Weekly Update - Accident/Tags/Videos/Mama

Tooth-Brushing Accident. Last night Emily was standing on her stepping stool brushing her teeth, while I stood beside her holding Jessica. Suddenly from the corner of my eye I saw Emily fall off the stool, hit her chin on the counter, and land face first on the bathroom floor. It was a horrific thing to watch; the kind of thing you just replay over and over in your head. I put Jessica down on the floor, picked Emily up and held her while she cried. Steve ran upstairs and comforted Emily until she felt better. She cheered up by sitting on her Daddy's lap and watching a few Caspar Babypants videos. Other than a minor cut in her mouth, she's totally fine! She was in a good mood today and got right back up on that stepping stool to brush her teeth tonight. Tough girl!

Operation Remove All Tags. Our sensitive girl has discovered that shirt tags are extremely uncomfortable. The side tag on one of Emily's shirts irritated her so much that she started scratching her side -- causing scratch marks, a rash, and a vicious cycle of discomfort! So, with scissors and a seam ripper in tow, I've been slowly but surely removing all tags from her clothing.

Mommy Take Home Video. Emily is obsessed with home videos. If I pull out my camera to take a picture, she insists that I take a home video too. Over the last two months I've recorded over 7GB of videos! The funniest thing is that each video I take goes about the same way. While I'm setting up the camera Emily repeats: "Mommy take home video. Mommy take home video right now." Then she says: "Mommy say 'what are you doing there?'" so that she can tell/show me what she's doing. Once she's done, she promptly says: "Watch it. Watch it right now." And we proceed to watch the video we just took. A perfect example:

Episode 11: The Home Videos

Saying Mama. So as to not exclude Jessica from this post, here's a short video I took of her babbling. Love!

5 Signs Your Babies Are Canadian

1.

They have a coat for every season, including summer.

2.
They eat Smarties and Kraft Dinner.

3.

They own several tuques and love to wear them, even around the house.

4.
They play hockey.

5.

They enjoy a nice trip to the park, even in -5 degree weather.

Oh Canada!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Nathalieland!

It's hard to believe that it's already been two years since I started this blog. I've been able to capture so much about our lives including my second pregnancy, Jessica's arrival, and life as a family of four during this past year. Blogging has also given me the opportunity to meet new people, develop friendships, and join a community of blogging moms who all share the same passion.

January 2010

January 2011

This coming year will include watching our two girls grow together, celebrating Jessica's first birthday, celebrating Emily's third birthday, and possibly (hopefully!) building and moving to a new home. I plan to keep posting; I hope you keep reading!

And after two years, here are some statistics:

Total blog posts published: 417
Page hit counter: 32,301
Followers: 24
Most comments on a blog post (since Jan 2011): 6 comments on Meet Jessica; 5 comments on She Has a Name, Emily's Room Minus Some Artwork, Jessica's Birth Story, and E-M-I-L-Y.

Last year's statistics here.

Interview with (8-Month-Old) Jessica

Nathalieland: Oh Jessica, you're looking more and more beautiful with each passing month.
Jessica: Aww, thanks.

N: Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

N: Hey, what's that red mark on your nose?
J: I was having a bath the other day and I took a nosedive right into the water (I was trying to reach a toy). My mommy saved my life by pulling me out of the water, but in doing so she scratched my nose.

N: Wow! Well I'm glad you're ok. So what have you been up to this month?
J: I've been working hard on my creeping skills; I can creep backwards and in a circle. I've also been enjoying the game "Up, Down", where I hold something up over my head while my mommy says "up!", then I bring it down and she says "down". It makes me smile every time. And I never say no to a game of peekaboo!

N: Have you grown much?
J: Like Mommy said here, I'm up to about 16 lbs. Some of my clothes are getting a little tight so Mommy took out a few of my sister's 12-18 month clothes (all of her 12 month stuff is summer clothes!). It's pretty loose but it's nice to have more options. What's grown the most this month are my teeth!

N: How many teeth do you have?
J: I have four big beautiful teeth, plus one poking through and another one bulging in my gums.

N: Ouch! I heard those teeth have been causing some problems with nursing. What are meal times like with you these days?
J: I still nurse 8-10 times a day (although some feeds are pretty short) and I now have 3 solid meals. I'm a little pickier than I was a month ago. My favourites are pears, prunes, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal cereal. I really don't like meats (or anything with them) and most vegetables. Lately when Mommy feeds me something that I don't like I'll gag -- often until I throw up!

