Christmas Elf

It's almost here.... our first Christmas with Anya. I have to say, even though she won't really "get" Christmas for a few more years it still is fun having a baby to share the holiday with. I didn't go crazy with presents for her figuring she will be more interested in the wrapping paper and ribbon anyway.

What has Anya been up to lately. Well she sits up totally unassisted and has been doing this for some time now. She is almost crawling. She gets on her hands and knees and slides forward. Backwards she can really get around but the forward movement is still slow moving.

She talks A LOT! I wonder where she gets that from? :)
Basically she makes one main sound- it is a mix between a growl and a roar. She demonstrates it here in this video. We call it her Pterodactyl noise and hopefully she will add some more sounds to her vocabulary soon.

Our daughter is a narcissist. She loves her own reflection and kisses herself in the mirror when ever you allow her to get close enough. Actually one of the only things she will make a real effort to crawl towards is her own reflection in the mirror. But hey, who can blame her, she is the center of our universe now and thinks that is just great!

We have been busy feeding the little monster. She basically eats anything put in front of her at this point. We have introduced squash, sweet potatoes, yams, avocado, banana, apple, pear and other misc items. We usually mix it with cereal but sometimes she chows on the veggies or fruit solo. It is a messy endeavor and she of course enjoys it more when she has the food in her hair and on her clothes. Myles and I tease about designing a suit that is similar to what adults wear to go into crawl spaces- a light weight zip up with a hood- to put over babies outfits when they eat. We would leave the face and hands exposed but nothing else. They would also be disposable so no laundry either. Sounds like a good idea huh!

Her laughter is contagious and can be brought on by the most ridiculous things. Sometimes all it takes is a look from me and she cracks up. She is ticklish and loves to have people "eat her feet". We played this game in the grocery store yesterday and she was hysterically laughing causing those around her to smile and giggle as well. We try to spread the cheer since she is such a happy baby!

We went and saw Santa a few weeks back and she was happy to sit on his lap. I'm not sure what she asked for but I'm sure she will get it!

She still wakes once during the night and I feed her. It is not that bad to wake up once for 15 minutes and I really enjoy our quiet time together. Since she is so busy now during the days, this is our only time to cuddle. I NEVER thought I would still WANT to wake up at night to feed my baby- oh what a change of perspective.

One of her favorite activities is sitting on our bed and eating my pajamas while I get ready.

Anya has had her Christmas with Myles's side this past weekend and spent some time with her cousins. It is fun to see all the kids together and Anya just loves them all.

Traveling with Anya

Lots to update: Anya successfully flew to LA and back without major incident. It is difficult to fly with a baby. It starts with the packing.... a three day trip to LA should require no more then a carry on bag and a purse right? WRONG when you take a baby you have more stuff then you thought possible. From bibs to diapers, toys to breastpumps- everything must go.

Security is an interesting process now. Not only do you still have to nearly disrobe yourself in front of perfect strangers but you must remove the baby's coat and shoes as well. Was there a baby shoe bomber.....I think not. Safety first yada yada yada. So we wake our peacefully sleeping child, remove her from the car seat and take most of her clothes off. Meanwhile no one is telling me what to do with the collapsible snap and go and car seat. Do I wheel it through the metal detector? At least I was smart enough to take the baby out. Oh no, you must break down the entire stroller and somehow shove it through the conveyor belt detector. Once on the other side of the x-ray machine they confiscate my bottle of breast milk to test it. We are busy passing Anya back and forth, reconstructing our stroller, putting our shoes and clothes back on, what a mess.

So the major message in all this is PLEASE be patient with the people in line traveling with children- it is much harder on them then it is on you to wait a couple extra minutes while they try to organize themselves. OK I'm getting down off my soap box now.

The plane ride was fine. Myles would get up (if the seat belt sign allowed him too) to swing Anya if she was getting fussy and needed to sleep. I fed her on take off and the pressure change never seemed to bother her on the way up or down. There was very little crying either way but that was mainly due to our maintenance of the situation trying to head off any fussiness before it began. Kudos to those that travel singly with their baby, I don't know how you do it.

