8 Months

Dear Annie,

You are 8 months old today - time is really flying by! I really can barely believe that it's been a whole month since I wrote your last monthly letter. Summer has now crept into fall, and you are really enjoying the change in season, as it provides you with lots of tasty leaves to chomp on to your heart's content! Speaking of chomping, you finally sprouted 2 teeth this month! We first felt them about a week ago, and now they are clearly visible, and are so cute. I will miss your big gummy grin, but I think this new smile will melt my heart just as easily.

This month has definitely been the month of movement. You were just starting to scoot around at the beginning of the month, and now you have got your real crawl down - you aren't very quick yet, but just observing the changes that happened this month, I'll bet by your 9 month birthday you will be ALL over the place! You also love to sit yourself up from laying on your belly - that seems to be your preferred way to play now.

You spend most of your time playing - what a nice life to have! You really love your stacking cups, and can bang and chew and throw those for quite awhile. The ring toy I used to shake in your face as a newborn is also a favorite - you seem to gravitate toward that one in your basket of toys, just to shake and chew on. Lately, you are starting to try to play with mommy and daddy's things - your favorite to try to find is daddy's headphones... I tried hiding them behind the TV but you were a little too smart for me! More than anything, you LOVE our iPhones. I'm sure it is because daddy and I are just a little attached to them, so you must also think they are awesome. And they are. This may be just the beginning of your love for Apple products!

You are such a curious little thing - always checking everyone out! We took you on quite a few outings this month, to grocery stores, Target, restaurants, and you seemed to enjoy your view of the place from the cart or highchair. You have just gotten happier in the past month, and your evening crankiness has subsided considerably, even on weekdays. I think you are getting more used to the stimulation you get at daycare!

Sue reports that you are quite chatty with the other kids at daycare - you like to babble at home too, but on weekdays you are much louder! I wonder if you will get in trouble for talking too much during school like I did... time will tell.

Eating has gone pretty well this month - if you want to, that is. Some days you eat very quickly, and others not at all. You always seem to love to nurse now, which is so nice. You really never get fussy during a feeding anymore. A few times this month you fell asleep while nursing before bed, so we got to enjoy holding you while you slept for a little while - there is really not much I enjoy more than holding you while you nuzzle your face into my neck! It is so peaceful and you seem so content.

Speaking of sleep, you're still loving it! Still at 2 naps a day, although the morning one gets shorter and shorter. I think you may be early to drop to one nap a day! Your bedtime hasn't changed - you still definitely want to be asleep by 7pm, and then sleep until 6-7am.

We are starting to see your personality come through and it is so cute! I love the little glimpses at the girl you will become. You seem pretty laid back most of the time now, but definitely like being part of the action! We are loving watching you grow and change right before our eyes!

Love you always,

Mom

34 Weeks

Any guesses how we got her to sit still for this photo?

Why of course, by holding the iPod in front of her face. Lately when she sees an iPhone or iPod close to her, she just grins...... maybe because she can see her reflection in the glass? Who knows...

Annie is officially crawling now! In the past week, her scooting has turned into full belly off the ground crawling, for more than just a second at a time. She seems to prefer sitting herself up and playing to just moving around for the sake of moving though... but I'm sure those days aren't far behind! No signs of wanting to pull herself up, but we did lower the crib mattress just in case!

I think sitting herself up is my favorite milestone so far - Annie is just so cute sitting on the floor, just playing with her toys - I love it! She still will lay on her belly for awhile, but more and more she's just sitting up and playing. I got her the rock and stack rings and some stacking cups to play with (haven't shown her the rings yet though) and those cups keep her entertained for a LONG time - since for her, it's basically 8 toys in one :) Right now, she just chews them and bangs them together. Her most favored activity seems to be crawling over to her basket of toys and taking them all out. Yup, that's it. She can entertain herself with those for about an hour, which is awesome. Usually we don't ever really LET her entertain herself for that long though, since we want to play with her too :)

Needs to figure out that sitting up under the table isn't the best idea :)

