Rob, Rachel and Madeleine (and Duncan too)

Every day I read some mom blogs and think, I wish I could do that–write every day to capture all of these thigns about my girls life. But, there isn’t time in the day.  I just can’t add it in the mix of girls, house, work, chores, etc.  So I have to try to keep up on post it notes and scraps of paper and catalog them here when I can.

My last post was in October–ye gads.

This will be random stream of consciousness on both girls.

First, Madeleine.  So much a little kid and not a toddler these days.  She is so lanky–all arms and legs.  Still that sweet little face.  She is a loving big sister and we constantly remind her not to snuggle Evelyn to death.  She is protective–worries if she cries or gets hurt, brings her toys, makes funny faces to cheer her up.  It is wonderful to see. 

Madeleine learned to tie a knot. She is working hard on all her letters. She capably writes her nickname–but now writes it backwards, not sure why!  She has moved on from little kid books and prefers more involved stories, even keeping up with chapter books.  Loves fairies.  Still plays with her cars and trains. Often integrates them all together.  Sings and dances.  Took tumbling again this winter–seems very good at it.  Best handstand in the class. Her noodle body seems well suited for it.  Tried ballet–not so much.  She loved the set up and wearing the tutu, but didn’t seem to “get” it.  So, no more ballet for now.  MOre tumbling.  She is a coloring fiend.  Comes home with 2-6 colorings a day.  It is impossible to keep up.  She says hilarious things.  Reminds us of rules like listening and not talking with your mouth full. Her insistence on rules doesn’t worry about her own obedience of them.  She really got in to Christmas this year–writing Santa, putting out cookies, listening for the reindeer. It was so sweet.  She sleeps so well–when she finally goes to sleep. Almost never comes upstairs anymore–but when she does, appears at my bedside into total silence.  Gets my heartrate up every time.  Into imaginative play–wants to pretend she is a character and a “scene” is playing out, like DOra and blueberry hunt.  Or Tinkerbell and Vidia.  She and her friends play puppy and penguin families on the playground.  She had her kindergarten assessment and did fantastic.  Glad she has another year to grow before k-garten, but worry she will be a little bored and confused as to why most of her friends are going already.  Loves the snow.  Lots of sledding this winter.  can’t wait to be out there with both of them.  Evelyn and I hung out inside more this winter.  Madeleine says sweeeeetie to Evelyn.  Gets worried if E gets close to edge of our bed, or starts to get off her little chair. Laughs when E doesn’t follow the rules that M has to–like food only in the kitchen.  Little food swiper.

Evelyn

The determined little sister.  Crawled faster than any baby I have seen.  Into everything.  Deals with 2 bouts of pneumonia–sad times in the winter.  Ear tubes that finally stop the infections, yeah.  Signing lots of things–hungry, drink, milk/nursies, banana, book, bath, diaper, sleep.  Loves her pacis for sleep.  Has her first birthday–wow!  After the ear tubes, starts to walk!  Then run!  Spends a lot of time with books, laughs at discovering penguins, dogs, and especially pandas.  Funny to discover how often panddas are in kid books–probably because of their coloring.  She walks around laughing at things. Thinks it is so funny to walk down the hallway and then pop back out.  We hear her cackling when she gets into Madeleine’s room unseen.  Or the bathroom.  Within days of first steps, was walking the whole house, carrying stuff, stopping and turning.  Amazing.  Works so hard to follow Madeleine.  Wants to do everything her sister does.  Loves climbing into M’s red chair–and laughing.  M loves to pick E up and put her back in her green chair.  They roll around on the floor together.  E’s hair is crazy–long and wild.  She loves to get food in it and then it is so sticky upy!  She loves to walk around carrying her snowsuit.  Or a blanket. Just discovered she can take diapers and wipes and changing table mats off the shelves and walk around with them. She loves to eat–in March started being able to use fork and spoon–very slowly and deliberatively. Not happy at meals unless she has several on her tray. Loves tomato sauces. If she sees a condiement on the table, she wants it.  Love seeing the girls have snack together at little table.  So sweet.