LA was nice and a bit warmer than here- the Ritz at Marina Del Rey was gorgeous as expected. We were excited to swim but the pool was too cold and the hot tub too warm so we took a swim in the bathtub. The groom was one of Myles's good buddies and Myles was in the wedding. Friday night we went to the rehearsal dinner and left the babies with some sitters the Ritz recommended. Along with Anya we had the Piskel's baby Lucy, and the Boswell's baby Owen all staying at the Ritz. When the babysitters arrived none of us wanted to leave our kids with them. They were scary to say the least. But we had no choice so off to dinner we went leaving our precious babies with scary strangers. We called every hour or so and within a three hour window all three babies had woken up at least once. The hardest part was knowing we would be leaving them again the next night for even longer. Thankfully the wedding was at the Ritz so we could check in and the second set of babysitters were so much better.

If you can't tell from the pictures we spent a lot of time in our hotel rooms and Anya loved all her time on the king bed. She and Lucy had a great time playing together too.

Returning to Seattle on Sunday we were exhausted and so was Anya. Her schedule was all wacky and none of us had slept that well but we all had a great time.

A Thanksgiving to remember

Anya celebrated her first Thanksgiving last week. We hosted in our home and had both sets of grandparents, Anya's great grandparents and great aunt attend dinner. All went well- the turkey cooked perfectly, gravy wasn't too runny or too thick, and Anya was well behaved. As with all Thanksgivings though, there had to be something memorable. So Charlie, great grandma's dog, decided to take that task upon himself. It starts during cocktails and appetizers in the living room. Karl sat down next to me and I immediately smelled something foul. Knowing Karl is usually a pretty good smelling person I didn't suspect it was him right at first. Everyone in the room smelled it simultaneously and sure enough Karl had stepped in poop and walked around the house with it on his shoe. Naturally we believed he had accidentally stepped in some outside- oh no- the poop was inside on the kitchen rug- our first present left by Charlie. Myles and Karl cleaned up the the house and we continued on with our dinner celebration laughing off the incident.

After dinner, dessert, and all the dishes I trudged upstairs exhausted from the day and sat on our bed removing my shoes. After changing into my pajamas I noticed a small pile on my bed. It couldn't be I thought to myself- IT WAS! OH MY GOD THE DOG POOPED ON OUR BED! I nearly sat in it without noticing at first- that would have been a huge disaster. I called down to Myles who ran up and disposed of the offending sight. I stripped the bed and proceeded to start the laundry. At this point all we could do was laugh. It didn't make any sense to be mad at the dog and it was Thanksgiving for god's sake. So Anya will have a wonderful story about her first Thanksgiving for years to come.

My parents cleaned out their attic recently and found a few articles of clothing I had worn as a baby. We put Anya in a dress I wore and Mom brought over a photo album to show me a picture of me at 6 months wearing the same dress. We reenacted the photo of Dad, Mom, and instead of me Anya in the dress. She does look a lot like I did as a baby especially when we are the same age wearing the exact same clothes- it is eerie.

We are having a blast with her now. She turned 6 months today and is starting to scoot a little across the floor. If you put something solid behind her feet (your hand, leg, foot, a wall) she can propel herself forward. She does a plank and occasionally puts her knees down but primarily lays on her belly and slithers around. Scooting backwards is coming along a bit faster then forwards- weirdo!

We have our first plane trip and hotel stay this weekend. We are headed to Marina Del Rey for a wedding outside LA. We are excited to go and very interested to see what it is like to travel with a child. I'm sure we will have lots of good stories and fun pictures when we return from our trip. Poor child has to stay at the Ritz for her first hotel experience- how spoiled- is that a silver spoon?

Christmas is up and running at our house. We have lights up outside and decorations up inside, all we need is the tree and all our shopping to be done. Thankfully Anya is not moving yet so we don't have to worry about childproofing the decorations- next year will be a whole new ball game!