She's also getting better at going from sitting to laying down. She gets LOTS of practice with that in her crib when her naps are starting..... how fun!!!! I have to say, it is HILARIOUS to look at the video monitor to see Annie just sitting up, staring at the camera. (it has a little green light, and her room is pretty dark, so she must like staring at it)

We had a much more low key week this week - not too many things planned, which was nice. Annie also managed to just stay at home a few nights this week without having too extreme of a meltdown before bedtime! Last week we avoided meltdowns by going to the store and things like that, but this week we kept her occupied with changing locations, new toys, etc. It was actually quite a nice change! The meltdowns on the changing pad continue though... very frustrating. I'm sure it's just a stage, but I hope it ends VERY SOON!

Annie continues to be bipolar (as Julia commented last week - how appropriate!) with regards to eating - we introduced yogurt to her this week, and she seemed to enjoy it - we just give her plain whole milk yogurt (which I think is pretty gross) mixed with 1oz of fruit (apples, peaches or pears) so she's getting a little more for dinner now. Most nights she finished most of it, one night she cleaned her bowls completely in like 10 minutes, and tonight she ate like....... 5 bites total. under protest. Pretty much the same stuff, every day - yogurt/fruit and an orange and green veggie combo. And yes, it bothers me WAY more than it should when she won't eat! Usually when she's done, she doesn't necessarily get pissed, she just won't even look at me. Just closes her mouth, checking out her tray... or staring out the window, or whatever. Obviously I just need to let it go, but boy it gets to me!

Naps are pretty consistent, in that there are 2 of them each day at about 9:30 and 1:30. Other than that, it's anyone's guess as to how long the naps will be, which is another thing that drives me batty. Sometimes it's 1.5 hours, sometimes 20 minutes. Sometimes she'll go back to sleep, other times she'll freak out when she wakes up and won't calm down at all. I don't so much care if she doesn't sleep very long for her morning nap, but in the afternoon I worry that she will just turn into a cranky mess by 5pm. Usually she proves me wrong! For example - Friday. She woke up pretty early (like 6am), took a 20 minute nap at like 9:30 at daycare, and then when we got home from the surprise visit at work, she went down at 1:30 and only slept for 30 minutes..... which meant she would be awake for 5 hours until bed - somehow she pulled through! I think it was mostly because Liz and Jolene came over to babysit so there were some new people to look at. I've also found that the length of nap doesn't seem to accurately predict Annie's mood later - on Friday she was fine, and today she took a solid afternoon nap but still got pretty cranky. I am pretty much giving up hope of her being a "good" napper - she TAKES naps, which is great - and she goes down very easily, it's just the length of time that is unpredictable... once again, oh well!

Oh my goodness gracious, I almost forgot the BIGGEST news of the week - Annie finally got some TEETH! Yes, plural. On Wednesday night, I was zooming into this photo to see if I could see ANYTHING resembling teeth on Annie's gums, since she gave me a pretty good look - nope, nothing! The next morning, I actually felt her gums, and definitely felt a long ridge, much wider than one tooth - I still couldn't actually SEE anything, but by Friday night, they were definitely poked through, and you can clearly see both bottom teeth coming in! I tried taking a few photos to see if you could see them - but nope, they still aren't really showing up on there. They seem to be coming up fast though, so I'm sure soon enough I'll get to share pics of her chompers. SPEAKING of chomping, I've been a little nervous about breastfeeding since the teeth came in, but so far only one little bite, and that was when she was actually done eating and was just kind of laying in my lap. So now if I even kind of think she might be done, we just stop :) No need to put myself in a compromising situation!

I swear 2 teeth are in there!

For once, we had a low key weekend too - we still managed to fit in some outings, but none too far from home. Here are some photos from our weekend!

Ben got a Burley off craigslist, so he had to give it a whirl (just down the block) - we need to get Annie a helmet, which I'm sure will go over REAL well...

Took a trip to Blue Door Pub last night with Molly and Mia - it was mostly a success!

