24 Weeks Old

Yay! The giggling video loaded. It's from last week though.

More big news - Nora got her second tooth! It poked through for sure on Monday but it actually may have come in a day or two earlier. Poor thing has been drooling, chewing on everything and had a stuffy nose for so long now. I hope that once these two come in she will get a break for awhile before the next ones come in. With the new teeth she's also developed a new skill - blowing raspberries which she does with a vigor, enthusiasm and frequency quite unrivaled by any other behavior. I like to imagine she's doing it as a commentary on what is happening around her. So, for example, when we walk into the bedroom and I tell her it's time to nap and she blows a raspberry, I imagine she's expressing her disapproval of my plan.

She's also sitting up extremely well on her own. She every now and then will arch her back and tumble over, but for the most part she's quite steady and able to sit for a long time. She can even reach and lean far over and grab toys and then sit her self back up.

Even with the teething she remains a cheery, happy, smiley, giggling baby. Henry is still the person that can make her laugh the most - including today she was laughing and laughing at him watching him on the swings at the park. He doesn't even have to be trying to entertain her and he does!

My pictures of her this week are sadly lacking...since it was Henry's birthday yesterday (which is also why I am a day late for this post), most of my pictures are of Henry. Stay tuned for a birthday post. Maybe later tonight...but probably tomorrow!

23 Weeks Old & First Tooth!

I have a cute video to upload but am having trouble with it...not sure if it's the website or what, but stay tuned, hopefully I'll figure it out.

 First tooth! So exciting! It poked through a little bit last night and then today it's been going up and down a bit but definitely up through the gum. I looked back at Henry's records and his first came in at 28 weeks (but he was born early, so adjusted it would have been almost the same age as Nora). Henry also got his second tooth within days of his first. So we shall see if she gets her second tooth soon as well. She's been drooling, chewing on things (her hands and her giraffe mostly) for the last month or so. Yesterday she would not sleep for longer than maybe 40 minutes at a time and was pretty fussy in the evening - which I attributed to the napping situation. But then the tooth showed up! After some Tylenol last night she slept really well overnight and has been pretty much back to her normal cheery self today.

She's sitting up better and better by herself. She just needs a pillow behind her (the Boppy works great for this) because she'll sometimes fling herself backwards. Also if she leans too far to either side she'll tumble over. This week we've tried to take advantage of any breaks in the rain we could and have been taking evening (and sometimes afternoon) walks. Henry has been playing outside a lot - digging around in the yard and exploring every inch of it. We took Nora outside and blew bubbles for her (see picture). At first she didn't even notice the bubbles, but once she did she really liked watching them. On Saturday we went to a St. Patrick's Day carnival - the kids both looked adorable in their green shirts and Henry had fun playing all the carnival games (although I think the most memorable part of the event was the cotton candy he got to eat...a rare treat for sure!).

22 Weeks Old

It's a video-polooza! Videos of her trying a breastmilk slushie, "talking" to Wilbur and sitting up.

And officially five months old! Amazing to me how quickly these 5 months have flown by. Nora is loving looking around at everything and trying to touch whatever she can. The other day we went on a walk in the evening and she just stared and stared at the evening sky. I think the light was perfect for her: bright enough to be interested in it but not too bright to hurt her eyes. She prefers to be in a sitting up position (has been like this for awhile) so that she can see and participate in the action. Still has not rolled over yet...well, she did one time but I think that was an accident and it hasn't been replicated. She is, however, sitting up unassisted for short periods of time. We also had her sit in her highchair for the first time this week. She's been so interested in what we are eating and drinking lately. That interest, coupled with her teething, made me finally make her a little breastmilk slushie. She didn't seem to enjoy it very much - not sure whether it was the temperature or the texture she didn't like. After it melted in the bowl a bit, she pulled the bowl towards her and I helped her drink it all from the bowl. It was so cute! Also made me remember to let her drink from an open cup more often. So since then I've been letting her practice drinking little sips of water from an open cup  and (after a few days of "spit backs") now she's doing fantastically. Another funny little thing she has started to do is "talk" to Wilbur. If I put her near Wilbur she will talk and talk to him...but it's not her regular babble, it's more of a scolding, sometimes even yelling at him. After listening to her yell at him this afternoon for at least 5 minutes I finally grabbed my camera. Of course she didn't do the same yelling, but I still captured a lot of her dog talk. 

Henry is continuing his acting and baseball classes and having a great time in both. His school is focusing a lot on St. Patrick's day and he comes home from school full of tales of what mischief the leprechauns have caused that day.  He is incredibly excited for his upcoming birthday and keeps trying to convince us to tell him what he is getting. He is so sweet with Nora and helpful to me. We had a few rough patches while he was adjusting to having a new little sister, but I think he has really blossomed in his new role as big brother. 

21 Weeks Old

 Closing in on 5 months old! The infant stage seems to be quickly leaving us as she is nearly fully transitioned into the baby stage. I was made keenly aware of that fact tonight as I was holding her in one arm and carrying a cup of hot tea in the other hand as she tried to grab the tea. She is so aware of her surroundings now. Her absolute favorite entertainment is watching Henry or Wilbur - and if they are both playing together she will laugh and squeal her delight. She's also very intrigued with watching her own hands. It's hilarious to watch her watch her hands and clasp them together, spread her fingers apart and then inevitably put them into her mouth!

