We had a wonderful (and BUSY) Thanksgiving! Addelyn got to see lots of relatives and made leaps and bounds in her large motor development over the weekend (which surprised me given how much she was held that weekend :-).
There was definitely no shortage of people willing to hold Addelyn!
So, with all of the love and attention that Addelyn got over the weekend, she learned so many things, such as:
Play the piano (November 24):
This was the first time Addelyn played the piano - Addelyn especially likes the high notes
Addelyn also found her tongue for the first time (on November 25), she had so much fun sticking her tongue out at Uncle Rob, and having 8 adults react so positively certainly helped to encourage her!
Addelyn learned a couple of large motor skills over Thanksgiving weekend, too. On November 24, Addelyn crawled on her hands and knees for the first time - she still only goes a couple of inches on hands and knees before she gives up and goes to her belly, but it'll happen soon, especially if Aunt Becki keeps working with her :-)
Addelyn also learned to "cruise" along furniture (11/25), she got to a sitting position from laying down (11/24, but she hasn't been able to do it since), and she got really good at pulling herself up to a standing position from sitting or laying (11/23), though she's been pulling herself to standing since November 1. And last but certainly not least...
Addelyn learned to FLY!
On Thanksgiving Addelyn played with her great-grandparents,
Got loved on by her cousins,
And Addelyn even provided the placecards for Thanksgiving dinner :-)
Addelyn had fun with her Thanksgiving art project
Stats:
Age: 7 3/4 months
Weight: 19 lbs, 8 oz
Length: 26.5 inches
Drinks: about 4 7oz bottles of milk per day (8 oz of which is formula)
Eats: 1/2-1 jar of veggie or meat baby food and a jar of fruit at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed or a jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2-1 jar of fruit at lunch time. Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken.
Sleeps: 12-13 hours/night - 9pm-10:30am (usually wakes up around 1am and 8am for a bottle)
Naps: 1.5 hours after lunch and 1 hour in the evening (6-7)
Awake for: 2.5-5 hours at a time during the day.
Clothes size: mostly 12 month
Motor skills: sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, crawling short distances on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, standing alone for up to a minute, scooching, pulling herself up to standing, getting onto hands and knees from sitting without falling over, and "cruising" on furniture.
other skills: babbling, going backwards in her walker (REALLY well!), shaking a rattle, playing piano
words: mama
signs: she's starting to wave and she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"
Addelyn just reached a very important milestone - she can scooch now! She just started doing it all-of-a-sudden on Friday, November 4. She was trying to get to an expired health insurance card on the floor of all things. It's so funny, though, because she still prefers walking, so if she's in a bad mood she will yell at me the whole time she's scooching to get a toy. Another funny thing - she prefers to scooch on my bedroom carpet rather than the carpet in the room she usually plays. Jake thinks it's because the bedroom carprt is longer and she can get more purchase with her feet.
Speaking of milestones...first steps at 6/12 months?? I'm not sure whether to count this as her first steps, but Addelyn did take four controlled steps the other day!
After that, I had to run out and get her one of those toys that she can push around:
Now that Addelyn is sitting much better, I decided to start bathing her in the bathtub. She LOVES it! Her favorite thing to do is lay down and kick and splash! Her first bath in the big girl tub was on November 1.
Jake's birthday was yesterday, and for it mommy made daddy a nice dinner (rainbow trout with green beans and cous-cous) and Addelyn fingerpainted daddy a picture (that was an adventure...). To my utter surprise, Addelyn only tried to eat the paint/paper one time!
The "Before"
The "After"
The work of art
The Happy Daddy
And here's Addelyn's new favorite game:
Stats: Age: 6 3/4 months Weight: 19 lbs, 3 oz Length: 26.5 inches Drinks: about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (1/2 of which is formula) Eats: baby oatmeal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie or meat baby food at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2 jar of fruit at lunch time. Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken. Sleeps: 11 hours/night - 9pm-8am (usually wakes up around 4am for a bottle) Naps: 2 hours after lunch and 2 hours in the evening (5-7) Awake for: 2.5-5 hours at a time during the day. Clothes size: mainly 6-9 month, some 12 month Motor skills: sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, standing alone momentarily, scooching, pulling herself up to standing, and we're working on getting onto hands and knees from sitting without falling over. other skills: babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle words: no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means. signs: she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"
In the spirit of Halloween, Jake, Addelyn, and I went to Bloomsberry Farms - it's a pumpkin patch/corn maze/petting zoo etc... just outside of Cedar Rapids. Addelyn LOVED it. We fed some animals and Addelyn even got to pet a pig! The lady that worked there said that the pig was lonely because all of the kids thought it was gross and never petted it, so Addelyn gave it some love.
