I'm a little pack rat, short and stout...

I will readily admit that I have some minor hoarding tendencies. (This is not good for someone living in an ~800-square-foot house!) This recently became apparent yet again when I realized that I've been saving all of Rose's "report cards" to date.  Mike and I both love looking at her report cards each day - they tell us when she ate, how many wet/dirty diapers she had, what activities she did, etc.:

But I'm starting to think that maybe I don't need to save them after we review the info, especially since I've never gone back to review an old report card in the six weeks that we've been getting them. Right now our my stack looks like this:

I can only imagine how tall the stack will be by the time she starts kindergarten!

The nerdy part of me is curious to graph all the data to see if there are eating or sleeping trends. (Wouldn't that be fascinating? I love statistics!) But I also realize that doing so would immediately and irrevocably  push me into "crazy obsessive mom" territory.

So I guess it's time to cut the cord and recycle them, right? Oh, but it's hard to get rid of things with sentimental value, especially things with data!  What to do, what to do....

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

Just when I thought I had a routine figured out, Mommy and Daddy mixed it up on me! They kept telling me they were taking me back to Grandma and Grandpa's cabin, but I didn't really remember it because I was such a little baby the last time I was there .  Now, of course, I'm a grown up baby and can even write diary entries about my fun weekends.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Mommy and Daddy were so excited to get to the cabin that we left right after they  finished work on Friday afternoon. But I like to "cluster feed" on Friday evenings, so it was too bad they didn't consult me before they finalized that plan, because I would have told them that I wouldn't be happy to miss my evening meals. It all worked out, though, because they let me stop to eat twice during the three four hour drive up there, just like I wanted. (hee hee)

After we arrived I got to see four of my grandparents - Grandma Roles, Grandpa Fly, Nana and Poppy! What a treat! Too bad I was so exhausted after having had to beg for food for so long in the car, so I ended up going straight to bed after I had a bath. (I do like my nighttime routine!) But Saturday morning I got to spend lots of time with my grandparents. We all went down to the dock together so I could go swimming in a lake for the first time ever!

Daddy was the one who actually took me in the water. He's a lot of fun! Mommy just took the pictures, since apparently that's what she likes to do. Daddy said the water was cold when he got in, but I didn't believe him at first since the sun was bright and the air was warm.

It wasn't too bad when he put just my toes in, but when he started lowering my whole body into the icy cold, I naturally started flailing my arms and crying. You would have too, diary, if you had been there!

Thankfully Nana came to my rescue and held me out of the water so I could still look at the fish but had a little bit of feeling in my toes.

Then I got to sit on the dock with Mommy for a little while. I could tell Mommy was nervous about having me in the sun without a hat on, but she hid her anxiety pretty well. (Although I'm betting that next time she won't forget my hat, silly Mommy!)

After all that excitement on the water it was clearly time for a nap. Grandma rocked me for a while, but I wasn't fooled! I sure wasn't about to fall asleep and risk missing out on any of the excitement.

Eventually my "stay-awake plan" was foiled, however, and I did sleep for a bit. So then I was all refreshed and able to play in the activity gym that Great Aunt Janice gave to Grandma Roles. Grandma even showed me how to reach up and kick the hanging objects and that was super fun. It turns out that I love to kick! Love it!

After I got tired of the fun activity gym and exersaucer, Poppy took me outside to watch Daddy and Grandpa Fly working on the deck.

It was CRAZY - their heads kept popping up from under the ground!

 My mind was officially blown.

After all that cra-cra-craziness, I needed another nap. When I got up, Mary and Hobie were over for dinner. It was fun to see them, although I was a bit shocked by how many bottles of wine the adults went through! Mommy even had a glass of wine, although it didn't help me to fall asleep any faster. I overheard her saying that I was a little overwhelmed from all the weekend excitement, and I think she might have been right - but don't tell her I said that.  ;)

Sunday morning we all had brunch at the original Famous Dave's before everyone drove to their respective homes. Poppy took a few pictures but he hasn't emailed them to Mommy yet so I'll have to add them later, dear diary. Just take my word for it that I had a great time but am super happy to be back at home again.

Hugs and kisses,

Rose

Eighteen weeks!

Rose is eighteen weeks old!