Mr Mom

I can't help myself. Last weekend I came home from the grocery store to find Myles vacuuming the house with Anya in the Ergo carrier. It doesn't get much more domestic than that! He allowed me to take a photo so here you go... too funny!

Not a lot new to report. We are trying to get Anya to wake less at night. There are several different approaches parents can take to get their child to wake less at night and almost all of them require the parents to get less sleep than they are already getting by going through the process. So basically you have to be pretty desperate to go down this path and hope the outcome is more sleep for everyone.... eventually at least.

I am still feeding her once at night. She has gotten in the habit of waking 2-3 times over the course of an evening and is usually only really hungry once. In the middle of all this last week she got a cold so we had to put our 'sleep training' on hold until she was feeling better. Of course we are basically starting all over again now. I will keep you updated as to how it is going. Prior to the cold she was still waking at night but only crying/fussing for 20 minutes (down from 1 hour) so we saw improvement. Last night she woke at 8:15- went back to sleep easily, again at 12- I fed her, and then at 3:30- she cried until Myles went in to soothe her around 4:15.... ahhh.

We are hosting Thanksgiving this Thursday for 10 people. I am tempted to dress Anya up like a Turkey but can't bring myself to do it. She will have both sets of grandparents, her great grandparents and great Aunt and Uncle to spend the holiday with. This is the first Thanksgiving Myles and I have hosted so hopefully the turkey doesn't dry out and the pies burn! Also with two grandma's and one great grandma in the kitchen the expertise will be abundant. Wish us luck.

Here is Anya happy and laughing at Daddy playing with her in her exercauser. She giggles all the time now and her laughter is truly contagious.

5 months!

Anya is quickly heading into 5 1/2 months of her life. When I step outside and feel the cold air hit my face and see the leaves scattered on the ground I question what happened to summer. Oh yeah, I had a baby..... that is what happened to summer! Having a late spring baby was nice in most respects. We were able to get outside and go for walks, sit on the lawn in the shade, and enjoy the sailboat a little. However I think I spent more time inside during the summer this year then I ever have in my entire life. Even with our trips to the cabin I was inside most the time. Breastfeeding Anya has been very easy and I'm really glad I chose to do it and stuck with it for so long. BUT- I am tied to her. She is taking a bottle very well now so I have more freedom but in the beginning I definitely needed to be around every 2-3 hours to feed her. I guess I never really realized how much of my time would be spent feeding her. That was a commitment I would make again in a heartbeat but man, it literally sucks the life right out of you! :)

Enough about me! Onto Anya and her latest exploits. She is very active now and enjoys playtime thoroughly. She has her doorway jumper (formally called "johnny jump up") and that provides not only her entertainment but us as well. She mainly spins and jostles back and forth and hasn't really gotten the gist of jumping yet. I'm sure soon enough she will be testing our door frame's strength.





This past weekend she had her Oma and her cousin Chloe up for a slumber party. Myles and I went out with friends Friday night and Anya stayed in. Chloe shared all her toys with Anya and they both seemed to enjoy each others company. Oma of course is a superstar able to take care of both kids at once flawlessly.

We had our PEPS group holiday party this past weekend too. Yes it is early but we all knew how busy the holidays get so we decided to plan it early and have it out of the way. It was fun to see all the babies in their Santa hats. One baby in the group is officially crawling and in the next several months our little parties are going to change a lot with 10 babies crawling around under foot. As you can see she is the life of the party!

Anya has also accompanied me to the gym several times to visit daddy and watch mommy work out- or perhaps to watch daddy torture mommy. Today she tried out her skills at some exercises.

On a somber note: Anya will be attending her first funeral on Friday as her great Uncle Paul as passed away. He was able to meet her briefly when she was first born. Paul was staying at my parents house this past spring while he received treatment for his cancer. It was wonderful to be able to spend that time with him. Even as I increased in size and finally in my over due state, Paul always made me feel beautiful. He never missed a chance to kiss me and tell me how radiant I looked and what a great mom he anticipated me to be. I deeply wish he would have been around longer to play "turkey leg chicken leg" with his grand niece. Sometimes life is not fair and those we love leave us too soon. God bless you Paul.

