Monday morning

So I'm going to work backwards here since we all fell asleep shortly after 8 last night and I didn't have the time to blog about the rest of our stay in Wyoming. Perhaps I'll get time to do that on the plane and post them once we land.

Actually, i'll link to a video in a second, but only because I had the opportunity to upload it to YouTube last night.

But first? It's Monday morning and in a few short hours we will be back home. This vacation has been fun, but it's also been incredibly exhausting. Griffins sleep has been atrocious and we've spent quite a bit of time in the car. So while I'm glad we came out, I'm very glad were going home. I actually downloaded a book on toddler sleep yesterday and started reading it in the car so I'm hoping that a return to our normal schedule, with help from the book, will equal some truly good nights.

All we have left to do this morning is get dressed, pack up, eat, and turn on the rental car (which is covered in mud and animal feces... I'll talk more about that later). Then we'll just hope for no delays and be back in sunny CA by lunch.

Anyway, here's the video I promised. Griffins first attempt at eating spaghetti with a fork.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJHirAaV5qM&sns=em


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Doubletree Hotel, Denver

11 months

Today marked Griffin's 11 month birthday (you see what I did there? No more pseudonyms).

I was going to measure him, but time got away from me. So maybe tomorrow I'll have official measurements.

We marked this momentous occasion with a trip to Kim & Orson's house for play group, a 2 hour nap (he slept on me, but at least he was asleep), and baked macaroni for dinner. G didn't actually eat much, he's been refusing table food lately. I think he's going to cut a molar or two soon - at least I hope it's soon. Poe refused solids when cutting molars as well. When he's not cutting teeth he eats like it's his job. That kid can pack it away - one day for lunch he ate a half a PB&J, a handful of craisins, a couple of strawberries, and some goldfish. Pack. It. Away.

He also stood up for 4 seconds on his own, which may or may not be a new record. I'm still hoping he'll be walking by 12 months, but we'll see. He loves to walk around the house while holding onto our hands and sometimes will walk with just one hand support.

He's also taken to pointing. All. the. time. He points at EVERYTHING and says "dat". So I guess we're adding "that" to the list of words, along with "dada".

Sleep isn't great while teething, but as I said in my last post, things are improving. I am reeeeeeaaaaalllllyyyyy looking forward to the day when he sleeps from 8-7 like Poe-poe. Maybe by my birthday? I hope.

In non-G-funk news, my mom & I will start bellydancing together next week. I'm looking forward to it, hopefully it will help my reach my goal of being back to my pre-Penny pregnancy size by the time I turn 30. I'm *almost* halfway there!

Things I learned today

1. Griffin loves Goldfish. Secondarily, Penelope loves feeding her brother.

2. Griffin is not allergic to peanut butter (see part b of #1).

Ordinarily we wait until after a year to introduce peanut products. Some places recommend waiting up to 2 years, but since we have no family history of food allergies I think that's a little overly cautious. One year works for us - except when you have an almost 10 month old with Stretch Armstrong arms and a 2 year old who thinks it's fun to feed said almost 10 month old.

But while G loves the PB&J, he's not in love with the bread. I think it's the texture.

We usually wait on the Goldfish as well. They're not exactly health food; they're made with whole grains though... still. Anyway, Penelope and Griffin conspired to move up the date of his first taste of the orange crackers and now he's hooked. Of course, I'm not going to feed them to him every day - too much salt - but if he gets a hold of one every once in awhile I'm not going to flip out.

He's probably ready for a lot more table food that I've been giving him. I don't know why I've been so hesitant to start table food. Maybe it's because he's my last baby and I want to stretch out the baby stage OR (and more likely) I don't want to deal with the insane mess that is a baby and table food. Insane.

I have 1,000 other things to blog about, but G is actually napping in his crib so I will take this time to be productive. The moment I start said productivity he will promptly wake up and need to be nursed for the remainder of his nap.

Going Vegan

We're not actually going Vegan (although a part of me would like to) but one of my New Years Resolutions is to eat healthier and expose the kids (and Bryan) to a wider variety of foods.