This was a big week for me because I had a total meltdown on Sunday after feeling overwhelmed for, I don't know, weeks? months?   I love Rose sooooo much, but caring for her can be such hard work!  I realized yesterday that I really, really, really need to ask for more help. Now that Mike's psych class is over it's been so much easier, but I still need to build more "Steph time" into my week. I love blogging because it's such a helpful outlet - I can vent, I can post photos, I can brag about Rose, and I can let out all the crazy. I feel so much better now I had a good long talk cry with Mike and my mom yesterday, and I'm looking forward to more fully utilizing my support network in the future. (If you're reading this, consider yourself warned!)  :)

But enough about me. Here's the beautiful girl you came to see! As you can see, she is all about the kicking now! Those little legs are just constantly moving.

Right now Rose likes:
+ standing (with support)
+ looking around (why look straight ahead when you can instead crane your neck from side to side?!)
+ very deliberately reaching for things (no indiscriminate batting for this little girl!)

And she does not like:
- being out past 6pm, particularly on a Friday
- being in the car during evening "cluster feeding" time
- getting vaccinated

Four-month pediatric appointment

Rose just had her four-month pediatric appointment. She is doing so well! The nurse practitioner just raved about how well she's hitting her milestones and what a sweet, calm, wonderful baby she seems to be. The only new thing we're going to add is a probiotic (to help her digestive system if she had any lingering issues from the antibiotic she was on last week after being exposed to pertussis). Her NP said she's doing great with her sleep, and agreed that it's best to wait until 6 months to add solids (per the AAP recommendations). It was super traumatic for all us when she got her vaccines, but I'm glad she's a step closer to full immunity for a host of deadly illnesses. Yay, Rose!

Here are her stats*


Two months
weight:  12# 6.4 oz (85th %ile)
height:   23.5"  (86th %ile)
head:    15.5" (66th %ile)

Four months
weight:  15# 10oz (86th %ile)
height:   26"  (95th %ile)
head:    16.75%  (85th %ile)

No wonder she's outgrowing her 6-month size clothes! She's a happy, healthy, tall little lady!

*note that the clinic still uses the old CDC comparison charts, not the updated WHO normative sample (more info here). I think this is crazy, but I'm admittedly a bit more of a statistics nerd than most parents.

Keepin' it real

I read a blog article recently about how digital sharing only includes the "picture perfect" moments, and not the "real" moments of life. Well, duh. But the blog went on to say that this type of sharing can lead us to believe that we're not cutting it if our lives don't always look as perfect as what our friends post online. So in an attempt to "keep it real," here's a little view into what our weekly portrait sessions often look like.

Lovely, lovely shot (if I do say so myself):

Followed immediately by a very real case of spit up:

A big yawn:

Funny facial expressions:

And more spit-up:

So there you have it. Some very REAL pictures from our weekly photo shoots. :)

Seventeen weeks!

I'm starting to feel marginally better, thanks in large part to Mike letting me sleep in (until 7:30am!!) by giving Rose a bottle after she woke at 6-ish. Thanks, Mike! But by the time I woke up, Rose was winding down for her first morning nap, so our photo shoot got delayed a bit. That's okay, though, because it means I had Mike's assistance so I could actually get some pictures of Rose smiling! Here's our beautiful, smart, hard-working, and fun-loving seventeen-week-old little girl - she'll be four months old on Wednesday!  :)

Week in review

Oy vey. What a week! I started feeling a little sore and dragged down on Sunday, but I thought maybe I had just taken too long of a walk on Saturday. Then it got a little worse on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon I was running a fever and felt like I was dying. I think it was a combination of stress at work (a couple really tough clients) and stress at home (doing a lot to help Mike in his summer psychology class - the last prerequisite for the teaching program he wants to start next year).  But Tuesday was primary day, so my sense of civic responsibility prevailed and Rose and I voted anyway. (All the election judges were enamored with her!)

"I decided I'm only going to wear my grumpy face for pictures nowadays!"

I went to bed early Tuesday night, but I still felt even closer to death on Wednesday morning. Ugh. So despite that fact that I have next-to-no PTO left for the remainder of the year, I had to stay home. Basically all I did was sleep, and yet I was still exhausted by the time Mike and Rose came home around 4:30pm. Sigh. At least Mike's class was finally done so he could be on "Rose duty" for the rest of the night, other than when I fed her. (BTW, we switched to giving her only fresh - not frozen - milk this week, in the hopes that I'm producing some good antibodies against this illness and that she might be able to stay healthy even though I'm sick.) But I wasn't too sick that I couldn't snap a quick picture of her "dancing" with him. She's getting so strong when she stands!

