I love my exersaucer!

Gwen has really started to enjoy the exersaucer. She is starting to move around more. She pulls on the star and the moon. The puppy used to stand upright but she has pulled on his crinkly ears so much he know is facing downward. She makes the keyboard go and she presses the button on the house so she can hear her Daddy and the other music. She moves slowly, around the circle, but she can do it and she does get excited about it.

Christmas preview

Since we are in MD and everyone else is somewhere else we will most likely never spend the holidays with everyone. (Sadly both of our Mothers have jobs that require working on holidays.) Eric and I as many of you know have done a lot of work to our townhouse, well, it needed it. The next thing we need to do is replace the flooring, Eric has already done the downstairs area, but the time has come for the middle floor and stairs. So, we have been looking at hardwoood floors. Today we received the sample box of our top picks. I usually wait to do stuff like that, but I was too excited to wait until she napped. (I would have had to wait a total of 10 minutes later). As you can see, it was probably worth it not to wait!

She might not have any interest in material things, but she certainly likes a box! When I was a kid we had a cat, Pixie, we never got him anything for Christmas because he got so much enjoyment out of the boxes and wrapping paper, just letting him play in the box and crinkle the wrapping paper was all the present he ever needed (oh and knocking down Mom's low hanging ornaments and laying under the tree was of course fun!)
So, do you see visions of the Gwen as a toddler when you look at the last picture? Yesterday when I was getting my hair cut, the woman asked me who Gwen looked like, I replied her Dad...she said that's ok her resemblance will change when she grows up. The man at the liquor store told me the same thing, are they implying that Eric is not attractive? I am married to the guy should I take offense, should Eric? Well, it is kind of funny, I know they are not being mean, but it is humorous that they think telling me Gwen will look more like me when she grows up would make me feel better. I married Eric though, and I think he is cute, so I don't really care if she looks like him...she has my cute button nose and that is enough for me!

Silence

You might have noticed that this blog has been kind of quiet. Gwen & I are still recovering from our illness. I have not been taking any pictures of her because of the nose crude issues, when we resolve that, more pictures will be added, I promise! On a funny side note, Gwen does not like Mommy sneezing or coughing when I am not holding her. A couple of times when I had her in the exersaucer and I sneezed or coughed she immediately started to cry. Nothing I can do about that, but it is cute! Regular posting should continue soon, as I hope that sometime in the next couple of day this house will be back in good health!

Wellness update

Gwen is basically her same self during the day, sleeping is when we have a challenge. The poor girl is so stuffy we have put the humidifier in her room to help her out. Hopefully she will sleep more like 'usual' tonight. Last night was 2-3 hours and waking up. UGH! Today she took a 2 hour nap. I hope this is a new trend, but probably just a fluke, so I shouldn't get my hopes up! Unfortunately, I have also caught the bug! I basically felt like my head was going to explode so I relied on Eric a lot the last couple of days, esp Saturday. I am feeling much better today, probably because I also took a nap. So, hopefully this first illness is about over, I am not sure I am going to like catching every illness known to man!

2 things I never wanted to learn...

but had to as a Mother. How to use the:
1) the rectal temperature
2) the nose bulb
Yes, Gwen has her first cold and fever. Last night she did not sleep well and I noticed she was congested. Then at about 4-5am she started with a fever, only 100.8. This morning I called the Dr and we went in for our first sick baby visit. She is acting pretty normal, just is rather warm and you seriously don't want to be near her when she sneezes. The Dr said just monitor her, if I feel she needs to come back in they will be open this weekend. We are to try to keep her as fluid filled as possible and use humidifer and/or steamy bathrooms to help with the congestion. Unfortunately we don't have a humidifer, but we will soon! Our house is very dry in the winter. Hope you have a great weekend. Poor thing, I feel terrible for her to be chasing her around with a tissue (fortunately she isn't mobile!)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (pt 2)