This is beyond overdue.  Such is life.

 I will start with Evelyn first.  She is saying mama!!!  What a great joy.  She has been saying dada for a long time (not always to Rob) and ya ya, na na, pa, ba.  She is a shouter.  It is pretty hilarious to hear her shout at Madeleine when her sister is being really loud—she wants to jump right in there and be loud too.  Since she likes to roar, we picked out a lion costume for her first Halloween. 

 Since the last update, she has perfected sitting and is doing the army crawl. This is evidenced in the tips of her little shoes getting dirty and her forearms being all red and chapped. Madeleine did the army crawl for a long time and only crawled properly for a little while before she walked.  With the army crawling comes the invastion of her big sister’s stuff.  We are struggling to figure out how to separate M’s toys that are unsafe for Evelyn without blocking off Madeleine from the rest of the family.   Babyproofing is definitely more tricky this time around.

 So looking back over the rest of August and September and the start of October:

Evelyn sits in her booster seat now at the table with us.  She loves it.  Already her round belly is threatening to force an upgrade to a bigger/different seat!  She is so different from Madeleine that way—it is amusing to me to have one noodle girl and one plump girl. 

 She is sitting perfectly. I don’t have to put pillows behind her anymore. She has had a few bonks—and really cried but she recovers fast.  She figured out how to clap but hasn’t done it often. She does a lot of signing more and doing one fist and one flat hand for clapping. She has always been an arm waver and a flapper—especially when she is excited and happy.  When we wash her hands at school now, she will “clap” and wave her fists around. It looks like she is trying to wash them.

 She loves to bang toys together. She loves her books—it seems they are the toy of choice right now.  She is getting the hang of turning pages and not just eating the book.  We try to read a book each night for bedtime but sometimes run out of time.  She clearly sees it as something we do a lot of as a family and I think that is why she is eager to join in. 

 Her funny headshake “no” continues.  We have many a funny interaction asking her questions and watching her say no to everything. Madeleine in particular loves this game—they play it in the car all the time. Madeleine will ask, “do you like cereal” “do you like broccoli?” etc and laugh as Evelyn shakes her head no.  We ask her: do you share with your friends? No. Were you a good baby today? No.  Do you like the Vikings? No. Now Madeleine takes this as a real answer sometimes—telling me that Evelyn doesn’t like something or doesn’t want to do something.  Speaking of being in the car, they hold hands now that Evelyn is in her bigger baby seat. It is so precious and so sweet to see those little hands clutching each other.

 Evelyn is eating lots of food: sweet potato, peas, carrots, zucchini, green beans, lentils, potatoes, apples, peaches. She just started on more people food, like cheerios, noodles and egg yolk.  She shows more interest in food than her older sister did.  She is always reaching for our stuff. I sometimes give her my water cup to try and she loves it.  She drinks water and her milk at school out of sippies but at home just nurses. 

 Her sleep went haywire at 8 months, just like Madeleine’s did. I think it is separation anxiety and teething.  We are working on retooling her routine.  Most nights she sleeps most of the night in my bed. I love it and it drives me a little crazy at the same time.  It is so sweet and I know before I know it, it will be over. But, it does make it hard to get stuff done when I have to go to bed so early in order to get her to sleep!  She sticks to me like glue in the bed and likes to hold her hand on my  neck or cheek.

 She gives hugs now!  It is just about the cutest. I am so happy that both of my girls are huggers. When I pick her up at school she will grab by cheeks or both sides of my neck and pull me in for a hug. 

 She has 5 teeth now—her top middle 2 came in together and now one more on the top has popped through.

 She learned how to do SO BIG!  And clap for herself too. 

 She has toys in the kitchen now that I know she won’t conk over all the time. She likes to sit there with her books and shakers while I cook or putter around.  It is crowded in there with both of them, but it is so cozy too.  She has a stack of plastic cups, some balls, some shakers and some empty cereal containers.