 I realized that I never posted about her check-up after we went in last. She weighed in at 15 pounds, 8 ounces and a height (length?) of 27 inches. That put her in the 66th percentile for weight and 95th percentile for height. It was kind of surprising to me to hear how tall she is because I don't look at her and think she is particularly long, but I guess she is. What a change from Henry! Poor guy could hardly maintain his own curve in weight while Nora is jumping up higher and higher in the percentiles with every check-up! She also got two more vaccines (repeats of the very first round she had). She'll go in again in about 5 weeks for her 6 month check up and get her 4th round of shots which will be a repeat of the second round she did (2 vaccines).  Then I will continue to have to take her in every other month or so for more to catch her up. Just like Henry she will eventually have all her vaccines, just not as early as children who follow the standard schedule.

As this picture shows, she is getting better at sitting up, but still not able to do so unassisted. She reminds me of a queen surrounded by her royal cushions in this picture. Can you guess what is making her smile? Henry, of course!

She's definitely not ready for solids yet - she barely tolerates water in her mouth. She just thrusts it right back out...which is actually pretty funny and I keep giving her little bits on a spoon just to see her do it. But, even if she was swallowing it, I'm still set on waiting until 6 months before starting. We are going to make some breast milk slushies for her though! Hopefully that will help ease any discomfort of teething and let her get some more practice with a spoon and a new texture.

The pictures of Henry are from his baseball class. The blurry picture is of him just nailing a hit - it definitely would have been a home run had it not been a whiffle ball. I so wish it was in focus - it was an amazing hit! The other shot is of him on first base (they all advance one base per hit) - you can just see how proud he is of himself in his expression.

20 Weeks Old

 Look at the little lady! Getting better and better at balancing herself. Still not too ready to sit up on her own yet, but she's certainly trying. She is definitely happiest sitting up so she can see what's going on around her and try to grab for things. Henry takes his role as big brother pretty seriously most days - here he is reading her a story before bed the other night. He asked if he could change her diaper today...maybe with some more practice that can become his regular job! Today Nora was in her swing and I stepped out the front door to call Wilbur inside. Henry came to the door and said "well, Nora's not in her swing anymore." Panic! "What do mean she's not in her swing anymore?" "I moved her to the couch." I ran in to find her on the couch kind of slumped over but otherwise in good spirits. "Umm...let's wait until Mom or Dad can help you from now on, ok?"

 She has a check up tomorrow - technically it's her 4 month appointment, even though we are closer to 5 months at this point. I'm excited (as always) to find out how much weight she's gained.

Since she's been gnawing on her hands so much that her poor fingers are red and raw in places I've been trying to find a teether that she'll actually use. I've tried basically every type I can buy as well as homemade ones like washcloths, etc. But with every single one of them she acts as though I am trying to poison her - she squishes up her face, thrusts her tongue out, gags and sometimes starts to cry...then puts her hand back in her mouth. Well, since Henry was a baby I've been hearing about this "Sophie the Giraffe" toy for teething. No way was I going to spend the $20 on a teething toy....but everyone I talked to swears their kid loves it and chews on it, etc., etc. Well, I broke down and ordered the mini-version. And sure enough, as the picture shows, she's chewing on it! Here's hoping she continues to do so - her poor hands need a break!

19 Weeks Old

*Don't forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them! The video quality is so poor (due to the website's size restriction), I think it's better to view it small without putting it on full-screen mode.

 I'm including a video with this post that shows us hanging out at home on two different days. It's not very exciting; I suppose it could be called a "day in the life of" video. In the first part, Henry is trying to get Nora to laugh and the second part shows her in her exersaucer she got for Christmas. She's just about tall enough to really get her feet planted beneath her and use it comfortably. She still is enthralled with the same insect toy attachment on it. For some reason that particular toy catches her eye and keeps her interest pretty consistently whenever she's in the exersaucer. I'm posting the three pictures of her in it so you can see what I mean - she just stares at it and talks to it. It's really cute.

 Unfortunately we've all had a case of pink eye this week. Yuck. Henry got it first about a week ago. Then Nora got it, then me, and last Brett. It's a viral case so there isn't any medicine we can take; we've just had to wait it out. Luckily it doesn't seem to last too terribly long and according to Geoff (it's so nice to have a doctor in the family!!) we shouldn't be able to pass it around continually. So let's hope it's gone for good now!

In the top right picture Nora is all bundled up for a walk outside. She isn't liking the Moby wrap lately nor does she like riding in the stroller. This makes for challenging outings. Henry, Nora and I went to the zoo last Friday and I ended up having to carry her while pushing the empty stroller because she wouldn't be worn in the wrap nor ride in the stroller. I've got to figure out a solution to this...or hopefully she'll begin to enjoy the stroller (maybe once she's sitting up on her own?).

Fire Trucks and Archery

 Henry has had another exciting week. On Friday his preschool class took a field trip to our neighborhood fire station. I wasn't able to go with them, unfortunately, but Brett did and said they had a wonderful time. They have a small class, but three are missing from this picture. Being such a small class, they are really close - I've so enjoyed my time parent-helping and getting to know all of them. Hopefully now that Nora is getting older I will be able to participate in more school activities. I'm already planning on being a chaperon for the next field trip - to the grocery store next month. I'll just bring Nora along for that one since it's essentially

 what we do every week anyway (go grocery shopping).

Then, today, Brett and Dad took Henry to an indoor archery range in Tigard. Henry has been begging to get a bow and arrow set for the last year or so. Of course that's not going to happen...so, when we found out about this place it sounded like a great idea. And, sure enough, Henry loved it. They even have kid-sized bows and Henry was totally able to use it all by himself. Brett said he was pretty good too after he got the hang of it. He even got a bulls-eye!