Bits
Little time to blog these days. I often find myself composing posts in my head, or noting something that should be a post, but then the day ends, and another day, and the posts don’t get written. So here are a few brief bits, more for my own desire to make sure things get written down than for any interesting reading for you all:
You
Lucia’s language acquisition is just careening forward these days. Today she took out some blocks and said, “I have blocks. I’m making a stack.” Just insane. What she’s having trouble with, however, are the pronouns me and you. Whenever a picture of her surfaces, we always point it out and say to her, “That’s you!” So now when she sees a picture of herself, she says, “That’s you!” I think she understands that it’s a picture of her, but she doesn’t understand that she should say “That’s me.” She does the same thing with the word “yourself.” “Do you want to do it yourself?” Andrew asked today, and then she kept saying, “Yourself” when she wanted to indicate that she wanted to do it on her own. She also sometimes just says, “Own” when she wants to do something by herself. “No, own,” she’ll say, pushing our hands away when we try to help Velcro her shoes.
Last Week
Last week marked my first few experiences of taking both girls out of the house by myself. Monday, we met a friend and her daughter at the playground, then they came over for lunch. Tuesday, I took the girls to the drugstore to fill a prescription. Wednesday, I took them both to Music Together (Greta slept the whole time in the Bjorn; Lucia danced with the teacher and hugged him, unprompted, at the end of class). Thursday I took the girls to a friend’s house for a morning playdate. Friday we went to the playground. The Bjorn and the warm fleece bunting I bought for it really are a godsend. I feel so empowered being able to just pop Greta onto my chest, and off we go.
Greta’s Checkup
Tuesday, Greta had a six-week checkup, and she has grown splendidly. She’s 9 pounds, 8 ounces, and 22 inches long—that’s 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height! These are numbers the likes of which we’ve never seen before. She’s about two to three weeks ahead of Lucia weight-wise; Lucia didn’t get to 10 pounds until she was eight weeks. In any case, those fat little cheeks aren’t just my imagination.
Christmas Sightings
There are still a few pumpkins in our neighborhood for Lucia to spot, but we’re turning our sights now to wreaths and Christmas trees on our walks. She gets very excited when she sees Christmas lights, and she is extremely excited to have such lights in our very own house. We got a Christmas tree this weekend, and though the tree-buying process vexed her—“No tree! No tree!” she said, refusing to cooperate and engage in photo-worthy tree selection activities as Andrew had hoped—she was happy once it was set up. She loves looking at the ornaments (I put lots of unbreakable ones at her level). And we wound some colored lights around the bookshelf just for fun.
Sleep
We’re getting some. Sort of. Greta gives us some good nights, some not so good. Maddeningly, she does a really long stretch of sleep in the evening—sometimes four or even five hours—but once we’re into the wee hours, it’s more like three hours. Her grunting is still an issue. The doctor said she might be eating too much (I could probably nurse another baby with my milk production), so I’ve been trying to cut her off a little, but this seems to have had a negligible effect. Each feeding is a roll of the dice. Sometimes she goes right back to sleep; sometimes she can’t settle for an hour. By 6 or 6:30 she’s usually done with her nighttime sleeping.
Our Days
Our days have been okay. When Greta takes long naps, it’s great. When she doesn’t, it’s hard. Lucia continues to be flexible and adaptable, but she’s started to get frustrated when Greta monopolizes too much of my time. “Baby chair,” she orders, telling me to put Greta in her chair; or, “No milk,” if she doesn’t want me to sit and nurse Greta. Sometimes she says firmly, “Mama sit right here,” patting the floor beside her when I’m nursing or rocking Greta. But she accepts my explanations that I’ll come over soon. And we’re having our sitter, Kate, come in a couple of days a week again for a couple of hours, which is great. Great for me to have an extra pair of hands, and I think great for Lucia to have someone play with her with undivided attention for a couple of hours.
And that’s all the bits for now. More soon.
You
Lucia’s language acquisition is just careening forward these days. Today she took out some blocks and said, “I have blocks. I’m making a stack.” Just insane. What she’s having trouble with, however, are the pronouns me and you. Whenever a picture of her surfaces, we always point it out and say to her, “That’s you!” So now when she sees a picture of herself, she says, “That’s you!” I think she understands that it’s a picture of her, but she doesn’t understand that she should say “That’s me.” She does the same thing with the word “yourself.” “Do you want to do it yourself?” Andrew asked today, and then she kept saying, “Yourself” when she wanted to indicate that she wanted to do it on her own. She also sometimes just says, “Own” when she wants to do something by herself. “No, own,” she’ll say, pushing our hands away when we try to help Velcro her shoes.
Last Week
Last week marked my first few experiences of taking both girls out of the house by myself. Monday, we met a friend and her daughter at the playground, then they came over for lunch. Tuesday, I took the girls to the drugstore to fill a prescription. Wednesday, I took them both to Music Together (Greta slept the whole time in the Bjorn; Lucia danced with the teacher and hugged him, unprompted, at the end of class). Thursday I took the girls to a friend’s house for a morning playdate. Friday we went to the playground. The Bjorn and the warm fleece bunting I bought for it really are a godsend. I feel so empowered being able to just pop Greta onto my chest, and off we go.
Greta’s Checkup
Tuesday, Greta had a six-week checkup, and she has grown splendidly. She’s 9 pounds, 8 ounces, and 22 inches long—that’s 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height! These are numbers the likes of which we’ve never seen before. She’s about two to three weeks ahead of Lucia weight-wise; Lucia didn’t get to 10 pounds until she was eight weeks. In any case, those fat little cheeks aren’t just my imagination.
Christmas Sightings
There are still a few pumpkins in our neighborhood for Lucia to spot, but we’re turning our sights now to wreaths and Christmas trees on our walks. She gets very excited when she sees Christmas lights, and she is extremely excited to have such lights in our very own house. We got a Christmas tree this weekend, and though the tree-buying process vexed her—“No tree! No tree!” she said, refusing to cooperate and engage in photo-worthy tree selection activities as Andrew had hoped—she was happy once it was set up. She loves looking at the ornaments (I put lots of unbreakable ones at her level). And we wound some colored lights around the bookshelf just for fun.
Sleep
We’re getting some. Sort of. Greta gives us some good nights, some not so good. Maddeningly, she does a really long stretch of sleep in the evening—sometimes four or even five hours—but once we’re into the wee hours, it’s more like three hours. Her grunting is still an issue. The doctor said she might be eating too much (I could probably nurse another baby with my milk production), so I’ve been trying to cut her off a little, but this seems to have had a negligible effect. Each feeding is a roll of the dice. Sometimes she goes right back to sleep; sometimes she can’t settle for an hour. By 6 or 6:30 she’s usually done with her nighttime sleeping.
Our Days
Our days have been okay. When Greta takes long naps, it’s great. When she doesn’t, it’s hard. Lucia continues to be flexible and adaptable, but she’s started to get frustrated when Greta monopolizes too much of my time. “Baby chair,” she orders, telling me to put Greta in her chair; or, “No milk,” if she doesn’t want me to sit and nurse Greta. Sometimes she says firmly, “Mama sit right here,” patting the floor beside her when I’m nursing or rocking Greta. But she accepts my explanations that I’ll come over soon. And we’re having our sitter, Kate, come in a couple of days a week again for a couple of hours, which is great. Great for me to have an extra pair of hands, and I think great for Lucia to have someone play with her with undivided attention for a couple of hours.
And that’s all the bits for now. More soon.
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