 The girls and I flew to CT in September. They both did great on the plane. Evelyn was very good and Madeleine was a great helper.  It was fun to have them both to myself for four days, but tiring too!  Evelyn was at the peak of her stranger anxiety and was a little unsure of Nonie.  It was very special to see my parents and my gram with my girls.  Thanks to my error, my camera broke and we lost the pics of the trip though.  We visited a steam train, spent an afternoon at the beach and did lots of playing and laughing. 

 Madeleine continues to crack us up every day.  As she discovers more language, it is more and more amazing to see what she comes up with.  It is hilarious to hear her use “my words”  back at me.  At the end of the summer, she got a medal for playing soccer all summer. It was a fun awards ceremony.  We each chaperoned one of her field trips and got to see her interacting with her friends.  She is feisty and sweet and silly.  Her teacher tells us that she tries to tell jokes to her class.  She is getting very good at writing her letters—and can easily write Maddy now all on her own.  She is left-handed for sure!  Maddy is written in all capitals and the letters get progressively bigger—it is awesome.

 Her love of Thomas and cars continues, mixed in with some fairies and princesses.  She is going to be Tinkerbell for Halloween.  She and I picked out the fabric together and suffice to say, she is going to be VERY Green and VERY glittery in her costume!

 For months, she has asked about the same stories at bedtime. It is amazing how consistent this is:

Train Ned bumping the bridge and Train Jack holding it up for Thomas

The buildings by the Malt Shop burning

Uncle Dave’s hamburger catching fire

 This is slowly fading away—and I know I will miss it but some nights teling those SAME stories drives me crazy!! 

 She eats more food now, which is great.  Her fatty diet helped her hit the 30 pound mark.  By October, we no longer bring extra food to school as she does a better job at trying things.  She will even eat spaghetti now!  We cook homemade granola bars together and she has memorized the ingredients. She likes to do the chocolate chips of course!  She is my daughter after all.

 She likes to play puppy and to play mama-little girl, with her as the  mama.  She giggles if I ask her how my mama got so teeny tiny.

 She gets faster and faster on her bicycle and we have each taken turns now riding with her for bike rides.  Next summer all 4 of us will be able to ride together at last!

 Some of her funny Madeleine-isms lately:

Don’t bother me.  Don’t talk to me. (especially first thing in the morning before she has gone potty). Oh and she is night trained now, yeah!!!

 I am more complicated now because I have new shoes.

 Lucy said when I put my hands in my armpits, it is disgusting (hilarious laughter).

 Telling us not to use naughty words:  diaper, poop, stink, the list changes.

 Telling us not to talk with our mouths full, while her mouth is full of food.  When we point this out, she looks shocked.

 Daddy, if a fairy came to our house and made you into a girl, then we would be all girls in our family.

 That x is good.  That one, not so good.  She likes to dictate which fruit and veg I pick out at the store.  Loudly.

 She responds “goooooooood” to questions about how her food is.

 She says, oh sweeeeeeetie to Evelyn.  Very endearing. 

 On the airplane, with pressure change, MY VOICE IS HARDER TO HEAR. I almost peed my pants at that one because she was so loud and so monotone!

 Mama, am I an octopus?  She asks this when I am rushing her.  I say that I am not an octopus when she asks me to do several things at once. 

 Madeleine and Evelyn have a few games right now:

Chase.  I hold Evelyn and we chase Madeleine, then she chases us. Both girls giggle hysterically.

 Piggyback ride. We hold Evelyn on M’s shoulders.  Again, both giggling. E’s face is just aglow with pride. 

 Some other random things:

Evelyn loves Duncan and has gotten a hold of his fur a few times.  Much like when M was a baby, we go downstairs and look for him in the morning. Both girls have loved that.

 Evelyn had a short, tumutous relationship with the Mickey Mouse doll:

Sitting at eye level with him she made eye contact, cooed and waved her arms like crazy

Then she leaned forward very slowly three times and touched noses

Then she leaned back, scowled and shouted

Hilarious

 We are getting ready for Madeleine’s FOURTH birthday  party!!!  Her friends from school are invited for games, lunch and cake.

Well, I am two for two so far in my new pledge to update this blog at least monthly.  I have been keeping notes for both girls on a big post-it at work and since I am out of space, it must be time to blog again.

