Lass at 9 months

Lass is 9 months old today. Can you believe it? She has recently hit this little spurt where she just seems to be doing so many new things all at once. She is trying so hard to get moving and is getting better and faster at her army crawling.


She now has six teeth and has eaten lots and lots of new foods, including most fruits and vegetables, chicken, and yogurt. Her favorites seem to be fresh mashed bananas and sweet potatoes. She still nurses four times per day.
I think she said her first word last week. What was it? “Da-Da!” Go figure! She has recently learned to wave too.

She loves to be outside and to watch her big sister.
She is pulling up on everything and has started cruising a little bit (like her momma, she sticks her tongue out when she’s working hard on something). She is already working on standing on her own, though hasn’t been too successful with this so far.

She is such a sweet little baby with the most wonderful disposition. I’m cherishing each new phase with her. And by the way, her hair has started to lie flat! So cute.

All By Herself

Yesterday I helped Lass up to here:

She danced and played music and thought she was big stuff.


So big in fact, that today she decided to get herself up.
Big Sis gave her lots of encouragement and congratulations.
She was so proud of herself!

Three Day Potty Training – Day Two

We are potty training this weekend. No pull-ups. Not even at night. Miss threw away her leftover diapers at the start of day 1. We’re using this 3-Day Potty Training Method and it’s working like a charm. I selected this method for several reasons. One is that I know several people who have used it successfully. Two is that it doesn’t drag out the process of potty training. Three is that is makes sense to me. I could go more into detail about why I like this method, but it is a pretty intense, focused potty training strategy that has left this momma pretty tired after two full days of hovering over my two-year old, saying over and over and over “Make sure you tell Mommy if you have to go pee-pee or poo-poo okay?” So I’m too tired to do a lengthy post tonight.
I’ll just say for now that we started with many accidents and mad dashes to the potty. But today we had no accidents except a little dribbling when Daddy didn’t quite get Miss to the potty in time. She even had a couple of times when she told me she had to go in time to keep her underwear totally dry. We have had dry underwear after naps on both days, and this child who has been such a heavy wetter at night and has never woken up with a dry diaper made it through the night with only slightly wet underwear this morning. I went in to check on her at about 3 am, fully expecting to have to change her jammies and sheets (or peel off the top layer of my two-waterproof-layer-sheet system),and she was dry then. So I’m happy with the strategy we’ve chosen to use. I’m thrilled with my girl who just gets it. Here is an amazing video of my amazing girl (in her big-girl underwear) dancing with her shadow. I couldn’t stop watching this.

Lass at 6 Months

Look at this angel face.

I could just stare and stare at my beautiful littler Little.

She is such a good-natured baby. She is mellow and happy and sweet. Much of the time she’s just content to hang out and observe the world around her.



She does have a bit of a temper, but unless she’s hungry or tired, she can be soothed pretty easily.



She’s starting to show her personality and curiosity more and more.

She smiles and laughs a lot and is just starting to babble a little. “Mamamamamama” is the little babble she does so far.
She is very efficient at getting items straight to her mouth, where she enjoys chewing and or sucking on everything.
Yes, I mean everything.
She adores her big sister and watches every move she makes. She laughs at her and loves to grab her when Miss is within reach. Many times I’ve heard Miss saying that Lass is “pulling [her] hair out” when Miss tries to hug her and Lass gets a good grip on her hair.
She has gotten her first two teeth in the past couple of weeks, the middle two on the bottom.
She seems to really love feeling these new additions with her tongue.

She’s getting really good at sitting up on her own, though she does still topple over from time to time.



She’s mobile in every direction but forward at this point. She rolls all over and can push up and scoot backwards pretty easily.

As I’ve already posted, she started solids just this past week. Avocado to start, and now sweet potatoes. She’s done great with both of them. And yes, she did actually seem to like the avocado after the first day. I know some people may think me cruel to give my child plain avocado as her first taste of food other than breastmilk, but here’s why it’s my choice. 1) it’s packed with great nutrition!!! 2) it’s easy to mash up and serve fresh 3) it’s bland, easy to digest, and not a food that is likely to cause an allergic reaction. And if that’s not enough and you still think I’m mean because plain avocado isn’t the most delicious food out there (I know, I agree it’s not), let me point out that it’s at least no worse than the taste of jarred baby food (yes, I have tasted it).