Ben thought it would be funny to pile all the rest of her food on her spoon, just to see if she'd notice, since she was so engrossed with watching the goings on in the restaurant. For some reason, I find this pic to be one of the most hilarious pics ever.

She seems concerned.

We had Rebekah, Rett and Adelaide over for brunch - as will happen with little girls, Adelaide and Annie have the same dress from Target, so a matching outfit photoshoot was in order! They started out very enthusiastic, as you can see.

Eventually there were some hugs :)

You'd think Annie is looking at something interesting here - oh no, she's just staring in wide eyed wonder at Ben's Zune mp3 player. She stares at it all the time. We have to turn it away from her high chair or she won't face forward..... nut.

Chilling out watching the Vikings game with Dad

Finished up our weekend at neighbor Mia's first birthday party! Someone got all the baby girls little clip on bows - perfect for our 3 mostly bald babies!

The baby photoshoot was a bust - this was the best of the bunch, at least a few are looking at the camera :)

I know they aren't looking AT me - but they look so cute with their little bows :)

5 Years

Happy 5th anniversary to my Bunjamin! He really outdid himself with how special he has made this day so far - the other day, I was near tears because I SO wanted some dessert and there was NOTHING in the house - I was about to just eat some plain chocolate chips, I was so desperate! He asked if I wanted part of my anniversary gift early, and I said YES! It was TREAT size packages of sour patch kids (since I'm always asking Ben to get me a treat) which are my favorite candy! Just look how happy I was when I got them...

He also got me more of my favorite things that were on display on the dining room table when I came downstairs this morning, and then he said part of my gift was him and Annie driving me to work with a stop at the Ginkgo to grab coffee - perfect! and then right around noon, I came back to my desk, and who was there but Ben... which I was excited about, but then I saw Annie too! and I was MORE excited about that :) My coworkers were pretty happy to get to see her too, since it had been awhile! Annie showed off her crawling, and had fun playing with my workiversary balloon :) My coworker Janelle helped him arrange enough "fake" meetings that we were able to take the afternoon off and go home - perfect, because I DESPERATELY need a nap!

Here are photos of us on every anniversary (I already put a few of my favorite wedding photos in this post 2 years ago, so I will not repeat those... but I still love them :)

on that rainy day 5 years ago...


First anniversary! We went to Christos to celebrate.


Second anniversary. Thanks to the handy search feature on Google Calendar, I am reminded that we dined at Zelo that night. Mmm, I love Zelo. We went to NYC as a present to ourselves.


Third anniversary! We went to Murray's which still was one of the best steaks I have ever consumed. Looking at that makes me want to go back and re-edit those photos. Gross.


Fourth anniversary - I was (sort of) great with child. We went to Ronin, and I had cooked sushi.

And finally, today, with our extremely excited Annie! I find it funny that we are always on the same side of each other. Tonight we are again going to Christos - since it is in Union Depot Place, we have no idea how long it will be open due to the fact that it will be the hub of the new light rail line... so we're going now just in case it closes!

Here's to a lifetime of anniversaries! I love you Ben!

33 Weeks

Annie was just really not feeling the photoshoot this morning! I usually get her dressed immediately, but today we were lazy and kept her in jammies until after breakfast, so she was probably getting even a little tired by this point. Oh well - I guess it keeps it real, she isn't ALWAYS smiling :)

We had a pretty good week! Our Monday off was really nice - the weather was awesome, so we did a picnic lunch from Nelson Cheese & Deli (the super delicious Cheesemaker sub - seriously so good, and even split between us it's more than enough) at Como Park.

Lounging in her PJs on Monday morning

Scooting around at the park

Annie again had some cranky evenings - but it was manageable. What is really nice about this age is that Annie can actually be distracted from being pissy, and now she LIKES being taken out and about. If you'll recall, I thought this would never happen a few months ago. Both Tuesday and Wednesday nights Annie was super whiny and cranky at home, but then we took her to Whole Foods and Target and she was fine - just silently sitting in the cart, looking around, smiling at people. Whatever works!

This kept Annie relatively happy after Whole Foods until it was an acceptable time to go to bed!