Summer is flying by–two little girls at home makes us busy busy! 

Madeleine is having a great summer–with soccer, weekly field trips and water days at preschool.  She is tired out and sleeping great.  Her field trips include school bus rides–she looks so tiny on the bus!  Her class has visited the mall aquarium, the riverboats, an indoor playground, and a children’s theater.  Next week is soccer “graduation” and her favorite “drill” has been fishes and sharks. 

She is REALLY into trains right now–newly discovering THomas the Tank engine and his buddies.  We have been borrowing the Minneapolis library’s entire stock of Thomas videos.   For about 3 weeks, she would sing the theme song over and over, especially as she went to sleep–hearing it through the monitor was just hilarious.  “They’re two, they’re four, they’re six, they’re eight.  Shunting trucks and hauling freight…”  She has a little lego Thomas and is working on her latest chore chart to earn James.  This was quite puzzling to her–that Thomas was a gift but she has to work for James.  She kept asking us, I just got Thomas, right, but I have to earn James?  Her train set from Grandma was set up again and she plays with it every day.

Her class has been working on learning days of the week and months of the year.  She frequently sings the Month song at the top of her lungs at bedtime.  We have had to turn OFF her monitor downstairs because we couldn’t hear the TV! 

Her independence continues to amaze me.  She gets her owns snacks, fills up her own water cup, consistently picks out her own clothes, and gets up out of bed each mroning to go potty on her own.  She doesn’t like anyone to help her in the mroning anymore–quite a change from when she would stay on the  bed and call out to us.  She is a loving big sister and runs to Evelyn when she hears her cry or squawk.  She brings her toys, kisses and hugs her and works to make her laugh.  She is such a good helper too–bringing things to me, carrying her bag into school, holding the door etc.  I remind myself of these things in the moments I am frustrated at her for not listening or being stubborn about something–she is truly a good little girl and I am so proud of her.

She is taking her first preschool swim class this summer–without mom and dad in the water.  She is doing well–still doesn’t love getting her face wet, but handles it well when she is distracted.  She and Evelyn are beyond cute in the backyard wading pool together–E loves to splash and M loves to fill the pool with the hose.

Madeleine is doing more pretend play.  She pretends to be mama and cooks for me.  She likes to cook pie-soup with honey.

We recently discussed the idea of middle names.  I explained that her’s is Suzanne and Evelyn’s is Alyce.  She said that Duncan’s is Second Duncan. Awesome.

She is all about swinging at the park–the higher the better. What a change from last year when she got so nervous!  She has discovered under-dog and is learning to pump her legs.

I look at her sweet little face and am shocked how big she is.  I love to look at her when she is asleep because at those moments she looks like my little baby girl.  My favorite Madeleine-ism right now?  “You are my favorite mama in the whole world. You make me SOOOO Happy.”   What a goosie.

And now for my other baby, Evelyn.  Blue-eyed sweet baby.

She is so determined, so assertive, so stubborn and already so independent!  She wants Madeleine’s toys badly and is trying her best to wiggle and roll to get them.  She has even started to fling herself off the boppy cushion so that she can roll towards them.  She loves to pat Madeleine–and we play a game called Madeleine piano, with M on her hands and knees in front of E, and E pats her back like crazy. It is so cute. 

She gives hugs–grabs my face and shoulders and nuzzles in.  She kisses (slobbers!) my face and chin.  She does the same to Madeleine.  She is a good hair grabber.

She is really solid at sitting!  She only falls over if she looks up and loses her balance or if she chooses to fall over to try to get M’s things.  She rolls to her belly very easily now–but still doesn’t like to end up that way while she is sleeping.  She likes to sleep on her side–with one arm on her head, like her daddy.  She does some crazy spins in her sleep in her crib and wakes up trapped against the side, legs up the wall of the crib–funny.

She has two teeth–the bottom center ones.  They are sharp!  So far she is kind to her mama and doesn’t bite me.  She is liking exploring different foods.  So far she eats banana, pears, sweet potatoes, avocado and baby cereal.  She is VERY independent with food–she wants to do it herself and prefers to just hold a globbed up spoon and suck on it.  This is very messy.  She doesn’t care.