That said, she does seem to prefer the sweet potatoes 🙂

And finally, I can once again say that she is a good sleeper (she was sleeping 12 hours through the night at 2 months, but hasn’t done that since 3 months).
Since returning from our travels last weekend I have transitioned her from napping in her swing to napping in her crib and have cut out her night time feedings. Last night was the first night that she slept through the night without eating. She did wake a couple of times but was able to soothe herself back to sleep, so I am very happy with the progress we have made since coming home. I again used the Ferber method, which was so successful for us in improving Miss’s sleep about a year and a half ago (I blogged about our first experience with it and you can find the book reference here).
We had her 6-month well-baby appointment today. She is now 17.9 lbs and about 26 inches long (both measurements around the 80th %ile). She’s on track with all her milestones and got three shots (two regularly scheduled and a flu shot) plus the last dose of her rotavirus vaccine drink thing. She’s growing and developing and changing just as she should be. And I’m enjoying every minute of it. I’m trying to savor every smile and snuggle and create mental snapshots every time she looks at me and I know she knows I’m her momma. I am loving 6 months.

Well, I Did Say She’s a Monkey. . .

Guess who came running down the hall this morning while I was still in bed and her Daddy was still getting ready for work yelling, “I just get out my Blankie!”??




Yes. My little monkey finally climbed out of her crib this morning. Which meant I spent the day frantically obtaining all the needed items to make her crib into a big-girl bed by bedtime. See, I have been in serious denial that this day would ever come. If I could have, I would have kept her in her crib until age 16. I’ve had this huge fear of “The Big-Girl-Bed Transition,” thinking that it would lead to lots of problems getting her to stay in bed and go to sleep, or issues with her waking up at night, or some such other nonsense. So I have avoided any steps toward making The Transition. And although I have occasionally thought, “Maybe I should get the conversion rails for her crib and some guard rails so we’ll be ready when we need to transition her to a full-size bed” I have never actually gotten my rear in gear and gotten these items. I didn’t want to think I would need them soon. So this morning found me anxiously awaiting 9 am to call the children’s furniture store where we bought her crib, hoping that they would have everything I needed in stock so the transition would be smooth. They didn’t have the right color rails, but the guy at the store sold me what they had and ordered the right color and told me I could just exchange these for the correctly colored ones when they come in. Nice, right??
After naps (she napped in her crib, BTW, without any attempt to climb out again) we went shopping for “big-girl sheets,” and a waterproof mattress pad and a new pillow. We found some cute sheets and I let Miss choose between a new fluffy bird pillow and an owl pillow to match the sheets (she chose the owl). We read a new book about a big-girl bed several times today and generally made a big deal about it all day. She observed almost the whole production of putting her big-girl bed together. All the while we were telling her about Daddy putting her big-girl bed together so she can sleep on it and so on. She “helped” me put the new sheets on and of course we put her Bear and Elmo and Blankie in the bed too. I didn’t put any other bedding on other than sheets and her Blankie. I figured she had enough to get used to for right now, and she still flips and moves all around in bed so having lots of blankets on would just turn into a mess. And I actually ditched the pillow I bought and substituted a small toddler-size pillow my grandma made for her instead. I wanted her to have a pillow, but the one I bought today was just too big. And she loves the little embroidered pillow from Great-Grandma, so into the bed it went. She thought the new big-bed was pretty cool.




And, as is so often the case with my mommy-worries, my worst fears about this transition did not come to fruition. At least for now, she is peacefully sleeping in her big-girl bed, where she went to bed without any issues or struggles or climbing out or anything else. And thank goodness for the video monitor, which will hopefully help me to sleep peacefully tonight as well. Fingers crossed. . .

Two-Year (Really??) “Miss”-cellany

I did a short post on Miss’s birthday. Now I have some time to write about what my big girl is doing at two.

She is such a funny little girl. She’s very active and curious. She is starting to get into pretend play more and more. She’s enjoying dress up, taking care of her dolls, cooking in her kitchen, etc.
Here’s she giving her doll a bath. The other day she was “feeding” her Elmo doll, by holding him up to her chest as if nursing him. She cuddles and bounces and “burps” her dolls, and I see her rocking and shushing them. She’s such a good little mommy.

