another week, another illness

Little Miss has had a low-grade fever for the past four days. Mike has been able to stay home with her most of the week, but I got to spend yesterday morning with her and Grammy spent all of yesterday afternoon with her (thank you, Marsha!!!). Now that her sleep has also been disrupted for two nights (the canary in the coalmine), Mike took her to the doctor this morning. So far we only know that it's not an ear infection, but they're running tests to see if it's a UTI or a GI infection of some sort. Sigh. Hopefully we get some answers soon!


Update: It's a UTI.  :(

46 weeks!

Rose is really loving her walking toy from Great Aunt Dolly and Great Uncle Peter! This week it's been the thing she crawls over to the second she gets home from school each day. As you can see, she's gotten quite proficient at walking with it! (Mom and Dad, go to the blog to see the video!)

Way to go, Rose!


In other news, here are some updates from our world.

Work: I'm finally starting to settle in to my new role! I'm having fun learning new things, meeting new people. being exposed to the business side of the company, and thinking about things in new ways. There were even a couple days last week that it was hard to tear myself away from work because I was enjoying my projects so much! Good thing Mike and Rose are so wonderful to come home to. :) Now I just need to make sure I pace myself and don't get burnt out (and sick again!) from eustress rather than distress!

Sleep: I'd been getting frustrated with the chaos of Rose's daytime sleep schedule. She usually takes two naps a day (although sometimes only one), but these naps can range from 20 minutes each to 2.5 hours each. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to whether her first nap is at 8:30am or 11:30am. Ugh. We have had so much success with nighttime sleep ever since we implemented our strict evening routine - I crave that consistency in our daytime routine on the weekends! After a disastrous attempt at regulating naptime yesterday (don't ask), we decided to stick with our "crutches" of the stroller and the magic sleep machine (i.e., the car). There is so much chaos in the infant room at her school that it's been impossible for them to implement a standard nap time for Rose, and since she's there 5 out of 7 days each week, we just don't see her enough to overcome that chaos. So we're choosing "radical acceptance" of our crutches... at least until she's in the toddler room this fall, where everyone naps at the same time!

Nursing: Back when I was pregnant, I had no idea how long a year is in nursing months. It's like dog years or something - one month of regular time feels like seven years in nursing time! After I went back to work last July, I started pumping in the mornings as well as twice work, then breastfed Rose as soon as I picked her up in the afternoon and also before bed. I don't remember exactly when I made the changes, but I remember pushing myself to tears before weaning off the afternoon pumping at work (October?), off work pumping altogether (Thanksgiving), and off the afternoon feed at home (January?). Which left me with my morning pumping and bedtime feeding. For several weeks now I've been struggling with low mood and no energy - part of this can't be helped due to the cold weather and the minimal sunlight we've had, but part of this is because I haven't found a way to consistently get in any exercise this winter. Back when Rose took a catnap on the way home from school it was easy to walk the long way home for exercise. But now she gets SUPER grumpy if she's allowed to fall asleep after 4pm, so I need to race home as quickly as I can before she falls asleep in her stroller. So earlier this week I decided to soon start skipping the morning pumping session in order to exercise in the morning, and I proudly came to this decision without reaching my breaking-down-crying-sobbing point. And now that I've announced it publicly I'm going to have to stick with this routine and not hit the snooze bar in the morning! I did not feel the slightest hint of sadness when I put Bertha away Friday morning, and I only felt a hint of guilt when Rose had her last morning nursing session today. Ah, it's pretty nice to make decisions that are in my own best interest, as hard as that sometimes can be to do.

Finally, here are Rose's portraits from this week:

"Here I come!"

"This is so much fun!"

"And away I go, in my wide-legged, lock-kneed stance!"

"This is the best day ever!"

Have a great week, everyone!

45 weeks!

I can't believe we're closing in on a year since Rose was born! Her birthday will be here in the blink of an eye. But in the meantime, it's so much fun to play with our little "squiggle worm" - she never sits still anymore, and she is constantly working on crawling over things, head-butting her parents, and pulling up on anything short. She is starting to point to objects she wants, is great at sharing toys, and is a master of the "all done" sign. Mike has even heard her say "ba ba" for bottle! She can clap, she makes funny sounds, and she loves games like "sneak up on Daddy and tickle him!"  As you can see, we are madly in love.

Without further, here is Little Miss!

She's willing to take a few tentative steps, as long as her Daddy is close by to catch her.

"I can crawl to you faster than you can scoot away to take my picture!"

"Up?"

"Why yes, Daddy, I would like a second piece of bacon!"

Winter walks in MN require bundling such as this.

Rose prefers to hold her own bottle nowadays.

Did I mention she has 7 teeth now?

Rose's favorite book this week: Potty.

Fun with older cousins!

She may be younger, but she's got several inches on her cousin Annie!