Well, this Thanksgiving was a success we had turkey and stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes and green bean caserole and rolls and cranberry sauce. We even had a sweet potato pie! Gwen unfortunately couldn't enjoy our meal by eating with us, but she did sit for a while, though she was pretty tired. After she takes her nap we will most likely go for a walk. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The turkey is in the oven! Ok, the turkey has been in the oven for over an hour. I wanted to get up at 7am and put it in, but when Miss Gwen woke up at 5am and kept me up until almost 6, that plan went out the window. So I got up at 8. The only problem with that is that the innards of the turkey appear to be frozen still, it took me quite some time to pull out the plastic piece holding the turkey together (technically, Eric did it) it then took a long time to get the neck out. So, our turkey dinner won't be at 1-2, probably more like 3. But, I guess that is what happens when you buy a $0.37/lb 12lb turkey instead of the 6-8lb turkey you were planning on (I saved $1/lb!) The only other problem I am likely to have this year is that I have never made gravy! I've made the turkey before, but we were in California and I had Hector make the gravy. So, should be interesting. That year I didn't have any drippings they all burned on the bottom of the pan. I'll let you know how it goes!

Here are some pictures of Miss Gwen sitting up. The first 3 are from Monday, the last one is from yesterday. Check back soon for pictures from today. Isn't she just the cutest!? Ok, I know I am biased. Yesterday at CVS the pharmacist said what a lean looking baby, so healthy. I looked around to see if he was talking to someone else, but yes it was to me. I had to write this down because it is certainly the first time ANYONE has called Gwen thin! I guess there is a run of obese kids in Frederick, that is only explanation.

Well, back to basting the bird and watching the Macy's day parade. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving; hope you get pleasantly stuffed.

Crawling and other news

Yesterday I wanted to post about Gwen's gearing up but she woke up before I could get anything written. She totally sleeps on her belly now, I don't know if that is her preference or if it has some thing to do with the fact she now rolls onto her belly everytime she is on her back. It is a fun thing for me, I put her on her back just to watch her roll over, a fun new game! Although it is causing some problems during diaper changes...she doesn't yet understand that she has to stay on her back for a bit longer so Mommy can change her.

Today has been a busy day for us, I weighed in, we went to the library and we went for a walk. We also played and giggled and are down for our second nap. Gwen takes 2-3 45 minute naps. I no longer time the amount she cries, so I don't really know. I am trying to decide if I should try and encourage her to sleep for longer by feeding her and/or comforting her for a couple minutes and encouraging her to sleep longer. I don't really know. Today we made the library, they have a 'reading' for babies section, 0-12mon. Not a lot of reading is done but there are 15 baby/parent pairs (all women, but 1 was a grandma) allowed/session. I didn't count how many were there today. We sang songs with the babies and read a book together. I enjoyed it, don't know if Gwen did, but she didn't cry or fuss, so that has to be a good sign. She seemed to watch either the woman incharge of the session or the woman signing, I don't know which. It seemed like a fast 45 minutes, but I guess that is what happens when you are having fun.

These are pictures of Gwen from this weekend. I don't know what the steps are to get start crawling, but I feel like she might be getting closer. She pushes up her butt and she pushes up on her hands. She just can't get any traction or I think she might actually move. As usual I couldn't get any pictures with Gwen pushing up with her arms. I do know she is getting better at sitting. I showed Eric yesterday and he was impressed. She sits now for several minutes without leaning. I will try to get a picture of that soon, but it is a 2 person job!

This weekend our friends Josh & Jacqueline were in town. We watched the AU-UA game. Jacqueline is a huge Bama fan, so it is fun to watch with them. The fun thing about it is Jacqueline & I are the intense fans and the guys could care less, well I guess they do care, but not with the same intensity that Jacqueline & I have. We tried are darnest to get Gwen not to watch the game, but she is mesmorized by the TV, which is why she isn't allowed to watch it. Mr. Starfish didn't hold her interest at all, she just wanted to see the action on the TV screen! Gwen has a short attention span, which is normal for babies, but I think the addiction to the TV screen (when it is on) is not something I want her to have, so I don't typically watch TV when she is awake. (this is why I haven't kept up with AU as I should and don't keep up with the pros at all).

COLD!

These next pictures show Gwen's new hat and gloves. It is cold here and we now have to gear up before going outside.

Rolling over

I want to start out saying WAR EAGLE!!! Ok, but seriously, while I think it is great Gwen is rolling over, it is not great because she wakes up and is in the corner of the crib on her stomach and it irritates her so she starts crying, (sometimes with limbs hanging out of the crib). This requires one of us to move her back because she apparently can't roll over on her own. She has already woken up twice since we put her down at 6p and it is not even 10p. I hope this trend does not continue all night! If it does we are in for not much sleep. How long will this phase last?