So, at the beginning of the week I made a note to myself to write about how great Annie was at eating, and then she proceeded to completely suck the next two nights. So, she either is awesome and eats her bowl of food in like 5 minutes, or won't open her mouth at all. It doesn't seem to be tied to specific foods either, because one night she'll eat something super quickly and enthusiastically, and the next, nope! Not a CHANCE. My coworker Jen reminded me that food at this point is really about learning motor skills anyway, but it is TOUGH to erase that "clean plate club" mentality that is drilled into you in childhood! I know Annie doesn't care that there is still food left... but I do! I need to just let that go, obviously, but I HATE wasting food even that costs like 25 cents. We tried avocado again since she hadn't had it for ~1.5 months, and she seemed a bit stunned and really wouldn't eat that AT ALL... until I mixed in some pears, and then she was all about it! We've started giving her the puff cereal on her tray to practice picking stuff up - at first I broke one puff into fourths, then in half, and when she seemed to be ok chewing it I gave her the whole ones - she loves them! She hasn't QUITE mastered actually getting them into her mouth, but she gets there eventually. It's pretty hilarious to watch - she'll get the puff inside her fist, then stick her hand in her mouth, but not OPEN her hand to get the puff out. We can only give her a few at a time though, because she seems to want to shove them all in at once :) It's certainly a nice distraction tool when out and about!

This is just something I want to remember. Last night, after coming home from eating outside, Annie was a wee bit chilly in the legs and feet so when I was changing her into her jammies I put her feet on my cheeks and apparently she found that hilarious because she immediately started laughing. I tried again tonight at the same time, and again, laughter! What she finds funny is SO random :)

Good pic of Rebekah and Adelaide at least :)

So Annie is still doing fine breastfeeding, she nurses or takes a bottle 5 times a day. She hasn't eaten at night in 5 months, but for some reason, I am STILL super painfully engorged almost every morning. This is pretty maddening to me, because then I'm basically at the mercy of how much Annie wants to eat - which is not even CLOSE to how much is in there... so then I'm still in pain. Sometimes I try to get her to nurse a little more, and it's just obviously not happening. I really do not want to pump at all, because I feel like it will just make the problem worse in the end, but I had to this morning because I couldn't even hold her it was so painful. If you read my "day in the life" post, you see I get a RIDICULOUS amount of milk at my first pumping session - at least 13 oz, sometimes more. I just wish my body would get the memo that I don't need that much milk in the mornings, but..... don't think that's going to happen! I'm actually scared for the weaning process because I feel like it will be so painful... hopefully it is gradual enough that it goes okay.

Annie and I met up with the Mom & Baby crew yesterday - so fun to see those babies always! They are much more interested in each other, but still seem to prefer to play independently. Annie is the only one scooting/crawling (not even sure what to call it - it isn't full on crawling but she certainly can get where she wants to go!) but I think Will is very close! It will be so crazy once all the babies are fully mobile.

The scooting has definitely increased this week! Annie can move pretty quickly and easily now, gone are the days where we really could leave her and not be watching. Just this weekend she's really perfected sitting herself up, which is her new favorite thing to do, including when she should be napping. Ugh. However, she still sometimes falls back, so we definitely need to watch her since we have hardwood floors! There have been 2 "thud" incidents this week, luckily both were on rugs, but Annie still screamed pretty good! I guess that is one way to learn how to stay sitting up :) She can get back down pretty well, but one leg gets a little caught. I took a video, since I know her technique will change even this week and it's so fun to go back and watch how difficult it was for her to roll over when now she can do it perfectly.

When we put Annie down, she rolls over and pretty quickly goes over to the basket with her toys, takes the lid off, and then dumps it over - pretty funny how fast she figured that one out!

We visited Aunt Becca in the hospital today - you may recall she is expecting triplets - she's 24 weeks today and one of the babies is having complications, so please keep her in your thoughts! They need to stay put for awhile! Annie did seem to enjoy visiting her old stomping grounds, since Becca is at the same hospital where she was born.

That about sums up the week for us!