We also slid down a big slide, sat in a big pile of hay, went through a corn maze...
...posed for some more pictures...
...And finally we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out Addelyn's very first pumpkin!
Addelyn loved her first Halloween! we handed out candy for a couple of hours...
...eating some along the way...
That's a banana Laffy Taffy. Don't mistake her facial expression for one of confusion...this is definitely a look of utter concentration. This solitary piece of candy turned Addelyn into a MONSTER, and helped her to discover her "angry voice" (when the candy was taken away she yelled at me quite forcefully)
...then Addelyn got all dressed up in her bunny costume and we visited a friend and a couple of our friends' parents.
Addelyn with her carrot. And her bunny friend has a carrot too!
nom nom nom!!!
Stats: Age: 6 1/2 months Weight: 18 lbs, 3 oz Length: 26.5 inches Drinks: about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (4 oz of which is formula) Eats: 4 teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of veggie baby food followed by 1/2 jar of fruit at lunch time. Her favorite is bananas and her least favorite are peas and chicken. Sleeps: 11 hours/night - 9pm-8am (usually wakes up around 6am for a bottle) Naps: 2 hours in the late morning (10-12), a short one in the afternoon (sometimes) and 2 hours in the evening (5-7) Awake for: 1.5-5 hours at a time during the day. Clothes size: mainly 6-9 month Motor skills: sitting up unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees, standing while holding on to something, and standing alone momentarily other skills: babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle words: no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means. signs: she understands "milk" and "up" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"
Skip that rolling around to get places stage - Addelyn is well on her way to go straight to crawling. She's started to get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth and now the race has begun. Who will win? Will mommy get the basement play room baby-proofed first, or will Addelyn start cruising around before all of the outlets are properly covered and the power cords hidden?
Other than that, life has been pretty exciting the last couple of weeks. Here's some highlights:
Addelyn has been saying "mama" a LOT recently. I think she might be starting to make a connection. Another new thing - she pulled herself to standing for the first time today. I had her in her bathtub without any water in it (she wanted to play in it) and she just grabbed the end and pulled herself up. When she realized what she had done she looked right at me and smiled - soooo proud of herself!
It's fall!! I LOVE to be outside in the fall, so I'm trying to get Addelyn outside at least a couple of times a week to play in the leaves and get some fresh air.
I just got done making Addelyn's costume for Halloween - she's going to be a bunny :-) I also made her a giant carrot to hold, but when I took this picture I hadn't made it yet. I even made a little carrot for a stuffed animal bunny to hold so they can match :-) I'll post pictures of Addelyn and her bunny friend both holding their carrots after Halloween.
We should've done this long ago, but we got a swing for Addelyn and put it in the tree in the front yard. She loves to swing! She has fun playing peekaboo and kick mommy, and then she falls asleep. It's the perfect way to get her to go down for a nap. Too bad the weather is getting cold. We'll have to use the swing as much as we can before it gets too cold out!
Addelyn is starting to get into a sleeping routine. I can now get her to sleep from 9pm to 6 am almost every night and her naps are getting more regular - one 2-hour nap in the morning a couple of hours after she wakes up, maybe a short one in the early afternoon, and another 1-2 hour nap in the evening. It's so nice to be able to plan chores around these naps, and Addelyn is in a much better mood now that she has a routine...
Last but not least, Addelyn got her first drumming lesson from daddy :-)
Stats: Age: 6 1/4 months Weight: 17 lbs, 10 oz Length: 26.5 inches Drinks: about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (4 oz of which is formula) Eats: 4 teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with baby food at bedtime, & rice cereal mixed with baby food at lunch time. She's had almost all of the veggies at this point. Her favorite is carrots and her least favorite is peas. Sleeps: 11 hours/night - 9pm-8am (usually wakes up around 6am for a bottle) Naps: 2 hours in the late morning (10-12), a short one in the afternoon (sometimes) and 2 hours in the evening (5-7) Awake for: 1.5-5 hours at a time during the day. Clothes size: mainly 6-9 month and some 3-6 month Motor skills: sitting up almost unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees, and standing while holding on to something. other skills: babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle words: no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means. signs: she understands "milk" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "up", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"
Hello from Addelyn! It's been an exciting few days...