She can go on the swings at the park now, since she sits so well!  She looks so very proud, when she realizes that she is doing what her big sister is doing.  Her little face is so radiant when she smiles.

She watches her hand now–her left hand (will both my girls be left-handed???).  She holds her hands together and shakes them up and down.  She is fascinated by us clapping. She smiles and squeaks at us when we do So Big and Peek-a-Boo.  She slaps her knees when she sits.  It is so funny–her arms start flapping away and she ends up slapping her knees, loud enough to make a pretty good sound.  She sometimes slaps her knees when she nurses too, especially at night.

Her baby babble sounds more and more like talking every day.  She makes lots of da and ya sounds now–over and over again.  She does little old lady talking–where her lips go together/apart/together/apart, but no sound comes out.  I am working on hypnotizing her to say Mama first!  We’ll see. 

Evelyn goes to sleep on her own most times–very different from her sister.  She just adores Madeleine and I love to watch them together.  I am so happy we went on our hard journey and made Evelyn, for us and for Madeleine.  I think they will be close friends as well as sisters.

Today is Evelyn’s half birthday, she is six months old already. For weeks now I have been contemplating getting back to blogging—I worry constantly about forgetting things—I wish my mind were a video recorder. I feel like there are already so many details about her first few months that have escaped from my brain. And then there are the details of Madeleine’s days—the girl who is speeding towards FOUR. But I also worry that the blog will be one more thing that my type-A personality stresses over. I don’t need more items on my to-do list. But, I type fast and I am thinking about it anyway, so maybe I should do it! If I do it once a week, that will suffice, I won’t let myself feel bad if I miss an entry. It can be a gift to my girls when they are bigger—my memories of them.

I will start with some catch up on Madeleine since my last entry.
She moved to the big preschool room this summer and is doing well. She is big on testing her limits right now and loses her favorite toys on a regular basis for not listening. She has handled becoming a big sister really well, but I think there are some undercurrents of jealousy and frustration—she is asking for help with things that she has known how to do on her own for a long time, like shoes, pull-ups, washing hands, etc. We are trying to structure some more intentional one on one time with her and pointing out when she gets to do something that her little sister doesn’t.

She knows all her letters. She can write many of them. She can write her name—well, Maddy, if you prompt her with which letter comes next. It is amazing! She can count to 20, she can count to sometimes 10 in Spanish. She knows her colors, in English and in Spanish. She loves to read. She loves her matchbox cars and her duplos. She also loves her fairy dolls—I love that she loves both of these things, the mix of traditional boy and traditional girl worlds. She and I make homemade granola bars—with lots of butter and chocolate chips. She rides a big girl bike—got it this spring. She is confident and fast on that thing! She is playing soccer at school and seems to really like it. She gets to go on field trips this summer—they ride big school buses. Seeing her get on one that first time was bittersweet, she looked so proud but it foreshadows kindergarten and her rolling away from mama! She is getting into Thomas stuff and playing with her train set a lot. She constantly kisses and cuddles Evelyn, telling her that she loves her sooooo much, that she is her little sweetheart, and saying “look at her, awwwwwwwwwwwww.” It is so cute.

She is tall and gangly and has crossed from toddler over to little-kid. She is doing imaginative play and has her first neighborhood friend—she is very proud of this. She likes to say, watch this, watch me, come see, come watch, look. She likes to watch herself in her mirror when her shirts are stuck on her head—I did that too! I used to pretend the shirts were my princess hair. She does too!

She cracks us up:
Is it funny? I am not laughing.
To her dolls: you are in timeout FOREVER. You are a BAD listener.
The last car of a train is a “ca-da-boose” or just a “boose”
She asks for small, medium or big amounts of water and milk.
On hearing that she should drink slowly, she asked “why is it so complicated?”

And now my littlest love. Evelyn. I have not blogged on her before. Her birth story shall be a separate thing for her to read when she is bigger. She is a joy to me every day.