Question?

Is it a bad sign when the people at the liquor store remember your baby? I don't think if I went in by myself they would recognize me, they commented on how she has grown and asked about Eric. Do you think we have a problem? Or do you think most people don't walk down to the liquor store with their stroller?

Intresting side notes

So during the meet Miss Gwen, we received a Wonder kids CD, (toddler version), that I started listening to with Gwen. It is a very cute CD, several religious song and then I stumbled across this song called Goosey, Goosey Gander these are the lyrics.

Goosey, goosey, gander
Whither do you wander
Upstairs, downstairs
In my ladies chamber?
There I met an old man
Who would not say his prayers
I took him by the left leg
And threw him down the stairs

Um, WHAT? Just for not saying his prayers you thought it was a good idea to throw him down the stairs? (The second verse is an old maid sitting in her chair so she threw them down the stairs. The forth verse is a young girl that didn't comb her hair.) I am not sure that this is the message I want to Gwen to have.
In other news, the I might have a problem, I am so proud when Gwen goes to the Dr and she such a superstar. I mean if anyone has seen the back of my cross-stitches they know I have a problem, is it perfectionism? Do you think this will lead me to be one of those Mothers that everyone hates that compares their child to other children and talk about how much better my children than others. Eric once told me if I started to go a little wonky from staying-at-home he was going to send me to visit my Mom for a head-fix. I guess the first step is admitting you have a problem. How will I ever make any friends if I keep this attitude up?
Anyway I really watched Gwen today, I mean I watch her everyday, but today I watched her for new things that she can do. While at the Dr's office the nurse practitioner sat her up and Gwen sat there for a couple minutes before she leaned. She wasn't sitting 'pretty', up straight, she was leaning towards her feet. So, back to today, while she was laying on her tummy I noticed she is starting to pull her legs in and push her butt up. She is also pushing up with her arms. So I figure if I put Mr. Starfish far enough away she will start crawling toward him, but I don't think I want her to start crawling...we have far too many stairs with fair too little safety gates.

Dr.'s appt

Today's Dr appointment is over. The verdict is:
15lb 8 oz (75-90%)
25 in (75%)
The nurse practitioner said that she is acting like a 6mon old, she wouldn't be surprised if Gwen will be crawling by the next visit! AH! Mommy needs some safety equipment! Since we will be seeing both Grandmas before the next visit, we will see if you will see out little tyke crawling. The nurse also recommended Eric & I get flu shots, since Gwen is too young...ick!
So Liesa was closest in the weight department (with a guess of 15lbs)
Ellen & AhMa had the height correct!
I forgot to mention yesterday when I went to get her in her crib after her nap she had gone perpendicular from how I put her in and she was on her tummy, she wasn't upset either, she was just cooing and looking around.

New stuff

Tomorrow is Gwen's 4 month check-up, thanks for all who guessed a weight and height. I think she might be closer to 15 lbs then 14. She also had a growth spurt, so I think she might be closer to 26 in. We will see. Today instead of going to Stroller Strides I went to the FMH thing I went to in Sept. They had a woman their talking about Baby Signs. I have an interest in teaching Gwen baby signs, I have actually already started incorporating sign language into our daily life, using the few signs I have learned. The woman talking today was a little odd, but she apparently leads a play group with other Moms incorporating sign language for babies, which I found out is different than sign language for adults. I guess it is much the same as adult sign language, they just use some words in 'baby sign language' that is easier for a baby's lack of motor control than adult sign language. The woman talking holds a play group every Monday to help facilitate the baby signs, I think it wouldn't hurt to try, meet some more Moms (plus its free). I have a cousin that is a sign language interpreter and when I was in WI my cousin Kelly had taught Lily signs and she was using them, it was so cute. Megan mentioned a website to use to get some signs, but I forgot the website that had the information. Maybe, some kind person (who sent me a lovely letter this week) could email me the website.

We have been pretty busy this week. Miss Gwen has been taking 2 naps this week, only 45 minutes at a time. As soon as she wakes up I usually have my shoes on and we go somewhere. As you can see from the following picture I have started using the 'ribbon blanket', we used to use the other white blanket, but I found her eating the ends and found pieces of it in her mouth. That means, new blanket! She has started holding on to it and looking at it.