She’s also an active little monkey. She loves to climb and romp. She can jump with two feet, balance briefly on one foot, and kick a ball. She likes spinning around, or being spun around, to get dizzy. She also has quite good balance. Today her fun new thing was “I wanna stand on Mommy’s back.” She managed to balance very well up there.
Yes, she’s holding my hair here to get herself steady.

After she mastered balancing on my back, she thought it was very funny to jump up, straddle my back, and drop down on her rear end onto me. Yeah. Ha. Ha.
She loves music and dancing, but you knew that already. . . She is in gymnastics and music classes, each once per week. She sings a lot now. Sometimes she busts out singing all the words to songs that I can’t believe she even knows. Like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” She knows these songs even though I’m pretty sure I’ve only sung them to her a couple of times. The other day she started reciting “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” word for word while we were driving in the car, except she didn’t get the counting down quite right. It was adorable, by the way.

She loves reading and can recite many of her books, almost in their entirety. “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” is one she can pretty much “read” herself.
Her language amazes me more and more every day in how rapidly it is improving. She nearly always speaks in complete sentences now. She sometimes busts out with the funniest and cutest things too. “It’s pretty windy today, Baba,” or “Don’t worry Mommy,” or “Just be patient Lass” (when Lass started fussing to eat and it took me a minute to get to her). When she says “no” to something, she often likes to give a reason. Like, “Miss, would you like a snack?” she’ll say, “No, I too tired” (which sounds like “toy-ed”) or “Let’s put your socks on” she’ll say, “No, it’s too little.” Too tired and too little are her her standard responses these days.
The other day she was rubbing Lass’s hair and she noted that it was soft. She then commented that her own hair is soft as well. I asked her about Mommy’s hair, and she agreed that my hair is soft too. Then I asked her about Daddy, and she said, “No, Daddy’s pokey!” She can repeat nearly anything that is said to her or within her hearing. She is really into identifying people by name. Today she pointed to herself and said her name, then pointed to Lass and did the same, and pointed at me and said “Mommy.” Then she said, “That’s my family.” After Daddy came home from work this evening she correctly listed all four of the members of her family. She is getting a little better at using the correct pronouns, though she still makes mistakes with this quite a bit. She knows all of her letters and the sounds they make. She is starting to be able to identify what letter a word starts with by sounding it out. She knows all of her colors and shapes. Seriously, I am amazed by the capacity of her two-year-old learning every day.
She loves to do crafts. Coloring, painting, gluing, etc.




Of course anything that she can manipulate with her hands is fun. Play-Doh squishing is a joy for her.



She is pretty good with her spoon and fork now, though she often chooses not to bother with them. She eats very well most of the time and is a pretty adventurous eater. She has always eaten dinner at the table with us and pretty much eats what we eat.


She loves her sister. She likes to get down on the floor near her and give lots of kisses and hugs. She calls her “Sis” and gets very excited when Lass “talks” to or smiles at her. She tells her that she loves her, which just makes me want to press the pause button and savor such moments with my littles.
I know I say this every time I do one of these posts, but I really love this age. Miss’s personality is really emerging and I am enjoying her so much. She’s smart and funny and sweet. She gives hugs and kisses freely and often without prompting. I’m so blessed to be able to watch her grow every day.
And in case you were wondering, Lass is 6 months old, and I’ll do a post to update on her achievements very soon!

Big Fat Vacation Post

We came home to heavily falling snow yesterday. After a week of sunshine and warmth, we are now back to over a foot of snow and temps below 20 degrees. But we had a splendid time. Now there’s a word I don’t use often enough. Splendid. Our vacation was truly splendid. It was full of everything a vacation should be. Lots of time with family. Cherished moments for my girls to spend with my grandparents, their grandparents (both my parents and my husband’s), and my aunt and uncle.




Four generations here.



And in addition to the fantastic family time, we had all the elements of the perfect vacation.
Bubbles.

Sweaty, sunscreened skin and hair curled by humidity.
Dancing and funny faces in a could-have-been-made-for-my-toddler mirror.