She is adorable and sweet and doughy and plump and yummy. She is smiley and huggy like her big sister. I am so lucky to have these two loving girls. She laughs with her whole body and likes to shout. She is determined to stand all the time and I know she wants to run after Madeleine. She loves to watch her big sister. Her little ears stick out and she has elastic band wrists and ankles and thighs. Her little plump hands look like starfish. Yum.

She was a nap fighter for months 2-4 but we figured out how to help her like naps—darker rooms and a pacifier. Now she goes to sleep on her own most times—very unlike her big sister. I am hopeful that this means less sleep drama for her as she gets bigger.

She has a stork bite—the exact same one her sister had. She had an ear-tag, which fell off at 2 weeks of age or so.

I think she is going to be tougher and more assertive than Madeleine. She is feisty! We are going to have a hard time keeping her out of Madeleine’s things when she is mobile.

As her personality started coming out in month 4—fter she was past the just eating and sleeping stage, she started patting my face, patting my chest, and flapping her arms. She started her one leg dance—hilarious. She flaps her arms when she is excited and especially when she sees Madeleine after some time away. She started to come at my face with an open mouth—I think trying to give me kisses, or at least, that is how I like to think of it. Her hair started to grow, every day she looked fuzzier!

Months four and five—she is a roller! She rolled from front to back three times one day and hasn’t done it since! But she started to roll a lot from back to front—and now she is starting to prefer being on her tummy to play. She got a tooth. Then she got another one. The two on the bottom, boy are they sharp, but so far she hasn’t bitten me. Her little butt is plump—her sister’s never was. Her eyes are still blue—I hope they stay blue!! She started sitting in her little seat—banging her toys while we eat and shouting. Madeleine would look at her, this little creature who got so loud, with an expression of “what is THAT?!”

Month six—she started flapping her hand—just opening and closing the fingers over and over, mostly while nursing, doing it against my chest. She found her ears and likes to flap them around. She kept shouting and banging. She started making loud noises on the inhale—really loud squeaks. And she discovered how to cough. Now she does it for fun and loves when Madeleine does it too. She has more hair and those eyes are still blue! She grabs at my face, my lips, my eyes, my cheeks. She gives me kisses and she sucks on my chin. She lets me cuddle her in a cradle position now—for bedtime. I treasure it, as she doesn’t like it other times. She laughs hysterically to her daddy throwing toys in the air and saying WOOP!

Today is Evelyn’s half birthday, she is six months old already. For weeks now I have been contemplating getting back to blogging—I worry constantly about forgetting things—I wish my mind were a video recorder. I feel like there are already so many details about her first few months that have escaped from my brain. And then there are the details of Madeleine’s days—the girl who is speeding towards FOUR. But I also worry that the blog will be one more thing that my type-A personality stresses over. I don’t need more items on my to-do list. But, I type fast and I am thinking about it anyway, so maybe I should do it! If I do it once a week, that will suffice, I won’t let myself feel bad if I miss an entry. It can be a gift to my girls when they are bigger—my memories of them.

I will start with some catch up on Madeleine since my last entry.
She moved to the big preschool room this summer and is doing well. She is big on testing her limits right now and loses her favorite toys on a regular basis for not listening. She has handled becoming a big sister really well, but I think there are some undercurrents of jealousy and frustration—she is asking for help with things that she has known how to do on her own for a long time, like shoes, pull-ups, washing hands, etc. We are trying to structure some more intentional one on one time with her and pointing out when she gets to do something that her little sister doesn’t.

She knows all her letters. She can write many of them. She can write her name—well, Maddy, if you prompt her with which letter comes next. It is amazing! She can count to 20, she can count to sometimes 10 in Spanish. She knows her colors, in English and in Spanish. She loves to read. She loves her matchbox cars and her duplos. She also loves her fairy dolls—I love that she loves both of these things, the mix of traditional boy and traditional girl worlds. She and I make homemade granola bars—with lots of butter and chocolate chips. She rides a big girl bike—got it this spring. She is confident and fast on that thing! She is playing soccer at school and seems to really like it. She gets to go on field trips this summer—they ride big school buses. Seeing her get on one that first time was bittersweet, she looked so proud but it foreshadows kindergarten and her rolling away from mama! She is getting into Thomas stuff and playing with her train set a lot. She constantly kisses and cuddles Evelyn, telling her that she loves her sooooo much, that she is her little sweetheart, and saying “look at her, awwwwwwwwwwwww.” It is so cute.