N: Yikes! Have you tried finger foods yet?
J: Mommy's been putting a few finger foods in front of me (puffs, banana, broccoli, pear) and although I enjoy grabbing them, I have yet to put them in my mouth. If my mom feeds them to me then I'll have a few bites.

N: Any improvements in the sleep department?
J: I've had a few 7-hour stretches at night this month which has been nice! Also while I was teething I would often fall asleep on my own (because I refused to nurse to sleep). My mom would put me down awake and I would babble/moan for a bit until I either fell asleep or cried. If I cried then my mom would either pat my back or rock me until I fell asleep.

N: That sounds pretty good!
J: Yeah, but my mom still mostly nurses me to sleep -- it's just easier (and quieter) that way. On the plus side if I wake up soon after I fall asleep (teething or not), the best way to put me back to sleep is to turn on my aquarium, roll me over to my stomach, and pat my back. Works (almost) every time!

N: I see you're growing some nice sideburns! The opposite happened with your sister at this age -- she rubbed her sideburns off!
J: Ha! Well one thing we have in common at this age: we are the same size. At 8 months Emily was 16 lbs and 27 inches long, just like me.

N: Neat! What are some of your just-Jessica quirks?
J: I enjoy sticking out my tongue! Also whenever my mom is holding me and someone looks at me, I smile and tilt/rest my head on Mommy's shoulder. She LOVES it and hopes I never stop doing it!

N: That does sound pretty sweet. Well I hope you have a fantastic 9th month! Before you know it, you'll be turning one.
J: Crazy.

Weekly Update - Dogs/Strangers/Snow

Dogs Barking, Babies Waking. I'm a fan of dogs... Except when they're barking all afternoon and waking up my babies! Almost every day this week our neighbour's dog was outside barking right around the girls' nap times, which resulted in them waking up (angrily). So frustrating!

Stranger Anxiety: Give a Little, Take a Little. We're really seeing some improvements with Emily's stranger anxiety issues. This past week we had successful trips to the mall, the book store, and Emily's cousins' house. Two strategies that have really helped are:
1) Talking about the outings/visitors well ahead of time (up to a day). She typically has a big cry when she first hears about it, but with each reminder she feels a bit better and by the time we're ready to go, she's in a good mood.
2) Introducing Hatty as a security object. If Emily starts to feel nervous/scared while we're out, she "faces" (covers her face) with Hatty until she feels better.
She still gets extremely nervous if strangers try to talk to her (she cried when the employee at the book store said "hi" to her), but overall she's doing much better. On the other hand, Jessica is now showing signs of stranger anxiety! She doesn't mind being with/held by people as long as one of her parents is around. But a few minutes after we leave, she cries inconsolably (which is completely normal for her development at this age).

Indoor Snow. Here's a fun winter activity: bringing the snow indoors! Tools needed: bowls, spoons/shovels, and mittens. It got wet and cold, but Emily had tons of fun and spent a long time on this activity. I even introduced food colouring into the mix, although I wouldn't recommend it. It was a mess and stained our hands.

Shredded Paper

For the record, I did not approve of this...

But Steve thought it was ok...

So I joined in...

And took lots of pictures...

Because it was pretty cute...

And she had so much fun.

Life With Two - A Challenging Stage

I always assumed that the newborn days would be the hardest with two kids. But I have to say that (for us) this current stage is much harder. We're having issues in so many areas that it makes the days/nights long and tiring!

Sleep. Jessica's teething and heightened awareness makes sleep a bit of an issue. She still wakes up 2-3 times a night and is not fully able to put herself back to sleep yet (but we are working on that!). Of course the newborn nights were just as tough, but what makes this stage harder is that Emily's also started waking up in the night and having a hard time getting back to sleep. It seems that she's having nightmares or developing fears of the dark/separation/etc, so some nights can be quite tough. Also during the day, the girls' naps are (for the most part) on completely opposite schedules right now. That means no breaks!

