Catching up on the kids - Part 1 - Sophia

I love quiet vacation time - it gives me a chance to write a full catch up on the kids.

First day of pre-school

Sophia is now well-ensconced into pre-school. I managed to miss the first week. When I signed up, I was under the impression it started in January (they run on the city school-schedule). My neighbor came up the Monday night after it started and asked how Sophia liked it. I promptly freaked out and then figured out how we'd get a new routine going starting the next morning. We haven't looked back since (well, maybe for one day, which she missed because of crazy snotty sickness, which she passed on to Theo - collateral damage of pre-school).

I think she likes it - she's making artwork, theoretically making some friends and has been reprimanded for trying to steal the Minnie Mouse doll seven (7) times in one day. (Yup - they check her backpack before she leaves every day...sigh.)

Her vocab is huge and she's big into the question phase now. It's really entertaining and not all that grating, yet. She has a cute way of asking that isn't just incessant why's...I pray the phrasing stays there, because just hearing the "why" will likely drive me batty!
She had her 3 year check up and got a clean bill of health - she's growing tall and gaining weight appropriately. The doctor is thrilled at the variety of foods she eats and that I manage to keep her seated for most of the meal.

We're working on taking the kids out more for meals so we can work on some restaurant etiquette. Little steps.
Here's her helping to feed Theo though - she's such a loving big sister.

 My little Ham:

That's the update for now. More to come again soon. 

8 months of Theo

Hard to believe that the little guy has been around for 8 months (more now that I actually write this.)
Theo is rapidly becoming "not so little" each and every day.

His helmet is really helping round out his head - at his last check up, he's around 95% (he started at 102% and the goal is 92%). Hoping we'll be at our mark around the new year. Recent growth spurts have really helped the cause.

He and Sophia have been interacting even more. It's generally around him go after some of her toys on the floor, which displeases her greatly, but we're working on the sharing thing.
In terms of his mobility, he is fully locked crawling in reverse. He can pitch himself forward from a sitting position to all fours, but isn't quite sure what to do from that point. He also quite enjoys sitting and pulling up on things, so we'll see.

Food wise, he's eating like a champ. Still doing 5 feedings, plus 3 solid meals a day. We do a mix of purees (I gave up the notion of making all his food. He gets much better variety and tastier stuff thanks to my new best friends at Plum Organics!) He also love eating cooked egg yolks, advocado, yogurt and eyeballs anything and everything we're eating. Pieces of bread and cheese are making their way on his list. Not quite there with the pincer grasp yet.

Sleep is still going well. He's such an all around happy baby - nap times (2 naps each day usually) are easy and bed time is a solid routine, which includes a bath every night because of the helmet. I couldn't ask for anything more in that department. Well, maybe if he slept in until 6 more regularly. The 5:30/5:45 is rough some days.

I'm so lucky to have this wonderful, amazing son. His personality is really starting to show - he's thoughtful, smiley when you give him just a little attention, but completely content in his own land. He adores his sister and thumps happily when I walk into his room to get him up from sleeping or when I come home from work. The joy on his face is priceless and unconditional love. He's my happy little man.

Next check up is in December with the pediatrician, but he is clearly a happy, healthy, growing little boy!

Theo & Solids

With Theo's six month birthday happening this coming week, I got a hankering to feed him cereal, the gateway to solids.
He loves sitting in the high chair and watching everyone at the table. While the first time is a rarely a complete success, he does enjoy his spoons a lot.

Here are some shots and a short video:

Growing Bigger every day

Sophia is rapidly approaching her year and a half birthday and it's amazing to see how much has changed. She is learning more and more words. It's really cute to watch and listen to her have a "conversation". Mostly, it's us asking questions and her responding.

Dada, Woof, nana (banana) yes, no and nonni (the babysitter) were all her first words. Over the last month she has added:
Moo
Baa
Mama (hooray!)
Nay (for a horse)
e i e i o

She also plays a mean game of fetch with our soccer ball and also likes to help me cook in the kitchen. I make a salad every night and she loves to "help" spin the lettuce in the spinner. She is also a big helper when it comes to the laundry.



In terms of food, her recent big accomplishment is learning how to dip. She likes to dip her bread into her tzatki. (though sometimes it's just easier for her to lick the bowl the dip is being held in!) She also will happily eat anything that I am eating. The newest fascination are salt and vinegar potato chips. Yum! (but amazing that she likes them...) And, well, it often serves as conditioner for her hair too!