She is tall and gangly and has crossed from toddler over to little-kid. She is doing imaginative play and has her first neighborhood friend—she is very proud of this. She likes to say, watch this, watch me, come see, come watch, look. She likes to watch herself in her mirror when her shirts are stuck on her head—I did that too! I used to pretend the shirts were my princess hair. She does too!

She cracks us up:
Is it funny? I am not laughing.
To her dolls: you are in timeout FOREVER. You are a BAD listener.
The last car of a train is a “ca-da-boose” or just a “boose”
She asks for small, medium or big amounts of water and milk.
On hearing that she should drink slowly, she asked “why is it so complicated?”

And now my littlest love. Evelyn. I have not blogged on her before. Her birth story shall be a separate thing for her to read when she is bigger. She is a joy to me every day.

She is adorable and sweet and doughy and plump and yummy. She is smiley and huggy like her big sister. I am so lucky to have these two loving girls. She laughs with her whole body and likes to shout. She is determined to stand all the time and I know she wants to run after Madeleine. She loves to watch her big sister. Her little ears stick out and she has elastic band wrists and ankles and thighs. Her little plump hands look like starfish. Yum.

She was a nap fighter for months 2-4 but we figured out how to help her like naps—darker rooms and a pacifier. Now she goes to sleep on her own most times—very unlike her big sister. I am hopeful that this means less sleep drama for her as she gets bigger.

She has a stork bite—the exact same one her sister had. She had an ear-tag, which fell off at 2 weeks of age or so.

I think she is going to be tougher and more assertive than Madeleine. She is feisty! We are going to have a hard time keeping her out of Madeleine’s things when she is mobile.

As her personality started coming out in month 4—fter she was past the just eating and sleeping stage, she started patting my face, patting my chest, and flapping her arms. She started her one leg dance—hilarious. She flaps her arms when she is excited and especially when she sees Madeleine after some time away. She started to come at my face with an open mouth—I think trying to give me kisses, or at least, that is how I like to think of it. Her hair started to grow, every day she looked fuzzier!

Months four and five—she is a roller! She rolled from front to back three times one day and hasn’t done it since! But she started to roll a lot from back to front—and now she is starting to prefer being on her tummy to play. She got a tooth. Then she got another one. The two on the bottom, boy are they sharp, but so far she hasn’t bitten me. Her little butt is plump—her sister’s never was. Her eyes are still blue—I hope they stay blue!! She started sitting in her little seat—banging her toys while we eat and shouting. Madeleine would look at her, this little creature who got so loud, with an expression of “what is THAT?!”

Month six—she started flapping her hand—just opening and closing the fingers over and over, mostly while nursing, doing it against my chest. She found her ears and likes to flap them around. She kept shouting and banging. She started making loud noises on the inhale—really loud squeaks. And she discovered how to cough. Now she does it for fun and loves when Madeleine does it too. She has more hair and those eyes are still blue! She grabs at my face, my lips, my eyes, my cheeks. She gives me kisses and she sucks on my chin. She lets me cuddle her in a cradle position now—for bedtime. I treasure it, as she doesn’t like it other times. She laughs hysterically to her daddy throwing toys in the air and saying WOOP!

As usual, I am way behind in maintaining this blog…been a busy fall! Baby #2 is still baking away, hopefully for not much longer, and then there will be TWO kids to try and blog about. Yikes! I keep a list of things I want to post at work so I will try to catch up on our fall and winter so far.

Madeleine’s language use is really developing. She is about 50-50 on using my vs. I in sentences. She can string together pretty long sentences these days.

She mostly still uses the plural with s words: two mapses, two shoeses, etc. which I think is cute.