The beach of course, complete with shelling, relaxing, sand play, checking out the surf (Miss would not get too near the water, and kind of freaked out the one time a wave did come up over her toes), bird watching, a picnic lunch, and a nap for our littlest, experiencing her first trip to the beach.













A fun visit with close friends. Two of my good friends from graduate school live about an hour south of my in-law’s house, so I was able to visit with them and let them see the girls.

Morning walks, during which we got to walk by the harbor and see the manatees. Miss got so excited to see them poking their noses up out of the water. Okay, I got really excited to see them too, as I had never seen a manatee in person before.
Here we’re getting ready to go.
And of course, pool time.

This was our second dip in the pool for the week. Somehow we did not get any photos the first time. And unfortunately the pool heater got turned off by accident, so the water was a bit too cold for our second swimming attempt. But Miss really wanted to go in the pool, so her daddy got into the cold water and took her swimming. Reluctantly. . .
Sort of.


This dip in the pool only lasted a few minutes before we coaxed a blue-lipped, teeth-chattering Miss to get dry and blow bubbles instead of swimming.
In the evenings we had some grown up time playing cards with my in-laws. My husband and I taught them to play Euchre. I haven’t played Euchre since graduate school, and I forgot how much I enjoy it.
It was a great vacation. I almost didn’t want to come home. But now we’re here and I’m glad. We’re snuggled in and refreshed to get through the last of the cold weather. We’re looking forward to spring here. I can’t wait to see the crocuses pop up and feel the warm sun bringing everything back to life. I can’t wait to get my girls out and playing in the yard, going to the park and for walks in our new double stroller. Big things to come. Potty training. And this:
That’s avocado.
She seemed to like it at first.
And then maybe not so much.
Not sure if it was the taste or texture she was shuddering about.
We’ll try again tomorrow!

My Little is Getting Big

Lass is growing like a little weed. An adorable, snuggly, kissable weed. She is changing so fast I swear I don’t want to blink and miss something. She is rolling all over the place now. If I put her down and turn my back for a minute, when I look back she’s halfway across the room every time!

She is doing so well at sitting up. Just today I had her sitting in front of me on the floor and she hardly bobbled at all.
She smiles all the time and laughs so easily. She’s super ticklish and will laugh like crazy when you tickle her belly or sides. And she snorts when she gets to laughing really hard. I can’t help but crack up myself when she giggles.
Somehow it seems like time is flying by even faster with Lass than it did with Miss at this age. She’s almost 6 months old!! Before I know it she’ll be starting solids and becoming mobile and getting into all sorts of mischief with her sister. So I take an absurd amount of photos (anyone else a second or later child and have hardly any photos of themselves as a baby?) and try to document everything like crazy so I can always remember and come back to this amazing stage later. I love it here.

Lass Rolled Over!

I had almost forgotten how fun it is to cheer for each of the little milestones of your baby. Almost. Lass rolled over today and, oh how we cheered.

Here she goes (and in looking at this photo I’ve noticed that I had put her pants on backwards. Oops!)
Almost. There!
Success!!!
Miss came over to see what the commotion was about and she cheered her sister too.
A note on Miss’s outfit. She has been a bit obsessed with these green socks for the past two days. Yes, I let her wear the same socks for two days. Last night she about lost it when I tried to take them off to put her footie jammies on. So I told her we could leave them on, but when I tried to put the footie jammies on over the socks, she cried even harder. So we took the socks off, put the jammies on, and then put the socks over the jammies. Problem solved. And for the record, she was over the socks by this afternoon.
The orange tank top is one of her swim tops. I tried it on her to make sure it still fits, as we’re going to Arizona next week and then to Florida in a month. Once it was on, she wasn’t letting me take it off. Thus, the interesting fashion combo. She did peel it off in a split second for her bath tonight though. She loves her bath!
And one other fun thing. My hubby took down the Christmas tree and rearranged the furniture in our sunroom this weekend. There was an extra wooden crate left sitting temporarily. Miss found it and has decided it is her “castle.” She loves to sit in it and read a book about gnomes we got for Christmas from my brother’s family.
She likes to get waaayy in there.

She gets really into the book and tells all sorts of fabulous stories about the gnomes.

I love her imagination. It;s just beginning I know, and it’s so fun.
One book down, half of one to go!!