William at 3 months

William turned 3 months old last this past Tuesday.  Here are some stats about him:

1. He loves to sit up.

2. He has started talking to us.  Just noises, of course, but he sure likes to express himself.  Mostly he is happy, but sometimes he grumbles.  (Just ask Vickie.  He was complaining up a storm when we went trick-or-treating at Phil's office.  Apparently it clashed with his feeding schedule.)

3. He spits up all the time.

4. He likes to nurse, he likes his binky, and he doesn't like bottles (but he's going to have to learn to like them when I go back to work on Monday).

5. Sometimes he sleeps really well at night.  Sometimes he sleeps in his crib all night.  (Usually this depends on whether I nurse him in the rocking chair, or take him back to bed with me).

6. He loves his sister.  Especially her hair.

7. He likes to grab: sister's hair, clothes, and his binky.  Or someone's hand holding his binky.

8. He recently learned to suck his thumb.  This usually also involves lots of chewing on him hands, looking for his thumb.  Or, he sticks his thumb into his cheek a bunch.

9. He weighs over 20 pounds (probably, since our scale isn't necessarily super accurate).

10. He fits in 12 month tops, 9 month pants, and 12-24 month socks.

Tabitha

The first few months of Tabitha's life, all she really wanted was to sleep, eat, and be held.

Lately that's been changing.  She wants to sit up.  She wants to eat new food.  She wants toys.

Tabitha tries to sit up on her own; her head comes up, and her shoulders just a smidgeon.  When I set her down in a sitting position, she usually sits for about 5 seconds, which is also the time it takes her to slowly fall over to one side.  She has succeeded in holding herself up for longer than that, but even that doesn't last too long.  She's still building her sitting muscles, and after a marathon sit (maybe a couple minutes) she lies down and seems relieved.  Like she's thinking, well, that was fun, but now my tummy hurts, so lying down is good.

Tabitha is not as interested in nursing as she was even a month ago.  She's never been one to want to nurse if she wasn't hungry, and now she is even less interested.  Yesterday, she went all afternoon without eating.  She had a baby cookie around lunch time, and then was happy until we got back from the store around 6.  At which point Dan suggested I feed her, but she wasn't crying for food.  A couple hours later she acted like she was hungry, but didn't want to nurse, so I feed her over half a jar of baby food. Pears are a hit with Tabitha.

Going all afternoon without eating makes me wonder why I have to feed her several times during the night.  Last night I only nursed her once, around 4, and then she got hungry around 7:45.  Right around when my alarm goes off (not because I want to get up that early, but because it got set for then once, and I haven't turned it off since).  So last night wasn't bad, but sometimes (like if she ends up in bed with me) I feed her several times within a couple hours.  So yes, I prefer her to sleep in her crib.  We both sleep better.

Tabitha has started staring at my food when I eat while holding her.  And she likes if I give her a bite of what I'm having.  So, she's tasted mac & cheese, and cheese crackers.  And ice cream.  She really wanted the ice cream cone. 

About a month ago, Tabitha discovered the joy of toys.  Now, she is really happy if she has something to shake and chew.  Rattles are awesome for her.  Emily's hair is also extremely exciting for Tabitha.

Tabitha is still a calm, happy baby, despite her new demands in life.  And she still loves to be held and sleep, sometimes at the same time.  She is starting to wear 12 month clothes.  And she still loves to grab her toes.  For which reason, she really likes pj's or soft, knit pants.  They make it so much easier to bend.

New Things

This week has been one of new things.

Emily got a new haircut.  It now hits at about her shoulders.

Tabitha tried a new food: bananas.  She likes them.  She's doing much better eating; she no longer pushes her food out with her tongue, which is nice.  Also, Emily helped feed her bananas.  Tabitha loves to grab the spoons, so she helped feed herself, too.  You may notice three spoons in the picture above.  It was a spoon-palooza.

Also new, Tabitha tried out her bouncer again, and liked it.  She is holding her head up more steadily, and she likes to stand.  AND, she recently started showing interest in toys and starting to grab them.  All of this combined to a couple happy half hours in her bouncer.

Tabitha has started rolling over.  She rolled over once in Pennsylvania, from her stomach to her back.  Today, she rolled over a couple times across the floor.  (We are not counting the countless times she has rolled over while on an incline, which she's been doing since she was a newborn.  Including yesterday, when she rolled down my legs when I was sitting on the floor next to Emily's bed.  She thought that was great fun.)

And finally, last night Emily was going to bed (in her pajamas that match Tabitha's above, thanks to Aunt Jeanie) and she insisted on putting her blanket on herself, and then she told me she was going to sleep.  All by herself.  And she did.  I didn't know what to do with myself.

Luckily, her sister started fussing, and then I got to nurse her to sleep.

Peaches are rolling down my chin

Tabitha ate her first bite of food last Saturday.

It was peaches.  And she wasn't too crazy about them.

She was, however, digging her bib.  Mmmm, bib.

1st Birthday

We threw a party for Emily's first birthday.  Emily loves being around people, so we invited lots of family and some friends.  At some point I started questioning why I had invited so many people (our house is not THAT big)--but Emily absolutely loved it.  She had been starting to walk, and really took off walking at the party, either because there were now chairs around the edges of the room to walk to, or lots of people to see, or both.   She went from only taking a few steps at a time to walking all over, totally independent.