I am pretty sure that Gwen's car toy is possessed, the little $1 toy I got from the Nearly New Kids sale, has gone off the last 2 nights at about 5p, by gone off I mean plays music. It has a remote, so I am wondering if one of the kids playing outside had something that caused it to start playing, very spooky!
In other news, I saw the funniest thing today. Someone backed into the grocery store cart container, then left his car their. I drove by (just to make sure that my eyes weren't deceiving me.) He actually left his car there, my question is, how did he not see it. I mean it actually had carts in there, how could you not see the thing, it has a roof and bright red sides?!? But, made me giggle.
Have I mentioned that Gwen started giggling, I mean she has been giggling for a while, but Sunday she really started what sounded like a real giggle, Eric and I have been trying to reproduce that giggle with much success! It is nice to have more sounds than crying coming from her mouth. We stopped by Eric's work today after the FMH group for lunch and she charmed everyone there.
I went back to WW. Goodness, I have a lot of work to do. But, I guess that is to be expected, I get lazy and irresponsible about eating, it was especially hard when Gwen was incredibly fussy. But, now that she is sleeping and going to bed early, eating has become easier. I really have no excuse.
Sometime tomorrow I will try to get online and let you know about Gwen's appointment. There is still time (until I post tomorrow) to get your guess for height and weight in!

Happy Birthday and other things!

Thanks everyone who has estimated weights and heights so far! There is still time to estimate. Friday turned out to be a gorgeous day. In the 70s, so Eric decided he wanted to go hit some golf balls at the driving range. Gwen and I went with him, because it was so nice outside.

Saturday Eric had to do take pictures for his marketing class project. For some reason Gwen thought she would like to be involved. She thought the pictures would be better if she held her lottery ticket at the same time.

She was pretty tired after all that work.

(no babies were hurt or drunk during the making of these pictures!)

Eric turned 30 on Sunday. As I have mentioned before, I think these birthdays that end in 0s are really all the milestones we have left in life, so I baked him a cake, a real cake not one of those Betty Crocker ones, (side note, that is the kind of cake Eric wants, I prefer to make them, I think they taste better, but, he got his cake and ate it to, today at work they brought in a 'homemade' Betty Crocker cake).

Eric asked since he is so busy with work and school we defer his 30th birthday celebration until next year. I couldn't resist though, I asked our friends Brian & Reyna to watch Gwen (sorry she was sleeping, well almost, she was crying when we left, but she did eventually go to sleep). As you can see I had fun making the cake! I told Eric on the way to dinner that we weren't allowed to talk about Gwen, school, or work during dinner, and we actually succeeded and had a very nice dinner at Mealey's a very nice restaurant, the next town over. I was worried in the beginning it wasn't going to go well, because our waiter made the conversation awkward in the beginning, but it did go well, we ate to much and had a great time.

So, you are probably anxiously awaiting the sleep report! Gwen took 2 naps today in her crib. I decided that I was tired of the laying down thing with her, she just doesn't sleep well next to me anyway. She cried both times, but slept for 45 minutes. Tonight she went down without any fuss. I don't know if this is the start of a trend with her, but I hope so. Tonight I really took my time with the quieting down with her. I even spent a little extra time nursing her and I didn't actually put her in the bed until 6:15, the last couple nights were closer to 5:30 and she just cried a lot. I think 6p might be her actual bed time, so I am going to do my best and keep that fairly constant. I just hope she will eventually start sleeping more than 45 minutes during the day at a time. I know that will happen eventually, but I am the impatient sort!

4 months

Today Gwen is 4 months. Wow time has flown by! I spent most of last night writing in Gwen's baby book. Man, there is so much in there that I don't really remember and she is only 4 months. There are been some momentous changes in Gwen since my last monthly update. She is sleeping in her room, in her crib. That is exciting. (as we speak she is napping in her crib). She can sit up, but she leans...I guess most people say slide. She stares at her fingers and coos and smiles and talks to me so much. I am afraid she is going to give my cousin Sammy a run for her money in the talking department! I think she is testing her voice, so funny and cute. She rolls over and enjoys spending time on her tummy. She also still enjoys standing.
Today would also be my Dad's birthday. Hard to believe that we are already in November. I still think of my Dad often, weird that one of Gwen's monthly anniversaries would happen on my Dad's birthday. In my Dad's honor we will be sponsoring a contest on the blog (he loved a reason to bet), Thurs is her four month Dr's appointment. I am going to ask you to guesstimate the weight...price is right rules (for those of you that don't know that means closest to weight, without going over, don't worry, I didn't know either until I met Eric). She was 12lbs 15oz at last appointment beginning of Oct. You can email me or just put your answer in the comment section. The winner may receive more than just bragging rights. If you are feeling ... you can also guess height, she was 23 3/4in. at the last appointment. We will probably have some pictures from this weekend that we take in honor of my father. Some thing he would enjoy I think.