She also is all about her books - she is constantly grabbing ones off her shelf for me to read, though I have to say she's currently focused on some that aren't my personal favorite (Curious George goes fishing - I've got personal issues with fishing) or out-of-season ones (like Frosty the Snowman and The Mitten). But I still read them (or recite, as I think they are fully memorized by now!)

Check our next post for Easter photos!

What's going on at 16 months?

With all the excitement we've had going on lately (hospital visits, travel to London, etc) I wanted to give an update on what Sophia's doing development wise.

It's amazing to see how much she understands now. We have a pretty solid routine with her every day, so she knows what to expect, but she's been impressing us left and right with some new skills.

At night, before bath, she and Dave always go downstairs to get the mail. The other night he told her they were going to do this. She ran off - we looked for a moment and then found her waiting patiently by the front door for Dave. She climbed all the way down and up the stairs by herself. Very cool.

She loves dogs - everywhere we go, we see them. She greets them with an "oof - oof" of her own. In fact, we have a book all on dogs. When I ask her to get it, she finds it off her shelf and brings it to me and says "oof-oof".

She's totally into brushing her teeth with a "big girl" brush now.
She also is mostly feeding herself. She has her own plates and silverware and is quite content to munch away - new favorites are: Chicken Salad, bagels, fish nuggets and chicken patties. After our stint of sickness, she was drinking Rice Milk (or Drink) for awhile quite happily.
Apparently, it's also very fun to wear our food. (I guess I used to shove a black olive on each of my fingers - so why not tortellini!)

She also has some new words: "Nonni" is for her sitter Lidiana (we just figured this out yesterday!) She has also started to say "Mama," but not with much consistency. (When you say it back to her, she responds with "Daddy." Hmmm...) She also says "Yurt" for yogurt.

Nice work my little one. She's growing big and strong - I definitely think we're in the midst of a growth spurt judging by the way she's eating and sleeping lately. Now if only those 2 ugly molars would come through!

So where's the manual on this thing anyway?

It is so fun to watch Sophia grow and learn so much every day. (See my post about Party Tricks).
One of the things we're quickly learning is she enjoys testing Dave & I. Especially me. Meal time is our big test point - how much food can she throw before royally perturbing Mama?? I've been trying the "ignore it" route, but it's just not my personality and part of me really feels like it is condoning it (even if the magic "they" say if you show no reaction, they'll stop).

I've tried turning her chair around facing the windows, and she just makes funny faces and giggles at her reflection (kind of cute, actually). I've tried the stern no. All of which just elicits a huge grin from her and fits of giggles. When it's the end of the day and I'm tired or worn out, it's really tough not to get frustrated and angry. But I realize (somewhere deep inside, and generally after the fact) that she's not trying to perturb me, she just loves the interaction. So I'm working on making it a positive one, for both of us.

The new approach - just calmly eating with her. What she eats, she eats. I'll try to make it look like (as much as I can) to what I'm eating. When she starts to throw, we're done. Yes, I know, that is probably what I should have done in the first place but I've definitely found it challenging to feed myself and her concurrently, so I've really just focused on her. I'm realizing every day, though, that she is growing and is very capable (relatively speaking) of feeding herself. She is officially a little person. The baby is gone.

Dinner is our current tough spot. Dave doesn't/can't make it home in time for a family dinner, so it's just Sophia & I. And while 5:30 is a bit early for my dinner (we usually don't eat till about 8:30/9) I'm focusing on having a mini meal with her at dinner. Note to my waistline - hang in there with me please - I'm doing this for the good of my child! :) It's a work in progress, as is everything. But we'll get there, hopefully without too many roadbumps.

The funny (ironic?) thing about all of this is she doesn't do any of this for the nanny. I swear, the woman is the baby whisperer. Sophia eats tons, sleeps long hours and doesn't bat a single eyelash when she's around. And I'm so thankful for the fact my daughter is so loved and taken care of.
(Now if only I could get a long, dark haired wig to make her think I was Lidi and we'd be all good :)

The "Fun" with Food

We've been lucky - Sophia has always been a pretty good eater. We've had our ups and downs, but she's at least tried most things we've put in front of her. She used to eat like a house (no pun intended.) now she is mellowing out in her consumption amounts. She'll still try new things, but we've learned putting them to the front of the meal is our best bet - usually in the 2nd slot. Give her something tasty and familiar for the first course and then on to the new item, which may or may not be summarily rejected.