It seems like Addelyn's development has just EXPLODED recently. We've had so many milestones recently, I'm just constantly amazed at her:
First baby food:
I don't have a picture of the occasion, but I started giving her baby food on Tuesday, October 4. I originally planned on starting when she was 6 months old, but I decided to start adding the baby food to Addelyn's rice cereal during her nighttime feeding to start getting her used to the different tastes. So far we've done squash (a big success - she likes squash) and peas (she had a miserable look on her face the entire time and ended the feeding short when she refused to eat any more and started crying...), though I didn't use rice cereal with the peas because it wasn't a feeding at bedtime (which is normally when she gets the rice cereal).
Eating twice a day:
Again, I didn't plan on starting the twice-a-day solids until Addelyn was officially 6 months old, but I learned that doctors reccommend babies eat no more than 32 ounces of milk per day. Addelyn has been eating more like 35 or 36 oz per day, so they say to start feeding more solids until it's down into the 26-32 range. So I started giving her lunch on Thursday, October 6.
Walker Fun:
Addelyn is probably the smartest baby in the world...when she runs into something in her walker she can get herself unstuck by backing up and turning. The first time I saw it I was absolutely speechless. She had run into the couch and she just looked directly at me, smiled, and backed up about three feet before turning and going somewhere else! Did I mention she's not even 6 months old yet??? It was literally a jaw-drop, hand over the mouth moment. Here's a video of her maneuvering all around the basement. She was getting a little frustrated, so she needed a lot of encouragement, but she eventually made it all the way to me and she was SOOO proud of herself!
Rolling over Back-To-Tummy:
Addelyn is officially rolling over from her back to her tummy (via her left side only) and her tummy to her back (either direction). She hasn't figured out that it is a viable mode of transportation, though, so the rolling over in general doesn't happen very often. Mostly it's to get off of her tummy if she's playing and to get onto her tummy if she's going to sleep. And she sleeps SOOOO much better on her tummy. It's 6:30 am right now and Addelyn has been asleep since we put her down at 9. I don't remember the last time that happened!
Rocking!
Addelyn doesn't get up on her hands and knees by herself yet, but if I put her down on her hands and knees she will rock forward and backwards and REALLY look like she wants to go somewhere. I give it about a month before she's crawling around :-) I've started baby-proofing the family room where she plays...
Sleeping with Mommy Sans-boppy
Addelyn usually spends the first two hours every morning (from 7-9 am usually) sleeping in bed with me. Up until about a week ago I had her in her boppy pillow so that I wouldn't roll over on her, but she started getting mad at it and not going to sleep because she can't roll onto her side in it...so I just took her out of it and now we cuddle much closer. I sleep very lightly when she's with me, and I have absolutely no worry anymore that I'll roll onto her in my sleep or that she'll roll off of the bed, since I'm constantly in contact with her. It is an amazing feeling cuddling with my baby, and I look forward to those two hours every day! (though the waking up isn't always the greatest...she usually just hits me in the face until I get up and play with her...turns out babies don't understand "5 more minutes")
Not Wanting to Go to Sleep:
Addelyn has decided that, with the exception of sleeping with mommy, sleeping is not nearly as fun as playing. So occasionally she throws a HUGE fit when she gets tired because she doesn't want to go to sleep. I get her in the end by going on a short walk if it's light out - something that has always calmed her down and lulled her to sleep. Or if it's bedtime, she usually doesn't cry unless she's still hungry, So I just feed her a bottle and she's out. I try not to let her fall asleep in my bed with me when she's throwing a fit because I don't want her to think she gets to do that every time...just in the mornings and on days when I'm really tired and she's being good :-)
Cause-and-Effect:
Addelyn has learned cause-and-effect. She now shakes a rattle with a purpose. I noticed it for the first time on October 5:
Bounce, Bounce, Bounce!!
Addelyn loves to bounce in her bouncy toy now!