Pumpkin Patch Kid

We did the oh so traditional take your baby to a pumpkin patch this past weekend. To beat the rain we left early on Sunday morning. It was FREEZING! We had Anya wrapped up in a blanket but Myles and I were not dressed appropriately. Note to self- when visiting a farm after torrential downpours wear boots and drive the Subaru! (Sorry mom- I know this is disappointing to you, I obviously don't have any of your 'farming roots' in my soul) We bought our pumpkins and squash and took the pictures of our darling daughter among the thousands of pumpkins. Her little nose turned red and we decided it was time to go.

Anya also visited her aunt and uncle last weekend. On Saturday night we went to Scott and Natalie's for a wonderful dinner. It was nice to see them, but for Anya, Tess was the real star of the evening. Anya is used to Boone and loves to watch him run around the house and be crazy but she doesn't laugh at him all that much. Tess on the other hand, was very interested in Anya and kept crawling up on the window seat to lick her face. Apparently this is hilarious because Anya was gut laughing every time she would do this. Tess must just be a whole lot funnier than Boone!

Scott let me play with his digital SLR and I am hooked. It took such great photos I have to have one now. MYLES- HINT HINT- good idea for a Christmas present...... I digress

When we are home it is a fabulous thing to have child that loves to go to bed at 6:30. However, this really cuts into our ability to do anything at night outside our home. She did well on Saturday night and took a nap while we ate dinner and we had her home and in bed by 9 but she was a little cranky the following day.

We went to Hales Ales and met some friends for their free pumpkin carving and all night happy hour- kids welcome. There are two phrases you don't commonly see together- so we had to partake. Again up past bedtime and she let us know it the entire time we were at the brewery. She doesn't scream- thank god- but she is fussy and generally tired so it makes us feel bad. We want her to be adaptable but try to keep her on a schedule as much as possible. There will just be times when she is up past her bedtime and that's life!

Big plans for Halloween! Anya will most likely be in bed by the time the trick or treaters come by so Myles and I will hand out candy. That's it- we used to get dressed up in elaborate costumes and party it up. I mean Halloween is on a Saturday this year for god's sake- but we have a nearly 5 month old baby so life changes. In all honesty, Myles and I are looking forward to a quiet Halloween at home- man we are getting old.

We have been successfully feeding Anya rice cereal mixed with breast milk and applesauce. It has taken her a few tries to figure out how to transfer the food on her tongue to swallow, but now she has the hang of it! She is starting to gobble it down every evening. I'm not gonna lie though- it is a MESSY process. She can get rice cereal on her hair, my hair, the table, the floor, basically anything in a 2 foot radius from where she sits.

Rain rain go away

Anya is rapidly approaching 5 months. The time from now until she is 18 months old is what our pediatrician refers to as the "golden age". Babies are through the newborn stage and spend their time soaking up the world like a sponge.

She is laughing at us now and can mimic our silly faces. She loves to be tickled and kissed. When she wakes up she is happy, smiley and so excited to see you. I feel as if every day she gets cuter and cuter. I shamelessly attach photos of her to almost all email correspondence, claiming myself to be the ambassador of her cuteness. Her smile lights up our life.

She has been swimming every week and gets excited when we enter the pool area now. Myles was able to take her in the pool twice and has a blast with her too.

She is totally aware of Boone and loves to pet him (pull his fur). He licks her and looks at me with pleading eyes to please remove her death grip from his hair. She inevitably has some black hair stuck in her fist but Boone seems totally unaware of her fur filching. He is still the first one to let me know when she is upset or if she simply has woken up from her nap. I couldn't have asked for a better dog to welcome our daughter into his pack. They are going to be buddies.