She can write some letters! A, L, V, X, T, M, C

She has written the number 5 a few times.

She can do more counting “by sight: now–meaning she knows that there are 3 or 4 or 5 just by looking and doesn’t have to count it out.

She is starting to grasp the concept of today, tomorrow, yesterday and weekend vs. weekday. She knows that weekend means the whole family stays home–no work and no preschool.

She loves cutting! She started out being only able to cut one “stroke” at a time but now can cut in a long line. She helped us wrap presents by cutting out huge pieces of wrapping paper at Christmas. She does lots of crafts at school that involve cutting. Not so much anymore, but for a few months, her mouth would move in time with her hand that was cutting–open, close, open, close. Interesting brain link.

She is super cute about the baby coming. We have tried to be pretty open about the baby and how it will come out and how it is growing inside mama. She has made many, many funny comments about it:
My have 2 babies in my belly
My baby is moving a lot
My baby is upside down too
My baby has hiccups–feel it
my shirt not fitting so good today
my body stiff, my legs stiff
my push one baby out today at preschool

And we have tried to describe what the baby will be like when it arrives–no teeth, can’t sit/walk, etc. She seems fascinated by the contrast between herself and him/her. She talked a lot about teaching baby to swing at the park, how to sit, how to eat cereal, etc.

We showed her the ultrasounds from her pregnancy and this one–she asked to see the head of the baby

She has gone to 2 prenatal visits. On her 2nd one, she got to hold the doppler and help with the measuring tape.

Random collection of cute things she has said:
Saying “my practiced” “my try and try and try”
I looked EVERYwhere
Mama don’t sing…at the instrumental section of song: okay, now sing
Daddy–you need to be patient
Daddy–settle down your body (during loud talking at dinner)
It is my turn to talk (during family meal time)
Too many questions (as we interrogate her about her day!)
I am busy right now
Mama belly like a meatball
Duncan is my pet (Over the last month or so, she has really fallen in love with Duncan–chases him, hugs him, brings him his toys, etc. It is cute–keeps them both entertained)

Talking in silly/nonsense language
Singing songs–Jingle Bells was the holiday favorite

Mama has a BIIIIIIG belly

Writing grocery lists—what do you want? Okay! (She always wants to use an orange highlighter to do this. If you give her a sweet thing, like cake, before a meal idea, she will say no, have to eat your food FIRST)

She has been clearing her own place at the table; likes squirting her own ketchup; likes bringing the condiments to the table on her own

Cars are her biggest love. She brings them upstairs, downstairs, in the car, in the bathroom etc. She inventories them, organizes, names them and personifies them in pretend play. She sets up a lot of traffic jams. She builds a lot of garages and parking spots for her cars

Puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles! it is amazing how fast she is.

She clearly picked up on the fact that we really struggled to come up with names this time. She would sit in her chair and say, how about taco, how about fish, how about pom pom, how about chair, how about wall, etc.

In a delightful combination of rough and tumble and delicate, she loves fairies right now. Tinkerbell. She got wings for her birthday and lots of glittery tulle skirts for Christmas. She puts them on and asks Daddy to: Fly me (wearing her wings and fairy skirt; or she will go round and round on her sit and spin.
She has enjoyed doing more in the kitchen with us–pulling a tall chair up to the counter: making pizza, christmas cookies, pancakes, etc. She recently said: I a good cooker

It’s been a painful couple of weeks, but our new family web site is back up and running.  Think of it as RobAndRachel.org, version 2.0.   Over the next few days and as time permits, older blog posts and photos galleries will be restored.

So why were we down?  The short answer is technical reasons.  The long winded reason is that we dropped our old web site hosting company (Daily Razor) due to poor up-time with a heaping helping of lousy service on top, ultimately moving to our new hosting company (Dreamhost) after taking a few other providers out for a test drive.  While migrating to our new host, we discovered that the backup and restore process wasn’t quite as seamless as one might expect; the problems are resolvable but take time to do so.  Aargh.

Anyhoo, that’s all water under the bridge.  The new stuff works, and the underlying tools rock.  Stay tuned for future posts (and backfills).