Finally, it isn't a milestone, but it is a HILARIOUS video...I gave Addelyn an apple to suck on for a little bit yesterday and she absolutely LOVED it. I've let her taste an apple once before and when I eventually took it away she threw a fit for 5 minutes (a long time for her). This time I was ready with a bottle at the end, so she was a little more forgiving. She's crying at the beginning because I was giving her the apple before I took the video, but ran away to get the camera and she did not like that!
Stats: Age: 5 3/4 months Weight: 17 lbs, 3 oz Length: 26.5 inches Drinks: about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (4 oz of which is formula) Eats: 4 teaspoons of rice cereal mixed with baby food at bedtime, & baby food at lunch time Sleeps: 12 hours/night - 9pm-9am (usually wakes up around 2am for binkie and 5 or 7am for bottle) Naps: 2 or 3 1-hour naps/day occasionally a 2-hour nap Awake for: 1.5-3.5 hours at a time during the day. Clothes size: mainly 6-9 month and some 3-6 month Motor skills: sitting up almost unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back and back-to-tummy, rocking on hands and knees other skills: babbling, going backwards in her walker, shaking a rattle words: no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means. signs: she understands "milk" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "up", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"
We're almost there!! I learned that babies "practice" their large motor skills in their sleep before they start showing these abilities while awake. And Addelyn is no exception to that rule! Last night I saw her roll over from her back to her stomach TWICE. It was so surreal - something she has such a hard time with when she's awake and playing she just does like it's no big deal in her sleep. Amazing. That being said, I think Addelyn will be rolling all over the place pretty soon :-)
I don't have a video of Addelyn rolling over yet, but here's quite a long one of her "talking" She's just started to babble, and it's sooooo cute! The video's a long one...I just couldn't stop taping! Even though it's a common thing and that every baby does it, I can't help but be amazed and enthralled at every little new thing she does. This video was taken late in the evening, so she was getting a little tired and crabby (you can tell by the way she can't decide whether to laugh or cry). It didn't help that she wanted me to pick her up and I was just sitting there looking at her, and at the end she has a bit of a coughing fit. No, she's not sick, she just takes after me and occasionally inhales her spit then chokes on it... graceful, I know.
And now, more pictures. Here are some of my favorite recent pictures:
I love these pajamas!!
Addelyn is pushing up on her arms very well now.
Addelyn always loves bathtime!
I think I'll start doing some stats, that way when I have more babies and when Addelyn grows up I can remember how big Addelyn was and what she was doing at this age:
Stats: Age: 5 1/2 months Weight: 16 lbs, 11 oz Length: 26.5 inches Drinks: about 5 7oz bottles of milk per day (4 oz of which is formula) Eats: 4 teaspoons of rice cereal per day Sleeps: 12 hours/night - 9pm-9am (usually wakes up around 2am for binkie and 5 or 7am for bottle) Naps: 2 or 3 1-hour naps/day occasionally a 2-hour nap Awake for: 1.5-3.5 hours at a time during the day. Clothes size: mainly 6-9 month and some 3-6 month Motor skills: sitting up almost unattended, rolling over tummy-to-back other skills: she just started babbling :-) words: no words yet...unless you count mama, but I don't think she knows what it means. signs: she understands "milk" and we're working on "change diaper", "help", "out", "up", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "bye bye", and "eat"
Addelyn is officially teething! She hasn't had too much of a problem with it so far and if it's effecting her sleep patterns at all it's for the better (thankfully). I noticed a couple of days ago that the mouthing she's always done became a little more...shall we say...urgent. Still no teeth poking through as of yet, though, and I think it will still be a whle since her gums aren't even hard or swollen at all.
Even though Addelyn's first tooth hasn't come through yet, I think I already know it's a sweet one! We've gotten our first bag of candy corn for the season and let's say I got a little carried away today. I was surprised to see that my inability to stay away from the candy corn was reflected in Addelyn's behavior! Tonight at 30 minutes past her bedtime Addelyn was absolutely bouncing off of the walls!! It was so funny, I had to get it on video:
This is what happens when a breastfed baby's mommy has too much candy corn...she was like this for a good 15 minutes.
