When I got Anna up this morning, she started looking at my screen-printed t-shirt and I pointed out the “puppy dog” on it. All of a sudden, Anna started looking down towards the floor like she was looking for Sasha! Could she understand those words? Surely it was coincidence. But when I tried it a couple more times over the next hour or so, saying “where’s the puppy dog?” she would crane her neck out and look around on the floor, eyes landing on Sasha if she was there!

So my child doesn’t know “mommy” or “daddy” or her own name, but she understands “puppy dog”! You can tell what we talk about at our house.

Comments(3)

It’s Anna’s 7-month birthday today! I can’t believe how fast she’s growing up. When I look at pictures from a couple of months ago, I see that, even though she’s not much bigger, she’s changed a lot, including having a little more hair now! Yea!

Anna would like to write a few words:

b m 9ij

Well, I don’t know what that means, but there you have it.

(more…)

Comments(6)

Note to everyone else: that would be little dogs embroidered on the jumper they got her. Great find! Thank you!

Comments(1)

“Little” being the key word here… she weighs 13 lb. 12 oz., somewhere around the 7th percentile. That wouldn’t be a problem, except the first half of her short life she was consistently at the 50th. Yep, little Anna has only gained 3/4 pound over the past 3 months and is well on her way to tumbling clear off the bottom of the growth charts. Dr. S. says she looks healthy and isn’t worried about her at the moment, but she’d rather not see this trend continue either.

We’ve been trying to feed Anna solids for over a month now, and the little princess is not interested. We’ve tried rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce, and carrots so far. I can sneak a bite in her now and then when lets her guard down (and she tolerates it pretty well rather than spitting it out), but she has yet to take a bite voluntarily. She seals those little lips tight shut and turns her head away. I try to make her laugh and smile, but she has learned to smile with her mouth closed or with her tongue cleverly sealing up the entrance to her mouth. If she starts crying (keeping her mouth closed, of course), we stop, as I don’t want to traumatize her and give her a negative impression of mealtime. She’s generally happy; I give her her own spoon to play with, and she’s content to sit there dodging my spoonfuls of food for a few minutes.

So have any of you parents run into this? I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone whose almost-7-month-old wouldn’t even open her mouth to try something. I really hope this is nothing more than her just needing a few more weeks to develop in this area, and that surely any day now she’s going to change her mind!

David put together her high chair yesterday:

Comments(12)

This was one of the questions asked us by the nurse at Anna’s 6-month check-up today, along with other health and developmental type things. David and I looked at each other and said, “No, not really…”

I was thinking through of all the things I actually call Anna throughout the day—sweetie, sweet girl, darlin’, sweet baby, baby girl, little girl, little one, honey, precious, etc., etc.

My poor child is never going to learn her name. :-)

[Side note: I’m not worried about this, so no lectures please about how I shouldn’t be worried about this.]

Comments(9)

Paper! Oh what a wonderful noise it makes!

Comments(2)

It’s the 23rd again, and I’m having a hard time with this one. Anna is 6 months old today. But she’s still my little baby! It’s sad knowing we’re already halfway through the first year. But as much as I want to hold on to the baby stage, she gets more and more fun the older she gets, and she brings new delights every day.

Let’s see… she weighs 13 lb. 9 oz., or at least she did a week and a half ago. I don’t know how long she is, but I’m guessing pretty long, since she outgrows her clothes in length before she ever fits into them in girth. Naps? About 3 a day. Rice cereal? No, thank you! Swaddling? Finally kicked the habit. Sitting up? Not yet. Exersaucer, swing, bouncy seat, bumbo, play mat? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. That’s right, we have everything out because she uses it all right now. Favorite toys? Plastic links, soft baby doll, and pink puppy dog. Favorite radio station? NPR (much to Dad’s delight and Mom’s dismay). Shopping? She’s a great little shopping buddy. Riding in the car? Not so much. Sleeping through the night? Oh, but then she’d miss out on quality time with Mom and Dad! Bathtime? Fun! Bedtime? Pretty agreeable. Wake-up time? Usually happy, and usually after 8 AM!

Here she is sporting her cute new hat:

(more…)

Comments(10)

It’s been a little rocky for a few days, but Anna is doing much better now. The first night she only got about 6 hours total sleep in about 3 spurts, poor thing. But last night she only woke up crying once, and then she slept through the rest of the night until 8:45 this morning! And she’s taken some pretty good naps, too.

So she’s at the point where she’ll sleep unswaddled; now we just need to get her to go to sleep unswaddled. With the swaddle, we could just rock her for a few minutes, put her in the crib sleepy but awake, and she would fall asleep on her own. But for right now, she has to be totally zonked out when we transfer her to the crib. We had such a good thing going, and I hope to get it back soon. She has fallen asleep unswaddled on her own twice, so I know she’s capable of it.

Comments(1)

Well, I think the swaddling days are finally coming to a close. Early this morning Anna flipped from her back to her tummy (with one arm in and one arm out). I’m pretty sure it’s not safe for her to be on her tummy with her arms bound up, so it’s time to drop the swaddle.

I tried for an hour and a half to get her down for a nap this morning. Poor girl—she was so tired, but she just couldn’t sleep with her arms flailing around. At one point she was mostly asleep, and I was holding her hands to keep them still, but then she had a big startle and sent her arms flying, and then she started to cry the saddest cry, like, “Please let me go to sleep!” I finally just got her up. A little bit later, I tried to feed her, and of course she fell asleep almost instantly. I put her down on her stomach, held her still for just a minute to let her get back to sleep, and she slept for 45 minutes. It’s a start, but she’s gonna have to learn to sleep a lot longer than that!

We may be in for a rough few days, but I know she’ll eventually adapt.

Comments(0)

We started Anna on her first solid (if that’s what you call it) food this evening. Here she is trying her rice cereal. I knew she would end up wearing more of it than she swallowed, but I wanted to get it on video anyway:

So, baby food. Life’s about to get really messy. And Sasha’s about to be very happy.

Comments(5)