The party ran from 5 to 7 (officially) and we had cupcakes in the middle.  Emily was born at 6:10, so she was (trying to) blow out candle right about the time she was born.  I let her eat her cupcake for awhile (she never finished it) and then we opened presents.

We also got a picture of all of us together:

Part II

Emily got sick, too, and kept on getting sick for most of the night.

There is not much worse than having a baby throw up. It is even worse than getting thrown up on. Emily would look so helpless, especially the first time it happened. And there was nothing I could do but pat her back and tell her that sometimes we have to throw up.

Besides the throwing up I was worried about dehydration, since she did not have any fluids for many, many hours. I tried to give her water or nurse her after she had been getting sick for hours. But she didn't keep anything down until I gave her capfulls of water from my water bottle and spaced them out about every 5 minutes, gradually increasing what she got, and then nursing her for seconds, and then making her wait. (An article I found at about.com said to give teaspoons of fluids--and I should have followed that advice a lot sooner).

Emily did NOT like having to wait for more water or food. It was NOT nice. But she would usually stop crying by the time it was time for her next installment. And then she would get really excited and bounce up and down, until the bottlecap was right next to her face, and then she would lean forward and slurp at it. She figured out how to drink from a bottle cap VERY quickly. She is such a cute little smartie.

She has nursed without me having to limit her a few times now without getting sick, so I think we are through the woods.

And now Dan is sick.

Trip to Chicago

Last weekend Emily and I went up to Chicago to see Aunt Jeanie. We took the bus up, which only took about 4 hours. It also included a brief stop over at a rest stop, where Emily enjoyed trying to eat the leaves.
After we got to Chicago, we found Aunt Jeanie's office, with a lot of help from Aunt Jeanie over the phone. We were less than impressed with the size of Aunt Jeanie's bathroom at her office, which was barely big enough to get a stroller into. After Aunt Jeanie was done, we went to eat at Cozy:

And then we went to Aunt Jeanie's apartment, which is about 40 minutes from her work, on the subway. Emily liked the subway, and she liked Aunt Jeanie's bed, which is conveniently located right on the floor, which makes for easy crawling access. Here she is with Aunt Jeanie, sporting the hat I made her:

Emily liked standing on the loveseat and looking out the big window at the front of Aunt Jeanie's apartment.

Another thing Emily liked about Aunt Jeanie's apartment is that she got to eat at the table like a big girl (with the help of a few law books):


Also, Aunt Jeanie has awesome stairs, without any of those pesky rails Mommy and Daddy have on their stairs:


Emily also got to go on walks around the city, which was lots of fun for her. It was more fun for Mommy and Aunt Jeanie when we took the stroller. Here she is enjoying a respite from one of our shopping trips:

After a couple days, we went back home on the train. Apparently, the train is less expensive if you buy your tickets online.

Emily really likes her Aunt Jeanie. She is used to hearing her voice on the phone, but when we were in Chicago, Emily would get upset if she could hear Jeanie but not see her. It was very cute, especially when Jeanie was on the other side of the kitchen peninsula, and Emily knew she was close, but could not find her, and kept on staring at the peninsula and crying. Very cute!

Alone with a cranky baby

So, Emily is generally a happy baby. But not after we've sat in the library for awhile, and she is bored. Which, since I have been playing with my blog, we have. We don't have internet at home, so I have to do my blogging at the library. Which is nice because there is air conditioning (we have air conditioning in our bedroom, but that's it), but not so nice because Emily gets bored. Unless it is noisy, and she has lots of people to watch. But then I don't like it.

Dan is working (yea!) now, and he has school in the evenings, so if he goes straight to school from work, I don't see him for a long time. Which he did today. So, Emily and I went on a walk to the bank (which is about 1/2 mile away) and then to the library (which is less than a block away from my house). We got to the bank just before it closed at 5, and then came to the library. So we've been here awhile. Emily even took a nap for a little, which was nice.

Dan is being paid by his school to work at a non-profit that helps sickle-cell disease sufferers and also tests of diabetes. He is the assistant to the director, and he really enjoys it. Apparently he has made a good impression. He can only work 20 hours a week, though, but at least he is employed!

Emily manages to get around now. She isn't crawling, but she has learned how to roll over, and she can rotate in a circle (not sure how, she doesn't move very fast--we're talking minutes to move around, usually). She also sits very nicely. Sometimes she falls over. But I've left her alone for a shower, and finished without her crying (she used to get upset about being alone). So that's good. She has started to definitely prefer me, as well. If we are around other people, she wants to have me there. If she can't see me, all bets are off. Also, when she is lying in bed between Dan and I (like when it is early morning and she is hungry and I'm to tired to be upright and feed her) she will kick against him to get closer to me. This usually means that I end up right on the edge of the bed, because if I scoot a little away to give her a little room so I don't squish her, she scoots closer.

She is very cute.

Here is some proof. (Oh, and she is now very happy, playing with my camera. I took some pictures of her being happy, but I don't have the camera cord to upload them. I will (try to) post them next time. In the meantime, here is a video of her after she had some supper.)