So for the holidays I received Veganomicon a Vegan cookbook. Some of the recipes are a little odd (for me, a lifelong meat-eater) but many of them look absolutely delicious.

I'm planning on cooking at least one completely vegan meal a week and then having vegan side dishes to compliment some of our meaty meals.

I will, however, be cutting back on our meaty meals and for a variety of reasons. Meat is very delicious, but factory farming is not. I cannot, in good conscious, continue to purchase meats so unethically and unhealthily raised and slaughtered. And we can't afford to buy "range-free" "grass fed" meat for every meal. So we're cutting back on the meat while still keeping it in our diet. Besides, Penelope isn't much of a meat eater.

Tonight's Menu? Marinated portobello mushroom caps and broccoli polenta.

I may or may not take pictures. I have a friend with a recipe blog who posts amazing recipes and takes beautiful pictures - I would love to emulate her, but my kitchen is a mess, my camera is crappy, and I don't want to commit to pictures of every meal since I doubt I'll remember.

But I will post later about whether or not it was a hit. The mushroom caps are marinating right now and it smells DELICIOUS.

Bedtime experiments

For the last week or so Bryan and I have been experimenting with putting Penelope to bed awake... and when I say "Bryan and I", I mean Bryan since I only have bedtime duty one day a week (soon to be more once he's in softball, soccer, and school). We go through the routine (clean-up, bottle, bath, teeth, PJs), she's then rocked for 5-10 minutes, and put into her crib sleepy but awake. Tonight B added a lovey (her stuffed cat) and so far it seems to be working.

I'm really excited that it seems to be working so far. I really hope that it continues to work as it will make bedtime easier once "&" gets here... especially since at least one night a week (possibly two) I'll have to put both babies to bed by myself. If Penny can get to sleep on her own then I really only have to worry about "&".

Hopefully once he/she arrives Penny won't regress (our Ped mentioned it might happen) because that would be a major headache. We'll see.

We're also working on her proficiency with utensils. She ate soup on her own the other day (and when I say "ate" I mean "bathed in") and when I give her oatmeal she does pretty well getting most of it in her mouth. Baby steps :)

She does love to feed herself, and makes quite the mess... but practice makes perfect. I know she won't have perfected anything by April, but the better she gets at it the easier meal time will be once baby arrives. I could just make nothing but finger foods since she's fantastic with those, but that's just boring - and besides, she'll never get better if I don't give her opportunity to try.

Alright, time to get back to work, I have a little more homework to do and then I'm done with this class! Only one class left before I take a short maternity break from school...

Paul McCartney or Michael Jackson?

I can't decide which artist Penelope likes better. Every time one of their duets plays on the 80s channel she stops what she's doing and dances. We were in the middle of reading The Foot Book for the 1,000th time when "Say, Say" came on and she turned around, walked to the middle of the livingroom, and rocked out. It was pretty funny.

She doesn't do the same for Jackson 5 stuff, and remarkably enough the 80s channel doesn't really play all that much MJ or McCartney solo stuff. So I can't tell if it's one or the other - or maybe it's just the combo of the King of Pop and Paul McCartney that she loves so much.

This morning at breakfast Penelope refused to eat her oatmeal and wanted nothing but strawberries and milk... after the strawberries ran out (she had 6 large berries) she eventually (and VERY reluctantly) ate her oatmeal. I may just start giving her cut up fruit and maybe some toast for breakfast and letting her feed herself. It would make it easier for me to eat my breakfast (and, if I'm being honest, surf the web).

Today we're heading over to Art Beast to play. It's an art studio for kids and I think P will have a really good time. I'll try and remember to bring my camera.

The Great Breakfast Experiment and other things

So I don't forget, I plan on talking about:
*The Great Breakfast Experiment and food
*Our new laundry game
*Sleep

So on to The Great Breakfast Experiment!

Lately Penelope has been refusing to eat lunch and dinner unless she gets to feed herself. This generally isn't too much of an issue since those foods are usually easy to eat with your fingers (although watching P eat rice and small shell macaroni has been entertaining to say the least... and messy. Very very messy). Anyway, I figured breakfast would be the next on our boycott list since her normal breakfast is not something she can feed herself. She gets 1/4 cup of Quaker oats mixed in with some hot water and a half a jar of Stage 3 baby fruit. It's not soupy, but you definitely need a spoon to eat it and we're not quite there yet.

