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.