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".