So yesterday I bought frozen whole grain waffles and a variety of fruit and this morning I cut them up into convenient little bites and set some in front of her. She ate a few blueberries and some of the strawberries, decided raspberries were better in babyfood form, and refused to have anything to do with the waffles. Then she decided that it was much more fun to mash the fruit together than actually eat anything. I tried to feed her myself but that failed as well, so I mixed up her oatmeal breakfast and viola! she ate the whole bowl without fuss.

So I don't think she's ready to feed herself breakfast quite yet. I don't know what it is about breakfast that's different than the other meals... at least the waffles will keep for awhile until she is ready to eat them and she'll eat the fruit for snacks so nothing will really go to waste.

This brings us to laundry! Penny's usual way of "helping" mommy fold laundry consists of either pulling things out of the laundry basket and throwing them onto the floor or grabbing the freshly folded laundry off the couch and throwing it onto the floor. Can we say NOT helpful?

Yesterday however we happened upon a laundry game that she enjoys and is somewhat helpful. She grabs the laundry out of the basket and hands it to mommy to fold :) She generally hands me clothes faster than I can fold them and things would be easier if I did it on my own, but she has fun and I like to encourage her helping out. So this game can stay. She also loves it because I tell her "thank you" verbally and in sign language every time she hands me something. It makes her laugh, and anything that makes folding laundry fun is worth it (because lets be honest, it's a crappy chore).

And now sleep... I'm 90% sure she's getting another molar in because her sleep has been crappy. Well, crappy for her which would be pretty darn awesome for some babies I know. She wakes up around midnight and comes into bed with us where she proceeds to toss and turn (asleep, mind you) pushing either Bryan or I off the bed. It's awesome. (yes, that was sarcasm). Last night she stole Bryan's pillow and the night before she headbutted me multiple times in her sleep.

Although this is better than waking up every half an hour to go into her room and comfort her, even though one of these days I'm going to end up with a black eye.

Once the molar(s) come in we can hopefully go back to our super awesome sleep pattern of 8-7 or 7:30 in her own crib, but we'll see. She's got her two lower molars now so we need the two upper and then all four of her eye teeth.

I hate teething.

Ok, I think that's all for now.

Weaning and sleeping

So as Penelope's first birthday approaches, so does the end of bottles... we're not going to quit cold turkey (which just makes Pen sound like a formula junkie) but we are going to start the weaning process. In a way we already have - P is down to 3 bottles a day and those generally coincide with her nap schedule. She has one around 9:30 and naps around 10, has one at 2 and generally naps around 2:30, and then has her bedtime bottle right before she goes to sleep.

At the height of bottle consumption she was at 6 a day (I think) so we've cut her formula intake in half. This means, of course, that she eats more solids throughout the day. She has three meals and two snacks a day - and sometimes those snacks are bottles at this point. So eventually those snacks will be just solids and she'll drink water or milk with meals. She already gets whole milk with breakfast and she really seems to like it, so that's good.

By the end of the month I'd like to cut down to 2 bottles - maybe just morning and night. By February I'd like her to be down to just the nighttime bottle and before the next baby comes I'd like for her to be off bottles completely.

We'll see how this goes. If she's really resistant then I'll reevaluate... I don't want the transition to be traumatic. But I also don't want to have two babies on bottles (hopefully breastfeeding will work this time, but I know that at some point pumping/bottle feeding will be necessary since I'll have to go back to work and will have to student teach in the Fall). The thought of two babies on bottles (even part-time) fills me with dread and makes the hand on my skin weep. Bottle washing is hell on your skin.

So if Penny can be off bottle before April I will be a very, very happy mama. The nighttime bottle will be the hardest - for us both - so we'll see if milk in a sippy plus a bedtime story will do the trick. It's the last one I want to get rid of so I have some time before I have to worry about it. She may surprise me and wean on her own, she is getting more independent when it comes to eating (which is a whole 'nother post).