"I like Beyonce! And 80's music!"

Thursday I went in to work. I planned to only take a half day, but I had so many meetings scheduled that I ended up working seven hours. So I think it's okay if I don't use PTO for that day, right? I cancelled three clients (my third Thursdays are incredibly long), but I still did a lot of work that day. I don't know - I have until the 31st to decide. Anyway, I worked a fair number of hours so was pretty exhausted again by last evening. And even though my work stress (tough clients) and home stress (Mike's class) had improved, a new stress entered my life today: there was a case of pertussis (whooping cough) at Rose's school. AAAAAAAHHHH!!!! This has been a huge fear of mine. She's too young to be fully vaccinated yet, but this is a potentially fatal illness for kids her age. (See: scary, scary, and more scary)  Mike took the lead on contacting Rose's pediatrician and she recommended that we give Rose a prophylactic dose of antibiotics, just to be safe. So tonight we started azithromycin. Sigh. I hate giving meds when they might not be necessary, but I also totally trust our pediatrician's judgment regarding this super serious disease.

I'm really hoping that bad stress comes in threes and now things will be on the upswing again! And on that note, it's nearly 8:30 which is way to late for this sickly momma to be awake. Sleep well, everyone.

"My Kitty Tales book sure is fun! Thanks, Jaimi!"

Little Picasso

Rose's teachers keep telling us how much she LOVES art! (She also loves singing and dancing, but that's a little harder to capture in a blog post.) So here are a few photos of her artistry to date!

Isn't she talented?! :)

Sixteen weeks!

Rose is approaching four months of age! She is such a thinker - it's so much fun to watch her try to make sense of the world. She is also such a happy baby! I wish I had such big smiles when I woke up in the morning :) Although recently she has decided that she won't smile is her picture is being taken with the big camera (and not my cell phone). Did I mention that she is opinionated? ;)

Right now Rose likes:
+ flying!
+ taking long walks in her stroller
+ going to school

And she does not like:
- when her bedtime is delayed
- being over-stimulated

Flying!

Rose's new favorite activity is to go "flying"!

In other news, we have officially learned that we can't take her places on weekday nights. Now that we've established a 7/7:30 bedtime, she needs to be at home and winding down by 6:30 at the latest. My "Amma Mamas" had a reunion dinner last night at 5:30 out in Chaska. The first few minutes were fabulous - all the other babies have grown up so much in the last month! - but then Rose started getting tired. By 6pm she was having a full-scale meltdown. Mike tried to calm her down so I could catch up with everyone, but Rose was having none of that. Sigh. Well, now we know for sure that daytime is best for socializing.

I also found out this week that I was NOT selected to be on the Board of Rose's school. Initially I was very disappointed. But then I realized that I was mostly disappointed because they didn't pick me, not disappointed that I wouldn't be on the Board. Hmmm. I reflected on that a bit, then decided that this might be the perfect opportunity for me to take some time for myself, rather than giving so much to others. So I think I'm going to sign up for a meditation class in September! That's something I've been wanting to do for awhile, so maybe this is the right time to do so.

Finally, Mike and I have a date tonight! We're going out to celebrate our 9th anniversary - my, how time flies! Thanks to Grammy and Grandpa Jack for offering to spend some time with Rose tonight so Mike and I can have a "fancy" dinner together.

See you tomorrow for Rose's 16-week portraits!

Good morning, world!

Fifteen weeks!

During the week I'm usually off to work by the time Rose wakes up, so I love being up to get her up on the weekends (even if it is around 6:30am each day). This morning she started making some noise around 6:15, so in I went to check on her. At first she was still half asleep...

...but look at that smile once she saw me!!

So after a quick breakfast and a change into her "weekly onesie" we got work on her 15-week portraits! She decided the theme of today's photo shoot would be "showing off my open-handed thumb-sucking technique."  (Think she'll be right handed?)

And then, just for a little variety, she also wanted to show off how she is starting to explore the rest of the world through her mouth. In addition to her "flying spaghetti monster" blanket (shown last week), she also loves this blanket/toy from my parents.

 

We did a little tummy time, and then it was time for Rose's first nap of the day (which allows me to blog!).

Have a great week!