Here are some pictures. The piano ones are from this morning. The sucking on my finger is from yesterday. She was apparently VERY hungry!

Guess what!

She's napping, all by herself, in her crib! (and it only took about 17min of crying!) I am so excited...we are going to visit Eric for lunch in celebration. This post might be the last post about sleeping, but if I don't write about her sleeping habits, what is left to write about? I am sure you don't want to hear about her diaper and we have that feeding thing under control. I know that this nap is a small victory, we will see if she goes down for the next nap as easily. This is a day by day battle, that can be thrown off by any small event. But, I am hopeful that if we can get this napping thing down, she can start staying up later at night so Eric can see her.

15 minutes!

Hi all! Today was a pretty good day. We woke up at 3am, and 7am. 7 appeared to be our wake up time, so I got Gwen out of bed after 20 minutes of praying she would go back to sleep, but we had stroller strides today so I got her up and ready. On the way home from Stroller Strides Gwen feel asleep. She continued to sleep in the car seat after we got home. I tried to get her to go back to sleep after that, but there was little to no interest. We played for a while, tummy time and read. (the pictures are from this tummy time session, Eric said they are classics.) I then laid down with her at about 12:30 she slept until about 3:45. More play time, then I put her down for a bed. She only cried for 15 minutes! Just yesterday I was wondering if she was ever going to cry for less than 40 minutes...alleluia! Maybe soon I will be able to get her to sleep in her crib for naps! It is so hard to put her down for sleep, she smiles at me then gives me this pitiful look when she realizes I am shutting the door. Oh well, it must be done, she is obviously tired.

PS we were very chatty again today. I suspect that is because we are getting the right amount of sleep.

Update & pictures

So I thought I would upload some pictures for you since it has been several days since you have seen any pictures, but first I am going through the boring sleep stuff. Today, we took 2 naps, only because I laid down next to her to let her sleep. The afternoon nap I tried to lay her down in the crib, but she cried again for a long time. If she is going to sleep on her own, she seems to need about 40min to cry it out. I was hoping that her time crying would decrease tonight, but she had fallen asleep in my arms, she was still non-nutritively sucking, I pulled her off and she immediately woke up and started crying. UGH! I don't know what to do about the naps, I think she needs to sleep in the cribs for her naps, but I am not as anxious about her having to lay down with her, because I know that in the evening she will go to sleep early. I still would like her to get to sleep in the crib though and without as much fuss. Today she was a much improved baby from the last couple of days. She wasn't so zoned all day and she was very chatty. We went shopping and she chatted in the car the whole way home.
Without further ado...picture time! This is the scene I happened upon the other day. Gwen enjoys spending time on her tummy. She doesn't roll over immediately and she lasts longer then the 5 minutes she used to last before crying.

The following picture shows proof that Gwen does actually sleep in her crib at night. Here she is in her 'sleep sack'. If you need to talk to me the next couple of days, you will probably find me sitting at the computer staring at this picture while I listen to her cry.
Tonight Eric and I did our civic duty and voted. I had half a mind not to vote, I am quite tired of getting the phone calls, so much so I hung up on 'Barbara' whoever she was, she didn't give me her last name and she might have actually been a real person and not a recording. Sorry Barbara, but I had already voted so I didn't need your reminder. Eric came home early today so as to avoid the lines at our polling station. We walked over to the elementary school, in the drizzle and voted. I carried Gwen, who was fixated on the electronic screen, which reminded me of when I was little I would go with my parents when they voted. My Mom says that I would go in with both my parents while they voted and one time I informed my Dad that that is not who my Mom voted for. So much for privacy.
Since Gwen was so interested in the process, she somehow received a sticker. :) By the way she is so funny when I pull out the camera she smiles, but usually after the camera flashes.
If you would like to see some pictures of Gwen at Brian & Reyna's shower please click the link to the left that says Riley Anne.