Know What's Cuter Than Babies in Jeans?

Sisterly Love!






Sisterly Love!

They sat like this for about 20 minutes this morning (none of these were posed)...and yes, Adele let Anna suck her thumb. Is there ANYTHING sweeter?!?!

Where to Start?

Lately my "free time" has been pretty few and far between, as the girls are on different napping schedules. But when I do have a few minutes to myself, my choices have been: Blog, clean or rest.

I've been doing a lot of "resting".

At first, I was resting because I was in that weird (well...weird for a person with young children, I guess) phase of actually getting enough, and possibly too much sleep at night, which somehow always makes me extra tired during the day....and then, starting on Friday night, I went back to the state of being tired because my baby/toddler/dog kept me up all night. Ahh. Such is life.

Anna had several great nights' sleep beginning with the night after her 4 month check up. She slept through the night on and off, and on her "off" nights was waking up around 5:30 to nurse, and then going back to sleep until 7:30 or so. Then the 5:30 wake up time started...migrating? until it was happening around 2:00. I believe that I learned with Adele that the 2:00 hour is like my *prime* sleep time or something, because when I am up during that time of the night, even if I'm only up ONCE and for half an hour or less, I just feel like I miss out on so much sleep!

In reality, she is still sleeping great, even our "rough" nights the past two nights have only meant waking up twice.

Adele's nights have been crazy to say the least. She has woken up with a dry diaper for two days in a row...earning her suckers for breakfast. (Healthy, I know! Don't worry...we follow her sucker with a "normal" breakfast too!) She seems to be waking up less at night because she's itchy, but she's waking up for other random reasons, most recently because her knees "hurt". I'm not sure what that's all about, but my knees used to hurt when I was a kid, and my mom told me (as yours probably did too-especially you, DeeDee)that it was "growing pains"...however, I still get those "growing pains" to this day, and I'm pretty sure that any growing I'm doing is not in my knees anymore!

It seems that Fall has finally settled in Indiana, and the girls and I are trying to make the most out of the gorgeous weather! Cookie is getting spoiled with walks again, and Adele actually enjoys riding in the stroller most of the time, which means I am almost getting exercise on a daily basis (I say almost because Cookie isn't exactly a power walker...)

We've also taken trips to the Children's Museum, Conner Prairie, the Zoo and the library. I think that soon I will attempt to take both girls to the Y by myself. In the summer, it wasn't so bad, but now that it's cooler outside (NOT complaining!) I am worried (probably overly so if you ask Daddy) about keeping Anna warm once she's out of the water. Yesterday the whole family went to the Y, and I went and changed while Daddy stayed in the water with Anna so that I could bundle her and change her without getting her wet from my still-wet suit...Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Today Anna actually spent a few minutes in "childcare" at church...sort of. The infant room was closed (she was the only infant there, and we didn't bring her in until half way through the service) so the director of children's ministries just held her as she walked from room to room checking on the other children. Anna's a sucker for one on one attention, and she's not terribly picky anymore about who's giving it to her! Starting at the end of this month, Daddy and I will be taking turns volunteering in the childcare classrooms.


Adele is obsessed with Halloween right now (she was last year too-that's when she coined the phrase "Scary Boo" to refer to anything Halloween. She still looks for "scary boos" (meaning any kind of Halloween decorations) on our walks, but refers to the individual decorations by their names. She is pretty unimpressed with the amount of decorations that are currently up, so hopefully that will change.

In addition to going on outings, I like to do some sort of "craft" or "project" with Adele each day. Some days we bake (her favorite is making "birthday cake" or Rice Krispie Treats, which I can't really argue with-they're Daddy's favorite, and SUPER easy!) We also make little art projects. Last week we put "tissues" over dum dum suckers and added google eyes to make little ghosts. now Adele thinks that there are suckers inside of ALL ghost decorations. We made pumpkins out of foam, and she put them on the door...upside down. She's a HOOT. We got her Halloween costume at Target on Saturday and so far she hasn't asked to try it on, which is a good thing, I don't want her to wear it out before Halloween!

I gave in and started feeding Anna some rice cereal. She got a little rashy. Go figure. I can't tell if she likes it or if she's just particular about being "hungry but not too hungry" when I feed it to her. Some days I can't get the spoon to her mouth fast enough, and some days she'll hold the food on her tongue and scream as if it's hurting her or something. I'm a little surprised, because Adele LOVED her solid foods from the very beginning...well, except for the avocado.




She desperately wants to sit up, and will even do little baby "sit-ups" when laying on the floor, as if she can will herself to standing or something. She watches Adele so closely and I feel like she already wants to be just like her big sissy!

I pulled out Adele's old "favorite" music table, and Anna just LOVES watching Adele play with it when she's not trying to figure it out herself!


And last but not least, how could I not share these?!?!

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!