This of course brings me to sleeping. She's been doing well, sleeping from 8-6:30 or 7, except the last week or so she's woken up at night and needed to come into bed with us. I say needed, but it's really just easiest for us - I'm sure I could make her stay in her crib and she'd sleep eventually but I'm not comfortable with letting her cry (it works well for some moms & families, but it's not for us). I know that it's her 2nd molar that's bothering her; and maybe the third molar as well. I admit that I enjoy waking up next to her in the morning, although I do NOT enjoy being smacked in the face in the middle of the night.

Once New Baby gets here nighttime bed transfers will have to stop - and ideally they'll stop well before then. Since we co-sleep with our new babies until they're about 3 months old, we just can't have New Baby, Penelope, and us in the same bed - there just isn't room. It's hard enough now with the three of us (plus the damn cat)... there's no way we can fit a baby into the mix. So Penny is going to have to stay in her own bed.

We contemplated getting bunk beds for Pen (so eventually the two kids could share a room) but after talking with our midwives we've decided that's not really the way we want to go... their stories of bunk bed hassles have given us a lot to think about - a lot we never really considered (like sheet changing and sick kids). So bunk beds are out. I think Bryan is just going to build a frame for a queen sized mattress that's low to the ground. P will move to the queen in her new room (which is now the "guest" room), the baby will eventually move into the nursery, and when the baby is old enough both kids will share a room. They'll either share the queen sized bed, we'll get two twins, or do some sort of trundle thing. It all depends on the gender and temperament of New Baby.

Ok, time to finish addressing the Holiday cards. I ordered 50, but I think I'll need to get more...

Forgot 2 things

1. Last night was the first time we ordered a separate meal for Penny off the kids menu. She got a cheese tortilla crisp and ate about 1/3 of it... a week or so ago we were out with friends (including baby Sophia) and we ordered the girls a salad to split (avocado & tomato) and she chowed that down. So she's had her first split meal and her first separate meal!

2. She's starting to repeat words. Daddy is one, but others she's said have been: tights, wookie, and cat. None of these actually count as first words, she's just repeating sounds. It's still fun (and funny).

I took video today...

But haven't uploaded it yet. I'm only telling you this because I need to be held accountable and if I don't put it out there it'll sit dormant on the video camera until Penelope's second birthday.

It's really cute.

Anyway, we have some new firsts. Today was the VERY FIRST TIME Penelope has EVER fed herself. I am so beyond excited... part of me was convinced I was going to be feeding her until she was 13. But nope! Tonight at dinner she picked up a tortilla chip (we were at a Mexican Restaurant) that we had given her to play with (she likes to crumble them into little pieces and throw them on the floor - we are the bane of all waitstaff). Anyway, she picked it up AND PUT IT IN HER MOUTH! And then ate it! And picked up another one and ate some more!

I seriously got teary eyed at the restaurant. I wish I was kidding.

Other new-ish stuff (I cannot remember if I've blogged about this before and am way too lazy to go back and check).
*Playing with the shaker egg... so we've been going to music classes for ages. She dances and is absolutely fascinated with guitars, but has never really taken the shaker egg and given it a good shake. But today (incidentally, NOT during music class) she picked one up and went to town. Shaking it to her own special rhythm, and even clapping with it in her hand. Cute!
*Clapping - all the time. If I ask her to show me "Yea!" she claps like a mad woman.
*Kissing on command - that sounds awful, but it's not. If I ask her for a kiss she'll give me one. Of course, then she won't stop. She sometimes tried to eat my face. I can't tell if I birthed a Jezebel or a Zombie. Maybe both. She doesn't do it for everyone though, so far it's just a few people - so it's not like she's making out with random strangers... just mommy *lol*
*Kissing BOYS. Well, just Orson. The two of them are hilarious... Orson is just hilarious - he'll kiss whatever girl is sitting next to him. Kim & Matt are going to have their hands full, I wonder whose karma this is coming back to haunt them? Hopefully my karma never comes back to visit me, otherwise I'm locking both of my children up in convents until they're 30.