And as a 15-month old, she is now in the land of exerting her will. If she doesn't want it, she is most certainly going to let you know it - either with an emphatic shaker of her head, a swat of her hand, or an out and out "No." So, really, she doesn't leave you guessing. When she's done, she's done.

Unfortunately, we've also come into the "let's throw food on the floor" time. Despite every attempt to tell her "No" (forcefully, gently, you name it) she thinks it's a game, breaking into a huge smile when you tell her no. She'll happily eat, but when she hits a certain point, it's all about how much can be mashed into little pieces and then systematically dropped on the floor. It really used to bother me (though thank god we have hard wood floors- I couldn't imagine carpets!) but this weekend we've made the decision to just ignore her, hoping the novelty of the reaction will wear off.

Moms - are you running into the same thing? Any tips or tricks?

I'm 1 and I want to eat what I want to eat. Dang it.

There has been a lot of discussion amongst my mom friends lately about food: what are your kids eating, how are they eating it and when did they decide that throwing it off their trays was acceptable and/or the way to go?

We've been lucky - Sophia has generally been a good eater, but definitely shows signs of quirkiness. She'll happily try anything - and generally swallow it - assuming we're not at the table, in a formal high chair setting (Think - Whole Foods trial stations while in the shopping cart and you've got a winner. That's how she got hooked on taztziki sauce).

Meat has been our big struggle. For a girl who comes from two rather carnivorous parents, she shows no interest in meat (unless, of course, it's a random meatball at our friend's house or a chicken nugget from the guy at Whole Foods, but I digress). We've tried chicken, turkey, beef, salmon, you name it. Nada. Zilch. I think it's a texture thing because if it even makes it past the Fort Knox of her lips, she'll chipmunk it in her cheeks for awhile and then spit it out. So I've given up the battle, at least for awhile. She's getting plenty of protein from yogurt and cow's milk, and, when she's deems it worthy, cheese.


You see, we used to have a love affair with cheese - string cheese, Havarti with dill, Monterrey jack - you name it, she'd eat it. Copious amounts even. But ever since we had a rough "too much cheese in the car resulting in puking back up cheese" incident, she hasn't been so fond of cheese. Occasionally she'll have some, but it's rare and not with enthusiasm. Again, not a battle I'm going to fight. She'll get back there (in the mean time, I seem to be ingesting her rejects. Hmmm).

I'm searching for new things for her to eat all the time. It's quite easy to get into the same routine with her of rotating foods. But I think she's inherited her father's content in eating the same thing day after day. (Again, unless we are somewhere out and about and someone offers her something interesting). The other night we got into quite the battle royal - even the standard favorites (pasta, yogurt, broccoli balls, etc.) were getting tossed on the floor. She had no interest in dinner food at all. I coaxed, airplaned and did all the tricks I swore I'd never do in an attempt to have a healthy eating relationship with Sophia. Finally, I was done. After frustrated mumbling on my part, I popped her out of the chair and put her on the floor while I cleaned up the aftermath.
And what does she do? Crawls over, with much purpose, to the dog bowl. (We were sitting our friend's 125lb Newfoundland who, let it be known, was very, very well fed by Sophia during his stay with us) And before I could get to her: Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Yup. Dog Kibble. No people food for her. Just dog kibble.

And I just sat down with her on the floor, moved her away from the dog bowl and laughed. You win some and you lose some, right? At least there was protein in there somewhere....

My baby is 1

Amazing how the past year has flown. I know every mother/parent says it, but to look at how Sophia has grown truly astounds me. But I've grown too, as a person, a wife and a mother.
This whole weekend I reflected on what I was doing a year ago - not knowing I was heading into labor, giving birth and the time following when we came home from the hospital.

I spent so much of this weekend cooking and cleaning, (which was well needed, as we were having our families over to celebrate Sophia's big day on Sunday) but so much of it felt like I was nesting all over again. The morning I went into labor, at 2am, I made sure to sweep the kitchen floor and straighten up everything before I went to the hospital. I prepped food in the fridge and made sure there was toilet paper in the bathroom.

This weekend's cooking involved making food for Sophia so it would be ready for the week. I start my new job on Tuesday - it'll be the first time I've been back in an office for almost 2 years. I'm excited, nervous and empowered all in the same moment. It's part-time, which hopefully will offer me a good balance of work/brain time and Sophia time. I'm not quite sure what to expect in the world of balance, but I know I will do my best to make it happen.

