrong with Adele...and I sure was glad it wasn't allergies. I secretly hoped that having TWO sick girls might mean *sleepy* girls so that I could have an "easy" day while feeling under the weather myself. I will say that it could've been worse! For the most part, the girls were cuddly and happy to do nothing but laze around and watch Beauty and the Beast...well, Adele watched Beauty and the Beast, while Anna was pretty much ONLY content in my arms, but I forgave her!

I spent Monday night running around the house alternating between "plunging" (nasal aspirating?) the girls' noses and laying downstairs by a barking/whining/yelping Cookie, but somehow managed to rest enough to not feel completely exhausted when morning rolled around.

So, on Tuesday, Anna and I were feeling MUCH better, but Adele's asthma was rearing it's ugly head. The poor little thing just couldn't catch her breath despite breathing treatments every four hours. To top it off, she had a temperature of 101.6 at its highest, and Daddy was selected for jury duty and had to go BACK today!

Today was by far the worst day for Adele. She isn't exactly one to sit still for very long, but this asthma flare up makes it hard for her to even have a conversation without losing her breath, and she's going absolutely CRAZY sitting still! The only thing that still works is putting on Beauty and the Beast, but I hate for her to watch TV all day! I moved a table into the TV room so that we can at least play play-doh or do other art projects while she watches.

As for the "tricky" pillow, my sewing machine broke while I was sewing a pillow case for a pillow for Adele's bed, so the pillow has been "bare" for quite some time. It has white and blue stripes. For some reason my *favorite* pillow ended up in Adele's room, and when I tried to get it back, Adele told me that she doesn't like the striped pillow because it tricks her. Whatever that means. Well, she then told Daddy that she doesn't like that pillow because it tricks her. This has been going on for some time, and with Adele's recent breathing trouble, we've been TRYING to get a second pillow under her head to help her breathe, but she just won't use the striped pillow. It's just too cute not to blog about.

Daddy's trial ended today (well, not HIS trial, but the trial he was part of the jury for...) so it's back to work for him, and the girls and I have a play date tomorrow before Adele officially starts "preschool" (well, it's a Mother's Day Out program, but it's still "School" to us!) on Friday!