"Hello, Mac!"

"Uh...bye bye, Mac!"

 Have a great week, everyone!

The Baby Name Length Report | The Baby Name Wizard

http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2013/2/the-baby-name-length-report

Update:
Oops! I accidentally posted this before it was final. I meant to add that this was an interesting article, if you're as interested in baby name trends as I am. If you read to the end, you'll see that my daughter's name is apparently straight out of 1886! :)

Random thoughts

Now that I'm feeling a little bit better, I thought I'd post an entry of random thoughts. Haven't done this for awhile, so here goes!

1. I still can't hear out of my left ear, which isn't funny at all except that Mike still only has about 25% of his smell (he lost it completely a few weeks ago, but has since regained some), and between the two of us I'm sure there's a joke about the five senses just lying in wait. (Dad? Carol?)

2. I'm re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series for the first time since elementary/middle school. Such sweet stories! And this time through it really struck me that all of Anne's friends (circa 1908) could seamlessly fit into Rose's class: Gilbert, Josie, Ruby, Jane, etc. Aren't name trends fascinating?!

3. I'm going to our Duluth office for work tomorrow. I never thought I'd be able to travel for work, so I'm looking forward this adventure!

4. Rose has very definitely become a stomach sleeper. She used to love sleeping on her back - remember how she used to refuse to roll? Well, now she'll do pretty much anything to sleep like this:

As a side sleeper, this does not look comfortable to me AT ALL!

5. Did you notice that Mike got her to sleep in her crib this afternoon? Score!

6. Mike got all excited about a "phase transition" that was happening in our driveway today. He also explained UV energy to me. Chemistry nerd! Seriously, though, he's going to be such a great science teacher. :)

7. Rose loves flavors - especially garlic, and now also LEMON!

This was after about the 5th time that she made that face. She kept going back for more!

8. We tried putting a barrette in her hair to keep it out of her eyes. It lasted about 20 minutes before she yanked it out, but we'll try to build off of that.

She LOVES her kid-sized camelbak that we bought her - she loves the straw; she's always been a powerful sucker!

9. Mike and his dad spent all yesterday slaving away in our basement. Finally, only six short years later, we have a BEAUTIFUL basement bathroom. In fact, it's so nice I don't think we can ever move! I had the best bath ever last night!

10. I've been missing baking so much, and I'm so happy to finish up this post in order to get some cookies out of the oven.  I'm off to read some Anne of Green Gables and to eat some Peanutty Fruit and Chocolate Chip Cookies!

For real this time, have a great week, everyone!  :)

44 weeks / 10 months!

Little Miss is growing up! She's finally starting to feel better and her sunny disposition is really starting to shine. She's so much fun to be around!

Last evening I took a couple photos before her nightly bath. Her little body is so cute, I could just eat her up! (I used to think it was weird when people said that about babies. Now I'm finally starting to get it! Well, at least about my baby...I don't want to eat anyone else's baby.)

This morning we started taking our weekly photos in the living room, but as soon as we started we had another photo to add to the "keepin' it real" files:

I quickly cleaned up the random spit-up, then Rose was off to play! I was having such a hard time getting clear photos because she kept switching from toy to toy. She's a little bundle of energy when she's feeling good!

"I love to read!"

Thinking about standing...

 
Well, she's a bundle of energy until the "tired eyes" suddenly hit!

We had some errands to run anyway, so we piled everyone in the car and Rose was out cold within seconds. Yes, the car is back to being the "magic sleep machine" once again. Like mother, like daughter.

After the errands were complete, we decided to check out Eden Prairie Center. None of us had ever really been inside it before, so we figured it was as good a place as any to get some walking in while the weather is still cold. And then we discovered Rose's new favorite place: an indoor play area!

Our little peanut, who had been looking so grown up at home, suddenly looked so small among all the other kids! But she absolutely loved it - she even pulled herself up to standing (which she has apparently been doing for weeks at school, but it was the first time I'd ever seen it)!

The other exciting part of the morning was that Rose drank a bottle that was 2/3 milk and 1/3 formula. We're coming down the home stretch on our milk stash, so we need to transition her to formula pretty soon. Every time we've tried giving her a formula bottle in the past several months she has flatly rejected it. Then Mike came up with the gradual transition idea and so far it seems to be working (fingers crossed)!

Speaking of food, after Rose tuckered herself out in the play area, we headed off to Biaggi's for lunch. Rose really must be feeling better because she ate three big slices of bread (dipped in olive oil and parmesan), she sucked all the flavor off my cucumber salad, and she ate all the avocado off my sandwich. And she was a delightful lunch companion in general - she sat quietly eating while we enjoyed our meals and conversation, and a wonderful time was had by all!
 

Have a great week, everyone!

Another milestone

Rose's first trip to Menard's!

This post is for Grandpa Fly. :)