Pictures and video later, I promise.

Tooth #7... and Abba

Penelope got tooth #7 in today! Usually she gets them in pairs, so tooth #8 will hopefully be in soon too. I can't wait for teething to be over!!!

Yesterday (I think). We were all hanging out together and Bryan and I were trying to get Penelope to say "mama". We'd ask her, "Penny, can you say mama"? And she would go "Abba".

It was pretty funny. Apparently I'm a Dancing Queen. Or something.

She didn't take an afternoon nap today. Well, she did but it was only a half an hour. This means that tonight will not be fun and I'm not looking forward to bedtime... especially since Bryan has a softball double header and so won't be home to give me an extra hand. She's already a bit of a pill, but we're at my parent's right now so they're helping me out.

Other things that are currently incredibly frustrating:
*biting - I haven't decided if she's at an age where biting her back would be effective in getting the point across. Is 10 months too early for that? I know it's because she's teething...
*hair pulling - one of the many reasons I keep my hair up all the time.
*obsession with the cable box - I'm tired of hearing myself say "No Penny, that's not for babies". I could get a gate, but it would have to be huge and it would be a major pain in the @$$ for Bryan and I. Oh well, she'll eventually learn (and then her sibling will be all over the stuff).

Things that are super awesome:
*crawling - I love crawling. She can get around, come and get me, chase the dogs, throw the ball and then go after it... crawling is awesome. Rug burn is hilarious, it's almost baby-leg weather so that will help.
*big kid food - she eats what I eat. With the exception of uncooked fish (which I can't have now anyway), peanuts (and other nuts), and shellfish - she and I share everything.
*routine - even though we have our "off" days, P is pretty much on a routine that she fell into without much prodding. Night time is 8-6:30, morning nap is around 9:30, and afternoon nap is around 2:30. This is our schedule 85% of the time. That's pretty good (I think) and I'm very happy with it. There are some days (like today) when she'll skip or shorten a nap, but such is life. Overall our routine works pretty well and it's nice to have.

Alright, time to pack her up and go home... bedtime is fast approaching. Hopefully it will go better than expected.

A whole mess of stuff

It's been too long since I last blogged, which means I have a lot to talk about, which means I won't get to it all. So here's what I consider the important stuff.

Penelope turns 8 months on Wednesday, and she's 30.75 inches long according to my admittedly imprecise measurements. We don't go to see her Ped until she's 9 months so we have another month before we get official measurements.

She weighs more than her 2 year old cousin Ariana - which isn't really surprising considering 1- Ari is mobile and 2- Ari's dad is like Frank Sinatra in the early days, if Steve stands sideways you can't see him. Seriously. I'm not all at concerned about P's weight, she's healthy and is IN NO WAY overweight. It does, however, kill my arms. I can't wait until she's walking so my back & arms get a break. I may have to chase her around, but then it's my legs that will get the workout.

Speaking of Ariana, Penelope met her only first cousins for the first time last weekend. Steve, Teresa, Gadge, Ariana, and Jesse were in California (they live in Wyoming) for the week and Bryan, Penny, and I went up to see them at Aunt Frannie's lake house for 2 days. We had a good time, the kids are all freaking adorable and it was nice to see my BIL & SIL... I know we all wish we lived closer, but Bryan and I will never move to Wyoming.

Here are a few pictures of the kids:

Jesse (2), Gadge (5), Ari (2), and Penelope (7.5 months)


Jesse


Gadge and Bryan


Ariana and I (this is the face she makes when you ask her to smile)


Penelope (and her thumb)

Hmmm, what else?

I officially dislike my professor in this current class (EXC 625: Exceptional Children in the Classroom) and a significant number of my classmates have said incredibly offensive and borderline racist things on the discussion board. Don't worry, I totally called them on it. Luckily this is the last week and I already submitted my last assignment. I forget the name of the next class. I'll be SO GLAD to be done next year.

Oh, more Penny stuff...