Addelyn sometimes crys in her sleep and it sounds so much sadder than any of her other crys (angry, hungry, scared, tired, bored, hurt etc...) and it breaks my heart. How can a 5-month-old have such sad dreams when she doesn't even know what it means to be sad? I suppose it's the flipside of when she has funny dreams and laughs in her sleep. She started giggling in her sleep at 2 weeks old before she could even consciously smile. I wonder if there have been any infant sleep-studies that show that the neurons in the emotional centers of infants' brains can activate during sleep before the baby is emotionally mature enough for them to activate when awake...
No picture or video for this subject - I've tried so hard to get the sleep-giggling on video because it's just so adorable, but it's so unpredictable and quick. The crying can last a little longer, but I don't have the heart to watch her cry like that long enough to record it. I just have to pick her up and comfort her when she crys in her sleep - even if she doesn't wake up for it, she still calms down once I pick her up and talk or sing to her.
It's official. Addelyn is rolling over! She started on Tuesday morning (September 6), and was an expert by the following night. Goodbye tummy-time. Right now she will only go from her tummy to her back, and she only rolls to the right, but I'm sure once she realizes that rolling is a viable mode of transportation, she'll start rolling all over the place.
Monday, September 5, 2011
I figured out how Addelyn can get around in her walker - I have to put her in it backwards. The leg holes point forward too much, so she can't get her legs under her if she's in it correctly. Now that I figured out the trick, Addelyn cruises! She does have a bit of a problem with steering as you can see, though. Since she has to sit backward, the pivoting wheels are in the back and it makes steering very non-intuitive. I think I'm going to do some modifications of the shape of the seat pretty soon.
Addelyn has also started doing "the dive" If I'm holding her and she sees something or someone that she wants, she will reach both hands out for it and try to 'dive' out of my hands. Isn't she too young for that??? She's also doing better and better at sitting on her own. A couple of days ago she decided that she wanted to sit IN her toy box. She walked up to it and fussed when I offered her the toys or for her to stand by it - then once I put her in she got a big smile on her face and played in there for several minutes. It was so cute.
Addelyn often takes her morning nap in our bed with me (and sometimes Jake, too!) I think this may be her favorite place to nap because I'm right there not only to be a comforting presence, but also to replace her pacifier when it falls out, which it does at least a half-dozen times per nap. When Addelyn naps wit me like this, it's totally normal for us to have a 2-hour nap, and we've even had a couple of 3-hour ones! It is soooo nice.
We had a long, fun day on Saturday, September 3. We woke up at Grandma and Papa Sienkiewicz's house and played until mid-afternoon, then went home and played some more. I think Addelyn was beat...she had a mild fever (99.5) and fell asleep a little early that night - she couldn't even stay awake through her dinner!
Labor day was fun - we went to Lora and John Baughman's house and had a cookout. Addelyn enjoyed all of her friends and she even got to play with Mia the dog, who is always very concerned when Addelyn crys or yells. Mia will be a great big sister! Addelyn played a little in the grass - it was a chilly day, so she got all bundled up and everyone agreed that the hat Tiffany made her was ADORABLE!!! (and also that it made her look like a mushroom from Mario...nerds)
Addelyn might just be the most spoiled baby I've ever known. It seems like every time I turn around she's getting something big and new. This weekend it was doubly true, I think, because she came in contact with so many grandparents. She now has a new walker and a new chair (on loan from someone from church). She also has a new pair of shoes that she loves. Yesterday was the first time she wore them and she had a huge grin from ear to ear as she was walking around the living room in them. Then we went outside to play and she walked all around the yard. I think she likes the way they feel on her feet.
The walker only had three height settings and even the lowest one was still more than an inch too high for Addelyn to be able to actually walk. So, I took her walker apart yesterday and added another height setting. Now she LOVES it. She figured out right away that she could move, and she works so hard at it but she can only go backwards as of yet...
This weekend we all went to Des Moines for Addelyn's Aunt Becki's white coat ceremony. The ceremony was a bit long for a 4-month-old, so we left her in Mingo with Aunt Tara and cousins Kylie and Madison. Then afterward, Addelyn had two sets of great-grandparents over to see her in Mingo and I also finally got some good pictures of Addelyn with my family, so here they are :-) (All taken on August 27).
Addelyn with Grandma Sienkiewicz
Papa even held Addelyn long enough to get a nice picture!
Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Brown
Addelyn with cousins Kylie and Madison. It is adorable how intrigued Madison is with Addelyn.
It occurs to me now that I forgot to get one with Tara and Addelyn...next time...