Food. Jessica's still extremely distracted when nursing, which means feeding her anywhere but in a dark, quiet room is basically impossible. I miss the newborn days of a sleepy baby happily nursing on my lap wherever we go! Also I take back what I said about meal times not being as hard as I thought they would be; now it seems that there's always a baby just waking up or needing to nurse right around meal times (lunch and dinner) and a toddler who needs lots of attention. Steve and I scramble to get things done while tending to two very demanding children... Lately I'm always scarfing down my meals!

Sisters. We've entered a stage where Emily's not always fond of having her sister around. I think the fact that Jessica's becoming more of a person (playing, eating, and getting attention just like Emily) is causing a bit of friction. Sometimes she's super sweet and wants to "give baby lots of toys" or "show baby how to...", but more often than not Emily asks that "Mommy and baby go". She's also shown some aggression towards Jessica a couple of times, so we've had to have some serious talks about that.

Teeth. Both girls are teething! Jessica's top lateral incisors are just starting to poke through, and the other day I noticed Emily's second set of molars are coming in (maybe an explanation for all the crankiness and night wakings).

Home. We've never had so much laundry to do and so much mess to tidy up! Emily is in the must-play-with-everything-for-a-few-seconds-than-dump-all-over-house stage, so our house constantly looks like a mess and it takes forever to tidy up in the evening.

Outings. Jessica was a very portable newborn -- she nursed and slept anywhere. The weather was also much nicer during those days! Now that winter is here and Jessica is not as portable (see Food and Sleep), it's much harder to get out of the house. Not to mention Emily's stranger anxiety means she's a lot less willing to head out too. Emily had a bad experience at the grocery store a few months back and hasn't wanted to go back since, so grocery trips are down to just one parent with Jessica. We're gradually trying to get out more (weather permitting) and have plans to start Bouncing Baby Gymnastics classes with Emily soon.

Anyways, the point of this post is not to complain, but to record this stage and some of our daily struggles. None of these issues are uncommon or unexpected -- they're just all happening at the same time! Ha. Perspective really helps and I'm sure that a few years from now I'll look back on this and laugh at how easy we had it!

Weekly Update - Weight/Nursing/Potty/Photography

Weight Update. Jessica had a weight check at the doctor's this week. She's up to 15 lbs 14.5 oz, keeping her in the 25th percentile. Everything looks good!

Nursing Strike. Of course just a couple of days after a good weight check, Jessica decided to have a nursing strike! Her next set of teeth are coming in which caused her to nurse weakly or not at all for an entire day. Days like that are always so stressful for me because 1) It makes me so sad to know that my baby is hungry but in too much pain to eat, and 2) I panic about my supply. She only nursed a couple of times for a few short minutes (she would latch on but let go almost immediately). I tried to pump but my body doesn't respond well to it, so I could only get 1 - 2.5 oz each time. Then whenever I tried to feed Jessica the pumped milk (via bottle, sippy cup, or regular cup), she only had a few sips. The strike is over now and things seem to be back to normal; I just hope my milk supply wasn't too affected.

The Beginnings of Potty Training. We've chosen the child-led approach to potty training, which means Emily runs the show and we're just there to encourage, teach, and support her. So far she hasn't shown any interest in using the potty, but we had a small glimpse of it a few days ago. Jessica's been doing some diaperless time due to a diaper rash and Emily decided she "had a rash too" and didn't want to wear her diaper, just like baby. I said "sure!" and told her that if she felt like she had to pee she could sit on her potty. She had a blast running around without a diaper and sat on the potty about 10 times (pretending to pee and poo). She started peeing while playing so I grabbed her and placed her on the potty, and a few drops landed in it! Yay Emily! After all that excitement she wanted her diaper back on. She hasn't been interested in trying the potty again, but it sure was fun to see the beginnings of it. 

Shallow Depth of Field. Steve surprised me this week with the correct lens for my camera, so I've been having fun testing it out! One of my favourite effects is having a large aperture opening, creating a shallow depth of field (see below). On a related topic, I've been terrible with keeping up with the photography course I said I would read. I read the first set of slides, but haven't even attempted the first assignment. Some things are easier said than done.

"Winter" Fun

Earlier this week the weather was unseasonably warm. We took full advantage of it and made another fun trip to Lake Ontario Park.

Ice chunks all over the beach

Emily thought it was so cool!

We had fun throwing ice in the water...

...and feeding the ducks

Off to the park!

Baby having breakfast

Baby is tired and cold; Emily is wet and hungry... 

Time to go home!