The rain has put a damper on our outdoor activities. Gone are the days of sitting in the shade on the grass in the back yard exploring the great outdoors. If the rain stops or lets up a bit we plan to go to a pumpkin patch this weekend. Myles is not wild about the idea- he suggests we put her in the pumpkin bins at Safeway and take pictures of her there..... not quite the same.

Anya is loving her exercauser. I have posted this video to share. She can spend a lot of time discovering all the features the toy has to offer. The bonus is that she stands up- which is her favorite position. I question whether she will walk before she crawls simply because she prefers to be standing on your lap than sitting.

We visited with Ashley and Fred Northup's new bundle of joy this week- Zola. She was 12 days old when we took dinner over. I can't believe that 4 months ago Anya was that small. It is totally amazing how fast they grow and change. Zola was a perfect, beautiful little newborn. She slept and ate. Anya on the other hand, was distracted and didn't eat much and was whining at the dinner table. Granted it was her bed time 6:30- so she had reason to be a bit of a pest.

Happy Halloween

Wow, we have had a lot transpire since the last blog entry. We have been swimming 3 times now with several moms and have a blast. Anya starts kicking her legs as we enter the pool area, she is ready to go.
This past Sunday we had our PEPS group Halloween Party. We dressed all our babies up in their costumes and took pictures. It was hilarious and adorable. I have a few pics, but the video is very funny. All the babies started crying and really were not that happy in their get-ups!
If you can't tell, Anya is a dalmatian.


We had her four month appointment yesterday. She is 12 lbs 12 oz and 23 3/4 inches tall. She is in the 25% in weight and 45% in height. I had Myles go this time for moral support more for me than her because she HATED her shots last time. Sure enough she put on her tough face and didn't even wince when they jabbed her. Not a single tear, she is a tough little girl.



We gave Anya her first bit of rice cereal tonight. Needless to say most of it came right back out again but the process was fun and messy. This eating thing is going to be quite a process!


Sleeping has mellowed out a bit. She is returning to her once nightly wake up between 12-2am and then sleeps until 6 or 7 am. We started putting her to bed a lot earlier, around 6:30 or 7 pm and that has seemed to help. She is getting a solid 11-12 hours at night.
She is definitely teething! The doctor took a look and said he could see the swollen spots where her teeth are getting ready to cut through.

Oma came up this weekend and babysat for us Saturday night. Anya was an angel for her and ended up drinking more milk from the bottle then she ever had before. Oma must have the magic touch with bottle feeding her!

Mermaid baby

I couldn't wait to get Anya in a pool. I held off until she was 4 months old but couldn't handle the excitement any longer. Both in baths and showers she is happy and totally content with water over her face and head. So I assumed she would be fabulous in the pool.

She did not disappoint! We started going to the Bellevue Aquatic Center this past Tuesday. We go with another mom and baby from my PEPS class and swim in the 91 degree therapy pool. Basically it feels like a big bathtub and the babies couldn't be happier. Both Linnea and Anya thoroughly enjoyed their first "swim lesson".

The other Mom- Alana, and I plan to do this weekly for the girls. I have taught mommy swim classes in the past so I am very comfortable with Anya in the pool and help Alana with some important steps (like baby going under and pool safety lessons). Myles was able to come and watch so he took some great pictures and video.

Anya was happy floating on her back or tummy and kicked her little legs like a pro. She even went under the water once and came up smiling. This was the first time I felt like I was bonding with my child over something other then mommy stuff (feeding, sleeping, changing- etc). It was so fun to experience this with her I can't wait to go every week.

Myles was home this past weekend and got to spend some quality time with his daughter. He has a calming presence that helps her nap... if only he were home all the time.

We have struggled with her sleeping yet again. This week we decided to stop swaddling her at night. The first night with no swaddle Myles and I got about 3 hours of sleep! It was a nightmare! HOWEVER- night two went much better and we have had two good nights of sleep now. She is learning how to soothe herself with her hands since she doesn't like the binky very much. I still get up to feed her once or twice a night but if she wakes up on her own and isn't hungry she is able to put herself back to sleep. What a relief!