growing up too fast

SO we were spending time in the media on Sunday afternoon and Claire starts dancing. I go and get the video camera and this is what I captured. Not sure where she learned this.

how bout...

so, claire has been stalling when it is time to go to bed. 'i'm hungee", she says. and since she hasn't been eating too much at dinner, we go downstairs and get something to eat. tonight, she is sitting at the counter (on our new bar stools - with backs!) and finishes her pbj. she says, "i'm still hungee" and starts looking around the kitchen, saying [drawn out], "how 'bout?......" "coffee". i just cracked up. no, claire. no coffee. time for bed. then, it was "whatcha doin' mommy". i'm cleaning up, claire. "i wanna clean up with mommy." okay, claire. so, i let her stay up a bit and put her toys away. not too bad. she was still in bed by 8pm, which is just fine.

laura is doing great. she LOVES solid food. she has had chicken and turkey and a bunch of different fruits and veggies. she still doesn't like puffs. i will have to get a picture of her face when we put one in her mouth. it is priceless.

i know, i know. i need to put lots of new pics up. i promise i will after this week - i have a deadline for work (wait, am i not on maternity leave? - ha!).

how did we miss that one?

over the past two months, when claire has been whiny, i would ask her: do your teeth hurt? she would always say no. so, to my great surprise tonight, i looked in her mouth and saw that her 2 year molars are all almost in. when did that happen??

laura continues to be our bright little star. she is so content and sweet. she has taken to her solids well, though she wasn't too keen on the chicken tomato pastini tonight. it was her first intro to meat. we'll try again tomorrow.

other than both girls not napping well/at all this afternoon, we have been doing great.

6 month checkup

as i said before, laura has become just the sweetest little baby. but perhaps i was mistaken. perhaps not so little! we took her in for her 6 month check up today. she weighed in at 15lb 15oz and measured 27in in length. for those of you who like to know percentages that's 49% for weight and 88% for height. consistent with last visit. and yes, evidently she still has a little tiny head. her noggin measured at 16" which is the 6th percentile. how can this be? does she really look like she has a tiny head? i don't think so, in fact, i think she looks quite proportionate.

since claire's head has always measured small and we know how sharp she is, i am not worried :).

laura cried a little for the shots, and claire didn't seem all that distressed. a little curious, but pretty mellow compared to last visit. perhaps because daddy was with us. anyway, laura checked out just fine and we go back to see the doctor nov 15th for her 9 month visit. no shots then! hooray!!

girls are both napping, so i am tidying up and changing out laura's 3-6 month clothes for 6-9month clothes. it just goes too fast!

i will try and get mark to post some new pics soon. he posted new videos last night. for some reason, my macbook won't let me post pics in the blog. maybe i will try on picasa.

ciao for now.

lynn

Claire 400

Almost every evening this is how Claire winds down.

Laughing baby

What a darling baby. Check out Claire's knock-knock joke half way through.

what a difference a nap makes

well, 3 days of sleep training and we have a different baby. not sure if it was sleep deprivation, hunger, anticipating milestones, or just a phase, but laura has truly turned a corner. she is now the most patient, sweet, non-crying baby you have ever met. she naps regularly and for 1.5-2 hours twice a day with the 3rd power nap of 45 min. she laughs and smiles and coos and sits patiently in her bumbo (thanks mark and erin!) and when on the floor rolls on her side from her back. she is mostly happy on her tummy with some crying when she wants to roll over. but overall she is an absolute delight. i never doubted it, but i know her dad might have ;p.

claire is busy playing nemo puzzles and painting. today, she wrote the letter d and told her dad that dog started with a d. then she wrote a w and told him that oo-wa-ha, oo-wa-haa, started with a w. if you have seen finding nemo, you know exactly what we are talking about. she is singing all sorts of songs and still love to dance.

we are so lucky to have two such sweet girls.

mark posted a few new pics, but we have lots more to upload and will do so soon.

2 in a row

well, laura slept last night from 7pm to 8am. she awoke once at 5am and put herself back to sleep. we are so proud of her.

i also installed black out curtains in her room and this morning when i put her down for her nap, there was nary a peep. so, fingers crossed!

she did it!

laura slept through the night from 630pm to 715am! we are so happy (and somewhat rested)!!! hopefully this is the beginning of a trend and not a one-time fluke.

she has been eating sweet potatoes and cereal and loving it. we are getting so many smiles and giggles, too. i will post some pictures later today.

in other news, it looks like we found a nanny to watch the girls part time. she will start this fall with a few hours and increase in the spring when i go back to teaching. we are really very excited about her. she sings, speaks spanish and seems very tender-hearted.

finally, thanks to uncle larry for sending the moxie t-shirts. claire absolutely loves hers and woke up this morning asking for it. perhaps this afternoon i can get a picture of mark, claire and laura all wearing their shirts.

until next time, make sure you've got moxie...

lynn

SHE DID IT!!!! after i posted this, laura rolled from her tummy to her back twice!! of course, she was pretty cranky about it, but she did it!!! and yes, i caught the 2nd one on video. will post it later this evening.

Sleeping

Well, the rice cereal went down easy, but Laura sure hasn't. We've been reading about how to get your baby to sleep. Laura sleeps from about 7pm to 4am. And ten again to about 7am. Naps (for Laura but not her dad!) are rarer than solar eclipses around our house. Anyway the books say to let her cry when you put her down for a nap. in the morning, she cries for about 30 minutes and then sleeps for almost 2 hours. her afternoon naps are a bit more trying. She's been crying for the last 55 minutes in her crib. The books also say to let her cry for an hour and then get her up and try again when she is scheduled to nap or sleep the next time.

It's now been 58 minutes of crying and she has finally stopped. Hopefully she is sleeping, but I don't dare open her door to find out.

Shhhh! Be wery, wery qwiet.


update: morning naps are better and she only cried 30min this afternoon but then only slept for 30min. we'll get there. in the meantime, we'll relish in her sweet disposition. she is just so yummy!

Yummy!

Next week Laura will be 6 months old! Thus far the only thing she has eaten is breast milk. But considering she has cellulite on her shins, that milk must be pretty good for her. Well today at lunch, Laura had her first taste of rice cereal. Take a look.



She got the hang of it pretty fast. So we were hoping she would nap for a long time this afternoon, which turned out not to be the case. Ever since we went to Maine she's been getting up at 4am every morning (so has her dad). ---note: her dad goes right back to bed! laura goes back to sleep, too. so while it in't ideal,it's not too bad. we are going to work on it this week.

all in all she is turning into the sweetest little baby who is full of smiles and chatter and raspberries! ---