Sophia is getting closer every day to walking on her own. She has been walking while holding our hands for sometime now. Today, she began to walk with just one of our hands in hers. Soon, I know, she will take her first steps, without holding hands at all. And I am very aware that she may do this with the wonderful woman who is watching her. But I know that when she does it with me, it will be the first time I see her walk and that will be amazing too.

This year has brought me even closer to Dave. We take joy in the little things that Sophia does and in our special time alone with her. I love, respect and appreciate the man who is my husband and my daughter's father. We know each other and what it takes to be a great family. For this, I am lucky and thankful.

I am still breast feeding Sophia, and plan to continue for awhile longer. I am actually not sure, emotionally & physically, how to wean her. I know it will happen when the time is right for both of us. My goal was always to make it to her first birthday. While she is drinking cow's milk in addition to breast milk, I like knowing we still have our time together in the mornings. While my baby is getting so big, she is still my little one.

Happy first birthday Sophia. We have both grown and learned so much this year. Bring on the fun and festivities of the rest of our lives!!

10 Months - how big? Sooo big!

Today is Sophia's 10 month birthday. I honestly can't believe it's September already. She has changed so much over the summer. To look back at the photos when we first got to Newport on Memorial Day and to look at today - what a difference!!

No doctor's appointment this month, but she is definitely gaining weight. With all the tasty "solids" she eats, how can she not? Besides loving most every fruit, we recently started cheese, homemade turkey meatballs, scrambled egg yolk with pasta and olive oil, mashed potatoes, broccoli & cheese balls, pieces of turkey from my sandwich - well, anything from what I'm eating she will generally try - as evidence, her first bite of lobster from my lobster roll yesterday! She loved it.

On the locomotion front, she is figuring out forward crawling, but would much rather work on her standing. She gets all over the floor, wherever she needs to go, but it is in a crawl, sit, scoot & full layout combination that is adorable. Here is a quick video of her working on standing:



She is up to 5 teeth now - her latest came in this weekend - upper right incisor. It always takes me a bit to realize that she is teething. But I'm catching on. She's been a good sport about them. She actually chewed one of her puffs with her two front teeth the other day - it was so cool to watch! We also started brushing her teeth and gums. No cavities here!

Finally, her newest trick is clapping. She does this when she gets really excited or is proud of herself for accomplishing something new. My favorite clapping incident happened today in the car - I guess I took a corner at a decent rate of speed and from the back seat I hear her squealing with delight and clapping! When I looked back in the mirror, she had a big smile.

I guess my daughter has the need for speed. Hmm, wonder where she gets that from???

More fun with Solids

It's been 2 full weeks that Sophia has been eating solids and all in all, it's been a good experience. We've tackled Sweet Potatoes (possibly her favorite), Carrots (yum), Advocado (weird consistency - difficult to get mashed/pureed thinly enough) and Bananas (wow - a story in itself). I've been making the food myself, which is wonderfully easy, and freezing them in ice cube trays in the freezer. There are some great recipes on Wholesome Baby Foods. They really encourage adding flavor to what your making the baby, as babies are used to the flavor of whatever you eat coming through in the breast milk.
Clearly, though, she is enjoying the experience:



Our next investment are ice cube trays with covers on them - helps to prevent freezer burn, as I always mean to get them into baggies the same day I freeze them, but it doesn't always happen.

We tried Green Beans yesterday - our first green veggie. It was interesting - a completely different texture than the carrots or sweet potatoes, and not sweet like the bananas. I think she enjoyed them, but she had a full milk feeding before, so she was a bit disinterested after a short time. But here she is still engaged:



Yesterday was also a banana day. We had tried bananas earlier in the week (I'm trying to be good about waiting 3 days before introducing new foods, but sometimes I just give her a quick taste of what I'm eating as she is super-interested in it). I cut off a little bit of the banana and mashed it well with a fork and then added a bit of breast milk to it for consistency. She wolfed it down. So I cut her a little more. And a little more. Before I knew it, she had eaten half of a medium sized banana, and probably would have eaten more had I given it to her (but I figured nothing good would come of that. See next post...)

It's fun to feed her solids, but I have to say, it adds a whole other dimension to the feeding process. Just when I had gotten very comfortable with the breast feeding process and Sophia had become more efficient in her eating (we could be done in less than 25 minutes), we've now stretched the feeding process back out to an hour (sometimes more depending on the cleanup involved, which, with the carrots, can be quite lengthy!)



That leaves us about an hour to get out and back to run whatever errands we need to before the next nap. I don't mind it, it's just the newest challenge in time management. All part of the fun adventure of raising a child.