She's repeating sounds like Oh, Ah, and Uh-oh. It's hilarious!
She is no longer interesting in trying to crawl and would prefer to stand all day.
She recognizes a whole bunch of words and responds to them, she just can't vocalize them yet.
Baba, Rara, and Uh-oh are her favorite "words"
She's teething like CRAZY... she's actually putting things in her mouth to chew on. I don't know which teeth she's getting in, but we already have 5 and she's never done this for any of her other teeth. Maybe she'll get the rest of them in at once and we can be done with this whole teething thing.
Spices we've tried (and she loves): cinnamon, black pepper, curry, oregano
Still hates banana, but will eat it if it's mixed with peaches or blueberries.
LOVES greenbeans
Is in 18-24 month sized clothing, although some of her 18 month sizes oneseies are getting to be a little tight...
Is oddly fascinated by the vacuum

Upcoming August events: Tazz's wedding next week, Christina's son Zack turns 2!, Sophia turns 1, my 10 year high school reunion...

Oh, and Wednesday was my parents 29th anniversary!!!

Fun with Food

So tonight I let Penelope play with her dinner... she hasn't been interested in putting things in her mouth and I wanted to let her experiment a little with things I know she likes. It didn't really work as planned - she didn't put anything into her mouth. But she did make a mess.

Eating, Sleeping, and TV Confessions

A couple of days ago we upped the amount of solid foods that Penelope gets. We're now doing breakfast, lunch, and dinner with bottle "snacks" in between. So in total she eats 6 tbsp of oatmeal, 2 jars of veggies, and 1-2 jars of fruit. She seems to really like the new feeding schedule. I sometimes worry that she's not getting enough because she's not growing as fast, but that's just FTM (first time mom) paranoia, she's full, happy, and having enough wet & dry diapers. Her growth slow-down probably has to do with the fact that if she didn't slow down then she'd be 6 feet tall by the time she was 5.

As for sleeping, it's been pretty consistent... which is nice. She usually goes down by 8ish, is up at 3 or 4am for a bottle, and wakes up for the day around 7:30am. We occasionally get a night of 8pm-6:30am (like last night) and those are SUPER awesome.

And now for my TV confession... I really like the show "What I Like About You", Amanda Bynes is hilarious. I know it's meant for teens, but it's totally my guilty pleasure.

Cereal

I finally uploaded the latest videos... I should have been doing homework, but oh well.

Penelope and rice cereal:

Some things...

I have a post planned about our trip, but before I forget here are some things:

*I'm still going to try and make Penny's baby food, but due to traveling, Grad school, working, housecleaning, and the dozen other things I need to do this week I decided that we're going to do organic baby food in a jar. Except avocado, that will come straight from the rind!

*I'm so happy to be back in cloth. The disposables are certainly less bulky, but I heart our cloth diapers. And my friend Kathy was right, pre-folds are super easy.

*Penny has been sleeping a lot today, I hope this is just travel recovery and not the sign of another growth spurt...

*Oh, and she's in 18 month clothing. Some of her 12 month stuff still fits, but for the most part we've moved up a size.

*I will NEVER go grocery shopping solo (w/ baby) again. No way, no how. Either I need a shopping buddy or someone needs to watch Penelope. It's WAY too hard to get everything done and my back is KILLING me.

*Wearing Penny during the trip has done a number on my posture. It was never perfect, but it's downright horrid now.

*Penny is getting too big to wear. A 20lb baby in a sling is not really enjoyable (except for her, she loves it).

*Right now P is in a diaper and a bib. It's freaking hot in Sacramento today and even though we have on the air conditioner, clothing just seems a little silly.

*P officially likes oatmeal way better than rice cereal. Tomorrow we try carrots.

*P has a rash on her chin from all the drool... she doesn't seem to mind it, but it looks like she got a terrible sunburn and is now peeling. Poor baby...

Pig Piggy Pig Pig

Either Penelope is going through a growth spurt or she's training for speed eating contests later in life.

No naps today (well, we got in three 30 minute cat-naps) and she wants a bottle in her mouth at all times. I swear she's eaten her weight in formula today.

Here are recent pictures of little Miss Piggy (wearing the dress her Granny K made her):